Month: June 2011

The Lawrence Journal-World just completed their reader-driven contest to determine the best KU basketball player of the last decade. Weird timing, yes, since apparently everything that happened in the spring of 2000 gets pushed back to the 90s. But fun anyway.

Some thoughts.

It was interesting looking at their brackets – they went position-by-position – and realizing how unique KU’s pool of talent over that period was. Until a year ago, no one had left after a single season in Lawrence. Before that, only one player left before his junior year. ¹ Thus, there are really only a couple elite players at each position. I would imagine schools like Kentucky, North Carolina, and Duke would have much deeper lists since they’ve had a lot more one-and-doners.

Next, it’s funny how big an effect the events of the spring of 2008 had on the balloting. Guys who played on that team get, I estimate, at least a 30% bump in the voting. Sasha Kaun was a fine player, and had a fabulous senior season, most notably being the only guy who didn’t look nervous in the Davidson game. But the title run helps you forget how frustrating he was his first three years, when he had trouble holding on to the ball, routinely got worked over by mobile big men he was guarding, and picked up tons of cheap fouls. Nets hide a lot of warts.

Aaron Miles is one of the best pure point guards to ever play at KU. But he gets buried in the competition having to face Kirk Hinrich and Sherron Collins. Throw in the title bump for Russell Robinson and I bet Aaron would have finished fourth in an open vote.

Keith Langford is one of my all-time favorite KU players, both because he got the most out of his considerable talents and was not the typical jock off the court. But put him up against Mario Chalmers and it’s no contest.

The most interesting battle is at point guard where Hinrich and Collins were the finalists. In many ways they are total opposites and in others they were mirror images of each other. The tall, skinny white kid from a small high school in Iowa against the short, stocky black kid from Chicago’s inner city. Both burned to win, were never afraid to take the big shot, and have a career full of game-changing plays to their credit. Hinrich was a monster against Arizona in the 2003 Regional Final and fueled the frenetic pace of the ’01-03 seasons. Sherron was only involved in the two biggest plays in KU history. That’s a tough one.

Nick Collison won the fan voting as player of the decade, and that’s a fine choice. He was another guy who got every last ounce out of his talent, has represented the school well as a person and professional, and had some of the biggest individual games of the decade. He also had perhaps the best in-game quote of the decade. “I’m going to the Final Four. You can either get out of my way or help me.”

He led a final five of Hinrich, Chalmers, Brandon Rush, and Drew Gooden. You can’t complain too much about that starting five, although I think most would agree that Sherron is 1B to Hinrich’s 1A at the point. For different reasons, you can make a reasonable argument that any of those players was the best of the last ten years. No coach would turn down a bench of Collins, Langford, Xavier Henry, Marcus Morris, and Wayne Simien.

The final takeaway is KU had a fabulous decade. It’s easier to remember the 2008 postseason and the seasons when KU fell to lower seeded teams in March than the continuous run of excellence. Despite a traumatic coaching change, the program has been as successful as any other in the game.

The mention of VCU ² still upsets my stomach, but, all things considered, it was a pretty fantastic decade for Kansas basketball.

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Over the weekend, word leaked that MLB was considering a plan that would dramatically reshape the game. One team would move from the National to American league, leaving two, 15 team leagues. Then, all divisions would be scrapped and the teams in each league would compete for five post-season slots.

I think this is horrible news, and not for the reasons you would expect.

I think it’s horrible because it’s a great idea, yet most insiders feel it has little chance of actually being adopted. It serves no purpose other than to get those of us who want some kind of radical change to the structure of baseball excited that the game might really be considering a daring move. And when something vanilla passes, like adding another Wild Card to the current system, we’ll all be disappointed and discouraged.

Bud Selig has made it clear that there will be expansion of the playoffs, probably as soon as next season. Simply adding another Wild Card team to the current set-up is an awful idea. It’s awful mostly because A) the prime benefactor seems to be AL East teams and B) it doesn’t do a thing to remedy the issues with scheduling, competitive balance, etc.

If baseball really wants to add more playoff teams, they must be willing to radically reconfigure the entire game.

Two 15 team leagues feels best for several reasons. First, it honors the history of the game. Before the expansion of 1969, there were no divisions, just two leagues playing for a spot in the World Series. What a perfect way for baseball, which is more tradition-bound than any other sport, to move forward: by looking to the past.

