Whoever invented the ball should get the Nobel Prize. Look what it turned into. A simple ball turns this universe around. You can work your whole life to just get by; but if you are good with a ball you can get your college paid for and make millions later. The most amazing thing to me is the thinking that invented some of these games.

I was speaking to a foreigner the other day and their perspective on sports in general was very enlightening. I mean the guy who invented golf. Can you imagine yourself sitting around a table with a few people and stating that you had come up with this great game called golf. You get yourself a big club and hit a small ball as far as possible and then chase it. In fact, you chase it in the woods if you can't hit it straight and we'll even throw in some water and sand hazzards. Of course the idea is to see who can get the ball into a small hole in the fewest hits and the hole is a few hundred yards off. This means we can't play this sport in a building or even a large field. We have to purchase alot of costly property to build the course. Any takers?

How about soccer. Twenty grown men kick a ball around for a couple of hours in the hot sun or rain and alot of the time nobody scores. We are going to pay these guys millions of dollars and attract a hundred thousand people just to watch. More takers?

Now football is a good one too. This foreigner told me he watched the game for hours but couldn't understand it. It seems to him that these big guys would jump into a pile and then get up and run around a bit and then jump into a pile again. Hockey was alot like soccer except the guys have all this gear on and only 8 men actually chase a puck around for a couple of hours while on skates.

He thought baseball was basically, one guy in a corner of a diamond waits until somebody throws a ball at him and he hits it with a stick and then all the others chase the ball. In fact basketball was the only game he could get a handle on because he could see they were trying to throw a ball into a basket and if they succeeded then the other side got a turn.

When you really think about it alot of these games seem to be a real hard sell. Alot of these games you just get used to as you grow up but life sure is more interesting thanks to the guy who invented the ball.

I just love watching NFL football, except for all the commercials, so I have to write this article with tongue in cheek. But is there a rule against creativity?  I mean why do 20 teams all run the West Coast offense? And everybod runs a 4-3 or a 3-4 defense. To my way of thinking sports is kind of like war strategy and surprise is clearly an element of war. I remember years ago the Dallas Cowboys had Cunningham, Sheppard, Dorset and Walker and actually experimeted running a wishbone. They had world class speed in these guys and I appreciate they wanted Danny White to quarterback; but it would have been great to see the odd series run with this new concept. Plus, the opposition has to prepare for stuff like this and if it is suited to your personnel they can't really duplicate it. KInd of like when teams in the old days had to prepare to play the Oklahoma Sooners but couldn't simulate their speed in practice and it had to be learned during the actual game. I would love to see a new defense or a new offense. Closest I have seen recently is the two down linemen used by New England. I also liked last year when Jeff Fisher knew he was outmanned by the Colts and did lots of onside kicks. If a couple more bounces went their way, they might have made it close. And who wouldn't like to see a Michael Vick line up in a single wing and make use of all of his talent. At least go back and view the old films of the Minnesota Vikings, back in the days of Fran Tarkenton. How many times did they roll him out to throw? You can't tell me that Fran could out run Vick! With any kind of luck I hope the Tennesee Titans with Vince Young will not try to make a pocket passer out of him like what they are doing with Vick and what happened to Kordel Stewart. I think anyone who paid close attention to the draft realized that taking Young really means a commitment to his style of option football. And I still can't imagine why the Falcons don't do the same with Vick, especially looking at his high completion ratio when he throws "outside the box"! From a formation perspective, I would love to see a team line up in a wishbone and run a play or two and then line up in it but take the two pieces of the bone and shift them to the line of scrimmage. Thus, giving you 4 wideouts. Of course, this would be done so the opposition couldn't get their nickel package in.

I would also like to see teams come up with stuff like the old Army, "lonely end" or some new guys like "the fridge" or "Butch Cassidy and Sundance". Is it just coincidence that these teams were really good and we remember them? I'm sure it would get lots of ink from the sportscasters too.

