Don't blame me for Griffey not being a unanimous Hall of Famer or for Edmonds being off the ballot

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Ken Griffey Jr. was named on the Hall of Fame ballots of all but three Baseball Writers Association of America voters -- giving him the highest percentage ever. I'm still trying to figure out how those three justified omitting perhaps the greatest center fielder ever -- not to mention one of the very best players of an entire generation, and an icon with a squeaky-clean reputation.

Oh well. There's no exact science. I mean, it took Joe Freakin' DiMaggio four tries to get enshrined.

A couple of weeks ago here, I discussed why I voted for Jim Edmonds. It's a shame he didn't get enough votes to stay on the ballot for next year -- my check mark was one of only 11 he received, and he needed exactly twice that many.

Edmonds was twice the ballplayer Jeff Kent and Fred McGriff ever were, yet they got significantly more votes and will stay on the ballot. Edmonds was as likely to save a game with a great defensive play as he was with a clutch hit, something Kent and McGriff certainly couldn't say.

I guess it doesn't really matter, because Kent and McGriff will never get named on 75% of the ballots (as is mandated for enshrinement). Neither will Lee Smith, Larry Walker nor Edgar Martinez, other very, very good big-leaguers whom I didn't rate as worthy as Edmonds.

Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds remained well short of the votes they needed but they did get a higher percentage than they did previously. I am 95% certain I will vote for both of them next year, their fifth on the ballot. I discuss my reasoning in earlier posts here on TBT.

Aside from Griffey and Edmonds, I also voted for:

Mike Piazza, who will join Griffey as the only two BBWAA-elected players in this year's class; Jeff Bagwell, who finished 15 votes short; Tim Raines, who missed by 23 votes; Curt Schilling, who was named on 52% of the ballots; Mike Mussina, 43%; and Alan Trammell, a great guy and very good ballplayer who didn't get in on his final year on the ballot.

The Hall of Fame, in conjunction with the BBWAA, has changed rules to weed out some voters. I will be one of those eventually weeded out because I'm no longer an active baseball writer. But I pay attention, I take it seriously, and I sure as hell didn't leave Ken Griffey Jr. off of my ballot.

+++

Tuesday was my favorite day of 2016 so far.

First, my Scholars Academy Eagles played one of our better games in my three years as coach, easily vanquishing our opponent to improve to 6-0 on the season.

Our team motto is Work Hard! Play Right! Have Fun! and the "Play Right" part is always the most elusive. My girls work harder than anybody and they are a great group that has a lot of fun. But they are 11-to-14 year old girls, and it's not always easy for them to play "right." Even in some fairly decisive wins, we have been error-prone.

On Tuesday, we minimized our mistakes and really did a great job of moving the basketball. It was a pleasure to watch. Three times, I drew up plays or made suggestions, and they executed each of them, so they were very coachable, too.

We play again Thursday, and I'm really interested in seeing if we can do it again.

Later Tuesday, a small Charlotte contingent of Marquette alums got together with a small group of Providence alums to watch the Marquette-Providence game. We were 0-2 in the Big East with two pretty bad losses, and Providence was ranked No. 8 in the country. Plus, the Friars were the hosts. Honestly, I didn't give my lads much of a chance.

But Marquette outworked and outplayed Providence most of the game. Most impressively, after Providence rallied to take an 8-point lead with about 6 minutes to go, the young Marquette team fought back, took the lead in the final minute and held on to win by a point.

It was the "signature victory" so far for Marquette under second-year coach Steve Wojciechowski, who starts three freshmen and a sophomore.

After the final horn sounded and the Warrior fans exchanged high-fives, I didn't do too much trash-talking to our friends from Providence.

A little, but not too much!
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Winning championships is fun!!!

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From Vander Blue's fingertips to the Big East championship!

Everybody loves a trophy

Celebrate!

^

To win a share of the Big East title in the final year of the conference as we have known it ... well, it's beyond cool.

It's especially amazing given that this was supposed to be a rebuilding year.

Onward and upward!

WE ARE ... MARQUETTE!!!

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Marquette, Big East, swept up in "Conferences Gone Wild"

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Having my alma mater in the nation's best basketball conference has been a blast.

When you win a Big East game, you know you've earned a victory. When you lose one, especially on the road, you usually can accept that you've fallen to a quality opponent. Come the NCAA tournament, you know your team has been tested in battle.

When I attended Marquette eons ago, we were an independent. Then we bounced around from the Midwestern Collegiate Conference to the Great Midwest to Conference USA ... before finally, gloriously, landing in the Big East in 2005.

Notre Dame, our old rival, was there waiting for us. New rivalries would be forged against the likes of Louisville, Syracuse, West Virginia and Pitt.

