I want to point out that when we performed this exercise last year, I practically nailed the major points of the opening night lineup.
The reason for reminding everyone of this? I probably won't be able to pull off a repeat performance.
This UMD team will very much have a different makeup than last year. A few things -- center depth, scoring balance, consistent defense and goaltending -- never really developed last year. At various times, some or all of these issues came to the forefront, and the result was a near 20-loss season.
To flip that around and blast past 20 wins for the fifth time in six years, UMD needs some guys to step up. The Bulldogs will sport much-improved forward depth, and while there aren't many big names in the defensive corps, it's a group that could be very solid once the right pairings are found.
All three goalies are back from last year. More is expected there, but they'll get more help than they did in 2012-13.
Without any further ado, let me launch into what I think this lineup will look like come October. Same disclaimers apply. I reserve the right to change this a couple, 13, 14, or even 22 times before Lakehead and UMD hit the ice Oct. 7.
Also, I have put this together with minimal espionage work done. In other words, I'm trying not to cheat too much. That comes later.
Forwards
Austin Farley - Tony Cameranesi - Joe Basaraba
Dom Toninato - Caleb Herbert - Alex Iafallo
Justin Crandall - Cal Decowski - Adam Krause
Austyn Young - Max Tardy - Charlie Sampair
Kyle Osterberg - Sammy Spurrell
Defensemen
Andy Welinski - Willie Corrin
Willie Raskob - Tim Smith
Dan Molenaar - Derik Johnson
Carson Soucy - Luke McManus
Goalies
Aaron Crandall - Alex Fons - Matt McNeely
Thoughts
I kept the top group together, though I think there's a money chance that doesn't happen. Basaraba's size is a good compliment to Farley and Cameranesi, as he gives them room to maneuver and get creative five-on-five, when room is so often at a premium.
Herbert could have a big season centering whomever he ends up centering. I'll stick the Fargo kids (well, at least they were for juniors) there with Caleb, even though both are left-hand shots. The way these lines are laid out, there are three lefties (the two freshmen and Farley) among the four wings on the top two lines. No reason this couldn't sustain, but keep in mind some guys can't play comfortably on the off-wing. Farley slid to the right side a couple times last year (at least my fuzzy memory indicates that this happened), but he did his damage as Cameranesi's left wing.
Had a really hard time laying out the third and fourth lines. I think Tardy and Sampair are the most potentially interesting guys on this team. Tardy is a senior, and while he hasn't had the career he hoped to have, I thought he showed flashes last year while caught up in a numbers game with some younger guys. Sampair tailed off a bit late, but had flashed plenty of ability around midseason. No question he can skate and could fit well as a penalty killer as he works to realize his offensive potential.
If Tardy is to get caught in the numbers game again, look for Spurrell to get a shot on that fourth line. He has decent size and has shown offensive ability in juniors.
On the defense, I'm not sure about anything. Welinski will play every game he's healthy for, and he'll play a lot. The other seven guys will be battling out of the chute for ice time. Corrin has the best skill set to play alongside Welinski, though he'll have to prove he's ready. I think Raskob plays as long as he shows he is ready to. Indications were he was brought in earlier than initially planned, and that tells me he isn't coming in to burn a year of eligibility by watching games in the press box. Smith is the kind of defenseman who is most effective when the play by play isn't saying his name a whole lot. Don't notice him? He's probably playing well.
I've heard good things about Molenaar and Soucy, but don't know much about either one's game and how it translates to Division I. Johnson and McManus have plenty of experience, and McManus has the advantage of being a guy who can help on the power play.
As far as the goaltending is concerned, I think McNeely gets a shot to prove he's the guy. He has to be more consistent. When starting both ends of a weekend series, McNeely was much worse on Saturday than he was Friday. That can't happen again. Crandall is a good option to play if needed, and Fons is likely itching to get another chance after playing in Bemidji last season.
Krause and Crandall showed a lot of chemistry working on the penalty kill last year, and I would expect they will log minutes there. Look for Cameranesi and Decowski to challenge for time there, and there could be a lot of mixing and matching while the coaches look for good killing forwards.
All in all, the depth is better, and you will probably see a lot of lineup tweaking early to keep everyone playing in games and see what works best.
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
Monday, August 19, 2013
Former High School Star Predicts End of High School Sports
Annie Adamczak-Glavan is a DECC Athletic Hall of Famer, Class of 2012.
At Moose Lake High School, she's a legend. Adamczak-Glavan helped the Rebels win ten state championships between 1978-82. In her senior year, the three teams she played on -- volleyball, basketball, and soccer -- went a combined 71-0.
Her sport was volleyball, though. She played it at Nebraska, earning All American honors in 1985. She also played it professionally. And now she trains young people in the sport as her day job.
Club 43 is an academy based in Hopkins, focused on training young athletes in volleyball. As Sunday's Duluth News Tribune notes, it's the kind of academy Adamczak-Glavan herself decried as a youngster.
And she thinks she's in front of a growing trend, one that will lead to the end of high school sports as we know them.
And this commentary isn't at all critical of the paper or the reporter. I think the story is presented well, and it's a valid discussion to have as the fall sports season launches for high schools all over the place.
But there's a problem: Adamczak-Glavan comes across as misguided at best, and self-serving at worst.
High schools have the kinds of facilities she talks about in the story, and they have highly-trained and highly-motivated coaches who surely aren't coaching to make money. Proctor football assistant coach Nate Johnson commented on the Minnesota State High School League's Facebook page Sunday, addressing this article.
In case you're wondering, the highest participation fee for a high school sports team in Duluth is $500 (hockey at Denfeld and East). No one else pays more than $235. Want to play volleyball at Proctor? It'll cost you $120, and if your family qualifies for free or reduced lunch, it's $95. Hermantown is $130 for all sports except hockey ($180).
I know. This isn't the Twin Cities.
Hopkins, where Club 43 is located, charges a fee of $230 per sport, no matter the sport. And if a child takes part in three or more sports, the fee is halved.
Academies like Adamczak-Glavan's certainly do good work. If they didn't, they wouldn't exist anymore. But the former Moose Lake star has plenty of testimonials on her website, and surely there are plenty of happy customers.
But the prediction of high school sports' demise is misguided, possibly self-serving, and absolutely premature. Until these academies are more affordable for everyone, there's no chance of Adamczak-Glavan's prediction becoming a reality. And even once that happens, it isn't as if high school teams are incapable of cultivating and churning out elite athletes.
For every Jamie Langenbrunner, who left Cloquet High School to play major junior and then ended up having a very good NHL career, there's a guy like Derek Plante, who chose to stay in school, go to college, and also had himself a nice pro career.
High schools produce multi-sport stars, like Matt Niskanen (Virginia/MIB) and Austin Pohlen (Grand Rapids), and they allow numerous kids the chance to play more than one sport while they get their education.
Adamczak-Glavan doesn't seem to think that's the right way anymore, either. She told Weegman her daughter cut herself down from three sports to one -- volleyball -- in the sixth grade. She feels that giving up all but one sport is the way to go now.
I completely disagree with this as well. There's no book on how to treat every kid, but there are plenty of articles to be found on the internet arguing that specialization at a young age is not a good idea.
The biggest reasons for this, I believe, are twofold. For starters, it sets up the risk for burnout. I know plenty of families in this area who spend practically the entire summer trucking kids to hockey tournaments. I've overheard parents talking about their kids playing 50-70 hockey games over the course of the summer.
The summer. That's preposterous.
The other reason? Because it's quite common that such specialization isn't about the kids. It's about the parents living vicariously through the kids, and the promotion of such specialization is more about the dollars involved (i.e. the amount of money a family forks over for a kid to play on a select or AAA hockey team) than it is about making the kids better hockey players.
Bottom line: Minnesota high school sports aren't going anywhere. The club/academy model might be viable in small areas, but it's got a long way to go before it's ever going to overtake what community-driven sports teams can offer.
At Moose Lake High School, she's a legend. Adamczak-Glavan helped the Rebels win ten state championships between 1978-82. In her senior year, the three teams she played on -- volleyball, basketball, and soccer -- went a combined 71-0.
Her sport was volleyball, though. She played it at Nebraska, earning All American honors in 1985. She also played it professionally. And now she trains young people in the sport as her day job.
