Author Archives: Kent Sterling

Jordan Hulls on Leadership, Jeremy Hollowell on Recruiting, and Butler’s Matt Howard on His Love of the Game

by Kent Sterling

It’s a Saturday video cavalcade featuring IU guard Jordan Hulls talking about his desire to be a leader, top 50 recruit Jeremy Hollowell on his love for the game, and Butler’s Matt Howard on his love for the game.

First is Jordan Hulls, who led Indiana to a win over Illinois on Thursday night. Many have called for someone on this team to step up and show leadership on this team, and in this interview Hulls talks about his desire to be that leader.

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Next is Jeremy Hollowell, who was rumored to be very close to a commitment to Indiana during an unofficial visit Thursday night. No too much is known about Jeremy, and in this interview he talks about his game and who he is as a player.

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Last but not least in this menagerie of player profiles is Butler’s Matt Howard on why he loves basketball.

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All three are special kids and players. We get to see a lot of them doing what they do, and now you know a little bit more about who they are.

Gym Etiquette 101

by Kent Sterling

Admire yourself at home is a good place to start.

Labeling this as as 100-level course for gym behavior is both too broad and too generous. Most who go to the gym need a remedial course that equates to a third grade primer, and my entire class is concerns itself only on what goes on in the most unholy of all places that are not penitentiaries.

ESPN.com’s Patrick Hruby wrote a Page 2 post about the eight most irritating types of gym-goers, but they all had to do with the gym itself. The real visually abusive behaviors occur in the locker room – a place I run in and out of like a six-year old going to church.

In the summer, I can avoid it completely. I walk in looking like hell, and I walk out looking and smelling worse. The boobery that spends an hour showering in bacteria infested squalor and huddled together in saunas like Cuban immigrants on cardboard raft is as indecipherable to me as the musical genius of Brian Wilson or Mozart.

I have belonged to LA Fitness, Lifetime Fitness, Bally’s, and Five Seasons health clubs over the years, and I’ve seen people fitting these categories at all of them.

Here are the eight locker room types I have been repulsed by out of the corner of me eye over the years of trying like hell to retain the modest physique and barely functional athletic ability God gave me:

The Doppelganger – This is the guy (by the way, these are restricted to men because I have never been in a ladies’ locker room, which I would imagine must be similar to a 24-hour strip club in a bad neighborhood on a Monday at 9 a.m.) who looks in the mirror and sees something the rest of us must miss. He stares admiringly at his physique like a 16 year-old looks at his 1974 Pontiac Catalina.

The Inkblot – God bless the 78 year-olds that continue to train. I hope I do, but fortunately I made it through idiotic nights without being arrested or getting a tattoo. Some of the old guys at the gym have what I’m sure used to be beautiful murals etched into their now leathery facades. Ironically, what happened to the subjects of the pictures, happened in real life. Beauty undone by gravity and blemishes layered upon one another is bad enough without it in 3-D.

The Clacker – Remember the toy in the early 1970s with two plastic balls that were connected by a string. Kids moved the middle of the string to cause the balls to clack together. A lifetime of boxer shorts without any mechanism to help the scrotum battle gravity has elongated the nut sacks of the old and near old to knee level.

The Shaver – Just as some people feel like it’s fine to urinate wherever they get the urge, there is a small sect of men who feel right at home shaving in a health club sink. Those who do it are a little weird, but the worst are the guys who do it in the nude with a foot propped up on the vanity. I’ve only seen it twice, and should have either told them how wildly inappropriate that was, or given them a certificate of achievement in the area of flat not giving a damn what anyone thinks.

The Close-Talker – These guys are a minor inconvenience, unless they are naked, which they almost always are in the locker room of a health club. Serious conversations about work or family with a guy inside the radius of my personal space – roughly 18-24 inches – is tough. Add the dangling schlong, and I turn into a stammering fool like King George VI in “The King’s Speech”.

The Idol – Some men just want to be seen, I suppose. They walk around the locker room shirtless for a period of time until they feel everyone has noticed their grand physiques. They sit quietly and game a their own muscles and then finally leave. Then they head to one of the female trainers and talk about their workout.

