"Tanking" is still a dirty business

What Mavericks don't want to see: Team owner Mark Cuban, Luca Doncic and Kyrie 
Irving sitting togeter during another Dallas loss. (Getty Images photos)

      This blog usually focuses on the positive, trying to tell what we think is a good story.

      Not much positive about today's tale because I am writing about the state of the Dallas Mavericks.

    And that state -- pardon me -- is a bunch of crap.

     Love the team, and love the owner. Mark Cuban -- my opinion -- is one of the best team owners in sports. Or he was until a week or so ago.

      The Mavericks "tanked," no question. 

      Here is the definition I had in a blog dated July 14, 2015, on which the title was: "Tanking -- it's a dirty word."

         ("Tanking" -- losing games intentionally or not trying to bring in the best players and have the best roster possible. This, in order to finish near the bottom of the league and get a potential top-three or so draft choice next year to begin rebuilding the franchise.)

      This is the Mavericks, 2023. They purposely didn't field their best lineups to try to win games. Didn't care if they won; they actually didn't mind losing.

      For the April 7 "must-win" game against the Chicago Bulls, the Mavericks sat out five regular players and Luka Doncic, who is one of the NBA's most talented players, was in the game for 13 minutes, then sat out the rest.

      Those Mavs who did play worked hard, let for much of the first 2 1/2 quarters, and then wilted as the Bulls won 115-112.

     That sealed Dallas' non-playoff fate. Wait 'till next season. 

     Need to qualify this: I no longer care for the NBA. Haven't watched a game all season -- several seasons, actually -- and occasionally only had a game on for a few seconds when the TV accidentally went there.

     Still root for the Mavericks, but not much. I know Doncic is a wonderful, amazing offensive player. But he's too big a showoff, too big a whiner, a collector of technical fouls, for me.

      And, as with most of the current Mavericks, defense is a foreign language.

     This season's team went from a 31-26 record and fourth place in the Western Conference to a 7-18 finish after the huge trade for Kyrie Irving. Six games below .500 adds up to 11th place in the West ... and so long.

      When Doncic and Irving were in the lineup together, they were 5-11. Considering that Luka averaged 32.4 points, 8.6 rebounds and 8 assists a game, and Irving averaged 27 points and 6 assists in 20 games, that doesn't say much for the rest of the bunch. 

     Still, they were on the edge of the playoffs until ...

     But what Cuban and almost-new general manager Nico Harrison (nice first name, pal) did at the end of this NBA season just sucks.

        But to sit out five regular players -- purportedly for injuries and "rest" -- and then limit Doncic to a mere 15 minutes of play in the regular season's final game, with a glimmer of hope for winning and making the playoffs just isn't what sports should be about.

     The NBA "investigated" -- as if that was necessary -- and just announced a $750,000 fine for the Mavericks. Chump change for Cuban. Yeah, three-quarters of a million dollars.

       And it's not the first time we've had this scenario. Just hinting at it in 2015 prompted my blog then; a Metroplex columnist or two, and the radio sports talk show hosts suggested it then, maybe because Cuban mentioned it "off the record."

     Then in 2018, Cuban again raised the possibility -- on the record -- and the Association hit the Mavericks and him with a $600,000 fine.

    Here is a link to what I wrote in 2015: 

     https://nvanthyn.blogspot.com/2015/07/tanking-thats-dirty-word.html

     Said then that I could not imagine the Mavs' coach, Rick Carlisle, would have anything to do with not trying to win games.

     Carlisle took his NBA championship credentials back to the Indiana Pacers a couple of years ago -- one of my guesses is that he found Doncic hard to handle -- and so it is Jason Kidd who I guess had to follow orders and go along with the "tanking plan." 

    Kidd said "the organization" -- Cuban and Harrison -- decided to sit the half-dozen players.

     "It's not so much waving the white flag," Kidd said, according to a USA Today story. "It's decisions sometimes are hard in this business. We're trying to build a championship team. With this decision, this is maybe a step back. But hopefully it leads to going forward."

      So they are hoping for a higher draft pick, a great draw in the NBA lottery. No guarantee of that, so I question if missing the playoffs is worth it.

