Thursday, January 24, 2008

Early Texan of the Year nominee

Here is an early entrant to the Dallas Morning News Texan of the Year sweepstakes:
Scott Drew.
Drew is the men's basketball coach at Baylor University, which, when he accepted the job coming from Valparaiso University in Indiana, was like assuming command of the Titanic ... on the way down. The BU program was given the harshest penalty, short of the SMU death penalty, for its past, including covering up a murder and telling players to lie by a coach.
Its prior history before that also involves other coaches who had to break the rules just to compete. The Bears were smacked hard by the NCAA - couldn't recruit, couldn't play non-conference games and were dead, for all intent and purpose.
Last night, Baylor completed its phoenix-like rise with what should be the game of the year in college basketball (116-100 five OT win over ranked Texas A&M in College Station). And it has all been due to the tenacity of Drew, who has single-handedly brought the Bears out of the abyss. He's done it by following the rules, choosing his student athletes-carefully and wisely.
BU will make the NCAA field, short of a total collapse, and any victory in the tournament will be a major accomplishment. In this case, this "Hoosiers" like comeback can be pinpointed to one man - Scott Drew and hopefully the Morning News will recognized that in 11 months.

Monday, January 07, 2008

Clemens: The truth is somewhere out there

I watched Roger Clemens' interview last night on "60 Minutes" and it is difficult to tell who is lying and who is telling the truth on either side.
A few pitchers, if the path is followed properly and if they are so physically inclined, CAN pitch into their mid-40s. Clemens' idol, after all, was Nolan Ryan and no one has accused the Ryan Express of carrying a car load of steroids on the journey.
Did he? No one knows for sure, which is the proper answer with Roger Clemens.
Ryan DID play in the steroid era, and was on teams with admitted steroid users. But no one believes he did and no one should automatically take the word of one person that someone did.
But is awfully difficult to unprove a negative. It's like proving he didn't beat his wife. Who would ask that in the first place?
I just don't know.