The Incredible Shrinking Tribe Payroll
We try hard to stay positive about the Indians as we move closer to Opening Day.
If Travis Hafner and Grady Sizemore can stay healthy, if Carlos Santana, Matt LaPorta and Michael Brantley produce, if the pitching holds up … hey, this team could be pretty good.
At least that’s what we keep telling ourselves.
So a little bit of the air went out of our sails when we read that the Tribe’s expected Opening Day payroll is just a little over $48 million. This is the third consecutive year the payroll has declined and it is now the lowest since 2005.
The payroll has gone from $81.6 million in 2009 to $61.5 million in 2010 and now to $48.4 million – a 41 percent drop in just two years.
Not only is the Tribe payroll shrinking, three players – Hafner, Sizemore and Fausto Carmona – eat up 55 percent of the total.
Not a fun thought as we are less than a week away from first pitch at Progressive Field.
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Florida learned Saturday afternoon what Old Dominion, Pittsburgh and Wisconsin already knew – in the end it’s always the Butler that did it.
The Bulldogs are making a return trip to the Final Four – the only team to return from last year’s group – by beating the Gators in overtime.
Butler is also the first team outside of the over-rated big six conferences since UNLV in 1990-91 to make consecutive Final Four appearances. The Bulldogs are also the first team to reach consecutive Final Fours and not be seeded first or second in either appearance.
Butler’s Shelvin Mack showed that he is truly the dogs bollocks by scoring 27 points, including a 3-pointer with 1:21 left in overtime that gave Butler the lead for good.
The Bulldogs are now 9-1 in their last 10 tournament games, and with a return to the Final Four, how can you not root for them?
Maybe once the tournament is over, they could give Ohio State some tips on how to beat teams from the SEC.
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Staying in Columbus, Andy Staples of Sports Illustrated came up with some very interesting information about NCAA Bylaw 10.1, the rule prohibiting Unethical Conduct and the one that Jim Tressel willing broke.
A study by SI.com of the past 177 NCAA infractions cases involving violations of Bylaw 10.1 revealed that coaches accused of such violations rarely retain their jobs.
Of the 177 cases, 172 involved coaches or athletic administrators accused of committing unethical conduct. Of those, 159 resigned or were terminated. Eighty-one cases involved coaches or athletics administrators accused of providing false or misleading information to NCAA investigators or encouraging others to lie to investigators. Of those, 78 resigned or were terminated.
There are varying degrees of 10.1 violations, but it’s interesting to note that the rule Tressel broke, 10.1_(d), is the same that former Tennessee basketball coach Bruce Pearl was charged with violating.
Just something to think about.
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England moved back to the top of its group in qualifying for Euro 2012, with a 2-0 win over Wales.
Germany extended its lead at the top of qualifying Group A to move closer to the finals in Poland and the Ukraine next year with a comfortable 4-0 win over Kazakhstan.
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As recently as six or seven years ago someone would have told us that we would willingly choose to watch a friendly soccer match between the USA and Argentina over an NCAA basketball regional final, we would have thought you were nuts.
But that’s exactly what we did Saturday night.
The US gave as good as it got against an Argentina squad that wasn’t just going through the paces in a 1-1 draw.
The times, they truly are a changing.
Red Right 88 