SportsCenter was in town, going live from the bar/restaurant district on Fourth Street. The streets were hoppin'. You couldn't walk five feet without bumping into a LeBron jersey.
The Return was some kind of on in C-Town last night.
And so, of course, being C-Town, it came with a bitter pill.
Final score in The Return, aka the Cleveland Cavaliers' home opener: Knicks 95, Cavs 90.
The Returnee's line: 17 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 8 turnovers. Five-of-15 shooting.
And so it was a totally C-Town night, great anticipation followed swiftly by the ritual Deflating of the Balloon. LeBron was awful. The Cavs weren't much better than awful. Same song, different decade.
But you know what?
It's the NBA. It's October. Don't put the Zippo to those LeBron jerseys yet.
Six or eight or 10 years from now, when the NBA Finals finally start and the Cavs are in them, no one will remember what happened last night. It'll be archives, baby. It'll be as distant a memory as the French and Indian War, because, let's face it, the NBA season lasts longer than the French and Indian War.
Which means pretty much everything eventually becomes a distant memory.
So never fear, C-Town. Someday it will be June. The Browns will be embarking on their 43rd consecutive rebuilding year. The Indians will be in third, eight games out. And the Cavs probably will be in the NBA Finals, but then again, they might not be.
In other words: The Return will be complete. The Return to Normalcy, that is.
Friday, October 31, 2014
Thursday, October 30, 2014
A Bum's rush
Conventional wisdom died a pitch at a time, out there on the suddenly lonesome prairie.
Aoki flew out to left, and that was one wound.
Cain went down swinging, and that was another wound.
Someone else grounded to second or flew out to right or tapped one back to the mound, and suddenly conventional wisdom was bleeding in a dozen places, and a stadium painted every shade of blue was blue in fact.
The numbers have already been bronzed, the morning after Madison Bumgarner and the Giants hacked conventional wisdom to death: Five innings, two hits, four strikeouts, zero walks. Sixty-eight pitches. Fifty for strikes.
A mortal simply doesn't do that sort of thing, not on three days' rest. But Bumgarner hasn't been mortal for more than a month, starting that day in Pittsburgh when he silenced the raucous Pirates 8-0 and started the Giants on the road to last night, when they beat the Royals 3-2 in Kansas City in Game 7 to win their third World Series in five years.
Bumgarner was both the clear MVP and the standard bearer for the narrative, which needed Jack Buck to return from the grave and utter again his immortal line: "I can't believe what I just saw!"
Because, really, who could believe it? Five innings of impeccable relief three days after he pitched a nine-inning, four-hit shutout to give the Giants a 3-2 Series lead? The Giants themselves bucking history -- before last night, they were 0-4 in winner-take-all World Series games -- to win yet again?
Conventional wisdom was K.C.'s best bud coming in, given those numbers. Conventional wisdom said if they forced Game 7 you could stick a righteous fork in the Giants, because no way were the Royals gonna lose the first World Series Game 7 in Kaufmann Stadium in 29 years. No way was Bumgarner gonna have anything close to his best stuff if the Giants had to call on him, because conventional wisdom had seen this movie before -- the ace being called upon on short rest -- and it hardly ever went well.
And then Bumgarner retired the Royals in the fifth. And then he did it in the sixth. And then he did it in the seventh and eighth, and suddenly it was the ninth inning, and he was still out there throwing strikes.
Five innings, two hits, four strikeouts, zero walks. Fifty strikes in 68 pitches.
We are given to hyperbole these days, especially in sports, because 24/7/365 media has killed context. And that's because the people running the 24/7/365 media have no context, believing as they do that nothing that happened more than five minutes ago has any relevance to anything.
Well. I do have that context, being a charter member of the Get-Off-My-Lawn-You-Damn-Kids brigade. And what I say is if Bumgarner's performance last night doesn't go up there on the shelf with the greatest World Series performances of all time, then nothing belongs on that shelf.
