The Front Row with MARK NELKE July 15, 2010

Trying not to mention you-know-who

We will attempt to get through this column without saying anything about that former Cleveland Cavalier with no NBA titles on his resume.

Action is starting to heat up around here on the local youth baseball front.

The semifinals and finals in the Little League District 1 tournaments in the age 9-10, age 10-11 and Majors (age 11-12) divisions are this Saturday and Sunday at Canfield Middle School. The winners advance to the state playoffs the following weekend in the Boise area.

Next Thursday, the American Legion class AA Area A (district) tournament begins at Post Falls High. The host Prairie Cardinals will be joined by the Coeur d’Alene Lumbermen, the Lewis-Clark Twins, the Trail Jays and the Cranbrook Bandits (yes, two of the five teams trying to qualify for an Idaho state tournament from the North are from Canada, but that’s the way it goes around here. Remember, the Idaho state 3A baseball tournament has been held in Oregon — Ontario — for years).

Lewis-Clark and Coeur d’Alene have been the top two teams in the league for several years. Prairie has been on the outside looking in during that time, but has beaten the Lums twice in five meetings, and played the Twins tough for the most part. Playing on their home field, the Cardinals have an outside shot at claiming a state berth.

I still think it’s silly that an exhibition game (baseball’s All-Star game) decides home-field advantage for something that really means something (the World Series). But it seems like the players get excited about it, and it makes for a better All-Star game. In October, the National League champs can thank Brian McCann of the Braves for his three-run double in the seventh inning.

Usually home-field advantage is decided in July by guys who aren’t even playing in October but in this case, if somehow the Braves make it to the Series in Bobby Cox’s final season as manager, McCann’s big hit would turn out to be most fitting.

A number of people are picking Tiger Woods to win the British Open based on his past track record at St. Andrews, but I don’t see it happening.

He should contend, but it seems like he misses too many makeable putts and hits just enough wayward shots these days to actually win. Still, he tied for fourth in the first two majors of the year despite not playing his best, so if he cleans up his loose shots, I guess it’s possible.

I like what the NCAA did with the format for its expanded 68-team men’s basketball tournament — sort of. Rather than make the last eight automatic qualifiers play off for the final four spots in a 64-team bracket, they compromised and, next year, the last four at-large teams will play off for the two berths in the tournament, and the last four automatic qualifiers will play off for the final two spots in the tournament.

I think they should have made the last eight at-large teams play for four spots in the tournament. If you are an automatic qualifier, you should be in the tournament. You should not have to play in a play-in game.

In recent years just the final two teams in the field played off for No. 64, but seeing Alcorn State vs. East Northwestern Mississippi Tech or whatever got real old in a hurry. Now, we’ll have two of those games, but also two games pitting teams we’ve actually heard of, like, say, the ninth-place team from the Big East or the seventh-place team from the Pac-10, or perhaps the runner-up from the WAC if they wouldn’t have made the original field of 64.

However, they are calling these four games the “First Four,” and the “first round” is now the “second round,” though a staggering 60 teams will, in effect, receive first-round byes. Why not call the first four games what they really are — play-in games?

Either way, now we’ve got eight months to find where the heck is TruTV on the dial.

Whew! We did it. Though you can’t turn on the TV or radio these days without hearing his name, we made it through a column without mentioning that farcical LeBronathon last week on TV. What a waste of an hour and what’s worse, millions and millions still watched (admittedly, we did too). In general, we like to see our “heroes” stay with the teams they started with, and not jump from team to team like so many hired guns. However, the Cavaliers had seven years to find LeBron some decent help to win a title, and were unable or unwilling to do that, so you can’t blame him for considering somewhere else. Still, perhaps LeBron could have found a way to let his homestate team know he was leaving ahead of time, rather than make them tune in like the rest of us.

I don’t think either side came out looking too good after all this — the blistering letter to fans from the Cavs’ owner almost made him look more like the bad guy than LeBron — but when the NBA season tips off this fall, most of this will be forgotten, anyway. After a three-year period where the Original Big Three in the Eastern Conference won one NBA title and nearly won another in the past three seasons in Boston, fans will be curious to see what Miami’s version, with LeBron, D-Wade and That Other Guy, can accomplish in the years to come.

Well, we almost did it.

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via e-mail at [email protected].