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(12/10/03 5:42am)
This is the last column of mine to appear in the IDS. Beginning in January 2002 and including summers, I have written a weekly column for the bigger part for almost two years.\nIt's time for someone else to have a turn.\nIn case you haven't been here for all of them or in case you decided to read something more scintillating, like an astrophysics textbook or the side of a cereal box, here is a brief summation of my columns.\nDick Vitale should not be allowed to broadcast Duke games because of a conflict of interest with the V Foundation and fellow board member Mike Krzyzewski.\nOf all the things wrong with college football, the Bowl Championship Series is somewhere around No. 322 on the list. The lack of minority coaches is closer to No. 1.\nThis week, someday, somewhere, a boxer will die due to injuries suffered in the ring. If you look hard enough, you will find somebody.\nDusty Baker likes baseball players that will share their Geritol.\nIn case a sports columnist wants to start a controversy, write something about Michael Jordan.\nWe'll never see anything like the Williams sisters again.\nGertrude Ederle, who died Nov. 30 at age 98, not only became the first woman to swim the English Channel, but did so in record time for any gender and pretty much sacrificed her hearing in order to accomplish it.\nSomebody will get upset when a player scores a touchdown and then celebrates the fact.\nSomebody from the older generation will take a cheap shot at the athletes of today's manhood, especially when a famous athlete of their generation dies. (See Warren Spahn.)\nOccasionally, I see the puck.\nScandal will always be more prevalent in college basketball than college football because in college basketball, one player is more likely to single-handedly make a difference in a game.\nLeBron James is good. Duh.\nThe NFL is a quarterback's game. Any team with a quarterback controversy probably isn't going anywhere.\nTrent Green? Who knew?\nDefense doesn't win championships. Offense and defense win championships. One-dimensional teams don't win championships.\nNothing changes the momentum in a baseball game, especially an important one, than a great defensive play.\nWe'll never see anything like Tiger Woods again.\nWe'll never see anything like Tiger Woods' fiancee again.\nSoccer will always be more popular on college campuses than in the Joe Six-pack suburbs.\nThe Indy Racing League will not be interesting unless Chevrolet starts designing competitive engines.\nMen's tennis is way more interesting, competitive and exciting than women's tennis, which only starts to get interesting until about the semifinals of any major tournament.\nLSU women's basketball coach Sue Gunter criticized her team's play as "lethargic" after a 2002 win over Alabama State. Despite being "lethargic," LSU won 65-19. But remember, they were lethargic.\nIf one team beats another 77-0 in college football -- as Oklahoma did to Texas A&M on Nov. 8 -- or if one teams beats another 115-2 in a girls high school basketball game -- as Walkerville beat Hart Lakeshore Academy in Michigan in 2002 -- that usually reflects just as much, if not more, on the team that loses, not the team that wins.\nBaseball is still the best game because there is no salary cap. Teams fight with one another for the best players. It's good for competition and doesn't lead to nightmarish, NFL-style parity where two-thirds of the league will finish somewhere between 7-9 and 9-7.\nThere is far more big-market, small-market disparity in the NBA than in baseball.\nChris Berman isn't funny.\nWhile patriotism has boomed since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, jingoistic pride in many of our national sports teams has gone down. A typical example is the general indifference to Team USA's embarrassing sixth-place finish at the 2002 FIBA World Championships of Basketball, which couldn't draw flies to Conseco Fieldhouse.\nTony LaRussa is a bigger bully than Bill Parcells.\nWe'll never see another Alex Rodriguez.\nWhen MLB commissioner Bud Selig credits the new labor agreement with the Kansas City Royals' success instead of Tony Pena's managing, the emergence of their farm system or shrewd front office decisions, he ruins any of the goodwill for the supposedly positive changes he's made toward the game.\nFor me to make as much money writing columns as Sports Illustrated's Rick Reilly does in a year writing his brutally bad columns, I would have to write one column a week for 2,163 years. Life ain't fair.\nThe guess here is that the Chargers will move to Los Angeles and the Colts will stay.\nIn hell, "Pardon the Interruption" is on 24 hours a day.
(12/04/03 5:20am)
Enlightenment takes a long time to occur in the Deep (Dark) South. But now they have it.\nWhen Mississippi State University hired Sylvester Croom to be their football coach Tuesday, he became the first African-American football coach in Southeastern Conference history.\nRacial diversity in coaching, especially football coaching, shouldn't be a 21st century concept, but this is one of the all-time better-late-than-never hirings.\nLooking at Croom's qualifications, after all, and one doesn't see a guy in the right place for a bit of tokenism. Rather, he's worked as a NFL assistant coach for 16 years, and that followed 10 years as an assistant at Alabama, his alma mater. \nCurrently, Croom is the running backs' coach for the Green Bay Packers, where over the past four years he has not only overseen Ahman Green's development into one of the league's top backs (1,383 yards rushing, 10 touchdowns) but also groomed Najeh Davenport and Tony Fisher into the league's top backups. Their phenomenal yards-per-carry averages speak for themselves: Green, 5.3, Davenport, 6.1 and Fisher, 5.4.\nCroom even survived the 1991 Indianapolis Colts as an assistant, a memorable squad that went 1-15 and scored in double figures only five times all season.\nWhile we can look back, Croom can't afford to. Hired just five days after Mississippi State played their last game under Jackie Sherrill, Croom's job now is to recruit, recruit and recruit some more to a school that embarrassed itself thoroughly in 2003. Not only did Mississippi State go 2-10, but they lost their last six games by scores of -- and I mention this because I know IU folks can empathize -- 45-13, 42-17, 38-0, 59-21, 52-6 and 31-0.\nThe 38-0 defeat was to Alabama, and if that score would suggest that Mississippi State had trouble getting motivated for the game, they don't have to worry about that when they play next year. Croom played at Alabama for legendary coach Paul "Bear" Bryant and was an assistant to Bryant and his successor Ray Perkins from 1977-1986. \nFurthermore, Croom was a finalist for the Alabama job that ultimately went to Mike Shula after Mike Price was fired for personal indiscretions made at a Pensacola, Fla., golf pro-am and topless bar in May. Shula, who like Croom had no head coaching experience, followed up with a poor 4-9 season in which he regularly seemed outcoached.\nAlabama lost to archrival Auburn, enough in itself to make it a bad season according to the sociology of the Iron Bowl rivalry, and also lost to Northern Illinois at home and to Hawaii.\nMany thought Shula got the job over Croom in the first place because Rev. Jesse Jackson had stepped in on Croom's behalf and campaigned for him, arguing what everybody already knew: It was about time an SEC school hired an African-American football coach. Unfortunately, when university administrators got wind of Jackson's actions, the school seemingly balked. University president Robert Witt, new to Alabama after nearly eight years at the University of Texas at Arlington, felt like he would have been making a poor first impression if he gave in to Jackson, hardly a popular figure in the South.\nCroom didn't have to wait much longer though.\nHis next challenges, though, will be ingratiating himself with the Mississippi State community. He's still one of only five African-American coaches in Division I college football, and generally speaking, African-American coaches have not tended to take over winning programs operating at a peak and they have not tended to have very patient employers. Oklahoma fired John Blake after only three years, a very short time given the disaster that was Howard Schnellenberger's one-year tenure. \nIf college football programs were supermarkets, OU's would not have been a cleanup on aisle 10; it would have been a rebuilding the supermarket after an 8.5 earthquake.\nAnd by many accounts, Blake was beginning to succeed. He brought in much better athletes. Oklahoma's 2000 national championship was done with many players recruited by Blake. \nLooking at the other African-American coaches, with the exception of Tyrone Willingham at Notre Dame, one would imagine more optimism at a graveyard. Dr. Fitz Hill at San Jose State is coaching a school practically clinging to Division I status. Karl Dorrell at UCLA has a long uphill job trying to keep pace with crosstown rival USC.\nOf course, Mississippi State is hardly a plum job. Most schools in the SEC have better traditions. Most schools have more attractive campuses. Many have better academic programs. And, if anything, Mississippi State is better known as a basketball school.\nIn the Deep South, though, coaches have to start somewhere.
