Can I just say I hate the Mountain West schedule? I’m not a fan of unbalanced schedules, and the computer-generated MW schedule drives me nuts.
On Saturday, Nevada played Fresno State for the second time in three weeks, yet the Pack hasn’t played Colorado State, UNLV or Boise State yet. Nevada plays Colorado State just once, but it isn’t until the last day of the regular season. Strange.
I would much rather see a home-and-home type of schedule. Championships should be won and lost on the court, and not potentially decided by a computer. What happens if your toughest games are all on the road against teams you only play once? Say you lose all three and don’t get a chance to defend your homecourt? It doesn’t seem fair to me.
League officials said one of the reasons for the unbalanced schedule was the 29-game limit. I understand that to a degree, but in Nevada’s case playing Colorado State, Wyoming and Utah State would have been just as good as playing UC Santa Barbara and Towson down in Las Vegas.
I also ask why is there a regular-season game limit? Why is the number 29? Why can’t it be 30 or 35?
I think the MW made a mistake when it took all the old WAC teams except Idaho. Hawaii came over but just for football. I think a 10-team league would have been perfect for basketball, and if that had happened, teams could have had a balanced schedule.
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Barry Bonds or Roger Clemens, two of the best at their positions in baseball history, failed in another attempt to gain entrance into the Hall of Fame.
The good news is they got a higher percentage this time than the previous year. It shows progress, albeit just a little bit.
There were steroid questions swirling around Jeff Bagwell and Pudge Rodriquez, and Tim Raines was an admitted cocaine user during his early days with the Montreal Expos.
So I ask, how can you include Rodriguez and Bagwell, and not include Bonds and Clemens? Just doesn’t seem right.
Whether Bonds was guilty of taking steroids, which weren’t against baseball rules at the time, shouldn’t be the sole reason to keep him out of the Hall of Fame. According to everything I’ve read on the subject, Bonds started being investigated right around the time he broke Henry Aaron’s record and hit 73 homers.
One season doesn’t make or break Hall of Fame status. Bonds was a surefire Hall of Famer prior to that 73-homer season, and maybe the voters need to throw that 73-homer season out the window and judge Bonds on his accomplishments before that.
Maybe next year more voters will come to their senses and give Bonds what he deserves, which is a place in Cooperstown.