by Kent Sterling
Despite the spray tan obvious in this picture, I know a few things
The narrative in sports is constantly evolving, and that’s what makes it so consistently fun to think about. The minute the Cardinals won Game Seven of the World Series, talk began to percolate about whether Albert Pujols would come back to the team. Then Tony LaRussa retired, and the Cubs hired Theo. It’s only been five weeks since the final game, and the pages have turned many times.
Indiana football and basketball are at very different stages of their development, and fans are talking about both in very different ways. Peyton Manning led the Indianapolis Colts to so many consecutive playoff appearances and 10-win seasons there is a generation of kids that have never known what it is to watch the Colts lose – until now. The story with the Colts is whether Manning will play this year, or ever.
The NBA had a lockout. Did you hear about it? It was given the same level of coverage as Triple A baseball. The NFL’s lockout was covered like the future of the planet revolved around its resolution. David Stern, the guy who rode Magic, Michael, and Larry to great career success, learned the NFL is not just the NBA’s big brother; it’s the sun around which the NBA is a distant circling planet.
So what’s going to happen, and will any of it really matter?
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Manning will not play again this year, and may never play football again at all. The spine is the hard drive of a body, and once it’s damaged, you don’t let 300-pound monsters with violent intent crash into it at 22 miles an hour. If he ever plays again, Manning should be institutionalized. Spinal fusion is serious business, and the act of testing his spine’s ability to heal by exposing to the meanest sadists not residing in state penitentiaries would be that of a crazy person, and Manning is not crazy. I don’t believe he will play again. The consequence of the violence inherent in football is too great.
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Pujols will re-sign with the Cardinals. Even before moving to St. Louis, Pujols was so obviously a career Cardinal to me. The Cardinals are one of the few teams that see their stars retire in their own colors. The Giants let Willie Mays go back to New York, and Hank Aaron was sent back to Milwaukee, but Lou Brock and Bob Gibson stayed in the Lou to the very end. Sure Dizzy Dean went to the Cubs, as did Rogers Hornsby, but since then, the Cards have kept their heroes. Allowing a once-a-generation talent like Pujols wander off to Miami would be a silly financial miscalculation. Pujols is one of the few ballplayers who are so talented and decent they elevate the prestige and value of the franchise. The Cards are the Yankees of the National League, and they don’t let statues walk away.
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Theo Epstein is in over his head. The Cubs are incapable of slaying their dragon, even though it doesn’t really exist. The mirage of being required to lose is so deeply ingrained that it has become reality. ”Five outs to go”, “The Billy Goat”, “Claude Passeau on two days rest”, “Babe Ruth’s called shot”, “Bartman”, “The Black Cat”, “Steve Garvey”, and on and on and on. You can argue with the idiocy of understanding the winning is inconceivable, but you cannot overcome it. Not even if your name is Theo, and you’ve done it once before. The Red Sox are not the Cubs, and they never were. He’s assembled the best and brightest front office in the game, as though we are in the race to the moon with the Soviets. It won’t be enough because in the case of the Chicago Cubs, dogma has become physics.
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Bloomington, Indiana, is currently the home to major sport cellar dwellers, and it has been for several years. Kevin Wilson was hired almost exactly one year ago to resurrect the moribund IU football franchise. The past 40 years (minus a magical period from 1987-1993 when bowl trips to Atlanta, Memphis, Jacksonville and all other destinations not in Pasadena were routine) have been terrible with occasional glimpses of mediocrity. IU athletics director Fred Glass hired Wilson to change the culture, and the immediate result was more of the same. But IU is not the Cubs, and Wilson is a driven wild man who will find a way to turn Bloomington into a football town. Talk to him. Look into his eyes. Then deny this guy is a force of nature who will bring kids to the much improved facilities and teach them to play winning football. The biggest problem for Glass and IU will be to keep Wilson. That sounds ludicrous, but if Wilson is the head coach at IU in four years, I will be very surprised.
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That brings us to IU basketball and Tom Crean. There is no discernible evidence of what Crean’s philosophy of basketball is. With other coaches, you watch a game and see it. There was a comment to a previous post from a basketball coach who made that observation, and I had to agree. What Crean seems to be good at is aggregating really good players, and good players win games regardless of whether they play man, zone, run motion or sets. Indiana with Cody Zeller and maturing talent like Will Sheehey and Victor Oladipo is better this year, but still not elite. They will win 18-20 games, and might eke into the NCAAs. That would be progress. And then the horses arrive next year. Crean can pace, chug endless bottles or water, crouch, and raise all the hell he wants. Indiana will win games next year – a lot of games.
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Lots to think about in December of 2011, and there will be new stuff to talk about next week, next month, and next year. That’s what makes sports so damn fun, and if none of what I’ve written here comes to pass, no one goes poor, becomes ill, or dies. It’s sports.
I am curious to see how the Cardinals will work with Alberts agent Dan Lozano with all the story coming from Deadspin.
Tom Crean and Theo Epstein are brilliant and you know nothing, Sterling. The Cubs will win five of the next 10 World Series and Crean will be hanging banner after banner in Assembly Hall.
Crean should be fired immediately but will probably get a contract extension mid-season for winning a road game. I realize you are Crean-apologist but he has to be stopped. Mark it, Crean gets two more years on Monday morning after squaeking by the Hatters.
Theo Epstein said yesterday you can build teams around guys like Matt Garza and said Sean Marshall is the best left-handed relief pitcher in baseball. Enough said right there.