And getting back to strategy outside the box, if I am coaching I am not kicking the ball to Dante Hall of the Chiefs. In fact, until they make a rule against it I wouldn't kick on fourth down to anybody. I would be happy to take 40+ yards from the line of scrimmage and kick the ball deep and out of bounds every time until there is a rule change. Do the math and tell me that over the course of a season you would not come out ahead. Take the average return, not to mention the back breaking returns,  and do the math. I admit it is great to watch a punt return; but to me it is not the wisest strategy. And when will we see a team with a great defense get near mid field and assume they are in four down territory? In fact how about a team with a great offense and a weaker defense doing the same? I'd like to see a computer analysis of this. In fact I would love to see Larry Johnson of the Chiefs run the ball four times and see how many times he wouldn't get 10 yards. Of course the odd pass thrown in just to keep the defense honest. When are we going to see a team come out and go for two after the first score just because they spotted something in the other team and know they can beat the NFL average? Reminded me of the Chiefs and Bucks last year scoring on fourth down on the last play o####ame. Now that is exciting and although it won't always work; they were the right calls. And talk about a strategy that needs a tune up. How about "The Prevent Defense". You know the one that prevents you from winning. Good grief the team stops the other team all day long and then gives them a chance to win by slacking off. I can appreciate that if there is not much time left you play deep and make them throw underneath and kill the last minute o####ame. But really, how many times have we seen this backfire when teams go into a shell and do this too early? It would be like a chess player almost mating the opposition but slacking off the attack and giving the opponent a chance. Take a tip from a chess player and press the advantage and don't change something that the opposition is already having difficulty with into something that gives them a chance to win. The coaches need to review how much time is left and the reality of how many points are scored in the last 5 minutes of games. And another area that really needs a look see is punt coverage. You'd think some of these guys don't know the rules. I bet I saw 30-40 punts last year alone where the kicking team was at the opponents 40 yard line and trying to pin them deep. We see a great kick that could easily be downed at the one or inside the one but a mental mistake turns the game around and they get a touchback. Somebody steps on the goal line first, or was out of bounds and can't touch the ball, or slides into the end zone with the batt etc. You want creativity, I have seen more ways to mess this play up than I can think of.

And how about play selection. Well, I like the Colts, but bless their hearts when it comes to the playoffs what are they thinking? Year before last they play the Patriots and Pats blitzed them once in the first quarter and the Colts went gun shy the rest of the game. The Pats never blitzed again and the Colts thought they were and kept throwing undereath all the time  and to "hot reads". If you recall this was when the Pats were all beat up in the secondary and playing offensive receivers on defense and the Colts threw one 17 yard compeltion. They never threw the ball deep and didn't play up tempo football. Instead they tried to beat the Pats at their game. The Colt defense played good but the offense played the wrong strategy almost throughout. At the end of the first half they went into a two minute offense and moved the ball right down the field. That's the last we saw of that. Come on Colts, you are an up tempo team so play to your strength. Then last year capped it. Before the last drive when Vanderjack missed the barn, ala Lee Marvin in Cat Ballou, the Steelers blitzed four times in a row and nailed Manning almost every time and there was no "hot read". And of course football fans remember "The Immaculate Reception", "The Catch", and "The Drive" but fortuneately for Jerome Bettis, nobody will remember, "The Fumble." If the Colt that recovered the "Bus's" fumble cuts to the outside then Rothlesberger doesn't make "The Tackle" and the Colts win. Not only does Pittsburgh get eliminated but "The Fumble" is the biggest blunder in the history of playoff football and Jerome might not get voted into the Hall of Fame. Looks alot better  on his resume to have a Super Bowl win than a playoff blunder. But, now after a reasonable return, the Colts have a golden opportunity to win the game as the Steelers are in shock. But the play calling is again lousy resulting in only a longish field goal attempt that goes way wide. I know the woulda coulda shouldas are easy after the game but even the announcers were questioning the play calling as it happened. Somebody in that organization should get a grip on strategy.

The Paperfungo was part of the University of Nebraska 1965 team which still holds the team E.R. record. Later, he went on to Team Canada. This post is about an anylysis of a player. The dad who received it said that it contained more baseball knowledge and more specifics of how his kid could reach his potential than in all the camps and coaches' comments he experienced all put together. You be the judge.

