Category Archives: Sports news

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Even chumps have the right to speak out

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Colin Kaepernick is a bozo. A chump.

He’s become a poster boy of sorts for all kinds of issues stemming from his decision to remain seated during the playing of the National Anthem before a pro football exhibition game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Green Bay Packers.

Kaepernick, a quarterback for the 49ers, said he can’t stand in support of a flag that represents a country that oppresses “people of color.” Kaepernick is half black and half white.

Hmm. OK. I wasn’t aware of Kaepernick’s social conscience. I don’t recall him ever speaking out before. But I guess one has to start somewhere. Thus, Kaepernick chose to make this profound political statement in this highly visible fashion.

I just want to make one comparison with Kaepernick’s demonstration. He reminds me of the flag burners, the goofballs who think burning Old Glory in public to protest this or that cause is going to win them support.

It won’t. It hardly ever does.

However, it’s protected “speech.” The U.S. Constitution allows Americans to make such statements against government policy. Kaepernick chose to mount his grievance with a lousy demonstration of defiance.

He’s not going to win many converts to his cause any more than the flag burners manage to make friends and allies when they do the things they do to protest government policy.

The Constitution, though, gives even chumps like Colin Kaepernick the right to speak out as he has done.

I honor and cherish that right, even if I detest the way some of us exercise it.

Sports news

Pro QB sits during National Anthem; a big deal? Yes, but …

the New York Giants the San Francisco 49ers at Candlestick Park on October 14, 2012 in San Francisco, California. The Giants won 26-3. (Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images)

I’ve been stewing for a couple of days over the news of Colin Kaepernick’s decision to sit during the playing of the National Anthem prior to the start of a pro football exhibition game.

Kapernick has been reviled, vilified and called everything but a traitor for refusing to stand.

I am not going to go that far.

I wish the San Francisco 49ers quarterback had stood and paid proper respect to the flag and to the nation where he has earned a handsome living playing a kids’ game. He said he sat because he couldn’t support a nation that oppresses “people of color.”

He could have written an essay for newspapers, he could have tweeted his displeasure with American policy toward “people of color,” he could posted something on Facebook.

But no-o-o-o. He wanted to make a spectacle of himself in a stadium in front of tens of thousands of spectators.

Kaepernick obviously wasn’t talking about himself, as he’s hardly been oppressed, except perhaps by his coaches who cannot decide whether he should be the starting quarterback.

Critics have noted that in many other countries around the world, Kaepernick would have been arrested and jailed for failing to stand while the band played a national anthem.

Let’s understand this: Kaepernick is an American citizen. He refused to stand in this country, which has no law requiring Americans to get off their duffs — if they are able — while we play the “Star-Spangled Banner.”

So, he made a political statement. He’s not the first one to do so. He won’t be the last.

Sure, he’ll likely pay a price down the line. My hunch is that sports apparel shops won’t be selling many 49ers jerseys with Kaepernick’s name and No. 7 from this day forward.

The fact remains, though, that our nation’s belief in free speech and political expression gives all of us — even well-known pro athletes — the right to make fools of themselves.

local news, Sports news

Here’s why minor-league baseball is good for Amarillo

baseball

I’ve spoken already about my hope that Amarillo can reel in a baseball franchise that would play ball in a new downtown ballpark.

What I want to explore briefly here today is why the potential new franchise is so much more desirable than what the city has at this moment, which is a “franchise” in name only.

The current baseball team calls itself the Texas AirHogs. It is an “independent” team that splits its home schedule between Amarillo and Grand Prairie.

When these guys play their Amarillo half of their “home” schedule, they suit up and perform at the Potter County Memorial Stadium, which in reality is a dump.

I’m not sure what next season will bring us. The AirHogs might go somewhere else next year. They might devote their full home schedule to Amarillo. Or, they might decide to stay full-time in Grand Prairie.

The push now is on to lure a Double A franchise from San Antonio. The Missions are affiliated with the San Diego Padres of the National League. The Padres appear to be a well-run major-league franchise. They produced a Hall of Fame outfielder, the late Tony Gwynn. Indeed, Gwynn finished the 1981 season in Amarillo, hitting .462, which was a precursor to the brilliant career he forged with the Padres.

