Tom Talks

Checkers fun, even if you don't know hockey

   I've never been able to get around the fact that the sports I like most are the sports I watched and played as a kid. Those sports are football, basketball, boxing and baseball.

   Baseball was No. 1 when i was growing up. It's dropped to No. 4, now. And it has nothing to do with rampant steroid use, lax drug policies or Roger Clemens.

   I've learned to appreciate sports I was not exposed to as a kid. One of them is racing. Anybody that claims drivers aren't athletes has never watched a race sober.

   Hockey I've struggled with. Even though I grew up in a city in which hockey was hugely popular, I never really learned to skate. I played boot hockey, but that was mainly knocking each other around, and because I could run, leading forays on the goal.

   Most of the Catholic school kids played basketball. Most of the public school kids played hockey. They were on the rink. We were in the school gym. When one of my younger brothers transferred from Catholic to public school -- it was the public school in our district -- he put down the ball and picked up a stick.

   So I don't know hockey. I admit it. But despite my lack of insight, I had a blast Tuesday night at the Charlotte Checkers game. The game was fast, with lots of big hits and cool goals. The fans are dedicated. Nobody went to Charlotte Bobcats Arena that night to be seen to to see Jessica Simpson. They know the sport and their players.

   The athletes seemed to have a contest to see who could be the least pretentious. The locker room is full of young, upbeat players hoping to get promoted and, in the meantime, playing the game they love.

   Nathan Gillies, a good all-around player who rents space in the penalty box, is my new favorite athlete.

   It's easy to forget that there's a lot of stuff out there, in and out of sports, that many of us ignore. It's simply not part of our routine. I hope to make the Checkers part of mine.

What sport did you never understand when you were younger that you embrace now? Or what sport do you suggest I embrace? Let me know in the comments.

There are reasons to miss Dickie V

   I'm going to miss Dick Vitale. Vitale, who underwent surgery on his vocal cords Tuesday, won't return to ESPN and college basketball until February, maybe later.

   Vitale can get on your nerves. He gets on mine. He deifies coaches. If North Carolina's Butch Davis coached basketball, Vitale probably would have lobbied the Tar Heels to give him an even bigger raise. He won four games, baby!

   But Vitale is real, and his love for the sport more than offsets his cheerleading. There are so many people who complain incessantly about bosses and co-workers. The man and a woman at the table next to mine in the S. Tryon Street coffee shop last week talked non-stop for 30 minutes about the company for which they worked, and every sentence was invested with put-upon anger.

   Vitale's respect for his sport and for his job pervades everything he does. He is excited enough for him and for viewers, and you can't help but get caught up in his enthusiasm.

   Also, he doesn't think he's a big deal. So many broadcasters (and even a few newspaper reporters) assume since the sport they cover is important they are, too.

   Vitale doesn't. The man you see on TV is the same man you see at courtside, in the press room and in hotel lobbies. He's gracious, he's humble and he truly enjoys his fans.

   College basketball won't be the same without him.

   Will you miss Vitale while he's out? Why or why not? Post your thoughts in the comments section below.

Talk is cheap (especially if you're a nobody)

If you talk trash about an opponent, you probably should be a player that fans, the other team and perhaps your teammates have heard of.

First Anthony Smith, the obscure Pittsburgh Steeler safety out of Syracuse, guarantees a victory against New England. The Patriots won by 21. Smith claimed he was misquoted. What he meant to say, perhaps, was that he hoped the Steelers would give the Patriots a good game and the spirit of sportsmanship would prevail.

Then Rutger's JR Inman says North Carolina's Tyler Hansbrough has yet to be challenged this season by a player such as him.

"I really don't think he can guard me," Inman said.

Inman took 14 shots from the field Sunday. Three went in the basket. He added three rebounds. Hansbrough scored 20 points and grabbed 11 rebounds in North Carolina's 93-71 victory.

Although Smith and Inman ought to be embarrassed, I hope players continue to guarantee victories and talk about how they can't be guarded. Such talk makes a small game big and a big game bigger.

It's especially interesting when the guy that promises the victory or says he can't be guarded is wrong.

Panthers' week features new, unexpected, and Cowboys

   Where would sports be without surprises? Where would we be? We wouldn't be in the bleachers. Unlikely outcomes are one of the reasons we keep coming back.

   Carolina's 13-10 victory against Seattle Sunday was an unlikely outcome. Nothing the Panthers did in their first 13 games prepared fans for what they saw Sunday.

   The defense was dominant, the home team avoided its almost weekly third-quarter swoon and the new guy, Matt Moore, played with a poise that was remarkable for a rookie who had spent the season as a fourth-quarter substitute.

   Fans like new guys. New is why we get so excited about draft picks and potential draft picks. In Moore they have another new guy -- along with Jon Beason and the almost new Richard Marshall -- to get excited about.

   The idea of Moore going against the Dallas Cowboys Saturday, the team that discovered him, signed him and released him, enhances an already compelling game.

