Replacing Woody Durham?

Those guys that work at the Network level do more work than just show up and analyze.  The TV guys spent hours each week looking at film as if they are a coach looking for the way a player reacts to situations. They get one shot a week in front of a national audience.  They had better look prepared or somebody will take there place in a minute.

The next level of sports announcers is the play by play guys for professional teams.  These are the guys you hear or see practically everyday.  They not only travel with the team but are used a MCs when ever the team holds a function for charities or dinners for special events.  Because they become the voice of the team fans endear them as if they are a player.  Fans become accustomed to hearing Sam Huff and Sonny Jergenson argue over a play between plays for say the Washington Redskins.

The next level is that of the college sports announcer.  Most just do Football and basketball but a few do their college baseball also.  Woody Durham has been heard for years as the "Voice Of The Tar Heels".  I told you earlier this week that he went around and helped local stations sell Carolina on the radio to local affiliates.  Since 1981 he has been the Executive Sports Director of Tar Heel Sports Marketing.  Pretty much that means he in charge of all the Network and who can carry the Tar Heels and who can't.

To say that Woody Durham has lived for the Tar Heels would be an understatement.   There is nothing like Woody's call when football scores   "Touchdown Carolina".  Regardless whether you pull for the Heels, Devils, Wolfpack or Pirates you get so use to hearing your guy sing out when the scores come.

Replacing Woody has already made it seem like they were replacing a coach.  The top two on the wish list have already turned the Heels down.  Woody's son Wes who has been the Voice of the Rambling Wreck Of Georgia Tech for several years and more recently the voice of the Atlanta Falcons both at the same time.  

Mick Mixon who for 16 years was Woody's color man but now the Carolina Panthers Play by play guy has said he's not interested.  Regardless of who follows Woody it will be as if he is following Dean Smith.  The Legend never did any thing wrong and this new guy doesn't know what he is doing.

A Wolfpacker for life I still yearn for the Wally Ausley/ Gary Dornburg  call on State Games.  "The Glass Slipper Fits".

Who ever gets behind the mic for the Tar Heels will need to stay for life so people can die off who have only heard Woody's calls and a new generations can say 'Nobody does it better.  A sports announcers legacy is much larger when he covers a winner.

The Tar Heels have been that the last forty years.  Woody Durham has been there for every game.

Miami Hires B-Ball Coach

I find it funny that the national media has hardly said anything one way or the other about the basketball situation at  THE U.  While N C State was looking they were doing everything they could to discredit the search.  Miami has quietly been going about the business of hiring a coach and they have hired Jim Larranaga the former head coach at George Mason.

Despite what the media sells when they do their spin the N C State job is a top 30 job  and 40 years ago was a top 15 job.  Frank Haith leaving Miami which at best might be considered top 60 can't even get the media to yawn.

Miami has trouble getting five thousand to a conference game so their ability to pay a coach a multi year million dollar deal is out the door.  They get a sixty year old coach who knows how to win since he has proven he can coach a team to the final four.  I would not look for this to be a twenty year rein at Miami unless he can pull off a Joe Paterno.

Tonight will tell a lot about the Knicks and Celtic series. Boston has been lucky to win either game this week at home.  The only reason they did is the Knicks are not a team oriented and are easy to defense when it counts because you know who is going to get the ball, the ball hogs.

The Celtics sure do look old all of a sudden and Miami Heat just might be ready to pick the Celtics a part in round two.  Chicago has surprised me and you had better look out for Oklahoma City and Chicago in the finals. The TV Networks will die if that happens but the two best players in the NBA might be in the finals.  Kevin Durant and Derrick Rose.

We live in a dangerous world where it it getting to the point you can not go to a professional game with out risking your life against unruly fans.  They say that sports is just a snapshot of society, but if this is what we have become as a society we should be ashamed. 

Our country is on the verge of being  bankrupt.  In order to become solvent again we must cut government services.  When we start doing that then robbery and theft will sky rocket.  While all of this government cutting is going on we need to shake up the judicial system and start punishing criminals. As far as I am concern a good cut would be to cut off the air conditioning in prisons, TVs and stop paying those blue tractors you see on the highway cutting the grass.  Let's put the inmates back out there working wishing they were home with their family instead of getting three squares a day at our expense.

Legion Baseball Just around The Corner

The Nash County Senior Legion baseball team will be holding tryouts on May14 and 15 at a site to be determined. Hank Jones will be returning as head coach and he is now formulating has coaching staff for this season.

Nash County will have plenty of pressure on this years team as they will be trying to return to the State Tournament for the third straight year.

One player who everyone wishes would play Legion can not this summer is Benton Moss.  Part of winning the Morehead-Cain Scholarship to UNC is that he will be off doing an internship some where in the United States. The winner of the Morehead is given an internship every summer in four different fields which helps enrich the life of the winner for four summers.

Games will be played at Nash Central this season and you will have to put up listening to me for another summer as Joe Bell the Athletic Officer of the Coleman-Pitt Post 58 has just signed me to a multimillion dollar contract to keep me from going after Woody Durham's job with the Tarheel Sports Network.

You laugh if you will but when Wally Ausley retired from doing games for the Wolfpack Sports Network in the early 90's, I applied  and got an interview before losing out to Gary Hahn.  There is no doubt that a job like that was a dream of mine all my radio life but now I have hit the age where I'm too old to have a shot.  They will be hiring someone who can stay there thirty years.

