The New “RCN Sports Talk”  Football ANTI-Poll

THE TIME HAS COME FOR REBELLION!

For the past several decades, RCN TV has featured a high school football poll on various sports shows.  The poll first appeared on “This Week In Sports“, and later became a regular feature on “RCN Sports Talk“.  As Lehigh Valley sports writers and broadcasters are often praised for their outstanding high school football coverage, I have always taken pride in the “RCN Sports Talk” poll results.

In the RCN High School Football Poll, RCN TV’s sports announcers  vote for the top “big schools” and “small schools” within the Lehigh Valley.  In addition, guest voters – athletic directors and football coaches in RCN TV’s extended viewing area – are invited to participate in the poll.  This ensures that the poll yields objective results.

In nine of the eleven years that I have tracked the results, our pre-season “big” and “small” number-one teams have won either a league or district title – or both.

However, before I can give a pat on the back to our collective staff (as I don’t make scholastic predictions), I would like to highlight some of the interesting – and sometimes embarrassing – issues that have surfaced.  For example:

• Newspaper X and Newspaper Y picked School A lower than School B.  The coach at School A then chewed-up the sports writer from Newspaper Z for not picking his school, failing to realize that Newspaper Z had actually picked School A to win.
• Geometry has NOT been a good basis for predicting teams. In the results of one year’s poll, schools A, B, and C were picked as top teams.  School A beat School B, and then lost to School C.  School C then lost to School B.  Which team was the best?  More often than not, it was School D.
• One coach told me that the reason his team had a successful year was because I didn’t pick his team and stated that they had no hope of winning a playoff game.  I found his comments amusing.  In my nine years of hosting “RCN Sports Talk“, I have never made a win/loss prediction for any scholastic game, let alone rip a high school program as he claimed to have heard me say when I made my supposed poll pick.
• The polls can also aggravate local football fans.  Last year, four of our six voting announcers (did I mention I don’t make predictions already?!) selected the Pen Argyl Green Knights as the team to beat in the Colonial League.  The Green Knights then went on to win several district and state playoff games.  Strangely (and I admit THIS ONE annoyed me), two other media voices commented during Pen Argyl’s play-off run that no one in the area thought that Pen Argyl would make it to the post-season.  And that Pen Argyl’s championship win was completely unexpected.  Thank you to the numerous Green Knights’ fans who brought this to my attention.  I was thrilled and, quite frankly, impressed, that so many people remembered the RCN TV predictions from August.

(Curiously, all records of any of RCN TV’s incorrect predictions were burned in a mysterious fire – the same one that enveloped all of Joe Craig’s incorrect “Stone Cold Predictions” over the years.)

So what is my point?  These ranking polls and their accuracy mean NOTHING.  They’re for amusement purposes only and should be taken as such.  Local media members do an exceptional job bringing local sports to audiences – perhaps better than any scholastic region in the country.  The polls are meant to add some flavor to our coverage, and nothing more.  The steam that can erupt from the coaches’ and players’ ears when they learn that their ranking is below their team’s rival would be better served powering a small kitchen appliance than trying to get back at someone for “disrespecting them for their pick.”  This brings me to my rebellious decision:

For the first time in the history of RCN TV (including in its previous entities), we will NOT be doing a high school football poll this fall!

Oh, the horror… the nerve!  What gives Chris Michael the right to make a solitary decision and destroy decades of polling insights?  How will people sleep at night without an RCN high school football poll?

Okay, calm down.  I’ve spent months coming up with an idea to help you cope with this drastic and sacrilegious course of action.  My solution is:

The ANTI-Poll.

Not very inventive, I know.  And it could probably use a flashier name, with better SEO opportunity.  However, it’s the best I’ve got.

In lieu of a ranking educated guesses about the top teams in Lehigh Valley high school football, every two to three weeks, I’ll produce a random list of area teams based on impressions, facts, insights, etc., that I and other, more knowledgeable area football insiders observe.

The purpose of this insurrection?

To enhance RCN TV’s coverage of the sport, spotlight exceptional performances and give a few opinions on our local teams (in which I would not shed if you disagree with any or all of them).  Perhaps I’ll even add a morsel or two of information that you may or may not have heard in your travels and pigskin viewing.  And all this will be done without belittling students, putting down programs and disrespecting–TTTHHH teams, or any of the other comments I’ve heard from people who get angry at these rankings.

