Author Archives: Kent Sterling

Addison Russell’s locker at Wrigley Field should remain empty – he does not deserve a second chance

Questions for and about Addison Russell will keep coming and coming and coming – and they should.

Cubs shortstop Addison Russell does not deserve a second chance.

Second chances are for those who make mistakes, and Russell did not make a mistake.  He physically and psychologically tormented two women.  Domestic violence is not a mistake – it’s a societal pox.

Again and again on social media, people excoriate those who are critical of Russell with a variety of versions of “I hope you never make a mistake.”  Domestic violence is not mine (or yours) to forgive.  Those who hit women are not welcome in my life – today, tomorrow, or ever.

And they are sure as hell not people I will pay to watch play baseball.

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For as long as Russell is employed by the Cubs, I will not attend a Cubs game at Wrigley Field.  The Cubs have the highest average ticket prices in baseball.  Is it too much to ask that they field a team that doesn’t force mothers and fathers to answer questions about why Addison Russell still has a job after beating his wife?

The Cubs continued allegiance to their former starting shortstop is beyond my ability to comprehend .  To take part in his rehabilitation is laudable, and team president Theo Epstein’s work with Russell is worthy of admiration.  That’s what a friend does.  But the unintended consequences of Russell remaining a Cub should have been more closely examined and acted upon with his release.

Russell is not a good man who did a bad thing.  He is a bad man who did occasional good things.  Fans do not pay good money to watch bad men play baseball.

This story has turned good people in media and fans against one another.  Because the Cubs continue to stand by Russell, fans are forced to answer why they support violence against women, and if Cubs management doesn’t believe players will be held accountable for their friendship with Russell, they are dead wrong.

The Cubs have misjudged the level of unpleasantness this distraction has and will cause.  Their decision to leave Russell in Iowa as his suspension expired shows they are averse to being held accountable for their initial well-intentioned but hideous and foolish choice to continue to allow Russell to remain a Cub.

Maybe the Cubs come to their senses and realize that domestic violence requires a strong and unforgiving response.  Maybe through his counseling, Russell embraces a set of tactics that provide him relief from his anger so further incidents are avoided.  Maybe eager-to-forgive fans will realize that others who demand Russell become a former Cub aren’t heartless, and maybe those hard-line fans who want Russell out will understand forgivers aren’t pro-domestic violence.

We can only hope.

Whatever happens, these last six months will be remembered among the truly terrible episodes in Cubs history.

Thanks Theo.

IU will sell beer at football games at Memorial Stadium – and it’s about time!

Indiana Football crowds may increase with the availability of beer and wine.

Finally.

Indiana University announced today beer and wine will be available to fans attending football games at Memorial Stadium.

For decades, students and alums consumed beer and liquor with vigor before leaving their tailgate for the stadium.  Many fans, already having a good time at the tailgate, would refuse to head into the stadium because beer was not available.

Alcohol and vigor should not be uttered together.  Maybe this ends the impulse to fill the tank for the long game.

“Our main goals with this initiative are to enhance the gameday experience for our fans and reduce alcohol-related incidents in and around the stadium,” said IU Vice President and Director of Athletics Fred Glass.

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“While there will be some comparatively modest revenue generated by these sales, that is not the primary purpose of this program. Ten percent of our net beer and wine public sales revenues will be given to campus for alcohol safety programming,” Glass continued.

It sounds oxymoronic that alcohol sales would reduce alcohol related incidents, but any IU student or alum will tell you liquor is much easier to sneak into the stadium than beer, and shooting vodka causes idiocy.  Beer is much more difficult to consume at a level that turns people crazy.

This change in policy may delay the typical halftime exodus to Nick’s and Kilroy’s as Indiana games plod toward an unhappy conclusion.

Something had to be done to encourage fans to stick around for four hours, and beer – even overpriced concession beer – is a great place to start.

This is a win-win-win-win, and if I think hard, I can probably come up with at least a couple more  victories for fans and IU.

See you August 31st as the Hoosiers welcome Ball State – and some thirsty fans!

