A REAL RANT
Here are just some things that I have been thinking about in the sports world over the past few days.
*Tim Hardaway made some comments about former NBAer John Amaechi, who revealed to the public last week that he was gay. In those comments, Hardaway said things like, “You know, I hate gay people, so I let it be known. I don't like gay people and I don't like to be around gay people,” and “I'm homophobic. I don't like it. It shouldn't be in the world or in the United States.” First things first. Hey Tim, just so you know, the United States is part of the world in case you missed that day in geography class. Now, for the serious issue at hand. You are exactly right; certain people should not be in our world, but they are not people like John Amaechi, they are the bigots like yourself. Just think if everyone all through history thought the same way Hardaway thinks, he wouldn’t have to worry about sharing a lockerroom with gays, because HE wouldn’t be in it, and people like Jackie Robinson would have never been given a chance.
*By the way, don’t you thing John Amaechi could have come up with a better name for his book revealing his sexual preference than Man in the Middle? That had comedians everywhere waiting with punch lines.
*Bobby Knight was reprimanded today by Big XII officials for being critical of a call in a double overtime loss to Oklahoma State on Saturday. He called the call, “horrendous,” and “maybe as bad a call as I’ve ever seen.” Seeing the play and call as it happened on Saturday and thinking the same thing that Knight said in his post-game press conference got me wondering. Why are referees so protected? Why don’t they have to speak to the media to explain what they saw and why they made certain calls? In this instance, the ref clearly made a terrible call, and possibly changed the outcome of the game, yet nothing is done to him? I have a lot of respect for officials in all sports and I feel that they make the right call 99.8% of the time, but every once in a while, they mess up. Why should the player or coach or administrator get in trouble for being critical or commenting about the situation? All I’m asking for is a post-game press conference for the officials. I think it would help if they had to answer some questions about their performance every game, too.
*March Madness seems to have set-in a little early. Sure, you had Top 10 teams losing at home this week like Pitt, Texas A&M and North Carolina, but that is just the beginning. Going into this week, there were 6 teams that were “on the bubble” for the NCAA tournament, and that are in an all new territory this time of year. Can you imagine an NCAA Tournament without the likes of Arizona, UCONN, Duke, Michigan State, Syracuse or Texas Tech? Ok, you got me with the Texas Tech. So let me say it this way. Can you imagine a March without Lute Olson, Mike Krzyzewski, Jim Calhoun, Tom Izzo, Jim Boeheim or Bob Knight pacing the sidelines? All of these coaches and their teams have struggled in the new year. Bob Knight had lost 5 in a row, something he hadn’t done since 1971, before upseting #6 Texas A&M on Tuesday. Coach K and the Dukies had lost 4 in a row and dropped out of the ESPN/coaches poll for the first time since its inception before winning at #21 Boston College last night. Jim Calhoun is breaking in a young bunch at Connecticut this season, and the Big East has not been kind to them. They had lost 6 of 8 and 9 of their last 13 before beating Seton Hall last night. Arizona started 12-1 and is 5-6 since, Syracuse had lost 4 of 5 before winning their last two and Michigan State had lost 4 in a row before a win against rival Michiagn Tuesday night. So all these teams are now back on the winning track, but it is a track they need to stay on if they want to be playing in March. It sure would be an odd tournament without these coaches and teams on the sidelines.
*A cool story to follow that I wanted to pass along. Jon Lester, a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox is back pitching again this spring after going through a tough offseason. Lester’s season ended last August 23rd after a start in Anaheim. It was then that he was diagnosed as having anaplastic large cell lymphoma. Lester went through six rounds of chemotherapy, the final one December 21st, and reported to Red Sox camp cancer-free.
