The Sky Is Falling!

The Brewers are allowed to lose a game once in a while.

You might not have thought that after Tuesday night’s loss to the hated St. Louis Cardinals, who now trail the Brewers by a scant 9 ½ games in the NL-Central with a whopping 26 left to play.

Yes, there were some missed opportunities, but that’s part of baseball.

Back to back errors in the fifth inning by Prince Fielder and Jerry Hairston opened the door for the only two runs St. Louis would score off of Brewers starter Shaun Marcum (11-5), who deserved a better fate. St. Louis righthander Edwin Jackson showed why he was such an important deadline addition for the Cardinals, scattering six hits and surrendering just one earned run over seven innings.

Aside from the defensive meltdown in the fifth inning, there were questions as to why the Brewers bunted Yuniesky Betancourt with no outs and runners at first and second in the bottom of the ninth. Betancourt has yet to successfully sacrifice this season, and Albert Pujols and Daniel Descalso were pinching in halfway up the first and third base lines, respectively. It was a play that had no chance to be successful, especially considering the less than fleet-of-foot Prince Felder was on second base at the time.

One of two things should have happened: Either Craig Counsell should have pinch hit the bunt or Betancourt should have been allowed to swing away with the corners cheating up the line 50 feet.

The other area of fan unhappiness seems to be that rookie Taylor Green has yet to be used. Tuesday night, some fans were clamoring for the talented-but unproven third baseman to make his major league debut in the ninth inning instead of Mark Kotsay.

First of all, Kotsay has a pair of walk-off hits in the last two months, and has ten overall for his career. He has been one of the best clutch players off the bench for the Brewers this season, and he has been through countless major league pressure situations.

Taylor Green has never had a major league at-bat.

The problem is that Kotsay hit into a double play, bringing out from behind the bushes the naysayers who think they can manage a baseball team better than the guy that is in the dugout. While I think it is legitimate to question strategy and even player substitutions, the notion that Ron Roenicke somehow lost this game for the Brewers is absurd.

The Brewers are now 81-55, which is the fourth-best record in all of baseball. With a 9 ½ game lead, they are virtually assured of making the playoffs, and will win their first division title in 29 years. There are 26 games left, and the Brewers certainly will lose some of them.

It is Brewers fans’ nature to be pessimistic. This a team afterall that has a history of wilting in September. It is understandable that some are not yet convinced that the Brewers will see October. Even in 2008, with a 4 ½ game lead over the Mets in the wild card on September 1, the Brewers bats went ice cold. Over the next two and a half weeks, they lost 13 of 17 games, fired manager Ned Yost, and fell behind New York in the wild card race.

Of course after that September swoon, the Brewers got back in front of the Mets on the season’s final day, the collective 26 years of postseason failure exploding in a euphoric champagne soaking of everyone that stuck around at Miller Park.

This year, things are different. The Brewers have been the best team in baseball since the All Star Break. They hold an insurmountable lead over a team that has horrifically underachieved in the last three seasons. The Brewers are on pace to win 96 games this season, which would be a franchise record. Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun are both legitimate MVP candidates. Ron Roenicke is one of the two leading candidates for Manager of the Year (Arizona’s Kirk Gibson is the other).

While one game made the difference in 2008, this will not be the case in 2011. If the Brewers do win 96 games, as they are on pace to do, that means they still will lose 11 more times. I know it is agonizing considering the Brewers history, but the team that Doug Melvin and his remarkable staff have put together is the real deal. One game lost, even to St. Louis, is not going to make or break this season. Not at this stage of the year.

Remember: This is supposed to be fun.

What's In a Number?

4, 19, 34, 42, 44

1, 2, 4, 14, 16, 32, 33

3, 4, 14, 15, 66, 92

Powerball numbers? A bingo card?

Nope. Hard-core Wisconsin sports fans will instantly recognize what these numbers represent. Sports historians will see the number 66 and know that it can only be in reference to the great Ray Nitschke. Bucks fans see number 33 and think sky-hook. Number 19 can only be The Kid rapping out his 3,000^th hit off of Jose Mesa on a solid single to right.

These are the retired numbers of our professional sports teams. In order:

Brewers: Molitor, Yount, Fingers, Robinson (MLB-wide), Aaron

Bucks: Robertson, Bridgeman, Moncrief, McGlocklin, Lanier, Winters, Abdul-Jabbar

Packers: Canadeo, Favre (date TBD), Hutson, Starr, Nitschke, White

They are legends. Some are enshrined in their respective sport’s hall of fame, some, notably when the Bucks were fairly liberal with their criteria, are not.

The first number to ever be retired seems to be Lou Gehrig’s No. 4 in 1940 by the New York Yankees. Since then it has become individual team’s highest honor. While most retirements are fitting, others border on the absurd. Michael Jordan never played for the Miami Heat, yet his No. 23 hangs from the rafters at American Airlines Arena, for example.

Jeremy Guthrie is trying to decide whether or not his number should be retired. When Guthrie first joined the Baltimore Orioles in 2007, he was assigned uniform number 46. For 15 years that same number belonged to 1979 Cy Young Award winner Mike Flanagan, a fan favorite in Baltimore who spent more than a quarter-century with the team as a player, executive, and broadcaster.

Flanagan killed himself last week, reportedly distraught over his role in the Orioles plummeting from respectability over the course of the last decade. Since his death, fans and friends alike have been dumbfounded over the demise of someone they thought they had known well.

