The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

It’s not how you start, nor how you get there. Most importantly, it’s how you finish.

• The Finish Line, a weekly column, seeks to comment on the state of affairs in the local sports scene, highlighting the highs and the lows, the thrills and the spills and the successes and failures.

THE WEEK

THAT WAS

BY this time next Friday, we will be preparing for the ham and turkey dinner and to unwrap those presents under the Christmas tree. That is for those of us who still believe in Santa Clause.

Whether you celebrate this festive season or not, it’s upon us, so let me take this time first of all to extend compliments of the season - Merry Christmas.

As much as I would like to encourage you not to indulge in too much of the spread of food that is traditional at this time of the year, eat to your heart’s content, but before you are consumed by all of the stuffing on your plate and the assortments of desserts on the side, let’s pause to digest some of my Christmas wishes wrapped in this special issue.

Let’s Play Baseball 

I’d like to begin by commending Jeff ‘Sangy’ Francis and the officers of the New Providence Amateur Baseball Association, who have taken up the awesome task of trying to revive the senior baseball league. Since the destruction of the Andre Rodgers Baseball Stadium to make way for the new Thomas A Robinson National Stadium, there has been talk after talk about the re-construction of the new stadium.

A space has been allocated by the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture in the Queen Elizabeth Sports Centre on the eastern side of the Government High School for the new stadium, but we have yet to see any process. There was also a new facility built at the back of Her Majesty’s Corrections Centre, but that has not been utilised to the extent that many had anticipated.

With all that has been said, but not yet done, Francis said it’s time to get the ball rolling and they’re looking at taking advantage of the field in Pinewood Gardens to start their league in March. Kudos to Francis because he has been agitating for the powers that be to erect some type of facility or at least improve any existing ones ever since the stadium was dismantled. 

I join the chorus, like I did at Church at Macedonia Baptist in Fox Hill during our Christmas concert last Friday, in saying to Francis as we sing: “Let’s play baseball.”

Bring some harmony

to soccer again

Like just about every sport, soccer has now been hit by the controversial bug. The Bahamas Football Association has seen its vibrant islandwide youth programme split at the seam with a break away league being formed in Lyford Cay. You just knew that sooner or later something like this would have happened because of how huge the programme has grown.

Without getting into the details as this is not the right forum to produce the two sides of the story, there’s a need for all parties concerned to  come around the table, iron out their differences and get the two bodies back together under one umbrella again. These type of things do not sit well with the governing body for the sport, FIFA, or CONCAFA, the regional body, who both continue to invest in the BFA.

It’s a good thing that there is sufficient players still involved in the programme that if they had intended to send off a national team, the BFA would still be able to field a team. But one will have to wonder if the rift that currently exists will be solved anytime soon. The sport already has a black eye from the international scandal that FIFA is under that you don’t need to see it spread at the local level.

This is the yuletide season so just as we make sure that we don’t let the year end without making amends to our neighbours as I normally do at my residence in Golden Gates II off Mermaid Boulevard, there will be peace in the BFA again as we head into 2016.

Athletes of the Year

The newly elected board of the Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations, headed by Rosamunde Carey, would not be having their year-ending awards banquet as they are feeling the financial pinch that comes with taking on a new board. 

But now would be a good time for the BAAA to send out their list of honourees (like the Bahamas Bodybuilding and Fitness Federation normally does) instead of waiting until next year. Not taking anything away from their decision, but it always becomes a contentious issue when those decisions are extended like they do with the movers and shakers in the junkanoo world days after you leave Bay Street on Boxing Day and New Year’s Day.

Our sports team here at The Tribune, including Renaldo Dorsett, is still deliberating on our annual selection of the yearly honours for athletes, coaches, administrators, teams and stories. But it’s a foregone conclusion that it will once again be a good read as you take the time out during the holidays to review what we have to offer.

Christmas Present

Congratulations are extended to baseball outfielders Antoan Richardson and Trayce Thompson. The duo were both involved in some big moves in the Major Leagues this week as they unwrapped their Christmas presents a little early.

First, Richardson - still recuperating from surgery on a leg after he sustained a back injury during the season - signed a one-year deal to play for the Pittsburgh Pirates. It’s still early because Richardson now has to do his part, which is to get properly healed and be ready for Spring Training Camp in February to determine his fate, either on the ML roster or go back through their farm system in the minor league.

If that wasn’t enough excitement, then came the news that Trayce Thompson - the son of legendary Bahamian basketball player Mychal Thompson and the 24-year-old brother of current NBA All-Star Klay Thompson, was one of the three prospects the Dodgers acquired from the Chicago White Sox in a three-way trade involving the Cincinnati Reds. 

The Dodgers sent infielder Jose Peraza and two prospects to the Cincinnati Reds, who moved All-Star third baseman Todd Frazier to the White Sox.

When Mychal Thompson - a two-time NBA champion with the Los Angeles Lakers - came home during the summer for the naming of the Mychal Thompson Boulevard that leads from Thompson Boulevard to the Kendal GL Isaacs Gymnasium, Trayce Thompson was missing from the company of Klay and Mychel Thompson, who plays in the D-League of the NBA. 

He was preparing for a move that just took place.

Wouldn’t it be good if Richardson gets to suit up once again in the majors and he and Thompson could go head-to-head when the Pirates and the Dodgers clash next year. It’s a long shot, but it’s definitely one of the Christmas wishes that we hope Santa can bring to the fans in the Bahamas.

Merry Christmas

I may not have any gifts to present to you the advert readers of this column, but let me extend my own personal (and that of my family) best wishes for the holidays.

To those of you who have been supportive, and even to those of you who have been critical, your comments have both publicly and secretly helped to strengthen me on a daily basis.

I thank God for giving me the opportunity through this medium at The Tribune to share my thoughts and views with each and every one of you.

So let us raise our glasses and toast to the season.

Merry Christmas.