Goodbye to the “Heater from Van Meter”

Bob Feller died last night at the age of 92. Among the things that could be easily argued include that he was Iowa’s most famous athlete, and one of major league baseball’s best pitchers ever.

My first experience with Bob Feller was when I was younger. He stopped in Mason City at a local shop, making an appearance to sign autographs.  I went down to see him, but at that age I didn’t understand the concept of former players making some cash from people coming to see them and paying to get an autograph. Feller was known for having a rough edge at times, and I got to see it that day up close when I got a full explanation about how he was there to sign things for a fee, and that I wouldn’t be getting any type of autograph without paying for it. Of course I didn’t understand and thought he was a mean guy at that point, but of course later in life I realized that I didn’t understand the “autograph industry” at the age of 9 or 10.

Fast forward to the months leading up to the Iowa Caucuses in 2004. Feller was part of the campaign of Democrat Senator and former Cleveland mayor Dennis Kucinich, and Kucinich knew that having his friend Feller tag along to sign autographs as part of a stop at a Mason City restaurant would be a good thing. Kucinich had a good crowd that day, but I wondered while reporting on the event how many people were there to see the man who wanted to be president and how many were there to see one of their favorite Iowans. And for those who are wondering…no, I didn’t ask for an autograph, and I didn’t remind him of the story of him giving me a lecture on autographs when I was a kid.

I also wonder this morning if today’s athletes would put their career on hold if our country was thrown into a major war like Feller did. Feller was on his way to sign a new contract with Cleveland when he heard the news about the attack on Pearl Harbor. Feller diverted from his trip to Cleveland and became the first active major league baseball player to volunteer for the service, signing up to serve in the Navy. He served as a Gun Captain on the USS Alabama, earning eight battle stars and five campaign ribbons. He is the only Chief Petty Officer that is a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Feller talked about some of his experience of being in the Navy in World War Two in this video from 2008.

Looking at Feller’s stats, it’s obvious that he put country ahead of baseball. Feller won at least 20 games in the three seasons before and the two seasons after the war. I estimate that he would have had about 93 more wins, putting him seventh best ever in career wins with 359. Also in that lost time he should have had about 950 more strikeouts, putting him around 7th to 8th best. In the day of multi-million dollar contracts and egos, I do wonder if today’s athletes would put aside the money and fame of climbing the career stat lists like Bob Feller did in the prime of his career.

Feller kept in great health until recently. He pitched in the 2009 Hall of Fame old-timers game at the age of 90.

The Feller Museum in Van Meter is someplace I have not visited, but must put that on my list of places to go in the near future.

High school football playoffs not watered down…

Some people continued to complain about the expanded playoff format for high school football this year. Those complaints directed my way fell on deaf ears and have for the last couple of years. Yes, when they announced the expansion of the playoffs starting three years ago, I was skeptical at first that it was going to water down the playoffs. After three years of the playoffs, I’m not turning back. There are several examples of why an expanded playoffs works for Iowa. I know I’m not going to be able to sell all of you on the idea of why it works, but I certainly hope before the end of this to sway you in my direction.

 

 

== Pella 2009, Dike-New Hartford 2010

Pella finished second for the Class 3A state championship in 2009 (I goofed, thanks to Jeff Moss for correcting my wishful thinking about Pella beating Harlan). Under the old format, they would have been left for dead at the side of the road after the fifth week. Pella lost two of their first three district games and ended up with a 4-3 district record, finishing fourth in their district. 6-3 Pella went on to beat an 8-1 Williamsburg team, a district champion, in the first round (it was termed as the “substate” round, but has since been recognized as a full round of the playoffs by the IHSAA)…a 9-1 Grinnell team in the second round, an 11-0 Centerville team in the quarterfinals, a 10-2 New Hampton team in the semis, and then losing to a 13-0 Harlan team in the championship game. Once again, under the old rules, this team isn’t given a chance to be state champions, and they are just going through the motions in weeks 7-8-9 in anticipation of the banquet a week or so after the final game.

