It’s the end of March, and a Kansas school is playing for a national basketball title. And it’s Wichita State University, not the University of Kansas. Be honest — how many people predicted that? Still, the Shockers’ success in reaching tonight’s championship game of the National Invitation Tournament isn’t too surprising. After all, they’ve won 28 games this year, and two of their defeats were close losses to the University of Connecticut and Virginia Commonwealth University, two teams in this year’s NCAA Final Four.
Lawrence-Dumont Stadium in Wichita was named the fourth-best minor league baseball stadium by livability.com. The website praised the stadium, built in 1934, for its “interesting blend of old and new,” citing its manual scoreboard that features a goose laying an egg whenever the opposing team does not score. The website noted that the ballpark was one of the few that featured a natural grass outfield with an artificial turf infield — though that is changing as part of a $2 million renovation project that is placing artificial turf over the entire field. The top-rated stadium was Whataburger Field in Corpus Christi, Texas.
“I picked Kansas last year to win it, and I got hurt.” — President Obama, who nevertheless again predicted this year that the KU Jayhawks would win it all (“I’m giving them a chance at redemption”)
“He picked the Kansas Jayhawks to win, while I’m holding out for the Kansas State Wildcats to clench the title. And I sure hope he would find time to present a serious budget proposal long before the championship game.” — Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Fowler, on Obama’s bracket
“Carbon dioxide is a basic building block of our existence. Regulating that is the height of arrogance.” — Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Wichita, as 30 Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee voted against amendments acknowledging the scientific consensus around climate change
“Met with Bono today. What do an Irish Rock Star and a Kansas country fan have in common: how to feed our troubled and hungry world.” — Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., on Twitter on Tuesday
Former Kansas City Royals pitcher Gil Meche is a rarity in professional sports. His contract guaranteed him a $12 million salary this year, even though he was too injured to be a starting pitcher. But Meche didn’t feel right about being paid when he couldn’t play, so he retired, freeing the Royals from the contract. “When I signed my contract, my main goal was to earn it,” he told the New York Times. “Once I started to realize I wasn’t earning my money, I felt bad. I was making a crazy amount of money for not even pitching. Honestly, I didn’t feel like I deserved it. I didn’t want to have those feelings again.” No doubt the decision to retire was made easier by the $40 million the Royals have paid Meche over the past four years. But it would have been even easier to take the additional $12 million he was due. He didn’t, saying, “it just wasn’t the right thing to do.”
It was difficult to imagine that the University of Kansas athletic ticket scandal could get worse for the university — but then it did. The person KU put in charge of restoring integrity to the sports ticket office was accused last week of being part of the scheme to steal and resell tickets to football and basketball games. A federal grand jury indicted Kassie Liebsch, KU’s director of ticket operations. Also indicted were the former director of ticket operations; that person’s husband, who was a former department consultant; the former Williams Educational Fund director; and the former head of fundraising. Two other former employees have pleaded guilty and are cooperating with authorities. To its credit, KU is trying to clean up the mess — including by pushing out former athletic director Lew Perkins. But Liebsch’s indictment was another black eye.
It’s hard to stomach that University of Kansas athletic director Lew Perkins still will be paid about $2 million, even though he retired this week, a year earlier than planned. But it likely is best that KU did what it had to do to move out Perkins. Though he had some impressive accomplishments, particularly in upgrading athletic facilities, Perkins lost credibility in the past year with a ticket-selling scandal and a report of extravagant travel expenses. As Eagle sports columnist Bob Lutz wrote, “Perkins sat on top of a kingdom for a while at KU, but as king he became sloppy and arrogant.” He needed to go.
Heat is part of the proud tradition of the National Baseball Congress World Series and baseball itself, so the recent record highs need not be a deterrent to attending the 2010 tournament at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium through Aug. 13, including the fabled Baseball ’Round the Clock action today through Sunday. But sometimes it seems as if the NBC World Series is better appreciated outside its host city. “For two weeks every August, some of the nation’s best college and amateur players come to compete in front of equally dedicated, knowledgeable and rabid spectators,” wrote ESPN’s Daniel Dodd in an ode to the “quirky” tournament’s 17 games in 56 hours. The games put Wichita in sports headlines from North Carolina to Alaska. As they do, it would be nice to see more locals in the stadium seats.
As two former University of Kansas athletic officials pleaded guilty this week in federal court in Wichita in the million-dollar ticket skimming scandal, one detail confirmed how lax things were at the ticket operation. Then-assistant director of ticket operations Jason Jeffries reportedly was able to set aside as many as 56 tickets a year for his own benefit and conceal the thefts by erasing information from a dry-erase board. It’s shocking that such a top-ranked, well-funded program could get away with a slipshod system in which perhaps 19,000 tickets could be misused.
It’s great that the Hartman Arena will host next year’s state high school Class 6A and 5A wrestling tournaments. Though it would have been nice if Intrust Bank Arena had continued to host the tournaments, the Hartman Arena was a better fit, both in size and cost. And the priority was keeping the tournament in the area, not the specific venue. Congratulations to all involved in securing the tournaments.
