Back at it...

For those of you wondering where I have been again as it was two weeks ago I was stuck in Master's class paper purgatory. I have one more assignment due in that class and then I will be six hours away from my graduate certificate.

The Reds...I now see GB and a 1/2 under it. All because the two teams that tormented the Reds recently have rolled over against the Cardinals. Well at least the Reds have the Nationals in town this week for four games. Wednesday should be interesting as Strausburg makes his first appearance against the Reds. Unfortunately I will be a little pre-occupied from that game. More about that in a minute.

On the recruiting trail my alma mater Butler has taken one from my high school alma mater. Andy Smeathers a 6-foot-7 swing player has been offered a scholarship by coach Stevens and has accepted. I am excited about that for Smeathers and for the Butler program. But I do not believe him to be the next Gordon Hayward. While we are it as some have some times said I am not a loyal alumnus to my high school there's some business Smeathers and his teammates need to take care of in the 2010-2011 season. No it is not winning the Hall of Fame Classic in December. No, it's not winning yet another Johnson County Tournament in January (yawn). IT'S WINNING CG'S FIRST SECTIONAL IN 17 YEARS! I'm looking through and that is currently the longest drought between sectionals for any varsity sport at CG. Not that I want to add any pressure but it would be nice for Smeathers to have a piece of sectional net in his possession when he arrives at 4600 Sunset Avenue next June.

Well so far no big shocks coming from the summer tournaments, but the big ones all begin this week in Las Vegas. Shoujld be some rumblings as that tournament commences and we go through the various games on and off the court this week.

For you Colts fans out there - Sanders to play or not to play in 2010 - is that the question?

Broncos - report is if things slide Tebow could see some serious playing time. YIKES! Not sure I am ready for that yet.

But college football is right around the corner. Should be an interesting year for my Northwestern Wildcats. Oh just so happens last season Outback Bowl is on ESPNU. And unfortunately the Wildcats still lose to Auburn 38-35 in overtime.

Which brings me to why I will be pre-occupied Wednesday night. For several years now some of my sportswriting friends I met during a summer at the IU High School Journalism Institute and I get together. We always sit in the Ernie Pyle booth at Nick's English Hut on Kirkwood Ave. in Bloomington. Out of the seven somehow four of us are still in the sports journalism or journalism in general on a full-time basis. So I guess those are good odds or they aren't married and don't have kids. Well at least kids they don't know about - just kidding. Anyway, we'll get together talk about how we would change the sports world for the better and sometimes for the worse. And by the end of it we will have decided why change it because that would just make sense to everyone and be too easy to do. Or something like that. A couple of times in April, May and June there were mini get togethers after they were covering some of the big summer club basketball tournaments and I officiated which were in Bloomington. We all pretty much were together after beating deadline for the state track and field meets in June which were held at IU.

Either way it's just good to hang out with some friends who met on a whim in 1989 and have remained close ever since. Yes, I'd go through a brick wall for any of them any day of the week. Loyal to the bitter end.