Error Prone

There are three parts to baseball, offense, pitching and defense and so far this season Rocky Mount has shown little offense, some rather decent pitching and very sloppy defense.  Today for the first time this year Rocky Mount got double digit hits 10 on the game while the pitching despite giving up 12 hits would have held Southern Wayne to zero runs if the Gryphons didn't give the Saints four and five outs on the innings when they scored.

Rocky Mount found themselves down 6-3 but scratched their way into position to tie in the bottom of the 7th inning with bases loaded with two outs and failed to get the winning run home.  On this windy blustery day both teams committed five errors each and both sides got better pitching than the score would indicate.

Will Edwards found himself in a 6-3 hole pitching the first five innings and he gave way to Josh Carter, Carter the junior who was making his first pitching performance in his high school career got through the sixth and seventh innings not allowing a run.  Once Rocky Mount failed to finish off the game in the seventh Carter gave up two runs on three hits, one hit was a line drive which would have been out number three lost in the sun with nothing scoring.

Bikembe Kearney got three Gryphons hits.  Micah Varnell collected two hits.  Andy Morris, Sam Lilley, Logan Smith, Rashawn Harris and Will Edwards each reach base with a single.  The Gryphons drop to 1-4 on the season and return to action Tuesday with a home game against Corinth Holders a team that beat the Gryphons opening day 7-2.

Sad to hear that Rick Ruffin has decided to retire as basketball coach at Northern.  You know Rick arrived at Northern because at that time Northern Coach Mike Moseley was heading  to the new Nash Central High.  The reshuffled school boundaries worked to Nash Central's advantage and since the Birth of Nash Central  the Knights went from a high school with 1700 students down to around 1250 and their athletics have suffered.  It will be interesting to see how over the next few years  with the new boundaries to see  how everyone's athletic teams fare.

First Day Not Bad

Gryphon Baseball game today with Southern Wayne has been pushed up to 4:00pm due to extreme cold weather. This strange new thing called a five day ACC tournament with the upper deck curtained off to keep from TV showing the  the hay barn with no hay in the top loft.  Despite that the ACC put on any normal first day of Tournament action.

The only North Carolina team playing in day one Wake Forest made sure that day two would have two teams calling NC home.  They hardly ever trailed to Notre Dame the one team of the three coming  from the Big East that hasn't upheld their rating they had in Big East days.  Wake wins 81-69.

Miami and Virginia Tech played game two with the winner drawing  the Wolfpack at 7pm tonight.  This game went down to the wire and the Gobblers had a shot to tie at the end.

The third game of the night sent BC against GT  and it turned out to be the game of the night.  Forty  minutes wasn't enough so the Techsters  and Eagles played an extra five minutes before Tech advanced.

Wednesday night ECU and Wake Forest played a non conference baseball game at the refurbished Fleming Stadium which is the kickoff for the new look for Fleming.  Wake won 5-4 and the city of Wilson continues to be a major  baseball town with the Tobs and selected baseball games including hosting a college baseball regional while Doak Field in a Raleigh for N C State was hosting.

Nearly thirty years ago the city  of Rocky Mount rip down the rusty steel rafters of the old ball park while Wilson spent money on Fleming.  Today Rocky Mount has no baseball facility that seats more than 400 whole Wilson has given a face lift to their 3,000 seat shrine.

The city now wants to built a meeting place in down town Rocky Mount which will have no parking  and I know of no one that wants it to be built down town other than those who handle your money, I repeat none of those in power will put one red cent into the construction of this building.  Until property is purchase away from down town we can't let those decision maker who thirty years ago made the wrong decision on a beautiful ball park.  We can't stand for another wrong decision.

Rocky Mount High  baseball lost 9-1 Wednesday to Rose in Greenville, the Gryphons will host a Southern Wayne at 5pm today but it just might be moved to 4pm so stay tuned.

Bucket List

We all have things we would like to do in our lifetimes because watching events on TV they just look like I would like to go there.  This spring for the first time in my life I'm heading to Augusta Georgia to the Tuesday practice round of the Masters on April 8th.

Now we have all sit in front of the TV when the Azaleas are blooming and we can smell those flowers right on the TV Screen.  Since I have never been there before and if it is true  Augusta is as hilly as they say I plan to plant myself on thr top row of the grandstand on the 15th green where I can watch the pros go for the green in two on the par five by Raes Creek.  I think I will also be in position to watch the tee shots on the par three 16th.

The big news in the past couple of weeks has been Tiger Woods.  He now has a back issue which anyone who has a back issue knows once you have back trouble it may never go away and rear it's ugly head at any time.

Tiger is in that age bracket when golfers fall off the edge of greatness and every once in a while for a round or two everyone will shout Tiger is back but the next day here comes a 74 and falls by the wayside.  I have in the past mentioned that Tiger has not won a major since the PGA instituted drug testing.  I may be cynical but hasn't his body been falling a part since then too.

