The Jock Strap

You know, during my travels around the Hawkeye state since beginning my professional sports broadcasting career in June of 2003, I've been north, south, east, and west. I've covered events in Fort Dodge, St. Marys, Clinton and Burlington, and Sioux City. I've also been pretty much everywhere in-between, including Des Moines, Iowa City, etc., etc. And, of course, chasing the teams I've covered around the state puts me on a tight schedule, which doesn't lend itself to too many sit-down family-style meals. As many coaches well know, a lot of my meals come at the stadium, the ballpark, or in the lobby of a gymnasium. In other words, I many times pray to the great god of the concession stand.

This being said, I feel that I am am expert on high school sports concession stands and the quality and variety of their menus. And, this past weekend, while covering the Bulldogs' three games at the Cedar Rapids Jefferson J-Hawk Softball Classic, I encountered the best of the best.

When you head down to get a hot dog and a drink at "The Cabin," the affectionate name for the concession stand at the C.R. Jefferson softball diamond, you encounter a menu that many small restaurants would be envious of. Quickly, you realize that simply ordering a hot dog and a Coke might be the biggest mistake you've made in your life. For example, when I was leaving the ballpark on Saturday evening, a Jefferson assistant coach and a team Mom who helps run the concession stand insisted that I order whatever I want from The Cabin before leaving to head back to Ottumwa. I'm thinking pizza, a cheeseburger, maybe even get fancy with a giant pretzel and some nacho dip. But oh no, I was at Jefferson High School, and the concession game is played at a different level around there. Natalie Niemeyer, the head coach's daughter and freshman team assistant coach for the Jayhawks, throws out a recommendation for a piece of their gourmet cheesecake. So, before I leave the ballpark, while watching some of the BGM vs. Mount Vernon game, I enjoy a piece of gourmet cheesecake with cherries and cherry topping.........At a high school softball game! I'm telling you, the cheesecake was excellent, but I was more shocked by the fact that you can actually order cheesecake at a high school softball game, and the concession stand has it in stock. Absolutely amazing.

Now, let's get back to the menu at "The Cabin." It's broken down into sections, including drinks, breakfast, food items, desserts, and candy.

Under food items, one finds a ribeye steak sandwich for $5.25, a Philly steak sandwich for $4.75, a grilled, boneless chicken breast sandwich for $4.00, and a grilled fish sandwich for $4.00. Get the idea? This place is unreal.

Under breakfast, you have donuts, rolls, pancakes, and french toast sticks.

Then, when you turn to drinks, you'd think, "Well, they'll have the usual soft drinks, bland coffee, etc." Wrong again. They have 7 different soft drinks, sun tea, generic lemonade, bottled water, Gatorade, Country Time lemonade, Snapple lemon tea, strawberry banana smoothies, apple, grape, and Sunny D juice, milk and chocolate milk, coffee, and hot chocolate.

How 'bout desserts you ask? Well, let's get down to business. Cheesecake (with cherries or strawberries.......As mentioned, I went with cherries), apple, cherry, peach, and blueberry pie (available ala mode), strawberry shortcake (available ala mode), brownie sundae, rootbeer float, frosty malt, drumstick, ice cream sandwich, ice cream cone (2 dips), ice cream cone (3 scoops in a bowl (available with chocolate syrup, strawberries, or both)), and freeze pops. Are you serious?

Then, for candy, you have: Dots, Hot Tamales, Mike & Ike's, plain and peanut M&Ms, Reese's Pieces, Skittles, Snickers bars, Twix bars, Twizzlers, blue, green, and purple Sour Punch Straws, Fireballs, caramel apple suckers and lolly pops, and Laffy Taffy. Whew!! That took a lot of effort just to type out!

Again, this is at a high school softball stadium!

In conclusion, this was easily the most amazing high school concession stand experience I've ever had, inside and outside the state of Iowa, and including high school, college, and professional sports. Quite honestly, "The Cabin" at Jefferson is better than most Minor League Baseball park concession stands I've been to, and has a greater variety of items than any Major League Baseball park I've ever been to.

All the respect in the world to the founders, purveyors, and workers at "The Cabin," you have all created an absolute masterpiece that goes down in all-time concession stand lore!


"The Bruce"

As you know, Tiger Woods locked up his 14th career major with an epic victory at Torrey Pines in San Diego on Monday (6/16), defeating Rocco Mediate on the 91st hole of competition in a sudden-death playoff that followed that day's 18-hole playoff between the two men.

Tiger, only 32 years of age, now owns just four fewer major championships than Jack Nicklaus, who won his 18th and final major, The Masters, at the age of 45 in 1986. With the U.S. Open win on Monday, Woods also joined Jack as the only men to ever win the career Grand Slam three times over (Grand Slam includes all four majors......U.S. Open, Masters, PGA Championship, and British Open). Just to hammer that point home, Tiger and Jack each have at least three titles at each of the four separate events. Just incredible.

