The SoapBoxers

On a day with relatively no sports news, Jimmy “the Vest” Tressel decided to proclaim his resignation from thuh ohio state university as their football coach.

Nothing like picking the day that we honor America’s heroes of military service to slip into the night – – because of your dishonorable actions.

The real issue here is not what the Buckeye players did that was wrong, it was the fact that the head coach knew about it, then lied that he knew about it, and then took another year to basically confess his problems. More strangely, he waits another 3-4 months from when the entire charade completely blew up earlier this year. But, he waits until NOW announce that he is stepping down? Why the wait Jimmy?

Coming clean earlier would have avoided a lot of embarrassment for the University, and its program. It would have also given the Athletic Director a chance to do a broader coaching search and perhaps look at other interested candidates. That is no longer a possibility with the Spring football camps wrapped up and summer conditioning well under way.

Ohio State will have a number of players sit out the first 5 games of the year to start the 2012 season due to them essentially trading autographs and memorabilia for ink. That is right. Tattoo em up boys with a alleged drug trafficker….Classy.

A number of other players are still under investigation and could face yet to be determined disciplinary action. More investigation into sold bowl and conference championship rings and sweetened deals to purchase cars from local dealerships have the boosters squirming in their overpriced seats at the Horseshoe.

Amazingly I have not heard an apology from Tressel to date. The Vest in his owns actions cares so much about his players that he would cover up infractions and cares so much for the University that he felt that keeping the head coaching position any longer would be an unfair distraction. How about a simple – “I am sorry” from the former head honcho.

The next weeks should be more interesting as further details unfold. Ohio State has to appear before the NCAA infractions committee in early August. Maybe the club should have done their homework and recognized that this was not Tressel’s first tussle with allegations. While coaching at powerhouse Youngstown State, talks of improper recruiting were in the air. Tressel left those allegations while they were still under investigation and went on to be the head coach at Ohio State.

No where to slip to this time except the golf course for Tressel.

Until next time,

Stay classy Columbus!

Ahhh it is that time of year again when there is drama in the Bronx Zoo. The Evil Empire also known as the New York Yankees seem to hum along magically when all is going well. They are winning games, they are enjoying the YES network, they are getting up the ire of Baaaahston fans….but this year has been different. The Pinstripers are struggling, They have not enjoyed their normal success of recent years early on in the 2011 season. Now this past week they have one of the biggest on the field and off the field distractions in the Majors involving their long time catcher Jorge Posada.

Now on any other team this may not be a big deal. But we are talking about the New York Yankees here folks. The geographic center of the Universe. Remember the Sun itself orbits around New York City.

This past week Jorge bailed out of the lineup on his own accord. He is only hitting .165 this year and has yet to get a hit all year off of a left handed pitcher. Manager Joe Girardi had dropped him to dead last in the batting order. Jorge was so angry at being demoted to ninth in the order Saturday that he not only said he wanted out of the lineup, also indicated he might want off of the team. Allegedly a heated discussion took place before the game between manage Joe Girardi, a former catcher himself, and Posada. These two have had some issues over the years that seem to stem back to their playing days when Girardi was still in the league as an active player.

Yesterday Derek Jeter the modern day version of Joe DiMaggio in the eyes of Yanks fans stepped to the defense of his comrade in arms, essentially condoning Posada’s behavior indicating he had nothing to apologize for, he obviously was struggling and he was caught off guard with this and had a bad day.

The New York front office brass did not seem too impressed with their team captain taking this stance and called for an internal meeting to discuss the entire situation.

It appears all is well on the Eastern Front now and the over-reacting drama surrounding this incident is over. But it does bring up a valid question. When a great player become average, or gets to the point when their skills have deteriorated significantly, whose responsibility is it to call it a day, sit down for the betterment of the team, or even hang up the cleats for good?