Feel free to email me your input at RCNSportsTalk@rcn.com.  I’ll be happy to read and even incorporate your opinions into the analysis during the course of the season.  Or you can state your case in person by calling in during  “RCN Sports Talk” every Thursday at 6 PM.  You can campaign, lobby or push for legislation to reverse this dramatic action, or get your local politicians involved for a complete reversal of this policy in time for Opening Day 2014!

But until then, please remember the premise, and keep it light this fall.

After all, it’s just for sport.

ABOVE THE EARS (SOME MUSINGS)

1. Remember Juan Pierre who played for the Phillies last year? He is with the Marlins now. He will soon pass Joe DiMagggio’s hit total of 2,214 hits. Juan Pierre with more hits than Joe DiMaggio?? I don’t believe it WHILE I’m typing it!! Want another interesting number – Michael Young of the Phillies has more than 200 more hits than DiMaggio!

2. By the way, Derek Jeter has the most hits of any active player with 3,308 hits and sits 10th all-time. Pete Rose’s 4,256 hits ranks 1st with Ty Cobb, Hank Aaron, Stan Musial, and Tris Speaker completing the top 5.

3. Boston University has joined the Patriot League and will compete in men’s basketball this upcoming season. Did you know Boston University gave Rick Pitino, who won the NCAA this year with Louisville, his first head coaching job and the new Sixers coach, Brett Brown, played point guard for Pitino at Boston University.

4. I attended Lafayette’s last scrimmage this past Wednesday and came away very perplexed. Colleges may only scrimmage themselves so as I watched and tried to evaluate the team, I was left with a “Catch 22”. If the offense “looks” good, is it because the offense IS good or is it because the defense is not very good? And vice versa! You don’t know until you know. That starts on September 7 vs. Sacred Heart.

5. Believe it or not, I stayed until 2:12 AM on Saturday night/ Sunday morning just to see if the Phillies would get their 4th straight walk-off win. They had plenty of opportunities, but failed. It was an interesting game to watch – 20 pitchers, 137 at-bats, 35 hits, 32 strikeouts. 28 walks, 44 players used, one win, one loss.

Blow the Whistle

The referee stands on the goal line, raises his hand, and blows his whistle. This signals the opening kickoff of every football game. The official start of the football season is this week and I am really looking forward to another year. Since Lafayette has a first week bye, the college scene for me doesn’t start until Saturday, September 7.

This is probably the last year of the Lehigh Valley Conference, as we have come to know it. The Mountain Valley Conference is poised to join the LVC for next season. And, this should be a great year. What I do not like is the fact that the two most highly touted teams, Parkland and Easton, will face each other in the opening week of league play. It is week 2 and the game is at Easton. It is always nice to build the drama as the season progresses. Since that will not be the case for these two powerhouses, we will be there to bring the game to you LIVE. There were 3 co-champions last year and there may be enough parity for that to happen again. Whitehall, Liberty, and Emmaus all look capable of upsetting the two favorites on a given weekend. There are two rookie coaches in the conference and Steve Shiffert at Easton has the longest tenure, by far, at 21 years. No one else has double figure years at their current schools.

Catasauqua looks like the odds-on favorite to win the Colonial League. They were 12-1 and 10-0 last year and have three Division 1 prospects back. Pen Argyl will, also, be formidable and the two clash on Friday, October 11. We will be there for that one, too. I think Southern Lehigh can surprise, but it looks like Catty has too much talent for anyone to dethrone them.

The rules will continue to emphasize player safety and much of that emphasis will be on head-to-head contact:

Direct helmet-to-helmet contact and any other contact
both with and to the helmet must be eliminated
from the sport of football at the interscholastic
level! Using the helmet to inflict punishment on the
opponent is dangerous and illegal. Coaches and
game officials must be diligent in promoting the
elimination of contact to and with the helmet …

Also, no contact can be initiated with a helmet-less opponent (personal foul) and a helmet-less player can not participate in the play (illegal participation).

Mr. Referee – Blow the whistle!!

Charlie Manuel & Eagles Preview

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”

– A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens.

Probably the greatest opening line in literature, the start of one of my favorite novels. It’s a phrase I sometimes ponder during the more hectic times of my professional year.

