Standing on the Rim

Kansas has rolled halfway through its season undefeated and I still don't know what to make of this team.  I thought Monday night at Baylor would be a sure wake up test and possibly the Jayhawks first loss of the season.  I couldn't have been more wrong.  K.U. came out and played the best half of basketball I've seen this team or any Kansas team has played since the first half against North Carolina at the 2008 Final Four.

Saturday's game against Nebraska showed a lot of holes in the Jayhawk attack.  What worried me most is that super frosh Josh Selby played only about a dozen minutes and scored just 3 points.  Coach Bill Self left the Selby on the bench in the second half relying on more seasoned players in the second half of this squeaker on K.U.'s home court.

But Selby doesn't have a conscience.  He came out against Baylor firing up shots from every conceivable angle.  And then there are the Morris twins.  A couple of double doubles waiting to happen every night.  If these two opt for the NBA after this season we're screwed.  If either gets into major foul trouble this season we're screwed.

Jeff Withey isn't a player.  You would think after a couple of seasons of banging with Cole Aldrich and the brothers Morris he would have become a decent post player.  He makes Eric Chenowith look like Wilt Chamberlain.

And then there's the puzzling case of Tyshawn Taylor.  He's a turnover waiting to happen.  He plays like Jacques Vaughn one moment and like Jacques Cousteau the next. 

But Kansas has one thing that people tend to overlook.  This team is tough as nails and it's not the menacing Morris twins or Thomas Robinson man muscle's that give the Jayhawks that edge, it's unheralded shooting guard Tyrell Reed.  He is the leader of this team.  He picked Kansas on his shoulders when Cal tried to manhandle Kansas last month in Berkley.  Tyrell did it again last Saturday when Nebraska pushed us around. 

I get the sense that this is much more of a team effort game in and game out, much more so than the title squad in 2008.  That team could have an off night and Rush, Collins, or Chalmers could will them to victory.  It's going to take a lot more than Tyrell to put this team in the Final Four, the twins, Josh and Tyshawn have 15 or so more games to prove it.

An Open Letter to My Running Friends in the Midwest

What a rough start to the New Year.  I actually had to break out some winter running gear that I haven't used since I lived in Topeka.  One day I actually had on a jacket, sweat pants, gloves, and a headband to keep my ears warm.  My goodness it was 38... 39 degrees.  It's been rainy, drizzly, foggy, I hate to bore you with my weather woes but I thought I had moved to sunny California after all.

But fear not, I haven't missed a day of running since the calendar turned to 2011.  Even though one day it was so cold, mid-30's, that I used a treadmill.  I know, I know, I should have toughed it out, but I really didn't bring all of my cold weather running gear from Florida.  I really didn't think I would need it.

As for my friends out there still training in the great outdoors that is Kansas, Missouri, Kentucky, North Dakota, etc; I feel your pain.  Or the chill that is.  Bundle up and try to stay warm on those brisk winter runs.  Oh, one other thing I forgot to mention., there are actually hills in California.  Man I miss those flat, sunny, winter runs in Southwest Florida.

The Blame Game

Jared Loughner is a nut job.  Trying to pin him with a political ideology is like trying to break one of those cheap pinatas you can buy for a kid's birthday party.  It's damn near impossible to do.  I don't care if he's a radical or a reactionary.

The problem starts with guns.  I have nothing against gun ownership.  But it's the kind of guns that you can purchase that bothers me.  Who needs a clip that holds 30 rounds, I mean seriously?  Someday, somewhere, the right combination violence will shake the United States and put the NRA in its place.  I seriously doubt that this incident in Tucson will do much to regulate the problem.

And then there are the remarkable and and incisive observations by the Sheriff of Pima County.  The vitriol of political hate speech in this country is nothing new.  The verbal sparing by our founding fathers would put Rush Limbaugh and Keith Olbermann to shame.  But there's a huge difference as we ride the political wave of talk in the 21st century.  It's everywhere.  You can't escape it.  The 24/7 media crushes any ability to absorb and reflect with any serious deliberation.

I used to love listening to Rush Limbaugh.  His blistering attacks of Bill Clinton, feminists, and environmentalists used to amuse me.  But after 9/11 I could no longer stomach what I was hearing.  Democrats aren't Communists anymore than Republicans are intolerant dimwits.

We are all accountable for what happened in Tucson.  It pains me that those engaged in the abusive political discourse can't own up to their own thoughtless rhetoric.  How can any one of us can these talking heads seriously as they try to shout down the words of someone like Sheriff Clarence Dupnik.

2011-My First Penny

Six days in the New Year and I've managed to run every day.  It hasn't been easy because my work schedule has been like a yo-yo, meaning I've had to catch a couple of miles here and there at odd hours.  Tonight I hit the street at 10 p.m. replete with my orange safety vest just in case a motorist wanted to take aim.  And there shining like a beacon on the dark asphalt about three-quarters of a mile into my run was my first penny of 2011.

I stopped and clinched the coin into my glove covered fingers (my first glove run of the year) and strode off into the night thinking all the while thinking of my good friend Craig Davidson.  People who follow this blog know all about Craig.  I like picking up coins when I spot them on a run because it reminds me of our friendship.  On the oh, so rare occasions that I fail to stop for one, I am riddled with guilt.

You see Craig has an epic streak of finding money every day while out on his runs. He recently sent out his haul for the year, a mere $190.90.  Craig lamented that it marked his lowest total since 1983.  Craig has plucked $8,683.71 during the course of his streak.  I've watched in amazement as Craig would somehow spot dark brown pennies on lamp black streets in the predawn hours of a run.  But the money streak pales in comparison of Craig's daily running streak now at more than 32 years.

