Deja vu for Gorillas

The Amarillo Gorillas started the 2009-2010 Central Hockey League season 4-0.
They have won 15 games since Oct. 21, and their won-loss record will not be much better than last season's woeful 19-42-3 mark.
With four games left in the regular season, the Gorillas are 19-32-9.
Amarillo has passed last season's points total (41), but not that is not much progress.
For the second season in a row, the Gorillas will likely finish as the second worst team in the CHL.
That's one of the primary reasons Amarillo draws 1,731 fans a game - last in the CHL.
If attendance is ever going to improve, a playoff caliber team is a necessity.

AISD Meeting Liveblog

He Who Shall Not Be Named

Southern Cal. Tennessee. Amarillo High. Seems no matter where there's a football coaching vacancy there's one name who consistently never gets mentioned:

Mike Leach.

I know, his name is a hot button to both critics and supporters and it's really easy to let emotions rule the roost, but after awhile common sense needs to take over. And that's the problem.

It's hard to look past Leach's kookiness; the pirate fixation, guest weatherman gig, banning Twitter accounts, the "fat girlfriend" cracks, etc., etc. And, oh yeah, locking a player in an electrical closet, if all accounts are to be believed.

All of that obscures the fact that the guy emerged as one of the most successful (and, yes, eccentric) college football coaching stories of the last decade. He won a lot more than he lost in Lubbock and put Texas Tech in the national radar.

Yet, it's a chore to even find Leach's name mentioned in Internet rumors regarding coaching vacancies. Yes, the guy has some baggage, but is it any more so than, say, Lane Kiffin carries?

"Boy wonder" Kiffin shot his mouth off in his lone season at Tennessee and coached the Vols to an uninspiring 7-6 record after an even less inspiring 20-game span coaching the Oakland Raiders. After Pete Carroll (Kiffin's former boss at USC) made an extremely timely and lucrative exit to the Seattle Seahawks, Kiffin returned to L.A. amid allegations that the Trojans broke a boatload of NCAA rules. Nevermind that some of those violations may have occurred while Kiffin was an offensive coordinator.

Considering where the ethical bar has been set at USC, is it still unreasonable to ask why Leach isn't shown any love? Who would have thought Craig James could wield such power.

Major League baseball records mean nothing anymore

Ricky Treon
As someone who just turned 24 years old, I've come to the realization that I have never really watched clean baseball.

Baseball was my life as a youth. I watched every game possible, played year-round if I could and even had aspirations of making it to the Big Leagues. My baseball fever was hottest during the 1998 Home Run Chase, as I imagine was the case for many middle-schoolers.

Back then I thought about how cool it would be to one day break the home-run record. I fancied myself a Little League version of Mark McGwire.

Now that memory saddens me.

Those records, and even ones for pitching and fielding, have lost all meaning to me now.

I've known for a while that McGwire was on 'roids when he broke that record. But to hear it said aloud just drives that point home. It's not as bad as when Clemens denied it, which still lights a small fire under me.

I interviewed Clemens once, and it used to be one of the highlights of my short sportswriting career -- especially considering he is a fellow Texas alum.

But at this point, I'm mostly apathetic about it all. I'll watch the games and hope for good competition, but I could care less anymore about who is approaching what record.

There is crying in baseball

Mark McGwire's tears Monday told the story much more than the former slugger's pathetic attempt at logic.
The man who once held baseball's single season home run record broke down in tears as he admitted to steroid use, an un-revealing revelation if there ever was one.
If - as McGwire claims - steroids play little to no role in his historic 70 home run season in 1998, why the sadness? Why the sobbing?
Why should there be any regret on McGwire's part if steroids didn't help him hit home runs?
Here's the problem with the so-called "steroid era."
The admitted juicers and alleged juicers claim steroids do not help a player hit home runs.
Please.
If you already have the hand-eye coordination to hit at a major league level, being bigger, faster and stronger will help you hit a baseball harder.
It is a simple fact of nature.
It is true that steroids - by themselves - do not lead to more home runs. A player still has to work out, hit the batting cage, hit off a tee, possess god-given talent, etc.
However, getting bigger, faster and stronger by artificial - and illegal - means, does lead to prodigious taters.
And no amount of crying will change that fact.

It's Really a Busy Month

This is only the ninth day of the year, but it's already apparent that we're entering a deceptively busy stretch both locally and nationally sportswise.

While football season is supposed to (mostly) be over, this is a big weekend in Texas, where football season never seems to end. America's (some would even say God's) team is trying for its first playoff win in 13 years tonight when it hosts the Philadelphia Eagles at Arlington's Jerryworld (not to be confused with Jonestown). Not being a fan, I'm not going to work up a sweat about the Cowboys tonight, although I know many of you will.

Even closer to home, Texas Tech has apparently settled on a replacement for Mike Leach in Tommy Tuberville, the former Auburn coach who's Leach's polar opposite. What, is Spike Dykes still retired?

You know, USC now looks like it has an opening with Pete Carroll looking like the favorite for the Seattle Seahawks job (begging another major WHY?). Leach is available, and don't you think he'd be a perfect fit for nutty L.A.? OK, maybe not.

There's also a whole lot of basketball to be played before Feb. 1, when UIL realignment will be announced. So while it's a new year, there are a lot of the same old issues to deal with. Only the names really ever change.

Sad day for this Longhorns fan

Ricky Treon
As a Texas Longhorns fan and UT-Austin alum, I'm finding it hard to be in a good mood today, even though I have some reasons to be.

I finally got a piece of mail I've been expecting. I got to spend yesterday with my family, which also means I got two free meals.

But after yesterday's loss to Alabama, today's going to be a day of mourning for me.

I can't say I hadn't imagined losing to the Crimson Tide. As someone paid to analyze sports for a living, I knew Texas winning would likely be a long shot.

The way the loss happened, though, saddens me.

I covered the Longhorns in college, so there are a few of those players I know and a few that may even recognize me if we saw each other in Wal-Mart or somewhere on Sixth Street.

So to see Colt McCoy relegated to the sidelines with a dead right arm hurt me a little.

But perhaps the most painful thing was how tantalizingly close Texas got to pulling off a crazy miracle, which isn't unprecedented (re: Vince Young).

This is now the third time I've watched a Longhorns team lose in an NCAA National Championship for the 2009 season (baseball, volleyball and football).

No matter how many times I see it happen, it doesn't get any easier.