Theo Epstein makes a mistake everyday Addison Russell is employed by the Chicago Cubs

Addison Russell may be back with the Cubs later this week, and with him will come a myriad of distractions.

Addison Russell terrorized at least two women, and so he was suspended for 40 games.  That suspension will end later this week, and he will be eligible to return to the Chicago Cubs.

Fans are split on Russell’s return.  Some want him to be welcomed back because “everyone deserves a second chance.”  Others believe that domestic violence is a pox on our society and “the Cubs should be above employing someone who beat his wife.”

Those are moral judgments, and everyone is entitled to decide whether to cheer Russell or boycott Wrigley Field until Russell is a former Cub.

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I hope Russell continues his therapy and finds a way to release his anger without causing emotional or physical damage to others, but while employed by someone other than the Cubs.  I will be among those refusing to set foot in Wrigley until Russell is gone.

Cubs president Theo Epstein told listeners during an interview on 670 The Score last Thursday that he has been distracted by from his baseball responsibilities by the constant work of monitoring Russell’s progression through a protocol of counseling the team mandated he participate in through his suspension – and beyond.

From a pragmatic perspective, that is a very good reason to cut ties with Russell.  The Cubs baseball operation is built to acquire and develop talent in order to win championships.  Anything that take eyes off that goal needs to be eliminated.  The Cubs are a baseball team, not a halfway house for violent husbands.

When (if) Russell comes back to the Cubs, the media will ask every teammate his thoughts about Russell’s return.  The players will be forced to support their teammate without minimizing his assaults.  That’s not an easy line to walk.  If someone errs in his comments, they will make headlines and correctly be assailed for being insensitive to victims of domestic violence.  That is a distraction.

There are media reports that the Cubs have threatened a lack of access for those who are deemed too negative in discussing Russell’s presence on the team or actions that led to his suspension.  That is a distraction that will lead to a strained relationship between the team, media, and fans.

When Russell comes to the plate for the first time at Wrigley Field – some fans will cheer and others will boo.  That becomes a distraction.

Distractions are everywhere, and they permeate all areas of the organization.  And for what?

Russell is a slick fielding shortstop (but without a Gold Glove) who has never hit better than .250 in any of his four seasons as a Cub.  His best OPS was .738 in 2016.  In his six games as an Iowa Cub over the last week, he’s hitting .250 with seven RBIs and no errors at short or second base.  On the field, Russell is okay,  Off the field, he’s a disaster.

From a pragmatic perspective, his contributions are not worth the multitude of distractions he is.  Bailing on a troubled young man might seem a harsh response by the Cubs, but that’s why they pay Epstein the big bucks.  The needs of the many outweighs the needs of the one.

Morally, Russell is a pariah.  Practically, Russell is not worth the trouble.

If Epstein wants to support Russell the human being rather than Russell the player, I’m in.  That would make him a good friend and man.  But being a good steward of the Cubs as a baseball team/business requires the Cubs part ways with Russell – and should have six months ago.

I’ll be a Cubs fan longer than Tom Ricketts will own them

My disdain for Cubs owner and financial pirate Tom Ricketts is not going to be the reason I choose to not watch the Cubs.

My disdain for the owner of the Chicago Cubs is pretty well chronicled – and well-founded.

Tom Ricketts and his family extract as much cash as they possibly can from the wallets of fans, and I object to that level of snow-blind profiteering at the expense of people who were born into fandom for the Cubs – as I was.

Last year, the Cubs had the most expensive tickets in baseball (average cost $58.57), but the cash grab only begins there.  If you want to buy a Cubs related souvenir, the most expensive are at cubs.com.  When the baseball at Wrigley Field wasn’t particularly captivating a few years ago, the Cubs hosted movie nights inside Wrigley Field like it was some damn discount theater instead of hallowed baseball ground (now the movies are free at Gallagher Way).

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The Cubs have partnered with Sinclair to form their own network (launches in 2020), which will be a huge cash cow for the family as they will reportedly charge somewhere in the neighborhood of $6/month per cable household for a product fans have received for a comparative pittance or free for 70 years.

Again and again and again the Ricketts owned Cubs have sought to monetize the love fans feel for the Cubs, and justify it by saying fielding a contending team requires massive financial resources.  One world championship in 110 years sure has filled the sails of Ricketts ego.

