I love you Dad!

I posted this on Facebook last year on Father's Day, and I thought today would be a good time to post it on here and share it again. We all have memories with our dads; this is one of my favorite.

     This Father’s Day I want to take just a few minutes of your time. All I ask is for you to think back and recall one memory with your father. Whether it was playing catch in the front yard or him helping you with home work, go tell him thank you and that you appreciate him being there for you. Not everyone is lucky enough to have a dad.
     For me, this one memory has to be my trip to New York City with him. We went during the summer of 2008, a month or so before his 40th birthday. It was the last season of old Yankee Stadium, and being the sports fans we are, we wanted to see a game before it was torn down. In what was basically a bucket list trip, we took a whirlwind tour of the city. We walked down Broadway and Wall St., ate at the ESPN Zone, went to the top of the Empire State Building at night, toured Monument Park at Yankee Stadium, sat through an hour or two long rain delay, and finally saw a Yankee game.
     The game seemed to be the climax of the trip…until we attempted getting home. Like many commuters in NYC, my dad and I used the subway system. Unfortunately, it takes a rocket scientist to figure out which stop to get off at because we got off at the wrong one, setting off a series of interesting events.
     As soon as we got off the subway, we knew something was wrong because nothing looked familiar. It got even worse when we got above ground and realized we were in a rough looking part of Queens, after dark nonetheless. We thought we lucked out when we saw several taxis at a nearby gas station, but that soon turned out to be false hopes. Apparently, when taxi drivers reach the end of their shift, they fill up the gas tank and do NOT give rides to people, no matter how much you beg. Furthering our problem was the fact that my dad’s cell phone was dead and mine was barely hanging on to life. We were barely able to call my mom and get the address to our hotel (which we didn’t have since the subway station put us right by it, making the address pointless to know). After getting the address, we started walking.
     At some point during the walk, we had to cross a bridge…a very dimly lit bridge. Halfway over the bridge, we saw a couple of guys getting into a fight. My dad looked down at me and very calmly asked, “You wanna run?” To which I quickly replied, “Yes, please!” Sprinting across that bridge has to be the scariest, funniest moment of my life. Once on the other side, my dad slouched over and put his hands on his knees from exhaustion. Obviously, the adrenaline was pumping and I joked with his saying, “Come on old man! I’m ready to go again!”
     Finally, we found a taxi driver that would take us to our hotel and we made it back alive around midnight. The next morning, my dad was a little sore from the run, but other than that, we were completely fine and were able to just joke about the whole situation. Looking back on it, I know that it is something I’ll always remember, even after my dad is gone. We all have these moments and memories with our dads, but we don’t usually thank them. So thank you dad, I love you and truly appreciate everything you do for me and our family. I couldn’t ask for a better dad than you!

What is the best conference in NCAA Division I?

            After Alabama beat Oklahoma to win the Women’s College World Series in softball, I saw a tweet that said the SEC had won nine national championships so far. Knowing that stat and being an Arkansas fan, I immediately thought that the SEC was the most dominate conference in the NCAA. I wanted to prove this statistically, so I decided to do a little research.

            The first thing I did, was look up how many Division I sports the NCAA sponsors. I found that there are 36: baseball, men’s/women’s basketball, women’s bowling, men’s/women’s cross country, fencing, women’s field hockey, football, men’s/women’s golf, men’s/women’s gymnastics, men’s/women’s ice hockey, men’s/women’s indoor track & field, men’s/women’s lacrosse, men’s/women’s outdoor track & field, rifle, women’s rowing, skiing, men’s/women’s soccer, softball, men’s/women’s swimming & diving, men’s/women’s tennis, men’s/women’s volleyball, men’s/women’s water polo, and wrestling.

            Then, I looked up the champion and runner up for the sport during the 2011-12 school year, and what conference they were in. Finally, I looked up the All-Americans in each sport for this year, and what conference they were in.

