There’s a fine story in the A-J today about St. Luke’s United Methodist Church helping out a family in Wolffarth. I’ll let you read the story yourself and you can make a decision on your own if you’d like to help out. I’m really excited to see St. Luke’s make the commitment they’ve made here not just to the family but particularly the children in need here. We can debate the causes, circumstances and reactions by adults all we want but the children have no choice. If you can, I hope you decide to help no matter where you call home.

Hyatt

5 THINGS WE KNOW ON A FRIDAY: 7/16/10

1.  The looming QB battle between Taylor Potts and Steven Sheffield is the best at that position in the last 40-years for Texas Tech. No two players have fought for the job coming in with as many skins on the wall as these two.  For the record, I think Potts wins the battle but Tech fans can’t lose either way. It should be one of the great stories around the Big 12 and the national media this August, but probably won’t. Too bad for them.

2.  Tiger Woods will never again be the consistent, clear-cut top golfer in the world. He’ll be amongst the best, he’ll have some nice runs at number one, but never again the dominant top golfer. Does that mean he won’t catch Jack? Don’t know…ask me again  at the end of 2011.

3.  The toughest athletes in Lubbock aren’t playing for Texas Tech. They are the Lubbock Firefighter Combat Challenge team. If you’ve never seen this stuff you’ve got to watch it. You can catch them in action in the Hubbbaplex in a few weeks.  They could always use some more financial support so if you’ve got a business in Lubbock and want to help out, do it! Thanks to Carpet Tech for the great support they’re giving these fine representatives of Lubbock. Rumor has it they were going to do a calendar to help raise money, but the City Manager spiked the idea because it might not present a “professional image”. That’s a laugh. Someone downtown lecturing the firefighters about being professional. . .

4. If you knew half of what went on in college football you probably wouldn’t be a fan. Then again, if most folks knew half of what went on at other businesses they might never shop there, eat there or purchase their services. Sometimes ignorance is both bliss and good for business.

5.  Has anyone noticed Gerald Myers is still the Athletic Director at Texas Tech? Just wondering.

1.  Nothing LeBron James did over the past 48 hours made me want to be a fan of his more. . . wasn’t that supposedly the point of all this? Wasn’t this about increasing his brand power? He’ll have “brand power” when he gets a ring. Or two. Or six. Good luck with that. On a side note, I love the fact that Stephen A. Smith scorched the Mother Ship and 4-letter network by getting the story right, first. I can’t stand him on TV or radio, but I pay attention to him. Every time.

2.  Lake Alan Henry gets shut down because of an oil pipeline upstream this week and we come to find out the City of Lubbock really hasn’t done much research on this little factor and what it might do to the folks in the Hubbaplex when it comes to drinking the stuff in the future. Nice to know we’re spending millions and millions to pump that water uphill. I still say sell it downstream, use the money to buy more water rights that can be cheaply brought into Lubbock and use the rest to eradicate salt cedar along the Canadian River to improve Lake Meredith. Too easy I guess.

3.  The new L.I.S.D. Hall of Honor is a great idea by A.D. Mark Ball and long over-due. Bobby Moegle and Louis Kelly need to be in the first class. After that, let’s make sure we get in the luminaries from Lubbock High and Dunbar from the 1920′s to 1950 or so. Several State titles between those schools brought to you by many men that most in Lubbock don’t remember.

4. No matter what Don Williams says, it is still a bad idea to play Texas in the third week of the season. It was a bad idea last year and it is a bad idea this year. Always try and play your toughest competition late if you can. The downside is too great for a school like Texas Tech. A Texas will get resuscitated by the media with an early loss. A Texas Tech just gets thrown to the side and as we saw last year, the wind can come out of the sails of both the fans and the players. Don’t give me the TV argument either. TV will be there no matter when you play them.