Theo and Crean should go into business together and offer advice to coaches and general managers on how to steal millions.
Crean needs to be stopped from what??? Fielding a real BB team for the first time in 4 years?
There appears to be a number of delusional people posting on this site, starting with Sterling, who can’t stand the fact that Crean is doing a great job. You’d think this was the DNC website.
Upon what do you base your opinion of Crean’s great job. In what respect has he earned any plaudits to this point. Now, in a couple of years, maybe your trust of his greatness will bear some statistical validity. Indiana University basketball should be about some other than hope. I would say you sound more like the DNC yourself. The democrats are getting very good at patting themselves on the back with a trail of failed policies in their wake. Indiana fans of your ilk bow to Crean with nothing more than 28 wins to show for three years of work. Show me a banner or winning record in the Big Ten – two things that were regular occurrences in the past.
Notice Sterling couldn’t even deny that it sticks in his craw that Crean is having so much success this year. Here’s a pointer, Kent, nobody really cares who you do or do not like.
Look here, Oldguy. I would love for IU to win every single game. Those kids deserve good things, but beating Savannah State, Stetson, Evansville, and a Butler team that isn’t quite the Butler fans are used to doesn’t qualify as success. My annoyance is in the ordination of Crean as a dragon slayer when all he has done so far is blast bunny rabbits with a 12 gauge. I hope UK doesn’t bring cannons to Bloomington on Saturday.
If IU posts a winning record in the Big Ten, that will qualify as progress. And I’ll be thrilled for the guys doing the sweating in Cook Hall.
Crean has won two non-conference road games in four years. I believe that is the great job he is referring.
What I would give to see Wilson succeed at IU. Damn it would be fun to want to go to BTown on a Saturday in October thinking you had a chance vs a Michigan State. Wilson has the guts of a 10 year old in a Penn State shower taking that job. The question is what Wilson will be doing in 4 years? Former IU coaches tend to be much more unemployed, broadcaster, assistant coach, or dead than they tend to be head coaches elsewhere.
I can’t believe the level of people that have responded above. I don’t know if I should respond after reading what I just read. There seems to be no apparent ability to see beyond the end of their nose in terms perspective. Very poor class of respondees.
Well, I give in, I might as well say something. I like the Cardinals and am glad they won and if Pujols comes back great. I really don’t watch or talk about the Cubs.
Kent you are spot on concerning Kevin Wilson. I don’t really think he understood the depth of his assignment until now but I believe he will succeed eventually if given time. Remember it takes longer to build football than basketball and they have a long way to go.
Now to the “hot button” issue, IU basketball. What do these nitwits suggest; we fire Crean and start over yet again? They must be Michigan State or Ohio State fans. After watching IU play Butler and NC State, I would say IU is headed in the right direction. It really becomes apparent after watching teams like Ohio State and Kentucky that we have not had anywhere near the talent of either and still don’t and still won’t even after next years crop arrives. That is irrelevant! You mention “not elite?” Well, when, in all of Bob Knight’s 29 years did IU ever have elite status except possibly and I say possibly after the 1980/81 championship year? Perspective, perspective. If you were alive then, you remember that IU was not regarded as “elite” even between the years of 1974 to 1976. If I had a nickel for every “expert” journalist who whined about that then, I would be rich. Even after going 32 and ZERO sports writers at the time said things “well they might have won but we all know that UCLA was the most talented team here.” Believe me they did and it wasn’t just a few. Talentwise IU could probably be considered on the “cusp” of elite status after winning the 81 title. Indeed if Thomas returns and Turner doesn’t break his neck, IU probably returns an “ELITE” team for 81/82 but we all know that did not happen. After that IU never approached “elite.” They were competitive because Knight got the kind of players that he could win with. Bob Knight was the “elite” part of IU. Criticism of Crean is assinine. Even Brad Stevens, which so many people revere would not have done much better with what was brought in and would struggle to with a Big Ten schedule to contend with. I mean after two trips to the CHAMPIONSHIP GAME OF THE NCAA TOURNAMENT, is or was Butler ELITE? NO! I don’t know what will happen in the next six or seven games with IU but they impressed me with the level of defense and phyicality they went up against with both Butler and NC State and they responded very well. NC State, in terms of play and physical toughness and “loose” officiating were every bit as tough as any Big Ten team except possibly Ohio State and Wisconsin when they play at home. IU has something, a lot of teams don’t have and that is belief in themselves and one CODY ZELLER. Mark my words and mark them well. I have seen very few players with the kind of basketball intelligence of Cody Zeller. He has the same kind of basketball mind you saw with Larry Bird. Gordan Hayward might be put close to that even though he would not be at Zeller’s level. Cody Zeller, unlike his brothers, which were or are all very good players, seems to understand the game exceptionally well and understands his place in it. If he continues to progress this year, IU will really surprise some people. When Zeller is combined with the group they will have next year, especially Yogi Ferrell, you will see a level of basketball not seen around Bloomington for many, many years. At that point these “reponding posters” like above, will either convert, or shut up or melt into whatever spawned them.
Time goes by, and the seasons change, but the low brow level of commentary on this site is one constant we can hang our hat on.
I don’t undesrtand Sterling. He spent 3 years defending Crean when the team played like shit. Now that they are actually starting to get some maturity and talent, and playing at a better level, he starts leveling criticism on par with the rest of the Crean-haters??