Club 43 is an academy based in Hopkins, focused on training young athletes in volleyball. As Sunday's Duluth News Tribune notes, it's the kind of academy Adamczak-Glavan herself decried as a youngster.
Before her senior basketball season at Moose Lake High School, star athlete Annie Adamczak said a club volleyball team asked her to play for them instead.With Club 43, Adamczak-Glavan is doing exactly what someone tried to get her to do back in the 1980s.
“I told them, ‘Are you crazy? I’m not going to give up one night of my high school basketball season to play volleyball,’” she recalled. “You just didn’t do that — you played for your school, you played for your hometown, and you wore those school colors."
And she thinks she's in front of a growing trend, one that will lead to the end of high school sports as we know them.
“I honestly think you won’t have high school sports in 20 years — they’ll be done,” said Adamczak-Glavan, who won five state titles, including volleyball, basketball and softball championships as a senior in the 1981-82 school year. “Why? It costs money, (high schools) don’t have the facilities or the training and they can’t offer the expertise that I can offer. I have a plyometric trainer, video equipment, two or three coaches and other players I can bring in to go against them. I can train on Sundays or Wednesdays, at 10 o’clock at night, year-round.Sunday's story by the extremely hard-working Rick Weegman has touched off a firestorm of reaction from people who work with or follow high school sports.
“A high school practices from 3:30-5, and maybe if players are lucky, they will have a coach who played in high school. And it costs money. Why would the high schools continue to do it when they can hand it off to clubs like mine?"
And this commentary isn't at all critical of the paper or the reporter. I think the story is presented well, and it's a valid discussion to have as the fall sports season launches for high schools all over the place.
But there's a problem: Adamczak-Glavan comes across as misguided at best, and self-serving at worst.
High schools have the kinds of facilities she talks about in the story, and they have highly-trained and highly-motivated coaches who surely aren't coaching to make money. Proctor football assistant coach Nate Johnson commented on the Minnesota State High School League's Facebook page Sunday, addressing this article.
The people who I coach with and against are constantly going through continuing education courses and clinics, not only for their specific sport(s) but also are constantly trying to learn to be better coaches and examples to our athletes. In some cases we are required to do this, in most we do it on our own time and with our own money. Why do we do this? Because we care deeply about our athletes. We want to be the best for them. We want to provide them the best opportunity to excel that we can. Sometimes the teams we coach win, sometimes they lose. In both cases the high school coach is there to teach life lessons. Not to cash a check from the parents.That last sentence is a bit of a dig at Adamczak-Glavan. Why? Well, according to Club 43's official website, it isn't exactly cheap to send a player to her Hopkins facility. Including a $300 deposit for all ages, fees range from $1,800 or $3,100, depending on how old a player is.
In case you're wondering, the highest participation fee for a high school sports team in Duluth is $500 (hockey at Denfeld and East). No one else pays more than $235. Want to play volleyball at Proctor? It'll cost you $120, and if your family qualifies for free or reduced lunch, it's $95. Hermantown is $130 for all sports except hockey ($180).
I know. This isn't the Twin Cities.
Hopkins, where Club 43 is located, charges a fee of $230 per sport, no matter the sport. And if a child takes part in three or more sports, the fee is halved.
Academies like Adamczak-Glavan's certainly do good work. If they didn't, they wouldn't exist anymore. But the former Moose Lake star has plenty of testimonials on her website, and surely there are plenty of happy customers.
But the prediction of high school sports' demise is misguided, possibly self-serving, and absolutely premature. Until these academies are more affordable for everyone, there's no chance of Adamczak-Glavan's prediction becoming a reality. And even once that happens, it isn't as if high school teams are incapable of cultivating and churning out elite athletes.
For every Jamie Langenbrunner, who left Cloquet High School to play major junior and then ended up having a very good NHL career, there's a guy like Derek Plante, who chose to stay in school, go to college, and also had himself a nice pro career.
High schools produce multi-sport stars, like Matt Niskanen (Virginia/MIB) and Austin Pohlen (Grand Rapids), and they allow numerous kids the chance to play more than one sport while they get their education.
Adamczak-Glavan doesn't seem to think that's the right way anymore, either. She told Weegman her daughter cut herself down from three sports to one -- volleyball -- in the sixth grade. She feels that giving up all but one sport is the way to go now.
I completely disagree with this as well. There's no book on how to treat every kid, but there are plenty of articles to be found on the internet arguing that specialization at a young age is not a good idea.
The biggest reasons for this, I believe, are twofold. For starters, it sets up the risk for burnout. I know plenty of families in this area who spend practically the entire summer trucking kids to hockey tournaments. I've overheard parents talking about their kids playing 50-70 hockey games over the course of the summer.
The summer. That's preposterous.
The other reason? Because it's quite common that such specialization isn't about the kids. It's about the parents living vicariously through the kids, and the promotion of such specialization is more about the dollars involved (i.e. the amount of money a family forks over for a kid to play on a select or AAA hockey team) than it is about making the kids better hockey players.
Bottom line: Minnesota high school sports aren't going anywhere. The club/academy model might be viable in small areas, but it's got a long way to go before it's ever going to overtake what community-driven sports teams can offer.
Wednesday, August 14, 2013
Huskies Extend the Summer
Not that summer ends when the Duluth Huskies are done, but it's nice to see the local baseball season extended.
After all, no one is worried about the Twins or Brewers doing anything this season.
(Let's be nice, though. The Twins just made headlines by setting a Major League Baseball record, scoring 23 straight runs off home runs over six games. Probably a good thing, because the hitters had three hits in 48 at bats with runners in scoring position.)
Anyway, the Huskies have been a good franchise in the Northwoods League since joining in 2003. They haven't always drawn wonderfully well, but we haven't heard a lot of threats -- real or implied -- about the franchise leaving or being dissolved. Couldn't say that about the Duluth-Superior Dukes when they were around, because it never seemed like there was a full season without someone saying the team would be on the move if attendance didn't improve.
Duluth has experienced some success in the league, but the Huskies hadn't made the playoffs since 2007 before this summer. They hadn't played in the league championship series since 2004.
Until this year.
Duluth advanced to the Summer Collegiate World Series with a 2-1 win over Waterloo Tuesday in Waterloo. The Huskies won the series 2-0.
On paper, it appeared to be a bit of a mismatch. Waterloo beat the Huskies by eight games in the standings, and Duluth had to get in based on overall record, because the Bucks won both halves in the North Division. Of course, baseball games aren't played on paper. They're played on the internet.
Wait.
Anyway, the Huskies bucked that trend throughout the season, taking eight of ten meetings from the Bucks. Kept it going when it mattered most, too, and now Duluth has a chance to play for a championship.
Wade Stadium rocks when it's nice out and people are drawn in. The Huskies really had it going down the stretch of the regular season, bringing in some huge crowds that took advantage of good weather to see a hot baseball team.
The Dukes had those nights, too, but when you pay players, the bottom line is a little tougher to deal with. I don't know what the attendance average is for the Huskies to post a profit, but I know it was higher for the Dukes because the players drew salaries, no matter how small. And the Dukes didn't have enough nice crowds to keep things going.
Once other cities started building nice, new stadiums, Duluth was priced out of that league.
The Northwoods League is a perfect fit. Players aren't paid a salary, and travel expenses are kept as small as possible. The Huskies will be just fine in this league, and stretches like the weather we've been seeing should help put more bodies in the seats at the Wade.
GM Craig Smith and field boss Daniel Hersey have done a magnificent job with this club. Sometimes, you look at the batting order and think they're a little short offensively compared to other clubs, but Duluth gets timely hitting from all over the place (they had a comeback win recently where almost all the major damage was done by the bottom of the order), and they pitch as well as anyone in the league.
Hopefully, Hersey gets a chance to give the ball to league Pitcher of the Year Clay Chapman in the title series. If he does, you can bet the Huskies will have a chance to win that game. And the way this team has been pitching, they have a chance against either Lakeshore or Madison.
It's fun to see relevant baseball from someone this deep into the summer, isn't it?
After all, no one is worried about the Twins or Brewers doing anything this season.
(Let's be nice, though. The Twins just made headlines by setting a Major League Baseball record, scoring 23 straight runs off home runs over six games. Probably a good thing, because the hitters had three hits in 48 at bats with runners in scoring position.)