The Pair – There are always a couple of exercise fanatics who are sitting in the locker room talking about how many reps and at what weight they lifted. They speak of squats, curls, and presses with great detail and just loudly enough for everyone else getting dressed to hear.

The Hustler – This is me, and it’s not what it sounds like. I can walk into the locker room, dress, and leave in 45 seconds. I make sure that my jeans are big enough to allow me to put them on over my shoes, and when I dress for a workout, I organize my stuff in the locker so I can access them quickly and easily. A place with that many naked and vain men is not a comfortable spot for socializing, and the less time I spend in their, the better.

Chicago Cubs Four Greatest Moments

by Kent Sterling

Constantly charting the plight of Cubs fans by listing the disappointing moments gets a little monotonous, so how about some positive memories.

Some of these are a little obscure because they are my favorite memories, and they deal more in moments than overall success because, well, overall success predates the President William Howard Taft getting stuck in a White House bathtub.

These are by no means the greatest moments in Cubs history, but my greatest Cubs memories. Not in the mix is the Ryne Sandberg game in 1984 because it wasn’t telecast where I lived.

The only legit great day for the franchise that doubles as a great day for me is the #1 moment.

But here they are – my favorite five moments as a Cubs fan:

#4 – Sunday, August 20, 1978 – Dave Rader was an obscure Cubs player in 1978, and in mid-August the Cubs were 62-59, just three games out of first place and looking for a hero. The Reds led 1-0 going into the bottom of the ninth, and I was stuck at the Kentucky State Fair wandering around in a pavilion but found a TV.

Louisville was filled with Reds fans, and one of the exhibitors was smart enough to draw a crowd by putting on the Cubs vs. Reds game. This was before the mass proliferation of cable, so it was tough to catch a Cubs game, and I stood there watching the Cubs first two hitters in the ninth make outs.

When Bobby Murcer and Bill Buckner make the first two outs, leaving the Cubs with Larry Biittner as their last hope, both Cubs and Reds fans leave both assume the game is over, and that was certainly the case at the Fair. A friend – Chris Pruitt – and I were the only people left when Biittner singled to left. Then Manny Trillo singled, and hope was flush. Sparky Anderson replaced Mike LaCoss with Doug Bair, and Ivan de Jesus walked to fill the bases.

That left light hitting Dave Radar as the guy to either thrill or crush the full house at Wrigley, and he delivered a shot over the head of right fielder Ken Griffey that drove in both Biittner and Trillo for the 2-1 win. When my love for the Cubs as a kid and the endless tedium of the Kentucky State Fair are considered, it’s not surprising this is my favorite Fair memory too.

#3 – Friday, July 8, 1977 – People forget 1977 as one of the extremely disappointing seasons in Cubs history. On June 28, the Cubs had an 8.5 game lead in the NL East with a 47-22 record. I can still hear Cubs broadcaster Lou Boudreau tell partner Vince Lloyd, “Well, once a team gets to 25 games over .500, that guarantees at worst a .500 season.” The Cubs delivered the worst – an 81-81 season.

On this day though, the Cubs delivered the most exciting win I’ve ever seen at Wrigley. How can you go wrong in a game that features Paul Reuschel, Lou Brock, George Mitterwald, Tarzan Joe Wallis, and Rick Reuschel as a pinch runner? The skies to the west looked like the end of the world was coming in minutes as the Cubs entered the bottom of the eighth behind 5-4. The Cubs load the bases with one out on two walks and a basehit to right by Bill Buckner.

Clay Carroll relieved Rawly Eastwick to face pinch hitter Manny Trillo, and promptly balks home the tying run. Trillo then grounds to second and Mike Tyson (the ballplayer not the boxer) decides to throw home. Gene Clines slides in safely as the throw gets away from catcher. Reuschel lumbers around third and scores before the ball is retrieved. The crowd went batshit crazy, and friend Nick Anson and I led the cheers.

Nick and I were kids back then, and our parents didn’t hesitate letting us hop on the train from Lake Bluff to Davis Street, hop on the Howard, and buy tickets ourselves at Wrigley. Those days are over for most kids, which is too bad because we had a hell of a good time.

