The letters pour in as folks have questions, lots of questions.
Dear Charlie: What’s your take on the Royals? Are they doomed for the basement?
Well, though it looks that way, I’m of a mindset of injured All-Star catcher Salvador Perez: “Don’t disrespect the Royals”. When/if, Salvy gets back to day-to-day play, the Royals will get better. Better, not great! There are a few solid pieces in this puzzle but don’t look for a completed piece of work!
Dear Charlie: What about this basketball mess that the FBI is investigating? I see that a couple of KU players might be implicated. Any consequences?
Consequences? Well, yeah. SOMEBODY is going to the clinker over all of this but if you are asking if there are any consequences for Kansas, then probably not though I don’t buy into this thing of “We’re the victims here” that KU’s Chancellor has put out there. Let’s face it, EVERY university basketball program that plays at a high level knows the territory. That is that the recruiting is run by a bunch of guys that coach AAU teams. Some are shady and some aren’t but enough of them are to scare you. It’s like walking through a cemetery at night. You KNOW there’s a bogeyman or two out there!
Dear Charlie: I am a high school baseball fan and have noticed, of late, that two long-time stalwarts, Great Bend and Larned seem to be making late-season surges after poor starts. What’s going on?
Two things: solid coaching AND the adjusting to the new pitch-count rules that were implemented last year. At the 5A and 4A levels, it is very uncommon to find 3 or 4 or 5 quality pitchers so sometimes coaches have to scramble, have to teach with on-the-job training how to compete on the pitching mound. Both Larned and Great Bend have had to break in a lot of new pitchers this year BUT because of this good coaching, these two teams look to cause some late-season havoc!
Dear Charlie: If you are so smart, how many office pools did you win in the recent NCAA basketball tournament?
My accountants have told me not to answer that question as the Internal Revenue folks might be after me about all of the winnings!
Dear Charlie: What the heck is going on with all of the transfers in college basketball? This can’t be good for the game!
All of us would probably want to return to the old times of a player signing with a school and playing there four years but those days are history! Rivals.com has statistics that tell us that 40 percent of all college basketball players transfer by their junior seasons! What’s causing this mass migration? Simply the “I want it now” mindset of the new generation. Whether it be money, houses, cars or playing time in a basketball program, today’s youth are not willing to wait, wait and work, to get what they want. They want it now! Good for the game? No, but it is what it is and the good coaches are adjusting rapidly. If the transfer has a sweet jump shot the fans will learn to love him/her quickly. If one of your own transfers, burn them at the stake!
Dear Charlie: Do you think the Chiefs will make it to the Super Bowl with their new stud quarterback Patrick Mahones in control?
Let’s put it this way: IF the Chiefs fall to .500, or below, this year, Andy Reid and the team management are going to look pretty stupid for moving Alex Smith to Washington. Will they win the Super Bowl? No. They still can’t stop the run and Mahomes won’t make much of a nose guard!
Dear Charlie: What did you like best about this years’ NCAA basketball championships?
That’s got to be the run by UMBC. The Bulldogs introduced their school to a nation of fans who had never herd of them, outside of Baltimore County, Maryland. I loved the T-Shirts that went on sale during the tournament touting their mascot: “UMBC- ALL BARK AND ALL BITE!” In case anybody’s interested, out-of-state tuition is $24,492. Cheaper than Harvard!
Buddy Tabler is a guest columnist for the Great Bend Tribune and his views don’t necessarily reflect those of the paper. He can be reached at budtabler@gmail.com.
