The SoapBoxers

Bubba Starling recently graduated from high school and has committed to play quarterback for the Nebraska Cornhuskers.  Starling is also one of the top baseball prospects and was selected 5th overall in this year’s baseball draft.  The kicker?  He was picked by his hometown Kansas City Royals.

Starling has a decision looming.  He can choose to sign with the Royals and spurn the Huskers.  He can spurn the Royals and stay with the Huskers. 

Or he can do both.  The NCAA allows an athlete to participate as a professional in one sport while retaining amateur status in a different sport.  The football/baseball combination is by far the most common due to relatively small season overlaps.  While it’s not exactly common, it’s also not particularly rare.  For example, Clemson starting quarterback Kyle Parker was a first round pick of the Rockies in 2010 and continues to play both sports.

However, either the Huskers or the Royals could give Starling an ultimatum and force him to pick one sport or the other.  The football injury to Bo Jackson may be fresh in the minds of many in the Royals organization, so they may not be eager to see Starling lining up at quarterback.  The Huskers, too, would prefer to have Starling focus on just one sport – but as an outfielder, his injury risk is relatively low.  (Conversely, if he were a pitcher, he’d be more prone to arm injuries, which would hinder his ability to player quarterback).

Of course, the one thing that the Royals can offer that the Huskers can’t is money.  (Hey, this isn’t Ohio State!).  How much?  I wouldn’t be surprised to see an offer in excess of $5 million, considering the leverage that Starling has as a two sport athlete.

My advice?  Take the money.  If you can balance both sports, great.  But there is no guarantee that Starling will ever make a dime from football.  There are a lot of highly touted high school quarterbacks who never make it to the NFL.  If Starling choose to forgo college at this point, he can negotiate inclusion in Major League Baseball’s College Scholarship Program and pursue his degree at a later date.

If Starling doesn’t sign with the Royals, he wouldn’t be eligible for the draft again until 2014, unless he transfers to a junior college (JUCO players are eligible after their freshman and sophomore seasons).

The Royals wouldn’t be left completely high and dry if Starling doesn’t sign.  They would receive a compensatory pick in 2012 immediately following the pick of the team with the 5th worst record.  This most likely would be pick #6, but could be lower (if players picked in the top 4 spots don’t sign with their teams and thus yield compensatory picks for those teams).

In other draft news … teams really seemed to be shying away from injured players.  TCU pitcher Matt Purke was picked #14 overall out of high school in 2009.  He actually agreed to a $6 million bonus with the Rangers, but Major League Baseball had veto power because of the Rangers’ troubled finances, and they nixed the deal.  Purke eventually opted to go to college.  He was 16-0 as a freshman for the Horned Frogs.  This year, he has been fighting bursitis in his shoulder.  He was a draft-eligible sophomore (due to the fact that he was 21 before the draft) and slipped all the way to #96, where he was snapped up by the Nationals.

I understand the concern about the injury, but this is clearly a guy with elite talent.  Sure, he might not make it to the majors because of injuries, but it’s quite likely a lot of the guys ahead of him won’t make it simply because their talent level isn’t high enough.  Why are teams willing to take a gamble on a guy with a lower talent ceiling and no injury history than guys with higher ceilings but some injury history?  To compound the situation, a lot of the “healthy” guys will encounter career-ending injuries.

And, off the diamond, former Major Leaguer Lenny Dykstra is in the news again.  This time for his arrest on grand theft auto and a variety of drug charges.  Dykstra was always a guy who colored outside the lines, but his life has been in a tail spin for several years.

Your smartphone breaks.  You take it to the shop.  Do you care if the guy who fixes it has an addiction to lesbian porn as long as he fixes your phone?  You have the flu and go to the doctor.  Do you care if your doctor is having an affair on their spouse as long as they get you the appropriate treatment within the proper safety protocols?  I’m sure some of you will say you care, but I’d bet most of the people you say they would get upset about that actually would.  Think about it, if someone came up to you and said, “The guy who fixed your iPhone has gigabytes of woman-on-woman action on his home computer.”  The vast majority of people are going to say, “ummm … so?”

In that same way, I really don’t care that Anthony Weiner had inappropriate contact with women online.  I do care that he lied about it, though.  Had he come clean from the start, said that he used the internet for strange sexual purposes, he probably would have been ok.  I’m sure there would have been some outcry from Republicans.  We all know how they’re the moral bastions of politics – heck, they like marriage so much that the most prominent righties often do it two or three times. I think he’s a good politician, he seems to genuinely have the interests of his constituents in mind (being from NYC, he represents a large number of lower and lower-middle class folks), but at this point I just can’t get past that lying part.

