NOT Sportsbeat: by Richard Lamb

First a disclaimer. This is not your regular Sportsbeat writer, Pete Jakey. Pete is away doing what he likes best, watching a sporting event and spending time with his family. He planned to be at a Toronto Blue Jays game sometime this week camping along the way there and back.

So, in his place, I have the honor of filling this space with my opinions on sports. While he is not around to hear this, let me say a word about Pete. There have been many sports writers to work at the Advance over the years, but I can?t imagine a writer more concerned with getting as much local sports in the paper as he is. He is a great ?homer? who does his best for the local student-athletes.

During the high school sports seasons, our goal is to publish the results of each game played by each high school team from both Rogers City and Posen. We try to get at least one photo from each varsity sport in the Advance each week. Those are lofty goals for a 16-20 page weekly newspaper, but we work hard to achieve them each week. Writers who love the games and coaches who call when we can?t be there make it possible.

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A pair of recent Rogers City grads did well in the Division IV all-star game over the weekend. First team all-stater Ashley Fleming, one of the best athletes ever to suit up for the Orange and Black, threw four innings of no-hit ball at the game in Lansing. She wouldn?t have done it without the help of teammate Megan Hanson, who made an outstanding hustle play from rightfield to throw out a runner at first base. The stunned runner thought she had a clean single, but Megan came up firing and threw her out. Coach Karl Grambau, who was at the game, said he expected nothing less than what each player did that day. Ashley overpowered most of the all-stars and Megan never quit hustling as their team took the win.

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How about those hockey guys! You remember hockey, don?t you? It has been so long. I have to say I got more sleep last year since I didn?t have to stay up and watch the Red Wings play on the west coast. I missed those Vancouver, Edmonton, and Los Angeles games, which would have started at 10:30 p.m. or later. We do have a VCR to tape those games, but I always watched them live, propped up against the sofa, most of the time falling asleep on the floor before the game ended. Now that they are back playing again, it looks like the owners got what they wanted in reducing the salaries of the players. The general managers are talking a good game about how hockey will be better after all of this, but much seems to be said only to draw back the fans.

Certainly the players are not better off in the short term, anyway. Each had to take a 24 percent pay cut as part of the deal. For the superstars like Wings? defenseman Nick Lidstrom, that is more than $2 million. He still will be making $7 million-plus, so it is hard to pity him. I came across an old Sports Illustrated last week in a box of stuff in my basement. It happened to be the hockey preview edition from the early 1990s. In it the writer talked about how difficult it would be to sustain hockey with salaries around $1 million per player per year.

At that time only a handful of players made that much. They listed Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, and Steve Yzerman as the league?s millionaires of the time. Those days are gone, but teams will

cut their payrolls dramatically. Like any business, expenses have to be covered by income. We will see if the damage done to the game will hurt it next season.

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The high school sports schedules are out for the fall. A date to circle is Friday, September 2 at 7 p.m. That is the date of the Posen vs. Rogers City football game. Coach Glenn Budnick?s Vikings, coming off their first district title in football, will host second-year varsity coach Mike Kosiara?s Hurons. The Hurons open in Hillman the week before, then play four straight home games with Alcona, St. Ignace, Inland Lakes, and Rudyard.

Rogers City finishes with games in Onaway, Newberry, and Kingsley. The Vikings open at Cedarville, then play Pickford away before three straight home games with AuGres, Arenac, and Mio. Posen finishes on the road at Hale, Hillman, and Atlanta.

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