#2 – Tuesday, April 16, 1968 – My first Cubs game at Wrigley with my Dad. I was in kindergarten, and Dad started a great tradition that day. He would take me out of school without warning to go to a Cubs game. Everyday during the spring from kindergarten through eighth grade, I hoped that that was the day. On this first trip to Wrigley, we sat in the eighth row behind the Reds dugout.

Getting good tickets for Cubs games wasn’t too tough back then on a weekday. I had only seen Cubs games on black and white TV, so when we walked up the steps from the concourse to the box seats ($3.50 each then), the green of the field and scoreboard was overwhelming. I had never seen anything quite that beautiful. As we sat, there were two Reds standing at the brick wall signing autographs. Dad pointed to one, and handed me the scorecard and pencil, “Have that Reds player sign this. I walked down, waited, got it signed and came back. Dad was laughing, and I asked who that Red was. He said, “That is Fred Whitfield, Kent. Pete Rose is the guy standing next to him signing autographs.”

There began a lifelong series of miscommunications that defined our relationship. Another Dad habit showed itself that day. He never saw the eighth or ninth inning of a Cubs game because he wanted to beat the traffic. That worked for us on this day as the Cubs lost 9-8 on a Lee May single in the ninth. Ernie Banks hit a home run that day, and when we left after six innings, the Cubs led 8-6.

#1 – Sunday, September 24, 1989 – This was the final Cubs home game during a season they won the NL East. They had a four game lead when the day started with seven left, so even the most cynical Cubs fan thought this last home game was a coronation, so Paulie Balst and I made the half-mile walk from our apartment to see if we could get a couple of tickets cheap. We ponied up $35 to a scalper for two bleacher seats, and wedged ourselves into the second row in right field above the 368 foot sign much to the dismay of the people who showed up two hours earlier to sit there.

The Cubs delivered with a fairly routine 4-2 win. It was also Harry Caray Day, and every fan received a rolled up poster of Harry as a premium as they walked into the park.

After the game, as the Cubs retreated into the clubhouse, no one in the stands left. They stood waving their posters and cheering wildly. The noise never quieted, and no one moved toward the exits. I’m not sure whether the fans were trying to get the Cubs to come out of the clubhouse, or whether they just wanted to enjoy the moment together, and didn’t want it to end.

About 15 minutes into the bedlam, Vance Law walked out of the dugout with another guy, and the crowd came unglued. Law looked around like there was something wrong with the fans, talked to his friend for a minute, and then ducked back inside. Another minute later, the rest of the Cubs charged out the clubhouse door, and the place came totally unhinged. The players circled the field, and I wept.

There aren’t many sporting events so perfect they bring tears, but I stood there with tears streaming down my face as though some dam of emotional pressure had been released. The players were in all state of undress, none still in their uniforms, and the smiles on their faces were like goofy eight-year-olds on Christmas morning.

Pure joy doesn’t happen often, but that day, I owned it – for $17.50.

Being a Cubs fan seem foolish far more often than not, but for those beautiful, joyous moments shared with friends, it’s a decision I would gladly make again. Although, as most Cubs fans would tell you, we never had a choice.

Big Ten Expansion – University of Texas and ESPN Reach Agreement

by Kent Sterling

The University of Texas will receive $247.5 million of a $300 million guarantee over the next 20 years in exchange for allowing ESPN to create a network that entirely driven by Longhorn athletics – with some Texas high school football thrown in.

Each year, there will be one football game and eight men’s basketball games that air exclusively on the network. The rest of the broadcast day will be filled with replays of football and basketball, contests featuring other sports, and studio shows.

There was never any doubt that the conference network business would evolve into the more micro individual school model, which could replace or augment the current Big Ten Network model that has been so successful. Why shouldn’t the Big Ten Network fragment their product into 12 individual products? Popular Big Ten programming could blast across all 12 channels, and when filler like the endless replays of “The Finale” are used to amuse viewers who lose their remotes, why not use school specific best of or recent non-revenue sports fare?

The programming exists, it’s just a matter of bandwidth for the programming carriers (DirecTV, Comcast, ATT U-Verse, etc…), which will continue to expand until broadband becomes the delivery system of choice. At that point, the walls all come down, and the business model is re-invented.