He killed conventional wisdom, in the process elevating a generally unremarkable Giants team into what passes for a dynasty in 2014. Because three titles in five years qualifies you in these days of parity, no matter what anyone says.
Speaking, you know, of conventional wisdom.
Aoki flew out to left, and that was one wound.
Cain went down swinging, and that was another wound.
Someone else grounded to second or flew out to right or tapped one back to the mound, and suddenly conventional wisdom was bleeding in a dozen places, and a stadium painted every shade of blue was blue in fact.
The numbers have already been bronzed, the morning after Madison Bumgarner and the Giants hacked conventional wisdom to death: Five innings, two hits, four strikeouts, zero walks. Sixty-eight pitches. Fifty for strikes.
A mortal simply doesn't do that sort of thing, not on three days' rest. But Bumgarner hasn't been mortal for more than a month, starting that day in Pittsburgh when he silenced the raucous Pirates 8-0 and started the Giants on the road to last night, when they beat the Royals 3-2 in Kansas City in Game 7 to win their third World Series in five years.
Bumgarner was both the clear MVP and the standard bearer for the narrative, which needed Jack Buck to return from the grave and utter again his immortal line: "I can't believe what I just saw!"
Because, really, who could believe it? Five innings of impeccable relief three days after he pitched a nine-inning, four-hit shutout to give the Giants a 3-2 Series lead? The Giants themselves bucking history -- before last night, they were 0-4 in winner-take-all World Series games -- to win yet again?
Conventional wisdom was K.C.'s best bud coming in, given those numbers. Conventional wisdom said if they forced Game 7 you could stick a righteous fork in the Giants, because no way were the Royals gonna lose the first World Series Game 7 in Kaufmann Stadium in 29 years. No way was Bumgarner gonna have anything close to his best stuff if the Giants had to call on him, because conventional wisdom had seen this movie before -- the ace being called upon on short rest -- and it hardly ever went well.
And then Bumgarner retired the Royals in the fifth. And then he did it in the sixth. And then he did it in the seventh and eighth, and suddenly it was the ninth inning, and he was still out there throwing strikes.
Five innings, two hits, four strikeouts, zero walks. Fifty strikes in 68 pitches.
We are given to hyperbole these days, especially in sports, because 24/7/365 media has killed context. And that's because the people running the 24/7/365 media have no context, believing as they do that nothing that happened more than five minutes ago has any relevance to anything.
Well. I do have that context, being a charter member of the Get-Off-My-Lawn-You-Damn-Kids brigade. And what I say is if Bumgarner's performance last night doesn't go up there on the shelf with the greatest World Series performances of all time, then nothing belongs on that shelf.
He killed conventional wisdom, in the process elevating a generally unremarkable Giants team into what passes for a dynasty in 2014. Because three titles in five years qualifies you in these days of parity, no matter what anyone says.
Speaking, you know, of conventional wisdom.
Wednesday, October 29, 2014
Your playoff scenario for today, real version
Wednesday morning and I can still hear the howling, even through double-pane windows from 100 miles away.
No one in the general vicinity of Knute Rockne and the rest of the statuary can possibly be happy about the first college playoff poll, which was rolled out to great fanfare last night.
Notre Dame came in 10th.
Which means the Fighting Irish's chances of getting into the four-team playoff just went from sorta-good to damn-near-invisible.
This is because the playoff poll is not your traditional poll, in the sense that it doesn't react to the immediate. It's big picture rather than what happened yesterday -- and that's why, for instance, Ole Miss made the top four even after losing at LSU on Saturday night.
The body of work clearly is everything here, which is why Notre Dame, No. 6 in the Associated Press poll, was four rungs below that. Yes, the performance against Florida State was impressive, a mere flutter of official laundry away from a signature W. But dreary wins over the dreary likes of Purdue and North Carolina took some of the blush off that rose, and so ... 10th.