It is a wonderful time right now. There’s excitement over the new football season. The MLB pennant races are kicking in. The NBA and NHL seasons are right around the corner. All of the fall college and high school sports are kicking in. So much to talk about and cover. It seems there just isn’t enough time to do all the sports justice. This was especially the case this past Thursday, coming on the heels of Charlie Manuel ‘s dismissal as the Phillies manager. In addition, there was all that we had to discuss with the local Eagles/Phillies beat writers on our RCN Sports Talk show, not to mention squeezing in a few high school football comments as well.

Because of all the great expertise of Mike LoRe and Brad Wilson, the hour flew by. Time only permitted a few minutes on many different topics that needed to be addressed. Here’s a clip of just a few of the items discussed (to catch the entire program, it will be available on RCN On-Demand for the next several weeks), as well as some bits of information that the men shared this us off-air that we didn’t have time for.

Other Eagles / Phillies notes:

• The Eagles are still approximately $20 million under the cap and they CAN defer that money to next year.

• For the first time, perhaps ever — Joe Craig (our resident Eagles Homer) is not optimistic for Chip Kelly’s first year and has his Birds predicted to win less games than I do (I’m going with 9 and a playoff berth).

• Our panelist seems to hope that Rich Dubee doesn’t return as the Phillies pitching coach next year, with multiple examples of former/current players that have had poor experiences with Dubee and much more positive results with current bullpen coach Rod Nichols. Brad also doubted that Dubee’s possible departure would sway Roy Halladay in his decision to return in 2014.

• I tried to limit our panelists’ “Phillies Wish List” for improvement for 2014 to three items, but they all agreed it’s going to take more than just three ‘significant’ free agent signings to make this team a serious playoff contender. I don’t see how they can make many trades to add big time talent, with only Jonathon Papelbon as a legitimate big trade bullet. How much they could get in return for him hinges on how well he rebounds on the mound this September.

What are your Eagles’ predictions? Your thoughts on Charlie Manuel and expectations for this fall? Post a comment below and tune in each week to talk sports on Thursdays with us.

Happy Labor Day everyone!

1. It looks right now like Michael Vick will be the Eagles’ starting quarterback. Nick Foles would certainly be a fine backup. The Jets, on the other hand, look like they have good backups, but no true NFL starter!

2. A similar battle for the QB spot at Penn State has junior-college transfer, Tyler Ferguson, battling with true freshman, Christian Hackenberg, for the starting role. Neither has ever taken a snap at Penn State.

3. I attended Lafayette football practice last week and the offense looked real sharp. However, college practice leads one into a Catch-22 scenario – if the offense looks really good, it might mean the defense is not so good or vice versa. Is the glass half full or half empty?? The question will not be truly answered until September 7 vs. Sacred Heart.

4. Those of us who played football, either high school and/or college, certainly remember the “dog days of summer”. Those were the first couple of weeks of two-a-days when the heat and humidity coupled with the coaches’ screaming made practice almost unbearable. The low temperatures and low humidity this past week makes it seem too easy for the players. Thank goodness, the coaches still yell!

5. Catasauqua vs. Wilson LIVE on Saturday, August 31. I can’t wait!

You Are Cordially Invited..

It was announced this past Friday that the Lehigh Valley Conference invited the Mountain Valley Conference (except for Lehighton) to join them in the creation of an 18-team super conference, tentatively maintaining the LVC name. And to do it by next season!

With Lehighton moving to the Anthracite League in football and the Schuylkill League in most other sports, the MVC was looking at the scheduling nightmare that goes along with just a 6-team league. Ironically, just a few months ago, the MVC invited the LVC to merge with them, but the request was not made to Central Catholic or Bethlehem Catholic. By omitting those two schools in the initial invitation, it gave the LVC the opportunity to “remind” both schools (particularly Beca) that there could be consequences to very overt recruiting. The message was delivered and the invitation was not accepted.

So now, the MVC has been “cordially invited” to join the LVC, bringing all the schools together. In terms of football and basketball, there are certainly plusses and minuses.

On the “plus” side, the super conference will now include all the AAAA schools in District XI. The merger would bring Allen and Dieruff back into the Lehigh Valley football picture and I certainly like that. By merging, all teams would battle for their spots in the District and State playoffs. This eliminates the complaint that some MVC teams got better seeding or easier qualifying because they played a much weaker schedule. Certainly, with 18 teams, the scheduling still may slightly favor one team over another, but that happens now. Also, the MVC will have no trouble filling their schedule.