So what does this mean for the potential for Texas to join the Big Ten? Virtually nothing has changed because everything can be negotiated. There’s no reason that a Big Ten school can’t have it’s own network and contribute to the Big Ten Network.

As you might guess, University of Texas president William Powers says that Texas is “firmly committed” to the Big 12, as are the other nine schools who will form the ten team Big 12. Being a member of a conference is like being married – you are until you aren’t. No school is tenuously tethered to their conference.

Another possibility is that Texas bails completely and becomes an independent. That would cause Texas to forfeit the cash it receives from the Big 12, but that would be recouped and then some instantly with a Notre Dame type network deal.

Texas could also pull its football program from the Big 12, but work a deal to stick it out with the rest of its sports.

This deal didn’t do anything to clear the waters is the complicated world of conference realignment. The $247.5 million just means that Texas will have more money than it did before, not that they are now somehow tethered inexorably to anyone.

John Calipari Tirade – Can We Get Over Ourselves?

by Kent Sterling

"Forgive me Father, for I have sinned."

John Calipari is not a guy I have a lot of good things to say about, but when he called a Kentucky player a “selfish motherfucker”, I didn’t care.

This doesn’t make Calipari a bad guy, any more than his language made Bob Knight a bad guy.

The moral outrage being expressed by people whose sensibilities have been hurt by Calipari’s use of language is idiotic. Words have power, no doubt, but to allow their use to bother us is ridiculous.

The American profanity allergy shows us to be sensitive types eager to be prompted to moral outrage, and it needs to stop. Limits on use of language doesn’t make us pious or holy. It doesn’t make us hip or cool either.

Coaches have been using language like this since the beginning of time. In James Naismith’s rules of basketball, the fifth rule is “No fucking dribbling, you assholes!” Only the use of white out by Naismith’s heirs have made their presentation acceptable outside a bar.

I have heard stories from coaches who told me the things they said to players in front of their families, and it curled my ear hair. I sat behind the Indiana bench at a game in 1991 or 1992, and the language Bob Knight directed toward Todd Jadlow made me feel terrible for the kid and his parents if they were nearby. He yelled it loudly enough that his verbal cannon shots at Jadlow could be heard 20 rows up.

Had I been Jadlow’s father, I would have left my seat and challenged Knight, and then I would have been in my kid’s grill for allowing any man to say that to him.

The sad truth is that some kids occasionally need to have their hard drives rebooted, and some shockingly profane language sometimes gets that done. To be critical of Calipari would make me a hypocrite, as I dropped an F-bomb as a substitute teacher to get the attention of a classroom full of eighth graders.

The best use of language prompts the desired response. That’s the whole idea behind the effort of talking.

The ultimate arbiter of right and wrong in this case is Terrence Jones, the freshman who was embarrassed in front of the country. Jones tweeted, “If ur saying ur parents never said anything to you that hurt ur feelings and then apologized to you after ur lying. I’m happy and blessed for playing for Cal. Don’t think otherwise.”

For me, that’s case closed. Had Jones taken offense and come back at Calipari, he would have been perfectly justified.

Calipari might be a self-serving guy who has discovered the perfect level of reward needed to acquire the very best recruits year after year, but he did nothing wrong here.

Top Ten (6-10) Worst All-Time Days for Chicago Cubs Fans

by Kent Sterling

In that area between the snow belt and the sun belt, winter is virtually unbearable. Too warm for skiing and snowmobiling, and too cold for golf and tennis, there is nothing to do but look ahead to warmer days, and the most important bellwether for warmer days is the first day of spring training. That day for the Chicago Cubs is one month away.

Hope for the Cubs springs eternal for every single living fan who have had their hopes and dreams shattered with mediocre to poor play for the majority of seasons, and a few that were good enough to titillate but never deliver the goods.

Of course even I will look forward to opening day in 2011 with hope that the endless years of disappointment will end. The leadership of the Cubs appears to be committed to finishing at .500, but maybe the team can overcome the limitations of the bloated boob calling the shots.

But hope hurts, especially for Cubs fans. Here are some reminders of why cynics fill Wrigley Field. This top ten is in no way complete. There have been thousands of terrible moments that I have endured since Ernie Banks was able to squeeze that big ass into flannel britches. Tomorrow, I’ll share the bottom half of a top ten list of great moments, which will be much more difficult to compile.