     And maybe this is fitting because this Mavericks team was a loser. Let's put Irving in that category (despite an NBA championship in his history when he was teamed with LeBron James in Cleveland).

      But Irving has been a malcontent at every stop. Here is a guy suspended by the NBA or his team for refusing the covid vaccinations and for endorsing an anti-semitic movie and not apologizing for doing so. 

     You'd think Cuban might've been leery of having his GM make the trade for Irving. But talent rules in the NBA, and Cuban -- always brash and innovative and, yes, fun -- is unafraid of taking chances.

      At least he kept an open mind for the trade. Then he closed that mind and had his team give less than its best effort. 

      He is a billionaire who is one of the most-fined people in NBA history. 

      Meanwhile, Irving is a free agent and the Mavericks hope to re-sign him, and hope that he and Doncic -- who might grow up one day -- will team with the No. 1 draft pick they'll add as a reward for missing the playoffs. (What are the chances?)

      Knowing Irving's past, it would be a shock if he plays in a Mavericks uniform again. 

      My view on all this: No tanks.    

Ross and Edwin: forever friends

  

    From their time in third grade together to lives in their early 70s, Ross Oglesby and Edwin Tubbs were best friends.

       Not inseparable -- because they had their own lives and families -- but darned near.

       They were my friends, too, because Sunset Acres (in southwest Shreveport) was that kind of neighborhood in the late 1950s and through the 1960s.  

     And -- heck, yes, I'm partial to them -- they were among the best people and the best athletes to come out of Sunset Acres. Especially together.

       It so happened that their third-grade year (fall 1957) began a couple of months after the Van Thyn family moved into the neighborhood.

       Over the next few years, those of us participating in schoolground touch football games and makeshift track meets on our streets learned this: Ross and Edwin were the fastest runners in our area.

       If you competed against them, you had no chance. Only Edwin could catch Ross; only Ross could catch Edwin. 

     When they were teammates -- as they soon would be at Oak Terrace Junior High and Woodlawn High School -- they were stars ... and winners.

        And they were great kids -- even-tempered, reliable, funny, not argumentative like some (guess who?), no trouble for teachers or parents.

       They would be that way, always. And always loyal to each other. 

       My opinion: Ross Oglesby was the best athlete ever to come out of Sunset Acres, high school All-State in two sports (football, track), a college football player. He was "Ross The Hoss."

       Edwin Tubbs was a terrific high school football player, a medal winner in Vietnam, one of the thousands of American unsung heroes in that woebegone war. 

       They would become husbands and fathers and grandfathers, working hard to support their families. It didn't always work out for them, and there were health and mental issues. They weren't especially book-smart, but they were smart, gentle and kind.

       It was a beautiful friendship.

       And I was proud to call them my friends forever, although the years and time separated us. 

      Because I was two years older, they were sort of like little brothers for me, and I was so proud that they were two of the biggest stars on the teams representing our schools. They were "my guys."

      Here is how close together we lived: First, both Ross and Edwin lived almost directly across from the Sunset Acres Elementary School grounds; all they had to do was walk across the street.

      On the blocks in the square around the school: Ross' family lived on West Canal (east side of the school); Edwin's family lived on Sunnybrook (north side); our close friends Johnny and Terry Tucker lived on Burke (west side, their backyard fence bordered the school); we lived on Amherst (south side). Ross' house was a half-block away from us. Visited there often.

       Lots of good times with those boys. Lots of laughs, lots of stories (a couple mildly x-rated). Lots of memories.

       We don't exactly have a happy ending here, except to say Ross and Edwin lived long, happy, productive lives. But ...

       Ross Oglesby, 74, died last Thursday after dealing with cancer -- and other ailments -- for several years. 

       Edwin doesn't know his best pal is gone. 

       For years, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after Vietnam made his life, and his family's life, hell at times. More recently, dementia set in. 

        He is now in a veterans' home in Bossier City, well-cared for, still -- as his wife Kathie and their three daughters will say -- the sweet guy they adore. 

       But the PTSD has kicked in stronger than ever, and hospitalization and changes in medicine have been required lately. 

