Why Baseball Absolutely Rocks

Most folks around here know that I'm a pretty big baseball geek...I subscribe here for goodness sake, and I went highbrow with the HD package (it's a great way to work....a little day baseball love in the office is always fun). Anyways, what I love about baseball is the fact that you can see things that just boggle the mind. I mean this is a sport where the Philadelphia Phillies won the 2009 World Series on October 29, but officially, they won it on October 27 because that's when the game started and was suspended due to rain.

So I present to you the Washington Nationals, who have had some slight problems this year, and that doesn't count how bad they play. They apparently don't have a good seamstress, a good spellchecker or two even, and they can't even tell which way is up, whether it be a letter (upside down N), or a number (upside-down 8, note the beveling). Usually by the way, it's a 9 flipped to a 6 or vice-versa, so credit the Nats with a bonus of goofing up the 8.

Anyways, ,why I love baseball. On May 5, the Houston Astros visited the Washington Nationals, and in the game was tied at 10 after 10 innings. Washington's Joel Hanrahan got Houston out in the top of the 11th, and in the bottom half, Houston's LaTroy Hawkins got an out before Elijah Dukes walked. Then the rains came....and came, and came, and never stopped. So they suspended the game, but since Houston doesn't visit Washington anymore, it was decided they will finish the game in Houston on July 9.

Here is where the fun starts. They resumed the game yesterday in Houston, but Washington traded Joel Hanrahan (and Lastings Milledge) to Pittsburgh for Nyjer Morgan and Sean Burnett. And what of Elijah Dukes, who was at first base when the game was suspended? Well....Mr. Dukes is currently in Syracuse in Triple-A. So, when play resumed yesterday, Morgan, who was in Pittsburgh and went 1-for-5 against Milwaukee on May 5, pinch ran at first base, thereby getting credited with playing for two different teams in two different cities in the same day, ala Joel Youngblood back in 1982, who actually did play in two games in two different cities for two different teams in the same day.

Anyways, Morgan ended up scoring in the 11th of the resumed game, finishing that in just seven minutes. The winning pitcher was Joel Hanrahan, who at the time he got the win, was taking a nap.....as a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates...in a hotel.....in Philadelphia. Hanrahan's Pirates you see didn't play yesterday, and he was tired from the travel to Philly, so he was napping when he got the win, and didn't find out about it until some of his ex-National teammates texted him afterwards.

To sum up: the Nationals defeated Astros in a game started in Washington, ended in Houston, with the winning run scored by someone who started the game for Pittsburgh, and was won by someone sleeping in Philadelphia. Of course, it's justice for the Nationals, who started the week by losing 5-4 to the Colorado Rockies, allowing Rockies pitcher Alan Embree to earn the win without ever throwing a pitch, and no, I didn't make that up.

All of this to say, ladies and gentlemen, your 2009 Washington Nationals! To think, we aren't at the all-star break yet.

Here is the box score for all that wackiness.

Speaking of baseball
My Marlins woke up just in time to take down Arizona.

Almost as good as Ivory Soap.
Ivory soap is boasted as being 99 44/100% pure. That's almost the season ticket retention rate at Oklahoma. At least it will have cooled down by then in that state....geez....115 degrees? Seriously....

Kudos
For those paying attention, Brad Bugger's series on ISU's football opponents are must reads...great stuff.exactly the type of stuff that can't really go on ISU's official website, but is perfect for the blog. Well, well, well done Bradley!

News coming down the pike
I'm going camping next week (and looking forward to no computer doncha know), so I won't be around. However, once I get back, it should be very fun with some good announcements, probably starting the Monday I get back, and of the two, one is a direct boon to a major sport, and one is a direct boon to you the fans. I'm giddy....more around the week of July 20th or so. Sorry I can't say more yet.

Hey...that's Alvin Brooks...and where is my media guide?

Check out the new feature on the website today, as we have the inaugural edition of "Catching Up With...", as I got the chance to chat with former Bengal Alvin Brooks III (Alvin got back to me quicker than Nate Rede, who will be profiled soon). ABIII, who has his own very entertaining website, picked up a pair of degrees, and those look very nice with his pair of NJCAA national titles (Joe O'Brien has been a head coach for three on his own, and Alvin is the first person to win back-to-back titles with two different teams). ABIII is now at Bradley, and hopefully we can keep these "Catching Up With..." things going. If you have any thoughts or ideas on potential former athletes, just leave a comment, or you can hit me up G.

Scheduling the Big Boys....
We get some play in the San Jose Mercury News about our Arizona State game, with nary a snide comment, but I can't say the same for the Oklahoma match-up (we are number 3, and while it is a funny list, I don't condone or agree with it).

...and also, Bobby Hauck, he sometimes runs practice too long, and that's not fair either.
Perhaps that quote came out of Delaware? In case you have missed this, there is a move afoot in the NCAA to deny Delaware the chance to host FCS playoff games in the future because of legalized sports gambling in that state. Well, University of Delaware officials pointed out that Montana hosts playoff games, and you can gamble on sports in that state too, so now the NCAA is looking into that. Of course, in Montana, the only legal sports gambling is on FANTASY leagues, as Bill Schwanke deftly points out in the ever interesting Griz Paw Blog.

