The Genz

It is 916 miles from Sioux Falls to Cleveland and 854 miles to Detroit. Not exactly the hop, skip and a jump away that makes a weekend junket feasible -- well unless you own an airplane. No, I am not planning a trip to those cities, although it would be fun. On Friday night, the Tigers and Indians open a crucial (baseball) series in the American League Central division at Comerica in Detroit. The battle for first place promises a lot of balls flying all over the park this weekend. Yet, it is a nondescript preseason football game in Cleveland that will capture my attention. When the Detroit Lions and the Cleveland Browns gather for an exhibition NFL game on Friday, a pair of former University of South Dakota Coyotes -- Stefan Logan (Lions) and Ko Quaye (Browns) -- will have a chance to reacquaint themselves.  Quaye who spent parts of last season with both Jacksonville and Buffalo practice squads was signed to the Browns active roster in December. A 6-1, 3...

Sometimes during the evening hours, a TV show will draw out something that I had not thought about or considered previously. That is, when I turn away from the entertaining pointless comedy (OK, sometimes bad comedy) for a show that offers a bit of substance. The other night I was watching an old episode of the Waltons , Earl Hemmer Jr., series from 1971-81 about a Virginia family during the Depression and WWII. It is a TV show that still feel warms my heart. After watching reruns of  According to Jim and King of Queens , the Waltons show, which I watched years ago as a kid, provided me insight about groups. The episode centered on John Boy Walton (Actor - Richard Thomas) delivering a sermon after the local minister had just tied the knot with a local teacher and they were off on a honeymoon. It was John Boy's message of family and friendship in the Church setting that grabbed me. As I observed the Church congregation singing "Amazing Grace," it...

In a basement office with no windows, newspapers and media guides are stacked in piles atop the desk, nearly hiding the outdated laptop and even the SID as he focuses on a project until a noise breaks his concentration. Flipping his chair around, he doesn't move but a few short feet as the SID  turns to greet a guest to his abode. As he speaks, his feet smack into the boxes of game programs that eat up the office's limited space. Three of the five drawers in the file cabinet are open with old scorebooks opened on top. "Sorry about the mess, I am glad you stopped by, we need to talk about..." For sports information directors, space is rarely a concern. Except, maybe for the space between periods in a sentence, or the white space that is utilized in designing the "perfect" notes package (eye of the beholder) for the media and others who eat up the useless facts that fill up the PR documents. Rather, SIDs value the space needed to do their sports...

For some reason, I was thinking the other day about what 18th Century English novelist Jane Austen might say about the rabid behavior of sports fans. Why you ask, I am not sure? Just choke it up to my rambling mind. I am a rambling man, you know. Austen, author of Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility and other books, wrote of realism and often offered biting social commentary in her work. If she observed some of the conduct in stadiums and in bars or home surrounding sporting events, her thoughts most likely would not be positive, nor viewed favorably by the sporting community, especially fans that lose themselves in game and exhibit less than socially acceptable behavior. A female philosopher of her time, she wrote with a comical slant at times. So maybe, her commentary might poke sarcastic (and deserved) fun at some of the fan behavior of today. More likely Austen, who writings were controversial during her life, would just shake her head a...

Life is fleeting. We were reminded of how short life can be on Monday night when former University of South Dakota and Kentucky star Desmond Allison, 31, was shot and killed outside an apartment complex in Columbus, Ohio. http://aol.sportingnews.com/ncaa-basketball/story/2011-07-26/former-uk-basketball-player-desmond-allison-shot-killed I did not really know Desmond Allison, except for the relationship that a (former) Sports Information Director has with athletes competing at The University of South Dakota. In my association with him in 2005-07, I  liked the soft-spoken Allison as I worked with the coaches (and Dez) to set up interviews with the media. What I remember about him - other than being a remarkable athlete - was how considerate he was and how glowingly teammates talked about him as a teammate. As I looked over Google for stories about Allison, I began recalling from my time at USD how some Coyote athletes died too young ...

As a Detroit Tigers fan, I am finding it perplexing that I keep writing about things other than concerning the Motor City kiddies. Yet, here I go again. I write a note about Red Sox skipper Terry Francona and post my second "notes" section about someone from the Minnesota Twins organization. Oh well, both Francona and Bert Blyleven are definitely worthy of a little "Genz" penmanship. Aberdeen, S.D., native Terry Francona has now won 1,000 games as a manager, becoming just the second Red Sox manager (Joe Cronin) to accomplish that feat.  He reached the milestone with Boston's win over Seattle on Saturday. Francona was born in Aberdeen and moved with his family to Beaver County, PA. His father, John “Tito” Francona is a former major leaguer from 1956-70. Remember this Red Sox faithful, Francona served as the Tigers’ third-base coach in 1996 - not a great season in Detroit land. The Tigers finished 53-109, and in last place. Francona is a former major league pl...

I am starting to feel it. With all of this NFL lockout talk coming to a head, college previews hitting the Internet and magazine racks, and high school football in the conversation, I am antsy for the start of football. Believe me, I have a great passion for baseball as the races heat up. I also became a bit involved in women's soccer during the World Cup. All of that aside, football is the game that captures my deepest passion. It was a while ago when I was one of those teenagers heading down to the Gettysburg (SD) Park to do a bit of off-season football training. A few sprints,a lot of kicking and throwing the football, and then across the street to the High School gum for late afternoons weight sessions, all in preparation for the fall football season. I probably did too much of the throwing and kicking and not enough of the weight room. Still, those days seem as if they were yesterday. It is interesting how the football focus gets real...