       Edwin's travails were not a subject Ross, in his final year and dealing with illnesses, could discuss. 

       Edwin and Kathie spent 44 years living in Southern Hills, which in the 1960s was Woodlawn territory. They then moved to Haughton -- which is where Ross has lived for years. (Haughton, for those who might not know, is in rural Bossier Parish, and it's the home of Dallas Cowboys QB Dak Prescott).

     Ross, in a marriage and re-marriage, had two sons and a daughter and now four grandsons and six granddaughters. Edwin and Kathie have seven grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

        "They loved each other like brothers," Kathie Pollard Tubbs says of our guys. "Ross became one of our family; he spent a lot of time here with our grandkids. He'd come over 3-4 times a week, and he'd go to the refrigerator and grab some cake or a soft drink."

     And, of course, there was lots of discussion of old times, of Sunset Acres and Woodlawn ... and stories.

       There was this interplay: "Ross was the aggravator," Kathie said, "and Edwin loved to be aggravated. It was a game they played, and they need an audience." 

       It was a battle of teasing appreciated by a closely knit group of Woodlawn football players who were seniors on the 1966 team, a dozen-plus who have stayed in contact through the years. They were all familiar with the Ross-Edwin dynamic.

     Size-wise, they were different. Oglesby, as a high school senior, was a muscular 6-foot-2, 200 pounds. Tubbs was compact, listed on the 1966 All-City team at 5-7 (he actually was 5-9) and 170 pounds. His strides were nothing like Ross', but he too could move. 

---

      Many of the '66 football seniors also were together in junior high at Oak Terrace, where as eighth-graders in track-and-field in 1963 they won that school's first city championship of any kind. Tubbs and Oglesby were key runners on the relay teams. They were ninth-grade champs the next year, with Tubbs winning both sprints (100 and 220 yards, plus two relays) and Oglesby on all three relay units.  

      In junior high, Tubbs was the star running back; Oglesby was an end. 

     At Woodlawn, running back was a position deep in talent, so Tubbs -- speedy and aggressive -- became a perfect fit at linebacker in defensive coach Jerry Adams' gambling/blitzing scheme. He was part of a junior-filled unit that struggled early, then became tough enough to balance a QB Terry Bradshaw/WR Tommy Spinks-led offense.

     That team, after mid-season struggles, walloped Byrd 39-0, Woodlawn's first-ever victory over the arch-rivals in six tries. It didn't lose again -- with one close escape at Neville (a 9-7 victory on a final half-minute field goal) -- until the Class 3A state-championship game. Sulphur won 12-9 in a hard rain at State Fair Stadium.

     So the defense was especially seasoned for the 1966 season, and the linemen -- offense and defense -- were the biggest physically Woodlawn had had in its seven years. The result was the best Knights' team ever -- a 10-0 regular season and a defense which had six shutouts and gave up only four TDs.

    Plus, a punishing running game on offense, led by Oglesby, who -- after tries at end and tackle, found the position he loved.

     Powerfully, he could run through tacklers or, with his long strides and speed, beat them to the outside. Three other backs also could play. 

     Twice both Oglesby and Tubbs were the "players of the week" selected by The Shreveport Times.

     Ross, with 1,308 yards rushing (5.2 per carry) -- 528 more than anyone else in Shreveport-Bossier -- became Woodlawn's first first-team All-State running back (Tommy Linder had been a second-team choice in 1962). 

     Edwin, shooting gaps and chasing down opposing QBs and RBs, was the Shreveport-Bossier "Defensive Player of the Year," chosen by the Shreveport Touchdown Club. He was second-team All-State -- the highest honor ever then for a Woodlawn defensive player. 

     The only preseason question marks for the '66 team were quarterback and one cornerback.

      The QB spot was filled by a promising, poised sophomore -- Joe Ferguson. The cornerback spot was filled by a transfer from North Caddo, Ronnie Alexander.

    Ferguson was steady, but not the passer he would become. In the next two seasons, he was the best high school football player -- passer -- many of us have ever seen. Turned out he was the real deal; he went on to 19 years in the NFL.

