The people's voice of reason
The people's voice of reason
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The Alabama Gazette's Sports Writer, Stan Hurst, is on temporary hiatus. We look forward to hearing from him again in upcoming issues. In the meantime, we were fortunate to have a great article sent in for this space. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Everyone has been affected by cancer in some way or another. The cruel disease brings fear, worry, and sorrow to millions of individuals and families each year. While great strides have been made in the...
The Alabama Gazette’s Sports Writer, Stan Hurst, had to take the month off. We look forward to hearing from him again in upcoming issues. In the meantime, we were fortunate to have a great article sent in for this space. Contributed by Kim Evans Slow-pitch softball was extremely popular during the 1970s and 80s, and in 1977, with the opening of Lagoon Park, a state of the art complex, Montgomery became the epicenter of the softball world. Countless teams traveled here from all over the s...
Major League Baseball Home Run leader and Mobile Alabama native, Hank Aaron passed this month, and he will surely be missed. The 86-year-old right-hander passed away January 22, 2021. Hank Aaron is the home-run king of Major League Baseball totaling 755 Home Runs eclipsing Babe Ruths’ 714. Hank Aaron hit 30 home runs a season for 15 seasons. He also hit 24 or more home runs every season from 1955 through 1973. Aaron had a total of 3,771 hits and his lifetime batting average is .305. While B...
For the first time in 29 years a receiver has won the coveted Heisman Trophy. With one exception in 1997, Devonta Smith won this most impressive award dominated by quarterbacks and running backs. Devonta Smith – “Smitty” a humble and unassuming Crimson Tide receiver has brought home another award for Coach Saban’s bunch in Tuscaloosa. In is extemporaneous acceptance speech, Devonta gave credit to his family, his friends and supporters at home. His honest assessment of himself, as too small,...
In this unsettling age of COVID we needed this game, and with the season unfolding in the pandemic era, this is the only game that mattered. You simply could not have imagined a scene like the one we witnessed on November 28, 2020. The stadium at Bryant Denny sparsely populated, neither band nor cheerleaders. And no head coach on the field for the Crimson tide. Coach Saban quarantined at home, not able to coach the Tide. The most highly contested of all football rivalries with only a few fans...
It’s an all too familiar story that’s mushrooming up again at Auburn. The “we need to fire the head coach” anthem is growing stronger each week. For more seasons than I can count, this thing seems to bubble up as the losses pile up. So many times, the blame sees to get focused on the offensive coordinator. So let me see if I can get this straight. During the past four years, Auburn has had four different play callers, offensive coordinators; Rhett Lashley, Kenny Dillingham, Head Coach Gus Mal...
As we find ourselves on the eve of our beloved SEC football season; will we enjoy the new sanitized product with just a handful of fans in attendance? Major League Baseball is nearing the end of the sixty game regular season. At the time of this writing we have six games left with the Oakland Athletics having clinched the American League West. The New York Yankees, The Tampa Bay Rays, Chicago White Sox and Minnesota Twins all have clinched a playoff berth. Looks like the Cleveland Indians or...
Never in our lifetimes have we seen the Sports World turned upside-down and inside-out. I find myself disjointed from the sports world. It’s difficult to analyze any of the teams we follow in the normal pattern of past experience. I have to shrug my shoulders at the attempts to do so; it’s almost delusional. So I’ll not write about position players and depth charts and potential recruits. It’s frankly indecorous to report in this fashion. The NBA is playing in a bubble to protect players...
Opening day for the 2020 MLB Season is just a few days away. Albeit, it’s just 60 games, but at least we have baseball. On July 23rd, the Yankees open at the Nationals, and the Giants open at the Dodgers. It’s new territory for all of us. There will be no fans in the stadiums for this third of a regular baseball season. At least one team is offering the fans a way to participate. Dodgers fans can purchase a placard of themselves to have placed in the stadium for all home games. While I don...
Say it Ain’t so, Joe! Major League Baseball to return with a 60-game season plus playoffs … But can it sustain itself through the Pandemic? How quickly another month has arrived and left us, still wondering what the prospects are for any sports season of any kind to take place. Eventually in June, Dixie Youth Baseball returned along with some travel baseball and softball teams playing tournaments again. This is wonderful for our kids, and hopefully our communities COVID-19 numbers will imp...
This is the season of non-seasons, like no other time in our lifetimes. We may or may not have baseball this year, we may have football this fall, but we might not. We do have NASCAR, but no fans are allowed. The news each day brings less clarity and more confusion about the future of sports events. NASCAR is surviving only because it makes more money from television than on fans in the stands. Come to think of it, perhaps this is one of the things that makes this particular motor-sport...
While ballparks and all sports venues remain closed, there is hope the Football Season can be salvaged. Baseball appears to be all but lost, while there has been a plan “spit-balled” that some games with all 30 teams might be played in Arizona and Texas. Actually relocating all MLB teams to these two states and get the season in. Frankly, that’s a long shot at this place in time. It looks very unlikely to me. If our current situation related to COVID-19 improves, perhaps a half-season could...
As I practiced social distancing on my 800-pound motorcycle these past weeks; touring Montgomery I saw empty fields and only the sounds of birds singing at the ballparks I visited. No baseball, who could have imagined it. Not the familiar sounds of high school, college and youth baseball filling the air, rather silence. No family outings to watch kids playing baseball, soccer, basketball nor any other sport. The silence is deafening! High school softball cancelled, major league baseball...