For the Love of the Game...
Several former Bengals, including Atari Callen and Travis Hobson are playing with the Pocatello Predators, and the Idaho State Journal had a good take on these guys playing just to play (are they ever going to cover my hockey league?)

Coach Lewis!
Not Larry, Marvin....always good to read up on Marvin Lewis of the Cincinnati Bengals.

He Still Should Have Been Coach of the Year
Seton Sobolewski sat down with Tim Flagstad of the Journal for a Q&A, and while the paper only held so much, the full text was available on the Journal blog.

For a Uniform Geek Like Me....Yes, I'm Worried.
I understand the whole "it's only the WNBA" argument, but the Phoenix Mercury, er, Lifelock Lifelocks, is disturbing. Seriously, should a professional team in the United States be doing this? The Memphis men's basketball team last year took a whole lot of heat for even thinking about this, which considering how important FedEx is to Memphis (ever see Castaway?), that would at least have been understandable. But Lifelock? How long until the WNBA turns into this, this, or even this?

Now, the NFL is talking about some teams selling a small ad patch on their practice jerseys? Listen, the economy is bad, and I get that, but one of the charms of sports is the fact that, except in that rare pro occasion when a taem moves or changes nicknames, ala the Washington Wizards (nee Bullets), you know going to an Idaho State game that our jerseys will say Idaho State, or Bengals, or something like that. If you see a picture of a player from this school, well, you know...it says it. I mean, what team is this? Or this? But I know who this is, and this, and obviously this. Way too slippery a slope for me....OK, off the soapbox.

ISU Athletic Media Relations = National Trendsetters
Back on Earth Day (which doubles as my birthday doncha know), we released this little nugget of information. At the time, only Fresno State, many of the Metro-Atlantic Athletic Conference, and ISU had basically eliminated printing media guides. Well, this got a little more play in the media, followed by this, this, and now this, and now here is the list (compiled as of May 29 by Paul Smith of Arkansas-Monticello

SCHOOLS COMPLETELY ELIMINATING PRINTED MEDIA GUIDES

Austin Peay
Canisius
Eastern Washington
Fairfield
Fresno State
Idaho State
Iona
Loyola (Md.)
Manhattan
Marist
Michigan
Niagara
Ohio State
Rider
Saint Peter’s
Siena
Tennessee-Martin
Wisconsin

SCHOOLS ELIMINATING PRINT MEDIA GUIDES FOR CERTAIN NON-MEDIA SPORTS
California
Centenary (all but MBB/WBB as of five yrs ago, swimming/softball fund own guides, soccer parents buy 11x17 card)
Eastern Illinois (all but Football, MBB/WBB, volleyball)
Eastern Kentucky (will likely print football, MBB/WBB)
Georgetown (printing MBB, WBB, FB, Lax, Soccer)
IUPUI (all but basketball as of three yrs ago)
UMKC (all but MBB/WBB)
Murray State (plan to print football, MBB/WBB – up in air for other sports)
Oral Roberts (dropped soccer, track, cross country, golf several years ago – no further plans to drop guides)
SIU Edwardsville (will likely print for WBB/MBB, all others up in the air)
Tennessee Tech (all but Football, MBB/WBB, volleyball)
Western Illinois (tennis, track, swimming, golf)

SCHOOLS DISCUSSING ELIMINATING MEDIA GUIDES FOR CERTAIN NON-MEDIA SPORTS
South Dakota State (most likely affecting non-revenue sports, possibly including baseball, soccer, softball, volleyball – they will attempt to reduce number printed first without eliminating)

LEAGUES ELIMINATING PRINTED MEDIA GUIDES

ACC
Big Sky Conference
Big South Conference
Big Ten Conference
Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference
Missouri Valley Conference (printing only MBB/WBB, eliminating football, baseball, softball)
Ohio Valley Conference
Pac-10 (printing only football, volleyball, MBB/WBB)

....and we were at the forefront. Excuse me while I wipe a tear from my eye, especially for Dennis Dodd, who is taking it all rather hard.

...And For Good Measure It Rained Saturday Too

So when Idaho State defeated Utah back on Saturday night, December 6, when the game ended...I sorta had this blank expression, as if to say "holy crap...we just beat those guys". Everyone was happy, lots of hugs in the locker room, lots of giddy questions from reporters, more giddy answers from the players and coaches, but what I honestly thought about was this...I couldn't wait to go to church. I wanted all those people to pat me on the back...tell me they were there, and say what an awesome game it was. And they did, and it was good. That was a fun day for me.

Now, fast forward to this Sunday ... ummmmm ... I didn't want to go to church at all. I didn't want to hear all the snarky comments, and I didn't want the folks coming up to me saying they felt bad for me. While I would love to question the placement of the headline on Saturday's paper, or the fact that they used "End of the World" type (back when I was in Journalism class, anytime you used gigantic headline size for a story, it was considered "End of the World" type), I can't get mad at the paper. I can only get annoyed the people involved.

