For the first time since making school history by advancing out of an NCAA regional on Saturday, the Horned Frogs baseball team arrived at Lupton Stadium to practice. 

Head coach Jim Schlossnagle gathered the team in the locker room and told them that regardless of how exciting that win over Oregon State was on Sunday night, it's over and now is not the time to reminisce.

It's time to get ready for the #1 ranked Texas Longhorns in the Super Regional in Austin which starts on Saturday at 5:00pm.

Also in the meeting he told Kyle Winkler that he would be the starting pitcher for game one and then told his men instead of practicing on Lupton Stadium, that had a few puddles from the early morning rain, they would be heading over to the football team's Sam Baugh Indoor Practice Facility. 

The Frogs took ground balls on the field turf, which is similar to the surface at Disch-Falk Field in Austin.  The Frogs are familiar with that turf after playing there during the regular season in a game the Longhorns won 6-0. 

Even though TCU was shut out in that game, the Frogs feel getting familiar with the atmosphere coupled with the fact that Texas had a tough time advancing out of its own regional just feeds their confidence that the Horns are a beatable team.

The Super Regional is a best 2-out-of-3 series with the winner heading to the College World Series in Omaha.

Much more on the Frogs tonight on The 33 News

 

 

     Last week, Fort Worth ISD asked me to be apart of their Annual Celebration of FWISD Champions for Children program at Ridgmar Mall. It was a chance to honor parents and educators who freely volunteered their time to help make a difference in the lives of the children within FWISD.

As a matter of fact these parents, teachers, principals etc. volunteered over 529 thousand hours during the school year! Considering how hard times are today due to the economy, volunteering that kind of time, definitely deserves a celebration... and boy did we celebrate! 

We were entertained by the O.D. Wyatt Drum line, The North Side Mariachis, cheerleaders from Clifford Davis and Harlean Beal and The Arlington Heights Steppers. They all did marvelous jobs.I was invited as the guest speaker for the event. I wouldn't have missed it for the world because I understand the impact that these volunteers can have on a child.

I am one of six children. When I was growing up, my family would sometimes have to depend on volunteers and other parents from the community to help out with acadimic and athletic functions. I feel that those volunteers helped shape me into the man I am today. As a result, I volunteer my time to kids at Services of Hope here in Dallas. So I would like to thank Fort Worth ISD for inviting me to celebrate such a worthy cause. I look forward to seeing you all next year!

 

MORE pictures from the celebration are available here.

 

 

It's a huge weekend for Jerry Jones with the opening of his 1.4 billion dollar Cowboys Stadium.  The George Strait country music concert is expected to pack the place Saturday night and one man not to happy about it is Eddie Gossage, the General Manager of the Texas Motor Speedway.  At the same time of the concert, the Indy cars will be circling the track at TMS during the Bombardier Leerjet 550k.  I'm not sure if the IRL is filled with as many country music fans as NASCAR, but there's a good chance that several racing fans will skip this race to be a part of history inside Jerryworld. 

Eddie just wants to make sure everybody knows that when they're inside the Cowboys Stadium, gawking at the worlds largest high definition screen and the expanse of the retractable roof, that they remember, size does matter.   Look at the picture Eddie had his graphic artists put together showing that it would take four Cowboys Stadiums to fill up the infield at Texas Motor Speedway.



Eddie has told me several times, he is friends with Jerry Jones and has nothing against him but he is a marketing maven and whenever he has the chance to find something about his track or sport that can compare with the mighty Cowboys and the NFL, he's darn sure going to take advantage of it.

Bombardier Leerjet 550k
Texas Motor Speedway
Saturday, June 6

Qualifying Friday for the Bombardier Learjet 550K IndyCar Series event on the 1.5-mile Texas Motor Speedway, with starting position, car number in parentheses, driver, chassis-engine and speed:

