high_school_sports

Cito Gaston, I thought you were lost.

When news broke Friday that the Toronto Blue Jays had fired mean, old John Gibbons and hired (just plain old) Cito Gaston, a big, big smile flashed across my face. Meanwhile, my brain ran through files. Cito Gaston? The Cito Gaston? Mastermind of those early 90s Jays teams that rocked MLB? Manager of Joe Carter, Dave Stieb, Kelly Gruber and the mighty Pat Borders? Yep, it turns out, that one.

It was good to hear Gaston’s name once again. And it was a kind twist of fate that the Jays returned him to the MLB-world he should have never been forced to leave.

Glad to have you back, Mr. Gaston.

Now if we could only find a way to get John Olerud back in the lineup.

Posted by Brian T. Smith
High School Sports Baseball

Baseball (and softball, too) are the worst prep tournament sports by far, mainly because most Virginia High School League tournaments use a single-elimination format which poorly suits the sport’s premium on consistency.
Yet there is a certain amount of magic to be found in a team that makes a postseason tournament run and advances farther than anyone predicts.
Such is the case for Abingdon’s baseball team, which will try to reach the Group AA semifinals in about two hours tonight against Region III runnerup Waynesboro.
While the Falcons finished the regular season strong and earned the No. 2 seed for the Southwest District Tournament, there were no great expectations for this team, not even after they nearly upset then-unbeaten Richlands in the SWD tourney finals.
But that game, which was decided on a rare error by senior shortstop Justin Malone, who has just two boots in 26 games, clearly showed Abingdon’s improvement. Richlands walloped the Falcons 10-1 and 9-2 in previous matchups.
Still, the Falcons’ Region IV chances looked slim at best ... until Blacksburg opened up a Tunstall-sized hole in Abingdon’s half of the bracket by ending the Trojans’ 58-game home winning streak in the regional quarterfinals.
That not only gave the Falcons a better matchup in the semifinals, but also rid them of having to play on the opponents’ home field, since Tunstall was scheduled to host the semis and finals. Given a level playing field and a lesser (though still capable) opponent, Abingdon belted Blacksburg 11-2.
Which brings us to Friday’s epic regional title game with Hidden Valley. In a 3-hour, 34-minute slugfest that featured 21 runs, 25 hits, 17 walks, five hit batters and 375 pitches (but amazingly, just one error, which was on the game’s first play), Abingdon won 11-10.
Now to the premise of this blog post—can the Falcons keep flying? Baseball being baseball, and single-elimination tournaments being single-elimination tournaments, you never know.
But ace Justin Malone and his 90-plus mile per hour heat are fully rested. Waynesboro is making a four-hour bus ride down I-64 and 81. And a huge home crowd is expected.
So the scales would seem to be tilted in Abingdon’s advantage. If they keep playing as they have over the last 20 games, in which the Falcons are 17-3, it’s going to be hard for any Group AA team to beat them tonight at home. 

Posted by The Continuous News Desk
High School Sports Baseball

Herald Courier correspondent Anthony Stevens just reported that rain has postponed today’s Group A baseball quarterfinal between Honaker and visiting James River.
The game has been rescheduled for a 2 p.m. start Wednesday at Harding Field. The postponement won’t help either team’s chances in this weekend’s state tournament, as the survivor will now have to win three games in four days and perhaps not have their No. 1 pitcher available for anything but relief duty on Saturday.
As of 4:23 p.m. Tuesday, Abingdon athletic director Tim Duncan confirmed that the Falcons’ Group AA baseball quarterfinal with Waynesboro was still on for a 7 p.m. start tonight in Abingdon.
Duncan and the Virginia High School League will allow the James River team, which is spending the night in Abingdon, to attend tonight’s Group AA game for free. Nice gesture on the VHSL’s part, by the way.
More thoughts on Abingdon’s game in a bit before I leave for the ball park. 

