Tag: sports (Page 2 of 3)

Sports Pages

May 1, 2013 / DB

Catching up on some sports stories.

I had a chance to cover a big high school sports milestone last week, but weather kept me from doing it. The coach of one of the softball teams we cover was on the verge of his 600th career win, the most in state history. Twice I had assignments to cover the big win, and twice it poured and rained the games out. He got the win on Friday while I was at the girls’ soccer practices. Oh well.

Good for Jason Collins. Five years ago, or even two, I think I would have written 1000 words about his coming out. But it feels like we’ve come so far in that short span and gays and lesbians, while not exactly embraced by the rest of society, at least have enough acceptance where their fundamental rights as taxpaying citizens in a free society are recognized. I don’t know if the change has been real acceptance, or just the folks who find “gayness” to be weird/ugly/gross based on their personal tastes rather than some religious/moral reasoning have learned to keep quiet. Anyway, I think we’re pretty close to events like Jason Collins or Brittney Griner coming out not being that big of a deal for most Americans.

There was a fantastic piece about Allen Iverson in the Washington Post a week ago. It may come as no surprise to some of you, but his life is a complete mess. To the point where you wonder if he’s going to make it.

Anyway, it kicked off a conversation with my buddy E-bro in ATX about who the most hated superstar in recent memory is. We agreed that A-Rod is probably the only real rival to AI, although as E-bro said, A-Rod is just kind of a douche where AI triggered all kinds of latent (and not so latent) racism in lots of white folks.

He also pointed out that Kobe was awfully close after he was accused of rape. But I think that was for far more legitimate reasons than the hate AI and A-Rod generated. Mike Tyson hits that, too, although I think a lot of people viewed him as a freak show once the docile personality he presented in his early days faded away.

And then there’s Tim Tebow. He is different because he’s not been a superstar in the NFL, but has been the most talked about player since his arrival in the league. He pushes the exact opposite hot buttons that Iverson hit: he’s very white, very religious, very pious. And like Iverson, I think Tebow engenders as much love as hate. He’s just not the best at his sport, which makes all the buzz around him a bit silly.

For the record, I was always conflicted about Iverson. I could have cared less about the tattoos, braids, etc. He was an unbelievable ballplayer who played his ass off during the 48 minutes of just about every game in his career. I always thought that part of him was awesome. But he was clearly already battling demons back then, and the way he lived his life off-the-court wasn’t necessarily the way you would want your kids to live. In other words, he’s human and full of flaws and contradictions. He wasn’t a superman, like Michael Jordan, who kept his foibles and failures hidden behind an iron wall that the media refused to look over.

While we’re on the NBA, I wish I could say I had been watching the playoffs. I was doing well with the Pacers this year, until the NCAA tournament started. That got me off my regular viewing schedule and I’ve never really recovered. Throw in their late-season swoon and I haven’t made the first four games of their series with Atlanta must-see TV. But with the series at 2-2, I may have to start watching.

I did watch some of the Denver-Golden State game Sunday night. I knew Seth Curry had carved out a nice career in the NBA, which was surprising enough. But I had no idea how good he was. He was flipping no-look, finger-tip passes across the court. Tossing side-armed alley-oops. Making steals on the break. And generally looked like a fantastic NBA player. Which I never saw coming. I figured his shooting would keep him in the league for awhile, but I figured he was a step too slow and not physical enough to really emerge as a star. I think he has a little Iverson in him, in that his athletic ability and pure will get him past some of his physical limitations.

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Smoke And Fire

May 23, 2011 / DB

I’ve wanted to believe Lance Armstrong for a long time. I know I’m not the only one.

Each time there was a new allegation claiming Lance had, in fact, benefited from various banned substances and procedures during his Tour de France reign, I held the company line: He had been tested over and over and over again through his career and never been caught. He operated under as intense a microscope as any athlete in modern times, with seemingly the entire European cycling community focused on nailing him for doing something wrong, and was never caught.

