The Evils of College Sports

College sports are wonderful. The competition level is usually a bit more level, there is often more emotional investment, and there is constant upheavel leading to new hope each year. Personally, college sports may trump many professional leagues in my mind.

However, there are serious problems. Yes, obviously there a lot of troubles involving the BCS system and various other things, but that isn't what I'm here to talk about. Instead, the biggest problems I see here are the moral issues.

Recently I read about Jeremiah Masoli's newfound school, the University of Mississippi. After being kicked out of the University of Oregon for various legal transgressions, Masoli has now found himself a new school of a similar stature. This is, of course, with absolutely no punishment to Masoli.

This is ridiculous. The NCAA is relatively effective at cracking down on schools, though it almost always takes far too long. One can easily see that schools like USC and Cincinnati should have been punished much earlier, but thorough investigations take time. What is totally unforgiveable is that individuals are never punished. John Calipari frequently switches schools and immediately begins cheating again. Kelvim Sampson has continually found jobs. Players like Masoli simply transfer to slightly lower level schools.

Obviously, it makes some sense that the NCAA can only punish the school. After all, it is Memphis' fault that they hired a coach with a history of violations. Yet the school did nothing wrong beyond a poor hiring. Why allow such coaches to continue to laugh at the rules? Schools will always hire whoever gives them the best chance of winning and recruit the best players, regardless of whether or not they are morally or ethically straight.

The NCAA needs to do something to focus on the individual transgressor. If they do not, we may never see the end of such ridiculous criminals and douche bags running the college sports landscape and, in a world supposedly devoted to higher education and the betterment of youth, is that really acceptable?

Stephen Colbert on Brett Favre

If you are as annoyed as I am about having ot put up wit hteh whole Brett Favre thing every offseason watch this: Stephen Colbert on Brett Favre

My Triumphant Return

As some of you, mostly Kevin, may have noticed, I have not been able to post anything for quite some time. I apologize for this, but working at a summer camp does this to my schedule. Luckily, I should be able to get back into my old groove now, so keep your head up.

Something occured to me a little while ago about this season in baseball, and I thought it was an interesting point. For all the talk about the Mariners building around pitching and defense, it has obviously failed this year. Luckily, the team still has a strong foundation for the future, but many have questioned whether their strategy will work.

Obviously, the answer is yes. Pitching and defense is an excellent and, if done correctly, cheap way to build a team. Many may question this, but simply look at the best team in the National League for evidence: the San Diego Padres.

The Padres play in the most extreme pitcher's park in baseball, and even the simplest baseball fan can tell you that they can't hit well. Chase Headley is second on the team in RBI and hasn't cracked 50 yet. The team starts corner outfielders who can't consistently break .250 with no power. Yet they are within a couple wins of being the best team in all of baseball.

Why is this? Obviously, the pitching. Kevin Correia is the only pitcher with an ERA over four. Just think about that for a second. Five different pitchers all have ERAs under two. This is a team that knows exactly what it takes to pitch successfully, doesn't waste money chasing veterans, and has a clearly defined role for each and every player. Every single bullpen man finds success because they know what they need to do and do it using one or two out pitches.

A couple years back, I heard a lot of questioning whether or not Bud Black, being a pitching coach, could really put together a successful team. My idea at the time was that if a hitting coach can learn how to utilize pitchers, why can't a pitching coach learn how to use hitters? I've always seen pitching as the most important part of baseball as well. If one batter fails, then the rest of the lineup can pick up the slack. However, if your pitcher fails, the whole game is lost (see Snell, Ian; every single start this year).

Simply put, the Padres are what the Mariners were supposed to be this year. All that hype was simply placed on the wrong team. Now let's see just how far the Padres can go with it.

