As a result of the young ages of the Indignant Children, I have to tutor them on certain things, onw of them being mathematics. The wife and I are working with them on their letters and numbers. And I am reminded that when one starts counting, you begin with the number 1. You don’t start with 0, a fact verified by the Indignant Wife, an actuary and, as a prerequisite, a mathematician. So, why is the mainstream media doing these retrospectives about the “’naught” decade from 2000-2009?
This may be just a minor complaint, but, just like the “end of the last century,” people are coming up one year short. I’m willing to excuse people for 2000 because of the Y2K scare that was supposed to technological world to a standstill (now it’s the year 2012 that is to be the end based on a flawed reading of the Mayan calendar and a film by the talented, yet still a hack director Roland Emmerich). But the people who publish, edit, write for the media are supposed to be smart people; who know that when counting to 10, you don’t stop at nine because you counted “0,” which of course is nothing, nada, zilch. It’s a placeholder.
But you can’t tell that to the people who publish Sports Illustrated; or the Chicago Tribune; or Billboard Magazine. All of these publications and many others have been running articles, online and published looking back on the past 10 years as a “decade.”
Now, I know that an old adage in publishing and the media is “give the people what they want,” especially the stupid ones and as a result, we have “American Idol,” Fox News, “Survivor” Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh. But, when it comes to simple mathematics, the media is going along with the 9+0 =10 thought process, instead of waiting just ONE year.
If these people don’t know simple math, how can we expect our kids to do the same? And how can we bitch when our kids’ math scores are deficient? You’ll forgive me if I wait until the end of next year to count the decade over, thank you!
Idiotic!

As you know, I have been threatening to send my comments about the woeful state of Big Ten officiating, especially in football, to Commissioner Jim Delany. Well, I finally got off the schneid and sent a letter last Friday. The contents of the letter contain essentially whole portions of blogs I have posted here in October and last week. Here’s the letter:

