A Big Distraction

I have a friend down in Wichita that has loved Texas A&M football as far back as he can remember.  He always had a positive outlook on their games and years, even when they were not doing very well.  He is their 12th Man in Wichita.  I would love to pick his brain about their quarterback, Johnny Manziel.  Johnny Manziel became the first freshman in college football history to win the Heisman Trophy.  He made a name for himself with his play on the field last year.  He did the same this past off season with run ins with the law, making money for signatures, and other things a nineteen or twenty year old would most likely do.  Personally, I think he is exciting to watch play football.  He is like a kid in a candy store.  Just out there having a good time.  But, being a big name in the sport comes with big responsibilities which he has not handled well.  He is not the only student athlete that has had problems, he is just in the news right now because FOOTBALL!

Looking at their record from 2001-2011, the Texas A&M football team has eight more wins than losses.  There were up years where they won eight or nine games and down years where they won four or five.  So over the last decade, they have done okay for themselves.  There were no standout seasons with only one or two losses.  The best year was just in 2010 when they finished 18th in the country with a 9-4 record.  And then there was last year.  Manziel's freshman year.  The big move to the SEC.  All of a sudden, they go 11-2, beat down Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl, and finish 5th in the country.  The Aggies and their fans are on top of the world.  All of this in his freshman year?  What can he do in the next two years before leaving for the NFL?  Is a national title in the future?  All he has done has been a distraction for the college and the football program during the off season.

So with all these distractions, why would A&M want to keep him around?  Winning is great.  They are in the conversation of the nation as they are ranked in the top ten in the preseason rankings (which don't really mean anything because it's the PRESEASON!)  Despite what any division one college says, football isn't about winning.  It's about making money.  A&M will deal with the distraction that is Johnny Manziel because he is good at playing a sport and can get people in the stadium to watch.  They can ride the roller coaster of Manziel-mania (is that a thing?) to another BCS bowl game because of the money that will come in as a result.  But what happens if he is deemed ineligible this year because of what he has done?  What happens if he is dismissed from the team?  Are they still a top ten team?  Teams are more than just a quarterback, but they do run the team on the field.  

Another reason to deal with the distractions is that A&M knows that they only have a few years of greatness before they fall back down to being a .500 team again.  They will deal with it because they are going to try and capitalize on it.  Not only with getting money for the school, but with recruits as well.  Top tier high school recruits are going to look at successful programs because they want to get to that next level.  They may say they want to go to a school with a winning program and help to carry on that tradition, but many of them have dollar signs in their eyes.  If they can get these top tier recruits, they can continue to reap the financial benefits.  The minute they start to slip down the rankings or start losing eight or nine games a year, they won't being going to those big bowl games and will start to not make as much money as they were when Johnny Manziel was playing.  

If you want to find a college that wants to talk about winning over making money for the school, go find a division two or three school.  Go find a junior college where local kids go get an education and get to carry on their local legacy as a football player.  Are there div. II and III graduates playing professional sports?  Absolutely.  At the rate of the div. I schools?  Don't kid yourself.  Or better yet, go to a division one school and go talk to a sports team that doesn't create revenue for their school.  Don't talk to the basketball program at Kentucky or Duke.  Don't talk to the football program at Alabama or Michigan.  Talk to a water polo team or a ski team.  Go talk to sports program head that don't have a professional level.  They are invested in their sport and winning.  The kids in those types of programs don't worry about making millions of dollars playing their sport.  They worry about getting an education and moving on into adulthood.  

Baseball Word Association

I snagged this idea off of this website.  This is a fun little game in which you use one or two words you associate with each team in the MLB.  For those who do not like baseball (SHAME!) you may not enjoy this post.  The teams are broken up by divisions.  For those who like baseball (you are AWESOME and I love you!) what word(s) do you associate with these teams?

Giants:  Bearded Closers
Rockies:  Ugly Uniforms
Diamondbacks:  Beat Yankees
Padres:  Ugly Uniforms
Dodgers:  Gibby '88

Reds:  Oldest Team
Pirates:  Resurgent
Cubs:  Loveable
Cardinals:  Professional
Brewers:  Outfield Slide

Mets:  Not Yankees
Phillies:  Horrible Fans
Braves:  Racist
Marlins:  Fire Sale
Nationals:  American Expos

A's:  Annoying Fanbase
Rangers:  Annoying Manager
Mariners:  Griffy Jr.
Astros:  MLB's AAAA
Angels:  Big Spenders

Tigers:  2003 (sobs in corner)
White Sox:  Douche Nozzles
Twins:  Game 163
Indians:  Racist
Royals:  Wasted Prospects

Yankees:  Evil
Red Sox:  Egotistical
Blue Jays:  Carter v. Williams
Orioles:  Ripken Jr.
Rays:   What Fans

I picked '2003' for the Tigers because it was such a low point for the organization.  It is also a point to look at to say 'look at how far they have come'.  It's the part of their past that no one wants to talk about but we all know how bad it was.  

The Keurig Conundrum

'Coffee:  the favorite drink of the civilized world.'