As for Guthrie himself, he is torn as to what his uniform number represents and whether or not he should continue to wear it. “I really just want to do what people would view as the most respectful to honor him and his memory and what he did for the Orioles,” Guthrie told the Baltimore Sun. “I’ve seen a lot of fan reaction, just through communications. Some say continue to wear it, wear it with pride. There’s also been some sentiment that you can put the number away in his honor. It’s such an emotional situation. … Whatever people think would be the right thing is probably the best thing.”

The Orioles, like the Brewers, only officially retire numbers of players that make it to the Hall of Fame. While Mike Flanagan was a very good pitcher, his numbers are far short of Cooperstown. The Orioles, like the Brewers, are well-intentioned, but horribly misguided in their enforcement of this ridiculous policy.

Even though the Orioles have not officially retired the numbers of fan favorites Cal Ripken, Sr. and Elrod Hendricks, their numbers are being held what amounts to baseball purgatory. Neither late Oriole will ever have their number re-issued, but neither is officially retired either.

Huh?

In Baltimore, the numbers of Earl Weaver, Brooks Robinson, Cal Ripken, Jr., Jim Palmer, Frank Robinson, and Eddie Murray are retired. It’s a spectacular list, certainly, but there is no reason that a fan favorite like Flanagan (and Ripken, Sr., and Hendricks, for that matter) shouldn’t be up there as well. My suspicion is that Guthrie will be wearing a new number in the very near future, which would seem to be in line with Orioles fans desires.

Likewise, here in Milwaukee, there is no reason a player like Jim Gantner shouldn’t be honored by having his No. 17 hung from the outfield wall.

Gantner spent all 17 (fittingly enough) of his major league seasons with the Brewers, anchoring second base for a team-record 1,449 games. His numbers fall far short of Cooperstown, but he did far more for the Brewers than half of the players that do have their numbers hanging in perpetual honor.

In his first year with the Brewers, Rollie Fingers won the 1981 Cy Young and MVP Awards, leading the Brewers to their first-ever postseason berth. However, injuries and age took their toll sooner rather than later, and he was finished by 1985, spending just four years in Milwaukee, but earning the distinction of having his No. 34 retired by the club.

Henry Aaron is one of the singular greatest baseball players ever. I have no issue with his No. 44’s retirement, but only for what he did while a Milwaukee Brave. However, by that same token, Eddie Mathews and Warren Spahn should also have their numbers retired as well. The Brewers will argue that Aaron did actually play for them, while Mathews and Spahn did not. However, to say that Aaron’s best days were behind him is quite the understatement. In two seasons as the Brewers designated hitter, Aaron hit just .232 with 22 home runs and 95 RBI’s. He was playing out the string of his marvelous career.

Both Fingers and Aaron of course were better players. But Jim Gantner was a far better Brewer.

Using the same litmus test they have used in the past, it’s a wonder that Don Sutton’s No. 21 (then 20 after Gorman Thomas was traded) isn’t retired. Will Trevor Hoffman’s No. 51 be retired then as well? If CC Sabathia becomes a Hall of Famer, will the Brewers retire his No. 52?

There is a reason that not all rules are steadfast. Just as this never should have been an issue in Baltimore with Mike Flanagan and Jeremy Guthrie, this should never become an issue in places where a number that hasn’t been issued for 20 was a good but not great fan favorite. Sometimes policies have to be bent. Not to the extent where the Bucks were retiring numbers in the 1980’s, but a special exception for extenuating circumstances.

Jim Gantner, a Wisconsin native, played the game the right way. Gantner got the most out of his ability and has continued to give back to the Brewers as a coach, first on a full-time basis, then in a part-time role. He has managed young players in the Northwoods League, while never forgetting his roots. This is honorable, and should be recognized.

There is a reason the Brewers have never re-issued No. 17. There is a reason the Orioles won’t ever re-issue No’s. 7 and 44. They shouldn’t have re-issued Flanagan’s No. 46.

It’s time for these almost-great players to receive their due. It’s beyond time for this great Brewer (and great Orioles) to also get theirs.

The Deer in Fear

It’s a bad idea. It’s fiscally irresponsible. School budgets are being cut and yet you want to build a palace for millionaires? Make ‘em pay for it themselves! It’s an empty threat – they’ll never leave! Besides, they’ve been awful for so many years anyway, so what’s the difference if they do leave?

I’m of course talking about the Milwaukee Bucks, right?

Nope. At least not entirely.

All of the arguments being bandied about regarding the Bucks might sound familiar because they were the exact same arguments the hand-wringing naysayers said about the construction of Miller Park in the mid-1990’s.

Go ahead. Read the first paragraph again. You will instantly be transported back to 1995. The fight to finally put shovel in dirt was long and protracted; ugly and intense. Even after the ballpark’s Nov. 9, 1996 groundbreaking there were still some that tried to kill the project and drive the Brewers out of town, most notably former State Sen. Joe Wineke (D-Verona). While Wineke never said that he did not care whether or not the Brewers remained in town, his posturing and stonewalling nearly prevented the passing of the bill in Oct. 1995 in the first place.

Every politician wants to make it clear to their constituents that they are fiscally responsible with the taxpayer’s money. This should be admired. However, you won’t be able to find many people opposed to Miller Park today considering the sold-out crowds and first place inhabitants the facility now hosts.

This brings me to the increasingly-fragile Milwaukee Bucks.

The same arguments we heard in the mid 1990’s about Miller Park we are now hearing for a replacement for the Bradley Center.

Hear me loudly and clearly: Without a new facility in the next 5-8 years, the Milwaukee Bucks will no longer be here.

While the arguments against construction of a new building are virtually the same, economic times are certainly different. In 1996, the dot-com boom helped swell an economy that was more favorable to investing in capital improvement projects. Since the Sept. 2008 Wall Street collapse, discretionary spending has been put on hold by most companies and families.

