ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, July 6, 1996 TAG: 9607080037
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: Jack Bogaczyk
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
The weekend buffet:
How about a new state slogan: Virginia is for hoopsters.
Virginia is the largest state without a big-league pro sports franchise, but the NBA knows how to find the commonwealth. The last two No. 1 draft picks, Allen Iverson and Joe Smith, are from Hampton and Norfolk, respectively.
Four of the last 14 top picks are Virginia natives, adding David Robinson (Manassas, 1987) and Ralph Sampson (Harrisonburg, 1983). Chesapeake product Alonzo Mourning was a No. 2 pick in '92, too.
IN DIXIE: Old Dominion Athletic Conference commissioner Dan Wooldridge says the league needs more than six schools playing football. He told the Greensboro News & Record he would ``be ready to help Greensboro College [join the ODAC for football] in any way. They fit the mold of an ODAC school.''
It has been reported Catholic has applied to the ODAC as a seventh football member. Wooldridge said Greensboro, which doesn't have football yet, could play ODAC football and stay in the Dixie Conference for other sports. So, what about Ferrum? The Panthers play independent football and with the Dixie in other sports, and also fit the ODAC better geographically.
ROADKILL: This from the AT&T Traveler's Companion for the Summer Olympics: ``Atlanta's roads were built not on a grid system, but along cow paths and wagon roads, now paved, which do not have a set pattern.'' So, Olympic gridlock is impossible, right?
FAY-DED: It was four years ago today that Fay Vincent, baseball's last real commissioner, ordered Atlanta and Cincinnati moved to the National League East and Chicago and St. Louis to the NL West for the 1993 season. The owners saw that as a reason to fire Vincent.
LAND OF OZ: What's to complain about Ozzie Smith's selection to the National League All-Star team? The game is a celebration of the sport, an exhibition, and if the game's greats and fan favorites can't get a spot in their swan-song seasons, then maybe the fans shouldn't be voting for the starters.
What's bogus is that every club has to have a player selected. Some teams don't have a worthy selection. And if the players are going to complain about the All-Star managers' selections, the solution is simple: Let them vote, but not for themselves or anyone on their own clubs.
DANDY ANDY: The New York Yankees are leading the American League East, but not how they figured they would. They are paying a combined $17.3 million to Kenny Rogers, David Cone, Jimmy Key, Melido Perez and Scott Kamieniecki, but 13-win lefty and All-Star Andy Pettitte is getting only $150,000 and Mariano Rivera only $131,125. Dwight Gooden is a veritable bargain, too, at $800,000.
NAMELY: The East Coast Hockey League just isn't expanding, it's getting improved nicknames, too. The Erie Panthers have become the Baton Rouge Kingfish. The Nashville Knights are now the Pensacola Ice Pilots and Wheeling has traded the Thunderbirds for the Nailers.
BIG STUFF: Virginia Tech and Virginia might have the state's most prominent college football programs, but in the 1996 season, it's Hampton's I-AA program that will play in the most prominent places. The Pirates have games scheduled at the Georgia Dome, RCA Dome, Giants Stadium and RFK Stadium.
STARRY: Virginia Tech quarterback signee Nick Sorensen of George Marshall was the most valuable player in Virginia's win over Maryland on Tuesday in the Battle of the Chesapeake high school all-star game at Byrd Stadium in College Park, Md. Sorensen and UVa's star running back signee Thomas Jones of Powell Valley High give the West team plenty of backfield talent in the state coaches' all-star game next week in Hampton.
WOODEN TROPHY: The NCAA brings in a new floor each year for the arena that is the Final Four site. The 1996 floor at Continental Airlines Arena in the Meadowlands is going to pieces. The University of Kentucky bought it for $70,000, and will cut it up and peddle it to alumni and fans interested in NCAA championship souvenirs. No, this alumnus isn't buying.
LENGTH: Medium: 73 linesby CNB