Month: April 2012 (Page 2 of 2)

For the next month or so, the Indiana High School Athletic Association is holding public hearings around the state to discuss multi-class basketball. Even if there is an overwhelming outpouring of support for going back to the old system, no one really expects the tournament to change. The final decision is in the hands of the state’s principals, who are overwhelmingly for keeping things the way they are.

I’ve written before about how my opinion on this has changed after living here. I didn’t used to understand why a state this size would throw tiny rural schools against schools in Indianapolis with 5000 students in any team sport. But I’ve come around, and while I don’t think a single-class tournament would solve all the problems facing high school basketball, a modified system that bridges the gaps between the two systems would be best.

While he doesn’t include it in his story, Indianapolis Star reporter Kyle Neddenriep tweeted that one speaker at last night’s meeting shared the old, tired, wildly innaccurate, Bookeyman argument against multi-class basketball: “it’s socialism, dammit!” If you start talking about high school basketball in this state, someone will claim dividing schools by size is an evil socialist plot sooner rather than later. Well done, Hooisers!

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A follow-up to the 3 Things post from the weekend: M. has mastered the art of riding a bicycle.

Early Saturday she was doing a great job of riding with me just barely guiding her, but was more interested in doing other things and cut the practice short. In the evening I made a quick trip to the grocery store and when I turned onto our street, there she was riding all on her own. Sunday she rode for a solid 10 minutes without stopping, crashing, or needing any help. Despite being the cautious first-born, she’s done a great job picking this up super quickly.

Now we’ll see how soon C. wants to be on her own.

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Some things I’ve enjoyed about my daughters over the past week.

M.: M. is always talking. Even if just to herself, her lips are always moving and sounds are coming out. We catch her whispering things to herself all the time.

We’re working on bike riding. A week ago we took off her training wheels. She made some great progress the first few days, but with the weather cooling off and her back in school, we let things drop this week.

As I took her training wheels off, she sat next to me, excited to take a big developmental step. I heard her whispering to herself, “It’s a big day.”

Once we got on the bike, I gave her some instructions and chased her around the driveway. Each time she would start over, she would run through my list, “Top foot, push off, now peddle hard!” I don’t have to say anything anymore because she’s repeating it all on her own.

She’s on the verge of riding all by herself. Once it warms up again, I’m sure she’ll master it quickly.

C./L.: The little sisters share one this week because of something they did Thursday night. C. lost tooth #3 last Sunday. She literally lost it, as it came out while she was eating watermelon at her cousins’ house and, thinking the tooth was a seed, threw it in the grass. Luckily the Tooth Fairy still came.

Tooth #4 was getting very wiggly Thursday afternoon, and she kept pulling on it. After dinner the sisters were outside playing. She and L. came running in, flew upstairs, and we heard their bedroom door slam. A couple minutes later we hear C. screaming, “MOM, DAD! MY TOOTH CAME OUT!!!!”

Turns out she had a little help.

Apparently she put a toy flower into her mouth and had L. yank on it, removing the tooth in the process. Clever. My favorite part was how they had clearly been talking up this plan based on how they ran right by us and closed the door, yet acted like it was some miraculous event afterward.

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The off season is over; baseball is back! I’ve activated my MLB.TV subscription, loaded up At Bat on my iPhone and iPad, and am ready to go.

It’s been an extra-long off season for Royals fans. After the solid finish to the 2011 season and encouraging results from the next wave of the youth movement, there was a sense that the off season could go a long way towards determining whether the Royals contended in 2012.

They smartly sold high and bought low in the Melky Cabrera – Jonathan Sanchez trade. They resigned Bruce Chen for two years at $9 million, which seemed a bit curious. And then they waited. And waited. And waited.

While Royals fans dreamed of signing Edwin Jackson or Roy Oswalt, the team seemed comfortable with the rotation it had and the young arms that could join them during the ’12 campaign.

Spring training finally arrived. Manny Piña tore his knee. The team extended Salvador Perez. He tore his knee. They extended Alcides Escobar. Joakim Soria blew up his arm. The rotation was as mediocre as we feared. The big bats hit, the little bats struggles. Johnny G got optioned to Omaha. And they they extended Alex Gordon last week.

Some six weeks! Thank goodness it’s over.

Even before the various dramas of the Cactus League, I was convinced this would be a disappointing season for the Royals. Not 60-wins disappointing, but not nearly as good as fans, who have been waiting for a quarter century for a winner, wanted. Nothing I’ve learned this spring has changed that view.