When did America become the uptight prude of Western nations, anyway?  Was it the founding by the puritans?  Europeans laugh at us every time we make a huge deal over some political sex scandal, they practically EXPECT their leaders to have an affair or two while in office.  Heck, the leaders of France and Russia are married to supermodel class women, as far as looks go, and as far as I can tell are more popular for it.  Holding our leaders to some sort of moral standard that hasn’t evolved since slavery, smoking, bloodletting, and World Wars was in vogue just seems dumb.  We all have our unique perversions, even if we don’t admit it to ourselves or talk about it with others.  I honestly don’t care that Bill Clinton likes creative cigar use, he gave us some amazing years of prosperity and knocked a huge chunk off the country’s debt.

So … back to the lying thing.  Why is it ok for politicians to outright lie, but they have to be the modern equivalent of Beaver Cleaver’s parents when it comes to “adult” issues?  Ronald Reagan was involved with and lied about a secret deal that sent weapons to Iran (yes, THAT Iran) in return for money that was used to fund drug-selling rebels in South America.  We have politicians giving no-bid contracts to questionable companies and we care more about Anthony Weiner doing what at least 50% of all men have done.

Maybe a lot of people out there want to care about sex and personal lives, but that seems to be a lot more like the way they live in Afghanistan and Iran than here.  Well, we sold weapons to Iran to fund people that sell drugs to our youth, so maybe we do want a harder line on morals.

Several weeks ago, I mentioned that Nintendo had announced a successor to the Wii. Nintendo gave no details on the new gaming system, but rumors obviously had already begun. Thankfully, we didn’t have long to wait until the annual E3 Expo to get more details. Yesterday, Nintendo announced the Wii U, a system that is “different from anything you’ve played before”.

To prove that quote, Nintendo came out swinging, announcing a new type of controller…..one that has a 6.2-inch touchscreen, a Wii-style D-pad, dual analog sticks. The new Wii U controller will also have a motion sensor and front and back facing cameras. I admitted in my previous Wii article that I wasn’t really a Wii guy, but this has my attention. In a world where seemingly every mobile company is introducing some sort of a tablet computer, Wii U goes one step further and gives you something of a tablet controller!

While Nintendo did say that you will not be able to play games on the tablet controller alone (the controller “speaks” with the console), you can play games by watching the controller touch screen and using the dual analog sticks…and some games will most likely require some sort of tilting/moving of the touchscreen controller. The original Wii remote (and I assume the Nunchuck) will still be used in the same way with the new Wii U. The new touchscreen controller will not support HD graphics, but Nintendo did announce that the console will run in HD 1080p. Given the PS3 and Xbox 360 released HD graphics several years ago, this was a requirement (in my opinion) for the new Wii U.

In the one preview video I watched, 4 people were playing a Mario game on the new system. 3 of the players were using the original Wii controller, and 1 player was using the new touchscreen controller. Each person was a character, and the touchscreen controller player was being chased with a goal of reaching the finish line of “board” before being caught by any of the other 3 players. The chasing players played by watching the television, and the player being chased watched on the 6.2-inch touchscreen. VERY cool!

There are still quite a few remaining details surrounding the new Wii U, but Nintendo did exactly what they needed to do. Sales are hurting with the current Wii console, and its shelf life is coming to an end. With the new Wii U, Nintendo has rebuilt the excitement that once surrounded the original Wii. While they have not announced what other capabilities the new controller will have, it seems as though the possibilities are endless. Will the new tablet style controller have Wi-Fi and internet capabilities? That seems like a stretch, and would probably be too much of a cost to what could already be an expensive console. Will the Wii U console play dvds? Seems like it will need to to remain competitive with other consoles, but there are still lots of questions to be answered.

What do you think? Are you excited for the new Wii U?



After 19 glorious seasons, the Diesel has hung it up. Riding off into the Big Sunset, the Shaq Daddy has an impressive resume’. An MVP award, numerous rings with a couple of different teams, and one of the most likable guys to ever play in the NBA. The Big Aristotle might also hold the record for most different nicknames ever attributed to an NBA player. This Original Superman started with the Orlando Magic as a young player fresh out of LSU. In his younger days Shaq FU was a physical and dexterous specimen on the basketball court. Many teams underwent the “Hack a Shaq” mentality as the one weakness – the total inability to make free throws on a consistent basis – became more apparent as he moved on to the Phoenix Suns where he played under the moniker of the Shaqtus. He ended his career, fairly unceremoniously as the Big Leprechaun in Boston playing in limited action due mainly to injuries.

Bye Bye Big 401K….your presence in the league will be sorely missed by fans everywhere.

Speaking of NBA….