Anyway, the Huskies have been a good franchise in the Northwoods League since joining in 2003. They haven't always drawn wonderfully well, but we haven't heard a lot of threats -- real or implied -- about the franchise leaving or being dissolved. Couldn't say that about the Duluth-Superior Dukes when they were around, because it never seemed like there was a full season without someone saying the team would be on the move if attendance didn't improve.
Duluth has experienced some success in the league, but the Huskies hadn't made the playoffs since 2007 before this summer. They hadn't played in the league championship series since 2004.
Until this year.
Duluth advanced to the Summer Collegiate World Series with a 2-1 win over Waterloo Tuesday in Waterloo. The Huskies won the series 2-0.
On paper, it appeared to be a bit of a mismatch. Waterloo beat the Huskies by eight games in the standings, and Duluth had to get in based on overall record, because the Bucks won both halves in the North Division. Of course, baseball games aren't played on paper. They're played on the internet.
Wait.
Anyway, the Huskies bucked that trend throughout the season, taking eight of ten meetings from the Bucks. Kept it going when it mattered most, too, and now Duluth has a chance to play for a championship.
Wade Stadium rocks when it's nice out and people are drawn in. The Huskies really had it going down the stretch of the regular season, bringing in some huge crowds that took advantage of good weather to see a hot baseball team.
The Dukes had those nights, too, but when you pay players, the bottom line is a little tougher to deal with. I don't know what the attendance average is for the Huskies to post a profit, but I know it was higher for the Dukes because the players drew salaries, no matter how small. And the Dukes didn't have enough nice crowds to keep things going.
Once other cities started building nice, new stadiums, Duluth was priced out of that league.
The Northwoods League is a perfect fit. Players aren't paid a salary, and travel expenses are kept as small as possible. The Huskies will be just fine in this league, and stretches like the weather we've been seeing should help put more bodies in the seats at the Wade.
GM Craig Smith and field boss Daniel Hersey have done a magnificent job with this club. Sometimes, you look at the batting order and think they're a little short offensively compared to other clubs, but Duluth gets timely hitting from all over the place (they had a comeback win recently where almost all the major damage was done by the bottom of the order), and they pitch as well as anyone in the league.
Hopefully, Hersey gets a chance to give the ball to league Pitcher of the Year Clay Chapman in the title series. If he does, you can bet the Huskies will have a chance to win that game. And the way this team has been pitching, they have a chance against either Lakeshore or Madison.
It's fun to see relevant baseball from someone this deep into the summer, isn't it?
Monday, August 12, 2013
Random Rabble: August 12
Those who live around the Duluth area know why I haven't been around much. It hasn't been because I don't enjoy throwing up the occasional blog about nothing significant.
Been exceptionally busy with the real job, but hopefully things are back to normal on this day. It'll allow me to get back into my normal late-summer routine, preparing for the fall and winter sports season.
UMD football is first up. I'm looking forward to getting up to campus next week for Media Day as we start to get a lay of the land. New coach in Curt Wiese, a good dude and a guy I think we in the media will all like from a standpoint of access and information. New quarterback to "replace" Chase Vogler, one of the more understated guys to come through this program in a long time. I never doubted for a second that Isaac Odim was appreciated when he was playing at UMD. I'm not entirely sure Vogler was appreciated as much as he should have been.
For evidence, look at what he did for the offense in the playoff loss to Missouri Western. 379 total yards, including 184 on the ground. Yeah, Austin Sikorski was a beast running that day, but Vogler almost singlehandedly kept UMD in the game, especially when Western was threatening a blowout early.
Sikorski is back, as is Aaron Roth and most of the offensive line. The defense was practically disastrous at times, especially in the St. Cloud and Western losses. That said, John Steger is a hell of a coach, and nearly everyone is back there as well.
If that's not enough local football, a St. Scholastica team that returns a ton of talent is picked to win the UMAC in the preseason league coaches' poll. The Saints started slowly last year as they broke in a new starting quarterback (Tyler Harper) and tried to find an offensive identity. A 7-1 UMAC record put CSS in a three-way tie for first, one that was broken by a blind draw conducted over the internet; and CSS won the draw for the league's automatic bid to the NCAA playoffs.
The Saints have a slew of starters back, including Harper and running backs Jake Jensen and Chris Gassert. However, the receiving corps took a hit, including the graduation of Nick Thiry, and the defensive line lost a lot of talent.
I'm excited to see what Wisconsin does in its first year under Gary Andersen. Longtime blog readers will know that I was never really a fan of Bret Bielema. I just didn't trust him in big games or close games, and his record -- especially last year -- would seem to support my trust issues. Andersen last worked at Utah State, hardly a powerhouse, but he built a winner there after years of mediocre or worse football.
Job No. 1: Find a quarterback. Usually, I'd put my chips in on the guy the new coach recruited, but it doesn't sound like junior college transfer Tanner McEvoy is throwing well early on. He's the best athlete of the bunch, but senior Curt Phillips and sophomore Joel Stave are both probably better options for the passing game, at least in the early going. How quickly the quarterback race comes together will determine Wisconsin's BCS hopes.
Speaking of the B1G, Joe Christensen of the Minneapolis Star Tribune had a must-read feature on Minnesota coach Jerry Kill in Sunday's paper.
When Kill seized at halftime of that game against Michigan State last season -- his fifth documented seizure since taking the UMTC job -- people began to talk about the need for the university to move on. Kill himself says in this article that he understands he can't miss entire halves of games when he's the head coach.
Kill is a good coach, and I've heard very good things about him away from the field, too. There is no reason to do anything here but wish for the best for him and his family. He wants to coach, so hopefully his body allows him to continue doing so.
Been exceptionally busy with the real job, but hopefully things are back to normal on this day. It'll allow me to get back into my normal late-summer routine, preparing for the fall and winter sports season.
UMD football is first up. I'm looking forward to getting up to campus next week for Media Day as we start to get a lay of the land. New coach in Curt Wiese, a good dude and a guy I think we in the media will all like from a standpoint of access and information. New quarterback to "replace" Chase Vogler, one of the more understated guys to come through this program in a long time. I never doubted for a second that Isaac Odim was appreciated when he was playing at UMD. I'm not entirely sure Vogler was appreciated as much as he should have been.
For evidence, look at what he did for the offense in the playoff loss to Missouri Western. 379 total yards, including 184 on the ground. Yeah, Austin Sikorski was a beast running that day, but Vogler almost singlehandedly kept UMD in the game, especially when Western was threatening a blowout early.
Sikorski is back, as is Aaron Roth and most of the offensive line. The defense was practically disastrous at times, especially in the St. Cloud and Western losses. That said, John Steger is a hell of a coach, and nearly everyone is back there as well.
If that's not enough local football, a St. Scholastica team that returns a ton of talent is picked to win the UMAC in the preseason league coaches' poll. The Saints started slowly last year as they broke in a new starting quarterback (Tyler Harper) and tried to find an offensive identity. A 7-1 UMAC record put CSS in a three-way tie for first, one that was broken by a blind draw conducted over the internet; and CSS won the draw for the league's automatic bid to the NCAA playoffs.
The Saints have a slew of starters back, including Harper and running backs Jake Jensen and Chris Gassert. However, the receiving corps took a hit, including the graduation of Nick Thiry, and the defensive line lost a lot of talent.
I'm excited to see what Wisconsin does in its first year under Gary Andersen. Longtime blog readers will know that I was never really a fan of Bret Bielema. I just didn't trust him in big games or close games, and his record -- especially last year -- would seem to support my trust issues. Andersen last worked at Utah State, hardly a powerhouse, but he built a winner there after years of mediocre or worse football.
Job No. 1: Find a quarterback. Usually, I'd put my chips in on the guy the new coach recruited, but it doesn't sound like junior college transfer Tanner McEvoy is throwing well early on. He's the best athlete of the bunch, but senior Curt Phillips and sophomore Joel Stave are both probably better options for the passing game, at least in the early going. How quickly the quarterback race comes together will determine Wisconsin's BCS hopes.
Speaking of the B1G, Joe Christensen of the Minneapolis Star Tribune had a must-read feature on Minnesota coach Jerry Kill in Sunday's paper.