Amarillo is no longer a one-horse burg known only for Cadillac Ranch and the gigantic steak. We’re on the cusp of passing the 200,000-population barrier; we might already have passed it, for all I know. We are blessed with a healthy local economy and an increasingly diversified work force.

The city has committed to building a downtown ballpark. It cost is about $50 million. Demolition and construction will begin perhaps later this year. The city is now negotiating with the sports group that owns the Missions to bring that franchise to the Top of Texas.

My hope is that the city can sell itself to the Missions, persuade them to come here, rather than go somewhere else. My expectation doesn’t yet match my hope, but the gap between them is narrowing.

The Amarillo City Council has done a good job of jerking my emotions around. The council occasionally says the right things to assuage my concerns about the direction the city might be going. Then some council members blurt out intemperate remarks that get people’s attention — for the wrong reasons.

An affiliated minor-league baseball franchise would be wonderful for Amarillo. That it would play baseball in a new venue downtown would produce a fine return on the investment being made in that venue.

Again, this only is a hope, but I think it’s a reasonable one: The crowds attending baseball games downtown could bring plenty of what we could call “recreational revenue” to many of the businesses that would be clustered in the downtown district.

I will presume the city is negotiating with the group that owns the Missions is bargaining in good faith. If it comes to pass, as one council member has suggested will happen soon, then the city will reap the benefit.

How do I know that? It’s happened thousands of times already in many American cities. It surely can happen here.

I believe it will.

local news, Sports news

Is an Amarillo baseball deal at hand?

ballpark

“Amarillo Councilman Randy Burkett said he expects his city’s leaders will sign an agreement with Elmore Sports Group in late September or early October.”

— From an Amarillo Globe-News Facebook post

What prompts Councilman Burkett to make such a bold prediction? Lubbock missed a deadline to put a proposed tax increase on the November ballot that would pay for construction of a new baseball stadium.

Lubbock’s late entry into the baseball franchise hunt appeared for a moment to hinder Amarillo’s own quest.

Thus, the deck now appears cleared for Amarillo to negotiate aggressively to bring the Double A minor-league baseball franchise to the High Plains. The franchise currently does business as the San Antonio Missions.

The Missions are planning to vacate the Alamo City, which is angling to bring in a Triple A franchise.

I am not privy to the goings-on at City Hall. I just sit out here in the peanut gallery hoping for the best.

And “the best” appears, if Burkett is correct, to be taking shape.

Amarillo is set to begin making room for its downtown ballpark. Crews will begin demolition of the old Coca-Cola distribution building across the street from City Hall. Once the lot is swept clean, then the plan is to build the multipurpose event venue that voters endorsed with their November 2015 referendum vote.

So, if an agreement is about a month away, then the franchise that now plays hard ball in San Antonio will bring its act to Amarillo — hopefully soon.

Then the city can have a legitimate minor-league baseball franchise to root for in a shiny new ballpark. It would be a significant improvement over the half-in, half-out bunch that splits “home” games between Amarillo and Grand Prairie and plays half of its “home” schedule at a rat hole ball park at the Tri-State Fairgrounds.

Amarillo can do better than that.

Sports news

Let’s run two of them!

This video shows Sir Roger Bannister breaking the 4-minute mile barrier.

It occurred in 1955 and after he finished the race, Sir Roger all but collapsed from exhaustion into the arms of his handlers and admirers.

I wanted to show this because I just watched the end of the marathon race at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics. Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya won the event in 2 hours and 8 minutes.

He just ran 26 miles, 385 yards!

So help me, he looked like he could have kept going another 26-plus miles!

Am I the only one who is utterly amazed at the stamina of these marathoners?

 

local news, Sports news, State news

Love for football requires some understanding

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We learned something quintessentially Texan when we moved to Texas back in the spring of 1984.

It is that high school football matters — a lot! — to communities all across our vast state. Whether it’s along the Gulf Coast or throughout the Piney Woods of East Texas, or in West Texas, communities rally around their high school football team. Non-football activity virtually stops on Friday nights in the fall in places like Orange, Silsbee, Lufkin, Canadian or Pampa. It all takes place under the lights in high school stadiums all over the state.

We’ve come to understand the importance of football in Texas.

It’s with that backdrop that I found the story this morning about the new football stadium to be built in McKinney, a suburban community just a bit north of Dallas.

