Best of Luck to Mr. Electricity

Mizzou's Mr. Electricity is out of college experience. He has no more eligibility. It is time for him to move on. Brad Smith will not be playing quaterback for the Missouri Tigers anymore. It is time for him to test his game in the NFL. Smith is not a great passer, but his athletic ability will allow him to get a shot at an NFL roster. Most likely Smith will be playing wide receiver in the NFL, a position he will have to learn and master over time. I wish there was room for a quaterback who played as Smith did in college to play the position in the NFL. Smith now joins a list that includes Eric Crouch, Woody Dantzler, and Antwaan Randle El as guys who were running quaterbacks in college, but were forced to change positions in the NFL. Only Randle El has made the transition successfully, gradually becoming one of the better wide receivers in the game. Those types of quaterbacks make watching college football so fun, and so unpredictable. Watching Mizzou play, you would never know when Brad Smith was going to put together a 200 yard rushing game to go along with about 170 passing yards. The NFL does have a few running quaterbacks, Mike Vick namely and Vince Young is on his way, but more and more they force the running quaterback to conform to conventional NFL passing styles. It is the smart way to play it, but for the fan it is much less entertaining. That is what makes the college game so appealing. It has so many surprise aspects to it, with trick plays and wide open offenses, that it is much more entertaining for the fans. Too often the NFL is a grind-it-out game with short passing attacks. I hope Brad Smith can get a shot to play quaterback in an NFL game, even if it is a pre-season game, because he was one of the most electrifying players in my college football memory. He was a game changer. With the ball in his hands you never knew what was going to happen, and with him playing quaterback, the ball was in his hands every play. Best of luck to Brad, I hope the NFL treats him well.

Publish Date: April 28 in the Missourian. Front page of the sports section.

Derrick Ming's High Hopes

An article written by Gregory Gaia on Missouri linebacker Derrick Ming was very good. It told the tale of a player who struggled early in his high school career with grades and off-the-field issues, before forming a bond with his head coach, Cliff Ice (side note: isn't that name sweet?). Ice straightened out Ming and told him that if he focuses he could earn a scholarship to a major university. I always enjoy these kind of feature stories on an athlete. So often, when you watch them on T.V., athletes seem to be not real, to be in a different world, but these stories always help me to realize that they are human beings just like me.

Another aspect that I like is that the reason for the profile on Ming is that he has a chance to be selected in the upcoming NFL Draft, and the Missourian has been running features on some of Mizzou's best seniors, and what their chances of being selected are. From what I got from the article, Ming has a good shot at being picked because of his versatility. He is an athlete, a linebacker who ran a 4.47 in the 40 yard dash, some teams were looking at him to play fullback, and he is willing to do anything to get on an NFL roster. After a solid senior season (81 tackles and 4 forced fumbles) I think Ming has a great shot at being picked on the second day of the NFL Draft.


Publish Date: April 26 in the Missourian. Sports section front page.

Alright, Thomas, It's Time to Come Back

When Thomas Gardner entered his name in the NBA Draft roughly a month ago, the highest I thought he would be picked would be at the middle of the second round, if he got drafted at all. He was a fringe player then, a guy who was going to have to have a good showing at pre-draft camps to have a shot, now, I think it is time for him to come back to Missouri. Gardner did not hire an agent, so he still has his college eligibility, and can return to Mizzou for his senior season. Right now, that would be best for Gardner and the Tigers. Gardner was the team's leading scorer last year and he will provide stability this upcoming year as the Tiger basketball program goes through a transition phase with a coaching change (Quin Snyder out, Mike Anderson of UAB in). Recently there have been a slew of underclassmen to declare for the draft, severely lessening Gardner's chances of getting picked.

There are 30 teams in the NBA, and only two rounds in the NBA Draft. That means 60 picks, and many second round selections do not even make their respective teams. Only if you are drafted in the first round are you guaranteed an NBA contract, second rounders could be shown the door before ever stepping through it. Plus, NBA teams are only allowed to carry 12 players on their active roster, that is 720 NBA players total, not very many.

Recently the likes of LaMarcus Aldridge, Tyrus Thomas, P.J. Tucker, Daniel Gibson, Adam Morrison (although he was expected to go pro), Marcus Williams, Rudy Gay and Shannon Brown have all declared for the draft. Some of these players have not hired agents (Tucker and Gibson off the top of my head, maybe Brown), but still, those eight players drastically lessen the chance that Gardner will be picked. Those players are superior, and have a lot more "buzz" to them then Gardner does. Plus, there is still time for players to declare, and LSU's Glen Davis and Florida's Joakim Noah are still weighing their options. Gardner will probably go to pre-draft camps, because he can before he pulls his name out, but I expect him to be back in Columbia next winter, if not, it is not good news for him or the Tigers basketball program.

