7/11/2008

A SAD DAY FOR ME

When it came across the wire Wednesday morning it kind of caught me by surprise, but I had known this day was going to come eventually. Heck, I was surprised it hadn`t come sooner. It was a day all of us in Cleveland have had to deal with in the past. It was something that just doesn`t seem right.

The demolition of Tiger Stadium began Wednesday. I don`t pretend to be a Tigers fan, but I`m a baseball fan, and to see a place with so much history be hit by the wrecking ball just sucks. In this day and age, where all that surrounds the game is steroids and cheaters, when we lose an old park, we lose what baseball really was. The sights, the smells, Ty Cobb, Mark Fidrych, Sparky Anderson and Kirk Gibson.

The economics and continuing need for luxury don`t allow parks like this to remain open any more. Municipal Stadium, County Stadium in Milwaukee, and this year Shea and Yankee Stadium close. All places that held a number of great events that made baseball the Great American Past Time.

If you would of seen the expression on Wally Mintus` face when I showed him the story, you would have understood right away. Baseball fans are all kids at heart. When you lose a place like Tiger Stadium, it`s like losing your first true love. You have history with it, you`ll never forget it, but you must move on.

I`ll miss you Tiger Stadium.

http://www.savetigerstadium.org/index.htm
http://www.tigerstadium.org/home.html
http://freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Site=C4&Date=20080624&Category=SPORTS02&ArtNo=806240808&Ref=PH&Profile=1081&Params=Itemnr=1
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080630/BUSINESS06/80630086
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Site=C4&Date=20080626&Category=SPORTS02&ArtNo=806240806&Ref=PH&Profile=1048&Params=Itemnr=1

6/24/2008

WOBL/WDLW 2008 FOOTBALL COVERAGE

Oberlin, OH – In 2008 the Lorain County Sports Network will present 32 live football games. The network schedule this year includes 22 live high school football games and all 10 Oberlin College football games featured live on WOBL.
"We’re all excited for the start of football season. The day after the season ends is when we all want to get back at it. So it can’t get here soon enough," said WOBL/WDLW Sports Director Brian Deitz.
"Our schedule gives us the opportunity to get every team in Lorain County on the radio. It’s great for the kids to get that recognition," said Deitz. The Premier Toyota of Amherst pre-game show will begin at 6:30 PM on Friday, and one half hour before kick off on September 18th and October 25th.

WOBL

8/22 FIRELANDS @ BROOKSIDE
8/29 MIDVIEW @ AMHERST
9/5 AVON LAKE @ ELYRIA
9/12 MIDVIEW @ FIRELANDS
9/19 KEYTONE @ OBERLIN
9/26 COLUMBIA @ OBERLIN
10/3 WELLINGTON @ BLACK RIVER
10/10 KEYSTONE @ WELLINGTON
10/17 OBERLIN @ CLEARVIEW
10/24 TBD

WDLW

8/22 AMHERST @ ELYRIA
8/29 ELYRIA CATHOLIC @ SOTUHVIEW
9/5 BEREA @ ADMIRAL KING
9/12 LUTHERAN WEST @ WELLINGTON
9/18 OLMSTED FALLS @ AVON LAKE
9/19 BLACK RIVER @ CLEARVIEW
9/26 AVON @ VERMILION
10/3 ARCHBISHOP HOBAN @ ELYRIA CATHOLIC
10/10 NORTH RIDGEVILLE @ VERMILION
10/17 AVON @ NORTH RIDGEVILLE
10/24 TBD
10/25 SOUTHVIEW @ ADMIRAL KING


Dave DeNatale, Don Vincent and Jason Gibbs return for another season of Oberlin College football on WOBL. The Yeomen finished 2007 at 5-5 (5-2 in the NCAC). The Yeomen return NCAC Offensive Player of the Year, running back RV Carroll. Carroll rushed for 1,038 yards and scored 16 touchdowns in `07. Also returning on the offensive side of the ball is quarterback Greg Mangan, running back Wayne Mundekis and tight end J.J. Hepp.

