Further awarding a turkey

Our friends at the Daily News Journal down in Murfreesboro appropriately released their "Turkeys of the Year" for 2009 on this Thanksgiving day.

You can read the list, which is six pages long, at:

http://www.dnj.com/article/20091126/SPORTS/911250345/1006/DNJ+Turkeys+of+the+Year

The first turkey on page six caught my eye. It happened to be Mother Nature. The DNJ gives its reason:

"Rain has destroyed most of the football fields in the county and at least one school has begun to look at the option of turf."

I believe I would have to agree with them, as the torrential rains this year have screwed up a lot of fields, particularly, Tullahoma, who had to move its home opener with Blackman to, well, Blackman, and were forced to wait a month before the first game in their brand new stadium.

We at MTSN, or at least myself, have our (or, again, at least my) reasons for this.

When we started in February, softball was fast approaching. Two years earlier, Craig Jolly and myself had broadcast Blackman Lady Blaze games on another online radio network. When we formed MTSN, that was one entity we wanted for our on-air schedule.

We and now former Lady Blaze coach Scott Dorsett agreed to 5 regular season games: March 31 at Oakland, April 7 hosting Riverdale, April 14 hosting Oakland, April 25 at Riverdale, and April 28 hosting Soddy Daisy, a game I was looking forward to because of Soddy Daisy's great softball history.

The season came, and as scheduled, the first game against Oakland took place on March 31, a 9-0 romp for the Lady Blaze. But Mother Nature had already been messing with schools' softball (and baseball) schedules. Hendersonville High's Commando Classic took place in mid-March, the first two days in beautiful, not-a-cloud-in-the-sky weather. However, the rest of the week-long tournament was a total washout, as cold, rainy weather ended up winning out, and Hendersonville lost a ton of money.

A few days after the first Oakland game, a cold front moved through and dropped the temperatures down. Down enough that the first game with Riverdale was postponed because Blackman felt that the cold weather would keep fans away. It was moved to April 19. Three days later (April 10), the Good Friday tornado hit, starting in the Blackman Community, and getting close to the school.

The next game against Oakland was postponed to April 26 because of rainy conditions, though, there wasn't a lot of rain around.

More rain hit the next weekend, and the first Riverdale game was postponed again, meaning the teams' first meeting would take place on Warrior Drive six days later. Fortunately, and finally, Mother Nature behaved long enough that we were able to broadcast four games in four days: both Riverdale games (the home version of which was moved to April 28, killing the big showdown with Soddy Daisy), the rematch with Oakland, and the Senior Night game against Lebanon that we didn't intend to do, but since the weather was so sucky, we though, why not? Thankfully, we did our intended number of regular season contests.

Fast forward to the Fall, and football season. Blackman was hot, unbeaten under new head coach Philip Shadowens. Riverdale was looking to return to former glory. How appropriate that the two would meet up in the last week of the season before playoffs. I had wanted that game long before we would know what it would mean, the District 7-AAA championship being on the line.

We got the game, and were thrilled. We were not surprised when WGNS also announced they would close their regular season broadcasts with the contests, nor did we mind. One, we expected it, and two, we have done events with them around before, so we get along nicely. A couple of weeks later, 104.5 The Zone also announced they would air the game. OK, we don't mind that, either. As long as the weather was good.

As the big game approached, we recorded a 30-second promo for the broadcast. We were thrilled to be able to cover the game.

As Week 10 approached, though, the forecast took a lousy turn. Friday looked especially dreary, with thunderstorms. Since the press box would be full, we would have to do the game outdoors.

Gameday came. Heavy rains were still forecast, but the chances of lightning greatly decreased. A couple of hours before the game, it was apparent that lightning would not be a factor, and the game would take place, even in horrible wind and rain. That meant all the video crews filming the game for use come playoff time would be moved indoors, squeezing us out. We couldn't stay. The rain would ruin our equipment, and since our network has no advertisers for the time being, no equipment meant no more broadcasts for a long time. We were forced to our backup plan: Siegel and LaVergne, going from what was the district championship game to a game between two teams who were winless in the district, with a turnout of about 200 because of the awful weather, and the teams' combined 0-8 district record coming in.

To make matters worse, we knew nothing about the two teams other than they were winless in district play, and Siegel running back Gerald Howse had a pretty good game against Tullahoma the week before, which happened to be on TV. Also, about 50 people were on our home page, waiting to hear Blackman-Riverdale, only to be massively disappointed.

I'd say our credibility took a hit, since we had done the promo for the broadcast. It would've been our biggest broadcast ever, but no, the rain just couldn't await.

So, Mother Nature, for squeezing our 2009 softball broadcast schedule into two weeks (I include our coverage of the District 7-AAA tournament in this), and for killing what would've been our biggest broadcast ever, forcing us to cover the "Who Will Win This Meaningless Game and Finish 1-4 In the District?" Bowl, I award you the first annual Middle Tennessee Sports Network Turkey Award. Come Spring, please, please be a little more merciful with your rains.

-- Michael

Welcome to our blog!

The Middle Tennessee Sports Network launched this past February and we continue to grow, slowly, but we're getting there.

This is the best place to read announcements from our network, whether they be about upcoming broadcasts, or games we have just picked up for broadcasts.

And the voices behind the Middle Tennessee Sports Network will use this space to give our thoughts on happenings in the world of sports.

Stay tuned!

-- Michael Hackney, Middle Tennessee Sports Network