John Rodgers

(picture obtained from www.kernels.com)

For my final project for class I wrote about the radio broadcaster for the Cedar Rapids Kernels. The Kernels are the single-A affiliate for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. They play in the Midwest League, which includes teams from Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio.

John will begin his 14th season in the booth for the team next season, making him the broadcasting dean of the league. The 51-year-old began broadcasting later in life, after previously being a college professor and coach.

He is beloved by all of his listeners and has been a favorite in the Cedar Rapids community and around minor league baseball.

I have included a few links where you can listen to the voice of the Kernels from this season. You will have to copy and paste the link so that you can open the media files with the appropriate program. Then search for the following dates and click on the game to listen in. Make sure to click on the KMRY radio broadcast to listen to John.

http://www.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/multimedia/audio.jsp

September 5---Cedar Rapids Kernels @ Clinton Lumberkings 8:00 p.m.
Division Semi Finals
5-4 win
Kernels win series at advance to Division Finals.

August 27--- Cedar Rapids Kernels @ Beloit Snappers 8:05 p.m.
Kernels clinch playoff berth
3-2 win

August 17--- Beloit Snappers @ Cedar Rapids Kernels 3:00 p.m.
5-4 win
Clay Fuller with a walk-off home run.

August 16--- Beloit Snappers @ Cedar Rapids Kernels 8:00 p.m.
6-5 win
Clay Fuller hit by pitch to win game.



The Kernels at Dale & Thomas Popcorn Field @ Veteran's Memorial Stadium are a hidden gem in the eastern Iowa area. It's great fun for the family, and they can also host your bachelor parties, class reunions, or other outings. The Kernels play an exciting type of baseball of base stealing, good defense, and smart hitting, just like the Los Angeles Angels. If you can't make it out to a game, or few, this season, you can listen to John all next season call the games on 1450, KMRY.

BOWL PICKS

I’m taking a break from my Cubs news for the day and taking you through the College Football Bowl Games. Now I’m a fan of college football, but I certainly don’t know crap about most of these teams and don’t care to watch them play in a pointless bowl game. So, we’ll see how it goes.

EagleBank Bowl---Wake Forest vs. Navy---Washington DC
Well there could be worse games to start off the bowl season. I'll take Midshipmen because they are playing in their back yard, and they surely can't lose in our nation's capital.---NAVY

New Mexico---Colorado State vs. Fresno State---Albuquerque
Here's the first one where I don't know crap about either team---FRESNO

magicJack St. Petersburg---Memphis vs. South Florida---St. Pete
This one might not even be close. South Florida playing in their home city, basically. Tampa is a suburb. Played at legendary Tropicana Field, the worst place to watch any sport event ever. South Florida's offense rolls up the Tigers---South Florida

Pioneer Las Vegas---BYU vs. Arizona---Vegas
Vegas loves the Cougars. BYU is making their fourth straight appearance in this bowl game. They knocked off UCLA in last year's game, but I'm taking Arizona who ranks 16th in the nation in scoring and is riding high off their rivalry game win over ASU---ARIZONA

R+L Carriers New Orleans---Southern Miss vs. Troy-- New Orleans
I've been to Troy, Alabama (not that I'm bragging about that) , and former Iowa State coach and Columbia, Missouri partier Larry Eustachy is Southern Miss' basketball coach---TROY

San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia---Boise State vs. TCU---San Diego
The most ridiculous name for a bowl might be the best non-BCS game. TCU's two losses are to BCS teams. They only gave up 35 points at Oklahoma and lost by 3 at Utah. Great game, but I think the Horned Frogs squeak it out.---TCU

Sheraton Hawaii---Hawaii vs. Notre Dame---Honolulu
So you're telling me Notre Dame has another terrible season, their coach will be on the shortest leash of anyone next season, and they still get to spend a week in Hawaii? Wow...But, Hawaii is a tough place to play, especially when you're playing Hawaii! Just ask Cincinatti who only won by 5 last weekend. Crazy things happen to teams when they go play there. It just seems like the refs always favor the Rainbow Warriors---HAWAII

