Must we, for the sake of money, ruin everything under the sun?
The rim had hardly ceased reverberating from Gordon Hayward’s near-miraculous shot at the buzzer for Butler against Duke in the men’s basketball final when NCAA vice president Greg Shaheen was outlining a proposal for expanding the tournament to 96 teams.
Long rumored, a tournament of that size would feature first-round byes for the top 32 teams and third/fourth rounds on the Tuesday and Wednesday after the opening two.
There’s no mystery why this baby was put on the table. More games, Shaheen said, means more revenue for the NCAA.
In the big picture, I’ve often wondered: With all the cash the NCAA reaps from its major sports, with all those multi-millions from TV contracts, why does anyone have to pay to go to college or, more reasonably, have to still be paying for it 10 years after graduation?
As for the tournament: Why mess with it? The NCAA Division I basketball postseason is matched only by the Major League Baseball and NFL playoffs, multi-tier systems that span multiple weeks and accrete in drama as the field narrows.
This year, from the moment Ohio knocked off Georgetown in the opening round through Northern Iowa’s upset of Kansas to Butler’s classic final with Duke, the tournament was nigh perfect.
The NCAA D-I men’s basketball committee and board of directors could approve the 96-team field. It could suck up more money. But it would water down its product and cheapen the magic.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Papi, Pap, Josh: What's It Gonna Be
I went back and forth over the hot stove season.
At first, I was alarmed by Boston’s offseason moves — who the Red Sox initially acquired, who they let go, who they were talking about letting go.
That changed when the Sox signed John Lackey, given the added potency he leant to the starting rotation, and stuck with Jacoby Ellsbury. That’s when I started buying whole-heartedly into all that conventional wisdom about the defensive upgrade wrought by the addition of Marco Scutaro, Adrian Beltre and Mike Cameron. Shoot, given our shortstop situation last year, Scutaro can’t help but be better.
But, you know, it never pays to go with the crowd and simply join the chorus. Here at the dawn of the 2010 season, I find myself quivering in the middle like a tuning fork. As I see it, Sox success will be determined primarily by the guys they already have.
To wit: Will Jonathan Papelbon be the lights-out closer he’s been or the high-wire act he was last year? Pap may have had 38 saves in 41 opportunities, but his collapse in Game 3 of the ALDS against the Angels was more indicative of the steady flirtation with disaster that was his 2009.
Same with Josh Beckett. For a 17-game winner, his work last year was very uneven and followed on the heels of a sub-par 2008. We need a return of Revolver ’07.
If the Sox get that in combination with Jon Lester, who I believe to be the true team ace, and Lackey, well, that’s one hell of a 1-2-3 punch. Winning contributions from Clay Buchholz, Dice-K and Tim Wakefield would be rich gravy. (Respect Timmah, pulling for Clay — he needs to break out now — and still far from sold on Dice, though his head seems to be finally in the right place.)
The other pitching variable is the catching. This is the season Jason Varitek cedes ground after manning the Sox plate for a decade. His bat may have faded years ago, but his ability to handle the pitching staff has not, and that’s the most important part of the job. That’s where Victor Martinez, who can belt the ball, must truly deliver.
As for the offense, which took the biggest hit with the departure of Jason Bay, the biggest linchpin, it seems to me, is Big Papi. There’s no question the larger-than-life role he filled in the middle of last decade has passed for reasons either natural or unnatural. But he’s still a key cog in the wheel and we can’t be sitting around till Memorial Day waiting for him to hit his first home run and get over the Mendoza line.
Not with the Yankees to chase and the Rays to reckon with in the East, and the Twins, Angels and even Rangers to confront on the rest of the AL game board. But we’ve gone to the postseason six of the last seven seasons. Why should we expect that to change?
At first, I was alarmed by Boston’s offseason moves — who the Red Sox initially acquired, who they let go, who they were talking about letting go.
That changed when the Sox signed John Lackey, given the added potency he leant to the starting rotation, and stuck with Jacoby Ellsbury. That’s when I started buying whole-heartedly into all that conventional wisdom about the defensive upgrade wrought by the addition of Marco Scutaro, Adrian Beltre and Mike Cameron. Shoot, given our shortstop situation last year, Scutaro can’t help but be better.
But, you know, it never pays to go with the crowd and simply join the chorus. Here at the dawn of the 2010 season, I find myself quivering in the middle like a tuning fork. As I see it, Sox success will be determined primarily by the guys they already have.
To wit: Will Jonathan Papelbon be the lights-out closer he’s been or the high-wire act he was last year? Pap may have had 38 saves in 41 opportunities, but his collapse in Game 3 of the ALDS against the Angels was more indicative of the steady flirtation with disaster that was his 2009.
Same with Josh Beckett. For a 17-game winner, his work last year was very uneven and followed on the heels of a sub-par 2008. We need a return of Revolver ’07.
If the Sox get that in combination with Jon Lester, who I believe to be the true team ace, and Lackey, well, that’s one hell of a 1-2-3 punch. Winning contributions from Clay Buchholz, Dice-K and Tim Wakefield would be rich gravy. (Respect Timmah, pulling for Clay — he needs to break out now — and still far from sold on Dice, though his head seems to be finally in the right place.)
The other pitching variable is the catching. This is the season Jason Varitek cedes ground after manning the Sox plate for a decade. His bat may have faded years ago, but his ability to handle the pitching staff has not, and that’s the most important part of the job. That’s where Victor Martinez, who can belt the ball, must truly deliver.
As for the offense, which took the biggest hit with the departure of Jason Bay, the biggest linchpin, it seems to me, is Big Papi. There’s no question the larger-than-life role he filled in the middle of last decade has passed for reasons either natural or unnatural. But he’s still a key cog in the wheel and we can’t be sitting around till Memorial Day waiting for him to hit his first home run and get over the Mendoza line.
Not with the Yankees to chase and the Rays to reckon with in the East, and the Twins, Angels and even Rangers to confront on the rest of the AL game board. But we’ve gone to the postseason six of the last seven seasons. Why should we expect that to change?
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