#10 – October 12, 1929 – This was obviously long before most of our time, but it was still a terrible day. The Cubs were playing game four of their first World Series in 11 years (seems like the blink of an eye to current Cubs fans), and led the Philadelphia A’s 8-0 heading into the bottom of the seventh. A win would have evened the series at two games apiece. Charlie Root was rocking and firing for the Cubs, allowing only three hits through six. Of the seven A’s who came to the plate against Root, six reached, and the flood gates opened. By the end of the seventh, the A’s led 10-8, and the Cubs collapsed. Two days later, the Cubs led 2-0 heading into the bottom of the ninth. The A’s rallied for three runs against Pat Malone for the series clinching win.

#9 – September 10, 1969 – There were so many good and bad days in 1969, it’s hard to pick one, so we are going with the day the Cubs fell out of first place. On September 3, the Cubs led the NL East by five games, and appeared to be rolling toward their first postseason berth since 1945. On that day they started a 12 game stretch during which they lost 11. At he end of that two weeks, they were 4.5 games in back of the Mets. September 10th was the day they fell out of first place.

#8 – June 15, 1964 – John Holland, the genius who a few years later would pass out while negotiating a trade with the Reds that would have brought Frank Robinson to the Cubs causing the Reds to put together a deal with the Orioles, pulls the trigger on one of the most infamous trades in baseball history. Holland sends Lou Brock to St. Louis for Ernie Brogio, Doug Clemens, and Bobby Shantz. Brock went on to a hall of fame career. Broglio went 7-19 for the Cubs in three seasons.

#7 – October 6, 1984 – Game Four of the NLCS with that self-aggrandizing twit Steve Garvey circling the bases with his fist in the air after breaking a 5-5 tie in the bottom of the ninth was horrible. The Cubs jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the best of five series, and the Cubs only needed one win in three games out in San Diego to earn a trip to the World Series for the first time (again) since 1945. Garvey’s home run evened the series, and made the next day’s game an all-or-nothing exercise in futility. Including the playoffs, Rick Sutcliffe was 17-1 since coming over in a trade with the Indians, but as any real Cubs fan knew before the game, the Cubs would find a way to lose. The ground ball through first baseman Leon Durham’s legs was a symptom, not the cause.

#6 – October 15, 2003 – Game Seven of the NLCS against the Florida Marlins was a night very similar to that Sunday afternoon in 1984 where Cubs fans just knew it wasn’t going to go well. The night before, the Cubs were five outs away, and a 1929-esque nightmare broke the Cubs heart. I was at this game with Paulie Balst and Dan Dakich. After a leadoff triple by Juan Pierre and a Luis Castillo fly out, a red hot Pudge Rodriguez came to the plate to face fire-baller Kerry Wood. Dan leaned over and said, Boys, I don’t know music and I don’t know the arts, but I know sports. Kerry Wood should throw a fastball as hard as he can and hit Pudge. He going to get a hit or walk anyway, so use this opportunity to scare the hell out of Miguel Cabrera.” Cabrera was a 20 year-old rookie. Wood walked Pudge, and Cabrera followed by hitting a 1-2 pitch into the bleachers. I looked at Dan, and he gave me that great “I told you so” look. After the game – obviously a loss – the crowd was absolutely silent. The only sound I heard while leaving Wrigley Field was from the shoes on the cement concourse. It was eerie, miserable, and a perfect embodiment of the destroyed faith of the fanbase.

Being a Cubs fan links generations. The heartbreaks we have endured bind us. While we long for the joy of victory, the misery helps keep us warm during the cold of January.

Indiana Basketball – Is It Time for a New Assembly Hall?

by Kent Sterling

Assembly Hall is a quaint and tradition rich answer to the question of where Indiana Basketball should call home. At some point soon (2015 and beyond), fans and players will deserve more and better.

Indiana athletic director Fred Glass has a lot on his plate. Making sure that the athletes at IU are having a positive experience keeps a man busy. Evaluating the ability of coaches to both win and prepare athletes for the challenges of adulthood is a full time gig. Fulfilling the expectations of fans who financially support athletics is a whole different test. Lots to do, and only 168 hours a week to do it.

