Down On The Farm

There has been as they say this myth that if you didn't play ball in public school nobody will scout you whether college or Pro.  A month ago during the MLB Draft Isaiah White from Greenfield Academy in Wilson was drafted in the 3rd round  by the Miami Marlins.  3rd round for a player that played against NO competition!!!!!!

So far this summer playing in the rookie Gulf Coast League Isaiah has played in 25 games and is batting a cool 337.  I believe that competition is a little tougher than the private school league that Greenfield plays in and he is tearing up the Gulf Coast League too.

Brian Goodwin  has risen His batting average up to around 240 and has leveled off this week at 234.  His home run total is up to six which is second on the AA Harrisburg.  I don't know if hitting under 250 will get Brian back to AAA.  Something to think about is Friday is the deadline for the MLB for trading.  We talked about this last year that Washington on the big club just might be looking to better themselves for the stretch run and players who have great potential but just treading water in one place in the minors can always be a throw in  if the Nationals decide to prepare for the MLB playoffs.

Benton Moss has made his 3rd start for Hudson Valley and his 7th pitching appearance since signing with Tampa Bay in mid June.  He suffered his first defeat giving up his second homer and drops to 1-1.  We have talked about controlling pitch count and one reason why is Benton already tossed nearly 90 innings for UNC in the spring.  His seven appearances  he has pitch just 20 plus innings.  His ERA ballooned to 3.48 after his win last week it dropped to 2.18.  That's what happens when you don't have many innings under your belt.

Collins Cuthrell has fallen to 283 batting average playing with Florence  Kentucky Freedom.  He has hit seven homers which leads the team.  If you remember in high school, Legion, and college Collins was not a threat to steal.  He is six for six so far this year.  He is in Kentucky hoping to latch on to a MLB team but I a source that knows a source tells me he has had no contact what so ever from any team.  Go figure?

If Hobbs Johnson continues these kind of numbers maybe AAA is in his future.  The Milwaukee
Brewers are getting good results again from Hobbs since moving to AA Biloxi Ms.  He is now 7-4
ERA is 3-20.  Hobbs has 18 starts this summer and thrown 90 innings.

Food for thought.  Blake Helms finished 5-1 this summer pitching for Wilson Post 13.  His ERA 2.32 in 11 appearances.  Playing in Wilson just happens to be where he will be playing baseball in the spring at Barton.   One other note.  I think his age could bring him back to Legion next summer and if there is any hope Post 58 gets back on the field next summer he would be a solid foundation to a team in Rocky Mount, just hoping

Legion Over For Post 13

Wilson Post 13 trip to the State American Legion State baseball tournament is over.  They lost Sunday to High Point 13-3 in a game ended after eight innings.  Their outstanding pitching that they had all year  did it's job in only one game  in Salisbury.  They finish their season at 21-6 on the year.

The second game of the day in  the Rowan County  city of Salisbury was the second elimination game and Caldwell County took care of business and beat Eastern Randolph  7-3.  Eastern  Randolph joins Wilson as earning a trip home after their second loss of the weekend..

The State Legion Tournament is down to four teams and only one of the four is left undefeated.  The Sunday night fight between the host  Rowan County and Hope  Mills. The victor is the home team Rowan County who had to come from behind twice to beat Hope Mills 12-8.  All teams have now played three games and a five or six game tournament test how deep anyone's pitching is.

Remember the Legion State Championship does not give the undefeated team a day off with only four teams left.  Rowan County will play Caldwell County in the 7pm game while  Hope Mills will play High Point at 1pm.  One team for sure goes home Monday between Hope Mills and High Point..  Whether it is two or not will depend  on how Caldwell matches up with Rowan County.  Regardless of Monday's result Rowan County is guaranteed the Championship game on Tuesday.  It comes down to are they still undefeated and must lose twice to the Caldwell /High Point/ Hope Mills survivor.

The Nash County Babe Ruth 13u North Carolina Eastern State Champions begin play in the Southeast Regional in Greenville Wednesday morning at 10am.  Their first game in the three game pool play will be against Lawrance Tennessee the Tennessee Western State Champs.

The will once again be the early game on Thursday when they play North Piedmont one of two teams from Western North Carolina  .  Their final game in pool play will be against Tallahassee Florida.
The top two from this pool play will play the top two from the second bracket.

The four teams in the other bracket is the host team Greenville NC, Sarasota Florida, Augusta Virginia and also from Western North Carolina Union County.

