Just Some Comments

I'd put these in the comments section, except that I can just put up a post. These are reactions to previous posts by our L&N guys...

-Calico is pretty good, but I suspect one reason he is so regarded is that he came from MTSU. Just a local guy made good. And there are a lot of people who would like to see MTSU get to a higher level, including myself. A top-quality NFL player would help recruits.

-I'm looking forwards to the game tomorrow. No minor league hockey in Louisville (due to an weird fiasco I don't want to go into) is bad, as I love the gritty game in the lower tiers. I saw a game in Tallahassee in 2000, which was a lot of fun. I hope some of that spirit is captured tomorrow.

-The direct link to webcams is a good idea. I thought about doing that with the movie reviews, but that would be a much bigger project.

-So much of the baseball postseason rests on managers making mistakes. The Twins messed up with pitching Joe Nathan for the third inning in game two, and now the Astros have bullpen issues. I just hate to see this. There are changes to be made by a manager as compared to the regular season, but changing who pitches in what situation is not one of them. The changes you need to make are subtle. Torre is the master of it.

-I think there are good owners and players in the NHL, and this lockout doesn't make me nearly as mad as the MLB lockout did in 1994. I'm still not sure why - maybe it's because I grew up with baseball and have some childhood memories that I don't have with hockey - but I'll follow the Preds when they come back, and probably give them just as much money.

One thing I've learned in business school is that everything revolves around money in business. Does it benefit the greater good? Who cares? I hear a lot of complaining, and used to complain myself about businesses not looking to improve the greater good. Let me make one opinion on mine very clear: wanting a business to look to the greater good at the degradation of profits is like wanting a frog to learn the harmonica. It ain't gonna happen. And sports is big business now. In fact, our entire nation is big business. Until people grasp this, we aren't going to change the negative sides of capitalism (like freaking adverts everywhere!). By realizing this, though, we can embrace the positive sides, like greater prosperity for all, and attack the negatives through different channels.

Not too get to far off on a tangent, let me take this back to hockey. Hockey is a business. When you make something a business, you take the ideas such as "do it for the fans" out of the equation, except in marketing materials and press releases. I can't expect the owners to act any way other than how they are acting. For players, it is a business and a passion, in unequal measures in each individual. I think a lot of players want to play badly, but feel that in no way can buck the NHLPA. By doing so they could jeopardize their friendships and their careers. So they stay silent despite the fact that they want to play. And I can't turn my back on those guys, who I love watching. So count me in as soon as they come back, even if it's a year from now. I love hockey, at all levels.

Man, hope that didn't ramble too much!

-Think I've said enough for now. We like to write, don't we?