The Word

If your name is Derek Barichello, Paul Dehner Jr. or Scott Chancey, then please stand up and take a bow: You guys deserve it.

Between these three Herald staffers at the keyboard and myself on the desk Thursday night, the sports department put out one of the most complete and comprehensive prep basketball previews this paper has ever seen.

A total of 12 stories on Albany-metro schools, a Super Six boys and girls package that will be released Sunday and some 36 capsules on area schools made for a lot of reading in Friday’s Herald. Hell, we even gave Baker County and Byne Christian some love — although I’m not sure I should be cursing in the same sentence as a Christian school. Forgive me Saints … as in the Byne Christian Saints … because that’s their mascot. Anyway ….

What makes the product which Paul, Derek and Scott turned out even more impressive is the fact that this is still prep football playoff week — and Southwest Georgia has five teams in the running for state titles. And not only did everyone chip in and make Derek’s workload much easier as the main prep guy, but we filled an 8-page Frday paper — yes, 8 pages on a Friday — with a total of 23 local stories and a minimum of three bylines from each staff member, myself included. (Yeah, that’s right. I can still write. OK, that pun was seriously unintentional.)

The only national news in Friday’s paper? Georgia Tech stomping Miami, which ended just before deadline anyway and wouldn’t have been any bigger story that it was. Although you can read David Friedlander’s story from the Gwinnett Daily Post here, which was more complete than what we had in today’s paper from the AP. Also, look for David’s follow-up story on Tech in Saturday’s section.

Of course, not lost on our readers of today’s pages will be the stories we had on the No. 1 Darton women’s soccer team winning their National Championship quarterfinal and advancing one step closer to their first national title, as well as updates on the Albany Tech men’s basketball team’s latest win, and the news that the Albany State volleyball team bowed out in the first round — again — at NCAA Division II Regionals.

It was a great local paper, and my hat goes off to all those who made it possible.

We did our jobs better than ever today, guys, in that we gave our readers information that they couldn’t get ANYWHERE else.

Thanks, again.

Danny Aller
Herald Sports Editor 

Well, folks …. it’s a very sad day in the Aller household. 

As some of you may know, my wife and I have been dealing with a very sick little dog during the last few weeks (the Boston Terrier named Pixie on the right in the photo above, sitting with my wife Desiree on our wedding day — yes, because they’re like our kids in lieu of actual kids, they made a brief appearance for some photos at the post-wedding reception). 

Well, after the weekend of my Desiree’s birthday on Oct. 10, we foung out Pixie was been suffering from a blood disease — that in the last three weeks — we were never able to get properly diagnosed, despite countless veterinary tests and various forms of blanket treatments they’d had hoped would help.

Unfortunately, I’m sorry to report that as of this afternoon, Pixie “Dustiny” Aller is no longer with us.

She was eight years old.

And although I know everyone feels this way about their own pets, Pixie — with her sweet, kind eyes and heart of gold —  was truly like no other.

I know I can’t change God’s plan, but if I could have one selfish wish, it’d be just one more day with her.

But since I can’t, I’ll just try to deal with this through a kind of therapy that’s helped me in countless situations in my life: writing about it.

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Just in case the South Coast League of independent baseball was planning to make an announcement anytime soon that it was returning to play after suspending operations earlier this year, the SCL might wanna make sure it doesn’t include one of its former sites it kinda left hanging when it closed the doors: Charlotte County, Fla.

Turns out, Charlotte County has a new minor league baseball team, the Charlotte County Stone Crabs, and it’s one that’s linked to an MLB team — albeit a franchise that will probably never have the chance of making the World Series, much less the playoffs.

Every heard of ‘em?

A little outfit known as the TAMPA … BAY …RAYS?

Good timing, Stone Crabs.

Bye-bye forever Charlotte County Redfish.

Read all about it here.

Never heard of this ESPN writer (Jason Grey?), but apparently he’s not as impressed as everyone else has been with former Lee County and Florida State star Buster Posey, who is currently is in the Hawaiin Winter League after being drafted by the San Francisco Giants No. 5 overall back on June 5.

As Grey breaks down what he calls his “Aloha notes,” here’s what he says about Buster so far:

• “Some catchers who were drafted early also made appearances in this league, including San Francisco’s Buster Posey. I’ve seen Posey for a few games in rookie ball, and then a few games in Hawaii, but he hasn’t looked great so far. His stats are fine, but he hasn’t looked like the Brian McCann-type player you’re expecting to get when you hand him $6.2 million dollars as the fifth pick in the draft. Don’t get me wrong; he’s looked like a solid-average major league catcher, but not an All-Star thus far. He hasn’t looked bad, just average, both offensively and defensively. He doesn’t generate a lot of backspin on the ball, he’s showing limited raw power, but he’s been decent behind the plate. To be fair, we’re still only a few games into his professional career, and he’s still getting back into the swing of things after a layoff. Posey is going to be more of a line-drive contact hitter who can take the ball to all fields.”

Here’s a few of Buster’s stats so far in just the first few weeks (total of four games). He’s hitting .429. Not sure what this ESPN guy is talking about. He looks to be doing fine.

Through 4 games, 14 ABs, 6 hits,  1 2B, 2 runs, 2 RBI, 3 BB, 2 SO.

He even had one game were he went 3-for-3.

Today is October 10th — the day the most beautiful woman in the world was born 28 years ago.

I want to take this opportunity to wish my wife of  3 1/2 years, Desiree LaBelle Aller, a happy 28th birthday today.

