Showing posts with label college athletics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label college athletics. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 25, 2021
Friday, May 17, 2019
The hypocrisy of college athletics. You know it's true
We are hypocrites when it comes to college athletics.
We love the entertainment, the excitement. We especially love when our teams win. We don't love the other teams, the officials, replays/reviews, TV timeouts.
But we know there is cheating in college athletics. Lots of it, especially in bigtime football and basketball. And we can easily excuse it.
Of course, it happens. Always has, and -- unfortunately -- always will because ... people are people, and people are greedy. Human nature, and all that.
Not even the mighty NCAA has enough clout to keep big money out of college athletics. In fact, it welcomes the millions the TV networks and the athletic wear/shoe companies pour into the college coffers.
So what those of us who love college athletics, and have for a long, long time must recognize: It is a world of hypocrites. A big, often dirty business.
You know darned well that many of these college "student-athletes" are not there for the "student" part, at all.
There are there because it is a necessary stop to "the next level." You can book that, although "book" is a mostly foreign word to many of these kids.
You know that there is money flowing to athletes, all underneath the surface, of course. You know that this is particularly true of the "major" powers -- football and basketball -- and that they have their ways of getting this done (so that the NCAA can't touch them).
You know there are payments -- money, clothes, food ... whatever -- far above the NCAA-approved stipends, and it has been that way forever.
(Ask me, and I can give you the name of a dozen athletes -- football and basketball -- from Louisiana tied to the above-the-norm scholarships and involved -- in their time -- to recruiting bidding wars. And that's dating to the 1950s to the present. We'll get to the present soon.)
One more aside, though: We were told -- no basis of fact -- that a prominent LSU running back of recent vintage, now in the NFL, where he was a very high draft pick, was worth a $200,000 payment to his family. You can guess his name and hometown (it is a big, easy answer), but I suspect you know. I trust the source of that rumor.
OK, other "cheating" methods: Impermissible phone calls or recruiting visits by coaches; changing entrance-exam test scores, or having someone take tests for the athletes; athletes taking "crip" courses, and not even having to show up for classes; athletes being given favorable grades for work done poorly or not done at all. (Hello, North Carolina.)
We could go and on, but you have the idea.
Hypocrisy in so many ways.
It is too broad a subject -- we have not even touched on the idea that athletes should be paid for the use of their images in advertising or for promotion.
About paying athletes above they are receiving now: My opinion -- where do you draw the line? How many sports and scholarship athletes does this include? Yes, the "major" schools can afford it, but what about the mid-majors (yes, I am thinking of Louisiana Tech).
Isn't a free scholarship for one to five years enough? Yes, I am old-school about this.
---
Let's narrow the focus of this piece: college basketball.
Specifically the investigation, the rumors/reports, and the subsequent corruption trial concluded a little more than a week ago.
To be more narrowly focused: LSU's coach and program. And a strange interloper named Christian Dawkins.
We have seen Will Wade's case discussed, cussed (and praised) ad nauseum the past couple of months. Who knows where the program stands?
We know, after Wade's postseason suspension and subsequent reinstatement, that four or five frontline players (heck, we lost count) from LSU's regular-season SEC championship team -- Wade's crowning achievement in just two seasons with the program -- want to go pro. Maybe they'll make the NBA, maybe not, and maybe some will come back to LSU after all.
We know, too, from social-media reaction, that many of the LSU faithful don't believe Wade did much wrong, or at least it is not proven that he did.
Their view is that he did nothing more than what the "sainted" coaches at Duke, Kentucky, North Carolina, Kansas, UNLV and dozens of other basketball powers over six-seven decades have done (and hidden well enough that they are in the NCAA's "untouchable" range).
Nevertheless, there's a lot of smoke there ... or maybe just hot air.
Which brings us to Dawkins, who was among the 10 men charged with wrongdoing in this "scandal." Four of those were assistant basketball coaches -- you probably know one, Chuck Person (Auburn); they all took plea deals.
The recent trial ended with guilty verdicts for two men. Dawkins is one.
Here is how Sports Illustrated writer Andy Staples described him in an article on college basketball's "black market" last week:
One low-level hustler: Christian Dawkins, truly the man at the center of the investigation, was a runner for agent Andy Miller. Dawkins was convicted Wednesday [May 8] of bribery for paying assistant coaches to influence players with regard to their agent selection. Dawkins also was convicted of fraud following an October trial.
As anyone following LSU's travails knows, Dawkins is the voice on the other end of the phone tied to the Tigers.
Again, from Staples' story (and many earlier similar reports): "Somewhere, there's audio of LSU coach Will Wade talking about a "strong-ass offer" to a middleman representing Javonte Smart, who was the Tigers' sixth man this past season.
(That, of course, led to Wade's suspension when he refused to meet with LSU officials about the rumor.)
Another audio played in court: Ex-Arizona assistant coach Emanuel "Book" Richardson (another guilty-plea case) claiming that Wade had a $300,000 deal for forward Naz Reid.
(Not confirmed, folks, but a helluva claim. Naz pointedly denies it happened.)
Let me interject a thought: Seems that Javonte Smart, from Scotlandville (right outside Baton Rouge), a three-time Louisiana "Player of the Year," would have been a natural recruit for LSU, one who would not/should not have required a payment. But the word was that Smart, already the father of a baby, and his family needed the money.
Reid was the 6-11 center from Asbury Park, N.J., a force inside with long-range shooting ability, too; raw and often unpolished, but a big talent.
Makes more sense that LSU would need extra incentive to sign the big kid from up north rather than the 6-4 guard from closeby.
As a friend pointed out, maybe some other school would have been willing to spend, say, $300,000 for Naz Reid -- or Javonte Smart. It happens, or so we keep hearing.
Not saying that's what happened at LSU. I don't know, and neither do you.
LSU faithful are writing that Dawkins and Richardson -- guilty already -- are talking to save their butts. Maybe. But that smoke surrounding Will Wade and LSU smells a bit.
Another opinion (shared by many), and thinking of Naz Reid (and many other potential pros): One-and-done is a bad deal for college basketball.
True, we get to see some great talent -- for one season. But it just ramps up the recruiting bidding wars for these kids who obviously appear ready for the NBA out of high school.
Hard to judge the kids' maturity and how they would fit into the NBA at age 18. Plus, how they would handle the big money -- even bigger than the colleges pay -- at that young age.
Good news: The NBA and its players' union, which forced the one-and-done plan (it wasn't the NCAA's idea), are showing signs of doing away with it soon. That will work.
---
Interesting to see the reactions of some of my friends to the article by SI's Staples we posted last week that basically said little or nothing will come of this college basketball "scandal." (See my friends' comments below.)
Here is how Staples summed it up: "Today, we know what the millions of our tax dollars they [FBI and U.S. Attorney's Office] spent on the investigation netted: A fart in a stiff wind."
Going to post some of my friends' reactions below, and will tell you that it sparked an exchange between two ex-Louisiana head basketball coaches (and friends), LSU's Dale Brown and Centenary's Tommy Canterbury.
And if you know much about Dale Brown, you know that he has been critical of the NCAA for four-plus decades -- and has offered many suggested for improving the NCAA oversight and, with it, college athletics.
(If you want the full copy of Dale's "messages" for the NCAA -- ones he has mailed out and made public repeatedly
over the years -- let me know, and I will send them to you.)
---
So maybe it passes, and Wade continues at LSU, with or without Naz Reid, Tremont Waters, Skylar Mays, Javonte Smart, Emmitt Williams. Or the new LSU athletic director Scott Woodward and other LSU officials decide they need a new start, a new coach.
If you think nothing happened, and basketball players with Louisiana ties, haven't been "bought" or "rewarded," here are some names for you to consider: Jackie Moreland, Cotton Nash, Barrie Haynie, Elvin Hayes, Marvin Winkler, Elvin Ivory, Charlie Bishop, Mike Green, Andy Knowles, Jim Jenkins, Dwight Lamar, Roy Ebron, Louis Dunbar, Robert Parish, Poo Welch, Edmond Lawrence, Joe Dumars, Mike Sanders, Benny Anders, and who knows how many others.
That's just basketball, people. Football? Just think about it.
And, look, I do not want to be "holier than thou," but it is not how I want college athletics to be. Yet it is part of the hypocrisy. What is true -- money aside -- is we enjoy watching these players and these teams.
---
Staples' SI story: https://www.si.com/college-basketball/2019/05/09/ncaa-trial-fbi-bribery-corruption-mark-emmert?utm_campaign=si-extra&utm_source=si.com&utm_medium=email&utm_term=SI%20Extra%20-%20USE%20THIS%20-%20List
We love the entertainment, the excitement. We especially love when our teams win. We don't love the other teams, the officials, replays/reviews, TV timeouts.
But we know there is cheating in college athletics. Lots of it, especially in bigtime football and basketball. And we can easily excuse it.
Of course, it happens. Always has, and -- unfortunately -- always will because ... people are people, and people are greedy. Human nature, and all that.
Not even the mighty NCAA has enough clout to keep big money out of college athletics. In fact, it welcomes the millions the TV networks and the athletic wear/shoe companies pour into the college coffers.
So what those of us who love college athletics, and have for a long, long time must recognize: It is a world of hypocrites. A big, often dirty business.
You know darned well that many of these college "student-athletes" are not there for the "student" part, at all.
There are there because it is a necessary stop to "the next level." You can book that, although "book" is a mostly foreign word to many of these kids.
You know that there is money flowing to athletes, all underneath the surface, of course. You know that this is particularly true of the "major" powers -- football and basketball -- and that they have their ways of getting this done (so that the NCAA can't touch them).
