Baseball is a GREAT GAME. You just got to LOVE IT!
Here we have a collection of quotes and stories that
we believe reflect the true greatness of the AMERICAN GAME!

It has been said that baseball is the only game played that has remained the same. In fact, it has been said that you could take a player from 1910 and bring him to "today" and he could still understand and play the game because it is still basically played the same way it was 100 years ago.

As long as there has been baseball there have been errors. We always say that the team that makes the fewest mistakes always wins. Thats not always true. We always say that the best team always wins. However, that's not always true.

I do know however know that one basic true always prevails in baseball just as it does in real life. You always get what you deserve & deserve what you get! This is especially true when it comes to the BIG THREE Rs IN LIFE, R-respect, R-reputation, & R-results.

Baseball is a true reflection of life. You always get out of it what your put in. Baseball is a game of many emotions; elation, satisfaction, disappointment, frustration, and pride. It can be a very cruel game and it can be extremely forgiving.

Question

Which of these 3 sports will be the hardest or the easiest to play on the moon? Basketball, Soccer or Football?

Asked by: Victor Chan

Answer

This question is great! It's subject to personal opinion, of course, but I'll try to justify my own take on it...

The way I considered this question was that I imagine taking a basketball game, a soccer game, and a football game and suddenly dropping them on the moon. I then asked myself how much adjustment it would take the players to get the game to look normal again, or at least playable.

The first thought that entered my mind was that soccer would be the most difficult and would require a lot of adjustment by the players. Because soccer players manipulate the ball with their feet, they have less control over the ball than basketball and football players. On the moon, the ball in a soccer game would undergo much wilder motion. Earthly bounces and skips would become big, bounding arcs. The ball would hardly ever be in contact with the ground! You'd have throw-ins like crazy from all the players kicking the ball out of control. They'd have to kick the ball much less hard just to keep it in play and at a human-accessible height. So many shots and passes and moves involve the ball being airborne, often not in a very controlled manner, that the players would take quite a while, I think, to get used to it. Also, I think goalkeepers would love being on the moon. Whenever a shot didn't sail over the goal, he'd have a much better range; he could jump all over the place, then try and chuck it. Basically, soccer is the hardest because controlling the ball with your feet leads toward the most unexpected motion, and that's here on Earth! On the moon, a lot of ball motion will be amplified.

Footballwould be interesting. Naturally, you'd see a lot of very long passes, and the more agile guys, who already try to jump over the defensive line here on earth, are going to take flying leaps on the moon. The field will get a little small, like in soccer, but both teams will adjust and use it to their delightful advantage. I think football would probably be the most fun to watch under low gravity...but...

I think basketball players would have the most enhancement to their game. It's already a game of height, and now these guys would be able to jump lunar-style, so we'd see some great dunks. We'd see dunk three-pointers; guys could jump from half-court and dunk with ease. Not only that, but because the shape of a jump shot is the same on Earth and the moon (a big old arc), the players would have no problem adjusting when shooting from the outside. They would just move back and launch full courters all day; it would be like their strength was magnified six times! They could take the same shots as before, just from tremendously further out. Face it; basketball players are already upset that Earth has so much gravity!

So overall, I think basketball would be the easiest, since gravity is all that's holding them back on Earth now, and soccer would be the hardest, since gravity is all that's keeping the ball in play on Earth now!

Deshler's Hanna Lundgren kicks a field goal against Blue Hill earlier this season. Lundgren is an exchange student from Sweden.
She gets her kicks Every year Deshler football coach Terry Arnold has female students tell him they want to try out for the footballteam.

She gets her kicksEvery year Deshler football coach Terry Arnold has female students tell him they want to try out for the football team.

They were always joking.

But that was before Hanna Lundgren came to Deshler.

Lundgren is a senior exchange student from Sweden who grew up playing soccer. She spent the last six years playing competitive soccer in her homeland.

But when she came to Nebraska, soccer wasn't an option. So she turned to football.

"I had to do something similar to soccer," Lundgren said. "Football had to be my first choice."

Lundgren is now the Dragons' place-kicker and already has four extra points and a 33-yard field goal to her credit.

"When she tried out, she was just another athlete trying to make the team," Arnold said. "She's been treated like everyone else. The guys on the team treat her the same as any other player. The fact that she's a girl has never been an issue."

Especially in practice, where she participates in every drill along side her male counterparts.

The players on the team had no problem accepting her, according to holder Jason Schardt.

"I never think of Hanna as a girl," Schardt said. "She's the kicker and I just hold the ball.

"I'll tell you this, though. We're glad to have her."

Lundgren admits being nervous and worried that the team wouldn't accept her.

That wasn't a problem once they saw her kick.

