Dog Days? These Days Are Great!

So August brings about the dog days but in Cincinnati these are some big days.  The Reds continue to tear it up and the Western and Southern Open brought a blur of action from morning to night.  If you think about the things this city has going for it from a sports standpoint, it's mighty impressive.  This year has been incredible.  The usual events plus Barry Larkin going into the Hall of Fame last month and several ties to the Summer Olympics in London.  A guy like me had plenty to do this year and that is a good thing.

And what about those Reds?  Look, I was first in line saying I wanted to see Aroldis Chapman become a starting pitcher.  But it appears he's become such a force in the closer role that it will be hard to take him out of that role.  Especially if the Reds keep getting this kind of production from the starting staff.  And give Dusty credit, he has brought in Chapman before the ninth inning when it has been warranted.  I wasn't sure that was going to happen.

Just when you thought the Big East was dead!  Hiring Mike Aresco from CBS Sports as the news commissioner could be a Godsend to the conference.  Having Aresco shepherd this conference through the upcoming television contract negotiations is huge.  You have to give U.C. President Gregory Williams a ton of credit for helping make it happen.  Aresco is a guy who used to sit on the other side of the table, who knows all of the tricks, knows what the deals are worth, and knows how to make them worth even more.  The Big East is facing the most critical media contract negotiations any conference has faced.  It will make or break the future of the Big East.  The Big East has to be feeling a lot better about that now than it did a week ago.

Back In Business

Or I should say "Welcome Back" to myself.  If you can through our website WLWT.COM you noticed some changes.  Our blogs were down for awhile, then the whole Cooperstown thing came with Barry Larkin, and I'll be brutally honest, I forgot the blogs were back up and running.  I'm forgetful like that. 

While diving back into this, I must publicly send my condolences to Ken Broo and his family.  Ken lost his wife, Jackie, after a four and a half year battle with cancer.  Jackie was always friendly and upbeat and quite a media-savvy person in her own right.  Our community lost a great asset and citizen, so please keep the Broo family in your thoughts and prayers.


A couple of other notes that pale in comparison to the previous paragraph.
This isn't going out on a limb, but I really believe the Reds will be in the World Series.  No way they can keep up the recent pace of piling up wins, but they have come of age here lately.  Ryan Ludwick has broken loose and Drew Stubbs is putting the ball in play.  Will that last?  Maybe they stay red-hot, but the pitcing staff and the return of Votto should overcome any downturn.  There is mild concern here for the pitching holding up, but with the hammers they have in the bullpen, I love the chances.

I had a chance to see a basketball practice in Clifton last week.  The Bearcats basketball team is going to surprise some people.  The highly respected Mike DeCoursey has the 18th in The Sporting News early rankings.  After what I witnessed, they could be better than that.  Many local folks think it is rebuilding time with Yancy Gates gone.  He was the best inside weapon offensively the past few seasons.  But they have more than enough scorers elsewhere to pick up the slack.  They will run and gun and go 10 deep.  Add David Nyarsuk as an August pickup for depth and I see a team that can cause a lot of headaches. 

The Bengals get it going with a preseason game this weekend.  This team should improve, but how much?  I think they will need to improve to make the playoffs again because the schedule appears stout.  Usually you don't learn a whole lot in preseason, but I think we might be able to pickup a little about this team in the practice game.  If the linebackers get better and Taylor Mays is really the answer at safety, I can see this team making a nice run.  Marvin is right about the wide receivers.  Yeah, maybe they don't have a clear-cut stud at number two, but receivers 2-6 have a chance to be very good, giving the team a lot of options for Andy Dalton as he progresses through his second season.

Yeah, I know, a lot of optimism this time.  I'll try to come up with something negative in the next day or so.

Life Without Parole For Penn State

Ok, so it's not the "Death Penalty" for Penn State, but it is darned near as harsh. This is going to cripple the program for years. Four years without a chance to play in the postseason. Players can immediately transfer without having to sit out. So why would any player stay who can find a ride with another program? They won't. I haven't figured out the full affect of the scholarship limitations but on the surface it appears crippling. Walk-ons could be playing key roles. All of a sudden the Golden Gophers of Minnesota may not be the worst team in the Big Ten. The knee-jerk reaction is to think the Nittany Lions program will never be the same. However, it is not knee-jerk to think the program will be crippled for at least a decade. And forget getting back to the days when Penn State was a feared program. They had to build a protective bubble around State College, Pennsylvania, to make that happen. Fortunately that protective bubble was ripped away. What we found inside was ugly. Thankfully that bubble appears to have received the death penalty.

$10 Buys Bengals A Lot Of Grief

I feel all of the pain that comes with the Bengals over the past 21 years.  I understand how people feel about Mike Brown and the way he runs the team.  I'm still mystified that he continues to be stubborn when it comes to an indoor practice facility.  We could go on and on and on and on.  Over two decades of poking eyes and knocking noggins like The Three Stooges has brought us to the point where Mike Brown and The Family can do nothing right, even when they do.  The reaction to this pep-rally to kickoff training camp at Paul Brown Stadium is Through the Looking-Glass.  Season ticket holders were invited and the entry fee is 10 dollars.  That's just a little more than season ticket holders pay for one beer at a game.  Fans who pay up will hear an address from head coach Marvin Lewis and some players, hear a local band play music, and see a fireworks show.  No one is forcing anyone to do anything.  If it sounds like it is worth $10, then fine.  If not, then find something else to do that evening.  But this outcry that the Bengals are fleecing their season ticket holders is borderline lunacy.  The best thing about the outcry was a column by The Enquirer's Paul Daugherty that brought about some hearty laughs.  I may not agree with the overall message but there was some excellent comedy in that piece.  But that piece also reflects what is really the root of the issue: Mike Brown Fatigue.  It reared its ugly head in earnest about 12 years ago.  The hiring of Marvin Lewis was supposed to cure Mike Brown Fatigue, but it was nothing more than a children's aspirin for a concussion.  There has been so much damage over the years that there may not be a cure.  But there is no sense in finding issues where none exist.  There's plenty to slam Brown about over the years, but this is not one of them.  Consider that a one-day ticket at Redsfest is $17.  The pep-rally is hardly Redsfest but it is a nice start by the organization.  Just be patient fans, Brown will probably give you something legitimate to complain about soon enough.