Hi Ken, I went to Kevin's game yesterday and it was great weather. I was really impressed with the talent he has and the game was closer than the 0-4 score suggests. While everything is fresh in my mind I will pass on to you the jist of what I told Kevin after the game down in the bullpen by ourselves. You never know sometimes what people get from what is said. But here's my take on the conversation. First off, I told him that he had a great deal of talent. He has an outstanding curve ball, change up and slider and good movment on the fastball. In my view he is kind of sneaky fast right now and got going to blow this level away with his heater; but still throws fast enough. In a couple of years as he gets even stronger he may be able to just blow guys away but not at the moment. I told him I charted his pitches and showed him a graph of where the balls ended up. I know in the stands they were keeping a pitch count and what was thrown but my chart showed where, up or down, inside or outside the ball actually ended up. In his six innings he only threw one fastball inside and it was about 6 inches off the plate about ball high and the cleanup hitter about crapped. Even the two guys behind me commented on nice pitch. And I was thinking this is great because I would have showed something in the first inning inside, just to establish this. The opposing pitcher who only walked one guy and had good control hit the first hitter in the butt. Even though no doubt by accident it had a good overall effect. In fact I told Kevin this, but added that you don't have to hit the guy but put one pitch inside at least once an inning. With some lefties I wouldn't even suggest this but Kevin has very good control. He is never unnerved by getting behind in the count, this usually happens when he is being squeezed by a pitch or two. For the most part he was ahead in the count all night long. Anyway, I want to impress upon him to establish an inside presence so the hitters are not leaning and his meat and potatoes with his fast ball is low and outside. So, up and in with the fast ball and he can at times pitch low and outside for a strike out pitch. I might add that he has a very nice tail on one of his fastballs that tails away from a right handed hitter. That's the one I think is his best fastball. Almost every time he got two strikes and no balls on a hitter he tries to overthrow for velocity on his fast ball and it goes way high and outside to a right handed hitter. I told him that to me this does nothing. This is a great time to use that pitch inside; especially if he wants to hump up on the speed and then get it up head high and inside and scare the hell out of the hitter. Cause he doesn't know where it's going either! I told him that both he and his brother are very nice guys but at 6' 4" he can be meaner out there and very intimidating.