            It sounds easy, but it has taken me about three days to compile all of the information and crunch the numbers. Before I get into the results, just a few notes:

• In some sports, the “BCS conferences” didn’t exist as we know them in the major sports. For example, in ice hockey, there were special conferences. Boston College is in the ECAC and Wisconsin and Minnesota are in the WCHA. However, for purposes of this project, I still grouped the schools with the conference that a majority of their sports play in (EX: Boston College in the ACC, Wisconsin and Minnesota in the Big Ten).

• Notre Dame is an independent in football (which really doesn’t matter, since they weren’t the champion, runner-up, and had no All-Americans), but for all other sports, I put them with the Big East conference.

• Conference alliances have been changing drastically the past couple years, but I put teams in the conference they competed in during the 2011-12 year. Missouri and Texas A&M are still in the Big XII, while Utah and Colorado are in the Pac-12 and Nebraska is in the Big Ten.

• Some sports have multiple outlets name All-American teams. Most notably, college football has All-American teams named by the Associated Press (AP), Walter Camp Football Foundation, and several others. When this happened, I went with the most recognized organization. In football, I went with the AP All-American team.
• With the All-American teams, I only counted the All-Americans that played on teams that are in one of the “BCS conferences” (ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big XII, Pac-12, and SEC). Figuring out what conferences some of the tiny schools were in would have taken way too much time and in the long run, the BCS conferences will have way more All-Americans. (Well, maybe except for the Big East. I’m still not sure how they are a “BCS conference.”)
• The All-American team for women's water polo hasn't been released yet and I can not find the All-American team for skiing. If someone knows where I can find the All-American skiing team, please let me know!
• The baseball College World Series is still ongoing and a champion won’t be determined until June 25^th or 26^th. Also, the only All-American team that has been released is the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper All-American team. However, the Baseball America team is the premier one, so I am waiting until it comes out to include the baseball All-Americans.

Now, that aside, it’s time for some facts.

• The SEC has won nine national championships, while the Pac-12 has won eight. The other conferences fall in the order of Big Ten (6), ACC (4), Big XII (2), and Big East (1).
• The Pac-12 has the most national championship runner-ups with eight, one ahead of the SEC who has seven. Following them is the Big XII (6), ACC (5), Big Ten (4), and Big East (1).
• As for All-Americans, the Pac-12 leads the way with 377, followed by the SEC with 345. The Big Ten holds a slight advantage over the Big XII, 264 to 261. The ACC had 141 All-Americans and the Big East has 67.

So what all does that mean? Well, I went with a classic 3-2-1 points system. National championships were worth three points, runner-ups were worth two points, and All-American selections were worth one point.

I’ll spare you from having to hunt down a calculator (or pull up the app on your smartphone) and give you the results:

1^st: Pac-12 (417 points)

2^nd: SEC (386 points)

3^rd: Big Ten (290 points)

4^th: Big XII (279 points)

5^th: ACC (163 points)

6^th: Big East (72 points)

Surprised? I was. I figured the SEC would be hands down the best conference in the NCAA, but as you can see above, the Pac-12 has a 31 point lead on the SEC. A little more thinking as I came up with an explanation as to why the Pac-12 has such a big lead on the SEC.

The Pac-12 has traditionally been a powerhouse in sports like water polo and men’s volleyball, as well as a few other sports. The SEC, on the other hand, doesn’t even field teams in these sports. In fact, of the 36 NCAA Division I sports, the SEC and Pac-12 only compete against each other in 20 of them.

