GLS: THE POWER HOUR
Written by Dave O’Malley and Scott Mincher
It’s fourth and goal at the two. There are six ticks left on the clock and you desperately cling to a five-point lead. The late afternoon sun casts a violent shadow on the end zone as you dig deep within yourself. You have worked towards this moment your entire life. The crowd is a sea of deafening silence. The time is now…the time for… “GOAL LINE STANCE” with Scotty Mincher and Super Dave O’Malley!!
Now, that’s an opening! Welcome to Goal Line Stance with Scotty & Super Dave, a bi-whenever column with an ever-changing playbook. When we started this column, it was an attempt to delve deep into the psyche of the Mahoning Valley sports fan. We quickly discovered that psyche to be a little on the fritz. (valley colloquialism). So, in an attempt to cause no further damage we decided to focus our attention on YSN, more specifically our experiences at YSN. So, from this play forward, GLS will be the adventures of Super Dave & Scotty at YSN. Allow me to continue…
By the way, if you’re wondering how the fourth and goal from the first paragraph turned out, all I can say is the final play involved an errant pass, a late flag, and a ten-second run-off. (I can’t make this stuff up). On with the show…
For those of you familiar with YSN, and I assume most of you are, you are aware of the afternoon juggernaut that is the YSN Power Hour, the sixty-minute jewel in YSN’s crown. For the uninitiated, the Power Hour is a daily sports round table that airs at 3:00 pm and hosted by YSN honcho, D.J. Yokely. It is a must-see for area sports fans. The topics can range from high school lacrosse to Super Mario Brothers all in a single show. It’s high entertainment. Having already made several appearances on the Power Hour, Scotty felt I was ready to join him. So did I. Showtime…
So, on a faceless Wednesday afternoon in March of 2021, Scotty and I made our Power Hour debut as a team. It was all very exciting. On with the show…
My understanding of local sports has grown exponentially over the last year and a half. Between the insightful banter among the YSN staff and the remarkable coverage on the YSN website (shout out to Anthony Hartwig!) I was now equipped with a working knowledge of area sports and was ready to square off against the best and brightest. Of course, I was sharing a screen with local legend Scotty Mincher and was more than willing to allow him to do the heavy lifting. Scotty would provide the facts and the hard-hitting opinions and I would add the nonsensical commentary and the inability to adjust the volume of the mics. We were special…
It just so happened that our first show fell on National Mario Day and we were to begin the show by discussing our favorite Mario character. More out of my lane, I could not be. As I sat nervously waiting my turn, I listened intently to the others for any scrap of information I could add to my vacant videogame database. It did not look good. I was Mario challenged. I decided my best course of action would be to echo the person before me and laugh about how we shared the same character. It would prove to be an ill-advised strategy as Alissa and I now share an affinity for Princess Peach. I should have said, Mario…
“What is the most difficult thing to do in sports?” This was the next question posed to the Power Hour panel. And this is when Scotty stepped up and delivered. As he did with his eloquent homage to Luigi in the Mario segment, Scotty gave what I felt to be the most accurate answer: NFL quarterback. It makes sense. There is a reason an NFL quarterback is the highest paid, the most publicized, the most credited, and the most blamed. It is truly the most demanding and difficult position in sports. (Despite how easy Brady makes it look). Point to the GLS team…
Some of the other sports mentioned in this discussion were Hockey (I, regrettably, questioned the difficulty of Ice Skating), Gymnastics (extremely difficult) Soccer Goalie (I was surprised by this answer but I guess the thirty seconds of actual game action they endure can be grueling) and my answer, Hitting a major league pitcher. I chose my answer based on a quote by Don Mattingly, who told Sports Illustrated “Randy Johnson is throwing it at 103 and the ball is starting from behind your ear. You better get your head right, boy”. Sounds difficult…
And just like that, the hour was nearing its end. We wrapped things up with a Power Hour staple, the inspired “Beef or Fillet?” (applying the love/hate paradigm to sports), and then it was time to hit the showers. Hopefully, Scotty and I will be back on the Power Hour soon and often. We had a blast. We are also looking forward to future YSN adventures that I hope you’ll read about in the next Goal Line Stance. Friends, until then…
Epilogue: For fun, we tried to create the most difficult position in sports. I don’t want to give away any spoilers but picture Ben Roethlisberger on ice skates wearing a catcher’s mask…
