Sat. Sept. 11
Cowboys @ Texas – 5:00 PM

Sun. Sept. 12
Broncos @ Jacksonville – 11:15 AM (JIP)

Thu. Sept. 16
Lady Dogie Volleyball vs. Torrington - 6:00 PM
Listen Live

Fri. Sept. 17
Dogie Football @ Burns – 6:20 PM
Listen Live

Sat. Sept. 18
Lady Dogie Volleyball @ Cheyenne South - 2:00 PM
Listen Live

Cowboys vs. Boise St. – 5:00 PM

Sun. Sept. 19
Broncos vs. Seattle – 1:00 PM

Fri. Sept. 24
Dogie Football vs. Wright – 6:20 PM
Listen Live

Sat. Sept. 25
Cowboys vs. Air Force – 11:00 AM

Sun. Sept. 26
Broncos vs. Indianapolis – 1:00 PM

Tue. Sept. 28
Lady Dogie Volleyball vs. Sundance - 6:00 PM
Listen Live

Thu. Sept. 30
Lady Dogie Volleyball vs. Douglas - 6:00 PM
Listen Live

Fri. Oct. 1
Dogie Football vs. Glenrock – 6:20 PM
Listen Live

Sat. Oct. 2
Cowboys @ Toledo – 4:00 PM

Sun. Oct. 3
Broncos @ Tennessee – 11:15 AM (JIP)

Fri. Oct. 8
Dogie Football @ Tongue River – 1:20 PM
Listen Live

Sat. Oct. 9
Cowboys @ TCU – 12:30 PM

Sun. Oct. 10
Broncos @ Baltimore – 11:15 AM (JIP)

Thu. Oct. 14
Lady Dogie Volleyball @ Buffalo - 5:00 PM
Listen Live

Fri. Oct. 15
Dogie Football vs. Thermopolis – 6:20 PM
Listen Live

Sat. Oct. 16
Cowboys vs. Utah – 3:00 PM

Sun. Oct. 17
Broncos vs. New York Jets - 1:00 PM

Fri. Oct. 22
Dogie Football @ Big Horn – 12:20 PM
Listen Live

Sat. Oct. 23
Cowboys @ BYU – 11:00 AM

Sun. Oct. 24
Broncos vs. Oakland - 1:00 PM

Sat. Oct. 30
Cowboys vs. San Diego St. – 11:00 AM

Sun. Oct. 31
Broncos vs. San Francisco (London) - 11:15 AM (JIP)

Sat. Nov. 6
Cowboy Football @ New Mexico – 3:00 PM
followed by
Cowboy Basketball vs. Peru St. (exhibition)

Sat. Nov. 13
Cowboys @ UNLV – 7:00 PM

Sun. Nov. 14
Broncos vs. Kansas City - 1:00 PM

Tue. Nov. 16
Cowboy Basketball @ Northern Colorado – 6:30 PM

Thu. Nov. 18
Cowboy Basketball vs. North Florida – 6:30 PM

Sat. Nov. 20
Cowboy Football vs. Colorado St. – 11:00 AM
Cowboy Basketball vs. Western Illinois – 6:30 PM

Mon. Nov. 22
Broncos @ San Diego - 5:30 PM

Tue. Nov. 23
Cowboys vs. Missouri (Cancun Challenge) – TBA

Wed. Nov. 24
Cowboys vs. Providence or LaSalle (Cancun Challenge) – TBA

Sun. Nov. 28
Broncos vs. St. Louis - 1:00 PM

Wed. Dec. 1
Cowboys @ South Dakota – 5:30 PM

Sun. Dec. 5
Broncos @ Kansas City - 11:15 AM (JIP)

Sun. Dec. 12
Broncos @ Arizona - 1:00 PM

Sun. Dec. 19
Broncos @ Oakland - 1:00 PM

Sun. Dec. 26
Broncos vs. Houston - 1:00 PM

Sun. Jan. 2
Broncos vs. San Diego - 1:00 PM

JIP=joined in progress

Football, football, football………….yes, it’s that time again!  We have Wyoming Cowboys and Denver Broncos pocket schedules.  Come by the studios of AM 1240, KASL on the west end of Newcastle and grab some.  There are a limited number of Cowboys pocket schedules remaining.  And don’t forget to listen to Cowboy and Bronco Football on Real Country, AM 1240, KASL.

I’ve followed Major League Baseball basically my entire life, and I cannot remember a time where the umpiring was so generally poor.  Yes, these guys still do get most calls right, but more and more often these days, close plays are just plain called wrong.

The most egregious example came on June 2nd, when the Detroit Tigers’ Armando Galarraga was an out away from throwing, unbelievably, the second perfect game in four days in the majors and the third this season.  Jason Donald of the Cleveland Indians hit a sharp ground ball that Tigers’ first baseman Miguel Cabrera fielded after moving to his right.  Galarraga raced to cover first and took the throw, which beat Donald to the bag by a full step.

But that isn’t how first base umpire Jim Joyce saw the play.  He hesitated, then called Donald safe.  Television replays immediately showed – with no doubt – that Donald should have been out.

Joyce, to his credit, admitted his mistake.  And, to be fair, Joyce is regarded as a very good umpire and is well-respected – correctly, I’ll say.  He’s worked two World Series.  But this time,  Joyce blew the call and he eventually knew it.

This is an instance of a good umpire making a bad error.  But the problem remains that bad umpires keep making themselves look foolish.