They were just jealous an American came and made their race look like a joke for seven years. They hated his arrogance. They couldn’t tolerate how every rider who seemed poised to challenge him ran into PED issues of their own. It became an obsession, a witch hunt, and they would stop at nothing to finally nail him.

I’ll admit my view has changed slowly in recent years. I always subscribed to the where there’s smoke, there’s usually fire theory. Despite believing his main defense, that he had never failed a drug test, I was not so blind to think there was no chance he hadn’t put something into his system over his career.

But still I believed in the man and the myth.

I didn’t watch Sunday’s 60 Minutes feature in which former teammate Tyler Hamilton became the latest insider to assert that Lance had never been the pure rider he claimed. I did read enough summaries and reactions to the piece, though, to feel like something was different this time. What, I’m not sure. The straw that broke the camel’s back perhaps. There comes a point where, to continue to believe in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, becomes impossible.

I’ve said many times that PEDs in sports don’t trouble me much. So if Lance indeed was cheating over his career, what does that mean for his legacy? I’ve read reactions this morning that mirror those that have been around for a decade. “Well, everyone else was doing it, so why should I hold it against him?” Or, “He’s done so much good with his fame and fortune that I don’t care what he put into his body.”

I can’t buy into either of those arguments. Lance was different. He was the good guy who appeared to be the target of a campaign to frame him. He constantly said not only did he not cheat, but that he didn’t need to cheat. He reminded us that he had been through cancer, on the verge of death, and he would never do something like that to a body he worked so hard to repair so he could race again. We bought into it because his story was so compelling, so inspiring, and so American.

I still hold out hope that Lance was clean, that this is about jealousy and people with power leaning on those close to him to change the stories they clung to for so many years. It’s a tiny hope, though, and I admit at my core I’m not sure anymore. If a positive test comes up, if Lance were to tearfully admit that he did put something into his system, or if the evidence against him simply becomes so compelling that I can’t believe otherwise, I won’t be surprised. I will feel a little guilty for believing him and buying into his myth. But I long ago shed the belief that most elite athletes are clean. I’ll chalk him up as another athlete of his time who couldn’t resist the temptation to give his natural abilities a boost. Like Pete Rose, Mark McGwire, and Barry Bonds, all future discussion of his career will be tempered with that knowledge.
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The Coolest

January 24, 2011 / DB

There was a thread on Twitter Sunday soliciting suggestions as to who the coolest Kansas City athletes of all time were. While I was never a true Chiefs fan, I did spend 23 years in the city and have some thoughts on the subject.

First, let’s go ahead and admit this covers the 30-35 years that I’ve been aware of Kansas City athletes. So there won’t be any members of the Scouts or A’s included. And Tom Watson dominated golf for a few years, but I wouldn’t ever say he was cool.

I think I was seven, and not yet a KC resident, when an uncle mentioned the name Amos Otis to me. I didn’t know anything about AO, but his name sure sounded cool. And the way Willie Wilson ran was cool. Phil Ford and Otis Birdsong were cool when the Kings were still in town. Gino Schiraldi, Enzo Di Pede, and Yilmaz Orhan all seemed cool for about five minutes when the MISL was hot. But none of those guys were transcendently cool. Well, maybe Willie was, but he had some competition on his own team for coolest guy status.

Anyway, this are the guys who stood out for me. I’m sure I’m forgetting one or two people who are obvious to others.

