Category Archives: Sports news

Sports news

Coach’s firing is an attention-getter

Photo by Chris Seward/AP/REX/Shutterstock 

Under normal circumstances, I don’t usually get worked up when a college football head coach gets fired. I am not “worked up” over this one, but it did get my attention when I read about it.

Florida State University kicked head coach Willie Taggart out of his job today. The Seminoles lost to Miami this weekend. Taggart was 9-12 during his season and a half at FSU.

Why the interest in this one? Well, Taggart was head coach for all of a single season at the University of Oregon. He went to Eugene after coaching at the University of South Florida. The Ducks had collapsed after reaching the near-zenith of college football greatness. So they hired Taggart looking for a return of gridiron magic.

Taggart bailed on the Ducks. He went back “home” to Florida to coach at FSU. It didn’t work out.

I am not going to gloat over this. I am sad that Taggart couldn’t turn the corner in Tallahassee. He seems like a good man.

However, he angered his players at Oregon when he bailed on them. The fans got angry, too. I happen to one of the fans.

Oh, the good news for the Ducks? They are playing great football again under head coach Mario Cristobal, who joined the Ducks coaching staff when UO hired Taggart in 2017.

There’s a chance the Ducks could play once again for the national championship. They have to win the rest of their games and something has to happen to one or more of the top four teams in the national college football poll.

So … karma ain’t so bad after all.

Sports news

Get ready for the ridicule, Sean Doolittle

Sean Doolittle isn’t the first athlete to decline a White House invitation. Donald Trump isn’t even the first president to receive a refusal from a championship-winning athlete.

Neither of them will be the last individuals take part in such a strange tango.

However, Sean Doolittle — a relief pitcher for the Washington Nationals World Series champion baseball team — is likely in for a rough ride from the president of the United States.

Why? Because Doolittle said he cannot attend a White House ceremony presided over by Trump, a man he detests. Doolittle said he doesn’t like the way the president talks about immigrants, the poor and those who come from so-called “sh**hole countries.”

Doolittle said he and his wife adhere to the principle of kindness and have worked to help those in stricken “sh**hole” nations.

Trump, of course, has invited a lot of this kind of reaction from athletes and the teams on which they play. The Golden State Warriors stayed away from the White House after winning the NBA title a couple of years ago. Trump made quite a bit of hay over it via social media.

Will he do the same to Doolittle? What if other Nationals players decide to stay away? Will they get the social media bullying that has made the president infamous?

The Trump era as president is going to take another bizarre turn as he seeks in his usually clumsy fashion to honor some pro athletes, many of whom quite likely would rather be somewhere else than in his presence.

Sports news

Who didn’t see this coming?

I guess this had to be one of the biggest non-surprises of the 2019 World Series.

Donald Trump showed up tonight at the Washington Nationals ballpark in D.C., while the Nats were playing the Houston Astros in the fifth game of the World Series. The public address announcer told the crowd of more than 40,000 fans in the third inning that the president was among them.

The crowd reaction? They booed loudly and then began chanting “Lock him up!” in a move reminiscent of the “Lock her up!” chant heard during the 2016 presidential campaign; the former chant, of course, was aimed at Hillary Rodham Clinton and her now largely debunked e-mail controversy.

But now the president is facing, shall we say, much more serious charges of corruption and violation of his oath of office. He is likely to be impeached by the House of Representatives.

So he goes the ballpark for a little “down time” from the rigors of the impeachment inquiry and killing of the Islamic State guru in Syria.

He got the greeting he deserved and quite likely expected to receive from the Nationals crowd.

Is he disheartened by it? Hardly. That would require a conscience on the part of the president.

Sports news

Trump might get to add some drama to World Series … do ya think?

Well now. There will be a Game 5 in the 2019 World Series, thanks to the Houston Astros winning the third game Friday night in Washington, D.C., against the Nationals

Do you know what that means? It means that Donald J. Trump will get to attend Game 5 as he had already announced he would do.

He won’t take the mound to toss out the first pitch, a la President George W. Bush, who in 2001 famously fired a strike at Yankee Stadium. Nor will he toss the pitch from the stands, as many presidents have done dating back nearly to the founding of the Grand Old Game.

It is reported he will arrive after the game starts and will leave before the final out; the president’s intent is to avoid too much disruption for the security.

I am left to wonder, which I’ll do right here: Will the public address announcer reveal the president’s attendance at the game? If that occurs, what then do you suppose will be the fans’ reaction to hearing that Donald Trump is among them?

It is well-known how divided this country has been for years preceding the presidency of Donald Trump, whose rhetoric only has widened that divide.

We might have gotten a hint of that divide when Washington Nationals owner Mark Lerner has said that the president “has every right” to attend a World Series game.

Doesn’t that go, um, without saying?

local news, Sports news

Bring on the Texas League all-stars!

