Returning to the Broadcast Booth!

Yes—a return to the booth, to broadcast baseball, Texas Collegiate Baseball… sorta where it all began!

Back in 2004, while broadcasting a high school baseball game at the Ball Park in Arlington, I was asked by someone if I would be interested in interviewing the General Manager of the Highland Park Blue Sox, where I naturally said “sure, why not.”… during the fourth inning of the game, this very young red headed guy comes into the booth, and we put a microphone in front of him, and start talking about this team and this league that no one had ever heard of, but they were going to start playing in June of 2004.

During the interview, I asked him “ where can people hear the game at?” To which he replied… “No where”… that’s when I decided right then and there that we would take on the task of broadcasting their games.

We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into… BUT!!!! WE were able to put it together and make it happen.  And by doing that, other teams fell into place with their own broadcast on the internet, and so we blazed a path for others to follow.

That first season, Texas had the wettest June on record.  I figured if you ever wanted to end a draught, just plan a new league or build a swimming pool in your back yard, and you are going to guarantee the Rain Gods will open up the heavens and make it pour. 21 days of rain! A lot of doubleheaders to make up, but we had fun. The first All Star game in Graham, Texas, with Jim Morrison (the Disney movie “The Rookie” starring Dennis Quaid) threw out the first pitch and we had a chance to interview him. Just a great time.

The Highland Park Blue Sox moved after the 2005 season to Plano, changed their name to the Plano Blue Sox, and that was the last year we did any broadcast for the TCL, but in some ways, it saved my life (that’s a long story, and I will have to tell that in another article when I have a grasp of it)

During the ’05 season we took on not just the Blue Sox, but we also took on the Coppell Copperheads and the Weatherford Wranglers, and we were blowing and going for the TCL. WE made them look and sound like a league that people were paying a attention to.

We then took on the Continental Baseball League in 2007 and in 2008… that was the last time we broadcast baseball.

Then comes an opportunity to work with the Coppell Copperheads again, for the 2011 season, and with some creative scheduling, we are back in the booth to finish out their season and give the listeners, not just the fans of the Copperheads but the other teams that travel into the area, to be heard.

This is more about having parents, family, friends, colleges, scouts and professional teams to hear about these young players, and see the future of the great game of baseball improve.

For those of you not familiar with the TCL, it’s a wooden bat league that is similar with the Cape Cod or Alaskan League, for college athletes to hone their skills with not just the bat but also pitching and fielding, and baseball fundamentals to take back with them to either their school or maybe increase their stock to be drafted in the future.

Our part is small in comparison to what the coaches do with these players, and we are proud to have that small part, but in the grand scheme of things, we also give a link for the players and their families to have the opportunity to showcase their skills and have some fun doing it.

So one more time we are basking in the summer sunshine, and we hope that you will log on to listen to the games, and hear the future of this game we love so much, and call America’s Past Time, and interact with us when you have a chance, because we do enjoy the feedback!

You can find the games listed on our website, http://www.davradioproductions,com/ , and when this season comes to an end, we will start up high school football for our 10^th season with the Richardson ISD, and we hope you will enjoy that as well!

We will thank you in advance, and appreciate you listening.

Just a thought

The Silver Boot Series

I-45—the stretch of road that connects North Texas to South Eastern Texas—or as we like to call it—Houston!

On your way south, you head pass towns like Madisonville, or Huntsville (real big stature of Sam Houston sits on the side of the roadway) there’s also a big prison there too—never understood who would build a car dealership right next door to the fence line of a state prison, but oh well.

Houston Texas, the first Texas city to have a MAJOR League baseball team in it, back in the 1962, the Colt .45’s were the original team, and name, they played outdoors at Colt Stadium at a  diamond that you could have saddled the mosquitoes and ride them for 8 seconds, and win something, but a future seeking man by the name of Judge Roy Hofheinz, teamed up with a man named David Carrier to create an indoor facility that would keep the Houstonians cool and comfortable, and of course so he could watch his team without swatting the flying dive bombers, they changed the name of the team and the name of the stadium and created an entire domain! THE ASTROS—short as you know for Astronaut- There was the Astrodome, Astrodomain which included Astroworld, AstroWorld Hotel, Astro hotdogs, and of course—ASTROTURF! Or as it is more commonly known as—carpet!

As the Astros were going, then comes along that was transferred from the Nation’s Capitol to North Texas and called themselves the Texas Rangers… the Astros, thinking that they were the only team in the Lone Star State, now have company, and it wasn’t until 2001 that the I-45 series began, actually it was Major League Baseball that installed inter-league play, and the Rangers and the Astros have battled it out for 10 years now, with the Astros holding a slight lead in wins, but the fact is, that Silver Boot has made a home for itself in North Texas for some time now.

