September 22, 2022
GOD BLESS UKRAINE AND THE USA!!!!
ON THE ROAD AGAIN
Coach Brett Beard’s Denham Springs Yellow Jackets, at 3-0, go on the road to face Franklinton High School tonight (Thursday night). Sport N Center Yellow Jackets Warmup comes your way at 6:00 pm this evening. Josh Ward and Mitch Covington are on the call. I’ll be contributing to pre-game, half-time and post-game. Tune in to Family Radio, 91.9 FM, Baton Rouge or on the net at JonFineProductions.com
ESTEEMED GUESTS
I’ll be interviewing Jackets Baseball coach Trav Hopkins (coach Hop) on Sport-N-Center Jackets Warmup. The A&A Discount Tires Half-Time Report interview is to be determined.
HALL OF FAME BANQUET RESCHEDULED
The Denham Springs HS Athletics Hall of Fame Banquet, scheduled for Thursday, September 22 will now take place on Thursday, October 13, 6:30 pm at Forrest Grove Plantation.
SPORTS PUBLICATIONS GALORE!
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TODAY’S COLUMNS:
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FINE IDEAS
The Baseball Gods must have been turning over in their graves.
When Juan Soto was traded by the Washington Nationals to the San Diego Padres just before the trade deadline, it prompted 2 normally creditable national baseball writers to get lost in mindless hyperbole. One wrote that Soto might be the modern-day Ted Williams. The fact that Soto’s 2022 sub.250 average was a lot closer to the Mendoza Line than Teddy Ballgame’s.344 lifetime average was apparently the victim of a profound recency bias. Another wrote that this might be the biggest trade in Baseball since Babe Ruth was sold by the Red Sox to the Yankees in late 1919. NO! NO!
Nanette?
This is not to cast aspersion on Soto. I’m intrigued by his potential. He has a chance to be a generational player. He is a potential 5-tool superstar. But he has not done it on a sustained basis, is having a pedestrian 2022, and to put him in the same class with the Bambino or The Splendid Splinter is extraordinarily premature.
To try to get the Baseball Gods back into equilibrium, I will try to make what I consider to be a valid comparison between yesteryear and today.
The AL MVP award is apparently a 2-man race. Shohei Ohtani, at this writing, has hit 34 home runs, with 89 RBIs, along with a 2.43 ERA. He is in the Los Angeles Angels rotation and usually is the DH for the Angels when not on the mound. The New York Yankees Aaron Judge, if the season were to end today, would win the Triple Crown, with 60 home runs, 128 RBIs and a batting average of.317. The only stat of this troika in which he is challenged is batting average. He is on the verge of setting the American League record for home runs in a single season.
So who would I select? It would be awfully hard to go against Judge, certainly not if he is the Triple Crown winner. Plus, the Yankees should become the AL East champs. Meanwhile Ohtani’s Angels are 20 games below 500. Yet, what Ohtani has done in 2021 and 2022, excelling as a star pitcher and slugger, has not been accomplished since Ruth starred in both capacities with the Red Sox in 1918 and 1919. (Once he was sold by the Red Sox owner Harry Frazee to the Yankees to finance his Broadway play No No Nanette, Ruth pretty much stopped pitching.) But the MVP award is for 2022, not 2021 and 2022. So, yes, I would go with Judge.
The debate between Judge and Ohtani might bring up, perhaps, the ultimate battle for the MVP, in 1941. That was the season the New York Yankees Joe DiMaggio hit in a record 56 games in a row, a mark that still stands and hasn’t really been challenged. Meanwhile, the Boston Red Sox’s Ted Williams hit 406, the last major leaguer to eclipse.400, another mark that subsequently has not been approached. The Yankees finished 17 games ahead of the Red Sox and ended up winning the World Series. The Yankee Clipper was the AL MVP.
You’ll notice that in a prior paragraph, I wrote RBIs, not the modern day grammatically correct RBI. Also, the stats cited were the traditional Home Runs, RBIs, Batting Average and ERA, not OPS or launch angle or WAR or any of the abundance of new-fangled analytics. Remember, we are trying to get back in the good graces of the Baseball Gods, who surely do not subscribe to the modern era of Moneyball-inspired type stats
I hope not anyhow.
Having said that, it’s time to resurrect the asterisk, but this time justifiably. When Roger Maris broke Babe Ruth’s 60 home run record, he had an asterisk attached to his 1961 61 home run season. That is because the Sultan of Swat—Ruth--had accomplished the record in 1927, during a 154-game season, while Maris broke Ruth’s record with Baseball playing 162 regular season games. It wasn’t until 1991, that the asterisk was removed by commissioner Fay Vincent. Some say that when Judge breaks the American League record of 61 home runs, he should be called Baseball’s all-time single season leader. The present record holder, Barry Bonds, hit 73 in 2001. I say Bonds should retain the record (unless Judge explodes for 74+), but have an asterisk next to his record, signifying that it was a steroid-aided accomplishment. Put that asterisk next to Sosa and McGwire’s numbers too. Roger Clemens as well, for his pitching records. And, then enshrine Bonds, Sosa, McGwire and Clemens, Pete Rose too… and we can go back in history and finally put Shoeless Joe Jackson into Cooperstown. There are plenty of asterisks to go around. What these players accomplished on the field are indisputably Hall-worthy, yet, they also broke baseball’s rules or had an unfair competitive advantage. This should be a bi-partisan compromise that even Congress could agree on. More importantly, I believe so would the Baseball Gods.