(12/02/03 5:56am)
Watch "The Jerry Springer Show" sometime, and you can see some low-class losers brawl. Watch the Yankees and the Red Sox fight over available players, and you can see the exact opposite: what it's like to see upper-class superpowers tussle.\nI will very much look forward to watching the Red Sox and Yankees play in 2004. I'm more ambivalent about "Springer."\nThe latest hot-stove salvos in the rivalry occurred last weekend when the Red Sox acquired five-time All-Star pitcher Curt Schilling in a trade with the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Yankees signed seven-time All-Star free agent outfielder Gary Sheffield away from the Atlanta Braves. Schilling, 37, got a two-year, $25.5 million contract extension from the Red Sox as a condition to the deal. Sheffield, 35, will get $36-$38 million over three years from the Yankees to play right field.\nSure, in ways, the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry is fraudulent. For one thing, if one team or the other decided not to spend the gross national product of Honduras on their team payroll, it would be a lot more lopsided. For another, how could there be a rivalry if one team has won 26 world championships and the other none since 1918?\nBut it isn't lopsided. And the rivalry has gotten so good it doesn't need the East Coast hype machine that supports it. \nThe Yankees-Red Sox rivalry is a prime argument why things like salary caps and luxury taxes are awful and pointless. Of course, it took two teams that couldn't care less about baseball's luxury tax system agreed to during the August 2002 collective bargaining agreement negotiations to show that it's pointless.\nNow, every move seems like an attempt to counter the other with both teams appearing headed for 100-win seasons. It's amazing how actual competition makes teams better. What a concept.\nWho is going to have the bigger impact? I will always take the hitter over the starting pitcher because the hitter plays every day, and the starting pitcher plays only once every five days. \nHaving said that, those put off by Schilling's 8-9 record for Arizona in 2003 need to look more closely. Schilling was fifth in the league in earned-run average at 2.95, and he was fifth in the league in strikeouts with 194 even though he was limited to 168 innings due to injury. Couple him with Pedro Martinez, still second in the American League in strikeouts and first in ERA, and the Red Sox have two guys who average more than four strikeouts per walk allowed -- with Schilling, it's actually closer to six to one. That is a top two that will not beat itself and be capable of dominating an opponent on any given day.\nThe No. 3 starter on the Red Sox is Derek Lowe, who is only 38-15 over the last two seasons. That is much better than hoping that Tim Wakefield's knuckleball is floating in all the right places, or that John Burkett's bone chips are floating in all the right places.\nIf Schilling's oft-overpowering high fastball is faster than a speeding bullet, then Sheffield is the guy who can catch it with his teeth. The rules of the game say that Sheffield must use a bat, and he does well with that too, hitting .330 with 39 homers and 132 RBIs in 2003 with the Braves. He will hit his 400th homer with the Yankees after stealing his 200th base last year in Atlanta. He also has a keen batting eye.\nPlay word association with Sheffield though, and the two words that come to mind are "bat speed." He even showed in the playoffs that he can hit Kerry Wood's breakneck high fastball for a base hit. Raising the bat high above his head and snapping it back and forth, he's fearsome because he's fearless.\nPut him in a lineup with Derek Jeter, Jason Giambi, Bernie Williams, Hideki Matsui, Alfonso Soriano, Nick Johnson and Jorge Posada, the guy who would have gotten my Most Valuable Player vote, and a great lineup just got scarier and perhaps more importantly, Josh Beckett-proof.\nThe Yankees' history of success and the Red Sox' history of heartbreak only add to the rivalry. The Red Sox only want it more badly. The Yankees, or should I say, George Steinbrenner, realize that they never want to build the team that loses to the Red Sox. It hasn't been that way with the Cubs-Cardinals rivalry, for instance, because the Cubs never seemed bothered by it and because the teams' fans really don't hate each other.\nWith Yankees-Red Sox, the competition has become oddly pure. Springer wouldn't understand.
(11/19/03 6:17am)
Temple men's basketball coach John Chaney has long been overrated.\nIf his matchup zone defense was so impenetrable, how come nobody else employs it? If it is so good, how come none of Chaney's assistants have gotten head coaching jobs at other major Division I schools to teach the matchup zone to their teams?\nIf it is so good, how come it always seems to allow open three-pointers at the most inopportune times in big games? If it is so good, how come Chaney has never coached in a Final Four?\nPlus, Chaney's offensive system is prehistoric. He's so afraid of turnovers that he basically just lets his perimeter guys dribble around and then make a one-on-one move. His offensive philosophy seems to be, "The fewer passes, the less likely it is that there will be a turnover."\nFortunately for him, he's had terrific players to make it work for him. Mark Macon, whom he just hired as one of his assistants, jacked up 30 shots a game. Eddie Jones is an excellent NBA shooting guard. Aaron McKie has had a solid NBA career. Rick Brunson is still hanging on in the league.\nChaney, though, does deserve compliments in one area: his moral stand on the Villanova phone card controversy.\nThe story begins in March toward the end of last season. Villanova suspended 12 players, including top scorers Gary Buchanan and Ricky Wright, after the players obtained an athletic department employee's phone access card and made unauthorized long-distance phone calls. (Can you think of any other schools that have had this problem in recent weeks? I bet you can.)\nSuspensions become mandatory after the phone charges exceed $100, and in this case, they did. The school staggered the suspensions, which ranged from three to eight games, to allow coach Jay Wright to field a squad so they wouldn't have to forfeit.\nThe suspensions bled over into this season for those who didn't graduate or otherwise leave school. So somebody, be it Wright or Athletic Director Vince Nicastro, decided that with Villanova scheduled to play in the Maui Invitational, they should play a patsy prior to Maui. Not only would this game help prepare Villanova for Maui, but they would also help work off the suspensions and allow certain players to be eligible for Maui.\nSo they actually will play the University of the Redlands (who?), a Division III team located in Southern California, on the road Saturday. This is where Chaney stepped in.\nVillanova also had scheduled another game against Claremont College, another Division III opponent in California on the way to Maui. Chaney felt that Villanova had backed out of its game against Temple to schedule Claremont. Considering that Temple is a traditional rival of Villanova's as part of the Philadelphia college hoops rivalry known as the Big Five -- the other schools are Pennsylvania, St. Joseph's and LaSalle -- Chaney was appalled.\nFurthermore, rumors had abounded for years that Villanova was elusive as to scheduling Big Five games.\nTo make a long story short, Villanova will play Temple at Temple's Liacouras Center. The game will begin at 12:01 a.m. Friday, literally the very first minute a college basketball team can play its first games. (Tournaments like the Preseason National Invitation Tournament and Guardians Classic are exempt.) Then, Villanova will fly to Los Angeles to play the University of the Redlands Saturday afternoon.\nChaney rightly said that Villanova was being deceptive to schedule the Division III games before informing Temple that it was backing out of playing them. That it would have denied Temple's athletic department and fans a home gate for what figured to be a very popular game added to the anger. \n"In all my years, I make all kinds of concessions for teams,'' Chaney told espn.com. "We need home games in our facility. I've done too many things for people and I wasn't going to deal with it anymore. I want our students to benefit from the games in our city.''\nChaney is not known as a night owl, or should I say Owl. He regularly holds early-morning practices, usually beginning at 5:30 a.m. It's his way of instilling discipline. But in his mind, if this is what he had to do, then he was going to do it.\nImagine Tubby Smith backing out of the IU game at the RCA Dome so he can play Centre College after Gerald Fitch got caught in some wrongdoing. How would IU fans feel?\nSo Chaney's stand is completely defensible. Just like his offense.
