KEITH GROLLER'S BIRTHDAY!

FROM KEITH GROLLER

"What are you doing for birthday, Keith?"

Been asked that a lot in the past few days. The answer: "What d'ya think? Covering basketball."

Happens seemingly every year on my birthday. When you cover high school basketball and your birthday is in early March, you're usually going to have to work on your big day and this year is no exception. My birthday is Saturday and I will be at Parkland for the 4A consolation and championship games.

(Birthday cake, below, given to me by my colleagues at The Morning Call).

Birthday1

I remember when I was kid, Allen-Dieruff played an epic district title game. It was on my eighth birthday, 1969, and Dieruff beat Allen at Muhlenberg in one of the most memorable games between the two schools to that point. Ross Moore was the standout for Dieruff. Allen had numerous stars, including Jay Haines, who went to coach at Dieruff for one season. Dick Schmidt and Milo Sewards went at it from their respective benches.

Many years later, Dieruff also had a memorable win on my birthday. This was in the 1986 semis. I wrote about it the other day when I was recapping the most memorable semifinal games of the past 28 years. The details:

Dieruff 39, Whitehall 37, 3/5/86 -- In the 4A semis at Stabler, John Toman made a length-of-the-court pass with two seconds left to Ron Lacey, who laid it in to give the Huskies a stunning win.

Some years, we're already into states by my birthday.

In fact, the last time my birthday fell on a Saturday was 2005 and I covered Whitehall beating Scranton in the first round of ths state tournament in a game played at Allen. Those Zephyrs went on to win one more game before losing to Chester a week later in the state quarterfinals.

All I can tell you is that I would love to see some great games and great crowds this weekend.

I think Allen-Liberty on Saturday night should draw exceptionally well. It has been a long time since we've had such a highly-anticipated championship game.

But I am also hoping that Central Catholic-Wilson will generate some buzz tonight and deliver a dramatic contest.

My picks were in the paper today;and in addition to those I will throw in Pocono West 64-59 over Pottsville in the 4A consolation game and Marian over Mahanoy Area 49-44 in the District 11 A title game and Church Farm over Faith Christian and our Allentown boys, 61-51 n the District One Class A championship game.

But I want to mention my pal Andy Weaver's selection on the Allen-Liberty game. Weave has been on target many times this year, but I don't know about this one -- Liberty 66, Allen 47.

As I said Thursday night on Chris Michael's "Sports Talk" show on RCN4, I will be happy to take the Canaries and 18 points for a hot dog bet at the next Nazareth game that I attend with my buddy.

Liberty may very well win. In fact, I predict the Hurricanes to win, but I believe this will be a down-to-the-wire thriller like the first two meetings between these two teams.

If Weave nails this one, wow, it truly is time to hire him for all of our predictions at the paper. He can also handle my lottery ticket numbers and handicap when's the best time to go to the shore in the summer since I usually encounter rain when I go.

If he gets this one right, he deserves a big cake like the one I got today at the paper and I will deliver it to his door.Birthday3

It's ironic. When I was a student at Dieruff, we used to call Allen kids "Cake Eaters."

In this birthday week, I've been nothing but a "Cake Eater." Is that an omen pointing toward an Allen win on Saturday night? We'll see.

No matter who wins, I am just hoping to get one more great high school basketball memory before I get too old to stop remembering special nights like the ones about to unfold.

http://blogs.mcall.com/groller/