Go Jackets!
DENHAM SPRINGS HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL IS BACK ON THE AIR!
PRESS RELEASE
The 2022 school year marks the 27th season that Jon Fine (Sports) Productions will have the privilege of producing and calling play-by-play for Denham Springs HS Football radio broadcasts. In 2022, the broadcast slate will include the Jamboree, all 10 regular season Denham games, and every playoff game. Broadcasts can be heard on Family Radio-91.9 FM Baton Rouge. All broadcasts can also be heard on the Internet at JonFineProductions.com (click Listen Live on the Denham Springs Football PBP page). The Jamboree air time is 5:30 pm. Subsequent broadcasts will air at 6:00 pm. The first broadcast is Friday, August 26 when the Jackets visit Walker HS in a Jamboree.
After a one-season sabbatical, Josh Ward returns as the play-by-play announcer of the Jackets. Ward will be joined by Mitch Covington as the color commentator. Producer Jon Fine will contribute to the pre-game, half-time and post-game programming.
“Sport N Center Jackets Warm-Up” will feature an interview with Jackets Football Coach Brett Beard conducted by Josh Ward. Jon Fine will speak with a prominent Denham Springs community and/or sports figure. Ward and Covington will also offer a preview of that night’s game and other pertinent information.
The “A&A Discount Tires Half-Time Report” will include Fine interviewing another Denham Springs personality. In addition, Ward and Covington will provide a recap of the first half and a look ahead at the second half of action.
During the “Ralph Sellers Chevrolet Post-Game Show”, there will be an extensive game recap, final stats and a look ahead.
When Denham Springs picks up a first down, they’ll achieve a Big Mike’s Sports Bar & Grill First Down. When the Jackets score, the scoring drive will be recapped on the Brandy Robertson State Farm Insurance Scoring Drive. The coach Beard interview is being brought to you by SERVPRO of Livingston. When the Jackets have secured a victory, Ward will indicate that the victory is in the bank, brought to you by Bank Plus.
Sport-N-Center owner Stacy Phipps (Baseball) and Big Mike O’Neal (Football) were athletes at Denham Springs HS. Ralph Sellers Chevrolet Parts Manager Jim McChristian, a former Jackets color commentator, says he was an athlete at Denham Springs HS, but we have had a difficult time verifying this claim! lol
Fine expressed that he is especially appreciative of the loyal commercial and name mention sponsors the broadcasts have had on Jon Fine Sports Productions’ Denham Springs HS play-by-play broadcasts throughout the years. Many have been with the broadcasts on a year-in, year-out basis. Fine expressed hope that listeners will have the opportunity to patronize these businesses and let them know they heard about them on DSHS Football radio broadcasts.
Jackets play-by-play announcer Josh Ward, a Denham Springs HS graduate, was a Yellow Jackets assistant basketball coach. He is an executive at Guaranty Broadcasting. Much to the regret of several ladies in the Greater Baton Rouge area and points unknown, he is single.
Mitch Covington, a 3-sport star at Denham Springs HS, would later serve as a Jackets assistant football coach. He is presently the head football coach at Denham Springs Junior High School. He is a graduate of McNeese State, where he played baseball. He is married and has 2 children.
Jon Fine co-hosted and produced daily 2-hour drive-time radio sports-talk programs in the Greater Baton Rouge area for close to 20 years. His programs (first SportsTalk, which changed its name to SportsGumbo), aired, at times, in New Orleans, Lake Charles, Monroe and Alexandria, in addition to the Baton Rouge market. His company, Jon Fine Productions, has produced numerous Denham Springs HS and area HS sports programming on television, radio and internet. Fine presently has an EBay store—ArrestedDevelopmentMediaGuides. He is a native of Valley Stream, New York and a graduate of Penn, where he majored in Marketing. Much to the delight of several ladies in the Greater Baton Rouge area and points unknown, he is single.
For more information on Denham Springs HS Sports programming and Jon Fine Productions, please visit JonFineProductions.com.
DENHAM SPRINGS HS FOOTBALL RADIO BROADCASTS ARE A JON FINE PRODUCTION ON FAMILY RADIO, 91.9 FM, BATON ROUGE and JonFineProductions.com.
JON IS THE OWNER OF AN EBAY STORE. ArrestedDevelopmentMediaGuides, SELLS SPORTS PUBLICATIONS. YOU CAN LINK TO IT BY VISITING JonFineProductions.com