Too many players have held on way past the point of no return. Some retirements seem to come suddenly such as Barry Sanders or Ken Griffey Jr. Others seems to go on like the end of a bad movie (Brett Favre)

By their nature professional athletes are confident, bordering on cocky, and have achieved the successes they have endured in their sport because they are better than most, even at the heightened level of competition. It must be very difficult to make that decision on your own as an athlete.

Here is hoping that Posada won’t have to stare his .165 batting average in the face to accept that maybe the end is near, and can make a decision on his own before the team is forced to make it for him.

Johnny missed his normal Tuesday article last week as he was vacationing with Mrs. Goodman in the lovely town of Las Vegas Nevada. As surprising as it may be, yours truly ran into none other than Peter Edward Rose at the sports book at the Mirage Hotel and Casino.

Pete was making an appearance somewhere at the Hotel or a nearby hotel doing an autograph session, as I saw a number of folks walking around later that day wearing autographed jerseys and hats or carrying photos. I for one did not bother asking for an autograph from Pete Rose, as I have heard countless stories about him charging for his signature no matter what the venue or occasion, however I did break the ice with him by offering him one of the multitude of my free drink tickets, which he accepted.

We spoke about baseball for a few short minutes – he even mentioned that one of his favorite hitters in the game today is Troy Tulowitzki, and then I was rudely interrupted by an East Coaster who just barged into the conversation like he had known Pete Rose since he was three years old (shocking I know).

Many thoughts crossed my mind in this short time speaking casually to the all-time hit leader of major league baseball. Are you pissed off that you are banned for life? Do you wish you would have admitted you gambled on baseball right out of the gate instead of admitting it years later? Do you miss the limelight that you could have gotten if you would be able to display your Hall of Fame ring wherever you go?

I am sure Pete as some regrets. The saga around his banishment from baseball basically became a grudge match between the Commissioner Bart Giamatti, and Rose when the details of his gambling came out. I still feel strongly that if Pete would have admitted to all his indiscretions right away that the result today would be different. There is no doubt that his credentials or the way he played the game (he is known as Charlie Hustle for cryin’ out loud!) would have been more than enough to get him a guaranteed first ballot vote into the Hall. Some argue that once Pete is gone from the earth, the Commissioner at that time may elect to remove his ban, as it is doubtful that no one has been more hotly debated about getting into Cooperstown, with the possible exception of Shoeless Joe Jackson.

As we move away from the so called “ Steroid Era “ in baseball it will be interesting to see how the likes of Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Barry Bonds, and others are viewed. Baseball writers are a fickle bunch, many having a holier than thou attitude and the thought that they are the gatekeepers of the National Pastime.

This I know for certain, all the baseball issues for Pete Rose are in his past, he still is a person that likes to gamble, and I hope he enjoyed the free drink from Johnny Goodman.

What do you think, readers?  Should Pete be in the Hall of Fame?  What about the guys from the steroid era?

Until next time, Stay classy Cincinnati!

Big problems continue for the beloved Ohio State Program. Not that it is any big shocker, but the NCAA the fastest yacht in the boat race, finally made a public statement yesterday that they are looking into “alleged” infractions. The violations in the Ohio State case happened a basically 12 months ago. The news splash came out in late December right before the bowl game, and then further escalated about 2 months ago with Tressel’s admission he knew about the problems with the five players trading equipment and awards for tattoos. Heck he even had the email train to show for it.

Now the Buckeyes have until July 5 to answer questions for the NCAA. A hearing before the infractions committee is scheduled Aug. 12 in Indianapolis.(coincidentally one day before Johnny Goodman’s Birthday) After that, god only knows how long this will drag on. Heck it took the NCAA 5 years to nail USC for Reggie Bush and other violations of basketball players taking place during the same time span.