They’re going to spend $69.9 million for a 12,000-seat stadium. Construction starts next month and it will be open for business next year. McKinney residents got a bit of a jolt when school officials reported that increasing concrete costs drove the price of the stadium past its original price of $62.8 million.

The fascinating element, of course, is that the money was approved by voters, who approved a bond issue to build a facility that a lot of Division II colleges would love to have.

I’ve got a bit of a personal interest in this issue as well. They built an 18,000-seater in Allen, just south of McKinney a few years back. My grandson graduated from Allen High School this past year. The place is gorgeous and it, too, came via a successful bond issue election. Of course the Allen High project had its ups and downs. One of the “ups” is that the Allen Eagles have been perennial state champions in Class 6A and they fill the place when the Eagles are at home. The “down” was a big one: The stadium was closed for two seasons when they found stress fractures in the concrete that needed immediate repair.

Now is this something I could support with my vote if I was given a chance? I do not know.

The four public high schools in the Amarillo Independent School District share playing time at Dick Bivins Stadium. It’s a nice venue, too. Indeed, it beats the dickens out of the crummy little “stadium” where my high school played football back in Portland, Ore., in the old days.

I guess you just learn to accept the realities of where you live.

Football is a big deal in Texas. My sons didn’t play football when they were growing up and coming of age in Beaumont. Therefore, I generally didn’t have much vested interest in how their high school team played on Friday nights.

These days I no longer question the decisions that residents of certain Texas communities make regarding whether to build these seriously well-appointed sports venues.

If that’s what they want for their community, it’s their money to spend however they see fit.

There was a time when I’d suffer big-time sticker shock. I’ve gotten over it.

I mean, this is Texas, man!

http://beta.dallasnews.com/news/mckinney/2016/08/19/mckinney-isd-stadium-price-hike-shocks-officials-trustees

 

Sports news

Lochte set to soil a sparkling record

US swimmer Ryan Lochte holds a press conference on August 3, 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, two days ahead of the opening ceremony of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. / AFP / Martin BUREAU (Photo credit should read MARTIN BUREAU/AFP/Getty Images)

Ryan Lochte must not have been content to just be known as one of the world’s greatest swimmers of his era.

Oh, no. He allegedly sought to add something like this to an obituary that will be written about him … eventually:

“Ryan Lochte, a multiple gold-medal-winning Olympic swimmer, who got caught up in a controversy after competing in the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro … “

That’s how it will be written, or in words to that effect.

Lochte and three of his swimming teammates reported to police that they were robbed at gunpoint. It appears to have been a bogus story.

Now the once-glorious American athlete has been indicted by Brazilian authorities for filing a false police report and faces possible extradition back to Brazil to face the consequences of his actions.

The new story that’s developing suggests that the swimmers were returning from an all-night bender in Rio, stopped in a gas station to relieve themselves and started trashing the place.

Now that one of his reputations — his athletic skill — has been all but obliterated, another one is getting traction: he’s an overgrown frat boy. He’s been known to have acted badly in public before.

One Brazilian Olympic official reportedly sought to excuse the swimmers’ behavior by saying “that’s what boys do.”

Boys? Lochte is a 32-year-old allegedly grown man.

This story is beginning to sicken me.

Sports news

Lochte: from champ to chump?

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Jan 16, 2016; Austin, TX, USA; Ryan Lochte before competing in the men's 400 meter IM final during the 2016 Arena Pro Swim Series at Lee & Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center. Mandatory Credit: Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports

Say it ain’t so, Ryan Lochte.

The U.S. Olympic swimmer — a multiple gold-medal winner over several Olympics — appears to have been caught perpetrating a scam on the Brazilian police officials.

He and three American swimming teammates have been accused of fabricating a story in which they contended they were robbed at gunpoint.

The Rio de Janeiro cops bought the story initially. Then they had second thoughts. The Brazilians nabbed two of Lochte’s chums at their airport. Meanwhile, Lochte — the biggest name by far caught up in this matter — had made his escape back to the United States.

The allegation now is that video apparently shows the U.S. swimmers vandalizing the restroom of the business where they had said they were robbed. The robbery story, meanwhile, never added up to the cops’ satisfaction.

Lochte’s previous renown had come by virtue of his competing for the United States in swimming pools around the world. He and a guy named Michael Phelps — perhaps you’ve heard of him — had become great rivals and friends over many years.

