MIKE BURKE Allegany Communications Sports First of all, the awful American and National uniforms ruin it from the beginning, and based on unscientific social media scanning, it seems everybody other than the greedy mopes who make the decisions are in agreement with this. It’s not the Major League All-Star Game if the players aren’t wearing…
MIKE BURKE Allegany Radio Corporation Sports Wren Baker may be asking himself why he ever left his comfortable job as athletic director at the University of North Texas to take the same job at West Virginia University. Of course, those at West Virginia University may be asking themselves why they ever asked him to do…
MIKE BURKE Allegany Communications Sports Wilson Richard Jones was 83. Anybody who knew him called him Dick or Butch. I called him Mister Jones in the beginning, because it was 1982 and ‘83, I was 23 and the man had just given me a job. Dick’s preferred name, of course, was never “Mister Jones,” and…
MIKE BURKE Allegany Radio Corporation Sports Next week is the loneliest week of them all for the baseball fan, for after Tuesday night’s Major League All-Star Game, there is nothing until Friday. No game to follow or listen to; no game to watch. Just sit around for three days and watch the clock until the first…
MIKE BURKE Allegany Communications Sports For the first time this season, the Baltimore Orioles have been enduring a pretty rough stretch, having lost six of their last 11 series. All of which has begun to bring some once-giddy Orioles fans back to earth and has made the traditional short memory of any sports fan even…
MIKE BURKE Allegany Communications Sports Did you get a load of what the Los Angeles Angels’ Shohei Ohtani did on Tuesday night? He struck out 10 over 6 1/3 innings and also went 3-for-3 with two home runs to lift the Angels to a 4-2 win over the Chicago White Sox. That’s all. Oddly enough,…
MIKE BURKE Allegany Radio Corporation Sports Not long after I had seconded Washington Nationals manager Dave Martinez’s taking exception to the ball-strike calling aptitude of a particular home-plate umpire last week, a friend asked me a question and offered a few comments as well. “Mike, have you ever umpired a game behind the plate?” I…
MIKE BURKE Allegany Communications Sports Who is your favorite player from each team in Major League Baseball that you have seen play? Doesn’t have to be the best player, just your favorite player. It can be the best, of course, but in this case, just your favorite from each team for whatever reason. Let’s start…
MIKE BURKE Allegany Radio Corporation Sports Watched the Washington Nationals’ 5-3 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks on Thursday afternoon (Repeat: nothing beats afternoon baseball, nothing beats afternoon baseball, nothing beats afternoon, evening or morning baseball with no F.P. Santangelo in the booth, even though I listen to most Nats games on WCMD 1230 AM), and…
MIKE BURKE Allegany Communications Sports Far from being a great road trip, or even a good one, and ending with a thud on Wednesday when a fourth-inning meltdown led to the Baltimore Orioles getting pasted by the Tampa Bay Rays, 7-2, the five-game trip through Chicago and Tampa seemed to be enough, even if it…
