 - Bryce Harper - Word came out this week that high school sophomore Bryce Harper is going to grab his GED real quick like and head to community college so that he can be drafted sooner. My opinion on this is going to contradict what I think about the NBA Draft but I really have no problem with what Harper is doing. MLB has a minor league system set up that will weed out the bad talent and keep the good. In that sense, the talent level in MLB won't be changed.
Now, if all sorts of kids start pulling this prank we might have something to keep an eye on. Personally, I don't worry about kids losing their childhood because they are running all over the country playing in AAU games anyways. My worry is that major colleges will begin losing some of their recruits, thus making the College World Series worse. I love the CWS so really this is a selfish reason on my part.
- U.S. Open - It's going to be all Tiger, all the time....well except for the first two rounds. The ability of Michael Jordan to take over the second half of games has been passed on to Tiger Woods taking over the final two rounds of any golf tournament he enters. The guy is good. Some people might want Phil Mickelson to win but it's going to be really tough to play with a clear mind with all the off the course stuff he's dealing with.
- Shaquille O'Neal to the Cavs - This would be the worst thing to happen to the Cavs since the MJ shot they choked against Orlando. They don't need to slow down their offense with a plodding dinosaur, they need to speed things up. The Cavs have the best athlete in the NBA and too many times they are walking the ball up the court. They need to get bigger in the backcourt, too. I'm not sure who they can trade for just yet but they'd be a lot better off with Delonte West coming off the bench. Maybe they could figure out a way to get Vince Carter, he still plays shooting guard, right? Maybe they could get a Von Wafer-type player to fill the hole for cheap.
- College World Series - Is anyone else bothered by the fact that there isn't a single pitcher throwing 95+ at the CWS? Where do all of these flame throwers come from if not from college? With the amount of soft throwing left-handed relievers I've seen so far, I know what I'm doing if I ever have a son.
Also, did anyone else see that NCAA Division I college baseball teams only get like 11.5 scholarships per season? Logic tells me that this keeps most elite programs from signing anyone from too far away unless they are a major prospect since the in-state student could more easily find a way to finance the rest of their tuition. This leaves kids in the Midwest out in the cold.
Look for Texas and LSU to battle it out in the Championship Round although the Texas/UNC match-up might be the true championship game.
- Bears Moving to Romeoville - I don't know exactly how TLD and I ended up in Romeoville but we did. First we have to deal with the kids (One left their bike in our driveway yesterday and TLD put it in the street!) and now I might have to deal with Jay Cutler, Tommy Harris and Brian Urlacher? This truly might force us to move.
- Cubs/White Sox - Well, it looks like they'll get maybe one game in this week and John Danks sure did pitch a gem yesterday as the White Sox took advantage of some Cubs miscues and won 4-1. I actually like Danks a lot and I have him on like three fantasy teams so this really didn't bother me too much. He had a rough stretch that ended a couple of weeks ago but he's a quality lefty that I could see having a magical season at some point in his career. I have to applaud the way the White Sox have brought him along so far in his career.
As for the Cubs....what can you say that hasn't been said already about this team? Lou says he's going to 'shake up the lineup' now but I don't know what he's been waiting for. The starting pitching is solid but it's tough to win when you've scored only 17 runs in the last 7 games. Alfonso Soriano looks all around horrible and it's tough to see Jake Fox get only one at-bat a game when he hits the ball hard like he's been doing. Aaron Miles is worthless and Geovony Soto still looks fat. I think that sums it up.
- Father's Day - The celebration of Dad's is Sunday so don't forget....
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2008 Cubs Preview
If you just realized this week that Sammy Sosa was using PED's while with the Cubs then you are not just dumb but you are a bad human being. This is not new news and really, this isn't news to anyone with an IQ higher than 42. I'll even go a step further and say that anyone who liked Sosa as a player was borderline retarded.
I'm not sure what happened to the font there....
Tow things are at hand with the limited scholarship awards to baseball teams. #1 is the economic impact of football and basketball programs. Both are considered the big draws for schools in terms of boosters and outside income so both programs receive a majority of the scholarships. Think about how many people are on a football team as compared to something else and how many guys you have to have tied down by scholarship to keep your depth up. #2 is Title 9. Women's sports are supposed to be given their due by Title 9, and that means sports with short roster involvement, low attendance, and low overall participation may get more attention than baseball. For each scholarship you give up on your baseball team you get a girl on a diving team, a few lacrosse players, or some such. Nature of the beast I am afraid. I think we ought to do away with athletic scholarships all together.
Yeah, I understand how that all works, although I didn't realize how few schollies they rec'd, but it just seems like a big letdown for kids in the Midwest. Not that Big Ten/MAC/etc. schools aren't good schools to attend but the kids really have no chance to attend an elite baseball institution in the PAC-10/ACC/SEC unless they are a top notch prospect. Almost makes me want to open up a PO BOX in those states early to establish residency.
If the athletes got paid cash instead of getting scholarships I could see doing away with them. They do provide income and status to the university so they should be compensated in some way.
I don't deny they need to be compensated somewhat, but the level of scholarship on most D1 football and basketball teams is embarassing for our academic system, especially when compared to that of female student-athletes. What level of compesation is debatable, though. Free food? Books? Right now they get tuition, housing, chow, books, stipend, and tutors free of charge. God knows what else.
I think the athletic system and the academic system are two completely different areas in most D1 schools. Schools are out to make money with sports and in order to do that they need to get the kids in there with scholarships.
Instead of food/books/etc. give them a slice of the cash the university picks up every year. I'm not a fan of how the whole university 'athletic' system works to begin with.
My main point was just that with so few scholarhips there are a lot of kids missed from the midwest when it comes to recruiting in baseball.
Bruce...Title IX...same amount of male to female scholarships. That is why schools have cut so many men's sports.
IUPUI doesn't have a baseball team anymore because of the scale.
GM, I know, did I say something that didn't make sense? If I did let me know so I can clarify myself.
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