Motor City---Florida Atlantic vs. Central Michigan---Detroit
Motor City bowl reps are probably the only people outside of Champaign, Illinois sad to see the Fighting Illini not bowl eligible. They probably would've gotten the Big 10 Illinois, but they're stuck with this worthless game. Luckily for them, it's the only game of the day and in primetime---CENTRAL MICHIGAN

Meineke Car Care---West Virginia vs. North Carolina---Charlotte
I'm really excited for this matchup. A pair of 8-4 teams do battle here. I like North Carolina to pull it out, and really look for UNC to seriously contend for the ACC next year---UNC

Champs Sports---Wisconsin vs. Florida State---Orlando
Intriguing game between Bowden and Bret. FSU will bring more fans. The Badgers were in town last year for the Cap One Bowl. FSU has more quality wins (Clemson, Miami, VA Tech, NC State) than Wisconsin, who only beat 2 bowl teams (Fresno State and Minnesota)---FSU

Emerald---Miami (Fla.) vs. California---San Francisco
Another fun one. I look for Cal's offense to come alive and win this---CAL

Independence---Northern Illinois vs. Louisiana Tech---Shreveport
Talk about another bowl that got screwed. This was supposed to pit SEC and Big 12 teams against each other, but neither conference had enough bowl eligible teams. Who wants to go to Shreveport anways?---LA TECH

Papajohns.com---NC State vs. Rutgers ---Birmingham, Ala
Rutgers looked amazing in putting up 63 last week versus Louisville---RUTGERS

Valero Alamo---Missouri vs. Northwestern---San Antonio
The Wildcats need to quit crying about not going to the Outback. This is still a great bowl one they can win. I'm picking the Big 10 in a game that surpasses 100 total---NW

Roady's Humanitarian---Maryland vs. Nevada---Boise
Maryland's great holiday gift is to travel to the blue turf! I bet they're excited. Just be thankful you're not playing Boise State. I'll still take the turtles---MARY

Texas---Rice vs. Western Michigan---Houston
Western Michigain is much better. I mean they've beaten two Big 10 teams in the last 2 years---WESTERN MICH

Pacific Life Holiday---Oklahoma State vs. Oregon---San Diego
Year after year one of the best games of the season. Another game that might surpass 100 total points. But, OSU's 3 losses are to OU, Texas, and Tech. Plus, there coach IS A MAN!---OKIE STATE

Bell Helicopter Armed Forces---Houston vs. Air Force---Fort Worth
Ummm...I'll go the Falcons because they have 8 wins versus Houston's 7---AIR FORCE

Brut Sun---Oregon State vs. Pittsburgh---El Paso
The worst place to be for a bowl game besides Boise (At least El Paso is warmer) This could be a really good game. I go with the Beavers---OREGON STATE

Gaylord Hotels Music City---Boston College vs. Vanderbilt---Nashville
Vandy beat Auburn and South Carolina, but lost to Duke. It's their first bowl game in 26 years and where do they go? Nowhere they stay home in Nashville. I still think Vandy pulls it off. One of the bigger upsets of the bowl season---VANDY

Insight---Kansas vs. Minnesota---Tempe
The Gophers suck, and KU just beat Mizzou. Kansas in a rout---KU

Chick-fil-A---LSU vs. Georgia Tech---Atlanta
GA Tech ran all over Georgia, and LSU's best win was at South Carolina. The national champs fell hard this year. Maybe Les Miles should've taken the Michigan job. GA Tech at home---GEORGIA TECH

Outback---South Carolina vs. Iowa---Tampa
In a battle of two very good defensives, it's Iowa's Shonn Greene who will win it for the Hawks. South Carolina's offense is terrible---IOWA

Capital One---Georgia vs. Michigan State---Orlando
This game looks ugly on paper. The Cap One really wanted Iowa, but Big 10 officials really wanted them to stick to the standings and take the Spartans. It could be close, but I see Georgia pulling away in the second half---GEORGIA

