Inside the Polls (1/31/12)

It's Tuesday, which means a new batch of state polls have been released into the Internet.

In the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches (TABC) latest girls poll, not much change locally. Slocum remains at No. 18 in Class 1A, Division I after a 1-1 week, while Neches remains at No. 2 in 1A, D-II.

As far as district rivals go, 20-3A members Madisonville (18) and Fairfield (25) are ranked, but no Class 2A teams are.

In 1A, Lovelady stayed at No. 7.

On the boys side, all three ranked teams from last week stayed at their respective rankings: Cayuga at No. 3, Grapeland at No. 8 and Slocum at No. 22.

In 20-3A, Mexia is the lone representative at No. 15, while LaPoynor comes in at No. 12 and Lovelady No. 14 in 1A, D-I.

The full polls can be found here (Boys) and here (Girls).

The Dempsey/Donovan debate

On Friday, for the first time since 2006, Clint Dempsey and Landon Donovan will take the pitch in a game that they're not teammates.

Seems like as good a time as any to delve into what is becoming a hot-topic debate these days: Who's the better U.S.-produced field player?

Now, goalies like Brad Friedel and Tim Howard have been scorching the game in foreign leagues and international play for some time, so for the sake of discussion we'll take them off the table. The discussion now is about field players.

So, who is the better U.S. product, Landon Donovan or Clint Dempsey?

This weeks 'View From the Cheap Seats'

This week on the 'View From the Cheap Seats' podcast, I talked with Westwood junior forward Dra Ross, who has had a huge impact on Westwood's success in 2011-2012.

The Panthers don't have anyone on their roster over 5'11", and that's Ross. But, he plays way bigger than his listed height.

Because of his ability to both rebound and defend the paint, despite his short stature, Westwood's guards have had a presence inside with which to feed the basketball. As he grew into his game last year, he didn't always provide that type of inside threat.

Anyway, here's the link to the podcast. Also, to check out all the past podcasts, go here.

The unfit pro athlete?

The Dallas Mavericks are in the midst of a three-game winning streak, and have won eight of their last 10 games.

In the past two wins, the Mavs have been without the services of MVP and team leader Dirk Nowitzki, who's expected to miss at least two more games before he returns to action.

Why is the Mavs leader sitting on the bench in a suit? Because he's a little out of shape, and has a sore right knee.

Except, as that story above states, it's not really about the knee. It's about the Mavs best player and team leader not really being in shape for the season.

It's Crosstown Rivalry night

It's that time again, time for bragging rights in the Palestine city limits to be decided, at least for the next three weeks or so.

The Palestine and Westwood boys and girls basketball teams face off tonight, with varsity girls action set to begin at 6:30 p.m. As we get ready for this matchup, I thought I'd go back and see how these two schools fared against one another last season in the yearly standings.

So, let's make it simple. Team's get a point for a win in any major team sports (football, volleyball, basketball, baseball, softball) in the head-to-head matchup.

It's easier to just limit it to those sports because in events like golf, track and cross country, the teams are competing against more schools than just one another.

If I ran the Rangers...

As I came down from my Yu Darvish-elation yesterday, I got to thinking: Could the Texas Rangers still be players in the free agent market?

The cream of the crop remaining is slugger Prince Fielder, who will be a big (see what I did there) acquisition for whichever team pulls the trigger for his services. One of the interested teams is reportedly the Rangers, who met with him and his agent Scott Boras on Friday.

Most baseball people thought that Prince would wait to make his decision until after the Rangers either did or did not lock up Darvish during the negotiation period. Now that that's done, what happens?

Conventional wisdom would say that the Rangers are now out on Fielder, because let's be honest, they just gave Darvish what amounts to $111 million (with posting fee).

But if we've learned anything about the Jon Daniels/Nolan Ryan-led Rangers, they're anything but conventional.

With that in mind, let's let our minds wander and bring Prince to Texas, shall we?

Taking a more local approach

In yesterday's post (here), I hinted at putting some state and national stuff here at The Baseline because we've had talks about taking a more local approach to the actual, hard-copy sports page in the Herald-Press.

The question is, what's that mean? Well, it means I'm going to try and write some more, for one. Whether it be additional features to game previews to simple briefs, the idea is to get more about the local sports scene on the paper itself.

So, with more local copy in print, what happens to stories about, say, the Cowboys or the Rangers? Well, that's where it'll get tricky. If space allows, those types of stories will still get into the paper. If it doesn't, then they won't.

I won't be putting the stories from the Associated Press here at the blog, per say. But, if something in the state or national sports landscape requires my opinion, I'll voice it.

That may irk some readers, while others my find it refreshing. All I know is that the goal of the Herald-Press is to be the paper of record for Anderson County and the rest of the Dogwood Circle. I feel my best bet to help with that is to produce some more local copy.

What do you think? Let me know below in the comments or send me an email.

Cayuga duo on 'View From the Cheap Seats'

Yesterday I made a trip northwest to Cayuga to talk to Wildcat seniors Jake Nash and Jimmy Johnson, both of whom signed college letters of intent to go play junior college baseball. Nash is headed to Vernon College, while Johnson is heading to Hill College.

After the signing, the pair sat down with me for the latest episode of the 'View From the Cheap Seats' podcast. We covered it all from their excitement to play college baseball to their expectations for 2012 after a disapointing — by Cayuga standards — 2011.

Take a listen: Click Here

Let's try this again

About this time last year, I made these bold proclamations about how the blog was back and it was my New Year's resolution to keep it going, etc. Obviously, that lasted about four months.

Well, here we go again. The blog is back, and it's my goal to keep it as active as possible moving forward.

Here's the thing: I struggled last year with what this blog should be. Should it be strictly local? Should I use it for both local tidbits as well as my thoughts on state and national sports stories? I could never quite get past that issue, so the impasse began.

But, I think I've solved it, and the answer is yes. Yes to both. I'll try and keep it as local as possible here, but with the emphasis on local growing even stronger on the sports page(s) in the paper (more on that later), there may not be quite as much content to go here, locally speaking.

So, we'll dive into area, state and national sports stories as well. I'll tell you my feelings on things like the Rangers, the Cowboys, etc., while also tackling some arguments made by others (a la what we did with some Yahoo! stories, etc., in the past).

Mostly though, I want this blog to reflect both myself and the readers I serve. So, if there's something in particular you want me to tackle, let me know in the comments. It's a two-way street after all.