1. (10) Dario Franchitti, Dallara-Honda, 214.513

2. (6) Ryan Briscoe, Dallara-Honda, 214.413

3. (9) Scott Dixon, Dallara-Honda, 214.296

4. (3) Helio Castroneves, Dallara-Honda, 214.228

5. (7) Danica Patrick, Dallara-Honda, 213.929

6. (5) Mario Moraes, Dallara-Honda, 213.717

7. (4) Dan Wheldon, Dallara-Honda, 213.596

8. (26) Marco Andretti, Dallara-Honda, 213.540

9. (06) Robert Doornbos, Dallara-Honda, 213.479

10. (20) Ed Carpenter, Dallara-Honda, 213.435

11. (27) Hideki Mutoh, Dallara-Honda, 213.327

12. (02) Graham Rahal, Dallara-Honda, 213.178

13. (34) Alex Tagliani, Dallara-Honda, 213.173

14. (67) Sarah Fisher, Dallara-Honda, 212.554

15. (2) Raphael Matos, Dallara-Honda, 212.137

16. (11) Tony Kanaan, Dallara-Honda, 212.108

17. (18) Justin Wilson, Dallara-Honda, 212.021

18. (43) Tomas Scheckter, Dallara-Honda, 211.741

19. (24) Mike Conway, Dallara-Honda, 211.686

20. (23) Milka Duno, Dallara-Honda, 211.601

21. (13) E.J. Viso, Dallara-Honda, 211.553

22. (14) A.J. Foyt IV, Dallara-Honda, 211.454

23. (21) Ryan Hunter-Reay, Dallara-Honda, 210.532

24. (98) Jaques Lazier, Dallara-Honda, 209.329

We know the IndyCar races are always thrilling from start to finish at the Texas Motor Speedway and if you take the practices and tonight's qualifying as a preview, it should be another tight race tomorrow night.


Dario Franchitti won his first PEAK Performance Pole Award of 2009.  It was the seventh time in his career he's won the pole and first since 2007.  His four lap average of 214.513 mph.  "To win the pole at Texas says a lot about the Target guys and the job they do building the car." said Franchitti after qualifying.  "The regulations are so tight now that it's all about the details. The cars are so similar. It's all about how the guys build the car and the changes they make. The team makes a great car and it's my job in qualifying is not to screw it up. If the car is fast enough, you're looking good. Tomorrow is going to be interesting. It's a tough, long and demanding race."

Ryan Briscoe finished 1/100th of a second back and  will start alongside Franchitti on the front row.

Scott Dixon is in good position to defend last years title at TMS, finishing third with a time of 214.296.  Dixon is also the IRL points leader.

Helio Castroneves will also start out of the second row with a time of 214.228.

Danica Patrick rounds out the top five after with a 213.929.

Highlights and reaction from qualifying tonight on The 33 News

The first coach on the field for the final Cowboys organized team activity this morning was injured special teams coach Joe DeCamillis.  This time without his trademark bullhorn, he led his special teams groups through several blocking drills.

MORE: Picture Gallery

This is the final week of the voluntary workouts.  A mandatory mini camp begins next week with it all leading up to training camp in San Antonio in late July.  We'll have a full report on today's workout from Standridge Stadium in Carrollton, tonight on The 33 News.

It's been a dream season for The TCU baseball program. They hosted and won their first ever NCAA Regional tournament. They advanced to the Super Regional for the first time in school history, but that's where the story ends. Last night, top ranked Texas defeated TCU, 5 to 2 to advance to The College World Series, and at the same time bringing TCU's season to an end. The Frogs have no reason to hang their heads. They forced the country's best baseball team to an elimination game. No doubt, this will go a long way towards recruiting. The Frogs end the year with a record of 40 - 18. 

Let me start off this blog by saying, I love Jerry Jones. Say what you will about the man, but he keeps life interesting for us media folk. Saturday, during The George Straight Concert at The new Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Jerry told The Fort Worth Star Telegram that he may bring Adam "Pac-man" Jones back to the Cowboys. What!? Last season, Pac-man made more headlines of the field than he did on the field... a big reason why The Cowboys released him in the first place.

Jerry came back on Monday and said The Cowboys have no plans to resign Pac-man. So was it a slip of the tongue or too many cocktails at the concert? I'm betting on the latter. Peace!  

Great catches were few and far between at the Cowboys organized team activity in Carrollton today. In fact there were so many drops that when a receiver made a catch it was an exception rather than the norm and head coach Wade Phillips wasn't pleased with it.