*The Daytona 500 will start off the NASCAR season Sunday. The week leading up to this Daytona 500 has had a little more action and excitement than in years past though, with 5 different crew chiefs being suspended from the race due to their cars not meeting NASCAR regulations. Four of the racers who were penalized were Matt Kenseth, who finished second at Daytona last year, Kasey Kahne, Elliott Sadler and Scott Riggs, but you have really got to give it to the 5th driver. Michael Waltrip and his team were hit with the toughest penalty. When these guys cheat, they really cheat. While the other racers were penalized for using irregular bolts in their cars or for improperly installing wind ducts, Waltrip's team was penalized for having a foreign substance in his car. That substance? JET FUEL. No truth to the the rumor that the song "Danger Zone" from the Top Gun soundtrack was playing in the garage when the team was busted.
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
One Game Doesn't Make a Season
ONE GAME DOESN’T MAKE A SEASON
Pitt was thoroughly dismantled tonight by a very well coached and athletic Louisville basketball team. Every once in a while, a team has these games where they just didn’t seem to have shown up or played with a lack of energy. All teams have these games, not just bad teams, all teams. Tonight, Pitt had one of these games. The thing that amazed me about tonight’s game was not the outcome, but the reaction from the fans afterwards. Now, I know that I live in a city that sets its standards high for its teams and that hates losing, but after listening to the Pitt post-game show with Greg Linnelli, I realized one more thing, this city doesn’t know the first thing about basketball.
HERE ARE SOME EXAMPLES OF THE CALLS THAT I HEARD TONIGHT.
Caller #1: Well, here we go again, Jamie Dixon just can’t win the big game. Wait a minute, since when was Louisville in the middle of February a big game?? And secondly, how is Bill Cowher doing? How about Jim Boeheim? They are some coaches that couldn’t win the “big game” either. Heck, I’d rather not win the big game as a coach if that is what it takes to be put in the same sentence as those two Hall of Fame coaches.
Caller #2: This team is overrated; they are the same Pitt team we have seen in the past, and they will be out of the NCAA Tournament in Sweet 16 again this year. Ok, they MIGHT be overrated, I think I can give you that. But to complain about getting to the sweet sixteen is just plain stupid. I realize that every team and their fans ideally would like to cut down the nets at the Final Four, but let’s be realistic. There are 336 schools that play division 1 basketball. Only 65 (19.3%) even make it into the NCAA tournament, and when you take into consideration that of those 65, 32 of them are the conference winner, that leaves just 33 (9.8%) spots for the best teams in the country to battle over just to make it into the tournament. Of those 65 teams, 49 of them lose in the first weekend, allowing only 16 (4.7%) to advance to the 2nd week of the tournament. How can Pitt fans be disappointed by consistently being in this top-tier for the past 6-7 years?
Caller #3: Jamie Dixon always seems to get outcoached by all the big name coaches, like Rick Pitino. Really, is that why he has the highest winning percentage of any coach in Big East history? Or maybe that is why he has 10 wins against the Big East’s best coaches, Jim Boeheim, Jim Calhoun and Rick Pitino, in less than four seasons. It is probably also why he will become one of the top 15 fastest head coaches in NCAA history to get to 100 wins (he needs 2 more). I agree he can’t coach a lick.
Caller #4: Pitt always seems to fall short of their expectations. Well, who puts the high expectations on this team? The media and the fans!!!! Think about this, Jamie Dixon has the top team in the Big East this year, he had the runner-up in the conference tournament last year and he continues to have them among the elite in the country every year since he stepped in for Ben Howland. He has done all of that with basically a bunch of nobodies. The coaches I have mentioned before, Boeheim, Calhoun and Pitino, they don’t recruit kids, they select them. On Pitt's roster this season, only 4 players were considered 4-star recruits (out of 5 stars) coming out of high school, the rest were lower. 3 of those 4 are sophomores. Levon Kendall did not have another scholarship offer when he chose Pitt. Antonio Graves chose Pitt over Charlotte, Bowling Green and Rutgers. As a high school senior, Aaron Gray had only one other offer from Rutgers. That group is the seniors on this team. The juniors aren’t much better. Mike Cook transferred to Pitt after selecting East Carolina over Rhode Island out of high school, and Ronald Ramon had offers from just St. Bonaventure and George Mason. Dixon has taken these kids that nobody wanted and made them pretty good. It isn’t like Dixon is working with blue-chip recruits; he isn’t working with ANY, yet he still manages to win games at the highest level. Are the high expectations good for a program to have? You bet, but you can’t then criticize them when they don’t reach lofty goals. Especially when you realize that this group of players have been over-achievers from the day they arrived in Oakland.
