Football Friday: the Good, the Bad, and the Retro Andy

The "Big Game" was a good one, this week. To be honest, I didn't think Ames would be able to stay with #5 Ankeny, but they sure proved me wrong. The Little Cyclones moved the ball, at will, all night ---- until they reached the red zone. On three different occasions, Ames went inside the Ankeny 15, and failed to score a single point. The 20-7 defeat was a tough one for the lil clones, but they showed that they are a legitimate contender in the CIML Iowa division.

We like to reward people for checking out the blog, so here's a little inside info on one of our recent newscasts. If you watched Friday night's 6pm sportscast, you probably noticed the part where I blew Keith off (by not responding to his question during my live shot). Well, here's the real story. I'm refusing to answer any questions unless he refers to me as Johnny Bench. Just kidding (although Keith did demand that at one point during his childhood). The truth is, my IFB (the thing in my ear) cut out at the last second, so I couldn't hear him. I was hoping he wasn't going to ask me a question. I just saw the recording...ouch! I think Keith was a little hurt.

I find it hard to read the box scores from games involving Hoover and North. The two schools are a combined 0-4, this season...and they've been outscored 199-15. I can't imagine how hard it must be for the coaches and players on those teams to continue to compete, day in and day out. It would be nice if there was a simple solution to the problem facing metro schools around the state. Growing up in eastern Iowa, I saw the same exact things in Davenport. The city schools would take a beating, in football, just about every week. The good news is, Des Moines has created a junior football league in hopes of getting more youngsters involved in the sport before the middle school stage. But I think it's going to take more than that to get things turned around ---- a lot more.

When Stephen Strasburg burst onto the scene, earlier this year, he reminded me of Mark Prior, and Kerry Wood. Both pitchers were "Can't Miss" prospects, and both (in many ways) missed, thanks to major arm injuries. Sure enough, just 12 starts in to his major league career, Strasburg is on the shelf. The 22-year-old tore a ligament in his throwing elbow, and likely won't be pitching again until the 2012 season. He'll undergo the dreaded "Tommy John Surgery" that some pitchers never recover from. Here's to hoping he comes back as strong as Cardinals ace Chris Carpenter. He's 31-9 since having the surgery in 2007.

I can't wait for the 700th episode of SoundOFF. Keith has been slaving away in the edit bay, putting together some of the most memorable clips in SoundOFF history. I always hated when my favorite tv show played a bunch of old clips for an episode, and called it "new", but this is different. I guarantee you're going to see some clips you've either never seen before, or have completely forgotten about. Half the show will be new, and the other half will be legendary. We can do this, now, because we're finally going back to an hour! Sorry Buck McNeely.

 Check out this picture I found of Andy from the mid 60's. He was in President Kennedy's cabinet.