"At first I didn't know what to expect," Schardt said. "But I was really impressed with her style of kicking, especially how far she kicks. In practice we've even tried some 50-yarders."

Said Arnold: "She has quick feet and a very strong leg. That doesn't surprise me because she's a good athlete."

Lundgren already had the physical gifts to be a good football kicker. But she had to learn the finer points.

Before coming to Deshler, Lundgren had never kicked a football. In fact, she had never watched a football game.

"I tried to explain to her how the kick relates to the game," Arnold said. "It's one thing to kick a ball through the uprights during practice. It's another to do it with a whole defense coming at you."

Lundgren agrees.

"It's been very, very hard learning the game," Lundgren said. "But I watched the Denver Broncos play (in a preseason game) and that helped me understand a little better.

I found kicking a football is a lot easier than I thought it would be. It's actually been a fun experience."

It wasn't so fun when game time came on opening night. Deshler was facing Blue Hill and Lundgren wasn't feeling well.

"I was so nervous," Lundgren said. "I had a stomach ache."

Deshler scored a touchdown early in the second quarter. Lundgren came on for the point-after attempt.

"I just relaxed for a second then thought, 'Whoa. I'm going to make this,'" Lundgren said.

She did.

Then she made a 33-yard field goal later in the period.

And just before halftime, she lined up to attempt a 54-yarder on fourth-and-15.

"The ball had already been snapped and placed on the tee, but the referee's whistle hadn't blown to start the play so they stopped the action," Arnold said. "By that time we had decided to go for it."

The Dragon crowd was disappointed that Lundgren didn't get to try the long field goal. But Deshler ended up scoring a touchdown and Lundgren nailed the PAT.

Lundgren, who is staying with Dennis and Rose Atenhan, is believed to be only the second female to score a point in Nebraska high school football history and the first to score by a kick. Teri James of Humboldt scored a touchdown on a pass play against Pawnee City in 1991.

Although Lundgren is enjoying football, her first love is still soccer. She plans on returning to soccer when she goes back to Sweden.

Deshler athletic director Dave Mroczek is hoping to go one better and line-up a tryout with a college soccer team in Nebraska before she leaves.

Suter, Chelios cleared in Olympic room-trashing
U.S. Olympic hockey player Gary Suter says the National Hockey League has absolved him and captain Chris Chelios of blame in the trashing of three apartments during the Winter Games.
"I really don't know how my name has been brought up," Suter told the Wisconsin State Journal of Madison. "I had nothing to do with it."
The National Hockey League (NHL) is investigating the late-night rampage that followed the U.S. team's elimination from the tournament.
Fire extinguishers were discharged and chairs were broken, with damage estimated at $3,000.
Suter, a Madison native, said theNational Hockey League (NHL) has cleared him and Chelios, both Chicago Blackhawks who played for the University of Wisconsin, the newspaper reported Thursday.
National Hockey League (NHL) spokesman Arthur Pincus would say only that the investigation is continuing. Pincus said he didn't know when it would be complete.
"We haven't made any announcements rgarding anybody's involvement or lack of involvement," Pincus said.
The Blackhawks referred questions about Suter and Chelios to the NHL. Suter did not immediately respond to a message left at his Chicago-area home by The Associated Press seeking comment.
Suter told the State Journal that he left the Olympic Village on Feb. 19, just hours after the damage was done following Team USA's 4-1 loss to the Czech Republic in the quarterfinals.
Chelios said last week that he, Suter and their wives were dining with members of the victorious U.S. women's hockey team late Wednesday night and into early Thursday.
Suter declined to discuss specifics surrounding the incident.
"I think our names (Suter and Chelios) were brought up by Canadian people, and the people in the States got the scoop and ran with it," Suter told the newspaper.
Suter, in an National Hockey League (NHL) game Feb. 1, put a hit on Anaheim Mighty Ducks star Paul Kariya, who was expected to be a big part of Team Canada at the Olympics.
Suter received a four-game suspension for the hit on Kariya, who has not yet been cleared to play. Suter sat out the final game of that suspension Thursday night when the Blackhawks played at home against the Los Angeles Kings.
"The trashing of the rooms gives USA Hockey and the National Hockey League (NHL) a black eye," said Suter, who also denied being involved in a locker-room fight and being at a bar and missing curfew during the Olympics. "The thing that really bothers me is my name being linked to this."
U.S. Olympic goalie Mike Richter was sprayed by a fire extinguisher during the late-night rampage, the New York Post reported Thursday.
"I was asleep when they came in and started spraying," the New York Rangers star told the Post.
But Richter said he couldn't identify the culprits.
"I don't know who it was," he said. "I got up, Beezer (John Vanbiesbrouck) got up -- Bryan Berard slept through the whole thing, and Leetchie (Brian Leetch) wasn't there -- and then after all the commotion, I looked out into the hallway to see who it was, but nobody was there."
Dallas Stars defenseman Derian Hatcher said he knows who was responsible for the fire extinguisher spraying.
"The National Hockey League (NHL) asked me what happened, and I told them, but (I didn't) name names," he told the Post.
Richter told the New York Daily News that reports exaggerated the damage.
"I saw the damage, and it was nothing a vacuum couldn't clean up," he said. "Let's call it what it was: It was just a dumb move and an isolated incident."
The Post quoted an unidentified source as saying the incident was not isolated.
"The behavior of a group of young players on that team throughout the entire time was so reprehensible, I can't even bring myself to tell you the details," the source said. "In many respects, the final night was nothing compared to what went before it."