I turned off the radio after that one. I had enough.
I still believe that Pitt has a very talented and good basketball team, and I still think that they could make some noise and maybe even put together a magical run in March. But lets just take it easy after they lose one game. The last team to go undefeated for an entire season was Indiana in 1976. TEAMS LOSE GAMES, and I fully expect Pitt to lose 1, 2, maybe even 3 more this season. Does that make them a disappointment or a failure? Depends on who you ask. One tip, you may want to avoid asking that question on a public forum, like on a post game call-in show after a loss that does end their season.
Pitt was thoroughly dismantled tonight by a very well coached and athletic Louisville basketball team. Every once in a while, a team has these games where they just didn’t seem to have shown up or played with a lack of energy. All teams have these games, not just bad teams, all teams. Tonight, Pitt had one of these games. The thing that amazed me about tonight’s game was not the outcome, but the reaction from the fans afterwards. Now, I know that I live in a city that sets its standards high for its teams and that hates losing, but after listening to the Pitt post-game show with Greg Linnelli, I realized one more thing, this city doesn’t know the first thing about basketball.
HERE ARE SOME EXAMPLES OF THE CALLS THAT I HEARD TONIGHT.
Caller #1: Well, here we go again, Jamie Dixon just can’t win the big game. Wait a minute, since when was Louisville in the middle of February a big game?? And secondly, how is Bill Cowher doing? How about Jim Boeheim? They are some coaches that couldn’t win the “big game” either. Heck, I’d rather not win the big game as a coach if that is what it takes to be put in the same sentence as those two Hall of Fame coaches.
Caller #2: This team is overrated; they are the same Pitt team we have seen in the past, and they will be out of the NCAA Tournament in Sweet 16 again this year. Ok, they MIGHT be overrated, I think I can give you that. But to complain about getting to the sweet sixteen is just plain stupid. I realize that every team and their fans ideally would like to cut down the nets at the Final Four, but let’s be realistic. There are 336 schools that play division 1 basketball. Only 65 (19.3%) even make it into the NCAA tournament, and when you take into consideration that of those 65, 32 of them are the conference winner, that leaves just 33 (9.8%) spots for the best teams in the country to battle over just to make it into the tournament. Of those 65 teams, 49 of them lose in the first weekend, allowing only 16 (4.7%) to advance to the 2nd week of the tournament. How can Pitt fans be disappointed by consistently being in this top-tier for the past 6-7 years?
Caller #3: Jamie Dixon always seems to get outcoached by all the big name coaches, like Rick Pitino. Really, is that why he has the highest winning percentage of any coach in Big East history? Or maybe that is why he has 10 wins against the Big East’s best coaches, Jim Boeheim, Jim Calhoun and Rick Pitino, in less than four seasons. It is probably also why he will become one of the top 15 fastest head coaches in NCAA history to get to 100 wins (he needs 2 more). I agree he can’t coach a lick.
Caller #4: Pitt always seems to fall short of their expectations. Well, who puts the high expectations on this team? The media and the fans!!!! Think about this, Jamie Dixon has the top team in the Big East this year, he had the runner-up in the conference tournament last year and he continues to have them among the elite in the country every year since he stepped in for Ben Howland. He has done all of that with basically a bunch of nobodies. The coaches I have mentioned before, Boeheim, Calhoun and Pitino, they don’t recruit kids, they select them. On Pitt's roster this season, only 4 players were considered 4-star recruits (out of 5 stars) coming out of high school, the rest were lower. 3 of those 4 are sophomores. Levon Kendall did not have another scholarship offer when he chose Pitt. Antonio Graves chose Pitt over Charlotte, Bowling Green and Rutgers. As a high school senior, Aaron Gray had only one other offer from Rutgers. That group is the seniors on this team. The juniors aren’t much better. Mike Cook transferred to Pitt after selecting East Carolina over Rhode Island out of high school, and Ronald Ramon had offers from just St. Bonaventure and George Mason. Dixon has taken these kids that nobody wanted and made them pretty good. It isn’t like Dixon is working with blue-chip recruits; he isn’t working with ANY, yet he still manages to win games at the highest level. Are the high expectations good for a program to have? You bet, but you can’t then criticize them when they don’t reach lofty goals. Especially when you realize that this group of players have been over-achievers from the day they arrived in Oakland.
