The Men's Club

There is only one rule about the men's club at Mt. Pleasant Manor - what happens at men's club stays at men's club. Until now, since I'm blogging about it. Spent part of the afternoon today hanging at the nursing home in Mt P and talking sports with a small group of guys who summed up, among other things, the Michael Vick situation. One of the guys described him as a complete ja*k a**, making all that money and still fighting dogs.(allegedly) Also interesting to listen to stories about old Charleston and why they went into the military or what kind of trouble they got into. Good stuff.
It'll be interesting to see if Barry Bonds breaks the home run record against the Braves this week what kind of attention it gets. Logistically speaking, most Americans will be fast asleep if it happens in the late innings of a 10pm eastern time start so Bonds detractors would like that.
Time for the North Dakota fact o' the day or the week, however you wanna put it.
Dakota is the Sioux Indian word for "friend" - so North Dakota it's just not real friendly in the winter.

Just Waiting

Tis the season for....waiting for football season. A good time for a sports guy to go do some different stories. Enjoyed spending the early morning Tuesday at the MUSC Wellness Center for Boot Camp Fitness. A lot of gyms do boot camps, but this one is the real deal. It's taught by Marines in Officer Training School at the Citadel. It starts at 6am (0600 for military folks). Check out the story on our website.
So Steve Spurrier is going to have a paid website starting next week.(www.spurrierhbc.com) $100 gets you a year subscription - imagine how much cash will roll in for that. Word is Tommy Bowden is going to be doing the same thing.
Charleston Battery is moving on in the U.S. Open Cup and you gotta love Tim Karalexis' post game soundbite: "we're gonna keep it going, win the whole and make some money, right?" Right on. The winning team splits $100,000 which means a little more to players in the A League as opposed to the MLS. Battery hosts FC Dallas in the quarterfinals August 7th.
Your North Dakota fact o' the week is football related. The mighty University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux open the season against....Humboldt State of California Thursday August 23rd. Go Sioux!
You can hear more North Dakota facts by listening to Fantalk on ESPN Radio 910 the team from 3-6pm Monday through Friday. Darren Goldwater and Bobby Hartin always happy to talk about the Great Plains.

It's Been Awhile

Whew, a month goes by fast. Happy to be back in the blogosphere with a few thoughts from the past few weeks.
It was great to see 10 year old Hunter Benke at Riley Park on Tuesday night. His dad, Mike, was one of the Charleston city firefighters who died fighting the Sofa Super Store blaze. The Riverdogs had him come to the ballpark to hang out with the team all day and he got to throw out the first pitch. You could tell the Riverdog players were happy to have him around, I saw Mike Dunn give him a new glove from his collection. At least for a few hours he was able to smile.
That night at Riley Park was the fireworks game, annually one of the top crowds of the year. Over 7,900 people packed the park and the Dogs are on pace for another record setting season for attendance.
Interesting to watch Serena Williams come back to win the other day after her calf injury forced her to the ground at Wimbledon. After a 3 hour rain delay she came back to win the match, but the national sports take on it was that Serena's performance was legendary. If you saw her at the Family Circle Cup in April you may disagree. I watched her bow out of her first round match with a leg injury and poor play. Maybe I'm just a cynic when it comes to Serena but I've seen her leave Daniel Island twice with injuries.
Time for our North Dakota Fact O' the week.....
North Dakota is the 19th biggest state as far as size (70,704 square miles) but it is the 47th most populated state (642,200 people as of 2000).

ESPN and Summerville Close To a Deal

Just sitting here enjoying a Friday afternoon watching Clemson and Mississippi State. For the record the Tigers are down 8-6 in the 9th. But it's never too early to talk high school football. We broke the story last fall about Summerville and ESPN talking about a possible game on national tv in 2007. It's getting closer to becoming a reality, but there has been no final decision on where to play. Summerville and Berkeley are involved and so are 2 teams from Florida. I spoke to an ESPN rep on the phone today who says he should know something definite next week, but the game will either be played at the Citadel's Johnson Hagood Stadium or Berkeley's home field. Think about it though, it may be better in Moncks Corner where you would get at least 7 thousand people packing the place rather than a few thousand in downtown Charleston for an afternoon game on a hot Saturday.
Stay tuned....
Have a comment, question, or just want to say Hi? email jmorton@abcnews4.com