Posted by The Continuous News Desk
High School Sports Baseball

Thinking globally, acting locally.
It’s a conundrum that in a way describes the dilemma facing Grundy principal Leslie Horne, who is making the biggest decisions the Buchanan County school’s athletic department has ever faced.
No one loves Grundy more than Horne, a star basketball player in the mid-1980s who took a very credible turn as the school’s girls basketball coach a decade later, guiding the Golden Wave to a couple of Group AA quarterfinals.
But Horne is realistic enough to know there are no easy solutions facing a school with shrinking enrollment.
“I’m trying desperately to do the right thing for all involved,” she said late Monday afternoon. “There is no right answer for everyone.”
For at least two more years, Horne’s version of the right thing is to have a school with Group A-sized enrollment compete in the AA Southwest District.
Some in the community felt a little jilted by Horne’s decision. They wanted to see Grundy go down to the Group A ranks and play in the Black Diamond District, which is where the Virginia High School League had assigned it for the 2008-09 school year.
Sure, the Golden Wave’s struggling sports – football, baseball, volleyball – might be able to win a little more. But playing the likes of Haysi and Honaker as opposed to playing Richlands and Tazewell is no contest financially.
If you don’t believe me, just go to a Richlands road game sometime and watch the home team’s athletic director smile as Blue Tornado fans pack the stands and fill the cash box.
Then there’s wrestling – the sport at which Grundy always excels. No other BDD school even offers it, and while the Golden Wave will never have problems filling out a schedule because of the program’s continued dominance, Horne didn’t see a need to punish the fans.
“We have such a following in wrestling,” she said. “If we did this, you’d never see the kids on the mat [locally] until you got into a regional tournament.”
What’s more, Horne is willing to play a hunch that the VHSL might finally think about an option it should have considered a long, long time ago – reclassification.
“The [Redistricting & Realignment] committee is willing to explore five classifications for the first time,” she said. “I find that positive.
“I think going [Group A] right now is premature with all the positive things I’m getting from the state principals’ meeting. They’re willing to go forward and if we go [Group A] now, we may miss out on that.”
One other factor Horne certainly considered was what might happen in two years in Tazewell County. Enrollments are shrinking there, even with the likelihood that Pocahontas will close its doors this spring, which would send some students to Graham and a few to Tazewell.
In two years, it’s possible Graham and Tazewell could be small enough to play in Group A. And if those two go down, you can bet Richlands will invoke the “Lee precedent” and ask to join their county neighbors.
Horne knows all this could turn out not so well. But her instincts, as well as her desire to keep as many kids participating in sports as she can, leads her to believe she’s on the right path.
“We know our numbers are indicative of a change,” Horne summed up, “but we’re hoping some of our buddies might have to do it, too.”
If that does happen, the conundrum will have come to life. 

Posted by The Continuous News Desk
High School Sports

Brent Musburger and Orel Hershier called today’s season-opener between the Milwaukee Brewers and Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field on ESPN.

And I have to say, it was great to hear Musburger call a baseball game.

I grew up with Musburger. His voice, for better or worse, dominated and defined my view of sports as a kid. I loved his enthusiasm. His ability to get lost in the moment. His tendency to overexaggerate, overemphasize and turn the ordinary into the extraordinary. I loved it all. And I still do.

I know it’s probably not in vogue to praise Musburger. But you know what? I don’t care. I really don’t. Nowadays, I long for the era of Musburger (and the soft-spoken Dick Enberg, who I recently heard for the first time in a good while, when he called the NCAA Tournament).

And that’s not nostalgia speaking. It’s more of a comment on what was and what is.

Good, professional, polished and respectful sports announcers are a dying breed. Musburger and Enberg represent a fading era. They always seemed in awe of the sports, teams and athletes they were covering. They respected history. They put events and actions in perspective. They held reverence for greatness.

Now? It’s all one-hundred-words-a-minute schills, oozing at the mouth just to hear themselves speak. Ruined by a 24/7 world, they churn out nonsense in loud, un-humanlike voices. Real, true analysis and insight is out the window. Enter: mind-numbing rants and a ceaseless stream of facts.

As a result, I normally have the “mute” button somewhere near my fingertips every time I watch a sporting event on TV nowadays. But today, while watching the Brewers and Cubs battle it out in the rain for 10 innings, I never once even thought about quieting Musburger. He was the announcer, and I was the listener. Yeah, he botched a few words and spellings. Yeah, he missed some things. But he sounded like he cared. And he spoke with a voice filled with respect, reverence and authority. And when Chicago’s Kosuke Fukudome launched his thrilling game-tying three-run home run in the ninth, Musburger was the only one I wanted to hear call the shot.

Posted by Brian T. Smith
High School Sports Baseball