Author: wes-mcelroy

There are few more cultured baseball people in the world than Charlottesville’s own Mike Cubbage. From a second round pick out of UVA in 1971, to an eight-year Major Leaguer with the Texas Rangers and the Minnesota Twins, to a coach with the New York Mets and Boston Red Sox, Cubbage is baseball’s embodiment of Dr. Seuss’ Oh, the Places You’ll Go! Now a scout for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, “Cubby” took a break in his summer travels to share his views on the past problems, present story lines and future stars of Major League Baseball.

Wes McElroy: Is this shaping up to be the Summer of Barry Bonds or the Summer of Cal Ripken and Tony Gywyn being inducted into the Hall of Fame?

Mike Cubbage: Probably Bonds. Those Hall of Fame things are nice, and those two are two great players and very deserving and very much what the game is all about: character and the way they played the game. But this Bonds story is bigger then life because he’s chasing the most sacred record in all of sports.

Will karma, the law, or both come around on Bonds before he reaches 756 or will it be too late?

It’s probably going to come around too late. I think he will be exposed eventually for what he is—one of the all-time great cheats.

You are currently a scout for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, traveling and checking out Minor and Major League teams. Who are “the guys” that baseball fans should get familiar with for a long time to come?

They’re a lot of good young players. I love the young kids on the left side of the infield with the Mets—Jose Reyes and David Wright. Those two guys are going to play together for a long time. Probably 12-14 years. They’re that good, and Reyes is so exciting the way he plays the game with the energy he has.

As a player, manager and scout, who has had the most influence on your baseball life?

It was Gene Mauch. I played for him for five years in Minnesota, and he was just a brilliant man and by far the smartest man I was ever around in uniform. He was ahead of his time. He was the sharpest pencil in the drawer by far.

Commissioner Bud Selig has tagged 2009 for his retirement. Looking back over Selig’s entire tenure, has he been good or bad for baseball?

Well, you’re asking the wrong person that question, because I’m not a Selig fan. He’s done some things he’s going to get praise for, such as interleague and expanding the playoffs. I think along with the good, the bad and the ugly is going to be the steroid issue, and that’s going to be the black cloud that hangs over the Bud Selig regime, and he’s yet to deal with it.

Wes McElroy hosts “The Final Round” on ESPN AM 840. M-F 4pm-6pm

For those who had Sam Perlozzo in the Major League Managers Office Death Pool for June, please collect your winnings next to the coffee and doughnuts.

The 56-year-old Perlozzo was welcomed on June 18 into the Orioles scrap heap of Ray Miller, Mike Hargrove and Lee Mazzilli—all managers who failed to produce a winner in Baltimore.

It’s yet another change in an organization of instability. Not since Davey Johnson took the Orioles to the playoffs in 1996 and 1997 has any good come from Camden Yards. Baltimore has suffered nine consecutive losing seasons and seems to be well on its way to a complete decade of disappointment.

The 2007 season has left O’s fans shaking their heads as talented catcher Ramon Hernandez found the disabled list before the end of opening week and starters Jaret Wright and Adam Loewen eventually followed. The bullpen, supposedly $30 million better than last year with Danys Baez, Chad Bradford and Jamie Walker, has been erratic. And O’s offense is offensive.

So out the door goes Sammy.

Former Florida Marlins skipper Joe Girardi isn’t dying to help save the beleaguered Baltimore Orioles.

So come on down…Joe Girardi? Except the former Florida skipper busted out the “I’m not ready to get back into coaching” excuse when what he really wanted to say was, “I’d rather go on a diet with Nicole Richie than take that gig.”

So the next duck in the firing line is…Just another sitting duck.

What else is there to believe under owner Peter Angelos’ decade of decline? Angelos is impatient, shrewd, and if you Google’d the word “curmudgeon,” he’d likely get the most hits.

Orioles fans are being led to believe that with the hiring of Andy MacPhail as President of Baseball Operations, Angelos is turning over the reins to reasoning. Will Angelos back off? Are baseball decisions going to be executed for the betterment of the team and not just for the owners personal liking a la the veto of the Brian Roberts trade?

Seeing is believing.

