One Thursday a month, we meet for lunch.
Lastly known as the Busch Wackers, the original softball team was more recreational and social than competitive, although we were decent.
When Dr. Terry Yamauchi took the team over, it won like a million games and lost one. Terry was always our best player, although in the summer of 1975, we didn't know that when we added him as the 17th player on a start-up team.
Terry was being recruited by Arkansas Children's Hospital and when a formal dinner for he and Allison was going over like a tropical storm at the beach, a quick call from Dr. Bob Fizer and they were on the way to the apartment for a party.
When Terry and Allison walked in, he ripped his tie off, let it fly and his sport coat followed. He felt welcomed and before the night was over, he was offered a spot on the softball team, originally called the Paragons, he signed on.
Anyway, we get together and talk about everything but softball or the medicines we might or might not be on.
Nothing else is taboo and last Thursday at Larry Price's house -- we usually got to a restaurant and if it is someone's birthday month, the rest of the group buys for him -- Benny Greenbaum boldly predicted Audible would not run in the Belmont Stakes because he and Justify have the same owners, Winstar Farms and China Horse Company.
Yours truly disagreed.
Justify, who has two legs of the Triple Crown under his belt, beat Audible in the Kentucky Derby, but Audible had a bit of trouble and was making up ground at the end of the race. Trainer Todd Pletcher held him out of the Preakness. Conventional thinking was so he'd be fresh for the Belmont.
Pletcher likes to do that, but he doesn't train Justify. Bob Baffert does and if there was any doubt that Elliott Walden, a former trainer who runs Winstar Farms, was making the call, that was gone Friday when he said Audible would not run in the Belmont, that it wouldn't be good if the wrong horse won.
We won't be having lunch again until after the Belmont, so Benny's pick isn't known. But if the Justify that won the Kentucky Derby shows up, he wins. But the horse that won the Preakness won't hit the board.
More on the race as it gets closer to running, but don't expect Justify to be the pick here. The 1 1/2-mile race has killed many dreams over the years, and Justify looked empty as he held off two challengers to win the Preakness. Coming back three weeks later might be asking a lot.
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It was like a fairy tale come true for Layne Hatcher last week.
Friday morning, he woke up a greyshirt headed to Arkansas State, the No. 2 program in his home state. But before lunch he was a full scholarship quarterback headed to the No. 1 program in the country.
That morning Nick Saban, Alabama's head football coach, called Hatcher again. His previous calls were to invite him to walk on for the Crimson Tide. This time it was to offer a full ride.
Greg Hatcher, noted former athlete, founder of the Bluebirds soccer program and the driving force behind wrestling in Arkansas, as well as Lane's dad, called Blake Anderson, the head coach at ASU, and, "Blake could not have been more gracious," Greg said.
Currently Alabama has three scholarship quarterbacks and one of the fiercest competitions in the country, so it would appear in August one will transfer, and that will put Layne Hatcher at the No. 3 spot and Saban likes to travel with three quarterbacks even if they are redshirting.
Sports on 05/27/2018