The lingering question is will the NCAA think that the penalties imposed by the school are strong enough, or will they wield a heavier hammer? Hard to tell. The scuttlebutt in the coaching fraternity is that “The Vest” is in deep doo doo. Heck even Nebraska increased head coach Bo Pelini’s salary just yesterday making him the third highest paid football coach in the Big Ten. Why? They lost way more games than they should have last year and folded like a cheap card table in their bowl game re-match with lowly Washington. Maybe Athletic Director Tom Osborne wanted to make a possible move to Pelini’s alma mater, Ohio State, look less appealing from a financial perspective.

Lucky #7

The NFL Lockout drama saga continues this week we are quickly approaching the 2011 Draft. AP writer Jaime Aron had an excellent article on April 23rd that listed the top players taken at each position in the draft since the modern day draft has taken place. As you can imagine this could be a hotly debated topic. I mean which #1 overall is the best? Bradshaw? Manning? Aikman, Campbell? You could make your argument for any of these guys at #1. But what I found interesting was that the #7 pick in the first round has been a veritable point of weakness overall.

Tops on Aron’s listing was Adrian Peterson in the #7 spot, who many felt “slid” to the Vikings as he was coming off an injury plagued college career at Oklahoma. Phil Simms, Sterling Sharpe, Bryant Young and Champ Bailey are others of mention at the number 7 spot but no one really stands out like is the case at the other positions in the top 10 overall in any given year

Maybe this means the #7 spot is due to have a great player taken. Of course anyone in the Top 10 each year is considered great or they would not be considered to be drafted that high. The consensus at #7 this year is Patrick Peterson, the dynamic secondary player from LSU. Only time will tell if a Peterson will dominate from the #7 spot overall in the draft.

Until Next time…stay classy Mel Kiper Jr.

Normally I write a sports article but Kosmo is going that direction a bit today, so I will focus on a more Kosmoesque topic for Tuesday … Customer Service.

My wife and I recently bought a new car. Well somewhat recently. We picked up the car at the dealership on February 21. The negotiation went well, I haggled enough that we were happy with trade in values and all was agreed upon.

Unfortunately the dealership did not have the color of vehicle that my wife really wanted so they made a trade for the color we were looking from a dealership out of state. They were not exactly sure if the features were all exactly the same as they had two in the color we wanted and they were not sure which would show up in the trade they were making. So we negotiated based on the higher priced vehicle.

The day we picked up the vehicle, we were hit by the manufacturers credit guy. Now I work at a place that has a great credit union with fabulous rates. He also kept trying to sell me warranty and maintenance plans. I had to politely explain no fewer than four times that the reason I keep buying this brand of vehicle is the reliability, I have never had any issues with them.  So basically “no I am not interested in spending more money on a warranty plan”.

The dealership had put in a charge for $600 for gas, detail and dealership accessories on the final sales bill. WTF? I asked you if I needed to detail my old car , and you told me “no”.  I am not paying for gas … I just bought a 30K plus vehicle from you and you did not add anything additional on to my car, so what are you trying to pull here?

After 2 ½ hours at the dealership (we had an appointment to pick up the car) we finally got to drive it home. My wife procrastinated a bit and waited until the last day to title the car, pay taxes, and get her plates. When she showed up at the DMV they politely explained that they did not have her title yet from the dealership. When my wife called the dealership (realize she is still at the DMV at this time) the dealership said, “it was lost a couple of weeks ago in the mail, didn’t anyone call you to tell you”.

After some vented frustration, my wife secured a loaner car from the dealership. A week passes. Nothing. She calls the dealership again. “Looks like it might be 2-3 more weeks before we have it as there is a computer problem with the State of Colorado” (which I think was still code name for – we have no idea where it is but we don’t have it yet for you).

This prompted a visit from Johnny Goodman to the dealership. After I expressed my complete dissatisfaction with the lack of communication and ranted and raved for about an hour, the dealership agreed to pay my first month car payment (only after I basically told them they needed to). I was having a real problem making a car payment on a vehicle I could legally not drive due to a mix up at the dealership which was completely their error, not mine.