I'm writing all of this because I do read the Bengal Den, and I do hear things around town, and my wife hears it, and my kids hear it, and sometimes I think folks think we here at ISU don't mind these types of things when they occur. All I can tell you is my thoughts, both as an ISU employee, and as a resident of Pocatello. Both thoughts are the same ... I'm pissed.

I'm pissed because at ISU, there are about 250-300 student-athletes, and the actions of six student-athletes tarnishes the images of the others that do everything right, the ones that go to school, give back to the community, that want to stay in Pocatello and Southeast Idaho because they genuinely love it here.

I'm pissed because I get roped into it too. I purposely and proudly wore ISU gear on Saturday and Sunday because I am proud of our athletes, and our employees. Anyone working here will get looked at differently because of the last three incidents (even though everything was lumped together on Saturday, those were two separate incidents).

(Quick side note: I had someone come up to me Sunday and say how come this only happens with ISU and not in the high schools. I informed him that it does in fact happen, but they are all minors, so their names can't be in the paper ... remember, my kids went to high school here and know folks at all three ... I hear plenty).

I'm pissed because I want to see out athletes succeed. I want this town to be proud of ISU, and these things happen, and suddenly I hear things like "That's why I wear xxxxx gear instead of ISU". Of course, this stuff happens pretty much everywhere, but I digress.

I hate saying this, because in my position, you get to know these kids, and you learn to like them, but all those things have to be separated. I think the decision in the punishment was right, in that you do something like shoplifting, and you lose the privilege of playing sports and having a scholarship at ISU.

The timing of all this sucks by the way, in that this week is the start of the Bengal Foundation Fund Drive, and the Bennion Awards Banquet. Instead, this will hang like a dark cloud over it to a degree. It's hard to ask folks for money to support our program, to ask folks to spend their hard earned money on a ticket for a football game, to buy the shirts, to wear the hats, when a student-athlete comes out gets arrested for shoplifting, I get it ... it's like a slap in the face to our fans.

But remember too it's a slap in the face to the peers of these kids. Softball had an awesome season....they give back to the community. They go to class, they do the right things, but they are now dragged into this as well. Men's basketball has a great year, but now they are also guilty by association. Also, the football players...there's 80 guys that are doing the right things...they are reading at elementary schools, they are sacking potatoes with the food bank to help the needy, they are helping freshmen move into the dorms, but they also are labeled unfairly.

The football team's entire year of doing good things in our community should be ruined by a few pieces of Samsonite that decided to break the law, and are paying the price for it.

What our fans need to know and understand is that of the six student-athletes in the football program that have slipped up in the last three months, three have been dismissed from the program, scholarship revoked, and are gone. The others were suspended, and are now on probation, meaning they basically can't screw up again. They didn't run wind sprints. They didn't have to write an essay. They all faced a variety of serious punishments (and if you think a suspension isn't serious, think back to last basketball season when Austin Kilpatrick was suspended by coach O'Brien for violating a team rule, and think how long it took him to recover from that), and I think it's safe to say that these incidents are taken seriously by the man in charge in Jeff Tingey.

I haven't touched on Coach Key at all with this, and Cherokee's leave of absence ironically ended the same day that Kelvin called informing me that a person in the community sent him an email about it, along with the other kids (I'm guessing it was not a season ticket holder that emailed him). Key will have to carry this to any other coaching stop he goes to, and now has permanent baggage, so I think for a first offense, albeit a serious one, his punishment works. As a coach, you want to coach, and he couldn't, forcing a big shuffle among the coaches and players.

I will say this ... I personally don't drink (not a religious thing by the why, just a personal choice), and I haven't seen much good come out of it, so it's one of those lost things on me. I don't know Key's circumstances, but I know the statistics of it all. Drunk driving is serious, and you can go to Mothers Against Drunk Driving (M.A.D.D) to get all the statistics. Hopefully, he learns from it, and I hope the other six learn from their actions as well and become better people. I've made mistakes in my life and learned from them, and I'm sure if you've read this far, you have made them too, and learned from them as well. Any questions or comments can be left here, or you can email me at mercfran@isu.edu as well.

OK, on to other things.....
Who the heck is Carmen Harris?
Ever play table top sports games? I must confess, I still have a few, like All-Star Baseball, Talking Monday Night Football, and I'm dying to find this one. Someone apparently has their own updated card sets for Statis Pro Basketball with Idaho State's women's team for this year, complete with fake names, although you can figure out folks by the height. Nice.

They have numbers...
Evan Dietrich-Smith is #62, and D.J. Clark is #32 for the Panthers.

Holy cow....
...nuff said....wow.

Brandon Veltri Named Head Coach at Carroll
Former Doug Oliver graduate assistant Brandon Veltri is now the head man at Carroll College. This is noteworthy because he was the assistant coach and SPORTS INFORMATION DIRECTOR. Very cool.