      A dozen of the players on the 1966 team would play college football, some at major schools. Alexander, All-City at cornerback, became a small-college All-American linebacker at Louisiana Tech and then was one of North Louisiana's best-ever defensive coaches (college and high school).

      But the 1966 Knights were the best Woodlawn team not to win the state championship. After a playoff-opening victory, disaster came in a lengthy trip to Bogalusa (345 miles, 6 1/2 hours one way). The trip back was longer.

     Bogalusa would haunt us forever. Ross and Edwin -- all of us -- often talked about it, ruefully.

     The score was 18-14, the Lumberjacks scoring the game-winning TD with about 5 minutes remaining after a long drive against a proud Woodlawn defense that wasn't the same as it had been.

     One major reason: two injured leaders. Tubbs had injured a calf early that week in practice. He played, but he limped at about half-speed, unable to do what he had done all season. And Alexander, a ferocious hitter and cover corner, left the game in the first quarter with an injured leg.

    Another factor: Bogalusa's junior quarterback. Terry Davis cut up the Knights' defense with 258 passing yards and another 59 rushing as he turned corners that Tubbs and Alexander might have filled. Davis also was for real; a couple of years later he started at QB for Coach Paul "Bear" Bryant at Alabama. 

    (Ironic, because Edwin Tubbs for life was an Alabama fan.)

     Oglesby, though, had a productive game with 112 yards rushing on 22 carries. But Woodlawn that night could not quite control the ball -- or game -- as it had all year.

---

    Ross, in the spring of their senior year, was one of the state's outstanding hurdlers -- the Class 3A state champion in the 120 highs (14.1) and second in the 180 lows (18.9), close to the best times ever in Louisiana, and All-State in both events. He was bigger than most hurdlers, but speed and athletic ability is what it is.

      He signed to play football at Louisiana Tech, and stayed two years, but played sparingly, not used to a new coaching staff there which was louder, more aggressive than the highly regarded Woodlawn staff that had nurtured him. He transferred to play two good seasons at Southern (Ark.) State in Magnolia.

     He would go into coaching -- a couple of

times -- and worked several other jobs, including truck driving, so he got to see much of the country. 

      He also gained much weight, almost double the 200 from high school, to an unhealthy point that affected his breathing. Urged to lose weight, he did -- but still was around 250. A hernia bothered him for years; when finally he submitted to an operation, cancer was found in his intestines. 

     Two rounds of chemo followed, until he had had enough. He had hospice care the last couple of months. 

       His great friend never knew. 

       Edwin wasn't college material, so he joined the U.S. Army right out of Woodlawn, and was patrolling in Vietnam a few months later. He survived it, but paid a price.

     He came home to marry Kathie on June 2, 1969, and they lived out his Army days at Fort Polk, La. Back in Shreveport, he began his own construction company and, for years, worked projects in town and throughout the Southeast as they raised their family. 

     "He was our hero," says Kathie. "He had all these medals for his military service, but he never showed them off. He was so humble. He wouldn't talk about it." But the PTSD at times made life more difficult.

      Ross helped him deal, too. How close were they? Each was the best man in the other's wedding. 

      "They stuck together all those years," Kathie says. 

       It all began in our beloved Sunset Acres days.    

Opening Day, and a long love affair renewed

         Let's go, Yankees.

     Life -- well, sporting life -- begins again today. This should be a national holiday.

Aaron Judge, the captain (photos from Pinstripes Nation)

     It is Opening Day for major-league baseball, and this begins my 68th season as a Yankees fan. Yes, almost a lifetime.

     Who's counting? So, since the start of the 1956 season -- when a small kid from a foreign country found out that baseball could be a second sports love -- this covers 10,581 regular-season games, 307 postseason games. Lots of glory, lots of agony.

     A friend, a fellow Yankees fan for life, noted that "[today] we get to start our daily suffering." 

     True. There is nothing better for a sports fan than to follow the adventures -- day by day -- of a favorite team. 

      Here, that could be LSU football or Dutch soccer or the woebegone Dallas Cowboys ... but, truly, nothing beats Yankees baseball. Not in this apartment.

     Love the team, love the franchise, love the tradition ... the best tradition in American sports. It is, humbly said, the premier franchise in the world.

