by
Gus Moorhead
By
the Ol' Coach
with the help of his wife
BAD NEWS
BEARS II: For those of us who remember
Walter Matthau's
classic version of "Bad
News Bears," the second
time around with Billy Bob
Thornton kept the spirit of
the original,
but certainly the language
was much worse. The Ol' Coach
and
I saw the movie at the new
cinema in Greendale a couple
of weeks
ago, and except for the constant
use of four-letter words, the
movie was entertaining.
An interview in
the USA Today Sports Weekly with
Billy Bob
Thornton explored his thoughts
about the movie, including
how the story paralleled his
own
life. He says his dad was a
high school basketball coach,
and
at one time he thought he might
write about that experience "although
Hoosiers is pretty good and
I love that movie, so that's
a
tough act to follow."
He notes his own
boys are 11 and 12, and they
are in a lot
of athletic stuff right now. "I'm
trying to be sort of a different
kind of dad. I'm feeling very
Little League-oriented these
days."
Concerning his
experience with the kids in the
movie, Thornton
says, "When I work with
kids, their excitement kind
of excites me. Like Buttermaker's
character in the movie, he
gets
excited about baseball again
after all those years where
he really didn't care. The
kids
get him back; they make him
love the game again. Those
kids did
that for me as an actor. But
they sure were a pain in the
rear sometimes."
In the interview
Thornton says he actually was
a pretty good
baseball player a pitcher,
a junk pitcher. "Bob Gibson
had an instructional book,
and I learned all my pitches
from
his bookI was sort of the local
pitching hero when I was growing
up. I could probably throw
in the mid 80's so that's why
I
had to throw my junk."
The final question
had to do with what player he
would like
to have been. Thornton says, "I'd
be Roger Clemens, only if he
were pitching for the CardinalsClemens
is baseball. I'd love to be
on the mound with Rocket's
right
arm. Man, that would be cool."
LARRY BULLINGTON INTERVIEWED: Most
of us in this area remember Larry
Bullington as a basketball coach
at Connersville and Madison before
he took the Pike High School
head basketball
coaching position
four years ago. An article in
the
Saturday, July 30, sports section
of
The Indianapolis Star indicates
that
after 31 years as a high
school basketball coach, Bullington
might be entering his final
season but
definitely his last season
at Pike. He has a career record
of 422-148 and has guided
the
Pike Red Devils to a four
season 94-11 record, including
the Class
4A state championship at
29-0 in 2002-2003.
He is preparing his assistant
Billy Wright to take over although
there is no formal plan in place,
according to Athletic Director
James Perkins, Jr. Bullington
played high school basketball
at the old Marshall High School
and also starred at Ball State
for the Cardinals.
The Ol' Coach was
a teammate of Bullington's father Danny
Bullington at Hanover
College. After graduation Danny
coached at Manilla and Orleans
and later was an assistant
at Marshall. He passed away
in 2001.
NOT HAPPY WITH I.U. OVER
PLAYER: An accompanying
story noted that Larry Bullington
is pretty upset with Indiana
University coach Mike Davis
regarding the recruitment of
Robert Vaden. It was all about
the Pike star's abrupt departure
from Pike in 2003 to attend
Bridgton (Maine) Academy. Bullington
says he is upset because Davis
never contacted him to explain
the situation.
Davis told reporters
that Vaden would not have been
able to
take enough core courses to meet
NCAA
freshman eligibility standards
at Pike. "The call was made
by his parents," Davis said. "If
the kid is playing for you
and his parents decide to make
him
go to prep school, is it the
college coach's decision, or
is it the parents' and kid's
decision?"
WhateverBullington
says he feels blindsighted because
he had planned to feature Vaden
in the Red Devils' offense. "Whenever
I watch I.U. play now, I hope
Vaden plays well," Bullington
is quoted as saying. "But
I also hope the Hoosiers lose."
BRYAN BULLINGTON HAS 6-4
RECORD: One of the things
Larry Bullington says he wants
to do is spend more time watching
his son Bryan pitch for the
Indianapolis Indians. Right-hander
Bullington pitched eight shutout
innings to lead the Indians
to a 3-0 win over the Syracuse
SkyChiefs on Friday in the
International
League.
Bryan, whom the Pittsburgh
Pirates made the No. 1 overall
pick in the 2002 draft, has spent
this season in Indianapolis and
is doing very well. His record
is 6-4. He has not allowed a
walk in his past 26 innings and
is 2-1 with a 2.08 ERA and 19
strikeouts over his past three
starts.
RANDA IN CONFUSING SITUATION: Although
the Reds have been doing very
well against the San Diego
Padres winning
all three games this weekend
and actually capturing five in
a row with the two wins over
the Los Angeles Dodgers their
former third baseman Joe Randa
found himself in a weird situation.
Randa, who was
playing in a Reds uniform not
too much over
a week ago, started against
the Reds for his new team, the
San
Diego Padres, on Friday. "There's
a lot of firsts for me," he
told reporters. "Playing
against your old team in the
middle of a season is a first.
You don't know what to expect.
As I said when I left, I cherished
the relationships I had with
these guys. To go up against
them is challenging. But once
the game starts, they'll try
to get me out and we've got
to try to get them out."
He notes that the
Padres players are quite competitive. "You're
in the middle of a pennant
race. It's something I
haven't been
a part of in a long time.
It's exciting.
"But you're
still trying to get your feet
wet with
a new team, find out what makes
guys
tick, who you can goof
around with and what guys you can't."
LOSING STREAK NO FUN: Right
now the Padres are in a losing
streak. They had snapped an eight-game
losing streak last Wednesday,
then lost another game Thursday
and then three more on Friday,
Saturday, and Sunday to the Reds.
Randa's two sons
Justin and Jacob were looking
forward
to the Reds' visit so they could
see a lot of their old pals. "It's
a little hectic for them," Randa
explains. "We're in a
hotel (actually on the same
floor with
Ken Griffey, Jr.) for this
homestand. Then they (the sons)
are going
back to Kansas City. We're
not quite settled yet."
SPORTS QUOTE: "This
is not brain surgeryIt's pretty
easy to figure things out, what
a guy should get, at least within
a thousand or two." Denver
Broncos coach Mike Shanahan
on the few Denver players who
remained
unsigned last week. Training
camp began officially on Friday
morning. Our grandson Chris
Byrdwell called us Thursday
night to say
he was getting along really
well as a trainer intern, had
met
quite a few of the players
already, and was looking forward
to a
big day starting at 5:00 a.m.
Friday when camp officially
began.
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