If you only take those 20 sports (actually only 19 right now because baseball is still in progress) and do the same 3-2-1 points system, the SEC and Pac-12 flip-flop. The SEC has a slight lead over the Pac-12; only six points separate them (374-368). Now both conferences still have teams in the College World Series and these numbers could change, but don’t get too excited Pac-12 lovers, I don’t think the standings will go back in your favor. Here’s why:

• The SEC has three teams left and the Pac-12 has two, but for both conferences, the teams are on the same side of the bracket. Therefore, there can’t be an SEC vs. SEC final or a Pac-12 vs. Pac-12 final. This means that the most points either conference could get from a national champion/runner-up is three.
• The only way the Pac-12 would earn three points and the SEC not earn any from the College World Series is if Kent St. reaches the final and loses to Arizona or UCLA.
• Also, Baseball America hasn’t named their All-American team yet, but don’t expect the Pac-12 to greatly outnumber the SEC. In Collegiate Baseball Newspaper’s All-American team, the SEC has four members, while the Pac-12 only has two. These two publications aren’t always identical, but they won’t be that much different.

Of course I am going to point to the last few stats that say the SEC is the best conference because I am an SEC fan. You may be a Pac-12 fan and point to the overall stats. Regardless, it is safe to say that the SEC and Pac-12 are the best conferences in the NCAA today. If you think I left out an important factor, let me hear it! It is a fun debate and I welcome all feedback/arguments.

Doubleday Field - Cooperstown, NY

            A couple years ago, I traveled to Amarillo, Texas with my papa. Unsure of what there was to do, I did a little research and found that they had a minor league baseball team. It was only an independent league team that played in an old, kind of run-down stadium, but I really enjoyed the experience because it had an old timey feel to it. (I wrote an article about it that I will post later.)

            I got the same feeling yesterday, when I attended a game at Doubleday Field in Cooperstown, NY. I was there touring the Hall of Fame and I, again, did a little research and found that there was a game there at 10:00 in the morning. Instead of even independent league teams, it was two Men’s Senior League Baseball (MSLB) teams from Long Island, New York.

            Nonetheless, I was excited to see a game. My girlfriend, Kelcee, recently gave me a scorebook for graduation because she knows how much I love keeping score at baseball games, and I have been dying to use it.

            I showed up right at 10:00 and the players had just started warming up. Initially, I had no idea who the teams were. I finally figured it out when I overheard the kid working the scoreboard (who was also the son of one of the players) say that it was the Knights and the Black Sox from Long Island. A little asking around found that the Knights were a 35 years and older team, while the Black Sox were a 25 years and older team, both in the MSLB.

            The game itself wasn’t that great, as the younger Black Sox flexed their muscles, leading 6-0 after five innings when I left. They were aided by a three-run homerun in the second inning by #32 (I never got their names). The pitcher for the Knights was not a normal pitcher (according to the scoreboard kid), and you could tell. He lobbed balls over the plate so soft that I could have knocked one over the wall. Also, several of the men were out of shape. Routine fly balls weren’t routine any more, and easy groundouts to third base became adventuresome. However, the nuances of the field and the experience made the game worthwhile.

            When a batter hit a ball out of play, kids watching the game would run after the balls and get them, like they would anywhere else. What made this game unique is that they asked for the balls back because they would run out of balls otherwise. The players promised to give them all a ball after the game when they didn’t need them anymore.

            It reminded me of the things I’ve read that said in the early 1900s, professional teams would go through an entire game with a single ball. Today, that is unheard of, at any level. In fact, professional teams use a new ball about every ten pitches.

            Some balls hit out of play weren’t able to be retrieved. After one ball hit into the bleachers down the first base line, I heard one of the players say, “Oh that one’s in the stream.” Obviously, this caught my attention because I didn’t see any body of water near the stadium when I came in. So on my way out of the park, I went that direction to investigate. Sure enough, there was a little stream of drainage going underneath the bleachers. Any ball that got in it would be soaked and not suitable for play.

            These nuances, combined with the fact that it was an old park in the city where baseball was supposedly (although highly unlikely) invented, made me feel as if I went through a time machine, much like I felt in Amarillo a couple years ago.