You know there are payments -- money, clothes, food ... whatever -- far above the NCAA-approved stipends, and it has been that way forever.
(Ask me, and I can give you the name of a dozen athletes -- football and basketball -- from Louisiana tied to the above-the-norm scholarships and involved -- in their time -- to recruiting bidding wars. And that's dating to the 1950s to the present. We'll get to the present soon.)
One more aside, though: We were told -- no basis of fact -- that a prominent LSU running back of recent vintage, now in the NFL, where he was a very high draft pick, was worth a $200,000 payment to his family. You can guess his name and hometown (it is a big, easy answer), but I suspect you know. I trust the source of that rumor.
OK, other "cheating" methods: Impermissible phone calls or recruiting visits by coaches; changing entrance-exam test scores, or having someone take tests for the athletes; athletes taking "crip" courses, and not even having to show up for classes; athletes being given favorable grades for work done poorly or not done at all. (Hello, North Carolina.)
We could go and on, but you have the idea.
Hypocrisy in so many ways.
It is too broad a subject -- we have not even touched on the idea that athletes should be paid for the use of their images in advertising or for promotion.
About paying athletes above they are receiving now: My opinion -- where do you draw the line? How many sports and scholarship athletes does this include? Yes, the "major" schools can afford it, but what about the mid-majors (yes, I am thinking of Louisiana Tech).
Isn't a free scholarship for one to five years enough? Yes, I am old-school about this.
---
Let's narrow the focus of this piece: college basketball.
Specifically the investigation, the rumors/reports, and the subsequent corruption trial concluded a little more than a week ago.
To be more narrowly focused: LSU's coach and program. And a strange interloper named Christian Dawkins.
 |
| How many of these players (and the coach) will be in the picture for LSU basketball next season? (photo by (Photo: Jonathan Mailhes) |
We know, after Wade's postseason suspension and subsequent reinstatement, that four or five frontline players (heck, we lost count) from LSU's regular-season SEC championship team -- Wade's crowning achievement in just two seasons with the program -- want to go pro. Maybe they'll make the NBA, maybe not, and maybe some will come back to LSU after all.
We know, too, from social-media reaction, that many of the LSU faithful don't believe Wade did much wrong, or at least it is not proven that he did.
Their view is that he did nothing more than what the "sainted" coaches at Duke, Kentucky, North Carolina, Kansas, UNLV and dozens of other basketball powers over six-seven decades have done (and hidden well enough that they are in the NCAA's "untouchable" range).
Nevertheless, there's a lot of smoke there ... or maybe just hot air.
Which brings us to Dawkins, who was among the 10 men charged with wrongdoing in this "scandal." Four of those were assistant basketball coaches -- you probably know one, Chuck Person (Auburn); they all took plea deals.
The recent trial ended with guilty verdicts for two men. Dawkins is one.
Here is how Sports Illustrated writer Andy Staples described him in an article on college basketball's "black market" last week:
One low-level hustler: Christian Dawkins, truly the man at the center of the investigation, was a runner for agent Andy Miller. Dawkins was convicted Wednesday [May 8] of bribery for paying assistant coaches to influence players with regard to their agent selection. Dawkins also was convicted of fraud following an October trial.
As anyone following LSU's travails knows, Dawkins is the voice on the other end of the phone tied to the Tigers.
Again, from Staples' story (and many earlier similar reports): "Somewhere, there's audio of LSU coach Will Wade talking about a "strong-ass offer" to a middleman representing Javonte Smart, who was the Tigers' sixth man this past season.
(That, of course, led to Wade's suspension when he refused to meet with LSU officials about the rumor.)
Another audio played in court: Ex-Arizona assistant coach Emanuel "Book" Richardson (another guilty-plea case) claiming that Wade had a $300,000 deal for forward Naz Reid.
(Not confirmed, folks, but a helluva claim. Naz pointedly denies it happened.)
Let me interject a thought: Seems that Javonte Smart, from Scotlandville (right outside Baton Rouge), a three-time Louisiana "Player of the Year," would have been a natural recruit for LSU, one who would not/should not have required a payment. But the word was that Smart, already the father of a baby, and his family needed the money.
Reid was the 6-11 center from Asbury Park, N.J., a force inside with long-range shooting ability, too; raw and often unpolished, but a big talent.
Makes more sense that LSU would need extra incentive to sign the big kid from up north rather than the 6-4 guard from closeby.
As a friend pointed out, maybe some other school would have been willing to spend, say, $300,000 for Naz Reid -- or Javonte Smart. It happens, or so we keep hearing.
Not saying that's what happened at LSU. I don't know, and neither do you.
LSU faithful are writing that Dawkins and Richardson -- guilty already -- are talking to save their butts. Maybe. But that smoke surrounding Will Wade and LSU smells a bit.
Another opinion (shared by many), and thinking of Naz Reid (and many other potential pros): One-and-done is a bad deal for college basketball.
True, we get to see some great talent -- for one season. But it just ramps up the recruiting bidding wars for these kids who obviously appear ready for the NBA out of high school.
Hard to judge the kids' maturity and how they would fit into the NBA at age 18. Plus, how they would handle the big money -- even bigger than the colleges pay -- at that young age.
Good news: The NBA and its players' union, which forced the one-and-done plan (it wasn't the NCAA's idea), are showing signs of doing away with it soon. That will work.
---
Interesting to see the reactions of some of my friends to the article by SI's Staples we posted last week that basically said little or nothing will come of this college basketball "scandal." (See my friends' comments below.)
Here is how Staples summed it up: "Today, we know what the millions of our tax dollars they [FBI and U.S. Attorney's Office] spent on the investigation netted: A fart in a stiff wind."
Going to post some of my friends' reactions below, and will tell you that it sparked an exchange between two ex-Louisiana head basketball coaches (and friends), LSU's Dale Brown and Centenary's Tommy Canterbury.
And if you know much about Dale Brown, you know that he has been critical of the NCAA for four-plus decades -- and has offered many suggested for improving the NCAA oversight and, with it, college athletics.
(If you want the full copy of Dale's "messages" for the NCAA -- ones he has mailed out and made public repeatedly
over the years -- let me know, and I will send them to you.)
---
So maybe it passes, and Wade continues at LSU, with or without Naz Reid, Tremont Waters, Skylar Mays, Javonte Smart, Emmitt Williams. Or the new LSU athletic director Scott Woodward and other LSU officials decide they need a new start, a new coach.
If you think nothing happened, and basketball players with Louisiana ties, haven't been "bought" or "rewarded," here are some names for you to consider: Jackie Moreland, Cotton Nash, Barrie Haynie, Elvin Hayes, Marvin Winkler, Elvin Ivory, Charlie Bishop, Mike Green, Andy Knowles, Jim Jenkins, Dwight Lamar, Roy Ebron, Louis Dunbar, Robert Parish, Poo Welch, Edmond Lawrence, Joe Dumars, Mike Sanders, Benny Anders, and who knows how many others.
That's just basketball, people. Football? Just think about it.
And, look, I do not want to be "holier than thou," but it is not how I want college athletics to be. Yet it is part of the hypocrisy. What is true -- money aside -- is we enjoy watching these players and these teams.
---
Staples' SI story: https://www.si.com/college-basketball/2019/05/09/ncaa-trial-fbi-bribery-corruption-mark-emmert?utm_campaign=si-extra&utm_source=si.com&utm_medium=email&utm_term=SI%20Extra%20-%20USE%20THIS%20-%20List
Wednesday, March 7, 2018
Speaking of Louisiana College, a lawsuit ... and discrimination (?)
And so, here is a controversy that I did not expect.
Is it fake news? No, the lawsuit is a filed fact. But, maybe, one side or the other is not telling the truth. Who the heck knows?
The e-mail and Facebook note I posted early Tuesday morning turned into a response stronger than anything I have had for quite some time.
My response to that: Surprise!
But when religion is involved ...
In case you missed it, the post was a link to a Feb. 22 Associated Press wire story involving a position on the Louisiana College football coaching staff.
Here are the lead paragraphs:
The president of a private Baptist college in Louisiana refused to approve a football coach's hiring because of what he called the applicant's "Jewish blood," a federal lawsuit claims.
Joshua Bonadona sued Louisiana College and its president, Rick Brewer, accusing them of violating his civil rights.
OK, naturally, the Jewish part -- and the charge of discrimination -- drew my attention, and it is why someone directed the story to me. I had not previously seen it.
But let's be real clear right here: I do not know the story is true, and neither do you. Only those involved know for sure -- and it might take a court case to determine it.
So I am not being critical. I was distributing the news ... and not anticipating the feedback.
By the time I got home from yoga/stretching class at noon, there were 14 e-mail responses, one text, and 11 Facebook comments. As I write this, it is up to 24 e-mails and 17 Facebook comments. But who's counting?
---
Let's review. What I sent was topped by my personal note ...
"If this story, and the lawsuit, are valid, it is a sad commentary on a college that through the years has had much respect. Bea attended Louisiana College; I have had friends who were students there, and coaches. Longtime former basketball/baseball coach and athletic director Billy Allgood was tough but much respected and successful. So this is hard to digest."
---
From the story: Bonadona, 28, applied for a job as defensive backs coach and said he was interviewed last May by Brewer and head football coach Justin Charles. Later, Charles reportedly told Bonadona that he had recommended him for the job, but the college didn't approve his hiring because of his "Jewish descent," the suit alleges.
"Mr. Bonadona asked Justin Charles what that meant, and Justin Charles stated that Dr. Brewer refused to approve Mr. Bonadona's hiring because of what Dr. Brewer called Mr. Bonadona's "Jewish blood," the suit says.
