August is right around the corner and for most of my last 30 years or so, that usually means getting ready for the fall sports season on the high school and college levels.
And of course, it is NFL training camp time, but that is another story.
This year, though, it is going to be a little different for yours truly, as with my position as a news copy editor for the Wyoming Tribune Eagle, I won't be getting ready for high school and college football and everything else that goes with it.
Just as it was strange this summer not covering youth baseball at some level for the first time since 1983, that will be the case only multiplied many times over with everything else that I have covered in my years as a sportswriter.
Let's see ... I began my first full-time newspaper job in 1982 in Worland. I actually did some high school sports coverage in college (Black Hills State University) in Spearfish for the neighboring Belle Fourche Bee (it's been so long I think that was what the weekly paper there was called). I also some part-time work for the Hot Springs (S.D.) Star before I landed in Worland.
Technically, you can say this will be the first time in 30 years that I haven't been a sportswriter.
I might need a therapist soon. I know, maybe I could start a new VH1 reality show, something like, "Sportswriting Withdrawl with Dr. Drew." We could even include sportscasters on the show. We could invite Jim Gray. After that LeBron James/ESPN fiasco, he probably shouldn't be on the air anytime soon.
It won't be long before the football pads are popping and the 128-pound freshman running back with no speed gets ready for the first Plainsmen practice. Of course, three days later, 11 of those players will realize why they hadn't gone out for football previously.
It won't be long until the fall media day at UW when football coach Dave Christensen, volleyball coach Carrie Yerty and cross country coach Randy Cole will be their optimistic selves in dreaming of better things to come this season. And why not? They're all undefeated at this time.
Of course, there will be hordes of reporters asking the same questions to the athletes, who will give the same answers as last year.
Maybe I'll try to blend in with the crowd. After all, UW officials are used to seeing me there. They might forget that I'm not actually working this time.
I won't tell if you don't tell.
I guess there are some positives about not being a member of the working press. I can wear a UW t-shirt to a Cowboy game or a Plainsmen hat to a LHS contest. I can voice my displeasure about the officiating (clean, of course). I can leave the game early if I want to.
Crap, that also means I will have to pay to get into the game.
I think I would rather be working.
Friday, July 30, 2010
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Bad soccer fan, bad soccer fan
Evidently, I am supposed to follow the World Cup.
"Anyone who doesn't root for the U.S. team is un-American," I overheard in the newsroom recently.
Those are fighting words, I tell you.
Nobody should ever suggest that I am un-American, although the comment wasn't directed at me ... I don't think.
I will admit that I have never been accused of being politically correct. With that said, I just can't watch an event like the World Cup where I don't know 99 percent of the participants. I think I could name about three players on the U.S. team, so make that 99.9 percent.
I have a hard time watching a sport in which I can't pronounce the names of 99 percent of the participants. I even get a little lost at times, I admit, in tennis.
I have a hard time watching an event where I have to look up where the country is located ... as soon as I can figure out how to spell and pronounce that country's name.
I have a hard time watching an event that I didn't grow up playing. Blame that on my age (51) and blame that on my school. There was no organized and sanctioned soccer then, and actually, still to this day I don't think it exists.
I played football, basketball and baseball. I'm a meat and potatoes sports fan, I guess. As far as I am concerned, those are the three sporting seasons. Sure, I've played a little golf and tennis. I tried wrestling once for three days in the sixth grade. My tall, gangly frame at the time didn't allow a lot of grappling leverage, so to speak. Oh, how I yearn for those gangly days again. Now I fit in the chubby category.
Let's see, what else. I ice skated but never really played hockey. I watch hockey now and then, but am far from an expert on the game.
They tried me in just about every event possible in track and field in the ninth grade. Too tall and gangly to be a sprinter; I could never pace myself as a distance runner, and I couldn't jump much. I even ran the high hurdles once. I jumped about two feet over each hurdle in an attempt of not wiping out.
Basically, I sucked at every event.
The funny thing is, if my high school would have had soccer in the spring, I would have played the sport, and I would have been good at it. But my soccer experience amounted to a week or so each year in PE class.