Publish Date: April 25 in the Missourian. Second page of the sports section.

I Was Just Dying For the Chance, and Now I'm Jumping All Over It

The day is here, finally. The Chicago White Sox have graced the pages of the Missourian this gives me a chance to write about my beloved hometown team. In Wednesday's game against the Kansas City Royals, starting pitcher Javier Vazquez threw a gem of a game. His stat line read 8 innings, 2 hits, 7 strikeouts, 1 walk and no runs allowed. Vazquez had a perfect game through 4 innings, until he walked Matt Stairs on a full count, and then had a no-hitter into through 6 innings and one out into the seventh when Doug Mientkiewicz had a check swing single that rolled down the third base line. It stayed in fair territory because the third base line at Chicago's U.S. Cellular Field has a bit of a lip in it, and balls that roll down it tend to roll back into fair territory. White Sox third baseman Joe Crede knew this and did his best to get the ball to go foul. Saying that he "tried to dig a ditch to get the ball to go foul, but it didn't work." Anyway, Vazquez pitched into the ninth inning, where he gave up a leadoff single and was then pulled from the game to a loud ovation from the White Sox faithful.

The White Sox are on a hot streak now. They have won nine of their last ten games since struggling to a 1-4 start. They are a team that is set up for the long haul, as long as their pitching can hold up. Vazquez is their fifth starter, and he is definitely the most dangerous fifth starter in baseball. The scariest part about the team right now is the fact that the teams "table-setter," leadoff man Scott Podsednik is struggling to start the season, he is batting in the low .200's as of right now, and that is a major improvement from how he started (he batted .038 over the first seven or eight games). Like every other team in baseball, this White Sox team has holes in it. The center field position is a question mark as rookie starter Brian Anderson has gotten off to a slow start, and backup Rob Mackowiak has struggled as well. The middle part of the bullpen is also a question, Cliff Politte has not looked like the same guy he was last year, and the Sox are relying on Matt Thornton and Boone Logan to do well against left-handed hitters (Logan was playing single A ball last season, and was not even on the radar coming into spring training).

All in all, this team is built on its' starting pitching. You aren't going to find a more formidable starting rotation in baseball than Mark Buehrle, Freddy Garcia, Jose Contreras, Jon Garland, and Javier Vazquez. If those guys can stay healthy, and continue to pitch deep into ballgames, the White Sox are one of the favorites in baseball as far as the World Series goes. In the playoffs, they always say pitching wins, and the Sox were able to win the whole thing last year with pitching. This fan is praying that the pitching can do it again.

Publish Date: April 20 in the Missourian. Second page of the sports section

Mike Hall...I wish I Could've Read More About Him

There was a great story in the Missourian sports section today. Brian Sandalow told the tale of Mike Hall, a former Mizzou Broadcast Journalism student who won ESPN's first "Dream Job" competition, returning to Mizzou. Sandalow apparently followed Hall around for the day he was here, and was able to record what Hall did, as well as mix in some questions from Hall. I liked the story a lot, I thought it was very interesting to follow around a guy who is now a major part of ESPN's latest brainchild, ESPNU (a station that covers all college events). It reminded me a lot of those reality T.V. shows were they follow a person around for a day to "see how they live." I'm a sucker for those kind of shows, and I was a sucker for this. The complaint I have lies either with Sandalow or the Missourian, I can't tell which. I wanted more. I wanted a longer story. I don't know if Sandalow did not get that much information and that was the story that was turned in, or whether the Missourian editors cut some of the story out. Regardless of who is to blame, I thought the story could have been even better than it was if it were longer. When it ended, it seemed like it was just getting warmed up, that there was a lot more story to tell. It had the feel of a magazine feature in the early parts of the story, and then it just kind of ended. It was kind of jarring for me as a reader. I was prepared to read a two page story, and I wish I could have.

Publish Date: April 19 in the Missourian. Front page of the sports section, carrying over to page 3.

How Good Is He?