A couple of facts:
-- Bonadona, from Baton Rouge, was a kicker on LC's team, graduated from the college and was an assistant coach there in 2014. He moved to another school, but was attempting to return because he was told LC would rehire him. He ended up taking a lesser-paying coaching job.
-- He was born into a Jewish family -- his mother is Jewish -- and he converted to Christianity while at LC.
---
Now about the responses ... because there were so many, I have compiled them in a separate take (sent with this one).
Heard from many, many old friends, many of them in or from Louisiana, some Jewish, most not Jewish, many critical of LC and the college president, some defensive, some harsh, some mild, some explanatory.
Going to post three separate responses here, two from old friends who live in Alexandria (next to Pineville) and offer a defense for LC president Brewer, and one from an old devout Baptist friend from Shreveport and Louisiana Tech who lives in Ruston.
From Bob Tompkins, retired Alexandria Town Talk sports editor/columnist: "I have no 'insider' information on this despite my locale. The truth is the young man was not hired.
"The school president, who is widely regarded locally as a good, sensible, compassionate man, has refuted the notion that the former LC kicker was not hired for the reason he says he was told by the coach. Many of us locals believe him. He has shown no trace of being capable of making such a decision."
From Dr. Stephen Katz, Alexandria resident, anesthesiologist: "I agree that this story was very disturbing. Appears from reliable sources here to have no merit and represents ill feelings from an individual who did not get a job.
"PS, it is interesting that due to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Jews in the U.S. are considered to be a race in order to prevent discrimination."
From Glenn Theis, in Ruston: "My father graduated from Louisiana College and he worked at Guaranty Bank in Pineville the first seven years of my life. I spent a lot of time on that campus and later in high school playing in the state church league championships in basketball. I used to like that school a lot.
"I take the Baptist Message (the Louisiana Baptist Convention newspaper) and have been really disappointed in the direction the school has taken in recent years.
"I agree that this is a totally wrong path for the school to take. He [the coach] appeared to be an excellent choice for Louisiana College.
"It shows that there are people who have wrong ideas and motives in every part of our country. ... Here's hoping we can try to unite rather than argue, call names and fight. It will take some compromise on both sides, but it will be better than where we are now."
Discrimination of any sort bugs me, and particularly so if it is Jewish-related (think you understand).
I am not -- not -- saying that LC president Brewer is guilty here. But as the last paragraph of the Feb. 22 AP wire story indicates and as I have been told by what I consider good sources, he can be difficult and has angered people on and off campus.
I don't have ties to LC -- other than my wife's couple of years five decades ago. But the response to my post shows that this lawsuit is an interesting topic to discuss.
---
A link to the responses:
http://nvanthyn.blogspot.com/2018/03/the-responses-and-opinions-pour-in-on.html
Is it fake news? No, the lawsuit is a filed fact. But, maybe, one side or the other is not telling the truth. Who the heck knows?
The e-mail and Facebook note I posted early Tuesday morning turned into a response stronger than anything I have had for quite some time.My response to that: Surprise!
But when religion is involved ...
In case you missed it, the post was a link to a Feb. 22 Associated Press wire story involving a position on the Louisiana College football coaching staff.
Here are the lead paragraphs:
The president of a private Baptist college in Louisiana refused to approve a football coach's hiring because of what he called the applicant's "Jewish blood," a federal lawsuit claims.
Joshua Bonadona sued Louisiana College and its president, Rick Brewer, accusing them of violating his civil rights.
OK, naturally, the Jewish part -- and the charge of discrimination -- drew my attention, and it is why someone directed the story to me. I had not previously seen it.
But let's be real clear right here: I do not know the story is true, and neither do you. Only those involved know for sure -- and it might take a court case to determine it.
So I am not being critical. I was distributing the news ... and not anticipating the feedback.
By the time I got home from yoga/stretching class at noon, there were 14 e-mail responses, one text, and 11 Facebook comments. As I write this, it is up to 24 e-mails and 17 Facebook comments. But who's counting?
---
Let's review. What I sent was topped by my personal note ...
"If this story, and the lawsuit, are valid, it is a sad commentary on a college that through the years has had much respect. Bea attended Louisiana College; I have had friends who were students there, and coaches. Longtime former basketball/baseball coach and athletic director Billy Allgood was tough but much respected and successful. So this is hard to digest."
---
From the story: Bonadona, 28, applied for a job as defensive backs coach and said he was interviewed last May by Brewer and head football coach Justin Charles. Later, Charles reportedly told Bonadona that he had recommended him for the job, but the college didn't approve his hiring because of his "Jewish descent," the suit alleges. "Mr. Bonadona asked Justin Charles what that meant, and Justin Charles stated that Dr. Brewer refused to approve Mr. Bonadona's hiring because of what Dr. Brewer called Mr. Bonadona's "Jewish blood," the suit says.
A couple of facts:
-- Bonadona, from Baton Rouge, was a kicker on LC's team, graduated from the college and was an assistant coach there in 2014. He moved to another school, but was attempting to return because he was told LC would rehire him. He ended up taking a lesser-paying coaching job.
-- He was born into a Jewish family -- his mother is Jewish -- and he converted to Christianity while at LC.
---
Now about the responses ... because there were so many, I have compiled them in a separate take (sent with this one).
Heard from many, many old friends, many of them in or from Louisiana, some Jewish, most not Jewish, many critical of LC and the college president, some defensive, some harsh, some mild, some explanatory.
Going to post three separate responses here, two from old friends who live in Alexandria (next to Pineville) and offer a defense for LC president Brewer, and one from an old devout Baptist friend from Shreveport and Louisiana Tech who lives in Ruston.
From Bob Tompkins, retired Alexandria Town Talk sports editor/columnist: "I have no 'insider' information on this despite my locale. The truth is the young man was not hired.
"The school president, who is widely regarded locally as a good, sensible, compassionate man, has refuted the notion that the former LC kicker was not hired for the reason he says he was told by the coach. Many of us locals believe him. He has shown no trace of being capable of making such a decision."
From Dr. Stephen Katz, Alexandria resident, anesthesiologist: "I agree that this story was very disturbing. Appears from reliable sources here to have no merit and represents ill feelings from an individual who did not get a job.
"PS, it is interesting that due to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Jews in the U.S. are considered to be a race in order to prevent discrimination."
From Glenn Theis, in Ruston: "My father graduated from Louisiana College and he worked at Guaranty Bank in Pineville the first seven years of my life. I spent a lot of time on that campus and later in high school playing in the state church league championships in basketball. I used to like that school a lot.
"I take the Baptist Message (the Louisiana Baptist Convention newspaper) and have been really disappointed in the direction the school has taken in recent years.
"I agree that this is a totally wrong path for the school to take. He [the coach] appeared to be an excellent choice for Louisiana College.
"It shows that there are people who have wrong ideas and motives in every part of our country. ... Here's hoping we can try to unite rather than argue, call names and fight. It will take some compromise on both sides, but it will be better than where we are now."
---
I appreciate that people care so much. Don't care for the anger, but it is a hot-button issue.Discrimination of any sort bugs me, and particularly so if it is Jewish-related (think you understand).
I am not -- not -- saying that LC president Brewer is guilty here. But as the last paragraph of the Feb. 22 AP wire story indicates and as I have been told by what I consider good sources, he can be difficult and has angered people on and off campus.
I don't have ties to LC -- other than my wife's couple of years five decades ago. But the response to my post shows that this lawsuit is an interesting topic to discuss.
---
A link to the responses:
http://nvanthyn.blogspot.com/2018/03/the-responses-and-opinions-pour-in-on.html
Tuesday, March 6, 2018
The responses (and opinions) pour in on Louisiana College
Here are the bulk of the comments/opinions received after the Tuesday morning e-mail/Facebook post concerning a lawsuit against Louisiana College and its president by an assistant football coach reportedly rejected for consideration because of his "Jewish descent."My comment of this response: Happy reading.
---
-- "Wow."
-- "My dad graduated from LC; I met my wife at LC; and Billy Allgood was my baseball coach for two years at LC. So much has changed over the last 40 years. Very sad."
-- "Incomprehensible. What if Jesus had applied."
-- "Jesus was Jewish (tribe of Judah). I would think that the school would welcome someone of whom God said, 'I will bless those who bless you, curse those who curse you.' (Genesis 12:3)"
-- "Sad!"
-- "I find it hard to believe that this is actually true."
-- "Outrageous if true!"
-- "Nice way to treat an alum."
-- "Doesn't surprise me at all."
-- "What about federal funding and this is a form of discrimination that would NOT be allowed? Fake news I hope."
-- "Seriously??"
-- "I hate stuff like this."
-- "What!?!"
-- "This would be so crushing for so many people on so many levels."
-- "It gives people who call themselves Christians give all Christians a bad name. You don't win many to Jesus this way. If it is true, LC has a lot of work to do. I hope it is not true."
-- "Damn, this pisses me off. We live in America. Used to welcome all, no matter what your race, creed, ethnicity, religion, etc., etc. If this is a true and accurate story, and Brewer is behind this, they should fire him and send him on his way."
-- "I really hope this is 'fake news' and Louisiana College isn't guilty of something so stupid."
-- "As a Christian, I find this appalling. The president needs to be fired immediately and someone with a true Christian heart (love one another as Christ loves you) needs to be hired. I have lots of family who attended Louisiana College (being brought up as a Baptist in Louisiana that happens!)
"I hate that the college is being sued when it is the president who made the decision. However, he represents the school and I understand why the lawsuit is against the school. One (pseudo?) Christian man in a position of power is hurting the reputation of an excellent school."
