Hello and welcome to another Wednesday of deep thoughts. It has been a hectic past few days and truthfully, I did not have much opportunity to follow sports much … After a Thursday night football game, we finished the week…then headed south for a college visit at UT Pan American. I have to admit that I had no idea what to expect of the college recruiting process. It has always been a bit unnerving to watch my son play knowing that scouts were sitting and watching…and judging. As a parent, I suppose I am as guilty as anyone else of seeing the positives and overlooking deficiencies in my son’s play. I cannot tell you how many times I have been asked if Blake was going to quit football and focus on baseball. It was if by continuing to play high school football that Blake was diminishing his baseball opportunities.

Opportunities are strange; you really never know when or where they will appear. This weekend was an opportunity for my son. The University of Texas at Pan American decided that they wanted Blake to be a Bronc next year. After a few days of eating and touring the facilities, we finally heard the offer…half of a scholarship to play Baseball at Pan Am. To understand what this means, college baseball has 11.75 baseball scholarships to offer. Nobody gets a full scholarship (unless you are 6’5” and throw 95). To get half a scholarship means that the school really wants you… Selfishly, I wish Blake was playing closer to home so that I could watch him play more often. But, realistically this opportunity may be the best thing that could have happened.  Pan Am is a division 1 program that previously had a reputation as a great baseball school. Recently, the team fell on hard times and the current coaching staff is in their third year of rebuilding the program. The assistant coach that recruited Blake was an undersized catcher for the Angels. By his own admission, he was a poor hitter and his catching ability allowed him to play professionally. What impressed us the most is the integrity of the coaching staff. Three rules for each player…take care of business in the classroom, work hard on the field and don’t embarrass the team. Follow those rules and scholarships will not be pulled.

On the long trip home, we talked about Blake’s decision. Pan Am gave Blake three days to think about the offer…Blake took one day to decide to become a Bronc. A great opportunity…

Blake's first view of the field...

Funny thing is this kid hitting went to Westwood when Blake was a freshman...

Coach Lopez working with the catchers...

Student center from the outside...

This is the student center and it is amazing. Basketball courts, tennis courts and a climbing wall. A favorite with the Pan Am students...

Here is the rock climbing wall...pretty cool.

Last Thursday, Westwood faced the Dragons from Round Rock. This was the first district game for both teams. Westwood played well in the first half and led 21 to 6 at the half. A fumbled punt gave Round Rock the opportunity to punch in a cheap score to make the game 21 to 14, but the Warrior defense held tough and Westwood got the win 21 to 14. This week is a match up against the McNeil Mavericks. This game might be interesting as we probably won't have our starting QB.

Defensive strategy...

Tuesday night, the amazing A’s tied the Rangers for the division lead. It is funny how the season comes down to this one game. I don’t imagine that anyone believed this game would matter when the schedule came out. I have to think that if the Rangers are to get to the Promised Land that they need to win tonight. Big time players play well in big games. I have to think that Josh Hamilton has a good game, but we shall see…

What would you do if you found a bear on your porch? I bet the kids in the neighborhood steer clear of this woman’s porch.

This guy might not be able to ride all the rides, but he can flat out ball. Amazing that he does this at less than 5 feet tall...

That is all I have today, but I will leave you with a bit of Jack Handey:

I'd like to be buried Indian style, where they put you up on a high rack, above the ground. That way, you could get hit by meteorites and not even feel it.

I bet when Neanderthal kids would make a snowman, someone would always end up saying, "Don't forget the thick heavy brows." Then they would get embarrassed because they remembered they had the big hunky brows too, and they'd get mad and eat the snowman.

Thanks for stopping by and feel free to leave a few deep thoughts of your own.

                                                                                   Happy 4th of July!

Hello and welcome to another Wednesday of deep thoughts.  After a very busy few weeks, it is nice to write a mid week blog again.  Does it seem like we just started summer to you? June has vanished in a shimmer of summer heat. July 4^th is a holiday that I have always enjoyed tremendously.  Cooking out, watching baseball and grabbing a swim before fireworks is our normal agenda. This year, the small version of the Thomas clan travel to Atlanta…or as I like to call it Sullyville. Yep, that is right. I am once again taking deep thoughts on the road. As you read this blog, we will be into the first leg of our trip. This year’s trip will be a brief layover in Baton Rouge, LA. Since the BBCOR bat I bought for my son has been “decertified”, I am taking Marucci up on their offer to switch the worthless bat for 3 professional cut Marucci wood bats. So, early on July 5^th, I will be walking in for a brief visit with the nice folks at Marucci's facility in Baton Rouge, then off to Sullyville for another 8 days of baseball. Of course along the way, I will catch a few pics and videos for next week’s blog. Hopefully, there will be a meal of two with Sully to add to the week. I can already taste the steak at West Cobb Diner. I opted for the meatloaf last time and have regretted the choice ever since. I look forward to rectifying my mistake.

