Brazilian Soccer, Asheville Tourists Skipper, Tony Haynes

The Brazilian Soccer team in the World Cup competition has started to heat up and they eliminated Ghana 3-0 on Tuesday. Brazil lead by the great Ronaldo and assisted by the 56 Million Dollar Man Ronaldinho, and helped by the sensation Ricardinho, these Soccer Players are on the Money.

Brazil versus Germany would be the dream match-up for many fans if they had their say on the World Cup finals. In talking with area Soccer fans on Tuesday morning at the Food Rite Market on East Market Street the group watching the games on ESPN were in agreement that they wanted Brazil-Germany. I’m not sure if the Finals can end up this way but Fred Abuzuaiter told me he wanted this game very badly. The home crowd should create Advantage- Germany, but with Brazil you have to give way to the Tradition and Experience.

Any way you cut it this has been a good run on ESPN with World Cup games each morning and now in the afternoon. The Carolina Dynamo are scheduled to play the Richmond Kickers at home on Wednesday night and this might be a good chance for all to get out and support the local team at Macpherson Stadium out off Highway 29 North near Brown Summit.

Talking about ESPN and several other outlets to be exact, there has been quite a run on the Joe Mikulik video that went down during the Asheville Tourists-Lexington Legends game the other night. The Asheville Tourists skipper has been all over the tube and the TV outlets are having a big time with this tirade.

This is nothing new for Joe Mikulik. He has been doing this number in many towns for many years. This time around he got national attention. I saw the video on a website for WRAL-TV out of Raleigh and ESPN was running the daylights out of the tape on Monday. They’re all having a field day with the Joe Show.

After seeing Joe up close and personal doing his routine here in Greensboro at First Horizon Park last season I was not floored by what I saw. The Joe Mikulik Show here in GB back in 2005 was a very close 2nd to what you have been seeing the past couple of days. The only big difference in the Joe Show for 2006 was that this time around Joe was grabbing second base and the kid on second was named Koby Clemens. With Roger Clemens’ son involved in the routine this takes the Joe Show to a whole new level.

Joe diving into second base and then picking up the bag and giving it a toss was a nice touch for the Joe Show as well. When Mikulik starting chucking bats out of the Asheville dugout I chuckled when I saw the look on the Bat Boy’s face, kind of like what in the heck is going on here and what’ going to happen next.

Mikulik in Greensboro back in 2005 at FHP found issues with the Umpires and he took a bat to the plate and put a hat on the bat and made it look a person and then attempted to show the Umpire that he couldn’t call balls and strikes correct if his life depended on it. Mikulik threw dirt all over the plate just like he did in Lexington and then proceeded to clean off the plate and then after receiving the heave-ho, Joe came back from the Tunnel and chased the Umpire all the way out into left field.

I believe the fine from the South Atlantic League office for the Joe Mikulik Greensboro Tirade was $50.00. The current fine on Mr. Mikulik is much, much higher because of the nationwide attention. When Joe M. went crazy in Greensboro the Hoppers sent the tape to ESPN but it got no airtime. The local stations didn’t even crank up the tape back in 2005. The incident became hush-hush in a hurry even though when all parties involved saw the Greensboro Joe Show, they said that they had never seen anything that crazy by a manager in their life. Joe was topping Earl Weaver, Billy Martin, Sparky Anderson, Tommy Lasorda, all the skippers you can think of.

The current Joe Show involved Roger Clemens’ son so that took Joe and his Road Show in Lexington, Kentucky to the top of the charts. Everyone in Baseball that you talk to likes Joe Mikulik, he is just a very competitive manager. The Joe Show will be talked about for years to come because it made national TV and it was played over and over and over again. One thing you have to give Mikulik credit for, the Skipper is creative. Long live the Joe Show, but remember we saw it here in Greensboro long before it hit the Big Screen.

Tony Haynes who is part of the NC State Wolfpack broadcast team for Football and Basketball was on WDNC 620 the Bull on Tuesday afternoon and I swear that TH sounds just like Mick Mixon. I was listening to the Bull and enjoying the SportsTalk and I heard Haynes and couldn’t tell if it was TH or Mick. Mixon and Haynes are starting to sound the same. The topic was North Carolina Tar Heel Baseball and how the Heels had dropped the ball versus Oregon State on Monday night and in effect gave away the National Championship. It made sense to me that Mick Mixon would be on the show because he was and probably still is a UNC diehard.

Why TH and not MM was on the Bull, your guess is as good as mine. Chis Clark and Joe Ovius were also in the house and they made TH come across as if he was part of the Tar Heel Nation. The Beavers are Your National Champions and the Heels will try to get back to Nebraska again some day soon.

Over in Thomasville, 790 the Ball is trying to sound like 850 the Buzz out of Raleigh. The Ball has been copying the Buzz, playing Congrats Cuts for the Carolina Hurricanes the Stanley Cup Champs, and it is like the Ball thinks they were a big part of the Cup coming to the Carolinas. 790 has only been doing Sports for about a year, but 850 the Buzz has been tied into the Canes and SportsTalk for a long time. The Ball can not be the Buzz because they don’t have the Bucks or the Boys.