Q Factor
Sunday, July 7 was my birthday – and yes, I’m still accepting well-wishes until the end of the month.
In elementary school, I admit I used to feel cheated on my birthday. So many of my friends had birthdays during the school year and would have someone in their family bring cake or cupcakes for them and the class.
Eventually, someone broke out the ice cream and the cokes and we had a shindig that would rival even the greatest parties. There was nothing better than that sugar rush near the end of the day when you could get something sweet and the teachers didn’t care because you were about to get on the bus and you weren’t their problem anymore.
As I got older, I realized that it was better to have a summer birthday. You don’t have to go to school.
I became an adult and started trying to take the day off on my birthday in order to enjoy it. If my birthday fell on a weekend? Take that Friday off and enjoy the extra day.
My birthday also falls at the right time for my job. I cover camps and little league during the summer, but there’s a lull around mid-July. That gives me a chance to recharge and re-energize. If I get everything I need to done, I can get one more break in before football season starts.
After that? I’m going non-stop from late August usually until December, when I get a break for Christmas. After New Year’s Day, I’m right back at it until baseball and softball seasons end.
I wouldn’t change a thing about it. This is what I wanted from the time I was a little kid and now that I’ve got more than a decade of experience covering sports? I love it even more.
Every year, I want to do something to keep getting better personally and professionally. I start from the day after my birthday and give myself some goals that I want to either reach or make strides toward.
My goals are simple:
Get in better shape: I’ve lost quite a bit of weight, but I can do more. I want to stay in good shape so I can live to be 312. This has always been the goal.
Learn a new language: I’ve taken Spanish classes as well as Japanese classes. I want this to be the year that I start to perfect at least one and preferably both.
Get back to broadcasting and/or PA announcing: I’ve done both for as long as I’ve been a journalist and I miss it.
See one of my favorite teams live: This one requires a bit more storytelling.
I’ve never seen an NBA, MLB or NHL game, but I’d like to. I’ve seen college games in almost every sport, including a football game between SFA and Central Arkansas that was interrupted by a two-hour rain delay.
SFA was leading when the rain started. They went on to lose afterwards. Momentum just washed away.
I’ve been fortunate enough to see an NFL game live. This game, however, wasn’t great.
In 2001, the Dallas Cowboys played the Washington Redskins on Monday Night Football. It was the game where the team dedicated the statue of Tom Landry that stood outside of Texas Stadium.
I was a member of the TCU Horned Frog Marching Band and we got to perform at halftime as well as play the national anthem.
When halftime concluded, there was a bus that took home those who wanted to go back to campus and another that stayed behind in order to transport those of us who wanted to stay.
I’m a freshman in college who has never seen an NFL game live. I stayed!
The game went down to the wire, which should have been exciting! It…kind of wasn’t.
For those of you who may not remember those years of the Cowboys, they were, simply put, not great. The quarterback carousel was spinning wildly and the team was average at best.
The team finished 5-11, good for fifth in the NFC East. This was before the teams reconfigured the divisions, so the Arizona Cardinals were still in the division as well.
This specific night was the game the Cowboys won, at the last second on Monday Night Football – 9-7. Kicker Tim Seder scored every point, including a game-winning 26-yard field goal.
The starting quarterbacks for this game were Anthony Wright for the Cowboys and Tony Banks for the Redskins. Emmitt Smith finished with 107 yards rushing and Joey Galloway and Rocket Ismail led the team in receiving yards with 51 and 50, respectively.
After the game, I took the second bus back to campus and crashed because I had a midterm at 8 that next morning. I got a B on it, so even though it was a 9-7 game, it was a lot of fun and otherwise worth it. I got to see an NFL game live – but I wouldn’t mind attending a more high-scoring affair.
As for the start of year 36? I spent
this birthday with my family, relaxing, having a great dinner and watching sports.
The U.S. Women’s National Team won the Women’s World Cup on my birthday and I’d like to thank them for that. It was a blast.
I don’t feel my age – except some mornings when I wake up – and I’m blessed to have the opportunity to do what I do.
Two-a-days are right around the corner, which means football, volleyball and cross-country seasons are on deck. We’re also one step closer to the NFL, NCAA football and the baseball playoff chase. Follow that with the NBA and NHL, then the Texas high school playoffs.
There are so many sports going on that I’m going to be running non-stop, but I’d have it no other way.
MORE ON THE 2001 COWBOYS FOR SOME REASON
Because I like looking things up, I looked up more about the 2001 Dallas Cowboys. This was the year Troy Aikman retired. Emmitt Smith would leave after the 2002 season.
The team was coached by Dave Campo in what would be his next to last season and, as previously stated, finished fifth in the division. It was the second consecutive year the team went 5-11; they would do so again in the 2002 season.
There were some solid players on the 2001 team. We already talked about Emmitt, Galloway and Rocket. The offensive line included Flozell Adams (The Hotel!), Larry Allen and Mark Stepnoski. The defense included Greg Ellis, Dexter Coakley, Dat Nguyen, George Teague and Darren Woodson.
My favorite names on the roster were receiver Ken-Yon Rambo and defensive end Dwayne Missouri.
The team didn’t win its first game until that October night against Washington. They swept the Redskins and beat the Cardinals, New York Giants and San Francisco 49ers. Aside from that win at Washington in Week 12, the team did not win any other games on the road. They also lost four consecutive games twice in that season.
The team would get the sixth pick in the 2002 NFL draft, which they traded to Kansas City for the eighth and third round selections in the same draft and a sixth-round pick in 2003. Dallas would take Oklahoma safety Roy Williams with the eighth pick.
HOW MANY HOMERS?
Last week, I mentioned my love for MLB’s Home Run Derby, which was held Monday. I would like to point out that I absolutely loved this year’s edition.
Pete Alonso of the New York Mets won the derby and he was a deserving winner. MLB introduced a mechanic where if you hit two home runs longer than 440 feet during your round, you got an extra 30 seconds to add on to your total. Alonzo was the only batter to acquire those extra seconds and not use them in any round. He’d end up ahead and not even need to add on to his total.
But it was the second round performance between Vladimir Guerrero Jr. of the Toronto Blue Jays and Joc Peterson of the Los Angeles Dodgers that got everyone talking.
The derby has a three-swing swing-off designed to break ties after an overtime round. It had never been used going into this year.
Pederson and Guerrero used it twice before Guerrero won the second round, 40-39.
If you don’t want to use that as the new record for most homers hit in a round? Guerrero actually set that twice –29 in the first round and 29 in the regulation portion of the second round.
In all, Guerrero hit a total of 91 home runs during the derby. His shortest home run was 373 feet and his longest was 488 feet.
He hit almost five times as many as his father, who won the 2007 derby.
Even more interesting? The final round between Alonso and Guerrero was between two rookies who make $555,000 this year. The prize for winning the derby: $1 million. Not a bad night for either one.