     (OK, you could say the Green Bay Packers, Boston Celtics, Los Angeles Lakers, Montreal Canadiens, Manchester United, Brazil soccer, Alabama football, and -- concession here -- Boston Red Sox or New England Patriots. Also, the St. Louis Cardinals and Los Angeles/Brooklyn Dodgers and the San Francisco/New York Giants. You choose; you are entitled to your favorite.)  

      But we have had the Babe and Lou, Combs, Lazerri, Red, Waite, (where have you gone?) Joe D., Marse Joe, Casey (the Ol' Professor), Cro, the Milkman, Snuffy, Spud, the Major, Billy the Kid, Joe G. (two of them), Atley, Heinrich, King Kong, Super Chief, Vic and Eddie, Joe Page, Scooter, Gil, Mickey and Roger (the M&M boys), Yogi, Whitey, a perfect Don, Bullet Bob, Ryne, Ellie, Hank, Moose, Tony and Bobby, Clete, Hector, Mel, Pepi, Murcer, Sparky, Goose, Puff, Thurman, Reg-gie, Sweet Lou, Roy, Willie, Bucky, Mick the Quick, Louisiana Lightning, the great Mo, Derek Jeter, Bernie, The Warrior, Tino, Jorge, Andy P., Robby, Straw, Knobby, Gardy, Dr. Brown, Bob Sheppard, Mel Allen, Geno, etc., etc., a cast of thousands ... and now a guy who hit 62 regular-season home runs last season, the Judge ("All Rise.")

      Tradition, pride, and the Big Stadium in the Bronx (third version), part of the greatest city in the world (thank you, Hamilton).   

      The opinion here: It is the best day of the year, topped only by your team winning the World Series (congratulations, Astros fans).

     We know that feeling -- 27 times. I've been around for 11 of those (and for eight second-best disappointments). But we have not had that championship feeling in the past 13 seasons. Nuts. 

     So we're not the Houston Astros, defending champions, the team that four times in the past eight seasons has ended the Yankees' season in the playoffs. Hard to believe, hard to take.

      We have become what the 1940s/1950s Brooklyn Dodgers used to be for the Yankees: their postseason foils.

      But not surprising. The Astros were -- are -- that good.

     Gosh, the Astros were our favorite National League team for years, especially in the early 1960s when we listened to many of their games on radio -- Gene Elston, Loel Passe and, for a brief, a young Harry Kalas -- and saw a few of their games on Shreveport television. The teams weren't all that good, but they were fun.

     But now that the Astros are in the American League, not so much fun for us Yankees. 

     Wish I could say that this is going to be the year the Yankees displace them. But not so confident about our chances. Darned near forgotten what it's like to win an American League pennant or a World Series; hasn't happened since 2009. 

      The 13-season Series-winning drought is the Yankees' longest since I was a young man (14 seasons, 1963-76, which included three AL pennants and Series losses).

       And think of these numbers: In my first 18 years (1947-64), the Yankees won 15 AL pennants and 10 World Series. Oh, joy. Which is why one of my favorite books is titled Dynasty.  

     Last season was one of the weirdest for the Yankees that I can recall. They looked unstoppable, unbeatable, potential Series champions for three-plus months: On July 8, they were 38 games above .500 (61-23) with a 15 1/2-game lead in the AL East.

     After that -- when injuries and old age and mediocrity set in -- they were mostly terrible, a .500 team in July, 10-18 in August, and the division lead crept down to 3 1/2 games before a small surge at the end. But they were no match (no offense) for the pitching-strong Astros in the AL Championship Series ... out in 1-2-3-4 games. 

     As my old friend, the late Jerry Byrd, would have said: No guts.       

     Going into this season, the Yankees' pitching looks shaky, questionable. Even Gerrit Cole, the supposed staff "ace" who is making a zillion dollars per season, wasn't all that great last year, but was among the MLB leaders in giving up home runs.

      Injuries already have dented a potential starting rotation and the bullpen, plus a defensive whiz in center field. 

       The regular lineup has the usual potential, but so many of the guys need to improve on last season when they particulary faded away in a miserable second half. Too many strikeouts, too many empty at-bats.

