Junior Hockey Blog

It is almost July and baseball season is in full swing here in the Big Sky Country. The Billings Scarlets are 41-7 and the Billings Royals are 34-10, both teams are playing great and hope for a state championship and a trip to regionals in Washington state and then a trip to Nationals in Rapid City, S.D. Stay tuned. The Billings Mustangs (rookie league farm club of the Cincinatti Reds) are off to a 7-1 start. This season they/we have the pleasure and the privelege of having Mark Boyle as our radio announcer, Yes the same Mark Boyle who is the play by play voice of the Indiana Pacers of the NBA. Sports fans you remember when Ron Artest bolted into the stands last December in Detroit -- well the first guy who tried to stop him was Mark Boyle, who broke 5 vertebre in his back on the play. He is recovering, and allegedly part of his treatment plan is coming to Montana for awhile(his wife is from Miles City). His nephew is former Rocky Mountain College point guard Scott Malloy of the basketball team. At any rate Mark is a great radio announcer -- while we have had some good radio guys in the past, they are often pretty new to the profession and unwilling to go out on a limb. For example during the Mustangs home opener Mark was thirsty and said over the air, " If somebody here at Cobb field is listening on a transistor radio would you please buy me a Pepsi and bring it up here to the announcers booth, I am thirsty!" Talk about great radio! He definitely does a great job of calling the games.

Last Saturday's White Sox VS Dodgers game on WGN TV, While a great ballgame, The Sox won it on A.J. Piersynski's Home Run in the bottom of the 9th left me disapointed. Here is why -- Last week I was reading my USAToday's SPORTS WEEKLY and they said how it was going to be turn back the clock night not only with the 1959 uniforms but also that WGN would be using 1959 graphics and it would be in black and white and I cannot remember if they said this or if I imagined it but I thought they said they would throw in a little static as long as it wasn't while the ball was in play. I was really looking forward to checking it out last Sat. Anyway they only did the black and white thing for the first 15 seconds, then they went to color, and while they did have 1959 graphics up when a batter would come up and at the end of every half inning they also left the 2005 graphics at the top of the screen throughout the entire broadcast which took away from the 1959 'feel' of things. I did like the White Sox retro uniforms but the Dodgers ( i still am not sure if they were 1959 or 2005) were not baggy at all which I could be wrong but I am about 99% convinced they were not retro, which kind of took away the 1959 'feel' of the game. While it was still fun to watch I wish they would go all out when doing things like this and not just go halfway with it.

As many of you have heard the Billings Bulls have a new coach, Doug Johnson. But what most people do not know is that he grew up next door to former Billings Bighorn and former Boston Bruin Gord Kluzak. Gord influenced him to come to Billings in 1996 to play for the Bulls, Leading them to a Borne Cup championship in 96-97. Doug then played minor league hockey for several years before last year becoming an assistant under then coach Mike Aikens.

For those of you folks who are in town to watch the Bulls or whatever other reason, and would like to know where to go to grab a cocktail, I can provide some info. Directly across the street from the Metra is Applebees, where one can eat and get a beer. Then turning right onto Main street, once again passing the Metra, stay on main to the bottom of the hill and take a right on 1st Ave. North -- this will take you to downtown Billings stay on 1st until you hit N27th street -- 1. if you want country music go right on 27 th til 4th avenue north and then you will go approximately 9 blocks to the Wild West -- it is country and is very crowded! 2. if you do not want country music take a left on 27th and go south one block and then turn left on Montana ave. Go down Montana ave. there is the Carlin,Traxx, Rainbow, and the Railyard. These are all "real good time charlie" kind of bars, all within walking distance of each other. All these bars are close to the Metra -- obviously there are other bars in Billings and i can write up about some of them later on. But today i thought I would just cover the ones close to the Metra since the hockey games do not get over until 10pm or so and who wants to drive all over hell.