Behind, yes, Mississippi State, Florida State, Auburn and Ole Miss, the current Big Four. But also behind, say, TCU (No. 7), which likely won't sit well with the faithful.
Are the Horned Frogs better? Is Kansas State (No. 9) or Michigan State (No. 8)?
Beats me. All I know is, the committee is going by resumes here, and Notre Dame's clearly didn't measure up for them. If the Irish have a signature win -- Florida State was more a signature loss, if there can be such a thing -- it's probably Stanford. And in that one, at home, the Irish needed a miracle in the final minute to avoid a loss.
And yet ... is that less impressive than TCU's four-point win over Oklahoma, or Kansas State's one-point win over the Sooners? Is it less impressive than Michigan State's five-point win over Nebraska in a depleted Big Ten? And if you're going big picture, outside of Rice, are you gonna find a Stephen F. Austin or UTEP on Notre Dame's schedule? Or a Jacksonville State, Eastern Michigan or Wyoming?
The former are two of Kansas State's wins. The latter are three of Michigan State's.
And yet, Notre Dame will have to climb over both to get to the playoff. Life just ain't fair -- although, at the risk of provoking more howls from South Bend, it's generally a lot more fair to the Irish than it is to most people.
So maybe this is just karma.
And maybe, just maybe, the Irish can pull it off anyway. Michigan State is a good bet right now to get home as a one-loss team, but Kansas State and TCU still have to play each other. So do Ole Miss and Mississippi State. So do Auburn and Alabama, and Auburn and Ole Miss, and 'Bama and Mississippi State.
If the Irish run the table -- a big if -- they'll surely move up. Just how high, though, remains to be seen, especially with Michigan State and Oregon (No. 5) unlikely to lose again.
Expect Domer Nation to become Buckeye Nation when Ohio State plays Michigan State on Nov. 8. And expect it to become Cardinal Nation when Stanford goes up to Eugene to play the Ducks on Saturday.
Otherwise ... expect more howling.
No one in the general vicinity of Knute Rockne and the rest of the statuary can possibly be happy about the first college playoff poll, which was rolled out to great fanfare last night.
Notre Dame came in 10th.
Which means the Fighting Irish's chances of getting into the four-team playoff just went from sorta-good to damn-near-invisible.
This is because the playoff poll is not your traditional poll, in the sense that it doesn't react to the immediate. It's big picture rather than what happened yesterday -- and that's why, for instance, Ole Miss made the top four even after losing at LSU on Saturday night.
The body of work clearly is everything here, which is why Notre Dame, No. 6 in the Associated Press poll, was four rungs below that. Yes, the performance against Florida State was impressive, a mere flutter of official laundry away from a signature W. But dreary wins over the dreary likes of Purdue and North Carolina took some of the blush off that rose, and so ... 10th.
Behind, yes, Mississippi State, Florida State, Auburn and Ole Miss, the current Big Four. But also behind, say, TCU (No. 7), which likely won't sit well with the faithful.
Are the Horned Frogs better? Is Kansas State (No. 9) or Michigan State (No. 8)?
Beats me. All I know is, the committee is going by resumes here, and Notre Dame's clearly didn't measure up for them. If the Irish have a signature win -- Florida State was more a signature loss, if there can be such a thing -- it's probably Stanford. And in that one, at home, the Irish needed a miracle in the final minute to avoid a loss.
And yet ... is that less impressive than TCU's four-point win over Oklahoma, or Kansas State's one-point win over the Sooners? Is it less impressive than Michigan State's five-point win over Nebraska in a depleted Big Ten? And if you're going big picture, outside of Rice, are you gonna find a Stephen F. Austin or UTEP on Notre Dame's schedule? Or a Jacksonville State, Eastern Michigan or Wyoming?
The former are two of Kansas State's wins. The latter are three of Michigan State's.
And yet, Notre Dame will have to climb over both to get to the playoff. Life just ain't fair -- although, at the risk of provoking more howls from South Bend, it's generally a lot more fair to the Irish than it is to most people.