 

Dike-New Hartford this year. Yes, they got thumped in the 1A championship game by traditional power West Lyon, but they aren’t there in the end if a third-place district team isn’t allowed to qualify.

 

 

== Three teams at 6-1

The district Clear Lake’s district was matched up with in the playoffs had three teams with 6-1 district records and one team with a 4-3 district record. Decorah, West Delaware and Waverly-Shell Rock each had their loss inside that trio of schools (Decorah to Waverly, Waverly to West Delaware, West Delaware to Decorah). Under the old format, whoever ended up being in third place with the tiebreaker was left out. Then you’d wonder why a team that was possibly 8-1 overall and 6-1 in their district was being left out of the playoffs, while a team with a 5-2 district record and 5-4 overall record was being allowed in? The only team from District 4 not to win their first round game this year was Oelwein, who you can honestly say had Clear Lake on the ropes for three-plus quarters. Look back to our Dike-New Hartford example of this year (it wasn’t a three-way tie) of a third-place team taking home a big trophy and some pride in being runner-up.

 

 

 

== Some districts have more quality teams in them that others. I think this truly shows in the number of #3 and #4 seeded teams beating #1s and #2s in the first round of the playoffs (Classes 3A thru 8-Man) in the first three years of the expanded playoffs, as well as the number of lower seeds knocking off higher seeds in the 4A playoffs:

 

            — 2010

8-Man — 3

Class A — 4

Class 1A — 3

Class 2A — 2

Class 3A — 4 (including a #1 seed, a 9-0 team losing to a 5-4 team)

Class 4A (higher losing to lower seed) — 4 (including two 3-6 teams winning, beating a 9-0 team and an 8-1 team)

 

Total number of lower seeds beating higher seeds in first round — 20

Percentage of lower seeds beating higher seeds in first round (96 games) — 20.8%

 

 

            — 2009

8-Man — 3 (including a #1 seed, a 9-0 team losing to a 3-6 team)

Class A — 2

Class 1A — 5

Class 2A — 2

Class 3A – 4

Class 4A — 4 (including a 4-5 over an 8-1)

 

Total number of lower seeds beating higher seeds in first round — 20

Percentage of lower seeds beating higher seeds in first round (96 games) — 20.8%

 

 

            — 2008

8-Man — 4

Class A — 4 (including a #1 seed, a 5-4 team beating a 7-2)

Class 1A — 2

Class 2A — 5

Class 3A — 4 (including a #1 seed, a 5-4 New Hampton team beating a 9-0 squad)

Class 4A — 2 (including a 4-5 over an 8-1)

 

Total number of lower seeds beating higher seeds in first round — 21

Percentage of lower seeds beating higher seeds in first round (96 games) — 21.9%

 

 

I personally think that a 20% success rate of lowers seeds beating higher seeds is substantial proof that the playoffs are not watered down in this format, and you see several notations above that show that a 9-0 or 8-1 team is not guaranteed a cakewalk in their first round game.

 

 

That being said, congrats to all the area teams, and congrats to the championship teams in each class. The Iowa City area definitely shines in the football spotlight with two champions (Regina, Solon) and one very close runner-up (City High losing in overtime) playing under the dome this past weekend.

Trust me, it wasn’t the idea of strip clubs that kept me away…

Well, I hate to admit again, haven’t been very good at doing the blog thing on a timely basis, but now that my favorite two seasons that clash together…high school football and “political”…are behind me, maybe I can update this a little bit more that I have in the past, and I apologize to you that followed the first few postings only to see me go into an extended hiatus with this..