The other argument against construction is that most of us remember when the Bradley Center opened. It doesn’t aesthetically look all that bad, even if it compares unfavorably to it’s brethren around the NBA.

However, facts are facts. When the NBA season eventually begins, the Bradley Center will be tied with the Detroit Pistons’ Palace at Auburn Hills and the Sacramento Kings’ Power Balance Pavilion for the third-oldest facility in the league. The two buildings that are older, Oracle Arena in Oakland (1966) and Madison Square Garden (1968) have either had or are undergoing a complete refurbishing. In Sacramento, the Kings are on life support, with the looming threat of moving to Anaheim being held over the heads of their fans.

In Seattle, fans never thought that the Sonics would really move. They had just spent almost $75 million in renovations less than 15 years earlier, but Key Arena still lacked the amenities places like the newer Staples Center and Canseco Fieldhouse had. Fans were warned that if a new arena wasn’t going to be built, the franchise’s new owners would take their budding superstar, Kevin Durant, and move them to greener pastures. After 41 years and an NBA championship, the Sonics became the Oklahoma City Thunder because there was a community thirsty for the prestige of professional sports and the nearly brand-new Ford Center ready to be called home.

Currently, there are new arenas in Kansas City, Omaha, and Louisville that are more in line with today’s NBA standards than the Bradley Center. There are plans being drawn for NBA style arenas in Baltimore, Las Vegas, and Virginia Beach.

In Milwaukee, the Bradley Center isn’t thought of as being as badly off as County Stadium was. To that argument, that’s true. County Stadium was a crumbling ruin and was falling apart right before our eyes. The Bradley Center still attracts big-name concerts and still features an elegant entrance to the building. There is a sense of class the Bradley Center has that County Stadium never did. For the most part, the seats are comfortable (if a bit on cramped side). Nothing about the building screams that it is an obsolete relic.

The problem is that it is, at least as far as the economics of the NBA are concerned. Outside of the new scoreboard, very little has been spent on the building since its Oct. 1988 opening. It ranks at the very bottom of the list for producing revenue among other NBA arenas. Today’s NBA buildings have larger suites, year-round restaurants, retail facilities, and in many cases, complete entertainment districts surrounding them.

In Los Angeles, the Staples Center is the centerpiece of the LA Live district which includes the Nokia Theatre, the Grammy Museum, and dozens of retails shops, restaurants, and night clubs. In Dallas, the American Airlines Center is attached to an entertainment venue that includes the storefront news studio of the city’s ABC television affiliate. In Phoenix, the U.S. Airways Center features a Lambeau Field-like atrium that is open to the public on non-game days where you can shop or eat.

The Bradley Center is a facility that in its entirety is asleep when there isn’t a game or concert.

The time to build is now. The NBA is going through the painful process of fixing it’s financial house, and the “c-word” (contraction) is being floated out there as more than just a test balloon. This is not the time for inactivity. Construction costs rise every year, and we now know what mistakes to not repeat in the building process.

Just as public funds have built arenas and stadiums all over the country (including Miller Park and Lambeau Field); the Bucks need help from the public to help build a new facility. The concept isn’t a new one. Businesses are given numerous tax breaks and facilities to entice them to either stay or relocate. Businesses create jobs. Jobs create communities. The more jobs there are, the healthier that community is.

Just as roads, zoos, parks, and museums add value to a community, so do professional sports. Miller Park was a community investment, so would be a new arena for the Bucks. Tens of millions will enjoy going to games during the building’s lifespan, and it helps keep our community “big league.”

There is also no argument that Milwaukee’s downtown business climate needs to have the draw of NBA basketball bringing fans into the city. The Park East corridor directly north of the Bradley Center is a vast wasteland just waiting to be built upon. Just because the Bucks have been more bad than good over the last 10 years-plus is no reason to hold up doing the right thing.

Those that oppose a new arena thinking that the NHL is ready to move in the Bradley Center (a hockey building by design) are fooling themselves. The thought that any NHL team would move into a 23-year old building is as laughable as expecting Prince Fielder to fit into size 30 pants. The same constraints that are hindering the business of the NBA plague the NHL, only to a lesser degree. For now.

To those that oppose a new arena, I ask you to heed two examples. The example of Seattle and the example of the Brewers. The former yearns for a chance to have a do-over, while the latter is the best example anyone can come up with for forward-thinking leadership on a community investment that millions will enjoy for generations.

Watching charcoal smoke billow over the Miller Park parking lots it’s hard to imagine that there were actually well-meaning people that didn’t want it built. That smoke represents so many things: Friends that don’t see each other nearly enough catching up on their lives; fathers and sons bonding over a brat and a game of bags; kids connecting with their sports idols; a community coming together as one despite socioeconomic barriers.

While there wouldn’t be tailgate smoke before a Bucks games, the bonds of sports and society remains. Milwaukee needs the Bucks, even if our elected leaders are loath to admit it for fear of losing reelection. But trying times call for bold leadership. Milwaukee is major league in so many ways. To allow the Bucks to move would knock our collective status down considerably.

The time to act is now.

Big Mistake in Titletown

Seems the Green Bay Packers just can’t leave well enough alone.

Why isn’t it enough to have the best, most historic facility in sports? With all due respect to Wrigley Field and Fenway Park, Lambeau Field has something that neither one of those relics could possible have: A winning tradition. I know the Red Sox have been very good as of late, but what of the 86 years in between World Series victories? And as for the Cubs at Wrigley, they have annually stunk up the joint. Chicago’s “charm and history” is done in when you consider that it’s bad “charm and history.”

