Eastern Adams County's Only Independent Voice Since 1887
Eastern Adams County's Only Independent Voice Since 1887
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I watched a lot of football over the years and I can tell you that the kicking game has really changed with the soccer style kickers. Pete Gogolak became the first soccer style kicker in the NFL. A couple of years later his younger brother Charlie would be the second. Up until that time most kickers were linemen. The NFL kicking award is named after Cleveland Browns tackle Lou Groza. There were other kickers that played skill positions like Paul Hornung and George Blanda but...
The Los Angeles Dodgers are the new Major League baseball World Series Champions after rallying from a five run deficit to defeat the New York Yankees 7-6 and win the best of seven series four games to one. I did watch more of this series than I had in a while. This series was really important for the Dodgers because they have had some of the best talent in baseball but they had trouble in the playoffs. They did win the COVID shortened 2020 season but had to play games...
This is the time of the season when sports cross paths especially when it comes to the professional ranks. The Fall Classic (World Series for all of you baseball haters) may be over by the time you read this column. Or it might be getting really exciting for the fifth, sixth or seventh game. The Dodgers-Yankees matchup is one I grew up with in the 1950s and sixties. I guess the two richest franchises should be playing for the World Championship. I’m glad it isn’t every yea...
This has been an interesting season for college football and not necessarily good interesting. For someone that was a big fan of the Pac 8, 10 and 12 it has been a big adjustment to the Pac 2. But it looks like the Pac whatever number they end up with is on the rise. And for you purists that don’t think that Gonzaga is a good fit for the conference just check out how many full arenas there will be during basketball season when the Zags are on the road. They will also be a g...
So I’m sure that you heard about the passing of Pete Rose. Most people either hated him or loved him. There were very few sports fans that didn’t have an opinion. Rose was the all-time Major League hits leader with over 4000 hits. Rose played for the Cincinnati Reds or when he played they were known as the Big Red Machine. He played five different positions in the infield and outfield and earned two gold gloves. He was a part of three World Series championships, three bat...
Postseason baseball is here and again the door was shut on the Mariners once again. They were one game out and still had a chance on Saturday but that was not to be. Since the Mariners last won their division in 2001 with 116 victories they’ve only made it to the postseason as a Wild Card team a couple of years ago. Now the M’s won 90 games in 2002 and 2003 but there was only one Wild Card team at that time. Since then the amount of Wild Card teams in each league is now thr...
I was visiting with someone the other day when we got to talking about this column for the paper. They asked how long I had been doing this and it occurred to me that it had been 20 years. They were surprised and I guess I was too. It seems time really does fly by when you're having fun. Honestly, I didn't think it would become a weekly occurrence, maybe twice a month but when stuff happens I had to write about it. Sure I missed a week now and then because I was busy or I...
The 2024 football season is off to a rip roaring start. Last year’s national champion Michigan Wolverines were humbled by the Texas Longhorns in week one and the runner up Washington Huskies were defeated by the WSU Cougars last Saturday at Lumen Field in Seattle. It was a great win for the Cougars who played the Huskies tough at Husky Stadium last November nearly upsetting the Dawgs until a gutsy 4th down play brought them new life leading to a game winning field goal. The n...
Fairs and rodeos are, for the most part, over for the year. It seems that there is a real need for more people to step up to help at these venues. Why are local organizations finding it difficult to get volunteers to help at their booth, cooking, selling or running games such as Bingo? Well a couple of weeks ago in the large paper that is printed in the big city northeast of here there was a picture in the Northwest section of a woman that was having the time of her life...
I know, the title sounds a bit strange. I was going to say interesting but I won’t try to fool anyone. There was a bird fight last Thursday in Cheney as the hometown EWU Eagles battled the Hawks from Monmouth a private FCS football team from New Jersey Scheduled football games like this for Eastern aren’t normal. Typically they are on the road for their first couple of games and host a team when the students are back on campus in a couple of weeks. But this year the Eag...
Coaches and Managers at the professional level at least are basically hired on a temporary basis as firings are commonplace if things don’t go so well. Let’s face facts, it is much easier to fire a manager or coach than it is to fire the whole team. I know a few teams that a general manager put together and there was no way any head man could find success with the crew that went onto the field of play. Last Friday, Seattle Mariners’ General Manager Jerry Dipoto fired Manag...
The temperatures are beginning to be more reasonable which will be helpful for the start of high school football today (Wednesday). The weight rooms have been busy, hopefully, as athletes prepare for their fall camp practices. There is always a lot of anxiety and positivity especially if the returning team has a great deal of experience. There are always several schools that graduated much of their team and it is back to the drawing board about how to fill those key spots that...
A few days ago, I was thinking about a guy that had been hired at a place where I worked years ago. What is interesting about this guy is how he could involve himself in almost any conversation. It seems that this guy did it all. As we listened, it became quite clear that this guy had trouble keeping a job because he couldn’t tell the truth. This guy was in his early 30s, yet he had already driven over one million miles as a long-haul trucker. When someone asked what I did ove...