Now, at the dawn of a new season, Kill has come to a pivotal juncture in his eight-year quest to gain control of his seizures. The Gophers need to keep improving, and he needs to prove he can stay healthy.We learn that stress and a lack of sleep can make the body less resistant to these seizures. The point? Kill's chosen profession -- football coach -- practically invites his body to continue to have these problems. It means that everything else he does has to be done almost perfectly. He has to make sure he gets enough rest, relaxes as much as possible, and he can't let his guard down.
Knowing the stakes, he found a new doctor, changed medication plans, honed his diet, exercised and adopted a whole new outlook — embracing the word epilepsy instead of shunning it.
“Believe me, there’s nobody who’s trying to do the right thing more than I am because I love coaching the game of football,” Kill said. “And I want to make sure I never have a situation, ever, during a game again.”
Experts say about 70 percent of the people with epilepsy can become seizure-free with the right medication. Kill insists he’s making progress.
When Kill seized at halftime of that game against Michigan State last season -- his fifth documented seizure since taking the UMTC job -- people began to talk about the need for the university to move on. Kill himself says in this article that he understands he can't miss entire halves of games when he's the head coach.
Kill is a good coach, and I've heard very good things about him away from the field, too. There is no reason to do anything here but wish for the best for him and his family. He wants to coach, so hopefully his body allows him to continue doing so.
Thursday, July 25, 2013
Greg Jennings Showing Sensitive Side
The Star Tribune's Dan Wiederer has a great feature on new Vikings and former Packers wide receiver Greg Jennings in Thursday's editions.
Jennings has taken some veiled shots at the Packers -- most notably quarterback Aaron Rodgers -- since leaving Green Bay. He's talked of his desire to be a true No. 1 receiver, something that wasn't going to happen in Green Bay, where the offense is designed to spread the ball around.
In Thursday's story, the veil is removed. And in doing so, Jennings shows some sensitivity.
It's funny, because people -- including your humble correspondent -- have ribbed Rodgers for his well-known sensitivity. He's not the only elite athlete to do this, but Rodgers seems to feed off even the slightest of slights.
If Rodgers feeds off some of the stuff he admits to, I can only imagine what he can do with Jennings' comments. Let's cue up Wiederer here.
Lots to chew on here. We'll start on top.
First part of his jives with his interview on KFAN with Paul Allen shortly after signing with Minnesota. Jennings talked there about wanting to prove he can be a No. 1 receiver, but he wasn't going to get that chance in Green Bay. Not only do the Packers not really employ a No. 1 receiver, the offense is designed to make everyone look like a No. 1 receiver, at least on occasion.
Then we get a little more interesting.
In this excerpt, Jennings basically calls Rodgers a glory hog. It was the same thing people said about Favre, oddly enough. Favre got all the accolades and attention in Green Bay, too. Actually, if you look around, Tom Brady gets most of the attention in New England, Peyton Manning in Denver, and the same is true for Drew Brees in New Orleans.
Good thing Jennings didn't play for Seattle. He probably would have walked out in November, what with all the love Russell Wilson was getting.
Jennings is a hell of a player, and while this interview is going to tick off some Packers fans (and maybe some Packers, too), Jennings is an honest dude who is going to put everything he has into making his new team -- and Christian Ponder -- better. Unfortunately, part of the price of being honest is something like this, where you show more about yourself than maybe you intended.
People rip and tweak Rodgers for being sensitive. But Rodgers has nothing on Jennings, who comes across in this story as caring way too much about the perception of him as a football player. The fact the quarterback gets a ton of the credit for a team's success is nothing new in the NFL. And Jennings hasn't at all escaped it by signing with the Vikings.
Ponder has a ton of pressure on him this season. I firmly believe that, for Minnesota to return to the playoffs, Ponder has to have a very good and consistent season. Adrian Peterson is the best player in the NFL, but he can't do all of this by himself. Ponder and Jennings are charged with improving Minnesota's biggest offensive weakness: the passing game.
And if that passing game improves, who is going to get the credit?
Ponder.
I wonder how that will make Jennings feel.
Actually, thanks to Wiederer's work, I already have a good idea what the answer is. Of course, we won't find out until Jennings (or Ponder, I guess) leaves the Vikings.
Jennings has taken some veiled shots at the Packers -- most notably quarterback Aaron Rodgers -- since leaving Green Bay. He's talked of his desire to be a true No. 1 receiver, something that wasn't going to happen in Green Bay, where the offense is designed to spread the ball around.
In Thursday's story, the veil is removed. And in doing so, Jennings shows some sensitivity.
It's funny, because people -- including your humble correspondent -- have ribbed Rodgers for his well-known sensitivity. He's not the only elite athlete to do this, but Rodgers seems to feed off even the slightest of slights.
If Rodgers feeds off some of the stuff he admits to, I can only imagine what he can do with Jennings' comments. Let's cue up Wiederer here.
Jennings isn’t sure enough outsiders remember that during Rodgers’ first year as a starter in 2008, he was the quarterback’s top target, catching 80 passes for 1,292 yards with nine TDs. Or that he continued to aid Rodgers’ ascension with more than 2,300 receiving yards and 16 scores over the following two seasons.
“I was kind of that comfort blanket so to speak,” Jennings said. “But this is a quarterback-driven league, so people forget about the guys around the quarterback.”
Jennings wanted his abilities appreciated. So in his final months with the Packers, he started thinking more about what was next.
“Maybe,” he said, “I need to go back to my college days where the quarterback wasn’t just viewed as oh-so-great and still prove that I can be successful.”
If Jennings hadn’t tired of Rodgers specifically, he certainly had his fill of the environment in Green Bay, wondering if the ubiquitous Rodgers lovefest had created a narrative that de-emphasized the strength of the group.
Throughout this offseason, Jennings has subtly jabbed Rodgers, rarely calling him by name and referring to him instead as “12” or “the guy they have now.”
“A lot of times when you have a guy who creates that spotlight for himself and establishes that and takes a lot of that, it becomes so-and-so and the team,” he said. “It should always be the team.”
Asked in a later conversation to clarify those sentiments, Jennings expanded.
“For me, I’m such a team person, I’m going to defer to my teammates,” he said. “I’m going to defer to the team, to the team, to the team. And I think when you reach a point where you’re not deferring any longer, it’s no longer really about the team.”
Jennings paused and looked around.
“Don’t get me wrong, ‘12’ is a great person. But when you hear all positives, all positives, all positives all the time, it’s hard for you to sit down when one of your teammates says ‘Man, come on, you’ve got to hold yourself accountable for this.’ It’s hard for someone to see that now because all they’ve heard is I’m doing it the right way, I’m perfect. In actuality, we all have flaws.”
Lots to chew on here. We'll start on top.
First part of his jives with his interview on KFAN with Paul Allen shortly after signing with Minnesota. Jennings talked there about wanting to prove he can be a No. 1 receiver, but he wasn't going to get that chance in Green Bay. Not only do the Packers not really employ a No. 1 receiver, the offense is designed to make everyone look like a No. 1 receiver, at least on occasion.
Then we get a little more interesting.
In this excerpt, Jennings basically calls Rodgers a glory hog. It was the same thing people said about Favre, oddly enough. Favre got all the accolades and attention in Green Bay, too. Actually, if you look around, Tom Brady gets most of the attention in New England, Peyton Manning in Denver, and the same is true for Drew Brees in New Orleans.
Good thing Jennings didn't play for Seattle. He probably would have walked out in November, what with all the love Russell Wilson was getting.
Jennings is a hell of a player, and while this interview is going to tick off some Packers fans (and maybe some Packers, too), Jennings is an honest dude who is going to put everything he has into making his new team -- and Christian Ponder -- better. Unfortunately, part of the price of being honest is something like this, where you show more about yourself than maybe you intended.
People rip and tweak Rodgers for being sensitive. But Rodgers has nothing on Jennings, who comes across in this story as caring way too much about the perception of him as a football player. The fact the quarterback gets a ton of the credit for a team's success is nothing new in the NFL. And Jennings hasn't at all escaped it by signing with the Vikings.
Ponder has a ton of pressure on him this season. I firmly believe that, for Minnesota to return to the playoffs, Ponder has to have a very good and consistent season. Adrian Peterson is the best player in the NFL, but he can't do all of this by himself. Ponder and Jennings are charged with improving Minnesota's biggest offensive weakness: the passing game.
And if that passing game improves, who is going to get the credit?
Ponder.
I wonder how that will make Jennings feel.