Now to the next point. In warm ups I was really impressed as everything he threw was knee high. I was expecting a lefty to be up and a bit wild. Man he can trhow strikes with all the off speed stuff till the cows come home and pretty good with the fastball too. However, once the game started his pitches with the fast ball were up like thigh to belt and too fat. And worse he  threw this when he was up in the count. Not like they tagged him alot as they only hit one ball hard way deep to centerfield and was caught. The rest of about 5 or 6 singles were dinks and dunks with him up in the count giving them too good a pitch. I can't emphasize this enough. And mostly the too good a pitch was the fastball. From what I could pick up from watching the pattern of pitches the catcher was calling. He did a very good job of mixing up the pitches which is what I infer the coach wants. But he doesn't have a clue about setting up a hitter or establishing anything. If you get my meaning. Kevin may have to shake him off alot and learn to take control of the clutch situations himself. If I was a hitter off Kevin I would just go up there and look for one good fastball every at bat and lay off all the off speed stuff and guaranteed I will get a pitch to hammer. And a nice strike pitch too and about thigh to belt high. You know me, I am one of the best guess hitters, and extremely accurate. I always guess unless I have two strikes on me and then I sit fast ball land adjust from there. Back to setting up a hitter. Kevin didn't establish anything. I told Kevin if I was catching the other team would not have scored tonight. Here's how I view his pitches. He has a great curveball. Lots of break at a good speed and lots of late break. Nobody touched his curve ball. It breaks down and away every time except when he starts it way outside to a righty and it comes back and hits the outside corner. Usually they give up on this pitch as the break is so much and every hitter that swung on it was out in front. So it is just slow enough to mess them up. My curve ball was much slower. Anyway, I would use this as my main strike out pitch if I was Kevin. With 1-2, 2-2 or 3-2 counts until somebody shows me they can hit it. HIs catcher might have called this a coupple of times by accident but mainly it was sliders over curve balls 3-1. It is way easier to hit a slider sitting fast ball than a curve. Then on occasion to keep them guessing I would use the fastball low, knee high and outside corner or up and in for the strike out pitch. His fast ball would look like it was shot out of a cannon. The way that game was called last night pretty much all of his pitches are what I call up tempo. He threw three sliders for every curve and probably as much fastballs as sliders with the odd change up thown in. To me he should get ahead with the slider or low fast ball and use the curve as the strike out if they have seen the fastball and us the fastball if they have seen the curve. (or curve and more curve if ahead in the count.) What I like about his change-up is that it darts down and is rarely a strike but looks like a strike which makes it another good strikeout pitch. In fact as a general rule I would use the law fast ball and slider and the odd change to get ahead in the count and the curve ball as the strike out pitch with the fastball and even mix the change as the strikeout pitch with the fastball up around the ears. I told Kevin that when I played semi-pro a catcher named Ron Blessie would put his glove behind the hitters head on 0-2 and I would throw it there. This was also the lesson I got from Bob Gibson at a baseball camp in Omaha as a kid. The pitcher owns the outside corner and don't be afraid to pitch inside to keep the hitters honest. I explained to Kevin that baseball is about getting ahead in the count and making the hitter hit your pitch and the batter wants to be ahead in the count and make you throw what he wants to hit. Barring large discrepensies in talent the side that does this one thing the best wins. What he is doing is getting ahead in the count and then giving the hitter a strike to hit instead of a pitch that looks like a strike but isn't. That curve ball is fantastic for this; as if anthing it goes down below the knees sometimes but always down. I can only imagine how tough he is on lefties; as the team he played last night had only one lefty in the lineup. To me Kevin at this point is a curve ball pitcher who lhas a great change and slider and is sneaky fast. I would guess mid eighties based on the guy that cam in after him who was not nearly as quick and they said low eighties on him. To me this means at the high school level you can blow guys away but at the college level the fast ball is not a strikeout pitch in the strike zone unless it is low and on the corner or up and in or afterlots of offspeed stuff and is most effective off the plate inside as he has the stuff to be outstanding at the college level using that curve ball. And to me it is rarely called by the current catcher and should be thrown way more as it is his best pitch and should be used in the clutch counts and when in trouble. Plus, it creates a bigger difference in speed or in other words contrast between his slowest and fastest. To me once your slowest is in mind then your 85 mile an hour fastball looks like 90. Als, I was noticing where the guys in the batters box are with reference to up or back in the box. None of them were up in the box. Which to me means that they respect his speed and this makes that great curve ball even meaner by the time it hits a later break pont when they can make contact with it. Then in time when he is a bit stronger he might be 90 with lthe fastball without overthrowing. Then we can adjust the percentage of fastballs thrown and the location. It would give even more choices to us in developing a strategy. I think the odd pitch when he humps up on it around 90 now. Now that I have seen him pitch I don't think he needs to drop down every from the side as he already has plenty of break on the curve to establish the very same thing. What I wouldn't mind seeing him try would be to come straight over the top with the curve ball like 12-6. In fact I think he did this once. From what I could tell he is up top like betwee 1 &2. It would not be a get ahead pitch but another strike out pitch for right handed hitters as the break would be more up and down and then he could use that tailing fast ball too. That's a combination I used aginset lefties as a right handed pitcher and he would be just the opposite.

Kevin is calm and cool but pitches too quick with runners on base. Some of the time I felt he was n a groove and every so often I felt he threw too quick and then I put a watch on him and between the time the catcher caught the last pitch and he threw the next was about 1--12 seconds. I started timing the other pitcher too and he was nearly as quick as Kevn but slowed down when runners were on and coincidence or not he got a double play ball when he took 16 seconds between pitches. It was a blast for me to see him pitch and I hope my comments will serve well in the future.

