When I walked into Game 1 of the AppleSox playoff series with Corvallis Saturday night, it was business as usual. Just copying down the lineups and getting ready for the game. Sox minority owner Ken Osborne sidles up and asks if I would mind throwing out the ceremonial first pitch for the game.Mind? Hell, I’d love to. While waiting my turn to hopefully not embarrass myself, I had the foresight to hold the ball in my left hand so the sweat wouldn’t wet up the ball too badly. All I wanted to do was not throw a five-hopper. That’s embarrassing for anyone, much less somebody with baseball experience.I walked out to the mound as the mispronounced my last name and said I was from Nevada instead of New Jersey, but who’s counting. I toed the rubber, not one thought of throwing from the foot of the mound. Too much pride for that. I let it go, and it was a high strike, but still a strike. What an experience.  

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A few more thoughts about Brett Favre’s move to the Jets. Playing pro football is very hard. Gross understatement, but bear with me. Just a few months ago, Brett Favre was done. Retired. On the golf course. In the last two weeks, he’s tried to force his way back onto a team that he’s held hostage for years, and said team attempted to pay him $2 million a year to stay home before reluctantly shipping out a guy who’s more popular in Wisconsin than Mr. Pabst and Mr. Miller put together. Now, he’s on a new team with all new guys in a city with the most ravenous sports media in the country. He has to learn an all-new offense and develop chemistry with all new receivers. My big questions are these: the first time a Jet offensive lineman misses a block and he’s got a mouthful of Giants Stadium grass, will he wish he was at home with his kids. The first time the New York media skewers him and the idiot talk-radio hosts/fans roast him for throwing a bad pick, will he wish he was on the golf course in Mississippi, sipping sweet tea and sucking down crawfish? I can’t get completely excited about having No. 4 on my team, because I think the answer might be yes.

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Wenatchee AppleSox owner and all-around good guy Jim Corcoran has come full circle. He first tried to get a baseball team to Wenatchee in 1983 and broadcast the games on KW3 radio, which he owned at the time. Repeated attempts to land the franchise that turned into the Everett AquaSox fell through. On Friday, the Seattle Seahawks’ first preseason game will be broadcast on KPQ 560 AM, the AppleSox radio home, and Wenatchee’s game at Bend will be bumped to 1340 AM, which is Corcoran’s old station. Exhale.”After almost 26 years, a Wenatchee baseball broadcast will air on that station. It’s funny that I have a team now, but not the station,” he said. 

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Incredible AppleSox game last night, probably the best one I’ve covered in my two seasons here. Solid defense, dominant pitching on both sides and a few near-fights. It had all the elements. Hope we see them play again in a few weeks in the playoffs.Here’s some leftover tidbits.Ed Knaggs did some more lineup card juggling last night. After 28 straight games playing only first base, Stephen Yarrow played the whole game at third after playing most of Monday’s game in left. Cameron Edman played second for just the second time this season and looked equally as smooth as he does at the hot corner.And after Jimmy Patterson was ejected in the second inning (rightfully so) for showing up home plate umpire Randy Sutton after a called third strike, catcher Gino Aielli had to play left field. If anyone else got hurt or thrown out, we may have seen the Knaggster himself take the field. Wild stuff.Although Cody Fassold was dominant for the Sox, Corvallis’ pitchers were equally impressive. Starter Eddie Orozco struck out 10 in five innings, and closer Taylor Starr topped out at 94 from a three-quarter arm slot. Straight filth. Bryant Kraus’ homer was the longest one I’ve seen at the Paul. It’s very hard to get it out to the gaps over there, and he did it with ease. There wasn’t a single part of that pitch he didn’t get.Finally, all the best to Tyler Thompson, who made an emergency trip to Richland to be with his ailing grandfather, who was unexpectedly admitted to the hospital. 

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Brett Favre is a Jet. No. 4 will be wearing a different color green this season. No matter how many different ways I say it to myself, I can’t quite wrap around my head how my favorite football team just acquired one of the five best quarterbacks that ever lived.Having lived in Wisconsin for two years, I know what a demi-god Favre is out there. People wear his jersey on his birthday. People took off from work when he “retired” a few months ago.I don’t know how much Favre has left, and I still think he should have gone out after his remarkable comeback season a year ago, but as bizarre as it is to imagine No. 4 in a different jersey, it’s even crazier to think of him in Jet green. 

