Vol. 3, No. 15, October 1, 2007 - Play by Play

8 PLAY BY PLAY OCTOBER 1, 2007
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From Page 3
Makers
Cassidy
Salem High School
The Spartans’ football team defeated
Northside, 34-13, on Sept. 21 to
run their 2007 record to 4-0 and retain
their top ranking in Timesland.
Since Stephen Magenbauer
became head coach at the
start of the 2004 season,
the Spartans are 42-2,
with the losses coming
to Christiansburg (36-35)
and Amherst (25-21) by a
total of five points. They
won Group AA state
titles in 2004 and 2005.
Playmakers is sponsored by Professional Therapies of Roanoke
or Roy Rogers lunchboxes.
McFarland Publishing opened
its business in 1979 in Jefferson,
N.C., and in a short time
became one of the country’s
leading publishers of scholarly
and reference books.
It published more than
3,200 titles in its first 10 years
and set a goal to maintain
a similar pace thereafter.
Some of McFarland’s titles
are biographies of the old Western
heroes such as Buck Jones.
McFarland also publishes on
topics such as the performing arts
(especially film), sports and leisure
(especially baseball), military
history, popular culture and
automotive history.
In general, its baseball books are
well-written and well-researched.
Most of the authors are members
of the Society of American Baseball
Research (SABR) who have
written numerous articles about
baseball history.
McFarland claims to be the
leading publisher of serious books
on baseball and I won’t dispute
that assertion. Some of my favorite
books from McFarland include
a biography of Pepper Martin
from the old St. Louis Cardinals’
Gashouse Gang; a biography of
the famed Chicago
Cubs’ double play
combination of Tinker
to Evers to Chance;
Jimmie Foxx, probably
baseball’s most
famous slugger in the
1930s other than Babe
Ruth and Lou Gehrig;
New York Yankees’
pitcher Waite Hoyt;
New York Hall of Fame infielder
Tony Lazzeri; and Baseball and
Richmond.
That last book, a gem, has added
to my knowledge of the game. Most
anyone who studies the history of
baseball knows that Jack Chesbro
holds the record for most wins in a
single season in modern baseball
(after 1900). He won 41 games for
the New York Highlanders in the
early 20th century.
What you probably don’t know
is that Chesbro played minor
league baseball in Richmond and
also in Roanoke — during the 1896
season.
PROFESSIONAL
THERAPIES, INC.
Q.
Ask A Ref
In an effort to inform fans of the finer points of the rules of the
games, Play by Play regularly publishes the feature “Ask A Ref,” a
chance for fans to ask a question about specific sports rules, preferably
those related to high school or the NCAA. We ask officials to answer
these questions and, depending on the number, print some or all
of the responses.
Questions can be sent to Ask_a_Ref@yahoo.com.
In this issue, we ask our question to veteran high school football
official Christian Moody, a contributing editor to Play by Play.
Can one team’s coaches use headphones if the other team
has none, or if the other team’s are not working
Sure. Rules that govern play below the pro level make no re-
A. quirements on such communication, so each team is responsible
for its own equipment. Likewise, monitoring the use of
such is outside the purveyance of the game officials, to quote the
NFHS rule book.
There is a rule in professional football that prohibits this, and
football fans have likely seen where the referee makes an announcement
that one team must disconnect their headphones because of
a malfunction. I’m not sure why this is announced over the PA or
how it’s enforced, but in pro football it’s up to the home team to
provide the connections and hardware to make headphones work
(although they do not provide the headphones themselves, because
I’m sure each team wants to keep its encrypted frequency a secret)
so there would be an advantage if the home stadium staff could
cause a disruption of communication for the visitors.