Since moving to Lambeau Field in 1957, the Packers have won seven NFL championships (including four Super Bowls) and have featured some of the greatest players to ever play the game of football. Lambeau Field has seen the greatest coach in NFL history (arguably) pace the sidelines, and another likely headed for the Hall of Fame (Mike Holmgren).

During the re-build of Lambeau almost a decade ago, team President and CEO Bob Harlan stressed the importance of keeping the integrity of the seating bowl intact, while bringing the facility up to present day standards. Mission accomplished on all fronts.

The seating bowl looks almost as it did from decades ago, with the majority of seats still the same aluminum benches as there had always been. Sure, there were a few tweaks to the suite areas up top, but the seating bowl essentially looked the same.

So much for history after this monstrosity was unveiled this morning:

When these plans were floated out there as a test balloon, I had hoped – prayed – that they could come up with something better – something more…Lambeau Field.

Nope.

I think the mentality must have been “ah, let’s just slap up some seats somewhere…anywhere! The end zone? Sure, why not? To hell with tradition!”

What sets Lambeau Field’s inhabitant apart is that they aren’t just any other team. They’re the Packers. Now their landmark of an intimate, historic cathedral of sport has taken the first step towards the very thing that it wasn’t: just another stadium.

What I had feared is becoming reality. Lambeau Field will just continue to expand and expand; taking with it the intimacy that made it the envy of professional sports in North America. Watching out-of-town reporters file their stories for the first time on the fabled turf is a sight to behold, because you can see the gleam in their eyes as the camera pans down to their smiling faces after their home town team just got shellacked. Add a second and third deck to the place and it just seems some of what makes Lambeau Field unique is gone.

I know more fans can get in now, and I’m all for that. I just wish that it wasn’t at the expense of turning Lambeau Field into another cold, sterile football stadium. We already have enough of those, don’t we?

If a baseball game was played, but no one was there to see it...

...would that game really have been played?

Here are pictures tweeted by reporters from the Sun Life Stadium press box during yesterday's Marlins-Reds doubleheader.

This proves two theories:

 - Baseball is DEAD in South Florida
 - Miami is the WORST sports city in America

If Jeffrey Loria, the Marlins incompetent owner, thinks his shiny new stadium being built on the site of the demolished Orange Bowl is going to help matters, I beg to differ. By the second year, it will be just as empty.

Flashback Friday - From The Archives

With the Little League World Series going on, I thought it would be a good time to revisit the now-10 year old case of Danny Almonte, the 14-year old man-child posing as a 12-year old phenom.

From SportingNews.com, dated September 3, 2001:

It’s All About the Plushdamentals

In case you weren't able to make it out to Miller Park for this (now) past homestand, here is my cover story from GameDay Magazine on Nyjer "Tony Plush" Morgan:

It’s All About the Plushdamentals

By Doug Russell

Baseball is a game whose history is chocked full of colorful characters.

Mark Fidrych used to talk to the ball and manicure the pitcher’s mound with his hands. Larry Andersen used to ponder things such as whether or not one could run out of invisible ink. Al Hrabosky used to menace batters with not only his long hair and Fu Manchu mustache, but his in-between pitch antics which included walking off the mound, turning away from the batter, and rubbing the baseball after every pitch.

The Brewers of the early 1980’s had colorful characters as well, featuring players such as Gorman Thomas and Pete Vuckovich, who embodied Milwaukee’s fun-loving, blue-collar work ethic.

Fast forward 30 years later, and Milwaukee once again has one of the game’s most talked about personalities. His birth certificate reads Nyjer Jamid Morgan, but fans and teammates alike have come to know him by his alter ego, “Tony Plush.”

“It came from just me and my friends back home back when we were about 20-years old,” Morgan says today about the origin of what he calls his ‘gentleman’s name.’ “They were just our little scumbag names, and they basically just stuck.”

When Morgan arrived in Milwaukee, it was with little fanfare and was thought to be simply a depth move made by General Manager Doug Melvin. At the time, Morgan was thought to be nothing more than a spot-starter until the injured Corey Hart could return to the lineup from a strained oblique. In center, the Brewers were set with the speedy and defensively-minded Carlos Gomez patrolling Miller Park between their two All-Star outfielders.

However, it did not take long for the man known as “T-Plush” to make his presence felt. April 7, in the Brewers seventh game of the season, Morgan took out Atlanta Braves All-Star catcher Brian McCann in a collision at home plate, scoring his first run as a Brewer. Less than a week later, he did the same thing to his former teammate with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Ryan Doumit. A legend had been born.

Morgan says that’s just the way he plays. Considering that he was an elite youth hockey player as a teen, it has been suggested that Morgan brings a hockey player’s mentality to baseball. Morgan was so good on skates, as a matter of fact; he left his San Francisco home as a youth to play for the North Okanagan Kings of the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League. From there, he played with the Nelson Leafs and then the Delta Ice Hawks of the Pacific International Junior Hockey League, before reaching the Major Junior level of the Western Hockey League where he played briefly for the legendary Regina Pats.

Morgan dismisses the idea that hockey’s violence has anything to do with the way he plays baseball, even with an opposing catcher standing in the way.

“No, I don’t think so,” Morgan says. “It’s just understanding that hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard, so I just go out there and try to leave it all out there on the field. It’s for that one person who has never seen me play before understanding the way I play, that I always go out and play hard.”

So far, the only thing making more headlines nationally than Morgan’s play has been his “Tony Plush” personality. Morgan has particularly become a favorite of national media personality Jim Rome, who featured Morgan recently on his ESPN television show. Morgan’s loose attitude and megawatt smile were on full display for the entire country to see.

