Press Box
JUST like pro golf, the sports media has its silly season. Between the baseball All-Star game and the start of football season what passes for sports news undergoes a drastic change. Waivers and wavering
part of ‘silly season’Athletes literally not doing anything, not moving an inch, become front-page news. (At least the Aloha Bowl moves around. And around and around.)
We've witnessed two local examples recently -- Benny Agbayani and his waivers and Lily Kahumoku and her wavering.
Benny says we can all relax because he's not going anywhere. Publicly, Agbayani says he's glad he didn't get traded. But you've got to wonder if he would have liked to have been dealt to the Giants and into a pennant race.
University of Hawaii volleyball fans can -- and should -- forget about Kahumoku returning this season.
Dave Shoji should borrow the line from the coach in "Hoosiers," played by Gene Hackman:
"This is your team."
And the fans need to deal with it.
There are thousands of things in life more important than hitting a volleyball, and apparently Kahumoku is dealing with one or two of them now.
The silly season also allows us the time to ponder the "unwritten rules."
Baseball is full of unofficial but strict guidelines on how to react to specific situations.
If an opponent hits your teammate with a pitch, you must react properly. Your pitcher must immediately, if not sooner, bean the appropriate opponent on the appropriate body part. The slightest variance is cause for World War III.
And don't steal a base in a lopsided game, unless you are Rickey Henderson. There are no rules, written or unwritten in Rickey World.
There are unwritten rules for fans, too. Here are some for those of you attending University of Hawaii football practices this month.
>> DO bring water and an umbrella and wear sunscreen. If you bring a chair, make sure you can get out of it quickly.
>> DO NOT run onto the middle of Cooke Field to give head coach June Jones a can't-miss play you scribbled on a cocktail napkin the night before.
>> DO pay special attention to the one-on-one drills, especially those involving the interior linemen. "In the games, you'll only see the guys on the end," says Dana Directo, former UH defensive lineman and current quarry dweller.
>> DO NOT wear University of Montana gear. And, especially, DO NOT wear University of Montana gear while shooting video.
>> DO remember that if the offense looks really good, it is playing against the Warrior defense.
And vice versa, of course.
>> DO NOT ask defensive coordinator Kevin Lempa why your 5-foot-3, 140-pound cousin is not getting more reps at linebacker.
>> DO keep an eye on offensive line coach Mike Cavanaugh. With special teams coach Dennis McKnight no longer with the team, Cavanaugh is by far the most entertaining staff member to watch as he works.
>> DO NOT try to join the team at its post-practice training table, since you were out of town during the Pigskin Pigout.
Dave Reardon, who covered sports in Hawaii from 1977 to 1998,
moved to the the Gainesville Sun, then returned to
the Star-Bulletin in Jan. 2000.
E-mail Dave: dreardon@starbulletin.com