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Former American Press sportswriter Carl Dubois blogs about the games people play, in and out of sports, and the people you meet between and outside the lines.

Carl is an award-winning reporter and columnist living in the Willamette Valley in northwest Oregon, near Portland. He is sports editor of the News-Register newspaper in McMinnville, Ore.

A Peanuts flashback in California

Posted August 11, 2010 at 10:01 pm
Filed Under Sports | 1 Comment

NEEDLES, Calif. — Well, this is the first time I’ve started a story or a blog post with that dateline.

Before I ever knew Needles really existed, I thought it was just a cool name from the imagination of Charles Schulz. Now, as I stop for the night just across the border from Arizona, I know this place is real.

OK, I knew it before I got here, but it’s still fun to remember the days when it seemed like a made-up town name. A friend reminded me of those days by sharing this with me.

spike-strip-2 [American Press]

Goodnight from Needles.

Standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona

Posted August 11, 2010 at 12:50 pm
Filed Under Sports | 2 Comments

Seriously. I am.

Had to stop. Had to do it. Had to say it. I wasn’t the only one.

winslow arizona [American Press]

The town of Winslow picked an intersection and declared it “the corner” from the song “Take It Easy” by the Eagles. A YouTube video is below in case you need your memory jogged.

This sign says “Standin’ on the corner,” but one on the other side of the street matches the line from the song.

standing on a corner in winslow [American Press]

On yet another corner at this intersection, Kinsley Avenue and Second Street, there’s this sign over the entrance to another place.

standing on the corner in winslow [American Press]

The other corner at the intersection was simply a paved area with an unstaffed information booth. Meanwhile …

girl_my_lord_in_flatbed_ford [American Press]

A closer look at the statue under the sign reveals a mural of the girl in the flatbed Ford.

route 66 in Winslow [American Press]

The intersection, the “corner in Winslow, Arizona,” is one block off Historic Route 66.

Before all this, I saw the sun come up today in Albuquerque before heading west and crossing into Arizona. I did think about another Eagles song, “Tequila Sunrise.”

sun rising over mountains [American Press]

Or is this more like it?

sunrise west of abq [American Press]

More photos from today’s travels:

last look at NM [American Press]

One last look at New Mexico (sorry, it’s not that good a photo) before crossing over into …

arizona large [American Press]

That one stands on its own.

scenic view [American Press]

A scenic view early into my drive in Arizona. The photo doesn’t do it justice, but I hope it gives you a sense of what it was like this morning.

Long before that, I tried to capture a view of pre-dawn Albuquerque below my hotel.

albuquerque before dawn [American Press]

Not great, but it’s the thought that counts, right? It reminds me of a photo someone sent me today: It doesn’t show everything clearly, but you get a feel for it.

But yes, I’m standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona. For someone who came of age in the ’70s, there are worst things to do on a Wednesday.

And now, this musical interlude:

So, yeah, I’m moving to Oregon

Posted August 11, 2010 at 2:55 am
Filed Under Sports | 2 Comments

ALBUQUERQUE — I’ve been so busy packing and saying goodbye to people, I forgot to tell you: I’m moving to Oregon.

I told the readers of Tiger Rag here. Sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. But, to make up for it, I have pictures. Not great pictures, mind you, because I took them with my BlackBerry (and some of you have seen how that usually turns out), but pictures nonetheless.

If you’re wondering why I’m headed west instead of to the Pacific Northwest, well, I’m headed to California first to visit my sisters and other relatives, and then it’s off to Oregon and my new life. Oh yeah, we’ll have to change the mini-bio of me at the top of this blog, won’t we?

I knocked out 12 hours of driving Tuesday. Here are some of the photos I took. By the time I hit some of the truly breathtaking parts of New Mexico, I was running out of gas figuratively and literally, so I didn’t stop to take any photos. Sorry about that. So anyway, here are pieces of the journey I’m having with my Honda Civic.

in new mexico [American Press]

A last look at West Texas from Interstate 40.

new mexico [American Press]

Welcome to New Mexico

Land of Enchantment

mountain time [American Press]

Nothing like gaining an hour. And I get to do that again today when I reach the Pacific time zone.

car [American Press blog]

Miles so far on this trip: 1,122.

Miles remaining: About 1,700 or so.

Talk to you later on West Coast time.

Ctrl+Z, how wonderful it would be

Posted July 29, 2010 at 9:03 am
Filed Under Sports | 1 Comment

The other day I was going through more than 150 large sheets of paper, proofreading the Tiger Rag 2010 Football Preview and rearranging the stack of sheets in front of me. At one point, I realized I’d slipped a few pages in the wrong place, the wrong order, or in some type of disarray.

For a split second, my brain wanted to hit Control-Z on some imaginary keyboard somewhere to “undo” my error.

Then, I laughed out loud at myself.

Imagine how great a world it could be if we all had Ctrl+Z to undo mistakes and make it as if they’d never happened.

Note to Mac users: In your language, I think it’s Command-Z or Apple-Z. Even in a different language, it would be great, wouldn’t it?

A good man walks away

Posted July 17, 2010 at 12:40 pm
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Bobby Johnson retired as Vanderbilt football coach Wednesday. He said he wasn’t sure what awaited him in the months and years after football, but he was sure the discovery would prove to be fun.

I always liked Johnson when I had a chance to talk with him and observing his teams from up close and afar. He’s a coach who tried to do things the right way at a school that faces many disadvantages in terms of competing against its conference rivals.

Below is one of my favorite quotes from his retirement announcement, as published in the San Jose Mercury News.

”Football is not life, but it’s a way of life and it consumes your life. You only have so many years to live, and you want to see a different way.”

I respect anyone with the courage to move on to something else, daring to imagine a different life. I wish him well.

