Neutral Sites Are Not For Baseball

As I was on my way to drop off lunch to my beautiful and wonderful fiance last week, I heard an interesting topic of discussion on the local ESPN Radio station. The airwaves in my car were locked to Colin Cowherd's "The Herd" radio show in which he was commenting on colleague Peter Gammons' idea for holding baseball's future World Series games at neutral sites in America.

Apparently Gammons flew off the handle and checked himself into a mental institute the night the Phillies and Rays had to cancel a portion of one game of the World Series due to inclement weather only to be played the next night. Get a grip Peter! Major League Baseball has much bigger fish to fry such as solving the problem with the designated hitter position, reducing the 162 game regular season format and, last but not least, trying to rebuild a fan base that was lost due to two strikes over the past twenty years!

Of course Colin Cowherd had this issue nailed to the wall and we both agreed that there is no way baseball can afford to have the World Series played at comfortable weather sites. Gammons argued that venues in Florida, Arizona and Houston were perfect strongholds for a championship playoff series. Are you kidding me?! If baseball is truly all about tradition then this ludacris idea is coming from left field (no pun intended, golf clap desired).

Stay with me here. In fact, do me a favor. Close your eyes for a moment. Imagine you are attending your first ever World Series matchup between your beloved New York Mets as they take on the Seattle Mariners in a best of seven matchup that will crown the winner as world champions of baseball. The national anthem has just finished and the umpires have signaled "play ball" as the television cameras zoom in on the Johan Santana. A pitcher you never thought you'd see in person let alone a World Series ticket with your name on it. The moment doesn't get anymore priceless than this. Until Ichiro steps into the batters box and you open your eyes to a half filled stadium of a mixed crowd at Minute Maid Park in HOUSTON, TEXAS?!?!?!?! All of a sudden your ticket drops in value, you scratch your head and have a feeling of wanting to go home and watch the game on tv so as not to be seen by your friends and family sitting in the stands of one of the lowest attended World Series games of all time.

Neutral site-based championship events are meant for a one game showdown between two teams. Hence the Super Bowl: a game that lasts three hours and then everyone goes home after the glitz and glamor has evaporated from the stadium. Playoff series, no matter whether they are the five game or seven game variety deserve a home and away format. Believe it or not, home field advantage actually MATTERS in the World Series just as much as it does in the NBA Finals or the Stanley Cup Playoffs in hockey. Someone needs to look Gammons straight in the eye and ask "How is baseball going to make money in the post season from your grand idea?" The answer is simple. It's not going to make money. If anything, this idea would help Major League Baseball lose millions and millions of dollars and actually send it into another recession, if you will, and cause one if not more strikes amongst the players and owners. Folks, I've heard some crazy things in my life from the world of sports, but Peter Gammons was totally out of line with this comment and Colin Cowherd had every right to call him out on it. With baseball tickets being amongst the lowest priced sporting event we as Americans can attend these days, its that much more important to our country's economy to not allow a neutral site World Series anytime in the near future.

NCAA Football: Week 11 Roundup

With this being my first post of the season for college football, let me first say to my Dad and my cousin Tommy and the entire Burns clan in Knoxville, Tennessee that I'm sorry to hear about having to let go of Phil Fulmer. Unfortunately, the dreaded word of "rebuild" will know become a household name in the years ahead in Big Orange Country. It's no secret that the University of Tennessee football program has been on a steady decline since winning the BCS Championship in 1998 only to hit what seems to be an all time low with a record of 3-7 overall, 1-5 in the SEC and losing to Wyoming this week at home by a score of 13-7. Fulmer has had one of the best runs a coach could have with any given team nowadays. His current record as a coach is 150-52. Pretty impressive in my estimation. He will be held in the same regard in Knoxville as Bear Bryant at Alabama, Bobby Bowden at Florida State and Joe Paterno at Penn State. Despite his not-up-to par final seasons at Tennessee, Fulmer is a charasmatic figure in college football and will exit with class and dignity The university, however, must move quicker now than ever to find his replacement, as Volunteer fans do not take losing seasons very lightly.

And now on to the games that were Week 11 in college football...

First off, the word shocked does not even begin to describe the feeling I had when I saw Penn State upset by the Iowa Hawkeyes on a last second feild goal. I thought this was going to be the year in which the soon-to-be 82-year old Joe Paterno would go out on top as either champs or co-champs, even with the corrupted BCS system. In fact, I was just reading an article before Saturday's game about how the Nittany Lions "Spread HD" (Spread formation in high definition) offense was one of the best in the country and nearly unstoppable. True they got their yards and their touchdowns, same as any other spread offense, but apparently they needed an "HD" defense against Iowa. There is no way you can be a championship caliber football team these days by giving up 10 points in the last nine minutes of a conference game that you technically should win. Keep in mind the Hawkeyes were 5-4 overall and 2-3 in the Big Ten coming into this game. The only chance Penn State has now of even being mentioned as potential candidates for playing in this year;s BCS championship game is to hope for losses by either or both Alabama and Texas Tech.

Speaking of which, the Tide rolled, albeit slowly rolled, on Saturday when they took down LSU in overtime. It was an anxious time for Alabama fans as well as Nick Saban who snuck by his former Tigers in Baton Rouge. Saban's smashmouth running attack coupled with a hard nosed defense that flies to the ball in the secondary has brought prominence back to the land of Bear Bryant. The only reason LSU was able to hang around in this game is because the Crimson Tide defense allowed two touchdowns in the first quarter and trailed 14-7. It was the only time all season that 'Bama had trailed at the end of the first quarter. It's clear that this is a team that likes to play football when they have the lead and struggle when they must play from behind. If you take a look at the team's offensive starters you really don't see very many gamebreakers. They have a stable of running backs who run hard, up the field and do not turn the ball over. John Parker Wilson won't be airing it out 50 times a game and will rarely throw any hail mary passes to keep opposing defenses on their toes in the secondary. Their wide receiver core is talented but young. And they are limited due to Wilson's passing ability. Again, not alot of showtime on offense, but enough game management at the skilled positions to let their defense keep them within reach of every game.

Let's shift gears to Texas Tech who was coming off their monumental victory of the then ranked #1 Texas Longhorns. Some teams, no matter the sport, will come out flat in the game that follows a taking-down-the-goal-post type of win. Not the case for the Red Raiders on Saturday. They played with poise on both sides of the ball and handled Oklahoma State quite easily. Graham Harrell was magnificent at quarterback as usual for Texas Tech and is my front runner at the moment to win the Heisman Trophy this year. The fact that he threw for yet another 456 yards and 6 touchdowns in this game is just sick. Oh, and I forgot to mention the fact that he did not throw one interception. Come to think of it, I could walk on at Texas Tech and line up at the slot receiver position and catch touchdown passes from Harrell. "Hey Coach Mike Leach...save the scholarship next year man! I'm coming to Lubbock!" And it isn't just me shouting out how I truly feel when it comes to the Red Raiders' offense. Every high school wide receiver in America sees highlights of this high potent offense on Sportscenter every Saturday night and simply druel at thought of playing for this squad on the collegiate level.

It will be interesting, to say the least, to see what happens with Alabama and Texas Tech's few reamining games. We could either see a superstar offense lining up against a rough-and-tough defense come January, or we could have another "BCS Mess" with a plethera of one loss teams. Personally, I'd pay money to see either one.