(11/14/03 4:40pm)
The moral of the story about the tortoise and the hare is that slow and steady wins the race. Last weekend, Vijay Singh and Matt Kenseth proved to be their respective sports' head tortoises.\nSingh wrapped up the PGA Tour Money List title by finishing tied for fifth at the Tour Championship. He became the first player other than Tiger Woods to win the money title since 1998. Furthermore, he helped his chances to win the PGA Tour Player of the Year Award, which is voted on by his fellow players. Making 26 of 27 cuts this year, Singh earned $7,573,907.\nKenseth, meanwhile, clinched the NASCAR Winston Cup points title -- maybe the saying should be fast and steady wins the race -- with his third place finish at the Pop Secret Microwave Popcorn 400 at North Carolina Speedway in Rockingham. (Sheesh, you wonder if NASCAR might get a corporate tie-in one of these days.) The points title was the first of his career.\nBoth Singh and Kenseth are late bloomers. Singh, 40, has been a pro since 1982. Kenseth, 31, didn't get a Winston Cup ride until 1999. Prior to driving on the Busch series in 1998, Kenseth thought he might be headed back to the regional circuits.\nBoth come from places not considered likely to produce top notch athletes in their sport. Singh comes from Fiji, an island nation with less than a handful of golf courses. Kenseth comes from Cambridge, Wis., a town of 1,100 nowhere-close-to-the-good-ol'-boy epicenter of stock car racing.\nThe most noteworthy comparison, though, has to do with their keen desire to compete. Kenseth won only one race, becoming the first driver since Benny Parsons in 1973 to win the points title despite winning only once. (Nobody has ever won the points title despite going winless.) Singh never claimed dominance over Tiger Woods -- Tiger won more money per tournament competed -- but won four times and hung in there in dozens of others.\nKenseth started slowly, finishing 20th in the Daytona 500. After that, he was on the lead lap often, finishing third, first, fourth, eighth, second, sixth and ninth in his next seven races respectively. He took a lead he wouldn't relinquish.\n Singh made 26 of 27 cuts this year. He missed a paycheck only at The Players Championship, perhaps the most prestigious non-major, but he came back two weeks later to finish tied for sixth at The Masters. In fact, he didn't win any major and finished in the top 15 in only The Masters and the British Open, where he tied for second behind Ben Curtis.\nHe had the strongest finish among everybody on the PGA Tour. He finished in the top six in each of his last eight tournaments, including wins at the John Deere Classic and the Funai Classic at the Walt Disney World Resort. At the season-ending Tour Championship, Singh finished tied for fifth while Woods finished 26th out of 31 competitors. \nBoth also have their critics. Kenseth's critics believe that his points title de-emphasizes winning. Given that Ryan Newman won eight races while Kenseth won just one, shouldn't Newman get more credit? However, Newman finished 38th or worse four weeks in a row at one point also.\nDespite the disparity in victories, Kenseth still has had the more impressive year. What must be considered is how demanding the races are from week to week and the different conditions Kenseth has had to race under in to be competitive every week. It's a real credit to him and his crew to make sure Kenseth has a competitive car for both the restrictor-plate races at the superspeedways like Daytona and Talladega and the tight ovals like Bristol.\nThe criticism of Singh is more personal. While participating on the Asian Tour at the 1985 Indonesian Open, tournament officials disqualified Singh for cheating. He reportedly altered his scorecard by one stroke to the better in order to make the cut. The Asian Tour eventually indefinitely suspended him.\nWhile taking a mulligan or three while playing with your friends at the IU Golf Course is one thing, cheating in a professional event is another. According to Links Magazine, Singh has never fully explained what happened. Rather, he has taken his anger out on the media, many of whom have found him to be surly.\nSingh also angered many by saying that he would rather withdraw than play with Annika Sorenstam at the Colonial back in May and that he hoped Sorenstam missed the cut. His comments were too personal for many.\nBut like Kenseth, he was about focus, putting everything aside and saving his best for both the beginning and end of the year.
(11/13/03 5:00am)
A growing trend in musical anthologies is that bands and artists are splitting the difference between the usual greatest hits and box set arcana as the following sets prove.\nRobert Plant's solo career has been more fruitful than one might think due to his varied influences, which he incorporates often seemlessly. His blues, wild '50s rock, old folk and psychedelia show up on Sixty Six to Timbuktu, including his pre-Led Zeppelin solo career on the second disc.\nWhile Plant left Zeppelin because his drummer died, Peter Gabriel left his famous band, Genesis, because his drummer suffered an artistic death. Gabriel never missed Phil Collins. Rather, he kept making quirky art-rock with a devotion to Afrobeat that transferred well to singles. The second disc on Hit, entitled Miss, focuses on the quirkiness. \nGuided by Voices worshipped Gabriel's old Genesis among others. Their hits album comes as a relief, if only that it allows us to keep up with their insane profligacy and drunken no-fi carelessness.\nBilly Bragg never achieved the fame because of his leftist politics and nasally British accent. We like our British cats cool, after all. However, on the two-disc Must I Paint You a Picture? -- it's readily available with a third bonus disc of weirdness, he comes across as romantic as he is civic.
