In 2009, West Genesee, Watertown and Carthage emerged with the Section III girls lacrosse championships.

In 2010, West Genesee, Watertown and Cartahge emerged with the Section III girls lacrosse championships.

Yes, the exact same ending, but the similiarities stop there. The Wildcats and Cyclones both had different opponents to conquer in the end, and the Comets held on for its life against Skaneateles, unlike the rout of 12 months earlier.

Start with WG, who now has four straight sectional titles...

CATEGORY: Lacrosse

TAGS: Section III, girls lacrosse finals, West Genesee, F-M, Watertown, Oswego, Carthage, Skaneateles

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Taken as a group, the quintet of Section III baseball championship games played this week at Alliance Bank Stadium offered enough eccentricity to fill an asylum or two.

For one thing, it wasn't a good idea to be a top seed. Three of them played in the finals - and none of them ended up in the banner.

Of the trio, Bishop Ludden had to feel the most heartache. In a dominant spring, the Gaelic Knights had gone 21-0, risen to the top of the state Class B rankings and had flattened just about everyone - with one glaring exception, clad in blue.

Westhill remembered those two memorable mid-season clashes, after which it took off on an 11-game win streak...

CATEGORY: Baseball

TAGS: Section III, baseball, championship games, recap

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Detroit's Miguel Cabrera had the grounder. He flipped the baseball to Armando Galarraga, the pitcher running over to cover first base. Galarraga reached the bag and got the ball just before Cleveland's Jason Donald reached first base. But Donald was called safe.

If this were the third or sixth inning and both teams had fair amounts of hits and runs on the board, the play passes by unnoticed - a mistake on the umpire's part, perhaps, but nothing that irks Jim Leyland or makes Tribe fans any less depressed about the team's putrid state.

But it was the ninth inning. Two men were out...

CATEGORY: General Society

TAGS: Armando Galarraga, Jim Joyce, perfect game, blown call, Bud Selig

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Maybe one can look at the three teams that won the Section III championships and say, well, we've seen these guys win before, a lot. What's new here?

A lot, really. Any championship journey creates new material, a path to glory that isn't exactly like the ones from the past.

Now West Genesee, there's some consistency there. Try nine straight sectional titles, and not all of them are foreordained. Especially 2010.

In the first two weeks alone, the Wildcats lost twice and switched goalies, putting in a sophomore (Scott Sidnam), who would stick...

CATEGORY: Lacrosse

TAGS: Section III, boys lacrosse, champions, West Genesee, J-D, Skaneateles

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So I've spent a full day digesting the news that John Wooden had passed away after a full century living one of the most extraordinary and fulfilling lives of any American during that time.

The multitude of tributes are all deserved, and it's not nearly enough, either. And it's for reasons that go well beyond those 10 national championships his UCLA Bruins teams won in 12 years.

For the Wizard of Westwood's genius and gift only started with coaching basketball. It spread to a philosophy of life and approach that profoundly affected everyone he ever met, and millions more that didn't.

From the very start and his humble Indiana roots, Wooden felt most proud of being a student, then a teacher...

CATEGORY: Basketball

TAGS: John Wooden, passing, thoughts

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A generation ago, South Africa stood in deserved isolation from most of the world. The scourge that was apartheid kept much of that nation’s population in a political and economic stranglehold. The mere thought of holding any major event in that beautiful, yet troubled land was repulsive.

Even with two decades of relative freedom and democracy, the problems remain huge...

CATEGORY: Soccer (Football)

TAGS: World Cup, preview, South Africa

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Man, was it frustrating to look at the radar on a warm and windy Saturday and note that, while most of Central New York was free and clear, clouds, rain and thunder kept arriving at Cicero's Gillette Road complex.

Thus, the Section III softball finals did not happen on Saturday, nor on Sunday following the morning deluge. Everyone had to wait until the sun returned on Monday to decide matters.

And once they were done, three champions from 2009 had repeated, one got a three-peat and a fourth team fell short in its dreams of winning it all again. Only in Class B was there truly new blood on hand.

Liverpool's main problem in Class AA was that this was an even-numbered year...

