Daily Round-Up- Monday, March 30th

One New York stadium opened up early. Taxpayer Ballpark decided to open its doors to the public, only without the team that is supposed to play its games there. The new home of the Mets went through a trial run with St. Johns and Georgetown (no, not a Big East basketball game), playing a game to test out the new digs. Here are some reactions from fans thanks to Adam Rubin, the Daily News’ beat writer.
Here’s a pretty cool story about the first pitch, first batter, first SB ever in Citi Field for all you trivia geeks out there by George Willis.
Finally, I have to get the third daily’s take on the new stadium as well, with Anthony Reiber.

I’m a fan of the new stadium. Lord only knows, traveling to Shea, you weren’t there for the amenities of the stadium. But with the new age technology that has brought swimming pools and beach boxes and elevated center field porches and state of the art stadiums to different cities, leaving New York behind was a big no no, so the two New York teams decided to follow suit and build their own behemoth stadiums resplendent with all the glitz and glamour of something made in New York by New Yorkers.
But without all the bells and whistles in place, Taxpayer ball park opened to the buzz and shine that any new stadium in New York would. Who can beat $5 tickets to a pseudo opening day? Not all of the eateries were open and the sky was a mix of cloud and sometimes sun, but it was still a day to take a look around, make sure the seats were bolted into place and to take pictures with what remains and what now stands.
I wished I could go unfortunately I am not so fortunate. I was unable to snag the tickets. But I’ll be sure to go and post pictures, and go into a bit of the new stadium and do a whole walk around and all that.
Hopefully this stadium brings us better luck than the old one did the last two years of its existence. But I’d never bash Shea. It might not have been pretty, but it was home no matter what.


Jason Whitlock gives us his take on the UConn story, and it being just another case in a list of cases that has yet to meet a judge or a decision to levy any real change in the NCAA.

Aside from all the cheap shots he took at writers he has never seen eye to eye with. Aside from his taking subjects too seriously and in directions that sometimes seems a bit too far. I think his writing style is so simple and unique and it just seems like conversational, yet intelligent and keeps the flow of an article going.
But, Whitlock brings up a good point here that is continually jumped over. Why is it that the NCAA doesn’t look to end the corruption of these young youths by allowing schools to recruit in different shadier and murkier ways? Why doesn’t the NCAA want programs or academies like Jason suggested to train the youth to look to improving their skills in a controlled setting? Because, there’s too much money traveling through too many hands. Your cutting off too many people on the street level just to make things fair and even again. College was long ago corrupted by this kind of thing and to tell it to stop now is not just unrealistic its unfair.
Why unfair? Because, like I said, in this economy with the amount of money traveling hands, your putting more people out of work. Is it right that these kids are being exploited by these scheisty opportunists? Most of the times, its family members. Most of the times, its close friends. These are not just big time recruiters and boosters who already have loads of money. You pay off anyone that can land you that prospect.
So if uncle Junebug has the prospect’s ear, you give uncle Junebug a car. You give him a nice rolex. Suddenly he can get any job in that local district he wants. It’s a simple thing to throw money at a situation for these schools who rake in tons of money already. How else is Jim Calhoun supposed to get these kids from these impoverished neighborhoods? You think he walks in with his New England accent and chats it up with the local boys at the hard courts? No. He hires people who are in that community. He talks to coaches. He gets the ears of people around them. No longer is communication done face to face, man to man. Its done through third party.
For most of these young kids, either you go to a school like UConn or Duke or UNC, or you get offers from smaller colleges that can promise your entire family a new life and can promise other phony things like the ability to build up a program. Its all completely garbage. For those of you not smelling the stink, I do feel sorry for you living in that world. But I do envy you. I have come to accept that major sports is a corrupt engine that continues. It will never change. It means that too many people stop having and too many people stop working. In this climate, can we afford that? No. Let the corruption continue.
Also had to had that the last line in that story was just the funniest thing I’ve read.