Dear Mr. Delany,

I would like to congratulate you on your nearly 20 years in your position as Commissioner of Athletics for the Big Ten Conference. In that time, you have done a great job in increasing the revenue to the conference universities. You helped the conference to add Penn State, which built an Eastern presence and a powerhouse, storied football program. When people thought it foolish, you started the Big Ten Network, a pipe dream that has become a cash cow for the conference. You have overseen the Big Ten Men’s Basketball Tournament, a wholly unnecessary weekend of games that downgrades the value of the regular season. But it is time to improve a factor for which improvement is long overdue: the officiating, especially in football.
I have been a season ticket holder for Northwestern University football since 1996, but been watching Big Ten athletics since 1976, the year before I entered NU. I believe that I am more than just your average fan; from 1990 until 1998, I wrote for 2 sports television shows: “The Sportswriters on TV” and “The Back Table with Chet Coppock.” (I even wrote questions for Chet when you were guest on that program, but he never broached this subject with you even though I sent questions in this regards.) Since then I have submitted pieces for various web sites including Fox Sports.com. For the past 2 years, I’ve written for my own site: www.evilopinion.com.
In each venue, I have complained about the quality of the football officiating to no avail. All the way back to the blown touchdown call against Northwestern that caused a tie against Bill Walsh’s Stanford team in 1991 after the venerable “genius” said that NU should leave the Big Ten. The Conference “apologized.”
Things have not improved and I am not saying this as a dyed-in-the-wool Northwestern fan who believes that the Wildcats get screwed by calls. Just the opposite, I cringe every time there is a yellow flag on the field against either team. It appears that the officials either have never read the rule book or are “making it up as they go along.” At this point, I’m happily surprised when the officials do make the correct call.
For example, in the October 24th game between NU and Indiana game, an official called a penalty against NU and promptly started marching off yardage against Indiana and for the first couple of yards, none of the other officials corrected the mistake. In the same game, the officials signaled an NU touchdown on the blocked punt instead of a safety, reversed themselves and then it appears that they still missed the call. In many games, the striped shirts miss numerous holding penalties on both sides; and flat out fail on several clock and timeout issues. It was so bad that even the writer for the Chicago Tribune brought it out in the next day’s coverage of the game.
But no one can say anything. If the coaches speak out publicly, they get massive fines. Players can be suspended; even we fans can be thrown out of games or have our season tickets revoked. No one can say anything to you about the lousy referees, which is why I am finally sending you this letter after years of frustration with the status quo.
Now, you and the conference are considering expansion. First, it does make sense to add a 12th school – the conference has been like a three wheeled scooter since Penn State joined – scheduling is difficult with an odd number of schools. However, speculation is that the addition of 1 or more schools is just the possibility of dividing the conference into 2 divisions like the SEC and then playing a “conference championship game” for big money.
To his credit, Northwestern Head Coach Pat Fitzgerald was quoted in the local media as being against the added game, saying that his players are beat up enough by the current schedule and adding another game would put more pressure on them as athletes. (Of course, NU might be the only school in the Big Ten whose football players actually have to go to class and can’t load up on PE classes and other non-mentally strenuous courses.)
As I alluded to at the start of this letter, I am no fan of the Big Ten Basketball Tournament. It is probably the only local sporting event in a major sport that I have avoided. The reason – the players play, and sweat and work hard for the 30-odd game regular season (earning no money for their effort, but that’s a problem for all of college sports, not just the Big Ten). The regular season usually separates the good from the bad and the ugly. It is just another excuse for more games, more television, and more revenue to the schools.
The games are ultimately meaningless. That is, unless a bad team gets hot for one weekend, wins the conference tournament, and gets the automatic NCAA berth. This isn’t fair for a team to get on a hot streak for a couple of days, get into the NCAA only to get slaughtered. Worse, this scenario has occurred before and deprived a smaller school, or one from a smaller conference who played well all year, gets squeezed out of a rightful place in the tournament by a school from one of the big conferences. It’s just not fair.
I don’t want the same thing to happen in football. In basketball, there is less wear and tear on the body (I didn’t say none, just less than football). Football players are subjected to terrific hits. Facing even one more game is a great risk. Ask NU defensive end Corey Wooten – he was going to be a first round draft choice last season, but a freak knee injury suffered in the Alamo Bowl forced him to return to school for one more year, and while he has shown improvement this season, he is probably no longer a first rounder.
To get back to my main point, Mr. Delany; what, if anything, has been done to improve the competency of the officials? Instant replay (not at all instant) has not improved the refs. It’s like they feel they can relax; the television cameras will protect them from themselves.
Please don’t say that the officials are competent. I sit among a group of knowledgeable fans, some of whom played Big Ten football, and they, like me, are appalled by the incongruous, inconsistent, and apparently arbitrary nature of the officiating.
Sometimes, it appears that calls are made to keep games close, especially if one of the traditional “powerhouses” fall behind. The gambling scandal that has plagued the NBA and rumors that are much older that the league is “rooting” for certain teams and attempt to influence the final outcome is a stain that league is still trying to clean off its reputation. Similar rumors abound about our conference (albeit not to the same degree as the NBA).
Mr. Delany, you have to be commended for helping to make the Big Ten a top flight college conference, what do you have to fear if you admit that the officiating is not up to par with the other conferences? Games will be reversed? That won’t happen. The universities will revolt? That won’t happen either.
Maybe you don’t want to spend any additional money to hire competent officials, but I propose that its money well spent (and I don’t suggest making them full time employees). We cannot be a top flight conference with second or even third rate officials. Is it fair to the athletes and coaches who work so hard to have games decided by ludicrous penalties? They deserve the best officials we can get, not this lot.
Sincerely,
Tony Fernandez

I’ll let you know if I receive any response.

Back when I was an Andy Frain usher, I was watching the lack Bill Veeck being interviewed by one of the local papers. When asked when he would do if he owned the Cubs, he said that he would “build lots of driveways at Wrigley Field so that I can back up the truck.”
That’s the place the Chicago Bears are now. I have not been on the “fire Lovie Smith bandwagon” up to now, probably for 2 reasons. First, even though these guys make more money than the normal person, it’s hard for me to call on someone to lose their job. I’ve been unemployed and I’m sure that wee all know someone who is unemployed in this recession, so losing a job is a very personal, often demeaning thing. The other reason is because I was raised by my grandmother to root for black coaches. Of course, black coaches are much more common, and the ultimate sign of “equality” is that minority coaches get fired too.
But this is enough. After this weekend’s 31-7 loss to Baltimore, the 2009 Bears have nothing. They can’t run the ball; they can’t block; their defense can’t tackle or stop anybody. I know that some people are going to point at Jay Cutler too, but I think that if he played for a team with a 21st Century offensive scheme and a decent offensive line, he would be fine.
But Lovie; it’s time to go. Ron Turner needs to find work elsewhere. I would say that it’s time for Jerry Angelo to pack his bags too, but I don’t see the McCaskeys firing everybody, despite the fact that it was his decisions on draft picks and players that has the Bears in this predicament now. The Bears under Angelo have been woeful in developing talent. The players that they have gotten with talent, have performed well, but the players that they’ve acquired who haven’t panned out; or aren’t playing; have done so because the team has not done a good job of turning those raw gems into diamonds.
So let’s put to rest the spirits of Red Grange, Gaye Sayers, and Walter Payton and stop playing run-first offense. This team needs someone to bring the offense into the 21st Century. Mike Martz, someone like Cam Cameron, a great offensive mind is what is needed. And on defense, something is very wrong. Meanwhile, the head coach, the quiet guy from Big Sandy, Texas has lost the team and may be too soft-spoken to be heard among the din.
There’s a lot of driveways at Soldier Field and at Halas Hall in Lake Forest – let’s get them used.