Actually, thanks to Wiederer's work, I already have a good idea what the answer is. Of course, we won't find out until Jennings (or Ponder, I guess) leaves the Vikings.
Tuesday, July 23, 2013
Ryan Braun Suspension Taints Brewers History
In 2008, the Milwaukee Brewers chased down their first playoff berth since 1982.
Over the final week of the season, Brewers fans experienced some real goosebump-type moments.
Three years later, more of the same, this time for the NL Central title.
Nearly five years later, those moments have suddenly taken on a different meaning.
And it isn't good.
The man responsible for many of those moments -- Ryan Braun -- has been officially outed as a cheat and the ultimate fraud.
It's one thing for a pro athlete to take performance-enhancing drugs and lie about it. Unfortunately, guys do that all the time.
But Braun took it to another, nauseating, degree.
It's one thing that Braun lied. Sad fact is that people lie all the time, often about stuff not worth lying about, and more often than that about stuff they'll eventually get caught for lying about. And here's the thing: We all know we're going to get caught, but still lie!
But Braun's lies and deceit are only trumped by the awful statement he followed Monday's suspension announcement with.
Thanks.
When the initial suspension was overturned, Braun had the nerve to call out the man who took his urine sample in October 2011. He went through back channels to impugn this man's character, even going so far as to insinuate that there was some sort of intent behind the chain of custody issue that got Braun out of a 50-game suspension.
None of this gets Major League Baseball out of its responsibility, but this is not the time to attack Bud Selig. I don't disagree with Brew Crew Ball, which closed its piece on the suspension by saying Selig "got the feather" in his cap that he "so desperately wanted." Part of this was clearly a personal vendetta on Selig's part, but I'm not going to sit here and act as if Braun is some sort of victim.
Ryan Braun put himself in this spot. He did so with what has been reported to be a long pattern of PED usage, not just a one-shot deal. He chose to not only lie about what he had done when presented with the evidence, but he chose to throw a drug-test collector guy to the wolves as part of his defense.
No, Dino Laurenzi, Jr., didn't follow procedure to the letter. But that didn't mean Braun had to go out of his way to point fingers and accuse Laurenzi of acting maliciously. Braun did so knowing that Brewers fans were likely to stand by him, and they did just that.
Now, it's the job of Brewers fans to send their own message.
Not going to suggest vandalism or running on the field to attack, or anything dumb like that.
But here's a novel idea to separate Brewers fans from the neanderthals in San Francisco that cheered Barry Bonds throughout: Make Braun earn it.
After all, the fans are the ones who bought the tickets to fill the coffers and allow the team to pay Braun an absurd amount of money. And the fans are the ones who stood, cheering and screaming when Braun hit home run after home run to get the Brewers to the playoffs twice after a more than quarter-century drought. Those moments -- memories for fans of all ages -- are forever tainted by Braun's use of PEDs. The memories might last, but so will the questions.
Would Braun still have been an MVP without drugs? Would CC Sabathia still have been able to hoist the Brewers to the playoffs in 2008 with not even a half-season's worth of starts? Would the Brewers still have beaten Arizona in 2011 without Braun getting hits in half his 18 at-bats over the series?
We'll never know.
He can't change what he did. But he can make himself a better man for having put himself -- and others -- through what his choices have put them through. No one made him ingest PEDs, but he can make sure it doesn't happen again, and he can earn back the trust of those he has let down.
That's true in his clubhouse, and it's true in Section 218, too.
Over the final week of the season, Brewers fans experienced some real goosebump-type moments.
Three years later, more of the same, this time for the NL Central title.
Nearly five years later, those moments have suddenly taken on a different meaning.
And it isn't good.
The man responsible for many of those moments -- Ryan Braun -- has been officially outed as a cheat and the ultimate fraud.
It's one thing for a pro athlete to take performance-enhancing drugs and lie about it. Unfortunately, guys do that all the time.
But Braun took it to another, nauseating, degree.
I spent 23 minutes under the warm Arizona sun two Februaries ago listening to Braun earnestly, arrogantly and pointedly proclaim his innocence, blaming the man who collected his urine for "chain of custody" issues. That's how he beat the rap, on a technicality that he would never admit while professing his innocence.
That day, I listened to him say that upon learning he tested positive for testosterone at "three times higher than any number in the history of drug testing" on Oct. 19, 2011, he said he told the players association: "I promise you on anything that's ever meant anything to me in my life, the morals, the virtues, the values by which I've lived in my 28 years on this planet, I did not do this."
Monday, I watched Braun accept a suspension without pay for the rest of this season, 65 games and about $3.5 million worth, and lamely say, "As I have acknowledged in the past, I am not perfect. I realize now that I have made some mistakes."
Fine time to get religion, isn't it? With his Brewers in last place, 18½ games out? Cutting a deal when he's making a mere $8.5 million this summer, before his salary increases to $10 million next year, $12 million the year after that and then leaps to $19 million in 2016?
What we already suspected, but sadly learned beyond reasonable doubt the minute he signed off on this deal, is that Braun is a phony and a liar. And he is the worst kind of liar: the kind who stares straight into your eyes as he's lying to you.
It's one thing that Braun lied. Sad fact is that people lie all the time, often about stuff not worth lying about, and more often than that about stuff they'll eventually get caught for lying about. And here's the thing: We all know we're going to get caught, but still lie!
But Braun's lies and deceit are only trumped by the awful statement he followed Monday's suspension announcement with.
"As I have acknowledged in the past, I am not perfect," Braun said in a statement. "I realize now that I have made some mistakes. I am willing to accept the consequences of those actions. This situation has taken a toll on me and my entire family, and it has been a distraction to my teammates and the Brewers organization. I am very grateful for the support I have received from players, ownership and the fans in Milwaukee and around the country.
"Finally, I wish to apologize to anyone I may have disappointed -- all of the baseball fans especially those in Milwaukee, the great Brewers organization and my teammates. I am glad to have this matter behind me once and for all, and I cannot wait to get back to the game I love."
Thanks.
When the initial suspension was overturned, Braun had the nerve to call out the man who took his urine sample in October 2011. He went through back channels to impugn this man's character, even going so far as to insinuate that there was some sort of intent behind the chain of custody issue that got Braun out of a 50-game suspension.
None of this gets Major League Baseball out of its responsibility, but this is not the time to attack Bud Selig. I don't disagree with Brew Crew Ball, which closed its piece on the suspension by saying Selig "got the feather" in his cap that he "so desperately wanted." Part of this was clearly a personal vendetta on Selig's part, but I'm not going to sit here and act as if Braun is some sort of victim.
Ryan Braun put himself in this spot. He did so with what has been reported to be a long pattern of PED usage, not just a one-shot deal. He chose to not only lie about what he had done when presented with the evidence, but he chose to throw a drug-test collector guy to the wolves as part of his defense.
No, Dino Laurenzi, Jr., didn't follow procedure to the letter. But that didn't mean Braun had to go out of his way to point fingers and accuse Laurenzi of acting maliciously. Braun did so knowing that Brewers fans were likely to stand by him, and they did just that.
Now, it's the job of Brewers fans to send their own message.
Not going to suggest vandalism or running on the field to attack, or anything dumb like that.
But here's a novel idea to separate Brewers fans from the neanderthals in San Francisco that cheered Barry Bonds throughout: Make Braun earn it.
After all, the fans are the ones who bought the tickets to fill the coffers and allow the team to pay Braun an absurd amount of money. And the fans are the ones who stood, cheering and screaming when Braun hit home run after home run to get the Brewers to the playoffs twice after a more than quarter-century drought. Those moments -- memories for fans of all ages -- are forever tainted by Braun's use of PEDs. The memories might last, but so will the questions.
Would Braun still have been an MVP without drugs? Would CC Sabathia still have been able to hoist the Brewers to the playoffs in 2008 with not even a half-season's worth of starts? Would the Brewers still have beaten Arizona in 2011 without Braun getting hits in half his 18 at-bats over the series?
We'll never know.
He can't change what he did. But he can make himself a better man for having put himself -- and others -- through what his choices have put them through. No one made him ingest PEDs, but he can make sure it doesn't happen again, and he can earn back the trust of those he has let down.
That's true in his clubhouse, and it's true in Section 218, too.
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
Commissioner For A Day: NHL
Let's get back into this vibe.