Konica Minolta Gator---Clemson vs. Nebraska---Jacksonville
A great game, but Clemson got its swagger back under their new head coach against South Carolina. Clemson wins easy---CLEMSON

Rose Bowl---Penn State vs. USC---Pasadena
Big 10 teams just don't beat USC at the Rose Bowl (or period really) I'll be rooting hard for Penn State, but I just don't see it happening. It's tough going out there when you're from the Midwest---USC

FedEx Orange---Cincinnati vs. Virginia Tech---Miami
Cincy is better than people think, and Virginia Tech isn't that good at all. A boring game to watch, but I like the Bearcats---CINCY

AT&T Cotton---Ole Miss vs. Texas Tech--Dallas
This classic SEC-Big 12 matchup is always fun to watch. Ole Miss might be the best team no one talks about, like Iowa. Their 4 losses were all by 1 score each. And they beat a top team in Florida. Sound familiar? But, what a tough matchup for them. The Red Raiders will put up 50.---TEXAS TECH

AutoZone Liberty---Kentucky vs. East Carolina---Memphis
Why this game is played in January I have no idea. East Carolina wants to keep a hold of Coach Skip Holtz before he bolts for another job---EAST CAR

Allstate Sugar---Utah vs. Alabama---New Orleans
I don't think Utah is all that good, but they drew a good matchup for them. It's closer than people think. 'Bama's defense wins it though---ALABAMA

International---Buffalo vs. Connecticut---Toronto
Not many people will watch this one, but I will. UCONN's QB is a native of Eddyville, Iowa. He played in my conference in high school. Buffalo's Turner Gil may take the Auburn job before this so who knows if Buffalo will be ready to go. I gotta take the Iowa guy---UCONN

Tostitos Fiesta---Ohio State vs. Texas---Glendale
Ohio State loses another BCS game, but it might be to the best team they've faced in any of those games. Texas wins easy, and if they do and OU beat Florida---Maybe a split national title??---TEXAS

GMAC---Tulsa vs. Ball State---Mobile
Another game that should've been played two weeks earlier. Tulsa's offense is sick, and Ball State won't handle it. Tulsa will probably be the underdog, but they pull off the upset---TULSA

FedEx BCS National Championship---Florida vs. Oklahoma---Miami
OU might have the best offense we've seen in college football in a while, but they're used to the Big 12 defenses. Tim Tebow is on a mission (probably literally) and he wins it for Florida---FLORIDA

CUBS NEWS...

Tonight on SportsCenter, Peter Gammons said the Cubs are not quite out of the Jake Peavy sweepsteaks, which Lou said they were. He said the Cubs are looking to work out a 3-way deal between the Padres, Cubs, and Orioles.

Gammons also said the Cubs may be looking towards Bobby Abreu to fill the right field spot.

The Cubs continue to state that few changes will be made during the winter meeting, which open up next week in Las Vegas.

On a sad note...Henry Blanco's brother was found shot dead in Venezuela. Police are treating the death as a kidnapping/murder. The older brother was reportedly being held at ransom for $200 million. Henry was in the process of negotiating with the kidnappers.

Henry is currently playing winter ball in Venezueula

CHANGES I WOULD MAKE IN SPORTS...

So all this talk about change in the world got me thinking. What would I change in the world of sports? Here ya go…

COLLEGE FOOTBALL
Create a 4-team playoff that incorporates BCS bowl games. Continue using the current system for all other bowls.

No more bowls can be added. We have more than enough already.

No automatic bids to the BCS for conference champions of “major” conferences. We could see Cincinnati or Pitt and Maryland making the BCS this year!

No automatic bids for non-power conference teams, like Utah. The Boise State upset over Oklahoma was a great story, but unlikely to happen every year.

Bids will be selected by a committee, not computers.

The Rose Bowl will always have a Big 10-Pac 10 matchup.

Injury Reports must be released to the general public, just like the NFL.

Joe Paterno must either start coaching again or retire.

Add the 2 minute warning, like in the NFL.

