Thursday, July 26, 2012

Penn States Strange Predicament

This might be the touchiest subject I could potentially write about aside from Politics and Religion.

*** For the record, I am not a Penn State fan ***

Penn State University has been on the craziest, most institution altering, roller coaster, quite possibly of all time. By now everyone knows the story, Jerry Sandusky committed a crime so heinous, and revolting that apparently, the institution had no choice but to cover it up for the greater good of Joe Paterno's legendary football program. This is the kind of logic that always works, cover something up with dirt and pray it doesn't rain enough to wash it away and expose the dark secrets you hoped would magically disappear. Works every time.

The judiciary system did its job once the facts started rolling in and Sandusky will certainly be incarcerated for the remainder of his measly life. But there is another man that wasn't able to fight for himself because after what was uncovered last fall, and what ultimately transpired with him being fired and ultimately passing away, Joe Paterno's legacy was left to here say, and quick decisions aimed to quickly alleviate the problem at hand. Paterno was found to have been a co-conspirator in the act of covering up Sandusky's crimes, knowing full well what had taken place. We will never know his side of the story, and what he believed to be true. Instead we have to believe that the NCAA's decision to take down his statue, and 111 wins is just, given what was unearthed in the most recent reports.

What I believe happened is the NCAA wanted so badly to get people to stop talking about this black eye on the institution, and the furious public who weren't satisfied with the man who actually committed the crime, and is being locked up for life, that they had no choice but to find a culpable administrator to take the fall. That person ultimately became Paterno. I believe, unnecessarily so. It is easy to pass blame onto someone who isn't able to defend themselves.

My biggest most pertinent question is... Why, if the Judicial System worked so well, and everyone who was seen as part of the conspiracy to keep quiet, is no longer part of the institution, should the NCAA ever get involved? More importantly, why should the football team be punished as if the players were the ones committing the crimes? Isn't that what the court system is there to do? Punish the folks who commit public crimes and uphold the constitutional rights of Americans? The NCAA's responsibility is to, in my opinion, enforce the rules and regulations that ensure college athletics competes on a level playing field. That's it.

What Sandusky did has nothing to do with Penn State gaining a competitive advantage on the football field, yet it is the Football team that bears the brunt of the NCAA sanctions on this issue. I agree, Penn State should have been fined 60 Million Dollars and put on probation and I'm even okay with them losing some scholarships, but what does vacating wins from 1998 to 2011 have to do with anything? The players that won those games weren't recruited illegally, Paterno didn't cheat like Bellichek and the Patriots, or Pete Carroll with USC. No, he just coached football, but made a mistake with not going further to see that Sandusky be put away earlier. That doesn't mean he didn't win those games. He won 409 games, now I am supposed to believe that, because he didn't do his civic duty, he now only won 298?

I'll never understand why Paterno is being held to the same standard as Sandusky in this case. What Paterno did wasn't enough, I agree, but that shouldn't tarnish his accomplishments as a football coach. Yea, maybe he isn't the great man we all thought he was, but he was a great coach. A great coach that wasn't given the opportunity to properly defend himself, as everyone else tears him down everywhere I look.

Monday, July 9, 2012

Home Run Derby

July 9, 2012

2012 State Farm Home Run Derby and a personal account on how I became a fan of this event.

Baseball has always been a part of my life. I, like most kids with older brothers was turned onto the American Pastime while going to his Little League / All Star Games as an uninterested 3-6 year old. I say uninterested because, between the ages of 3-6, like most kids that age, I had the attention span of a gnat. How could any mother expect me to sit in the bleachers all day and watch 11-12 year old's play baseball. Naturally I ventured off into the woods with the other kids my age and lost my stuffed animals I carried around everywhere I went (I went through about 4 of these stuffed animals due to baseball related tragedies).

Around age 5 it became my turn  to take to the diamond and start developing the love for the game that I still have to this day. Tee-Ball was fun, but if it weren't for the ball already sitting on the tee, I probably wouldn't have swung to hit the ball. Much like my days in C league when I walked more then I swung the bat that season. My on base percentage that year was through the roof, but I probably batted .091 for the season because I was unable to pull the trigger. I muddled around in C league and later B league when something finally clicked in my head. "Hey Ben, you need to swing the bat to hit the ball!" DING DING DING - naturally my baseball career took off at a historic rate. This was around the same time the St. Louis Cardinals acquired the steroid infested, yet super heroic god named Mark McGwire.

I want to preface this next part of this post by saying, my dad was raised in St. Louis and somehow let my brother get away with being Braves/Orioles fan. I suppose my father took upon himself to not let his 2nd born leave the ranks of the Cardinals, so he turned me on the '98 Sosa vs. McGwire homerun-a-thon and that is where my baseball life changed.

Obviously, at age 10, I was entranced. Watching modern day behemoths crush balls into the night sky on a regular basis would turn any 10 year old into a fan of the game. The fact that it was happening on my dads favorite team, against his least favorite team (the Cubs) made it even more of a mind blowing, life altering, landmark moment for me. It was settled, I was a Cardinal fan for life, however my own little league career turned out to be modest at best, as I tried to emulate my heroes to no avail.

It wasn't until the following year, when the All-Star game burst onto the scene in the famed Fenway Park in Boston. My family along with another family were down in the Outer Banks for our annual beach vacation. It rained literally every day for the first 4 or 5 days, its hard to be certain, as it was about 13 years ago to the day. We were couped up in the cottage, the mom's had already ventured to bed, which left Me, my dad, my brother, the other dad, my best friend, and his brother watching the homerun derby, and I had a horse in the race, his name.... Mark McGwire. What followed was the most awe inspiring/hilarious to this day, moments of my life. McGwire proceeded to crush 16 homeruns that night and after each one my dad would scream, "BOOM, GOT ALL OF THAT ONE" and while he was screaming that, Chris Berman (my favorite sports caster) would be painting his picture, and we would all be laughing at my dad, and it was at this point my dad would say, "SSHH, what'd he say?" To this day my dad catches enormous amounts of shit about this moment, but he takes it like a champ and seems to have embraced it. Needless to say, It was a landmark moment for me, and to this day, I have watched each of the homerun derby's and traded texts with my best friend reading, "boom, got all of that one" on a regular basis.

Baseball has this kind of an affect on kids. They say chicks dig the long ball (which is true), but I am willing to say that kids dig the long ball more. 1998 turned into 1999 which in turn, turned into me having 1 favorite professional sports team in the St. Louis Cardinals, and the joy of watching MY team win not one but two World Series.

So, here I sit tonight, watching the Homerun derby, where yet again I have a horse in the race with Carlos Beltran, and I am still in awe of the power these guys have. Mark Trumbo hit one on the roof in left field. ESPN said it would have gone 475 ft had it not been stopped by a gigantic bud light sign. They are about to start round 2 and somewhere, some kid is watching this in Toronto and is turning into a life long fan because his favorite player, Jose' Bautista, just crushed 11 homeruns. He is probably watching with his father, and they are having a moment only a baseball fan can understand and appreciate.

Until next time happy readings, and goodnight!