On the “minus” side, an 18 team conference can certainly look a bit unwieldy when it does come to scheduling. In football, do you create two 9-team divisions and play for a championship? That sounds like a reasonable idea. In basketball, 3 divisions seem to be the best approach, but, if you play your division foes twice and the other teams once, you have the allotted 22 games filled. From there, a championship tournament could certainly be created. Even the “minuses” do not seem so bad.

Although I argued a few months ago, that the LVC was just fine the way it was and did not need to accept the MVC invitation, I do believe the “return to sender” invitation makes sense. I am quite certain the RSVP from the MVC will include acceptance. The nightmare will be for the AD’s to figure out the scheduling for all the other sports. And for a Sports Director at RCN to choose which League games to schedule for our viewers!!

Kudos to the RCN Marketing Department for staging a coup for us!

They arranged for an exclusive one-on-one interview with the 76ers’  staring forward and the former 2nd-overall draft pick Evan Turner  for us, and the interview came on the heels of the Sixers announcement that they FINALLY named a head coach! (Watch Evan’s reaction below when I ask him about the long process).

Before we talk about the on-the-court issues, I asked Evan about (and give him credit for not ducking those questions — including the one on his own future with the team as he’s in his last year of his contract), a quick word about Mr. Turner and his camp. I’ve been to a number of camps with pro and former pro athletes, and I was very impressed with the way that Evan conducted himself with the youngsters. He genuinely seemed interested in the kids and spent TONS of time talking with them (one youngster must’ve had his ear for at least 25 minutes). He never blew anyone off, answered everyone’s questions, and never once—even briefly—acted like he did not want to be there.

He spent time working on drills with his staff (his supporting coaches also really seemed to do a great job), and had some fun with them during individual drills (the kids, of course, loved it when he dunked). It was very nice to see an NBA star be very humble and very accommodating to his fan base. Over the last few years, we’ve gotten a number of people who say they no longer have interest in the NBA. We’ve had more than one viewer call it a “thug league,” based on some of the athletes who bring guns into locker rooms and wear gangsta clothing while on team trips, et al. I myself have never had an issue with a 76er player or a member of their organization (I covered them regularly for four years), and was happy to see that Evan did nothing to divert that opinion.

As far as the interview, we listed a few of the questions below, with the rest of the interview to be show on this Thursday’s “SportsTalk” show at 6 pm and on RCN On Demand for your viewing pleasure.

What do you think of the 76ers off-season moves, the hiring of Brett Brown as head coach, and Evan’s future with the team? Do you think he’ll ‘step-up’ with the new regime, or should the team “tank” for a higher draft pick? Post a comment below and email us at RCNSportsTalk@rcn.com and we’ll address your comment/questions on our next program (our Aug. 22nd show will also include beat writers discussing the Eagles/NFL issues, the Phillies & Charlie Manuel’s departure, and high school sports preview features).

1. Jason Dufner won the PGA on Sunday, the final Major of the year. Doesn’t he look like one of the guys who plays in your foursome each week? No fancy clothes, no pretentiousness, no annoying habits (well, maybe the “chew”). My kind of guy!

2. The Eagles were somewhat entertaining in their preseason opening exhibition game with the Patriots on Friday night. The offense moved the ball and put up 22 points; the defense, however, also, allowed the opponent to move the ball and put up 31 points. Both need to get better; the defense MUCH better.

3. Frandsen, Ruf, Asche, Kratz, De Fratus, Diekman, Wells, were all in the Phillies lineup on Sunday. WHO????

4. Since the Phillies are not going to make the playoffs, the next chance for a postseason game in Philadelphia would be an NFL playoff game involving the Eagles. That would be January 4, 2014 (587 days since the last playoff game). Since the Eagles are unlikely to make the playoffs, it would go to 700+ days for either the Flyers or Sixers to end the drought – also, not likely. By the way, the longest drought occurred from 1931 to 1947, a total of 5,652 days.

5. College football practice started last week and high school football practice starts this week. The bad news – summer is ending: the good news – football is beginning!

Running – Why Me?

This past week, I filled in for Chris Michael as the co-host of our weekly show, Sports Talk. I do not do it very often and I am beginning to think that Chris takes great pleasure in picking a topic that I know virtually nothing about. Before you say it, I know there is a rather large spectrum of topics to choose from if my lack of knowledge is the main criteria.

Last year, I hosted a show about hunting and fishing. I have always been a firm believer that seafood stores and butcher shops are the best place to garner a good piece of fish or an outstanding steak. I have never had such strong hunger pangs for catfish, trout, rabbit, squirrel, venison, etc. that I would have the urge to grab my fishing rod and rubber pants or my gun and camouflage jacket and rush out the door so that I would have something to eat. And, besides, I do not own any of those items.

