BEST OF THE BEST:  It's shameless plug time for our annual WJBC/WJEZ Intercity-Area High School All-Star Basketball Games on Monday, March 22 at Shirk Center.  We're just starting to put the details together, but the games have become an annual tradition to celebrate our area hoops.  Mark your calendars.

HE JUST KEEPS GOING AND GOING:  It just occurred to me that as of December 1, I've been putting a headset on and yapping away at various fields and gyms for 30 years.  I mention this as a public way of thanking everyone who has been a part of it all, from my first game at Bollman Field House in New Bedford, Illinois in December of 1979 to now, including the last seven-plus years here at WJBC.  I don't keep such records, but I estimate I'm closing in on the 3,000 broadcast mark.  I am being totally honest when I tell you that I have enjoyed every one of them.

YOU CAN SET YOUR WATCH BY IT:  The most heartfelt kudos I can hand out go to the Corn Belt Conference schools.  Finally--FINALLY--starting next year, the league is ditching the freshman preliminary games on Friday night, moving them to Thursday, and allowing varsity games to kick off at a standard 7 p.m. on Fridays, like most other area conferences.  The student-athletes can get home sooner, there are fewer worries about field conditions for the varsity game on a wet night, the varsity will start at a set  time instead of an approximate time, and certainly not least, your media attention will increase.  What I am talking about on the last point?  Well, with earlier print deadlines these days, there have been times when a pass-heavy Corn Belt game has not had complete coverage in the next day's newspaper.  Here at the Extravaganza, we have to be very careful when making a 7:45 Corn Belt game our featured game because it WILL cut heavily into the time when we bring you recaps of all of the other area games.  The IHSA News Media Advisory Committee (of which I am a member) has continually brought up these points while urging schools to kick off no later than 7:00.  I'm sure I speak for many of my colleagues in thanking the Corn Belt for considering the media as one of the reasons to move game times back.  I know the Extravaganza will get even better as a result.

FIGHTING CHANCE:  Three cheers for IHSA boss Marty Hickman for pulling the plug on the North Chicago High School football program for at least a week after the school's football team was involved in a game-ending fight.  Too often these incidents are dismissed as "heat of the moment," which means that you never bothered to emphasize discipline any farther than play assignments.  The teams had only played eight minutes, so the other lame excuse about how the situation had been "simmering" can be rejected as well.  North Chicago head coach (and former Chicago Bear) Glen Kozlowski even admitted in post-game (post-quarter?) comments that there were chirping and late hits leading up to the fight.  It's time to shake the pro mindset, Koz.  You're a good man.  We've talked.  But you should have done a lot more in the previous eight minutes, because you even admitted you saw what was going on.  Same goes to the visiting team, Chicago Simeon High School, where it sounds like several players have already been identified for their roles.  High school and youth coaches, these players are not going to be running pass routes or making tackles in ten years, but they will still be members of the human race, needing the discipline that the game can teach.  If it's only about football (or, insert sport here), you are missing the point and cheating these young people.  Fans, that absolutely goes for you, too.

MANUAL TRANSMISSION:  As in, if John Rooney carps about umpires one more time (which he will) on a Cardinals broadcast, I will send him the current copy of the umpires' manual.  I have no problem with pointing out obvious errors or a lack of effort, but saying that a first base umpire was out of position on a pickoff attempt is simply silly.    Here at WJBC, I insist that my broadcast crews be fair and knowledgable.  Otherwise, it's only whining.  It'd be nice if that was followed in the bigs as well.