Silver Sox deal getting a little bit closer?

BY DARRELL MOODY

Appeal Sports Writer

Just to follow up on last week's column, front-office personnel of the Golden Baseball League did make a trip over to Carson High School last week to see if the facilities were a possibility to put the Reno Silver Sox or a new franchise here.

Whether the Golden Baseball League pulls the trigger and invests the money into fixing up Ron McNutt Field is the $64,000 question. I think the independent league would work well in Carson. This has always been a baseball town and I don't see this changing.

- I'm beginning to think that the NCAA does indeed stand for No Clue At All.

Why, you ask?

I know this is a week old, but I only write one column a week, thus I have to hold my opinions to myself for a week, and that's not the easiest thing to do.

My blood was boiling after last weekend's Washington-BYU game in Seattle. Washington quarterback Jake Locker scored a touchdown with two seconds left in the game, cutting BYU's lead to 28-27 with the PAT coming. After he crossed the goal line, Locker tossed the ball in the air, drawing a penalty for excessive celebration. The Huskies had to kick the PAT from the 35-yard line and BYU blocked it, preserving the victory.

Locker told reporters after the game that he was wondering what had happened after he scored, what the penalty was for.

Excessive celebration? Are you kidding me? The game officials, while technically following the rule book to the letter, could have shown a little discretion.

Even better, why not rewrite the excessive celebration penalty?

Heck, Locker is a kid. In the heat of the moment, he forgot to put the ball on the ground or hand it to the official. He didn't do a touchdown dance or throw the ball into the stands nor did swarms of his teammates come off the sideline onto the field to congratulate him after the score. Those are the times when you should flag somebody for excessive celebration.

Locker's act wasn't unsporting, either. He didn't spike the ball at an opponent. He didn't taunt anybody.

I'm watching the South Florida-Kansas game before my high school assignment. A defensive player makes a nice play and then continues strutting in the offensive backfield. Where's the flag? Just because he didn't have the ball in his hands he didn't get flagged? If officials were following the rules, they could have thrown a flag. To me, the strutting was unsporting.

As long as it's not an unsporting act let the kids celebrate a good play. Let's put some fun back into the game. If the NCAA doesn't want to do that, they should put robots out there to play.

- This takes me to my next topic, which also deals with officiating. I saw one of the worst non-calls I've seen in the last four or five years.

Galena's Beau Bickel is flushed out of the pocket and ends up along the right sideline. He is trying to get out of bounds, having run out of room to make any sort of turn upfield. He gets hit so hard by a Spanish Springs defender that he ends up about 10 yards off the field and goes flying into a table that holds two big water jugs.

I kept waiting for a flag, but none came. Trust me on this one folks, the guys in the striped shirts missed this one. I was standing no more than five yards away when it happened. Bickel had nowhere to go but out of bounds, and the officiating crew should have realized that. Just like the NFL and college football, you have to protect the quarterback. If Bickel truly had a way to turn the corner, then he is fair game, but that wasn't the case this time.

I know critics will tell me that I've never officiated football. That's true, but after 35 years of walking up and down football sidelines, I know I have a good idea of a missed call.

- Contact Darrell Moody at dmoody@nevadaappeal.com or (775) 881-1281