Buzzkill: Tarp Duty

Playing at home is much better than traveling and playing on the road.  However, home games also bring duties which you like to forget about.  You have foul ball duties, running balls to the umpire, taking the screens on and off the field, and by far the worst phrase in baseball-- "Tarp Duty".  In my career I don't know if I've ever gone through a full weekend series without tarp duty.  Something about the northeast brings rain at least once a weekend.  Few programs have the luxury of a field crew to do the tedious job and we're not one of those programs.  Putting the tarp on is no problem. It's taking it off that is a nuisance.  You have to dump the water, bring it back where it was, pull it to the outfield to put it in line with the wall, fold it up, and roll it back in a line to the wall.  With 35 guys a job that should take 15 minutes or so always takes longer because there's never any organization.  Tarps are normally pulled in the early morning as the sun is rising and there's never enough time to go back to the dorms.  With this weekend being our first home series the duty has already been set for 6 tonight.

Opening Day for MLB

Today is opening day for Major League Baseball.  Mark Buehrle made one of the best plays in history last opening day.  Blockbuster trades, guys like Chipper Jones and Derek Jeter at the backend of their careers, and Pujols' contract were headlines this offseason.  The Phillies' starting rotation could be one of the best ever assembled.  Most predictions have the Red Sox and Phillies in the fall classic but as we saw last year predictions mean absolutely nothing and it does not equate to wins.  It's all about who is playing the best baseball once October rolls around and that's why the World Series was decided between Texas and San Francisco.  Who do you have winning it all?

Tiger Woods-- The Masters

The new Tiger Woods was released earlier this week.  It features 14 new courses and the new "caddie" experience which basically tells you how to hit it.  I tried it out today and I only played Augusta National but it was awesome.  I'm not a big fan of the caddie feature because it basically takes the skill out of the game.  I was disappointed to see Rory McElroy was not in the game because he was my go to character.  (Games between the roommates get heated) But my disappointment quickly changed to excitement when I realized Bubba Watson and Ricky Fowler were the new characters.  The Masters is a lot different from Tiger Woods '11 but I think EA did a great job changing the game.

NCAA President: Discussing Players Receiving Piece of Revenue

USA Today---
 The NCAA's new president is adamant that, on his watch, there'll be no straying from college athletics' most time-honored tenet: "It's grossly unacceptable and inappropriate to pay players … converting them from students to employees," Mark Emmert says.

But as the NCAA basketball tournament's Final Fourgathers here this week — capping a three-week showcase that generates more than $771 million a year in television rights alone — Emmert acknowledges it's time for a serious discussion about whether and how to spread a little more of the largesse to those doing the playing and sweating.

"The sooner, the better," Emmert says.

He's not thinking big. Maybe bump up the value of players' scholarships by a few thousand dollars to take care of travel, laundry and other typical college expenses that aren't covered now. And Emmert isn't promising anything, only that he'll bring it up at the NCAA's board meetings in April.

"I will make clear," he says, "that I want this to be a subject we explore."

He has plenty of company.

Players Admit to Receiving Money at Auburn

From USA TODAY----

Four former Auburn players will admit to receiving money during their college careers during Wednesday night's airing ofHBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel.

CAPTION

By Todd J. Van Emst, AP

SPORTSbyBROOKSobtained an advance portion of the program. Among the allegations, offensive lineman Troy Reddick said he was paid nearly $5,000 over two seasons by an Auburn assistant coach, and defensive lineman Stanley McClover said he was given $4,000 for a single-game performance against Alabama. Chaz Ramsey and Raven Gray also reportedly admitted being paid.Tommy Tuberville was the Auburn coach during the careers of the four players before stepping down after the 2008 season. Tuberville just finished his first season at Texas Tech. When contacted by USA TODAY, Texas Tech assistant athletic director for communications Blayne Beal said Tuberville would not comment on the HBO report.  
During the program, McClover also spoke about receiving money while at LSU, Michigan State and Ohio State, and sexual favors during his visit to Columbus.


First of all, these guys coming out and saying this brings nothing to the table.  They're only hurting their former university.  It was over two years ago and there is absolutely no reason for these guys to come out and say this.  Auburn did you a favor by giving you money and you go behind their back and tell everyone about it.  Just keep your mouth shut.

