The Man With Two Arms

Look closely at this photo…

(AP Photo/Charlie Riedel) In this photo combo, New York Yankees pitcher Pat Venditte, left,throws right-handed, and at right, throws left-handed during the sixth inning of a spring training baseball game against the Atlanta Braves Tuesday, March 30, 2010 in Kissimmee, Fla. Ambidextrous pitcher Pat Venditte threw with both arms for the Yankees on Tuesday, giving up one run in 1 one-thrid innings during a 9-6 split-squad loss to the Braves.

Mind boggling

At first glimpse, you may think “So it’s a combined photo of a guy throwing left-handed and another guy throwing right-handed.” But I said look closely… The “guy” is the same in both shots.

His name is Pat Venditte, a pitching prospect in the New York Yankees’ organization. In Tuesday’s preseason game against the Atlanta Braves, the ambidextrous pitcher made an appearance that very few people can say they have seen in their lifetime. Only one ambidextrous pitcher has thrown with both arms in a modern era regular season game — Montreal’s Greg Harris in September of 1995. Five different ambidextrous pitchers threw for teams in the 19th century.

It doesn’t look like the 24-year-old pitcher from Creighton will see any time in the bigs soon, as he pitched in A and A+ ball in 2009 and will look to climb to Yankees’ AA affiliate Trenton Thunder this season. But I can’t wait for the day that this pitcher does make it to the major league, and will be interested to see how the Yankees utilize this pitcher with two arms. (Dare they pitch him in back-to-back days, one day as a lefty, the other as a righty? That would be pretty amazing.)

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Goodbye OKC… (And Good Riddance)… Part 2

Here is the “much anticipated” conclusion to to my “wonderful” trip to Oklahoma City to see the Jayhawks fall flat, and the Wildcats rise to greatness. As I mentioned in the last blog, this one will be focusing on the non-game related events of the weekend in OKC…

Oklahoma doesn’t really care about their roads.

Growing up miles away from the Missouri border, I always thought Missouri had the absolute worse roads to drive on. Whether it be the main highways in Kansas City or some of the smaller highways connecting to Ozark region, they were really bad roads. But then I drove through Oklahoma this weekend.

First, I got the experience of driving through the panhandle (for those complaining about western Kansas being barren, need to take a trip south into the OK panhandle, YIKES!). I had to attempt to avoid potholes the size of small children and got motion sickness (and getting it again now just thinking about it) as the roads acted like harsh waves for miles at a time. Just BAD!

But then, my theory was proved correct on Sunday when we were heading home. Hours after a snowstorm dumped a pile of snow on the roads, the highways were still very, very, very poor just west of Oklahoma City. We went about 20 miles in nearly TWO HOURS, because every couple of miles traffic came to a standstill because there were still large patches of rough ice and snow covering the highway. This was at 1 p.m. on Sunday, with the sun shining bright and the temperatures in the 40s — and not a single snow plow in sight!

Support for the Thunder is growing — except from the retailers.

Talking with my girlfriends uncle and cousin, the support from the community is growing for the Oklahoma City Thunder. I was even told that Oklahoma and Oklahoma State basketball is suffering to bring in crowds because of the liking for the Thunder. (“Why go to a college game, when we have Kevin Durant and other professionals?”) I was blown away when my girlfriend’s uncle told me that. I never would have thought that a professional team could take away from the long-lived relationship between a person and their college, but apparently its doing that Oklahoma City. Thanks to its one and only professional sports team in the state.

But despite the lovefest from fans, apparently retailers aren’t falling in love so easily. On Friday, we hit up the mall in Edmond (a suburb on the north edge of Oklahoma City) and I went on a search to find Thunder apparel to purchase. In the two large sports apparel shops in the mall, I found just one Thunder hat — and it was in youth size — and just a few T-shirts — including a very ugly shirt with the likeness of Durant on the front.

