I got Dancing With The Stars, and American Idol winners, but I didn't see this coming

FROM KEITH GROLLER

Earlier this week I predicted Nicole Scherzinger would win Dancing With the Stars and Lee DeWyze would win American Idol.

Ok, so far, so good.

I also could have predicted an embarrassing season finale for American Idol in which they went overboard in saying good-bye to Simon Cowell, particularly with the predictably loopy, bizarre, hard-to-watch return of Paula Abdul who is still obviously heavily medicated.

If they wanted to pay tribute to him, they should have simply replayed the clip in which he predicted Carrie Underwood (pictured below), the only Idol winner I'd ever pay to see, would sell more records than anybody else in the show's history.


It was his best moment as far as I'm concerned and showed he knew what he was talking about.

As for the rest of the show, it was like going to my 30th high school reunion last fall. I saw a lot of familiar faces and heard a lot of familiar voices from the late 1970s -- Chicago, Hall & Oates, Alice Cooper, the Bee Gees, Joe Cocker, and Michael McDonald of Doobie Brothers fame etc. But no one looked quite as good or sounded quite as good as they used to.

Speaking of things not being as good as they used to be, the pitching and defense in area softball hasn't been as good as it used to be this year and that was never made more evident than in the wild 15-14 game I witnessed today at Saucon Valley. The Panthers won the 3A quarterfinal over Becahi in a game called at 7:55 p.m. with lightning flashing and darkness closing.

It has been that way all year with the struggling pitching and defense, but I still never thought I'd see a 15-14 District 11 playoff game between two of the better teams in area softball.

An unforgiving strike zone and several close calls at first base that went the offense's way, plus the distruption and distraction of several lengthy weather delays, didn't help the pitchers and the defenses either. I had the feeling that if the seventh inning had played out, one of the teams might have reached 20.

Still, this one I'll never forget and not necessarily for all of the right reasons.

I felt bad for Becahi because the Golden Hawks had led most of the way. They fell behind just once, but at precisely the wrong time. And yet, they had four different 4-run leads and still couldn't hold on.

It was just a bizarre, crazy game that may have provided some poetic justice for Saucon. Many have felt along -- and I wouldn't argue -- that the Panthers were the best team in the Colonial League this season and a late slump and some tiebreakers conspired to keep them out of the league tournament.

But now they are in the district's final four and have their chance on the big stage.

As for the rest of what happened:

4A -- Emmaus and Easton, two of the hottest teams in the area until they got bumped off in the LVC semis last week, bounced back with big wins. Emmaus gets Nazareth again, and Sarah Faust looks like she's finally hitting her stride. A no-hitter against Northampton is impressive. Meanwhile Easton awaits the winner of Liberty-Stroudsburg, which was postponed until today. It would not shock me if we had a repeat of the LVC finals (Nazareth vs. Liberty) in the district final.

3A -- Palisades got a gem from Krista Morrone in what must have been a classic pitchers' duel with Wilson's Chelsea Bock. Now the Pirates get Saucon again, a team they have beaten twice. Pottsville, though, may be the best team in the entire classification. The Crimson Tide awaits the winner of the Southern Lehigh-Northwestern game. The Spartans lead that one 7-4 with play set to resume today in the fourth inning.

2A -- It was the power of the "P" in this class as Pine Grove, Pen Argyl and Palmerton won games along with Colonial League champ Northern Lehigh. Pine Grove and Pen Argyl will meet in Tuesday's semis in a rematch of last year's district final won by the Cardinals. And the Northern Lehigh-Palmerton rivalry is rekindled in the other semifinal. The Blue Bombers haven't won a district title since 1989 and you know they would like to cement their return to legitimacy as a softball program by beating their neighbors from Slatington.

Some good games are coming, but I need a day or two to allow my brain unscramble from that 15-14 doozy I just witnessed.

FROM KEITH GROLLER