 

 

This week’s meeting of the Mason City City Council wasn’t a record-breaker on the clock…3 hours and 38 minutes, including the public comment session after the business portion of the meeting (click here to listen/download the entire meeting and public comment) …but it certainly saw one of the larger crowds in recent memory to a council meeting. NIACC buildings officials had to be called in to expand the room at the Muse-Norris Conference Center. The council has been using two-thirds of the total space for meetings, but an overflow crowd of about 125 people meant the other third had to be opened up. Most were there to listen to the council deliberate the issue of adult-use businesses, mainly with the concept brought forth during the November 2^nd meeting by Max Weaver to change the zoning in the downtown area to allow so-called “gentlemen’s clubs”. The council shot down the idea of allowing city staff to further look into the issue…Weaver in the end voted against that proposal…but even after this vote, I find a number of people inside and outside the community are thinking that adult-use businesses won’t be allowed anywhere in the community, especially after we’ve reported that fact in a story late last week.

 

 

As we reported on November 11th and 12th, under the current zoning laws, there are several areas of the city that already could allow strip joints. Mayor Eric Bookmeyer last week not only stated that he would veto any movement forward with looking into rezoning downtown to allow adult uses, but also pointed out places in the community where such places could be put, either “by right” under the current zoning, or by having a conditional use permit awarded in some certain spots.

 

 

Bookmeyer presented us a map that shows where those spots could go, and some spots may even surprise you on where those businesses can go. To allow you to see the map and zoom in on specific areas, click on this link to open up a PDF file of the map.

 

 

Even if downtown was rezoned to allow adult uses, is it really likely that in today’s climate that someone is going to set up shop downtown? Probably not. City Planner Tricia Sandahl reminds us, in her words from a memo to city staff, that “owners of adult businesses generally do not like downtown locations because they do not offer any anonymity to their customers.” Take the area inside the US Highway 65 loop. Is there really any spot inside that area where you would set up shop if you were going to bring in a strip club?

 

 

It will be interesting to see, even after this flare-up of local politics and Mason City getting itself into the bad national spotlight again for the second time in six months, if anybody will take the chance of establishing an adult business in one of those spots where according to zoning laws they can.

Clear Lake Lions football — Week 1 preview

Off to football season we go starting today. Friday mornings each week I’ll try to put down some of my thoughts and direct you to some of the links that will provide you with more. I’ll also during the weekend after each game provide a bit of a summary/thoughts on this blog.

First of all, there’s always a stack of notes as well as starters that I put together, you can find those this year at this link. You can also find the link at that website to listen to the broadcast as well tonight.

Charles City seems to have been one of the tougher opponents for Clear Lake throughout the last ten years. Yes, there was a stretch between 2006-2008 where the Lions did show dominance, but if you subtract the four games played in those three years (three regular season, one playoff), the winning margin of difference in the series since 2003 is about six points. Charles City is coming off of the high of a strong finish in baseball, and facing the Lions right out of the gate might mean a tough ballgame for Clear Lake tonight on the road.

Lions fans will be eager to see how Ozzie Adams handles the quarterback position as a junior, helped by a pair of senior running backs that combined for about a thousand yards last season in Paxton Farmer and Elliott Neuberger.

Clear Lake holds an 18-15 overall record in the series, with a 10-8 record when games are played in Charles City.

The Lions JV started out the season last night with a come from behind 35-27 win over Charles City.

Our pre-game on AM-1490 KRIB starts at 6:45. Game at 7:30. Stayed tuned after the game for the Radio Iowa Football Friday Night scoreboard program from 10:00-11:30.

Was on hiatus, but am now back…

 I had the gut feeling that there might be lapses in my blogging, but my goal is to get back in the swing of things with the start of high school football this week. How about a bit of a recap in things in the last month since my previous posting (I’ll try to go in chronological order)….

DixieFest (July 24-25)….
It was another great weekend at the Lakeside DixieFest in Clear Lake. There were a number of wonderful groups from the Midwest that entertained a full City Park next to the lake. If you’ve never been to the event, make sure you mark the last full weekend in July down on your calendar for next year.

State baseball (ended July 30-31)…
North-central Iowa saw a great showing at state baseball. It was tough to see Troy Rood’s Mason City High club finish the way they did in the semifinal round, just like Tony Adams’ Newman ballclub did the day before. Congrats to Charles City for making it into the final before their loss. Congrats to those clubs for making it into the state tournament.