Ryan Moats was sent an apology by the policeman who detained him outside the hospital where his mother was taking her final few breaths of life. His class in handling himself with dignity are things that won’t be forgotten and continue to be the talk of the town. To those that know him, they say its just Ryan being Ryan.

I too was trying to put myself in his position and think about how I would handle that situation. Honestly, I have no clue. Its so difficult to understand what he was feeling at the time and yet remain so calm while knowing what was going on. The officer, I don’t know him, must be feeling some sort of remorse. I know I surely would. But just reading the stories behind who Ryan Moats is, you just understand that he’s a special human being who understands that his behavior at any time, no matter what the situation is, will be looked at as a means of telling people who he is. His way of doing it was exactly how his mom had taught him as he was growing up I’m sure. Just to know that she died while he was doing the right thing, should make her very happy.


The Jay Cutler saga is truly made for reality television. Its indicative of how truly insane the mass public is nowadays. Before you had to actually visit the person to talk to them. Then came the telephone. So now you don’t have to see them to talk to them, but you had to be at home. Then there’s the cell phone, which meant you could be anywhere and still talk. Now, people don’t even want to hear other people’s voices. Its all about texting. Its amazing, Dave Krieger has the results.

Honestly its an embarrassing situation for the entire Denver community. They let go of a pretty darned good head coach (even though a change was needed). They had a pretty good QB, young with a loaded arm just needing the right direction, and they gave him a coach who had mentored two of the more productive QB’s over the last two seasons. Perfect marriage right? Heck no. Nothing is perfect, no matter how well the pieces fit. Josh McDaniels always had eyes at Matt Cassel. In fact, with the rumors that he had eyes for Brady Quinn tell you that he never wanted Jay Cutler in the first place which of course makes Cutler mad. This was a marriage forced upon by two parties that never really tried to make it work. But now that one part has cheated, and divorce proceedings are going on in real life, you want it to work for the cameras? No. I still haven’t made up my mind on who’s right because in this profession, you need to stick to a side and make your points. There’s no points for staying in the middle.
Unfortunately, for Cutler there’s no points either for staying up right under center either.



Finally, after a classic game in which one team had to lose, both Pitt and Villanova showed why the Big East truly is the best conference in the nation. Going wire to wire, toe to toe and Nova coming out barely standing. Either way, the college basketball world was treated to an exciting game, the ONLY ONE this weekend that had any merit. It seemed like whoever was playing seemed way overmatched. Michigan St., UConn, and UNC overmatched their opponents and charged into the Final Four. While it will be an exciting weekend next week, questions abound as jobs become open, will coaches be on the move to bigger programs? Or are they willing to stay and build the big programs? That’s the question Harvey Araton has.

The call of the wild is more money and many times some schools beat with a bigger drum so the call gets louder. But teams like Pitt and Villanova with two very marketable head coaches will always hear their coaches being linked to the old programs. Why? It should be taken as a compliment. It means they are doing something right and as such they are. Look at the two programs, and just think about what they are doing to keep it competitive and keep it going at a time when most sports big time programs are suffering. New super powers are emerging and most of the oldies try to steal those guys away because of their potential to gather talent and coach. If you don’t have both, then you don’t have much. How else can a guy like Kelvin Sampson go from Oklahoma to Indiana, two of the more respected powers, having had sanctions placed on him so many times that it made anyone’s head spin? Easy, he built himself a brand and a reputation as a guy who will do anything to field the best team. That is what matters to most programs. If the guy can get the player then the guy can coach.
Fact is, when these guys get caught, schools wash themselves of the mess and just walk away leaving behind no evidence of their own wrong doing by hiring these guys who clearly have issues with following the rules. Its easy for the program but for people who invest themselves in a program they get caught and get axed. But guys like Calhoun will rid himself a few people down the line of such things by hiring other guys who hire other guys who do the dirty work and who get caught. But those things never reach the big wig. You don’t stay at one program, having recruited some of the best talent from questionable backgrounds for over twenty years without learning some of the back routes and underhanded ways of getting away with the recruiting restrictions.
Hopefully these guys stay, but its no slam dunk that they do. Unfortunately that’s the world we live in.