Wasn’t the house cleaning that witnessed Jim Beattie and Ed Kenney turn over the office keys to Mike Flanagan and Jim Duquette going to better the franchise too?

What has happened to this once proud team?

Has karma reared its ugly head of perjury after Rafael Palmeiro got caught pumping steroids after lying? Is there a Jeffrey Maier curse?

Surely it is difficult having the bottomless pockets of both New York and Boston in the same division, but that excuse can only go so far. “Mid-markets” St.Louis, Detroit, Florida, Arizona, and Houston have been in World Series in just the past half decade.

With other “middies” such as the Cleveland Indians and Milwaukee Brewers on top of their divisions and Colorado streaking before the All Star break, fans are left to wonder what are they’re doing so right and the Orioles are doing so wrong.

MacPhail, Flanagan, Duquette, and “the next sitting duck” are now on the clock, but there’s no need to worry: Mr. Angelos is keeping the time.

Wes McElroy hosts “The Final Round” on ESPN 840. Monday-Friday. 4pm-6pm

Here’s a riddle. What do putting your finger in an electrical socket, going to a strip club with Adam “Pacman” Jones and starting a new professional football league have in common?

Answer: All are really bad ideas.

Apparently forgetting the alphabet soup of failed football league attempts, Dallas Mavericks’ owner Mark Cuban is considering the formation of an NFL competitor.

In addition to electrocution and “making it rain” with Pacman, anyone toying with the idea of going against the almighty National Football League should think twice.

Dallas Mavericks’ owner Mark Cuban, in a recent interview with the Associated Press, declared that he is part of a group considering the formation of a new professional football league.

“It’s a pretty simple concept,” Cuban said in an e-mail to the Associated Press. “We think there is more demand for pro football than supply.”

Cuban could not be more accurate that there is a bigger demand for football. But he couldn’t be more wrong to think anybody wants anything different from what the NFL is shelling out.

Cuban, a bartender turned dot.com billionaire, has reached much financial and sports success with the NBA’s Mavericks in addition to serving as chairman of HDNet, an HDTV cable network. Now he wants to turn his attention to the pigskin, specifically a Friday night league of eight teams.

“The NFL wants and needs competition,” Cuban wrote on blogmaverick.com. “They have grown so big and powerful that every move they make is scrutinized by local or federal officials. A competitor allows them to point to us and explain that their moves are for competitive reasons rather than the move of a monopoly.”

The problem is that a new eight-team Friday-night league wouldn’t be competition for the NFL. It wouldn’t be a thorn in their side. It wouldn’t even be a hangnail.   

The NFL just does it better. Just ask the USFL, the XFL, the WFL, and the WLAF—not one had lasting power for even half a decade.

Spare me the patriotic music and the speeches of how this country is the land of opportunity and that if Dave Thomas hadn’t challenged the burger world with Wendy’s, we’d be stuck choosing between a Big Mac and a Quarter Pounder for the rest of our lives.   

Trust me, I love challenging the norm. Unfortunately for Cuban, the NFL isn’t the norm.
The NFL has grown to beyond a multibillion-dollar business (projecting a revenue of $7.1 billion in 2007)—and it’s no longer just the focus of the fall season.

Ask yourself, do you have time for another football league? Could you load any more football into your college football Saturdays or NFL Sundays?

The simple answer is “no.” Need confirmation? Take a quick glance at the plummeting ratings of the Arena Football League despite a promotions push from ESPN.

The NFL, for now and by a long stretch, reigns king in a society where other sports are falling off people’s agendas, as evidenced recently by the miserable ratings in both the NBA and the NHL Championship Finals on ABC and NBC, respectively.

To reiterate, the NFL just does it better.

Wes McElroy hosts “The Final Round” on ESPN 840. Monday-Friday 4pm-6pm

There were moments for cheering, moments for jeering and a few moments that left us shaking our heads. Here’s a look back at the 2006-2007 year in UVA sports.

Sports Moment of the Year
“The Shoot and Point”

The baseball team gave us the UVA game of the year when they defeated Oregon State, defending national champs, 7-4 in game four of the Charlottesville Regional playoffs. Who cares that the Beavers went on to win the regional title? For five whole days Central Virginia actually cared about America’s pastime.

