Here are some small sports items still deserving attention, even if just for a moment. Some in this case wrap up the summer, while others are in preparation for the upcoming fall sports season.
South Salem 12U Baseball: Congratulations to the Saxons, who played in the Cal Ripken World Series in Branson, Missouri. South finished 3-3 during the ten-day event, losing some real squeakers along the way. All parents are justifiably proud of the effort put forth by their kids.
A special thanks to coaches and parents that helped this writer with statistics, rosters, photos/videos and even live game coverage when technology failed to provide timely updates.
Jed Lowrie: A bittersweet note for Salem’s biggest big leaguer, who was “designated for assignment” by the Oakland Athletics this week. Lowrie, a 14 season major leaguer, was batting just .180 on the season. While Lowrie could still be picked up by another team or assigned to the minors, chances are good that his retirement is pending.
The 38-year old North Salem High and Stanford University graduate had some great years in the bigs, particularly with the Red Sox (who drafted him), the Astros, and the A’s. Jed was a 2018 all-star with Oakland. In just over 1300 games, he has nearly 1200 hits, 121 home runs, and is just shy of 600 RBIs among a long list of impressive stats.
CBS Sports reports that Jed has earned over $60 million in his career. He and his wife Milessa have contributed to baseball efforts south of the border for many years through Project Beisbol. He most recently spent time in Nicaragua (read here) conducting baseball clinics back in 2018.
If this is indeed the end of the line for Jed Lowrie, he has certainly done himself, and the city of Salem, proud.
Fall Sports Start Up: Monday marks the official start of practices for fall prep sports in the state of Oregon. High school athletes for soccer, volleyball and football all get to sweat together in unison. Contests can begin as soon as August 25th. Football won’t start games until September second.
Interestingly, not one 6A Salem-Keizer School has a home football game the opening weekend. McKay, which has moved all of its sports to the 5A level his season, will be at home versus Lebanon. For the 6A schools, most teams will be playing in the Portland area. South Salem is traveling to Renton, Washington to face Liberty High School, coached by former Saxon player Steve Valach, who I wrote about back in mid-July.
Pac-12 Pet Peeve: Speaking of football, the college version also gets underway in coming weeks. I tend to set aside most of major college chat myself—even with the huge changes coming in conferences and compensation for athletes. But there is one complaint that I will air my frustration with in this post. It is the scheduling of major college games on Friday nights—the normal high school game night.
That brings me to my beef with the Pac-12 and ESPN. On Friday, November 4—the first night of prep football playoffs in Oregon—ESPN2 has scheduled Oregon State at Washington, with a 7:30 pm start. As a Salem area broadcaster with the Beavers on the airwaves, it means our prep broadcast is effectively shut down. I want to shout “Stay in your lane!” to the college broadcasters. OSAA officials have complete sympathy for my predicament, but what can you do? What I just did—gripe about it out loud.
Enjoy the fall sports season everyone!