 
MCHS Class of 1990 reunion (July 30-31)…
Fun was had by all (I think) at my 20 year class reunion. I worked with three other great classmates on putting together the event, and was able to see a number of people that I had not talked with from anywhere between 10 years to even more than 20 years ago, as we had some classmates that moved away and didn’t finish with us that came back to Mason City for the celebration. Surprisingly enough, I don’t think there was one person who mentioned the Obama/Hitler/Lenin billboard that was up in downtown Mason City earlier in the month.

Vacation (August 17-24)….
It was a mix of taking some “day-trips” and sleeping in (had to say it since everybody’s favorite question is “when do you sleep?”). A couple of the more interesting experiences included last Wednesday’s trip to Dubuque, stopping by the Lake Delhi area to see the devastation of the area from the dam break. I could try to describe it with words, but the best way is for you to see the photos of where the lake water used to be, mangled boat lifts and other destruction by showing you the photos at this link

This past weekend I also had quite an experience as well, sitting in “Champions Club” level seats at Target Field in Minneapolis for the Twins-Angels game on Saturday. Pricy tickets (thanks to my brother-in-law for flipping for them), but definitely one of those things that if you are a baseball fan that enjoys going out and enjoying a ballgame that you will want to consider in the future.

What’s next….
High school football season starts this week. Friday mornings throughout the season I’ll try to be blogging at least a little bit of a preview of the Clear Lake game to come that night.

Photos, Tim McCarver, Tractor Ride

Did I mention in my last blog posting that things were busy? I guess the last 20 days have been full of things and I haven’t been able to write up a blog, so I figured I better try to do share some of my thoughts on things going on throughout the area.

=== Taking photos

Last Tuesday morning I took two photos. I’m not going to sit here and say I’m a professional photographer or anything. One nobody ended up seeing, the other ended up on the Radio Iowa and ABC News websites and a few others worldwide.

Pulling out of my driveway in the 4 o’clock hour of the morning and heading to work, I looked over to my right, and I thought I saw something or somebody on the sidewalk, staring at me. I was startled and had to flash the brights to make sure that it wasn’t some goofball roaming the neighborhood looking to cause trouble. It just happened to be a deer. I stayed in the same spot in the street for about a minute, not sure whether it was going to cross my path or not. At that point, I thought it would be a great idea to get the cell phone out and snap a shot with the camera in it. Obviously I had forgotten to turn the settings back to automatic flash. So I took a picture which ended up being a dark nothing. The deer after standing there moved right up the sidewalk, just like it was on a Sunday stroll.

Do you think we still have a deer problem in the state? I hit one with my old car in March 2009. Here’s a picture I took just off of downtown Mason City in the Rock Glen area back on June 23^rd shortly before 9:00 PM. Will there ever be a solution to the problem?

 

 Anyway, the second photo I took last Tuesday morning, you can go here to take a look at that one.

  

=== North Iowa Tea Party and….Tim McCarver?

As a regular reader of Michael Hiestand’s “Sports Television” column in USA Today, I noticed from his Monday column that the North Iowa Tea Party wasn’t the only one making references to the Hitler and Lenin eras.

Say what?  It should probably go without saying that it’s not a great idea to compare sports front office moves with, say, killings in the Nazi and Soviet systems. But Fox’s Tim McCarver did just that during the network’s coverage of Tampa Bay Rays-New York Yankees on Saturday. In saying there was no sign of former manager Joe Torre at Yankee Stadium, McCarver made an analogy to “despotic leaders in World War II, primarily in Russia and Germany” who, after shooting some of their generals, then “airbrushed the generals out of pictures. In a sense, that’s what the Yankees have done with Joe Torre.”

Yikes. Kind of a stretch to compare Torre’s fate — he now manages the Los Angeles Dodgers— to those of military officers executed by their own governments. The Dodgers aren’t that bad.

  

=== KGLO/KWMT Tractor Ride

 The 9^th annual Tractor Ride is underway, cloverleafing out of Iowa Falls. You can keep up to date with the ride on the event’s Facebook page.