      It is a big ask to produce a traditional Yankees-like offense over the course of a full season. Lots to prove.

      Judge likely won't come close to 62 home runs again -- Roger Maris hit 33 in 1962 after his 61 in '61 -- but he can be a force again, and now -- starting on the field today -- he's the Yankees' captain. 

       And he has been a class act off the field, too, saying the right things and showing leadership. 

       This club might need some surprise elements, and the hope is that young shortstop Anthony Volpe -- after a strong spring-training showing -- is one. Will he be 1996 Jeter-like? Maybe some young pitchers will emerge as stars. That would be a boost.

       We like the way the Yankees go about their business, like that they always wear the pinstripes at home and the gray-with-blue trim on the road. No colored tops as an alternative, unless MLB has special across-the-board uniform demands.

      They almost always play the game the right way, they don't make excuses, they meet the media -- win or lose -- and they look business-like. OK, maybe the clean-shaven bit is a bit overdone for these days, but the ghost of George M. Steinbrenner (born on the Fourth of July) prevails.

      But there is this: The Yankees often have players that we don't like much. Uh, Roger Clemens, A-Rod, Aroldis Chapman ...  

      As for the game itself, we love the speed-up rules for pitchers and batters. Been saying for years that batters stepping out after each  pitch, to adjust batting gloves or dig in the dirt or to pick their nose, was a waste of time. 

      Don't like 3, 3 1/2, 4-hour games. Of course, if MLB really wanted to speed up things, cut the between-half-innings time from 2 1/2 minutes to one. But, hey, those breaks for TV/radio advertising, that's m-o-n-e-y. Gotta make millions to pay the poor players.

      Oh, glad that the infield shifts have been somewhat banned. Probably teams will find a way to adjust their defenses to take away what used to be sure base hits. 

       Bigger bases? That will mean more stolen base -- or at least attempts -- but the Yankees seldom have a base-running team worth a darn.

      Can't stand the runner-at-second-base-to-start extra innings rule. Cheap tactic. 

      A note about the local team, the Texas Rangers. They have many fans here in our facility, and I will watch some of their games on TV, provided cable access is available. And we might make a rare trip to the new barn-like ballpark with a roof ... (if someone gives us tickets). 

      The Rangers have spent plenty of free-agent money -- Corey Seager, Marcus Semien, Jacob deGrom and others -- and they have a Hall of Fame, three-time World Series champion manager (Bruce Bochy). Can't do better than him.

       They should be improved. Good luck to them ... but not too much luck. They are in the American League, so ...

      Personally, we have watched less baseball on TV in recent years ... or other sports. Don't watch anywhere as much as my friends might think. Other priorities, and less stress watching the teams I care about. Easier just to follow games via Gamecast on computer or the phone.

      And -- this is old school, old man talking -- just don't like the way today's athletes celebrate every good moment, the arm-waving, signaling to teammates, high fives, low fives, chest-beating, trash-talking, Gatorade-pouring. It is so much crap. 

      We were taught not to show up the opponent, the other team, or the refs (umps). 

      But we are relics, we are dinosaurs. People in my age range don't identify with today's athletes. Coaches, managers, management could control some of those antics, but they won't. Too much money involved.

       End of rant.

       It is baseball season. Glory be. Time to suffer some, time to relish the victories.

       ... And there it goes! See ya! 

       ... How about that!

       Let's go Yankees.

Basketball, murder, an everlasting mystery

Give Tommy Davis his due

     Start with this simple fact: Tommy Davis never has been inducted into the  Louisiana High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame.

    Ridiculous. A travesty.

    The recent announcement of 10 new inductees -- the Class of 2023 -- brought this point home again. Tommy Davis was ignored ... as he has been since this Hall of Fame was started in 1979.

     His senior year was 70 years ago. What are they waiting for? Is there an amount of time a candidate must wait, like four decades?

     He is -- our opinion, and that of many others -- simply the greatest football player, the most accomplished, in the history of what was Fair Park High School in Shreveport (1928-2017).  

