Friday, July 31, 2009
In one chapter of Word Freak, Stefan Fatsis's absorbing account of his foray deep into the world of competitive Scrabble, Fatsis narrates the history of the game and its painstaking design by an obsessive tinkerer named Alfred Butts. Butts spent years fussing with the board layout, the premium-square arrangement, and the calibration and distribution of points and tiles. Fatsis concludes:
Perfection isn't arrived at overnight, and the more I play, the more Alfred's game seems perfect. I think he was like Alexander Cartwright's Knickerbocker Base Ball Club laying the bases ninety feet apart or James Naismith setting the height of his peach baskets at ten feet.
I thought of Fatsis's praise of Butts's exacting design for Scrabble while listening to bits and pieces of yesterday's doubleheader between the Durham Bulls and the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees (the teams split, 6-2 Durham in Game One, 8-2 Scranton in Game Two). When the two games are played consecutively in a minor-league twinbill, as they were Thursday when the Bulls and Yankees made up Wednesday's rainout, they are shortened by rule to seven regulation-innings each. That truncation may not sound like much of a big deal, but there are a couple of problems with it. First off, it treats the players like they're not fully mature and can't handle a major-league twinbill. I'd be willing to wager that most minor leaguers can probably handle a pair of nine-inning games better than many big-league veterans.
Second, baseball games are supposed to be nine innings long. The reasons are ineffable, but there's something wrong with a ballgame that only goes seven innings. You don't get enough development, enough structure. The team that jumps out to an early lead seems almost sure to win; the game never evolves properly, rewarding sprinters over marathoners---and if there's one thing that sets baseball apart from most other sports, it's in the patience and endurance that must accompany not only each game but the whole season, which unfolds day by day for almost half the year. In a seven-inning game, if you're losing after two turns of the order, it's already getting almost too late. A baseball game needs nine innings in order to play itself out fully. Seven innings is just too short.
Things other than length were also wrong with Thursday's doubleheader.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Corcoran, Schreiber back in the Triangle to haunt Mudcats
FIVE COUNTY STADIUM/ZEBULON It's Game 4 of the Carolina Mudcats' five-game series with the Chattanooga Lookouts, and the home team is on a bit of a roll after winning back-to-back close games.
Tonight is "Pack the Park" night, with N.C. State football coach Tom O'Brien and former standout wide receiver Alvis Whitted scheduled to throw out two of the many ceremonial "first pitches." It's also "Thirsty Thursday."
I hear from a club employee that a lot of the lower-level staffers who attended rival schools -I'm guessing maybe that means UNC or ECU given the geography - aren't keen on the idea of wearing Wolfpack red and are settling for Mudcats red instead.
It could be an interesting night since Tim Corcoran, a popular former Mudcat from last season who played for the Durham Bulls a few years ago, is on the mound for the Lookouts.
Corcoran, who played here only the second half of last season after coming off elbow surgery, has been with Chattanooga all season and in and out of the bullpen after signing with the Dodgers in a free-agent tryout in spring training. And he turns out to be the winner as his team scores early and survives 3-2.
N.C. State's Matt Hill and UNC's Casey Nogueira have been named the ACC male and female athletes of the year in a vote by the Atlantic Coast Sports Media Association.
Hill was the NCAA individual golf champion while Nogueira (pictured) was national women's soccer player of the year and led the Tar Heels to the NCAA title.
Hill is the first golfer ever to receive the McKevlin Award as the top male athlete. He is also the only golfer besides Tiger Woods in 1996 to win conference, regional and national titles in the same year.
Hill received 20 votes to nine for Florida State football player Myron Rolle.
Nogueira, a rising senior from Raleigh, is the first UNC woman to win the Garber Award since fellow soccer player Cindy Parlow was honored in 1999. She scored both goals in UNC's 2-1 win comeback win over Notre Dame in Cary that gave the program its 20th NCAA title.
Nogueira got 18 first-place votes to 13 for Duke tennis player Mallory Cecil.
Tar Heels' Breland named to Wade Trophy watch list
UNC forward Jessica Breland is one of four ACC players named to the preseason "Wade watch," the competition for the women's basketball award comparable to football's Heisman Trophy.
Joining Breland on the list are Virginia's Monica Wright, Florida State's Jacinta Monroe and Boston College's Carolyn Swords.
Wright is one of five players to make the list for the second straight year. The ACC is one of four conferences with four names apiece on the 25-player list.
The winner will be announced at the WBCA National Convention, which will be held in conjunction with the NCAA Women's Final Four in San Antonio, Texas, in April.
N.C. Central is going to be playing on an artificial turf home football field for the first time this season.
Work has begun on installation of Mondoturf at O'Kelly-Riddick Stadium, allowing the Eagles to practice inside their playing facility. The $816,000 project has an anticipated completion date of Aug. 24.