Baker Falls Into Closer Trap

It's happened.  Thursday night in San Diego was the perfect example.  Aroldis Chapman is no longer being used when the Reds need him most.  He is being used like a traditional closer.  In other words he comes in almost exclusively when the Reds have the lead and need three outs to end the game.  That is a waste of talent, and not just any talent, but one of the best arms in major league baseball.  Some of my friends will give me the old "Mariano Rivera did it for 15 years with the Yankees" routine, and in recent years that has been the case.  But not in earlier seasons when Rivera was a young buck.  And do the Reds have the lead late in the game as often as some of Rivera's Yankees teams?  The Reds need Chapman pitching an inning or two in a tie game instead of hoping like heck the Reds get the lead and then have a chance to use him.  Plus, he is already warming up several games he doesn't appear in.  So what the????   Dusty Baker needs to use his best weapon in critical points of the game.  If that's the eighth inning, so be it.  The best arm in the league does you no good sitting in the outfield bullpen while others are costing you the game.

Chapman A Closer? Only On These Terms

So it's painfully obvious that Sean Marshall is not the man the Reds should be trusting in the ninth inning.  It's also painfully obvious that if Aroldis Chapman is not going to be in the starting rotation then he is going to be the best relief pitcher in baseball.  But if Dusty Baker insists on making him a closer, he better make him a non-traditional closer.  By that I mean not saving him every game until the ninth inning.  Continue to use Chapman in the most critical junctures of the final three innings.  He is the fireman, he is the hammer, he is the man to snuff out rallies and put teams in a sleeper-hold.  If Chapman is only going to come into games when the Reds have a lead in the ninth inning, then it is a waste of talent.  I've never seen the complete value of having your best relief pitcher only come into a game when you have a lead in the ninth inning.  What if there is a situation in the eighth inning where you have two men on and one out, and you are nursing a one run lead?  Shouldn't your top dog be in the game to put out that fire?  That's how it used to be when they called the top relief pitchers firemen.  Now most, if not all, managers, Baker included, save that guy until the ninth inning and the team has a lead of three runs or less.  Occasionally they dip into the closer when it is a tie game in the ninth, but rarely if ever to put out fires in the eighth.  And in the seventh?  Are you out of your mind Sparky?  Why, a closer come in a snuff out a rally that early?  The book doesn't call for that anymore.  With a guy named Chapman in the bullpen the book should call for that.  Aroldis can finish some games, but if there is trouble in the seventh or eighth, call him to the mound to get past the trouble.  Dusty needs to buck the trend, step outside the safety net of current managerial protocol, and make the kind of call that will benefit the Reds the most.  Chapman can close, but only if there aren't other fires along the way.  And if he has to pitch the eighth and the ninth, so what?  Let the big man, the best relief pitcher in baseball,  have at it. 

Can Big East Football Survive?

Perhaps.  More than likely.  Yes, but it may not be the conference a lot of the current and future members want it to be.  Here's what I know: Louisville is begging to go to the Big 12.  Some in the Big 12 are begging for Louisville.  I'm told one of the power schools in the Big 12 is firmly behind bringing the Cardinals in because they feel they have West Virginia hanging out on the vine all alone.  Duh!  The conference is just now figuring that out ?  So now they are looking for an island to hop so their non-revenue sports can make a stopover at Louisville on the way to Morgantown.  Amazing!  Amazing that the guys who make these kind of half-baked moves in the first place have anything above a grammar school education.  The move of West Virginia made little sense for the Big 12 and for the Mountaineers.  Except money, of course.  The Big 12 needed another school so it had enough games to fill it's television contract obligation.  West Virginia freaked out with the loss of Pitt and Syracuse and grabbed the first empty seat and that seat comes with some extra television contract cash.  But it also comes with very little natural recruiting base.  Some of the ill-informed like to point to the same issues with Boise State and San Diego State joining the Big East, but that is a football only move.  The Aztec women's volleyball team won't be making any cross-country trips to Storrs, Connecticut. Regardless of the insanity I have a strong feeling Louisville will be gone.  Heck, the Cardinals are saying it to other members of the Big East.  They're saying it to their football recruits.  They are saying it to anyone who has sobered up since Derby Day.  Just a hunch, but the only thing that can possibly keep the Cardinals in the fold is quick movement on a hefty Big East television contract.  With a new commissioner on the way I'm not sure that can happen.  The loss of Louisville would not be a kill shot, but it's another blow.  It leaves behind a conference that has U.C., Boise, and UConn as the only schools that have scored a spot in a BCS bowl game.  That is not good.  I still subscribe to the theory that ESPN is more than happy to see Big East football go the way of the dodo bird.  But here's where the Big East has a nice trump card: Basketball.  It's not nearly as lucrative as football, but ESPN has a lot of time to fill during basketball season and nothing gets the eyeballs that time of year like Big East basketball.  The best news for Big East fans are reports that the basketball schools want to keep it together.  Should ESPN lose that inventory, and say NBC Sports Network makes a big play, then things could break the way of the Big East.  But that is best-case scenario thinking.  Worst case?  ESPN already has the other 5 power conferences locked up and is more than content to see those as the only schools that will have a realistic chance of being included in the future BCS Bowls.