Start conference rivalries for non-conference games, like the Big 10/ACC Challenge in basketball. You could change it every year so it would be Big 10 vs SEC then Big 10 vs Big 12. This way we don’t have to watch meaningless games in September.

Change the overtime rules, and make the offense start with the ball at the 50. I don’t like how a team starts already in field goal range. It distorts the game. Each team would still get a shot with the ball though.


NFL

Only 3 preseason games.

Only 1 week in between the AFC/NFC Championship games and the Super Bowl.

No more games in London.

No more penalties or fines for touchdown celebrations.

Al Davis must retire or Die.

Michael Vick and Pacman Jones banned for life.

Guaranteed Contracts.

No more coaching challenges. All replays will be instigated by a replay official in the booth.

Change the overtime rules to the new college system I proposed above.

Los Angeles must get a franchise.

MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL

Lengthen the first round series to 7 games. ( Not because I’m bitter about the Cubs)

Shorten season to 125 games. Begin playoffs in late August.

Division teams will play same opponents in interleague play. It’s not fair if the Cubs play New York and Boston if St. Louis is playing Toronto and Baltimore.

Managers will shake each others hand at the end of each series, not after each game though.

Don’t start the season in Japan.

Pete Rose inducted into the Hall of Fame.








Ron Santo to the Hall of Fame.

No DH.

Tampa Bay must play games outside and certainly not in the dump of a stadium they call Tropicana Field.

A true salary cap.

Mark Cuban is allowed the own the Cubs.

The record book will have a special section for years 1998-2005.

All Star Game is no longer worth home field advantage in the World Series. Go by best record.

NBA

Cut NBA 1st round to 5 games.

Shorten breaks in between playoff games so playoffs do not last as long.

NHL
Eliminate one-fourth of the teams.

Move teams like Florida, Dallas, and Tampa Bay to Canada.

No teams will be south of St. Louis.

Knock out the 1st round of the playoffs.

COLLEGE BASKETBALL

Kelvin Sampson is banned for life.

Bob Knight must coach somewhere next season.

Double amount of teams in the tournament and get rid of the NIT.

Regular Season conference champion and the conference tournament champ gets automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

ALL SPORTS/ MISC.

Lower ticket prices.

Lower beer and food prices.

College athletes can transfer to other D-1 schools without sitting out 1 year.

Minnesota can never build another stadium without a roof. No one wants to watch Gopher football in late November outside, especially since Iowa always plays Minnesota at the end of the year!

You can now cheer in the press box.

No more stadiums have company or business naming rights.

You can put names on the back of college jerseys that you buy in stores and on their jerseys in video games. Everyone knows who #47 on Iowa is so just put his name on there!

Athletes and coaches can never answer a question with, “We’re going to play 1 game at a time” or “We’re going to play hard.”

Mandatory drug testing for all sports every week.

All contracts must have a team option for the following year so players have to earn their money. You can still have long-term deals. The team just has the option of picking it up the following year.

Fewer TV timeouts.

Referees and Umpires must now hold post game press conferences.

Referees and Umpires will be fined for bad calls.

Alcohol sold in college venues.

No more expansion in any sports, unless teams are eliminated first.

CHANGES FOR SPORTS ON TV

No playoff games will start after 7 pm central time.

No baseball playoff games in the afternoon. Put them on different channels so all games at are 7:00.

No Poker on ESPN.

No in-game coaches interviews like in MLB and the NBA do.

No halftime coaches interviews. They are too cliché, and nothing worthwhile comes from them. We now they are “going to make some changes and come back and play in the second half.”

No more sideline reporters, except for Erin Andrews. She will in fact do all games involving the University of Iowa.

No more college football games on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. It’s just weird.

Shows like 1st and 10, PTI, and Around the Horn must debate different sports topics throughout the day.

Kornheiser and Wilbon will be on every episode of PTI.

No more 3-man broadcast teams. Vin Scully is the best there ever will be, and he flies solo.

Local TV announcers can announce their team’s playoff games. No one wants to hear FOX announcers spout off useless information about teams they think they know about.

No Blackout Rules.

