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This is the 2024 Bowman draft card of Brandon Sproat, the New York Mets pitcher who made his MLB debut last Sunday against the Cincinnati Reds and is Muddy River Sports Director Chris Duerr\u2019s cousin.<\/p>\nQUINCY \u2014 Greetings true believers and welcome to DUERRISMS for what is already Week Three of the high school football season. Ever grateful to the community-first folks at Little Jess Motor Company for backing this column and this endeavor.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Speaking candidly, it was a very good week in my world. Imagine being lucky enough to cover the Hannibal\/Quincy Notre Dame boys soccer and Monroe City\/Mark Twain softball thrillers on back-to-back nights. Talk about adrenaline highs. I caught some good highlight fortune as well on Friday in getting to cover the first half of Hannibal\u2019s demolition of Lutheran St. Charles and the coda to Palmyra\u2019s stunningly impressive \u201cupset\u201d of Bowling Green. Toss in a Border War win, another five-star recruit for the Mizzou men\u2019s basketball team, and the successful MLB pitching debut of first-cousin-once-removed Brandon Sproat on the personal front and it was a very fun and rewarding week on many, many fronts.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Before I get in trouble this week: it\u2019s time in this space for the annual birthday shout outs to my very favorite daughter Tayler, my super cool sister-in-law Sara, my sainted mother Pat, my awesome brother-in-law John, my way-better-than-any-man-deserves mother-in-law Diane, and my someday NHL-bound nephew Tom.\u00a0<\/p>\n
All the new projects are going extremely well so far. Schuck, Shane and I have a few more new drops in the future for you. I consider it a victory that Muddy Night Lights, powered by Farm & Home Supply, has grown its viewership from its debut last year. The roll out of Classroom Champions, presented by DOT Foods, has been fortunate enough to premier with class acts Addy Abell and Belle Boudreau as our premier profiles. The Muddy River Blitz, electrified by XCEL Physical Therapy, is starting to really roar to life.<\/p>\n
It has been an ambitious and intense first 40 days to this new endeavor. You can\u2019t know how much your support and so many beyond-kind words and acknowledgements for what we are doing at Muddy River Sports have validated this personal career change. It has been truly overwhelming and motivating. The love this region has for our local kids, schools and communities is the reason I never left this place and never will.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Just wish I had been brave enough to take this plunge 15 years ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The biggest secret to life is knowing when you have it good in this world. And being present enough to appreciate the rarity of that circumstance.<\/p>\n
You all have had my whole heart for that very reason for three decades.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Yours in Sports,\u00a0<\/p>\n
Duerr<\/p>\n
This is the 2024 Bowman draft card of Brandon Sproat, the New York Mets pitcher who made his MLB debut last Sunday against the Cincinnati Reds and is Muddy River Sports Director Chris Duerr\u2019s cousin.<\/p>\n
Thoughts for a new week<\/p>\n
1. Brandon Carl Sproat made a successful MLB pitching debut for the New York Mets on Sunday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
No, it wasn\u2019t a win against the Cincinnati Reds. I\u2019d argue, however, striking out seven MLB batters and tying the franchise record for consecutive no-hit innings (5.1) in a big league debut is heady stuff, especially when your first career strikeout is against no less than Elly De La Cruz.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I apologize fully for flooding your social media timelines with selfishly personal matters over the last few days. But I\u2019m really proud of not just Brandon here but his entire awesome family.\u00a0<\/p>\n
You see Brandon\u2019s great-grandfather and namesake, Carl, is my beloved grandfather. No one in this life taught me to love sports more than Pap. Admittedly, Carl\u2019s life as an auto mechanic and his love of car racing never fully resonated, although I still remember spending lost hours of my Sundays cheering for Neal Bonnett because of Pap. More germanely, Carl\u2019s adoration of Larry Bird and Roberto Clemente shaped so much of my root sports beliefs. It\u2019s why I value the art of passing so much in basketball and the biggest reason I wanted to have a Clemente-esque cannon for an arm in my Little League days.<\/p>\n
To be even more personal, the very notion of Carl watching down from on high Sunday when his great-grandson\/namesake occupied an MLB mound filled my heart with a level of joy I can\u2019t even articulate. I spent a good bit of my Sunday imaging Pap in my head profaning plate umpires who weren\u2019t smart enough to appreciate Brandon\u2019s sweeper and its proximity to the strike zone. I understand that might not seem the most elegant analogy, but it sure felt like a wonderful connection of my family\u2019s past and present.\u00a0<\/p>\n
To see my cousin, John, his incredible wife, Carolyn, on live TV on the MLB Network praise Brandon for his faith and fortitude was a beautiful moment. To see their daughters and my aunt, Lynn, there erupting in celebration of Brandon\u2019s first strikeout was beyond awesome.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hard not to be proud in this life of good people excelling in any life endeavor. It\u2019s mind-blowingly satisfying when those same great folks share your blood in some way, regardless of arena in this life.<\/p>\n
2. The best mentor and most personally affecting\/impactful non-relative ever to improve my life was a positional high school coach who demanded more of me than any other human has in my entire existence. At times, unfairly so. And because he did, I grew.\u00a0<\/p>\n
