During my hair-days in Dallas, there was a sportswriter with the Dallas Morning News, named Blackie Sherrod. He wrote his columns for 60 years. He wasn't much for shades and hues and flowery sports-prose. He was all about capturing big news in short sentences, using small words. The Dallas Observer interviewed him on the occasion of his 2003 retirement. He remarked that the reason he was so succinct was so he could have time to get a beer with the boys. He wrote in bullet-points. I am going to try a little Sherrod-esque scattershooting today. (Boy, we never appreciate what we've got 'til it's gone.)
* Houston Chronicle reports that Major Applewhite is now QB Coach at Syracuse, and is a candidate for vacant Rice Head Coach Job. This kid isn’t even old enough to drink yet, is he? (They also suggest that former Nebraska QB Turner Gill and UM QB Jim Harbaugh are candidates.)
* Major Applewhite was among the top three greatest college QB’s (pound-for-pound)of all-time. Just heart and guts, and a big head, filled with an abundance of game-film.
* If UT could have their big-time NFL QB Chris Simms back for this year’s Big 12 Championship instead of their current QB, I don’t think they’d do it.
* Old friend, Travis Wilson tried to topple me from the peak of the mountain of Macho-Buck-Swishy-Writers yesterday with his use of the word “alacrity”. I take that as a provocation, a remonstrance to my dominion and paramountcy of the realm of the written word. By this slap in the face, he neglected the most important aspect of rightitude, which is the magnification of didactic pontification. I trust he won’t wade into these muddy waters again.
* What a skewed free-agent market it is: The Yankees are offering the walking Mexican pharmacy, Kyle Farnsworth, two to three years at $5 Million a season. Compare that to the $3 mil Brad Lidge will get in arbitration. It’s just not the time to go after pitchers. Prediction: Farnsworth’s joints won’t hold up. Within two years, we’ll see him on ESPN,laying on a mound in agony, having thrown his arm off his body. (Steroids don’t strengthen ligaments.)
* If the Rangers make a move in free-agency, I hope its to get Juan Pierre via the Marlins’ fire sale.
* And back to the Major Domo. When he, the reigning 1999 Big 12 Offensive Player of the year, stepped aside quietly to allow Mack Brown to fulfill the terms of his back-room recruiting deal with Phil Simms, Applewhite sealed his status as member of top ten classiest QB’s in history.
Scattershooting is the best tact for those of us who prefer the art of scatological, random sports-thought profundity. Blackie Sherrod was brief, but eloquent. He once said: “Saying that Wilt Chamberlain is another good, big center is like saying the Grand Canyon is just another ditch.” And, during his 60 years of sports writing, Mr. Sherrod made plenty of time for beer with the boys.