"Offensively we struggled a little bit as far as some of our timing and getting off plays, so we gotta work hard at those things." Phillips said.  "One side did a lot of things well, one side struggled a little bit and that's kind of how you do it in the off season but it's good work for both sides"

Roy Williams hauled in a pass from Jon Kitna with one hand and made the best catch of the day.  "He makes an outstanding play nearly every day," said Phillips. "The catch he made today was spectacular, we expect him to do that."  Roy expects that as well but he and the rest of the receivers ran into a feisty group in the secondary that turned heads with several pass break ups.  Williams liked what he saw from the men wearing the defensive blue jerseys today. "I see touchdowns when I go against these guys but they put on a show today, they came our ready to play and tomorrow we have to come back and bring it to these guys."  It was obvious that Roy's competitive nature took a hit after today's workout. "They say we're not playing against these guys, we're playing against ourselves,  getting better,  but they've got the opposite jersey than we do and we have to win, that's my approach.

These OTA workouts are conducted without pads so when Patrick Watkins took down rookie receiver Manuel Johnson from Oklahoma it got a little tense."I didn't try to hit him, I was just going for the ball trying to make a play on it" Watkins said. "I I didn't mean to hit him,  of course, but sometimes it happens, my teammates knew I didn't do it on purpose."

MORE:  Picture Gallery of Today's Workout Here

Secondary coach Dave Campo was yelling out Courtney Brown's name all practice long and today that was a good thing.  Brown broke up several passes as he has impressed many folks with his coverage skills in a move from safety to cornerback, especially Phillips. " If he could cover like he did today, he may have a home there" said Phillips.  

While Brown works at his move to corner, Alan Ball is trying his hand at safety, switching from the cornerback spot.  Ball was playing in Ken Hamlin's spot as Hamlin dealt with some personal issues and had an interception to go along with a few pass break ups.  This is his third season on the Cowboys roster.  Bill Parcells always maintained that you really find out what a player is made of in his third season.  Ball is hoping this is the year he breaks out.
"I'm hoping it's a breakout for the Cowboys in general, anywhere I can play my role I hope it helps us get better as a secondary, get better as a defense and as a team" Ball said.

The Cowboys wrap up their voluntary OTA workouts tomorrow, give the team four days off and then reconvene for mandatory mini-camp workouts next Monday.  They'll have two-a-day workouts Monday and Wednesday and a single practice on Tuesday.

Check out today's workout tonight on The 33 News at 9:00pm

According to a report from TSN in Canada, new Stars General Manager Joe Nieuwendyk has fired Head Coach Dave Tippett. 

Tippett was the head coach of the Stars for the last six seasons and the team made the playoffs every season he was in charge except for last year when the team was expected to contend for the Stanley Cup, one year after the squad advanced to the Western Conference Finals.

Several phone calls to the Dallas Stars front office, have not been returned as of yet. 

No successor has been named yet but TSN reports sources saying that Nieuwendyk has asked permission to talk to former Los Angeles Kings coach Mark Crawford who is still under contract to the Kings. 

More on this developing story tonight on The 33 News at 9pm.

Even with their slumping bats, the Rangers continue to hang on to first place in the American League West by 4 1/2 games over the Mariners and Angels and you can give the pitching and defense the credit for that.

The Rangers starting pitchers have been consistently pitching deep into games, keeping the score down and that has had a very positive effect on the defense.

According to John Dewan, co-publisher of ACTA Sports, the Rangers are one of the best defensive clubs in Major League baseball and also has one of the top fielders in the game.

Dewan notes in his Stat of the Week column that Ian Kinsler has already saved 12 runs through 57 games at second base, a drastic change from his defense the last three seasons.


(Used with permission from John Dewan's Stat of the Week™, www.statoftheweek.com.)

Kinsler was one of three Rangers who made terrific defensive plays in a 1-0 win over the Blue Jays last night.

One of the interesting notes Dewan had in an article last month, how much the Rangers have benefited from replacing Michael Young with Elvis Andrus at shortstop.   Young cost the Rangers 24 runs playing short last year and has cost the team 10 runs at third base so far.  As for Elvis, he's saved six runs at short with his solid defense this year.

Inter league play returns tonight at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington with the Dodgers coming to town for a three game weekend series.

We'll have the highlights tonight on The 33 News at 9:00pm

Did you hear the odd story out of West Burlington, Iowa?

An umpire was just sick and tired of hearing it from the crowd, so he ejected everyone from the stands.  Don Briggs said the fans were being unruly so he tossed out more than 100 of them and then he called the police as a precaution.