Busy busy busy…

The one thing I feared when I started a blog happened…that I’d have some lapses in posts. Well it’s been quite an interesting two weeks, highlighted by a lot of severe weather, some ballgames and other things. June 17^th saw the tornadoes hit in Freeborn County Minnesota, and then last Wednesday morning I was wrapping up an “all-nighter” from overnight Tuesday into Wednesday after flash flooding and storms hit the area. I think it’s the first time since operations moved from our old 19^th SW location into Radio Park that I’ve pulled an all-nighter. One of those things that you sometimes just have to do.

 

That’s how my radar screen looked at 11:00 PM on Tuesday night June 22nd with the storms pushing through. The pink boxes are tornado warnings, the yellow boxes are severe thunderstorm warnings. The red balloons are either funnel cloud or tornado reports in the last few hours, while the green balloons with the white dots are hail reports.

I always hate to say that for the most part I enjoy doing severe weather coverage. I guess it’s more the fact of passing along information immediately to listeners and doing the “fly by the seat of your pants” radio at times when it’s warning after warning after warning like we saw several days in the last two weeks. I know some of you have passed along your compliments about our severe weather coverage and I thank you for those.

The baseball bounces…

An interesting last 72 hours in high school baseball in Cerro Gordo County. Mason City High extended their streak of wins over Newman Catholic on Sunday at Roosevelt Field with a 4-2 win. Then last night, Clear Lake pulled out some seventh inning magic and found a way to score four times in the seventh for a 5-4 win over the Mohawks in their annual Cerro Gordo showdown. It was the first time Clear Lake had beaten the Mohawks since a then #10/3A Lions club knocked off a freshly-ranked #1/4A team back in 2003 at Roosevelt Field in Mason City. Some debated after the game whether or not last night’s win was one of the biggest in Clear Lake history. It for sure was one of the most dramatic finishes I’ve done of a Clear Lake baseball game.

I have a feeling both teams will take last night’s game and move forward in grand fashion for the rest of the year. Clear Lake is looking for a second place finish in the North Central Conference. After a loss on Monday night to Hampton-Dumont, the Lions have three conference losses, and Hampton-Dumont’s best chance of being dealt a second loss in conference play was dashed last night as the Bulldogs came back from a 4-0 deficit to re-start a suspended game to beat Algona in extra innings. Hampton-Dumont only has one loss in the conference, and the planets will have to align correctly at this point for the Bulldogs to drop three of their final conference games with the hope that Clear Lake could win out in their conference schedule. Not likely, but not many gave the Lions a chance to knock off the Mohawks last night heading into the game, let alone going into the bottom of the seventh.

For Mason City, it may be one of those good reminders that a team can’t shift into cruise control after opening up with winning 22 of their first 26 games. Troy Rood wants to see his club win a conference title as well as a state title. I have a feeling it’s good things from here on out for the Mohawks, but people also must remember that the CIML Iowa Conference equals quality baseball, and that a loss or two shouldn’t be the end of the world for MCHS.

 You can listen back to comments from Clear Lake coach Seth Thompson and Rood by clicking here

Bye-bye Big 12?

Breaking up is hard to do….

 

It’s possible by the end of the week that we can start writing the obituary for the Big 12 Conference. As you may well know, Colorado was the first school to bail out last week by announcing they were Pac-10 bound. Last Friday, Nebraska said they were jumping as soon as possible in the fall of 2011 to the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives (that was the original name of the Big Ten Conference officially until 1987).

The Big Ten Network was established a few years ago, and it has proved what conference officials thought all along…a bigger payday for each of their member schools when it comes to television revenues. The Big 12 schools entered into a poor contract the last time it was up, and conference visibility has suffered inside and outside the checkbook.

Pac-10 commissioner Larry Scott apparently met with officials with Texas, Texas Tech, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State over the weekend. Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe, according to several published reports including this one in the Waco Tribune-Herald  is hoping to save not only the conference but basically his job by trying to pitch a deal that includes a TV package that would bring about $17 million annually to each of the schools.

