Now that we’ve mentioned bunting, there’s sure a lot of ball players that can’t do it properly. My old coach, Whitey Welch-a subject for another time- always taught us, “You let the ball hit the bat, you don’t hit the ball with the bat when you bunt.” Nothing in baseball is as exciting as a perfectly executed bunt, especially in a “squeeze bunt” when the runner on third is coming home.
The NCAA has a nearly $20 billion contract with CBS Sports and Turner Broadcasting that runs through 2032. The NCAA is a large business making a lot of money and employing a lot of people. Jay Bilas, a college basketball announcer and analyst and attorney, makes them nervous with his constant criticism. Says Bilas, “The NCAA makes its own rules, and their rules are bad. For the president of the NCAA to talk about some code of silence, that people don’t tell the NCAA what is going on in the college basketball scandals, well, they know exactly what is going on.”
“Baseball players are smarter than football players”, so says Jim Bouton, former New York Yankee pitcher. “You don’t ever see a baseball team getting penalized for having too many men on the field,” says Bouton!
New classification assignments come this Fall for high school football. In the Central Kansas League, Hoisington and Lyons will fall into the 2A classification. All others in the CKL will compete in 3A, including Larned. Great Bend will remain in 5A while Hays moves into 5A. Liberal of the WAC will also compete in 5A. Dodge City and Garden City of the WAC will compete in 6A.
“Baseball’s not like football. You can’t just sit on a lead and run a few plays into the line and just kill the clock. You’ve got to throw the ball over the damn plate and give the other man his chance. That’s why baseball is the greatest game of them all.”—Hall of Fame Manager, Earl Weaver.
Since expansion of the NCAA Basketball tournament to 64+ teams, only seven schools without FBS football have been No.1 seeds. Just ANOTHER reason why schools scramble to get in Power Five conferences. Those seven aberrations are Villanova, Gonzaga, Georgetown, St.John’s, Wichita State, St.Josph’s and UMass. Playing football and being good at basketball don’t go hand-in-hand BUT the money does and if your conference isn’t hauling in football money, it makes it tougher to make it big-time in all other sports.
I guess we should all chuckle, or guffaw, when a college coach who’s program is caught cheating, claims “I didn’t know anything about it.” Ken Niumatalolo, Navy’s head football coach, says, “Coaches are control freaks. We want to know everything that goes on. If we don’t do that, we aren’t doing our jobs.” Even Rick Pitino, who told boosters shortly before the Louisville basketball program’s scandal broke, “If one of my players has a beer in Louisville, I know about it.” So, which is it Rick?
A BIG reason that Kansas is looking for a new athletic director is this fact: KU finished their seven-game home football schedule with an average attendance of 26,641 in 2017. The next smallest in the Big 12 was Baylor’s 43,830! It all reminds me of comedian Rodney Dangerfield who made a living from his “I don’t get no respect” lines. Like, “I’m so ugly—My mother had morning sickness—AFTER I WAS BORN!”
Kansas is hoping, banking on, a new athletic director to end this “I don’t get no respect” in football.
Buddy Tabler is a guest columnist for the Great Bend Tribune and his views don’t necessarily reflect those of the paper. He can be reached at budtabler@gmail.com.