CATEGORY: Softball

TAGS: Section III, softball finals, recap

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All right, Jamesville-DeWitt boys lacrosse team. Hope you have some strong shoulders, for you carry the entire Section III hopes for a state championship.

That's not the case on the girls side, though. West Genesee, Watertown and Carthage all remain alive in the pursuit of the big prize and are ready for a high-tension tripleheader on Friday at Tompkins Community College.

Rarely has this been the case. In the not-so-distant past, one could count on two, maybe three boys teams getting at least to the state semifinals. Such was the preeminence lacrosse had in Central New York over other regions in the state.

But the Southern Tier is catching up. Ithaca, a year after shocking West Genesee in the 2009 Class A regional, proved it wasn't an A.J...

CATEGORY: Lacrosse

TAGS: Lacrosse, regional finals, recap

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High school Baseball fans in Central New York get tired PDQ about hearing that lacrosse is the spring sport of choice, that everything else is just a supporting act.

Well, by sheer numbers, they have a point in 2010. Just one boys lacrosse team in Section III (Jamesville-DeWitt) is still going - but a quartet of baseball nines are bound for the Southern Tier Saturday to try and capture state titles.

One of them, Westhill, knows the way, having won it all in 2009. And it sure seemed like the Warriors hurdled past it biggest obstacle when it dismantled unbeaten rival Bishop Ludden for the sectional title.

But in Monday's regional at DeLutis Field in Rome, the Warriors nearly saw a 4-1 lead against Windsor vanish in the seventh inning...

CATEGORY: Baseball

TAGS: State playoffs, baseball, regionals, Westhill, Whitesboro, Watertown IHC, Copenhagen

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One moment, five Section III softball champions reveled in the accomplishment of a championship delayed a couple of days by this area's capricious weather. The next moment, all of them had to turn around and play tough regional championship games.

Such is the rushed nature of the spring sports endgame, everyone trying to finish before final exams, graduation and summer. How these teams fare in such circumstances is fascinating.

Cicero-North Syracuse managed to pull it off, though...

CATEGORY: Softball

TAGS: Softball, regional playoffs, CNS, South Lewis

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Everyone in Upstate New York scholastic lacrosse, male and female alike, ought to thank Jamesville-DeWitt's boys for bringing a small amount of balance to the state championships.

Save for the Red Rams going to Stony Brook University and beating up Garden City 11-5 on Saturday, every state title went to very familiar powers from Long Island repeating their 2009 feats.

That meant West Islip and Manhasset taking the Class A and C boys titles again with ease over, respectively, Fairport and Corning East. And it meant Farmingdale (A), Garden City (B) and Shoreham-Wading River (C) going to SUNY-Cortland and, again, going home with the girls lacrosse state crowns.

Only one of them, Shoreham, won at the expense of a Section III hopeful...

CATEGORY: Lacrosse

TAGS: J-D, lacrosse, state champions, Carthage, West Genesee

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Six baseball and softball teams had a chance to capture state championships on Saturday, and only one pulled it off - someone very used to the feeling.

Westhill's baseball side ruled Class B, just as it did in 2008, as it took out 2008 champion, Somers John F. Kennedy Catholic 7-2 in the finals...

CATEGORY: Baseball

TAGS: Westhill, baseball, state championships, softball, review

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Jack Nicklaus rifling a one-iron through the wind to hit the flagstick. Tom Watson chipping in to deny Nicklaus yet another record for himself. Tom Kite surviving Pacific gales to finally climb his major mountain. Tiger Woods offering the single greatest performance in golf history.

Put simply, there are United States Open golf championships played at other locations – and then there’s the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach. They are not the same.

Oakmont, Oakland Hills and Winged Foot are brutal. Merion, Olympic and Pinehurst lure you in with strategic subtlety. Torrey Pines and Bethpage Black are superb public courses, and Shinnecock Hills reminds you of the game’s roots.

But let’s not kid ourselves – Pebble Beach is the ultimate Open venue...

CATEGORY: Golf

TAGS: U.S. Open, Pebble Beach, preview

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And to think that the wind never really blew at Pebble Beach for this United States Open like it did that last day in 1992. They might still be out there now.

