Anticipation, because there’s even more drama to play out in real time over the next two weeks.
And then there was something we all needed. Diversion.
OK, it’s not an emotion, but diversion is important because there’s a lot of disturbing events like war, economic upheaval and political turmoil that greet us daily. The NCAA Tournament provides much a needed respite.
So, that brings me to the point of this blog post. Hello, Spring!
The NCAA Tournament — and all of sports — make this the most wonderful time of the year.
For instance, when the NCAA Tournament crowns a champion the first week in April, Major League Baseball will be celebrating Opening Day in parks around the country.
And the OKC Dodgers open their season on March 31. The NBA playoffs begin in mid-April — hopefully with the OKC Thunder as a play-in qualifier. The Masters. The NFL Draft. The Kentucky Derby on the first Saturday of May. There is the women’s NCAA Tournament along with college softball and baseball. And hockey playoffs, as well.
It’s been a long, cold lonely winter for many people, so the sports calendar tells us “here comes the sun” in both a literal and figurative sense.
Sort of like the renewal of life that Spring itself brings, we find joy and hope, anticipation and welcome diversion in the Spring sports calendar.
Thanks to the NCAA Tournament for kicking it all off with an incredible level of excitement.
I’ll celebrate it just like this every Spring.
Arkansas coach Eric Musselman goes shirtless in celebration of victory over Kansas.
Editor’s note: I went back over a year’s worth of BlogOKC posts and picked out the 10 that meant the most to me. I hope you take the opportunity to browse among these and find something that pique’s your interest. Enjoy!
For all sorts of reasons — amenities, size, not built specifically for the NBA, perceived second-rateness — the city must build the Thunder a new arena within the next decade.
A new showcase arena will set us back at least a half billion dollars, if not much more.
Consider that American Airlines Arena in Dallas was built in 2001 at a cost of $420 million (and the Mavericks already are pushing for a new arena). How high will inflation drive the cost past that?
Holt’s job now becomes that of selling OKC residents on another special financing package, whether it’s part of a new MAPS deal or a special sales tax like that passed in 2008. I hope the city can negotiate a deal that requires the Thunder to share some of that cost.
It’s obvious that Presti pours a huge amount energy in learning all he can about the players, their personalities and their families, in addition to assessing their level of talent.
I loved the way he described watching the players in various settings months or years before the moment their names were announced.
And how he uses locations of historical significance to introduce new players to the community.
All of that’s probably the reason broadcaster Dan Patrick described Presti last year as “the best GM the NBA has seen in a long, long time.”
If you remember Pong, you know it was a simple game that featured two paddles and a sort of ball-like squarish blip that made a cool sound when it connected with the paddle. You connected Pong to your television and used simple controls to move the paddles to return the “ball” to your competitor in a crude table tennis simulation.
That’s all Pong could do, but the world had really never seen a game like this that could be played on your TV. Pong even kept score for you at the top of the screen.
Turns out, Pong is hailed as the world’s first video game and it was released 50 years ago this summer. It was created by a young inventor and entrepreneur named Nolan Bushnell, who founded Atari to market Pong and other games.
Portrait of Dr. Charlie Marler in his office/ACU photo
Turns out, Dr. Marler was traveling through the state that Sunday morning and randomly decided to attend the Quail service. Quail was a large church, but somehow he ended up sitting directly behind me.
I took it as divine coincidence.
I had only been attending at Quail for about a year and had begun dating the woman who would become my wife, Paula Bottom. She was sitting next to me at that service, so I introduced her to Dr. Marler.
“Oh, you need to stay away from this guy,” he said with a smile.
I was at Quail because of the influence of Dr. Charlie Marler. Not only did he help guide me and motivate me to stay the course to graduation at ACU, he also modeled a life of faith for me that led me to Quail Springs church decades later.
Mike Turpen before leading an educational session at a convention last week in Norman.
My friend Steve Buck asked me to serve as a room monitor in Norman at the spring convention of the organization he leads.
As I was stationed outside the door to my assigned room before the workshop began, I turned and found myself face to face to Mike Turpen.
If you’ve lived in Oklahoma any time at all, you know Turpen is long-time co-host of the Flashpoint issue/debate show on KFOR in OKC. He is also a former Oklahoma Attorney General and chairman of the Oklahoma Democratic Party.