Growing up in the late '50s and '60s, we always had the radio on to listen to our favorite music on a Spokane Top 40 radio station. Whether it was after we got out of bed, getting ready for school, riding in the car or working in the shop, we were enjoying our favorite disc jockey's bantering, joking and introducing music the world was enjoying. Yes, we knew the names of the bands and songs, and we could sing along with the music and for the most part we were close to...
There are a lot of songs that were once quite popular but as time goes on the lyrics get lost on younger generations. In the song ‘Return to sender’ made popular by Elvis in the 50s there is a line that says, ‘no such number, no such zone.’ A zone was utilized in big cities which basically located the nearest postal facility. That was replaced by the Zip Code. Imagine the song rewritten: No such number, no such zip code. Harry Chapin had a hit song Taxi in 1972 that has a l...
Forgotten in the annals of time is the story about a farm kid from Ritzville that nearly made the Olympic track team. Walter “Spike” Arlt was an outstanding athlete at Ritzville High School and as a track hurdler he set a state record for the 120 yard high hurdles in 1956 his senior year. That mark still stands as an all-time Bronco track record since the 120 yard high hurdles is now the 110 Meter hurdles. Spike would go onto run track at WSU and in 1960 was selected as the...
I have met a lot of coaches and played for several. The ones I played for weren’t a lot older than me although I always treated them with respect even if I didn’t like them very much. Actually I only had one coach that I really didn’t like. There are a fair amount of coaches around my age like Pete Carroll, Nick Saban and Bill Belichick that are not coaching this year after highly successful careers. Has the game changed or the players? Money has certainly changed recru...
Years ago, I wrote a column about how our family used to celebrate the 4th of July. Today, it is important to talk about some of those great traditions, again. I can tell you Dad really liked fireworks. He wasn’t crazy into them, he just understood more than many the importance of Independence Day. So, late afternoon on July 3, Dad would drive us to Lind, where they had real cool fireworks for sale in an old gas station leading into town on Highway 21. The tradition was one w...
I sometimes think that I spend more time talking about sports figures that have died than just about anything else. That’s not the plan but as we get older…anyway we lost another great last week who made watching baseball and sports in general a lot of fun. Willie Mays, the New York and San Francisco Giant outfielder passed away at the age of 93. I watched several tributes and of course the words greatest baseball player of all time was part of the conversation. I think tha...
I find it interesting how we determine who our favorite players are. I know that as a young Dodger fan that lived in a home with other Dodger fans it was easy to have Maury Wills, Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale as your go to favorites. But when it came to the NBA it was different in the 1960s. There weren’t a lot of college or even NBA games on TV. I know that today we have ESPN, TNT, ABC and may other ways of watching basketball games so a young fan can gravitate to watching g...
A couple of months ago I was asked by several 8th grade boys that I had the opportunity to coach the last two falls and winters if I would give the promotion address for their class. Now these are 14 year olds so I told them that if they were serious I would certainly do it. Well it turns out they were serious and now it was my turn to put together some words of wisdom. I also had the opportunity to substitute teach for these classes when they were in 6th and 7th grade so I...
It has been quite a year for the Pac 12 from football until the final baseball tournament that ended last week. The Arizona Wildcats defeated the USC Trojans 4-3 to earn the last Pac 12 title. Two days later on May 27th, Bill Walton passed away after a battle with cancer. Walton was a basketball announcer or more accurately a color commentator. And yes he was definitely colorful. Like most listeners, you either liked Walton or put your TV on mute when he would go off on a...
The NCAA basketball tournament ended the first week in April. The all-time leading scorer in NCAA history is Cailtlin Clark from the Iowa Hawkeyes. She and her teammates were runner ups to the National Champions two years in a row. Clark, the three point making machine was selected number one in the WNBA draft by the Indiana Fever Now because of Clark the ratings for the tournament semi-final and final were record setting. People wanted to watch her play. Some for her success...
Last Wednesday and Saturday Lind Ritzville High School hosted the state regional track meet at Jimmie Snider Field and our wonderful track. 1B and 2B teams from Districts 7 and 9 were at the event with top individuals and relay teams heading to the state meet at Eisenhower High School in Yakima this Friday and Saturday. Adam Dirks and I were at the triple jump on Wednesday and the long jump on Saturday. We manned the pit with the help of several high school track team members...
I can remember years ago when athletes were often called dumb jocks. Oh there were a few that struggled to stay eligible but for the most part players had to understand football or basketball plays, or baseball signals in order for the team to succeed. Our quarterbacks called the plays not like the coaches do today. We had to know the offense backwards and forwards and what we needed to do against this team’s defense which was different than last week’s defense. In bas...