-- "I did read this recently, and am dismayed by it. Will wait to see how the courts rule, but it is disturbing."
-- "Wow! Amazing that this still happens, or is happening again, under current American leadership?"
-- "I am shocked and disappointed, but wondering if the head coach was accurate in his report of the reason for the decision. I attended LC for three years and never saw this type of discrimination. It doesn't even represent Southern Baptist views, so not sure where the policy or view comes from. If that is the policy, even Jesus would not be allowed to coach at LC. I know Billy Allgood and the faculty during his time would not have agreed with the decision."
-- "If the LC story is true (and I don't think that has been determined, it is beyond reprehensible and in no way representative of the beliefs and attitudes of the Baptist faith. I hope my love and friendship with you is a much clearer representation."
-- "Very sad if the story is true. In the New Testament, Christian believers are told that we have been 'grafted in' to the root of Abraham. In essence, we have been adopted as brothers and sisters into the Jewish nation and are now co-recipients of all the promises God made to Abraham. That is why true Christians are very pro-Jewish. Unfortunately, there are many 'religious' people who are not true Christians."
-- "Very sad. Aren't we supposed to expand our views in college?"
-- "Wow! If this is true, then they need an attitude adjustment. I'm a Southern Baptist girl from way back, but have detested this 'holier and better than you' vibe that so many Protestants (and others) have subscribed to for years. Hope they have a change of heart. [This is] so not right."
-- "Same thing happens at Baylor. This is going to become more and more common with the religious freedom movement. Another reason to retire some place besides Louisiana."
-- "It's hard for me to believe that this sort of thing still exists. The president probably has a pointed white hat and robe in his closet. Excuse me, I have to go throw up now."
-- "This is totally ridiculous! How could they think this would not be challenged?? I am appalled."
-- "Interesting. This is the kind of thing that made me want to leave Louisiana. I still miss New Orleans, though, and go back every couple of years."
-- "Gotta love those Baptists. Praise the Lord and pass the offering plate."
-- "Truly sad but not surprising."
-- "If there is a dumbass on earth that thinks like that, it would be in a place like Pineville, La. Just when you think we have evolved ..."
-- "How very, very stupid and anti-Semitic that is, although not unusual in today's crazy world."
-- "I read this in The Shreveport Times and couldn't believe it!!!!"
-- "How sad if true."
-- "That's unexplainable."
---
-- "I agree with you, but in case you didn't know Brigham Young requires all its coaches to be Mormon."
(Researched this, and could not verify it, other than a sentence from a 2004 story in the Daily Herald -- Provo, Utah -- which said: "BYU's head football and basketball coaches must be active members of the LDS Church who have been and will be good role models.")
Likely there are religious-affiliated schools/colleges in this country which would prefer -- or even demand -- that administration, faculty and coaches be of that religion.
But, just two examples, that is not the case at the most prominent Catholic university, Notre Dame, or at the Catholic high school in Shreveport-Bossier, Loyola College Prep.
Not certain how that applies to this Louisiana College issue, but there you have it.
Thursday, September 28, 2017
Making the calls: basketball's striped shirts
(Part II of series)
Robert "Tony" Rhodes of Shreveport officiated a thousand-plus basketball games in 32 years. Two stand out.
In March 1980, in Indianapolis, Rhodes -- for decades a high school coach in Northwest Louisiana -- was one of the officials in the NCAA Tournament's men's Final Four.
Yes, the big show.
He was one of three men calling the second semifinal, UCLA vs. Purdue. (UCLA, coached by Larry Brown, won to advance to the championship game vs. Louisville). Two days later, Tony helped call the third-place game: Purdue vs. Iowa.
Known for his cool demeanor, good judgment, hustle, and strong mechanics, Rhodes was the epitome of the many college basketball officials from the area.
He followed in the tradition of the area's most familiar tandem of the 1950s and early 1960s, K.P. "Frenchy" Arceneaux and Alaric Smith, although they were better known as baseball umpires.
And Tony preceded and overlapped with another prominent big-time Shreveport-Bossier college basketball referee: Mike Thibodeaux.
Thibodeaux never got to the Final Four, but he got as close as a couple of Elite Eight assignments and his credentials are strong: 36 seasons, 27 in the Southeastern Conference, 14 NCAA Tournaments.
He left the floor for good just a couple of years ago -- after two hip replacements -- but remains deeply involved in officiating in Northwest Louisiana, although -- in a twist -- not in basketball.
He is in his 28th year as the football assigning secretary for Louisiana High School Athletic Association area schools, and also has assigned baseball officials the past four years.
Those positions might be as difficult as officiating games themselves.
And Thibodeaux came away with a surprising connection ... ready? He has a friendship (of sorts) with Bobby Knight. Is that possible? Read on.
---
Among others from the Shreveport-Bossier area who officiated college basketball:
-- Carl Pierson, the tall, lean junior high coach who became longtime athletic director for Caddo Parish schools. He called Southwestern Athletic Conference games for men and women for years (and also officiated football).
-- Ed Hearron, coach-turned school administrator who was a Southland Conference referee for two decades (also worked in the Trans America and American South conferences) and called in a Final Four of the NCAA Division II championships.
-- Danny Walker, whose two decades included games in the SEC among several conferences. (More on him below.)
-- Billy Grisham, later a ref-turned-softball coach, was a confident referee in local high school gyms and officiated in the old Trans America Athletic Conference.
-- Ron Payne, of nearby Plain Dealing, who had time in the Southland Conference. So did the late Mark Hensley of Haughton.
All of them, plus Rhodes and Thibodeaux, got their starts at the local level and, for a couple, the experience grew with games in the very competitive East Texas junior college circuit -- Tyler, Kilgore, etc.
---
For most of three decades, Tony Rhodes was a high school coach -- football in late summer and fall, baseball or football in the spring.
First, in the early 1960s, he was an assistant at DeSoto (Mansfield), where he helped two future major-league pitchers, Vida Blue and Jesse Hudson, get started in baseball (they were football standouts, too). Then he moved as head coach to Walnut Hill, one of the smaller all-black schools on the outskirts of southwest Shreveport. He was there five years.
When Caddo Parish schools integrated in January 1970, and Walnut Hill was phased out, Rhodes became a football assistant/head baseball coach at first-year Southwood High.
Through the integration merging, black head coaches who had been moved to assistant jobs at previously all-white schools, were promised head coaching jobs when they came open. That happened for Tony in 1973 when Huntington High School opened in far west Shreveport.
He was the Raiders' head coach for 18 football seasons. There wasn't overwhelming success, but the highlights were four district championships in a six-year span (1980, 1983-85) and five playoff teams, and a stretch of nine seasons in 10 with .500 or better records.
He was as well-known, though, for his "second job" -- basketball referee.
It was not only a supplemental income, it kept him on the road each winter from 1965 to '97.
At times, he called games in the Metro Conference, the Southland, SWAC, TAAC, and Big State (Texas schools), plus games for smaller schools in East Texas.
The NBA took a look, too -- in 1969, he called an exhibition game.
There was more time for officiating after he left coaching following the 1980 season, a half year after his NCAA Final Four assignments. He moved into school administration for a short time, then taught ninth-grade math until retirement. And he officiated for another dozen years.
He turned 77 earlier this month and still lives in Shreveport.
---
Mike Thibodeaux, 61, living in Princeton (rural Bossier Parish), was an athlete of sorts (basketball-baseball) at Southwood High and then Baptist Christian College in Shreveport.
Employed by Kansas City Southern railroad while living in Baton Rouge in 1980, he saw ads advertising for prospective officials for basketball and baseball, and joined up. Working games and then attending summer officiating camps, he grew more experienced and more interested.
It was with the help of Mac Chauvin, an SEC referee and top Louisiana high school official from Baton Rouge (he later became assistant commissioner of the Louisiana High School Athletic Association in charge of officiating), that Thibodeaux broke into college basketball.
By 1986, he was calling Southland, Sun Belt and TAAC games, the SEC spot opened in 1989, and Conference USA and the Southwest Conference (later the Big 12) picked him up, too.
Back in Shreveport, he retired as a data processor with KCS in 2000, having often worked midnight shifts to create more time for officiating in the winter.
All the running took its toll, and his hips gave out. "A hundred games a year will do that to you," he said.
In the Big 12 Conference, from 2001 to 2008, he occasionally refereed games involving Texas Tech and head coach Bob Knight -- the notorious one, never hesitant to rudely blast refs or anyone who displeased him.
"We hit it off well," said Thibodeaux. (Not making this up). In fact, he worked one of Knight's monumental victories, the one which broke Dean Smith's record for most wins by a men's college head coach.
A photograph caught Knight pointedly talking to Thibodeaux -- wonder what he was saying? -- and the coach signed a copy of it for the ref.
When Dr. Billy Bundrick, North Louisiana's foremost orthopedic surgeon involved in athletics, saw the photo, he asked Thibodeaux for a copy. So did Northwest Louisiana Fellowship of Christian Athletics director Terry Slack, who wanted it for an FCA auction.
"That won't bring you anything," Thibodeaux joked. A Knight fan bought the copy for $2,000.
As much "stuff" as Thibodeaux caught from coaches and fans during his officiating days, he has found the football assigning secretary role almost as controversial.
"You have to defend actions by others [officials] every Saturday," he said of coaches calling to complain about crews in their games. "That is difficult because I haven't seen the games or the tapes. When I was officiating on the basketball floor, I was in charge for 40 minutes and knew how to handle myself."