Bo Jackson. One of the coolest athletes ever, in any sport, in any city. It wasn’t just that he could, seemingly, do anything. It was that he didn’t act like any of his freakish accomplishments were that big of a deal. To him, throwing a ball 400 feet on a rope¹ was like you or me tossing a wadded up piece of paper three feet into a trashcan. Bo was so cool that when I was debating what Royals jersey to have Santa bring me for Christmas this year, I spent a lot of time with a Jackson 16 jersey at the top of my list.
Joe Montana. He wasn’t really Kansas City’s, the city just rented him for the final two years of his career. But it was a big freaking deal when he arrived. The city tried desperately to claim him, and he politely kept his mouth shut. He knew it was silly. No matter how the 49ers treated him in his final year there, he was always going to be associated with San Francisco. But there’s no doubting that when the Chiefs acquired him, they went from just being a good team to being one of the NFL’s marquee teams.
Frank White. He wasn’t cool in an awe-inspiring way. He was cool in a smooth way that made you admire the way he went about his business. I love the shot of him right before George Brett exploded in the Pine Tar game: casually sitting next to Brett with one foot up on the bench. Brett was already stewing, telling teammates that if they called him out he was going to go kick someone’s ass. Frank just chilled, not seeing any reason to get worked up about something that hadn’t happened yet. He exuded cool.
Derrick Thomas. DT had all kinds of issues off the field. But he was so good on the field that most Chiefs fans looked the other way. Even non-Chiefs fans could not help buy admire the havoc he brought to the football field. Once George Brett began to fade, DT was the most nationally recognized athlete from KC. Unlike Montana, he always seemed to embrace the city as it embraced him, giving him some bonus coolness.
George Brett. The coolest ever. There was a 10-15 year period where every little boy in Kansas City wanted to be him. He was one of the five best players in baseball and played every game all-out. Fathers would point to Brett and say to their sons, “That’s how you play the game.” That style cost him numerous games to injuries each season, but you knew when he was on the field he was going to try to stretch every single into a double, break up every double-play ball, and not take any shit from anyone in the other dugout. Throw in his well known hard partying ways off-the-field, and to a little boy he seemed like everything you wanted to be when you grew up. In many ways, Thomas mimicked his career as his popularity made people overlook a lot of sins in Westport.
Buck O’Neil. OK, this is a stretch. He became famous and cool well after his playing and managing career ended. So I suppose he was more of a cool sports figure than an actual athlete. The dignity with which he lived his life, and the causes that he embraced, were a way of life we can all aspire to.

Still my favorite Bo moment that I witnessed first hand. Anyone who follows baseball knows about his famous throw in Seattle that nailed Harold Reynolds at the plate. I was at a game when he grabbed a ball at the wall, turned, and fired home. The ball didn’t just reach home in the air. It went 20 feet over Mike Macfarlane’s head and hit the screen another 25 feet behind him. And it was still at least 10 feet off the ground. So Bo threw a ball at least 400 feet and it still had another 15-20 feet of range if the net hadn’t interrupted its flight. ↩

Fake Baseball

April 21, 2010 / DB

The latest installment in ESPN’s 30 for 30 documentaries is a funny look at the origins of fantasy sports: Rotisserie Baseball.

I enjoyed it for many of the same reasons the AV Club reviewer enjoyed it: while the idea of fantasy sports appealed to me, I must admit I was more in love with the books that explained the game.

I remember first noticing the original Rotisserie baseball book sometime in the summer of 1985. I flipped through it a few times, but figured it seemed like something older people might do, not 14 year olds. I came across a gift certificate at some point that fall and decided to blow it on the Rotisserie League book. While the Royals were busy making a late run in the AL West, then coming back from 3-1 deficits against Toronto and St. Louis to win the pennant and the World Series, the book languished in my room.

Finally, sometime in the summer of ’86 I dusted it off and read through it. I loved it. The concept of the game appealed to me, then in my final years of total baseball geekdom. But I especially enjoyed the stories of the original drafts and off-seasons, the team biographies and accounts of their pennant races. I immediately drafted a league of eight teams and spent a month or so pouring through USA Today each morning to update each team’s stats.* I resolved to put a real league together the next spring.

(This is a good point to remind you I didn’t talk to girls much back then.)

Well, we moved away to California the following fall and I was still struggling to make friends at my new school when baseball season rolled around. I again did my own league for part of the summer, but something that would remain true 20 years later was apparent then: it was more fun to do all the research that went into putting a team together and then go through the draft than to actually play the game. That was true when it was just me running a pretend league of eight teams, and when I was in 12 team fantasy leagues with coworkers years later.

