Rivet-ing Baseball

Congratulations to the Vincennes Rivet baseball (and to the girls basketball team) for a fine and exciting season that fell short in the Indiana Class A state finals. Vincennes Rivet was trying to be The Little Engine That Could in winning its first state championship in any sport. Considering Vincennes Rivet was founded in 1792, it has been a long wait for sure. The only other Rivet team to make it to a state championship final was the girls basketball team back in March.

Rivet is the smallest high school in Knox County with only 93 students and is the ninth smallest school in the state out of 400 schools. The Rivet baseball team had only eight players until the coach begged a few of the students to play in order to field enough players. This alone is a worthy story. However, it gets kicked up a notch when you learn that one of the 11 Rivet players is a girl, Emily Montgomery. Emily became the first girl to play in a state championship baseball final on Friday. Unlike one of our previous posts of the girl who wanted to play baseball and had to sue to IHSAA and the school for the right to play, Emily was asked, pleaded and begged to play for the Rivet team. Emily's brother Cory wanted a shot at a state title, but with only eight players on the team, they needed one more.

I'm saddened that the Vincennes Rivet Patriots fell in the final game. I was hoping they would win their first state title, regardless of having a girl on the team.

I was a bit infuriated when I see this headline on the Indy Star's website on Saturday morning.

Girl's baseball team falls in Class A title game

I understand the team had a girl on it and I'm sure she was a regular contributor on the team during the season. I just feel that the title is a slap in the face to the Rivet team. ESPN's story on the team focused on a team that just happen to include a the younger sister of one of the players. The Star's story is more "HEY! THERE REALLY IS A GIRL PLAYING BASEBALL HERE!" and oh, by the way, there just happens to be 10 other boys who also helped get this team to the state finals after a 10-11 regular season, but, "HEY, THERE'S A GIRL ON THE TEAM!"

I guess that is why I think the Star is such a shitty paper.

I hope the Patriots do not have to wait much longer for their first state championship. Just remember to keep on chugging along and eventually you will reach the peak!

There's No Crying in Baseball!!

One of Jimmy Dugan's best lines along with his autographed baseball - "Avoid the Clap - Jimmy Dugan."

Due to a lawsuit against the IHSAA and against Bloomington South High School, they have both relented and allowed a girl to try out for the baseball team. Why all the stink in the press? Well, because BSHS has a softball team, both felt that girls do not belong on the baseball team.

Under previous IHSAA rules, if a school offered a girls "equivalent" of a boys sport, then they could exclude girls from the boys sport. So if a school offered boys and girls basketball, a girl cannot try out for boys basketball. However, the IHSAA believed that baseball and softball were equivalent sports. According to Blake Ress, the IHSAA commissioner, he states, "he believed that baseball and softball were comparable sports because each involves a bat and a ball, similar positions and baselines on the diamond, and six outs in an inning." Yep, they are the same in those manners even though the field dimensions are different...the balls are different...the pitching is different...but, yeah, they are the same.

Personally, I do not have a problem with a girl wanting to try out for the baseball team. She has been playing co-ed community baseball since she was 5. She and her parents must think she is good enough to file a lawsuit for the right to tryout. I might have a problem if she doesn't make the team and then sues to try and get on (assuming she was legitimately cut.) But she should also know that she could be benchwarming for most of the year. Yet, I would not be surprised if turned out to be an average every day player.

Just because she is a girl doesn't mean she should get special treatment to play. She should be graded on the same criteria as the boys, nothing more, nothing less.

The IHSAA is griping about making the change because it feels it would probably lose the lawsuit and the fact that several other states have already made this change. So, why it is such a problem, IHSAA?

Honestly, I hope she kicks some ass!

Bob Kravitz Is a Lazy SOB

I wrote an entry a couple of days ago on Bob Kravitz's usual half-assed attempt at an opinion article on the IHSAA and the cost to hold the Indiana state high school football finals at Lucas Oil Stadium. What I didn't realize until a short time ago is that he essentially plagiarized another article from his own newspaper to pull his "facts" from and then just added his opinion.