His name was L. David Morton.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the biggest reason I\u2019ve spent three decades of my professional life trying to personally acquaint\/connect with and appreciate every assistant\/positional coach at every practice I have ever attended.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Football is a bridge to better in this world. And it is now and has always been a collective coaching enterprise.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Appreciate all the folks in this world who make your kids better people.\u00a0<\/p>\n
3. Cross country may not be our highest profile high school sport. All I ask is that you open space in your heart for that notion that Mason McDaniel is unbelievably special within a genre you may not appreciate or understand.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Clark County juggernaut shattered a program record this week with a sub-16-minute (15:59) finish at the Keokuk Invite.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Two things I need you to understand about Mason:<\/p>\n
\u2022 He always runs like his very existence is defined by his performance. Every single meet.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2022 He might be the most innately likeable, talented kid in his given sport.<\/p>\n
4. If you caught this week\u2019s Muddy River Lights on Monday, you may have heard Schuck and I talking with Quincy High School junior offensive lineman Jaxson Moore about his Lindenwood-committed linemate Todd Smith. Urban legend has it that despite Todd\u2019s outlier size and frame, that Blue Devils\u2019 NCAA Division I offensive tackle recruit is limber enough to do a full-on, tumbling-grade cartwheel. I asked Jaxson if he had seen proof of this and he responded that he has not, but did believe Todd was freakishly athletic enough that such a move was not beyond the realm of possibility.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, Todd\u2019s mother, Stacy, provided us with video evidence of her man-mountain of a son not only flawlessly executing said cartwheel, but looking downright nimble in doing so.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When we talk about rare athleticism in football, it is almost exclusively done in conjunction with skill position players. Consider this your reminder that there are some very big dudes in the world with even bigger canvases of freakish skill sets.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lineman are athletes too, my friends.\u00a0<\/p>\n
5. Here are my favorite things in the world \u2026 at least for this week.<\/p>\n
Unity-Payson\u2019s collective backbone. The return of high stakes Macomb\/Illini West football showdowns. Gavin Doellman in Megatron mode. Reid Holliday\u2019s exceptional blocking from the wide receiver position \u2026 as well as his \u201cday job\u201d pass catching. Palmyra\u2019s utter nastiness this season in setting the defensive edge. The criminally unsung Ace Harper, and not just because his name is \u201cAce\u201d (which is indisputably cool). Gary Welch\u2019s uncommon balance as a running back. The current state of 8-man football in Northeast Missouri with North Shelby, Knox County and Paris all undefeated into the third week of the season. Jadyn Burton\u2019s quarterbacking trajectory now that he has a quality win under his belt. Bradley Charles Hollingsworth\u2019s two-way elevation as a stopper\/hard-yardage back for Rushville-Industry. A trio of Saturday high school football games looming this weekend.<\/p>\n
Blue Devil volleyball\u2019s perfect start to the fall. The avid high school girls golf culture that has seemingly sprung from nothingness over the last two years in Shelby County. Keera\u00a0Rothweiler snagging every lead-off metric career mark in Highland softball history before her senior year. Brashear\u2019s awesome softball complex. The slimmer waistline I was able to maintain this week by not once setting foot at the Lady Suns Classic and avoiding the insanely good hospitality suite there. (Weird scheduling twist not to be in Augusta at all, but a shout out to our Shane Hulsey for his great Muddy River Sports coverage from the event.)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Beau Pribula. Ahmad Hardy\u2019s next-level ability to make tacklers miss. Listening to \u201cThe Pride of Williamsville\u201d Seth Kunz on KCOU\u2019s radio call of the Border War. Seeing pictures on social media of Clarence, Mo., native Ron \u201cRhino\u201d Janes and his blue-chip recruit son, Ridge, on the sidelines at Faurot Field last Saturday for the roasting of the chickenhawks. Beef Jerky from Wally\u2019s in Pontiac, Ill., on the way home from Chicagoland. The Country Benedict from Thyme Square.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The outstanding Amy Berg music documentary \u201cIt\u2019s Never Over, Jeff Buckley.\u201d The October arrival of an electric version of Springsteen\u2019s acoustic masterpiece \u201cNebraska.\u201d Having a former boss from a past employer still love you enough to bake you a loaf of incredible sourdough bread. The Blondshell cover of Addison Rae\u2019s \u201cDiet Pepsi.\u201d Tim Robinson\u2019s uncomfortably funny-yet-painful acting turn in \u201cFriendship.\u201d Carving out time in my weekend schedule to watch Bud Crawford and Canelo Alvarez throw down Saturday night, the best justification yet for the money the Duerr family spends on a Netflix subscription. The utter look of sheer Christmas Day-joy on Matt Schuckman\u2019s face this week when I presented him a Rod\u2019s Big Ol\u2019 Fish pin from long ago days at KRCG-TV.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"QUINCY \u2014 Greetings true believers and welcome to DUERRISMS for what is already Week Three of the high…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":136225,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-136224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136224\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}