EL BARRIO, EL FALLS – Happy Monday… It is the start of a new week and I can’t say I am excited for it. But I am ready for it. There was some bits of news that was screaming to be talked about so, that made my life easier. Here are the topics for today: MLB Lockout, NFL Combine, Coach K Goodbye.
MLB Lockout
This MLB Lockout… is getting longer. It was hoped when this whole lockout started that it would be resolved before spring training. There was always this fear that it might last longer, though. The hope was that it wouldn’t be like the strike of 94-95, but the possibility hung in the air like a bad fart. News trickled in that spring training was not gonna happen. Some reports pointed to a shortened Spring Training. Then the word came that Opening Day was cancelled and we all collectively complained with a version of “Aww, sugar!!” Cut to today and it looks like there will be more games missed and the sides are still deadlocked. What that means for the rest of the season? No one knows. Getting over the impasse may take the whole season. Let’s hope it doesn’t.
NFL Combine
It’s that time of the year again. The one in which we watch these young men perform supernatural feats. We had a man 6’4″ and weigh 310lbs run a 4.78 second 40 yard dash. But most of these guys doing this are guys that are fighting to make the league. Most guys have already showed on tape and in games they deserve to be drafted. Guys being told they are low first or second rounders, and that competing in the combine/adding a strong performance, might to push them up in the draft order… This is where you might mine the rare jewel – like a D-3 player who puts up great numbers in sprinting and weightlifting, completes the skill drills with great aplomb and bump up from draft free agent status to an actual pick. It is a circus that effects players’ lives and the money they will earn.
Coach K Goodbye
While I am not a huge Duke fan, I have great respect for Coach K and what he has achieved at Duke. (Short Matt had an entirely different opinion yesterday.) I don’t need to run his record; we all know he is a household name and one of the first people we think off when we think of all time great college coaches. What is odd is the home arena for Duke University is Cameron Indoor Arena. Not sure who the Cameron is – and I’m not interested in looking him/her up – but h/she must have given a ton of coin, because they have never changed the name… The court is name after Coach K, though – it’s Coach K court at Cameron Indoor Arena. It’s long but I believe Columbia did that with Robert K. Kraft Field at Lawrence A. Wien Stadium and Duke’s main rival North Carolina has Roy Williams Court in the Dean Smith Center (two legendary basketball coaches)… Speaking of North Carolina, they are un-ranked but they played well and surprised lots of people, as they spoiled Coach K’s final regular season game… Now time for the conference championship tournament and the #NCAA tournament. Let’s see if Coach K gets proper sendoff.
Thanks for reading, comment below. Come back tomorrow for our Ben Whitney, who asks for “the Coach K” whenever he goes to the barber.