Thibodeaux stayed in the game and proved for 3 1/2 decades he could handle the heat.
---
Those who know Danny Walker know he is multi-talented (ordained minister, college sociology professor, sports radio play-by-play announcer, political consultant, successful owner/operator of Texas hospice facilities) and an upbeat, funny teller of tales.
He was a demon basketball and tennis player at Fair Park High, chasing down opponents and smashes with abandon, and leaving lots of laughs as he played.
Not as demonstrative as an official as when he played, he didn't mind the spotlight. He called SEC games, the Southland, TAAC, Metro, Sun Belt and other leagues.
Two games he refereed at Centenary College's Gold Dome stand out:
-- Nationally ranked University of Houston's one-point victory over Centenary in the 1972-73 season finale when Gents' freshman 7-foot center Robert Parish (No. 00) missed two free throws with 0:00 showing on the clock (and no one else on the playing floor).
-- Indiana State's January 1977 three-point victory -- a last-minute comeback -- when its top player was a super-talented and relatively unknown 6-8 sophomore forward, Larry Bird ("he scored 28 points," Walker remembers).
What he remembers, too, is "I must have called a thousand games with Tony Rhodes."
Good times. Good calls.
Robert "Tony" Rhodes of Shreveport officiated a thousand-plus basketball games in 32 years. Two stand out.
 |
| Tony Rhodes, left, makes a call late in the 1980 NCAA men's Final Four semifinal between UCLA (in blue) and Purdue. (photo taken from official NCAA Final Four film, off YouTube) |
Yes, the big show.
He was one of three men calling the second semifinal, UCLA vs. Purdue. (UCLA, coached by Larry Brown, won to advance to the championship game vs. Louisville). Two days later, Tony helped call the third-place game: Purdue vs. Iowa.
Known for his cool demeanor, good judgment, hustle, and strong mechanics, Rhodes was the epitome of the many college basketball officials from the area.
He followed in the tradition of the area's most familiar tandem of the 1950s and early 1960s, K.P. "Frenchy" Arceneaux and Alaric Smith, although they were better known as baseball umpires.
And Tony preceded and overlapped with another prominent big-time Shreveport-Bossier college basketball referee: Mike Thibodeaux.
 |
| Mike Thibodeaux watches carefully |
He left the floor for good just a couple of years ago -- after two hip replacements -- but remains deeply involved in officiating in Northwest Louisiana, although -- in a twist -- not in basketball.
He is in his 28th year as the football assigning secretary for Louisiana High School Athletic Association area schools, and also has assigned baseball officials the past four years.
Those positions might be as difficult as officiating games themselves.
And Thibodeaux came away with a surprising connection ... ready? He has a friendship (of sorts) with Bobby Knight. Is that possible? Read on.
---
Among others from the Shreveport-Bossier area who officiated college basketball:
-- Carl Pierson, the tall, lean junior high coach who became longtime athletic director for Caddo Parish schools. He called Southwestern Athletic Conference games for men and women for years (and also officiated football).
-- Ed Hearron, coach-turned school administrator who was a Southland Conference referee for two decades (also worked in the Trans America and American South conferences) and called in a Final Four of the NCAA Division II championships.
-- Danny Walker, whose two decades included games in the SEC among several conferences. (More on him below.)
-- Billy Grisham, later a ref-turned-softball coach, was a confident referee in local high school gyms and officiated in the old Trans America Athletic Conference.
-- Ron Payne, of nearby Plain Dealing, who had time in the Southland Conference. So did the late Mark Hensley of Haughton.
All of them, plus Rhodes and Thibodeaux, got their starts at the local level and, for a couple, the experience grew with games in the very competitive East Texas junior college circuit -- Tyler, Kilgore, etc.
---
 |
| Tony Rhodes today |
First, in the early 1960s, he was an assistant at DeSoto (Mansfield), where he helped two future major-league pitchers, Vida Blue and Jesse Hudson, get started in baseball (they were football standouts, too). Then he moved as head coach to Walnut Hill, one of the smaller all-black schools on the outskirts of southwest Shreveport. He was there five years.
When Caddo Parish schools integrated in January 1970, and Walnut Hill was phased out, Rhodes became a football assistant/head baseball coach at first-year Southwood High.
Through the integration merging, black head coaches who had been moved to assistant jobs at previously all-white schools, were promised head coaching jobs when they came open. That happened for Tony in 1973 when Huntington High School opened in far west Shreveport.
He was the Raiders' head coach for 18 football seasons. There wasn't overwhelming success, but the highlights were four district championships in a six-year span (1980, 1983-85) and five playoff teams, and a stretch of nine seasons in 10 with .500 or better records.
 |
| Another view, another call: Tony Rhodes, Final Four, 1980 |
It was not only a supplemental income, it kept him on the road each winter from 1965 to '97.
At times, he called games in the Metro Conference, the Southland, SWAC, TAAC, and Big State (Texas schools), plus games for smaller schools in East Texas.
The NBA took a look, too -- in 1969, he called an exhibition game.
There was more time for officiating after he left coaching following the 1980 season, a half year after his NCAA Final Four assignments. He moved into school administration for a short time, then taught ninth-grade math until retirement. And he officiated for another dozen years.
He turned 77 earlier this month and still lives in Shreveport.
---
Mike Thibodeaux, 61, living in Princeton (rural Bossier Parish), was an athlete of sorts (basketball-baseball) at Southwood High and then Baptist Christian College in Shreveport.
Employed by Kansas City Southern railroad while living in Baton Rouge in 1980, he saw ads advertising for prospective officials for basketball and baseball, and joined up. Working games and then attending summer officiating camps, he grew more experienced and more interested.
It was with the help of Mac Chauvin, an SEC referee and top Louisiana high school official from Baton Rouge (he later became assistant commissioner of the Louisiana High School Athletic Association in charge of officiating), that Thibodeaux broke into college basketball.
By 1986, he was calling Southland, Sun Belt and TAAC games, the SEC spot opened in 1989, and Conference USA and the Southwest Conference (later the Big 12) picked him up, too.
Back in Shreveport, he retired as a data processor with KCS in 2000, having often worked midnight shifts to create more time for officiating in the winter.
All the running took its toll, and his hips gave out. "A hundred games a year will do that to you," he said.
In the Big 12 Conference, from 2001 to 2008, he occasionally refereed games involving Texas Tech and head coach Bob Knight -- the notorious one, never hesitant to rudely blast refs or anyone who displeased him.
"We hit it off well," said Thibodeaux. (Not making this up). In fact, he worked one of Knight's monumental victories, the one which broke Dean Smith's record for most wins by a men's college head coach.A photograph caught Knight pointedly talking to Thibodeaux -- wonder what he was saying? -- and the coach signed a copy of it for the ref.
When Dr. Billy Bundrick, North Louisiana's foremost orthopedic surgeon involved in athletics, saw the photo, he asked Thibodeaux for a copy. So did Northwest Louisiana Fellowship of Christian Athletics director Terry Slack, who wanted it for an FCA auction.
"That won't bring you anything," Thibodeaux joked. A Knight fan bought the copy for $2,000.
As much "stuff" as Thibodeaux caught from coaches and fans during his officiating days, he has found the football assigning secretary role almost as controversial.
"You have to defend actions by others [officials] every Saturday," he said of coaches calling to complain about crews in their games. "That is difficult because I haven't seen the games or the tapes. When I was officiating on the basketball floor, I was in charge for 40 minutes and knew how to handle myself."
Thibodeaux stayed in the game and proved for 3 1/2 decades he could handle the heat.
---
Those who know Danny Walker know he is multi-talented (ordained minister, college sociology professor, sports radio play-by-play announcer, political consultant, successful owner/operator of Texas hospice facilities) and an upbeat, funny teller of tales.
He was a demon basketball and tennis player at Fair Park High, chasing down opponents and smashes with abandon, and leaving lots of laughs as he played.
Not as demonstrative as an official as when he played, he didn't mind the spotlight. He called SEC games, the Southland, TAAC, Metro, Sun Belt and other leagues.
Two games he refereed at Centenary College's Gold Dome stand out:
-- Nationally ranked University of Houston's one-point victory over Centenary in the 1972-73 season finale when Gents' freshman 7-foot center Robert Parish (No. 00) missed two free throws with 0:00 showing on the clock (and no one else on the playing floor).
-- Indiana State's January 1977 three-point victory -- a last-minute comeback -- when its top player was a super-talented and relatively unknown 6-8 sophomore forward, Larry Bird ("he scored 28 points," Walker remembers).
What he remembers, too, is "I must have called a thousand games with Tony Rhodes."
Good times. Good calls.
Friday, August 25, 2017
It's true: I am a tired old sports fan
Stress has become a huge part of my sports life.
It always was there, and people who know much about me know nervous energy -- not peace and calm -- is part of the explosive package.
Now it has come to this. I never imagined that some day I would write: I am a tired old sports fan.
That might surprise some because passion for athletics has defined me. Other than the love for my wife, kids and grandkids -- and, yes, friends -- sports has driven me every day in every year.
But I'm fed up. I addressed this in a blog almost five years ago -- http://nvanthyn.blogspot.com/2012/10/stressed-out-dont-like-it.html, and now it's worse.
In most of my blogs, I try to stay upbeat, although that is difficult when writing about Nazis and the Holocaust. I have taken my shots in some sports blogs -- hello, Jerry Jones, and goodbye forever, George M. Steinbrenner -- but mostly the focus has been positive.
This blog isn't going to be positive.
I can hardly stand to watch sports anymore -- in person, on television or on computer.
