Dawgs, jungle cats and Catfish

I've spent so much of this day multi-tasking, typing column and story notes while simultaneously interviewing various sources on the cell phone, so I guess I should exercise the same efficiency in blogging.

The topics: University of Georgia athletics, Smiths Station High School football and Columbus minor league baseball.

It's a bizarre mix, to be sure, but the last two days have been less than conventional.

OK, here we go. The University of Georgia Board of Regents signed off on a plan Wednesday to put non-football facilities under the banner of the Vince Dooley Athletic Complex. The complex will include a large bronze statue of the coach being carried off the field on the shoulders of his players following the 1980 national championship game and a garden. If you read my column Wednesday morning, you know how I feel about this. It's great to honor Dooley for his accomplishments as a football coach and athletic director, but the placement of it seems all wrong. Based on the reader reaction I've received via phone and e-mail, a lot of other folks feel the same way.

In contrast to Georgia's attempts (however misguided they may be) to honor a legend, Smiths Station High School dishonored one by firing football coach Woodrow Lowe, a three-time All-America linebacker at Alabama, a former NFL standout and member of the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame. A lot of parents were confused by the Lee County Board of Education's 4-3 vote for termination, particularly since 50 parents and players and a petition with 200 signatures of support were seemingly overlooked. The Panthers went 1-9 in Lowe's first season, but followed up with 6-5 and 5-5 finishes. Participation has gone up and Lowe instilled discipline in his players. This has the feel of a firing based on politics rather than performance.

Transitioning from Panthers to Catfish, I spoke with the baseball team's prospective new owner today. Art Solomon hopes to assume ownership of the franchise from David Heller in time for the season opener. People in Bowling Green expect him to move the Catfish there for the 2009 season. If the deal falls through, it won't be due to a lack of financing or concerns about Solomon's stewardship of a franchise. He owns the Double-A New Hampshire Fisher Cats and is well regarded in the minor league baseball community.

Solomon seems like a genuinely nice guy as well and an involved, community-minded kind of owner. I asked him if there was any scenario he could see that would allow the Catfish to remain in Columbus and he was coy on his response. Check out what he said at www.ledger-enquirer.com.

It would have been interesting to see what results a guy like Solomon would have achieved in owning the Catfish from Day One. While Heller is perfectly justified in wanting to sell the team in the face of lagging attendance, it's reasonable to question whether he did all he could to sell the product. He was trying to move the team from the time it arrived here and didn't even bother showing up for the South Atlantic League championship clincher at Golden Park.

It's true that attendance has been stale and that the city might have been slow to improve Golden Park, but Heller built some pretty tall walls between himself and this baseball market.