When I found the “Hat World” aka “Lids”, I thought I would for sure find a section of Thunder hats to choose from. After spending five minutes searching the store, I gave up just before my girlfriend found them. Two rows, on the bottom, below MLB hats were the Thunder hats. And while there were two rows, there were only about three or four different styles of hats. In comparison, I found five different styles of KU hats.

That’s pretty sad, that the ONLY pro sports franchise in the state has such little pull in retail stores!

I’m good at Cranium. But maybe too good!

So to cap off our Friday and Saturday nights, we played the board game Cranium at my girlfriend’s cousin’s house where were staying. Friday night, it was me and the girlfriend vs. her cousin and his girlfriend. We played two games, both won by me and my girlfriend.

On Saturday, with my sister staying over, she joined the cousin’s team since they had lost the night before. The three-player team knocked off me and the girlfriend, though not in a 100 percent fair way. They were using my clues, humming and drawing, in order to win several head-to-head contests within the game (known as Club Cranium games). Apparently, I’ve got such a knack for the game that opposing teams will simply use me to get the victory.

Needless to say, it was VERY irritating to lose, knowing that the opposing team had to cheat off of your clues in the process!

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Goodbye OKC… (And Good Riddance!)

I’m going to break this blog up into a two-day event. With so much information to cover from the weekend in Oklahoma City I’m going to break my final blog into two parts: game-related and non-game related events. And to keep with the theme created by the University of Northern Iowa — schooling KU — I will tackle this blog  with an educational approach.

What we learned this weekend:

Cole is going pro.

The combination of Sherron Collins graduating and Xavier Henry more than likely going pro, Cole Aldrich is pretty much a sure thing to jump ship as well. Adding to this is the little scare he got in the lost to Northern Iowa, where he rolled his ankle pretty severely. What if something more severe were to happen in his senior season — a la Sam Bradford — and he suffered a possible career-ending injury? I don’t think he’ll take the chance and he’ll go for the guaranteed money awaiting him at the next level — especially with already being a projected lottery pick.

Xavier is not NBA ready and will be a major work in progress at the next level.

In two postseason games, the freshman from Oklahoma City scored a combined 19 points. That’s a mere two points more than fellow freshman phenom John Wall of Kentucky scored in one game this weekend. In comparing the two, Henry was far-and-away the worse of the two talented frosh.

In the two games, Henry shot a combined 8-of-13 and was 3-for-6 from behind the arc. Wall, meanwhile, scored 31 points in his two games and went 10-for-16 from the field and a very impressive 6-for-10 from 3-point range.
While all signs point towards Henry heading for the pros, I hope that NBA teams take caution in what they are drafting in Xavier. He’s talented, but nowhere near the type of talent needed to succeed in the pros. Wall is ready, Henry is not.

K-State fans truly do believe that KU is their biggest rival.

The large group of Wildcat faithful making the trip to both games on Saturday prevented any true home court advantage for the Jayhawks. The K-State fans followed suit with the Northern Iowa fans and were salivating throughout the game with the possibility of their fellow Kansans falling in the early rounds.

As my sister said, it was kind of sad to see. On Thursday, the KU fans were hooting and hollering to see K-State pull away from North Texas. And then again on Saturday, those Kansas fans that stuck around after the loss kept pulling for their in-state neighbors. But knowing K-State fans, had the shoe been on the other foot, they would do anything to see the Jayhawks lose.

It is most definitely sad to see that only one fan base approaches this as a rivalry — Kansas State — while the other side, KU, can really care less. As I’ve written in a column, KU doesn’t approach K-State as a rival. All of KU’s anger and hatred is geared towards Missouri

Poor K-State fans!

Pullen is the better Chi-town guard.

I’m a KU grad. I love Sherron Collins — ever since he used the word “gooder” in an interview I had with him during his freshman year. He has the heart of a champion, but doesn’t have the outside shot necessary to truly be a champion.

In KU’s lost to Northern Iowa, Collins went 0-for-6 from 3-point range — for those counting, he had two fewer 3-pointers than forward Marcus Morris in the game. Against Lehigh, he was 2-for-4 and everything he put up just looked ugly.