Finally, the Cubs will win a World Series in my lifetime. If needed, Major League Baseball will fix the season so the Cubs do. It will not be discovered that it was fixed until after I die. That way, I never find out and can die happy. I would even settle for a Iowa Hawkeye National Championship!

Let's here what everyone thinks about some other changes that need to be made in sports!

LOOKING BACK AT THAT FINAL GAME...

Taking a break from the Cubs entry today. Hope you enjoy reading this post about remembering a certain game that my friends and I played in back in high school.

It was the final game we would ever play together, and it almost never happened at all. My senior year of high school football was a year of mediocrity. For the fourth year in a row, our high school team would finish with a 5-4 record and not make the playoffs.

We had a big group of seniors, and we were all very close. In a town of 2,500 and a school with classes of less than 90 students, closeness is almost assured. Everyone knows everyone else’s business, and your parents find out what trouble you’re in before you even have the chance to get home from school and figure out a way to cover it up.

Eight football games down, and our record was 5-3 going into the final game. I guess if you’re paying attention you know we lost the final game I’m about to talk about. The ninth game of the year was at home. Senior Night and Dad’s Night all wrapped into one. The final time our senior class would play football together on the field at Mustang Stadium in Bloomfield, Iowa.
As I look back on this game with friends, it brings up memories I hadn’t even remembered myself.

It was cold, really cold. And it was rainy, really rainy. A late October thunderstorm came to town and delayed the start of the game for two hours. It was so bad that school officials even thought about cancelling the game.

See, the game had no bearing on district standings. We weren’t going to the postseason. Our opponent was and already knew who they would be playing in the first round.
The opponent was number-one ranked Sigourney-Keota. If anyone knows the history of Class 2A Iowa High School football, you know about Sigourney-Keota. The Cobras have won numerous state championships and seemed to be well on their way to winning another. Their wishbone offense made them well-known across the state because very few teams run it, and it’s extremely difficult to stop.

So difficult to stop that in practices leading up to the game, the scout team offense played without a football. You see, in this type of offense you can’t follow the ball because you can’t ever see it. The offense runs with no receivers. The backfield twists, turns, and does circles while the quarterback mysteriously gives the ball to one of the three running backs in the backfield. Before you know it, the player who apparently has the ball is running downfield for a touchdown.

This team was good at what they did, and no one could stop them. No one had all year. Not only was their offense good, their defense hadn’t allowed a point in district play yet!
They were big, really big. Their small farming community raised hard-working kids who had dreamed about playing for the Cobras. They worked hard, harder than anyone else.

Sigourney-Keota might have wanted the game cancelled. They could rest and not risk injury before they made their playoff run. Not us. We wanted to play. This is all we had left. You might be wondering why we wanted to play a team that would most likely destroy us. We wanted to play for pride. We wanted to play because we could. We wanted to play because it would be the last time we ever would.

Thunderstorms finally subsided. We went out for warm-ups, but rain started to fall again so we headed back inside. This time we thought it was probably over for sure. Fans wanted to go home, I’m sure. But they stuck it out. The game finally began after the rain stopped a short time later.

The field was a complete mess, getting torn to shreds. It didn’t matter. It would be over 10 months until the next game that would be played on the field. Standing water and puddles everywhere. It made running nearly impossible.
The Cobras were intimidating. They just looked tough. They warmed up tough, if that makes sense. Their uniforms looked tough. They were huge. But we didn’t care. We were going to have the time of our lives.

Sure, we got killed. Was there any question? We lost 56-7. But the number that stands out in my mind is 7. We were the only team to score upon them in district play. We scored a touchdown in the first half. My buddy seems to think another team scored upon them earlier in the year. I disagree. We were the only team. But, I guess that’s what makes looking back fun. Everyone seems to have a different view.

I led the team in tackles that night as a safety. I know that’s not very good as a team when your safety leads in tackles, but it’s something I’ll remember. My other buddy seems to think he led the team in tackles. I know he’s wrong. I have the newspaper clipping to prove it. Like I said, that’s what makes looking back fun.