The big point of what Beebe has proposed is that each school could create its own network. That’s the bait on the hook to try and keep Texas in the conference. The questions is whether or not Texas wants to stay at this point or defect to the Pac-10, which has an estimated $20 million a year per school deal that would be part of a Pac-10 TV network.

If the bait isn’t enough and Texas and the rest of the old Southwestern Conference schools head west, what’s that mean for Iowa State? It all hinges on whether or not they can stick together with the remaining schools in finding or creating a new conference, or if they can latch on with the other schools someplace else and try to raise the value of a mid-major conference.   

Missouri says at least upfront they are committed to staying in the conference, although they’ve been mentioned as a good candidate for the Big Ten due to the size of the Kansas City and St. Louis television markets. The Mountain West meanwhile according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram is possibly courting Kansas, Missouri and possibly Kansas State.

By the way, there aren’t too many…if any…rumors out there about who would like Iowa State to join them.

What have some Cyclone fans pitched to me as possibilities where they may land the last few days?

=======  

= Conference USA — a 12-school conference right now. It already has some ties with Big 12 schools (in rowing…yeah I know, kind of a stretch). Right now, the closest schools are Tulsa and Memphis. Long trips would include Central Florida and UTEP. Not known as a really strong football conference. Was 11^th in the RPI ratings of each conference in men’s basketball this past season, and 8^th in women’s basketball conference RPI ratings (Big 12 was #1). Current number of members who field a wrestling program — zero. TV tie in is with the CBS College Sports Network.

= Mountain West — obviously been trying to be aggressive in wanting to boost themselves from being labeled as a “mid-major” conference to be a “major”. Added two-time BCS bowl game winner Boise State to beef up the conference’s football stature. #8 RPI in men’s basketball, #7 RPI in women’s basketball. There are two wrestling schools in Air Force and Wyoming, with Boise State also having wrestling. Have their own television network, but coverage is spotty in some parts of the current conference coverage area.

= Mid-American Conference — according to one source, the second worst football conference in means of quality/strength. Both men’s and women’s basketball RPI this past season #16. Six schools offer wrestling. Their TV package is with Fox Sports Net Ohio. I think I get that on Dish Network.

= Big Ten Conference — there’s also one or two Cyclone fans that have the underlying wish that the Big Ten will pick up the Cyclones. Not going to happen. When it comes to TV revenue, Iowa State has nothing more to offer since the Big Ten covers the entire Iowa map already.

=======  

ISU president Gregory Geoffrey issued a statement late Friday expressing disappointment about Colorado and Nebraska leaving for greener pastures.  Here’s the message I have for Geoffrey and athletic director Jamie Pollard. You need to not be only proactive in trying to keep the remaining ten members together, you also need to be proactive with your former “Big Six” schools of Kansas, Kansas State, and Missouri to make sure they are behind helping you make a move to stay associated with them in the future. Not to say that there aren’t behind-the-scenes discussions taking place about Iowa State’s future, but right now the only thing that ISU officials are openly showing is a want to keep the conference in-tact, which possibly won’t not happen.

Busy signal….

Haven’t put out a blog in a while just because I’ve had a jam-packed schedule in the last week. A decent split by the Clear Lake softball teams at Eagle Grove last Monday. The Clear Lake baseball team with a quality win at Webster City back on Friday night. The Mason City Municipal Band had a concert last Wednesday night in Southbridge Mall, and unfortunately rain right before and the threat of rain falling again during the concert hampered plans to play outdoors at the MacNider Arts Festival on Saturday afternoon. Concert-level woodwind instruments and rain don’t mix, so it was a decision to err on the side of caution since the musicians playing every week get paid so little to perform the concert and have invested so much in their instruments.

Speaking of the Mason City Municipal Band, if you are Facebooker, make sure you join the MCMB’s fan page at facebook.com/masoncitymunicipalband.

 This week…tonight in Clear Lake for Lions softball against Humboldt. Mason City City Council meeting on Tuesday night. Clear Lake baseball Friday at Iowa Falls-Alden.