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I’m not a big fan of tennis.It seems boring to me, especially nowadays with space-age rackets that eliminate much of the scintillating serve-and-volleying that I would find exciting.Federer-Nadal III changed all that. With Sunday’s epic Wimbledon final won by 22-year-old Spaniard Rafael Nadal over 26-year-old (How is that possible?!?) Swiss Roger Federer causing ESPN’s tennis pundits to gush endlessly, I will be watching any time these two giants take the court again.Here’s an analogy I’ll steal from my dad, who has forgotten more about sports than I’ll ever know. Federer is like Muhammad Ali in his prime. Ali the social activist changed the world in that arena too, but for now we’re just talking about Ali the fighter.Federer and Ali are both so good and so talented that they make you forget how difficult and physically taxing their sports are. Watch some old tape of Ali dancing around people. Just watch his feet.Then watch Federer moving around the court like a gazelle in an open plain. The cross-court backhand winners he places with pinpoint precision are impossible.Now think about Ali-Frazier I, II and III (the first two in Madison Square Garden and the third in Manila, Philippines). No matter how many times Ali would dance around Frazier and pepper him with body blows, Frazier would keep coming, keep mauling the quicker Ali.Nadal, who is the most physically impressive tennis player I’ve ever seen (though I’m not a fan of the capri pants) fights for every point like a rabid dog. Instead of wilting in the fifth set against Federer like he did in last year’s Wimbledon final, Nadal fought back again and again for the five-set victory.If I’m the ATP president, I’m doing everything short of rigging tournaments to make sure these two guys play as often as possible. They’re making tennis relevant again, one epic match at a time. 

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Derrick Rose desperately wants to play for his hometown Chicago Bulls.They should make his dream come true.Rose is a once-in-a-lifetime point guard, an amazing combination of speed and strength from the perimeter. I think another Michael Beasley, the Kansas State forward who is the only other legitimate choice for the Bulls, will come along before another Rose.The kid’s from Chicago. You got lucky in the lottery to get the No. 1 pick. Just do the right thing. The kid’ll be worth it. 

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The University of Washington’s Amanda Miller earned All-America honors by placing 11th in the 1500-meter run at the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships on Saturday. Miller, who grew up in Ephrata but moved to Wenatchee for high school, finished the race in 4:20:71. It is Miller’s fourth career All-America selection.

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After escaping their home arena with a 2-0 series lead on Sunday night you’d think the Boston Celtics would be all but assured of a 17th NBA championship. After all, the C’s have four shots to win two games.I’m here to tell you, The Celtics are more vulnerable now than they were when the season started. This team has shown many times during the regular season and postseason that it plays differently when it has a sizable advantage. They get complacent. They don’t work on defense. They relax.Leading by 24 on its home floor with 8 minutes to go, a time when great teams stomp on their opponents’ throats, this bunch allows the Lakers to get within two points and end up hanging on for dear life.Now, with Team Kobe facing a must-win at home on Wednesday, will the Celtics be able to get it done against Bryant, who for some reason did not touch the ball on the potential game-winning play in the closing seconds Sunday night?The answer is no, for two reasons. First, Boston coach Doc Rivers is awful. This team wins in spite of him. I can’t bring myself to believe that a team with Kevin Garnett, James Posey and Paul Pierce, all fierce competitors, can just wilt down the stretch like the Celtics do. I don’t know what Rivers is doing, but it ain’t right.Second, I think Kobe might get 60 points on Wednesday. While Sasha Vujacic and Vladimir Radmanovic were passing the ball back and forth on the Lakers’ final possession, Kobe was drifting out on the wing with Ray Allen half-guarding him. He displayed his dismay vocally after Vujacic airballed his three. This is one of those times where the Mamba will, and probably should, go into “I’m going to kill everyone” mode.It’s totally possible that the Lakers will win the next two games and will have all the momentum coming back to Boston. With these Celtics, you just don’t know. 

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Matthew Cerda, one of four high school players on the Wenatchee AppleSox’s 2008 roster, was drafted in the fourth round (131st overall) by the Chicago Cubs in the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft on Thursday.

Cerda is a shortstop from Oceanside, Calif. and has verbally committed to play for the University of San Diego in the fall. The Toreros were eliminated by Cal State-Fullerton in the NCAA baseball regionals. 

AppleSox coach Ed Knaggs has not yet commented on whether Cerda will sign with the Cubs or stay committed to the Sox for this summer.

If Cerda signs with the Cubs, he loses his amateur status and is no longer eligible to play in the West Coast Collegiate Baseball League, or for the University of San Diego.

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