My Opinion on the Wakamatsu Firing

As some of you may have heard the Seattle Mariners fired their field manager Don Wakamatsu on Monday (See blog post below). The dismissal came during a season where the club is a pace to lose 100 games. Although it is not uncommon for baseball teams to fire their managers during such terrible season, this event came as a big surprise to many in the Seattle sports community. Wak was only in his second year with the team, the Mariners had finished 85-77 in 2009 and much of the problem with the current team fell squarely on the shoulders of the players. It seemed to some that Wak deserved another chance to prove himself next season. Obviously, general manager Jack Zduriencik saw things differently.

Wak had been making bad managerial decision all year in Seattle. He insisted on batting Jose Lopez fourth despite the fact he couldn't hit for average or power. He continually used Sean White in high leverage situations. He chose not to pinch hit in situation that made since and chose to in those that didn't. During his first season many of these same mistakes happened but they were masked by the winning record. Decisions like these are the manager's biggest impact on a game.

On top of the bad decisions year, Wak's team was constantly making fundamental mistakes. The most obvious example being the base running. The Mariners constantly ran themselves out of scoring opportunities this season. Plunder followed plunder. Teaching and enforcing fundamentals is the coaching staff's main job. Being the head coach it was Wakamatsu's responsibility to make sure the coaching staff was doing their job. It was also his job to hold the players accountable. Based on the frequency of the miscues I would say he was failing here also.

All and all Don Wakamatsu was doing a very poor job as the field manager for the Seattle Mariners in 2010. I was not surprised to hear that Wak had been fired. What did surprised me was that the Mariners had fired the coach in the middle of the season. I had assumed the Mariners brass would wait until the year was officially finished not just figuratively. If the Mariners stood any kind of chance at competing next season it would have made more sense. With his current skill level he wasnt the best possible choice for a team looking to contend. However, the Mariners dont really have a chance next year. They should have let Wak finish out this season. Then evaluate him again in the offseason. There was no reason to rush the firing. The Seattle Mariners front office handled Don Wakamatsu's firing poorly.

Don Wakamatsu was Wrong

On Monday August 9th Don Wakamatsu realized that he had been wrong about the picture Rob Johnson had when Jack Z called to inform him he had been fired. As it turned out the man in the picture was Don and the other figures were bench coach Ty Van Burkleo, pitching coach Rick Adair and performance coach Steve Hecht. Some how Rob Johnson had managed to snap some pictures of the four of their intimate weekend together in Leavenworth. Upon learning he had been demoted Rob sent a copy of the picture priority mail to GM Jack Z, which all but sealed Wakamatsu's fate.

That or the Mariner's front office got sick of watching a terrible baseball team play with even worse fundamentals. Constant base running errors, poor lineup construction, and confusing pitcher usage wears on anyone.

Rob Johnson Can Hurt the Mariners No More

On August 3rd 2010 Field Manager Don Wakamatsu gains access to the dirty pictures Rob Johnson has been threatening him with for the last two seasons. He learns the man in the picture isn't him. Upon making this realization Don immediately calls Jack Z and tells him that it is finally ok to sent Rob back to AAA where he belongs. Wasting no time Jack makes the move and sends Rob "Passed Ball" Johnson down to Tacoma and recalls Adam Moore. Mariners pitchers everywhere shed a tear as their favorite lollie pop distributor is gone.

At least I assume this is what went down.

Revisit of Everyone Favorite Soccer Team

When we last talked about the North Korean National Soccer team they had just been outed for hiring Chinese nationals as fans for the Brazil vs North Korea game. If you forget the story here is a quick recap. North Korea hired Chinese nationals to cheer for the North Korean National Soccer Team during the Brazil vs North Korea game. They actually did pretty good in that game. The National Team only lost 2-1.

Well after losing 7-0 to Portugal and 3-0 to Cote d'Ivoire, your favorite communist dictatorship's national soccer team is making headlines again. This time the North Korean's are in the news for the public shaming they gave their players when they returned home. Basically Dear Leader was so ashamed of the way his boys performed that he forced them to endure a 6 hour public shaming. I assume similar to something like a thorough tongue lashing on ESPN First Take, 3 days in a row.

Sources: Telegraph.co.uk