---
Stories are more difficult to read, to digest. I hardly ever look at a newspaper these days, and I can do only so much reading sports news on the screen in front of me right now.
When I see breaking sports news, I cringe. When I watch games or events, I mostly can't stand the athletes' behavior, and I don't like their looks. I am repulsed -- really -- by most college and pro coaches.
I strongly believe there is so much hypocrisy in college athletics. For instance: recruiting. So overdone, overblown; kids' egos far out of control. The media and recruiting services/web sites' obsession with "verbal commitments" is part of the problem.
Colleges "offering" scholarships before kids even qualify academically for school should be prohibited, nor should kids be allowed to sign before their senior seasons in a sport are completed. Yes, I have some radical ideas.
College athletes are spoiled, pampered -- and no way like "normal" students. Pay them for playing? My view: A free education is pretty darned good pay.
Far too much money involved in all college athletics, and that's even more true in pro sports. It's so out of whack with the rest of society, it's not right.
Salaries, for players and coaches, are outrageous. Ticket prices? It galls me to even look at them. Public financing for stadiums, ridiculous (that's you, Arlington, Texas).
I see people who are excited about the NFL preseason games. People, read this: biggest ripoff in sports today, period.
For the first time, I am not looking forward to football season. Nope, not even college football.
I used to count down the weeks until opening kickoff. Not even nervous this year. Maybe next week, I will feel the anxiety of another LSU season, another Louisiana Tech season.
Really, I try to avoid anything NFL. The Cowboys are just a soap opera; so many sideshows; so much Jerry Jones in our face. So much boring Jason Garrett. If QB Dakota Prescott -- with his Bossier Parish ties -- wasn't there, it would be a total wash for me. I can root for Dak.
The violence of the game never has been appealing. And it's a violent game, no way around it. So many people relish the "big hits," but celebrating them -- as if often done -- is a poor message.
The injuries -- concussions, threat (and reality) of paralysis, multiple surgeries for so many -- are awful. Worse: the more frequent deaths/suicides related to CTE (brain damage).
If they never played another football game, my life would be OK. Feels strange because the sport has been so important to me for so, so long.
No longer watch the NBA. Just as in the NFL (and college sports), it would be a lot better if the athletes did not celebrate after almost every good play they make.
Stopped following tennis years ago, about the same time as boxing (after Ali, I did not care). Do like track and field, especially in OIympic years; same for swimming. Olympics, as a whole, are far too commercial.
Never much of a car-racing fan or horse racing, but I watched and read about those sports when I was working because I needed to know enough to edit stories.
Still like watching golf, but limit it to the majors and the tournaments I love most, on courses with which I am familiar (Colonial, right here by the apartments, and The Players Championship). And it usually takes one of the great young players on tour now to be in contention and draw my attention.
First love, soccer, boring as it is. Love it lots more when The Netherlands' men's team is playing well. But that was one World Cup ago.
Bored even by baseball, a sport I have been passionate about for 60-plus years. The games are just too darned long, the players act out too much (but not quite as much as in the NBA or NFL).
Really can't stand the walkoff victory celebrations -- the team-jumping exercise, the pouring of Gatorade (see this week's Sports Illustrated cover -- the Dodgers), water, powder on the "hero," even if the other team made an error that allows the winning run to score. Especially don't like the pileup and the ripping off of the game shirt.
Throwing pitches at batters or behind them, on-field skirmishes (as in Yankees-at-Tigers on Thursday): dumb and dangerous. Play the game the right way.
So stupid all of it. Young men acting like kids? A whole bunch of spoiled, overpaid brats.
You really want me to go on a rant, let's go back to college football coaches. Ah, never mind. I don't have enough time or space or energy. But I am so, so tired of them especially -- our great role models.
Just a sample, consider the scandals. Hugh Freeze and Ole Miss, North Carolina and academics, Art Briles and a rape culture, Bobby Petrino and the motorcycle mistress, (unfortunately) the late Joe Paterno. I could list dozens.
Our son-in-law, who is host for a radio sports talk show, tweeted this a couple of weeks ago:
"I'm so over these coaches. Butch [Jones], [Ed] Orgeron, [Brian] Kelly, [Tom] Herman ... all paranoid, self-obsessed dullards."
I agree totally. Let me add sanctimonious and obsessive (Nick Saban), control freak (Gary Patterson), brash (Jim Harbaugh), whiner (Urban Meyer), cocky (Jim McFlorida), zany (the out-of-work but well-paid Les Miles), slightly berserk (Dabo Swinney) and unintelligible (Orgeron).
And at Louisville, angry-man Petrino. It is a scandal double-play when you add basketball -- Rick Pitino (a friend says that when he goes to a restaurant he orders "a table that will hold two") and his staff runs an escort service, but of course he had nothing to do with that.
I never was much of a sports-talk show fan, be it radio or television. But I know several radio show hosts -- son-in-law and some friends -- who I respect and who know their stuff, and I am glad they're on the air.
And I am happy for my friends and former co-workers still making a good living in the newspaper or online sportswriting business.
When I do watch games, I seldom have the sound turned on. I will listen only to a few announcers. Mute is good. I usually can figure out what's going on.
I have a friend who, went I told him how I'm feeling, said, "There is nothing like walking into a full college football stadium." True, if that's what you like. To me, it's a pain being in a big crowd and waiting out massive traffic jams.
Millions of fans in all sports do like what they pay big prices to see. Good for them. I'm out.
---
But, but, but ... two qualifiers.
(1) It's not that I do not care about my teams; I am just as intense a fan as ever. When they win, great (but better when they play well). When they lose, it still feels bad. It always will.
I must remind myself: It's a game; the results are fleeting.
(2) Because I am addicted to LSU football, and addictions are hard to break, and because I am interested in Louisiana Tech athletics, I will pay attention. I might even watch the games live on TV (when available).
Might watch. But I might just follow on computer. Or, as I did with LSU's early kickoff bowl game last season, I will record the game on U-Verse and watch it later. I did that all last season with the Cowboys' games, and the Super Bowl.
Cuts down on the stress level, and don't have to sit through the commercials.
I don't intend to watch games in person, not for the time being. I did attend three college football games and one basketball game last season, more because I enjoyed being with friends who invited me. Hey, I even paid for one ticket.
So, for my friends, don't even ask. And don't call to talk to me about athletics. I'll let you know when I'm ready. Until then, I am stressed and I am tired of it all.
It always was there, and people who know much about me know nervous energy -- not peace and calm -- is part of the explosive package.
Now it has come to this. I never imagined that some day I would write: I am a tired old sports fan.
That might surprise some because passion for athletics has defined me. Other than the love for my wife, kids and grandkids -- and, yes, friends -- sports has driven me every day in every year.
But I'm fed up. I addressed this in a blog almost five years ago -- http://nvanthyn.blogspot.com/2012/10/stressed-out-dont-like-it.html, and now it's worse.
In most of my blogs, I try to stay upbeat, although that is difficult when writing about Nazis and the Holocaust. I have taken my shots in some sports blogs -- hello, Jerry Jones, and goodbye forever, George M. Steinbrenner -- but mostly the focus has been positive.
This blog isn't going to be positive.
I can hardly stand to watch sports anymore -- in person, on television or on computer.
---
Stories are more difficult to read, to digest. I hardly ever look at a newspaper these days, and I can do only so much reading sports news on the screen in front of me right now.
When I see breaking sports news, I cringe. When I watch games or events, I mostly can't stand the athletes' behavior, and I don't like their looks. I am repulsed -- really -- by most college and pro coaches.
I strongly believe there is so much hypocrisy in college athletics. For instance: recruiting. So overdone, overblown; kids' egos far out of control. The media and recruiting services/web sites' obsession with "verbal commitments" is part of the problem.
Colleges "offering" scholarships before kids even qualify academically for school should be prohibited, nor should kids be allowed to sign before their senior seasons in a sport are completed. Yes, I have some radical ideas.
College athletes are spoiled, pampered -- and no way like "normal" students. Pay them for playing? My view: A free education is pretty darned good pay.
Far too much money involved in all college athletics, and that's even more true in pro sports. It's so out of whack with the rest of society, it's not right.
Salaries, for players and coaches, are outrageous. Ticket prices? It galls me to even look at them. Public financing for stadiums, ridiculous (that's you, Arlington, Texas).
I see people who are excited about the NFL preseason games. People, read this: biggest ripoff in sports today, period.
For the first time, I am not looking forward to football season. Nope, not even college football.
I used to count down the weeks until opening kickoff. Not even nervous this year. Maybe next week, I will feel the anxiety of another LSU season, another Louisiana Tech season.
Really, I try to avoid anything NFL. The Cowboys are just a soap opera; so many sideshows; so much Jerry Jones in our face. So much boring Jason Garrett. If QB Dakota Prescott -- with his Bossier Parish ties -- wasn't there, it would be a total wash for me. I can root for Dak.
The violence of the game never has been appealing. And it's a violent game, no way around it. So many people relish the "big hits," but celebrating them -- as if often done -- is a poor message.
The injuries -- concussions, threat (and reality) of paralysis, multiple surgeries for so many -- are awful. Worse: the more frequent deaths/suicides related to CTE (brain damage).
If they never played another football game, my life would be OK. Feels strange because the sport has been so important to me for so, so long.
No longer watch the NBA. Just as in the NFL (and college sports), it would be a lot better if the athletes did not celebrate after almost every good play they make.
Stopped following tennis years ago, about the same time as boxing (after Ali, I did not care). Do like track and field, especially in OIympic years; same for swimming. Olympics, as a whole, are far too commercial.
