Columns Sports

The end of the MLB season is less than a month away, and some awards are going to be a blowout while others are going to be close. Some awards have been closer as of lately. These are my predictions for the MLB awards. First, the Cy Young in the National League (NL), where I believe that it will come down to Chris Sale and Jacob Misorowski. This year Sale has had a 2.10 ERA with 184 strikeouts (K) to go with only 29 walks. He also has a 14-9 record, and a 1.01 Whip in 150 innings pitched (IP) and 11 K/9. Now, Miskorowski’s resume, he has a 1.97...

Recently, the Atlanta Braves and Los Angeles Dodgers played in one of the most interesting series. The Braves ended up sweeping this series, but the sweep can’t describe the amount of drama that was in this series. This is my recap of the Braves vs Dodgers series. First, in Game 1, the Braves won 4-3. In the 1st, after the Dodgers go down 1-2-3 in the top, Drake Baldwin gets a single, followed by an Acuna pop out and a Matt Olson single sending Drake Baldwin to 3rd. After that Mauricio Dubon singles to right, scoring Drake Baldwin and sending Matt Olson to 3rd. After that, Michael Harris also singled...

Starting in 2017, the MLB started hosting a MLB game in Williamsport, PA. This year we had a match up between two first place teams, the Atlanta Braves vs the Milwaukee Brewers. This game was a close one. Here is my recap of the 2026 Little League Classic. First, I want to mention  the pitching in the game. The match up we saw was the Braves Tyler Mahle vs the Brewers Shane Drohan. First, Tyler Mahle was amazing for Atlanta, he pitched 5 innings letting up 6 hits, and 1 earned run, while getting out of countless jams. For Drohan, he pitched solidly, letting up 8 hits and letting up...

The MLB season is very close to ending and some divisions are pretty much over and some divisions are going to come down to the wire. Here are the top 3 divisions that I believe are over. First, the National League (NL) East. In the NL East the Braves have a 7.5 game lead on the Phillies.  Coming out of the trade deadline both teams made great deals, the head of the Braves deadline was Tyler Mahle, who in a Braves uniform has a 0.75 ERA, the Phillies got one of the best second basemen in allstar Louis Arraez who is batting .315 this season. Leading up to just before the...

A few weeks ago I wrote about the MLB playoffs and Wild Card picks, who gets in, who gets a bye were all big questions. In this article, I want to name all the teams that get to move on to the NLCS, and ALCS. These are my second round playoff predictions. First, in the Dodgers vs Phillies series, I have the Dodgers winning the series in 3. This season the Dodgers have been without a doubt one of the best teams in baseball. Whenever the Dodgers play a team who has an above .500 winning percentage  the team goes 34-31 showing that even when the team gets a tough opponent...

Since this week’s edition is serving as a retrospective of the most talked about events of the past 12 months, I would like to take the opportunity to look back at the biggest sports stories of 2022. As always, this is a tough list to compile. With four coverage area schools participating in everything from football to track to volleyball to wrestling and even e-sports, it’s impossible to include every major event. However, after starting in January of 2022 and working my way forward all the way through last month, I have decided on the top six sports-related stories that were covered by the News Journal. My goal was to...

Although I was not present at last Friday’s KHSAA baseball state tournament contest between Corbin and Central Hardin, I am well aware of the bizarre series of events that occurred in the fourth inning that put the Redhounds at a disadvantage, and likely cost them the game. In case you haven’t already heard and/or seen, the game between Corbin and Central Hardin remained scoreless in the fourth inning. Redhound pitcher Evan Poore was on the mound when a Bruin runner attempted to steal home. Poore’s pitch made it to the catcher in time for him to turn and easily tag out the runner. The umpire gave the signal for the...

If you didn’t get the opportunity to get out to the Corbin Civic Center Saturday night for the debut of Allied Pro Wrestling, you missed a heck of a show. Brad Riley opening the show with a sit-in protest in the ring ala boxer Byun Jung-Il at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. For those of you not familiar with the story, Jung lost a controversial decision after he was penalized for headbutting his opponent. Jung protested the decision by sitting down in the ring, even going so far as to get a chair to be more comfortable during his sit-in. Fortunately, the boxing arena was set up with two rings and all of the...

I witnessed some old-fashioned baseball on Saturday. The game was Whitley County hosting Rockcastle County on a cold windy day. I stayed for a few innings as I was getting pictures. I’m not the diehard that I used to be when the weather could do anything and I was staying until the game was decided. In an era where Major League Baseball is all about everyone trying to hit home runs, both teams were playing rally ball. With the wind blowing out hard to left or right field at different points, it would have been easy for players to try to hit one up into the breeze and see if it gets carried...

I know there is a reason why the schools in the area of Kentucky located in Jackson, Clay, Laurel, Whitley, Knox, Bell and Harlan counties make up the 13th Region. As Tom Hanks’ character, Jim Lovell, famously, told his wife in the blockbuster movie, “Apollo 13” when she asked why his mission had to be 13, “It comes after 12.” The Pulaski County schools along with McCreary Central are among the schools in the 12th Region. So, with the region numbers starting in western Kentucky, our schools get to be in unlucky 13. Maybe the Kentucky High School Athletic Association should give our sports teams a break and let some other group of...