5.  Texas Tech Football Coach Tommy Tuberville has given Texas Tech their first true modern-era C.E.O. ( I hate that term) style coach. Spike was a throwback to the Darrell Royal era and Mike Leach was, well he’s Mike Leach-an era unto himself and unlike almost any major BCS playing school coach you’ll ever see. In just a few short months Tuberville has elevated culture around the football program and set a pattern of expectation that Texas Tech hasn’t seen since Jim Carlen came in and spit in the eyes of those in Austin, Fayetteville and College Station. True, Leach acknowledged no sacred bevos, but Tuberville has brought a different air to the program and folks inside and out are noticing. Now he’s got the same challenge LeBron James has. You gotta deliver the goods or all the rest won’t matter. Interesting parallel.

Hyatt

3.

1. In about a month’s time new Texas Tech Football Coach Tommy Tuberville went out and directly raised more money to go towards the redesign and revamp of the football facility and practice fields than his predecessor did in perhaps a decade of non-fundraising activities. You can get on Facebook and go to SportsRadio 1340 The Fan’s page and see 100 photos of the new facility plus the East Side Expansion project. The amazing thing is that before Tuberville has coached a game at Texas Tech he’s got more folks opening their wallets than ever before. A huge, huge step forward for the program.

2. Great comments today on Jack Dale’s Sportsline on The Fan by Tuberville as he visited with the Hall of Honor broadcaster. Tuberville mentioned again his commitment to quickness and strength with the switch in the weight room ( which has also been renovated ) to all free weights. For those that thought the Red Raiders were a bit bulky the last few years it looks like a body-shape change is coming. Now if he could just get me on that program!

3.  Speaking of Facebook, there’s a group out there that wants Lubbock to name a street after former football coach Mike Leach. Oddly enough there’s also a group of folks in Hell that want ice water. Both groups will probably have the same amount of success. Of course now that the City of Lubbock has rules in place that a person has to assume room temperature to have a road name after them, there might be certain Texas Tech officials join that Facebook movement.

4.  Glad to see Lubbock’s Downtown Redevelopment Project move forward. As long as it is done with private funds I’ve got no problem with it. I do have a problem when a city tries to artificially engineer growth from one part of town to another to serve certain interest. That’s the worry I have about Lubbock. Lubbock isn’t a land-locked city that is losing tax base from downtown to other cities. It is merely seeing some business decide that it is better for business to operate on 50th or 82nd street or heaven forbid 98th street. It is not as if  they’re packing up and leaving town. Why is it important that we try and entice those folks to relocate back downtown? Shouldn’t folks on 82nd street get exactly the same breaks as those downtown?

5.  Dear Coach Hughes, trust me, when they want you to move on and be gone it is best to just pack up and leave. Things aren’t going to get any better.

Texas Tech’s President and A.D. talk about how the Pac 10 bid went away, what’s next for Tech and how all of this came about.

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When did Tech’s leaders know the Pac 10 deal was off, is a trip West dead for the future and how does this relate to Tier One for the University. Find out now.

1.  He won’t go to Arlington National Cemetery and lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown. He couldn’t seem to remember why his MMS head quit yesterday. Can’t make his way down to Louisiana. He can’t seem to come clean about his administration perhaps buying off a Senate candidate. More and more I’ve decided Barack Obama just really doesn’t want to be President any more.

2.  Please, please don’t spend any more millions on the Municipal Auditorium and Coliseum here in Lubbock. It is time for the City to get out of the entertainment business. If it is such a great idea, private investors will build a performing arts center. In the meantime use the $4.5 million for police and fire personnel. At least everyone gets something out of that!

3.  Texas Tech’s Baseball team most likely won’t get an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament even if they do beat Missouri and go 2-1 at the Big 12 Tournament. Hopefully folks won’t lose sight at what a great job Dan Spencer did getting this team to achieve much more with much less than anyone around the Big 12 thought possible. Remember, they were picked last in the league by the coaches that know the talent best. That was before injuries and a stupid suspension by the Big 12 killed most of their chances. Still this team laid the foundation for an improved program going forward.

4.  I know where Perry The Platypus is. . .

5.  $50 to $100 million for a new Lubbock Police Station? Really? Not buying it.

Most folks probably spent last night thinking about NCAA Tournament brackets, maybe the weather for the start of the week or just enjoyed wrapping-up another fine early spring weekend. Me? I couldn’t quit thinking about Mark Austry.