Fortunately for me, she’s even hotter than the day I met her … which is certainly not to say she wasn’t hot then …. because she was …. like, really smokin’ hot …. seriously …. trust me.

And while it’s a bummer we both have to work today and won’t get to spend much of it together, hopefully this post will remind her that even at 5:15 a.m., I’m still thinking of her.

Happy birthday, baby!

Love,

Danny 

A.KA. — Your husband/Herald sports editor who just opened himself up for mad ridicule on his blog.

Why, hello again, Southwest Georgia.

While I physically never went anywhere during the last three weeks and have had daily access to the Internet during that span, some of you may have noticed my lack personal of blog posts.

Well, for that we can all thank Verizon and its ridiculous upgrade policy on wireless cards (which mine died) — plus my refusal to overpay for equipment I should already be getting for free considering it costs $60 bucks a month to access this shim-sham thing they call the World Wide Web (it’ll never catch on). In short, I have been without online access at my home for almost a month. Meaning no more late-night blogs — which, of course, were garnering thousands of hits a day by the members of my countless  and loyal fan base. (OK, so I made that last part up. Or as Rafael Nadal would say in his awful English accent, “It sounded good, no?”)

But my www-hiatus ended Thursday afternoon when I stormed the Verizon store on Westover Blvd., demanded my equipment ASAP and threatened to call the GM about the jimmy-jack operation they were running in Albany if they didn’t also throw in a new phone for my pain and suffering. (OK, so I actually walked in very calmly, signed in a like a robot and then meandered around the store pretending to be wowed by the newest Blackberry while I waited like for them to call my name, like everyone else. I did get a new phone, however …. uh … but I had to pay for it.)

Anyway, the point is this: I’m back, baby!

And as always, I gots plenty-ta-say.

Stay tuned! The night is young!

Time to hand out due credit for all the great local sports news that The Herald continues to generate, break and report every day. 

I’m doing this on the heels of two things: The first I will tell you now, the other is contained in the post directly below this one.

As for No. 1, in my mailbox Thursday, I received our Georgia Sportswriters Association Awards, of which The Herald won 10 this past year. And while I always personally tell the sports staff as often as I can when they’ve done a great job, it’s time to give each of them public recognition on my blog.

While it’s no secret that The Albany Herald’s sports department dominates the Southwest Georgia sports scene like no other news source, I want to take a second and give a shout out to the three guys who help make it all possible: Scott Chancey, Paul Dehner Jr. and Derek Barichello.

And if you’re someone who cares at all about Albany-area sports, you should care about just who these three guys are bringing it to you day after day.

In terms of seniority, let’s start with Mr. Chancey …

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Because I know how arrogant this sounds if you didn’t read “Shout Out #1: Herald sports staff,” post above you, I will be brief.

I’m giving myself a shout out today because — thanks largely to the three Herald employees you read about in “Shout Out #1″ — yours truly was named overall “Albany Herald Employee of the Quarter” on Thursday out of five other departments.

If you already knew from the outside looking in that The Albany Herald sports staff rocked, know ya know it’s the same from the inside looking out.

Hearing this news was a personal milestone in my career. And I couldn’t be prouder of the entire sports staff for helping us earn that type of respect and recognition. 

It’s humbling — and it only makes us wanna try harder.

So thanks to all of those at The Herald who voted for me.

I sincerely appreciate you taking notice of the hard work.

—

Danny Aller
Sports editor
The Albany Herald

I know, I know … stick to print media and what we know, right?

Well, times are changing and The Herald’s changing with it.

Going on three weeks ago, we made a big to-do about The Herald’s sports staff filiming our first ever segment of a weekly high school football show — a show, at the time, we couldn’t even agree on a name for.

Still, we hastily went forward with little to no gameplan, filmed it, posted it — hated it — and immediately took it down before anyone could bash us too bad.

And trust me when I tell you this: We did everyone a favor. (We actually had some reports of blindness and bouts of typhoid just from watching it).

Well, folks, I’m glad to announce that those days are behind us.

We now have a title — “Friday Night Insight” — and we’ll be filming it every Thursday and posting it online each Friday morning at Albanyherald.com. 

And while I don’t want to give the new format or ideas away — because I’m pretty sure ESPN would just swoop in and copy it — just listen to the reviews by the critics who’ve been given a sneak peek!

*** “It is, by far, the worst thing to ever happen to mankind,” postures God.
*** “The first time I watched it, it gave me the chills. And a headache …. a fever … a broken rib … and the mumps,” writes famed Washington Post sportswriter Michael Wilbon.
*** “There is good. There is great. And then there is amazing. This show is none of these things,” whispers film critic Gene Siskell from his grave.

So stay tuned.

Because “Friday Night Insight,” is coming to a computer near you Oct. 17.
 

Before I get going, first things first: Tonight’s prep football update schedule.

We will be doing live blogs/updates/commentary from the following games tonight:

Westover vs. Monroe at Hugh Mills Stadium
Thomas County Central at Lee County
Sherwood at Valwood
Deerfield at Trinity Christian
Crisp Academy at Terrell Academy

We’re a little short on game coverage this week (normally we update at least 7) because we’re also short on help. Two or The Herald’s freelancers had previous engagements Friday and those things happen from time to time. Fortunately, this is the only time in the first seven weeks it has happened and our coverage has been stellar so far.

Or as Rafael Nadal would say in his finest choppy English accent, “The best sports team in Southwest Georgia, no?”

No debating that, Raph!