The NHL doesn't have as many dumb rules as college hockey, but there are some things we can change to improve the sport. As always, I want your thoughts via Twitter or the comments, but here are mine.
Bye bye, puck over glass rule
It has run its course.
This was a well-intentioned if unfortunate change coming out of the 2004-05 lockout. Basically, officials refused to call penalties when the puck was clearly sent out of play on purpose. So the NHL took away the discretion.
But enough is enough. Players are NOT doing it on purpose anymore. And when officials aren't calling the most blatantly obvious fouls late in regulation or in overtime, but won't hesitate to call a penalty for the puck going out of play, it just looks silly.
"Want to slash a guy in the chops? GREAT! Just be careful to keep the puck in play!"
It's no secret I want this rule to die. It's not because I want players to feel free to throw the puck out of play with no repercussions. Instead, it's because I see this play as no different than icing. Yeah, sometimes a player takes an icing to get a whistle. When that happens, you don't see an uproar for said player to be penalized for delay of game, do you? It's the same thing. You're doing something to stop the game. Quite often, it's done on purpose. Why is it handled differently?
In college hockey, icing and pucks out of play from the defensive zone are handled identically. Faceoff in the defensive zone, and that team can't change personnel.
Do that in the NHL, and see what happens. No one is marrying the league to this rule, and it isn't going to hurt to try.
Hybrid icing/mandatory visors
There isn't much reason to list this, now that the rules are coming. But I talked about the visor bit in 2006, and it took this long to make the change. Yikes.
The hybrid icing change should have come before Kurtis Foster got hurt, but it's insulting that it took this long after Foster's catastrophic injury. College hockey has used this rule for a while, and it works much better than I ever thought it would going in.
(In fact, when it was first talked about, I was on record as practically hating the idea. I was totally wrong, and NCAA referees and linesmen should be saluted for the job they've done enforcing it.)
I wish visors were the law for all players, but the compromise is understandable. Many veteran players are already smart enough to use them, and hopefully more follow suit.
Stop suspending to the injury
Part of the maddening inconsistency with the NHL's Department of Player Safety comes from its insistence on over-evaluating injuries before suspending players for illegal hits.
If a hit is 1) clearly illegal, 2) particularly dangerous, or 3) it's either clearly intentional or exceptionally reckless, it shouldn't matter if the "victim" is injured.
An illegal hit is an illegal hit, whether the offending player gets lucky and doesn't injure someone or not. And illegal/dangerous/reckless hits need to be consistently punished if there is to ever be any hope of eliminating them from the game.
Consistent enforcement of the guidelines set forth by DPS should lead to an increased respect for the sport among its participants. Then we can hope that trickles down to the lower levels where checking is still permitted.
And if it doesn't work, well, hell, at least we tried.
No more three-point games, at least not this way
A win is two points, whether in regulation, overtime, or a shootout. A loss that happens after regulation is a point. So if a game goes overtime, it's worth three points. Otherwise, it's worth two.
I don't have to tell you how dumb that is.
The answer is right under the NHL's nose, and if it wasn't the NHL we were talking about, it'd be shocking that the NHL hadn't changed this system.
Here is how you do it:
Regulation win: Three points
Overtime/shootout win: Two points
Overtime/shootout loss: One point
Every game is worth the same number of points. Regulation wins can still be a primary playoff tiebreaker, but using that doesn't excuse having games worth two different point totals depending on where they finish.
The NHL doesn't have as many dumb rules as college hockey, but there are some things we can change to improve the sport. As always, I want your thoughts via Twitter or the comments, but here are mine.
Bye bye, puck over glass rule
It has run its course.
This was a well-intentioned if unfortunate change coming out of the 2004-05 lockout. Basically, officials refused to call penalties when the puck was clearly sent out of play on purpose. So the NHL took away the discretion.
But enough is enough. Players are NOT doing it on purpose anymore. And when officials aren't calling the most blatantly obvious fouls late in regulation or in overtime, but won't hesitate to call a penalty for the puck going out of play, it just looks silly.
"Want to slash a guy in the chops? GREAT! Just be careful to keep the puck in play!"
It's no secret I want this rule to die. It's not because I want players to feel free to throw the puck out of play with no repercussions. Instead, it's because I see this play as no different than icing. Yeah, sometimes a player takes an icing to get a whistle. When that happens, you don't see an uproar for said player to be penalized for delay of game, do you? It's the same thing. You're doing something to stop the game. Quite often, it's done on purpose. Why is it handled differently?
In college hockey, icing and pucks out of play from the defensive zone are handled identically. Faceoff in the defensive zone, and that team can't change personnel.
Do that in the NHL, and see what happens. No one is marrying the league to this rule, and it isn't going to hurt to try.
Hybrid icing/mandatory visors
There isn't much reason to list this, now that the rules are coming. But I talked about the visor bit in 2006, and it took this long to make the change. Yikes.
The hybrid icing change should have come before Kurtis Foster got hurt, but it's insulting that it took this long after Foster's catastrophic injury. College hockey has used this rule for a while, and it works much better than I ever thought it would going in.
(In fact, when it was first talked about, I was on record as practically hating the idea. I was totally wrong, and NCAA referees and linesmen should be saluted for the job they've done enforcing it.)
I wish visors were the law for all players, but the compromise is understandable. Many veteran players are already smart enough to use them, and hopefully more follow suit.
Stop suspending to the injury
Part of the maddening inconsistency with the NHL's Department of Player Safety comes from its insistence on over-evaluating injuries before suspending players for illegal hits.
If a hit is 1) clearly illegal, 2) particularly dangerous, or 3) it's either clearly intentional or exceptionally reckless, it shouldn't matter if the "victim" is injured.
An illegal hit is an illegal hit, whether the offending player gets lucky and doesn't injure someone or not. And illegal/dangerous/reckless hits need to be consistently punished if there is to ever be any hope of eliminating them from the game.
Consistent enforcement of the guidelines set forth by DPS should lead to an increased respect for the sport among its participants. Then we can hope that trickles down to the lower levels where checking is still permitted.
And if it doesn't work, well, hell, at least we tried.
No more three-point games, at least not this way
A win is two points, whether in regulation, overtime, or a shootout. A loss that happens after regulation is a point. So if a game goes overtime, it's worth three points. Otherwise, it's worth two.
I don't have to tell you how dumb that is.
The answer is right under the NHL's nose, and if it wasn't the NHL we were talking about, it'd be shocking that the NHL hadn't changed this system.
Here is how you do it:
Regulation win: Three points
Overtime/shootout win: Two points
Overtime/shootout loss: One point
Every game is worth the same number of points. Regulation wins can still be a primary playoff tiebreaker, but using that doesn't excuse having games worth two different point totals depending on where they finish.
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
Ryan Braun, Others Targeted by Angry Bud Selig
Bud Selig is mad. I mean, he's pissed, man. He's mad as hell, and he's not going to take it anymore.
Selig is tired of his sport being torn down by steroid cheats.
If you don't believe he's mad, look at what he's reportedly about to do.
Yeah, he's going to do that.
(I'm not going to touch the 100-game bit. Hardball Talk already nailed that.)
Listen, I'm not in favor of steroids or steroid users. I think PEDs should be pushed out of sports, but I'm also not stupid. It isn't going to happen.
But let's not hide from what's going on here. Selig wants to catch high-profile PED users in his sport (no, Melky Cabrera doesn't qualify), and his testing system is apparently antiquated to the point where any advanced user is able to beat the system.
In other words, baseball has -- before our very eyes -- turned into cycling, another sport where it seems participants are assumed guilty until proven innocent because no one can believe in the athlete being clean anymore.
It no longer matters if the athlete looks everyone in the eye and denies using anything, and it sure as hell doesn't matter if the athlete passes drug test after drug test. Just ask Lance Armstrong. Or Barry Bonds.
See?
No Brewers fan wants to believe Braun juiced. But the facts make it impossible to believe he didn't juice. Yes, Braun has been betrayed by the system that was supposed to protect him. He's faced endless scrutiny since word leaked that he failed a test and was facing a suspension.
If anything is worse than MLB's handling of the Biogenesis case, it's MLB's inability to keep this stuff secret, despite a policy that clearly calls for confidentiality.