Thomas Jefferson

The greatest drink that has ever been produced in the world is coffee.  A close second is whiskey.  I start my days off with a pot of it.  I bring a thermos full of it to work.  There is no better way to get through a low point of a day than a hot cup of coffee.  Coffee is so important, that Jerry Seinfeld did a web series that is worth checking out.  The worst cup of coffee is better than a glass of pop.  With all that said about coffee, I both understand and am confused by the phenomenon that is the Keurig coffee maker.

I started drinking coffee when I worked at Cowtown Living History Museum in Wichita, KS.  I did so because it was something to do on the job.  I made it over an open fire in an old coffee pot.  Unfiltered, fully caffeinated, hot and delicious.  The water boiled and the ground beans went in.  Cool water was dumped in to settle the coffee grounds, but it never prevented them from getting into the cup.  They were the reward for emptying the cup.  Grounds at the bottom to chew on for a little bit.  Ever since then I have been a coffee drinker.  I never drank coffee in college.  Mainly because I was still in the mindset that pop was the way to go for caffeine.  That and the fact that we were college kids that didn't have a lot of money.  I still occasionally drink pop, but not for my main source of caffeine. 

When I think of making coffee, I think of a full 12 cup coffee pot.  I am baffled by anything smaller than that.  I understand that not everyone drinks coffee at a rate that would require a full on coffee maker, but why would you spend, on average, $100 on a top end coffee maker that makes a cup of coffee?  One cup of coffee!  Especially when you can buy a single cup coffee maker for something like twenty to forty dollars?  I know that decent 12 cup coffee makers are not cheap, but you get so much more coffee out of them.  It makes more sense.  There are people that have a four cup coffee maker and it just looks so small and sad compared to a regular sized coffee maker.  It's almost comical.  

There are people that just need to get going in the morning and that one cup of coffee on the drive to work is all they need for the day.  If you're into drinking just one cup of coffee, are you really wanting to invest hundreds of dollars not only on the coffee maker, but invest money on  the coffee itself?  A twelve pack of single cups for the Keurig type coffee makers are about ten dollars (on the low end).  It's just over a dollar for a cup of coffee which is cheaper than going to a coffee shop.  Again, I know that top end bags of coffee can run up to that ten to twelve dollar range, but a canister of Folger's or Maxwell House are nine dollars.  Then you get into the debate of do you want quality or quantity?  I want something hot and caffeinated.  Spending nine dollars on a canister of coffee that you use everyday versus a twelve pack of coffee cups that costs two dollars more but the quality might be a little bit higher. 

And it's not like a regular coffee maker needs to brew all twelve cups.  You can regulate how much water goes into it.  If you want half a pot, put in six cups of water.  This isn't rocket science people, it's common sense.  

Baseball Post!

The suspensions were handed down today regarding the Biogenesis PED scandal.  The biggest suspension being Alex Rodriguez at 211 games.  The rest of the players, including the Tigers' Jhonny Peralta, were all suspended for 50 games.  Personally, I think the best way to get PEDs out of sports is to get harsher on the penalties.  Last thing I'm going to say about this is....good.  I hope this mass suspension helps to clean the game up, because the one or two guys getting suspended didn't have any kind of impact.  And if you look at the majority of the players who were previously suspended, they did not have the clout that these players have.  This is good for the game hopefully because I love to watch this game and I don't want this game that I love to be even more tainted.  Instead of a three suspension (50, 100, life) system, I feel that they need to move to a two suspension (100, life) system.  

Let's move on...

The Detroit Tigers are playing some of the best baseball I have seen them play in quite a while.  It is comforting, but at the same time the Indians and Royals are playing just as well and they aren't gaining any ground on them.  These three teams got people's attention over the past ten.  All three of them are 9-1 over the past ten games.  Only one team in the entire MLB had a better stretch.  Atlanta is 10-0 over the past ten games.  If these three teams continue to play hot, it will make for a great end of the season.  Of course I would love to see the Tigers pull away from the other two teams, but it could make for a fun (or stressful) few months to watch.  It will also show the rest of the league that maybe the AL Central isn't the Tigers and everyone else. 

To say that the next four games are going to be huge is a vast understatement.  Currently the Tigers are three games ahead of the Cleveland Indians.  Best case scenario is the Tigers having a seven game lead going into the weekend, worst case is the Indians having a one game lead.  Splitting the series?  That would be nice.  Winning three of four would be better.  So not only is the series huge, but it could set the tone for the rest of the season.  This could be a series that if one of the teams ends up winning the division they could turn to and say 'it all started here.  At this four game series.'  I'm cautiously optimistic about this series.   

I want to say that the Tigers are going to dominate the Indians in this series and start to run away with the division, but there is just one problem.  It seems like every time I start talking trash about the Tigers playing so well, they let me down.  It all started back in 2006.  I was talking with a co-worker who is a Cardinals fan and I said that the Tigers would win the World Series in five games because of how well they played before.  We all know how that went, so NEVER AGAIN!  I will be quietly optimistic each year and will gloat when they win their games and will be humble when they lose their games.  And this doesn't just happen with the Tigers, it happens with other sports teams I follow. 

Go get 'em Tigers!