A few short-hitters on a Friday:
Headed to Oklahoma City today to see Barry Sanders’ son, Barry, Jr., play in a Class 3A playoff game for Heritage Hall, that city’s version of Wichita Collegiate.
Kind of wish I were going to be here tonight. Lots of great things going on: Bishop Carroll at Hutchinson, Dodge City at Heights, Shocker volleyball vs. an outstanding Northern Iowa team, the big ABBA show at The Orpheum.
Look for my column on Kid Sanders in Sunday’s paper. Really curious to see him. He’s bigger than Barry (about 6-feet and 190 pounds) and is being heavily recruited already, as a junior, and has narrowed his list of potential choices to four: Oklahoma State, Alabama, UCLA and Florida State. It’s difficult for me to believe he’ll end up anywhere other than OSU, where his father won the Heisman Trophy in 1988.
Looks like they’ll only be using one end zone at Wrigley Field for Saturday’s Illinois-Northwestern game.
Which begs the question: Why is this game being played at Wrigley?
I know, it’s fashionable now to play football games at baseball stadium. But there’s not enough room in Wrigley, which is something the organizers of the game maybe should have known earlier. Yes?
Anyway, only the west end zone will be used; the east end zone is too close to Wrigley’s right-field wall and officials fear significant injuries.
Bruce Pearl is really difficult to like. He’s smarmy and all his supposed charm just repulses me.
So I was happy that SEC commissioner Mike Slive decided to suspend Pearl, Tennessee’s basketball game, for the first eight games of the conference season. NCAA penalties have not been handed down and probably won’t be until the spring for Pearl’s part in not telling the truth about recruiting parties held at his home.
Unbelievably, Tennessee is standing behind Pearl, who should have been fired for this stuff. It shows how desperate universities are to win in athletics these days.
Will I be watching some of Sunday’s NASCAR race from Homestead, Fla., the final event of the longest season in sports? I just might because of the drama as Denny Hamlin tries to hold off Jimmie Johnson, who is chasing his fifth Sprint Cup championship in a row, and Kevin Harvick, who is within striking distance.
I’ll at least check out the race in the middle and see if it’s worth following.
* Some college football picks:
Colorado 24, Kansas State 20
Oklahoma State 37, Kansas 7
Oklahoma 40, Baylor 24
Texas A&M 24, Nebraska 21
Missouri 35, Iowa State 24
Boise State 44, Fresno State 17
Virginia Tech 30, Miami (Fla.) 20
Ohio State 31, Iowa 20
Shock Talk
Chris Ronen I Soph. I Track and Field (javelin) I Newton
Ronen
Why are you such a fan of sports-talk radio?
I just love sports and I love to hear people talk about sports and give their opinions. I love to hear people call in and give their take. With some of them, I couldn’t disagree more. But it’s just the idea of people giving their opinions on things. I like that.
What do you miss about playing football?
I miss the team and my friends big time. That’s really the only part that I miss about it, jus6 playing with my best friends from high school. Three of my best friends are playing in college at Kansas State, Friends and Adams State in Colorado. They even talk about how much they miss high school football. They say it’s not the same, that college is more work.
You’re studying law enforcement. What kind of law enforcement person do you want to be?
I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about it. I red-shirted my first year here at Wichita State after Tommy John surgery. So when I get to my fifth year, I’m planning on doing some Master’s work that I hope will lead me to doing something in federal law enforcement – Secret Service, DEA, U.S. Marshal. I’m not sure yet, but something like that, I hope.
You mentioned you love a lot of styles of music, but especially classic rock? Where’d that come from?
This is something people your age get a kick out of. My friends and I, we’ll be driving around and Foreigner comes on, or Styx, some of the 80s hair stuff. That’s something we all identify with. We painted houses all summer in high school and we listed to 104.5 The Fox all day. To me, doing that just brought back memories. (Foreigner’s) “Juke Box Hero” is my favorite. I can’t even explain why, it’s just such a good song.