I gave up on fantasy sports a few years ago. I finished second in a football league and figured that’s the best I would ever do. I don’t miss it in the fall, when friends are frantically checking their fantasy football stats as the games progress each Sunday. But each spring, when I buy a baseball preview, I spend a week or so thinking about joining a league and getting back into the game. I always know, though, that I just want to go through those early stages of the season, and by July I will no longer care about my lineups or making trades or checking the standings.

Now if I could land a book contract and keep the history of a season, as the originators did, I might make the jump again.

I got into fantasy baseball because of the books they wrote chronicling the ups and downs of their teams; the idea of a fake baseball team was moderately appealing to me as a high school ballplayer, but even more, I loved reading about these smart, funny people and their adventures in playing it.

Sports Briefs

January 13, 2010 / DB

Let’s take a look at the burning sports topics of the day (or week), shall we?

Kansas Loses to Tennessee. This kind of sucked. It was, arguably, KU’s most losable non-conference game at the start of the season. Tennessee was supposed to be good, played us tight for 39 minutes in Lawrence last year, and rarely get a chance to host a name team from outside the SEC. Then a third of their team decided to run afoul of the law, which changed the math a bit.

In theory.

Apparently it changed the math, just in the opposite direction that most people expected.

Plenty of KU fans had been wringing their hands about KU’s sometimes listless performance so far this season. I chalked it up to a typical Bill Self team that cruises through the first two months of the season, winning on pure talent, looking ugly at times, but with the expectation all will come together beginning in mid-January and they’ll be humming along come February and March.

That’s still probably the case, but there are certainly concerns. Cole Aldrich is a beast on the boards and defensively, but has yet to assert himself on offense. Things may have come too easy for Xavier Henry early on, and he’s turned into a jump-shooter only. Despite apparent depth in the backcourt, Sherron Collins is again being asked to play most of the minutes and make every big play. That didn’t work out so well last year, when he was playing on fumes the last two weeks of the season. And Tyshawn Taylor is apparently a big-time knucklehead.

I continue to believe this is just a bump in the road, an example of a team that is younger than most people remember learning how to play together. They’ll work things out. But it may not matter. The way Kentucky looks right now, I’m not sure anyone is going to beat them.

Mark McGwire. Yawn. We all knew he was juicing, so other than balancing his pathetic testimony before Congress a few years back, his admission of steroid use doesn’t change how I view him or his career at all.

I just read a book by Will Leitch, creator of Deadspin. He begins with a chapter about PED use by athletes, pointing out how little the difference between banned substances and cortisone shots are, yet cortisone shots are not only legal, but encouraged for athletes who are suffering. Leitch writes that one day there’s going to be a super drug that offers all the advantages of steroids, HGH, etc. but has no adverse side effects, and thus is safe and legal. How will we think of that drug: like andro or like cortisone? If a player doesn’t use that supplement, isn’t he cheating his team and his fans?

I can’t get too bent out of shape about steroids because I think most MLBers were/are using them, and the legal/ethical/moral lines are far vaguer than the talking heads want us to believe.

Pete Carroll / Lane Kiffin. Wow. I did not see this coming. I think Carroll is making a huge mistake going back to the NFL, but maybe he doesn’t want to be one of those guys who coaches well into his 60s and this is his last job. He’s always been far better suited to the college game than the pro, in my opinion.

I was at a friend’s house Saturday when the news broke and we were talking through the possibilities to replace Carroll. We mentioned Kiffin’s name, but then agreed that he didn’t have the established resume yet, nor could he leave Tennessee so soon. Shows what we know.

It’s going to be very interesting to see how Kiffin handles the USC job. They’re probably looking at NCAA sanctions of some kind. He’s shown a tendency to view recruiting rules with some disdain. He’s yet to prove he can be an effective head coach. Yet, because it’s USC and he’s assembling a monster staff I have every expectation he could continue to win big. Or he could be a total disaster, which I know would make a lot of people happy.