Second, with everyone playing the same schedule, it will be a truer and fairer contest to see who the best teams. Plus, the standings would just look nice, with a line under the team in fifth place and everyone below fighting to pass them.

There is one massive problem with this system: an odd number of playoff teams. That means two teams are probably playing a single-game to get into the second round. That doesn’t feel right.

The big stumbling block appears to be Selig’s love of Interleague play. When ideas similar to this were floated in the past, he shot them down, saying they would cheapen the value of Interleague games, as Interleague games would be played throughout the season. Big freaking deal. No one really cares about Interleague play anymore. Fans of regional rivals enjoy the games, but no one gets excited about the years the Royals and Pirates or Nationals and Mariners play.

In general, I’m against changing the way the playoffs are currently comprised if it means just adding one more Wild Card slot. My ideal system would be moving back to two divisions in each league and eliminating the Wild Card (along with Interleague play). But that ain’t happening. Truly radical ideas, like adjusting the makeup of divisions based on size of market, budget, recent success, etc. interest me as well, but those aren’t ideas that American professional sports will ever entertain.

Ditching the divisions and allowing 15 teams to battle it out for five playoff spots is an inspired idea that would satisfy both those who want to expand postseaon play and those who are always looking back to baseball’s past.

It’s a shame baseball will probably take the easy way out.

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Six wins in four weeks. ¹ Four of those wins came in their final at bat. It appears the Royals may indeed suck this year. You can feel the enthusiasm waning as frustrated fans mutter “Same old Royals.”

Danny Duffy can’t throw strikes. Joakim Soria looked lost (but may have been found). Alcides Escobar can’t hit and Ned Yost refuses to pinch hit for him late in games. Outfielders let fly balls drop. Base runners fail to move up. Maybe they are the same old Royals.

For this week’s baseball post, instead of focusing on the Royals I want to write about my current baseball man-crush, Adrian Gonzalez.

Every so often there is a roster move that everyone sees coming years in advance. It was no surprise when Scott Rolen left the Phillies for the Cardinals. He grew up in Southern Indiana² in a family of Cardinals fans. It wasn’t a matter of if but when he would become a Card.

The Red Sox have openly coveted Adrian Gonzalez for years. As each of the last two trading deadlines approached, experts wondered if San Diego would cave and send him to Boston during the season. It didn’t really matter, because the Red Sox were expected to spare no expense in signing him if he eventually hit the free agent market.

The trade finally happened last off-season, and the low key, smooth swinging Gonzalez was a big reason why most people picked the Red Sox to win the World Series.

Things didn’t go as planned, initially. The Red Sox were awful early and Gonzalez didn’t set the world on fire in the first few weeks of the season. But he settled in, began hitting, and soon the rest of his teammates followed. Boston is now in first place in the AL East, despite some pitching woes and several players who aren’t hitting as well as expected.

Gonzalez is a joy to watch. He’s the ultimate combination of professional hitter and superstar, his easy going manner making you forget what a monster talent he is. He can crush home runs and shoot a ball the opposite way with equal ease. He exudes calm. While the term clutch has largely been debunked by stat heads, he sure seems to get a lot of big hits at important times. He looks like he’s having fun on the field. And no one says a bad word about him.

Some wondered if he could transition from ultra-laid back San Diego to high intensity Boston. So far, that hasn’t been an issue. He leads the league in hits, RBIs, and total bases, and has an OPS+ of 157. For people who don’t follow the numbers, that means he is pretty damn good.

It’s a lot harder to like the Red Sox than it was a decade ago. Their fans have become insufferable after finally getting the 86-year monkey off their backs. They spend almost as much money as the Yankees. A contract like Daisuke Matsuzaka’s would have crippled most organizations, but the Red Sox have still been able to resign Josh Beckett, David Ortiz, and JD Drew and nab Gonzalez, Carl Crawford, and John Lackey despite Dice K’s massive deal.

I try to avoid Red Sox games whenever possible these days. But if I know Adrian Gonzalez is coming to bat soon and the Red Sox are on, I make sure I catch his plate appearance.

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Can’t complain.

That’s my simple, two word summation of our week in Hilton Head. I know you expect much more than that from me, though. I will do my best no to disappoint.

Our home was gorgeous. S. spent many, many hours researching the options and looking for something that would hold a significant chunk of our family and be a nice place to stay. She found the perfect place. We stayed in the Forest Beach area, which is on the ocean-side of the island. Our home sat a half-block from the beach. We were close enough to hear the surf crashing against the beach at night. The home had a huge kitchen and dining area, which was perfect for our evening meals. There was a small pool – roughly 20′ X 10′ – where we spent most of our days. There was also a hot tub, which we did not have heated but served as a diving pool where C. could drop and chase her diving sticks until she collapsed from exhaustion.