Buzzkill: Emergency Broadcast System Test

I know you've seen this before while watching TV.  It's always a test.  It always comes up during the most important part of the show where it leaves you wondering what happened during those 30 seconds of hell.  What bugs me the most is if there's a serious emergency are people watching television?  I've never seen anything other than a test for that matter.  We also have that channel which tells us the weather for the next 10 days.  We don't need an alert on television to tell us we need to take cover.   Life is going to be tough if you can't look out the window and decide whether to take cover or not.

Coach K Speaks

The 'Fab 5' documentary includes commentary from the former Michigan players and Jalen Rose is at the center of attention for his comments.  He referred to Duke players as 'Uncle Toms' and is has a lot of people upset including Coach K.  It was great television but I think Coach K may have the last laugh.  Michigan had to remove both of the banners for reaching the Final Four and Michigan hasn't been the same type of program since the 'Fab 5'.

"They had a heck of a run but, they didn't leave anything, they didn't establish anything there," Krzyzewski said. "The guys that I had established something that Jay Williams continued to do 10 years later -- the standards of what it meant to be a Duke basketball player."


Coach K also went on to say he only recruited Chris Webber out of that Michigan class basically because the other four weren't up to the caliber of players they already had or were recruiting.  Granted Juwan Howard and Jalen Rose went on to have successful careers in the NBA but Coach K created a dynasty at Duke without them.  Coach K 1, Jalen Rose 0.   

Virginia's Will Roberts Throws Perfect Game

Will Roberts pitched the 8th perfect game in NCAA Division I history on Tuesday night against George Washington.  It was the first perfect game since Auburn's Eric Brandon did it in 2002.  Roberts came close to losing the perfect game in the eighth inning when George Washington's Tyler McCarthy hit a line drive off the glove of Roberts but he recovered in time to make the throw to first. George Washington only hit one ball to the outfield.  It was UVA's 8th shutout of the year and we're not even halfway through the season.

Big Black is Back

Fantasy Factory made the best decision by bringing Big Black to the fourth season.  Don't get me wrong the show is already great but the two of them make a great tandem.  I can remember a couple years ago when you couldn't perform any task without hearing "Do Work Son".

Cinderella Stories?

With Butler and VCU making the Final Four it makes me wonder if a mid-major team going deep in the tourney is still considered a cinderella.  When George Mason made it to the Final Four in 2006 it was unheard of.  No one knew who George Mason was but everyone was rooting for them.  There were upsets in the first and second rounds before but a team people knew nothing about could never make it past the Sweet 16.  UNLV made a run in the early 90's but that team had future NBA players in Larry Johnson, Stacey Augmon, and Greg Anthony.  With Butler making back-to-back Final Four appearances I think it's easy to say they can no longer be considered a cinderella.  Is the talent level watering down or are players just more talented?  Just how the Fab 5 changed college basketball in the 90's, we may be witnessing another change in the culture of basketball.

Blown Calls

Is there anything worse than an umpire blowing a call?  Whether it's a missed strike or blown call on the bases it happens at least once during a game.  Baseball has seen it's fair share of missed calls and some of them happen to change a game or even history.  It's calls like Jim Joyce's during Armando Galarraga's perfect game that makes me cringe.  At the same time Joyce didn't miss the call on purpose.  People sent hate mail and death threats to the guy which is absolutely crazy.  They had to fly his family out of Detroit because MLB was afraid something might happen.  The aftermath also included a cry for instant replay.  It's the nature of the game and I'm glad instant replay is only used for home runs because no baseball fan wants to see instant replay.  Aside from ruining the game, baseball is slow enough already and it would ruin the tempo of the game.  Replays for home runs already take up to five minutes and you're talking about 15 minutes a game for reviews.

"Facebook Depression"

From Barstoolsports.com---

Add “Facebook depression” to potential harms linked with social media, an influential doctors’ group warns, referring to a condition it says may affect troubled teens who obsess over the online site. Researchers disagree on whether it’s simply an extension of depression some kids feel in other circumstances, or a distinct condition linked with using the online site. But there are unique aspects of Facebook that can make it a particularly tough social landscape to navigate for kids already dealing with poor self-esteem, said Dr. Gwenn O’Keeffe, a Boston-area pediatrician and lead author of new American Academy of Pediatrics social media guidelines. With in-your-face friends’ tallies, status updates and photos of happy-looking people having great times, Facebook pages can make some kids feel even worse if they think they don’t measure up. It can be more painful than sitting alone in a crowded school cafeteria or other real-life encounters that can make kids feel down, O’Keeffe said, because Facebook provides a skewed view of what’s really going on.