Another 3 weeks went by and we finally got the title. My wife is now driving the car. I was called the day she picked up the title by our salesman who indicated he just found out about this a week or so ago (completely a lie here – trust me, everyone in the dealership told him I stopped in to talk to him the night I came in to look for getting my car payment made … I did make a HUGE scene that night so I am quite sure I left a lasting impression) and then he had also contacted my wife and I … but only after we had filled out a less than complimentary survey and the results went from their home office back to the dealership. Why would you respond to a bad survey and not even call to inform a customer that their title had been lost? An answer to this question I will never know or understand.

The worst part of this is the dealership is literally a half of a block from my house. When salesman go outside for a smoke break they could wave to me on my deck of my house. They had 5 phone contact numbers for my wife or myself yet chose to not call us until we initiated to them that there was a problem.

Hopefully those that read this will have better experiences than I, or will go the extra mile in their jobs this next week – realizing that sometimes problems develop a life of their own and just get bigger and bigger. All which could usually be solved by simple a phone call. As we get more technological in our world, the verbal or face to face communication suffers and seems to get worse and worse. Unfortunately this dealership has lost my business for good as I will never buy another car from them. And as an added bonus my wife and I have pretty much told anyone who will listen our story of great customer service.

Until Next time … stay classy Performance Toyota of Lincoln.

The biggest and in my opinion the best sports memorabilia auction is just around the corner. Robert Edward Auctions does one auction a year and it is always a biggie. I believe Kosmo has written articles about it in the past (Editor’s note – Yep), but this year is also sure to not disappoint.

A few lots of early interest are a 1910 Old Mill cigarette’s Shoeless Joe Jackson rookie card. I am more of a Yankee fan you say? How about a Lou Gehrig game used jersey? Is there anything much cooler than an original signed 1902 Christy Mathewson players contract? There is even a Honus Wagner card in the auction that has been professionally restored. Not sure how that will affect its value, but my guess is that card will still sell for a quarter of a million at the very least.

Cards, bats, hats, balls, photos, autographs, historical documents, jerseys, cleats, sheet music, basically anything sports or historical related and all of it cool. There is even non-sports cards such as Mars Attacks, the Three Stooges, Duke Famous Americans (one of my personal favorites cigarette card sets made in the late 1800’s) as well as a veritable cornucopia of other items.

The best part of the auction is while you can view it all online, you can also follow the link below and request a free catalog. This catalog is a piece of art work in and of itself. You have to remember – this is an auction house so the write ups on the items will be flowery as they are trying to maximizing bids, but it is a full color catalog with lots and lots of photos. (last year the book was basically 725 pages) The Catalog ships this week and REA will Fed Ex it to you so if you sign up today – you will likely have it by no later than early next week.

Here is the link to get yourself a free catalog

http://www.robertedwardauctions.com/contact/index.html

Last year 181 lots sold in excess of $10,000 and the total of all lots suprassed 10 million. I believe they get a 20% cut of both buyers and sellers commission which is partly why they can produce such an outstanding catalog. I have had great customer service with REA. Last year my son in a overzealous attempt at recycling, pitched a couple of my old catalogs into the recycle bin. I sent an email to REA and I received a note back from Robert Lifson himself, and he promptly overnight Fed Ex delivered the last 5 years of catalogs to me – at no cost with his compliments!

It is good customer service such as this, as well as great auction items, and the best catalog in the business that keeps buyers and sellers coming back to this auction each and every year. I personally will be keeping my eye on some of the golf card items as I am a serious collector of vintage golf cards and this auction is chock full of them.

Until next time, stay classy and may your Old Judges be worth thousands!

It is my favorite weekend of the year. The un-official yet very official start of the PGA Golf Season. The Masters Tournament from Augusta, Georgia.

Situated on the former home of a nursery and indigo plantation, the various types of trees and plants were preserved from the earliest days of golf course construction and design to give us the fabulous shots in High Definition television that we now get to see on CBS and the Golf Channel.