The shit-hack did not do one fucking bit of work to follow up on what was written in the other article. As Kravitz did was pull the information he needed out of the article by Michael Pointer and add his own opinion/spin.

I am just so totally flabbergasted and pissed off at this moment. For the love of God, man! Can't you do just a minuscule bit of journalism here? I know we enjoy picking on Bob Kravitz and his articles, but typically they are written so poorly that we just can't help it. But in the previous articles I've lambasted, it has been because he backed up his opinions so poorly or half-assed the article. This is the epitome of why Bob needs to go.

Was there no way that Bob could call Blake Ress, the commissioner of the IHSAA, to get some additional information to help back his point? We know that the IHSAA had to spend over $261K on the finals, but did they actually make money or lose money? We don't know. Bob didn't bother to ask that question. Bob ignored the paragraph in Pointer's article stating that if the finals drew over 50,000 fans (2008 attendance was a record 56,050), the finals would most likely stay at the stadium. Bob also ignored the paragraph where Patrick Early, vice-chairman of the Capital Improvements Board in charge of Lucas Oil Stadium, who stated that he would be willing to talk to the IHSAA about making it more affordable but had not seen a proposal yet. Funny, but those two paragraphs take some of the wind out of Bob's sails and he just conveniently ignores them.

Sadly, I've seen the comments on the article on the Indianapolis Newspaper Monopoly's website and while many people tend to feel the way we do about Bob, there were too many people that agreed with him for all the wrong reasons. Kravitz articles unfortunately are good at stimulating the conversation on the topic. Therefore, his editors and bosses think he is good.

I hesitate to go out and start an official FireBobKravitz.com website or petition, but more of us need to speak up and let it be known that we need a better sports opinion writer for this great town of ours.

I feel better now that I've ranted. I think I'll go to bed now.

Bob Strikes Again

And the Lom Henn Empire strikes back!

Our resident douchebag has written another one of his classic articles that drive Slut and I batty. I have nothing against the topic of the IHSAA and the cost to hold the state football finals at Lucas Oil Stadium. It is actually a worthwhile topic. However, in grand ol' Bob style, he half-asses the facts of the story and only gives you a partial view of the story, i.e. his side.

We really do not pick on Bob Kravitz just to spite him. Its just that his articles are crap and we feel it is our duty to point out they are crap and why.

State finals have to stay at stadium

So I'm reading how Lucas Oil Stadium might be too expensive for future Indiana High School Athletic Association football championships, and this nagging question keeps popping into my head:

Who paid for our little Taj Mahal?

Wasn't it the taxpayers, for the most part?

Well, technically the State of Indiana and the Colts PAID for it. The 1% restaurant tax for Marion County and the doughnut counties (except Morgan County) are paying the state back for the bonds they sold.

Weren't a lot of the donors the mothers and fathers of the kids who either hope to play at Lucas Oil Stadium or support their school's teams once a year if they are fortunate enough to reach the state finals?

Only for those teams from Marion and surrounding counties, which were five of then ten teams in the finals (Sheridan, Heritage Christian, Ritter, Cathedral, Center Grove and Carmel).

This is like buying a beautiful new house on Geist and being told we can only use it once every three months. As long as we pay for the privilege, that is. What a deal, right?

No, it is like building a state-of-the-art stadium that charges a fee to use its services.

This is a community project, except the community can't afford to use it.

No, no, no, no, no. This is a commercial business venture. Lucas Oil Stadium is not a not-for-profit entity. They have a right to charge ANYONE a fee that wants to use the stadium.

The IHSAA said it paid $261,000 for a high school football weekend. That's more than $100,000 more than the cost to use the RCA Dome. This isn't about the IHSAA trying to make money. It uses whatever profit it makes on football to help support its non-revenue sports championships. Every additional dollar it spends on football is one fewer available for girls soccer.