Just imagine the gruesome possibilities. Dustin Johnson might have struggled to break 100. Tom Watson would age 10 years in one day, and still beat half the field. Phil Mickelson's flop shot would have flown to San Diego. Tiger Woods..insert your own tasteless one-liner here.

It never turned out to be more than a breeze any of the four days this time...

CATEGORY: Golf

TAGS: U.S. Open, wrap-up, Graeme McDowell

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Saturday morning, wake up at 7 a.m. on the last day of the high school sports season. In Syracuse, the gloom gathered in the western sky. Distant thunder could be heard, portending a serious downpour.
That should have provided a hint of all that was to follow.

As said downpour beats down, I fumble through all the morning routines – eating, cleaning up, World Cup viewing (South Korea is rolling), making sure all was in place for the day ahead.

Soon enough, the time came to head out to my car, only to make a gruesome discovery. Seems like the day before, under more pleasant skies, I found occasion to open the sun roof and feel the breeze, which was nice...

CATEGORY: Baseball

TAGS: State finals, last day, commentary

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Ah, summer, the time for folks in my chosen profession (you call this a profession?) to kick back a bit, chill out, do something novel like not attend games or write about games seven days a week.

Instead, it will just be golf, three or four days at a time, with an Empire State Games in between and some big changes with our company that will make us much more visible. Stay tuned there.

The first part might be the most prestigious. Tomorrow morning (weather permitting), 150 of the best female golfers in the world play a major, the LPGA Championship, just an hour down the road, in the Rochester suburb of Pittsford.

Loyalty and timing had a lot to do with it...

CATEGORY: Golf

TAGS: LPGA Championship, Preview

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Mid-afternoon in the first round of the LPGA Championship, and all of us at Locust Hill Country Club in Pittsford thought we had been spared.

Those dire forecasts of wind and thunderstorms never came to pass. All of the bad stuff stayed well to the south and north, leaving nothing more than a cloud cover to worry about as play got underway on time, bright and early at 7:15 with legend Betsy Rawls striking the ceremonial first tee shot.

True, the storms stayed away from the Rochester area - but the wind was quite present...

CATEGORY: Golf

TAGS: LPGA Championship, first round, recap

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When Christie Kerr's approach shot on the 18th hole of Locust Hill Country Club during Friday's second round of the LPGA Championship hit the green, the applause from the fans in the bleachers was warm and cordial.

Then the ball started rolling down from the top of the green, closer to the flagstick. As it did, the noise of the crowd grew...and grew...and grew...

And by the time the ball stopped, a mere nine inches from the cup, the roars could be heard all over Pittsford. And maybe the year's second golf major was seized for good.

Kerr's stunning birdie capped off a six-under-par 66, the low round of the tournament...

CATEGORY: Golf

TAGS: LPGA Championship, second round, Christie Kerr

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They started the third round of the LPGA Championship at 7 a.m. Saturday, with threesomes going off the first and 10th tees, to avoid course saturation from rains that arrived around noon and persisted, on and off, for the rest of play.

Techincally, they'll start the final round tomorrow at 7:30 a.m. with everyone starting on no. and pairings...

CATEGORY: Golf

TAGS: LPGA Championship, third round, analysis

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There was only one way this LPGA Championship could end, and Christie Kerr knew it.

Sure, the tournament was over - really, it had been over for two days - and Kerr could use a putter on the 72nd hole at Locust Hill Country Club in Pittsford and still lap the field twice around.

Apparently, though, an 11-shot lead was not enough...

CATEGORY: Golf

TAGS: LPGA Championship, final round, Christie Kerr, records

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Years of investigation into the matter of Reggie Bush, agents, cars, houses and cash, all related to University of Southern California football, culminated in the NCAA bringing down a harsh hammer of punishment, at least by its peculiar standards.

The damages included two years without a bowl appearance, dozens of lost scholarships, the vacating of wins from 2004-05 and even the threat that the ’04 national title could be stripped, too. Clearly, the NCAA wanted to scare college athletic programs straight.

Which only made the months-long odyssey of conference expansion and schools jumping from one league to another that much more disturbing...

CATEGORY: Football (American)

TAGS: College football, conference expansion

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