I have not come to this conclusion out of ignorance. I have tried both. I fished up until the day I caught two eels. After the second, I cut my line, went home and sold my fishing equipment. My father and older brother both were hunters. I tried it as a young boy, went out with my loaded gun, fell down in the field climbing over a fence, dropped my gun, and my father and brother both agreed I should stick to football, basketball, and baseball. They were safer (for me AND for them).

But I digress. This week’s topic was about long distance marathon running and the triathlon. Since the invention of the tire and the motor, I have never seen the value of running for long distances. I consider running to my car in a parking lot when it is raining as exercise enough. The marathon was a charitable event run by VIA, a wonderful organization. Luckily, there were three representatives who knew about running and VIA’s cause that a few simple questions got the message out and filled the first half hour.

The second half hour was a single guest with a single, yet similar topic – the triathlon, an event which requires the contestant to swim, run, and bicycle ridiculous distances. If I could not understand a marathoner’s drive, how could I relate to this guy?

Kendrick Smith was the guest and he is an Ironman contestant, having chosen this new career full-time after success as an engineer. He is a very likable, sincere, dedicated, and passionate man. I found his goal of chasing his dream to be admirable and inspiring. He talked about setting goals and accomplishing them; about failure and overcoming it; about good health and achieving it. He summed up his life’s philosophy quite simply:

 “EXCELLENCE is the result of CARING more than others think is wise,

RISKING more than others think is safe,

DREAMING more than others think is practical,

EXPECTING more than others think is possible.”

There certainly is a message there for all of us. You do not have to swim, run, or cycle your way through life to pursue the kind of EXCELLENCE Kendrick espouses. Check out his website at www.K17SPORT.com . You will like it.

As for Sportstalk, I look forward to Chris’ next vacation when I get to discuss The Ups and Downs of Pole Vaulting.

“Paul Bunyan Lumberjacks”

I must admit–when I was a kid, I always thought it would be fun to work at a fair.

Going to the Allentown Fair and other local carnivals always seemed like a fun place to hang out, and I thought it would be neat to travel around the country to new locations for a week, meet new people, host games or do some shows for several days, and then move on and do it again in another new area.

When I was first asked several years ago to do our live “RCN SportsTalk” show from the Farmerama Stage, I didn’t know how a live, local call-in show would work at this venue, especially since the Fair occurs at the absolute WORST time of year to do a show with sports celebrities—both local and national. While it’s certainly no bed of roses to plan and prepare for our three shows from the Fair, preparation actually starts in late winter. I think after a few years of putting it together (and being blessed with some wonderful guests), I begin to look forward to these programs. Aside from working hard trying to coordinate and ensure that we have the best possible shows, I’ve actually learned to have some fun myself.

In recent years, we’ve had former NFL players Chuck Bednarik, Artie Owens & Bo Orlando on our show, race car drivers and experts from Grandview Speedway racing, and awesome performances by local cheering squads to name just a few. However, I never had an experience like we had in 2012, when I had the honor of hosting our show featuring Lee LeCaptain and the Paul Bunyan Lumberjack Show. It was completely unrehearsed (HONESTLY!). I really didn’t know what to expect and had great anxiety—especially when I went to do an on-the-spot interview, on live television, with a man I knew was going to make me throw an ax in front of a large crowd.

I was happy with the result (the clip is below) and the RCN-TV crew (which is not an easy group to impress), actually was shocked that I hit the target while not striking any innocent bystanders in the throwing process (which is what I thought would happen).

We are honored to have Lee and his crew back for an expanded role on this year’s “SportsTalk” show at the Allentown Fair, featuring a new live demonstration along with an interview with Lee. Lee truly impresses me with his conversations and vast experience from performing all around the world, in addition to his team. We’re also pleased to have Randy Kane, Mike Feltenberger and race car drivers (and their cars!) back with us again, plus more cheerleading groups and other special shows at the Farmerama for our “SportsTalk” shows on August 27th, 28th and 29th starting at 6pm.

We hope to see you out at the fair! Please post comments below on what you would like to see Joe Craig perform for this year’s demonstrations (you’ll notice on the clip, that he claimed a ‘hip injury’ to stay on stage and steer clear of my throwing lane, which we’ll not accept for this year’s events).