Now, take a trip down I-70 to Manhattan and take a look at fellow Chicago guard Jacob Pullen. The Kansas State leader had a decent first game against North Texas, going 2-for-6 from 3-point range and scored 15 points. Fortunately for the Wildcats, they didn’t need Pullen as much because Denis Clemente carried the load in a the rout of the Mean Green.

But turn the clock forward two days and when a birth in the Sweet 16 was on the line, the leader of Kansas State rose to the occasion — unlike his KU counterpart. In a close game with BYU, Jacob Pullen played the game of his life — literally. He scored a career-high 34 points, going 7-for-12 from behind the arc — and was 1-for-3 from inside the arc — and was a perfect 11-for-11 from the free throw line.

Plain and simple, when KU needed its leader, he failed to deliver. When K-State needed its leader, he delivered them to the promise land. As long as Pullen stays out of foul trouble — and Clemente continues to compliment his fellow guard — the Wildcats will make a deep run into the tournament.

The MLB isn’t the only organization with officiating issues in postseason play.

The officiating is Oklahoma City was bad. REALLY BAD! In all six games I watched, the officiating was one-sided throughout each game. Every team had reason to complain — UNI wasn’t whistled for a foul until the 10-minute mark against KU, at which time, the Jayhawks already had six against them. In the K-State game on Thursday, North Texas was shooting one-and-one by the 11-minute mark in the first half.

Against BYU on Saturday, K-State was whistled for more early fouls in the second half than the Cougars were. But even then, they should have easily been in double-digits by the midway point of the second half. It’s sad to see such a great sporting spectacle such as the NCAA tournament constantly get tarnished by bad officiating. I guess it could be worse, they could rule a foul ball when it was inside the foul line by a foot (thank you MLB refs for being worse)!

UNI has perimeter shooters, which will help them get a long way in the tournament.

For all the complaints about the poor officiating and the horrendous shooting performance by the Jayhawks, I have to give some serious mad props to the Northern Iowa perimeter shooting. Especially Ali Farokhmanesh. The guy was  hitting lights out from 3-point range throughout the KU game — and for those who didn’t get to watch the UNI vs. UNLV game, he hit the deep, deep 3-pointer in the final seconds to finish off the Rebels — so what did KU really think he would do with the ball in his hand, wide open, UNI up by one with seconds left in the game. He would shoot, and make it. Ultimately putting another dagger in another team.

Stay tuned for the conclusion…

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Oklahoma, Where the Wind Comes Sweepin’ Down the Plains

Day 1 in OKC

Four games. One double overtime thriller. And an unnerving performance by the No. 1 overall seed. All within a 12 hour period. Needless to say, the opening round of the NCAA Tournament in Oklahoma City was fun — yet very exhausting!
The girlfriend — who has been battling a cold — ended up falling asleep on my shoulder during the first half of the KU game, that’s how exhausting Thursday was.
But with KU playing last, I had to push through. And with my sister joining us from Wichita, she made sure I didn’t sluff off in my cheering of the Jayhawks. And they need every little bit of support.

(AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki) Lehigh forward John Adams, top, and teammate forward Gabe Knutson, right, try to block the shot by Kansas forward Marcus Morris during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game, Thursday, March 18, 2010, in Oklahoma City.

It’s sad to say that one team that came out Thursday in OKC and looked like a real threat to reach the Final Four was KU’s friendly rival Kansas State. After a slow start to get the jitters out, the Wildcats then throttled their opponents from North Texas.
And in this game, I witnessed first hand the importance of Denis Clemente and Jacob “The Beard” Pullen to this K-State squad. For my money, Clemente was much more impressive in finding and creating his own shot — after all, he did lead KSU with 17 points. But in regards to the absolute leader of this squad, it’s Pullen. During a stretch in the second half when Pullen was in the locker room after falling hard on his back/tail bone, the Wildcats looked lost and what was once looked to be a complete blowout began to unravel a bit. But once Pullen returned, so did the rest of the K-State squad.

