Returning Pioneers

The local sportscaster chatter has stroked on for days about Avery Bradley's decision re the draft. This perrenial discussion undoubtedly drones on across David Stern's personal plantation, the entire NCAA. Forget for a moment that no one would be dumb enough to continue on the chemistry imbalanced path that recently denuded Emporer Barnes has charted for the Longhorns in his quest for an NBA gig.
Of course he should try to play at the level that suits his abiities. He should have been allowed to last year, but for the anti-free market system that is the NBA. The NFL has increasingly joined the irresistable exploitation to such a degree that the companion chatter at draft time has become equally nauseating. The plantation rhetoric seems harsh and hysterical, but only if you can imagine these discussions happening in the white sports of golf, baseball, tennis or hockey. NEVER.
Look no further than the 40 acres for the answer to "should [he] go?" Always yes. Two groundbreaking Horns are re-stomping the college grounds they once stomped with their obligatory socks and slippers a decade ago when buses were merely for running in front of and laughing.
Kris Clack was the first McDonald's All-American to go to UT. He was also the leader in the pipeline of future Austin stars who would stay home. Before Clack, Austin's best black athletes like Kenneth Alexander generally panned UT. Local youth will tell you to this day UT is a white school. While the pipeline never materialized, Clack ushered in an undeniable upgrade of UT hoops.

Technically Clack didn't leave early, but he did put his degree on hold to try his art in the league. Eventually, that league was the Italian league which he tore up.

Today Kris Clack rides the bus to school to finish his communications degree. He coaches the Fightin' Archangels at night and through his journeys and travel has become a thoughtful and balanced individual, worldly wise and humble. Seems like a good choice until you realize it is the only choice.
Kwame Cavil was the first Longhorn to leave early when the NFL's market manipulation was in it's infancy and Maurice Clarett hadn't yet challenged and lost a foolish fight against an industry that makes it's own rules. You wouldn't even recognize Kwame today. He is a coach too, and a father who beams when he's with his kids. He's aged and mellowed like Pinot through his worldly, albeit frigid world travels. He too is riding the bus toward his degree. A high quality individual who should never even had too answer the absurd question asked only of American black athletes. Stay or go?

I suspect John Wall ten years from now will be a star to some degree despite his slightness. Avery Bradley will likely know his way around Macedonia and Greece really well. Both will be good guys that people like and want to hear say something funny or poignant. All of these guys will probably always kinda wonder -- What choice?

and with the....

....75th pick of the 2010 NFL draft the Chicago Bears select.........Prince Fielder!
Assuming Brittney Griner is not available the Fielder choice is not a bad one.
Third rounders rarely make it, and a joke selection would likely give an equivalent return on investment.
Plus he's bigger than the best draft prospect in a decade, Suh. Fielder also could inject a harmless dose of humor in the otherwise business like, no drama quest for the 2011 Super Bowl, and consequent immortality for Brian Urlacher. Alas, I believe Fielder will be too busy saving baseball alongside his loyal sidekick Tim Lincecum. So after examining the draft and the 2009 college footbal season, the Bears should select Dezmon Brisoce.
The best receiver the Jayhawks ever had is drastically undervalued and should be availble late. The Bears most glaring weak spot is at receiver based on the free agent acquisitions and the debacle that was the '09 season. Brisoce is the real deal. His learning curve has been oustanding in high school and the NCAA. Enduring Mangino is a baptism of fire that should remove any sensitivity that Jay Cutler will test. Briscoe is a sure handed receiver who has the maturity to start with the suddenly veteran juggernaut the Bears have assembled. Oh, and he played for the Horns in high school!

That's Right.....!