“I’m the last Democrat in Oklahoma,” Turpen joked after we introduced ourselves.
Plenty of good seats available shortly before tipoff at a Thunder game in February this season.
If you’re not a sports fan, you should know that tanking means a team is trying to maneuver for the best possible draft position. It does that by having as bad a record as possible at the end of the season.
Sometimes it’s called ‘The Process’ (wink, wink).
Teams tank not by asking their players to not play hard, but by manipulating the roster so their least experienced get most of the playing time. I offer the Oklahoma City Thunder’s mostly G-League lineup down the stretch this season as Exhibit A.
Oklahoman columnist Berry Tramel put it best last fall when he wrote “losing is the path to winning.” The idea is that if a team is horrible for two, three, four seasons it will eventually be able to draft the next ‘unicorn’ that will turn it all around.
Meanwhile, local fans lose incentive to follow their team and actually show up at games. The thousands of unused seats on a nightly basis at Paycom Center this season is a prime example.
Our professor, Dr. Charlie Marler, speculated about the future of the newspaper industry. He said that some day we could get our news on a TV -like screen and have the choice to print out the stories that we wanted to read.
No one laughed out loud, but I had a good laugh to myself. Yeah, right, I thought. Not sure where Dr. Marler came up with this kooky idea.
At the time, the IBM Selectric typewriter was cutting edge technology for journalists. We were privileged to be able to type our stories on one in the late 1970s for The Optimist, ACU’s student newspaper.
Fast forward four decades. We can now see how dead-on Dr. Marler’s prediction was in the 1970s.
That’s Houston Astros star Jose´ Altuve batting for Sugar Land against the OKC Dodgers on Friday night.
I saw something Friday evening at an Oklahoma City Dodgers game at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark that I’ve never witnessed before: A 9-inning professional baseball game played in 2 hours and 14 minutes.
And it was a fun, action-filled game between the Dodgers and the Sugar Land Space Cowboys that was won by OKC 3-2.
Thanks to new rules that mandate no more than 14 seconds between pitches — 18 if runners are on base — the game moved incredibly fast.
There seemed to be no complaints by players or managers over the mandated fast pace. However, there appeared to be a Sugar Land player called out at one point because he wasn’t ready for the pitch in time.
I was able to witness the Dodgers game thanks for my friend Steve Buck and two of his children. Steve had an extra ticket and invited me at the last minute.
Walkers begin their trek around the Myriad Gardens this morning in the annual NAMI Walks event
Every family — mine included — likely has first hand experience with some form of mental illness. I long ago decided that it’s my job to support my loved ones who suffer from mental illness, try to get them professional help and not make rash judgments or punish them for what’s out of their control.
I say all of that because today was the annual NAMI Walks Your Way event down at the Myriad Gardens. It went off without a hitch amid unseasonably cool weather but with no rain to hamper the program or the walkers.
The important thing about the NAMI Walks event is that it is designed not only to raise money to support the efforts of NAMI Oklahoma — the National Alliance on Mental Illness — but to help end the stigma of mental illness.
That’s Houston Astros star Jose´ Altuve batting for Sugar Land against the OKC Dodgers on Friday night.
I saw something Friday evening at an Oklahoma City Dodgers game at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark that I’ve never witnessed before: A 9-inning professional baseball game played in 2 hours and 14 minutes.
And it was a fun, action-filled game between the Dodgers and the Sugar Land Space Cowboys that was won by OKC 3-2.
Thanks to new rules that mandate no more than 14 seconds between pitches — 18 if runners are on base — the game moved incredibly fast.
There seemed to be no complaints by players or managers over the mandated fast pace. However, there appeared to be a Sugar Land player called out at one point because he wasn’t ready for the pitch in time.
I was able to witness the Dodgers game thanks to my friend Steve Buck and two of his children. Steve had an extra ticket and invited me at the last minute.
Steve Buck, along with Kenzy and Isaiah Buck at the Dodgers game Friday.
We had a blast and got to see the most exciting play in baseball — a triple — hit by Dodgers outfielder Drew Avans. The next time up Avans surprised the Space Cowboys by laying down a bunt and getting an easy single out of it.
We saw OKC’s Jake Lamb hit a 2-run home run in the third inning. We saw future baseball hall of famer José Altuve bat for Sugar Land on a rehab assignment. Altuve got a couple of singles, but also was called out on strikes.