     He was the star fullback and linebacker on the 1952 team that won the only Fair Park football state championship, and set a state record for points scored. 

    He was a star at LSU -- a key player on the 1958 national championship as the "Go" (offensive) team fullback and, more importantly, the Tigers' placekicker and punter. He turned pro and was missed by another great LSU team in 1959 when it could have won another national title.  

      With the San Francisco 49ers, he was one of the NFL's last combination placekicker-punters for a decade, twice a Pro Bowler, set the league record for most consecutive PATs, and was one of the best punters in history.

      If you pick the best high school running backs in Louisiana in the 1950s, you'd start with Billy Cannon, John David Crow and Jimmy Taylor. Might add Johnny Robinson and Tommy Mason. Tommy Davis is right there with them.

      (And to show how haphazard -- and frankly, dumb -- the selections for this Hall of Fame have been, consider that Cannon and Robinson were not chosen until 2020, so some 65 years after senior seasons. Also in that 2020 class: quarterback Doug Williams, a senior in 1973, and baseball star Rusty Staub, a 1961 graduate.) 

      Davis was inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame in 1988, a year after his death (of lung cancer) in California at age 52. He was inducted into the American Kickers Hall of Fame in 2014.

       When we learned a year ago that he had never made this Hall of Fame, we also were told there was  one major reason: He'd never been nominated.

       Took care of that last December. (See nomination listings below.)

       But he apparently remains invisible to the selection committee.

       We are sure that the 10 people chosen for this class are deserving. So are -- we say diplomatically -- the 340 selected (athletes, coaches, principals, administrators, referees/officials, contributors and, yes, even four sportswriters over 44 selection "classes."

        (Likely the average sports fan in Louisiana will not even have heard of most of these people; this Hall is very oriented to school principals and coaches. Even more knowledgeable fans might be clueless on these names.)

       But no Tommy Davis. That's not right.

       Also, if you can believe this, the only athlete from Shreveport's Byrd High School -- one of the great producers of talent and championships for almost 100 years -- was a baseball player, but is in this Hall for his coaching success in girls basketball.

        In fact, there is scant representation of athletes from Caddo and Bossier Parish schools (see list below). Two Bossier High athletes were chosen for their coaching careers.

       Actually, Fair Park has done as well as any school from northwest Louisiana in this Hall of Fame: running backs and all-around athetes Lee Hedges, Rogers Hampton and A.L. Williams (although Hedges and Williams' selections were based more on their outstanding high school football coaching careers); baseball/football coach James C. Farrar; Olympics high jumper Hollis Conway; and sportswriting legend Jerry Byrd Sr.

     Fair Park people would tell you that the Louisiana High School Sports Hall of Fame also should include coaches F.H. "Homer" Prendergast (football), Clem Henderson (basketball/principal), all-around athlete and coach Jimmy Orton, and stars such as Leo Sanford (football), Charles Beasley, Kenny Simpson and Stromile Swift (basketball), and 

Joe May, Jerry Dyes and Rod Richardson (track and field).

         Oh, and Tommy Davis, a state and national championship star. Yes, he has been nominated.

      So, to the selection committee members -- Keith Alexander, Jimmy Anderson (standing chairperson), Eddie Bonine, David Federico, James Simmons, Robin Fambrough, Kim Gaspard, Kenny Gennuso, Kathy Holloway (chairperson), Karen Hoyt, Eric Held, Philip Timothy and Ken Wood -- as Mr. Byrd would have said: You blew it!

    Wait 'til next year (again).

    This is an incredible years-long oversight. 

    

         

TOMMY DAVIS qualifications:

High school --Three-year starter at linebacker and fullback, and also the team’s punter and placekicker; Fair Park played in the state championship game, Class AA, each year. Won the state championship in 1952 (the only football state title in the school’s history). As a senior, Davis rushed for a state-record 1,650 yards in the regular season and set a state record with 184 points.

College -- LSU running back, 1953-54, and 1958; also the team’s punter-placekicker in 1958. In the national-championship season of 1958, he was the “Go Team” (offensive unit) fullback, and rushed 69 times for 243 yards, scored four touchdowns. His kicking was the difference in two of LSU’s victories (a field goal against Florida, 10-7; an extra point against Mississippi State, 7-6. His deep punts were a key to Coach Paul Dietzel’s conservative, defense-first philosophy.  