(11/12/03 11:14pm)
A growing trend in musical anthologies is that bands and artists are splitting the difference between the usual greatest hits and box set arcana as the following sets prove.\nRobert Plant's solo career has been more fruitful than one might think due to his varied influences, which he incorporates often seemlessly. His blues, wild '50s rock, old folk and psychedelia show up on Sixty Six to Timbuktu, including his pre-Led Zeppelin solo career on the second disc.\nWhile Plant left Zeppelin because his drummer died, Peter Gabriel left his famous band, Genesis, because his drummer suffered an artistic death. Gabriel never missed Phil Collins. Rather, he kept making quirky art-rock with a devotion to Afrobeat that transferred well to singles. The second disc on Hit, entitled Miss, focuses on the quirkiness. \nGuided by Voices worshipped Gabriel's old Genesis among others. Their hits album comes as a relief, if only that it allows us to keep up with their insane profligacy and drunken no-fi carelessness.\nBilly Bragg never achieved the fame because of his leftist politics and nasally British accent. We like our British cats cool, after all. However, on the two-disc Must I Paint You a Picture? -- it's readily available with a third bonus disc of weirdness, he comes across as romantic as he is civic.
(11/11/03 6:05am)
Doug Plank, the former strong safety for the Chicago Bears, once said, "Most football teams are temperamental. That's 90 percent temper and 10 percent mental."\nSo it was laugh-worthy last week when a San Diego Chargers defensive end claimed he thought Doug Flutie, 41, should be the Chargers' starting quarterback instead of Drew Brees. If the Chargers are seriously debating whether Flutie should start at quarterback, then they are going nowhere fast.\nSure, Flutie played extremely well, going 21 for 29 for 248 yards and two touchdowns and scoring two additional touchdowns on the ground. Any gains the Chargers make, however, will have no long-term benefits.\nThe bigger picture shows teams that have quarterback controversies usually do not win big. Merely having a quarterback controversy is a bad sign. How it turns out is almost irrelevant.\nThe Cleveland Browns are a prime example. Neither Tim Couch nor Kelly Holcomb have played well this year, and even if they had, the Browns would not be in playoff contention because of their defense. \nThe real story this season wasn't the quarterback controversy, ignited by Holcomb's brilliant performance in last year's playoffs subbing for the injured Couch, but the Browns' decision to dump their linebacking core of Earl Holmes, Dwayne Rudd and Darren Hambrick in favor of Ben Taylor, Andra Davis and Kevin Bentley. The Browns have had a brutal time of it trying to stop the run with the new linebackers.\nIn addition, William Green, who ran for 726 yards in his last seven games last year, has run for just 559 yards this year. And to make a bad year worse, he missed Sunday's game against Kansas City due to a team-issued one-game suspension after being arrested for DUI and then being subsequently caught with 3.2 grams of marijuana during a search on his car.\nThe Miami Dolphins look like their season is unraveling. Instability at quarterback has seemingly affected the defense as well. Sunday, Titans quarterback Steve McNair, a quarterback whom the Dolphins' had never lost to, riddled the Dolphins for 201 yards and two touchdowns as Tennessee romped 31-7.\nThe unsettled quarterback situation hasn't helped. Brian Griese threw three interceptions and lost two fumbles against the Titans. The Dolphins' acquisition of Griese in the first place came about because of concerns Jay Fiedler couldn't win the big one or in the case of the Dolphins' failure to make the playoffs, even get the Dolphins to the big one.\nAnd who can talk about quarterback controversies without mentioning Plank's old team. The Bears have had, in essence, an ongoing quarterback controversy for over 50 years now, ever since Hall-of-Famer Sid Luckman retired following the 1950 season. The only quarterback they've had since of reliable quality was Jim McMahon, the man who quarterbacked the team to its lone Super Bowl title 18 years ago.\nAnd it's not like the Bears didn't have quarterback controversies during McMahon's time as McMahon was constantly injured during his seven-year run with the Bears. Whether it has been Bill Wade vs. Rudy Bukich or Mike Tomczak vs. Steve Fuller or Kordell Stewart vs. Chris Chandler vs. Rex Grossman, the Bears can neither escape quarterback controversies nor identify one who will make it a non-issue. And without a good quarterback, it probably is no coincidence that the Bears went from 1971 to 2002 without having a Pro Bowl wide receiver either.\nLook at the good teams in the NFL, and one finds they have no quarterback controversies. Peyton Manning is entrenched in Indianapolis. McNair is an MVP favorite in Tennessee. Trent Green has excelled with the Chiefs. \nMeanwhile, the Rams' season turned around once coach Mike Martz stopped catering to Kurt Warner and gave the job to Marc Bulger. Brett Favre has kept Green Bay among the league's elite teams for over a decade now. Daunte Culpepper has played so well in Minnesota that Gus Frerotte's fine job in relief while Culpepper was recovering from a back injury led to no upheaval. And things started going much better in Seattle when Mike Holmgren picked Matt Hasselbeck and stuck with him instead of giving into the temptation to give Trent Dilfer another try.\nA good starting quarterback can settle a team. Rarely will it divide a team. When Bengals coach Marvin Lewis announced even before training camp began that Jon Kitna and not Carson Palmer would be the team's starting quarterback, he settled a controversy early. Sure, Kitna had to play well to make Lewis look good, but by naming Kitna, he imbued him with confidence. The Bengals are playing better than they have in years.\nThey're much less temperamental.
(11/06/03 5:00am)
What R.E.M. is and what R.E.M. was are two different things.\nThey're an album-oriented band. Putting out a best-of album doesn't get close to their real identity.\nOf course, it's the latest thing R.E.M. has done to smudge their real identity in conceding to fame. They've lip-synched in their videos, they've played massive arenas that didn't suit their music and they didn't break up when drummer Bill Berry, a magnificent skinsman long underrated, left the band in 1997.\nThis Warner Brothers summation of their career, which screams contract filler, ignores the gems in the album tracks in favor of the obvious and two new duds, one a rewrite/update of "It's the End of the World As We Know It (and I Feel Fine)." "Losing My Religion," "Everybody Hurts" and "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?" are all here.\nBut these songs just fulfilled some dilettante's pop jones, not paint an accurate picture. And remember, they'll be playing Third Eye Blind at your high school reunions.\nThere's no harrowing "You Are the Everything," no twangy "Country Feedback" and no glammy, Iggy Pop-honoring "Crush With Eyeliner."\nGet the albums. Start with Automatic for the People. Go from there. That's what R.E.M. was when they were best.
(11/05/03 10:55pm)
What R.E.M. is and what R.E.M. was are two different things.\nThey're an album-oriented band. Putting out a best-of album doesn't get close to their real identity.\nOf course, it's the latest thing R.E.M. has done to smudge their real identity in conceding to fame. They've lip-synched in their videos, they've played massive arenas that didn't suit their music and they didn't break up when drummer Bill Berry, a magnificent skinsman long underrated, left the band in 1997.\nThis Warner Brothers summation of their career, which screams contract filler, ignores the gems in the album tracks in favor of the obvious and two new duds, one a rewrite/update of "It's the End of the World As We Know It (and I Feel Fine)." "Losing My Religion," "Everybody Hurts" and "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?" are all here.\nBut these songs just fulfilled some dilettante's pop jones, not paint an accurate picture. And remember, they'll be playing Third Eye Blind at your high school reunions.\nThere's no harrowing "You Are the Everything," no twangy "Country Feedback" and no glammy, Iggy Pop-honoring "Crush With Eyeliner."\nGet the albums. Start with Automatic for the People. Go from there. That's what R.E.M. was when they were best.
