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Baseball/Softball Finals Should Stay Put

Much of the talk at the state finals in baseball and softball centered on when and if the finals should be moved. Apparently communities such as Midland and Lansing are interested in hosting the semifinals and finals in baseball and softball. I have no beef with moving state finals around to different sites. It's good to give an area a bone now and then (we all know what the economy is like in this state) as an added boost to their economic situation. But let's think about this one first. Battle Creek has been a most accommodating host city for these spring season-ending sports. The main reason is this: both sports are held at one site, Bailey Park. And Bailey Park has multiple fields to accommodate the eight semifinals in each sport and, most importantly, is equipped to handle the possible weather delays that so often take place. Michigan High School Athletic Association officials informed the media that as long as both semifinals in the division (in baseball, the Division 4 semifinals were played first) that started first on that Friday (June 13), in the morning, were completed the finals would be completed the next day, assuming no weather delays took place on that Saturday. Until another site is able to guarantee the same the finals should not be moved. Here's the dilemma. If some of the semifinals are postponed to Saturday and force any one of the four finals in either sport to be moved to Monday (MHSAA does not play events on Sundays) the inconvenience to the competing schools would be tremendous. On occasion (1993, DeWitt/Carleton Airport in Class B comes to mind) poor weather conditions on Saturday postponed a final until Monday. Situation like this are unavoidable. But with the current site poor weather conditions that take place on Friday can be dealt with without playing games on Monday.

Overnight football camp

Wayne State University (along with Think Detroit PAL and other organizations) is sponsoring an overnight football camp for high school players. The theme is "Sound Mind, Sound Body" and the camp focuses on subjects such as eligibility, recruiting and NFL life skills.

The camp director is Curtis Blackwell, who does a lot with youth sports in the area. Counselors include recent area graduates and standouts, included Nick Perry and Darrin Williams (Detroit King), Brandon Graham and John Thompson (University of Michigan) and Charles Burrell and Glenn Winston (Michigan State).

For more information, go to www.thinkdetroitpal.org or call Curtis Blackwell at (313) 833-1600, ext. 206.

Detroit loses a top football coach

The satisfaction generated within the football coaching ranks, and throughout the youth programs in Detroit, when Detroit King won the Division 2 title last November took a hit this week when long-time Detroit Public School League coach Drake Wilkins announced he would be leaving the PSL for the suburbs. Wilkins coached nine seasons at Detroit Denby and 10 at Detroit Southeastern. He will take over the program at Madison Heights Madison effectve immediately. Wilkins was one of the class individuals in the PSL. He brought integrity to the city. Many people bashed the poor performances of city football teams but they never bashed a Wilkins-coached team. Even when Wilkins' teams lost he was gracious. His players played hard and they played clean. King coach James Reynolds also spoke highly of Wilkins and when your peers say kind words, especially from a peer with the reputation of a James Reynolds, it speaks volumes. To reporters Wilkins was honest. He was honest about his assessment of his players and teams and perhaps more importantly he was honest about other teams and their players. So much jealousy exisets within the PSL coaching ranks but Wilkins never entered that realm. Negativity doesn't sit well with Wilkins. It's a sad week for PSL football but don't blame Wilkins. He did his part to build a successful program in the city. He won't say it but there are reasons why Wilkins left the PSL. Sure it's a challenge to take over Madison's program. But it's a challenge every season for coaches no matter where they coach. We wish you well at Madison, coach, and keep doing what you've always done. Coach with integrity and pride.

Hockey fans different

Have you noticed that beer sales at Comerica Park end before the eighth inning and that beer sales continued on into the third overtime for the Red Wings game against Pittsburgh on Monday? Are hockey fans more responsible beer drinkers than those at baseball games? Some would answer that by saying baseball attracts more families, that more children go to baseball games. That might be true but I saw a lot of pre-teenagers at the game on Monday so I'm not sure how far that arguement would fly.

Nearing a milestone

Larry Tuttle has been the head baseball coach at Blissfield for 41 years and today the chances are good Tuttle will reach 1,000 career victories. Blissfield hosts Belleville in a doubleheader at 4:30. Blissfield is 27-9-1 this season and Tuttle, who is first on the all-time list in Michigan, had 972 career wins coming in. This is trully a remarkable accomplishment. Milestones like these are often attributed to longevity and that is true here but there's more to it. Sure Blissfield doesn't play in one of the state's top leagues (Lenawee County Association) but Tuttle is not coaching a private school either. His players come from Blissfield and they are developed in the Blissfield program. Blissfield is a Class C school near the Ohio border but the Royals play teams, good teams, from the Detroit area like Grosse Pointe South, Ann Arbor Pioneer, Troy, Southgate Anderson, Warren Mott, Taylor Kennedy, Clinton Township Chippewa Valley and others. The teams just mentioned are all Class A schools. Tuttle isn't afraid to have his team play these larger schools. On the contrary he wants his players to go against the best and if they lose, so be it. Just because Tuttle is nearing this mielstone don't expect him to retire any time soon. He's only 63 and besides, he's having too much fun.

How quickly we forget

Yesterday, May 4, marked the 38th anniversary of the shootings at Kent State University. Four students were shot and killed by Ohio National Guardsmen that day. Anti-war protests were common then during the Vietnam War. It was an incident that shocked the country, horrified many of us and prompted Neil Young to write the song, 'Ohio'. An Ohio newspaper devoted all of 15 words in Sunday's editions to what was a dark day in U.S. history.

Hide and seek

First of all, congratulations to the administrative staff at Detroit Mercy for hiring Ray McCallum. He looks to be a good choice; time will tell. Secondly, they also must be congratulated for being so tight-lipped about the whole affair. Leaks were few. The name Brad Soderberg slipped through the cracks and the more obvious candidates like Mike Jackson and Kevin Mondro were easily detected. In hindsight, perhaps the match could have been detected. McCallum was left stranded by the Kelvin Sampson situation and the "word" was UDM was looking for a current head coach or a former head coach to take the reigns after Perry Watson's retirement.

One of the best week in sports

This week has just about everything a sports fan could want. The NCAA men's and women's basketball finals were Monday and Tuesday. The Tigers are in full swing on the tube and the NCAA men's hockey tournament, featuring Michigan, has its Frozen Four beginning on Thursday. Then there's two of my favorite events - the NHL playoffs and The Masters golf tournament. The NHL gets under way tonight and the Wings open at home on Thursday. And on Thursday Tiger Woods goes after yet another major. What could be better? I know, you avid NFL can't wait until the Lions open pre-season football. For others it's comforting to know that won't start for awhile.

Don't panic

The unusually wet weather we've expereinced, including all that snow, in late winter and early spring has forced the postponement of many high school baseball and softball games. This has fuled the voice of those who wish to move the start, and end, of spring sport season. There's talk that the baseball and softball seasons should be played two weeks later, meaning the end would be, at times, the first weekend of July. This isn't good. I could see the finals played the last weekend in June but that's as far as I would take it. Many baseball players would be forced to choose between playing with their summer baseball teams and their high school teams. Remember, this was an unusual spring. Let's wait before we do anything drastic in trying to mend the change of seasons that has caused some difficulties. We all want to more participation in our athletic teams. Further discussions, and time, are needed before we make these changes.

Time for a change

This jump ball/tie up has gone far enough. Let's say there's 13 seconds left in regulation. A jump ball situation takes place. Team B gets possession and the game goes into overtime. Why doesn't team A get possession to start the overtime. Any logical answer will do.