The finals are in full swing and if not for a complete meltdown and letdown in Game 2, the Heat would have a commanding 3-0 lead. Instead the totally collapsed in Game 2, and nearly repeated the feat trying hard to lose Game 3. Johnny’s notes from the finals thus far…..Dirk is REALLY good, no I mean Really good! Dwayne Wade has been the MVP so far of the Playoffs, and lastly players are flopping everywhere getting ghost calls from the officials. I guess whoever loses will have the officials to blame.

The Baseball draft is being held as we speak. For those of you who are baseball aficionados I am sure you are excited to watch this, but me…nah…not so much. There is a big difference between watching the ESPN full court press crew along with Kiper and McShay and countless highlights and interviews with coaches, players, team owners , the graphics etc. Then Major League Baseball rolls out the White Pages personality of Bud Selig coupled with some high school highlights of players none of you outside of their geography have ever heard of and then a couple of genius comments by the MLB Network Stiffs. Boo MLB for trying to be something you are not to the casual fan….exciting.

Until Next Week, Stay Classy Milwaukee!

Summer is finally here

After reading Kosmo’s article on politics, I was tempted to jump into that fray, but refrained. The reason is two fold, in my opinion we have enough political commentators on the site (Kosmo was just filling in) and I have a much better topic to discuss; Summer.

I know that astronomically, summer will not be here for several more weeks, but for me summer starts when the pools open and the famers markets become city festivals. I live in the Midwest, so sometimes summer starts early, sometimes late. This year we had a teaser in April followed by a cold and rainy May, but the first week of June is warm and beautiful.

As with any warm up with high humidity, we have had our share of weather, luckily not nearly as bad as the people of Joplin Missouri have had to deal with. Hard rains, hail, even some smaller tornados have passed out way already. This Sunday, I got up early to mow the lawn and was not alone. There is something reassuring about a peaceful Sunday morning with neighbors all sharing in the simple tasks of keeping there yards neat and attractive.

My wife joined me, pulling weeds, those volunteer plants that grow were you do not want them, and bringing me water when I slowed down. By noon, it was too hot for this fat old man to continue with activities out in the sun, but the tree shade provided plenty of opportunities to stay with nature. A quick trip to the Ice Cream stand took us by the local pool, absolutely packed with kids and adults.

The yard work meant we missed the farmer’s market, but we saw some of it on the weather report. Our city has a larger down town farmer’s market once a month. There are street performers, prepared food, crafts and farm produce. We can get some of the best pork, beef and chicken, not to mention fruits, berries and vegetables beyond count. The varieties will change as the year progresses with the largest in the Fall, but this first big one is definitely one of the best.

Now is not the time to argue politics, now is the time to enjoy the lives we have. The kids are out of school, vacations are being planned, and it is finally warm enough to go outside without a coat. It is finally summer.

After Giants star catcher Buster Posey was saw his season come to an end as a result of a collision with Scott Cousins, many in the baseball world are calling for a rule change that would protect catchers.

Devastating home plate collisions have long been a part of the game. Those who say that “this is the way it’s always been” is a bad reason to maintain the status quo are correct. However, the mere fact that this incident involved a rising star rather than a journeyman is no reason to treat it differently than past incidents. If past incidents weren’t cause for a rule change, then why is Posey’s case special?

I’d also point at that there IS a rule on the books that should have prevented this collision. The rule states that a catcher cannot block home plate unless he has control of the ball. Posey was blocking home plate and did not have control of the ball. (The verbiage I’m referring to is at the end of rule 7.06. “NOTE: The catcher, without the ball in his possession, has no right to block the pathway of the runner attempting to score. The base line belongs to the runner and the catcher should be there only when he is fielding a ball or when he already has the ball in his hand.“)  As it turns out, Cousins could have avoided Posey and still scored. But I don’t think it’s fair for him to determine if the catcher had the ball or not in the split second he has to decide – his goal is to touch home plate before being tagged, by whatever means necessary. If catchers are concerned about collisions, they could stand to the side of the plate and use a sweep tag. Would the fans (and perhaps their teammates and manager) ridicule them for this. Probably – but that’s not the fault of the base runner.

In my opinion, the base runner should have the right of way in the baseline. It’s already illegal for them to hinder a fielder in the act of making a play – but why put them at a disadvantage on a play where the ball is being throw from one member of the opposing team to another? It’s the responsibility of the other team to execute the play safely.

Some have suggested a “slide rule.” I’m sure that would be popular … until the moment a catcher takes spikes to the knee and blows out an ACL.