Everyday Warriors is a collection of stories illustrating how well known and not so well known martial artists use their martial arts skills and values in everyday life. While we no longer train to be warriors in the traditional sense, our martial arts training arms us with valuable skills to cope with the challenges of everyday life.

The village of Chang Khien, hard by the old city of Chiang Mai, is home to the Lanna Muay Thai training camp for would-be practitioners of the ancient art of Muay Thai, or Thai boxing. Surprisingly, most of its trainees are not Thai, and many are not men. Many of these foreigners have traveled halfway across the globe simply to learn this unique style of combat. Why? And what makes Muay Thai unique?

Muay Thai differs most noticeably from Western-style boxing in its permitting the use of elbows, knees, feet, and certain holds and throws. It also permits a wider range of targets: to strike "below-the-belt" is advantageous, not illegal. Even referees occasionally get tangled up in the affray. To an uninformed spectator, a Muay Thai match may seem a lawless, graceless brawl. But certain tactics are prohibited: head-butting, choking, and hair-pulling, to name a few. On the other hand, Muay Thai differs from Asian martial arts in its use of boxing's ring and uniforms, timed rounds, padded gloves, and in the grappling of sweaty opponents.

Thai boxing's brutality is well-known. Many matches have ended in the death of one or both of the contestants, due to a cut eye or a smashed solar plexus. That more matches /haven't/ so ended is a testament to the sinewy strength of the boxers. Indeed, much of their training consists simply in learning how to repress pain.

Hardy Stockmann's book /Muay-Thai: The Art of Siamese Un-armed Combat/ documents a series of competitions in which Thai boxers were challenged by experts of kung-fu, tai-keck, karate, and Western-style boxing, as well as foreign Thai-style boxers. Writes Stockmann: "In the three years from 1972 to 1974, Thai fighters weren't knocked out once in fifty-five bouts against 'others'....Thais had remained invincible."

Thai history contains further instances of the Muay Thai mystique. During a period of vassalage to Thailand's arch-enemy Burma, a Thai named Kanom Tom defeated ten Burmese in hand-to-hand combat. The 18th-century Thai monarch known as King Tiger posted a similarly impressive record. Disguising himself as a commoner, he went into a village and challenged its boxing champion. The fight ended in half a round, with King Tiger victorious and richer by a tical, Siam's former currency. After humiliating further challengers, he - according to historian M.L. Manich Jumsai -- "came away well contented."

This invincibility was further confirmed in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, where a Thai took the gold in kickboxing. That Thailand will medal in its national sport is generally taken for granted. Nonetheless, the champion became a national hero -- feted, paraded, and much enriched by massive monetary gifts from wealthy Thai nationalists.

Muay Thai dominates televised sports in the kingdom. Two sounds characterize a match underway: the chilling, grating sound of the /pi/ flute; and the short, distinct roars of the crowd following each successful blow. These sounds carry quite far: I can hear them from a Thai army camp about a kilometer's walk through dense jungle from my home.

Muay Thai is also marked by its pre-fight rituals. Each boxer begins by performing the /wai kroo/, or homage to his teacher (/kroo/). Kneeling, he brings his gloves to his eyes, and then thrice bows until his gloves touch the ring floor, praying the while. This is followed by the graceful /rum muay/ ('dance boxing'), part warm-up exercise and part exorcism ritual, which can last for several minutes.

Two articles of clothing are also unique to Muay Thai, both acting as charms against death. First is the /krooung rung/ ('charm' or 'talisman'), a band worn around the bicep throughout the match. Second is the /mongkun/ ('crown'), a cord worn about the head, which is removed before the match begins.

A Muay Thai match consists of three or five three-minute rounds. Winners are determined as in Western boxing: by knockout, technical knockout, or judgment by officials. While the fighting can be furious and aggressive, and the boxers may snarl and yell, they often embrace, smiling, once a match is complete. The smiles of the Land of Smiles extend even into its most violent arena.

