Spring cleaning includes clearing my head

A few random thoughts are in order as the calendar moves ever so sluggishly toward the promise of spring.

Here's one on me. I went to the state wrestling tournament at Columbia this year for the first time in order to watch the Nevada boys compete. A veteran of several state basketball tournaments, I figured mode of dress was the same, namely a coat and tie. How wrong I was. I must have been the only person in Hearnes Arena wearing a suit. If I live long enough to attend another one of these, I'll know the outfit for basketball and wrestling is as different as different can be.

Back on Feb. 15, Kevin McKinley knew better than I what we were in for between games of the basketball doubleheader at Carthage. "Time it," he said as seemingly countless athletes and their parents ambled toward the court in order to be introduced on some kind of special night. As athletic director at Nevada High School, McKinley takes pride in being able to move things along with rapidity and keep matters appearing dignified. When all was said and done, the delay between games was 47 minutes. That's too long, especially on a school night.

It just so happened that Super Bowl XXXIX was played on Babe Ruth's birthday, on which one of his still active fan clubs holds a hot dog eat-a-thon in his honor. Sure, the Bambino used to eat anywhere from 18 to 36 frankfurters at one setting, but they were far from his favorite meal. Try this one on. It was Babe's numero uno. He liked a platter of fried potatoes with onions, a Porterhouse steak of at least three pounds smothered in pork chops. The repast was washed down with a bucket of beer. Everything Babe Ruth did was larger than life. Without steroids.

While I'm thinking about the Super Bowl I wonder how a team, namely the Philadelphia Eagles, can get all the way to the biggest game any of them will ever play in without any semblance of a 2-minute drill. Those guys were huddling after every play and strolling to the line of scrimmage. On one play there was a short pass caught up the middle and it took a long time for the guys who went deep to saunter back to the line of scrimmage. The Eagles gave every indication that they were either tired or had given up.

The Eagles have more than their share of showboat types while the quieter, more business-like Patriots now have three Super Bowl championships in four years. And one other thing -- a whole lot of character.

What bothers me is I keep looking around at big college athletic programs and can't for the life of me figure out why Missouri can't be on a par with other schools -- namely and particularly Kansas. Remember how bad KU's football program was for so long? As far down as they were, KU is getting respectable enough to handle Mizzou. And look at basketball. The Jayhawks change coaches as often as some people change underwear and each one comes in and produces another big winner. I don't know about you, but I'm getting pretty tired of all this and wonder why the big money alumni are willing to keep putting up with it. Some people in Columbia are making some consistently bad decisions.

It's kind of hard to believe after all these years that I won't be seeing Hillary Adams, Lacy Leonard and Katie Rice play basketball together again after all these years as Nevada Lady Tigers. I started watching and covering their games in the seventh grade and it seems as though they have almost always been around. This is no slight to Chanelle Braun, also a senior, but she hasn't been a Nevadan from the beginning.

Gosh, they called off the National Hockey League season. The only problem with that is I haven't met anyone yet who seems to really care. I guess with average tickets in the $45 range, most average folks can't afford to attend games when they do have them. That really doesn't come into effect around here with the closest NHL city being St. Louis.