The Front Row with MARK NELKE June 5, 2011

Mike Kelley set up a tent and a pallet at Croffoot Park in Hayden last week, then watched his community impress him with its generosity.

Kelley and the Hayden Little League have been collecting money and baseball equipment all week to help out their brethren in the Joplin South Little League in Joplin, Mo., which had its baseball field wiped out by a tornado last month. Many of the players lost their uniforms and baseball equipment in the tornado.

As of Friday afternoon, nearly $400 had been donated - and the Hayden Little League kicked in another $1,000. Also, probably 500 or 600 pounds of baseball equipment - bats, gloves, catcher's gear, cleats, etc. - had been donated. And Kelley said one of the neighboring Little Leagues said they were going to come by with some equipment.

"We've just got a great community," said Kelley, an umpire in the league and who has a son playing in the league. "It's been a good learning experience. Even in tragedy, you can find some good."

Because of some rainouts, Kelley planned to continue accepting donations of cash and gear through Saturday's games.

He plans to ship out the gear and the money on Monday - he's hoping someone will step up to help cover the shipping costs.

"My phone was ringing off the hook," Kelley said after his idea to help was published in last Sunday's Press. "It's definitely the whole league pitching in on this. I'd like to thank the community for all they've done; we're very fortunate to live where we do."

According to the Joplin South Little League website, the league plans to resume play this week on other area fields. Major Little League teams will join with Joplin North Little League to play a modified league schedule on Joplin North's field, which was spared in the tornado.

And when they do resume play, hopefully they'll be able to do so thanks to a little touch of kindness from Hayden, Idaho.

n Not sure which was more troubling during the first two games of the NBA finals — the Miami Heat blowing a big lead late in the second game at home, or Michael McDonald being selected to sing the national anthem before Game 1.

Michael McDonald?

As for the Heat, if they go on and lose the series to the Dallas Mavericks, they can go back to Dwyane Wade posing after his 3-pointer gave the Heat a 15-point lead with seven minutes left in Game 2 as the turning point of the series.

Wade and his good buddy LeBron James acted like the game was over at that point. The Heat stopped trying to score, instead dribbling down the shot clock and jacking up some wild shots the rest of the game. Dallas fought back and stole Game 2 to tie the series at 1 with Game 3 tonight in Big “D.”

The NBA is hard to watch anyway, but nothing is more irritating than watching five guys stand around for 20 seconds, then the one guy with the ball has to invent some crazy move just to get the shot off in time. Give me some player movement and some ball movement where the open guy gets the ball in rhythm and shoots it. Kinda like what Dallas tries to do sometimes.

Then again, maybe the Heat knew what they were doing when they brought in Michael McDonald for the opener.

After all, he was lead singer on a Doobie Brothers single titled “What a Fool Believes.”

n My memory of Shaquille O’Neal, who retired this week, stretches back some 19 years and a good 100 pounds ago.

In 1992, I sat three rows behind the basket when the NCAA tournament rolled in to Boise.

There were a couple of pretty good centers at that sub-regional — Alonzo Mourning, then a senior at Georgetown, and a 7-foot-1, 294-pound junior center from LSU, Shaquille O’Neal.

Mourning and the Hoyas played in the first game on that Thursday, and I’d seen him on television before, but in person, he was noticeably bigger than the others on the floor.

Later that day, Shaq took the floor, and he looked massive — making Mourning look rather ordinary in size. Back in those days, Shaq was lean and quick and could run the floor and could leap, and you always thought he was going to bring the basket down with one of his thunderous dunks — which he later did in the NBA.

Watching the game from behind the basket, when Shaq had the ball, you worried for the guy guarding him — not only was Shaq going to dunk the ball, but he might drive the defender through the floor on his way to the hoop.

On that Thursday night, O’Neal blocked an NCAA tournament-record 11 shots as LSU knocked off BYU 94-83. Two days later, LSU lost 89-79 to an Indiana squad that eventually made it to the Final Four. It turned out to be Shaq’s final college game.

Our most recent memories of Shaq are that he got heavy in recent years and was injured a lot. So it was nice to look back and remember when he was one of the most dominant players in the game.

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