There are a number of little known facts about the Masters. So to see if anyone ever actually reads my articles, I am holding a couple of contests this year. All this information is readily available if you just do a little bit of searching on line or even better from Masters.org

Contest #1

The first person to correctly respond with all correct questions will received a professionally graded Tiger Woods Rookie card from 2001 Upper Deck golf. (a $10-$20 value)

1. Who were the owners of the land prior to it being sold and being utilized as a golf course (hint – it was a Nursery…I just need the family name)
2. Who was Bobby Jones’s main financial partner who helped him get Augusta National up and Running.
3.  The Masters is celebrating what significant Anniversay this year
4.  We call it the Masters today…wWhat was the name of the tournament when it was first held?
5. Who has the most runner up finishes at the Masters?
6. How many times in the last 10 years has Tiger Woods finished in the top 10 at Augusta?

Contest #2.

Lets see if we can have some fun with this one as well. Same Prize is awarded to the winner as in Contest #1 above.

Simply pick 3 golfers that are playing this week. The person who has the three golfers that win the most cumulative amount of money will be the winner of contest. Simply post your picks under “comments” to my article to enter either the first or second contents or both.

Good luck and Stay Classy Clifford Roberts!

Opening Day for Baseball is later this week. Hard to be in the mood here in the midwest for baseball since it has been snowing and we have had temperatures in the low 30’s . Wonder if the Twins are re-thinking that new outdoor stadium at all this year with record snowfalls in the Minneapolis area this winter. We are not out of the woods just yet.

Speaking of Woods, Tiger Woods showed a brief glimpse of old Tiger on Friday last week carding a nice round at the Arnold Palmer Bay Hill Invitational and getting back into contention. He promptly got back out of contention on Saturday and on Sunday, no one it seemed wanted to win the tournament. Martin Laird from Scotland took the title and an automatic invite to the Masters with the win after he had squandered a 3 shot lead late in the round, only to see everyone else mail it in even worse.

Since I mentioned worse, do you ever remember a year that was worse for number one seeds in the NCAA basketball tournament? None of them make it to the final four, which is not a totally big deal. What is a big deal is who did make it in….Only 2 people out of over 5 million in the ESPN on-line bracket pool had these final four teams all picked correctly. Butler, Kentucky, Virginia Commonwealth and Connecticut. I am guessing it is two households that either have kids at VCU and Butler or one spouse went to one of those schools and got married to someone that went to the other.

On the topic of Big Deals, the NFL lockout continues. Now we are approaching draft time, and teams are “encouraging” some of the players to not attend the draft. C’mon owners, this is a dream day for most of these guys and it is not like you get to get paraded across the stage and be in the spotlight again. You only get drafted once. Can’t we just agree to all get along for the three days of the draft and not make these rookie players feel uncomfortable.

Regarding handshakes and spotlights, kudos to Gonzaga women’s basketball star Courtney Vander Sloot who became the first NCAA basketball player to score 2000 points AND dish out 1000 assists in a career. That is some big time playing.

Until Next week, stay classy Shaka Smart!

Ah…the first weekend of games is over for the NCAA basketball tourney….Most of you are complaining about your Brackets being “busted” in your office pools. The Big East showed that it is clearly the most over-rated conference in all of NCAA basketball. While getting Eleven teams into the tourney, most took an early exit. The East Coast bias always throws them on a pillar of excellence, but this year they crashed and burned. Louisville…upset in the first round. Number 1 Seed Pittsburgh, smoked out by the lowly Butler Bulldogs. Granted two teams were eliminated by other Big East teams but overall the performance of Big East schools has been exceedingly lackluster at best.

Bruce Pearl and the Tennessee Rocky Toppers get bounced and then so does the coach. For cheating. Nice to see a school step up and can someone for a change for cheating. Let’s look around the brackets at other well known and busted cheaters such as John Calipari, Jim Calhoun. Why do schools continue to hire these guys? Duh….Winning!