For decades to come Wahoo faithful will be talking about Sean Singletary’s shot against Duke on the first day of February. His motion towards the nationally televised ESPN cameras told the world that Virginia basketball was back.

After tying the contest at the John Paul Jones Arena with 24 seconds left and completing an eight-point comeback in the final three minutes and 42 seconds of the second half, Singletary held for the final shot of overtime and then hit a falling, one-handed floater with a second left to defeat No. 8 Duke 68-66.

Just prior to being mobbed by his teammates, Singletary calmly turned to his right and gave a split second point to the ESPN sideline camera as if to say, “Yes, we are for real.”

Athlete of the Year
J.R. Reynolds, Men’s Basketball

The senior guard was challenged by Dave Leitao early on in the year. He graciously accepted the task by sparking memorable comebacks against Clemson, erupting for 40 points against Wake Forest and treating a national TV audience to a 28-point performance (with a bad hip) in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament against Albany. Reynolds showed the college basketball world he was more then just a nice complement to Singletary.

Reynolds averaged almost 18 points a game and finished fifth in the conference in scoring as well as in the top 10 in free throws and three-point shooting.
Reynolds was honored with second team All Conference.

Game of the Year
Virginia Baseball v. Oregon State, June 2, 2007

A 13-inning, five-hour marathon that saw Virginia defeat the defending national champions 7-4. Virginia won despite losing both of its corner outfielders, Brandon Marsh and Brandon Guyer, to injury before the sixth inning.

Casey Lambert came on in relief to pitch six and two-thirds innings, striking out eight, while scattering five hits and a run.

Low Point of the Year
Virginia football’s loss to Western Michigan at Homecoming

The Cavaliers used three different quarterbacks, two in the opening half, and still only generated 10 points in a 17-10 loss to the Broncos on September 16, 2006.

“It’s like being caught in quicksand,” said Al Groh. “When you can’t score any points, you can’t kick it through, you can’t throw it in, and you can’t run it in, it makes it pretty hard to win.”

Coach of the Year
Dave Leitao, Men’s Basketball

Leitao not only improved a unit that earned a share of the ACC regular season championship and fell a last-second shot away from making it to the Sweet 16, but he also restored a proud basketball environment in Charlottesville.
Leitao was the ACC Coach of the Year.

Rookie of the Year
Monica Wright, Women’s Basketball

Awesome is an understatement. Unanimously selected as the Atlantic Coast Conference Rookie of the Year, Wright was also a unanimous selection to the ACC All-Freshman Team.

Most Improved Player
Jacob Thompson, Virginia Baseball

Hard to believe you can actually improve on a 10-4 freshman pitching season that included a 2.60 ERA, but Thompson pulled it off.

As a UVA sophomore, the righty improved to 11-0 in the Cavaliers regular season, while smoking opponents with a 1.35 ERA. Thompson will be a member of Team USA this summer.

Wes McElroy hosts “The Final Round” on ESPN 840. Monday-Friday 4pm-6pm

With Wes McElroy off on a week’s vacation, his family dog, Ishi the Golden Retriever, has filled the void with a topic particularly close to his heart.

Attention human race (namely Michael Vick and relatives): In the words of Frank Costanza at Festivus, “I gotta lot of problems with you people!”

Punishment to fit the crime: Perhaps Michael Vick and Clinton Portis should take off the pads and get in the ring with a pit bull—or better yet, each other.

Checking out ABC News the other day, (and let me tell you, I may be just a Golden Retriever, but the things I could do to those legs of Diane Sawyer…ruff!), I learned that 66 of my boys were seized along with dog fighting equipment in an April 25 drug raid of a Virginia Beach home owned by Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick and inhabited by Vick’s cousin. Shortly thereafter a source told ESPN that Vick is a “heavyweight” in Virginia dog fighting rings.

I’ll let you in on a little secret: Being a dog generally ain’t that bad a gig. The canine process pretty much amounts to: eat, sleep, go to the bathroom and repeat. Once in a while, we play a little catch, chase a mailman and pull off a trick or two to keep you fine people happy. But when did the human race become that barkin’ bored with us that you need us to fight each other?