“This is me,” Morgan says of his persona. “I mean, we’re going out there playing a kid’s game even though it’s our job and our livelihood, but I just never forgot the fact that this is still a game. If things are going bad, I try to go back to when I was in Little League, where if you took an 0-for-4, the first thing you were worried about is who’s parents are bringing the orange slices and Twinkies! I just try to make it fun.”

For Brewers manager Ron Roenicke, part of the fun has been watching his new centerfielder’s stellar defense and clutch hitting from the dugout. For most of the season, Morgan’s batting average has been around .320, but gets even better when the stakes are higher. As of August 1, Morgan leads the Brewers with a .378 average with runners in scoring position, a statistic in where the team has struggled.

However, even with Morgan making his manager’s job easier on the field, Roenicke at times has had to reign in Morgan’s alter-ego.

After an incident in San Francisco late last month where Giants fans misinterpreted Morgan’s gesture to them, Roenicke had to have a talk with his talented centerfielder. “A lot of it is having fun,” Roenicke told reporters after the game. “It's not like its all malice when he’s doing things. This whole ‘Tony Plush’ thing where he thinks he’s an entertainer, there is a point where you've got to be a little careful.”

One question that Morgan has been asked repeatedly is where Nyjer Morgan ends and Tony Plush begins. For Morgan, “Plush” starts once he enters Miller Park.

“Tony Plush is clocked in right now!” Morgan explained with a broad smile while sitting in the Brewers dugout after batting practice recently. “When I step on the field, I’m an entertainer. I try to let people get their money’s worth when they come to watch the Brewers or T-Plush play. Everybody has a better half, I’m just not afraid to go and throw it out there!”

Considering the success Morgan has had since arriving in Milwaukee, Brewers fans are just glad that he is patrolling centerfield at Miller Park, no matter what his name is.

Is Anyone Clean in College Sports?

The system is broken.

Reggie Bush taking a house seems tame compared to what has been going on for the last decade at the University of Miami. Tyrell Pryor and teammates trading memorabilia for tattoos is a drop in the bucket for what may rain down on “The U” for what can only be described as a total, systematic, 100% failure on the part of the school to monitor what was going on within their athletic department.

Yesterday, Yahoo! Sports investigative journalist Charles Robinson blew the lid off of Miami’s decade-old dirty little secret in the single most damning set of NCAA violations we have ever seen.

In a nutshell, millionaire booster Nevin Shapiro lavished gifts ranging from cash, to jewelry, to cars, to prostitutes over the course of a 10-year span. For the full Yahoo! Sports report: http://tinyurl.com/4xduewx

There are no such things as “isolated incidents” in college sports anymore. If there is one problem, you haven’t looked hard enough. There is no altruism anymore. There is no one out there who gives an impermissible benefit to be nice to a poor kid. If a “booster” gives a kid $1,000 or a new car, or anything else, it’s so that kid, once he becomes a pro, will remember that favor.

The schools are complicit in this because they choose to not investigate things they don’t want to investigate. Don’t insult my intelligence by contending that Miami administrators really didn’t know what was going on. All they had to do was open their eyes. Considering the history of the athletics department in Coral Gables, one would think that they would know a violation when they see one.

Just as Jim Tressel conveniently “forgot” he had a compliance officer in April 2010, the University of Miami did nothing when it was discovered that one of their most prolific boosters owned a stake in a sports agency. Miami buried its collective head in the sand so badly after Shapiro got into a drunken rage-filled fracas with the school’s athletics compliance director in the crowded press box during a game that they chose to sweep the entire matter under the rug.

Shapiro even says today that if school officials wanted to hire a private detective to look into whether or not players were receiving improper benefits, “it would have been the easiest job that guy ever had,” Shapiro told Yahoo’s Robinson. “It would have been over in five minutes. You would have had all the information you needed. Follow me to a nightclub or a strip club. Lunches. Dinners. The boat. Hotels for parties. All the outings at Lucky Strike. These guys were at my house. There was all kinds of (expletive) going on in. Gambling. Pool tournaments. Prostitution. Drinking.”

The irony is that former Miami athletic director Paul Dee (then in his role as the NCAA’s chairman of the NCAA’s infractions committee) was the one handing down the sanctions to USC a year ago, lecturing them about institutional control. Dee, in fact, appears to be one of the most corrupt administrators in college athletics history.

Not only did Dee oversee an athletics department that Nevin Shapiro lavished impermissible “benefits to athletes included but were not limited to cash, prostitutes, entertainment in his multimillion-dollar homes and yacht, paid trips to high-end restaurants and nightclubs, jewelry, bounties for on-field play (including bounties for injuring opposing players), travel and, on one occasion, an abortion,” according to Yahoo’s Robinson, but he was also the school’s AD in 1995 when 80 students, 57 of whom were football players, falsified their Pell Grant applications, illegally securing more than $220,000 in federal grant money. Federal officials described the scam as “perhaps the largest centralized fraud ... ever committed in the history of the Pell Grant program.”

Remember, THIS is the guy the NCAA had chairing their enforcement committee! Don’t forget that this is the guy who famously told USC a year ago that “high-profile athletes demand high-profile compliance.”

Paul Dee never had any business anywhere near the NCAA Committee on Infractions unless he was on the other side of the room answering their questions.

The system is broken. There is no going back. There are too many incidents at too many schools to make sure everyone is clean. Does anyone truly run a clean program anymore? In the last year, we have seen public allegations or sanctions against:

• USC
• Ohio State
• Miami
• North Carolina
• South Carolina
• Florida
• Alabama
• Georgia Tech
• Auburn
• Oregon
• Tennessee

Is there a way to clean up college athletics? Probably nothing any of the schools would consider, but as is the case with most things, money truly is the root of all evil.

