Ohio State merchandise auction smacks of NCAA hypocrisy

Tweet

The line between what you can do, and what will get your program put on probabtion in NCAA athletics is just plain weird.  Or confusing.  Or unfair.  But one thing it isn't is clear.

I got an email today from Ohio State asking me to bid on some game worn Ohio State merchandise. 

Yes, now YOU can officially bid on great merchandise including a game-worn Cameron Heyward jersey, a game worn Dallas Lauderdale jersey, or some Fiesta Bowl warmups!  (Not sure they got the rights to use the Steelers logo--or how they think that can possibly increase interest...)

Why does this sound familiar?  Because these auction items are very similar to items that were sold by Ohio State football players that have led to the Tressel coverup scandal, and have put the 2010 season results in jeopardy.

Acceptance a bitter pill to swallow

Tweet

There are certain instances in life when you just have to accept the inevitable. As hard of a pill as it is to swallow, I've reached that point (once again) in my sports world. Thankfully, in the bigger picture of life, it is meaningless. Nonetheless, it is painful.

I've come to realize that all my praying, pleading, and begging to the sports Gods has gone unheard. The... The... The Mi... The Miami Heat are going to win the NBA championship. There... I said it. It was hard. I tried to make the statement as inconspicuous as possible. I thought typing it in light gray would ease the pain, as if whispering it ever so softly would make it less real. But in a way, it's actually therapeutic.

Rain on the Parade: Choo arrested for DUI

Tweet

Maybe Choo took the Detroit sweep celebration a bit too far

Well April showers bring May court dates, apparently.  Details are scarce, but Paul Hoynes of the PD tweeted that Indians OF Shin-Soo Choo was arested on DUI charges early Monday morning.

The Indians play in Oakland at 7 Pacific time on Tuesday.  That's Oakland, California, not Michigan.  So at some point Monday Choo, presumably, had to fly to Oak-town with the Tribe to prepare for the west coast trip.  Guess he flys well with a hangover.

Hopefully this is an isolated, albeit incredibly stupid, incident, and once the facts come out, the Indians aren't too distracted by this unfortunate incident featuring their underappreciated outfielder.

Party in the USA

Tweet

OSU students just add water in celebration of bin Laden's death.

The party-like scene at Ohio State University was one usually reserved for Michigan weekend. But instead of the traditional midnight jump into Mirror Lake on the Thursday prior to the annual Buckeyes-Wolverines tilt, a reported 1,000 students were gathered there Sunday night in spontaneous celebration of the death of Osama bin Laden.

Students draped in American flags lustily chanted “USA!” and sang the National Anthem while their shirtless young counterparts splashed in the hip-deep waters near the shore of the man-made lake. Similar flash mob-like crowds, largely drawn by the human domino effect of social networking, were seen outside the White House and at Ground Zero as well as the campuses of Penn State, Iowa State and Illinois, among others. The fervent, celebratory atmosphere was akin to that of a BCS championship or World Series victory.

This is getting real

Tweet

The Tribe began the new month the same way it ended the old - hotter 'n Georgia asphalt in high summer - and is giving Cleveland media types and bloggers reason to construct such happy sentences as "best record in the American League" and "holy hell the Indians have the best record in the American League."

Carlos Santana pirouettes home against Detroit.

As the calendar flips its pages, this may also be the time for fans to start taking this ballclub seriously, if that hasn't happened already. Paul Cousineau of The DiaTribe blog suggested that seasons both good and bad can be defined by one seminal moment or inning - a single at-bat or play that acts as a linchpin for everything that comes after. For Cousineau, that "aha!" moment came on Friday night when Carlos Santana's game-winning moonshot of a grand slam landed in the right-field stands at Progressive Field.

I'd extrapolate Cousineau's hypothesis out a bit further: If the Tribe has finally arrived in our collective consciousness, it did so over the entire weekend against the Tigers. Three games, three comebacks built on the sturdy shoulders of timely hitting, lockdown relief pitching and aggressive base-running. So far in this early campaign, this Indians team feels like a lunch pail version of the power-laden 1995 squad, but with unglamorous fundamentals replacing ninth-inning home run heroics.