MANNY BEING MANNY

A few nights ago I heard one of the announcers on ESPN baseball talk about Manny Ramirez. He said that since he produces, Terry Francona and the Red Sox brass, tolerate his antics.

Huh?

There’s the problem right there.

If an athlete will not give all they have to the organization regardless if they’re the star or the bench warmer, something has to be done.

It took Ramirez five seconds to get down the line the other night.

Do you tolerate athletes who cause problems within the team or do you get rid of them?

BlackVoices.com has a good interview with Tony Dungy, who happens to have another book directed towards kids called, ‘You Can Do It‘.

My family was very influential in my decision making as a young person. I think they helped directly and indirectly. My parents were always there for advice, but as a young person I didn’t always ask for advice when I needed it. A lot of my decisions on how to live and what I should do as a young person were made by watching my parents and following their example. Probably the biggest help I got from my family was being encouraged to dream-to think that anything was possible. I think that’s one of the best things we can do for our kids. And that has impacted me to this day because I didn’t think I was ever limited in any way in what I could accomplish.

OWNING UP

Last night while watching Red Sox – Yankees on ESPN, they interviewed both skippers in-between innings at different times of the game.  Terry Francona, the Red Sox manager touched a bit on the Manny Ramirez situation.  But this statement caught my ear.  “We ask the players to take responsibility, this is our responsibility.”

A golfer at Duke, Andrew Giuliani (son of Rudy) gets kicked off the team and now the family is bringing a lawsuit down against the coach.  New York Post delivers.

LA Times on former gymnist Dominique Moceanu accuses coach Bela Karolyi of abuse.

TwinCities.com sits down with Tony Dungy of the Indianapolis Colts.

Your players feel better when they feel like the leader is under control. So, I learned that. It definitely doesn’t come naturally, and it wasn’t me growing up.

New York Times on New York Giants football coach Tom Coughlin on Living and Learning.

“One of the things that punched me in the nose was when one columnist told me, ‘You act as if you really don’t have time for us,’ ” Coughlin said. “That really stuck in my craw. I have a coach’s ethic about hard work. I thought to myself, I can be more patient.”

COACHING GENIUS

While going through the New York Times this morning, I came across this article on coaching.  The writer wonders about some of the guys who have strolled the sidelines, if they should be considered a genius?

What is amazing is that he talks about Kevin Loughery – if you recall, I blogged about Loughery a couple of days ago.

One day last month, I had an interesting conversation with Kevin Loughery on the subject of basketball brilliance. Loughery, the former coach of the New York Nets of the American Basketball Association, seemed to have a hoops I.Q. as high as Julius Erving’s Afro when Dr. J was leading his Nets to two titles in the 1970s.

Just before the 1976-77 season — the first season after the A.B.A. merged with the N.B.A. — the financially troubled Nets sold Erving to the Philadelphia 76ers. Without Erving, Loughery’s defending champions fell from the A.B.A. throne to the N.B.A. cellar with a 22-60 record.

“Suddenly,” Loughery said with a sad chuckle, “I got dumb overnight.”

THE LAST LECTURE

I’m sure if you’re a coach, you like to read. And if you’re a coach, I’m sure you have some kind of college education background. You probably enjoy teaching, reading and passing along motivational material.  Maybe you try and send inspirational messages to your athletes or your coaching staff and there’s a slight chance you have children.

If you’re none of the above, it’s ok, here’s an entry you’ll enjoy.

Randy Pausch has died, he was 47.

Who’s Randy Pausch you may be asking?

He’s only one of the most inspirational people I have ever heard. The A.P. has the story by way of Yahoo News.com

Pausch was diagnosed with incurable pancreatic cancer in September 2006. His popular last lecture at Carnegie Mellon in September 2007 garnered international attention and was viewed by millions on the Internet.

If you have never heard of Pausch, I suggest you head out to your nearest bookstore and pick up his book. (or try Googling him)

A few weeks ago I was sitting pool-side at a hotel and my nine year-old daughter Taylor was swimming. There wasn’t anyone else around, “Look daddy, we have the pool to ourselves!” she said as she splashed around.

I was taking in the sun, enjoying the newspaper and a cup of coffee.

A few minutes later Taylor said she was bored.

I had just finished reading something about Pausch in a magazine article, his story, book and lecture.

“Have Fun!” he emphasized in one of his lectures.

I looked at Taylor, then at the two powerful words in black and white by Pausch.

Off went my shirt and sneakers. Luckily I had some shorts on.

I dove in, Taylor and I had a great time!

More from the good professor:

“I don’t know how to not have fun,” he said in the lecture. “I’m dying and I’m having fun. And I’m going to keep having fun every day I have left. Because there’s no other way to play it.”

Randy Pausch, age 47 – R.I.P.

BILL SELF – A CHAMPION

Here is a story from the Las vegas Sun on Bill Self, Kansas Men’s head basketball coach.

The piece talks about how he has to get after it once again after winning the NCAA championship. Lots of good recruiting material included.

“I think everything’s relative – People say, well, you’re at Kansas now, it should be easier to recruit,” he said. “Well, it is easier to get in on guys, but the guys you’re getting in on, you’ve gotta beat (North) Carolina or Duke or UCLA or Michigan State or Texas. And you’re usually on their turf, because we don’t have (several elite) players in our area. That’s hard. And then, you’re at ORU or Tulsa or whatever, you’ve gotta evaluate, you’ve gotta project, you’ve gotta be the best recruiting team in your respective league. So that’s all hard. There are very few recruiting places where you just think ‘We’re gonna get guys no matter what.’”