For the record, I am not a St. Louis Cardinals fan. I am from Chicago, and I am a White Sox fan. For the record Frank Thomas is my favorite baseball player of all-time. For the record I used to think that Barry Bonds was, hands down, the best baseball player to play the game. That last one is fading pretty quickly. Quite frankly, Albert Pujols is as good a baseball player as I have ever seen. I know that isn't saying much considering I am 20 years old, but I follow baseball more closely than most people follow their religion, and he is good. He is better than good, actually. He is amazing. It seems like you can't get the guy out. It seems like he never goes into a slump (I never have seen him go into one at least, unless you call an 0 for 8 run a slump, which for him it is). I was watching a Cardinals game earlier this season, and the only way Pujols got out in that game was the fact that he was unlucky. He hit a rocket right at Left Fielder Pat Burrell of the Philadelphia Phillies, and he hit an absolute missile of a ground ball right at Short Stop Jimmy Rollins. If the ball hit at Rollins was two feet to the right or left, it would have been a single for sure. Yesterday Pujols hit three homers to help the Cardinals defeat the Reds. He added another in tonight's game against the Pirates. That gives him 9 homers in a mere 13 games, he also has 19 RBI to start the season off. Not to mention, on top of all those great stats, and the incredible career he has had so far (200+ homers, just under 1,000 hits, roughly a .325 career batting average, and over a 100 RBI's in every one of his major league seasons), he is only 26 years old. Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees is on pace to break Hank Aaron's career home run record, Pujols is on pace to beat Alex Rodriguez. It could be a mind-boggling feat for baseball and it's fans. To have a guy break the greatest record in baseball, and then have it be broken 3-4 years after that. The only thing that can stop Pujols now is injuries.

Albert Pujols has reached a level in my mind. A level that my beloved Frank Thomas was at. A level that one of my other favorite players, Ken Griffey Jr. was at. A level that Alex Rodriguez, Vladimir Guerrero and Manny Ramirez are at. That level is that of a baseball player who is so young, but has had so much success that they seem to be the best there ever was. Frank Thomas once looked like that, and injuries got him. Injuries ruined the second half of his career. Griffey was like that too, and then he got hurt five straight years in Cincinnati. So much like those players, that is the only thing that can stop Albert Pujols, as well as Alex Rodriguez, Vladimir Guerrero and Manny Ramirez. Injuries can cost players records. And I hope they don't happen to any of these guys. But sometimes I think it is necessary to step back at look at the big picture. Ken Griffey Jr. was on pace for about 800 career home runs, and then injuries got him. He can still get to 600, and I think he will, but it would take an amazing run out of Griffey to catch Hank Aaron now. Pujols still needs 500+ home runs to catch him, Alex Rodriguez needs 300+. Those are careers (and good careers) for a lot of baseball players. You can't just give these guys records and say they will get there. Give Pujols his credit, and don't push him off as someone who will break Aaron's record. Enjoy his career, enjoy his run, because we never know when someone's star will fade out.

Publish Date: April 17 in the Missourian. Sports section front page.

Pirates? At Mizzou?

The Missouri Tiger baseball team is having some fun, and the class-clowns seem to be the Tigers bullpen. Recently relief pitcher Travis Wendte bought a pirate flag - featuring a skull and a couple of swords - and has been flying the flag over the Tiger bullpen. They are calling themselves "The Legion of Doom," and the key contributors are Wendte, Taylor Parker and David Cales. The reason behind this is geared toward motivating the Tiger bullpen to have a "light-out" approach to their appearances in games. Basically, they want the other team to feel like the game is over when they step on the field. It's a chance to have a little fun, and maybe show a little intimidation.

In baseball relief pitchers thrive on the intimidation factor. While many starting pitchers succeed with pitches that have less speed, and are more based on pinpoint control, successful relief pitchers always seem to be guys who have filthy "stuff" (meaning the break or speed of a pitcher's pitches). All you need to do is look at guys who come in to the games in the 7th, 8th or 9th innings, guys like: Francisco Rodriguez and Scott Shields of the Los Angeles Angels, Billy Wagner of the New York Mets, Mariano Rivera of the New York Yankees, Joe Nathan of the Minnesota Twins, Brad Lidge and Dan Wheeler of the Houston Astros, Huston Street of the Oakland A's, B.J. Ryan of the Toronto Blue Jays, Chris Ray of the Baltimore Orioles, Jon Papelbon of the Boston Red Sox, and Bobby Jenks of the Chicago White Sox. The list goes on and on. Intimidation is key to bullpen success. Many closers these days enter to theme songs, that may or may not strike fear into a batter. Rivera comes out to Metallica's "Enter Sandman," in which the lyrics go "Enter night, exit light...", Billy Wagner comes out to the same song. Trevor Hoffman of the San Diego Padres enters to AC/DC's "Hell's Bells" and they even turn out the lights in San Diego's PETCO Park for his entrance. All in all, theatrics have become a big part of relief pitching in baseball, and I think it is a good thing. I think that it adds a lot of fun to the game, and makes watching the closing innings of a game much more enjoyable.

