OVC meet offers rare chance to see world-class talent

It isn't often that local sports fans get a chance to watch a world-class athlete perform in their own backyards.

That opportunity will present itself this weekend when Southeast Missouri State hosts the Ohio Valley Conference outdoor track and field championships at the Abe Stuber Complex on Sprigg Street.

Action will begin at 1 p.m. Friday and continue at 11 a.m. Saturday, with the final event scheduled for a little after 4 p.m.

While the exceptional program coach Joey Haines has built in his 25 years at Southeast would be reason enough for fans to come out and support the Redhawks, the subject of the opening paragraph should really seal the deal.

I'm referring, of course, to Miles Smith, the Southeast junior who ranks among the world's elite 400-meter runners. He earned a gold medal as part of the U.S. 1,600-meter relay team at last summer's world championships in Finland.

Smith's accomplishments already rank as the stuff of legend for a local athlete. Probably the only thing that has prevented him from being a household name in the area is the fact track and field simply does not generate the type of fan interest in our country that it does in many other parts of the world.

When Smith -- who has the engaging personality to match his prodigious talent -- competes overseas, I've been told he is treated like a rock star, with adoring fans besieging him for autographs.

I don't expect local fans to get quite that excited over seeing Smith run, but considering that all you've got to do is hop in your car and drive a few miles, it would be a shame to miss out on the chance this weekend.

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A complete schedule of the OVC track and field meet will appear in the Southeast Missourian later in the week, but the final for Smith's specialty -- the 400 meters -- is scheduled for about 1:35 p.m. Saturday, in case you're already making plans to attend.

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It seems like the college softball season has just flown by, as Southeast will have its final home action next weekend with a three-game OVC series against Jacksonville State.

The Redhawks have clinched their first winning record since 2000 and are in the running for a high seed in the conference tournament.

While there are plenty of neat stories surrounding the Redhawks -- including the sensational all-around play of local product Megan McDonald from Central High School -- it's hard to top the tale of Michelle Summers.

Summers, who stands probably a shade or two under 5 feet tall, said she hit only one home run during her entire high school career.

Yet the sophomore third baseman from California has in less than two years become the top home-run slugger in the program's history.

Entering a weekend series at Tennessee Tech, Summers owned the school's career record by herself with 21 homers, and she was tied for the single-season mark with 11 long balls this year.

With more than two seasons of eligibility still remaining, Summers just might put the home run records so far out of reach that nobody will ever come close to reaching them, at least not for a long time.

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When the Southeast baseball team hosted Austin Peay last weekend, the Govs' Ryan Kane used Capaha Field to pass former Southeast star Kerry Robinson as owner of the second-longest hitting streak in OVC history.

Kane hit safely in all three games of the series, pushing his hitting streak to 36 straight games, which surpassed Robinson's mark of 35.

But Kane's string finally came to an end Tuesday in a loss at nationally ranked Vanderbilt, so the OVC record hitting streak of 42 straight by Austin Peay's Chuck Abbott in 1996 remains intact.

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I'm not saying Juan Encarnacion will end up having a good season, or even a decent one.

But, in baseball, it always makes me laugh when people are so quick to write off players as complete busts after just a few weeks.

All I've heard from Cardinals fans most of this early season is how terrible Encarnacion is.

I use Encarnacion as an example because he got off to such a slow start, but I could have just as easily named one or two players from any given year.

Don't people realize by now how long the baseball season is?

I know it's an overused clichŽ, but the season really is a marathon and not a sprint.

Early last season, so many Cardinals fans talked about what a horrible player Yadier Molina was when he struggled. Yet Molina turned out to have a pretty solid year, both at the plate and behind it.

I've got a feeling that if Albert Pujols started off slowly one of these years, some people would say he's really a lot older than everybody thinks he is, and he's probably just about washed up.

Sure, I'm joking -- sort of -- about the Pujols reference, but my point is that in baseball people should at least give struggling players some time before certifying them as absolute busts.

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Speaking of Pujols, I wrote last week that considering how amazing a career he has already had, nothing he does should surprise baseball fans anymore.

But something is starting to surprise me, as I'm sure it has many people.

Namely, why so many teams are still pitching to Pujols on such a regular basis.

I expect squads to start giving Pujols the Barry Bonds treatment of the last few years, when Bonds piled up intentional and unintentional walks in record fashion.

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I've never fashioned myself as one of the brightest bulbs in the room, so I hesitate to label somebody as unequivocally "dumb."

But you've got to say that Ricky Williams fits the description.

The Miami Dolphins running back faces a one-year suspension for his fourth violation of the NFL's substance abuse policy, after the appeal of his latest failed drug test was rejected.

I can see messing up like that once, maybe twice, perhaps three times.

But four times?

Marty Mishow is a sports writer for the Southeast Missourian.