Opperman

Bzzt...wrong. It's 598 miles to Fort Erie, Ontario, which is the closest Canadistani city to Bristol. It's 503 miles from Bristol to Memphis. Because football is the sport where number of total players (and therefore school size) matters the most. I've seen 1A basketball teams (or equivalent from other states) that can compete with good AAA basketball teams. It's rare, and I haven't seen one that could hang with a AAA title contender, but I have seen some that can stay with good teams. I haven't seen a A or AA football team that could even dream of staying on the field with Riverdale, Maryville, Melrose, etc. Well, here's the thing...what would help that? If it's in Murfreeboro instead of Memphis, you've got a 5 hour drive instead of 8...still requires hotel, taking off work, and a lot of gas. I do agree, there's room for improvement in the TSSAA overall, but I don't think you'll find any equivalent state governing body that is really well-liked in that state.

He's the one constant, and he's more than earned his reputation as a guy who blows off practice...there's no quicker way to run off a coach than to let your star blow off practice repeatedly.

The TSSAA is requiring six fields together, even though you're correct, the tournament could be scheduled to work with just four fields.

Again, half the state tournament sites have press boxes (and by that, I'm talking about boxes elevated behind at least 20 rows of bleachers)...most high school fields I've seen either don't have press boxes or have press boxes close enough that it's no different. In bigger venues with bigger crowds, signals have to replace verbalization as the primary communication to your scorer. And of course, aside from CBHS and Briarcrest, there's no home team in the state tournament, just teams batting first and second. The scorers are provided otherwise.

In tournament play, the site is responsible for the book, not the team that wins the coin toss. At a facility like USA Stadium (or Gagliano, or U of M, or almost every site used), the official book is in the press box and is usually kept on computer, and field level is not very good for that. And I'm glad you brought up pro ball. I'm one of the scorers for the Memphis Redbirds, and as such, I can assure you that EVERY substitution in major or minor league baseball is announced to the scorer in the press box. The umpire will wave at the box, then point to the new player, and if it's a defensive sub, he'll indicate whether it's a straight switch or a double switch (umpires have different ways of signaling that, but you can tell when you watch for it). If you're actually at the game, you'll notice the PA announcer doesn't announce the new batter until the plate ump "announces" him. It's basically the same in college ball, though some umps miss a sub occasionally. Pro teams almost always have numbers on both front and back, and when the umpire points to the new player, you know what you're looking for.

Except that if I'm the official book and you don't signal a sub to me, I may not have him, and therefore the official book doesn't have it right after all. Geez, don't you love umpires' egos when somebody suggests they could improve their communication skills?

Maybe you'd understand why the scoreboard was wrong about every five pitches if you tried to keep track from the press box. Or if you tried to broadcast the game from the press box. I only had trouble with balls and strikes for one umpire in the whole tournament. Maybe I'm not the problem on that.

FixedIt isn't awful, but it's got a lot of problems IMO, especially in the area of substitutions. I can't help you as far as good and free. I use The Automated Scorebook, from http://www.statcrew.com. It's probably the best out there if you need to send files around -- almost all colleges and minor league teams use it. But it's $350. It's definitely the best system to use as a broadcaster if you combine that with the $350 program that does the XML viewing. But of course, that's a LOT of money, so it's not an option for a lot of people.

The Redbirds offered AutoZone again, but the TSSAA and the remnants of the Sports Authority chose to use USA instead. None of the venues are hard to find or get to -- going between a couple of them takes a while sometimes, but not that many people actually have to do that...and it takes time, but isn't hard.

Speaking of mechanics, I wish some umps would realize how difficult they make the jobs of people in the press box in a situation like the state tournament -- not signaling subs in many cases, and there was one ump who had about a three-second delay before he'd physically signal a strike. Most umps are good about it, but the plate ump for the AA title game still hasn't signaled a couple of strikes...

The rules specify that a sacrifice fly is only to be awarded when a run scores. I don't really know why they made that part of it, but that's one of many dumb things in the official scoring rules. The dumbest is that you can't give an error for a mental mistake. One of the championship games Friday, I don't remember which one, the first baseman didn't go cover first on a dropped third strike until way too late, the catcher's rushed throw when he finally decided to cover the bag pulled him, and the error had to go to the catcher for throwing a little wild, even though the first baseman caused the problem by not going over to the bag.

U of M is the worst site of the ones used this year other than Field 2 at USA. Why no night games? Ask the TSSAA...they were the ones who insisted on day games. I asked the event manager from Memphis specifically about that, and he said he wished we could have had more night games too.

That was the only exception.

There were, actually -- just not the same day. I agree, the atmosphere wasn't good at all. And let me add the biggest boo of all to the group of Harriman fans chanting choker at the DCA pitcher in the 8th instead of cheering their own team for a miraculous comeback. What happened there?

With all those guys this year, they got run right out of the playoffs. And you're delusional if you think Iverson doesn't have anything to do with the coaching carousel.

Timmy Mac is gone and was awful. The U of M stadium is awful too. TSSAA sets the schedules, and they're the ones who basically required 8 fields. I think aside from using Field 2 at USA too much, they got the fields right...Bolton may not be the most convenient if you're going from there to someplace other than Millington, but it's very convenient for people coming into town from the east, take 385 and you're right there. And I think it's funny you mention Briarcrest as being a good "close to one another" site and bash Bolton for being out in the sticks. Briarcrest is without doubt the best HS athletic complex in the Memphis area, but it's way out there.

Why? Is it not true that the Sixers have had five coaches in the last three years?

That might make sense if we had the East TN teams play their games in Little Rock.

There's really not much of a difference between Memphis, Bartlett, Millington, Germantown, Eads, etc. for visitors. None of the facilities used are in bad areas at all. Southaven is the only available facility the TSSAA approves for softball, since they want it all to be at one site. With all of it together at Southaven,, it's just not really practical to try to have PA and anthem -- that would require 6 more volunteers with good voices, 6 more CD players and mixers, and probably 6 sets of speakers to be donated or rented.

TSSAA sets the schedule, not the Memphis operations staff for the Fling.

So you would have been able to charter a bus to Murfreesboro? It wouldn't have been hot on the school bus to Murfreesboro? Again, I don't think it would have been THAT hard to round up a couple of vans to get there.

The TSSAA sets the dates and times for the games. So in effect, they're the ones requiring an 8-field setup. Also, I think people will complain about the extra hotel cost if you extend the tournament an extra day.

I was looking at it from the press box. All I saw was the first base ump point at him and say something. It looked sorta like an ejection and I said immediately I thought that was what happened, but there was no you're-outta-here signal made. Just pointing and verbalizing.

Now why is nobody giving this defense on Spurrier's behalf? He's kicked out everybody that's been found guilty and even another one or wo who haven't.

Nobody up there has minivans or 14-passenger vans to rent? 2 of those to transport the team wouldn't cost $5,000, and they have air conditioning. Chartering a bus isn't the only option.