Football is even more bogus. Schools get busted all the time and nothing and I mean NOTHING happens to the coaches. Jim Tressel is the latest one to fall under the trap and not be smart enough to avoid serious ramifications. Will Ohio State remove him? Doubtful…why…..DUH!!! Winning!

The most recent Big Cheat was paraded on to the Capital One Game Day set to talk about the National Title game two years ago and then promptly left for the NFL and the Seattle Seahawks. I am guessing Pete Carroll felt that he had done “all he could do at USC” and was ready to get “back into the NFL and the challenges it provides” Nope, liar again here sneaky Pete….you saw the steamroller called NCAA Sanctions coming and you ran like Chicken Little to the safe haven of the NFL, just before the house of cards came crashing in and your old beloved college school got smashed with sanctions and loss of scholarships.

The All time Biggest Cheater award goes to none other than Lou Holtz. How the hell ESPN pays this guy is beyond me. Cheater Lou had 4 coaching stints that are proven or pretty much guaranteed that he was cheating. Arkansas – He leaves, they go on probation, Minnesota and the House that Ricky Fogge built…you guessed in Lou again moves on to greener pastures and Whammo! The Gophers get hit by the NCAA. Of course the NCAA is not dumb enough to try and take on Touchdown Jesus, so while at Notre Dame, Lou’s cheaters ways go noticed but unseen, and Notre Dame goes from woeful to suddenly a National Powerhouse…..coincidence? He then hangs it up for 3 years (was he forced out or was the speaking circuit really that good?) and then goes to South Carolina, where …you guessed it, once he retires…shocking as this may be…they go on probation.

Am I the only one noticing a trend here???

Bottom line is until the NCAA does something to permanently remove coaches from the ranks of college athletics for cheating, nothing is going to greatly change. Boosters and coaches will continue to cheat the system, push the envelope and try to swindle in the best recruits for one basic and simple reason…

Duh….Winning! Duh…..

Stay Classy Richmond Spiders!

The Ides of March are upon us

If you know your Shakespeare, this will mean something to you. In the world of Johnny Goodman, this means taking off the opening Thursday of the NCCA Basketball tournament from work, setting up shop at a local establishment that has numerous televisions, and enjoying an adult beverage or three.

For many the bubble burst, for many many more the bubble never existed, and now that the talking heads and spurned coaches have had three or four days to hash out who got jobbed and why, we can move on to the real important topic. Bracket Pools.

Depending on what online source you read, billions of dollars are figured as lost in space in terms of productivity this time of year as thousands of workers clamor at break time, at lunch, on the phone to their buddies, even on email, as to if this twelve seed is gonna knock of this five seed. Millions of office pools are in place in the United States. Heck some areas will even have Women’s tourney pools, (I am guessing Connecticut has a higher than average participation rate for these) as well as NIT Pools (although I have not seen any floating around Lincoln yet, but maybe in Boulder)

On line there are thousands of pools you can enter, some are small local television pools with a chance to win maybe a big screen television. Others are major national monster insurance company advertising pools that offer great prizes such as all expense paid vacations or substantial cash rewards.

The fact is that March Madness (shouldn’t they start calling it April Madness as it ends in April?) is big time business. The only real losers are CBS, who has taken a bath with revenues compared to what they shell out to show the games on the tube. So what is the answer? The NCCA adds a couple of more “who really cares” play in games and then CBS goes out and adds in a couple of more networks to assure “ALL” games are on television, and they pay even MORE money than they were previously.

So let’s review. Big losing contract to NCAA + adding four more games now equals even more money that CBS is paying to the NCAA to cover games this year…..sounds like a genius deal to me.

So remember as you fill out your pools this year, just channel your inner Charlie Sheen…..

“DUH….WINNING!”

Stay Classy Morehead State!