Yes, I know....

A theme on this blog that has been far too prevalent since its inception has been that I've not been updating it nearly enough. I'll use eliquence in my thoughtful, albeit quaint response, "My bad."

Sadly, I'll have to say that the biggest change in my life since posting last has probably been my subscribing to NetFlix. I guess that's good and bad. Nonetheless, nothing like getting caught up on as many movies as I can for a monthly, more than reasonable fee... Those of you interested should really check it out.

http://www.netflix.com

Now, after that commercial endorsement (as weak as it sounded), back to brass taxes. Baseball season went well. I improved my shooting of it quite a bit, as compared to the doo-doo I put on the air last year. OK, not that bad, but I did improve. Nonetheless, didn't have to do alot of traveling (or as much) this year for the baseball playoffs. Went to Shawnee for the Oklahoma state 3A state Semi-Finals. Sulphur ended up losing in the state title game after winning it all last year. This is the team that has won 2 of the last 3 state championships in football as well. That little town cranks out the athletes. None more impressive than their starting pitcher Tanner Chitwood. The kid is a junior, 6-2 lefty that can smoke it at 92mph. I've witnessed it. You'll hear his name again....

2 of our teams were in the Class A Okla. finals. Great theater. They're Southern Oklahoma rivals that already play a couple of times during the season. Silo vs. Rock Creek (in Bokchito, OK)... Silo wins, but Rock Creek's ace pitched just a couple of days after being released from the hospital for a collapsed lung (no kidding). He braved it, and made it, but Silo won, and good for the Rebs. You want to talk about baseball tradition, at thses smaller schools that don't have football in Oklahoma, they do baseball year round, and send a sizeable amount of players to JUCO and Small College baseball. Kudos to both programs...

In Texas, both Van Alstyne and Gunter made it to the Regional Semi's. Good teams, and strong programs. Pitching depth is so key in these rounds. Unlike Okla, in Texas, there's 3 game series. The 1st games of the series are usually the best, with the top starters going at eachother. You might notice higher run totals in the 2nd games. And then when (or if) they make it to a 3rd gamef, the starter go at it again, and the theater can be greatness....

Did a story on the Pilot Point Lady Bearcat softball team. Impressive group of girls. New coach at a school that's been scarred this year with unfortunate situations, chiefly, having to forfeit both the football season and basketball seasons for using an ineligible player, among other things. The girls said, "Whatever!", and made it down to Austin. They lost to West Columbia in the quarterfinals, but what an accomplishment, and such a rayf of light for an athletic department that truely needed it...

Played in the Reba Golf tournament in Denison last week. No thanks to me, our team finished 4th, and I contributed a total of 3 shots. Thank the good Lord we had people on the team that could flat out CRANK IT! We finished 1 place out of the $, and got MP3 players instead. RIO Forge to be exact. 128MB memory, and mine's already full. Only problem? I belong to iTunes, and had previously downloaded music (yes, paid for), and that format is "protected" from being loaded into the Forge. CROCK! I'll live (somehow)...

IRL coming to the TMS. Here comes Danika!!!! Hope she wins, because if/when she does, lookout for NASCAR. They'll promote some hack from the lower circuits who just happens to be a female and looks good. She'll get smoked, and the stunt will backfire(no pun intended). You heard it here first!

About ot be some down-time for me in that the high schools are out for the summer, and I'll be dying for stories. Any idea's out there? Gimme a shout... john.engleman@kxii.com...

It's late, and I think I might be playing golf at the Grayson course in the morning. If you're out that way, be sure to take cover, mmmmK?

-JE