From ESPN this morning:

Former Florida Gators coach Urban Meyer has taken the head coaching job at Ohio State, his agent, Trace Armstrong, confirmed Monday morning.

Read the rest.

It was fun to watch Thome come up through the Indians farm system and then become a central piece to those very good teams of the late 90′s and early 00′s.

I remember telling the search committee at St. Andrew’s that if they hired me I’d be more like Jim Thome than Barry Bonds. Since that was long before talk of performance enchancing drugs, what I meant was that I’d be consistent over the long-haul – not flashy, not many ups or downs – just consistent.

Terry Pluto (one of the best sports writers in the country) of the Cleveland Plain Dealer had this to say as Thome entered an elite group of men with 600 home runs this past week:

Thome made baseball history the same way he played the game – in a way that would make his family proud. It was pure Peoria. Don’t brag. Respect the game. Have a grateful heart.

This doesn’t make a “good story,” unless your idea of a good story is about good people doing good things.

Read the rest.

Jennifer Floyd Engel asks a wonderful question: “What about Tebow brings out such meanness in us?”

As you most likely know, Tim Tebow is a quarterback for the Denver Broncos and a Christian – apparently, the best kind of Christian: meaning that he seems to live a consistent life with the belief he profess. And yet, he’s ridiculed for his faith, provoking tweets like these:

Tebow in game. Let’s see if he can cure leprosy.

God has decided to wait until regular season to start assisting Tebow.

God flipping over from GOP debate to watch Tebow.

Why?

It’s hard to imagine such venom being spewed if he were a Muslim or a Jew.

Read the article and let me know what you think.

Over a prolonged game of Gin, Tim and I solved the problems of the MLB. Here are our solutions:

1. Move the A’s to San Jose.
2. Sell the Astros to Mark Cuban.
3. Realign both leagues by region creating 3 divisions each with 5 teams.
4. Have a rolling schedule of inter-league play so that each team plays one three game series against each team in the opposite league (alternate home and away every other year).
5. Add a wild card team for each league.
6. Revise the collective bargaining agreement implementing a hard cap.

American League

Northeast Division
Boston
New York Yankees
New York Mets
Philadelphia
Pittsburgh

Mid-Atlantic Division
Baltimore
Washington
Atlanta
Tampa Bay
Florida

Midwest Division
Detroit
Cleveland
Cincinnati
Kansas City
St.Louis

National League

Northern Division
Milwaukee
Minnesota
Chigaco White Sox
Chicago Cubs
Toronto

Southwest Division
San Diego
Arizona
Texas
Houston
Colarado

Pacific Division
Seattle
Los Angeles Dodgers
Los Angeles Angels
San Francisco
San Jose

One of my favorite sports writers, Terry Pluto, nailed it with this article:

I’ll always believe that Jim Tressel is a good man who made a series of poor decisions in his final year as Ohio State’s football coach. That’s why I’m not surprised that Tressel resigned Monday morning.

No matter if he was encouraged to do so by OSU officials, or if he came to the realization that the NCAA investigation would never let up until he left – leaving this way was the right thing to do.

According to the NCAA, deception is a mortal sin. That’s what Tressel did when he failed to disclose that some of his players were selling and trading OSU items to the owner of a tattoo parlor, who also was being investigated for drug trafficking and other possible crimes. The reason the NCAA has a rule against selling memorabilia is that players could receive massive cash payments from boosters for small items – it was a backdoor way of paying the athletes. Tressel had to know this rule.

Read the rest.

And then read this article by Pluto about why OSU should dismiss Terrell Pryor.

From Rick Reilly:

“The scariest question I ever had to ask was 25 years ago, on the Wednesday of what would become the most unforgettable Masters week ever.

I was greener than an Augusta fairway then. I was 28 and had never covered a Masters, never written golf for Sports Illustrated and never met my idol, Jack Nicklaus.

Nicklaus meant more to me than golf. He was one of the few people I could talk to my dad about. For most of my first 20 years, the two things my dad did best were booze and golf. He was scratch at both. Sunday mornings, though, came down mean and hungover. You’d tiptoe until you heard him leave for the course.

But on one Sunday in April, he wouldn’t go play golf. He’d watch the back nine of the Masters. And I could sit there and watch it with him.”

Read the rest.

From the NYT:

Who can cross a busy road better, a varsity wrestler or a psychology major? That question, which seems to beg for a punch line, actually provided the motivation for an unusual and rather beguiling new experiment in which student athletes were pitted against regular collegians in a test of traffic-dodging skill. The results were revelatory.

Read the rest.

From Columbus, Ohio:

“Coach Tressel has requested that he sit out the first five games of the 2011 season,” Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith said. “I have accepted his request and we are taking action to notify the NCAA. Until the NCAA has completed its investigation, we will not be publicly discussing the details of this case.”

Tressel was suspended for two games and fined $250,000 by the university for his violations, but a source said it was Tressel’s choice to increase his suspension to five games.

“Throughout this entire situation my players and I have committed ourselves to facing our mistakes and growing from them; we can only successfully do that together,” Tressel said in a statement. “I spoke with Athletics Director Smith, and our student-athletes involved, and told them that my mistakes need to share the same game sanctions. Like my players, I am very sorry for the mistakes I made.”

Read the story.

We’ve made our choices and the girls (notice, that’s plural now!) picked pretty good brackets (especially in the early rounds – day one coming to an end and they’ve each only lost the Louisville game).

Here’s Final Four & Title winners:

Jacqui
Ohio State
Duke
Kansas
Florida
Title game: Ohio State v Kansas. Ohio State wins it all.

Jessie
Ohio State
Duke
Kansas
Florida
Title game: Ohio State v Kansas. Kansas wins it all.

Sammy
North Carolina
San Diego State
Kansas
Florida
Title game: North Carolina v Kansas. Kansas wins it all.

Nick
Ohio State
Duke
Kansas
Pittsburgh
Title game: Ohio State v Pittsburgh. Ohio State wins it all.

Tim
Ohio State
Duke
Kansas
Pittsburgh
Title game: Ohio State v Kansas. Ohio State wins it all.

Aaron
Ohio State
Duke
Kansas
Florida
Title game: Ohio State v Florida. Ohio State wins it all.

Steve
Ohio State
Duke
Kansas
Pittsburgh
Title game: Ohio State v Kansas. Kansas wins it all.