            I really thought I had gone back in time when I overheard one of the umpires talking to the manager of the Knights. He said, “I love this game, I’d [umpire] for free, but the boss tells me he has to pay me.” That’s the way all ballplayers used to be. Babe Ruth, Stan Musial, Willie Mays, and all of the baseball legends from many years ago didn’t care about money. They just loved the game and wanted to play. If players these days had the same sentiment, the game as we know it would be far better.

Day Six - travel home!

            In school, I’ve always been a math/numbers guy (so I decided to become a journalist- makes sense right?). As I sit here on the plane, flying from Baltimore to Little Rock, everything I did this past week is coming to me as a bunch of numbers. Here’s a few…

-4 full days on the trip

-5 total nights on the trip. Two nights in Niagara Falls, Canada, two in Herkimer, NY (about 40 minutes north of Cooperstown, NY), and one in Buffalo, NY (by the airport).

-2 countries visited (Canada and the U.S.)

-3 main destinations (Niagara Falls, Canada, Toronto, Canada, and Cooperstown, NY)

-3 airports used (Buffalo, NY, Baltimore, MD, and Little Rock, AR)

-5 stadiums/arenas seen and/or visited. I saw from a distance where the Toronto Maple Leafs play, I was really close to where the Toronto Blue Jays play, I watched a game at Doubleday Field in Cooperstown, I visited Dreams Park in Cooperstown, and I took pictures of Falcon Park in Auburn, NY (a minor league park)

-2 Hall of Fames visited. I toured the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto and the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.

-55 different colleges represented by people I saw wearing t-shirts, jackets, hats, etc. The Big Ten was the conference I saw the most (nine different schools), with the SEC second (eight different schools- not including Missouri and Texas A&M, which would make it ten and the most). I also saw schools from the ACC (seven), Big XII (six- includes Missouri and Texas A&M), Big East (six), Pac-12 (five), and 14 others from smaller conferences.

            Those numbers alone give you an idea of how much stuff we did on this trip. I was up well past midnight every night and am finally feeling the effects of it. I usually never sleep on flights, but I slept about half of the flight from Buffalo to Baltimore, and I slept clear through take off and the first 45 minutes of this flight. Although, I am definitely no complaining!

            I made memories on this trip with my parents and Granna that will last me a lifetime. I can’t wait until my next trip and I hope that everyone else has the opportunity to see the awesome sight of Niagara Falls and to visit the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Day Five - Cooperstown and travel to Buffalo

            Well, today was my last full day in New York, and I definitely made it count. We got up early, spent a lot of time in Cooperstown, and then headed to Buffalo, where we’re staying by the airport.

            After some research last night, I found out that there was a game at Doubleday Field at 10:00 this morning, so I made it a point to go. I had no idea who was playing, but I love baseball and would have watched it no matter what. It ended up being a Men’s Summer League Baseball game. You can read all about my experience at Doubleday Field by coming back tomorrow when I post an article about the game and the nuances of the stadium.

            The rest of the time in Cooperstown was spent shopping. Every store was a treasure trove of baseball (all sports really) cards, books, or other memorabilia. It is truly a sports fan’s heaven. I probably spent $100 on stuff, and could have easily spent $10,000.

            I’d say my proudest moment of the trip happened today, too. While going through the Baseball Hall of Fame yesterday, I realized that there was a mistake in one of the exhibits. The 2011 World Series exhibit claimed that the St. Louis Cardinals (my favorite team) have won 12 World Championships, when I know that they have only won 11. I didn’t have time yesterday, so I went back today and informed them of the error. They left a note for the manager, took my email address, and said they would contact me. I am hoping and praying I get an email from the Hall of Fame that says, “You are right, and we are wrong.” That would be awesome!

            We ate lunch in Cooperstown at a place called Alex and Ika, which is apparently a big deal. Rachel Ray ate there. I wasn’t impressed though. The food was too fancy for me. I ordered a burger, and they found a way to make it fancy. The cornichons (that’s “pickles” for you normal folk like me) were tiny and you couldn’t really put them on the burger. The lettuce wasn’t normal lettuce; it was spinach leaves (that looked like leaves they went out back and picked off a tree). It’s safe to say that I won’t be eating there again.

