Busy time for the Lazy Boy

By Mike Szvetitz
Sports Editor, Opelika-Auburn News
Published: April 20, 2009

It was a seriously busy weekend in the Opelika-Auburn area.

Seriously.

See? I told you.

And we were there for most all of it. Really.

Let’s review with the LBWC. Shall we?

5) Sunday afternoon. They can say that on cable?
I spent about five hours Sunday on the La-Z-Boy watching TV, namely the FX television premier of “The Departed.“ I saw this flick back in 2006, when it won Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Director. I think it was the last movie the Busy Girl and I saw in a theater that wasn’t “Charlotte’s Web.“

Anyway, we watched it again Sunday afternoon. Not as “good” edited for television, but HOLY COW, it wasn’t that “edited.“ I know you can get away with a lot on cable these days, but I didn’t know you could say/show that much. Wow.

Still a good flick. And it got me out of helping out for about four hours. Bonus.

4) Friday afternoon/evening. Let’s play four!
I saw about 100 innings of high school baseball Friday. I went to the Beauregard/Chilton County doubleheader first and saw the Hornets sweep the Tigers to advance to the second round of the Class 5A playoffs.
Then, after that, I headed to Dadeville to catch Dadeville bounce No. 2 Sumiton Christian out of the postseason with a two-game sweep.
It was actually the first high school baseball I watched all season. And it was good.
Baseball in this area is good. Really good, as evident by the teams we still have alive heading to the second round: Auburn (6A), Beauregard (5A), Tallassee (5A), Dadeville (3A) and Reeltown (2A).

I’ll be heading back out to Beauregard this Friday for more from the ballpark. But this time, I’ll remember the sunscreen. My head is just now starting to peel from the burn I got this past Friday. Not good times. At all.

3) Saturday morning. Look, it’s a llama!
The Busy Family went to the Auburn University Vet School’s Open House. It was really cool. We saw horses, dogs, sheep, goats, more dogs and llamas.
My daughters loved it. Especially the llamas. Little Tornado even tried to ride one. She was more successful at eating hay, however.

2) Saturday afternoon. A-Day of football.
Don’t know if you heard, or not, but Auburn held its annual A-Day spring game Saturday at Jordan-Hare Stadium. Auburn won. Naturally.
Don’t believe me? Here’s Andrew P. Gribble’s story to prove it. Oh, and don’t mind the video.

And, if you’d like, you can also read my column about the biggest A-Day crowd in the history of Auburn University tackle football. (One dollar to APG.)

My take from A-Day?

Well, three things.
1) I didn’t like the first-team vs. second-team setup. If you’re going to scrimmage like a game, play 1s vs. 1s. But, Gene Chizik had his reasons—injuries and they’ve been going 1 vs. 1 all spring—which, I can understand. But it really didn’t give anyone a true look at what this team is capable of.

2) The scoring system was flawed. I’m all for giving the defense a chance to score points, and even think it was a good PR move to use the system for A-Day because the scoreboard makes it seem like a lot happened, when, in truth, not much did. But they don’t keep score like that in real games, so why do it in a “mock” game?

3) No quarterback separated himself this spring. I don’t know who was better, Kodi Burns or Neil Caudle. I only got a chance to see them “play” once all spring. But the fact that neither of them did enough in the coaches eyes to become the starter, that leaves me to believe that the job is still wide open for a certain guy name Chris Todd. If his shoulder can get better and he can throw the ball like former AU offensive coordinator Tony Franklin said he can—“through a car wash without it getting wet”—then I think he can make a run for the top job.

But a lot is going to happen between now and the start of fall practice. A lot.

Stay tuned.

1) Saturday night. Gone Country.
The Busy Girl and I checked out Sticks on Saturday night. We got there just in time for Diamond Rio—a family favorite. Then we saw Sara Evans and Trace Adkins.

Did you know Evans is married to former Alabama quarterback Jay Barker? Well, you do now.
And did you also know that Adkins has a song called “Honky Tonk Badonkadonk”? Well, you do now.

It was good to get out of the house without the kids for an evening.
We heard some good music, saw a lot of people and even some fights. I mean, really, can you have a country music festival without a couple good brawls? And the answer, of course, is no.

But a good time was had by all, except for the guy we saw get “carried” out by five police officers for his part in a fight. That guy was a long way from having a good time.