Oh well ...

Notre Dame is leaving, taking all of its sports except football to the ACC. Syracuse, Pitt and Louisville also are ACC bound. West Virginia already is in the Big 12. And the carnage is nowhere near complete, as UConn and Cincinnati are desperate to join top football conferences -- something the Big East never was.

No, the Big East was born as a basketball league in 1979, with charter members Georgetown, Syracuse, St. John's, Providence, Boston College, UConn and Seton Hall. Villanova joined a year later and Pitt came along in 1982 -- the same year the conference actually rejected Penn State's application for membership.

The conference came into power as Georgetown, Syracuse and St. John's fielded superior teams and ESPN became a media force.

There would be more expansion as football money grew, with Rutgers, Miami, Virginia Tech and West Virginia coming in. By the middle of last decade, however, a tug-of-war between football schools and basketball-only schools resulted in a big shakeup.

Out went Virginia Tech, Boston College and Miami. In came Louisville, South Florida, Cincinnati, DePaul and Marquette. About half the conference members fielded football teams and half didn't. Notre Dame, meanwhile, famously remains independent in football.

Football never really took root in the conference, and the fact that the basketball has been consistently sublime carried the day only so long. Football money just became to great to ignore, and Big East schools got swept up in the ongoing farce I call Conferences Gone Wild.

Trying to fill its many holes, the Big East has been signing up the likes of Boise State, San Diego State, SMU, Houston, Memphis, Temple, Navy and Central Florida. Just this week, Tulane and East Carolina were added. Some of those schools will be football-only members; some will compete in all sports. There already is talk that Boise State and San Diego State want to quit on the Big East before they even start playing conference games.

What a mess.

When everything shakes out in a year or two, the Big East will be an awful football conference with no chance of being in the national championship picture.

Sadly, it also will be only mediocre in basketball.

The only real hope for my beloved alma mater is that we team up with the Georgetowns, Villanovas and St. John'ses to form a good basketball-only league. Maybe it will have to merge with the Atlantic 10, which has bulked up with the likes of Xavier and Butler in recent years. Maybe it will have to steal a school like Creighton from the Missouri Valley.

In today's landscape, TV money doesn't follow basketball the same way it follows football, but a basketball superconference like that would be hard to ignore.

Whatever happens, I'm going to enjoy the last year or two of being in a great basketball conference. It's been a hell of a fun ride.

Sigh.
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UConn? Champs? I beg to differ!

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Six weeks ago, Marquette went into Hartford and beat UConn. Ipso fatso, my boys are the national champs!

See how easy it is to think positively?
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Big East didn't need UConn for validation

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So I guess this means the Big East and the Horizon League are the two best basketball conferences in the country, right?

Seriously, all those who thought the Big East was overrated and therefore didn't deserve 11 teams in the tournament simply weren't paying attention.

UConn went 21-0 outside the conference but had to fight just to finish tied for ninth in its conference. One of the Huskies' last losses came at home against Marquette, which also was tied for ninth in the league and which advanced to the Sweet 16.

I don't think it's any coincidence that a UConn squad toughened by the Big East gauntlet for three months had what it took to reach the title game.

Still, this doesn't "prove" the Big East is the best, any more than some second-round losses "proved" the league was overrated. The conference didn't need this for validation. Anybody who really follows college ball knows what's what.

As for explaining Butler reaching the final for two straight years, well, I've got nothing. Except admiration for the program, that is.
^

Pitino? A slimeball? Who woulda thunk it?

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The Bald Truth

Good for Louisville, standing by their man.

Yes, Rick Pitino is a hypocrite, a devout Catholic who more than coveted his neighbor's ass. Yes, he's a scuzball and a weasel and a liar - traits he shares with most big-time college coaches ... and, sadly, with most members of the human male population.

Believe me, I'm not excusing his behavior. All I'm asking is: What is Louisville supposed to do? Fire him?

Ridiculous.

Pitino is a basketball coach, and a damn good one. Louisville is not a religious institution, it's a basketball factory.

Pitino didn't get caught cheating to get a kid into school who didn't belong there (notice I said "didn't get caught"). He got caught cheating on his wife.

I wouldn't blame her for firing him. It would be silly and disingenuous for Louisville to do likewise.

The Numbers

35-18 ... Amount the Cubs have been outscored since Lou Piniella got the heave-ho for arguing with the umps Sunday in Colorado. (And most of the Cubs' runs were of the meaningless, end-of-blowout variety.)

0-4 ... Cubs' record since Lou got tossed.

3 ... Games the Cubs dropped to St. Louis in the standings since Lou got ejected.

