Tuesdays with Smitty: Remembering a Legend & Random Rumblings

Posted on Tuesday, September 9th, 2008 and is filed under MLB, Tuesdays With Smitty. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

This past weekend for me, is one of the best in sports – the beginning of a new NFL season, College Football is in full swing and MLB pennant fever is in full motion. Yet, this weekend was marred when the world of basketball lost one of its giants – Don Haskins. Nicknamed “The Bear”, Haskins is commonly known for his willingness to recruit African-American basketball players in a time when it was the norm to find college basketball teams to be all-white. His decision to recruit African-American players culminated in starting 5 African-American athletes in the 1966 National Championship against Adolph Rupp’s heavily favored Kentucky Wildcats. One of the first African-American athletes he coached was Nolan Richardson. Richardson credits Haskins not only for his success, but also for being a major influence on his coaching style.

Haskins coached at Texas Western College (later renamed University of Texas El Paso) for 38 years and accumulated an overall record of 719-353 record. Haskins led UTEP to 17 seasons of 20 wins or more, won 14 Western Athletic Conference championships, four WAC tournament titles, had fourteen NCAA tournament berths and made seven trips to the NIT. His influence within the college coaching ranks is well documented and Bobby Knight describes him as one of the greatest people he has ever known. Either way, basketball – college basketball specifically – has lost a legend.

Other Ramblings:

– Tom Brady’s season lasted all of 8 minutes and many experts are saying that is how long the Patriots’ season has lasted as well. Call me crazy, but is there another team in the NFL that is better equipped to handle this situation? A good portion of team has already gone through a similar situation in 2001, and is there any team that is better at preparing for a game with the “It’s Us Against the Rest of the World” mentality? I am just not ready to count this team out. Crazier things have happened.

– If the Red Sox continue this run, doesn’t Dustin Pedroia have to be the front runner for MVP?

– NFL owners are talking about eliminating a couple pre-season games and adding a pair of regular season games to make it an 18 game schedule. With all of the injuries in Week 1, including a rash of “season ending” injuries to players (i.e. Brady) – is it enough to dissuade owners from making the season longer?

– Will there be a better college football game this season than Saturday’s Ohio State/USC game?

– This just in, Jason Bay has made everyone in the New England area officially forget about Manny Ramirez.

– The Toronto Blue Jays’ owner was recently commenting on the fact that A.J. Burnett will “Opt” out of his contract and become a free agent. This comes on the heels of Burnett finally being healthy for an entire season and starting to finally reach his potential. The Blue Jays’ owner commented that going forward he would not agree to a contract in which the player can opt out of his contract – in fact he even suggested that teams should be allowed to have an “Opt” out clause. Makes sense to me, why hasn’t this caught on?

– This just in – Jonathan Papelbon just helped Sox fans remember Manny again.. Uggh.

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7 Responses to “Tuesdays with Smitty: Remembering a Legend & Random Rumblings”

1. CaseySeptember 10th, 2008 - 9:16 am

   Belichik will use this opportunity to make his mark as the greatest coach of all-time.

   It’s going to be tough to really erase Manny’s image from the minds of Red Sox Nation. He ranks fifth in Sox history with 274 dingers, 6th with 868 RBI, and 4th in slugging – .588. Oh yeah – he’s got two rings, and the guys ahead of him on those lists have none.

   USC / Ohio St.? Yeah I might catch a quarter or two of that game.

2. CharlesSeptember 10th, 2008 - 3:09 pm

   I may be in the minority here, but I think Justin Morneau is hands-down the AL MVP. Here’s why:

   -He’s one of only two good hitters in the Minnesota lineup, and he protects Mauer, so no one protects him.
   -He has by far the most RBI of any player on a contending team, and he’s doing this for a team that is average, at best, offensively. Mauer may hit in front of him, but so did Carlos Gomez’s .289 OBP for much of the season.
   -One of the arguments I’ve heard against him is that his OPS is considerably lower than some of the other candidates. Well, chew on this, the AL’s top ten in OPS+ (park/league adjusted OPS):

   Bradley-TEX (171)
   Rodriguez-NYY (160)
   Quentin-CHW (149)
   Huff-BAL (147)
   Morneau-MIN (144)
   Youkilis-BOS (143)
   Drew-BOS (140)
   Hamilton-TEX (139)
   Ibanez-SEA (136)
   Granderson-DET (136)

   3 of the 4 players ahead of him are on non-contenders, and Carlos Quentin is done for the year. And, look at the two players below him…so forget about Dustin Pedroia, especially considering only a few weeks ago, Boston was trumpeting Kevin Youkilis’ candidacy.

   The Dustin Pedroia for MVP talk is all hype. The Boston media can give the New York media a run for their money in that department.

3. CaseySeptember 10th, 2008 - 3:20 pm

   Chas
   Way to cut to the chase – don’t sugar coat anything.

4. WallySeptember 10th, 2008 - 3:24 pm

   - On paper, the Ohio St vs USC tilt is “the game of the year”, but I suspect the actual game will be one-sided in SoCal’s favor. The week off to prepare is a huge factor, IMO.

   - Re: MVP of the AL … let’s let the final 18 games or so play out. Charles’s argument for Morneau is compelling … the fact the Twins are even in the race is amazing … don’t have nearly the top-to-bottom talent as Boston. Quentin’s absence is killing the ChiSox … they are not hitting the ball with guys on base the last week.

   - Manny: He sure is delivering the goods for LAD. I can’t help but think Boston will miss his unflappable, clutch bat in the playoffs. b/t/w … no RedSox player with two title rings will ever be forgotten, esp one who holds several Saux records. The playoffs are all about handling pressure … nobody has risen above the heat better than Manny in this era.

   - The AFC is up for grabs, esp given the injuries to key players (Brady, Merriman, etc). I wouldn’t rule out either of their teams, but the race just got more interesting. The Steelers are due … and they have the talent to back it up … so far no injuries here.

5. WallySeptember 10th, 2008 - 3:29 pm

   Any predictions on Michigan vs ND? I just got a dose of “enthusi-optimism” … where’d that come from? Strangely, I’m predicting an Irish victory … 24-17. ND is +2 in turnovers to carry the day. (Gotta have some luck to win this game

   Wally

6. ChasSeptember 10th, 2008 - 4:17 pm

   I’m in a bit of a grumpy mood. Maybe I make better arguments that way.

   Oh, and, despite the “hype” that I referred to, I’m not saying he doesn’t stand a chance of winning it, just that I don’t think he should.

7. CaseySeptember 12th, 2008 - 9:12 am

   Wally,

   Your positive vibes about ND have me tongue-tied. Or should I say – keyboard-tied.

   Let’s hope the USC / Ohio St. affair is a much better game than the much-ballyhooed Memphis / Tenn track meet last hoops season.

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