Upgrading the facilities at Indiana has been a big push over the past decade with the closing of the endzone – more important for the weight room and academic space within the building than the aesthetics, although Memorial Stadium looking like an honest to God college football stadium is good for fans who felt cheated for decades when they went on the road to follow the Hoosiers.

With Cook Hall, the basketball program finally has a place the players have access to 24/7, even when concerts or other events displace basketball from Assembly Hall. Watching the players get shots up in the HPER during the mid-1980s always made me sad. One of the first things recruits and their parents look at when evaluating schools is whether the facilities will accommodate substantial basketball dreams. Cook Hall fills that bill as well or better than what any school in the country offers.

So now what. What’s the next item on the agenda in the growth of IU athletic infrastructure? The press box at Memorial Stadium should definitely be replaced by a new facility for the media that extends the length of the westside of the stadium that will feature luxury suites. I love the fact that the haves and have-nots all huddle together in the cold to watch the Hoosiers, but the time has come for the fat cats to be allowed to spend some of that wealth on comfort, TVs, and bourbon.

The other need is a new basketball arena. When paying a visit to Wisconsin’s Kohl Center, the Yum! Center in Louisville, or even the United Spirit Arena in Lubbock, Texas, where the Red Raiders play, the increased quality of the experience is obvious. There are suites, excellent sight lines, and everyone in the building can see the scoreboard.

Assembly Hall has served its purpose well, and he host so many great events, listing them would take a book, not a post. The building is virtually unchanged from the day it was built. I can’t think of a single change since my freshman year, minus the removal of Dan Parisi for IUSA President bumper stickers and instillation of the giant scoreboard and electronic video panels that front the scorer’s table.

There are no suites. The sight lines are great for roughly half the fans. The balcony seats are so far removed from the floor and so high that identifying individual players is almost impossible.

Glass told the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel in an interview published today that replacing Assembly Hall is near the top of any to-do list, “That’s not a front burner issue and probably not even a medium burner issue. That’s a back burner issue. It’s gotten the attention of the board of trustees from time to time. I think Cook Hall with all of its bells and whistles and attractiveness to student athletes, buys us some time to not have to do anything with Assembly Hall.

“Assembly Hall works fine. It’s a great venue. It works economically. The main challenge with Assembly Hall is that it’s old. We just put $3 million in the roof, which stinks because nobody sees it. It’s like status quo, but it cost $3 million. If the economy picks up and we start getting hotter than a firecracker, would we look at it? Yeah, maybe. It’s not anything I’m burning up to do in the next 10 years here.”

When 3,000 seats a game remain empty for games, building a new arena would be the act of a madman, but the program in four years is going to be “hotter than a firecracker” if the verbals from Indiana recruits turn into signatures on letters of intent.

The Yum! Center cost $238-million and seats 22,000. Using university resources and squeezing alums, boosters, and anyone else who feels indebted to good ol’ IU to the extent to fund such a glorious building is a tough sell for a program that has won 26 games total over the past two years would be a fool’s errand, but getting a jump on plans would be prudent.

Those empty seats won’t sit idle long, and ducats for games will be as prized as they were in the glory days when the Hoosiers won the Big Ten every other year, and national championships every five.

Cubs Owner Tom Ricketts Guarantees Mediocrity

by Kent Sterling

The Ricketts sign autographs for disappointed fans who stood in line without being sure who the hell any of them are.

The best thing an owner in pro sports can do is hold a general manager accountable to a level of on-court or on-field play that wins championships. At worst, he becomes an apologist for the inculcated and institution mediocrity that comes to define a losing team.

The Chicago Cubs have lost in the end every season since 1908. Here is a very partial list of historical events that have taken place since the Cubs were last champions:

Ronald Reagan was born, became an actor, democrat then republican, served two terms as the governor of California, became the oldest U.S. President, contracted Alzheimer’s Disease, died, and was honored on a postage stamp.
The HMS Titanic was conceived, built, sunk, found, commemorated in the highest grossing film of all-time, and seen all of its survivors die.
The National Football League was formed, foundered, prospered, and became an institution. The Chicago Bears, one of the founding members of the NFL, have won nine championships.
The National Basketball Association was formed 41 years after the last Cubs championship, and Chicago’s entry was welcomed in 1966. They have won six championships.
Wyatt Earp, Illinois native and famous lawman of the Old West died over 20 years after the Cubs last won a title.