Harry B. told us a long time ago, and Bobby sang it best.
Once again my job allows me to be a fly on the wall of UT sports. My co-worker, we'll call him Numero Uno, and I were musing about how we heard competing factions of the softball team speaking ill of each other. Being of conventional cloth we decided that things wouldn't bode well for the young Longhorns. There just seemed to be too much jealousy and sundry other of the seven deadly sins to play a team sport like softball. Softball may move slowly, but it requires a very precise brand of teamwork to get the job done.
Before the season started I had them doomed to the badlands of bad chemistry.
Boy, I couldn't have been more wrong. Not only are these Horns able to play together, but they won the opening tourney, anchored by Austin frish flames-thrower Blaire Luna who blazed a no-hitter in her first NCAA game. These smart women are now 6-0 and cracked the top 25 this week to the surprise of the world, and me, and Numero Uno. Things look good for a nice little run at the Big 12 and who knows what else.

“I’m glad we had this game scheduled for tonight,” Clark said. “It was a good test for our mentality and our approach and process. We’re playing the game, not the opponent.” -Connie Clark 2/16/10

Maybe women are better able to leave the silly stuff on the bus, or maybe the whole chemistry thing is overrated. Whatever it is, men seem incapable of doing what this band of young overachievers are poised to do, as evidenced by the up women's hoops and the down men's.
Never mind what the people say. Don't try to figure it out. Just enjoy Blazin' Blair and the 2010 Horns softball team in every way.

Historic may be an Understatement

Today, Kelly Kulick made history. Not ordinary history, but the kind that should be worthy of front page sports news. Maybe even frontpage frontpage for it's significance in our man's man's world.
She has done what Danica and Anika tried but couldn't quite do. She won the Pro Bowler's Tournament of Champions. In bowling, this is the most prestigious major. It is the Masters of bowling. This is not Michele Wie winning the St. Jude.
This is as big as Obama in so many ways. It changes our world forever and takes us places that can only be good.
It will be interesting to see if Hoopster in Chief invites her to the White House. He may have to dig deep into his Blackberry to even find out. I personally think he will. We know he knows how hard bowling is! And may be the only person who can fathom the significance and understand the importance of what Kelly has done.

Freakin' Awright!

The Dock is surely smiling down from his number 9 cloud this week. The bestest, baddest pitcher this side of Danny G. won the Cy Young again. Tim Lincecum joined the immortals with his second straight award for the league's best hurler. Only undeniable legends like the Big Unit, the Rocket and Sandy have won back-to-back. None have done it as young as the 25 year old Giant.
A little online chatter has emerged about his low win total, but I don't see how you argue against the purest measure of a pitcher: strikeouts. Timmy led the league again in K's and the best hitters in the league have nothing but admiration when they talk about facing him. Win total has changed in baseball as a measure of greatness. How often have you heard that there will never be a thirty game winner again in today's game? Wins are doubly hard to come by playing for the lowly Giants who forgot to develop hitters when they developed a co-dependency with BALCO.
A few of us Lincecum fans worried that he would be denied acknowledgment after recent dalliances. But in a Phelpsian turn of events, he still got the Cy. Hey, it's easy to understand that Tim may have thought it was required to have a little Mother Nature when crossing from Oregon into Washington. The voters have decided that times have changed and Lincecum is a likeable, normal guy.
Shown here with a mess of fish, Lincecum bows to Jojo the king of fishing strikeouts, and exhibits a humanness that can only help a sport wrought with pricks like 7 time Cy Young winner Roger Clemens.
Known alternately as the "Franchise" and the "Freak," Linceum probably narrowed the nickname pool with his Halloween eve hijinks. Sports apologists say his freakish delivery is the reason for his moniker. I think that the Washington State Patrol confirmed that it is more likely his nickname identifies him as the fourth, long lost, Fabulous Furry Freak Brother.

Congrats, Freak. Your GM Brian Sabean probably summed up the last couple weeks the best when he said.“I don’t know if we ever grow up, as people, as professionals,” Sabean said. “It’s a process. I don’t know if he’s any different from any young guy trying to make a name for himself, make a living. Obviously the stakes are higher when you’re Tim Lincecum.”
This blogger only wonders what might have been if the Freak had signed out of high school when the Cubs drafted him. Could he have put the goat out to pasture?