Success brings many things to a city and an athletic franchise that carries the city’s name. For example, it brings added recognition in the form of what is going to happen to Amarillo next June.

The Texas League is going to stage its annual all-star game at Hodgetown, Amarillo’s shiny new home for the Amarillo Sod Poodles, the team that won the Texas League championship in its first year of existence.

This is big deal, folks!

Amarillo already has embarked on a massive downtown rehabilitation program that along the way has brought us that brand new ballpark called Hodgetown, named in honor former Mayor Jerry Hodge and his wife, Margaret.

Now the best of the Texas League’s AA baseball talent is coming to the city to show off its collective skill in front a sold-out crowd of Sod Poodles fans, who by the time the all-star game rolls around will have continued to celebrate the team’s league title.

The Convention and Visitors Council has been handed a huge marketing and promotional opportunity that I trust it will not squander as the city prepares for the June 23 contest.

What might that opportunity produce? Oh, let’s see. Maybe it will enable the city to showcase the added downtown amenities it is able to offer visitors from around the league. My best guess is that the city should — and hopefully will — ensure that it cleans up thoroughly in advance of the visitors’ arrival. They have some first-class lodging just across the street from Hodgetown. The influx of visitors will pump sales tax revenue into the city coffers as well.

As for the game itself, well, no one can predict how it will turn out. No one can know in advance whether it’ll be a thriller or a blowout. Indeed, all-star games by their very nature occasionally produce performances in which the athletes do not go all out … despite at least one notable exception. That would be Pete Rose’s collision with catcher Ray Fosse in the 1970 Major League Baseball all-star game that effectively ruined Fosse’s career.

Aww, but what the heck. The Texas League all-stars are going to Amarillo. They’ll throw out the first pitch on June 23. The fans will be jammed into the stands. They will have a great time and the city will reap the reward.

As Sod Poodles general manager Tony Ensor said, the game will be a “celebration for the entire West Texas community.”

Play ball!

local news, Sports news

Expect the Sod Poodles’ fan base to hold up during off season

Teams that take cities by storm, which is what happened with the Amarillo Sod Poodles’ minor-league baseball franchise, can be expected to develop a loyal fan base during the season of play.

Now the season is over. The Sod Poodles won the Texas League pennant with a thrilling come-from-behind victory over the league’s defending champs. The team dispersed; the players, manager, coaches and team staffers all went home.

The fans who flocked to Hodgetown by the thousands for every home game have remained in Amarillo and the Texas Panhandle. My hunch is that they’re still feeling all warm and fuzzy over the championship their team won in their first season in existence.

I get the sense, seeing some of the fans’ social media posts, that they’re going to remain ardent supporters of the team as they await the start of the 2020 Texas League season.

They’re talking about meeting on occasion at a local eatery in southwest Amarillo. The Home Plate Diner — where I had a meal or three during my years in Amarillo — serves meals in an establishment with a baseball theme. There happens to be a fantastic portrait of Mickey Mantle on the wall … but I digress. The restaurant management plans to cater to the Sod Poodles fans who gather to talk about this or that about the season just passed and the future seasons that await them.

I am thrilled at the response the community delivered to the Sod Poodles. I am impressed with the venue built on Buchanan Street in downtown Amarillo. I am delighted at the new life being breathed into the city’s downtown district largely as a result of the enthusiasm generated by the baseball team.

Season No. 1 has come to a highly successful conclusion. We cannot know what Season No. 2 will bring, whether there’s a repeat in store or whether the team will rebuild as the Soddies’ parent club, the National League San Diego Padres, looks to place AA athletes with AAA ballclubs … or even with the major league club.

I get the sense the offseason enthusiasm will hold up. I mean, social media do have a way of helping keep the embers hot. The Sod Poodles’ fans are using social to something that looks to be close to maximum advantage.

Sports news

Runner clears marathon hurdle … but wait!

When I first saw the headline about a runner becoming the first human being in history to run a marathon in fewer than two hours, I was delighted, thrilled, amazed.

Oh, but then I saw some of the details of it.

Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya didn’t do it in a race. He didn’t run 26.2 miles against other runners. Oh, no. It was a controlled setting, complete with what I understand were “pacemakers,” who ran with him to keep him running on the record-setting pace.

Kipchoge compared his feat with Roger Bannister running the first sub-four-minute mile in 1954. Ha! There can be no comparison. Bannister did it in competition. He ran the mile in record fashion, then all but collapsed in the arms of the people waiting for him at the finish line; these days, runners finish such a race in well less than four minutes and look as though they’re ready to go another mile.

Kipchoge’s “record” won’t be entered into the books. It wasn’t sanctioned by the sport’s governing body for reasons I have sought to explain.

Hey, I don’t mean to disparage what this guy did. I cannot even think about running for more than 26 miles, let alone doing so in the fashion that Eliud Kipchoge accomplished the feat.