Instant Replay, Not Being Perfect, Primary

Instant Replay

There shouldn’t be anything to fear about using instant replay in professional sports.

By now you all know about the “imperfect” game thrown by Detroit pitcher Armando Galarraga on Wednesday night, taken away when umpire Jim Joyce made an errant call on what should have been the final play of the game on a ground out. While MLB Commissioner Bud Selig has made the right decision in not overturning the call and giving Galarraga the perfect game (what is done is done), I have to say this is the time to look at expanding replay in Major League Baseball.

MLB has had limited replay in the last couple of seasons if there is a question about whether or not a batted ball is a home run. I can’t recall any major objections to this since it was implemented. A couple of weeks ago when the Twins were in Boston to play the Red Sox, umpires used instant replay when it was incorrectly determined that a ball had not trekked over the Green Monster’s right edge in left-center field. The umpires only took a couple of minutes and turned what would have been a rare triple by David Ortiz into a homer, without the argument of anybody at that time or afterwards.

Between Wednesday night’s end of the Detroit game and when Galarraga brought out the lineup card for Thursday’s day game, Jim Joyce was the most distraught man in the United States. He admitted blowing the call after the game Wednesday night, and he was visibly shaken before Thursday’s game. Turn back the clock to Wednesday night if MLB had instant replay. I think Joyce would have been more than happy to admit he was wrong and that instant replay was a good part of the game.

Minnesota Twins manager Ron Gardenhire last year was quoted as saying that he’d like to have some sort of challenge system, likely using a one-time per game “red flag” to have the opportunity to give an extra look to a call. What’s going to be wrong with that? Wednesday night I think proves that some sort of system needs to be looked at. Then again, the question could also be asked, had there been such a one-time “red flag” and Detroit would have used their challenge earlier in the game, would we be still at the same point in the discussion of instant replay use?

Pro football has an instant replay system that has been refined and I think works well. College football has trekked through that same process and has a reasonable replay system.

The NHL has a great replay system. In fact, had replay not been used in Wednesday night’s third game of the Stanley Cup, Philadelphia would be down three games to zero in their series against Chicago. The Flyers’ Scott Hartnell tipped a shot from Chris Pronger which just barely crossed the goal line, but it was tipped out by a Blackhawks defenseman. Play continued for about another 90 seconds, but once it stopped and a replay was looked at, it showed it was clearly a goal. Had that goal not been allowed, Chicago would have (in theory) won and captured huge momentum in the series. Now, the series is one Philly win away from being tied up.

Primarily speaking…

The final push is on for Tuesday’s primary election.

We’ve seen all three of the GOP candidates for governor stop through Mason City in the last week, that including Terry Branstad’s visit to Southbridge Mall later today at 2 o’clock. The latest KCCI-TV poll shows Branstad leads Bob Vander Plaats by 15 percent, with 15 percent of those surveyed saying they were undecided about their vote on Tuesday.

The KCCI poll also shows Roxanne Conlin way ahead in the Democrat primary for U.S Senate. The winner will face Chuck Grassley in November’s election.

There are two primaries for Iowa House seats in north-central Iowa. In House District 14, the GOP primary will have Josh Byrnes of Osage and Craig Clark of Rudd. The winner will face Kurt Meyer of St. Ansgar in the November election to fill the seat being vacated by Mark Kuhn (D-Charles City). In House District 11, the GOP primary will have incumbent Henry Rayhons of Garner facing a challenge from Dennis Olson of Joice. The winner will face Ann Fairchild of Fertile, who lost to Rayhons in the 2008 election.

Polls are open Tuesday statewide from 7:00 AM to 9:00 PM. We’ll have primary election night coverage on AM-1300 KGLO after the polls close at 9:00 PM with updates on the races of statewide interest from Radio Iowa and local coverage from the KGLO Newsroom.