P.S. Kevin's next start was a complete game shutout and he used the information.

The 2006-2207 football season is just around the corner and Cincinnati and Pittsburgh might both go 13-3 year. That is 13 arrests and three convictions! Actually, in the AFC I see larry Johnson of the K.C. Chiefs running for 2,000 yards and leading them to a championship. Herman Edwards is a defensive coach and rumors out of K.C. are tht the offense is having trouble scoring on the defense for the first time in years. Herm is also running their butts off and they will for the first time in years be in football shape. A little known fact is that the Chiefs were respectable for most of the season last year on defense and ranked 13th on the Aikman efficiency rankings. If you haven't heard about this, check it out;as the bogus yards only measurement for ranking is absurd.  The Chiefs are also 20-0 at home in December which can't hurt. For sure the Colts, Bengals and Patriots will be in the thick of it;but I see some new teams arriving this season. The Cleveland Browns will be a force to be reckoned with. With the addition of Charles LeBentley, two year pro-bowler, to open up holes for Droughns, the return of Kellen Winslow at tight end, the return of Braylon Edwards at wide out and the acquisition of Joe Jurevicius at receiver from the Seahawks, will really help second year quarterback Charlie Frye. Then on defense they got Willie McGinest from New England and Ted Washington to plug the middle. They actually played well last year on defense even though their personnel didn't match the new 3-4. This team should give the fans in the dog-pound something to cheer about. I look for them to actually take the lead in a very tough AFC North this year; because of early loses for Pittsburgh and Cincy. With Steve McNair quarterbacking in Baltimore and an improved Cincy team on defense, this could be the toughest division in football, rivaling the NFC East. I also look for Jacksonville and Miami to make a run for their respective division titles. The Jags 12-4, last year, are due and no team of recent history has won four consecutive dvision titles; a chore the Colts are trying to achieve this year.

In the NFC I see the Chicago Bears as a probable to have home field throughout the playoffs. They have the easiest schedule by far of the top contenders and with the addition of Brian Griese as a back-up to a healthy Rex Grossman and the first five draft picks on defense,this team is loaded for bear. Their defense, through 12 games last season had the highest ranking in history and then Mike Brown went down.This unit could set records this year and the offense will score more points. You've got to like the Seattle Seahawks on paper; but time will tell if they can break the jinx of recent super bowl losers. And for the record Pittsburgh will not be back to the big dance or even close. I think the Dallas Cowboys will take their travelling circus, featuring head clown Terrell Owens, around the league and be a dominant force. I really like that they ran a two tight end offense about 40% of the time last year and with all pro Whitten back plus Notre Dame tight end Anthony Fasaon, they plan to create a lot of problems on mismatches in the passing game. They should be able to isolate a big tight end on a shorter corner or on a linebacker and that's not to mention teams can't double cover Terry Glenn this year. One unnamed AFC coach was asked how to stop this and he he just said, "I'm glad we don't have to face them until a possible super bowl match-up." In addition to the passing power, it will make teams play seven in the box and open up a tremendous season for Julius Jones and Marion Barber. The biggest hurdle besides Owens the Cowboys have to overcome is their schedule of tough dvision games, facing the tough NFC South and Indy and Jacksonville. This two tight end set up was good for the Chiefs last season and they didn't have an Owens on the outside.

In college ball, I am not a Notre Dame fan, so when I say watch out here they come, they are coming. With Brady Quinn settled in at quarterback. watch for second year coach Charlie Weiss to make a bid for number one. Ohio State should be right there too and they play Texas early without Vince Young. It was a close win last year for Texas but I think they will need more balance to pee on the big dawgs this year. I see Cal replacing USC at the top of the Pack 10 and big seasons for Michigan, Auburn, West Virginia and Nebraska. The Cornhuskers gave notice last year by whipping Michigan in a bowl game and even S.I. has them tabbed for 16th in their early top 25. If they can take out USC, without Leinhert and Bush, in their game three this year, look out--the Huskers are back. ala Paul Newman!