Coach's Corner
By Andy "Coach" Cotton, Fri., Oct. 16, 1998
I concede all this by way of admitting that I've joined the enemy. Yes, just what the world needs most: another talk radio host. But there, I'm afraid, it is. KVET-AM has gone to a 24-hour sports format. Desperate for on-air personnel, they called me. Rationalizing to myself that I can be different, I accepted. After a week on the air, it's quite clear few listeners have ever heard of The Austin Chronicle, let alone of the opinionated voice pretentiously calling himself The Coach. So I make a bald-facedplea to my readers: listen to me -- better yet, call me. One show last week didn't have a single caller. Soon, I'll be alone in that booth. Having exhausted prepared material in seven minutes, the specter of an ugly, very public emotional breakdown looms large without on-air phone calls. Don't let that happen. If you hear me struggling, please God, give me a call. I'm on between 3-4pm, Mon-Fri, on KVET 1300 AM. Hear me. Feel Me.
Odds 'n' Ends: There are 286 players in the National Basketball Association. At least 259 of them are badly served by the single issue that both sides say is non- negotiable to end the "work stoppage" -- The Larry Bird exception. The Bird exception was invented so teams could circumvent the salary cap in order to keep its designated star player. In other words, for one player per team, the salary cap doesn't exist. It's how the Bulls can pay Michael Jordan $35 million. It's how the Knicks can pay Patrick Ewing, "union" president, $20 million. (I put union in quotes because the NBA Players Association bears no more resemblance to, for example, the UAW, than a porpoise does to a goose. It's morelike a regal guild.) Anyway, the Bird exception has worked the way it was supposed to. Jordan isn't playing for the Lakers. Hakeem is still with Houston. To which, were I Bill Wennington or Travis Knight or any other "rank and file" member of the guild, I'd say, so what? Say I'm a valuable player like Rex Chapman, but I'm making the NBA minimum so my team can pay Jason Kidd -- a nice fellow to be sure -- whatever to keep him a happy Sun. I'd negotiate the Bird exception down the drain faster than a Payton steal if the owners would raise the minimum salary and put $10 million per team back into the pot for the team's veterans. The Bird exception benefits only superstars, not the average player. This is not where I'd draw my line in the paint...
It was a sweet weekend for the traditional powers of the old SWC against the old Big 8. The original Big 8 teams don't much like their new brothers and, for me anyway, the feeling is mutual. Texas playedits most impressive all-around football game in many years against Oklahoma, and the Aggies hung on, just barely, to beat the #2 ranked Children of the Corn. How many of you started thinking about thatdate in Lincoln in a few weeks and wondering about the impossible?...
What's happened to the Braves? Where did they all go? Who are Tucker and Lockhart? Walt Weiss and Ozzie Guillen? Didn't those guys retire? What happened to Fred (The Crime Dog) McGriff? What happened to Marquis Grissom? What about that post-season pest, Mark Lemke? How come Kenny Lofton didn't work out? If these playoffs have shown anything, it's that you can't win on pitching alone. You need some runs. The Braves have lost a lot of talent over the years, and it's starting to show...
If I were Braves manager Bobby Cox, I'd tell my team, "Yeah sure, no team has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit. But some day, some team will do it. Why not us?"...
The surprise of the year in the NFL? That's easy. Randall Cunningham was retired two years ago, building clocks at his workbench. Now, subbing for the injured Brad Johnson, he's playing the best ball of his career, leading the Vikings to an impressive 5-0 record. Minnesota is the first team since the Air Coryell days in St. Louis and San Diego that has effectively attacked from the wide receiver position, working back to a running game. This fun-to-watch offensive scheme has never worked in the post-season, though, grinding to a halt as the top teams gang up on the pass...
How can big league baseball allow its umpires to work the post-season based on seniority, not competence? How can they allow their showcase games to be butchered by so many awful ball/ strike umps? Why aren't these guys all trained by one office to umpire by the same rules? Combative, arrogant and, worst of all, just wrong umpiring is a rotting, embarrassing blight on the game. Baseball has easily the worst officiating of the major sports. With the chin-to-knee, mile-wide strike zone, no wonder teams can't muster any offense.
Write me: [email protected]
