The D-IV portion of this year’s State Baseball Tourney will provide the most compelling matchup in this weekend’s season ending tournament. And everyone in Press Pros country will be cheering for a Minster-Russia rematch.

If you’re feeling a certain emptiness over the weekend’s graduation – over your son or daughter’s passing through to another, better challenge and the change that comes with it – consider how empty it would if they didn’t have something better to anticipate.

On the subject of umpires and officiating, the question of “right” and “wrong” is age-old, but now there’s a different concern about where the next generation of officials is coming from, and what they know about the sports they work.

Observations from the school up north, with respects to those who live here, freeze here, and probably spend the majority of their lives…looking south.

If you appreciated our recollection of singer Tammy Wynette last week (or not), maybe you’ll look with more favor on another of America’s great voices who died on this date, long before his time.

It doesn’t seem possible, but 19 years ago today the woman known as the “Queen” of country music moved on. Her voice, thankfully, through her recordings…stays behind!

With baseball starting next week, the emails have never been more brisk on the topic of competition, winning, and why more kids, perhaps, aren’t playing high school baseball.

They’re hailing the hiring of Archie Miller as basketball coach, as they always do at Indiana – like this time it’s the “sure” thing. But they have short memories in Bloomington, and a case of entitlement…when it comes to basketball.

Pursuant to the recent columns on “winning” and reader reactions on the current reader comments page, I’m amused to share the words of one of this week’s hottest names in basketball…South Carolina’s Frank Martin.

If you ever question the value of those who coach, who teach, and who help run your schools…the feet on the ground…come to a state tournament and just observe. You’ll see what I mean.

It’s a well-recognized tune, one of the most famous in America, but for the sake of fact…some words about a “national” tune not written by John Phillip Sousa, but one he admitted that he liked as much as his own.

It doesn’t seem possible that the names and heroes of your youth can possibly be gone, taken away, but thanks to baseball cards – and memories- they live on as if those times were only yesterday.

Apparently there’s another out there who’s cynical and forthright about how things are done, and why. He’s UC basketball coach Mick Cronin, and it’s hard to disagree with his words last week on what the NCAA tourney committee did, and their bottom line for doing it.

If you’d like to make a career out of writing, or even teaching others how to write, here’s your final call for financial aid from Press Pros and the 2017 Hal McCoy Scholarship award.

While we worry about teaching our kids good sportsmanship we too often fail to realize how important disappointment really is…if you want to appreciate true happiness.

It used to be a big deal to fly in on a commercial airline, an experience that most would never forget, so good was the service. Now, the art of flying has been replaced by the ‘act’ of flying. And airline service that says, “Screw ’em.”

The man who once wrote that Arizona is untamed and unspoiled didn’t live long enough to see it now. The snowbirds are all here…for life, and baseball.

To respond to our weekend mailbag following last week’s opening to NCAA baseball, some thoughts on the choice of early baseball content, and its relevance to what’s good for “kids”.

After disappointing losses in their first two games against Furman, the Dayton Flyers look to salvage a win, and confidence, in Sunday’s series finale.