The former Red Raider baseball player died Sunday after finishing a half-marathon in Dallas. He was 33.

I can’t even begin to put into words the sadness I feel for his wife and two daughters, ages one and three. I can’t do a better job of talking about his life, what he meant to his family and friends and what kind of man he was than others closer to him can, so I’ll let you read some of their thoughts here in the A-J and in the Star-Telegram.

Mark was a part of a special time for Texas Tech Baseball and I was lucky enough to have a front row seat to watch and get to know him, the other players and coaches as I called the games on SportsRadio 1340 with Mark Finkner. We got to share a fantastic group experience of triumphs and tribulations with some incredible highs on and off the field as well as some kicks in the gut that left you wondering what it would ever take for Tech to break through.

Those players from that time set a standard and developed a bond that I haven’t seen since around Tech baseball and maybe even Tech sports. If you read the comments from Coach Hays and some of Mark’s friends and family you’ll get an understanding of who he was and why people gravitated to him. It doesn’t begin to paint the full picture though and for that I’m sorry. I’m far too unskilled a writer to give you a better picture of Mark. This is one of those cases where if you didn’t know him you’ll just have to take our word for it that he was a great guy.

Mark was in town a few weeks back for the Alumni Baseball Game. I didn’t make it out that weekend to see any of the guys through a series of life-happenings that sometimes come up. I even told former pitcher Shane Wright after the weekend not to worry, I’d catch everybody in the fall when they come back for a football game. No. I won’t. At least not Mark.

Once again I’m taught not to take any day, sunny or rainy, busy or boring, for granted or that it should be expected rather than relished.

It is ironic that former Tech pitcher Zack Stewart wrote on his facebook page just Saturday,”thinks there’s days it’s just great to be alive.” Come to find out he was right. They all are.

I’ll leave it for others that knew Mark better to tell his stories, but I hope you listen ’cause it is worth it.

I’ll leave you today with the words of Rudyard Kipling’s poem “If”.

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
‘ Or walk with Kings – nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a Man, my son!

To be sure, our friend Mark filled his unforgiving minute of Life with more than sixty seconds run. Mark was a Husband, a father and a Man.

Hyatt

Tech’s former Lead Pirate, Mike Leach, is back in the news. The A-J reports that Leach will be in town Friday to give his first put your hand on the Bible and tell the whole truth statements about his firing. Not only will Leach be giving his side of the story but other Tech officials like Chancellor Kent Hance are expected to put their statements down for history as well. Of course if this thing gets settled in the next few weeks like some still believe we’ll probably never get to see the statements. Probably.

I say that because conventional wisdom has been thrown out the window when it comes to this story. Leach has taken a much more aggressive stance than most fired coaches ever do and Texas Tech seems firmly entrenched and more than willing to let this play out in court confident that they’ve got the facts on their side. That’s what makes this so interesting to watch.

The element of the story about Leach this week that has tongues wagging is that his legal team is apparently seeking records from Frenship I.S.D. about Tommy Tuberville’s childrens’ enrollment status. In other words, when did they show up and did it pre-date Leach’s firing.

Some view this as a thinly-veiled attempt to smear Tech and Tuberville and encourage more conspiracy thinking on the part of the Team Leachers that think Leach’s firing and Tuberville’s hiring had been pre-ordained in the Old Testament. To some it wreaks of a desperate fishing expedition by a desperate legal team that knows they don’t have a chance in court so they’ll try to go scorched-earth in the media.

Then there are those that think it is a shrewd move to force Tech’s hand to hand over the cash and scare them out of a trial.

Some one’s got to be right, some one’s got to be wrong here.

Either way, if it does settle and there is no releasing of details, both sides will claim the other side caved in and that they won. They’ll also claim their disappointed the “facts” never came out, but they have to abide by the decision of the court. That’s why so many want this to go to trial. I still think those folks will be left wanting more, much more, at the end of the day.

By the way, if you’re looking for good comedy you’ve got to read the comment section after the A-J story on Leach. I worry about some of those folks, I truly do.

MORE LATER ON THE SHOW

Hyatt