Indiana Pacers coach Nate McMillan got real today in his statement about race relations and the murder of George Floyd. In the past, there have been two types of statements from sports teams and leaders about societal issues. The first is pablum – tasteless, valueless, irrefutable nonsense. “Love thy neighbor” qualifies. Alabama football coach Nick […]
Baseball needs to get its head out of its ass or suffer the consequences. Our society craves a feeling of shared sacrifice and empathy for one another. Between the riots and Coronavirus, many feel isolated, agitated, and downright afraid of what might happen next. Baseball has responded by bickering over how many millions of dollars men […]
There are times when people nationally look at Indiana as a backward state where societal mores reflect ignorance. Last night was not one of those times. As America rages against the racism that led to George Floyd’s death, Indiana has been a beacon of passionate reason while many in other cities used protests as cover to […]
Racism has always baffled me, so I ignored it. That’s what I do when I am confronted with humanity’s insistence upon making our world less pleasant and loving. It’s as though we want to make our lives more challenging through self-imposed trials and challenges. Racism doesn’t make sense, so while I was horrified by the killing of George […]
Nothing good will come from baseball not being played this summer, and nothing good will come from the perception of greed that owners and players project through negotiations that will continue for the next week or two as the 2020 season hangs in the balance. Player agent Scott Boras has made a very handsome living […]
Let’s get creative with rules of major league sports. Leagues hate changing rules because they almost always result in a backlash from fans and participants, but I have no such aversion to angering people. With that in mind, here are 10 rule changes that would likely generate great angst if they were adopted. In time, people […]
The line between adult and child glowed brightly today as the UCLA Student Council approved an incendiary resolution that was then sent to a variety of California and university officials. It reads in part, “As we look at the rampant negligence and mistreatment of student-athletes in NCAA sports, it’s clear that colleges can not be trusted with policing […]
Nothing like billionaires arguing with millionaires to reveal how little any of them have in common with the rabble responsible for their wealth. We pay for tickets, buy beer and hotdogs, watch on TV, wear jerseys, and turn our kids into like-minded zealots for our favorite teams. We are the straw that stirs baseball’s economic drink, and […]
The question of allowing graduate transfers to compete without loss of eligibility is very complicated because transferring is rarely beneficial for a student-athlete or his sport. Our childhoods are about dreams – what we aspire to be. Adolescence teaches us what we cannot become and how we need to adjust our sites toward what we […]
Lee Kelly passed away today. He was my teacher, as he was for so many New Albany High School students during nearly 40 years running WNAS, America’s first high school radio station. I was a high strung kid with more energy than brains, and Lee was a patient man who understood his students even better […]