Briggs may not be umpiring many more games in West Burlington because school Superintendent James Sleister said he thought the umpire overreacted after not seeing any unusual behavior from the crowd.

The mass ejection caused a 40 minute delay and afterward, West Burlington ended up winning the game over Winfield-Mount Union,  12-11

Friday, Cowboys legend, Darren Woodson along with cornerback Orlando Scandrick and defensive end Jay Ratliff presented new cell phones and a $5,000 donation to the Single Parent Foundation on behalf of Boost Mobile. It was a part of the grand opening of Dallas' first Boost Mobile exclusive retail store. The Single Parent Foundation is a Dallas-based organization dedicated to providing emergency services to single parent families who are struggling during the slow economy.

It took 10 innings but The Rangers win their second game in the row by defeating The Astros, 5 to 4. With the win, Texas maintains a two game lead over The Angels in the A.L. West. David Murphy, a Houston native, singled home Ian Kinsler for the game winning run. The Rangers conclude their series with The Astros Thursday night at 7:05 pm.  

Jerry Jones has spent a good portion of the off-season justifying the release of Terrell Owens as a move to open up opportunities for Roy Williams and Patrick Crayton and for the offense to utilize the running backs more effectively.  Well Jerry's son, Stephen, is telling a different story.

Stephen Jones has told Michael Silver of Yahoo.com, Owens was released to help Tony Romo realize his leadership potential, which Jones says was being held back by Owens.

"It's hard to take over leadership when you've got a strong personality like Terrell," Jones said. "If you look back at our old teams [from the 1990s], a lot of people would say maybe Michael [Irvin] was the leader. Then you might say, 'He was a receiver. What about Troy [Aikman]? He was the quarterback. Wasn't he the leader?' And the answer is, yeah, Troy was a leader. But if Michael wasn't supportive of him, Troy would've had problems.

"A lot of our players thought the world of Terrell - they still do. They loved the way he prepared and how hard he played, and everybody respected his skills and what he'd done in the league. And with him here, I think he was always going to carry that kind of weight."

You can read the entire story here

More on Tony Romo and his leadership style, tonight on The 33 News at 9:00pm

Even though Terrell Owens now works in Buffalo, he's bringing his youth football camp back for a fourth year in Duncanville.

Owens will host the camp at Duncanville High School next Wednesday and Thursday.  The camp is for kids between the ages of 7-17 and will run from 9:00am to 3:00pm each day.

Registration starts at 8:30am and is first come, first served.

My earlier post had a quote from Stephen Jones saying how many of the Cowboys players enjoyed playing with Owens and how much they respected him as a player.  How many of them will be taking part in a goodbye party to Owens to be held Thursday night at the Empire Room in Dallas?  Here's the invitation for farewell party.

This will be the 11th Cowboys Training Camp that I've covered.  We've sweated out the practices in Austin and Wichita Falls and enjoyed the beautiful scenery and terrific temperatures of Oxnard, California.  The workouts held at the Alamodome in San Antonio are always the most exciting, and that's one reason I'm glad camp is moving back there this year.

You can count on a couple thousand Cowboys fans in the crowd to cheer for the big plays and even fire out an occasional boo for a dropped pass or missed coverage. The players are normally very accommodating to sign autographs after practices and if they don't sign after the first workout, there's always after the second workout of two-a-days. 

It is a great place to bring the family, admission is free, autographs are free and they do sell concessions inside.

If you stay at the team hotel, which is the Grand Hyatt San Antonio you can catch players in the morning and evenings in the lobby and get more autographs and pictures.

Training Camp starts with the big fan kickoff event on Tuesday, July 28th.  The first practice is on Wednesday, July 29th and runs through August 19th. 

Patrick Crayton tells us why he is so excited for Camp to be returning to the Alamodome, tonight on The 33 News at 9:00pm

The Dallas Mavericks announced that they have acquired guard Rodrigue Beaubois and a future second round pick from the Oklahoma City Thunder in exchange for the Mavericks' 24^th overall selection B.J. Mullens. Beaubois (6-2, 182) was selected with the 25^th overall pick.

The Pointe-a-Pitre, Guadeloupe native appeared in 29 French Pro A games in 2008-09 and averaged 10.0 points, 2.5 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.1 steals in 22.3 minutes per game. Beaubois showed marked improvement from his 2007-08 campaign when he averaged 5.5 points, 1.8 rebounds and 1.4 assists in 15.1 minutes per contest. 