Interesting that Kiffin and Rick Neuheisel are the two college coaches in LA right now. Kiffin is kind of Neuheisel 2.0: a media darling that may be more substance than style. We’ll see.

NFL Playoffs. I missed making predictions last week. For what it’s worth, I would have gone 1-3, I think. I’m not really sure why I’m sharing picks for the rest of the playoffs given that record.

The big game here is obviously the Ravens vs. Colts. They’re rescheduling high school basketball games all over the area because of the game. In basketball crazy Indiana! The Ravens worry me a little; they’re obviously coming together at the right time. The whole three weeks off thing could put the Colts in a hole early, and you don’t want to have to comeback against the Ravens D. But I think the Colts are too good to blow this one.
Colts 27 Ravens 17

The Jets are a nice story, the Chargers aren’t the balanced team they’ve been in the past. None of that will matter.
Chargers 31 Jets 14

I’m still in a bit of shock that the Cowboys have played so well for the last month. This isn’t supposed to happen. Romo is supposed to throw picks, the defense is supposed to get burned, and they’re supposed to go down in flames in December/January. The Vikings are the first balanced offense they’ve seen in over a month. I think the Cowboys D can contain Favre or Peterson/Taylor, but not both.
Vikings 24 Cowboys 21

I don’t care how much mojo the Saints have lost since Dallas pounded them. That Cardinals defense isn’t slowing them down. Hopefully the Saints D doesn’t show up, either, and we can perhaps have a repeat of last week’s basketball on turf game between the Cards and Packers. I would appreciate that, since I had to miss it to watch the damn KU game.
Saints 45 Cardinals 31

Current most likely Super Bowl pick: Colts vs. Saints, although there’s not a ton of confidence behind that pick.

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Must See TV

November 10, 2009 / DB

I’ve been remiss in not recommending ESPN’s 30 for 30 series. I’m a few weeks behind, but with the exception of the Baltimore Colts band episode (which I accidentally deleted after watching only 20 minutes), I’ve enjoyed every episode so far.

Last night I watched Muhammad and Larry, an amazing piece about the 1980 Muhammad Ali – Larry Holmes heavyweight championship fight. It’s one of the best documentaries I’ve ever seen. It has all the classic elements for a tragedy that many sports documentaries are built around. But it goes well beyond your standard tragedy. Knowing what we know now, and watching Ali 29 years ago, it’s heartbreaking that no one around him could admit he was already slipping badly. The scene where he can barely get the speed bag going it painful to watch. And the moment where he asks what Larry Holmes said about him, and he shares his opinion of Holmes, is magical.

The fall of 1980 was when I first started paying attention to boxing. I vaguely remember the Holmes-Ali fight, but it was Leonard-Duran II, a month later, that I really recall. I was too young to be in awe of Ali, but I knew that everyone wanted him to win, so Holmes must be a bad guy. Watching this film, Holmes may be the best, most grounded guy to ever be heavyweight champ.

Tonight is the premiere of episode six, The Legend of Jimmy the Greek. There’s one more before Christmas before the series goes on hiatus until after the college basketball season ends. If you’re not watching already, I highly suggest checking out the reruns, which will no doubt be available at all hours on the ESPN family of networks.

Fun With Racism

October 7, 2009 / DB

The feature in this week’s Sports Illustrated is about Kenny Washington, the man who broke the NFL’s color barrier in 1946. There’s a great sidebar covering the Washington Redskins’ refusal to sign black players until 1962, due entirely to their virulently racist owner George Preston Marshall. There is a fantastic picture in the article, which unfortunately is not in the on-line version. But the image is described below.

American Nazi Party members, with no evident sense of irony, demonstrated in D.C. with placards reading KEEP REDSKINS WHITE.

Keep Redskins White. Gotta love racists.

Also, have to admire a man who, upon his death, left $6 million for children’s programs but only if the funds were not used to support integration in any way.