However, Muay Thai is not as violent as it once was. Before the introduction of modern weaponry to Siam, Muay Thai was an essential part of any soldier's training, and its object was obviously to kill. As hand-to-hand combat became less a part of warfare, and as Siam became more Westernized, Muay Thai lost some of its ferocity. It has been watered-down further by the explosion of tourism to Thailand, so that now there are truly two Muay Thai worlds: one for Thais, one for tourists.

In Chiang Mai, the separation is evident. At the tourist venues -- Galare Food Center and the so-called Bar Beer Centers -- Muay Thai forms just one part of a comprehensive Thai cultural package, which includes classical dance and music, the famous transsexual cabaret shows, cockfighting, and the occasional performing elephant. The cabaret dancers use the boxing ring as their stage. For a small fee, tourists can even be photographed sparring with gracious Thai fighters. While pre-recorded /pi/ and play-by-play crackle out of low-watt speakers, the electrifying roars of the crowd are notably absent: the crowd itself is sparse, and usually more interested in drinking and talking to lovely Thai hostesses than in the match. The boxers themselves are sometimes flabby and awkward, and seem to fabricate falls, occasionally toppling over the ropes and altogether out of the ring. "They just act," remarks a Thai contemptuously. "In real Muay Thai you hear the punch: BOOM!"

Legitimate Muay Thai can be seen at Gawila Boxing Stadium. Matches are heralded by a profusion of handbills throughout the city, and usually feature boxers with some name-recognition. Though the large crowd is predominantly Thai, a boxer may be a foreigner trained at Lanna Muay Thai, who hopes to chip away at the Thais' domination of their national sport. The matches are heated, and the boxers bloodied and battered; and though the crowd may be doing its fair share of drinking, its focus is on the ring. A great deal of illicit gambling centers on the outcomes. But sometimes this heightened interest assumes unsportsmanlike forms: spectators razz the beleaguered boxers, all but climb into the ring, lob bottles and trash. At times Muay Thai is to Thailand what soccer is to England: merely an occasion for public displays of barbarity - by the spectators, not the sportsmen.

Why foreigners are interested in Muay Thai should now be clear. Possibly no other martial art requires so much endurance and fortitude; no other is identified so thoroughly with its nation, nor ranks with food, language, music, and dance as an element of cultural heritage; and, as Stockmann's book demonstrates, no other is more fearsome and triumphant. If the balance of power between nations were to be decided by hand-to-hand combat, the Thais might very well rule the world.

PITTSBURGH – College basketballcolor commentator Bill Raftery will be the featured guest when the Pittsburgh men’s and women’s basketball teams host Midnight Madness Friday, Oct. 11 at the brand new Petersen Events Center.

Raftery, who calls over 100 college basketball games each season, begins his 19th year as analyst for CBS Sports and serves as CBS Radio analyst for the NCAA Men’s Final Four. He also calls games for ESPN including the 2001-02 Pittsburgh game against Seton Hall. Raftery’s association with the University of Pittsburgh basketball program goes back many years. He uttered the words, “Send it in Jerome” while calling the 1988 Pittsburgh-Providence game and after Pittsburgh’s Jerome Lane broke the backboard with a ferocious dunk. Also, Melvin Knight, the father of current Pittsburgh All America point guard Brandin Knight, served as an assistant coach under Raftery at Seton Hall from 1978-81.

The Midnight Madness festivities will begin at 8 p.m. Friday when the University of Pittsburgh will host its first annual Student Basketball Ticket Lottery at the interior lobby of the Petersen Events Center off the Terrace Street entrance. A total of 1,500 tickets will be available for students. The lottery will be used to determine which students will be able to purchase a Student Season Ticket ID card. Every University of Pittsburgh student will be eligible to participate in the lottery, giving them a chance to purchase one of the 1,000 Student Season Ticket ID cards that will be made available. In addition, 500 student tickets will be sold on an individual game-by-game basis.

WTAE-TV will conduct a live newscast from Midnight Madness with Andrew Stockey providing highlights. Several basketball related fan contests will be conducted in anticipation of the midnight hour. Fans will also be treated to highlight videos of both the Panthers men’s and women’s programs. When the midnight hour arrives, both Panthers basketball teams will be introduced to the crowd and will put on a display. The men’s team will conduct a slam dunk contest while the women’s squad will put on a three-point contest. Following the dunk and three-point contests, the men’s squad will conduct a scrimmage. In addition, one lucky student will have the opportunity to shoot a half-court shot for $10,000.

Midnight Madness actually began as a men’s basketball promotional event in 1971 when Maryland basketball coach Lefty Driesell invited students to watch his team run its customary mile around the football field. Around 500-600 people attended college basketball’s first Midnight Madness event.