Today in the bag, I'll be turning my newly improved sight towards the growing ugliness in Columbus, the disaster that was the Bulls final 4 games with the Heat, and baseball standings.
Click below for the bag.
Jim Tressel resigns at Ohio State - In what is surely not news to anyone following the sports world at this point, Jim Tressel stepped away from his post at The Ohio State University (not just any Ohio State, it's the one with the brewing benefits scandal) yesterday afternoon. For Buffs fans, this means little as our one-and-done match-up (the Mike Bohn Memorial Fire Dan Hawkins Road Trip, sponsored by Cinch Jeans) with the Buckeyes was to be played sans-Tressel anyway. In the greater scheme of things, it's semi-earth shattering, but still you had to see this coming as the chain of knowledge-related evidence continued to pour in.
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| The obligatory Sad Tressel picture. |
I'm sure the hope was that timing the announcement on a holiday would blunt the blow-back, but, with news this big, everyone's going to jump into the action. Just look at all the media-types come running to pile on Coach Tressel. Who was once a golden-god of purity is now a derided fallen idol.
SI especially seemed almost gleeful in their evisceration of Coach Tressel's legacy. In an article hitting newstands later this week, the duo of George Dohrmann with David Epstein, in true fourth-estate fashion, spared no mourning for the fallen when they snarled:
"For more than a decade, Ohioans have viewed Tressel as a pillar of rectitude, and have disregarded or made excuses for the allegations and scandal that have quietly followed him throughout his career. His integrity was one of the great myths of college football. Like a disgraced politician who preaches probity but is caught in lies, the Senator was not the person he purported to be." - linkYeesh, that's some venomous shit. Nothing like the retribution of the rebuked acololyte, I guess. It wasn't just Ohioans who viewed Coach Tressel this way, it was everyone. The fawn-like devotion to "the sweater-vest" was shared by all who cared for, or even just covered, Buckeye football, including those at SI. Sure, Tressel fucked up royal, but it wasn't solely his fault that he was placed in strata reserved for the likes of the immortal John Wooden, only to fall like OSU predecessor Woody Hayes.
Coach Tressel may not have helped his cause by preaching, and selling two books based on, his doctrine of "faith, dicipline, and responsibility," (It's hard enough to live a life of values and morals without running around telling everyone that you have them; maybe people like Coach Tressel best be leaving their thoughts on how others should live their lives to themselves) but maybe us in the sports world, those of us who live and die with every down, possession, and pitch, need to realize that these guys are just human beings, and that success doesn't necessarily come with a halo. Just my two cents...
The stumbling of the Bulls - When I get 'em wrong, I get 'em wrong. Two weeks ago, flush with victory, I posited that the Bulls would lose no more than 1 game on their way to the Finals. Instead, Da Bulls couldn't stumble into a victory over the remaining 4 games of the series, falling to the loathsome Heat 4-1. They just couldn't seem to close as they allowed victory to slip from their grasp in games 2,3, and 5. Through the final four games the Bulls were outscored in each 4th quarter to the tune of 90-65; that's not going to bring many victories. The turning point was games 2 when, with victory within reach, the Bulls could only muster 10 points in the final frame, allowing Miami to slip out of Chicago with the series tied; there was no coming back from that.
As it was, the Heat coasted through the rest of the series, and will face the Dallas Mavericks in the Finals starting tonight. I think I speak for most by saying "Let's go Mavs!"
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| My Bulls just couldn't stop the Heat when it mattered. |
Post-Memorial Day Standings Check - I have a yearly tradition of not looking at the baseball standings until the day after Memorial Day. I feel looking at standings before then is simply meaningless as the first 60-odd baseball games only tell 1/3rd of a season's story, and not even the good part. I still rabidly follow the sport through the first 2 months, just without the whole "where do we stand" bit.
Accordingly, today will be my first real look at the standings for both the Rox and my Sox. Let's see...
The Rox are not only 4 games behind San Francisco, but 4.5 behind Arizona as well. (Arizona!?) The poor showing in May (8-20 for the month) has begun to put a damper on things. But fear not Rockies fans, the month is almost over, and 4.5 games is almost nothing in the grand scheme of things. Considering the Rox never play real well till September, they're still in decent position.
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| Obligatory sad Rockies picture. From: the Post |
My Sox are a whopping 8.5 back of the God Damned Indians. Interestingly, they've dragged themselves out of the 4th-5th cellar, and are sitting a drowsy 3rd in the AL Central. Everyone seems to be expecting the 2nd place Tigers to make a run to brush past the youthful Indians, but they still remain a full 5 games back of first place. Maybe this Cleveland bunch is for real. Meanwhile, the hated Twins find themselves 14.5 back after the first two months of the season. To say schadenfreude was the order of the day would be an understatement.
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| They may not be exactly where I'd like them, but it could be worse for my Sox. From: the Trib |
Happy Monday... err Tuesday!
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