(11/05/03 6:06am)
The only athlete who faces expectations like Roy Jones Jr. is Tiger Woods.\nTiger has little to prove. Jones still has much to prove.\nUniversally recognized as the the world's finest "pound-for-pound" boxer, he heads into the ring Saturday night against Antonio Tarver back in the 175-pound light heavyweight division after a one-fight dalliance as a heavyweight.\nIn that dalliance, Jones took apart John Ruiz for Ruiz's World Boxing Association heavyweight title. The expectations arise from that whipping of Ruiz. Observers want Jones to be like the Barenaked Ladies: everything to everyone.\nAfter all, being the world's best pound-for-pound boxer and a dime will get you a cab ride downtown but nothing more. The average boxing fan, the one who cares only when they decide to mention it on "SportsCenter," cares about heavyweights and only heavyweights.\nClearly, Jones' frame cannot support being a heavyweight. He'll never be able to ascend to the "superheavyweight" frame that Lennox Lewis -- remember him? -- comfortably sports. You wouldn't wish him to fight Lewis because of the size disadvantage.\nBut what more does Jones, 48-1 with 38 knockouts, have to do in the sport? At 34, his skills have slipped somewhat in recent years, making him almost human. But nobody fights like him, not with the loping left hook and power right. Nobody can get away without using a jab like he can.\nAnd nobody moves like him. Weaving his way in and out of traffic, Jones is the all-around athlete who just happened to get into boxing. \nYou can't hit what you can't catch. Nobody symbolizes this boxing axiom more than Jones.\nBoxing hasn't really been known for athleticism of the competitors; it's more about toughness. Power draws more "oohs" and "aahs" than speed. People will love a boxer more for a steel jaw than flying feet.\nFor Jones, pushing his weight up into the heavyweight class would compromise that speed. But the heavyweight class is where the money is. That's where the world's most marketable boxer/sideshow Mike Tyson is.\n"From technically superior fighters like former middleweight champion Reggie Johnson to towering power punchers like Richard Hall, the defensive mastery of Jones has enabled him to outwit, out-smart and out-fight every single opponent he has ever faced inside the boxing ring," boxing writer David A. Avila writes on maxboxing.com.\nSo will Jones continue to fight light heavyweight and prove his greatness? Or will he become a full-time heavyweight and grab as much cash as he can before he becomes too old? Wait and see.\nOn the other hand, the expectations have met performance for LeBron James. The No. 1 pick in the National Basketball Association draft has generally excelled through his first three games. Averaging 18 points, 7.3 rebounds, 7.7 assists per game and 2.33 steals per game, first impressions show that he'll lead NBA rookies in assists and steals and will be up there in scoring and rebounding, as well.\nFurthermore, Cavaliers coach Paul Silas has James playing point guard, by far the hardest position to play for an NBA rookie. Point guards not only have to know where they have to be but where everybody else has to be. They also have to be able to defend, and the first time a rookie runs into a massive 285-pound center setting a blind ball screen for the opposing point guard is usually one time too many and the ultimate NBA indoctrination. (Bobby Hurley got schooled so often by screen-and-roll during his rookie season that my ribs still hurt.)\nWhat shocks me is how many skeptics James has. Respected scouts were saying two years ago that a team would have picked James first in the draft after his junior year in high school had he entered the draft.\nSome, and maybe I've watched too many episodes of "Around the Horn" and "Pardon the Interruption," have refused to believe in him. The outright ageism shown by many in the media is sadly predictable.\nThe best explanation for such ageism is inability to relate. Sportswriters, who have always struggled to relate to the modern athlete and like to drop a "phat" or some other bit of urban jargon to prove their hipness, just don't want to deal with it. They worry that younger players like James will be disrespectful. \nAnother factor is if the scouts are right and James turns out to be an all-time great, the sportswriters will be forced to admit that the scouts know what they are talking about. By admitting that, they admit to not knowing everything.\nDon't expect it.
(11/05/03 5:33am)
The only athlete who faces expectations like Roy Jones Jr. is Tiger Woods.\nTiger has little to prove. Jones still has much to prove.\nUniversally recognized as the the world's finest "pound-for-pound" boxer, he heads into the ring Saturday night against Antonio Tarver back in the 175-pound light heavyweight division after a one-fight dalliance as a heavyweight.\nIn that dalliance, Jones took apart John Ruiz for Ruiz's World Boxing Association heavyweight title. The expectations arise from that whipping of Ruiz. Observers want Jones to be like the Barenaked Ladies: everything to everyone.\nAfter all, being the world's best pound-for-pound boxer and a dime will get you a cab ride downtown but nothing more. The average boxing fan, the one who cares only when they decide to mention it on "SportsCenter," cares about heavyweights and only heavyweights.\nClearly, Jones' frame cannot support being a heavyweight. He'll never be able to ascend to the "superheavyweight" frame that Lennox Lewis -- remember him? -- comfortably sports. You wouldn't wish him to fight Lewis because of the size disadvantage.\nBut what more does Jones, 48-1 with 38 knockouts, have to do in the sport? At 34, his skills have slipped somewhat in recent years, making him almost human. But nobody fights like him, not with the loping left hook and power right. Nobody can get away without using a jab like he can.\nAnd nobody moves like him. Weaving his way in and out of traffic, Jones is the all-around athlete who just happened to get into boxing. \nYou can't hit what you can't catch. Nobody symbolizes this boxing axiom more than Jones.\nBoxing hasn't really been known for athleticism of the competitors; it's more about toughness. Power draws more "oohs" and "aahs" than speed. People will love a boxer more for a steel jaw than flying feet.\nFor Jones, pushing his weight up into the heavyweight class would compromise that speed. But the heavyweight class is where the money is. That's where the world's most marketable boxer/sideshow Mike Tyson is.\n"From technically superior fighters like former middleweight champion Reggie Johnson to towering power punchers like Richard Hall, the defensive mastery of Jones has enabled him to outwit, out-smart and out-fight every single opponent he has ever faced inside the boxing ring," boxing writer David A. Avila writes on maxboxing.com.\nSo will Jones continue to fight light heavyweight and prove his greatness? Or will he become a full-time heavyweight and grab as much cash as he can before he becomes too old? Wait and see.\nOn the other hand, the expectations have met performance for LeBron James. The No. 1 pick in the National Basketball Association draft has generally excelled through his first three games. Averaging 18 points, 7.3 rebounds, 7.7 assists per game and 2.33 steals per game, first impressions show that he'll lead NBA rookies in assists and steals and will be up there in scoring and rebounding, as well.\nFurthermore, Cavaliers coach Paul Silas has James playing point guard, by far the hardest position to play for an NBA rookie. Point guards not only have to know where they have to be but where everybody else has to be. They also have to be able to defend, and the first time a rookie runs into a massive 285-pound center setting a blind ball screen for the opposing point guard is usually one time too many and the ultimate NBA indoctrination. (Bobby Hurley got schooled so often by screen-and-roll during his rookie season that my ribs still hurt.)\nWhat shocks me is how many skeptics James has. Respected scouts were saying two years ago that a team would have picked James first in the draft after his junior year in high school had he entered the draft.\nSome, and maybe I've watched too many episodes of "Around the Horn" and "Pardon the Interruption," have refused to believe in him. The outright ageism shown by many in the media is sadly predictable.\nThe best explanation for such ageism is inability to relate. Sportswriters, who have always struggled to relate to the modern athlete and like to drop a "phat" or some other bit of urban jargon to prove their hipness, just don't want to deal with it. They worry that younger players like James will be disrespectful. \nAnother factor is if the scouts are right and James turns out to be an all-time great, the sportswriters will be forced to admit that the scouts know what they are talking about. By admitting that, they admit to not knowing everything.\nDon't expect it.