2008 Oberlin Yoeman Football Schedule The defense will see the return of senior defensive
backs Kris DeVant and Clayton Thurmer.
"Jeff Ramsey and the entire staff at Oberlin College have been great to work with over the last six years. I`m thrilled we can continue our partnership," said Deitz.
" We are excited for another season of Oberlin College football to get here. Yeomen football has
become such an important part of what we offer on the Lorain County Sports Network. Expectation will be high coming off a great finish to last season and we look forward to bringing our listeners all the action this fall," says DeNatale.

Oberlin College WOBL Schedule

9/6 WASHINGTON AND JEFFERSON
9/20 CASE WESTERN RESERVE
9/27 @ALLEGHENY COLLEGE
10/4 OHIO WESLEYAN COLLEGE
10/11 @ UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
10/18 @ KENYON COLLEGE
10/25 EARLHAM COLLEGE
11/1 @ WABASH COLLEGE
11/8 COLLEGE OF WOOSTER
11/15 @ HIRAM COLLEGE

*The pre-game show for all ten games begins at 12:30 PM on WOBL.

For more information contact Brian Deitz at WOBL/WDLW Radio.
Brian Deitz
WOBL/WDLW Radio Sports Director
P: (440) 774-1320 x 39
F: (440) 774-1336
http://www.northcoastdailynews.com/

5/22/2008

And Then There Were Two....

Cornerbacks that is. As most may have heard, our Cleveland Browns were hit with a major injury yesterday, as potential starting Corner Daven Holly went down with a serious knee injury. Coming from a person that has had knee surgery for ligament reconstruction and "clean-up", I know its bad when they schedule surgery for 3 days after the injury happened. Not good.

Right now the only two true Corners we have are Eric Wright and Brandon McDonald, both entering their second year after being drafted last year. Needless to say, my terrification has already started for next season (Ryan Tucker's broken hip did not help that either). And if you don't recall the schedule, we play quite a few teams that have very strong aerial attacks.

I know Phil has already started to bring in some younger players, but this secondary really needs a veteran who can step in and guide some of these guys, and I just don't know if that person is out there (or affordable...see: Lito Sheppard). It'll be interesting to see how this one plays out, especially as we close in on training camp in 65 days.

5/20/2008

Crafton Leads Ohio Brigade into Mansfield with Win in Charlotte

ThorSport Racing’s Matt Crafton couldn’t have timed it any better. Driving for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series’ only full-time Ohio-based team, Crafton drove his No. 88 Menards Chevrolet to his first career victory in last Friday’s North Carolina Education Lottery 200 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Charlotte. It was the final series event scheduled before it moves to Mansfield Motorsports Park for this Saturday’s Ohio 250.

It has been a long time in coming for Crafton. With the win he ended a winless drought of 177 races dating back to his first start at California Speedway in October 2000.

For his ThorSport team, based just 45 minutes north of Mansfield in Sandusky, Ohio, it was the group’s first win since Sylvania native Terry Cook won at the now-defunct Flemington Speedway in New Jersey in August 1998.

Crafton may have more laps around the Mansfield half-mile that most of the field combined. Before the track was added to the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series schedule, he and the team turned hundreds of laps in private testing at the track. NASCAR regulations now prohibit private testing at any track currently on the schedule.

“We have some extra laps there that some of the other teams don’t because we were so close,” Crafton said. “They’ve all caught up to us by now. But I would really love to come out to Mansfield and get a win. It would mean a lot. We went down and stole one on all the other teams’ home turf in Charlotte now we need to defend ours and get the win up here.”

Crafton, a native of Tulare, California, spent three years living in nearby Sandusky. The ThorSport team will also field the No. 13 Chevrolet for Greenwood, Indiana’s Shelby Howard.

