Morrow's Musings
- By Jeff Morrow
509-582-1507
Herald still seeks nominations for Mid-Columbia's top stories of century
Things we can talk about while we determine whether the Mariners will be any good this year:
- The Top 100 Mid-Columbia Sports Stories of the Century project has gotten off to a great start, with many nominations coming in over the past two months.
But we still want more, and we don't want anyone assuming that a big story involving an event or athlete already has been nominated.
We've had a Pasco football team from the 1920s and the 1998 state champs mentioned; the Americans' arrival in the Tri-Cities; the Chinook and Lumberjacks professional basketball teams; and such athletes as Eltopia's Clint Didier, Prosser's Kelly Blair, Walla Walla's Drew Bledsoe, and Pasco's Karen Murray are some of the many stories that have been nominated.
We'll be taking nominations until May 15, and then the real battle begins as we determine the order of stories as a committee of long-time Mid-Columbians cast their votes.
Then the Herald staff takes over, using the next three months to research and write the stories that begin running Sept. 23 with No. 100, on down to Dec. 31 and No. 1.
So please send us your nominations via voice mail at 509-582-1507, fax at 509-582-1410, or e-mail at jmorrow@tri-cityherald.com. Or drop it off at the Herald at 107 N. Cascade in Kennewick.
- Spent some time Monday with Keith Jackson, the longtime college football play-by-play announcer who retired after the Fiesta Bowl in January.
Jackson was in Pullman to receive the 1999 Edward R. Murrow award at the Murrow Symposium.
He's not sure how he's going to handle it when the college football season begins in September and he's not there.
"My wife Turi and I are going to make a swing through the Northwest in September and October, go through Wyoming and up into Canada, and we'll start our own golf tour," Jackson said with such smoothness that I thought he was calling a game. "By late October we'll be home. We have a home just outside Vancouver, British Columbia."
Jackson said it was time to call it quits.
"Seventy years is a long time to live," he said. "I've lived by the clock for 47 years. It's time to take some time off.'
Jackson said he's not even sure who will replace him.
"ABC hasn't made a decision," he said. "They just got a president. They are so screwed up right now."
Someone asked him about those two seconds left in the 1998 Rose Bowl, the one that his alma mater, WSU, lost to Michigan.
"You didn't have two seconds. It was 1.2," he said. "I was of the opinion the ball had to go into the end zone. People forget one thing. If Michael Black doesn't get hurt, the Cougars win."
Jackson still knows how to call them.
- Those fans who like live boxing can get an eyeful Saturday at the Benton-Franklin County Fairgrounds when the Columbia Basin Boxing Club holds the Rumble in the Desert II Smoker, presented by Tri-City Nissan.
Gates open at 3 p.m., with the first bout at 4 p.m. Tickets cost $6, with children under 8 getting in free.
The show should have anywhere from 20 to 30 matches and is Olympic-style amateur boxing.
The Columbia Basin Boxing Club, based out of the Tri-Cities, is expecting a number of boxing clubs to compete - including teams from Othello, Tacoma and Spokane, said CBBC coach Jose Ramos.
To get involved, call Ramos at 547-8857.
- Richland's Dominic Woody is tearing it up for the University of Washington baseball team this season, leading the Huskies with 12 home runs, a .402 batting average, and 40 RBI.
Woody always has been a good player for the Huskies, but it's usually been in a spot-starting role or coming off the bench.
He spent last summer playing in the prestigious Cape Cod League in New England, and now the junior is getting a chance to play every day at catcher.
Woody is closing in on the UW record of 16 homers in a season. But more importantly for him and his teammates, they get a crack at No. 2-ranked Stanford in a key three-game Pac-10 series beginning today and running through Sunday in Seattle.
- I was saddened to see the Yakima Sun Kings eliminated from the CBA playoffs last week. But there is good news too. Owner Otis Harlan has decided to continue with the team's operations for the 1999-2000 season. That team has more lives than a cat.
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