So maybe this is just karma.
And maybe, just maybe, the Irish can pull it off anyway. Michigan State is a good bet right now to get home as a one-loss team, but Kansas State and TCU still have to play each other. So do Ole Miss and Mississippi State. So do Auburn and Alabama, and Auburn and Ole Miss, and 'Bama and Mississippi State.
If the Irish run the table -- a big if -- they'll surely move up. Just how high, though, remains to be seen, especially with Michigan State and Oregon (No. 5) unlikely to lose again.
Expect Domer Nation to become Buckeye Nation when Ohio State plays Michigan State on Nov. 8. And expect it to become Cardinal Nation when Stanford goes up to Eugene to play the Ducks on Saturday.
Otherwise ... expect more howling.
Monday, October 27, 2014
A few brief thoughts on NFL Week 8
And now this week's installment of the chronically overlooked Blob feature, The NFL In So Many Words:
1. It's Tuesday morning and Ben Roethlisberger just threw another touchdown pass.
2. Aaaand another.
3. Aaaand, what the heck, let's make it one more.
4. Hey, look, everyone, it's Jimmy Garaoppolo!
5. ... watching Tom Brady, clinging to the last frayed remnants of his fading career, engineer a paltry 51 points for the hopelessly obsolete Patriots, who once again failed spectacularly to lose.
6. Speaking of which, the Bears are not in disarray. Reliable sources indicate they are simply making a temporary course correction to avoid an onrushing iceber--
7. This just in: Peyton Manning 1, Scoreboard Operator 0.
8. This just in, Part Deux: Manning 1, Fun 0.
9. Hey, didn't you used to be Blaine Gabbert?
10. Oh, wait, it's Cam Newton. Our bad.
1. It's Tuesday morning and Ben Roethlisberger just threw another touchdown pass.
2. Aaaand another.
3. Aaaand, what the heck, let's make it one more.
4. Hey, look, everyone, it's Jimmy Garaoppolo!
5. ... watching Tom Brady, clinging to the last frayed remnants of his fading career, engineer a paltry 51 points for the hopelessly obsolete Patriots, who once again failed spectacularly to lose.
6. Speaking of which, the Bears are not in disarray. Reliable sources indicate they are simply making a temporary course correction to avoid an onrushing iceber--
7. This just in: Peyton Manning 1, Scoreboard Operator 0.
8. This just in, Part Deux: Manning 1, Fun 0.
9. Hey, didn't you used to be Blaine Gabbert?
10. Oh, wait, it's Cam Newton. Our bad.
Cougar in need
I once saw Doug Wasylk hurdle a guy like Edwin Moses.
It was out there among the corn and bean fields at Heritage High School, and Wasylk, the lineal descendent to Brandon Robinson and a brace of other great Heritage backs, had slalomed through the line of scrimmage and was headed in full cry, if memory serves, down the sideline. A DB came over, lowering his head for the impact.
Wasylk cleared him without even breaking stride.
I say this as a demonstration of the young man's talent, which he took with him to the University of Saint Francis, where he stuck his hard nose into the pile for Kevin Donley for four years. And I say it because there are some things in this unjust world that a hard nose and talent simply don't enable you to sail over cleanly.
The worst of those happened to Wasylk not long ago, when his wife, Elise, gave birth to the couple's first child, a boy they named Tucker Dean. Great joy was almost immediately followed by incomprehensible sorrow, however, when Elise died.
So send a few prayers the family's way, if you would. And if you're inclined to do more than that, here's a link to a website that's been set up to help relieve the family's financial burden: http://www.gofundme.com/gbgv74
Dig deep.
It was out there among the corn and bean fields at Heritage High School, and Wasylk, the lineal descendent to Brandon Robinson and a brace of other great Heritage backs, had slalomed through the line of scrimmage and was headed in full cry, if memory serves, down the sideline. A DB came over, lowering his head for the impact.
Wasylk cleared him without even breaking stride.