This has been a really strange week. Since my son began to play baseball at 5 years old, his dream has been to play professional baseball. Although he has a year of high school remaining, July 1^st was the first day that colleges were able to call him. On the way home from his game on Sunday, he got a call from the UT Pan American coach. Last night, he got a call from a recruiter with Valparaiso or the Valpo Crusaders. My wife is fervently against out of state schools, but I am not so sure. Of course, playing for Texas or Texas State would be ideal, but how often do things work out perfectly? The bottom line for my son is playing time. Perhaps being on his on is exactly what my son needs? I have talked to several guys that signed with a big school and they spent a good part of their time on the bench. It is hard to get better if you don’t play. As a parent, it is really tough to advise the proper path. This next year will interesting to say the least. It is a process as they say and I guess this is the beginning of the next stage. In truth, it was much more fun when he was 5.

I was driving home from work today listening to the local guys talking about sports. The talk turned to the NFL rookie symposium. I was just sort of half listening until I heard that Pacman Jones was one of the speakers. Reportedly, he gave a very heartfelt speech to the rookies to try to help them not make the same mistakes that he did. Have you ever been to a strip club? What did you spend? For a big bachelor party, maybe $1000 would be normal, right? Pacman dropped 1 million at a strip club in one night. Even TO (sitting next to him), was surprised to hear that number. I have heard of athletes blowing their money, but even Donald Trump's dollars would not last very long dropping one million at the club. Damn that is just obscenely stupid. The other thing that caught my attention is that a drop dead totally hot woman walked out on the stage in front of the rookies. She was scantily attired to ensure that every eye caught each move she made. After standing and looking around the room, she exited the floor. A guy walked out and watched as the beauty vanished behind the curtain. He said to the rookies...she is fine right? As you can imagine, there were enthusiastic nods and comments. The room fell silent however after his next comment, "she has HIV"... You were pads for protection. Protect yourself in every aspect of your life. Now that is a very effective way to deliver an important message. Talk about a cold bucket of reality!

I know that many of us hold Joe Paterno responsible for Sandusky being allowed to remain part of the Penn State family. It is indeed criminal to think of how many of the victims could have been saved if Sandusky had been outed early in his tenure at Penn State. I have to admit, that it does seem a bit odd that only bits and pieces of information have been released and all of that information released seems designed to smear Joe Paterno. The Paterno family requested that the Attorney General release all of the emails and records related to the investigation. The attorney for the Paterno family released a very strong statement: "With the leaking of selective emails over the last few days, it is clear that someone in a position of authority is not interested in a fair or thorough investigation," Perhaps there is a reason that the Pennsylvania AG does not want all of the information revealed to the public? It seems obvious to me that many would like Paterno to take the brunt of the responsibility. Hell, who better than a dead guy to place the blame? I suspect that the list of responsible individuals travels much higher than Joe Paterno. Watch how this plays out as I think the truth will be squashed using the law and every other measure available. Political careers are at stake here, I think...

I know what our friend Samuel L. Jackson would have to say about all involved with this terrible crime...

When I heard the news that Andy Griffith passed on Tuesday, I actually came back to add this to my blog. Many of you are probably too young to have grown up with Andy, but his show was of great joy to me. I know that by today's standards, the show would be considered corn ball...no violence or sex to speak of. What the show offered was a strong slice of Americana. The home spun wisdom and humor of Andy and crew kept me and much of my generation entertained for years. Since the show was syndicated before it was even off the air, was a clear indication of how popular the show was. Andy played a small town sheriff in his show, but in actuality, he was a very talented actor. Before playing the Mayberry sheriff, Andy did standup. Here is a bit from Andy's routine:

Andy Griffith was one of the good guys and I feel like part of my childhood died today. RIP Andy...

So…was it my imagination or did Tony LaRussa not retire last year? Does it seem odd that he is managing NL All Star team? One thing is for sure, he is still doing his best to tweak a few noses one last time. I guess if I was the All Star manager that I would grab my guys, but if the winner gets home field advantage…shouldn’t the manager be an active manager?  The back and forth with LaRussa and Dusty Baker is rather amusing, but it is difficult to not think that Baker has a point. As has been mentioned this week, Baker should thank LaRussa for not choosing Cueto and abusing him.