Kansas Sens. Pat Roberts and Sam Brownback were among the 26 signers of a bipartisan letter trying to persuade FIFA president Sepp Blatter to let America to host the World Cup in 2018 or 2022, touting the nation’s “diverse population” of soccer-crazy immigrants. The United States last hosted the World Cup in 1994. One reader’s response on a blog posting on the Hill newspaper: “I hope they don’t hold it in Arizona.”
Every four years, as the global ritual of the World Cup begins, we go through our own national ritual: debating the place of soccer in our culture. More than any other sport, soccer polarizes this country. Many love it, and hope the World Cup will finally persuade others to as well. Others criticize it for being boring, too theatrical, unfair, even un-American. This year’s games have already garnered larger audiences than previous men’s World Cups, with audiences treated to all that makes soccer both exhilarating and frustrating. Though it garners less attention and money than other sports, millions in the United States are already passionate about, and conversant in, the language of soccer. In fact, it may well be the most widely played sport in the country. And the United States is the center of global women’s soccer, with the best women’s players in the world coming here to play. The culture of soccer is here, and it’s only going to grow. — Laurent Dubois, Duke University
Can soccer make it in America? Three reasons suggest not. Soccer in America is an educational tool that most students outgrow once they leave school behind. In Europe, soccer unleashes exuberant passions, but in America, soccer teaches you how to run around without running into anyone or leaving anybody behind. Soccer is egalitarian extremism: Everyone gets a trophy, and nobody scores enough to justify gloating over anyone else. Most Americans do not see the benefits of going into a battle with your hands tied behind your back. Every sport has rules, but denying your own best attributes before you even begin playing is going a bit too far. Most fundamentally, there is the problem with scoring. Most Americans find it hard to enjoy the expenditure of so much energy without much to show for it. — Stephen H. Webb, Wabash College
As they used their bully pulpits to try to stand against the Big 12’s crack-up, Sens. Pat Roberts and Sam Brownback and Gov. Mark Parkinson were among the pols “looking like a pretty helpless lot,” wrote Kansas City Star columnist Steve Kraske. At least the senators stopped short of calling for congressional probes and action. “Congress has never had much success when it comes to sports. Lawmakers tried to regulate boxing and ban steroids in baseball and solve the conundrum of the college football national championship. All those efforts fell flat. The same thing probably would have happened with the Big 12 fiasco,” Kraske wrote.
The uproar over whether the Big 12 is about to disintegrate has been a bit much, such as when Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., suggested that “beyond football, beyond academics, it’s about family.” The reality is that “conference realignment,” like everything else related to college athletics, is about money and prestige. With the pressure to win and cash in so great, tradition is for losers. The awkward thing for the University of Kansas and Kansas State University is that they seem to be uninvited onlookers powerless to stop or get in on the high-stakes speed-dating. If their conference breaks up around them, KU and KSU will survive and find new digs. But they deserve better.
First came the revelations about University of Kansas athletics insiders’ ticket-skimming scam. Then the news of a blackmail attempt against athletic director Lew Perkins related to exercise equipment on “loan” to him. Whatever Perkins’ future, KU will have some work to do to rebuild trust in the state. As outgoing Kansas Board of Regents chairwoman Jill Docking of Wichita told the Lawrence Journal-World, “It’s going to take a full frontal assault on the part of Lew and the chancellor to address these issues, because of the anger that’s out there. It’s going to take more than a press conference, I do know that. It’s going to take a grassroots campaign in every community of the state, so that people can vent their frustration and anger, and so they can have their concerns addressed.”
Congratulations to the Special Olympics for its 40 years in Kansas, and welcome to the athletes and families who will be in Wichita this weekend for the 2010 summer games. State law enforcement officers have been carrying the Olympic torch through 28 counties on their way to the opening ceremonies tonight at Cessna Stadium at Wichita State University. According to its website, Special Olympics Kansas touches the lives of about 5,500 athletes, helping them improve their physical fitness, acquire new skills, develop friendships and experience the job of sharing their talents. Its “athlete oath” is one that could apply to many of life’s endeavors: “Let me win, but if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt.”
In the view of The Eagle editorial board, University of Kansas athletic director Lew Perkins gets a big slice of blame for the ticket-skimming scandal. As we wrote in our editorial Friday, “Even if Perkins couldn’t be expected to know all that was going on, he is accountable, because he hired or promoted those allegedly involved. His ignorance is not a defense, but rather an indication that he trusted too much and scrutinized too little.” Kansas City Star columnist Mike Hendricks had another suggestion of where to look for those responsible: in the mirror. “We do more than put up with the bad behavior,” he wrote. “We encourage the corruption, thuggery and out-of-control greed with our continued adoration and financial support of big-time athletics, college and pro.” Hendricks concluded: “Ticket scandals, recruiting violations, cheating — maybe it’s always been part of sports. But the money has made things worse. You and I long for the days when it wasn’t necessary to view every athletic program and every athlete’s success with cynicism. But let’s not deny our responsibility.”