And what is dog fighting? My granddog used to tell us it was an old practice of stealing and then starving dogs, beating them with sticks, enraging them sometimes with electric shocks, and letting them loose in a small caged area to fight to the death.

And apparently, the old pastime of certain degenerates hasn’t ceased. Last year, according to Pet-Abuse.com (yes, even I can work the Internet), Louisiana State Police arrested 120 individuals and recovered 630 dogs in the course of a 12-month investigation.

Listen, I’m not the brightest species in the world (but then again I ain’t the one paying $4 for coffee at Starbucks). Occasionally, I drink from the toilet and get dizzy chasing my tail, but what I do know is that dog fighting is unacceptable whether you’re an NFL quarterback or a regular NFL fan or just a Homo sapien with a brain and a heartbeat. Not only is it a felony in 48 states, but it’s just cruel beyond comprehension.

Please don’t even give me that manure about it being equivalent to horse racing. Those fools live like kings after they race once every three weeks. I’m sorry to hear about Barbaro (my boy Scooby said he was the best stallion to come out of Philly since Balboa), but those nags get baths and three square meals a day!

We’re Man’s Best Friend, remember? Sorry that the heavyweight division is garbage and that the $59.99 you paid for Mayweather vs. De La Hoya didn’t satisfy your fighting jones, but Lassie vs Benji is not a good fight card!

As for that dope Clinton Portis—the running back of the Washington Redskins who said of Vick in a TV interview: “I don’t know if he was fighting dogs or not, but it’s his property; it’s his dogs. If that’s what he wants to do, do it.”—I’d like to take a leak on his leg.

And here’s an idea: Let’s steal Vick and Portis away from their multimillion dollar contracts, starve them for three weeks, beat them for another and then place them in a cage with a Big Mac between them.

Wes McElroy hosts “The Final Round” on ESPN 840am. M-F 4pm-6pm.
   

I recently sat down with John Riggins, Washington Redskins Hall of Famer turned D.C. talk radio host. Here’s what he had to say.

Wes McElroy: New York Yankees pitcher Roger Clemens has once again been given special considerations: He can leave the team on days he does not pitch. How would “special considerations” have gone over in your Redskins locker rooms?

John Riggins: You’ve got to remember and you’ve got to appreciate that sports has evolved so much in the last 20-30 years, and I am sure the 30 years before I came in the NFL. This is the evolution of the sport and I’m not exactly sure, but I think the old mindset would be: “Who in the hell does this guy think he is?”

Former Redskins running back John Riggins says no GM is a mistake for Washington.

The Redskins have a Hall of Fame head coach and an owner who are willing to spend, but is the missing piece a true football-minded general manager?

Yeah, that’s been my contention all along. I thought the Redskins should have really given that some serious consideration, but to a certain extent, when you pony up that kind of money, you‘ve got to figure at some point you’re going to catch on. Jerry Jones is somebody who came into it but he had a little bit of a football background having played football at Arkansas. He kind of understands a little bit of it and is the general manager of the Dallas Cowboys. I’m not saying Dan Snyder can’t become that. He hasn’t caught on to it as quickly as one would hope. I don’t think there ever was any intention of actually seriously considering getting a GM, and I think that’s a mistake for the Redskins right now.

How different is Coach Gibbs the second go around?

I can’t really speak directly because I’ve had very little contact with Joe since he’s been back. I haven’t been in the locker room and I haven’t been in the meeting room, and the game itself, you know since I’ve last played it, has changed considerably. But from what I’ve seen, I think it’s been a difficult transition for Coach Gibbs, and nobody said it was going to be easy, but when you come in and got three Lombardis on your resumé, you kind of assume: “Let’s go! We’re going to turn this around.” When you look at the second year back and the playoffs, I’m starting to think that was a little bit more flukeish, but then again, you have to look at the league overall, there are a lot of teams that make the playoffs that are there one year and gone the next. Is there any consistency with the Redskins? Right now, you have to say no. After three years there is no consistency. 