Steve and I began to notice the incredible pace of the game after about three innings, which had taken maybe 40 minutes of playing time. We were headed into the fifth when the game reached an hour of playing time.
We saw three OKC pitchers hold Sugar Land to only single runs in the fifth and sixth innings, and nothing more. Then we watched Sugar Land’s Zac Rosscup shut down the Dodgers over the last 1.2 inning and noted that Rosscup has not given up a single run this season over 9 innings. Nothing but zeros.
We celebrated the seventh inning stretch by singing badly, then Googling the history of the seventh inning stretch because we wanted to know how it started. If you must know, it was started by President William Howard Taft at a game in Pittsburgh in 1910.
You can look it up yourself.
Even though we were tracking the swift pace of the game, the final three outs came so quickly in the 9th it caught us by surprise. We headed to our cars at 9:19 pm on a game that started at 7:05.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve sat through games that started at 7:05 and by 10 pm were only in the 7th or 8th innings.
It was a refreshing change, and appears to be more than a short-term trend.
For reference, here’s an article I found that shows just how much the pitch clock has impacted the length of games throughout the minor leagues.
Dodgers radio announcer and communications director Alex Freedman later tweeted that the Dodgers and Sugar Land games averaged — AVERAGED — 3 hours and 34 minutes last year. So far this year, the first five games have gone 2:51, 2:23, 2:58, 2:14 and 2:32.
Big difference.
I’m hoping that Major League Baseball will embrace the pitch clock ASAP.
Albuquerque’s infielders are playing a radical shift during Saturday’s game with only one player between second and third base.
A fun thing about watching a baseball game is you can count on seeing an outstanding fielding play or an unusual circumstance during any given game.
It happened Saturday night in the bottom of the fourth inning at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark in the game between the Albuquerque Isotopes and our OKC Dodgers.
As I sat with my friend Casey Harness, the infield fly rule was called on a popup by OKC’s Kevin Pillar with runners on first and second base.
Albuquerque’s first baseman attempted to field the high popup, but it bounced off his glove. The umpire’s fist and thumb were already up signaling an out. The runners never moved.
I’ve witnessed many similar situations at games throughout the years, but can’t recall when an infielder missed the ball with runners on base and the infield fly rule was invoked.
It’s not that I was unaware of the infield fly rule or knew that it was in effect on a popup with runners on base and less than two outs. Read more about the infield fly rule here.
It’s that it is so rarely invoked because fielders at this level rarely misplay a popup in the infield like that.
Casey, who is a long-time Dodgers season ticket holder and has attended far more games in recent seasons than me, questioned the call. Why was the batter out before the ball even hit the ground? Why weren’t the runners running?
Well, if the fielder purposely dropped the ball and there was no infield fly rule, the Isotopes could have easily turned a double play. Maybe a triple play if things fell right.
Casey was not satisfied with that answer.
“This is archaic, unnecessary and downright confusing,” he said.
OK, but baseball was created in the 1800s and the rules were developed long ago. They (mostly) make sense to me.
OKC Dodgers season ticket holder Casey Harness at the April 9 game between the Dodgers and the Isotopes.
Turns out, Casey has other ideas to make the game more interesting. He’s been watching a lot of women’s softball because the OU women’s team has been so dominant in recent years. Especially this year, when they are still undefeated and currently 36-0.
“Why not eliminate the pitching mound so pitchers don’t have the advantage of throwing downhill?” Casey opined at one point during the game. “Softball pitchers don’t need that advantage.”
“Are you going to let them move up to 43 feet?” I asked?
“Sure, if they want to pitch underhand.” (Smirk).
OK, Casey, you’ve gone a bridge too far.
Instead of the infield fly rule or the pitching mound, we could be arguing over the dramatic infielder shift that has gained popularity in recent years. If you squint at the photo at the top of this post, you will see that there is only one infielder to the left of second base.
The shift is designed to take away hitting lanes for left handed batters and has a lot of detractors. Rules changes may be soon coming.
Meanwhile, let’s enjoy softball for what it is and let baseball continue to entertain us with its sometimes quirky rules like the one that results in an automatic out when the ball is put in play.