My solutions:

1. Ban all boosters. All of them. If you cut their access, yes, schools would lose millions of dollars annually. But most of those boosters aren’t simply giving money to their schools to improve facilities or help pay for scholarships, they are paying for access. Access to administrators, access to players…access. They want to be in charge. They want to have a say in who gets hired and who gets fired. Hey want their names on buildings, and they want to puff up their own egos. Ban them from campus. All of them. Every single last one.

2. Miami, long since considered the most renegade of all college football programs dating back more than 20 years probably deserves the NCAA’s so-called Death Penalty. It’s the last resort for the NCAA in any matter, and it is a measure that hasn’t been used since SMU was banned from fielding a football team in the 1987-1988 seasons. No matter who has been at the helm, since the 1980’s it has been the single dirtiest program in college sports. It is harsh, no question. It’s also warranted.

3. Schools must immediately stop selling merchandise that trade on a player’s name and/or likeness. If you are a student-athlete, how would you feel if your member institution was selling your jersey in the bookstore for $100 and you don’t get a cut of that? How would you feel if your likeness was in video games that are sold and everyone gets a cut but you? It’s no wonder that kids don’t think it’s wrong to take from the leeches around them…the schools are leeching off of them, too.

4. If a school is caught cheating, rather than punish the kids that are on the team now, fine the school the amount of money they earned while participating in however many illegal games they played. Is it fair that USC kids today are paying for the sins of those that went before them? Matt Barkley was in middle school when Reggie Bush’s family was living in a free house. How is that fair and just? It’s not. But if you fine USC $13 million dollars from their BCS game take that season, they may have taken compliance a little more seriously (especially if there are no more boosters to bail them out of these messes).

5. Just as scholarships are limited to 80, limit the number of games that are nationally televised. Why should Notre Dame get to have their entire home games televised? How is that creating a level playing field? How is Texas allowed to have its own network? Remember, these are college kids, not professional athletes.

Don’t hold your breath for any of these measures to be taken seriously by anyone in charge. University presidents long for athletics department revenues and prestige. Often times, the public persona of a school is directly related to how the football team does on Saturday. It’s a perverted relationship, but no one will ever admit it. Wins on Saturday means its more likely some rich alumnus will build you that building on the south end of campus. Bowl trips and national television exposure translate into new medical centers or law schools.

Even if the relationship isn’t a linear one, it does exist. And no one in charge wants that gravy train to stop – even if it means a return to amateur athleticism on their campus.

Even with these measures in place, collegiate athletics will still see allegedly poor kids with diamond-stud earrings, designer clothes, and new cars. At what point, however, will we as a sporting society finally wake up and raise a red flag when we see such things?

The final perpetrator of how college athletics became as corrupt as they are?

For all of us, that answer simply lies with a look in the mirror.

Nevin Shapiro and a second source said this photo of the booster and Kellen Winslow Jr. was taken in Shapiro’s VIP section of Opium Garden nightclub in 2003. (source: Yahoo! Sports)



If You're Headed to Miller Park...

...over the next couple of days, be sure to check out my cover story in the Brewers GameDay magazine on centerfielder Nyjer "Tony Plush" Morgan.

Where did Nyjer's alter ego originate? How similar is baseball to his other passion, hockey? All that and more - only in Brewers GameDay!

What Goes Up...

I’m not sure what else can be said about the Brewers that hasn’t already been said.

Monday night’s game against the Dodgers saw all of the ingredients of a championship caliber team. Outstanding pitching, incredible defense, and timely hitting.

As my friend and colleague, 540 ESPN’s Drew Olson pointed out via Twitter tonight, on this current 4-game homestand, the Brewers have pitched 37 innings and surrendered 3 earned runs. That’s an ERA of 0.72. In the last month, the Brewers have gone 22-6, and separated themselves by 6 games in the NL-Central.

All of these are incredible numbers. All of these statistics are what championship teams are made out of. All of these statistics don’t lie. They tell the story of a team that has legitimate talent, believes in one another, has incredible chemistry, and would run through a wall for their low-key manager.

But they can’t keep this up.

Brewers fans need to brace themselves for the inevitable lull. At some point within the next six weeks, this Brewers team will hit a funk. They may lose four or five games in a row. They may see their lead in the division shrink as the Cardinals go on a tear.

My message for when (not if) this happens: Chill. Relax. It’s baseball.

Before the angry e-mails start flowing my way, please know that I still think the Brewers are the best team in the division. I also think they’re better than every other team in baseball except for the Phillies, Yankees, and Red Sox. They’re on par with Atlanta, but that’s rarefied air. Even though the Crew still has a slump left, wrap your minds around this:

The Milwaukee Brewers have a very legitimate chance to play in the 2011 World Series.

That doesn’t mean they won’t need to snap out of a funk before we see October. Let’s step into the “wayback machine” for a moment, shall we?

Remember when the Brewers got out to that rancid 0-4 start? Remember all of the panic buttons pushed all over town? It’s human nature. Don’t forget that the Boston Red Sox went through the exact same thing, only worse in April. Just as Brewers fans were lining up to jump off the Hoan Bridge, the Red Sox 0-6 (and then 2-10) start had Bostonians lined up at the Bunker Hill Bridge. Seems the Red Sox bounced back pretty nicely.

What gets me about poor starts are even the educated baseball fans and analysts pushing the panic button. Even the New York Times ran a headline that stated the Red Sox were “Doomed in April.”

No team is ever doomed in April.

My point of all this is simple. Enjoy the ride. This has been fun. However, in the last month, the Brewers have played .786 baseball, which is impossible to sustain over an entire season. Mathematically, that’s winning between 127-128 games in a single season. It’s never going to happen.