You get the idea. It’s been a long time – a really long time since the Cubs won a World Series, and every person born when the Cubs last played in a World Series is now eligible for Social Security and Medicaid. Long time.

Changing a culture that has made losing its calling card through 18 U.S. Presidents, (I’m not counting Teddy Roosevelt, even though he left office after the Cubs won in 1908 as his term ended before the opener of the season that began the current 102 season skein), is not done by embracing the status quo – particularly one that has endured a nine-game postseason losing streak, and entered into so many foolishly long and large contracts that well over half the team’s payroll is being squandered on inconsistent – at best – players.

Kosuke Fukudome, Aramis Ramirez, Carlos Silva, Carlos Zambrano, and Alfonso Soriano will be paid nearly $75 million this year, and that doesn’t count the $10-million going to Carlos Pena, who hit .196 last year for the Tampa Rays.

Yesterday, Ricketts signed autographs along with his family for awhile at the Cubs Convention along with his family, which begs the question, who the hell wants the autographs of anonymous Ricketts family members? “Ooooh, I got the sister!” Then, he took some questions. One was from a fan who Ricketts ought to hire because at least the question made sense, and asking good questions is the first step toward quality management.

The question was, ‘‘How does Jim Hendry still have a job?’’ The answer was baffling.

“Over the past year, I’ve had growing confidence in Jim, to be honest. He has a good team of people he’s put together. I’m not going to hold [the postseason failures] against him. What I am going to judge him by is how many players we’re consistently bringing up to the major leagues, and are the dollars we’re spending on the big-league team being spent well? I think Jim’s doing a good job. I think we’re starting to see some of the fruits of his labor,” Ricketts said.

Okay, now Cubs fans know what they are dealing with. Mark Twain, who died a year and a half after the last Cubs World Series triumph, is famously quoted as saying, “Better to keep your mouth closed and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.” A less clever and more direct quote about Ricketts attributable to me is, “What a boob!”

As for the second criteria Ricketts cites, “are the dollars we’re spending on the big-league team being spent well?”, only one team in the history of baseball has spent more and won less – the woefully mismanaged 2009 New York Mets won won only 70 games while spending $149-million. The GM of that Mets team, Omar Minaya, is now sleeping in and collecting unemployment.

To spend as Hendry did last year, keep players physically if not mentally healthy, and lose 75 games is historic underachievement in getting bang for the buck. As for the assertion that the farm system is producing, it is – due to the work of scouting director Tim Wilken, whom Hendry was smart enough to hire.

Ironically, two of the best prospects for which Wilken is responsible were traded to the Rays for #3 starter Matt Garza. Even in Chicago, Wilken’s efforts continue to pay dividends for the Rays.

There is no reasonable metric that can be used to judge Hendry a success. His free agent signings have been mostly failures. He gets an A for adding Marlon Byrd last offseason, and Greg Maddux before the 2004 season. The rest, a lot of Ds and Fs with Soriano and Fukudome leading that list.

The only measurement for the success of a general manager is wins and losses, and Hendry has not built a culture of excellence that has led to anything resembling that. Ricketts should demand better rather than seeking out microphones and baseballs to sign at the Cubs Convention, and hands to shake in the bleachers.

He should do his job and hold people accountable for their failures, and that starts with Hendry. How many more years of mediocrity do Cubs fans have to endure before someone gets serious around Wrigley Field and demands more than an expensive picnic be provided to fans.

If Ricketts isn’t serious about getting it right, he should sell, and give daddy back his money.

Center Grove “Kwiats” Washington’s Cody Zeller in Hall of Fame Classic

by Kent Sterling

There is something so fundamentally right about watching high school basketball in the state of Indiana that regardless of the teams competing, it’s compelling. Nothing over the holidays is more fun than making the trip to New Castle to watch the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame Classic.

I’ve never seen Washington or Center Grove play, and don’t know a soul in either community, but the game between these two teams this morning was an instant classic.