(10/30/03 7:06am)
Florida State's 48-24 win over Wake Forest Saturday was both ordinary and extraordinary.\nIt was ordinary in that once again, the Seminoles routed an outmanned ACC opponent. It was extraordinary in that Bobby Bowden became the all-time winningest coach in Division I-A college football history with victory No. 339.\nBowden passed Penn State's Joe Paterno, whose team lost at Iowa. Paterno is also active, although with the way Penn State has played this season, calling Paterno "active" is somewhat like calling Ted Williams active. Or Pope John Paul II.\nOne sports columnist didn't even wait until the Florida State win to make a grand pronouncement about Bowden. "But let there be no debate: Bobby Bowden is a greater football coach than Joe Paterno," Orlando Sentinel columnist Mike Bianchi wrote. "In fact, Bowden is greater than Paterno, Bear Bryant, Pop Warner, Amos Alonzo Stagg and all the rest. He is the greatest college football coach who ever has lived. Period."\nMy initial reaction was to wonder if Bianchi was getting a little too much vitamin C in his diet. Shouldn't Bobby Bowden have won more national championships? If he's so great, how come nobody hails him as a tactical genius like they do Steve Spurrier? Or Joe Tiller? (Just kidding).\nAnd maybe most importantly, wasn't FSU referred to as "Free Shoes University" after a 1999 scandal in which star wide receiver Peter Warrick and several other players, apparently through a connection with an agent, went nuts at a Foot Locker in the Tallahassee area, buying $400 worth of merchandise for $20 as reward for a nice season? Doesn't a great coach have to have a little institutional control? \nAfter reading the column, though, Bianchi had a point. Bowden had built the Florida State program from scratch while Paterno had taken over from Rip Engle, himself a Hall of Fame coach who won 104 games in 16 seasons at Penn State.\nThe problem with evaluating college football coaches historically revolves around perception. How can the myth so intertwined with many coaches' legacies be separated from what they actually did to find who's truly the greatest? \nFor example, to declare publicly that Woody Hayes is the greatest coach of all time is considered outrageous. After all, Hayes slugged Clemson linebacker Charlie Bauman in the 1978 Gator Bowl after Bauman's game-clinching interception, earning an ignominious dismissal from the university and thereby involuntarily ending his coaching career.\nBut Hayes' record is scintillating. His 238 wins place him sixth all-time behind Bowden, Paterno, Bryant, Stagg and Warner. He's the winningest coach in the history of the Big Ten. He won five national championships and 13 conference titles. And he mentored everybody from Bo Schembechler to Lou Holtz to Bill Mallory. \nA long-told story about Hayes heard around these parts was that after the Buckeyes lost to IU in 1951, Hayes' first season, Hayes declared that he would never lose to IU again. And he never did in 27 years. And the first time IU played Ohio State after Hayes' death in 1987, IU, coached by Mallory, broke the curse and won 31-10.\nTo call Knute Rockne the greatest ever raises similar doubt. After all, was the Notre Dame legend the man who woke up the echoes? Or was he just a regular coach with faults as detailed in IU American studies professor Murray Sperber's 1993 book "Shake Down the Thunder"?\nRockne's record is without peer. He went 105-12-5, an insane .881 career winning percentage. Reportedly, Ara Parseghian and Holtz both resigned rather than break Rockne's all-time school wins record, for the burden would have been too much.\nWas he a master strategist? Well, he popularized the forward pass and invented the modern passing game. Yeah, I'd say so.\nBut Rockne isn't known for that. He's known for his "Win one for the Gipper" speech. He's known for inventing a story about his six-year-old son being hospitalized to try to motivate his team. At the time of his 1931 death in a plane crash, he was planning involvement in a film called "The Spirit of Notre Dame," a Hollywood film that would serve as further propaganda. He invented the idea of coach as master motivator/psychologist.\nBryant won a lot of games but was viewed as harsh and unfeeling. Schembechler helped establish modern-day Michigan football but had trouble winning the big ones. Stagg coached at non-traditional powers. Warner is more known for attaching his name to youth league football.\nThey all had personalities, and their greatness is told in stories others tell about them, not their accomplishments.\nThe greatest? I'll take Rockne, but the stories are making evaluating the coaches hardly ordinary.
(10/30/03 5:00am)
Sometimes on a long road trip, the traveler will want to step out and take some pictures of the beautiful, unusual scenery. That pastoral appreciation is what listening to The Shins is like.\nOn Chutes Too Narrow, the band's vision is of a crevice of Americana that's as pure as a freshly mown meadow and gently rolling stream.\nWriting and performing songs that could have been written 25 years ago or 25 years from now, James Mercer and Co. have mastered metaphor from familiar ("muddy waters") to abstract ("pink bullets"). \nMusically, they may be the closest thing to an American Belle and Sebastian, though not quite so clever. The arrangements stomp with a guitar, plink with a calming piano and scrape ceilings with high falsetto harmonies. Then, when you're already caught off-kilter Annemarie Ruljancich unveils a beautiful violin underpinning to "Saint Simon," the album's best song.\nThey've mastered melody too, but they don't need to jump to the top of a mountain and shout it for the listener. They also don't need to fool with their succinct song structures to bring attention to themselves.\nThis is a band comfortable with who they are and insinuating with their grooves. They know the scenery.
(10/29/03 9:47pm)
Sometimes on a long road trip, the traveler will want to step out and take some pictures of the beautiful, unusual scenery. That pastoral appreciation is what listening to The Shins is like.\nOn Chutes Too Narrow, the band's vision is of a crevice of Americana that's as pure as a freshly mown meadow and gently rolling stream.\nWriting and performing songs that could have been written 25 years ago or 25 years from now, James Mercer and Co. have mastered metaphor from familiar ("muddy waters") to abstract ("pink bullets"). \nMusically, they may be the closest thing to an American Belle and Sebastian, though not quite so clever. The arrangements stomp with a guitar, plink with a calming piano and scrape ceilings with high falsetto harmonies. Then, when you're already caught off-kilter Annemarie Ruljancich unveils a beautiful violin underpinning to "Saint Simon," the album's best song.\nThey've mastered melody too, but they don't need to jump to the top of a mountain and shout it for the listener. They also don't need to fool with their succinct song structures to bring attention to themselves.\nThis is a band comfortable with who they are and insinuating with their grooves. They know the scenery.