And, of course, there are some nut jobs lobbing death threats at Cousins … for what was a perfectly legal play. Apparently, some Giants fans have very short memories. One of your own fans was savagely beaten at a game 2 months ago when trash talking went too far, and now you’re the ones making death threats?

My wife and I have always been the kind that likes to take trips somewhere…whether it be just driving somewhere for a weekend or taking the longer weeklong vacation. Our anniversary is May 31, so this year we decided to take an extended trip with a longer vacation later in the year. Being from Illinois, we do have several options available to us that are within reasonable driving distance. Our decision this year was to go to Chicago, IL.

After a little bit of research by my wife, she found an outlet mall a little over an hour North, in Kenosha, WI (actually, I think the mall is in Pleasant Prairie, WI, but it seemed to be the same city). Once I looked at the Pleasant Prairie Premium Outlets store listing, I was perfectly fine with going. The North Face, Under Armour, Bass (I love their t-shirts), Calphalon Kitchen Outlet (yes, I love to cook), Nike, Harry and David, and lots more.

The outlet mall definitely did not disappoint. We planned to spend 2 half-days there. The first day, since it was Memorial Day weekend, it was absolutely crazy! The weather was beautiful….and there had to be hundreds and hundreds of visitors. I think it took 10-15 minutes to find a parking spot. Once we did and started walking around it wasn’t so bad. The mall has a good layout so it didn’t seem too overly crowded. The next day, however, we lucked out. A storm moved in, and it rained for a good portion of the time we were at the mall. It was still busy, but nothing like the day before. The mall had mostly covered walking, so it didn’t bother us at all. Overall, definitely one of the better outlet malls we’ve been too.

We arrived in Kenosha/Pleasant Prairie on a Saturday, did some shopping, and for dinner we headed to a place called The Brat Stop. Looking at the menu, it seemed like a decent choice, as the website touts “regional cuisine” and seemed to be known for its highly recognizable visitors (directly from The Brat Stop website) – “Micheal [sic] Jordan, Phil Jackson, Tony Kukoc, Al McGuire, Tom Arnold, Steven Tyler, Willard Scott, Bette Midler, Shelly Fairchild, Tommy Thompson, Russ Feingold”. Not just a bar/restaurant, The Brat Stop also has live entertainment, and Memorial Day weekend just so happened to be “Brat Stock”. Over 50 bands on 2 stages…didn’t seem like a bad option to go eat dinner and relax, considering the bands that have played there over the years (directly from The Brat Stop website) – “The Charlie Daniels Band, Styx, B.T.O., Cheap Trick, Foghat, The Guess Who, Nazareth, Molly Hatchet, Joan Jett, Holland, Bad Boy, Night Ranger, Loverboy, Jackyl, Eddie Money, 38 Special, Ratt, Warrant, Saxon, Tracy Byrd, Great White, Mark Wills, Jo Dee Messina, Neal McCoy, Wade Hayes, Trace Adkins, Chris Cagle, Shinedown and Sugar Land”.

Once we walked in, I was extremely disappointed. The place seemed very dark, not the cleanest, and seemed to be broken up into several different sections. From where we were seated, we could hear the band that was on stage, and I’m glad we couldn’t see them. The music they chose to play were good selections, but the performance was not good at all! From the few faint claps, it was obvious that there weren’t many fans (or maybe there were very few people in the crowd!).

As for the food, well, let’s say I don’t ever think we’d go back given the opportunity. We tried an appetizer sampler to start with. It has cheese sticks, chicken tenders, breaded mushrooms, fried cheese balls, onion rings, and jalapeno poppers. It wasn’t terrible, but it was your average frozen variety of appetizers. For our meals, I got a pizza (pepperoni, sausage, and onions) and the wife got a Wisconsin grilled cheese. The pizza was just ok, almost tasted like it was frozen as well. The grilled cheese got a “it’s pretty good”, but it’s Wisconsin, how can they mess up a grilled cheese? On a scale of 1-10, I’d give The Brat Stop a very low 2. Seemed like a good idea for a venue, but seems to be past its prime (assuming the place had a prime)!

Part II next week will include more from Kenosha, along with our visit to Chicago!

Squeaky is on hiatus this week, so I’ll take a swing at a political issue 🙂

How would I fix congress?  Throw out the bums and start from scratch?  An interesting idea, but not quite what I have in mind.  I’d like to make some fundamental changes to the way congress works.

