Don’t overlook the benefits of baseball

April 11, 2019

IN the professional world, it’s one of the four major sports, but in the high school realm, baseball seems to be further back on the list — for whatever reason. Blame Mother Nature. Blame the slow pace that seems to irk some people, or maybe blame the fact that a lot of times, people don’t know exactly where games are played. Either way, baseball gets the cold shoulder, undeservedly so. The Mahoning Valley certainly churns out some great players. Just in the last few years, we’ve had several former high school stars earn Division I scholarships. There was even talk that ...

Can area players change culture at YSU?

April 9, 2019

One of the more nauseating quotes fans and media hear from coaches is the old “we need to change the culture” line. Yeah, and I need to change the inordinate amount of time I spend scouring meaningless social media posts on my phone, but that’s not happening either. However, the annoying line doesn’t mean there isn’t some truth to it. If there’s one team I’ve seen over the past year that truly needs a “culture change” it’s the Youngstown State football team. It’s kind of odd to say that because when YSU coach Bo Pelini took over back in 2014, he used the ...

Has MLB forgotten its about winning?

March 31, 2019

The Major League Baseball season finally is upon us after a long offseason of talk about speeding up the game and making it more exciting. Apparently, the pace of the game is not fast enough for some viewers, whether they be watching in person, on television or on a handheld device. I don’t want to go too far into how the pace of a baseball game is conducive to fans talking about the game between pitches, between innings. We discuss strategy, consider upcoming hitters and potential pinch hitters, speculate about who is ready in the bullpen. I’m not entirely against change in a ...

Is playing in March madness?

March 24, 2019

Longtime Champion baseball coach Bill Thorne always liked to schedule as many games as possible in March each season. His reasoning was that there often are stretches of three to four days in late March when the weather is nice enough to get a game in. Invariably, most if not all of the Golden Flashes’ March games were postponed because of rain, snow or a wet field, but at least he tried. The Ohio High School Athletic Association may be taking that idea a bit too far. The official start of the OHSAA season was Friday for boys tennis and Saturday for baseball, softball and track ...

Good grief, it’s tough to be an official

March 19, 2019

THERE was a recent article on Yahoo.com that reported the average salary of an NBA referee is between $150,000 and $550,000 per year. Impressive, huh? Yeah, well, they deserve it. As a sports reporter for the last 15 years, the ignorance and outlandish criticism I’ve heard spewed toward referees has been downright disturbing. I honestly don’t know how officials keep their cool. They are truly the most poised people in sports. It’s hard to imagine their point of view. I mean, they’re lucky if they have one or two friends in the whole gym (or on the field), and that is ...

It’s not about promoting a school’s brand

March 17, 2019

THIS is the look you want your program to have heading the NCAA Tournament? Bradley University, you just disgraced your fans who have waited since the 2005-06 season to return to this pinnacle. Your players, who have given everything they have each and every practice and then some, are overshadowed. Why? It’s because a long-time beat reporter, Dave Reynolds from the Peoria (Illinois) Journal Star, has had his access reduced. Do I see Youngstown State doing this? Never. Most schools around the country aren’t this boneheaded. Bradley University, you screwed up. You made what ...