            Finally, we left the baseball Mecca and headed toward Buffalo, where we’re staying tonight. Instead of taking the boring interstate, we opted for the scenic route. We went down highway 20 most of the way, passing through many small, historic New York cities and villages.

            One of the cities we passed through was Auburn, New York. A quick Wikipedia search found that it was home to the Willard Memorial Chapel, which has stained-glass and interior decoration by Louis Comfort Tiffany, “the last surviving complete installation by Tiffany in its original location.” Further research revealed that the famous Tiffany & Co. (famous for jewelry) is the company that makes the Super Bowl trophies every year. Also in Auburn was Falcon Park, home of the short-season single-A Auburn Doubledays. The park was small, but had a cool Minor League feel to it.

            When we hit the interstate, it was a straight shot to Buffalo and we made it to our hotel. It’s been a fun five days, but I am ready to be back home!

Day Four - Cooperstown

            Wow. I’ve waited 18 years to see the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, and it was worth the wait. I had goose bumps all over my body as I walked up to the Mecca of baseball. When I saw that Barry Larkin was one of the 2012 inductees, a flood of memories came over me.

            It may seem silly, but my little brother, Sam, and I used to play a game on the computer called Backyard Baseball, where you chose a team of Major Leaguers, but they were in animated kid form. One of the things I remember from the game is that when you hit a homerun with Barry Larkin, the game would say “Larkin parkin’ the ball in the bleachers!”

            Once inside the Hall of Fame, I encountered more nostalgia. Memorabilia from before Ty Cobb to Josh Hamilton covered the walls. Being a sports history buff, I enjoyed reading the facts and stories attached to the artifacts. The actual Hall of Fame itself was amazing, too. Seeing the plaques of the 297 greatest players/managers/figures in the history of the sport was incredible. I wish I had time and space to talk about all of the stuff I saw, but there was simply too much. You’ll have to go yourself!

            The Hall did have a special section about Fenway Park and I saw stuff like Curt Schilling’s bloody sock (so cool). They had a box and cards there where you could write your personal memory of Fenway and it would be stored in the archives at the Hall of Fame, so I sat down and wrote my experience from about a month and a half ago, when I watched the Red Sox take on the Yankees on April 20^th, the 100^th birthday of the legendary park.

            My mom provided the funniest moment of the day when she was looking at all the teams and their retired jersey numbers. After about 20 teams, she asked my dad, “How many teams did Jackie Robinson play for?!” Since I wasn’t there, my dad had to explain to her that Jackie’s #42 is retired across the entire MLB, and that he only played for the Brooklyn Dodgers (although he was traded to the New York Giants before retiring, he never played a game with them).

            While the Hall of Fame was the main attraction, a ton of other cool stuff was in Cooperstown. The entire street was full of sports memorabilia shops. It is probably the only place in the world that I actually wanted to go into every store on the street. I would also say it’s a safe bet that it’s the only place in the world that it’s acceptable for a man to go “shopping,” as most women would interpret the word (aka- go into every store and spend HOURS looking at and buying stuff).

            We also saw Doubleday Field, which wasn’t too far from the Hall of Fame. It is home to the Cooperstown Hawkeyes, a collegiate summer league baseball team, as well as various events like the Hall of Fame Game (now the Hall of Fame Classic) and other amateur baseball games. About four miles south of Cooperstown, we went to Dreams Park, an enormous little league competitive baseball facility. There were a TON of people there, as the little kids were competing in a skills challenge before the actually tournament starts tomorrow.

            To say the least, it was an awesome day for sports, which means it was an awesome day for me! We’re going back into Cooperstown tomorrow to finish shopping and to maybe catch a game at Doubleday Field, depending on the weather (there’s a 40% chance of rain). Regardless, this trip has been great so far!