If I do get brave and decide to follow any one golfer my first choice would be Webb Simpson from Raleigh. It would depend greatly on tee times and where I am and how fast I can get to the first tee.
If not Webb I would like to see the ball mashers either Bubba Watson or Dustin Johnson.

I went to Pinehurst  years ago and saw my first pro golf event.  As I a walked in the gate I saw Ray
Floyd was teeing off in five minutes and race down the first fairway to watch him tee off.  I don't know how far I was from the tee but I could hardly hear the PA announce his name.  I figured boy from right hear I'll be standing really close when he hits his second shot.  I watched his swing and saw the ball screeching off the tee and landed about forty  yards farther down the fairway from where I was.  Boy how far can these guys hit the ball because I don't remember Raymond being one of the long ball hitters of the tour.

Later I will tell you about my group I'm going with.  There is four weeks to tee time.

The ACC Tournament Just Ain't What It Use To Be

The new ACC  is all about money.  The fifteen team league puts a couple million a year more in the pockets of all the colleges and universities in the new  league.  The ACC sold their soul to grow large enough to survive just to stay as the ACC.  Such leagues as the Big East no longer exist because the leaders of the ACC when everyone thought the ACC  was dead the ACC had a ace up their sleeve and today the ACC on the edge of death but is now  one of the strongest conferences in the college sports world .

Yes, it is a grand league and Wednesday starts another ACC Tournament.  Can anyone name the  six teams that are playing Wednesday and when they play?  Can anyone tell me that they will even watch half the games this week or even what channel all the games will be on?  You know it will take 14 games to get down to one by Sunday.

That is a far cry from Thursday  afternoons when the eight team ACC  was a reason to stop work run across the street where the bank had a tv screen set up for their customers and watch the games.  The opening day of the ACC tournament was spring times version of what the first day of hunting is in the fall is a national holiday.  More people got the flu around 11am on the Thursday of  the ACC  opening round than all of the rest of the year  combined.

There was a time when if you were not among the top 1500 people who gave the most money to their university you didn't have any idea what it was like to be there opening day except to wait outside when the losers came ready to sell their ticket to me or a million other craving fans who wanted to be there  for Friday's semi finals or for the championship Saturday.

There was a time when the most important thing in your life was winning the ACC tournament  because without it you didn't go to the NCAA tournament.  If you ever get a chance that you can see that ESPN is showing the ACC tournament Final of 1974 a game between Sate and Maryland you need to look at it.  It is the greatest game in the history of college basketball at the time because the loser had to go to the NIT and the ACC considered that an embarrassment to have to play in that.

That year Carolina was rated fourth in the country and only lost to State and Maryland.  UCLA was number one, State second, Maryland third.  So the second and third teams one of them was going home after losing in Greensboro with no chance to get to the NCAA's.  Maryland lost in overtime
 and with it the NCAA started the expansion process to finally reach 64 as it is now.

Come Sunday at least five ACC teams will get invited and just possible if an NC State could win it or Maryland maybe six teams will get in.  Otherwise there is not much reason to hold a tournament any more other to bring in another two or three million per team.  You see by Saturday especially if a Duke or Carolina are still in the Hunt and if State somehow was still alive there will be this  affliction that will over come us  that this crazy zany  feeling will overwhelm us.  There is an ACC championship to win and we will pull for our team and if needed pull for your team to keep Syracuse from coming down here and winning our tournament.

Hunt Has Their Hands Full

They didn't find out till Sunday but Hunt's foe in Chapel Hill Saturday in the state Championship 3A game will be Freedom High from Morganton.  Sunday they beat North Forsyth 76-59 to punch their ticket.  Hunt the Big East Champion at 25-3 while Freedom is 30-1.  Freedom is in the same conference in whinch Rocky Mount's opponent in 2012  Hickory was from.

Benton Moss won his second game of the year for Carolina Saturday beating Pittsburgh 2-1.  Moss went seven innings. Striking out 12 which is his career high.    Hard to believe that conference play has started already in the ACC.  State swept Notre Dame giving up three runs in three games.  Carlos Rodon gave up all three. The Pack pitchers have now gone 21 innings without giving up a run.  Carolina won two of three.

I just don't see how he can lose it now but after scoring 42 last night T J Warren has scored 83 points in his last two games.  Warren made 30 of 45 shots in that stretch.  Duke won game two with Carolina  stopping the Heels 12 game conference winning streak.

So far this high school baseball season weather has been  an issue with most every team having lost two or three games already this season.  Seems weather will be nice for the first part of the week and teams will be scrambling to try to catch up on games missed plus try to play the ones on the schedule already for this week.