NFL -- 11 seasons (1959-69) as punter and placekicker for the San Francisco 49ers. Twice All-Pro (1962, 1963). He made a still-standing NFL record 234 consecutive PAT kicks over his first six-plus seasons; for his career, he made 348 of 350 PAT kicks and made 130 field goals in 276 attempts. As a punter, his career average of 44.7 yards is second lifetime, bested only by Sammy Baugh’s 45.1. His 45.6-yard average led the NFL in 1962.                                         

Louisiana High School Sports Hall of Fame inductees, primarily from Caddo-Bossier schools (by year inducted):

1980 -- Joe Ferguson (Woodlawn football, track and field)

1981 -- Terry Bradshaw (Woodlawn football, track and field)

1986 -- J.D. Cox (Byrd coach, football and baseball)

1987 -- Lee Hedges (Fair Park athlete, multi-sport coach, four Shreveport  schools)

1987 -- Robert Parish (Woodlawn basketball)

1989 -- Frank Lampkin (Bossier basketball coach/principal)

1991 -- Billy Montgomery (Haughton basketball coach)

1995 -- Woodrow Turner (Byrd coach track-field and football)

1996 -- James Farrar (football-baseball coach, three Shreveport schools)

1997 -- Rogers Hampton Sr. (Fair Park athlete)

2000 -- Bobby Ray McHalffey (Bossier athlete, Haughton football/track-field coach)

2001 -- Jerry Byrd Sr. (Fair Park grad, sportswriter/editor)

2005 -- Rick Huckabay (Bossier baseball; basketball coach at several schools) 

2008 -- Tommy Henry (Bossier coach, LHSAA commissioner)

2011 -- Alana Beard (Souhwood basketball)

2011 -- Hollis Conway (Fair Park track-field)

2014 -- A.L. Williams (Fair Park athlete, Woodlawn coach)

2016 -- Kenny Guillot (Jesuit football, coach in Baton Rouge)

2016 -- Steve McDowell (Byrd baseball, Southwood girls basketball coach)

2016 -- Todd Walker (Airline baseball)

2020 -- Brock Berlin (Evangel football)

That's the old ballgame, Shreveport -- a book for sale!

           Happy to announce That's the old ballgame, Shreveport has been published, and is now for sale.

      I have the first three copies -- they arrived today -- and can tell you that the type is large enough for easy reading.

       It is 231 pages of Shreveport and North Louisiana pro baseball history. Many photos and capsules on the players and officials significant to the teams that represented Shreveport, the city's ballparks, and the area players who played pro ball -- in the majors and minor leagues.

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       When people suggest that writing this book has been "a labor of love," they are correct.

       Loved doing it, the writing and even moreso the research. Proofreading was a task. To the final read, there were corrections to make.

       And, yes, it was a labor. Putting together the book -- formatting it -- took the first seven months of 2022. No technical wizardry here; let's say that the Publisher and Word programs often were more in charge than the formatter.

       But with lots of help, it is done. Thankfully.

       Going back even further, the project began four years as a series of chapters on my blog, Once A Knight. But much material was updated and corrected, and there are many more photos than in the blog series.

        While finishing up in the past couple of months, three of the 1959-61 Shreveport Sports passed away -- Dave Wickersham, Frank Cipriani and the popular Leo Posada. Sad, but all were in their 80s. We updated their player capsules.  

       So many great names in this book, many great memories ... and the issues that led to the demise of pro ball in the city. 

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       Two ways to buy the book:

       (1) You can buy the book on Amazon ($35 per copy, plus shipping costs);

       (2) Preferably, you can buy the book from me. Let me know, and I will order it and then send it to you (send $35 and your mailing address).

       (To be honest, we benefit more if you order through me. Amazon Publishing, which printed the book, gets a greater share with a direct order.)

       But who's counting?

       Here is the link to the Amazon order page, if that's the way you want to go:       https://www.amazon.com/dp/1791838391

       Hope you will be interested in the book.