The pool was in a great spot. Sun first began to hit the water around 11:00, so we could get some morning swim time in without having to worry about sunscreen. Most mornings I went for a run and returned to find the girls already in the pool. It turned out to be the perfect way to cool down after running.

The girls did wonderfully in the pool. All three were comfortable being in the water from the first day, and improved greatly over the week. We kept floaties on even the big sisters most of the time, so we’re excited to see how they do without them when swim lessons begin.

Another highlight of the pool area was the geckos that would scamper across the fence and side of the house throughout the day. The girls thought they were great, and named them for members of the family. L. got concerned when her name had not been used yet and kept asking, “Where duh L. lizard at?”

M. and C. had their own room, which they turned into a clubhouse. They also used the screened-in balcony/porch area as their daytime activity center when not in the water.

Of course, the whole reason for this trip was so the girls could experience a real beach and the ocean for the first time. They went nuts when we made our daily excursion over to the shore. It’s safe to say that Hilton Head is not the ideal beach, if you’re a kid. The sand is compact and hard. You can run or bike right to the edge of the water it’s so solid. If you fill a bucket full of sand and try to turn it over to build a sandcastle, it takes some serious force to get the sand to come out. And the water is kind of dingy. Not that it’s dirty, but it’s also not crystal-clear Caribbean water. All that said, they didn’t care all that much. They still did their best to dig in the sand, build some moats, write their names, collect shells, etc. The other downside to the beach was how freaking hot it was. It was tough to spend too much time there during the heat of the day.

Their favorite part of the beach was the search for shells. Most of the shells we found we small ones, but they didn’t care. They carried buckets and would pick up as many as they could find. The first day, even after she had filled her bucket with several inches of shells, C. still yelled, “SHELL!” each time she saw another one in the sand. They also enjoyed staring at the jellyfish that washed up with the tide.

One funny beach anecdote: M. and I were at the water’s edge along with my sister-in-law KG and her son. KG had her camera and was snapping pictures of 17-month-old Will, who was enjoying the sand and surf almost as much as the girls. A random woman strolling by walked over and asked, “Would you like me to take a family picture?” KG and I looked at each for a moment and the woman said, “I don’t mind, really.” How could we resist an offer like that? And while it wasn’t the family picture the woman imagined, it was still technically a family pic, so it all worked out.

We did not do much exploring around the island. We went over to Harbour Town for dinner one evening, with plans to check out the light house. Turns out the lighthouse A) isn’t very tall and B) you have to pay to go to the top. We bargained with the girls and spent than money on ice cream after dinner. I went to the outlet malls one day with a couple of my sisters-in-law, getting some Nikes and some super cheap jeans, but that was about it for getting away from the house.

The travel went about as well as we could have hoped. There was some minor grumpiness, some yelling from the front seat for the back seat occupants to chill out, and so on. But it was an amazingly successful 24+ hours in the car. We did have a couple situations on the way home, but when you’re asking kids to deal with a 13-hour commute, there are going to be some rough patches.

Not that the drives were completely without incident. On the way to Hilton Head, we drove through a severe thunderstorm. This was a serious storm. At one point it was raining so hard that you could barely see cars 3-4 car lengths in front of us. Throw in lightning bolts on the sides of the road, and it got a little dicey for my sister-in-law AMG who was driving at the time. On the way back, we had to make an emergency stop at Target in Spartanburg, SC to buy another in-car DVD player. Our trusty model, which is only about two years old, suddenly stopped working that morning. We figured it was worth the stop and money with nine more hours of road in front of us. And finally we were about 45 minutes from home Saturday when we drove into another severe thunderstorm. This time we battled 60+ MPH winds in front of the storm and then more torrential rains for the last 20 minutes of our drive. While we were picking up limbs and sticks in our yard Sunday, our neighbor said he had never seen our collective trees bend as much as they had in the midst of the storm.

So that just added a little excitement to our van time. Fortunately we made it through the storms fine.

It was a fantastic vacation and we were thrilled with the girls, for the most part. We highly recommend Hilton Head as a destination, as long as you can deal with the beach and the traffic.

And now summer starts. We’re off to swimming lessons in about an hour.

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