Ed Godfrey enjoying his newspaper at a local coffee shop this past Spring
My friend Ed Godfrey may look like he hit his prime as a Stigler High School football star back in the 1970s, but he’s really a guy full of ideas for the 2020s
Ed and I like to meet in coffee shops across the OKC metro and solve the world’s problems over a cup of Joe.
Ed takes his coffee black, thank you very much.
Anyway, we were sitting in a local bagel place last week talking about a new family-owned coffee shop some friends of mine recently launched in Bethany. It’s called MentaliTEA and Coffee. The owners are Steve and Lisa Buck and their daughter Avery.
I had already sampled the Bucks’ new shop, and Ed wanted to know what it offered.
MentaliTEA and Coffee
I responded that it offered a relaxing setting with great spots for conversation, along with the usual coffee shop menu of drip coffees, various espresso drinks, teas and pastries. It even offers hot biscuits.
Ed thought about that for a few seconds.
“I think we ought to open up our own coffee shop,” he finally said. “We’ll call it Vintage Coffee. No espresso machine. No fancy pastries. Donuts only.”
I laughed at the thought of a straight coffee-only coffee shop run by a couple of old school geezers.
“We’re going to offer only Folgers, Maxwell House and Sanka, which was my father’s favorite coffee,” Ed continued. “It’s like a step back in time.”
He was rolling now. It would be located not in the heart of the metro, but in a rural community where they might still appreciate coffee out of a can the way their fathers and grandfathers drank it
“We don’t need any baristas, either,” he said. “Pour it into a cup and stir it up.”
I was already seeing Formica countertops.
Ed also is the guy who had the excellent idea to connect community events across Oklahoma like the Rush Springs Watermelon Festival with the Oklahoma City Dodgers baseball team.
We haven’t seen any watermelon seed-spitting contests yet as between-inning entertainment, but it could happen.
Ed’s already working on outreach for his coffee shop concept.
He knows that I’ve worked for years with the Love’s Entrepreneur’s Cup collegiate business plan competition. It’s an event in which teams of students from college campuses across Oklahoma pitch innovative ideas to panels of judges with thousands of dollars of cash prizes on the line.
“Maybe one of those college teams could take this idea and win the Love’s Cup,” Ed said.
I’m loading up on cold, juicy watermelon at the Rush Springs Watermelon Festival back in 2016
Five years ago this summer, my daughter and I took a short road trip down to Southwest Oklahoma to experience the famous Rush Springs Watermelon Festival.
We had a blast. The crowd was huge, the watermelon cold and delicious. We saw humongous melons that were entered in a beauty contest. We wandered through dozens of flea-market style booths and witnessed a seed spitting contest that was open to all comers.
A few days later, I attended an Oklahoma City Dodgers baseball game with my friend, Ed Godfrey, and told him all about the wonders of the Watermelon Festival.
As we watched one of the fan contests the Dodgers roll out nightly for its between innings entertainment — as do most minor league teams — Ed suddenly had an idea.
Why don’t the Dodgers incorporate the Watermelon Festival into the team’s between innings entertainment, he asked.
Before long, Ed was envisioning a marketing tie-in that included a seed-spitting contest for Dodgers fans while promoting Rush Springs and the Festival.
Ed was right on the mark. The Dodgers are missing a huge opportunity by not teaming up with a Rush Springs Watermelon Festival or any of the dozens of festivals around the state that celebrate everything from peaches to cowchips to Woody Guthrie.
Turns out, Ed’s opining has turned into prophesy.
We learned this afternoon that the Tulsa Drillers are celebrating Oklahoma’s reputation as a “noodling” paradise for a weekend series August 12-15.
The Drillers are the Double A affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers and will actually take the field as the Tulsa Noodlers during their Noodling Weekend, complete with special-for-the occasion uniforms.
For those who are unfamiliar with the term, Noodling is the fine art of fishing for catfish with your hands. As the Outdoors Editor of The Oklahoman, Ed recently featured an Oklahoma family that makes its living as noodling guides.
For reference, 
I’ve witnessed many similar situations at games throughout the years, but can’t recall when an infielder missed the ball with runners on base and the infield fly rule was invoked.
He was rolling now. It would be located not in the heart of the metro, but in a rural community where they might still appreciate coffee out of a can the way their fathers and grandfathers drank it
Naturally, the Drillers are selling 
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