‘Coming Back Stronger’

Posted July 7, 2010 at 7:43 am
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That’s the title of the Drew Brees book that went on sale Tuesday.

There’s little doubt the book, which chronicles the New Orleans Saints quarterback’s triumphs over adversity and his persistence in the face of obstacles, would be popular no matter the headlines in the news this summer. The Saints won the Super Bowl in February, and members of the organization are touring with the Lombardi Trophy. The Championship Tour will stop Tuesday in Lake Charles. The anticipation of the next NFL season is palpable.

Still, it’s obvious the crisis in the Gulf of Mexico and throughout the Gulf Coast makes the release of the book — and its message — more timely for New Orleans and surrounding communities.

The day after the Saints won the Super Bowl, I listened to the normally cynical Garland Robinette on WWL Radio as he read a poem he wrote for his daughter, a piece of writing from the heart that sought to tell her, in future years, to believe — as Robinette believed after the impossible had happened. Robinette talked about building a new New Orleans again, this time charged with the realization that anything really can happen.

Soon after oil began stretching out for miles and miles in the Gulf after the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon, I knew Robinette’s new-found optimism would be put to the test.

On the day I learned oil had reached Lake Ponchartrain, Drew Brees’ “Coming Back Stronger” hit bookstores all over New Orleans and everywhere else books are sold. Based on advance reviews, it sounds like a book with a theme the region could use right about now.

Click on the cover below for more information.

CFL kicks off … where’s Kerry Joseph?

Posted July 2, 2010 at 8:12 am
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The Canadian Football League season is under way. Kerry Joseph, as I write this, is not on a roster. He’s a free agent.

Huh?

I’ve covered a lot of college quarterbacks. I covered two BCS national championship teams, a Cotton Bowl, a Capital One Bowl, a Peach Bowl, four SEC Championship Games, a Bluegrass Miracle, Tim Tebow vs. LSU in the greatest game-day and game-night atmosphere I’ve ever experienced, and a whole lot more, and I can’t think of a quarterback I had more fun watching than Kerry Joseph.

To this day I’m still mystified there’s no place for him in the NFL. The CFL? He was the league’s Outstanding Player in 2007 as he led the Saskatchewan Roughriders to the Grey Cup championship.

His performance in McNeese’s 30-28 quarterfinal loss at Montana in 1994, a game in which the Cowboys trailed 27-7 in the fourth quarter, is unforgettable. A year later, as the backup punter at James Madison, he turned and ran the other way to chase the ball after a high snap, eluded would-be tacklers and boomed an amazing on-the-run punt that remains the most incredible pinch-hit performance I’ve ever seen on a single play. That, coupled with a defense that forced a critical turnover, helped Joseph mastermind the greatest comeback in McNeese football history.

The week prior to Central Florida’s visit to Cowboy Stadium in 1995, I wrote more than a little bit about the buzz surrounding the team’s freshman quarterback, Daunte Culpepper. Joseph lit up the Golden Knights in a 49-7 McNeese victory, and after the game he made it clear he’d been reading all my stories about Culpepper. Joseph said, without a smile, that there was another quarterback in the game, not just Culpepper. He was right. Joseph threw a career-high four touchdown passes in the game, turning the controls over to freshman Tim Leger late in the third quarter with the Cowboys leading 42-0. I later learned the McNeese coaches helped motivate him by constantly reminding him of how much coverage the other team’s QB was getting in the local paper. It wasn’t the first time a coach used me to fire up a team or a player (how you doing, Ron Everhart?), and I’m sure it won’t be the last (see you soon, Les).

Joseph remains my favorite player to stare a hole through me in a postgame interview. He was exciting to watch, and he’s got the strongest arm most of the United States has never seen.

He threw the ball 88 yards on the fly in Cowboy Stadium during a tryout of sorts for the Philadelphia Eagles. He was briefly in the NFL but spent most of his career in Canada. Now, he’s a free agent.

I have to believe there’s a CFL team out there that would be better for signing him.

The season just started. There’s time. I’ll keep an eye on the transactions wire. Perhaps we’ll have a lot to talk about before the 2010 Grey Cup.

Meanwhile, if you get your hands on the video of that punt, let me know. Years ago you could find it on the Internet. Now, it’s just a memory, but a very cool one.

See you soon. I promise.

P.S. Sorry about the posting dry spell. I’ve been busy. I’ll make it up to you.

This is why I love talk radio

Posted May 13, 2010 at 8:23 am
Filed Under People, Sports | 1 Comment

BATON ROUGE — I heard a local talk show host say this yesterday:

“The believability of LSU athletics is unsurpassable by nobody.”

I’m going to let that one sink in a bit before I tell you what I think he was trying to say. Got any guesses?

Saints need Second Line draft

Posted April 22, 2010 at 11:24 am
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Here’s what I think: The Saints won the Super Bowl this year. Keep the party going. Have a Second Line draft.

Don’t draft on need. Don’t draft to please Mel Kiper Jr. Draft a second line.

Offensive line, defensive line — it doesn’t matter. Pick one. Then draft a second line, one that would substitute for the starters in a uniquely New Orleans way.

The No Fun League, the Who-Dat stealin’ NFL, probably wouldn’t let the subs take this much time getting on the field, but wouldn’t it be worth the 15-yard delay-of-game penalty?

Look what I found in Alabama

Posted April 9, 2010 at 3:19 pm
Filed Under Sports | 1 Comment

I’m in the Auburn-Opelika area on business, and I found something that brought back a lot of memories of growing up in Lake Charles. When’s the last time you stepped inside one of these? Did you even know they still existed?

There are a few, mostly out West, but I found one here while on a work trip in Auburn, Ala.

Shakey