My Mentor, Ed Jones, was a great encourager. In the past weeks, he asked me to write a piece or two for him. What an Honor. He, in his affable manner said; "I'm a football guy, but you write whatever you want to write about." I'll sure miss him. All the football games have been settled, at least for last year. And the Daytona Five Hundred has been run, now it's time to focus on America's Favorite Past Time; Baseball. I wonder and worry about the game today. It's hard to follow until the season...
Do you miss it yet? College Football, and not just any College Football; I’m talking SEC Football. I sure enjoyed this past season, savoring all the games; well almost. Our SEC teams achieved many accomplishments during the 2019 season; with LSU doing their part, ultimately producing a National Championship. Not bad for coach Orgeron; the coach with whom many doubters resided. Those LSU Tigers beat the tar out of every-body in the SEC, as well as everyone else on their schedule. They finished t...
That will not change. He battled cancer for years, continuing to coach until he could not stand up. Pat Sullivan, dead at the age of 69. “The most charismatic name in Auburn football history.” That is what Coach “Shug” Jordan said about Pat Sullivan in 1971. There is no question that this was true in 1971 after Pat won the Heisman Trophy. It is also true today. Even after Bo Jackson and Cam Newton won the Heisman Trophy, Pat Sullivan is the name that Auburn people revere over any other. Why is...
In the April 2019 edition of the Alabama Gazette, the following article appeared... Ed Jones pre-season predictions...and, boy, were they on target! Take a minute to review what Jones said in April... ALABAMA There is no controversy this year in Tuscaloosa as to who the quarterback will be. Tua Tagovailoa will be at Alabama at least one more year. The runner up for the Heisman trophy is well entrenched as the Alabama quarterback for 2019. The real problem at quarterback is who will be Tua’s b...
As the last five weeks of the college football season unfolds, let’s look at my pre-season projections for 2019. My choice of Alabama, Oklahoma, Michigan and Clemson was looking good until Michigan lost its second game to Penn State 28-21 on October 26. Their chance of getting back is zero. Also there was quite a surprise on the same day when mediocre Kansas State beat Oklahoma 48-41. With one loss, Oklahoma can climb back into the top four by winning out, and by getting help from Ohio State a...
No other state in America has two football teams ranked in the top ten this year. Alabama has reclaimed number one as Clemson came within one play of losing to North Carolina on September 28th. At press time, Auburn is holding on to the number seven spot with a road trip to Gainesville staring them in the face. Florida is number eight and should be a slight favorite. Prior to the season, I wrote that Alabama would be favored in every game in 2019. I also wrote that Auburn would be underdogs in...
These 2019 projections are based on schedule difficulty, final regular season record and position that national polls will place each team at the end of the regular season. For the first time in 40 years of making these pre-season projections, there are no teams in the top 50 projected to finish 7-5. The reason seems to be that, this year, the schedule of the best teams are not as difficult as normal. You can contact me after the season to criticize or congratulate. I have experienced both. 1....
Auburn is heading into the seventh season under Coach Gus Malzahn. Over the last six years, no coach in America has been under scrutiny as much as Malzahn. Some of this just comes with the territory. Most of it comes from the Auburn fan base made up of alumni and faithful supporters of the Auburn football program. Some of it comes from sports writers who have never worn a jockey strap. All of it is detrimental to the success of the program under the direction of Gus Malzahn. Not all of it is...
Another football season is bearing down on us again. To me, it seems as if I watched the “beat down” that Clemson put on Alabama in the national championship game last month. This year my non-football months were more interesting than before, due to the success of the Auburn basketball program and the Auburn baseball team. For the first time in my life I have watched almost all of the NCAA Baseball Tournament to see who will be national champion. The College World Series ended on Wednesday, Jun...
Bart Starr has fallen many times during the last few years, mostly due to heart attacks and strokes. On Sunday May 26th, he fell for the last time in Birmingham with his life partner by his side. Cherry, his wife of 66 years, has been his loyal care giver since 2014 when the physical problems began. They moved to Birmingham after Bart’s final retirement from the NFL. They operated several businesses during that time under the corporate name of Bart Starr Enterprises. They were all successful o...
Music City, Nashville, Tennessee exceeded all expectations for hosting the 2019 NFL Draft. From Thursday, April 25th through Saturday, April 27th attendance at the draft exceeded 500,000, a record for the event. Philadelphia hosted the 2017 draft and drew a record 250,000. Nashville doubled that figure to establish a record that will be hard to beat. The NFL Draft will be held in Las Vegas next year. There were representatives from Vegas studying how Nashville handled the logistics. Twelve other...
ALABAMA There is no controversy this year in Tuscaloosa as to who the quarterback will be. Tua Tagovailoa will be at Alabama at least one more year. The runner up for the Heisman trophy is well entrenched as the Alabama quarterback for 2019. The real problem at quarterback is who will be Tua’s backup. Mac Jones, a 6’- 2”, 205 lb. sophomore was number three last year. Gone is the multi-talented Jalen Hurts. He will be vying for the Heisman as the quarterback of the Oklahoma Sooners, who have...