Example: White Sox pitcher Mark Buehrle was called recently for two balks in one game by umpire Joe West.  He didn’t balk in either instance, and Buehrle and his manager, Ozzie Guillen, were both ejected.  They both were fined for remarks made about West to the essence that West seems to be more concerned about his music career than being a competent umpire.  West even has a publicist, a singular trait among big league umpires.  But, neither were suspended by Major League Baseball.  And, West was fined.  In other words, MLB admitted without saying so what Buehrle and Guillen basically said – that Joe West has become an embarrassment to his profession.

Example: In a recent game, Houston Astros pitcher Roy Oswalt, one of the few bright spots on an otherwise awful team, didn’t feel like correct ball-strike calls were being made by umpire Bill Hohn.  Then, after one pitch which Oswalt missed outside, and knew he’d missed, he shouted something to himself.  Hohn heard it, and ejected Oswalt, even as the pitcher was saying, “I wasn’t talking to you!”  MLB said it would have a “stern” discussion with Hohn, whose repuation as an umpire may be even worse than that of West.

Example: On the same night as the blunder in Detroit, Seattle’s Josh Wilson was ruled safe at second base by umpire Dale Scott, negating a force play and allowing the Mariners to score the winning run against Minnesota.  Just as in the Galarraga play, the replay clearly showed that the umpire missed the call.

So, is the answer an expanded use of replay, like in the NFL and NHL?  Well, maybe.  Here’s a novel idea for Bud Selig and his minions: How about training umpires better so better umpires, ones that aren’t so arrogant and prone to thoughts of infallibility, can be hired?  Just a thought.

It has become tradition for championship teams to be invited to the White House, as was the case for the defending World Series champion New York Yankees recently.

There was the usual scene of the President making kind remarks (and he’s a White Sox fan; must have been tough) and manager Joe Girardi presenting Mr. Obama with a signed jersey.  That was all good, and the Yankees deserve it (speaking of tough to say).

However, there was one sight that caught my eye and really bothered me.  In the middle of all the players and team officials, there stood John Sterling, the team’s radio play-by-play announcer, with a grin that covered half the East Room.

“What,” you may be saying, “you’re not sticking up for a fellow broadcaster?”

In this case, no, I’m not.

This has nothing to do, either, with my opinion of Sterling’s work, which is an opinion shared by many:  that he is nothing more than a shill and an unabashed rooter while on the air.  The headline of this posting is a mock of his call of most Yankee home runs, which does nothing to tell the listener where the ball actually landed.

No, this has to do with sheer arrogance.  I don’t know whether he asked to be part of the group, or whether someone within the organization suggested he be on stage with the rest of the team behind the President.  And, yes, he is employed by the Yankees.  But, he had nothing to do with results on the field or building the team which won the championship.

Yet, Sterling defends the Yankees to no end.  As an example, when there were first allegations that Alex Rodriguez was using performance-enhancing drugs, Sterling smugly said, “There’s no way he did anything like that.”  Of course, the complete opposite was later proven to be true.

The point: Sterling shouldn’t have been where he was.  Look, when the Dogie basketball teams were saluted in that assembly two years ago, how would it have looked had I stood there in the middle of the teams?  Yes, very badly.  And had I been asked to do so, I would have said, “Thank you, but no. I’m only a broadcaster.  You’re the ones that deserve the credit.”

Well, that’s what John Sterling should have done at the White House.  Instead, he made himself and the Yankees look quite foolish.  I’ll bet Mel Allen never would have done such a thing.

Have you seen who won the 3A boys state championship in hoops?  No, it wasn’t Buffalo, led by former Dogies assistant coach Paul Prosinski.

It was Torrington.  The Blazers rallied from 7 down in the 3rd quarter to dethrone the defending champs, 42-39.  Given how Torrington looked at regional, I’m not totally shocked, even though the Bison were a very good team.  With all due respect to Casey Esponda, David Greininger and Jeremy Beehler, E.J. Zimmerman was the best player in 3A East boys hoops this season.  Jason McManamen had another great year, and the return of Kyle Nighswonger made a huge difference for the Blazers.

Mick Bohn and I are sorry we left the regional title game when Buffalo led Torrington by 11 points.  The Bison ended up winning by 2.  Torrington rode that into knocking off Worland and Pinedale before rallying for the title over Buffalo.

Unbelievably, new head coach Jon Raciecki had his detractors within Torrington this season.  They can’t possibly complain now that Torrington has its first boys championship since 1987.

By the way, I really missed being at state basketball.  Maybe we’ll be back next year.

OK, back to watching college hoops….What a great time of the year for us basketball fans!

Dogie Daily – Basketball – March 11, 2010

Dogie Daily – Lady Dogie Basketball – March 9, 2010

Basketball: Newcastle vs. Buffalo – 3A East Regional Boys Quarterfinal – March 4, 2010
Lady Dogie Basketball: Newcastle vs. Buffalo – 3A East Regional Girls Quarterfinal – March 4, 2010
Basketball: Newcastle vs. Thermopolis – 3A East Regional Boys Consolation – March 5, 2010
Lady Dogie Basketball: Newcastle vs. Glenrock – 3A East Regional Girls Consolation – March 5, 2010
Basketball: Newcastle vs. Rawlins – 3A East Regional Boys Consolation – March 6, 2010

Dogie Daily – Swimming & Diving – March 2, 2010

Dogie Daily – Wrestling – March 1, 2010