The 21-year-old (2/24/88) point guard has participated as a member of France's junior national team and was discovered at a basketball camp by current Orlando Magic guard Mickael Pietrus. 

"We could not be happier with the addition of Rodrigue," President of Basketball Operations Donnie Nelson said. "His dynamic athleticism will add versatility and energy to our backcourt. He was one of the highest-rated athletes this draft."

The Dallas Mavericks also selected forward Ahmad Nivins with the 56^th overall selection of the 2009 NBA Draft and have acquired 45^th pick Nick Calathes from the Minnesota Timberwolves in exchange for the future second round pick of the Portland Trailblazers that the Mavericks obtained in a trade on June 24, 2009.

 

Nivins (6-9, 242) finished his career as the third-leading scorer in the history of Saint Josheph's University with 1,789 points. He was named the Atlantic 10 Player of the Year following his senior season after averaging 19.2 points and 11.8 rebounds while shooting .612 from the field and starting all 32 games. Nivins was All-America honorable mention and became just the second player in A-10 history to lead the league in field goal percentage for three consecutive seasons.

During his time at St. Joe's, the Jersey City, N.J., native registered 33 double-doubles, earned All A-10 honors three times and was an A-10 All-Rookie selection as a freshman. He also participated in the 2007 Pan Am Games for Team USA.

"Ahmad was the Atlantic-10 player of the year and a member of the All-Defensive team," President of Basketball Operations Donnie Nelson said. "He is a great rebounder and shot blocker that has improved every year."

Calathes (6-6, 194) was an early entry candidate into the 2009 Draft after completing his sophomore year at the University of Florida. In 2008-09, the point guard averaged 17.8 points and 6.4 assists per game. As a sophomore, Calathes was named First Team All-Southeastern Conference and was the only player in the nation to average better than 15.0 points, 5.0 rebounds and 6.0 assists. In his freshman campaign, the Winter Park, Fla., native was named SEC Newcomer of the Year and All-SEC Second Team.  

"We are extremely fortunate to be in a position to acquire Nick from the Timberwolves," Nelson said. "He is a terrific young prospect with an excellent upside."

As far as Dallas Cowboys fans go, it's hard to beat the passion that 53 year old Butch Franklin has for the team.  He had autographed posters hanging in his apartment until thieves broke in and ripped them off the walls three weeks ago.More heartbreaking is that Butch is mentally disabled.  But he has a smile on his face today after some Cowboys players stepped up to make Butch an even bigger fan today.

When Cowboys Linebacker Bradie James heard that someone broke into this man's apartment and stole his Cowboys stuff,  he wanted to make sure those empty spaces were filled with new and shiny memorabilia, so he brought a bag full of autographed items to give to his new friend. "He now has a a mini-helmet, a ball, a jersey and a picture so butch got hooked up today" said James.  And his spirit, definitely lifted up after what's been a tough three weeks.  "I didn't feel no good" said Butch Franklin who cried after realizing that thieves took his autographed Tony Romo poster. "He was devastated" said the Mosaic Executive Director Jo Beth Collier, a non profit facility that assists people with disabilities.  "I know how important the memorabilia was to Butch. People cherish certain things in their life, and that was one thing that was important to him."

Bradie heard about the story last week and decided to take action. "That's crazy (the robbery) but things happen and when things happen we have to step up and do something positive." James said. "You know you're doing something that can make an impact in someones life positively, it's part of living your purpose."  And today that meant making it a good day for Butch. 

 "It takes a long time to get a lot of memorabilia that he stored up so I just wanted to contribute and add on to his new collection." James said.

Before Bradie left, there was one important matter to take care of.  He presented Butch with a #56 jersey to wear, in addition to the Tony Romo jersey he was currently wearing. Butch proceeded to switch to the #56.  Butch said with a smile, "Bradie James! Number 56!"

Earlier today,  Cowboys Lineman Cory Proctor also paid Butch a surprise visit and autographed and delivered a seat-back from Texas stadium with signatures from fellow linemen Leonard Davis and Mark Columbo.  Butch may end up being the most highly decorated Cowboys fan in the Metroplex before the season starts.

Butch's message to the Cowboys who took time out of their busy days allow him to have a good day, "Thank you for everything!"