Never much of a car-racing fan or horse racing, but I watched and read about those sports when I was working because I needed to know enough to edit stories.
Still like watching golf, but limit it to the majors and the tournaments I love most, on courses with which I am familiar (Colonial, right here by the apartments, and The Players Championship). And it usually takes one of the great young players on tour now to be in contention and draw my attention.
First love, soccer, boring as it is. Love it lots more when The Netherlands' men's team is playing well. But that was one World Cup ago.
 |
| The Texas Rangers pour it on after a victory (Getty Images photo) |
Really can't stand the walkoff victory celebrations -- the team-jumping exercise, the pouring of Gatorade (see this week's Sports Illustrated cover -- the Dodgers), water, powder on the "hero," even if the other team made an error that allows the winning run to score. Especially don't like the pileup and the ripping off of the game shirt.
Throwing pitches at batters or behind them, on-field skirmishes (as in Yankees-at-Tigers on Thursday): dumb and dangerous. Play the game the right way.
So stupid all of it. Young men acting like kids? A whole bunch of spoiled, overpaid brats.
You really want me to go on a rant, let's go back to college football coaches. Ah, never mind. I don't have enough time or space or energy. But I am so, so tired of them especially -- our great role models.
Just a sample, consider the scandals. Hugh Freeze and Ole Miss, North Carolina and academics, Art Briles and a rape culture, Bobby Petrino and the motorcycle mistress, (unfortunately) the late Joe Paterno. I could list dozens.
Our son-in-law, who is host for a radio sports talk show, tweeted this a couple of weeks ago:
"I'm so over these coaches. Butch [Jones], [Ed] Orgeron, [Brian] Kelly, [Tom] Herman ... all paranoid, self-obsessed dullards."
I agree totally. Let me add sanctimonious and obsessive (Nick Saban), control freak (Gary Patterson), brash (Jim Harbaugh), whiner (Urban Meyer), cocky (Jim McFlorida), zany (the out-of-work but well-paid Les Miles), slightly berserk (Dabo Swinney) and unintelligible (Orgeron).
And at Louisville, angry-man Petrino. It is a scandal double-play when you add basketball -- Rick Pitino (a friend says that when he goes to a restaurant he orders "a table that will hold two") and his staff runs an escort service, but of course he had nothing to do with that.
I never was much of a sports-talk show fan, be it radio or television. But I know several radio show hosts -- son-in-law and some friends -- who I respect and who know their stuff, and I am glad they're on the air.
And I am happy for my friends and former co-workers still making a good living in the newspaper or online sportswriting business.
When I do watch games, I seldom have the sound turned on. I will listen only to a few announcers. Mute is good. I usually can figure out what's going on.
I have a friend who, went I told him how I'm feeling, said, "There is nothing like walking into a full college football stadium." True, if that's what you like. To me, it's a pain being in a big crowd and waiting out massive traffic jams.
Millions of fans in all sports do like what they pay big prices to see. Good for them. I'm out.
---
But, but, but ... two qualifiers.
(1) It's not that I do not care about my teams; I am just as intense a fan as ever. When they win, great (but better when they play well). When they lose, it still feels bad. It always will.
I must remind myself: It's a game; the results are fleeting.
(2) Because I am addicted to LSU football, and addictions are hard to break, and because I am interested in Louisiana Tech athletics, I will pay attention. I might even watch the games live on TV (when available).
Might watch. But I might just follow on computer. Or, as I did with LSU's early kickoff bowl game last season, I will record the game on U-Verse and watch it later. I did that all last season with the Cowboys' games, and the Super Bowl.
Cuts down on the stress level, and don't have to sit through the commercials.
I don't intend to watch games in person, not for the time being. I did attend three college football games and one basketball game last season, more because I enjoyed being with friends who invited me. Hey, I even paid for one ticket.
So, for my friends, don't even ask. And don't call to talk to me about athletics. I'll let you know when I'm ready. Until then, I am stressed and I am tired of it all.
Thursday, February 16, 2017
College baseball is fine ... but it's not the real thing
Ping! It is time for college baseball, and that is an unreal sound to me.
Sorry if this offends the true college baseball fans, but give me professional baseball -- played with wooden bats -- anytime.
Love baseball, have since I was 9, so that's 60 years. Love it more than any other sport -- yes, even more than soccer (unless the Dutch national team is playing well).
Love one baseball team in particular, have since I was 9. If you know much about me, you know what team that is (hint: 40 American League pennants, 27 World Series titles). And ... none since 2009.)
Loved keeping a scorebook, keeping stats, watching a thousand-plus games, and baseball always was my favorite sportswriting subject.
But my love affair with college ball -- and high school and kids' ball, and softball -- ended when the use of metal bats began.
That's not the only reason (if you care to read on, I will give you other reasons below). But the sound of the ball coming off those aluminum bats -- Ping! -- makes me shudder. It's not the real thing.
Give me the crack of the (wood) bat. That's real. One of the most majestic moments in sports is the ball flying off that bat and going, going, going ... out of sight. Especially nice if it's hit by the home team at Yankee Stadium.
But, but, but ...
I have waited a little too far into this to say this: College baseball still beats a heckuva lot of other sports. Because it's still baseball.
And don't get the wrong idea that I don't want anything to do with it. I will follow LSU and Louisiana Tech baseball because those are the schools I care about.
LSU because it has had one of the best programs in the country for 30-plus years now, six times the best. And because the (old and new) Alex Box Stadium experience might be the best in the country.
(LSU has the best fans in the country and one of them is the "K Lady." This is a personal note; she is extended family. And her husband once was a catcher for Fair Park -- Shreveport -- High School and in American League baseball for Royal Crown Cola, and I wrote about some of those games.)
Strange as it might seem to some, I have never seen an LSU baseball game at Alex Box. Really should try it some time, right?
Louisiana Tech because a darned long time ago I kept score and stats there and because last season it came out of the college baseball wilderness to reach postseason play for the first time in 30 years.
There are, as many know, Louisiana Tech family tie-ins to LSU baseball this season.
The Tigers' senior shortstop, one of their best players, is Kramer Robertson -- whose mother (Kim Mulkey) and father (Randy Robertson) a long time ago were Louisiana Tech athletes a young sportswriter mentioned a time or two.
You might know that Kim has had a fairly good women's basketball coaching career.
It was a personal treat to cover a football playoff game in which Kramer -- a tough little athlete with a big right arm -- was the quarterback for Midway High School outside of Waco, Texas.
The Tigers' freshman first baseman, a promising prospect, is Jake Slaughter -- star high school athlete at Ouachita Christian (Monroe).
His father, Michael, played football at Louisiana Tech; so did his uncle, Bobby, one of the many standout receivers in Tech history; and so -- most notably -- did his grandfather. Mickey Slaughter played quarterback at Tech (1959-62), then in the pros, and then was one of the best-known and most popular assistant football coaches in Tech history.
So, yes, we will be rooting hard for Kramer and Jake, and the rest of the Tigers.
But because I am now a jaded old sports fan with a diminishing attention span for games, I will read about the teams and the players, and I will limit my TV game-watching time. (That's true even for Major League Baseball.)
---
And, since you asked (?), here are some of my issues with baseball in general, and college baseball in particular. I know I am terribly old-school about this, about how the game should be played ...
-- The games are too damn long (oops, sorry, bad-language word). Can't do 3- or 4-hour games. Yes, that certainly means Yankees-Red Sox.
-- Especially true in college baseball: too many player-coach conferences; too many meetings on the mound (and the infielders all have to join in).
-- My sportswriting cohort, Orville K. "Buddy" Davis of Ruston, La., pointed this out in a Facebook post Wednesday: Too many players stepping out of the batter's box between every pitch to adjust their (bad language) wristbands/batting gloves. Yes, even the now-retired Derek Jeter did that. So did Mr. A-Rod. And so does one of the (few) Red Sox players I really like: Dustin Pedroia.
As Buddy said, and several people agreed: Change the rules, make the batter stay in the box, unless there is a dire emergency. And stop the pitchers from taking their sweet time between every pitch. Don't you love pitchers who are ready for the next pitch as soon as they get the ball back?
-- Buddy also pointed out: too many pitching changes. Too busy, makes me dizzy. True in college and pro ball. (I have not forgiven LSU coach Paul Mainieri and pitching coach Alan Dunn for the eight-pitcher fiasco vs. TCU in the College World Series opener two years ago. A j-o-k-e.)
-- Cold weather: Don't like it for baseball. I'm a fair-weather fan. Unfortunately, the first month and a half of the college season, it's often too cold for the games in these parts. Certainly too cold for major-league games in many cities. Same is true for MLB's postseason.
-- Players' comportment: This goes across the spectrum of sports today -- but the gesturing, the celebrating, the trash-talking, the chest-bumping ... it is all too much. College baseball teams, it seems, are always jumping around and on the top step of the dugout or hanging over the railing. Enthusiasm is great, I suppose, but so is a bit of humility.
In college baseball, for instance, why after a home run, does the whole team have to run up to home plate to greet the home-run hitter? (I'm sounding old here.)
-- Here is my experience the last few times I attended a college baseball game, or covered one for a newspaper: The coaches' "gamesmanship" or what I call one-upness -- conferring, lobbying, cajoling, arguing with umpires about so many nuisances, rules, calls -- took up so much time it was aggravating.
They were so busy trying to get that little edge for their teams. One coach would come out on the field to make a point; then the other coach would follow. I am not making this up.
-- Bench jockeying: It used to be a huge part of the game; the jawing from the dugout toward the other dugout or the players on the field. A long time ago, I saw a powerful University of Texas team that might have been No. 1 in the college baseball rankings, but definitely was No. 1 in bench jockeying. I thought it was unbecoming of a big-time program. I think the NCAA put in rules to stop a lot of that crap.