And all the while a straight faced and Omaha born Ricketts claims a love for the Cubs because he and his brother lived in an apartment across Addison from Wrigley for a brief period in the late-1980s.

I have nothing against a guy buying an underperforming business and turning it into a cash cow.  This is America, and making money is what a lot of people believe life is all about.  I’m a capitalist too.

But the unending search and destroy mission to wring every cent possible from fans whose dads brought them to games because their dads brought them to games because their dads…you get the idea…nauseates me, and that affected my ability to enjoy games.

I found myself watching fewer Cubs games and attending none since 2016, which just felt wrong.  Then I decided that my loathing of the Ricketts and love for the Cubs could coexist in my strangely conflicted brain.

Just because the Wrigley Family operated the Cubs as a hobby and Tribune ran the Cubs about as well as you would guess a media company would, I shouldn’t hate watching the Cubs.

This seems like a step toward sanity for me.  That Ricketts is a financial vampire is no longer a big deal to me because while he might own the Cubs as a business, I own my love for the team.

The Wrigleys and Tribune did the same thing as Ricketts – just not as well.  It’s the fans who have owned their fandom since 1876.  Our sweat and tear equity through generations of misery and a brief moment of success in 2016 has bought and paid for our standing as fans.

Eventually, Ricketts will sell, and it will be up to another family or company to screw things up in one direction or another.  Fans will continue to live and die with every pitch, as it should be.

Hell, I’ll even go to games and pay Ricketts for the privilege, but not if Addison Russell is on the Cubs payroll.  I won’t support an organization that embraces an employee who beat his wife.

But that’s a tirade for another day.

Two not-so-bold Colts draft predictions – Ballard will get it right, and Jerry Tillery won’t be the pick

The Colts won’t take Jerry Tillery because I love him. They never take the guy I love.

What will the Colts do tomorrow night with their 26th pick in the NFL Draft?

Colts GM Chris Ballard is the guy who will pull the trigger, and he has no idea what will happen.  So how can we even begin to venture a guess?

There are a few things we do know about Ballard and the Colts:

  • Ballard and his staff have identified eight players they believe might be available at 26 they would feel good about taking.
  • The Colts have a severe allergy to players with character issues.
  • Free agent signees Justin Houston and Devin Funchess give Colts a dearth of positions where they have an immediate need.
  • Ballard likes to build depth from the inside out.
  • Coming off a 10-6 season that started 1-5, the Colts appear to be a team that is being built the right way by a GM who knows what he’s doing.

All that said, I still have no idea what the Colts might do because I have no idea what the Eagles are going to do at #25 or the Raiders at #24 or….

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I always fall in love with somebody the Colts don’t take, so if you want to bet on who Ballard won’t select, Notre Dame DT Jerry Tillery is my guy.  He’s a physical monster who succeeded without great hand technique.  He was productive throughout his career in South Bend, and he is physically similar to Margus Hunt.

So he’s out.

The positions that are completely out of the question for the Colts at #26 are quarterback, kicker, and punter.  Everything else is in play.  It’s unlikely Ballard grabs a running back or tight end, and my money would be on the Colts waiting to take a linebacker that early, but anything is possible

Will the Colts trade up or back?  Ballard said there is a group of eight players he has identified as possibilities for #26.  If all eight are gone (or still there), the Colts may trade back.  Trading up seems against Ballard’s DNA.

The NFL Draft is a good time because we get to see smart people screw up, and when they do, we feel very smart.

This is the back nine at Augusta for GMs.  Some are capable of the preparation necessary to overcome the nerves that come with a three day run of selections that could establish GMs as the next genius – like Bill Polian or the next, well, not genius, like Ryan Grigson.

Two drafts in, Ballard looks like a guy who knows how to handle himself when chaos reigns, and so he’s put together one great draft and another that still gets in incomplete grade because of Malik Hooker’s health.

All in, it was a lot more fun to try to outguess Grigson than Ballard because it was likely we would be right with Grigson.  Ballard is sharp, get’s talent & culture, and knows about fit.  Outguessing Ballard is going to be tough.