Jeesh. Imagine what would have happened had the manager not fired up his troops!

The Balder Truth

Going out on the limb to say that the Cardinals will be mighty tough to beat if Matt Holliday, batting behind Albert Pujols, keeps hitting .486.

That, kiddies, is what's called an impact trade.

Game Improvement

The first time I played Beverly Country Club was in 1999. That was so long ago, my playing partner at the media event was Skip Bayless, who has gone on to do a few other notable things since he bolted from the Chicago Tribune.

The thing I remember most about that round: I played so poorly that, on the way home, I called the golf pro I know and told him I needed a lesson immediately.

I wouldn't say I was scarred for life, but if anyone asked me to name the toughest course I ever played, I answered "Beverly Country Club" without hesitation. (Bayless, a much better player than me, had a brutal time of it, too.)

Score? Please. I stopped writing it down after two holes. To be kind, I'll call it 140. I lost the dozen balls I brought with me, the sleeve of balls I was given for the event and several more golf balls I had found during the day while hunting for those I had lost.

My standard line: "There are something like 8,000 trees there, and I was behind every one of them."

Well, I'm pleased to say that they've cut down a lot of those trees to make the course more beautiful and more playable for their members. Those who compete in the USGA Senior Amateur there next month will find a stern but fair test of golf.

I got to revisit Beverly on Wednesday. This time, I shot a 101. As usual, I rarely strung two consecutive good shots together. I Watsoned an 8-foot birdie putt on my next-to-last hole and then, needing only a bogey on the last for a 99, I choked my way to a triple.

For the most part, though, my game at least vaguely resembled golf.

Oh, and I played the entire round with the same ball, which sometimes doesn't happen even when I'm mini-golfing.

So I can't wait to return to Beverly in 10 years. If my math is correct, I'm pretty much guaranteed to shoot 62.

THE BALDEST TRUTH

And speaking of golf ...

Yes, Tiger Woods has won two straight tournaments and seems to be rounding into championship form. I'll still take the field in this weekend's PGA Championship at Hazeltine.

OK, if I have to pick a name other than Eldrick, I'll go with ...

Steve Stricker to drop off the short list of greatest players never to have won a major.

A League of Its Own

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Thursday's final four:

1. Two words, my friends: Big East. Instead of wondering if there will be four No. 1 seeds in the Final Four for the second straight year, we probably should wonder if one conference will capture all four spots for the first time ever.

2. How 'bout Mizzou? Or maybe a better question is this: How the hell did the Tigers get trounced by Illinois back in December? DeMarre Carroll just might be the best player most of America doesn't know. As usual, the kid was everywhere for Missouri in its impressive win over Memphis to reach the Elite Eight. It's hard to imagine the Tigers taking out UConn in the West final, but they've done a pretty good job smacking around doubters - and opponents - so far.

3. In Villanova, Duke ran into a faster, stronger, defensively superior version of itself. The result was so predictable ... I'm mad as hell I didn't predict it.

4. Hey, look at those oft-maligned (quite oft by me) Chicago Bulls! They're playing so well lately, they probably could win a couple of NCAA tourney games.

Bo should know the NIT

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The Bald Truth

If Wisconsin gets invited to the NCAA tournament, it will because of reputation alone.

The Badgers are 19-12 and have one victory all season over a ranked team - at Michigan in their Big Ten opener. That also serves as their most "quality" road victory. 

They even lost at Iowa - and that's not easy.

Though the selection committee might end up ruling differently, logic suggests the Badgers had to beat Ohio State in the conference tourney Friday to sew up an NCAA bid ... and they couldn't do it.

Bo Ryan is a great coach, but this isn't one of his better teams. It certainly isn't a team worthy of playing in the NCAAs. 

The Balder Truth

Syracuse players are many things, including tough, resilient and well-conditioned. Given their ability to follow a six-overtime victory over UConn with a run-of-the-mill single-OT triumph over West Virginia, "impressive" works well, too. 

OK, now can all commentators please stop with all the talk of "courage"?

The Orangemen didn't rush into a burning building to save lives, didn't go off to war, didn't even take a difficult public stand on a controversial issue.

They are basketball players who played lots of basketball.

Yes, they played it very well, but I sure hope that's not how we're defining "courage" these days. 

THE BALDEST TRUTH

Jon Scheyer clanked the front end of a 1-and-1. Boston College then grabbed the rebound and the Eagles, who trailed Duke by one point in the ACC quarterfinals, were steaming up court with a chance to win the game.

That's when coach Al Skinner called a time out.

And he wasn't finished showing how smart he was. Oh no, not even close.