I turned off the radio after that one. I had enough.
I still believe that Pitt has a very talented and good basketball team, and I still think that they could make some noise and maybe even put together a magical run in March. But lets just take it easy after they lose one game. The last team to go undefeated for an entire season was Indiana in 1976. TEAMS LOSE GAMES, and I fully expect Pitt to lose 1, 2, maybe even 3 more this season. Does that make them a disappointment or a failure? Depends on who you ask. One tip, you may want to avoid asking that question on a public forum, like on a post game call-in show after a loss that does end their season.
Monday, February 12, 2007
The Best DAYS of Your Life
The Best DAYS of Your Life
This is the time of year that every sports fan can look forward to. At this point of the year, everything is still in front of the fans of EVERY sport. Take a look at the upcoming schedule that is a must for all sports fans:
4 Days until Pitchers and Catchers Report to Spring Training: That means in 5 days, the Pirates will start working out in preparations for the 2007 season AND from the day they start camp until at least April 2nd, they will not be in last place.
6 Days until the Daytona 500: The Daytona 500 ends what has to be the shortest off-season of any sport. The NASCAR season ended November 19th last season and now, less than three months later, they are back, ready to start another season. At least the three months are the prime hunting seasons, which gives those NASCAR fans something to do during the off-season.
28 – 32- 50 Days until MARCH MADNESS: To be exact it is 28 days until Selection Sunday, 32 days until the real games begin, sorry that play-in game doesn’t cut it, (SIDE NOTE: Does anyone else think the play-in game would be more exciting if it were the last two bubble teams that are playing for an at-large bid?) and 50 days until we crown a NCAA Champion for the 2007 season. I would have said crown a NEW champion, but the way that Florida is playing, I think I’m better off just to say crown a champion. At this point, you probably know if your team is close or not to getting into the tournament, and now it is just a fight for survival and positioning until the seedings are released Sunday March 11th.
50 Days until Opening Day of Major League Baseball: I’m not counting the 1 game that is being played on Sunday night that kicks off the season. It doesn’t count for two reasons. First, it is on the schedule ONLY for television purposes, and second, every other team in the Majors opens the next day.
51 Days until the Pirates are eliminated from playoff contention: Okay, this year they made some improvements to their team, so maybe this is a little early to eliminate them, but then again, Major League Baseball didn’t make any changes to it’s salary structure, so yeah, 51 days until the Buccos are out of the playoff race.
53 Days until the Golf season starts: I know. I know. Lefty just won at Pebble this weekend, but the golf season doesn’t really start until you see “Amen Corner,” or “the Bridge,” or the azaleas and hear Jim Nance over that soft piano say the words, “Welcome to the Masters.”
59 Days until the Stanley Cup Playoffs begin: At the beginning of the season, people were debating on whether the Penguins could make the playoffs this season, being so young. Now it’s not a question of will they be in it, it is a matter of how long they will stay. Heck, after the game last night, the Toronto head coach said that the Penguins are the best team in hockey right now. Who could argue that? 11-0-2 in the past 13 is pretty impressive. They are my new favorite team, have you heard??
69 Days until the NBA Playoffs begin: You know the NBA, that league after college basketball? This is the time of year it actually gets exciting. It is just a shame that the league is so screwed up that more teams make the playoffs (16) than miss it (13). Something needs to be done about that. Unfortunately, I think the only way they will change it is to add more teams, just what we need.