Two great memories stand out for me from the game. Here’s the first. The Cobras had a stud of a running back. Jon McLaughlin was his name. He ended up playing at Iowa Central Community College so he wasn’t that great. But, for Class 2A in Iowa he was a stud. It’s funny how everyone I talk to remembers his name. It’s not like we remember any other school’s running back. It’s not like McLaughlin went on to become a star in college. But, for some reason we all remember. Anyways, the highlight came when I recovered a fumble of a ball that he dropped. No, I didn’t even tackle him. I certainly didn’t cause him to drop the ball. It kind of just fell in front of me, and I jumped on it. The wet conditions caused him to drop it. I didn’t run for any yards after I recovered it. It really wasn’t that special or that cool, but I’ll always remember it.

The second memory comes from after the game. You would think that a team that just lost by 49 points would be a little down. Not us. Face it, we pretty much knew we would lose anyways. It was probably close to midnight by the time this game ended because of the delay. I have no idea what the actual time was. No one I talk to remembers either. Remember that standing water I talked about. Yeah, the entire team slid into the biggest puddle near the sidelines. As if our moms weren’t upset enough about washing those white, now-brown pants. After we slid into that mud puddle, the brown turned to black.

Inside the locker room, it was emotional. Just like the ending of any sport, no one really knows what to do or what to think. But this time it was forever. Never again would anyone play with each other on that field again.
Our quarterback would no longer execute the plays his dad, the offensive coordinator, would call. Our parents would no longer see us play on the field. We wouldn’t line up next to each other again. Most importantly, we would never put on the pads again.

It’s funny how much you miss something when you look back on it. I remember not being upset at the time. I remember being glad not to have to go to practice on Monday afternoon. I remember looking forward to free time. It’s funny how much you begin to hate something when you do it for four months straight, nearly every day. Especially when you’re 17 and too young to understand what real fun is.
But, when you look back you wish you had one more chance. One more game, one more play. Just to enjoy it more. Just to have that type of fun again.
Nowadays, my friends and I try to recreate it every once a while. We get together to play touch football on Sunday afternoons sometimes. Maybe 6, 7, or 8 of us might go. It’s not the same, and you know it won’t ever be. But, it’s still fun. We still like it. I think we like the fun of being together more than the fun of actually playing. That fact doesn’t matter though.

Sometimes, other than for this blog entry, we’ll bring that game up. Start talking about it. That’s probably the best part of it because you don’t just talk about the game. I mean, you might for a few minutes. Then it moves on to other things and other memories we have together. Other games. Other sports. Classes. Crazy stuff that happened.

Those type of memories will live forever. It’s even okay that some people’s perception of events are different than others. That’s the fun in it. They can tell their version of what happened, and I’ll tell mine.

PINIELLA IS YOUR MANAGER OF THE YEAR...

The Cubs are racking up the awards this offseason. (Not that it helps ease the pain of the playoff sweep by the Dodgers.) Lou Piniella was named the National League's Manager of the Year today. This is after Geovany Soto was already named the NL's Rookie of the Year.

Piniella won for the 3rd time. He won in 1995 and 2001 with Seattle.

Charlie Manuel finished 2nd, and Fredi Gonzalez of the Marlins finished third.

Lou will receive a $100,000 bonus from the Cubs. This was put into Piniella's contract. He donated the money to charity.

Don't get excited and think the Cubs will sweep the postseason awards with the NL MVP. That will not happen, but good for Lou!

SOTO IS YOUR NL ROY

Geovany Soto brought home the hardware today as he was crowned the National League's Rookie of the Year.

Geo received 31 out of 32 possible first place votes. The Reds' Joey Votto finished 2nd and received the other first place vote.

Soto hit .285 for the Cubs this year with 23 home runs and 86 RBIs, but I would argue his biggest contribution to the team was the way he handled the pitching staff. He helped turn the careers around of Ryan Dempster and Kerry Wood, as well as catching Carlos Zambrano's no-hitter.

Geo started the All-Star game at Yankee Stadium and won NL rookie of the month in April and August.