What I am waiting for, though, is for a closer to go out on a limb. It would have to be one of the top closers in the game, but I think it would be great if they entered to the same song that WWE chairman Vince McMahon enters to. I don't know the artist or the name of the song, but the lyrics go "You got...no chance....no chance in hell." That would be great.

Publish Date: April 14 in the Missourian. Front page of the sports section.

Drew Bruno Can Really Tell a Story

During my reading of the Missourian this semester I have found sports writer Drew Bruno to be the writer with the best material on a consistent basis. His article on the St. Louis Cardinals home opener at new Busch Stadium is no exception. He weaves a great profile-type story of the events that occurred on opening day. Touching on several different accounts from fans, not to mention depicting a funny scene in the Cardinals dugout about locating the bathroom in the new stadium, as well as being able to incorporate quotes from manager Tony LaRussa. It was an enjoyable article, and even though I am not a Cardinals fan, I was able to smile at their experience on their home opener.

Despite all it's good I felt the article had one downfall. It seemed like there were too many voices in the story. Bruno touched on about four or five different groups of fans, and after a while their stories became intertwined, and I couldn't really remember who was doing what, or who each person was. There was a family with their eight year old daughter, a family from Kansas City who had taken their two sons out of school to attend the game, and then there was discussion from the first person in the ballpark as well as some other fans mixed in. After a while, I was just reading the quotes and didn't really care who was saying it or who they were. I think that isn't necessarily the best thing. I think Bruno could have eliminated one of these groups of people and it would have cut down on some of the confusion. But even with a little confusion, it is still a compelling and well-written story, just like every other one of his stories have been this semester.

Publish Date: April 11 in the Missourian. Sports Section Front Page.

Remember When He Couldn't Win One?

He used to have the dreaded title of "Best Player Never to Win a Major." He used to be in the hunt only to collapse on Sunday afternoon, or have the great Tiger Woods run him down. Not anymore. Phil Mickelson has gotten that monkey off of his back in a major way. The man who used to be futile in Major Championship Golf has now won 3 of the past 9 Majors (those events being The Masters, The U.S. Open, The British Open, and the PGA Championship), after winning his second Masters on Sunday, his other Major is last years PGA Championship. Because of the way the schedule is set up, Mickelson has won two Majors in a row, and is halfway to completing something that only Tiger Woods and Bobby Jones have done. That is winning the Grand Slam. Well, it wouldn't be the true Grand Slam because it didn't happen in a calendar year (the same thing happened for Woods), but he would hold all four major championships at the same time if he can win the U.S. Open and the British Open. When Woods accomplished the feat everyone dubbed it the "Tiger Slam," I wonder if Phil Mickelson will get the same honor if he accomplishes the feat.

Having Mickelson winning majors is great for the sport of golf. It puts him in an elite group with Woods, Vijay Singh, Ernie Els and Retief Goosen as the current best players in the game. If you tune into a Sunday round of Major Championship golf, you will most likely see one if not more of these names on the leaderboard's top 10. More importantly Phil Mickelson has always been part of a fan-favorite two-some with Tiger Woods, all that they have left to do is go head-to-head in the final pairing of a Major Championship on a Sunday afternoon. That would make for some great golf, and we could see what the two best players in the game do while walking side by side.

Publish Date: April 10 in the Missourian. Front Page of the Sports Section.

Spring Is Officially Here

The calendar says that spring arrives on the 22nd of March. Sometimes the weather does not cooperate with that, and spring shows up a week or so later. Regardless of what the calendar says, or what the weather does, the spring season arrives in my mind this weekend. The Masters have begun. The first round was put in the books today, and you can just feel it in the air. It seems like the perfect spring weather arrives in coordination with the Masters beginning, so why not just make the first Thursday in April the official start of spring? It already feels that way.

Now to the actual tournament. Golf is not a big deal to me. I like watching Tiger Woods, if he isn't in contention I usually do not tune in, but the Masters is a different story. I enjoy watching the weekend play at the Masters regardless of who is playing well. Sure, I root for Tiger, but I still enjoy the rest of the players. This year, as in just about every year, you have to consider Woods the favorite. Every time he steps foot on a golf course he is the favorite. Tiger shot even par in the opening round, putting him five shots behind leader Vijay Singh. Five shots in three days is by no means difficult for Tiger to make up, but chasing Vijay presents a different challenge. Singh is one of the best golfers in the world, right there on Tiger's level, I can't point to any one player and say it would be more difficult for Tiger to chase him down than Vijay Singh. That has already set the stage it what looks to be a very interesting Masters Tournament. They have add distance to the golf course at Augusta National, making it more difficult for players to have low scores, so chasing down anybody is going to be more difficult this year. But as a viewer, I'm hoping Tiger can chase down Vijay Singh and have one of the better final pairings on Championship Sunday.

