World Series- A Loser Has To Win

Both the Texas Rangers and the San Fransico Giants are in the top ten for franchises that has gone the longest without having won their league's top title. In baseball of course it is the World Series.

The Giants most famous game is the Bobby Thompson home run in 1951 when the "GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT" game occurred. They lost the World Series to the Yankees in four straight. The Giants did win the World series in 1954 and the Willie Mays over the head catch was made in game one. So it has been 56 years since the Giants have won Baseball's Crown Jewel.

Making matters worse for the Giants they moved in 1957 to San Francisco leaving the Polo Grounds which by the way was only five blocks from Yankee Stadium. The hex of the Polo Grounds has carried over in California and the Giants have never won the big series there.

The other side of the field has the Texas Rangers who became the Texas Rangers because the Washington Senators vacated Washington twice in ten years. The World Series less Senators never won the World Series in their franchise history from 1899 until 1960 when they packed up and Moved to Minnesota.

Not wanting Washington without a baseball team the Sentators had another team from 1961-1970 when still a World Series win was still not in Washington. The Texas Rangers were born and the Rangers have never won a World Series in their 39 year history or is it 49 years if you add the Sentators as the same franchise.

Either way a loser is going to become the Boston Red Sox of this decade while the loser will remain on the heels of the Chicago Cubs as the losingest team the longest.

Baseball's Tv ratings have been terrible and now that the team everyone loves to hate the Yankees are done, I suspect this will be the lowest rated world series since color TV came to be.

I will be pulling for Josh Hamilton not only because he's from Raleigh but becasue of his life's story and his freely admitting with out others help he would be a drunk or dope addict. Most people would be in denial and never stand in front of a camera a say "I am a weak person and I need help". That kind of person is hard not to pull for.

Price Sisters Dominate Tennis Regional

The singles and doubles tennis Eastern Regional was held Friday and Saturday and the Price sisters from Nash Central dominated so much that they played each other for the Eastern championship. Randi beat Kaley 6/2-7/5 to win. If I remember this correctly they both have qualified for the state Championship by finishing at least second.

The Rocky Mount doubles team of Lindsey Thomas and Caroline Nelson team fell in the finals to Wilson Fike' s team of Mallory Short and Mederith Pruden. I believe both Lindsey and Caroline will be in the State Tournament but that is not this week as tennis gets back to the team competition . Tennis is very confusing switching back and forth from individual and team play.

The Big East soccer tournament starts Monday at Northern Nash. The #1 seeded Gryphons play in the semi's Tuesday and if they win the championship is Thursday. We hope at the Stretchlon Sports show to tape Rocky Mount's semi game. If Monday's games go as seedings are then Rocky Mount will probably play Southern Nash a team that has been as difficult as any one in the league for them this year.

Monday will be pack up the equipment day for all three public high schools in volleyball. Rocky Mount , Northern Nash and Nash Central all fell in the first round.

Friday night I went 3-1 on my picks missing the Hunt-Southern Nash game. Friday's 4-way tie will be broken as Northern Nash plays at Fike. Rocky Mount at Southern Nash and Nash Central plays Hunt. Five of the teams are still alive for the playoff spots as only Fike is out. Even after next week we might head for the final game of the season with a three way tie and the Nash Central/Hunt loser will fall out of the lead.

If this was the NFL there will probably be one who is 5-5 that winds up 10-6. There will probably be one team five and one but there is still a mathematical chance three could still go 5 and 1.

Can't wait for the playoffs.

Finally what good is instance replay if even after looking at the replay they can't get it right. This Pittsburgh fumble which was ruled a fumble even though the Miami player handed the ball to the refs and they couldn't determined who recovered. Why put the ball on the half inch line. If you can't tell who recover it in the end zone it has to be as if the ball rolled through the end zone and the ball should go to the twenty and Miami ball. I think a clue of who recover was the player who handed the ball to the refs. This call almost tops the Hoculi play of 2008 when San Diego recovered a Jay Cutler fumble except it wasn't a fumble because the ref blew his whistle while the ball was rolling free.

Early Exit

Their history of volleyball the Lady Gryphons of Rocky Mount have never won past the second round. If you had of been there today you could see why because the way they were butted out of the playoffs by the Rams of Havelock is the same as every year.

Havelock was taller, more athletic and better at serving the ball. Those serves kept Rocky Mount just trying to get the ball back across the net most of the time and when it only just got over the net the Rams were waiting to knock it down the Lady Gryphons throat.

Havelock won the first game 25-20. The Lady Gryphons roared back taking game two 25-10. The third game was won by Havelock 25-20 and game four Rocky Mount had one foot in the grave down 24-21 and managed to come back from the dead to win game four 28-26. They were unable to use the momentum in the fifth game and were knocked out of the playoffs 15-10 in game five.

The Lady Gryphons finish the season 18-6. I do think being off nine days since the Big East conference tournament was not a help for Rocky Mount since Havelock did not provide a can of WD-40 in the first game for them to knock the rust off. Hunt was able to knock off win less Hertford County in Volleyball otherwise the conference took it on the chin. Nash Central and Northern Nash both a four seed and a three seed were on the road and failed to win a game losing 3-0 each.

The Coastal conference in Volleyball is very similar to Big East in football that the second and third seeded teams are as good as some conferences first seed. The Big East was 1-3 in the opening round while the Coastal was 4-1. Their only lost was fourth seeded West Craven the team that beat Rocky Mount in round two last year lost at undefeated Triton.

Sunday night on the Stretchlon Sports Show we will have a live show featuring the Renegades a 12 and under little league team that has qualified for a tournament next summer in Cooperstown New York. We will try to have the latest updates on Terry Pittman and Colt Brake who are both recovering from spinal football injuries.

This four way tie at the top in Big East football may not be so hard to figure out as it appeared. Northern Nash has played all three teams they are tied with. Hunt still must play Nash Central and Nash Central still has the final game with Southern Nash. Northern has the two last place teams Rocky Mount and Fike so their path to first place is wide open while the other three have to knock each other off. Northern needs to pull for Nash Central to beat Hunt since Hunt would holds the tie breaker with Northern.

All four of the teams tied at the top have their liabilities. Nash Central on offense is the only one that seems top be able to throw any at all. Their defense seems to be the least of the four. They have both Hunt and Southern left to play. Hunt, Northern and Southern run the ball and hope they never get behind because their passing might go to the wrong team.

This may be a real long shot but Rocky Mount is not dead in the water yet but they have both Southern and Northern to play. IF Rocky Mount were to beat both Southern and Northern they would be ahead of each in any tie breaker. This just might be wishful thinking but I'm thinking.