 I really think that one requirement to be selected to the All Star team  is a minimum number of innings. It would at least prevent guys making the team that have only played one month of the season. When did Pablo play last? As we near the half way point of the season, Bud Selig took this opportunity to say this about instant replay:

People in our sport don't want any more," Selig said in regards to expansion of replay. "Given our attendance and everything we're doing, we're in the right place with instant replay. Baseball is a game of pace. You have to be very sensitive and careful not to disturb that pace." That is to say that Bud Selig is happy with instant replay as it is. I have read numerous sources that the majority of the teams were ready to move forward with increased instant replay this year. It is Selig that is dragging his feet. The pace of play should be secondary to making sure that a double is fair not foul or that a player actually catches the ball he dove into the stands for. Baseball fans are big on maintaining the integrity of the game. It is time that Selig takes the next step to allow technology to provide umpires with a way to get the calls right. After all,  the game deserves nothing less...

You probably do not know this man. This is Oakland As minor league coach Todd Steverson. In a June 23rd contest, Steverson was filling in as manager. The game went into extra innings and Steverson made the unique decision to have his pitchers balk three times in an attempt to end the game. Of course, by the 16th inning, the pitchers were actually position players imitating pitchers. Steverson did not like the idea of one of his guys being injured while pitching...hence, the rash decision to end the game. Even though the pitcher intentionally balked twice in the 16th inning, it was not until another intentional balk in the 18th inning that the Modesto Nuts were able to find that elusive game winning hit. The president of the California A league took an extreme view of the intentional balks and suspended the roving hitting instructor for one year. You have to admire Steverson's commitment to his players, but intentionally throwing a game is a rather drastic move. Incidentally, if he had taken his players from the field and forfeited the game, he would have been fined $50,000. Damn!

If you would like check out the entire article, here it is:

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-league-stew/oakland-minor-league-coach-banned-ordering-intentional-balks-152132262--mlb.html

A holiday gift...

One bit of advice...if you schedule a blog, make sure it is 2012 instead of 2014...

That is all I have today and I hope you have a terrific 4^th of July. To help celebrate the holiday, I will leave you with a bit of Jack Handey:

“What if the Mayan Calendar ends in 5015 and we have been reading it upside down?”

“ If the number 2 pencil is so popular, why is it the number 2 pencil?”

Thanks for stopping by and feel free to leave a few deep thoughts of your own…

I’ll get to the shoes, but before that even came up again, I was planning to write about Les’ coverage by the Oklahoma St. media. After last season, I wrote this blog about Les Miles’ tenure at LSU so far as compared to previous coaches. I didn’t write anything about that other school where he was the head coach. (By the way, let me know if my links are not to your liking. I know some people like to know where they’re going before clicking on a link.)

I found this tribute by “News OK”/The Oklahoman interesting. Check out the video and the article.

Miles “only” went 2-2 against “Bedlam” rivals Oklahoma, including a 52-9 loss, but a few notes about that series that the Oklahoma St. media didn’t care to remind people about (and I don’t blame them). The Cowboys have only beaten the Sooners 16 times in 97 games. Only 7 of those Oklahoma teams had winning records (1917, 1930, 1944, 1966, 1976, 2001, and 2002), so the only two of those instances in the last 34 years were under Miles. 1976 was the only other time Oklahoma had what I would call an impressive record (9-2-1). The best Oklahoma record in the other seasons was 6-3-1. The Oklahoma teams that the Cowboys beat under Miles were 11-2 and 12-2, respectively. You would never hear Les call this a success, I’m sure, but the Cowboys only lost to the Sooners by three points in 2004, a year Oklahoma would finish 12-1 (the only loss being in the national championship game). The Sooners have won every game against the Cowboys since, and 4 of the 6 games were by 20 points or more.

I don’t understand what he did in leaving to upset the Oklahoma St. fans, but maybe some of the resentment is because they miss him a little, at least during one game a year. Despite the one blowout, there had to be a better feeling going into Bedlam then than there is now or than there has been any time in memory. He told people goodbye? That seems like a nice thing to me. Maybe someone could explain to me what he did. It’s not like he pulled a Saban and started coaching another Big XII South team (the only ones comparable to Alabama would be Oklahoma or maybe Texas) a couple of years later.

Mike Gundy had his tirade ("I'm a man, I'm 40"), but I prefer a guy being funny because he doesn’t take himself too seriously rather than because he's prone to drama. It might have even been somewhat calculated too. He had to show he was just as committed-to-the-point-of-insanity (or at least a high level of eccentricity) to his program and his players to replace Miles in people’s eyes.

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