WHAT'S CAUSING ALL THIS?

Photo by Kathy Bowden WORTH THE NO. 1 PICK? - North Carolina State defensive end Mario Williams (left) holds up his new Houston Texans jersey following his name being called first in last weekend's NFLDraft. The Texans were criticized for drafting a defensive end first, when they have so many glaring needs on offense. Not so fast, writes sports editor Mitch Lucas. Hitting all over the place on a busy month for local sports...

Is Houston Texans general manager Charlie Casserly crazy, or crazy like a fox?

The trendy thing to do this week is to criticize Casserly for last weekend's moves in the much-over-analyzed NFLDraft. Casserly and the Texans, with an opportunity to improve a very, very bad offense by drafting explosive Southern Cal running back Reggie Bush (or at the very least a franchise offensive lineman), decided to go 'D,' drafting North Carolina State University defensive end Mario Williams instead.

The ESPN guys, including poofy-hairdooed draft expert Mel Kiper, shook their heads in amazement. How, they said? Why, they cried? How DARE they, they pontificated?

EVERYBODY, NOW... - Kilgore baseball players (from left) Eddie Jones, Kyle Shipp and Chase Patterson were a highlight of last week's pro baseball game at Driller Park with their "YMCA" performance, sports editor Mitch Lucas writes. Below: Kilgore softball outfielders Toni Griffin (left), Sydnay Dick (center) and Amanda Mixon rally between innings of a 3 1/2-hour playoff game against Little Cypress Mauriceville. At press time Saturday afternoon, the KHS girls needed to win Game 2 to force a Game 3. M a y b e justifiably so. I mean, I don't know how many of y'all (catch that A l a b a m a drawl creeping in) watched the Texans muddle through a 2-14 season last year, but I did. I watch a lot of NFLball. And I saw Texans quarterback David Carr on his back more than opponents of Mike Tyson back in the 1980's.

If the people in the know are right about Bush - he's been compared, almost laughably in my opinion, to former Chicago Bears tailback Gayle Sayers - then drafting Bush and having him in the backfield could have done a great deal to take pressure off of Carr. A threat like Bush, an all-purpose back, would have to force the opposition to focus primarily on him.

Photo at left by Lester Murray; bottom photo by Kathy Bowden But they passed on Bush. Casserly has denied in recent days that it was because Bush's price was too high.

Another good choice would have been D'Brickashaw Ferguson, an offensive lineman from the University of Virginia. Most people feel that Ferguson is about as close to a can't-miss is there is in the draft. And if I'm Carr, putting a big body in front of me with a mean streak like Ferguson is supposed to have would make me feel a lot better when I went back to pass.

The Texans instead chose to make an improvement on defense by taking Williams. Kiper and just about everyone on the ESPN coverage of the draft was high on Williams, deemed the best defensive player among the field.

I'm kind of divided here. I do wonder how in the heck Casserly couldn't take a offensive stud like Bush or Ferguson - the Texans' offense was so bad last year, it was practically a joke. But I also go back to my personal experience the last few years, when we here in Kilgore were able to watch I think the best defensive line in the state, including a pair of defensive ends named Eddie Jones and Wayne Daniels. Those guys literally were game-changers.

LUCAS Let's not measure Casserly for that the straight-jacket just yet, Texans fans.

 Cats-Sports game: It was strange watching baseball that wasn't the high school brand take the field at Driller Park last week, a weird experience.

But I think the exhibition game played here between the Fort Worth Cats and Shreveport Sports was good for this community, and maybe opened a door that needed to be opened, one that would make Driller Park - one of the best places to watch a baseball game, period - a showcase for pro baseball again, at least once a year.

 Play something hot: One of the funniest moments of the game came about half-way in, and only a select few of us knew about it.

That is, until today.

Kilgore High School Principal Bobby Wheeley, who does a fantastic job announcing KHS basketball games and baseball games from time to time, was called upon to MC the CatsSports game. Wheeley and his wife Debra had us all in stitches in the press box, managing to do everything from announce the lineup, coordinate the inbetween innings entertainment and even give out prizes for Major League Baseball trivia.

One thing Mr. Wheeley didn't have any control over was the late arrival of Dodger, the Fort Worth mascot, to the park. Wheeley introduced the other mascots - the KHS Bulldog, the Sabine Cardinal, and Pistol the Pelican (the Sports' mascot) to the crowd, but no Dodger.

That is, until about the third or fourth inning, when this guy wearing the blue Fort Worth trademark cap burst, literally, into the press box, shouting, "Whose announcing? Who's announcing?!"

I thought for just a second that we had like a time bomb in a car in the parking lot, or something, until he informed us that Dodger had arrived and was about to run onto the field. While he was explaining this to Mr. Wheeley, he was waving his hands and snapping his fingers.

"Hey! We need to play something hot! Something hot!," the guy said, as the rest of us basically tried to keep from laughing. Seriously - it was a scene right out of Jerry Maguire.

Well, Dodger did run onto the field. I don't think we played anything "hot" - I think maybe he ran onto the field with no music.

 Eddie doing the "YMCA": Speaking of Jones, something tells me that one of these days, after he's won 30-plus games at the University of Texas and is drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs, or somebody, my mind will go back to one thing: the night I saw Eddie Jones doing the "YMCA" with Kyle Shipp and Chase Patterson at Driller Park.

All kidding aside, the guys did get out there during a break between innings at that minor league game and spelled out "YMCA" during the old Village People tune. It was great - maybe the highlight of the night for me. Thanks for being good sports, guys.

 Softball: At this writing, the Kilgore High School Lady Bulldogs' backs were against the wall after losing the first game of the area best-of-three playoff series to Little Cypress-Mauriceville.

By the time this hits the stands, that playoff series will be over, one way or another - either KHS will have fought back and won it, or LC-M will have finished off the Lady 'Dogs.

Read about the outcome - and hopefully Kilgore's plans for the next playoff series - in Tuesday's Kilgore News Herald.

Kilgore has a few seniors this year - Toni Griffin, Sydnay Dick, Millicent Dickey and Mackenzie Sharp - that have been invaluable to their program for the last three years. Let's hope they get to keep on playing.

 Baseball, too: Jones, Shipp, Patterson and the rest of the Bulldogs finished the regular season almost two weeks ago, but had a bye in the first round of the 4A playoffs and will finally start their playoff run on Thursday against Nederland in Lufkin.

Good luck, guys - keep playing like you've played for about eight weeks, and you can get it done.

 Football: I have not forgotten spring football. I promise I'll do my very best to update you on the spring practices at Kilgore High School and Kilgore College in Tuesday's paper, including KC's spring game.

Have a great week.