Lochte was one of the best swimmers in the world. He still is, actually.

What might he be known for now? What could be his lasting legacy?

It appears it’s going to be this made-up robbery and the bizarre circumstances that are still developing.

Brazilian authorities are pursuing extradition proceedings to bring Lochte back to face justice.

Man, this makes me sad.

local news, Sports news

Amarillo’s baseball quest has gotten complicated

baseball

I thought for an instant — that’s all it was — that I was hallucinating.

The headline on the front page of the Amarillo Globe-News said something about Lubbock making a bid to land a Double A baseball team: the San Antonio Missions.

They did pull plans to build a stadium, but then they might dangle some other incentives and seek to lure the team from the Alamo City to the Hub City.

Hold it!

Isn’t that the goal of the Amarillo City Council, too? Are we now competing head to head with our major municipal rival for the same prize?

I don’t know the particulars of the Lubbock initiative and I know only some of what Amarillo has up its governmental sleeve as it seeks to land the baseball franchise.

Here’s what I do fear, though. I fear that Amarillo’s recent spate of in-fighting, back-biting, name-calling and otherwise  uncivil behavior among members of its City Council might not play well in the Missions’ board room as it ponders where to relocate its baseball franchise.

It’s not as though San Antonio — the second-largest city in Texas — is going to lose anything. The plan there is to bring in a Triple A franchise to replace the Double A team that’s departing.

I’m not going to get into which city is the West Texas top dog. Lubbock has more residents than we do. It does have a Division I public university. Amarillo has its charms, too. We’ve got more scenic splendor nearby with Caprock Canyons and Palo Duro Canyon state parks. And, hey, we’ve got Cadillac Ranch, too!

We also have had our share of recent tumult at the center of our municipal government.

We’re going to start clearing the land to make room for that multipurpose event venue. The MPEV is slated to be home for a lot of activities, anchored — it is hoped — by a baseball franchise.

I won’t predict how this will turn out. The Lubbock entry into the baseball sweepstakes, though, does complicate matters.

Do you think it’s time Amarillo starts pulling together?

As a friend of mine noted in a message to me this morning, “Amarillo’s council members should now be incentivized to forget pettiness and unite to get the Missions to Amarillo, because the longer it drags out, the greater the chances other suitors will emerge.”

Intgernational news, national news, political news, Sports news

Olympics provide welcome relief

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Michael Phelps is such a refreshing respite from the vitriol and trash talk of Drumpf  …

Right there, I believe, lies the key to why the Rio de Janeiro Olympics have me so damn spell-bound.

It comes from a friend of mine’s social media post. You go, Jim!

It’s not just Michael Phelps’s quest for more Olympic swimming history, as if he hasn’t made enough of it already while splashing through the water for the United States of America.

And it’s not just Donald J. Trump’s trash talk that’s infuriated me as I watch this miserable presidential campaign unfold … although I admit that the GOP nominee has played the major role in that element of disgust.

Watching these young people compete has been quite joyful for me.

I didn’t expect it.

I instead expected most of the TV coverage to center on the dirty water, the Zika-virus-bearing bugs flying around Rio, the corruption of the Brazilian government and the crime that plagues one of the world’s great cities.

We keep hearing these great stories about Phelps conquering demons, about our U.S. female gymnasts living up to their huge hype and winning all that gold, about friendly rivalries that span the globe.

OK, so not all of it has been warm and fuzzy.

We’ve had the smack-down between a U.S. swimmer and her Russian rival over doping and the controversy associated with the entire Russian team’s participation in the Games; we’ve heard some criticism of one of our gymnasts for failing to put her hand over heart while the National Anthem was played during the medal ceremony; there’s been this and that on the sidelines seeking to distract us from the athletic competition.

It’s all diversionary material.

The presidential campaign awaits us after Labor Day.

Donald Trump will keep talking trash. Hillary Rodham Clinton will respond with her own brand of smack. Our disgust will mount. I am not looking forward to the final days of this campaign, as I’m sure they will bring out the worst in the candidates — not to mention the worst in voters who will work themselves into an all-out lather over what the “other” party’s candidate is saying.

I’m going to focus my attention for the next week on Rio.

The rest of it will be waiting when the Olympic flame goes out.