Indiana recruit Cody Zeller led the Hatchets or Washington shaker Andy Smeathers who has committed to Butler. Zeller won the battle in the first half with 18 points,coming by way of three pointers, mid-range jumpers, free throws and a dunk. Smeathers had five points, playing very little of the second quarter.

Center Grove opened in a two-three zone, which suited the shooters from southwestern Indiana just fine. Two minutes into the game, Washington built an 11-3 lead, and carried a 26-17 lead into the second quarter.

The defense changed, and so did the Trojans fortunes, cutting the Hatchets lead to 38-36 at the half. Center Grove shadowed Zeller everywhere in a box and one, and Zeller’s 12 in the first half became six in the second. And that turned into six in the entire second half for a total of 24 to lead all shooters.

Washington lost 68-64 in a game Center Grove dared the Hatchets to take and they almost did.

The kid who spent a good portion of the last three quarters face guarding and generally making Zeller’s life miserable was Mark Kwiatkowski, who was without a doubt the most valuable player for Center Grove despite Johnny Marlin running the point and leading the scoring for the Trojans. Here is a video of their battle throughout the final three quarters:

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This is the road that big kids with freakish athletic abilities from southern Indiana travel. They get battered and abused by smaller kids who are told by their coaches that they want to know what flavor chewing gum they’re chewing. That’s nothing new for the Zellers with older brothers Luke and Tyler preceding him.

And neither are the expectations that will follow Cody next year as he accepts his role as the freshman with the biggest shoes to fill at Indiana University since Eric Gordon, and before that Alan Henderson.

No question Zeller has the raw gifts to fulfill those expectations, but there is also no question that like most big men, his development will come in time.

He showed the 9,000 fans here (including his future head coach Tom Crean and assistant Tim Buckley) something today, and that a little mean streak. The Kwiakowski kid paid the price for getting in Zeller’s grill with a few well-timed elbows and shoves. Not enough mayhem to draw the attention of the officials but plenty for those looking to see if he would shrink from the challenge.

When he has kids, Kwiatkowski is going to be able to look them in the eye and say, “I stoned Cody Zeller in the Hall of Fame Classic.” It’s not quite Dan Dakich holding Michael Jordan to negative points in the 1984 NCAA Tournament, but on a day that felt like spring, it’ll do.

That’s the great thing about an event like this. You show up ready to watch Zeller and Smeathers, but wind up talking about two kids you haven’t heard of. That’s the beauty of Indiana high school basketball, and why a drive to this unbelievable field house two miles north of the Steve Alford Inn on State Road 3 in New Castle is one of my favorite holiday traditions.

The second game this afternoon was a nail-biter I watched a little but. Bloomington South beat Warsaw in a tight game, but to be honest I spent the whole game catching up with the parents of Butler’s Matt Howard. Stan and Linda Howard are two of the best people on the planet and any chance I have to spend time with them puts all else on hold.

They’re family, and family comes first.

Tonight Center Grove will play Bloomington South in the championship, and Washington will face Warsaw in the consolation game.

Eddie White Named Pacers Director of Corporate & Community Relations

by Kent Sterling

Eddie White was a sportstalk host who Tom Severino and I hired in 2007 and grew to respect and like very much during our two years together at 1070 the Fan in Indianapolis. No one outworked or outworried him. And no one in any business drank more Diet Pepsi. His skill behind the microphone won’t do the Pacers any good, but they will get a great big dose of work ethic with Eddie joining Pacers Sports & Entertainment as their new director of corporate & community relations.

And the Pacers better stock up on Diet Pepsi – if it was booze, Eddie would have passed out before any of his almost 600 shows began.

The passion Eddie exemplified every single day was a huge asset to me and everyone associated with The Fan. And now Eddie will take that drive, enthusiasm to Conseco Fieldhouse everyday.

I have no idea what the specific responsibilities for that position are, other than the obvious, but Eddie will do whatever it takes to get the job done because that is who he is and what he always does.

There are people that come into your life that are easy to root for, and that’s what Eddie is for me. That his estimable skills have been tapped by someone else validates my faith in both Eddie and the Pacers.

This has been a nice 24 hours for the blue and gold. They got a big win, and hired one of the hardest working guys in any business.