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Sports

High School Sports

By C. Edward Wilson

Effingham County slams South Effingham

Steve Proctor and Bryan Bashlor drove in three runs apiece to lead Effingham County to a 12-5 victory over South Effingham in a non-region baseball game earlier this week. Four players had two or more hits for the Rebels, led by Bashlor, Proctor and Spencer Jackson with three each.

The win lifts the Rebels record to 11-5, while South Effingham suffered its second loss of the season and now stand 12-2.

Commentary:

With spring break on the horizon for the Savannah Chatham County School District, it would now be a good time for most athletes that are entering high school from the middle schools to get in contact with their new high school coaches to get an idea on just what it would take for them to make the varsity next year.

Going to high school takes a lot more preparation than one would think and personally, I think most of the middle school players will be like deers in headlights when the first varsity practice begins.

Bean Spouts

From the mailbag, a couple of folks wrote in with their views on my take on immigration reform. Faithful reader Lynda says: “I just heard on the news that undocumented workers paid $50 BILLION into Social Security last year.”

When I asked her how that was possible, since they couldn’t really have Social Security numbers- being illegal and all- she answered “most undocumented workers do pay taxes. They use fake SSN's and still pay taxes.”

“In Dalton it probably cost $50 to get a set of fake documents, but getting the money and approval to get a green card takes a long time and considerably more money.”

I learned something new- I still think immigration laws need to be restructured.

From across the country, Laura writes: “Hey Rob... I actually witnessed some of the student protest at our own Culver City Hall. I was pretty surprised at how well behaved the kids were. I can only imagine if it had been a bunch of white kids... scary. Then I started wondering how the kids who stayed in school were feeling, some weird hodgepodge of “The Breakfast Club?” I'm thinking a couple white kids, a few black maybe an Asian or two sitting around staring at each other and thinking of their own coming of age mischief.”

Laura always offers such an interesting perspective on things...

Mike sends in this reminder: “Did you know that all 162 Braves games will be televised? 70 games on TBS, 58 on Turner South, 25 on FSN South, eight on Fox and one on ESPN. Skip Caray, Chip Caray, Pete Van Wieren, Don Sutton and Joe Simpson remain in the broadcast booth. Chip Caray and Joe Simpson will alternate as co-hosts of the show...”

Mike and I were discussing Barry Bonds Tuesday night- I was laughing about the fan in San Diego tossing a syringe on the field at Bonds (hey, Barry- you think that was bad? Wait until you get to Philadelphia and New York!) and Mike mentioned he always thought Hank Aaron's home run numbers should have an asterisk next to them because it took Aaron more at bats to get to Ruth's record than it took Ruth. (Bonds already has more at bats than Ruth, by the way.)

It would be kind of weird, making marks like that- at the same time, you'd certainly have to put an asterisk next to Pete Rose's hits record. Had Ty Cobb gotten in 14,000 plus career at bats, there's no way Rose would have gotten close (Cobb had 11,429 ABs, while Rose had 14,053. They both played 23 seasons)...

They won’t win 162 games, and the pitching won’t be that shaky- nor the offense consistently able to score more than ten runs in a game. Still, aside from the five runs Tim Hudson gave up, Monday’s game was a nice way to begin the season, wasn’t it? Tuesday's result wasn't as nice. What is it about John Smoltz and his first start of the year? He won't look that bad all year, either. The Braves are 1-1 on the young season, one-half game behind the Mets (that won't last, either).

This weekend, the Braves visit San Francisco. Next week, they kick off their home season with three against the Phillies, beginning Monday night...

Hey- there’s a guy on Yahoo! Sports who’s picking the Braves to win the World Series in six games over the White Sox. Jeff Passan, the Royals beat writer, says the Braves are his pick for the championship this year...

Falcons owner Arthur Blank has reopened negotiations with Time Warner about buying the Braves. Representatives of both had a number of meetings last week, but it was unknown whether the parties were closer to bridging the price gap that caused negotiations to break off in late February.

“I can't say anything,” Blank said about the reopened talks. “I'm bound by an agreement not to say anything. If I do, I'll have a lot of people mad at me.”

Time Warner also continues to talk with three other parties interested in buying the Braves. If Blank’s bid was successful, he would be the only NFL owner with an MLB team in his portfolio. The last NFL/ MLB owner was Dolphins’ owner Wayne Huizenga, who also owned the Marlins...

Former Braves outfielder Marquis Grissom announced his retirement last Tuesday after 17 years in the majors. Grissom had signed a minor league contract with the Cubs and hoped to make the team as a backup. After batting just .200 in 17 spring training games, Grissom decided to pack it in.

“It's been a pretty fun ride along the way,” Grissom said. “I came into spring training to this organization to really see if I could go out and play baseball again for another year. And I got that opportunity from the Cubs. It didn't work out. Over a period of the last two, three weeks, I've been going in and out, strength wise, body wise, emotionally, whether I wanted to do it, could I do it.”

Grissom retires as one of only seven players with 2,000 hits, 200 home runs and 400 stolen bases. Craig Biggio, Roberto Alomar, Barry Bonds, Rickey Henderson, Paul Molitor and Joe Morgan are the others...

Boo-hoo-hoo. Barry Bonds is being hounded by the media. Here’s 35 cents, Barry- call someone who cares...

Am I the only one who thinks that Bud Selig’s announcement last week that there would be an in-depth probe of steroid use in the majors a case of closing the barn door after the horses have gotten out? The time to have launched that probe was when the freak show that was Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa were rocketing past home run records.

The worst part about the whole situation is- if anyone one else were commissioner (i.e., not an owner), they would have been crucified for not getting a handle on this situation earlier. As it stands, what we have looks more like a desperate effort to erect a facade of responsibility instead of a sincere effort to curb a real problem...

Isn‘t good to hear Pete Rose thinks that the new punishments of baseball players caught using steroids are “okay”? Speaking at an Ohio high school last week, Rose said “I broke the rules and I've been suspended 18 years. So if guys broke the rules the last two years then they have to be handed out some kind of sentence.”

Rose added he only cares about steroid use since baseball's testing began. “Here's my take on steroids: We can say anybody took steroids. We don't know. Unless you took steroids the last two years, I don't care.”

So, in Pete’s eyes, if the league hadn’t actually said it was against the rules to bet on his own team, the questionable morality of it wouldn’t have mattered a bit? Bonds, McGwire, Canseco, Sosa, Palmiero- and everyone else who “juiced” up should get into the Hall of Fame the same time Pete does- never...

The Thrashers’ playoff hopes are beginning to fade, as they sit five points out of the final playoff spot in the Eastern Division heading into play against the Senators Monday night. They went 1-2 last week.

This weekend, the Thrashers play host to the Hurricanes Saturday, then head to Florida Wednesday and Tampa Bay Wednesday...

Tony Stewart led 288 laps on his way to the checkered flag in Sunday’s DirecTV 500 at Martinsville. The win was the 25th of Stewart’s career, but first this year- despite his having led nearly four hundred laps in five races. Jeff Gordon finished second, followed be Elliott Sadler and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

This week’s race is the Samsung/Radio Shack 500 at the Texas Motor Speedway...

Yeah, I know they’ve been playing for almost two months now- but golf really kicks off this weekend with the Masters...

So, that’s about all for this week, boys and girls. I'll be back next time with more news, notes, and rumors from the sports world. As always, send your questions, praises, or gripes to RobBeanSports@yahoo.com, or via snail mail to:

c/o Spirit Newspapers