Not What You Think

October 24, 2008 / DB

So I bet you’re thinking, “Man, he’s got a new baby laying on his chest every night. He’s probably been watching a boatload of football and baseball.”

Wrong.

Unlike four years ago, when then three-month-old M. slept on me for hours at a time while I watched the Red Sox- Yankees and Cardinals – Astros do battle in their epic LCS, L. is a little too little to be able to hang on dad that long. Plus, with the whole waking every three hours thing at night, I’ve had to reign back my traditional night owl ways. Some nights, I’ve been going to bed around 10:30. Thus, I’ve hardly watched any baseball since the first week of the playoffs. I flipped by ALCS game five as I was on my way to bed last week and saw Papelbon was in in the 7th (I checked the game during Must See TV, saw the Rays were way up, and gave up). I thought that was weird but didn’t bother to stick around and see if he escaped without giving up any more runs. Of course, the next morning I wake up and see that I missed another epic game. Oh well.

I’ve watched a few minutes of the first two games of the World Series but have had trouble getting into it. Part of it is the teams involved. First, I have a thing with Philly teams. It all goes back to 1980. The 76ers lost to Magic and the Lakers in the NBA Finals. The Phillies broke my heart and beat the Royals in the World Series. And the Eagles beat the Cowboys in the NFC title game in January 1981. I’ve had little use for teams from Philly since then, unless they were playing a team I hated more.

As for the Rays, I should really be into them, right? Great story, proof that spending and drafting wisely can turn an organization around, and something that breaks up the Red Sox – Yankees – Cubs trio that ESPN forced down our throats all summer. Yet, I’m having a hard time getting into the Rays. It’s not because of this year’s team. It’s because they’ve been a horrible franchise with no fan support playing in the worst stadium in professional sports for a decade. As the Royals have withered on the vine over the same period, the Rays were the firewall anytime the word contraction got thrown around. At least Kansas City had a baseball history and a reputation as a good baseball town back in the day. If push came to shove, Tampa was one of two or three franchises that might get the ax before the Royals. So I’ve rooted for the Rays to be awful. While the idea of contraction seems to have been shelved for the time being, it is a scary thought if they can continue to be good.

As for football, between working the past two Saturday nights and not being able to sit in front of the TV for six hours anymore, I haven’t watched much. There is a bigger problem, though. The mental midgets at our cable provider and our local CBS affiL.te are in a pissing match over the rights to the CBS feed. Thus, we’ve been without CBS since L. was born. That’s three straight Colts game we’ve not seen. That’s three straight Saturdays without SEC football. That’ll put a damper on anyone’s football appetite.

Thought For The Day

July 28, 2008 / DB

Perhaps Brett Favre and Manny Ramirez should run off together. And then they could take a significant portion of the sports media with them.

Every football off-season, it’s Favre’s retirement drama. And every July, it’s the Manny Wants Out Of Boston drama. Every summer Favre comes back to play another year. Every August, Manny wakes up wearing a Red Sox jersey and goes out and continues to be Manny as long as the Sox play that season.

Indy Sports News

December 9, 2004 / DB

Yesterday was some day for Indianapolis sports fans. The Colts made a major statement about the future of the franchise. There was continued fallout from the Pacers-Pistons brawl. The Indy 500 suddenly got a lot more interesting. And Mike Davis was up to his old tricks. Thoughts:

The big thing that jumps out at me from the resigning of Marvin Harrison is that the Colts now have close to $60 million guaranteed to two players, have another major free agent to worry about, and several B+ level free agents they need to resign this off-season. Oh, and they continue to play in the smallest stadium in the NFL, which they had difficulty selling out before this season, and have a stadium plan in front of city and state leaders that has been met luke-warmly by many. Resigning Harrison and publicly stating a desire to keep Edgerrin James tells me if the Colts and city can’t get a new stadium deal wrapped up in the next 12 months, Los Angeles football fans can start looking forward to having a team again relatively soon. Even with a new stadium, I’m not sure this city can support an NFL team to the level the team needs to bring in enough revenue.