The slump? The lull? The funk?

It’s coming. It’s inevitable. But you know what else it is? It’s ok. And it’s baseball. It’s just part of the game.

So I suggest you enjoy the ride.

Flashback Friday - From the Archives

20 with 17

By, Doug Russell

What makes Wisconsin’s favorite son on the Sprint Cup Series tick? Why were there so many crew chief changes last year? Does he really have a cat named after Miley Cyrus? Recently, Kenseth sat down with Inside Wisconsin Sports’ Doug Russell.

Cambridge native Matt Kenseth enters the 2011 season as one of the favorites to unseat five-time defending Sprint Cup Champion Jimmie Johnson. Kenseth’s racing blood runs deep, having learned at the feet of his father, Roy Kenseth, on the Wisconsin and Northern Illinois circuit. Matt’s 17-year old son, Ross, has embarked on his own racing career as well. Currently, Matt and his wife Katie live in Mooresville, N.C. with their daughter Kaylin, 1.

1. How would you characterize your 2010 season?

MK: It was interesting for sure. We had some downs, for sure, but we also had some ups. We finished on a strong note. We still finished fifth in the points standings even though we had three different crew chiefs during the year. Even with all of the changes, I thought that was a great, great, strong finish for us.

2. What caused you to go through so many crew chiefs, from Drew Blickensderfer, to Todd Parrott, then finally to Jimmy Fennig?

MK: It’s kind of hard to explain. I wish Drew really well. Drew will be a winning and probably a champion crew chief at the Cup level. Todd has obviously won championships, and so has Jimmy. They’re all great guys, but it was all about just getting that mix right, getting to be able to work with everybody, and getting to the finish line. Success, at the end of the day, is what it’s really all about. You have to have the performance, you have to have the finishes, and the team has to be able to work together as one. It’s not always just about the driver and the crew chief versus the driver or the crew chief. It’s about getting that whole group to work well together.

3. But it seems as though there has been a lot of turmoil on your crew since Robbie Reiser moved upstairs into the front office?

MK: Yeah, I’ll go ahead and take the blame for everything going wrong, but it’s never all exactly one person. I’m still really good friends with Drew (Blickensderfer), I still feel like I’m really good friends with Todd (Parrott), and I’ve got a ton of respect for him, and I hope he still has a lot of respect for me. Actually, everything went really well there, it’s just hard to explain unless you were in there. But yeah, since Robbie left it certainly has been different. Chip (Bolin) took over the first year, and he did a really good job. Chip didn’t really want to do it, but I kind of forced him to do it. He’s not necessarily the people person and organizer, he’s more of the engineer and the guy who ‘tries to make the cars go fast’ guy. He really doesn’t care about the rest of that other stuff, and I put him in a position where he did, which is probably my fault. Since then, we had a lot of great things going on with Drew, I think Todd brought a lot to the team, and I think Jimmy brings a lot to the team.

4. It seems as though things have settled down with (Milwaukee native) Jimmy Fennig in the pit box. How did your relationship with him evolve?

MK: I’ve known Jimmy for a long time. Mark Martin was the one who got me started with Roush Racing in 1997, and Jimmy was Mark’s crew chief at the time. I used to hang out around the garage a lot and ask a lot of questions. I used to go out to the track with them and test Mark’s car when they would go out to Talladega and places like that. So, I’ve known Jimmy for a long time, he’s been around for a long time, he’s also from Wisconsin, and we have always had a great relationship. It just takes a little while of working together to get things rolling, but I feel really good about it. Jimmy is a really talented crew chief. There’s no one in the garage that’s more of a racer or anyone who works harder than Jimmy does at trying to get results. It’s been good.

5. That having been said, both Jimmy Fennig and Drew Blickensderfer have said you are among the most demanding drivers they have ever worked with. Looking in the mirror, how demanding do you think you are?

MK: (long pause) That’s hard to answer. I guess I’m probably pretty demanding, especially when you look at this season from last year. But, I expect perfection. I know it’s not realistic, but that’s what you’ve got to expect. I expect it of myself. I mean, I haven’t had a perfect race, or a perfect day, or a perfect lap yet, but I still expect that from myself. It’s what I strive for, and it’s the same for the leader of the team, to everyone on the team, to the guy building the car. It’s what you need to expect, it’s what you need to strive for. You expect to try to win races; you expect to try to win championships. I know it’s hard, but that’s what you need to be able to expect. I’ve been so fortunate in my career to work with some really great people. Robbie always demanded that out of all of his people, and so has everyone else that I’ve ever worked with. I probably am pretty demanding. I’m pretty particular and pretty picky about certain things. I think in some cases that’s been good, and sometimes it’s probably been bad, and I’ve been over the top on a lot of things.

6. Is the run that Jimmie Johnson is on right now, with five consecutive Cup championships, good for the sport?

MK: Oh, I don’t know. I guess it depends on who you are and how you look at things. Certainly I think most fans are ready to see someone else win it. As drivers, we all would like to win it. But, if I don’t win it, it doesn’t really matter who does, you’re trying to win it for your team and your organization. One thing I will say is that everyone who is watching the sport right now is witnessing history, and will someday look back and say ‘wow, remember when Jimmie won five in a row?’ Or at least five in a row, because who knows how many he can win? No one has ever come close to five in a row before, and I can’t imagine anyone ever doing it ever again in the history of the sport. That’s something that’s pretty special that everyone is getting to witness.