Many former players have criticized the benefits and treatments for NFL veterans. Former player and union leader Gene Upshaw is a bull’s eye of that criticism. Is Upshaw the right man for the job?

I think Gene Upshaw does a good job, but Gene needs to change his focus a little bit, and I think he has to remember some of the guys that he was down in the trenches with and, as the popular saying goes, “show them a little love.”

Wes McElroy hosts “The Final Round” on ESPN 840 am. M-F. 4pm-6pm.

My job is covering sports. Typical days revolve around traveling, interviewing sports figures, and discussing slightly more than the who, what, when, where, why and how.

Many have told me that mine is the greatest job in the world: I get to talk sports, go to games, meet sports figures, and interview them on a regular basis. Toss out the usually lousy spreads in the media press room that give me angina, and there really are no complaints about my line of work.

Except one. I don’t get to be a fan. It’s something called journalistic objectivity: Call it like you see it. Don’t take sides. Just the facts, Ma’am.

Like Mecca is to Muslims, Yankee Stadium is to baseball fans (even if you hate the Bronx Bombers).

Usually, my seat is above yours in the quiet press box where the only peep you’ll hear is the wrapping of fingers on a keyboard. No cheering, no chants, and rightfully so—it’s a place of work.

But last Friday night, for the first time in 18 months, the media pass was ditched; the keyboard got packed away with the recorder along with any idea of work. The ’04 Cavalier got filled up and away it was on a six-hour journey to New York City where my old college mate and best friend, Mike, and I headed to a Yankees game.

Besides seeing my old pal, the purpose of the trip was to see Yankee Stadium for the first time in my 28-year existence before it becomes a skeleton in 2009.

Let’s get this straight: In no way shape or form have my allegiances left the Philadelphia Phillies for the pinstripes of the Evil Empire. Nor was there any sipping of the Yankee Bandwagon Kool Aid (although I do wonder if it’s cheaper than the $9 beers), and the only reason my hat collection includes George Steinbrenner’s boys is because it was “Cap Night” at the ballpark.

There are three great memories that I will forever carry as a baseball fan: (1) my first Phillies game with my dad; (2) taking in a Red Sox game at Fenway Park back in 2003; and (3) pacing up the concourse, a hot dog in one hand and a beer in the other, on a 68-degree spring evening and then walking into Yankee Stadium’s upper deck with the smooth sound of Bob Sheppard gracefully introducing the Bronx Bombers as he has for over five decades: “Batting third…number 53…Bobby…Abreau.” At the sake of sounding overdramatic, never in a baseball context have the blues been bluer, the whites been whiter and the greens been greener.

Mike and his wife walked to our seats—I stopped and stared, looking at Monument Park where the likes of DiMaggio, Mantle, Munson, and Ruth are honored. I gazed into the infield to see two future Hall of Famers, Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez, tossing the ball in warm-ups like school kids before Little League, and of course, I fixated on right field where a man who’s always been a personal favorite, Roger Maris, once stood.

For five minutes, I was a kid again, seeing a baseball stadium as more than just a place of work, seeing it once again, as a fan.

There was the famous “roll call,” where all nine Yankees on the field pay their first-inning respects with a tip of the cap as the right field bleachers chant their names until the outfield faithful are recognized by said player.

This wasn’t the American League Championship Series. It was the first Friday in May in Yankee Stadium. The opponent wasn’t the hated Boston Red Sox, it was AL West cellar dwellers, the Seattle Mariners. This was simply 49,500 baseball fans at Yankee Stadium. And the best part: For one night, I got to be one of them.

Wes McElroy hosts “The Final Round” on ESPN 840. Monday-Friday 4pm-6pm

Last year USA Today reported that Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb walked around training camp with a t-shirt on which he’d printed under the word “leadership”:  “The problem with the people in the world today is everyone wants to be the man, but when it’s time to step up and take charge, they take two steps back.  So if you ain’t ready, stop talking about it.”

Playing dumb never looked so dumb: Bud Selig probably won’t be smiling when Barry Bonds beats the home run record and caps off the Steroid Era with a bang.

