Category Archives: Sports news

local news, Sports news

‘Home-field advantage’?

OK, kids, we now know the first two games of the 2023 Major League Baseball World Series will occur at Globe-Life Field in Arlington, giving the Texas Rangers “home-field advantage” in the best-of-seven series.

But … wait. Is that “advantage” worth having?

The Rangers and the Houston Astros played their guts out in the American League Championship Series. The “away” team won every game. The Rangers won their four games against the ‘Stros in Houston.

So, this year, allow me to declare that the “home-field advantage” that the Rangers have might not matter … unless of course they can peel away one win on their home field.

local news, Sports news, State news

From ‘zero’ to ‘hero’

Let’s see now. At the end of the 2022 Major League Baseball season, Dallas/Fort Worth baseball fans were wondering if the Texas Rangers had lost their ability to compete at the big-league level.

The Rangers stunk. The were a laughingstock. They reminded longtime fans of some of the worst teams in American League history. Then came the offseason. They hired a new manager, Bruce Bochy, who brought in some new coaches. They went to work to rebuild the team.

Have they succeeded? Yeah. They have.

The Rangers so far — if you’ll pardon the baseball pun — are pitching a shutout in the 2023 playoffs. They went to Tampa to sweep the Rays. Then they went to Baltimore and took the first two from the Orioles and sent the Birds packing with a third victory at home.

Now the Rangers are playing the Houston Astros in the American League Championship series and have defeated the ‘Stros in the first two games. They have to win two more to advance to the World Series. Let’s see … that’s 7-0 so far in this playoff extravaganza.

Not a bad turnaround.

Sports news

‘Transfers’ dominating college football

Well … I got through another college football Saturday with a smile on my mug as I got to watch my Oregon Ducks deliver a beat down to the Colorado Buffaloes on national TV.

But … I am troubled by the trend that has developed in college football. It’s the “transfer portal” that, to my mind, has resulted in a form of intercollegiate free agency among these student-athletes.

Football players frequently “transfer” their eligibility from one school to another. It allows them some additional college football playing time, which presumably could enhance their financial windfall come draft day in the National Football League.

The old-school fuddy duddy in me isn’t entirely sold on the transfer portal. Watching the Ducks-Buffs game Saturday filled my ears with lots of commentary on all the transfers playing for both Oregon and Colorado. Indeed, the Ducks’ quarterback, Bo Nix, is a kid who transferred from Auburn to play for Oregon. Head U of O coach Dan Lanning calls Nix ‘an elite quarterback” who, after the Saturday blowout of Colorado, has become a Heisman Trophy candidate.

But my point is that the transfer portal vehicle creates a sort of traveling road show quality to all these athletes moving from one university to another to burnish their marketability with the pro franchises. It’s not unlike what has happened over the course of 50 years to Major League Baseball, where athletes shop themselves around the league when their contract expires with the team for which they have played.

It’s difficult these days to attach any loyalty to players who come to a major league franchise, and then leave after three or four seasons. Which is why I always enjoy seeing players inducted into the MLB Hall of Fame who played their entire career with a single team.

Now it’s intercollegiate tackle football that’s been bitten by this transfer portal bug.

Finally, I will stipulate that my devotion to my home state Ducks won’t diminish over the transfer notion. I hope Bo Nix wins the Heisman … but I would enjoy it even more had he played the whole time for Oregon.

Sports news

Bye, bye … Pac 12

My old-fashioned sports sensibilities are being dealt a body blow by none other than the football conference I’ve been following since I was a kid growing up on the West Coast.

I heard last night that the universities of Oregon and Washington are jumping from the Pac 12 to — get ready for it — the Big fu**ing 10! They join USC and UCLA, which already have made the leap. Which schools stay in what’s left of the Pa 12? Oregon State, Washington State, Cal and Stanford. Colorado, Utah, Arizona and Arizona State all have leaped into the arms of other athletic conference suitors.

The conference that will welcome those two former Pac 12 football powers now will become the Big 18, or some such ungodly number.

I am a Ducks fan. I didn’t attend the school in Eugene, but I have followed the Oregon Ducks since I was a boy.

Now, why is this such a big deal to this traditionalist college football fan? Because the Rose Bowl — the so-called Granddaddy of Bowl Games — is played every New Year’s Day in Pasadena, Calif. And it used to feature the winner of the Pac 12 vs. the winner of the Big 10. Therefore, the Big 10 becomes the hated conference of the enemy.

