I'm like about 50% of Wichita right now... I've got the flu. A couple pieces of advice: Advil helps with the aches and pains and going to the gym makes you feel 100 times better (sounds weird, but it works). I have to get used to getting sick again. When I lived in the Arizona desert, I NEVER got sick. Now I'm experiencing my second straight Midwestern winter since moving back and I have to readjust to getting colds and stuff again... ugh. Anyway, I've been stuck in my bed watching games and ESPN and reading sports websites for the past day and a half... so I've got plenty of Musings.
I'm still trying to decide if I'm actually going to get up and watch the Roger Clemens testimony tomorrow. Considering that I usually don't get up until after 9:30 most mornings and I've slept 'til noon the past two days, I'm gonna guess I won't. Especially when you consider the constant din of noise on the subject we're bound to endure as soon as The Rocket gets off the stand, I think I'll pick it up later. What a bunch of nonsense, anyway. With Andy Pettitte not testifying in public, the drama is all gone. Brian McNamee will say what he's already said before and so will Clemens. Nobody has anything new to say and I'm sure nobody will convince anyone else one way or another. I think I've said this before, but who cares who did what and when anymore? There are so many unanswered questions regarding which baseball stars may or may not have done this, that or the other that it's barely worth worrying about. If you want some answers read "Juicing the Game" or "Game of Shadows". They're well-researched pieces that come the closest to giving real answers that we may ever get. I still like baseball because I have faith in some of the younger guys who seem to be educated about steroids and HGH and seem genuine in their commitment to playing the game right. You have to remember that the minor leagues have had stringent steroid testing for nearly a decade. If you've come up in the big leagues in the past 5 years, that means you were tested in the minors and you've been tested every year in the majors. Also, there seems to be a backlash against the "steroid culture" by a lot of the new stars. I remember talking to Joe Crede during Spring Training a few years ago when all this steroid stuff first started and he told me that the younger guys in the game resented the fact some players were gaining an extra edge with performance enhancers. It's starting to be a bit of a badge of honor among baseball players to achieve WITHOUT steroids and HGH... it's a source of pride. If you haven't seen/heard Albert Pujols' recent comments on the subject, check it out on www.stlcardinals.com. The St. Louis slugger gives a passionate speech about how important the legitimacy of the game is to him. I've read similar comments in the past from young stars like Ryan Howard and David Wright.
My last blog struck a chord with one loyal viewer who wants to know why there's so much money involved in NCAA sports and if such a practice is the right thing. Like it or not, college athletics are and will continue to be "big business". I'm afraid there's no turning back now. The list of ways that big-time Athletic Departments can create revenue continues to grow. It's more than just merchandise sales, booster donations and advertising in the arenas/stadiums. Schools are making millions off of the exclusive rights contracts they sign with beverage companies (I guarantee that your favorite college is either a Coke Campus or a Pepsi Campus) and athletic apparel companies (chances are your alma mater is also either a Nike School or an Adidas School). Throw in the gigantic sums of money that the NCAA generates through its national exclusive deals with Coke, Pontiac and the TV networks (CBS for the NCAA Tournament and FOX for the BCS) and its a Revenue Beast that's beyond taming. Some readers want to know if there's anything that can be done to stop the growing emphasis of cash on college sports on the University level. In short: no. You can't tell a University not to make money in any facet of its operations. How can you tell KU, K-State or WSU that they can make only X number of dollars through athletics but the Medical School has no ceiling? Individual people may have the PERSONAL OPINION that the medical school is far more important than the athletic department.... but that's a PERSONAL OPINION. We can't go around making up rules based simply on one group's feelings. As I briefly mentioned in the last blog, the NCAA realizes that certain universities are bigger and have more money that others. So, the Association tries to level the playing field in athletics with rules. You can only call recruits so often, recruits can only take a certain number of official visits, schools can't use "extravagant measures" to recruit athletes, etc. And, of course, we all know that schools can't pay players or give them gifts like cars or clothes or jewelry (if they do and they get caught, they get punished). All of these rules are designed to even things out so that, in theory, Indiana State has an equal opportunity to compete with Duke. People with a brain in their heads realize that such a notion works only in theory (apparently the NCAA is considerably lacking in these types of people). But "theory" is the only realm that the NCAA's practices make any sense, so that's the world they live in. Take, for example, the NCAA's long-standing practice of "neutral sites" for its Championships. Did you know that when you attended those NCAA Baseball Regional games at Wichita State last Spring, you weren't sitting in "Eck Stadium: The Home of the Shockers". As far as the NCAA is concerned, you were sitting in "Eck Stadium: 2008 NCAA Baseball Tournament Site- Wichita Regional". In theory, Eck Stadium was not a home-field for Wichita State simply because the NCAA said so (forget the 10-thousand or so people IN the stadium who cheered for WSU.... and the fact that the other teams had to travel hundreds miles to get to the "neutral site" for the games). It's this kind of fairy-tale land thinking that leads to Duke playing "neutral site" games in places like Greensboro and Charlotte each March at the NCAA Basketball Tournament. Or take the case of Villanova in the 2006 Tournament. 'Nova plays about 5 or 6 home games per year at Philadelphia's Wachovia Center (home of the Philadelphia 76ers and Philadelphia Flyers). However, since Villanova's "home arena" is technically The Pavilion on-campus they were allowed to play NCAA Tournament games at the "neutral site" of the Wachovia Center-- even though they've got THEIR OWN LOCKER ROOM THERE! I was covering Arizona in the 2006 tournament and while teams like the Wildcats, Wisconsin and UAB traveled thousands of miles and slept in hotels, Villanova stayed in their own beds, drove to the arena and changed in their own custom locker room in an arena they'd played in a half-dozen times that season. But since the NCAA had deemed the Wachovia Center a "neutral site" that meant everything was fair and square. But don't worry, you could barely hear the 18-thousand 'Nova fans who packed the building that week above the NCAA's hypocrisy.
moving on.......
I hope you all watched the KU/Texas game on Monday night. Jayhawk fans weren't happy with the outcome but it was a highly entertaining game. I watched the first half with a buddy of mine and we were lamenting how boring Big East basketball is as we watched the game that preceded KU/UT limp to an excruciating 53-51 final while the Jayhawks and 'Horns ran up and down the floor scoring points (which we only knew from watching the score in the corner change every five seconds). ESPN needs to get a clue and start building in an extra half-hour for these stupid Big East games to wrap up so those of us in the Mid-West stop missing the first ten minutes of Big Monday each week. I'm tired of watching a pair of big, lumbering Eastcoast behemoths hack away at each other and waste time at the foul-line each Monday night while a game I actually want to watch is going on. I'm not saying take the Big East off of TV, because I know people on the Coast still want to see it. But do us all the service of building in that extra time so these stupid 50-49 games are finished by the time the REAL basketball tips off so we can see it.
Congrats to the Thunder on their win the other night. More importantly, thanks to Duda and the boys for refusing to be fashion slaves and donning pink jerseys as part of the team's efforts to raise money for cancer research!
hit me with your comments... i'm going to drop back into a Nyquil Nap.
bpa
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