(10/28/03 5:36am)
Take responsibility for your actions.\nI learned that from my parents. Or was that Judge Judy? Or the coach on "Playmakers?" Regardless, if I have made one contribution to sportswriting, it's that I have not only been crazy enough to make predictions but also crazy enough to analyze them at season's end to see how I did. Referring back to my March 26 column when I predicted the baseball season's outcome, I found that it was a mixed bag.\nWHAT I SAID "The Mets will be better because they can't possibly be worse."\nWHAT HAPPENED: The Mets were worse, dropping from 75 wins in 2002 to 66 wins in 2003. In fact, given the money they spent on the team and all the inherent advantages of playing in New York City, the Mets may have embarrassed themselves more than the historically bad Tigers.\nTom Glavine had his worst year in more than a decade, and the team suffered numerous serious injuries to expected stalwarts like Mike Piazza, Mo Vaughn and Cliff Floyd.\nWHAT I SAID "The Diamondbacks have Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling but not much in the rotation otherwise."\nWHAT HAPPENED: Brandon Webb had a Rookie-of-the-Year-type season -- yes, better than Dontrelle Willis, but Johnson and Schilling spent much of the year hurt, and the Diamondbacks finished in third.\nWHAT I SAID "(The AL East) has had the same finishing order five straight years. This year will make it six."\nWHAT HAPPENED: I got it right. Once again, it was the Yankees followed by the Red Sox, Blue Jays, Orioles and Devil Rays.\nWHAT I SAID: "The White Sox will finish second, which given the quality of the other three teams in the division will be borderline humiliating."\nWHAT HAPPENED:: The White Sox did finish second, and it was somewhat humiliating. The club fired manager Jerry Manuel as soon as the season ended, and the fans ripped the players for lack of heart. They didn't win even though Esteban Loaiza might have won the Cy Young Award.\nThe difference might have been the trade for Roberto Alomar. He's pretty much finished, but the White Sox sure got fooled. His numbers were practically identical to his Mets numbers, but all of a sudden, some thought Alomar was a great player again because the White Sox were in contention.\nEven at that, just a mediocre year from players like Paul Konerko and Billy Koch might have done it for them. But that didn't happen either.\nWHAT I SAID "The wildcard Red Sox will knock out the A's and then the Twins in the American League Championship Series … The Red Sox will then beat the Giants for their first world championship in 85 years."\nWHAT HAPPENED: I got all four AL playoff teams right, and I had the Red Sox beating the A's in the Division Series. The Twins won one game against the Yankees before the Yankees starting pitching took over.\nMy biggest fault was that I forgot the Red Sox were cursed. Once again, that's what happens when you try to inject logic into the proceedings.\nWHAT I SAID "Moving Craig Biggio from second base to center field will be the Astros' downfall."\nWHAT HAPPENED: Yes and no. Biggio had a better year than expected with the glove, but the downfall occurred due to Biggio's hitting. His strikeouts are increasing, his walks are declining, his power has leveled off and he's not a stolen base threat anymore. The Astros will have to make some big moves if they want to contend again next year.\nWHAT I SAID "I have Rockies centerfielder Preston Wilson and shortstop Jose Hernandez striking out 348 times between them, their bat-waving providing a natural air conditioning."\nWHAT HAPPENED: The Rockies did finish in fourth as predicted. Wilson and Hernandez struck out "only" 316 times between them, and before the season was over, Hernandez had also played for the Cubs and Pirates. Meanwhile, Wilson made the strikeouts sufferable by leading the NL with 141 RBIs.\nWHAT I SAID "The Marlins will lead the majors in stolen bases and thereby prove that both they and the stolen bases are overrated."\nWHAT HAPPENED: Again, I was partially right. The Marlins did lead the majors in stolen bases, but they didn't finish fourth; they finished second.\nI still don't think they won because of their speed necessarily. They won the World Series because guys who are not speedy, namely Ivan Rodriguez and Miguel Cabrera, joined the team and solidified the middle of the lineup. Josh Beckett had a little to do with it too.\nNow they were responsible.
(10/23/03 4:00am)
In "Seinfeld," they called it "hand" -- the power of having the upper hand in the relationship. In a much grittier way, Greg Dulli sings about nothing but hand. With his previous band the Afghan Whigs, he sang, "I'm gonna turn on you/Before you turn on me." The debonair gentleman was knowing in his jerkiness.\nNow with the Twilight Singers, Dulli's solo side project, he's projecting the same compelling emotions with a wider musical palate. He's linked suave old-soul grasp -- the Whigs covered Barry White on the Beautiful Girls soundtrack -- with alt-rock-fueled self-despair. \nMeanwhile, Blackberry Belle indicates that Dulli had maybe grown weary of either the Whigs' musical limitations or audience demands. Employing guest musicians has freed Dulli to play more conventional rock and try unusual arrangements simultaneously. He employs things like banjos, synth loops, horn sections and clavinets while employing a tension/release songwriting style.\n"Teenage Wristband" rings out most memorably. Essentially a power ballad, Dulli glides above the melody while sharing the vocal with guest Apollonia Kotero -- yes, that Apollonia. Not only does he have a thing for a younger woman, but he's willing to understand her adolescent apathy.\nHe's willing to give up hand even though he recognizes the train wreck to come.
(10/22/03 11:48pm)
In "Seinfeld," they called it "hand" -- the power of having the upper hand in the relationship. In a much grittier way, Greg Dulli sings about nothing but hand. With his previous band the Afghan Whigs, he sang, "I'm gonna turn on you/Before you turn on me." The debonair gentleman was knowing in his jerkiness.\nNow with the Twilight Singers, Dulli's solo side project, he's projecting the same compelling emotions with a wider musical palate. He's linked suave old-soul grasp -- the Whigs covered Barry White on the Beautiful Girls soundtrack -- with alt-rock-fueled self-despair. \nMeanwhile, Blackberry Belle indicates that Dulli had maybe grown weary of either the Whigs' musical limitations or audience demands. Employing guest musicians has freed Dulli to play more conventional rock and try unusual arrangements simultaneously. He employs things like banjos, synth loops, horn sections and clavinets while employing a tension/release songwriting style.\n"Teenage Wristband" rings out most memorably. Essentially a power ballad, Dulli glides above the melody while sharing the vocal with guest Apollonia Kotero -- yes, that Apollonia. Not only does he have a thing for a younger woman, but he's willing to understand her adolescent apathy.\nHe's willing to give up hand even though he recognizes the train wreck to come.