The NCAA has managed to make a mess out of traditional football rivalries already. They allowed Texas A&M to join the SEC, removing the annual Texas-Texas A&M football rivalry game — played on Thanksgiving — from the schedule. That will change because Texas is now set to join the SEC, which will enable the Longhorns to hook up once again with the Aggies.

West Coast college football fans used to revel in the Rose Bowl game. In recent years, the Ducks have enjoyed modest success in the big game, beating Wisconsin twice, losing to Ohio State and Penn State once each. The NCAA has placed the Rose Bowl among the games to determine the college football championship and in 2015, the Ducks pummeled Florida State (from the ACC) en route to the NCAA championship game, which they lost to Ohio State.

The Pac 12 as we West Coast natives have known it soon will not exist. The four schools remaining will seek to join other athletic conferences.

It’s all about the money, man, and it is ruining what I formerly thought was a sport so steeped in tradition that it couldn’t be sullied by the great American dollar.

Silly me.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Sports news

Up close with The Greatest

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Anyone who knows me well — family members and my closest friends — understands that Muhammad Ali is my all-time favorite professional athlete.

Well, gang, today I walked into the Muhammad Ali Museum and Center to pay my respects to The Greatest.

It is, to say the very least, a stunning display on Main Street in downtown Louisville that honors the three-time heavyweight boxing champion. Moreover, it speaks in great detail to the social consciousness he exhibited by refusing induction into the Army in 1967 and for the sacrifice he endured when the pro boxing authorities deprived him of his ability — at the peak of his physical prowess — to make a living by beating up other men.

The Champ was The Greatest. I need no convincing of that. The chatter we hear from time to time about whether Ali would defeat, say, Mike Tyson or Lennox Lewis — two of The Champ’s boxing descendants — is just mindless chatter.

In my humble view, and I am no expert, a prime-time Muhammad Ali would make mincemeat of those two fine athletes. But that’s just me.

The exhibit does explain that Ali was a flawed man. He was a womanizer who treated his wives terribly. It speaks as well to the rhetoric he spouted by declaring that all white people were “devils.” I long have found that “devil” nonsense to be just that. The Champ’s boxing team comprised the likes of Angelo Dundee, Ferdie Pacheco and other white dudes who guided him to the pinnacle of his sport.

As for the Parkinson’s disease that turned this monumental chatter box into a silent statue of a man, one exhibit speaks to whether the brutal sport that Ali practiced contributed to his illness. It says “no!” A physician who examined Ali says the disease would have taken The Champ down without the punishment he endured while fighting. Yes, I know that’s a debatable point. I just won’t engage in that discussion.

The museum is a marvelous tribute to this city’s most notable son, a man who went on to become what many have argued “the most famous person on this Earth.” 

I am so glad I took time to visit this fantastic exhibit to The Greatest of All Time.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Sports news

‘No’ on review of calls

I will admit to being a professional sports fuddy-duddy, given all the technology being introduced to manage the conduct of various games.

Allow me this brief rejoinder to one of those elements: instant replay.

I attended a big-league baseball game Friday night in Arlington, Texas, where my friend and I watched the Texas Rangers blow out the Cleveland Guardians. What’s more, they did it without a lick of help from the umpires.

The Rangers filed one challenge to a play at the plate. A runner was called “out!” … and he was out, by a mile. The review of the video proved the call was the correct one.

Which brings me to my point. We should let the umpires do their job. They have to make decisions in a split second. You know what? They get it right about, oh, 99% of the time. It never ceases to amaze me how the momentum of games is disrupted by the challenges allotted to managers of both teams.

Well, the game we witnessed in Arlington was left to the athletes. It cheers me to no end to see the Grand Old Game played the way it’s intended.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news, Sports news

Ump let the players play!

I feel the need to offer a brief critique of the Major League Baseball game I attended Friday night at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas.

What about it? Hardly anything to criticize about it?

I want to offer one comment, though, on the rule changes enacted this year to speed up these games. They work.

MLB has put a timer on pitchers. They have to toss a pitch within a certain amount of time. They are warned by the home-plate umpire. The home-plate ump, Mark Ripperberger, offered one warning to a pitcher. The rest of the night? He let the players play the game, which is what umps should do.

