BAKER'S DISH

I still haven’t figured out what to do with my Saturdays off. I’ve been on this schedule for five months now, where I’m one of those Monday through Friday guys. It’s the first time in 10 years that it’s been this way for me. The previous 10 years, like any hardworking sports reporter, I was on the Tuesday through Saturday second shift and I really enjoyed it. I always said I’d be a Tuesday through Saturday sports editor, but that idea was squashed by the bosses upon my promotion in late August. They were set on having a Monday through Friday sports editor — one that needed to be present during the 9 to 5 hours — and, five months later, I can see that they knew what they were talking about.

But, that leaves to question, what’s there to do?

— I’m not a huge sports television junkie, unless it involves the Clemson Tigers, the NFL or NBA. Right now, as luck would have it, I’m watching the Clemson-Duke game. In fact, I grew up a big fan of this current Texas-Pan American assistant men’s basketball coach during his playmaking days for the Clemson Tigers (this guy later was an assistant at the college I graduated from in South Carolina).

— Making matters worst, my lady friend is in grad school at New Mexico, which means I have a lady friend without the benefits of having one.

Well, the NFL season got me through much of the first five months, but it’s coming to a close. I’ve found two places to enjoy an adult beverage to wind down from the work week, with this place and this place being my favorites. By the way, when’s Pepper’s reopening? You’re killing me Burt. There was nothing better than a few of these on a Saturday afternoon — before the massive crowd packed the place — to bring the week to an end. This was most helpfull during the always demanding high school football season after a 8 a.m. to 2 a.m. Friday shift that proved to always be draining. This former Monitor photographer, shown to the left with his trademark baseball cap, also was a big fan of Peppers.

I’ve also enjoyed the local professional sports teams we’ve added here in McAllen. The Vipers, Silverados and Killer Bees are always a good option on the weekend.

But, besides that, I’m open for ideas. I’ve explored Roma, traveled the impowerment zone from the sugar cane fields of Santa Rosa to the middle of Starr County. I’ve been to the street markets here in McAllen. I’ve been to one Winter Texan festival in San Juan after a reader invited me (thanks for the invite Mr. Ben). I’ve found a few places for a few cold ones. I’ve been to see what we have to offer in the minor league sports world.

Now, however, I’m looking for some new stuff. As always, suggestions are welcome.

For fans of RGVsports.com, we soon should be getting a facelift. For those that don’t know, the Valley Freedom high school sports Web site is one of the highest traffic web pages for high school sports in Freedom Communications. In all honesty, it’s put up some rather staggering web views, especially during football season.

With that said, our internet department is hoping to give RGVsports.com more of a look like themonitor.com. We’re told this move will take effect around Jan. 30, although I’m a bit skeptical due to the enormity of the project. I’d say the end of January is more accurate, at this point, although I’ll make sure to keep you updated. It’s a pretty massive undertaking considering this transformation is the first of its kind for the Freedom Varsity sites (the high school web pages, which all have a uniform look throughout Freedom).

Later down the road, hopefully before next football season, we expect to have a new varsity platform as well, which will allow us to deliver online stats for our readers in a much more effective and time-friendly way (I’m sure our staff will love that). I’ll be sitting in on this redsign process to make sure your needs are met with this Web site. Which is where you come in at. If there’s anything you’d like to see (new or different) on the RGVsports.com Web site, let me know. Now’s your chance to speak out before we get knee deep in this redesign process.

As always, thanks for checking us out. As successful as RGVsports.com has been so far, I really think we’ve just seen a glimpse of how powerful this Web site can be. And that, without question, is 100 percent because of the loyal Valley high school sports fans.