The Biogenesis case is Selig's opportunity to punish people he's been dying to punish. He's wanted to punish Braun and Rodriguez for years, to set an example for players and fans that this stuff isn't going to be tolerated. But he's doing so in this case without either player failing a properly-administered drug test under MLB's policy, a policy Selig helped write and get approved.
Milwaukee scribe Michael Hunt offers this on the situation.
This is well-done by Hunt. It's spot on.
No one wants to take the side of Braun and Rodriguez, especially the latter. Cheaters are the scourge of sports, the guys who make it impossible to truly believe in athletes the way that people used to. But I don't want Braun and Rodriguez suspended because two guys -- Tony Bosch and his partner -- who have virtually zero credibility (they've lied to MLB and other investigators, as well as the media, and now MLB is taking their testimony as gospel to the point that players will be suspended based off it) decided to talk to avoid federal lawsuits. Basically, MLB made a deal with these guys so they could nab the players they want to nab.
This is a personal vendetta by Bud Selig. He doesn't care how he catches players. He wants them caught. CBA and drug policy be damned. By going this route, Selig is unknowingly delegitimizing his own drug policy and testing program.
Braun and Rodriguez (and the others implicated) are hardly innocent here. In fact, they are more than likely guilty of this and probably other drug-type crimes. That's not the point. The point is that MLB crafted rules designed to catch the cheaters. Unable to do so within the auspices of the system, Selig and his cohorts have resorted to means that can't be reasonably justified.
This is a sad time for baseball, for many reasons. He doesn't understand why, but Selig is a huge part of it.
Selig is tired of his sport being torn down by steroid cheats.
If you don't believe he's mad, look at what he's reportedly about to do.
Commissioner Bud Selig's office is expected to suspend (Ryan) Braun and (Alex) Rodriguez, along with as many as 20 players sometime after next week's All-Star break, for their roles in the Biogenesis case, several sources told "Outside the Lines." As OTL reported, MLB started building cases against the players last month after Bosch agreed to cooperate with investigators.
The question is the length of the suspensions.
Sources said the commissioner's office was considering 100-game bans for Braun and Rodriguez, the punishment for a second offense, even though neither player was previously suspended for violating MLB's drug policy.
The argument, one source said, would be that they -- and possibly other players -- committed multiple offenses by receiving performance-enhancing drugs from Bosch and by lying about it.
Yeah, he's going to do that.
(I'm not going to touch the 100-game bit. Hardball Talk already nailed that.)
Listen, I'm not in favor of steroids or steroid users. I think PEDs should be pushed out of sports, but I'm also not stupid. It isn't going to happen.
But let's not hide from what's going on here. Selig wants to catch high-profile PED users in his sport (no, Melky Cabrera doesn't qualify), and his testing system is apparently antiquated to the point where any advanced user is able to beat the system.
In other words, baseball has -- before our very eyes -- turned into cycling, another sport where it seems participants are assumed guilty until proven innocent because no one can believe in the athlete being clean anymore.
It no longer matters if the athlete looks everyone in the eye and denies using anything, and it sure as hell doesn't matter if the athlete passes drug test after drug test. Just ask Lance Armstrong. Or Barry Bonds.
See?
No Brewers fan wants to believe Braun juiced. But the facts make it impossible to believe he didn't juice. Yes, Braun has been betrayed by the system that was supposed to protect him. He's faced endless scrutiny since word leaked that he failed a test and was facing a suspension.
If anything is worse than MLB's handling of the Biogenesis case, it's MLB's inability to keep this stuff secret, despite a policy that clearly calls for confidentiality.
The Biogenesis case is Selig's opportunity to punish people he's been dying to punish. He's wanted to punish Braun and Rodriguez for years, to set an example for players and fans that this stuff isn't going to be tolerated. But he's doing so in this case without either player failing a properly-administered drug test under MLB's policy, a policy Selig helped write and get approved.
Milwaukee scribe Michael Hunt offers this on the situation.
Once you might have asked why Braun would risk his good reputation here by using banned substances. The answer, at least for now, is that he likely stands to lose little locally. If — more likely, when — the 100-game suspension is done, he will return sometime next season as if nothing had happened. Certainly, no one is going to blame him for taking down a season that is already lost.
But beyond the five-county area that finances the house in which he plays, Braun is going to take a nasty hit.
He is somewhat fortunate that the national story will always be led with Alex Rodriguez's name, but the damage will be in the fact his accomplishments from 2011, one of the greatest in franchise history, always will be tainted by the public court Triple Crown of suspicion, disbelief and mistrust.
Baseball is to be applauded for its belated crackdown on cheaters, but this whole slimy Biogenesis affair doesn't exactly have credible sources on either side. Whom to believe? I don't even think that's a legitimate question anymore. Braun has twice been in situations he should have avoided. If he is innocent as he claims of putting banned substances in his body, he certainly is guilty of placing himself in circumstances that project more than a veneer of guilt.
This is well-done by Hunt. It's spot on.
No one wants to take the side of Braun and Rodriguez, especially the latter. Cheaters are the scourge of sports, the guys who make it impossible to truly believe in athletes the way that people used to. But I don't want Braun and Rodriguez suspended because two guys -- Tony Bosch and his partner -- who have virtually zero credibility (they've lied to MLB and other investigators, as well as the media, and now MLB is taking their testimony as gospel to the point that players will be suspended based off it) decided to talk to avoid federal lawsuits. Basically, MLB made a deal with these guys so they could nab the players they want to nab.
This is a personal vendetta by Bud Selig. He doesn't care how he catches players. He wants them caught. CBA and drug policy be damned. By going this route, Selig is unknowingly delegitimizing his own drug policy and testing program.
Braun and Rodriguez (and the others implicated) are hardly innocent here. In fact, they are more than likely guilty of this and probably other drug-type crimes. That's not the point. The point is that MLB crafted rules designed to catch the cheaters. Unable to do so within the auspices of the system, Selig and his cohorts have resorted to means that can't be reasonably justified.
This is a sad time for baseball, for many reasons. He doesn't understand why, but Selig is a huge part of it.
Tuesday, July 09, 2013
The Matt Cooke Conundrum
Listen, fans are going to react to things.
Remember, "fan" is short for "fanatic." Dictionary.com defines "fanatic" as "a person with an extreme and uncritical enthusiasm or zeal."
No reasonable person expects a diehard fan to not react to news that involves said fan's favorite team.
However, a lot of Minnesota Wild fans went far enough over the weekend to embarrass themselves. Over-the-top reactions are part of sports fandom, yes, but you'd expect a little more out of Minnesota hockey fans than a lot of the stuff we saw after the Wild announced the signing of Matt Cooke.
You'd think Cooke had actually gone Happy Gilmore on the bit at some point, taking off his skate and trying to stab someone with it. Actually, it appeared that at least some fans thought that happened at some point.
Yes, Cooke has a history. The Marc Savard hit, which was deemed legal but was sadly far from that, was a stain on the sport. An awful, unnecessary, completely dirty play that reeked of intent to injure. The hit on Ryan McDonagh wasn't necessarily a good one, either, but the Savard hit practically makes the McDonagh hit look clean in comparison.
The suspensions Cooke has received in his career are completely justified. He probably should have gotten more, given what happened with Savard.
But Cooke hasn't been suspended since the McDonagh shot. That means that in the last two years, Pierre-Marc Bouchard has missed more games due to suspension.
No, Bouchard is not a goon. Cooke really isn't anymore, either.
(I'm not even going to address the Erik Karlsson bit. No reason to bother. If any other player on the Penguins roster does what Cooke did on that play, nobody bats an eye. Even Mike Milbury, discussing the incident on NBC Sports Network that night, acknowledged Cooke's history was the only reason the conversation started. It was a hockey play. After 20-plus years of playing hockey, Cooke didn't just up and decide to sever someone's Achilles.)
Even taking the history of Matt Cooke into account, the reaction of Wild fans on Twitter was scathing, and it's still going on. Do a search for his name on Twitter and enjoy some of the dumb things Wild fans have been saying about this move.
Based on that vitriol, I have to think Wild tickets will be readily available this season, because there are a lot of people who don't seem to want to watch a team Matt Cooke plays for.
Perhaps "embarrassing" is a bit over the top as well, but I've always thought of Minnesota people as being smarter than to fall into traps like this.
Cooke hasn't been suspended in so long that he is no longer a repeat offender in the NHL's eyes. He hasn't taken a major penalty for an illegal check in a regular season game since that ill-fated blow to the head of McDonagh in 2011.