The Royals will hit, but there are still holes in the lineup. The bullpen should be fantastic, even with the loss of Soria. And, again, it will come down to how many innings the starters can eat up and how many of those innings will be effective.

I want to say they’ll win 76 games. But I think the AL Central will be better, or at least not suck as much, as many people expect it to. Minnesota isn’t going to flirt with 100 loses again. Cleveland will be solid. The White Sox are kind of a disaster, but still have some quality parts. It feels like a year where the Royals get better, but their final record isn’t dramatically better. All the signs will be there, though, that 2013 will be the year the team finally breaks through.

How about the rest of the majors?

Yankees win the AL East.
Tigers win the AL Central.
Rangers win AL West.
Rays and Angels are Wild Cards.
Phillies win NL East.
Reds win NL Central.
Diamondbacks win NL West.
Nationals and Rockies are Wild Cards.
Rays beat Angels.
Rays beat Tigers.
Rangers beat Yankees.
Rangers beat Rays.
Nationals beat Rockies.
Diamondbacks beat Nationals.
Phillies beat Reds.
Phillies beat Diamondbacks.

World Series
Rangers beat Phillies.

Mark it down.

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Since I remember things like this, a good time to look back at how I felt on four mornings that were similar to today.

April 5, 1988. Exhilaration, amazement.

April 2, 1991. Disappointment, sadness.

April 8, 2003. Depression, anger.

April 8, 2008. Relief, pure joy.

April 3, 2012. Proud, at peace.

One last deficit that could not be wiped out. A terrific year for a terrific team.

Rock Chalk, bitches.

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Monday night, for the fifth time in my life, my alma mater will play for the National Championship in men’s basketball.

1988.
1991.
2003.
2008.
And now 2012.

If this year, in which I’ve pulled back my obsession for the Jayhawks in order to find a better, healthier way of following them, has meant anything it’s appreciating that fact more than the brutal losses of Marches past.

Is this team better than last year’s, or 2010’s? Probably not. But they’re still playing in the final game of the year where those two teams fell to the randomness of the tournament much earlier. Where those past teams crumbled when faced with the double-barreled pressure of a deficit against a hungry team and the threat of the season ending with a loss, this year’s team isn’t concerned when down by double-digits. They dig in, get their shit together, shut the other team down on defense, and hit just enough shots on offense to win. If defense wins championships, this team is doing its damnedest to prove that.

Last Monday, as we drove back from Kansas City, we hit St. Louis just as the local sports columnist’s radio show was beginning. He spent much of his opening monologue ranting about the many “experts” who were overstating the meaning of Sunday’s regional final between KU and North Carolina. One bad game doesn’t make Roy Williams a bad coach, he said. And while Bill Self is clearly a fine coach, let’s not go overboard with the praise for him, as he does have some NBA talent on his roster.

There’s a part of me that agreed with his second statement. KU is talented. Thomas Robinson is a first team All-American. Tyshawn Taylor made the third team. Jeff Withey has evolved into a game-altering defensive player. Elijah Johnson makes huge plays when it matters. Travis Releford would be a star on a lot of teams. And Kevin Young has developed into a contributing force off the bench.

But when you look at this five-game run, you have to say Bill Self has done an amazing job with the team. They can’t hit an outside shot. Their offense gets bogged down for extended stretches. They make awful mistakes in key situations. But in every game, he’s pushed the right buttons, said the right things in the huddle, and somehow got his team to the championship game. Something more talented teams in 2007, 2010, and 2011 could not do.

Realistically, the run will end Monday night. Kentucky is bigger, faster, deeper, and just better. When the teams played in November, in their second game of the season, KU somehow hung around in the first half and went to the locker room tied. Then Kentucky exploded in the second half, making the Jayhawks look silly for the first 10 minutes. KU couldn’t make passes, find shots, or score. They hit some free throws late to make the score respectable, but there was a clear difference between the teams that night. Kentucky was the young, ultra-talented team that was looking to forge an identity. Kansas was the proud program coming off a five-year run of excellence built around a single star and a bunch of parts that didn’t look that good.

Five months later, against long odds, KU will get another crack at the Wildcats. Logic says it won’t be a close game. I’m going to do my best to enjoy the next 36 hours, savoring the feeling of being one of two teams with a chance to cut the last set of nets down for the season, and appreciating all that this team has accomplished. You never know. The Jayhawks just might have one more shocker in them.

Rock Chalk, bitches.

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