BC got the ball inbounds and advanced it into the frontcourt ... when Skinner called time again. Now there were only 5.5 seconds left.

When play resumed, Duke overplayed Skinner's first option - Tyrese Rice - and BC ended up taking a wild, challenged shot that didn't come close to going in.

Why didn't Skinner simply trust his players, especially Rice, after that missed free throw? Isn't that why the Eagles had spent the last six months practicing, for those exact kind of situations?

With the Dookies scrambling to get back into defensive position, BC had every advantage.

Until Skinner called time. Twice.

Coach S apparently wanted to prove he was smarter than Coach K.

Gee. How did that work out?

Notre Doom, Bullspit and a rocky Tripp

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The Bald Truth

Notre Dame had such a lousy basketball season. Are we sure Charlie Weis isn't running those Fading Irish, too?

Anything You Can Do

After watching on TV as St. John's lost by 29 points to Marquette in the Big East tournament, the inspired Bulls went out and lost by only 28 to Orlando.

Yep, just a few more wins and the Bulls will be NIT ready.

The Balder Truth

Brian McNamee is alleging that he injected Roger Clemens with steroids right at the Yankee Stadium hot tub.

I won't reveal what the two supposedly did next, but let's just say it involved candlelight, Crisco and Clapton's "Wonderful Tonight."

THE BALDEST TRUTH

Speaking of unlikely romances, I was devastated to hear that Bristol Palin and her baby daddy, Levi Johnston, have broken up just 2 1/2 months after little Tripp entered the world.

And to think, the teenagers had looked so happy every time Granny Sarah marched them onstage to make a point about family values. 

Remember, kids: "Abstinence is the only thing you need to know about sex ... (wink) ... You betcha!"

Never mind

^

When I finished my 50-minute workout on the elliptical trainer, DePaul actually was leading Providence 61-57.

By the time I checked on the score after wrapping up a few sets of situps, the Blue Demons were losing 70-62 ... and it didn't get any better for them after that.

And there I had been thinking they might never, ever, ever lose again.

Hoops, hoops and more hoops

^

An elite eight's worth of observations from a wild (and wildly entertaining) weekend of college hoops:

1. It doesn't mean they'll win the title, of course, but the Pitt Panthers are the best team in the country. They beat UConn twice, have three big-time difference-makers and lots of fine supporting actors. And they're not coached by Dave Wannstedt.

2. Nine teams can win the national championship: Pitt, UConn, North Carolina, Duke, Oklahoma, Louisville, Michigan State, Kansas and Memphis. I'm already completely psyched for the NCAA tourney.

3. Most assume Oklahoma stud Blake Griffin will be the national player of the year, but the MVP apparently is Dominic James. Before he broke his foot, my Marquette Golden Warrior Eagles were in first place in the nation's best conference, were ranked No. 8 in the country and were 23-4. Without him, they've gone 0-4 and almost surely won't be seeded higher than sixth in the NCAAs. How could we have known that a 5-foot-10 guy who can't hit 50 percent of his free throws could be so valuable? OK, so maybe they would have lost to UConn, Louisville, Pitt and Syracuse even with James, but ...

4. The Big East is the best conference in the country - and the contest isn't close. Even after the beastly Pitt-UConn-Louisville troika, any of the next four Big East squads would have a good chance of finishing in the top two of just about any other league. I like Memphis' style and coaching ... but really, where would the Tigers have finished if they had to play a Big East schedule instead of a Conference USA schedule? 

5. There's a bigger difference between Michigan State and the rest of the Big Ten pack than there is between any other Big Six conference leader and the rest of its field. Aside from Tom Izzo's lads, the Big Ten features several solid-but-severely-flawed teams that won't survive the opening weekend of the NCAAs.

6. On the one hand ... Chris Lowery has demonstrated why coaches want to get theirs when the opportunity arises. Early in his tenure at Southern Illinois, he had great success with Matt Painter's recruits and received some overtures from major programs. Lowery stayed put - after getting himself a nice raise - and now the program is sliding backward. You have to wonder if he has any regrets about sticking around.

7. On the other hand ... Billy Gillespie had it all at Texas A&M - a huge contract, respect in an excellent league, university support and a great pipeline into his state's prep talent. But when Kentucky came a'callin', he simply had to go, right? I mean, after all, it is Kentucky! Well, there's a lot to be said about being rich, winning big and building a program in a less pressure-filled environment. Gillespie is flaming out in Kentucky, and it won't be long before they come a'callin' again - for his head. It's one of those no-win jobs; I don't know why any coach would subject himself to it.

8. Nice try, Northwestern. For a little while there, it was almost as if you were, um, someone other than Northwestern.