Nobody’s perfect

One final “perfect” thought. We’ve had two perfect games already this season, and three if you want to count Galarraga’s. How many of you know the story of Harvey Haddix? The Pittsburgh pitcher took a perfect game into the 13^th inning against the Milwaukee Braves back on May 26^th of 1959, retiring 36 consecutive batters before losing the perfect game. Nowadays, getting a pitcher to throw nine innings is considered something of a rarity.

Post-Band Festival, Severe Weather, More Summer Sports

Band Festival 2010 here and gone…

Another North Iowa Band Festival is in the books. Crowds for both Friday and Saturday at East Park seemed to be good for all the entertainment. The one big concern/complaint from some though comes from the Band Festival parade itself. Several people that were lined up along the parade route told me that they thought the parade was over after Dennis Burke drove his car featuring the “XANGO” product on the route. Those of us who had our parade lineup in our hands knew that wasn’t the case, as the Park Center High School marching band from Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, was the reason people might have thought the parade was over.

First of all, this isn’t going to be about ripping Park Center at all. They are one of the finest high school programs in Minnesota as well as the Upper Midwest, and the Band Festival is grateful to have the program participate each year. The question asked by people is whether or not they should be performing their show routine on the street as part of the parade.

As you may know, I’m active somewhat in the music community here in north-central Iowa and always enjoy promoting fine arts in our area, so I do enjoy the “product” for lack of better words that Park Center has brought to the Band Festival parade the last few years. They weren’t the only high school band to perform a routine in the parade. The gap before Park Center’s arrival was about five minutes according to a review of the audio/video recording we have of the parade from our vantage point at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, but I was told (and I can’t verify) that it was as long as 20 minutes at the end of the parade route.

What’s the solution? Are you going to handcuff the now six-time defending Meredith Willson Award winner? Then again, do you really want a 20-30 minute gap toward the end of the parade? Do you prohibit bands from doing routines while they are marching in the parade? It’s a tough question with no good answer no matter what angle you take on it. If you prohibit bands from doing any type of routines during the parade, why have a competition?

Park Center brings a positive thing to the Band Festival that I think many people forget, and that I’ve always believed Band Festival is all about. It’s about the advancement of our youth in music. The first Band Festivals were connected to Iowa Bandmasters Association conventions held in Mason City. I know times change, but sometimes I wonder about the emphasis on the student-musicians that I think the original Band Festival organizers had in mind with the event.

Severe Weather

A good chunk of Iowa is in the mix for severe weather today. Keep tuned to our stations all day long for the latest. The latest overview from the Storm Prediction Center can be found here. Any watches and warnings can be found here.

Onto the second week of baseball and softball

Well, it was an interesting first week of play for baseball and softball. The biggest question that everybody is trying to find out is when Newman was last on the losing end of a no-hitter. Cedar Falls used three pitchers to hold the Knights hitless in the championship game of the Lou Koenigsfeld Classic last Friday night. Newman faced three tough pitchers and just couldn’t find a way to scratch out a hit.

 That shouldn’t mean bad things to come for Newman though, as I always have said the first week of the season should never be an indicator of how a baseball or softball team will perform the rest of the season. Many baseball and softball teams, including Newman and Clear Lake, have a number of key players that are involved in other sports late in the spring season, and the crossover can be a factor in early season play.

As we all know, it’s not the rankings or play at the start of the season that decides a championship at the end of the year.

This week’s broadcast notes:

KRIB has Clear Lake softball at Garrigan tonight (weather permitting) starting at about 7:15. That could move up if weather is a factor. Clear Lake baseball on Friday night on KRIB at about 7:15 as the Lions host Algona.

KGLO has Mason City at Newman in softball on Thursday night at about 7:15.

Tim Fleming will take the “Talk of the Town” show to Sheffield’s Ridgestone Golf Course tomorrow morning from 6:00-9:00 AM. Stop by and visit if you wish.

The KGLO “Ask the Mayor” show is scheduled to have Mason City Mayor Eric Bookmeyer. The live broadcast at 10:10 Wednesday morning the re-broadcast during the 9 o’clock hour Saturday morning, and archived online as well at http://www.kglonews.com .