   Why is the game compelling? It involves the Cowboys, who wear the star and have an enormous following in Charlotte and everywhere else, and it's Saturday night.

   The Seattle game was for football fans, many of whom bought tickets from season-ticket holders or were given tickets. They wanted to be there.

   Saturday is for everybody. Bank of America Stadium will be jammed.

Wake Forest, Appalachian give us reason to get excited about college football in N.C.

Thank you, Appalachian State and Wake Forest, for carrying North Carolina's college football fortunes. Thank you for giving us a reason to get excited. Thanks for doing it without pretense.

I have a great Meineke Car Care Bowl for you: Appalachian State vs. Wake Forest at Bank of America Stadium. The thing would sell out before I finish this paragraph. I just finished this paragraph.

I couldn't catch Charlotte's 15-point victory against Southern Illinois last Saturday because I was at the Independence-New Bern high school football game. But I need to see the 49ers. Basketball is more interesting around here when they are. They play Gardner-Webb, conquerors of Kentucky, at home Dec. 22 and Maryland at Bobcats Arena on Jan. 5.

Bobby Lutz's teams have been undone recently by the lack of a point guard. When a game went bad there was nobody with the skill or will to set the pace, calm teammates and, most importantly, get those teammates the ball where they were in position to do something with it. Now Lutz has two point guards.

Be cool if the 49ers and Davidson both get it working this season. It will make March more compelling for fans of the local teams and of the sport.

I haven't put in my "Santa Claus Versus the Martians" DVD yet. You want a room to yourself? Play the DVD. The Martians, you see, are a joyless society, perhaps because of the way they dress, and they kidnap Santa so their kids won't be joyless, too.

'Tis the season to share the warmth

   There's no reason to keep our sunshiny 80-degree afternoons to ourselves. Maybe I'm wrong, but I believe it's important to share. So I called one of my brothers. He works in St. Cloud, Minn., and if by some remote chance you're not familiar with St. Cloud, it makes Green Bay look tropical and Nome look balmy.

   How's the weather?

   "It's 9 degrees," Pete says. "But it was 3 (degrees) when I was driving to work. So it's warming up."

   "It's warming up here, too," I tell him. "I'm not sure of the temperature but I have the top down on the car and I'm wearing a T-shirt. I think it's pushing 80. It's weird, though, to listen to Christmas music when the weather is so warm. For some reason, it sounds even better."

   In news unrelated to the weather, I have a favor to ask. Does anybody know of a store with an electric train set-up in front of which we could take a picture for a story? All we want to do is take a picture of a subject with the train. We'd like to do this Thursday. If you know of such a place, please send me an email at tsorensen@charlotteobserver.com. And thanks.

   I never pass a bell-ringing Santa Claus without dropping a dollar in his pot. By now I feel as if I know two bell-ringing Santa's, especially the bell-ringing Santa in front of the Harris-Teeter on Providence Road.

   I know -- which Harris-Teeter on Providence Road?

   The one way out past Ballantyne Commons Parkway and I-485.

   The Santa is a cool guy, full of humor and life, and when he sees me drop the money in, he always says, "You're a good man."

   The last time I dropped the dollar in, however, he didn't see me.

   What to do? I couldn't pull it back, obviously. This is not a Seinfeld show. Plus there is honor involved. Plus my hand was too big.

   On the way out of the store I dropped another dollar in.

   "You're a good man," he said.

   "No," I told him. "You are."

Hard to spoil a leisurely Sunday

   I had Sunday off. It was a strange phenomenon. I had attended and written about Carolina's previous seven games.

   As much as I like going on the road with the Panthers, I loved waking up Sunday morning and realizing I didn't have to work. I could eat slowly, read the paper and walk dogs without looking at my watch. 

   I could monitor my Fantasy Football team, which failed to make the real playoffs and is competing in the loser's bracket. I could hit the gym and the coffee shop and still catch the opening kickoff.

   I don't listen to the network feed when I'm covering a game because I don't want to be influenced by the announcers. I don't think Todd Boselli's opinions would have influenced me Sunday, but his cliches might have.

   "This is a must-win situation, Tom."

   "Right you are, Biff."

   He might have said, must-win. He might have said, "Jacksonville has the edge on paper but this game isn't played on paper."

   Right you are.

   And why do people insist on talking about Carolina's playoff possibilities? If this team qualifies for the playoffs, the NFC should be eliminated.

   The Panthers 2007 team motto: We Are, Too, Better than San Francisco.

   In the third quarter, I could take no more. I went outside with the dogs. Than I felt guilty and was lured back in. Interception. Eighty-yard touchdown run. Late unnecessary field goal. Outside beckoned.

   There were two surprises Sunday. The first was Phil Simms. That guy is angry. He rails against the players who make the Pro Bowl because of the publicity they get and then refuses to name them. Simms wasn't pretending to be mad. He is an angry man. You could introduce him as, Angry Phil Simms. One of these Sundays, he will blow up on national TV.

   The second surprise was that, as hard as I tried, I could not make my Sunday last. You know the feeling.