(10/22/03 6:34am)
Please excuse some Cubs fans if they are not whole-hearted in their "Wait 'til next year" exhortations.\nThe Cubs have made the playoffs now four times in the last 19 years, and while the glory was fun, the aftermath was painful. While some teams laid the groundwork for a dynasty, the Cubs' groundwork met the drill hammer.\nThe Cubs won the National League pennant in 1945, had another winning season in '46 and then had only one winning season in the next 20 years. That winning season was in 1963, when they were 82-80 and finished in seventh place in a 10-team league. It was hardly cause for celebration.\nThe Cubs won its division in 1984 and then followed it with four straight losing seasons.\nThe Cubs won their division in 1989 and then followed it with three consecutive losing seasons.\nThe Cubs won the National League wildcard in 1998 and then followed it with two consecutive losing seasons.\nPerhaps part of it has to do with what happened in the years prior to playoff experience. The Cubs improved by 25 wins in 1984 from 1983. They improved by 16 wins in 1989 from 1988. And they improved by 22 wins in 1998 from 1997, going from a league-record worst 0-14 start to the playoffs in less than two years. In fact, the Cubs haven't had consecutive winning seasons since a six-year run from 1967-1972.\nThe improvements the Cubs made weren't gradual. They were explosive, sudden and out of the blue (pun intended).\nSo while fans can continue stewing in the postmortem, wondering why fans everywhere now know who Steven Bartman is, it's about time to look to 2004. After all, the Cubs plan on fielding a team, and no law states the Cubs have to stink.\nConsider this a possible plan of attack:\n\n1) Let Kenny Lofton go. \nHe's a free agent, and while it would be bad public relations, Corey Patterson is a better center fielder. For the most part, Lofton made fans forget about Patterson, but when Lofton couldn't quite catch Alex Gonzalez's shallow looper that went for a two-run double in the seventh inning of Game 7, the reminder was all too clear: the Cubs need Patterson back.\nIf Lofton wanted to stay as a backup, then something could be arranged, especially if Lofton would want to take a pay cut. But that's not going to happen.\n\n2) Let Mark Grudzielanek go. \nHe's a free agent, too, and while it would also be bad public relations, it would be good baseball. Yes, Grudzielanek hit .314, but he had only three homers, six stolen bases and 30 walks in 121 games. That's called empty batting average. Plus, with Lofton gone, the Cubs need a leadoff hitter, and a guy who walks only 30 times in 121 games is not a leadoff hitter (unless your uniform shirt features an English D).\nFurthermore, it's become clear in recent years that second base is the second-most physically demanding position in baseball after catcher. All those hard takeout slides on double play balls wear on the body, after all. \nCubs fans should know this well. In 1998, former IU second sacker Mickey Morandini hit .296 with a career-high eight homers for the Cubs, helping lead them to the playoffs. He was only 32. By 2000, his big-league career was over. Skills can atrophy that quickly, and if you still don't believe me, ask a Cardinal fan what they think of Fernando Vina these days.\nRemember, Luis Castillo is a free agent.\n\n3) Get another starting pitcher. \nYes, I said starting pitcher. The Cubs will probably go out and get a lefty to replace the miserable Shawn Estes, but my eye is more affixed on Javier Vazquez, the Montreal Expos righty. \nThe playoffs have proven that it's not necessarily starting pitching that wins in the postseason -- after all, how do you explain the Marlins winning despite awful starting pitching, but power starting pitching? In other words, Josh Beckett dominates while opposing batters hammer guys like Mark Redman.\nVazquez is a power pitcher with a blazing fastball and devilish change-up, ranking third in the league in strikeouts behind Kerry Wood and Mark Prior of the Cubs. If Dusty Baker is not going to trust his bullpen -- and Dusty has had a history of working his starting pitchers hard going back to his San Francisco days -- he's going to need another big arm in the stable for a potential postseason run. Kevin Millwood is a possibility, too.\n\n4) Get one more big bat. \nJavy Lopez, Pudge Rodriguez, Miguel Tejada, let's not get picky.\nAny of the above could convince Cubs fans that "next year" will be a time to get serious.
(10/16/03 6:40am)
The baseball playoffs have been so tense that I don't dare touch my TV set, lest I be electrocuted. The Yankees-Red Sox and Cubs-Marlins series fulminate with so much drama and subplots that not even an episode of "Playmakers" -- snicker, snicker -- can compare. \nThey've consumed this viewer so much, in fact, that I've had little time to care for many other sports. So it was with little fanfare that the National Basketball Association announced this small bit of news yesterday: The league will realign into six divisions of five teams each beginning in the 2004-05 season when the Charlotte Bobcats enter the league and become its 30th team.\nThe league unfortunately announced that its playoff format will change little. Eight teams from each conference will still make the playoffs with the three division winners and five best records of non-division winners making it from each conference.\nWhat's unfortunate is that the league is missing out on a chance to make its playoff system more like baseball's. In other words, only four teams should make it from each conference with only one wildcard team.\nThe regular season has to mean more in the NBA. Games too often have the intensity and excitement of dinner at an old folks home (before they run out of peas, of course). There's nothing more depressing than trudging through the snow for a Clippers-Pistons game in mid-December, and while only so much can happen to eliminate the winter blahs, cutting the number of playoff teams would serve as a good start.\nThe benefits would be counted in multiple. \nFirst, organizations would try even harder to win. It's one thing to fall just short of a title, but try soothing the organization's and fans' anxiety if one's favorite team doesn't make the playoffs.\nSecond, it might alter free agent movement. When teams would make their pitch to players, they could really emphasize winning and use it as more of a drawing card since success wouldn't be so widespread.\nThird, it will help strengthen the national team. For example, if only the top four in each conference made the playoffs, then the Orlando Magic wouldn't have made the playoffs last year. That would mean Tracy McGrady would have had more time to prepare himself for competition in the Tournament of the Americas. If that were to happen this coming season, then players on teams falling into the fifth-to-eighth-place range would have the chance to rest up for the Olympics.\nConsidering that fans have taken on the role of being armchair complainers in international play -- in a few short years many have gone from complaining that we're bullying smaller countries like Angola to complaining about why the United States finished in sixth place at last year's world championships -- USA Basketball needs to do something about it, and making sure players are fresher would be a start.\nFourth, it would serve to open up the draft lottery. Under a baseball-like system, the Los Angeles Lakers would not have made the playoffs last year. Now considering the number of Laker-haters out there, more of you would have lost money than tears. But what would you have thought if the Lakers won LeBron James in the draft lottery?\nWell, it would have made an interesting situation even more interesting. What's important is that it would increase the number of possible destinations a player like James could wind up. \nThe greater truth though is that the NBA Draft is a fairly huge crapshoot after the first three to five players. After all, if the NBA Draft was such a sure thing, wouldn't the Hawks or Grizzlies or Wizards or Clippers be good by now?\nFifth, the profit factor of the playoffs might be balanced out some. Obviously, we know why 16 teams make the playoffs to begin with -- more teams have a chance to win, and more teams can sell playoff tickets complete with their inflated price tag. But in places like Denver or Miami, they can't worry so much about making the playoffs. They need to spice up their regular season first. So while they wouldn't have had a chance to sell playoff tickets in New Orleans last year since the fifth-place Hornets wouldn't have made the playoffs, maybe they would have increased the number of regular season tickets sold with every game being a nailbiter.\nFor NBA fans who don't know what a nailbiter is, you're encouraged to watch the baseball playoffs.