Tuesday, July 24, 2012

The Sports Culture Problem

I am a sports fan, but it should not take precedence over life and death. Not ever.


I wrote these words back in January pertaining to both Joe Paterno and the Kyle Williams situation. I looked back at some of my words and I'm a little dumbfounded at how naive I was to think Paterno had merely been a guy who "wished he could have done more" considering what has come to light in the past 6 months. I revisit it now because these words really resonate today following Penn State's punishment for failing to do anything about Jerry Sandusky.


Many of us place sports as a very high priority in our lives. We carve out time in our schedules to watch our teams play all the big games. Many are not afraid to drop big bucks to go see their teams in person or buy memorabilia. Sports have become big business, even in the so-called "amateur" ranks like intercollegiate athletics. The big schools lose tons of money just for the "honor and prestige" of playing in a meaningless bowl game. We have March Madness that takes offices and sports bars by storm with bracketology. You have sports blogs everywhere like this one, or Geoffy's about the Bulls, or my friend Nathaniel starting up an NFL blog within the past couple days. Eventually we have to weigh the importance of sports against everything else in life.


And that's where the Penn State scandal comes into play. We had an assistant coach who retired after one incident of child sexual abuse, then saw it come to the attention of the school again a few years later, only for the most powerful men at the institution to do nothing about it. Once they were caught, a legendary head coach gets fired and many students are upset about it. As more facts get released, many people realize how duped they were by the bad leaders at Penn State. And yet there are some people that continue to defend the institution, despite all the evidence for why the school deserves condemnation.


Reading through the message board in the ESPN article I linked to above, I was dumbfounded reading many fans (a large chunk of which are Penn State students, alums, or fans, though not all) claiming that the punishment is unfair or too harsh, or even targets the wrong people since this supposedly "wasn't a football issue". This highlights the problem with the football culture at Penn State. To this day, some people are still more concerned with what happened to the program than what happened to the unfortunate victims whose lives will never be the same after their time in State College, PA.


Regarding the punishments, I think they are fair. Funds need to be sent out to deal with child abuse and preferably at programs that teach people what to watch out for in a potential abuser or signs that a child might have been abused as well as support for victims. But the sanctions on the football program are also entirely justified. A pedophile who was a coach for some time and later a major face of a "charity" used the Penn State football program to lure in potential victims, groom them, and take advantage of them. The program was not only the bait, but the willing co-conspirator in that Joe Paterno reportedly talked 3 other head honchos out of turning Sandusky over to the proper authorities in 2001, after there had already been a report of sexual abuse. Once is one thing. If you hear 2 different reports about 2 different incidents from 2 different people, odds are there is some truth there.


Penn State apologists still continue to defend their school and late coach, saying that with Paterno passed on, Sandusky behind bars, Spanier fired, and Schultz and Curley facing jail time as well, the perpetrators are gone and no punishment is needed as the legal system is taking care of it. While this is true to an extent, the program needs punishment. The NCAA needed an example of what could happen when an institution treats an athletic program with more care and concern than the welfare of children, and said culture at Penn State was obvious and needed to be rooted out. Many called for the death penalty, though I think that would have been a little overkill. This will still be a painful lesson for Happy Valley. You cannot treat a football program with more care and concern than children who are being raped. Period.

This wrongful prioritizing is rampant in people quick to say this unfairly punishes the student athletes who will no longer get the experience of a bowl game, though players are free to transfer and coaches from other schools are already circling the big time guys. Penn State is lucky they still even have a football team and didn't get the death penalty. The businesses in the area can still get their game day traffic and hopefully we can see some of the proceeds from PSU football go to the victims or a child abuse charity. This punishment is intended to change the culture at Penn State from a "win-at-all-costs"

But the most important thing to take away from this incident is a warning for all of us, not just Penn Staters. We are human. We all make mistakes, some worlds bigger than others. But to an extent we are part of the sports culture problem. Some fans have a win at all costs mentality, and while it's not necessarily a bad thing, Penn State proved it can be dangerous. We all need to remember that regardless of the sport and the team, sports and winning are not the most important thing. It's connecting with other people, having respect for your fellow human beings, and spending time with the people we love. No amount of championships can ever compete with the love you get from friends and family.

And if you do decide that the program and wins are all that matters, what price are you willing to pay?

Monday, July 23, 2012

Welcoming an Old Cub

In my bedroom above where my TV sits is a large shelf that holds a ton of medals and trophies. Many of these are scholarly in nature; the old BookIt! program from Pizza Hut gave out medals if you completed your goal every month in a given school year, and I have several trophies from the reading program at St. Paul's Lutheran School in Aurora where I went from preschool through 8th grade. I also have several sports items, including a lot of medals and trophies from my park district T-Ball and soccer days, as well as letters from St. Paul's for my 4 years in both soccer and basketball.

I also have a few baseballs up there, some I got at various baseball games, other souvenir, non-game balls from different locales. Some are autographed by various Major League players like Jhonny Peralta, Scot Shields, or Shawn Estes, to name 3. My dad gave me a ball signed by the members of one or both of the Twins World Series teams. But there's one ball that sits front and center that means a lot more than all the rest put together.

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

MLB At the Break

At the unofficial halfway point of the Major League season, it's been something of a fun season, but nothing too out of the ordinary has happened. Some teams have surprised in both directions, and we will probably see some fun races in the last 2 1/2 months. I've been able to make it to 3 games in 3 different cities so far this year (and would have made it to Wrigley a second time but unfortunately had to work on Memorial Day.) So with the break in full swing, here are my thoughts on the first half so far.