I have no problem with any of the charges filed by prosecutors in Detroit against Pacers and fans from the riot last month. Even if found guilty (Why plead the charges down when there are civil suits to be filed?) none of the players risk serving any jail time because of the charges and their lack of prior offenses. I think this is a good way of furthering the messages to all professional athletes to keep their asses out of the stands no matter what.

As for the Indy 500 getting more interesting, the Letterman-Rahal team hired on 22 year old Danica Patrick as a driver for next year. Anytime a major team like this brings in a rookie driver, it’s a big deal. The Patrick addition is doubly interesting because she’s a woman, and triply interesting because she’s, well, quite attractive. I think we can all agree that people in the public eye should not be judged by their physical appearance first. They should be allowed to let their actions as entertainers, athletes, politicians, whatever be the first thing they are judged by. But it sure doesn’t hurt to be a tasty little treat. It’s worth noting that despite never winning the 500, Sarah Fisher has been voted the most popular driver in the Indy series for several years in a row. By all accounts, Patrick is a better driver than Fisher, and she’s attached to one of the most powerful and popular ownership groups in the sport. Throw in the fact she’s a looker and open wheeled racing may finally have found a way to compete with NASCAR! I found it amusing that on the local news I watched last night, the sports anchor didn’t say a word about Patrick’s off-the-track qualities, but left it for the John H’s favorite female news anchor to say, “It’s safe to say she’ll be turning some heads at the track next year.” Who’s in for tickets???

When Mike Davis finally makes good on his annual threat to leave IU or gets fired, I’m really going to miss him. There’s no doubt he’s the most bizarre and entertaining coach in Division 1 basketball. Whether he’s denigrating his players’ talent (the legendary “Help is on the way!” comment), their work ethic (claiming they don’t practice hard enough), or accusing them of mutiny in veiled terms (Saying he doesn’t understand why they don’t run the plays he draws up in the huddle late in games), no coach has a more interesting way of discussing his team with the press. (He reminds me a lot of Elvis Grbac and his “I can’t throw the ball and catch it,” nonsense.) He’s completely lost his mind and charged onto the court. He constantly puts his story ahead of his team’s. He’s just utterly fascinating.
After last night’s loss to Notre Dame, Davis continued to impress. The story of this season for the Hoosiers has been the brutal schedule they face. They’ve lost to North Carolina, UConn, in addition to the Irish. Saturday they play Kentucky. They then travel to Missouri and still face a tough Charlotte team in Bloomington. The new Athletic Director has taken great pains to let everyone know the previous AD is responsible for the schedule. (Last week, he even announced that the previous AD had been attempting to schedule Kansas and Arizona this year.) The schedule is tough enough. Coupled with a team that just wasn’t very good last year and a large number of freshman players, it was difficult to imagine the Hoosiers winning much this year. And Davis has let everyone know about that every chance he gets. His comments last night were especially odd, though. He looked at Saturday’s opponent and said, “You see Kentucky play North Carolina and then come back and play Morehead State. That would have been great for us to do. Now, you win by 25, you win by 30, and you get a chance to let guys play and develop.” Who the hell is he kidding? IU beat Indiana State and Western Illinois by four each. How can he say they would beat Morehead State like a bad high school team. I think the Hoosiers will get much better as the season goes on, because they do have some very good players in the freshmen class, but they’re not beating anyone by 30 points this year. Well, maybe Purdue who are brutal as well. I’m not sure who Davis thinks is going to agree with that statement, since pretty much all IU fans hate him (Except for my wife, who like politicians she doesn’t care for, just says, “It’s a tough job and I wouldn’t want it.”). I’m hoping for another Kentucky whooping Saturday just to see how Davis reacts.

Oh, and the Colts signed Martin Gramatica to be their kick-off specialist. Sadly, he won’t be kicking field goals unless Mike Vanderjagt gets hurt. I wonder if little Martin will celebrate wildly each time he gets a touchback off of his kickoffs?