A long post, mostly sports related

You may remember that we saw the Vice President's limo go by my workplace last week. Turns out, after his speech there were still people outside the building, waving and cheering as his motorcade went down the road. Biden stopped the limo, unexpectedly as the rest of the detail traveled on, got out and shook a bunch of hands.

The Vice President attached himself to one my co-workers, would not let go of her hand as he talked to people, asked for their names. He suggested they take a group shot on the stairs, which produced a wonderful photo that I wish I could post here, but it's not mine to post.

I left about an hour earlier so I do not feel bad about missing him. If it was ten minutes though, I'd be kicking myself for a missed opportunity. It was a great experience for librarians!

The NC$$ issued what it thinks is a severe and unprecedented penalty on Penn State University. In addition to scholarship reductions and losing post season opportunities for four years, the University was also fined sixty million dollars for covering up Jerry Sandusky's being a child rapist.

The one thing the NC$$ did that shocked me was erasing the wins of the team going back to 1998, when the cover up for Sandusky's crimes of child rape began. This wiped out coach Joe Paterno's coaching wins record, and most of his legacy at Penn State. A clear message was sent with this punishment.

A lot of people were expecting the 'death penalty', the team being shut down. However, as the NC$$ explains in its 'rules', the death penalty only goes to teams that deliberately cheated to gain advantage on the field. This is a tragic and unique case. I think the penalties issued are fair, justly harsh. In some ways, even worse than the death penalty, the program is going to be weak for many years. I am surprised that they did not issue a ban on playing, or that the team was not allowed to appear on television. The football culture of the university is going to be difficult to change. I do not think the administration really gets it, not in the theater they used in tearing down Paterno's statue early Sunday morning. Change has to start at the top, where the trouble and cover ups for child rape lie.

Going back to the sixty million dollars though. That is a lot of money. it's supposed to go toward helping sexual abuse survivors. I do hope this is the case, and that helping and healing victims comes from this tragic series of events. That money could go a long way to help.

The horrors of the Colorado theater shooting still resonate. It's still easier to buy weapons online that liquor in this country. Peace to the victims and their families. Strength to all the victims. I do not have any more words for this.

The Blue Jackets finally traded the franchise today, shipping Rick Nash to the Rangers. An expected move. I think Howson got the best deal he could, now and at the trade deadline it would have been about the same. Dubinsky is a solid player. Anisimov is a young scoring center with some upside. Erixson is a young defenseman with a lot of potential. They're very deep and competitive at the blue line. Now they have to address the goaltending situation and hope a bunch of players (especially you, Derek Brassard!) start to establish themselves and put the puck in the net. The double teaming of Nash has stopped. It's time for the potential to get to work.

The Blue Jackets also got a number one draft pick, which gives them three for the next draft.

A lot of people do not think Howson got enough for Nash. I do not think any package would have been enough for a lot of people. I wish Nash well. He had it very easy in Columbus for the ten years he was here. Expectations and pressure will be a lot higher in New York. We'll find out if he's capable of handling them.

News comes that Everton's Tim Cahill has been sold to the New York Red Bulls of the MLS. At his best, Cahill was one of the most passionate players on the pitch. An asset to the club. The Aussie often scored with his head then beat the crap out of the corner flag after doing so. I'll miss seeing him do that. In recent years though, I think his production dropped. Time to move on. He'll do well in America.

Then I found out the yankees traded for Ichiro. If anything can rejuvenate one of the greatest singles hitters in the game, a move to a winning team will.

Meanwhile the Mets relief pitching stinks, Jason Bay is worse and the Crew would rather have a tower than a designated player.

Sports calm me, keep my blood going and give me a sad - sometimes all at once.

Can it get any worse? Why yes, it can!

The NHL trade deadline passed yesterday and Rich Nash remains a Blue Jacket. It is understood that the price General Manager Scott Howson was asking was too high, which is all good and fine.

Then Howson had a press conference and announced that Nash was the one who asked to be traded.

I'm still trying to figure out why he did that. To me, this lowers the asking price for Nash. Twenty nine other teams are now certain that the player is the one who wants out, and what team wants a disgruntled player? A franchise player. A team captain.

How does Nash keep the "C" on his jersey after this?

It's going to be another sad ending to a Blue Jackets season, there are still twenty games to go.

How Howson can be given the keys to reassemble a team that is now shattered is beyond me. He is an architect of failure, what type of ownership would let him have the responsibility again?

I think I know the answer to my own question.

Gotta See it Die!

With two days left in the NHL Trading deadline the Blue Jackets have been quite active. Already Antoine Vermette and Jeff Carter have been jettisoned, with draft picks and the question mark that is defenseman Jack Johnson coming into the fold.

Anyone on the team is fair game for a trade. Whatever they can get for Pahlsson is the best deal for an over priced player who has never really shown any worth in his time here. And what of goaltender Steve Mason? How much longer must we continue to watch him fail and flail in net?