My bold Colts draft prediction is this –  whatever Ballard decides late tomorrow night, he will be proven correct regardless of the initial critiques.

Merl Code and Christian Dawkins on trial again, and we get to learn simple lessons about college hoops – again

Christian Dawkins is back in court today, and so we’ll hear more stories about supposed college basketball corruption.

As long as shoe companies invest millions in university athletic departments, they are going to eagerly invest tens of thousands to ensure return on investment.

That’s the very basic rule driving the kind of corruption in college basketball that will be in the news today as the second trial of shoe pimps Merl Code and Christian Dawkins commences in New York.

What these guys are accused of is paying the parents/guardians/AAU coaches of college basketball recruits a variety of cash amounts in order to secure commitments to schools affiliated with the shoe company they represent.

Of course they do – and of course they will.

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Prosecutions like those of Code and Dawkins never stop corruption – they just force the corrupt to improve their tactics, or compel the powerful to change rules.

For anyone who took Microeconomics is college, tracing the bread crumbs of why shoes pay athletes is simple;  Nike, Adidas, and Under Armour pay schools to have their logos brandished on uniforms, arenas, coaches shirts, and other paraphernalia, they pay the best players so the number of eyes that see that logo is maximized.

The better the players, the more often a team is on TV, the more often people see those logos, and return on investment increases for the shoe companies.

This kind of thing has gone on for a long time – since the shoe companies began funneling millions of dollars into university coffers.

For decades these payments were seen as victimless renumeration of valuable assets going unpaid other than under table income.  If the coaches and kids never touched the money, the NCAA didn’t have the bandwidth to investigate or punish anyone.

Federal prosecutors saw this is something other than harmless.  They are holding the shoe pimps as violators of bribery and fraud statutes, so he we are for round two – a second opportunity to learn what we already know.

Because schools accept shoe money, they also invite shoe pimps into college basketball.  It’s like having a great college party.  It starts out as a fun gathering with friends, and then word gets out, and all of a sudden some idiot does six shots of Beam, vomits in your stove, and falls off the balcony.

NCAA rules maintain an arcane adherence to the utterly flawed concept of amateurism, and as a result cash finds value by whatever means necessary.  Every once in a while, a coach gets arrogant and crosses a line his employer or the NCAA is forced to pay attention to.  He winds up coaching in Greece.

The one benefit fans have reaped through the ongoing prosecutions of Code and Dawkins is the knowledge that rules are being broken so often at so many schools that they have lost all meaning.

Amateurism is a sham.  Rules prohibiting payment to players by companies to endorse products are a sham.  Time for NCAA membership to embrace the value represented by individual players, and the immutable economic law – cash seeks pockets of the valued.

Maybe through peeling the curtain back for those who are unaware of how recruiting really works, an evolution toward reason can finally commence.

Chet Coppock killed in Georgia car wreck – he was one of a kind

Chet Coppock was killed yesterday at the age of 70.

Chet Coppock was bigger than life, and part of the best talk radio lineup I ever heard as the Sportstalk component on The Loop, AM1000 in Chicago.

Often wearing a full length mink coat, Coppock was a unique presence in Chicago sports media – boastful, loud, and connected, he was the voice of record during the 1980s and into the mid-1990s.

Coppock spent six years in Indianapolis in the 1970s as a sports anchor on WISH-TV8 before bouncing back to his hometown of Chicago for the remainder of his career.

My relationship with Chet began after I wrote some less than kind things about him on this website.  He commented immediately that my characterization was unfair.  In my mind, what I wrote was really more funny than mean, but Chet wanted to set the record straight.

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I gave him my phone number, and we had a nice conversation.  From that point forward, Chet would reach out from time to time to comment on something I wrote or said on my radio show.

His public persona was very similar to that of a professional wrestler, which was no accident as Chet learned how to effectively brand himself during friendships with pro wrestling greats Dick the Bruiser, Gorilla Monsoon, and others he got to know well in that business.

Personally, he was very different.

My interactions with him occurred after his heyday, but he was a very decent, interesting, and thoughtful man when we spoke.  His ego appeared to be an affectation, not a core component of his character.