Post 13 Gets What They Need From Blake Helms

Embarrassed Friday night by the home team Rowan County in seven innings Wilson Post 13 behind the pitching of Former Rocky Mount Gryphon  Blake Helms will live to play another day in the 2015 North Carolina American Legion State tournament in Salisbury.

You are the last game of the day on Friday night and you find yourself right back on the field just after noon the next. A real issue after a terrible loss the night before  they need to get off to a good start. Both teams in a win or go home affair and Wilson scores one in the first and now off to a good start they ease in to the next day of play with a complete game pitching performance by Blake Helms.  Post 13 wins 8-1. Helms walked two after last night his teammates walked 10 in a ten run loss.  He scattered seven hits but the only run allowed scored on a suicide sqeeze with Wilson already ahead 4-0.

The Legion state tournament is one that does not give a bye to the winner of the undefeated bracket so on day three Sunday Wilson will not play the winner of the other loser's bracket game played at 9:30 between Garner and Caldwell County.  This one was a dog fight as it took 11 innings before Caldwell County plated the winning run to win 4-3 over Garner.

Garner is the first team out and they are followed by Heywood County.  That will leave six teams in the tournament  Wilson, Caldwell County, Hope Mills, Rowan County, High Point and Eastern Randolph.  Wilson's matchup will go against High Point who lost  6-5 to Hope Mills who will now play in the undefeated game Sunday night.

The other team playing in the undefeated game will be the host team Rowan County who took down  Eastern Randolph 11-1 in seven innings.  So far in two games the host have not been a gracious host what so ever only playing  14 innings winning twice by the ten run rule.  Caldwell County a winner Saturday over Garner will meet Eastern Randolph in the late afternoon Sunday game.  The night cap sends Hope Mills squaring off with Rowan County.

Legion State Tourney Underway

The first day of the North Carolina State American Legion Tournament was not kind to the two representatives from Area One Wilson and Garner.  Just a little review Wilson won the Area one East and Garner the Area One West.  Instead of playing a two out of three with the winner being seeded as Area One 1st and the loser Area One number two.  As it turned out Garner drew the number one and in doing so played High Point Friday leaving Wilson to play the host Rowan County in Salisbury at Catawba College.

The third game of the day sent Garner on the field as the home team and after seven innings Garner led 7-6 but High Point scored four in the eighth and another five in the ninth  to win 15-7.  This throws Garner into the losers bracket and they hit the field early Saturday morning meeting Caldwell County who was a 6-2 loser to Hope Mills in the first game Friday morning.

The night cap game of the first day Coach Rusty Dail sent Fike Ace Brandon Winstead to the hill.  During the high school season Winstead was 12-1 with a 1.76 era for the Golden Demons.  During Legion season with Post 13 winning 20 games and losing only four games and Rocky Mount's Blake Helms tying Winstead with a 4-1 and an era  of 1.00 mark after he was 8-2 during high school you would think Post 13 will have great pitching set up for this week's tournament.

Rowan County score once in the first and six in the second and they were on cruise control after that as Wilson Post 13 falls in seven innings 12-2.  This drops Post  13 into the 12:30 Saturday losers bracket game where they will meet Heywood County who took it on the chin to Eastern Randolph 8-3.

The Brady Dilemma

It is my opinion that Tom Brady was in cahoots with somebody and had the NFL football deflated to fit his hand and comfort.  It has been about a month now since there was the big meeting at NFL Headquarters where Brady got to sit across the table from NFL commissioner Roger Gooddell.  A month and no decision.

Now that I have pondered this incident since January it seems to me that why would the NFL allow anyone other than an NFL official touch the balls before a game and even during the game unless they were touched as part of an ongoing game.  Baseball has the umpires rub up with mud from the bottom of a Delaware river the baseballs used in every game.  They don't let today's pitcher rub them up.

I understand the want for every quarterback to have balls shaped to fit the hand of the thrower it has to be easier to throw that way.  You know even high schools use their own balls.  What would stop from a punter putting a small amount of helium in a football to make it travel farther when punted.  You surely could not fill a ball with 100% helium or the ball may never come down.

Yes I think Brady is guilty, so if he gets four games suspension or two games it doesn't matter he has threatened to sue the NFL if that happens.  The NFL fined the Patriots a million dollars for letting this go on.  Suppose they fined Brady but let him continue to play.  I guess the question is this.  Is his crime of doctoring footballs worse than drunk driving, wife beating, carrying around guns and shooting yourself as has happened to NFL players?

