With Series and playoffs, feels like six-pack weather
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<p align="left">Football playoffs, World Series ... sounds like six-pack weather to me.
1. Well done, Warriors
Woodruff makes its second consecutive appearance in the state football playoffs this weekend, continuing to rejuvenate its program. But there's something far more significant going on at the North Valley school.
Seven senior football players rank among the top 13 in their class, academically. Alphabetically, they are Roy Bell, Matt Crowley, Zach Gutierrez, Mitch Hidden, Rodkeem Jackson, Rodkym Jackson and John Menchaca.
They're not skating through dummy courses, either. Six of the seven, in fact, are enrolled in AP calculus.
Yes, it's always cool to be a jock. But it's cooler to be a smart jock.
These guys shine as testament to what remains possible in our inner-city schools. They are examples of how hard work, discipline and honor pay off. They are role models in the truest sense of the word.
Celebrate them by working with the next class and the generation after that to follow their lead, not just at Woodruff, but throughout Peoria.
2. A Rocky road
The World Series got underway Wednesday night, amid lots of talk about the Rockies' eight-day layoff and what that might mean. Going in, the most popular stat to recite was seven of 10 teams to enter a Series with at least five consecutive off days had gone on to win the championship.
What that stat doesn't tell you is three of those seven winning teams had only one more day off than their opponent.
Until now, the biggest differential in history was last year, when the Tigers had six days off to the Cardinals' one. The Cards won that Series in five games. The next largest differential was four extra days, endured by the 1991 Twins and 1996 Yankees, each of whom won their Series.
The Rockies, with six extra days, are in record territory for collecting rust. I don't like their chances.
3. More TV time
Bradley won't be receiving any broadcast rights fees from its new local television deal with Insight cable, at least for a while. In fact, the Braves Club booster organization, an arm of the athletics department, is subsidizing the telecast of the men's basketball opener Nov. 10 at Illinois-Chicago.
With WEEK-TV bowing out, Bradley struck the agreement with Insight, which will sell commercial time to underwrite its production costs. Wingate by Wyndam Hotel at the Shoppes at Grand Prairie agreed to be the major sponsor of the Braves' Missouri Valley road games in the package. The Braves Club donated enough to get the opener on TV. Primary sponsors are still being sought in hopes of adding nonconference games at Wright State and Butler to the lineup.
Bradley would like the venture to become successful enough to generate some rights fees again, but for now, the university's primary interest is keeping the program exposed on local TV.
Still no word on who will call play-by-play and provide color commentary, but BU spokesman Bobby Parker says he expects an announcement next week.
4. Butts out
If you're planning to golf in Oakland, Calif., leave your cigars at home. A ban on lighting up in public outdoor places takes effect there this week and, yes, that includes golf courses.
At least that ordinance is certain. A Farmington, Utah law bans smoking within 25 feet of any outdoors place where people gather. Thus, smoking is allowed on the fairways - but apparently not on teeboxes and greens.
Meanwhile, the new Illinois state law that bans smoking within 15 feet of any opening to a public building goes into effect Jan. 1. That includes golf course clubhouses.
"We're just starting to talk about that," Peoria Park District golf super Bill Woolard says. "I think we're going to have to post 'No Smoking Past This Point' signs near all our clubhouse windows and doors."
5. Is that a Ph.D?
Yesterday, I prefaced a question to Bradley basketball player Sam Singh with my tongue buried in my cheek.
"Now that you've been here for 10 years," I began, hyperbolizing over the frequently injured player being a fourth-year junior.
"Twelve years," Singh corrected.
Then coach Jim Les chimed in: "He's Dr. Singh now."
6. Buyer's market
Peorian Matt Chittick didn't score the big dollars he had anticipated for the one-of-a-kind Troy Tulowitzki baseball card he auctioned off this week. Figuring the Upper Deck Ultimate card he got in a $100 pack would fetch a couple of thousand bucks, Chittick had to settle for $625 when bidding closed Monday night on eBay.
"But you know what, that's a mortgage payment and a case of beer," Chittick said. "I'd take that kind of return every week, if I could work it out."
KIRK WESSLER is Journal Star executive sports editor/columnist. Contact him at (309) 686-3216 or kwessler@pjstar.com.
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