It needs to stop

You pay a lot to attend a professional sports event. A family of four can easily drop more than $200 at a game, with tickets, parking, food and fan gear.
That might be on the low end of the estimate, so what in these tough economic times do our professional sports teams do -- they raise ticket prices and go out and spend money like a "drunken sailor."
The World Champion Phillies have raised some of their ticket prices for the coming season. Why? the Bank (the ball park) is always full.
The Phils just spent $30 plus million to sign 36-year-old outfielder to replace Pat Burrell and a couple of million to sign a 35-year-old pitcher.
Then you have the Yankees and the Mets. They both got new ball parks. Last week, the Yankees signed two pitchers totalling $240 million. They have another $100 plus million invested in Alex Rodriquez. That’s more than $300 million for just three players.
The Mets poured out near $40 million for one of the game’s top relief pitchers.
So who pays?
The fans. Many of whom may not have jobs or the money to afford the tickets.
It’s not just baseball that I am talking about, its other pro sports as well. Read something last week that the NFL is laying off 15 percent or 15 people from the league office. They are the most profitable venture in pro sports.
It has to stop. The czars of the game have the ability to say enough is enough. The fans have only one way to stop the insanity -- stop going to the games and stop paying the outlandish ticket prices.
I can remember when you could go to the Phillies for $5 for a ticket in the 200 level at the vet. Now that same ticket goes for around $45. You can’t get that today.
The only way to beat the pros, is not go to the games, stay home and watch them on the tube or go back to the old days and listen to them on radio. But, then the pros will find a way to beat that too.
It’s a "no win" situation for the "Regular Joe Fan" (no relation to "Joe the Plumber").
Maybe the teams that are loading the Brinks’ truck up to their stadiums or fields every day (and yes, the Phillies) are one of them should think of the fan first and not walk out of their "yard" or "barn," into their limo and have someone take them home.
If conditions don’t improve, no one will have the bucks to attend any pro event.

Big off-season is needed

Monday at Columbia High School, the basketballs and wrestling mats will be rolled out for the first time.
Winter sports practice starts across the state.
Friday, the fall season came to an official end when the Tide lost to Steel-High in the first round of the District Three Class A playoffs.
I will tell you that the Rollers will be playing into December because they are the best team the Tide has seen in the last few years.
Columbia was 3-8 this season. Its the school worst record since the 1977 season when the Tide went 2-8. It was also the first time Columbia has had a losing record since 1986.
I really didn’t see this coming. I’m sure I am not the only one.
Because of my summer illness, I only got to see the Tide twice in the off-season. One early in the summer and one just before practice started. I saw improvement.
I think losing that first game to Eastern by a touchdown took a lot out of the Tide. Win that, the season might have been different.
There was also the schedule factor. Half of the teams Columbia played made the playoffs.
Early in the season, Columbia couldn’t tackle anyone. But since there were few fans in the stands watching most of the last five or six games, those those attending the games saw the improvement.
Columbia also got no breaks. The ball just didn’t bounce their way this season.
So now that the off-season is here, its time for those players, even the ones out for a winter sports, to rededicate themselves to football. They need to get in the weight room, participate in off-season drills and get to those sessions.
Too often during the season I was hearing horror stories about players not coming to practice, yet showing up on Fridays. That’s not a good situation. One, with a small squad, you can’t really get a good practice, and two, why show up on Friday, expecting to play when you didn’t practice all week.
Sure, there were a lot of fans who jumped off the bandwagon and I can get a bunch of parents of players, who stopped attending games. That’s not right.
How do I know that about parents? Well, Columbia sold 41 tickets for Friday’s game. There are just 25-28 kids on the team, that should have been maybe 60 tickets. Also, when the team celebrated Parent’s Night against Pequea Valley, as I was walking up to the press box, I saw one set of parents walking out of the lower gate with their flower, well before the game started. That’s not good.
Oh yeah, there were also a couple of players that didn’t have parents to be escorted onto the field with. Real sad!
I can remember being in school and asking my parents not to come to something, but they still came anyway. I think its a parents’ responsibility to be involved in their son or daughter’s activities. Attending games is one way.
The Columbia football program can be turned around fast, but its going to take a lot of dedication on all parts to do it. If they aren’t willing to work hard, the season could be long again next year.
The next move is up to the players!