I say this as a demonstration of the young man's talent, which he took with him to the University of Saint Francis, where he stuck his hard nose into the pile for Kevin Donley for four years. And I say it because there are some things in this unjust world that a hard nose and talent simply don't enable you to sail over cleanly.
The worst of those happened to Wasylk not long ago, when his wife, Elise, gave birth to the couple's first child, a boy they named Tucker Dean. Great joy was almost immediately followed by incomprehensible sorrow, however, when Elise died.
So send a few prayers the family's way, if you would. And if you're inclined to do more than that, here's a link to a website that's been set up to help relieve the family's financial burden: http://www.gofundme.com/gbgv74
Dig deep.
Your playoff scenario for today, ND version
You never want to commit Sports Land heresy and say a loss is as good as a win. So that's why I'm going to go ahead and say it.
You know that 31-27 loss Florida State and the zebras handed Notre Dame last week?
That really might turn out to be as good as a win.
That's because even in losing, the Irish proved they belong. And not just "We beat a bunch of Purdues and Rices" belong, but belong-belong.
It is, after all, undeniable that what I saw and what the country saw the night of the Florida State game was a team that can compete with the elites. Notre Dame played the defending national champions off their feet, even dominated them for long stretches. In so doing, it demonstrated that this is not 2012, when the Irish looked unbeatable until they ran up against actual athletes.
The Irish have athletes themselves now, especially at the skill positions. And what that tells me is they have a better-than-even shot at running the table the rest of the way, and if they run the table the rest of the way, they'll be in the four-team playoff. And will deserve to be there.
I've been looking at the polls, see, and the potential for Notre Dame to crack the top four simply by default is significant. Already, Ole Miss' loss to LSU bumped the Irish from 7th to 6th in the AP poll in a week they didn't even play. And of the five teams ahead of them, three of them -- Alabama, Auburn and Mississippi State -- play one another. So at least two and possibly all three stand to drop a few rungs before it's all said and done.
Which means an 11-1 Notre Dame team slides right in there.
Of course, the Irish do have to finish 11-1. But only one ranked team (Arizona State at 15) remains on their schedule. Two more unranked opponents (Louisville and USC) will be dangerous but beatable. So this not only could happen, it's leaning perilously toward should happen.
And all because of one lost-but-not-really-lost night in Tallahassee.
You know that 31-27 loss Florida State and the zebras handed Notre Dame last week?
That really might turn out to be as good as a win.
That's because even in losing, the Irish proved they belong. And not just "We beat a bunch of Purdues and Rices" belong, but belong-belong.
It is, after all, undeniable that what I saw and what the country saw the night of the Florida State game was a team that can compete with the elites. Notre Dame played the defending national champions off their feet, even dominated them for long stretches. In so doing, it demonstrated that this is not 2012, when the Irish looked unbeatable until they ran up against actual athletes.
The Irish have athletes themselves now, especially at the skill positions. And what that tells me is they have a better-than-even shot at running the table the rest of the way, and if they run the table the rest of the way, they'll be in the four-team playoff. And will deserve to be there.
I've been looking at the polls, see, and the potential for Notre Dame to crack the top four simply by default is significant. Already, Ole Miss' loss to LSU bumped the Irish from 7th to 6th in the AP poll in a week they didn't even play. And of the five teams ahead of them, three of them -- Alabama, Auburn and Mississippi State -- play one another. So at least two and possibly all three stand to drop a few rungs before it's all said and done.
Which means an 11-1 Notre Dame team slides right in there.
Of course, the Irish do have to finish 11-1. But only one ranked team (Arizona State at 15) remains on their schedule. Two more unranked opponents (Louisville and USC) will be dangerous but beatable. So this not only could happen, it's leaning perilously toward should happen.
And all because of one lost-but-not-really-lost night in Tallahassee.
Saturday, October 25, 2014
Paper classes, paper deniability
This is not a story about what a man knew and when he knew it. It's about what he chose to know and when he chose to know it -- and, more to the point, what he chose not to know.