And, while Jack Nicklaus' brilliant career was highlighted by six wins at The Masters at Augusta National, Tiger's win at Torrey Pines was his seventh on the famed public course in the San Diego area, including not only this U.S. Open, but five Buick Invitationals and one Junior World Championship won when he was a teenager. Again, seven wins on the same course, another all-time record.

Now, all of this being said, Tiger Woods recently let it be known that the evident knee pain he suffered from at Torrey Pines, while walking 91 holes to finally earn the victory, was actually a very serious ACL tear in his left knee that will now require season-ending surgery. Meanwhile, he was also playing with a double stress fracture in his tibia. He has come out recently and admitted that a few weeks ago, when a doctor told him to take 6 weeks off for the stress fractures to heal properly, he looked him straight in the eye and said, "I'm playing in the U.S. Open, and I'm going to win." So, ignoring doctor's orders and a severe amount of pain that limited his game, he still beat the best in the world and won our nation's golf championship, for the third time.

Anybody have any more questions or doubts about Tiger Woods? Care to question his talent, his ability, his heart, his toughness, his singleness of purpose? Care to question his desire to become the greatest golfer of all time? I would love to field a comment from someone who questions any of those things.

And, above and beyond everything just mentioned, I believe the one attribute that makes him truly special is his ability to live in the moment, and nowhere but in the moment. Just like Michael Jordan had the ability to do, Tiger has an almost superhuman ability to slow things down, purely focus on what he's trying to do, and seemingly get things done by sheer will. To me, he has more control on the outcome of whatever he's involved in than any other sportsman ever has. He ALWAYS comes up with the exact thing he needs at the exact time in which he needs it. A perfect drive on the 18th hole when he must birdie to keep the competition alive, a 15-foot putt on the 18th green for a tie and a forced playoff, a 65-foot eagle putt earlier in the round and a 35-foot double-breaking eagle putt on the 18th hole Saturday to take the overnight lead, and these were all things he just did in this last tournament, let alone all of the highlights we could come up with for his career. Oh yeah, by the way, I forgot the birdie chip-in he made this past Saturday at Torrey Pines as well. Just thought I'd throw that in.

Tiger Woods cannot be considered the greatest golfer of all time until he eclipses Jack Nicklaus' major championship record of 18 or Sam Snead's all-time tournament wins record of 82 (which he's quickly approaching with a current total of 65......Jack has 73), but I think it's pretty clear that you are watching the greatest golfer who's ever picked up a club. It's really not even much of a stretch to make that claim at this very point in time.

My words to you......Take in every moment, watch him as much as you can, enjoy the moments and cherish the memories as much as possible, because individuals like this come around once and once only.

"The Bruce"

On Monday night, June 9th, I had one of the most amazing experiences I've ever had in 7 1/2 years of play-by-play experience. Ottumwa was at Des Moines Roosevelt for a Metro softball doubleheader, and the first game went to the Roughriders by the final score of 3-0. Now, this outcome was a little odd, mainly because nobody scored in the entire game outside of the bottom of the first when Roosevelt pushed 3 runs across on 4 hits. The remaining six innings were made up of nothing but goose eggs on the scoreboard.

But, while that was a little odd, things were set to get just plain crazy. The second game of the evening went 14 innings, and nobody won! How could nobody win, you ask? Well, Roosevelt and Ottumwa battled through 14 scoreless innings, and after the Bulldogs retired the Roughriders without scoring in the bottom of the 14th, OHS coach Frank Huston and Roosevelt coach Lindsey Smith decided to suspend the game due to darkness (Roosevelt doesn't have lights at their softball field). The game will be re-started with the Top of the 15th inning on June 26th, when the Roughriders come to Huston Field in Ottumwa for the regularly-scheduled second doubleheader of the season between the two teams. Absolutely incredible! 14 innings of shutout softball, for both teams. I've never seen anything like it, and I've never had to report that neither team won a game that I've called. At least for the night, it was a tie.

Meanwhile, a really odd scenario was mixed in to the story in that Bulldog freshman right-hander Courtney Wagner and Roughrider junior left-hander Laura Ramsey each threw 14 inning shutouts, and neither earned a victory for the effort. Think about dealing with that mentally. You just threw 14 innings and didn't get a win. And, think about the person who eventually loses this game, probably only giving up one run in 15 or 16 innings of softball. Wow.

A wacky, enjoyable, and strange evening of high school softball. Meanwhile, I also urge all Bulldog softball fans to stand by their struggling Bulldogs this year (3-11; 0-5 METRO after Monday night, 06/09/08), keep in mind that Ottumwa lost 7 senior starters off of last year's team that earned 3rd place at the Class 4A State Tournament in Fort Dodge, and that what you have this season is a group of very talented, but very young players in red and white. This I can guarantee you.......In a few short years, Coach Huston and Coach Mishler will have Ottumwa right back where it normally is, in the thick of a Class 4A state championship hunt, and they will do it for the most part with the exact same players that are on the field right now.

Enjoy the summer, and as always, thanks for listening to our Bulldog play-by-play coverage on The Voice of the Bulldogs, 1240 KBIZ!


"The Bruce"