Publish Date: April 6 in the Missourian.

A Sunlight Story?

Yes, I am a young journalist. Yes, I do not choose the greatest story ideas yet. But Brian Sandalow must have really been reaching. He wrote an entire story about the setting sun affecting wide receivers ability to catch the football. That could be a fine story if it was about an instance in a game. But he wrote it about a drill in practice. As Allen Iverson once said, "We talkin' about practice, man." Implying that practice isn't that big a deal. In this situation, I agree with Allen. The story went onto another page talking about some Mizzou players struggling with the sun. I thought that there were bigger issues out there contained in this story. It was Mizzou's first spring practice after ten days off for spring break, something about that would have been better in my mind. The best story was addressed later in this article. In one of the little "blurbs" attached to the end of the story was information about wide receiver Jerrill Humphrey having some academic problems, and that he might not even be on the team next year. This would cause Mizzou to be a little thin, in terms of depth, at the wide receiver position this fall. I felt that was a much bigger issue than wide receivers struggling with the sun for twenty minutes in a spring practice. As a guy who played wide receiver for his entire football career (seven years in all), catching a ball thrown in the sun is hardly a newsworthy event. It can be done, it is not impossible. Each one of the wide receivers on the Mizzou football team has done it before, and each one will do it again. It's quite simple really, when the pigskin crosses into the great blob of light that is the sun, all you have to do is catch that giant sphere that is burning your eyes, the ball is in there somewhere.

Publish Date: April 5 in the Missourian.

Young and Winning

On Monday night the Florida Gators won their first basketball national championship. What is scary about that isn't the fact that the Gators demolished the UCLA Bruins by a score of 73-57. The Gators rolled through the tournament with relative ease, beating South Alabama 76-50 in round one, Wisconsin-Milwaukee 82-60 in round two, Villanova 75-62 in the Elite 8, George Mason 73-58 in the Final Four and then UCLA in the title game. The only close game they played was against Georgetown in the Sweet 16, who they beat 57-53. But that isn't what is scary either. What is so scary is that this team has no seniors on it. None. Every single member could return next year. They don't even have that many juniors on the team (only 3 of them, 2 of which get significant playing time). Their top four scorers are all sophomores, only one of which has been talked about entering the NBA Draft. That is their star player and NCAA Tournament MVP Joakim Noah. But rumors have him saying that he wished to stay at Florida and play for a few more years.

The Gators are loaded with young talent, and with the new rules surrounding the NBA Draft (the fact that you have to go to college for a year, or simply sit out a year, eliminating high schoolers jumping straight to the league), other teams will be loaded with talent too next year. The next season in college basketball could be one of the most entertaining to watch in recent memory. You will have a Florida team with most of it's roster back from their National Championship run, a North Carolina team that started three freshmen last year, and had another play significant time off the bench. Not to mention that one of those freshmen was third-team All-American Tyler Hansbrough, who has said he will return for his sophomore season. Add onto that the fact that North Carolina landed the top recruiting class in the nation, and they will be a scary team next year. Look out for a Kansas team that started three freshmen and two sophomores last year, none of which have declared for the NBA Draft, and won a share of the Big 12 title, as well as winning the Big 12 tournament. Plus, Bill Self has always been able to recruit and has landed some top talent once again including McDonald's All-American Sherron Collins from Chicago. Ohio State loses a lot of senior talent and leadership in Big Ten player of the year Terrence Dials, and sharpshooter Je'Kel Foster, but they do get one starter back in Jamar Butler, and they are bringing in the nations second best recruiting class that has been dubbed the "Thad Five" after coach Thad Matta (rivaling Michigan's esteemed 'Fab Five' from the early '90's). That class includes 7-foot high schooler Greg Oden, the number one player in the nation. The Duke Blue Devils will also been filled with young talent next year, with Josh McRoberts, Greg Paulus, and DeMarcus Nelson all returning. Plus they also have one of the better recruiting classes coming in, with a sharpshooting phenom by the name of Jon Scheyer set to step into J.J. Redick's shoes. Throw in perennial powers UConn, and Texas, an LSU team that returns most of it's starters and a Villanova team that will get back low-post force Curtis Sumpter from injury, and you have quite a race for next year's National Championship.

Publish Date: April 4 in the Missourian.