It’s just that it was a set-up in a fashion intended to produce a record-setting run.

It kind of reminds me of the time Billie Jean King defeated Bobby Riggs in that 1973 “tennis match,” which at the time was hailed as the first time a woman defeated a man on a tennis court. Good grief!

King was at the top of her game. Riggs was a washed up old man. It wasn’t a fair fight.

So it is with this “record” run. If someone does it while competing against other runners, then I’ll get excited.

local news, Sports news

Mount Vernon HS grid coach brings trouble … who knew?

A part of me isn’t terribly surprised by the story that developed over yonder at Mount Vernon High School. Then again, is it fair to lay the responsibility of this tempest at the feet of the newly hired football coach? Oh, probably not.

But still …

Two Mount Vernon High School football players have been ruled ineligible to play. The school won’t suffer any forfeiture of games after playing these student-athletes during the team’s first five games of this football season. The University Interscholastic League had considered the forfeiture on the basis of the players enrolling at Mount Vernon simply to play football; the UIL thought differently. It won’t take away the first five wins from Mount Vernon, but the players remain ineligible.

Here, though, is where it gets weird. The new Mount Vernon HS head coach is Art Briles, the former head coach at Baylor University. Briles was fired in the wake of a sex scandal that occurred in Waco involving student-athletes who played for Briles. A law firm hired by Baylor determined that Briles should have acted to prevent the sexual assaults that were occurring, but didn’t.

The scandal also cost the athletic director his job as well as that of the president of the school, Kenneth Starr. Briles was shown the door. He coached football abroad for a couple of years before he got the call to coach Mount Vernon High School.

So, now he’s back in the game (so to speak) in this country. Granted, the eligibility issue concerning the two young men who were deemed ineligible has not a thing to do with the nature of the scandal that erupted at Baylor University.

It just seems to me that trouble seems to follow Art Briles.

Or … maybe it’s just a coincidence.

Strange, man.

local news, Sports news

Why comment on Amarillo matters? Here’s why

I got an interesting response to a comment I published on this blog about Hodgetown, the ballpark where the Amarillo Sod Poodles play baseball.

It goes like this: ” … how can someone who hasn’t even been to a game or live in Amarillo anymore comment on what benefit it will have for the city?”

Hey, it’s a fair question. I’ll answer it.

I lived in Amarillo for 23 years. I am about to turn 70 years of age. I have worked full time as a journalist in three communities: one in Oregon and two in Texas. Of the three cities where I have lived and worked, I spent most of my time in Amarillo.

I had a home built from the ground up in Amarillo. My wife and I sank our roots deeply into the Caprock during my time there. We still have plenty of friends who live there, along with one of our sons.

I have a keen interest in Amarillo and its development. Yes, it is true that I now live in Collin County, but I believe I retain some institutional knowledge of the city I have departed.

My view of Hodgetown, the Sod Poodles’ home field, is that the ballpark will become a community icon over time. Fans will continue to flock to the ballpark to watch the Sod Poodles. Indeed, I also believe Panhandle residents will be more than happy to attend other community events that will occur inside the walls of the $40 million structure.

My support for the ballpark has been unwavering. I admit to having a doubt or two about the baseball team actually coming to Amarillo, given the turmoil that roiled the City Council for a time after the 2015 municipal election. The team, though, made the move from San Antonio.

Will I keep commenting on the Sod Poodles and on matter relating to Amarillo’s progress? Damn right I will.

My affection for Amarillo runs too deeply for me to turn my back on the city I called home for all those years.

local news, Sports news

Get ready for huge celebration at start of next baseball season

OK, so there won’t be an Amarillo-wide party for the city’s championship baseball team, the Sod Poodles.

The Sod Poodles won the Texas League Class AA championship over the Tulsa Drillers. They came from behind to win the fifth and final game of the championship series in the Sod Poodles first season in existence.

The city’s baseball fans went nuts. The city, though, chose not to stage a party.

Fine. I get it. I won’t belabor that point any longer.

Here is what ought to happen at the start of the 2020 Texas League season. The Sod Poodles need to stage a huge rally at Hodgetown at the start of the season home opener.

Present the championship trophy to the team that will take the field. Bring back as many of the players who won the championship for the Sod Poodles as you can get. Let the fans shower them with love, applause and plenty of cheers.

It remains a wide open question about the team that takes the field for the Sod Poodles next season. The San Diego Padres, the National League team affiliated with the Sod Poodles, likely will promote many of the championship-winning players to AAA baseball or, what the heck, maybe even to the Big League club.

Still, bring them back to Amarillo to soak up the love of the city’s baseball fans.

I won’t say any more about this until next season approaches.

The Elmore Group, the team owners, along with the City Council, the Convention and Visitors Council, the mayor’s office, the city manager’s office … all of ’em have time to plan a big-time blowout.

Get busy, folks.