Other Ohio drivers entered in the Ohio 250 include six-time series winner Terry Cook, Sylvania, driving the No. 60 Wyler.com Toyota; Jack Smith, Elyria, driving the No. 63 Dave Porter Truck Sales Ford; Tim Cowen, Ashland, driving the No. 42 Cowen Logistics Ford; and Gary St. Amant, Delaware, driving the No. 72 Jegs Chevrolet.

Cook, a former late model champion at Toledo Speedway and Sandusky Speedway in Ohio, is the state’s most successful NASCAR driver since Tim Richmond. Richmond, from nearby Ashland, scored 13 Cup Series wins and two wins in the Nationwide Series in his short NASCAR career.

For Cook, racing in Ohio gives him a hometown feel.

“It really does. I spent five years living in Sandusky and have a lot of friends and family that make the short trip down to come and watch,” Cook said. “It is pretty special to run in Ohio, especially since the Truck race is the only national-level NASCAR race in Ohio. It would be pretty big for me personally to win one in the Buckeye State.”

Ohio-based owners fielding entries in the Ohio 250 include Sandusky’s Duke and Rhonda Thorson (No. 13 ThorSport Racing Chevrolet and No. 88 Menards Chevrolet); Columbus’s Bob and Stephen Germain (No. 9 Construct Corps Toyota and No. 30 Lumber Liquidators Toyota), Ashland’s Bob Cowen (No. 42 Cowen Logistics Ford), and Jeffrey Wyler (No. 60 Wyler.com Toyota).

Germain Racing’s Marks will be making his first-ever appearance at Mansfield and is already looking forward to getting in front of the Ohio fans.

“I’ve heard the Mansfield fans are some of the best in the sport, and I look forward to meeting them on Thursday evening in downtown,” he said. “We've been able to do some good short-track testing and I think the Construct Corps Tundra will be very competitive. The short tracks are wild in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and they are a lot of fun. I think the Ohio 250 will be a good race.”

The Ohio 250 weekend kicks off Thursday May 22 with Race Fest in downtown Mansfield. Several drivers will sign autographs – including 2004 Ohio 250 winner Jack Sprague, 1995 NASCAR Busch Series champion Johnny Benson, former Formula One driver Scott Speed, Matt Crafton, Shelby Howard, Justin Marks, Brian Scott, Tim Cowen and Jack Smith. Other drivers signing autographs include Benny Gordon, Danny Jackson, and Gary St. Amant from the USAR Hooters Pro Cup Series, Charlie Shutlz from the ISMA Supermodifieds, Todd McQuillen from the HOSS 410 Sprints, and Mike Osgar from the ASA Late Model Series. Several display vehicles will be on display as well highlighting each of the racing series that will compete at the track throughout the 2008 racing season. The transporter parade moves into downtown shortly after 5 P.M., the autograph session kicks off at 6 P.M. and it will be followed by a question and answer session with the drivers at 7 P.M.

Practice and qualifying will take place on “Graham Auto Mall Pole Day,” Friday May 23, with the first practice session at 11 A.M. and qualifying runs taking place at 6:30 P.M. Gates open on Saturday May 24 at 9 A.M. with fans allowed to walk on and around the speedway until 10:30 A.M. The driver’s meeting – which fans can watch from the grassy hill in turns three and four – is scheduled for 11 A.M. with pre-race ceremonies at 12:30 P.M. The command to start engines for the fifth annual Ohio 250 is slated for shortly after 1 P.M.

Tickets are still available by calling (419) 525-RACE (7223) or online at www.mansfieldmotorsportsonline.com.

-MMP-

Contact: Charles Krall
Public Relations Manager
Mansfield Motorsports Park
(419) 262-0558
ChasKrall@bex.net

5/07/2008

Dink and Dork

NFL Tight End for the Cleveland Browns Darnell Dinkins and John Godfrey come your way Tuesday nights at 5:30 on the Kool Kat 1380 with the Dink and Dork Show. Call with questions at (440)775-1380, fax questions to (440)774-1336 or email the guys at with questions at dinkanddork@yahoo.com.