K… S… U… WILDCATS!

It was nice to see such a large following show up to support Kansas State in its greatest season in decades. The crowd for the first session (BYU vs. Florida and KSU vs. North Texas) was populated with K-State fans — they were easily the majority in the opening session.
And boy did they make themselves heard throughout the game — especially due to the disparity of foul calls in the first half, when the Mean Green were already shooting one-and-one at the 11 minute mark.
But at the same time, they seemed to a carry a “They’re out to get us” mentality into the second half. Even with a 20 point lead late into the second half, many of Wildcat faithful weren’t happy, constantly booing the refs (quite loudly) in the final 10 minutes. But all-in-all, a rather impressive showing by the K-State fan base!

More than mid-major cheering

Speaking of fan bases, the tiny college of Lehigh had their far share — 10 to 15 that I saw in the concourse — out to support the small school from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Their team didn’t really disappoint the contingent by keeping up with the No. 1 overall seed throughout the first half. But the talent of KU was too much for Lehigh.
But the big boost of cheering for Lehigh throughout the game came from fellow mid-major fan base Northern Iowa, who had beaten UNLV the game before — thanks to a 3-pointer from Norman, Oklahoma by Ali Farokhmanesh.
No surprise that the Panthers would cheer on Lehigh. Who would you rather face in your second round game with the Sweet 16 on the line, Kansas or Lehigh? But with 5 minutes left in the KU game, the UNI fans quieted and began to disperse in order to preserve their voices for Saturday’s matchup with Kansas.

Halftime entertainment?

Not surprising to me, the halftime entertainment for each game showcased the dance teams from the universities that were playing at the Ford Center — except for BYU and tiny Lehigh. And I must admit, wasn’t all that impressed. Most of the dance teams were out of sync with each other and had some pretty lame moves.

(AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez) Members of the Kansas State pompom squad cheer their team during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against North Texas, Thursday, March 18, 2010, in Oklahoma City.

The reason I say “most” is because there was one dance team that was very impressive: the team representing North Texas. The group of girls moved as one throughout their entire performance and pulled out some slick dance moves — too bad their basketball team couldn’t do the same!
So I decided to rank the dance teams that performed:

1. North Texas Mean Green
2. Kansas State’s Classy Cats
3. KU’s Rock Chalk Dancers
4. UNLV Rebel Starzz
5. Northern Iowa
6. Florida

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On The Road Again…

Traveling is nothing new for a sports reporter. But boy, its beginning to get ridiculous for me. Over the last six weeks, I have made five trips to Wichita — and in the one week I didn’t go to Wichita, I still had to drive up to Colby.

It all began Feb. 6 with the Garden City basketball games in Derby (southeast edge of Wichita), then it began to get rolling. On Feb. 19-20 I drove to Pratt and Wichita for regional wrestling, then back to Wichita the following weekend for state wrestling. Sub-state basketball kept the streak alive when I had to cover GCHS boys basketball at Wichita North on March 4. Making it three straight weeks of traveling to and from Wichita.

I kept the streak alive myself the following week by traveling to Wichita to see Jeff Dunham — Silence, I kill you! — as my Christmas present. But now, the travel begins to get a little longer.

Next stop: OKLAHOMA CITY!

“Goin’ places that I’ve never been…

Seein’ things that I may never see again”

Thanks to my wonderful girlfriend — and her well-connected uncle — the two of us are heading to Oklahoma City for the weekend to watch Kansas State and Kansas play in the opening two rounds of the NCAA Tournament at the Ford Center.

While this trip will be STRICTLY PLEASURE, I do plan on keeping up with “work” by doing a few blogs about the experience of the NCAA Tournament. This will be my first trip to any basketball postseason tournament (I didn’t even get the chance to go to the Big 12 Tournament during my five years at KU). So this is definitely shaping up to be quite an adventure. One that I will always remember, and something that I may never see again!

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