My Cubbies
I knew this year was going to be bad. I had prepared for it when we hired Theo and company to overhaul the roster. And this year has seen 2 feelings: one of optimism of overachieving to 90 losses and the other of despair from knowing the team was bad, but not realizing how bad until watching them. As per the usual Cub team, the starting pitching is decent (other than Chris Volstad) if not solid, the bullpen sucks, and the team tends to leave guys in scoring position. But there have been bright spots in the form of Starlin Castro continuing to do his thing (hit well, make mental as well as fielding errors), Bryan Lahair getting off to a hot start, and the Cub debut of Anthony Rizzo who has been excellent so far. This team could still lose 100 games but they're providing some hope for the future.

Biggest Surprise: Chicago White Sox
I put the South Siders in the basement of the AL Central before the season began. Many Sox fans didn't expect much from this team either, but they have been excellent this season. I had expected the pitching to not be that great, but guys like Chris Sale and Jake Peavy have given the team a chance to win every time out. Paul Konerko continues to be an excellent hitter, and Adam Dunn (as I figured) isn't as horrible as last year even though he's still on pace to break the record for most strikeouts in a season. Regardless, this team could very well be playing a little ways into October. This doesn't have the same feel as that 2005 squad, but they are still a dangerous squad.

Biggest Disappointment: Philadelphia Phillies
I fell for the Phillies this year, and it seems foolishly so. Granted, Ryan Howard just came back, but I figured they would have the arms to tread water. The offense hasn't been able to support Cliff Lee, with him finally winning a game here recently. With the talent in the rest of the division, I have a feeling they won't climb out of the cellar by the time all is said and done.

1st Half Awards
  • AL MVP: Josh Hamilton (TEX)- .306/27/75 is nothing to sneeze at, especially on a division leading team. He also leads the AL in OPS at 1.016, one of only 2 guys over 1.000 (David Ortiz is the other). The 2010 AL MVP would have to seriously cool off or see someone get red hot the last 2 months to challenge his numbers.
  • NL MVP: Andrew McCutchen (PIT)- Maybe I'm insane, but this kid has made the leap the last couple years. He's up to .362/18/60 splits with 14 steals and 17 doubles and a 1.039 OPS. This one was harder to decide on since cases can be made for David Wright (.353/8/44), Joey Votto (.348/14/48) and Ryan Braun (.306/24/61) with Votto's probably being strongest with Cincy contending as of right now. But McCutchen's all around excellence is a solid pick, and one I will stand by at this stage.
  • AL Cy Young: Chris Sale (CHW)- Tough call between him and Jered Weaver of the Angels. Looking at their numbers they are very comparable in ERA (Weaver 1.96, Sale 2.19),WHIP (0.90 for Weaver, 0.95 for Sale), BAA (.188 for Weaver, .198 for Sale)and record (Weaver is 10-1, Sale 10-2). While Weaver leads these 3 categories by small margins, Sale has pitched more innings and has a higher strikeout rate. He wins by a hair.
  • NL Cy Young: R.A. Dickey (NYM)- Who would have guessed a knuckleballer would be 12-1 at the break, lead the NL in WHIP (0.93), and be among the leaders in innings (120) and strikeouts (123)? I certainly didn't. It's a bit of a snub that he didn't start the All-Star Game but he's earned this first half award.
Best Moment of the 2012 Season
Probably would have to be Arnie the Alpaca getting into Wrigley to see the Cubs beat the Dodgers as well as making it to Rangers Ballpark at Arlington. Josh Hamilton's power binge in Baltimore back in May is second.  I think third place would be Kerry Wood's final Major League appearance striking out the only batter he faced and leaving to a standing ovation at Wrigley, and getting a snarky tweet from Ian Stewart is 4th (for the record- thought his reaction was pretty funny. Wish him well on his recovery.)

Playoff Forecast
I ate crow a little bit already, but I'm going to open myself up to that again with predictions for the second half. In the American League, the Rangers and Yankees, respectively, will probably end up taking their respective divisions. The Central is tougher to forecast, with the Tigers and Indians looming close to the White Sox. I think the Tigers will come back and win the division though behind guys like Verlander, but the Sox will be in it till the end. As for wild cards, I think Tampa will sneak past Baltimore for one and the White Sox can pilfer the other from the Angels.

In the National League, I think Washington can hold off Atlanta and the Mets for their first East division crown since they moved to the nation's capital. The way the Giants have come on lately, I think they top the Dodgers for tops in the West. The Central is not that good, but has several contenders. I don't know that I trust Pittsburgh yet despite their presence in first place right now. I think the Reds overtake them at the end. For the wild cards, Pittsburgh can probably still grab one while the Dodgers swipe the other.

Here's to more fun baseball the rest of the way!

Monday, July 2, 2012

A Legend Tarnished

Growing up I never watched college football and really had no idea who Joe Paterno was, other than a guy who had been around Penn State forever. That's why I didn't really have a whole lot of insight when he passed away in January. But his legacy was definitely being overshadowed by the whole Sandusky case, a blight on college football and that little corner of Pennsylvania. But in light of the CNN reports that have recently come out, the damage is much greater than we feared.

I was in the camp before this came to light that Paterno had to have known something and was, to an extent, responsible for the atrocities in Happy Valley. None of us realized how right we were. In listening to John Kincade talk about it, he encouraged people (myself included) to read the article. It was eye-opening to say the least. But it also made me think back to a little over a year ago as I was finishing up my bachelor's degree.