It's playoff time

The District Three football playoffs begin tomorrow night across Central Pennsylvania.
There are a number of interesting first round match-ups as 13 teams from the Lancaster-Lebanon League begin their quest for district gold.
Many will see their seasons end tomorrow night, while a few could extend their seasons into December.
One of those teams looking to extend their season into at least next week is Columbia.
But they have a tall order in the defending state Class A champions, the Rollers from Steel-High.
Folks, the Rollers are as good as last year, if not better. Yes, Columbia has an up hill climb.
But folks, this is also the playoffs were the pressure increases as the favorites don’t  want to stumble and see their seasons end early.
While it will take an almost perfect game and some luck for the Tide to win, there’s always that chance of a major upset.
Let’s see, the Rollers are coming off a highly emotional win over rival Camp Hill. The are a little banged up as franchise player Jeremiah Young missed last week’s game with an ankle injury. I understand there are also a couple of other Rollers nicked.
Yes, they have a number of D-I recruits, but there’s always a chance  the Rollers might be overlooking the Tide just a tad.
They probably are thinking Columbia should be a push over given their 3-7 record. They could be right.
But I see tomorrow’s game as a chance to the Tide to let it all hang out, play one of their best games of the season and possibly record the upset.
As I’ve said previously for those of who that have jumped off the bandwagon, Columbia has gotten better over the last few weeks. They’ve played better defense and chopped more than 100 yards off their defensive average and moved the ball effectively.
One thing Columbia will have to overcome if a hostile environment, something they really haven’t faced this year. The Roller crowd is much like a Columbia crowd, they want to win and want to see their kids have some success.
They will also get to play on turf for the first time this season and probably better turf than Pequea Valley in the L-L League.
If Columbia comes out and plays their best and gives 100 percent, if should be a good game.
If the Tide comes out and plays like they want the season over, it will be a long night.
One will be able to tell that part of the game early on.

Odds and ends...

• Since I didn’t get to the concession stand on Friday night, and boy, was I hungry, I have to rule Donegal out of the “Concession Stand of the Year” award.
That honor, at least hot dog wise goes to Annville-Cleona.
The honor for the honor for the worst soup goes to Northern Lebanon, which also in my mind what honors for the best kept field.
• Good luck to the Columbia marching band on Sunday as they compete in the state Cavalcade of Bands in Hershey.

Can't believe I'm saying this

Like any good word smith would do, this is probably my fourth or fifth draft at this week’s column.
I wanted to talk about the Phillies, the Eagles and Columbia’s big game tomorrow night with Lancaster Catholic.
I already to talk about how tomorrow’s Section 3 football game with Lancaster Catholic will be "pride night" on the hill and how the Crimson Tide needs to dig deep, not hang their heads, play 48 minutes of quality football and they just might crush the Crusaders.
I have written that piece and posted on my blog at www.chronicleledgernewsgroup. com/tide talk.
Then I was already to write off the Eagles during the second half of their game with the 49’ers on Sunday and what happened, they made a few big plays, won the game and saw the division come back to them.
So that left the Phillies. I hope as you read this, the National League Championship series is over and the pinstripers are preparing for their first World Series in 15 years.
I was already to tell everyone about the mistakes Charlie Manuel has made during the series, then I realized he’s actually making Dodger manager Joe Torre look like a t-ball manager.
For the most part in this series, Manuel has been outstanding and as of Tuesday morning, he had his team with a 3-1 lead in the series.
With the exception of rolling Jamie Moyer out there on Sunday and perhaps leaving Chad Durbin in a tad too long Monday night, he’s done magic with his pitching staff.
Torre on the other hand has over managed with his staff.
He’s moved the batting order around to get the proper match-ups.
I wish he wouldn’t use So Taghuci that much. He didn’t play all year and now he’s the first pinch-hitter off the bench.
Matt Stairs and don’t take this the wrong way, looks like he should be playing slow-pitch softball at Janson’s, comes off the bench and hits a key homer Monday night. Wow.
I’m not completely a member of the Charlie Fan Club, but his work in this series needs to be noted.  I just hope that if there is a game seven, Jamie Moyer isn’t the starting pitcher.

Odds and ends...

o Nice touch in the opener having Harry Kalas and Larry Bowa give the line-ups.
I’ve had enough of Joe Buck and Tim McCarver.
o Thought the ball and strike umpires in this series haven’t been too good.
o Glad to see Andy Reid at least tried some rollouts of Donovan McNabb on Sunday at the goal line.
o Who is the favorite in the NFL? This might be one of the best years yet because teams I think are favorites aren’t.
o Food alert -- best hot dogs of the season were found Friday night at Annville-Cleona.
By the way, I thought the improvements made around A-C were nice, but it still looks like the same football field to me.

Hats off to varsity

Right now, the Columbia football team might not be winning a lot of games at the varsity level.
They come into tomorrow’s Homecoming contest with Elco with a 1-3 record.
They haven’t stopped anyone who has run the football this season.
But last Thursday, the Tide’s varsity team showed the true meaning of Tide Pride.
The team was practicing on the baseball field, deep in left field, as the Columbia junior high football team was playing Lancaster Catholic on the football field.
The game was close, 14-14 late in the game, when all the sudden the varsity team stopped their practice, sprinted over to the fence around the football field, probably a good 100 yards and cheered the younger team on.
The Junior Tide won the game on a late 85-yard touchdown run and picked off a pass in the closing sections.
While the crowd at the game was larger than normal for a junior high game, some people had smiles on their faces when the varsity team stood and cheered wildly.
Like I said, its not been a good year for the Tide in terms of wins and losses, but just that move made the team heros in a lot of people’s books.
By the way, if you haven’t caught the junior high team yet, do so. They are unbeaten going into this afternoon’s game at Donegal. Also unbeaten and looking 100 times better than past years is the seventh and eighth grade team.
They are well coached and well stocked at the skill positions. They have a large arsenal of running backs to choose from.
Last Thursday against Catholic, the Junior Tide didn’t play well, but the mark of a good team is its ability to overcome adversity. They did and picked up a sweet win.