Give credit to Executive Vice President of Communications of the Texas Rangers, John Blake for coming up with the award for the two teams… I mean he could have called it the Governor’s Boot or Hat or Shovel, or whatever, but the Silver Boot has some class to it…. Be it a little bias when you consider that the Lone Ranger used Silver Bullets in his gun as a calling card. The Silver Boot is close enough!

The series is really as close as this area gets to having an All Texas World Series, since we have seen both teams go to the Fall Classic, in 2005 the Astros beat the dreaded St. Louis Cardinals to win the National League Pennant, only to take on the Chicago White Sox and get swept in 4 games including the 14 inning marathon loss… but none the less the Astros were the first to make it to the World Series in Texas…. It took another 5 years for the Rangers to make it to the Series and be the ONLY Texas Team to win a game in the series—even though they lost to the San Francisco Giants in 5 games—just last October!

So the Silver Boot series for the 2011 season begins tonight—and there will be five more games to go—with two more in Arlington then at the end of the month they take their turn down in the bayou city—at Minute Maid Park….

Rangers lead the series over all 33-27—and for the last six years that boot has seen a lot of North Texas—most of the time fans can to the Texas Rangers office in Uptown off of

McKinney Ave

and

Pearl Street

—(shameless plug for the Rangers)

There are a lot of good things about inter-league play, but there are a lot of draw backs, mainly because it takes away what could be games against your division rivals that could put some distance between teams… the up side though is that fans get a chance to see players from the other league other than All Star Games, and those are far and between—the last time that Arlington held the Mid-Summer Classic was July of 1995… the next time that the Classic will be in North Texas will most likely be when Hell Freezes Over—oh wait it did… the Rangers already went to the World Series! And the Mavericks Won the NBA Championship! So I guess it will be here sooner than I think!

The Rangers and the Astros! Just Fun Baseball!

Just a thought!

NBA CHAMPIONSHIP TO DALLAS/FT WORTH!

It took 31 years-- its took 9 coaches-- a few owners-- countless players, and one magical night in South Florida for the Dallas Mavericks to "CLIMB TO THE NBA MOUNTAIN AND PLANT THEIR FLAG"! (Thank you Chuck Cooperstein for the quote).

The best part of the celebration however was not the realization that Dirk Nowitski was now vindicated as being one of the best players in the league! It was not the fact that the Dallas showed the rest of the league and the world that they were better than the experts thought of being ONE and DONE! as so many had predicted, it was more than seeing how the Mavericks were able to contain the BIG THREE of Miami (So hows that decision working out for you now Miami?), it WAS however, the moment when David Stern, the Commissioner of the NBA stood on the stage at center court-- at the American Airlines Arena in Miami, and proclaimed the NBA Champions Dallas Mavericks and handed the trophy to Mark Cuban who then immediately told the Commissioner to hand it to Donald Carter and his wife-- who were the original owners of this franchise in 1980!

NOW THAT WAS CLASS!

I worked with the Carters when they owned another sports franchise at the time, they were the Dallas Sidekicks, and to tell you, from the start, they were the best people to be around. I knew Mr. Carter back in the day because of his Mother, Mary Collins, who owned an interior design operation in North Dallas, Mrs. Collins was in the same Dale Carnegie class, (for those of you who do not know who Dale Carnegie is, read his book-- it will save your life in the business world)... as my father, so it was easy to be around Mr. and Mrs. Carter when they were at Reunion Arena. All those playoffs games in basketball against the Seattle Super Sonics, the Moody Madness, the Western Conference Finals against the Lakers only to come up short, then the move to American Airlines Center, and another trip to NBA History in 2006, only to come up short in that outing with the Heat, and then five years later the rematch that pretty much everyone wanted, even with the big 3 in the lineup, of James, Bosh, Wade.  We now see how that turned out... the O'Brien Trophy is coming to Dallas and that pretty much sums that up!

Mr. Jones over there in Valley Ranch will boast that they have FIVE Trophies, in their case,  Mr. Hicks will claim to have gotten to the top of the mountain first with their Stanley Cup win in 1999 over the Sabers in Hockey, the Rangers took the American League Pennant just 8 months ago! NOW the Mavericks can add to that number of championships to this community, this Metroplex!  The City of Champions! Now that has a nice RING to it!

Mr. Cuban-- you are a class act, a good owner, and a fair person when it comes to all the aspects of this team. I will congratulate you, and your team from Rich Carlisle, to Donnie Nelson, and the rest of the staff, it was an incredible year, and more so an incredible NBA Finals-- as someone said, it was indeed a Classic! One for the ages!

Just a thought!