These are challenging and stressful times we find ourselves in. It was bad enough getting ourselves everywhere we needed to be this past week or so, yes? Well, imagine what the athletic directors of our area high schools are going through right now.
Ah, that’s right, you can’t do that, because it’s pretty much a sure thing most of us have never had the responsibility of starting virtually from scratch in making schedules we had already made, and having to arrange and re-arrange travel plans that had been set in stone to coincide with every new schedule we’ve had to re-make from scratch for every winter sports team in our school. And on the fly, no less.
Making a schedule for a single team in your school is a nightmare to begin with. Having to make schedules for every team in your school per season is just plain insomnia — and that’s when you have the ample time of an offseason to do it. But to do what these guys are doing right now? Why pulling a rabbit out of your hat might be an easier trick to pull off.
Our in-boxes here are overflowing with the plans and updates of noted reconstructionists Duane McMinn of Allegany, Jim Zamagias of Bishop Walsh, Paul Green of Fort Hill, Gary Davis of Mountain Ridge, Matt Redinger of Southern and April Higson of Allegany College of Maryland. And what these good people send us every day takes some quiet time simply to read and put into place on our end. Yet seeing the end result of their work in the black-and-white of an e-mail allows you to picture in your mind a lot of working the phones, the behind-the-scenes bartering of, “I’ll give you this date for that game, if you give us this date so we can be free for this game,” and, of course waking up in the middle of the night trying to remember if that one last phone call was returned, or if that one final e-mail was sent out.
It gives me a headache just thinking about it, which makes me all the more pleased that I am not charged with the responsibility of doing it. Students, alumni, fans and the boards of education of our area would be wise to appreciate the dedication and fine work of these good gentlemen. Every time we walk into a warm, toasty gym on a cold, miserable night.
And in times such as these, it is clearly evident we have much more to be grateful for every time we drive ourselves to the market or to work, because in the City of Cumberland, after having over 30 inches of snow dumped on us, driving to both the store and work is a measured stroll through the park, thanks to the Street Department of the City of Cumberland.
The work the street department in this city does is money in the bank, and in times like these it’s one of the surest things we have in Cumberland. Speaking for just one guy who can’t stand to go to the market, but loves going to work most days, but speaking for the majority of Cumberland residents, I wish to offer a huge thank you to the men and women of our street department.
And while we’re on the subject, another lucky thing about living here? It’s being in the heart of the ACC television coverage area. For instance, on Wednesday, the Duke-North Carolina was blacked out on ESPN in said ACC coverage area, because the Raycom/ACC network was carrying the game.
Thus, on ESPN our area got the Virginia Tech-N.C. State game, which wasn’t much to look at, but better yet, we didn’t have to listen to Dick Vitale croon his love and never-ending devotion to Coach K and “the Hall of Famer Roy Williams, baybee!” all night long. Instead, we got a nice understated and informative broadcast from Raycom’s Dan Bonner and whoever the play-by-play guy was. And that I don’t even know the play-by-play guy’s name is a credit to him, because he was content not to be the story of the night but to simply allow the story of the night, a very good college-basketball game between the two biggest rivals in the country, play out on its own.
The same can not be said, however, for the misfortune the entire nation was dealt on Tuesday night for the much-anticipated Purdue-Michigan State game, called by Brent “3-Ball” Musburger and Steve “Skill Set” Lavin. You’re grateful for the good and you understand there is bad, so that is another story for another dead-air time, which would be a wonderful thing to have anytime you watch a game with Brent and “Lav.”
Mike Burke is sports editor of the Cumberland Times-News. Contact Mike Burke at mburke@times-news.com.
Mike Burke - Sports
In times like these, be grateful we live here
- Mike Burke - Sports
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Happy birthday, Brooks
Today is Brooks Robinson’s birthday. That’s right, good ol’ No. 5 is 75 years young, a term the great Chuck Thompson used all of the time, and a term that, even as a child, drove me up the wall when Chuck would use it to send birthday greetings to somebody who had just turned 100.
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How to e-mail (or phone) us your games
It will remain one of the great mysteries of my life (until I hit the lottery, that is) that seemingly grown men and women who have the mental capacity to sit at a computer, compose an e-mail and send it, cannot look at the little league/softball game reports that appear daily in the Times-News and duplicate the format we require for publication.
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The DH, the rook, ‘old school’ and the Codes
Baseball, to say the least, is presently buzzing in the Baltimore-Washington corridor, as the Orioles streaked to baseball’s best record through the first 29 games, while the Nationals seem to be every bit the contender they were said to have been, sitting atop the National League East as of yesterday.
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Take me out to the coin collector’s?
You know, you try to do the right things, but sometimes it just doesn't pay off in the end. And that's fine.
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We’d have taken Hines back, too
The Mega Millions madness is over for now, and that’s a good thing, because, frankly, I’m a little bit ashamed of all of you. Really. If you could have just seen yourselves and the way you’ve been acting these past 10 days, with nothing but greed soaring from your eyes, you’d be embarrassed, too. It’s as the great Charles E. Lattimer used to say (to me quite a bit, actually), “(Jiminy Crickets), look at yourself, son.”
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With no rule, there is no spirit to break
Three days after paying a king’s ransom for the No. 2 pick in the NFL draft and the right to select Baylor quarterback Robert Griffin III (or, if Jim goes completely Irsay on us, Stanford quarterback Oliver Luck), the Washington Redskins were informed by Commissioner Vernon Wormer that they had violated double-secret probation, bringing to mind a piece of Redskins history that would produce one of the great lines in sports.
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No need to wonder what ACIT means to Karcher
This weekend’s 52nd Alhambra Catholic Invitational Tournament will mean a great many things to a great many people, from the players who will be competing, to their coaches, schools, family and friends, and to the fans who come to see some of the best high school basketball in the country.
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Shot clock should help loaded ACIT to light it up
The idea had been floating in Joe Carter’s thoughts since last year’s ACIT final between DeMatha and Benedictine, when DeMatha head coach Mike Jones, to help alleviate his team’s injury and foul issues, slowed the pace of the game in the first half of the title game his Stags would win, 53-43.
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Senior Day honor is the least Mosley deserves
COLLEGE PARK — Sean Mosley will be honored at Comcast Center today on Senior Day prior to Maryland’s game against Virginia, and it’s difficult to believe it’s been four years since we got our first glimpse of the 6-foot-4 guard out of Baltimore’s St. Frances Academy when he was the Most Outstanding Player in the 2008 Alhambra Catholic Invitational Tournament field.
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Somewhere over the rainbow starts here
During a break in the program Sunday night, former Pittsburgh Pirates slugger Bob Robertson sat at a table backstage sharing some stories from the day when he played some of the finest defensive first base and hit some of the longest home runs in the major leagues in helping the Bucs to the 1971 world championship.
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