I have always been uncomfortable with the concept of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Something so subversive, so historically anti-establishment shouldn’t have a hall of fame, or at least, it shouldn’t be in the beautiful I.M. Pei designed building in Cleveland (although I have visited the HOF myself). It should be down an alley, or in a bar on the South Side of Chicago or in Memphis.
Anyway, there’s always some question as to who gets in, but this week, the Hall announced the latest inductees: Genesis – cool back when Peter Gabriel led them, even cool up until the hit making band of the late 1980s; Jimmy Cliff – OK, although I’m not a big fan of reggae; the Hollies – too clean for my taste; and The Stooges, who should have been there all along.
But the people behind the HOF announced that 1970s pop group ABBA will be inducted. Who’s next? Manudo? The Bay City Rollers?
I know that their music remains very popular, especially with the stage play and film “Mamma Mia!” (no place more popular than my own home, where the Indignant Older Daughter and her mother often punish your friend and humble narrator with the strains of “Dancing Queen,” and other insipid songs. (Even worse in the film are the songs “sung” by Pierce Brosnan – fine James Bond, horrible singer.) Fortunately, they spared the old man when the ABBA tribute band came to the Ravinia Festival in Highland Park earlier this year – I got to stay at home with the Indignant Younger Daughter (aka The Indignant Baby, but not for much longer).
I really have nothing again people who are into ABBA, but it sure as hell ain’t rock and roll. Maybe Iggy Pop will roll around in broken glass and take the mic stand to ABBA. That would be worth recording for posterity!

Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany has done a great job of getting more money for the member schools in his two decade tenure at the helm. He added Penn State, which built an Eastern presence and a powerhouse, storied football program. He started the Big Ten Network, a pipe dream that has become a cash cow for the conference. He oversaw the Big Ten Men’s Basketball Tournament, a wholly unnecessary weekend of games designed to take money from fans and downgrade the value of the regular season.
Well, he has another idea – more expansion. What the hell, it worked for Major League Baseball and the NFL and the NHL (well, never mind that last one).
Delany announced this week that the conference is exploring options over the next 12 to 18 months for expansion. The league’s presidents and chancellors decided this month that the timing is right to study adding a 12th school, but as the Chicago Tribune reported today, it might not stop at 1 team – it might expand by 3 or 5 schools building to a Big Twelve or even Big Sixteen or Big Eighteen.
Why? It’s the money stupid. First, it does make sense to add a 12th school – the conference has been like a three wheeled scooter since Penn State joined – scheduling is difficult with an odd number of schools. And the Big Ten reportedly considered expansion in 1993, 1998 and 2003. Penn State joined in 1990, and Notre Dame rejected an offer in 1999. This seems to fly in the face of a comment made by Delany as recently as March, when he called expansion a “back-burner” issue.
Earlier this year, Penn State coach Joe Paterno said he’d like to see Rutgers, Pittsburgh or Syracuse join the league. He was not in favor of extending another offer to Notre Dame.
“There’s some pressure, I would suppose, to maybe go back to Notre Dame and ask again, which I would not be happy with,” Paterno said then. “I think they’ve had their chance.” (Good for you, Joe Pa!!)
What has changed minds is the possibility of dividing the conference into 2 divisions like the SEC and then playing a “conference championship game” for big money. To his credit, Northwestern Head Coach Pat Fitzgerald was quoted as being against the added game, saying that his players are beat up enough by the current schedule and adding another game would put more pressure on them as athletes. (Of course, NU might be the only school in the Big Ten whose football players actually have to go to class and can’t load up on PE classes and other non-mentally strenuous courses.)
As I alluded to at the start of this post, I am no fan of the Big Ten Basketball Tournament. It is probably the only local sporting event in a major sport that I have avoided. The reason – the players play, and sweat and work hard for the 30-odd game regular season. That usually separates the good from the bad and the ugly. It is just another excuse for more games, more television, and more revenue to the schools. They have enough money; the athletes don’t get paid; and the games are ultimately meaningless. That is, unless a bad team gets hot for one weekend, wins the conference tournament, and gets the automatic NCAA berth. This isn’t fair for a team to get on a hot streak, get into the NCAA only to get slaughtered. Worse, this scenario has occurred before and deprived a smaller school, or one from a smaller conference who played well all year, gets squeezed out of a rightful place in the tournament by a school from one of the big conferences. It’s just not fair.
I don’t want the same thing to happen in football. In basketball, there is less wear and tear on the body (I didn’t say none, just less than football). Football players are subjected to terrific hits. Facing even one more game is a great risk. Ask NU defensive end Corey Wooten – he was going to be a first round draft choice last season, but a freak knee injury suffered in the Alamo Bowl forced him to return to school for one more year, and while he has shown improvement this season, he is probably no longer a first rounder.
In short, add one school if you want Big Ten powers that be, but we don’t need a championship game. And any Big Ten alumni and fans that would support such deserve to have their money stolen from them.

