Landmark softball team is coming along. Landmark Live sometimes cohost and resident musical talent, Brad Carl is in. I’ve confirmed that he can play centerfield. He claims to have range to cover either left centerfield or right centerfield at this point, which sounds good enough for me. I’ve slotted him in the three spot of the lineup. I’ve got Foley in the 1 or 2 spot and if he gets on base, Carl assures me he can bunt him over a base or two. Can’t ever have too much bunting in slow pitch. As the self-appointed manager of this team, you’ll find my offensive philosophy dates to Whitey Herzog. Lots of small ball. We’ll have lots of base running practice and such.
Speaking of small ball. After watching NCAA swimming results, I’m thinking about going co-ed with this softball team. I like our chances if we have a few Platte County males that identify as females. Stop by and prove your gender status to Foley and he’ll pass your information on to the talent evaluators.
The last time I played softball about twenty years ago, I fell rounding third base and had to crawl the last few yards to get to home plate. I was hurt for a few weeks. My ego was permanently damaged that day; hence my switch to management.
President Biden is proposing a new tax on anyone with assets over $100 million. If that’s you, why the hell are you reading this column?
This developing tax proposal is bound to worry my warehouse friends who fret over anything that might impact Patrick. On top of worrying about Brittany, Jackson, and his lack of a prenuptial, now they must worry about the lefty government folks taking their quarterback’s money. There is no rest for these guys. I’ll be shocked if the forklifts move at all this summer.
Miracles do happen. Our family basketball bracket is on its last legs and my soon to be daughter in-law has won the bracket challenge this year. She defeated 12 other “family and friends.” The remarkable feat is that she went from last in 2021 to first in 2022 and I don’t think she knows anymore about college basketball this year than she did in 2021. I was kind of proud of her though, she won despite picking Kansas to lose in the first round; that pick alone made me happy, win or lose.
I’m just an angry, jealous Mizzou fan, but I would like to remind my Kansas basketball friends that it has been just less than 24 months since three people were sentenced to prison for their role in pay-for-play that revolved around Kansas basketball and Adidas.
Kansas rewarded Bill Self for the lack of accountability by giving him a lifetime contract that basically prevents him from being fired if the NCAA ever gets around to pinning some of this on him or his program. It’s quite remarkable.
Also in the Final Four is North Carolina, which ran an academic fraud program for years and then spent $18 million on legal fees to fight the NCAA, who eventually decided against any punishment for academic fraud.
Basically, this is your reminder to enjoy the purity that is college athletics. The true stalwart of student athletes competing for the glory of competition. Enjoy.
(Guy Speckman can be reached at gspeckman@me.com or asking Adidas to pay some softball talent for The Landmark softball team)