Y-E-S To the LPGA

They aren't exactly the fastest golfers in the world, but the LPGA puts on a pretty good show. The Ginn Tribute finished up late Sunday with a playoff and a first time winner. Nicole Castrale won the tournament, but it's safe to say #1 player in the world Lorena Ochoa lost it. She bogeyed 3 of the final 4 holes she played, but the amazing part about it she stuck around immediately after and signed every autograph request around the 18th green. I know the crowds weren't very big and there was talk in one national golf publication that Charleston can't handle big time golf events, but for a first time tournament things went pretty well. Talking to Bobby Ginn afterwards he said the tournament will be back at Rivertowne next year. He also said that the community has to embrace a tournament or it won't survive. True, but you can't expect a community to go nuts the first year of a tournament like this. Hopefully, Ginn Co. is in it for the long haul and give this thing a chance to thrive in Mt. Pleasant. But back to the length of their rounds. The leaders played a 6 hour round of golf on Sunday. Keep in mind the Seniors played the Ocean course in under 5 hours in the final round! The front 9 alone took 3 hours and 10 minutes. Not exactly spectator friendly. Apparently the tour is known for it. Ouch. So next year? Buy your tickets but just show up for the final 4 holes.

Not Yet Golfed Out

Here we are in round 2 of the big golf tournaments in the Lowcountry. The Senior PGA was a treat last week on Kiawah Island. Great weather, decent golf, and a good finish on Sunday. Before we talk about the LPGA's Ginn Tribute there's more local sports news out today.
College of Charleston Athletic Director Jerry Baker resigned his position today. Curiously, his boss at the CofC wasn't willing to talk.....or even return a phone call or email about his resignation. Sources have said for quite some time that Baker was being pushed out at the CofC and Baker's only comment was that "this is the right time to move on." If that's true then why wouldn't his boss want to talk about how much he'll be missed?

We were offered an interview with John Kresse, which is great, except he's not Baker's boss. That would be Fred Daniels who didn't even call to say he declined an interview....he had the schools Media Relations person do it for him. Whether or not in the end he was the right person right now for the job, Baker did help the Cougars make the transition to Division I a highly successful one. He hired John Pawlowski, Sherry Dunbar, and other coaches who have had NCAA Tournament success. I hear nothing but good things about the school's new President George Benson, but when an Athletic Director resigns after 15 years at the school shouldn't someone say SOMETHING?
Back to golf and it will be interesting to see what the crowds are like when the tourney tees off tomorrow at Rivertowne CC. While the PGA wouldn't say it, you got the feeling they were disappointed in the crowds at the Ocean Course. I still say it's a pretty good buy... for $30 this week you can watch golf from 7:30am to 7:30pm and get to see mother nature at her best.
As for the North Dakota fact o' the day. The largest city is Fargo with over 91,000 people (however since Fargo is right on the border of Minnesota it's actually considered the Fargo-Moorhead metro area which would add 34,000)

SoCon, Seniors, and the NCAA's

A busy week of local sports just got a little less busy. The College of Charleston loses to Appalachian State this morning in the loser's bracket of the SoCon Baseball Tournament so the College will have to wait until Monday to see if they get an at large bid to the NCAA. Not sure if Western Carolina's 2 and out scenario in the tourney will help or hurt the Cougs. The two top seeds are now going head to head for an at large bid.
The Ocean Course is the story of the week so far at the Senior PGA Championship, thanks to mother nature. The winds are howling and today's first round scores are showing it. Should be fun to watch this weekend as the wind is supposed to keep blowing. As for the best interviews on the Champions Tour? Jay Haas, Ben Crenshaw, Nick Price, Loren Roberts, and Fuzzy Zoeller. Most of the players are actually very corgial just don't ask Tom Kite about anything, some golfers get surly after 50 apparently.
As for our North Dakota fact o' the day.....The University of North Dakota's most famous athlete alumni? Phil Jackson played basketball at UND and is now the coach of the Lakers.
Comments, questions, or concerns? email jmorton@wciv.com