Craig is loathe to part with his cash. To say he is thrifty would be an understatement.  But one year he did take some of his loot and spent it on a honeymoon to Hawaii to his ever patient bride Irene.  You see the honeymoon came a good decade and a half or so after their marriage.

But nevertheless, I did find my first penny of 2011.  I think in a given year I pick up between 50 cents and a dollar, a sorry comparison to Craig's prodigious efforts.  But then again, he ran 4250 miles last year, almost 3000 more than I did!

2011 - Let it Roll

One of the great under recognized jam bands is Little Feat.  The band has been around for more than 40 years and undergone more line up changes than band could ever survive.  I was late coming to my appreciation of the group.

I used to frequent a bar in South Kansas City in the mid-1980's where the owner had a love affair with Little Feat.  After hearing "Dixie Chicken" and "Feats Don't Fail Me Now" one time too many I began to like what I was hearing and inquired about the band.  It dawned on me that I had heard the band before when I had lived in Minneapolis.  One radio station played cuts from "Down on the Farm", released shortly after the death of the band's main musical driving force, Lowell George.

Much of the band's music from the 70's is incredible and the live release "Sailing to Columbus" is one of the best live records ever, period.  My favorite song is one of the few great post-George releases from the band from 1988's "Let it Roll."  Aptly enough, it's the album's title song, enjoy!

2011 - God Bless The Chemo Kid

I'm tired.  It's a few minutes after midnight when I would still feel wide awake but tonight I'm tired.  I've produced back to back doubles and face two more days of doubles over the weekend.  By doubles I mean producing two newscasts in a single day.  It's tough because in order to do it reasonably well you need to come in earlier than a normal night shift to do the 6 p.m.  That means 10  hour plus days and hurried dinners.

I'm lucky because I work with a bunch of professionals who know how to spin bullshit into gold.  And I must give credit to my E.P. colleague James Scullary for making sure I had plenty of content for the 6 to make my life easier.  I've even managed to hold onto five, count em' five, good stories, that should make my producing a lot easier this weekend.

But I'm tired because it was a sad end to the old year.  Shortly after 9:30 p.m. we heard police traffic coming from South Sacramento.  A 15 year old boy was shot in the head and killed.  Then just minutes before the newscast we got word that I had been dreading for the last few days.  A 26 year old man named Giovanni Goodman had lost his battle with cancer.

What made this important to me is that we had run a story about Giovanni exactly three weeks ago.  He called himself "The Chemo Kid" and became a rapper spinning lyrics about his battle against Non-Hodgkin lymphoma.  Giovanni fought the good fight for five years but shortly before Thanksgiving, doctor's gave him six months and he decided to forsake another round of chemo.

Will Frampton had profiled Goodman the year before and asked to do one more story on him when he learned of his decision to end his fight against cancer.  It's the best story Will's done in my time at News10.  It was a great story.  You can find it on News10.net.

But this week my conscience began to gnaw at me.  It dawned on me that Giovanni may not make it to the New Year.  Sadly enough, my worries were confirmed when the family sent Will an email just before we went to air tonight.  I hurriedly put some words together to tell the story of the end of this young man's life.  But my words fell short, because three weeks ago I saw the most courageous man I'd seen in a long, long time, coming to terms with his own mortality.  God bless Giovanni Goodman and his friends and family.  Remember "The Chemo Kid" in your prayers.

espnW.com

Gender equity in sports thanks to Title 9 has given women much deserved opportunities in athletics.  But news that ESPN has decided to launch a website directed at women sports is something of an eyebrow raiser.  But it does raise the chicken or egg argument.  If the sports leader builds it, will they come?

I decided to write about this because I've been chuckling about all the grousing about the supposed lack of coverage of UConn's remarkable run of 89 consecutive wins by its female basketball team.  Trust me folks, the Huskies' winning streak has received far more coverage than UCLA's 88 game run by its men back in the 1970's.  I repeat, UConn has gotten much more exposure than UCLA.

Remember, ESPN didn't exist back in 1974 when Notre Dame ended the Bruins' streak.  There was no FOX sports, no CNN, UCLA got most of its due from Sports Illustrated and The Sporting News, both print publications.  UConn has gotten a ton more coverage than UCLA did simply by the fact that a lot that the media landscape has grown by leaps and bounds in the last 40 years.

But I'm not sure that the appetite for sports coverage of women has.  Granted, more women than ever participate in sports.  It's up almost 500 percent in the last 40 years according to a publication I read.  But participation doesn't equate to consumption of the product in my view.

Women have come a long way in terms of their athletic ability.  The college game is fundamentally sound at the top levels, but only among the very best teams. It's a game played below the rim.  equate with consumption of women targeted sports coverage. UConn's women are at best like watching a very good high school boys basketball team.  Sorry, but it's true.  You really have to be a connoisseur to appreciate women's basketball.

Before you rag on me I enjoy watching women compete in track and field just as much as I enjoy watching men.  Women running a sub 4:00 1500 meters is just as exciting to me as watching men run the same race under 3:30.  Basketball is different than just running, jumping, or throwing a shot, discus or javelin.  The athleticism exhibited by men on a basketball court is often jaw dropping.  You rarely go oh my when watching the same game played by women. 

I guess the point of all this is that a website targeting women athletics or even a magazine like the failed Sports Illustrated for Women seems like a tough nut to crack.  The financial scale of the Internet leads me to believe that ESPN can make it work.  But it would shock me if it became any kind of massive financial success.  The WNBA is a ratings disaster for the world wide leader.  But then again, who would have thought that a website like Dyestat, which targeted high school track and field, a truly small audience, could end up being attractive to an industry leader like ESPN.  But then again, ESPN has messed that up too.