So now I am supposed to get excited about the World Cup. Talking on Sportsline Live last Monday on the radio, it was pretty apparent that I was not excited and my co-host was. So let him talk about it.
I did watch about 10 minutes of the U.S.-England match. I did see the American goal. I didn't see any of the U.S-Slowhatevervenia match. I think I was sleeping at the time.
Did I say I have a hard time watching a sport that ends in a tie? I have a feeling that former NFL player and coach Herm Edwards could not coach soccer. Imagine if he did. He would have famously been quoted as saying, "You play to tie the game!"
Don't get me wrong, I don't hate soccer and I wish the U.S. team well. Maybe I'll even try to watch (part of) its next game ... if my allegiance to my country requires it.
Oh yeah, what the duce is up with those vuvuzela-like horns? I see in Miami Saturday night, they passed them out for the Rays-Marlins baseball game (http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/recap?gameId=300619128). Already, this is my nominee for worst promotion idea of the year in MLB.
In the minutes I have watched the World Cup, because of those horns, I became paranoid that there was a bumble bee loose in the room.
I think there still is.
"Anyone who doesn't root for the U.S. team is un-American," I overheard in the newsroom recently.
Those are fighting words, I tell you.
Nobody should ever suggest that I am un-American, although the comment wasn't directed at me ... I don't think.
I will admit that I have never been accused of being politically correct. With that said, I just can't watch an event like the World Cup where I don't know 99 percent of the participants. I think I could name about three players on the U.S. team, so make that 99.9 percent.
I have a hard time watching a sport in which I can't pronounce the names of 99 percent of the participants. I even get a little lost at times, I admit, in tennis.
I have a hard time watching an event where I have to look up where the country is located ... as soon as I can figure out how to spell and pronounce that country's name.
I have a hard time watching an event that I didn't grow up playing. Blame that on my age (51) and blame that on my school. There was no organized and sanctioned soccer then, and actually, still to this day I don't think it exists.
I played football, basketball and baseball. I'm a meat and potatoes sports fan, I guess. As far as I am concerned, those are the three sporting seasons. Sure, I've played a little golf and tennis. I tried wrestling once for three days in the sixth grade. My tall, gangly frame at the time didn't allow a lot of grappling leverage, so to speak. Oh, how I yearn for those gangly days again. Now I fit in the chubby category.
Let's see, what else. I ice skated but never really played hockey. I watch hockey now and then, but am far from an expert on the game.
They tried me in just about every event possible in track and field in the ninth grade. Too tall and gangly to be a sprinter; I could never pace myself as a distance runner, and I couldn't jump much. I even ran the high hurdles once. I jumped about two feet over each hurdle in an attempt of not wiping out.
Basically, I sucked at every event.
The funny thing is, if my high school would have had soccer in the spring, I would have played the sport, and I would have been good at it. But my soccer experience amounted to a week or so each year in PE class.
So now I am supposed to get excited about the World Cup. Talking on Sportsline Live last Monday on the radio, it was pretty apparent that I was not excited and my co-host was. So let him talk about it.
I did watch about 10 minutes of the U.S.-England match. I did see the American goal. I didn't see any of the U.S-Slowhatevervenia match. I think I was sleeping at the time.
Did I say I have a hard time watching a sport that ends in a tie? I have a feeling that former NFL player and coach Herm Edwards could not coach soccer. Imagine if he did. He would have famously been quoted as saying, "You play to tie the game!"
Don't get me wrong, I don't hate soccer and I wish the U.S. team well. Maybe I'll even try to watch (part of) its next game ... if my allegiance to my country requires it.
Oh yeah, what the duce is up with those vuvuzela-like horns? I see in Miami Saturday night, they passed them out for the Rays-Marlins baseball game (http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/recap?gameId=300619128). Already, this is my nominee for worst promotion idea of the year in MLB.
In the minutes I have watched the World Cup, because of those horns, I became paranoid that there was a bumble bee loose in the room.
I think there still is.
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