76 Days until the NFL Draft: On these days, people all over this great country will sit on their couches and watch for hours on end to see well-dressed, soon-to-be-millionaires wait in a room together before their fate is decided for them. This year, these players will be dreaming and hoping to be that #1 overall selection, but all that dreaming and hoping will end quickly when they realize that the Raiders have the first pick.
Well, there you have it, your sports calendar for the next 76 days. Remember, right now everything is still in front of you and your favorite team. Right now, there is still hope and your team doesn’t stink. Well, unless you are a Penn State hoops fan; then there is no hope and your team really does stink. But don’t worry, the Blue-White game is right around the corner.
This is the time of year that every sports fan can look forward to. At this point of the year, everything is still in front of the fans of EVERY sport. Take a look at the upcoming schedule that is a must for all sports fans:
4 Days until Pitchers and Catchers Report to Spring Training: That means in 5 days, the Pirates will start working out in preparations for the 2007 season AND from the day they start camp until at least April 2nd, they will not be in last place.
6 Days until the Daytona 500: The Daytona 500 ends what has to be the shortest off-season of any sport. The NASCAR season ended November 19th last season and now, less than three months later, they are back, ready to start another season. At least the three months are the prime hunting seasons, which gives those NASCAR fans something to do during the off-season.
28 – 32- 50 Days until MARCH MADNESS: To be exact it is 28 days until Selection Sunday, 32 days until the real games begin, sorry that play-in game doesn’t cut it, (SIDE NOTE: Does anyone else think the play-in game would be more exciting if it were the last two bubble teams that are playing for an at-large bid?) and 50 days until we crown a NCAA Champion for the 2007 season. I would have said crown a NEW champion, but the way that Florida is playing, I think I’m better off just to say crown a champion. At this point, you probably know if your team is close or not to getting into the tournament, and now it is just a fight for survival and positioning until the seedings are released Sunday March 11th.
50 Days until Opening Day of Major League Baseball: I’m not counting the 1 game that is being played on Sunday night that kicks off the season. It doesn’t count for two reasons. First, it is on the schedule ONLY for television purposes, and second, every other team in the Majors opens the next day.
51 Days until the Pirates are eliminated from playoff contention: Okay, this year they made some improvements to their team, so maybe this is a little early to eliminate them, but then again, Major League Baseball didn’t make any changes to it’s salary structure, so yeah, 51 days until the Buccos are out of the playoff race.
53 Days until the Golf season starts: I know. I know. Lefty just won at Pebble this weekend, but the golf season doesn’t really start until you see “Amen Corner,” or “the Bridge,” or the azaleas and hear Jim Nance over that soft piano say the words, “Welcome to the Masters.”
59 Days until the Stanley Cup Playoffs begin: At the beginning of the season, people were debating on whether the Penguins could make the playoffs this season, being so young. Now it’s not a question of will they be in it, it is a matter of how long they will stay. Heck, after the game last night, the Toronto head coach said that the Penguins are the best team in hockey right now. Who could argue that? 11-0-2 in the past 13 is pretty impressive. They are my new favorite team, have you heard??
69 Days until the NBA Playoffs begin: You know the NBA, that league after college basketball? This is the time of year it actually gets exciting. It is just a shame that the league is so screwed up that more teams make the playoffs (16) than miss it (13). Something needs to be done about that. Unfortunately, I think the only way they will change it is to add more teams, just what we need.
76 Days until the NFL Draft: On these days, people all over this great country will sit on their couches and watch for hours on end to see well-dressed, soon-to-be-millionaires wait in a room together before their fate is decided for them. This year, these players will be dreaming and hoping to be that #1 overall selection, but all that dreaming and hoping will end quickly when they realize that the Raiders have the first pick.
Well, there you have it, your sports calendar for the next 76 days. Remember, right now everything is still in front of you and your favorite team. Right now, there is still hope and your team doesn’t stink. Well, unless you are a Penn State hoops fan; then there is no hope and your team really does stink. But don’t worry, the Blue-White game is right around the corner.
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