North Carolina basketball coach Roy Williams claims to be "dumbfounded" by the 136 players out of his program that at one time were taking sham classes in the school's African-American Studies department. He claims to have noticed how many of his players were majoring in African-American Studies, and to have expressed his concern. But he also claims not to have known anything was fishy about it until an academic counselor for the team, Wayne Walden, became suspicious.
Here's what I think: I think Roy Williams is no different than any other CEO coach in any of the nation's corporate college basketball or football programs.
I think their interest in their athletes' academic situations begins and ends with whether or not they're eligible and whether or not they're making progress toward some sort of "degree." Beyond that, their interest in how the academic sausage gets made is minimal. And that's precisely so they can be seen to be above the fray when an academic scandal breaks out.
As they have since time immemorial.
Let's be crystal about this: Nothing that apparently happened at North Carolina is new or unique to North Carolina. It's an old and time-honored scam that's been going on at collegiate football and basketball mills pretty much forever. Go back 30, 40, 50 years, and you'll find stud athletes being steered into Underwater Basket-Weaving 101 and Theory of the Jumpshot 205 on a regular basis.
Hell, Music Appreciation was pretty much invented as a way to keep 1,000-yard rushers eligible. And 40 years ago, I took an entry-level geology course at Ball State that went by a more common name: Rocks For Jocks.
So it's been going on forever, and so has Coach's deliberate distancing from the process. It's called plausible deniability, and these guys wear it like armor.
Not that not knowing excuses Roy Williams from culpability. The argument will be made, and it's a good one, that he should have known, because it's his program. And that if he didn't know, perhaps the program needs to find someone who's a little more ... connected.
I'm not saying that's going to happen. But given the intensity these days of 24/7/365 media scrutiny, ol' Roy might want to think about gussying up his resume. Because the heat's only begun.
Williams can claim to be as "dumbfounded" as he likes. But in the long run, that's not a defense.
It's an indictment.
North Carolina basketball coach Roy Williams claims to be "dumbfounded" by the 136 players out of his program that at one time were taking sham classes in the school's African-American Studies department. He claims to have noticed how many of his players were majoring in African-American Studies, and to have expressed his concern. But he also claims not to have known anything was fishy about it until an academic counselor for the team, Wayne Walden, became suspicious.
Here's what I think: I think Roy Williams is no different than any other CEO coach in any of the nation's corporate college basketball or football programs.
I think their interest in their athletes' academic situations begins and ends with whether or not they're eligible and whether or not they're making progress toward some sort of "degree." Beyond that, their interest in how the academic sausage gets made is minimal. And that's precisely so they can be seen to be above the fray when an academic scandal breaks out.
As they have since time immemorial.
Let's be crystal about this: Nothing that apparently happened at North Carolina is new or unique to North Carolina. It's an old and time-honored scam that's been going on at collegiate football and basketball mills pretty much forever. Go back 30, 40, 50 years, and you'll find stud athletes being steered into Underwater Basket-Weaving 101 and Theory of the Jumpshot 205 on a regular basis.
Hell, Music Appreciation was pretty much invented as a way to keep 1,000-yard rushers eligible. And 40 years ago, I took an entry-level geology course at Ball State that went by a more common name: Rocks For Jocks.
So it's been going on forever, and so has Coach's deliberate distancing from the process. It's called plausible deniability, and these guys wear it like armor.
Not that not knowing excuses Roy Williams from culpability. The argument will be made, and it's a good one, that he should have known, because it's his program. And that if he didn't know, perhaps the program needs to find someone who's a little more ... connected.
I'm not saying that's going to happen. But given the intensity these days of 24/7/365 media scrutiny, ol' Roy might want to think about gussying up his resume. Because the heat's only begun.
Williams can claim to be as "dumbfounded" as he likes. But in the long run, that's not a defense.
It's an indictment.
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