Chet guested on my radio show several times.  I kept him longer than scheduled each time.  He was a great storyteller, and knew almost everyone in sports.

He was relentless about inviting me to dinner in Chicago – telling me he would buy me the best steak in the city.  I never made the drive, but I wish I had.

Here’s one of the interviews I did with Chet three years ago.  This one is about the Pacers telethon he co-hosted to save the franchise.

https://soundcloud.com/sports1430/chicago-sports-talk-legend-chet-coppock-joins-the-kent-sterling-show

Paul George’s Thunder are failing to compete in the playoffs – again

Paul George’s self-immersion as an NBA celebrity has caused his bank account to swell and his teams to suffer.

Paul George is not as valuable a player as PG-13 is as a brand, and that’s just the way George likes it.

The OKC Thunder forward had a typical line last night – 27 points and seven boards in a 114-94 loss to the Portland Trailblazers.  The Thunder now trail Portland 0-2 in their first round playoff series.

This is familiar territory for George, who decided a few years ago to change his number from 24 to 13 to create his PG-13 brand.

If the Thunder lose this series, George’s teams will have put together four straight first round series bow-outs – two with the Pacers and two with the Thunder.

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Over the last three years, the Thunder have won 47, 48, and 49 games.  The last two seasons with George, and the first without him.  During the same span, the Pacers won 42 with George, and 48 during the last two without him.

The last time George was on a team that won a playoff series coincides with the last time he wore the number 24.  I’m not arguing that George wearing 13 is a different player than he is when he wore 24, but when George decided he needed to become a brand, it was evidence of a shift in priorities that resulted in his teams becoming mediocre.

Celebrity basketball players make lots of money in the NBA, and Paul George is a celebrity basketball player.  George was paid $30.5-million this season, and will make approximately $105-million over the next three.  He has a great shoe deal with Nike, and endorsements with Tissot, Gatorade, Bass Pro Shops, 2K Sports, and New Era.

Before George fell in love with being PG-13 as though it was some kind of super hero, George was a tremendous force for good for the Pacers franchise.  He insisted on sharing the spotlight with his teammates as they made it to back-to-back Eastern Conference Finals in 2013 & 2014.

Then the switch flipped.  George embraced branding, and his teams receded into competitive irrelevance.  He also suffered a gruesome lower leg injury that might have caused him to reevaluate his place in the game – and his ability to make more cash as PG-13 than Paul George from Palmdale, California.

George was asked recently about the possibility of his number being retired by the Pacers.  He answered, “I’m not sure if I’ve done enough to have a jersey hung here. But that’s not in my hands. I’m stacked up against a lot of greats…  I would love to (have the jersey retired), because I can’t say I would’ve made it to where I’m at if it wasn’t for this opportunity here and the chance I got to be Paul George here. So we’ll see.”

That’s typical Paul George false humility with a self-important third person reference to himself for emphasis.

Not only is George stacked up against greats, he ranks 11th in franchise history in win shares – a metric that measures value to a team.  Jeff Foster, Vern Fleming, Rik Smits, Jermaine O’Neal, Danny Granger, and Dale Davis rank ahead of George in win shares.  Had he stayed in Indy, he would likely have finished his career behind only Reggie Miller – but he didn’t.

That George is in OKC is ultimately a good thing for the Pacers, as Kevin Pritchard was able to deal him for Victor Oladipo and Domas Sabonis, so no hard feelings, but no retired number either.

No one wishes for George to fail again and again in the playoffs, but the facts paint a picture of a player who competes economically at a higher level than he does on the basketball court.

The Thunder are a mediocre team with no cap space for two more seasons, so they have limited options to appreciably improve over who and what they are as they struggle against Portland.

Welcome to PG-13’s world – one of mediocre results for his team and fat bank accounts.

Indiana to put names back on football jerseys because fans need them

“Fumble recovered by #23! Who the hell is #23? Let me check the roster. #23 is either Jaylin Williams or Ronnie Walker Jr. Williams is a DB, so it must be him!” Watching football shouldn’t be that complicated.