Congratulations to Kansas for hosting its 100th state track and field championship this weekend. The past century has been filled with great athletes and performances, such as former Wichita East’s Jim Ryun (in photo) in 1965 becoming the first high school student to break the four-minute mile. The meet also has been great for Wichita, bringing several thousand visitors to town each spring. With all six Kansas high school classifications competing at Wichita State University’s Cessna Stadium, the track meet is one of the largest in the country. May it continue here for the next 100 years.
Some fans didn’t appreciate the Phoenix Suns wearing “Los Suns” jerseys during the NBA playoff game Wednesday night — which the team did in part to protest Arizona’s new anti-immigration law. But star guard Steve Nash (in photo) thought it was “fantastic.” He said the immigration law was “very misguided” and “to the detriment of our society and our civil liberties.” Though some fans said the team should play basketball, not politics, Nash said: “it’s really important for us to stand up for things we believe in.”
President Obama picked the University of Kansas to win the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, but he picked Kansas State University coach Frank Martin (in photo) to be his enforcer on Capitol Hill. ESPN’s Andy Katz asked Obama, who thinks K-State will reach the Final Four, if he had seen the “menacing glare” that Martin often gives his players and officials. “I have,” Obama joked. “He’s a scary dude.” Obama added, “I could send him up to Congress to get them to vote for health care.”
Tiger Woods said some astonishing things in his statement to the media — fessing up to behavior he called “irresponsible,” “selfish” and “foolish” and saying he convinced himself “that normal rules didn’t apply” and he felt he “was entitled.” But his “televised news release” fell short, concluded sports author John Feinstein. “At a moment when the arrogance that makes him a great golfer should have been put aside, he couldn’t do it. Seconds after delivering his various mea culpas, he started lecturing the media,” Feinstein wrote. And he should have taken questions. “Woods, who says he now understands that he’s not above the rules of common decency, is still above answering questions from those who are paid to represent a public that has helped make him a billionaire. He still insists he’s entitled to a private life when no one has said he’s not. What he is not — and was not — entitled to is the secret life he led while passing himself off to the public as the devoted husband and father.”
Pro-choice groups are making too much of an anti-abortion commercial that CBS plans to broadcast during the Super Bowl featuring University of Florida quarterback Tim Tebow and his mother. It’s just a commercial, after all. Still, it’s worth noting that CBS’ decision reflects a policy change. In the past, CBS has prohibited advocacy ads. For example, CBS refused to broadcast a commercial during the 2004 Super Bowl by the United Church of Christ about how “Jesus didn’t turn people away,” including gays. CBS said this week that, under its new policy, the UCC ad would air.
How great is it that Kansas has three competitive men’s Division I basketball teams? Any one of them might break fans’ hearts at any time, of course. But seeing the Wichita State Shockers beat No. 20 Northern Iowa, the No. 10 Kansas State Wildcats upset No. 1 Texas and the No. 3 University of Kansas Jayhawks stay strong in defeating No. 25 Baylor has brightened the gloomy mood this week and given Kansans a case of early-onset March madness.
Talk-show host Rush Limbaugh is still playing the victim card in his failed attempt to buy a share of the St. Louis Rams. Rather than own up to his past racial comments, he blames his partners’ decision to drop him on the media’s contempt for conservatives (which, apparently, doesn’t extend to all the other NFL owners who are conservatives). Limbaugh wrote in a Wall Street Journal commentary that claims of racism are “being used to try to keep citizens who don’t share the left’s agenda from participating in the full array of opportunities this nation otherwise affords each of us.” He even likened criticism he received to attempts to smear Clarence Thomas when he was nominated for the U.S. Supreme Court. “These intimidation tactics are working and spreading, and they are a cancer on our society,” Limbaugh wrote.
Given all the times Rush Limbaugh has dragged out old quotes to demagogue liberals, it’s rich that he is so upset about being sacked in his effort to buy the St. Louis Rams over racial comments he has made over the years. “This is about the ongoing effort by the left in this country, wherever you find them, in the media, the Democrat Party, or wherever, to destroy conservatism, to prevent the mainstreaming of anyone who is prominent as a conservative,” he said Wednesday on his radio show. “Therefore, this is about the future of the United States of America and what kind of country we’re going to have.”
Barack Obama far outraised John McCain among individual donors last year. Yet college football and NFL head coaches (and their wives) favored McCain and the GOP in their giving far more than Obama and the Democrats. “Could it be that football coaches, just by the nature of the job, are more comfortable on the right end of the political spectrum?” asked the Wall Street Journal’s Steve Kornacki. Former University of Nebraska coach and former GOP congressman Tom Osborne (in photo) drew a link between conservative principles and what it takes to rise to become a head football coach. “I think that background — adherence to discipline, sometimes sacrifice, loyalty to core values — those things tend to have people move in that direction,” Osborne said. He also joked, “I’m sure many who are more liberal would say it’s because they got hit in the head too much.”
It’s the end of March, and a Kansas school is playing for a national basketball title. And it’s Wichita State University, not the University of Kansas. Be honest — how many people predicted that? Still, the Shockers’ success in reaching tonight’s championship game of the National Invitation Tournament isn’t too surprising. After all, they’ve won 28 games this year, and two of their defeats were close losses to the University of Connecticut and Virginia Commonwealth University, two teams in this year’s NCAA Final Four.
