April 21, 2016
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SPORTSCENTRAL
Hosts Steve Johnson and Sid Edwards are slated to be joined tonight by Softball Coach David Dykes, who will bring on some of his players and Strength Coach Zach Morris. Please see programming information just below.
BATON ROUGE AREA BROADCASTING SCHEDULE:
Thursday, April 21: 5pm—6pm: SportsCentral
Radio Amour 91.9 FM, Central
SportsRadio 1310 Radio, Lake Charles Programming of Interest (also heard on KEZMOnLine.com):
Saturday, April 23: 9AM—10AM: All Things Football with Scott Holtzman
Monday, April 25: 8AM—10AM: The Locker Room with John Goodman and Jim Gazzolo
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THE WIZARDRY OF OS
Assistant Basketball Coach and Head Swimming Coach at Central High School
Isn’t it fun to watch a team improve over the course of a season? LSU baseball fans are getting that pleasure this season, and the good news is the Tigers still have room to grow.
Poche and Valek are reliable and maximize their abilities. I still expect Lange to pitch better. I know I know, his numbers last year set the bar unrealistically high. He is competing and giving the Tigers quality starts each weekend now. All of that is true, but I guarantee you that he and the coaches expect him to keep getting better and so do I.
Can LSU find a 4th starter or a closer this year? I doubt it. With Cartwright out and Latz still snake bit, I don’t think there will be time or opportunity for anyone to take those roles. The good news is that there are pieces coming together to cover those weaknesses. Newman, Bugg, and Gilbert are going to be called upon to close games. The order and how long each three pitches will vary, but those three will be the last pitchers on the mound in close games. Newman and Bugg look like their old selves and Gilbert still has time to develop without having too much responsibility.
There is still some hope for a 4th starter, but I think there are only two players who will be given that chance. Austin Bain was a starter for a time last year and Riley Smith is a juco transfer. Both are coming off injuries and have yet to round into form. If either takes that role, I am guessing the coaches will feel like they won the lotto.
Overall, the pitching staff was expected to carry this team before the year started and there has not been as much consistency as we expected. Yet, there are signs that the second half of the season will have different and better results as Norman, Reynolds, and others are rounding into form.
It has taken some time to figure out the lineup, but the coaches are pretty close to figuring out the best way to get production out of the bats. Guys are settling into roles and performing well. The next step will be consistency on the weekends and in the midweek.
LSU most likely dug themselves too big of a hole in the first couple weeks to win a SEC championship this year. Though, if they continue to improve at this rate, they could be a better team in June than they were last year. Those are big “ifs.”
I apologize if you were expecting a breakdown of the Spring Game. I will give a few thoughts just so you can’t say I am negligent. LSU is extremely loaded at receiver and running back. Duh. The offensive line is in an area of concern if Clapp and Pocic are not healthy. I will be shocked and concerned if Pocic isn’t the starter at left tackle. There is no way to tell about the quarterback based on the Spring Game. I believed in Harris last year and I still do. I hope the coaches do as well. I think Etling is the best backup LSU has had in years.
The defense is going to be incredible. The defensive line is finally back to the quality and depth we were spoiled with in the 2000s. The linebackers will be good enough as long as Beckwith stays healthy. The secondary is beyond ridiculous. There is no way to know if they will have hiccups with the new system at some point during the year. Hopefully, talent covers up any issues that may arise. From what I can tell, the strength of Aranda’s system is that it is easy to digest.
Finally, in case you missed it, be proud of the LSU gymnastics team. They were awesome in the Super Six. So often this sports year, Tiger fans have felt their team’s performance has not matched their ability. Saturday night, the gymnasts rose to the moment. With everyone back except for two seniors, LSU should be right back in the same position next year.
HEY REF
This week I thought I’d run another “Best of Hey Ref” as we start the 2016 baseball season. I’ve had more comments on this one column than just about all the other columns combined. When someone comments how much they enjoyed a certain storyline I do make an effort to get that column printed again so those that may have missed it the first time have an opportunity to enjoy my words of wisdom. So with that said, please be my guest and enjoy one of my all-time favorite columns.