I don't know whether you know this or not but Bob Harris and Woody Durham who for years now have been at the other end of the press table any time Carolina and Duke played each other.  They were little league teammates while growing up in Albemarle.  Who would ever suspect that.

Back to Legion the first game is scheduled for May 23rd at Cary.

Good luck to everyone who is planning on trying out for Legion Ball!

Easter Lull

There is no more high school sports until school starts back up next Monday.  Baseball will begin the final push to end the regular season by the end of the first week in May.  The first round of the playoffs begin May12-13-14.  One game that first week which is crazy.  Whoever makes it all the way to the Regional finals will have to play possible four games in one week..

The 4th round would be played on May 23/24 and the winner starts the two out of three for the regional on the 26-27-28.  Can somebody please tell the NCHSAA how stupid that is.  There is only a couple of things that happen when a team plays four games in a week.  A coach pitches his best pitcher too much and by game four the loser scores ten runs when both teams are out of pitchers.  Is that how we want to determine a State Champion.

I must say bravo to Kent Cox for the way he has used Benton Moss this year.  Early in the year when the weather was not perfect he had him on a pitch count and when he arrived at that number he took him out of the game.  The week in which we played Hunt on the Saturday night  he could have thrown him a second time during that week but chose to not wear him out.  He has chosen safety over victories. 

This young Gryphon team has shown to be a average hitting team and when Benton does not pitch maybe be below average pitching.  One great arm does not reflect well for  a long run in the playoffs.

We are a week away from the NFL draft and rumors have it that the Carolina Panthers are heading to draft Cam Newton.  I am no expert on how players will do in the pros but to me Newton is a carbon copy of JaMarkus Russell.  If I am Carolina I would stay clear of Newton.  There are just too many red flags flying about him.  Carolina is already in a mess, they can't afford spending all the money the #1 pick will get that is not going to be a 10 year every play guy.  They can't afford to gamble but be safe.

The NFL released the 2011/2012 regular season schedule yesterday.  They also are in negotiations with the players in front of an arbitrator this week trying to get a settlement in the lockout.  Any time there is talks both sides shoot for the moon and hope the other side gives up first.  Most of the time they meet in the middle and we move on.  It is time to find the middle.

I mentioned this a couple of weeks ago in the NCAA playoffs where teams who were down late in the games  by one or two points were settling for long three pointers.  Where do the college players learn from but the pros. Carmelo Anthony held the ball for the last ten seconds without  passing it just so he could throw up a 28 foot  three point attempt in trying to beat Boston in the first round of the NBA playoffs. He passed up on trying to go inside to tie and maybe  get the game in overtime just so he could be the hero.   Way to set an example for others.

Gryphons Finally Win One

Rocky Mount beat Cleveland 10-0 this afternoon in the 7/8 place game at the South Johnston Baseball Tournament.  Benton Moss took to the mound for the Gryphons and he stabilized what has been a very unbalanced three days in the South Johnston Baseball Tournament.

Saturday the team endured the trip to South Johnston only to get into a rain delay before they saw a funnel cloud from all the storms that North Carolina had Saturday.  Monday morning the team played the early game to catch up from Saturday.  The first inning Jeremy Johnson and Collin Watson the pitcher and catcher had to leave the game in the first inning due to injuries.  The team lost to West Johnson 16-4.

Falling into the losers bracket the team waited until 4.00pm where they took on Harnett Central who beat the Gryphons 10-6.  It is one of the worse days in Rocky Mount baseball history.

Benton Moss with the win today has become the all time winningest pitcher in Rocky Mount baseball history. Moss pitched four inning and the fifth was pitched by a JV pitcher Will Edwards brought up for this tournament to give him some work on varsity.  Between the two of them they throw  a  five inning no hitter.

Jeremy Johnson had two hits and Benton Moss hit a homer and drove in four rbi in the game.Matt Berry Taylor Clontz and Andy Morris had hits for the Gryphons.

The Gryphons are now 13-7 and will not play again until next Tuesday when Fike comes to Rocky Mount for the makeup of the rain out game two weeks ago.

Northern Nash was scheduled to play this afternoon against a National Junior team touring the United States.  The game was cancelled after the death of JV shortstop Spenser Davis.  His visitation is tonight at Wheeler and Woodlief Funeral on on Wooddruff Road.  It begins at 6.30-900pm.

 WRAL-TV is reporting tonight that Woody Durham the "Voice Of The Tar Heels " is retiring.  I had the pleasure to meet Woody way back in the 70's when our local station in Ahoskie was part of the Tarheel Sports Network.  Woody would come to Ahoskie in the spring when we would invite any potential advertiser on the football and basketball  that you could  eat on us and Woody would lay out our advertising cost to each possible client and he would also give all the Tar Heel faithful a rah-rah about the upcoming sports .  I don't know but I bet he came six or seven years in a row.

One Saturday in the 90's we went to a Carolina game and since for most everyone in my family it was their first visit to the Dean Dome we lingered after the game just taking in the sights.  Our seat that day we were  at mid court and eight seats back to the foul line across from the Carolina bench. We were on about the eighth row up. 

We made our way to the top of the lower level and Woody who had just finished his broadcast came walking down the isle toward us.  I told Brooks, Brooks here comes the voice of the Tar Heels Mr. Woody Durham.  Woody Shook Brooks hand and turn to me and said Tony how are you doing.  I think I got more pleasure out of that meeting than everyone else in my family as all I could think about is Woody remembered my name.

Small things are important to some and really meant nothing to Woody that day but for me, it was priceless that Woody Durham remember me..


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