Tim Ellsworth

A story in yesterday’s New York Times highlights Florida State coach Bobby Bowden and Georgia coach Mark Richt, and the spiritual content they infuse into their coaching. Both are unapologetically Christian. Both provide opportunities for their players to attend church or devotional services. And both have been criticized by some for doing so.

Bowden, however, makes an excellent point.

“You got 90 kids in a history or psychology classroom around here, and a professor can stand up and say anything he wants in creation,” Bowden said. “Why can’t I tell my boys what I believe?”

Good question, Bobby. And Barry Lynn’s protests notwithstanding, there shouldn’t be a reason why you can’t. Keep it up.

As usual, Michelle Malkin has a nice roundup of news and opinion about the nomination of Samuel Alito for the Supreme Court. Any thoughts or reactions? From what I’ve read so far, I like the pick.

Joe Cantillon served as manager of the Washington Senators from 1907-1909, where he had the privilege to manage the great Walter Johnson for three years. But Cantillon excelled more as an umpire than as a manager, and the following is a story about one episode from Cantillon’s umpiring days:

Normally it took the most drastic kind of provocation for Cantillon to toss a player out of a game; he preferred putting them in their place with devastating repartee and other methods.

Clark Griffith told about the time Cantillon achieved this by relaxing the balk rule: A batter (John McGraw, according to one version of the story), after complaining nonstop about Cantillon’s decisions, singled. As the only umpire in the game, Cantillon moved behind the pitcher — Griffith — as the runner continued bombarding him with curses and epithets from first base.

Suddenly Griffith was surprised to hear a voice whisper in his ear, “Go ahead, Griff, pick him off.” Drawing the runner off base with a motion toward the plate, he quickly wheeled and rifled the ball to the first baseman instead. The baffled runner was quickly trapped and tagged and Cantillon waved him out, the indignant player screaming all the while “Balk! Balk! Everybody saw Griffith make a balk!” to no avail.

– From “Walter Johnson: Baseball’s Big Train,” by Henry W. Thomas

I hated to see Georgia lose to Florida today — not because I’m a Georgia fan, but because I think the best way for the NCAA to get rid of the BCS silliness is for there to continue to be undefeated teams that don’t get a shot at the national title. I’m pulling for as many teams to finish the season unbeaten as possible.

I’d like to see this season end with USC, Texas, Virginia Tech and Alabama all with perfect records. You wanna talk about the BCS facing some heat when they don’t let Virginia Tech and the Tide play for the national title? Whoa, nellie.

Oakland Raiders fans are notorious for being loud, rabid, obnoxious and drunk. And now some are suggesting that the behavior of some Oakland fans is actually keeping people from attending home games out of fear for their safety.

When the team returned from Los Angeles 10 years ago, fans were sold personal seat licenses — in effect, contracts sold to generate some of the cash needed to bring the team back to Oakland and renovate the Coliseum without a tax hike. Critics called the unpopular PSLs a ticket to buy a ticket — the idea was to get fans to not only pay for a season ticket, but the privilege to buy it. It didn’t work. Not enough fans bought the PSLs.

The 10-year PSL plan expires this year, and if fans don’t sign up again — or if another, more popular plan isn’t introduced to replace it — the losses to Oakland, which bankrolled the return, could reach tens of millions of dollars.

Reinforcing the point, Sunday’s game against the Buffalo Bills — which the Raiders won 38-17 — didn’t sell out. It was another home game with empty seats, which means locals couldn’t catch the game on television because it was blacked out.

All of this calls into question the popularity of a team that played in the Super Bowl just two years ago, and why it can’t seem to fill a stadium. Is interest in the Raiders waning, or are people — particularly the high rollers who will buy the season tickets — afraid to go to the games because of the reputation of Raider fans?

It’s an interesting article to read. Thanks to Joel Maners for the link.

We made Daniel his first jack-o-lantern last night. He wasn’t quite sure what to think when we lit the candle.

Now Sulu from Star Trek is gay. Is this Coming Out Week or something?

Thanks, Scott.

Baseball Musings is reporting rumors of an outfielder from an American League team in the playoffs who has tested positive for steroids. There may be nothing to this, but supposedly Will Carroll of Baseball Prospectus has confirmed it.

Hank Aaron isn’t happy that the Houston Astros don’t have any African Americans on their team.

“It is very disturbing to see something like this,” Aaron said. “And you would think that this ballclub could find at least one or two African Americans, especially in this city. It’s very disturbing. I think they need to look at that very carefully. They need to talk to people in the scouting department and everybody else because this needs to be addressed.”

Now, I can understand being upset if a team is deliberately passing over more talented African Americans for inferior whites or Latinos. But didn’t the Astros just make it to the World Series? Apparently they have some pretty good players on their team, so I don’t think you can fault them for their player selection.

The Duke Blue Devils are the top-ranked team in the first ESPN/USA Today Coaches’ poll of the season. Here’s how the top 10 looked:

1. Duke
2. Connecticut
3. Texas
4. Villanova
5. Michigan State
6. Oklahoma
7. Gonzaga
8. Louisville
9. Arizona
10. Kentucky

Illinois came in at 17th.

Two members of the Philadelphia Eagles caused a stir when they spoke at an assembly at Newark High School in Newark, Del.

Tra Thomas and Thomas Tapeh spoke for 45 minutes about how to “be a leader, not a follower.” During the presentation, Thomas and Tapeh made references to their faith in Christ and encouraged students to attend a Nov. 4 rally and concert being sponsored by Thomas’ organization, Athletes United for Christ.

High school principal Emmanuel Caulk said he wasn’t aware of Thomas’ affiliation with the organization or that Thomas would use the assembly as a chance to promote the rally. The organization promoting Thomas’ tour of high schools, however, disputed that claim.

Several parents were offended by the presentation, and Caulk sent a letter of apology to parents for the religious nature of the program.

Thomas defended the content of his message.

“We’re not out preaching,” he said. “What we’re trying to do is to help the kids make better decisions in life. I guess I understand [why some people objected] because you have other religions there. But we’re not preaching to the kids.”

Thanks to Mark Mansheim for the alert.

Jean Van de Velde isn’t happy that women may qualify for the 2006 British Open, so he says he’s going to try to enter the Women’s British Open.

“I’ll even wear a kilt and shave my legs,” Van de Velde said.

Given the way he performed at the 1999 British Open, I’d say Van de Velde would fit right in, but I’d hate to insult the women that way.

Air Force football coach Fisher DeBerry caused a ruckus this week when at a press conference discussing his team’s 48-10 loss to Texas Christian University he said the following:

“It was very obvious to me the other day that the other team had a lot more African-American players than we did and they ran a lot faster than we did. Their defense had 11 Afro-American kids on their team and they were a very, very good defensive football team. It just seems to me that Afro-American kids can run very, very well.”

DeBerry has since apologized for his comments.

What’s your reaction to his statements? Obviously it wasn’t the brightest thing for him to say. But were they offensive?

My column this week is about the NBA’s dress code, and the immature reactions from some of the players.

Harriet Miers has withdrawn from consideration as Supreme Court justice.

In response to this, maybe Bush will appoint a staunchly conservative, pro-life judge with proper credentials.