Tonight at the Pizza Inn on Hunter Hill Road the Northern Nash football team will be holding a fund raiser with money raised going to the football team.  Players will be serving so come on out and support the Knights.

This will not make the Northern girls basketball team feel any better but West Craven's Jamie Cherry set a state record during the second round of the state playoffs.  Against Havelock Cherry made 12 three points which is the most ever by a girl in a state playoff game.

Pro Sports Has Lost Sportsmanship

The NFL  is having a debate right now about the use of the N word.   The NFL is trying to make their game all access. The day just may come when not only will cameras  be on helmets but microphones will be there too.  The NFL since TV started broadcasting games in the fifties have had those hand held dishes held by sound men trying to pick up as much as possible the sounds of the games.

The games if it is to become all access then viewers don't want every other word bleeped off the screen because the language used is not viewable by a family audience.
Not only will the N word need to go but so will The MF word, or the GD word, or the SOB word or any word not worthy to be spoken at the dinner table.

Somewhere in the world of pro sports the the motto 'it is not whether you win or lose but how you play the game' has been lost. It is my feeling that anyone who makes a half million dollars a year or more should act the part of an intelligent human being over a street hood.

Despite what Charles Barkley said years ago that he was not a role model, he is whether he wants to be or not.  A ten year old can be a role model for a four year old if that four year old admires him.  Professional athletes who have youngsters wearing their jersies are role models to them because their actions are watched almost constantly by those who idolize them.

All pro sports needs to clean up their act.  Baseball players need to quit chewing tobacco because that is surely an influence.  There is plenty as athletes that would improve our future if professional sports require their players to act professional.  Not that long ago the NBA made their players go back to dressing up when traveling.  There was plenty of backlash in the beginning but now there are plenty of dudes that dress to kill now-a-days.

Our world is headed in the wrong direction.  Players are applauded when they opening tell the world of their life styles and the world  rejoices.  One of the best moves made by high schools and colleges was when they made everyone shake hands when the games are over.  It hasn't always been that way.

Since just about everyone watches sports on TV one of the best places to start changing the world back to a respectable world is sports.  It wouldn't hurt movies and regular TV to improve too.
Sportsmanship is about the words you speak while the action is going on as well as after making a tackle you run away from your teammates so you can show boat your one tackle on the night.  This world has a lot of cleaning up to do but cleaning up language is at least a start.

If You Had A Vote

The Hunt Warriors have won the East Regional tonight beating Orange 66-60 and will play the winner of the Freedom- North Forsyth game that will not be played until Sunday afternoon since all games schedule Friday were lost because of weather out in the western Regional.  The 3-A title game is again is in Chapel where Rocky Mount and the Big East have won the last two titles there.


The ACC Basketball  Tournament begins next  week  and we will hear who is the first team ACC.  We will also find out the player of the  year.  If any one other than T J Warren wins player of the year they should do away with the vote. Unless he goes 0-20 in States final game Sunday night he will become only the 3rd player in ACC history to lead the league in scoring and shooting percentage.  He is third is steals which to me puts him head and shoulders above anyone else who is being considered for the award.

If there is a team that tells you the importance of players filling roles the North Carolina Tar Heels  once they decided  they were not  going to have Hairston this year everyone started playing instead feeling sorry for themselves and playing ball.

As for who is going to Final Four I doubt any team from North Carolina gets further than Sweet 16.  Duke is spotty shooting this year and their big issue is this team doesn't  play Duke D as other Duke teams have.  Carolina  as well as they have played during  their 12 game winning streak just don't scare me if I'm preparing to play them.

Syracuse and their zone defense.  Do you remember when Dave Odom coached  Tim Duncan and Randolph Childress and they scored 66 points a game.  Odoms  said when the game gets to the end all he wanted was a chance to win.  When you only score 66 you just also keep the other team in the game.  Syracuse should be scoring 90 but instead in the sixties  and every team is in every game with them and any team who gets hot the last two minutes can win a close game.  Virginia is the best team in the league but I don't think they have enough tournament experience to get to final four.  If you look at every team this is a wide open year and Duke and Carolina are as good as anybody despite what is wrong with them.

The Big East still has one team alive in the Regional finals in Hunt. If you are planning to go and watch all the games Saturday please note that the Hunt-Orange game has been moved to 8pm instead of 2pm.  The 3-A girls game will feature West Craven and undefeated Chapel Hill.  I doubt West Craven  can keep this game under a 20 point loss.  Playoff games are match ups and West Craven just does not match up with Chapel  Hil.  Northern Nash could but  this year will be remember as the year of the weather and Northern's lack of practice with school out for the weather.  I know that doesn't make Grover Battle and his Lady Knights feel any better but some things aren't meant to be.  I doubt the Lady Knights had more than five practices the last month of January through their loss this week. It just plain too hard for a team to get better through practice but the big issue this week was preparation time for a team that had one super player..