A Day In The Life....

Woke up, got out of bed,

Dragged a comb across my head....

And decided to clean out the Mental In-Box......

Regardless of what happens today or over the next two weekends, the 2018 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament will be forever defined and remembered for 16th seeded University of Maryland - Baltimore County's unprecedented win over #1 Seed and #1 ranked Virginia.  Did I say "win"?  I meant thoroughly convincing dismantling of the Cavaliers by UMBC.  There was nothing flukey about it.

Two days after the end of that game, it is still almost incomprehensible that what happened happened.  That game will be remembered long after Duke or Villanova or North Carolina or some other NCAA Blue-Blood cuts down the nets in two weeks.  It will easily be one of the Top Five sports stories of 2018.  A game like that is why you follow sports.

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The University of Pittsburgh is looking to weasel out of the $9 million contractually agreed upon buyout that they owe Kevin Stallings after giving him the paper key last week.  It has been reported that they are claiming that an exchange between Stallings and a spectator in Louisville is "cause" for firing Stallings and not paying him the full amount of the buyout.  If that is the case, I have two questions:

1. If the incident in January is "cause", why not fire him then?  The University, in fact, publicly brushed off the incident and supported Stallings.  And it's not like firing him in January would have caused a distraction for a team that was on its way than 0-19 conference record.
2. Again, if the Louisville incident is "cause", then why cut the buyout in half (as has been reported) and offer Stallings anything at all?  Why not just say, "You're fired, you're getting bupkis from us, and if you don't like it, we'll see you in court."?

And I have stated many times, this has nothing to do with whether Stallings should or should not have been fired.  His record clearly indicated that he should have been.  This is all about standing up to what you contractually agreed to do when you hired the guy in the first place.  

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At one point yesterday afternoon I tuned into he telecast of the Pirates-Twins Grapefruit League game, and watched the Pirates score nine runs in a half inning wherein the Twins committed a couple of errors, a couple of others that weren't scored as such, threw over sixty pitches, and took over thirty minutes to complete.  About half of the players on both teams are guys who will certainly not play in the majors leagues this season, if they ever make it at all.  The regular guys who were playing (Francisco Cervelli for the Pirates and Dee Gordon for the Twins to name two of them) had to be thinking "What do I have to do to get out of this game?"

It's fun to tune into a Spring Training game on a cold wintry day, but those games can also be unbelievably tedious.  I'm ready for the real thing to start eleven days.

The Axe Falls in Oakland.....

The news came about an hour ago that was unsurprising and inevitable.  Kevin Stallings has been fired as Head Men's Basketball Coach at Pitt.   After a season in which Pitt went 0-19 in conference play this move was, as I said, inevitable.    Pitt probably had no other practical choice.  It brings to a close a two year coaching tenure that was, to me, almost unprecedented in my sixty years (yes, sixty, as in 60, as in Six Zero;  I'm old) of following sports in Pittsburgh.

The Panthers Hoops fan base never accepted Stallings as their coach.  There were calls for his head almost from Day One and certainly before he ever coached a game at Pitt.  Yeah, I get it that the Athletic Director Scott Barnes  probably botched the entire hiring process, and he was soon gone to greener pastures, and the people then took there wrath out on Stallings, whose biggest crime at the time of his hiring was that he wasn't Sean Miller, Archie Miller, or a resurrected John Wooden.  Over the years, even such Pittsburgh coaching failures as Bill Austin, John Russell, and any number of Pitt football coaches had honeymoons with the public.  Stallings never did.

Whenever a coach gets fired, I always recall one of Myron Cope's personal rules over the years when he conducted his talk show.  Whenever a caller would ask "Do you think the Pirates/Steelers/Penguins/Pitt ought to fire (insert coach's name here)?", Myron would always respond with words to the effect "I don't fire coaches on my show.  I've come to learn that these are guys with families and bills to pay just like me. If you want to call and say so-and-so should be fired, I won't stop you, but I'm not going to be the guy to make such demands."  It was kinder, gentler time in the sports talk radio biz then.  

Like I said, Pitt had probably had no other choice, and coaching on this level is a cruel business, and no one knows that better than Stallings himself, but I am also guessing that people who take such glee in demanding that someone be fired, and who rejoice when someone does lose his job,  as  Stallings did today, are people who never in their lives had the misfortune to be told by their employer that their services were no longer needed.  It is a devastating thing to have happen to you.  Trust me on that.

(As an aside, I also feel bad for Pirates catcher Jacob Stallings, Kevin's son.  Jacob has had a couple of call ups in the past two seasons, and will probably have others in seasons ahead.  I can picture him being called up again, being announced into a game at PNC Park and getting showered with boos from any Pitt fans who might be in attendance that night.  How fair will that be?)

So now another coaching search begins, and I can't wait to hear the speculation that will ensue among the Panthers fans.  Hey, Rick Pittino is available.  Pat Gallagher and Heather Lyke should go after him, whaddaya think?

Catching Up On Various Things....

Cleaning out the Mental In-Box.....

• One of the great and hallowed cliches (and you know how I love cliches) of baseball is that "the best trades are the ones that you don't make".  Let us hope that that holds true after all the  strum und drag  that surrounded the Pirates and Andrew McCutchen these last several weeks.  I remind you that the Pirates don't have to trade this guy.  He can stay here for two more seasons, and if they are typical Cutch-like seasons, and he leaves as a free agent after 2018, as a Pirate fan, I'll take that.
• Having said that, what have the Pirates done so far in the off season to get you excited about 2017?  Taking Tyler Webb in the Rule 5 Draft just isn't doing it for me.
• The Cubs lost Aroldis Chapman but traded for Wade Davis.  And the Cardinals signed Dexter Fowler.  The Pirates have lost Sean Rodriguez and Matt Joyce and added, I remind you, Ty Webb (who measures himself against other ballplayers by height).

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• In close to sixty years of following sports in Pittsburgh, I can't remember any new coach/manager of any team being greeted with such hostility among its fan base as the business that Pitt basketball HC Kevin Stallings is getting.  I honestly think that Pitt fans are PO'd when Pitt wins (they are 8-2 thus far, although the ACC schedule has yet to begin), because it tempers down the "bitch-and-moan factor" amongst the Loyalists.
• James Conner has announced that he will be entering the NFL Draft, and that Pitt's Pinstripe Bowl appearance on December 28 will be his final game as a Panther.  What a great career and a great story that Conner has been.  I hope that he has a successful career as a pro.  

• James Conner should win Pittsburgh's Dapper Dan Man of the Year Award for 2016.
• Looking for a good baseball book, maybe as a possible Christmas gift for someone?  Try this one:

• As the title suggests it talks about the preponderance of arm injuries, particularly the preponderance of Tommy John surgeries performed, not only in the major leagues, but throughout amateur baseball, down to the high school level.  Among other aspects of the book, Passan follows two pitchers, Todd Coffey and Daniel Hudson, over three years as they struggle to recover from a second Tommy John surgery.  The book also offers a searing indictment on the machinery youth baseball and showcase events for high school and even pre-teenaged players.  The book sometimes bogs down in medical jargon and technicalities at times, but, overall, it is well worth any baseball fan's time to read.
• Are you watching this CBS sitcom, now in its second season?

• If you are not, you should be.  Might be one of the funniest shows on network television right now.
• Steelers in Buffalo and the Ravens play the Patriots today.  Could be a pivotal day in the AFC North.