He's been nearly a model citizen in the time since as a Penguin. Good in the community, good in the room, and good in his role on the ice.
His start with Minnesota has been rocky because of the overreaction of many fans, but he's done and said all the right things so far. This is from Michael Russo, chronicling an interview with him Monday on KFAN.
Cooke has indeed received that blessing.
It's a class move on his part to even ask. 24 is not a retired number for the Wild. Yes, Boogaard was a legend around these parts, but the Wild were probably never going to retire that number based on what he did while with the team. Typically, cult heroes don't get their jersey numbers in the rafters.
Instead, Cooke -- in a great show of respect to what Boogaard meant to this team -- asked the team first and then Boogaard's family for its blessing before he went ahead with No. 24.
A lesser man would have just taken the number he's always had in his pro career without thinking twice. Cooke understands the history of the franchise he's joining, and he's sensitive to the way Boogaard was lost.
If anything, it probably should diffuse some of the anger toward this signing. Of course, I'm convinced that there is a legion of Minnesota Wild fans not reading anything about Cooke at this point. All they can see is red, and they'll be angry about Cooke until he does something to justify their anger.
I've never hid from the fact that Cooke's agitating and often dirty style of play has worn on me. But I like to watch former UMD players play in the NHL, meaning I've seen plenty of Pittsburgh games the last two seasons (Matt Niskanen). Cooke isn't the same guy, something Yahoo! Sports' Greg Wyshynski made clear with Russo Monday (same link as above):
Couldn't say it better. He signed for less than Cal Clutterbuck -- the man he's basically replacing here -- got from the Islanders after the Nino Niederreiter trade. He's probably a more effective player in this role than Clutterbuck was and is. As long as the talk about Cooke's better path as a hockey player is truly not just talk, this should work out fine for the Wild.
Give it ten games, and Wild fans will warm up to this guy.
Now, Todd Bertuzzi, on the other hand ...
Remember, "fan" is short for "fanatic." Dictionary.com defines "fanatic" as "a person with an extreme and uncritical enthusiasm or zeal."
No reasonable person expects a diehard fan to not react to news that involves said fan's favorite team.
However, a lot of Minnesota Wild fans went far enough over the weekend to embarrass themselves. Over-the-top reactions are part of sports fandom, yes, but you'd expect a little more out of Minnesota hockey fans than a lot of the stuff we saw after the Wild announced the signing of Matt Cooke.
You'd think Cooke had actually gone Happy Gilmore on the bit at some point, taking off his skate and trying to stab someone with it. Actually, it appeared that at least some fans thought that happened at some point.
Yes, Cooke has a history. The Marc Savard hit, which was deemed legal but was sadly far from that, was a stain on the sport. An awful, unnecessary, completely dirty play that reeked of intent to injure. The hit on Ryan McDonagh wasn't necessarily a good one, either, but the Savard hit practically makes the McDonagh hit look clean in comparison.
The suspensions Cooke has received in his career are completely justified. He probably should have gotten more, given what happened with Savard.
But Cooke hasn't been suspended since the McDonagh shot. That means that in the last two years, Pierre-Marc Bouchard has missed more games due to suspension.
No, Bouchard is not a goon. Cooke really isn't anymore, either.
(I'm not even going to address the Erik Karlsson bit. No reason to bother. If any other player on the Penguins roster does what Cooke did on that play, nobody bats an eye. Even Mike Milbury, discussing the incident on NBC Sports Network that night, acknowledged Cooke's history was the only reason the conversation started. It was a hockey play. After 20-plus years of playing hockey, Cooke didn't just up and decide to sever someone's Achilles.)
Even taking the history of Matt Cooke into account, the reaction of Wild fans on Twitter was scathing, and it's still going on. Do a search for his name on Twitter and enjoy some of the dumb things Wild fans have been saying about this move.
Based on that vitriol, I have to think Wild tickets will be readily available this season, because there are a lot of people who don't seem to want to watch a team Matt Cooke plays for.
Perhaps "embarrassing" is a bit over the top as well, but I've always thought of Minnesota people as being smarter than to fall into traps like this.
Cooke hasn't been suspended in so long that he is no longer a repeat offender in the NHL's eyes. He hasn't taken a major penalty for an illegal check in a regular season game since that ill-fated blow to the head of McDonagh in 2011.
He's been nearly a model citizen in the time since as a Penguin. Good in the community, good in the room, and good in his role on the ice.
His start with Minnesota has been rocky because of the overreaction of many fans, but he's done and said all the right things so far. This is from Michael Russo, chronicling an interview with him Monday on KFAN.
In my opinion, the best part of the interview came at the end when I asked about his number, 24. That number holds a special place in the hearts of many Wild fans because it was the number worn by the late Derek Boogaard. It’s also the number Cooke has worn his entire nearly 1,000-game NHL career.
“The team told me they’re OK with me wearing it because Marty [Havlat] wore it after [Boogaard],” Cooke told me. “I don’t really feel comfortable putting it on without his mum and dad’s blessing. I’ve sent emails off to them. I want to let them know that by putting it on I’m absolutely not doing anything disrespectful. It’s been my only number in the NHL, but at the end of the day, I don’t want anyone’s feelings hurt. I don’t want anyone to think that I am being disrespectful and I want to make sure I take care of that before I even entertain the thought of putting it on.”
Cooke has indeed received that blessing.
It's a class move on his part to even ask. 24 is not a retired number for the Wild. Yes, Boogaard was a legend around these parts, but the Wild were probably never going to retire that number based on what he did while with the team. Typically, cult heroes don't get their jersey numbers in the rafters.
Instead, Cooke -- in a great show of respect to what Boogaard meant to this team -- asked the team first and then Boogaard's family for its blessing before he went ahead with No. 24.
A lesser man would have just taken the number he's always had in his pro career without thinking twice. Cooke understands the history of the franchise he's joining, and he's sensitive to the way Boogaard was lost.
If anything, it probably should diffuse some of the anger toward this signing. Of course, I'm convinced that there is a legion of Minnesota Wild fans not reading anything about Cooke at this point. All they can see is red, and they'll be angry about Cooke until he does something to justify their anger.
I've never hid from the fact that Cooke's agitating and often dirty style of play has worn on me. But I like to watch former UMD players play in the NHL, meaning I've seen plenty of Pittsburgh games the last two seasons (Matt Niskanen). Cooke isn't the same guy, something Yahoo! Sports' Greg Wyshynski made clear with Russo Monday (same link as above):
“Some national media and especially NBC and especially Mike Milbury have been living in the past on Matt Cooke. Like Matt Cooke is not that guy. Matt Cooke is no longer the guy who took off [Marc] Savard’s head, who hit McDonagh from behind, who was injurious and nearly played himself out of the National Hockey League because of that play. He had a lot of personal issues that year, he solved them or at least worked through them. Go on NHL.com and see how many major penalties this guy’s taken in the last two years (none). You’ll be stunned because it’s like nothing. He’s not that player anymore. He’s a serviceable guy. Does he play on the edge? Yeah, of course he plays on the edge much like [Cal] Clutterbuck did. But he’s no longer the headhunter, he’s no longer the guy that you don’t think should be in the National Hockey League because he can’t behave himself. He’s a good contributor to a team. In the last two seasons under this Brendan Shanahan Department of Player Safety stuff, I think he’s earned the right to at least get a chance without being crucified by fans and media in Minnesota without having seen him play all that much with Pittsburgh in the last two years.”
Couldn't say it better. He signed for less than Cal Clutterbuck -- the man he's basically replacing here -- got from the Islanders after the Nino Niederreiter trade. He's probably a more effective player in this role than Clutterbuck was and is. As long as the talk about Cooke's better path as a hockey player is truly not just talk, this should work out fine for the Wild.
Give it ten games, and Wild fans will warm up to this guy.
Now, Todd Bertuzzi, on the other hand ...
Damn, Carlos Gomez
That's all I've got on this one. Wow.
The Carlos Gomez Breakout Campaign is easily the highlight of a generally miserable season in Milwaukee.
Bill Smith: The Gift That Keeps On Giving.
The Carlos Gomez Breakout Campaign is easily the highlight of a generally miserable season in Milwaukee.
Bill Smith: The Gift That Keeps On Giving.
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