With only one available practice field on campus at the track beside the stadium, the Eagles have often been forced to move practice off-campus.
"We're extremely excited about the upgrade," NCCU athletics director Ingrid Wicker-McCree (pictured) said. "The addition of the artificial turf will provide our student-athletes with an attractive and safe playing surface to improve their performance and showcase their talents."
NCCU will play the first of its four games at the facility this season on Sept. 19 against Morehead State. The Eagles will open their season Sept. 5 at former long-time CIAA rival Hampton.
WAUG radio (750 AM) has announced it will be carrying all 20 Washington Redskins preseason and regular-season games this year.
WAUG has been the Redskins' local affiliate for the past two seasons.
The commercial station, owned by St. Augustine's College, also has a full day of sports programming on Saturdays from 10 a.m. - 7 p.m.
Shows feature discussion of the NFL, sports at Historically Black colleges and a wide range of high school, college and pro sports along with some doses of entertainment news and politics.
Hosts include Maurice "Big Mo" Stanfield, Donal Ware (pictured), Hanif Omar, Rick Moore, Eddie Wright, Edward Robinson and Jaymes Powell.
Durham Bulls rained out at Scranton; doubleheader Thursday (and some rainy-day musing)
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="The Bulls were rained out at Scranton on Tuesday"]
[/caption]The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees, who play in none of the three places implied by their name, have had 12 games postponed this year. Some of those postponements came on sunny days: the drainage system at PNC Park in Moosic, PA is superannuated and ineffective; after wet weather passes, the field is sometimes still too wet to play on. A lot of people have been pretty mad about it.
On Wednesday night, though, rain was the culprit. The folks in Scranton, along with help from the New York Yankees, have been working to jerry-build a temporary fix until a major overhaul of the ballpark can be done during the offseason; and so the upshot is that one can only hope that Thursday's doubleheader, which is scheduled to begin at 1:05 p.m., actually takes place. If it does, a pair of the Bulls' three starting Aitches will pitch: Jeremy Hellickson (who was slated for Wednesday) and Carlos Hernandez. Gwinnett and Norfolk both won last night, and crept to within 1.5 and 3 games of the Bulls, respectively, in the International League South Division.
A few notes follow:
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Kahaulelio swings the bat well in the clutch as Mudcats win second straight
FIVE COUNTY STADIUM/ZEBULON Back for Game 3 of the Carolina Mudcats' series with the first-place Chattanooga Lookouts, and as the action begins the series is all tied up.
The rains hit Zebulon in late afternoon, but the tarp comes off the field about 45 minutes before the game and everybody's going to be ready to go on time.
Tonight we'll go with barbecue sauce on the cheeseburger, remembering a commercial starring Michael Jordan who played here in a handful of games with the Birmingham Barons.
Chattanooga lefty James Adkins does get the first pitch off at precisely 7:15, and after last night's 13-inning saga that makes everyone who pays attention to such things very happy. And the home fans aren't disappointed tonight as the Mudcats eke out a 2-1 win.
Everything is sailing along fine until there's a spontaneous blackout in the middle of the fourth, which only blips the press box but puts the stadium lights out for quite some time.
After a delay of 14 minutes that seems a lot longer, everything seems to be proceeding normally.
Duke is currently conducting its second annual Athletics Tour, with head football coach David Cutcliffe (pictured) as the principal speaker.
The show moves to Raleigh Thursday at 5:30 p.m. with a session at the Tobacco Road Sports Café on Glenwood Ave.
The event, open to the public, includes an autograph and photo session, door prizes and food and beverages.
For more information, visit www.irondukes.net or call Samantha Kozub at (919) 613-7554.
Lost in the hubbub over player-of-the-week Gregory Richardson's nifty hat trick last Sunday was the fact that his first goal with the RailHawks, scored against the Vancouver Whitecaps July 17, was what the Brits call a "dubious goal." The English Premier League, in fact, has a Dubious Goals Committee that is charged with reviewing goals in which the identity of the scorer is in dispute.
In the Whitecaps game, Richardson took a lay-off from John Cunliffe and juked his way to the byline before crossing. Before his ball could reach Cunliffe at the near post or Sallieu Bundu at the back, it deflected off Vancouver midfielder and captain Martin Nash and squirted through the legs of keeper Jay Nolly.
According to Tim Candon, the RailHawks were alerted after that game that Richardson might lose his goal; it's now official. It must be said, however, that this particular goal was much easier to review for the fact that the game was broadcast by Fox Soccer Channel. Good luck getting this clear, professional coverage on USLLive.com.
By the way, the large Vancouver defender with the dreadlocks that you see at the end of the play, putting his hands on his knees? That's Wesley Charles, a longtime Irish club pro who was in his second season with the Whitecaps. I say "was" because the club released him last week after a pattern of violent incidents, including this one (scroll to 7:25 mark):
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