Our society today if you happen to go to court you can wiggle out of murder and you get fined and put on probation for five years.  Seems to me that deflating footballs until the NFL takes control of the balls away from each team that they need to have a football referee on both sidelines.  Every play when you see a new ball thrown out to the official putting the next ball in play should come from and NFL ref on the sidelines that has control of the balls.  Remember you got to watch out for those sneaky punters they are deceitful as quarterbacks.

I heard that a brand new floor is now in the gym at Northern Nash and those wooden bleachers that have  been there since the gym opened in the 60's have been removed and replace by those modern plastic one's like at Nash Central and Rocky Mount.

I have done several games on the radio or TV from that top row and a short person with a bad knee like me have many times struggled to take a step to the next seat up making my way to the top.  The past few years I have been on the stage more which is much better than navigating those old wood bleachers.  Can't wait to see the inside now.

Pinehurst Grabs Open Again

If there is one name that is hot in the world of golf the name  Pinehurst right now is head of the list.  It became official on Wednesday that Pinehurst #2 will host it's fourth men's U S Open in Twenty five years.  Along the way it was the host of the Women's Open for the first time ever last year.

Pinehurst was created  in 1895 when James Walker Tufts the man that invented the modern soda fountain bought 6,000 acres of land.  The year 1900 Tufts brought in Donald Ross who in 1907 created number 2.  Pinehurst was world famous for The North South Amateur started in 1901.

1931 Pinehurst hosted their first major championship when they hosted the PGA.  They didn't host another major championship until the 99 U S Open.  The Tufts family owned  Pinehurst Resorts until 1970.  The next few years ownership changed several times until it was purchased and called Pinehurst Resorts.  Number Two was restored before the 2014 Open to it's original state looking like the Sandhills of North Carolina.

Let's look back for a moment to last July when the Nash County Babe Ruth 14u baseball team won the Eastern State Title and played in the Southeastern Regional.  Almost exactly to the player those 14u team had won the 13u title two years ago.

Glad to see in the Rocky Mount Telegram that Rocky Mount and Nash County can celebrate once again as the 13u team won the eastern State title once again this year in Emerald Isle.  Next week the Southeast Regional begins begins in Greenville.  Love to be able to get touch will head coach Willie Langley to learn more about  this year's team.

The East broke a tie which existed after the boys and girls East Allstars won the basketball games on Monday.  The west won both soccer matches Tuesday.  Wednesday night the East broke a 6-6 half time score and dominated the second half to beat West 27-13.  Fike's Anthony Evans and Aramha Martin from Southern Nash were the Big East reps on the team.  New Nash Central  football coach Chris Lee. Was on the winning sidelines as assistant coach.

Mystery Solved

Finally the word is out and both Wilson and Garner American Legion teams chose to flip a coin to decide who would represent the Area One as the number one team and number two.  The coin falls Garners way which only means that they get a seeding  as number one from Area one.  What this does for Wilson Post  13 is they will play the host team Rowan County Friday night at 7pm in Salisbury.  Rowan County historically in both  high school and Legion are strong and love their baseball.

Monday night was basketball night during the entertainment portion of the North Carolina coaches convention in Greensboro.  The East won both games.  The boys game the Allstars combined for the highest scoring game in all star history. The East 122 The West 115.  Josh Willingham from Hunt the only local player in the area playing scored four points.  The girls action The East won 84-72.  There was no local player from our area playing.

Tuesday night was soccer night and in the girls game  the West scored twice after the East scored first in the second half and the West wins 2-1.  The East outshot the West 19-9.  Three players from the Big East representing two from Fike and one from Hunt played for the East.

The West made it a sweep on Tuesday as the boys won 4-0 over over the East.  Northern Nash Tristan Marshall was the only local player to take part in the boys soccer.

Info on Holly's Fryar Memorials:  There will be a Memorial visitation  Friday  night from 6-8 pm at  Wheeler and Woodlief  Funeral Home  in Rocky Mount.  Saturday morning there will be a Memorial  service for Holly at 11am at the First United Methodist Church in Rocky Mount.

The family ask in lieu of flowers that a Memorial be made to the UNC Linberger Cancer Center  in the name of The Holly Project 450 West Drive Chapel Hill NC 27514