-- Rally caps. It is so amateurish, so kid-like, so -- dare I say it? -- juvenile. I know: They are kids.
(It is almost like they were working in a newspaper sports department and, between editing stories or whatever, playing with wiffle-ball bat and a "ball" made up of wadded paper wrapped in tape and someone hit one that knocked a clock off the wall, and shattered the clock. That couldn't
happen, could it?)
I could think of other things, but this is getting too long. Did I mention the ping of metal bats?
---
If I wanted to watch college baseball, I could so right here in Fort Worth about a mile from our apartment. TCU has one of the nation's best programs; four College World Series appearances in the last seven years, including the last three consecutively.
One of my TCU friends offers ticket to games at Lupton Stadium. I pass. Not my team.
However, TCU -- never before a serious college baseball contender -- is an example of what's great about the sport. Given the right coach and recruiter, a national-contending program can be built.
And, as a friend pointed out, college baseball provides more parity than college football or men's basketball. The three seasons prior to this one have proven that.
When you consider that Vanderbilt and Virginia -- known a lot more for academics than athletics -- reached the College World Series championship round two years in a row, and that last year Coastal Carolina -- who? -- was the "Cinderella" national champion, and eliminated LSU and then TCU on the way, you have parity.
Coastal Carolina was known more for its team nickname -- Chanticleers (?) -- than anything else. But what a team it had in 2016.
Here is another piece of parity: LSU will play many of the state schools this season, and every season, and even play them on the road, instead of at Alex Box Stadium. That would never happen in football, rarely in men's basketball.
Back to the previous point: A friend said, "There is no way Louisiana Tech could ever win the national championship in football or (men's) basketball. But Coastal Carolina shows that in baseball, it could happen for a school like Louisiana Tech."
It could happen, even with metal bats. One more time: Ping! Enjoy the college baseball season, and the pros' spring training. For me, the real season begins April 2.
Sorry if this offends the true college baseball fans, but give me professional baseball -- played with wooden bats -- anytime.
Love baseball, have since I was 9, so that's 60 years. Love it more than any other sport -- yes, even more than soccer (unless the Dutch national team is playing well).
Love one baseball team in particular, have since I was 9. If you know much about me, you know what team that is (hint: 40 American League pennants, 27 World Series titles). And ... none since 2009.)
Loved keeping a scorebook, keeping stats, watching a thousand-plus games, and baseball always was my favorite sportswriting subject.
But my love affair with college ball -- and high school and kids' ball, and softball -- ended when the use of metal bats began.
That's not the only reason (if you care to read on, I will give you other reasons below). But the sound of the ball coming off those aluminum bats -- Ping! -- makes me shudder. It's not the real thing.
Give me the crack of the (wood) bat. That's real. One of the most majestic moments in sports is the ball flying off that bat and going, going, going ... out of sight. Especially nice if it's hit by the home team at Yankee Stadium.
But, but, but ...
I have waited a little too far into this to say this: College baseball still beats a heckuva lot of other sports. Because it's still baseball.
And don't get the wrong idea that I don't want anything to do with it. I will follow LSU and Louisiana Tech baseball because those are the schools I care about.
LSU because it has had one of the best programs in the country for 30-plus years now, six times the best. And because the (old and new) Alex Box Stadium experience might be the best in the country.
(LSU has the best fans in the country and one of them is the "K Lady." This is a personal note; she is extended family. And her husband once was a catcher for Fair Park -- Shreveport -- High School and in American League baseball for Royal Crown Cola, and I wrote about some of those games.)
Strange as it might seem to some, I have never seen an LSU baseball game at Alex Box. Really should try it some time, right?
Louisiana Tech because a darned long time ago I kept score and stats there and because last season it came out of the college baseball wilderness to reach postseason play for the first time in 30 years.
 |
| Kramer Robertson (photo from nola.com) |
The Tigers' senior shortstop, one of their best players, is Kramer Robertson -- whose mother (Kim Mulkey) and father (Randy Robertson) a long time ago were Louisiana Tech athletes a young sportswriter mentioned a time or two.
You might know that Kim has had a fairly good women's basketball coaching career.
It was a personal treat to cover a football playoff game in which Kramer -- a tough little athlete with a big right arm -- was the quarterback for Midway High School outside of Waco, Texas.
The Tigers' freshman first baseman, a promising prospect, is Jake Slaughter -- star high school athlete at Ouachita Christian (Monroe).
His father, Michael, played football at Louisiana Tech; so did his uncle, Bobby, one of the many standout receivers in Tech history; and so -- most notably -- did his grandfather. Mickey Slaughter played quarterback at Tech (1959-62), then in the pros, and then was one of the best-known and most popular assistant football coaches in Tech history.
So, yes, we will be rooting hard for Kramer and Jake, and the rest of the Tigers.
But because I am now a jaded old sports fan with a diminishing attention span for games, I will read about the teams and the players, and I will limit my TV game-watching time. (That's true even for Major League Baseball.)
---
And, since you asked (?), here are some of my issues with baseball in general, and college baseball in particular. I know I am terribly old-school about this, about how the game should be played ...
-- The games are too damn long (oops, sorry, bad-language word). Can't do 3- or 4-hour games. Yes, that certainly means Yankees-Red Sox.
-- Especially true in college baseball: too many player-coach conferences; too many meetings on the mound (and the infielders all have to join in).
-- My sportswriting cohort, Orville K. "Buddy" Davis of Ruston, La., pointed this out in a Facebook post Wednesday: Too many players stepping out of the batter's box between every pitch to adjust their (bad language) wristbands/batting gloves. Yes, even the now-retired Derek Jeter did that. So did Mr. A-Rod. And so does one of the (few) Red Sox players I really like: Dustin Pedroia.
As Buddy said, and several people agreed: Change the rules, make the batter stay in the box, unless there is a dire emergency. And stop the pitchers from taking their sweet time between every pitch. Don't you love pitchers who are ready for the next pitch as soon as they get the ball back?
-- Buddy also pointed out: too many pitching changes. Too busy, makes me dizzy. True in college and pro ball. (I have not forgiven LSU coach Paul Mainieri and pitching coach Alan Dunn for the eight-pitcher fiasco vs. TCU in the College World Series opener two years ago. A j-o-k-e.)
-- Cold weather: Don't like it for baseball. I'm a fair-weather fan. Unfortunately, the first month and a half of the college season, it's often too cold for the games in these parts. Certainly too cold for major-league games in many cities. Same is true for MLB's postseason.
-- Players' comportment: This goes across the spectrum of sports today -- but the gesturing, the celebrating, the trash-talking, the chest-bumping ... it is all too much. College baseball teams, it seems, are always jumping around and on the top step of the dugout or hanging over the railing. Enthusiasm is great, I suppose, but so is a bit of humility.
In college baseball, for instance, why after a home run, does the whole team have to run up to home plate to greet the home-run hitter? (I'm sounding old here.)
-- Here is my experience the last few times I attended a college baseball game, or covered one for a newspaper: The coaches' "gamesmanship" or what I call one-upness -- conferring, lobbying, cajoling, arguing with umpires about so many nuisances, rules, calls -- took up so much time it was aggravating.
They were so busy trying to get that little edge for their teams. One coach would come out on the field to make a point; then the other coach would follow. I am not making this up.
-- Bench jockeying: It used to be a huge part of the game; the jawing from the dugout toward the other dugout or the players on the field. A long time ago, I saw a powerful University of Texas team that might have been No. 1 in the college baseball rankings, but definitely was No. 1 in bench jockeying. I thought it was unbecoming of a big-time program. I think the NCAA put in rules to stop a lot of that crap.
-- Rally caps. It is so amateurish, so kid-like, so -- dare I say it? -- juvenile. I know: They are kids.
(It is almost like they were working in a newspaper sports department and, between editing stories or whatever, playing with wiffle-ball bat and a "ball" made up of wadded paper wrapped in tape and someone hit one that knocked a clock off the wall, and shattered the clock. That couldn't
happen, could it?)
I could think of other things, but this is getting too long. Did I mention the ping of metal bats?
---
If I wanted to watch college baseball, I could so right here in Fort Worth about a mile from our apartment. TCU has one of the nation's best programs; four College World Series appearances in the last seven years, including the last three consecutively.
One of my TCU friends offers ticket to games at Lupton Stadium. I pass. Not my team.
However, TCU -- never before a serious college baseball contender -- is an example of what's great about the sport. Given the right coach and recruiter, a national-contending program can be built.
And, as a friend pointed out, college baseball provides more parity than college football or men's basketball. The three seasons prior to this one have proven that.
When you consider that Vanderbilt and Virginia -- known a lot more for academics than athletics -- reached the College World Series championship round two years in a row, and that last year Coastal Carolina -- who? -- was the "Cinderella" national champion, and eliminated LSU and then TCU on the way, you have parity.
Coastal Carolina was known more for its team nickname -- Chanticleers (?) -- than anything else. But what a team it had in 2016.
Here is another piece of parity: LSU will play many of the state schools this season, and every season, and even play them on the road, instead of at Alex Box Stadium. That would never happen in football, rarely in men's basketball.
Back to the previous point: A friend said, "There is no way Louisiana Tech could ever win the national championship in football or (men's) basketball. But Coastal Carolina shows that in baseball, it could happen for a school like Louisiana Tech."
It could happen, even with metal bats. One more time: Ping! Enjoy the college baseball season, and the pros' spring training. For me, the real season begins April 2.
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