But what of Rick Nash? What happens to the face of the franchise?



Rumors of a deal involving Nash have been going around for weeks, but nothing has been done yet. It is said that GM Scott Howson has been asking too much for the captain, and that's alright by me. Maximize his value, get the most you can. It's also being said that if Nash is not dealt by the deadline he will almost certainly be gone over the summer.

I'm still not sure if he needs to be dealt. When the season started Carter, Wisniewski and Nash were being marketed as the cornerstones of the franchise. Tickets were sold based on their potential. As of Monday afternoon, two of these three players may no longer be on the team. What does that say about marketing and management of this franchise, that has had very little success in its ten years in the league?

I give you the record of the last two seasons of this team.

32-35-15

34-35-13

And this year

18-36-7, with 21 games left, a quarter of the season.

To me its clear that the architect of the team, General Manager Scott Howson, has a lot to answer for. The teams he have assembled have frankly, sucked and he's still being trusted to disassemble and polish the turd he has made. For this, I blame team owner John P. McConnell for allowing bad business to continue. Getting next year's All Star Game is not enough. This franchise is inept from the head on down. Moves at the top have to be made. Howson and Team President Mike Priest must go, along with noncontributing players.

Sanford keeps the junk out of the yard

Friends of our asked us if we wanted to go see the Blue Jackets play the Sabres tonight. We were thrilled to say yes. It's true the Blue Jackets have been the doormat of the NHL this season, but their play of the last couple of weeks may indicate that the situation is improving.

I am also a Buffalo Sabres fan, they're my second favorite team. The last time I saw the Sabres and Blue Jackets battle this was the result. I was at this game, which I believe was Pascal Leclaire's last win as net minder for the Blue Jackets.

We had really good seats. The type of seats where your section has wait staff and they show up between periods and hand out the team stats for the game. Impressive.

We were slightly stunned when the home team went up 1-0, and I was elated when Nash deflected a blast from Wisniewski to put them up for good.



The Blue Jackets added to their lead, three, then four goals to nothing by the Sabres. They did not seem to show up tonight. I'm trying to remember when the Blue Jackets chased he other team's starting goalie and I cannot. The Sabres did get one goal back, but Nash scored another goal and the final was 5-1!

Here's the difference maker.



Curtis Sanford has given this team confidence. He's 3-0-2 as a starter for the team, and they played like a team tonight. Players were covering for each other in both zones, they were scrapping, passing well. One Sabre got in a little shot on Sanford after the whistle had blown and The Wiz's reaction was to grab the guy by the neck and nearly throw him to the ice. This grit has been missing from the Blue Jackets for, well, a long time and it's great to see, finally. It's a long season, and one way or the other, anything can happen.

In the city there's a thousand things I want to say to you

The temperature warmed up to about 70 degrees yesterday. Spring may not be here, but you could feel it coming.

After a phone call from my gal in Scotland and watching my son swim I headed downtown to take a look at Huntington Park, the new home of the Columbus Clippers. It opens next month and is looking better than I thought.



It seats 10,000 and there's not a bad seat in the house. My one nit pick is that there does not appear to be a lot of covered seating.

Headed up to Half Price Books and sold a few things for lunch money then headed to Hayden Run Falls. Last summer we went and it was dry.



Not so yesterday.



No one was swimming in the pit though. Was not that warm!

I was doing a good job killing time before auditioning for a spot at the poetry tent of this year's Columbus Arts Festival. I got to the location early. There were no shows so I read early. Did well. Made someone cry, in a good way.

After all that it was time to get some food and relax a bit. I went down to the Short North Gallery Hop and got myself some pizza. It hit the spot. I was headed down to Jeni's on High Street and coming toward me was Ric Ocasek. He was tall, dressed in black with a white cloth wrapped loosely around his neck. It was 1983 all over again. The Cars were the first band I saw live and their music made high school suck less. I did not want to be a gawking dick so I said nothing. Really wanted to thank him though.

He was walking in front of his family, that included his wife Paulina Poritzkova, who looked natural and fabulous, and their teenage son, who looks a lot like his father. Ocasek was here to promote an exhibit of his work at a local art gallery. All I'll say is that his work is better than Mellencamp's.

There was a line out the door at Jeni's so I talked to a fellow poet, who was selling her jewelry in front of a wine shop. Ended up going inside and finding a decent bottle of kabinett. Went home, watched the Blue Jackets beat the crap out of the Red Wings. Rick Nash had the first unassisted hat trick since Rocket Richard in 1948. Steve Mason was awesome in net.

Then watched Vicky Christina Barcelona, which would have been a good film had it not had lazy voice over narration than continually brought the movie's momentum to a crashing halt.

Now it's a lazy Sunday of laundry, FA Cup soccer (go Everton!) and dinner out later.