How many parents are scratching their heads trying to figure out why their children’s behavior has hit rock bottom? Maybe all they should do is look in the mirror. I’m referring to some parent’s behavior at their children’s ballgames. I remember a thing called SPORTSMANSHIP, that thing fewer and fewer adults are bringing with them when they go to watch their kids play football, basketball and/or baseball. I remember the pure disgust that stirred inside my gut during a little league baseball game I was calling. The game was out of hand and the coaches were emptying the benches and giving everyone a chance to play.
This one player who happened to be the smallest on the team had struck out twice and was “on deck”. His mother came out of the stands and shakes the fence so hard it sounded like a wild animal trying to get out of its cage. At the top of her lungs she screams at him “If you strike out one more time I’m going to whip your (behind)”! Just about every jaw dropped and as I called “Batter-up” he looked so terrified I thought he was going to run back into the dugout.
The first pitch was right down the middle of the plate and the biggest “STRIKE” I’d ever seen. I yell “BALL”. The next pitch was a clone of the first and again I called “BALL”. As you can guess the next two weren’t going to be anything but ball 3 and 4. Not a single voice of opposition was uttered. I saw his eyes get big as watermelons and after he got to first his bench erupted and the opposing coach asked for a time out.
After a minute went by I started the slowest walk to the mound in my 15 years of calling baseball. The only two things the coach said to me was “even if we didn’t have a 12 run lead I’d have to agree with you that every pitch was a ball and THANKS for doing what you did”. I didn’t know what to say and then we noticed the celebration at first as the opposing coach gave me a big “Thumbs up”.
I started calling games, both football and baseball back in ’79 and am asked all the time “what changes have I noticed most”? My pat answer most of the time is “well, the biggest change has got to be those sitting in the stands watching games”. It seems to me that many of those fans don’t have lives. Each game feels like I’m headed to an execution. In that I mean those on the losing side wouldn’t have anything to live for once the game was “in the books” so to speak. These amateur games are supposed to be where an athlete would begin to learn the game from the inside.
In football what seems to be happening are many parents believe this 9th grade game tonight is all that’s left in this world. Parents you’ve got to understand when officials try to help these young athletes line up and stay set before the snap it isn’t meant to help the other team beat your team. We strive to help youngsters when we can so that we don’t spend the majority of the game walking five yards this way then five yards the other.
And YES we can call holding on every play, hands down. But how many parents want the officials to do this? The only ones that do are the parents of the team with the ball. I wonder how many parents are living their lives through their child’s life. Well, all I can think it’s more than 90% just by their behavior during the games. Of course “little Johnny” never holds he always plays by the rules. It has to be the OTHER guys that are holding.
If you’ve never heard the term “PREVENTATIVE” officiating let me educate you. A simple example is when one player’s head is in the neutral zone we as officials will tell the player between plays to back up or get back depending on what side of the ball they’re on. One coach will thank you for not calling the foul on his team but as soon as the other team has the ball he goes ballistic if you tell the other team to back up a bit.
If I had my way each and every parent would spend an entire year working football games for nothing. This way they might actually learn the rules. There are so many experts sitting in the stands that I feel you are hurting the game by staying home or sitting in the stands trying to tell everyone the rules and how the officials on the field really don’t know what they are doing.
So, please do the game a great service, get off your butts and try to call a few games. Then everybody will see just how much you really don’t know! I’m not about to let the officials off the hook by no means. I spent nearly 20 years calling football in this area before a bad injury caused me to “retire”. Well, I’ve tried to return to the field but what I’ve found is scaring me to the core.
The quality of the officials calling games has drastically declined. So many of the best that have put on the striped shirt have left the game entirely. And I feel it’s due to the lack of respect given them by parents, coaches and the media. For whatever reason the games are suffering because so many good officials have hung up their whistles and aren’t returning year after year.
So, I’ll close by asking all the great officials instead of sitting in the stands please put on the uniform and help the sport you know so much about by getting involved and start at your earliest convenience and start calling real games and not those video games on your TV!!!
Till next week… …
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