Player names are returning to Indiana Football jerseys, and that is a very good thing.

For the record, at the time of the change a year ago, I was a big fan of taking names off the jerseys.  Favoring the collective over the individual is the principle lesson of football, so it made all kinds of sense to me.

My love for not having names on the jerseys eroded as I tried to figure out who the hell was doing what as I watched Indiana games at Memorial Stadium last season.  I spent most of the time between plays grilling myself on which number was worn by what player.

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I was constantly looking at the roster to figure out who made a tackle, missed a block, or grabbed an interception.  Putting names to players became tedious work, and reminded me of my days in nearby Briscoe Quad where I tried to memorize names in history, literature, and economics – not a college experience for which I am nostalgic.

One additional maddening complication – the same number can be worn by two players.  Add that to the equation, and I was mentally exhausted by halftime.

Indiana has been resolute about not adding names to basketball jerseys because everyone at Assembly Hall – even those in the balcony – can tell the difference between Romeo Langford and Juwan Morgan.

The difference between watching a football and basketball game is self-evident – fans are much closer to the court than they are to the football field, and basketball players heads are not covered by identical helmets.  Easily recognizing players is one of the reasons for basketball’s popularity.

IU Athletics can indulge in maintaining a long-standing tradition of collective over personal in basketball without damaging the fan experience.  In football, it just didn’t work.

Good for Indiana reversing course after a one-year experiment that proved problematic for fans.

Now if IU announced beer sales at Memorial Stadium, I would buy season tickets.

Why the hell was Will Wade reinstated by LSU; What’s a guy have to do to get fired?

Will Wade is back on the job at LSU – which says a lot about LSU.

It’s impossible for a reasonable person to read the transcript of a phone call recorded by federal wiretap between LSU head basketball coach Will Wade and shoe company pimp Christian Dawkins and not conclude Wade was at least aware one recruit was being paid to commit to the Tigers.

Here’s the most damning part of the transcript as reported by Yahoo Sports:

“The problem was, I know why he didn’t take it now, it was [expletive] tilted toward the family a little bit,” Wade continued. “It was tilted toward taking care of the mom, taking care of the kid. Like it was tilted towards that. Now I know for a fact he didn’t explain everything to the mom. I know now, he didn’t get enough of the piece of the pie in the deal.”

Dawkins responded by saying, “Hmmmm.”

“It was a [expletive] hell of a [expletive] offer,” Wade continued. “Hell of an offer.”

Wade was suspended in early March after he refused to answer questions from his employer about the transcripts and allegations of NCAA rules violations.

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LSU released a statement regarding Wade’s reinstatement:

“The University regrets that Coach Wade did not choose to fulfill his obligations to LSU when he was first asked to do so. However, the seriousness of the allegations and Coach Wade’s prior refusal to refute them could not be ignored without exposing the University and basketball program to great risk. Protecting LSU and preserving our integrity must always be our first priority. Coach Wade’s explanations and clarifications offered during the meeting, absent actual evidence of misconduct, satisfy his contractual obligation to LSU.”

Smells like a team of lawyers wrote the statement rather than a boss who believes in his employee.  Makes you wonder you runs the university and what priorities are most important to a supposed educational institution.  The lesson here is, “win, deny, cash checks!”

If you’re mystified as to how the transcript of Wade talking to Dawkins doesn’t serve as proof of misconduct, you’ve got company – a lot of company.

Some will blame the NCAA for not acting decisively against Wade and LSU in light of the transcript, but the NCAA should only be the last line of authority in determining whether rules were broken.  The fault at this moment lies at the slimy feet of LSU president F. King Alexander, who is happy to delegate discipline of his employee to the NCAA.

As a result of the reinstatement, LSU appears to be an institution more focused upon wins than integrity.  LSU just concluded its most successful basketball season since a 1981 run to an SEC Championship and trip to the Final Four.

This was Will Wade’s second year running LSU’s program, and the speed of the rebuild has been stunning.  In 2016-2017, the Tigers finished 10-21 overall with a 2-16 record in the SEC.  This year – 28 wins and 18-2 in conference.

Draw your own conclusions.