7. Do you feel that his accomplishment goes underappreciated outside of NASCAR?

MK: I really do, and I don’t know why that is. I even feel like its underappreciated within our sport, and I don’t know why that is. You know what, though, if I were Jimmie and I had those five trophies sitting at home, I really wouldn’t care what anybody thought about it. (laughs) I can think of a ton of other drivers that if they would’ve won two or three straight, much less five, that people would be doing back flips about it, but with Jimmie they don’t really say a lot about it. It seems kind of weird, and I don’t know why that is.

8.  Three great seasons of yours stand out. In 2002, when you had a career-high five wins; 2003, when you won the Cup Championship; and 2006, when you came in second in overall points, won over $9.5 million, and had four wins. Of those three seasons, which was the most satisfying to you?

MK: Winning the championship in 2003, for sure. The ultimate goal is to win a championship every year, so 2003 was our best season ever. We just had an unbelievable year.  We were able to win just one race that year, but we were in a position to win, gosh, just about every week. It just was one of those years where just about every week were running in the top ten, and most weeks even in the top five.

9. What made that year so successful?

MK: We just had an unbelievable year on pit road, with car preparation, and on the racetrack executing the races. It was probably a better season than even the numbers show. I mean, we tried an experimental motor the last race of the year and it blew up, and we had some problems here and there that took us out of a few finishes, but other than that we just had an unbelievably good season.

10. After that season, however, critics of the points system, including Roger Penske, pointed you out as a reason the system was flawed; winning the championship despite only one victory. Some even used the phrase, the “Matt Kenseth Rule” to describe the new points formula. Do you think that affected you negatively at all?

MK: You know, I don’t think so. I think it all depends on how you look at it. I mean, if they’re changing the whole system around because of how well we did, I think that’s a pretty high compliment. I don’t think you can be complimented much more than that, but I don’t think they changed it all because of me, either. I don’t look at it as a negative at all.

11. How much has NASCAR evolved since you began driving on the circuit in the late 1990’s?

MK: Oh man, I’ve see it change a lot already. I think I’ve been there 10 full seasons, maybe 11. I’m thankful I got in at the time I did. I got in at the ‘boom’ for sure, right when the popularity was exploding. The cars are a lot safer, the Chase for the Cup…gosh, there have been so many things that have happened. I’ve seen a lot of cool things. I’ve seen a lot of changes, and I’ve been really blessed to be a part of it. 

　
12. Would Danica Patrick be successful if she were to switch from Indy cars to NASCAR?

MK: There’s been a lot of success there as far as marketing, commercials, and sponsorships, and in getting more people to watch the races. There hasn’t been that much success on the track yet, but it seems like there has been a constant improvement. She seemed to do a little better at the end of last year. Would she succeed in NASCAR? I don’t know, but she has a better opportunity than most people would have because of being a girl, and because of a lot of the other things she’s got going on. Obviously there is a great opportunity for her, and I’m sure she’ll get as much time as she wants to try to make it work. It’s hard though. It’s a lot different driving one of our cars than an Indy car. Plus, driving a part-time schedule, going back and forth can’t be easy, but it does seem that she keeps getting better.　

13. Your daughter, Kaylin, is a year and half old. Would you encourage her to be a race car driver?

MK: Absolutely not! (laughs) I’ll leave that to Ross.　

14. Speaking of Ross, there are 16 years in between he and Kaylin. How did Ross take to becoming a big brother for the first time a lot later than most kids?

MK: Oh, he likes it. Ross has always loved kids, so I don’t think it’s been that big of an adjustment for him. He’s 17, he’s almost a man, he’s getting ready to graduate from high school, which just blows me away how fast the time goes by. Like I said, though, he’s always loved kids and they love him, so it’s been good.　

15. How did becoming a father at such an early age (21) affect you?

MK: Oh, I don’t know I ever thought about it that much. I think your maturity level changes when you have kids. Obviously you mature as you get older, that goes with everything, not just having kids.　

16. How much of Cambridge is still in you?

MK: A lot. You know, one thing about being from Wisconsin is that when you meet people, you find out where they’re from. Instead of ‘hey, I’m Jim’ its ‘hey, I’m Jim and I’m from Wisconsin!’ People are really proud of being from Wisconsin and can’t wait to tell you. I still get up there a fair amount, Katie is from the same hometown, and her family still lives up there. No matter how long we live somewhere else, we always feel like we are from Wisconsin, that’s for sure.　

17. Favre or Rodgers?

MK: Rodgers. (indignantly) Rodgers.　
　
18. Do you ever take a vacation away from the garage in the off season?

MK: We don’t have any formal vacations planned this year. We’re pretty much just laying low this winter. We went back to Wisconsin for the holidays and caught up with family. We went snowmobiling and sledding, just laying low and staying pretty close to home.

19. You and your wife have four cats; they’ve been featured in NASCAR pet calendars with the proceeds going to support animal shelters and various humane societies. I have to ask you about their names. As I understand it, one is named Lars, for Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich. Another is named Miley. Um, that’s quite diverse if that reflects your musical tastes.

MK: (laughs) Oh, I don’t know that any of them are named after anyone. It just so happened that when I was brining Lars home, a Metallica song was on the radio, so I was joking around saying we should name him Lars. Katie said she loved the name and it stuck. Katie named the kittens. Sulley and Miley. (chuckles) I think they’re just names.

20. Finally, how much thought have you given to your post-driving career?

MK: Not very much. I’m hoping that we can have a good year this season and get back on track so I don’t have to worry about it for a while. I don’t spend much time thinking about what’s next, I’m just so focused about being successful today.

Deion Sanders - A Look Back

Back when he retired, I wrote a column about one of the flashiest athletes in modern history, Deion Sanders. Not an official "From The Archives" per se (because it's not Friday), but just a look back at when "Prime Time" hung 'em up for good: