The Jim Tressel fallout

Time for some thoughts on the Jim Tressel resignation and the program at Ohio State .

I have always been a Jim Tressel supporter and remain so despite the problems.
That said,the good of the program has to come first and the time had come.

Tressel protected his players from their mistakes,which is admirable but still wrong.
They screwed up and Tressel's attempts to shield them from their errors for right or for wrong is what cost him his job.
As Richard Nixon learned with Watergate-it is usually the coverup that takes you down,not the crime.

I still think the "crime" of selling your own property is a B.S. one,but like it or not,the rules are the rules.
One cannot say the rule is stupid,so I refuse to follow it.
Try that one in everyday life and see how far that defense gets you the next time that you get pulled over for a traffic violation.

One can easily say that the touted Terrelle Pryor has been far more trouble than he has been worth.
Sometimes,the highest rated recruits aren't the ones that turn out the best...

I have no issue with Tressel being removed,but AD Gene Smith and most importantly President Gordon Gee need to join him.
The Buckeye football program needs a full housecleaning,not just a partial one...

This likely came down to lessen the NCAA punishment,if and that is a BIG if this is the best that can be found-Ohio State forcing out Tressel will go a long way in reducing the time for the crime.

Say what you wish about Tressel,but his players hit the classroom.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports this on the OSU academic numbers-"Ohio State was ranked No. 5 in all of Division I football by the latest NCAA Academic Progress Report. The Buckeyes were at 985, the best of any nationally ranked program. The others ahead of OSU are Northwestern, Rutgers, Northern Illinois and Duke."

Now,the names mentioned to replace Tressel are big ones.
Luke Fickell might have to run the table to keep the job beyond this year,but the candidates have some huge names-Urban Meyer,Bob Stoops,Jon Gruden and Bo Pelini have to be front runners for the job.
Of that crew,Meyer and Stoops have won national titles and have Ohio connections.
Gruden is an Ohio product as well and Pelini is an OSU player and graduate.

I will try to be back later with the Pirates 7-3 loss to the Mets,if not,I'll do a post covering both games tomorrow

Jim Tressel out at OSU

Jim Tressel has resigned as head football coach at Ohio State this morning.
Tressel was trying to ride out various scandals at OSU and finally Tressel and.or Ohio State decided to end the situation.
Luke Fickell will remain as the interim head coach for the entire 2011 season.
Fickell had been tapped to replace Tressel during his five game suspension to start the 2011 season.
Ohio State will conduct a search for a permanent replacement following the season..
Tressel leaves Columbus with a record of 106-22 and a .822 winning percentage.
I will be back later with some thoughts on Jim Tressel,my opinion on the rules that were broken and why college football might be the most corrupt sport in the country...

Pirate Hooks

Thanks to a just under three hour rain delay,I missed the Pirates 3-2 loss in Chicago.
Lyle Overbay knocked in both runs with a two run first inning double.
Jeff Karstens was the loser and is now 3-4.

The Pirates make their only trip to the Big Cesspool this season starting tonight against the Mets in the first of four games.
Charlie Morton for the Bucs against Dillon Gee for the Mets.

Ryan Doumit went on the DL after dinging an ankle yesterday on a slide by Carlos Pena
Doumit had been playing well and raising possible trade value,so this is a pretty bad time to get hurt.
Veteran backstop Dusty Brown will get the call from Indianapolis to back up Chris Snyder.
The usual callup Jason Jaramillo is injured at Indy.

Steve Pearce also hit the disable list with the calf injury that sent him from Saturday's game.
Josh Harrison,who has been hitting well at AAA will make his debut with the team in the New York series.

Since I didn't see the game,that is all I have.
Hope to be back later with more....

Finally,some run support!

Paul Maholm finally got some run support on a day that he needed little as the lefthander shutout the Cubs in a 10-0 Pittsburgh win.
Maholm improved to 2-7 on the season in the rout that saw the Pirates muscle four runs out of the field of play.
Pirate homers to Andrew McCutchen (9),Lyle Overbay (5),Ronny Cedeno (2) and Chris Snyder (2).
The Pirates go for the sweep in the finale' today....

Pirate Hooks

1) Paul Maholm did not allow a hit until the fifth,only three on the day and did not walk a batter.
Maholm's ERA dipped to 3.16 after the effort and showed the type of season that he has had thus far....

2) Joe Beimel looked pretty bad in the ninth inning yesterday and it turned out for good reason-elbow inflammation that tabbed him DL-bound.
Daniel Moskos was recalled from Indianapolis to replace Beimel as the lone lefty in the pen...

3) Steve Pearce knocked in the first two runs with a key single,but left the game with a calf injury.
No word on the seriousness,Brandon Wood finished the game at third.

4) Andrew McCutchen's homer might have meant little on the scoreboard,but was it pounded or what?
Lanny Frattare would have said there was no doubt about that one!

5) A word on the Cubs-Looking at the contracts that they are stuck with and cannot move (Soriano,Fukudome and maybe Zambrano) can the Cubs have any hope at all over the next few years?
With the amount of money that they spend on declining players,Cubs fans might have to tolerate baseball that is worse than they have seen for a long time to come..

Photo Credit-AP

Taking advantage of mistakes

The Pittsburgh Pirates took advantage of the spectrum of Chicago Cubs mistakes-Fielding errors,walks and hit batsmen to grab a 4-2 win at Wrigley Field.
Kevin Correia threw eight shutout innings and moved his record to 7-4 with Joel Hanrahan whiffing all three batters that he faced for save number 14.
The series continues this afternoon.

Pirate Hooks

1) Kevin Correia was terrific in allowing just four hits and lasted into the eighth inning.
The win gave Correia the National League lead in wins.
I would have never seen that coming....

2) The ham handed Cubs pretty much gave the Pirates what they needed in the second inning with errors by Doug Davis and Aramis Ramirez leading to runs.
The Ramirez error was a big one as his error would have either erased a Pirate run on a forceout or turned a double play.
It looked to me that Ramirez was looking home on the play and because of that look,Kevin Correia lost a chance at his first RBI of the season....

3) Nice work by Jose Veras relieving Correia in the eighth in working out of a bases loaded situation without allowing a run.
Veras kept the lead at four and that was important in the final inning as Joe Beimel allowed a two run homer to Alfonso Soriano that gave the Cubs hope.

4) The homer didn't matter much as Joel Hanrahan was called into the game and he just blew away three Cubs that had no chance.
Hanrahan has been downright unhittable in recent appearances...

5) Fun note,the seagulls came into Wrigley and had to be playing havoc on flyballs and pop ups.
They were distracting to me on TV,I can imagine trying to camp under the white ball with white birds flying all around...

Photo Credit:Jonathan Daniel-Getty Images

Cleaning out the Inbox

A good time to clear the inbox with no Pirate game yesterday.

Watched the Marlins 1-0 win over the Giants yesterday and came away shaking my head at Ryan Vogelsong.
Vogelsong took the hard luck loss,but was not even in the same universe as the Vogelsong that was dubbed "Vogelsuck" by Battlin' Bob.
This version looks similar to the Charlie Morton revamp,keep the ball down,throw strikes and try to not overthrow or make the perfect pitch either time....

I am a huge Buster Posey fan,but you cannot blame Scott Cousins for the season ending injury to Posey.
Neither player did anything wrong,just a good hard baseball play-the way the game should be played...

Two very nice tributes to the "Macho Man" Randy Savage.
One by the "Sports Guy" Bill Simmons at ESPN and the other by Shane over at From the Shadows.
My brother is one of the best wrestling writers out there and if you want to gain a greater grasp on the business,there is no one that I would recommend reading more than he.
I really need to work on the dream that I have for this site.
Someday,I'll tell you about it....

Odd that both Savage tributes mention the 1980 Bruno Sammartino-Larry Zbysko angle,especially you consider that neither had a large connection to Savage in their careers...

The Kansas City Star has an interesting read on the touted Royals system and the dangers of counting on all to succeed.
The comparison for the Royals? The 1997 Pirates,check that out and shudder a bit,Pirate fans....

Speaking of the Royals,sorry to hear about the passing of Paul Splittorff at 64.
Splittorff was the definition of the term "Crafty Lefty' for the several close but no cigar Royals teams of the late 70's.
Splittorff is the Royals all time leader in games won and spent his retirement years as a much loved voice of the Royals on television.

Best wishes for a speedy recovery to the radio voice of the Cleveland Browns,Jim Donovan,who will be undergoing treatment for leukemia.
Donovan also works for Sports Time Ohio's Browns coverage and we wish him well in his fight.

All for now,back tomorrow with Pirates-Cubs....

The best laid plans

Due to a call in last night 15 minutes after my shift started due to a personal tragedy from a co-worker,I didn't get this post up.
I figured since the Pirates and Braves played an afternoon game to end their two game set,I would make just one post.
I will be working the next eleven days without an off night,so I hope to do the best that I can do with both the blog and the autograph circuit.

The Pirates dropped two very winnable games to Atlanta at PNC Park,losing Tuesday night 2-0 and yesterday 4-2 in extra innings.
Charlie Morton took the hard luck loss on Tuesday (5-2) and Jeff Karstens was the loser (3-3) in the final game.
Steve Pearce homered (1) yesterday.
The Pirates are off tonight and travel to Chicago for three day games at Wrigley....

Pirate Hooks

1) Once again,the loss has to go to the slumbering bats as both Charlie Morton and James McDonald pitched well enough to win,but lack of run support doomed both.
The best part of both pitchers outings were that they clearly didn't have their best stuff,yet were able to work their way out of jams.
That is exactly the type of thing that one wants to see as part of the maturation process....

2) Play of the game that no one is talking about-Jose Tabata being foolishly thrown out on the bases with Steve Pearce at the plate.
Did not seem like a big deal at the time,but Pearce's subsequent bomb would have given Pittsburgh a 3-2 win....

3) Clint Hurdle switched the lineup around a bit before Wednesday's game and the main switches were Jose Tabata leading off,Andrew McCutchen batting third and Steve Pearce in the lineup playing third base and batting second.
Pearce has long been deserving of a full time chance and Tabata was super batting leadoff this season before tailing off in the two hole....

4) Evan Meek returned to action with a scoreless inning on Tuesday.
A back to form Meek makes the surprisingly effective bullpen even better....

5) Still no idea on the Pirates thinking for the top pick.
ESPN's Keith Lawa has the Bucs down to one of these three-Virginia pitcher Danny Hultzen,UCLA pitcher Gerrit Cole and high school outfielder Bubba Starling as the favorites with Rice third baseman Anthony Rendon ranking behind all.
Still scared of the college pitchers,especially Hultzen,who has came out of nowhere and really makes me think of the Bryan Bullington pick,even though they are not similar pitchers style-wise...