It took a little less than three hours to finish it.

There was exactly one appeal of a call, which wasn’t even close. A Texas Rangers runner was thrown out at home plate. He was out — as the saying goes — by a “country mile.” Texas Rangers manager Bruce Bochy thought he would appeal the ruling. It was upheld … and the Rangers faithful, of course, booed the decision, even though it was so very correct.

This was my first big league ballgame in nearly 60 years. It was enjoyable to the max. I got to spend some time with a good friend and former colleague; we gossiped about this and that individual we knew and with whom we worked.

Not only that … the good guys won the well-played game of hardball!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news, Sports news

It’s gone … finally!

AMARILLO, Texas — What you see here is a pile of rubble that was too long in the making, but which — I hope — will be gone in short order.

It is what is left of what they used to call Potter County Memorial Stadium, aka the Dilla Villa.

It sat on the corner of the Tri-State Fairgrounds in Amarillo. It has been knocked down and will be cleared away soon (I will presume) to make room for more functional uses on the property owned by Potter County.

The former Dilla Villa was a rathole. A dump. An eyesore.

The Dillas once were an independent baseball team that played ball in Amarillo. They were among a lengthy string of teams that once called this place a “home field.” The Dillas eventually gave way to another organization, but the management couldn’t even play all their home games in this dump. It was that unsuitable. They split their “home games” with a stadium in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

It was a sad turn of events.

Now, to be clear, you may spare me the crocodile tears about the stadium being the source of so many memories, going back deeply into the 20th century. The county simply didn’t perform upkeep on the place to keep it suitable for athletic events.

Instead, this one-time sports venue gave way to the modern park that emerged in downtown Amarillo, where the Sod Poodles play AA minor league baseball under the guidance of the National League’s Arizona Diamondbacks baseball franchise.

They recently set a home-field attendance record at Hodgetown. Fans are flocking to the still-shiny ballpark. The Soddies, moreover, are playing some good hardball downtown.

So, is the demise of the Potter County ballpark a reason for tears? Hardly. To this former Amarillo resident’s eyes, it’s reason for cheering.

Thanks for the memories, Dilla Villa, but your time has been up for a long while.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news, Sports news

MLB game on tap … woo hoo!

1 Comment

I’ve just received a marvelous invitation from a friend of mine … and I have to share it here.

In a couple of weeks I am going to see my first Major League Baseball game in nearly 60 years.

My friend called to tell me he purchased a couple of tickets for the Texas Rangers game in Arlington. We’ll meet before the game and head for the seats. The last MLB game I witnessed was in August 1964.

It occurred at Candlestick Park. The San Francisco Giants played host to the Cincinnati Reds. It featured three future Hall of Famers, two of whom played that game; the third one, Willie Mays of the Giants, sat it out.

But the two H of F’ers who did suit up delivered big time. Willie McCovey of the Giants hit a home run into the SF Bay cove that now bears his name. Frank Robinson of the Reds hit a couple of dingers out that day. The Reds won 7-1.

I want to thank my friend profusely for inviting me to this game.

I have heard plenty about the Rangers’ new ballpark. My son and I attended a Sir Paul McCartney concert in the “old” ballpark in the summer of 2019 and to be honest, I do not quite understand why they had to build a new ballpark, because the old park looked pretty nice to me.

Whatever … I’ll be like a kid again when the Rangers take the field.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news, Sports news

Cheers to this inductee

As the saying goes, what goes around comes around … or words to that effect.

It is with interest that I saw the name of Kori Cooper Clements on the list of the latest group of sports figures to be inducted into the Texas Panhandle Hall of Fame. Who is this person?

Well, she found herself in the midst of a tempest when she resigned after coaching for one year at Amarillo High School, citing interference and meddling from a school board trustee.  She accused the trustee of forcing her to quit because she — the coach — wasn’t giving the daughter of the trustee enough playing time for the Sandies.

The school board never owned up to the conduct of the trustee, who eventually resigned from the board and has moved on to — oh, I don’t know — somewhere else.

Clements was a standout volleyball player in high school and in college and surely deserves a spot in the Panhandle Sports HoF. She became coach of one of Texas’s premier high school volleyball programs.

I just had to recall the turmoil that surrounded her departure from what she described as a dream job.

Clements has ended up in the right place … for certain.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com