Phrases like “the man,” “manning up” and “keeping it real” pervade our society. While the statements may be ironic, here are two cases where their meaning is spot on:

You made your bed, now sleep in it

Last week’s column dealt with San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds closing in on Henry Aaron’s all-time Major League record of 755 home runs. At press time, Bonds has 744 home runs. To date, Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig has not yet stated publicly whether he will attend the game(s) at which Bonds likely will tie and then surpass Aaron’s mark.

Let me help you with the decision, Mr. Commissioner: Man up—you’re going!

Time to “man up” because this whole MLB disaster of Bonds even getting close to the record is due in part to the Commissioner’s Office. No, Selig did not sell the steroids, hGH, or whatever. Selig didn’t inject anything into the players’ rear ends. Rather, Selig’s lack of leadership, absence of power and ignorance allowed this scandal to grow from a few questionable years in baseball to what is now known as the “Steroid Era.”

Selig made his bed along with every other “hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil” general manager, manager, teammate and media member who ignored what they wanted to ignore. Barry Bonds may be the bad guy in all the headlines, but his home run chase is just the climax of the worst period in baseball. And Selig is like the scientist who watches from afar as his monster destroys the village saying, “I didn’t think it would come to this.”

It has come to this.

Now Selig needs to “man up” to his own creation.

Alcohol doesn’t kill people—people kill people

In the aftermath of the death of St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Josh Hancock, MLB teams are beginning to ban alcohol in the clubhouses.

This is a great public relations move—sending notice to fans that baseball doesn’t condone drinking and driving. In reality, however, the ban carries no weight.

“Let’s keep it real” by stating that a good many MLB players drink beer after games in the clubhouse.  They also drink beer outside of the clubhouse in bars, restaurants and in the comfort of their own homes. They will continue to do so. 

“No beer in the clubhouse” wouldn’t have saved Josh Hancock’s life.  He came from a bar where he had too much to drink and slammed 70 mph into the back of a pick-up truck and died.  That’s what happens when you drink and drive. 

Sure, we can blame this “guy” and that “reason,” but “let’s keep it real.” Josh Hancock killed Josh Hancock.  Lack of self-control killed Josh Hancock. Drinking and driving killed Josh Hancock.

Wes McElroy hosts “The Final Round” on ESPN 840am. Monday-Friday 4pm-6pm.

Barry Bonds likely will go down in baseball history, but for home runs or growth hormone?

"And down the stretch they come!” That legendary line of announcer Dave Johnson has punctuated the final stretch of many great horse races, including the Triple Crown. But Mr. Johnson’s trademark might best be used to announce another trio of spring races, this time in baseball: Barry Bonds chasing Henry Aaron, Major League Baseball investigator George Mitchell and federal authorities chasing Bonds, and finally, all parties involved chasing time.

Race I

Bonds (for those living in a shoebox with no electricity) has spent about a half decade chasing the most heralded record in sports: a home run mark of 755, which Henry Aaron has held since his last one soared out on July 20, 1976, off California Angles pitcher Dick Drago. At press time, the San Francisco Giants left fielder had reached No. 743, hitting nine home runs in 24 games to start the regular season.

Race II

The cat has been out of the bag that steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs have been used in baseball in recent years. Names, subpoenas and plea bargains are still coming out of that bag. But Bonds is the most elusive target of MLB and the federal investigators.
Two weeks ago, a former employee of the New York Mets clubhouse, Kirk Radomski, admitted to providing steroids, human growth hormone and other performance enhancers to “dozens of current and former Major League Baseball players, and associates, on teams throughout Major League Baseball,” San Francisco U.S. Attorney Scott Schools said in a statement.
T
his latest news has left us all pondering (just like we did after the Jason Grimsley investigation and after the BALCO investigation and after the multiple federal investigations and the Capitol Hill questioning): Is this where Bonds’ name finally gets linked?

Race III

Baseball fans want the names of the ‘roids users. Most want one name: Bonds. The Feds want to know if Bonds is involved, and MLB is trying to make something stick against Bonds before his name is forever placed above Aaron’s.