The Chicago White Sox obtained outfielder Juan Pierre and $10.5 million from the Los Angeles Dodgers in return for two players to be named later. Pierre, who was once with the crosstown Cubs hit .308 with 30 stolen bases, 57 runs and a .365 on-base percentage in 145 games with the Dodgers last year, but was expendable when Manny Ramirez returned from a 50 game suspension for violating baseball’s drug policy.
The White Sox are reportedly sending two young pitchers to the Dodgers in return for the leadoff man they desperately needed with last year and 2005’s setup man Scott Podsednik asking for too many years (he’s older than Pierre). More important, the Sox get $7 million of Pierre’s salary in 2010 and $3.5 million in 2011 from the Dodgers in what’s left of Pierre’s $44 million, five-year contract. He is due $10 million next season and $8.5 million in 2011.
Pierre is reunited with Sox manager Ozzie Guillen. They were both on the 2003 Florida Marlins team that won the World Series; Guillen was the third base coach on that club.
My only problem is that I saw an analysis a few years ago when Pierre was either joining the Cubs or during his tenure that showed that Pierre is one of the worst leadoff men around and significantly overpaid. His OBP is sub-par; he doesn’t take many walks and he swings at bad pitches. And if the Dodgers are willing to pay for him to go away, what does that say about the 33-year-old outfielder?
On top of that, Pierre didn’t react well to the media pressure he received when he played on the North side. Of course, he won’t face that kind of media attention from the poor sister on the South Side, often an afterthought by the local and national sports media. But Sox fans won’t be kind if Pierre gets off to a slow start and doesn’t get on base.
I’m not sure about this move.

• It is very sad to hear of the silly death of Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chris Henry. Apparently, during a fight with his fiancée, she drove off in a pickup truck. The 26-year-old Henry jumped in the cab of the truck, but fell out of the truck. He was found on a residential road and rushed to a local Charlotte hospital where he died at 6:36 this morning. Police said the dispute began at a home about a half-mile away, and at some point after Henry jumped into the bed of the pickup truck, Loleini Tonga, with whom Henry had been raising three children, said that Henry “came out of the back of the vehicle.” As I’ve said for years, the ages old struggle between men and women is exacerbated by the money and attention young men (often black with inner-city backgrounds). The athletes can’t trust if the women are really concerned for them or for their wallets, and the women often face a situation like Tiger Woods’ wife. Sad.
• I don’t care if Tiger Woods is getting a divorce – I only care if he’s leading The Masters on the final day (and only if he breaks the record for number of victories in majors).
• Things might be worse for Tiger – his personal doctor is under investigation for distributing performance enhancing drugs. Why would Tiger Woods need PEDs? He already hits the golf ball further than nearly anyone, and PEDs probably don’t help your short game. As Rick Telander put it in today’s Chicago Sun-Times, people will forgive adultery (since its really not anyone’s business outside of his family), but they won’t if its proven that he cheated. Boy, it’s been a tough month for Tiger.
• Televangelist Oral Roberts died this week. I remember in January 1987, during a fundraising drive, Roberts announced to a television audience that unless he raised $8 million by that March, God would “call him home.” Personally, I rooted for people to not give him any money – I figured that if he didn’t get the money and died, it would be the proof positive that there was a God. Unfortunately, the easily gullible gave him $9.1 million and he lived on until this week. Somehow, I think that if there is an afterlife, this snake oil salesman is finding a very warm place in the hereafter.
• Sarah Palin – please go away. You have as much chance of becoming President as Tiger Woods.
• Joe Lieberman – you are a two faced, hypocritical, venal little bastard and you REALLY need to go away. Or at least voted out of office, or impeached.
• There’s plenty of room on the Chicago Blackhawks bandwagon – come and jump on, I’ll save you a space.