Take the politicians out of Washington – What do a Representative from Butte, Montana and a Senator from Earlville, Iowa have in common?  They are occupying office space costing many multiples of what similar space would cost in their home towns, while at the same time distancing themselves geographically from their constituents.  Sure, some members of congress make frequent trips back to their home districts, but at a considerable financial cost.  Why not utilize technology to create a virtual congress?  Videoconferencing can be used during committee meetings and debates.  A staffer can read a 1000 page bill just as easily in a cozy office in middle America as she can in a cramped D.C. room – and likely with fewer distractions.  How much money could be saved by relocating thousands of staffers out of DC – and how much more easily could the politicians remain in touch with their constituents.

Would this make things a bit more difficult for lobbyists?  Sure … but are we really concerned with the well-being of lobbyists?

No more career politicians – I don’t think I’m in favor of term limits, per se, (as I’m in favor of allowing voters to make their own decisions) but I think it would be better to have representatives who were more REPRESENTATIVE of their constituents.  I’m referring to this definition from dictionary.com: “exemplifying a class or kind; typical”.  Take a look at your local 5 term Senator – would you consider him/her to be a typical resident of your district?  I’d like to see congress look more like a small town school board or town council – people filling thankless roles out of a sense of duty to the community, without regard to financial rewards.

How to fix this?  I’m not sure.  Maybe cut off the salary after one terms?  Or even remove the concept of seniority and put all members of congress at the exact same level.

Vote on the issues –  Let’s imagine that you care more about the environment than any other issue, but none of your congressional candidates (in either party) shares your views.  Or imagine that your views on immigration side with the Republican candidate but your views on environmental issues align with the Democratic candidate.  Regardless of whom you vote for, you’re championing one issue at the expense of the other.

In today’s world, should geography remain the factor that officially identifies blocks of voters?  Instead of voting on candidates who will represent your state, why not vote on a slate of candidates who will represent your INTERESTS instead.  Let’s take the standing committees in the Senate and House as a starting point.  Reshape the House of Representatives so that each of the 435 members of the house is a standing member of ONE committee.  When we vote, we’d vote for an Agriculture representative, Foreign Relations representative, Veterans’ Affairs representative, etc.

Would each committee be heavily influence by the voters in the large states?  Probably.  However,  this isn’t really that unfair – those states have more citizens, and we believe in equal representation for each citizen, not equal representation for each state.  It’s also quite possible that the big states will cancel either other out – for example, if the Texas voters weigh heavily one one side of the issue and California voters come down on the other side.

Want to ensure some broad based support of bills?  OK, you can keep the Senate.

It happens every time there is a natural disaster, and it’s happening in Joplin, Missouri.  As people try to put their lives back together, looters are looking through the rubble in search of anything that might fetch a few bucks.  Other than declaring open season on looters, I’m not really sure how this problem can be fixed.  If you’re stealing from people in the aftermath of a tragedy, you truly have no shame.  In the aftermath of the Iowa floods in 2008, there were instances of people the copper from inside homes.

Jim Tressel finally stepped down as the football coach at Ohio State.  He’s not the first football coach to cover up NCAA violations, and he’s not the first to lie to the NCAA about it.  However, in this case there was a smoking gun, and you can’t let one guilty person off simply because you have insufficient evidence to prove that other people are guilty.

The athletes are definitely no angels in this situation.  They should have known better.  However, they are young, and young people make mistakes.  The smart ones learn from those mistakes.  I’m certainly annoyed at the way the NCAA watered down the punishment by having it start AFTER their bowl game.  The players will miss relatively unimportant early season games.  Want to make suspensions less predictable?  Throw the names of all a team’s opponents in a hat and randomly choose which games a player will be suspended for.  It might be Central Southeast Ohio A & T … or it might be Michigan.

I’m sure some Buckeye fans will blame Christopher Cicero for the imminent collapse of the program.  Cicero is the Columbus lawyer who emailed Tressel to make him aware of the fact that his players were interacting with a known criminal.  For those Buckeye fans who feel that what has transpired is the worst that could have happened to the OSU football program … you are wrong.  The worst thing that could have happened was having a player getting mixed up in something really bad an ending up dead.  Put yourself in Cicero’s shoes – if you said nothing, and someone ended up hurt, could you sleep at night?  I know very little about Cicero outside of the OSU scandal, but if this is an indication of how his moral compass orients, I’d hire him as a lawyer if I needed one.  He had the best interests of the kids at heart.

And perhaps the mos bizarre pond scum incident from the past few weeks – Dominique Strauss-Kahn, head of the International Monetary Fund, sexually assaulting a hotel maid in his New York hotel room.  Strauss-Kahn was expected to be a leading candidate in the French presidential election.  Even if he were able to flee the country, I’m not sure how he expected this incident to remain hidden.  This wasn’t some anonymous rapist – it was really easy to figure out who it was – the registered occupant of the hotel room.  Goodbye job, goodbye French presidency, goodbye freedom.

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!