Bonds’ attempt at the home run record should be the most celebrated chase in sports. But this spring, baseball fans are focusing instead on Alex Rodriguez’s April and Dice-K Mania in Boston. Even a rehashing of whether Curt Schilling had blood on his sock during Game Six of the 2004 American League Championship Series garnered a bigger headline than Bonds hitting No. 741. It’s ironic that fans are seeking distraction from Bond’s bid for the record because ignorance and distraction is what created this whole scandalous baseball era in the first place.

Yes, Bonds may get to No. 756 without any part of the steroid scandal sticking to him. Could it be that he’s done nothing? How much do you want to bet that karma visits the powers that be in baseball (i.e., Commissioner Bud Selig, the owners, the general managers, the media, and so on) who looked away while certain individuals took advantage of their laxness—the era when no matter the cost, the baseballs flew out of stadiums and the money and ticket holders came flying in?

The race is on. Who will win? Only time will tell.

Wes McElroy hosts “The Final Round” on ESPN 840am. Monday-Friday 4pm-6pm.

There are memorable nights in sports, and then there are the unforgettable. Friday, April 20, was one of those unforgettable ones.

On that night, if you took 460 West and hung a right on Southgate Road into English Field—a baseball stadium tucked away in Virginia farmland that sits in the shadows of the ever popular Lane Stadium—you would have seen the Virginia Tech baseball team, in front of a record crowd, help its community take a step forward in the healing process.

“It felt good [to play baseball],” said Hokies catcher Matt Foley, who, after the game against the Miami Hurricanes, looked more emotionally than physically drained, on this, the first night of sports in Blacksburg following the tragic 33 shooting deaths on the Virginia Tech campus just five days earlier.

The Virginia Tech baseball team lost a game and won the hearts and minds of a grieving crowd in Blacksburg on April 20.

“At the same time,” Foley said, “that first inning was the toughest inning of baseball I ever played. Right after the moment of silence, right after, you had to try to carry on and play. It’s just hard to say but it was great getting out here and taking your mind off all the terrible things that happened this week. That was the biggest thing—not just playing baseball, but taking your mind off the terrible things.”

The “terrible things” will linger in all of our minds.

For this Hokie community, those “terrible things” are a reality that they will never forget but must find a way to escape. The escape must begin with moments, small moments like this, before normal life can resume.

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On this night at the ballpark, there are hot dogs, popcorn, and kids running every which direction for foul balls. There are also hugs—long grateful hugs for seating ushers, for policemen and for neighbors seen for the first time since Monday.

There are even hugs for the visiting fans from Miami.

“It’s good for everybody to come together like this,” said Dave Childress, a Virginia Tech sophomore from Vinton, Virginia. “It’s just something different than sitting around talking about what happened or watching the news. It’s good for something positive like this. Nothing like the ballpark.”

Nothing like the ballpark, indeed.

Isn’t it amazing how baseball once again is there to help? The sport acts unknowingly as a shoulder to lean on, if only for a night, just as it did for New Yorkers following the events of 9/11.

The game itself provides a few moments away from the constant news feed from the small university town, even if it is just a game.

Of the tragedy, Washington Nationals manager Manny Acta said, “I mentioned to my wife, in particular, that this is frustrating to me. When things like that happen is when I get frustrated, not things on the baseball field.” But it was on the baseball field that the Nationals showed their support—Acta’s team replaced its caps with that of Virginia Tech’s the night following the tragic slayings. “It’s still a game, it’s still a beautiful job, and we are competing and all that,” says Acta. “It was very frustrating to think that you can work as hard as you can, you can put your kid through college, and then all of sudden your kid’s not going to come back home because somebody felt whatever way they felt. It was very frustrating and sad. It was the least we could do.”

This week Blacksburg has taken the leasts and the mosts and is ever so grateful for all the well wishes the community has received. That is why when Tech shortstop Warren Schaeffer’s potential two-run tying home run was hauled back in by Miami’s left fielder to end the game with an 11-9 Tech loss, the fans stood and cheered, loudly, until the players retook the field to accept the crowd’s “thank you” and tip their caps in return.

In the end, Virginia Tech didn’t worry about the agony of defeat.

The night was about taking the small steps against the agony of death.

 Wes McElroy hosts The Final Round on ESPN 840am. Monday-Friday 4pm-6pm.