This is the first valid paragraph that Kravitz has made in the article, mostly. The IHSAA paid a lot more for the new stadium than for the old RCA Dome and that they use the profit from football (and basketball) to help support the other boys and girls sports. I would argue that the IHSAA isn't about trying to make money and we'll discuss that a little later.

Unless the Capital Improvement Board and the Indianapolis Colts want a major public relations catastrophe, they will find a way to cut the prohibitive cost they charge to use the stadium for the IHSAA finals weekend and ensure all future IHSAA finals are at The Luke and no place else.

The Capital Improvement Board is charging 12 percent of the gate receipts for rent (and the IHSAA increased prices from $10 to $15 a ticket) and an additional fee for extra security.

Question, Bob. What did the CIB charge the IHSAA in previous years?

Did you think to ask or provide that information? Or whether they had to pay for extra security in previous years?

Somebody needs to step up here, and yes, Jim Irsay, I'm looking long and hard at you to do the right thing, as usual. Understand, half the money goes to the board and the other half goes to the Colts, who keep non-football-related revenue up to $3.5 million a year. The board needs to cut the IHSAA a break. Or the Colts have to cut a check. Or both. Something.

If the board cuts a break to the IHSAA for football, how can they say no to lower the costs for the State Marching Band Finals or other high school events that could be held there? You might be able to get something from the Colts since it is football-related.

Because if future IHSAA state finals are held anywhere other than The Luke, it will be a regrettable shame and the tone of this column, which would be an annual offering, would become more mean-spirited than ever before.

I know you've been told this before, Bob, but it is called Lucas Oil Stadium, not "The Luke", you 'tard! Mr. Lucas did not pay $121 million for you to call it The Luke.

It was interesting to listen to Bob Grand, the head of the Capital Improvement Board, recently tell a TV reporter how much he enjoyed watching the faces of the kids as they ran onto the stadium field and created tunnels through which their football-playing mates could run.

Very moving.

Until the bill comes due.

Bob has to help pay the bills of the CIB. As far as he sees it, everyone pays. If you can show me how the CIB reduced the fees for another group/event and not for the IHSAA, then you have something. Otherwise, I see it as fair treatment for everyone, albeit a costly treatment.

Think the kids will get all excited next year when they're doing that at Bloomington's Memorial Stadium? Or up at Purdue? What kind of crowds you think you'll see if it's typical late November weather in Central Indiana? Think we'll break records like the one that was just broken at The Luke, when 56,050 attended the games?

Sadly, I have to agree with Bob on this one. Owww, I think my head is going to explode.

Moving the finals to an outdoor stadium would take a toll on the attendance and even though IU, Purdue and Ball State are all within roughly an hour of Indy, that would affect how many people might go to the games.

For kids and for fans who might not otherwise get to this stadium, playing at The Luke is a special thing. It's where the Colts play. It's the center of the football universe. It's like going to Conseco Fieldhouse for the state high school basketball championship. It's Mecca, a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

So is Hinkle Fieldhouse and I think many would call Hinkle the "Mecca" of Hoosier basketball-dom.

And we're going to deny these young people because the cost can't be negotiated down to a more manageable level?

Mike Fox, the Lucas Oil Stadium director, told The Star the IHSAA was charged the same amount any nonprofit is charged for using the stadium.

Fine. Charge that fee to the religious conventions that come in or any other nonprofit. This, though, is different. This is local. These are our kids.

This is not local, this is statewide. Only the tax is mainly local. Why is it that people did not have a problem when the fee was lower? I'm assuming that the IHSAA was charged the same as other non-profits at the RCA dome, correct?

And never forget, we paid for the vast majority of that stadium, which comes with a lease that is extraordinarily friendly to the Colts. And we're paying for part of its upkeep. Don't our kids get a break when it comes to getting a chance to play on the floor of Indy's prized pleasure palace?

Yes, the lease is friendly to the Colts, but you can thank Bart Peterson and friends for negotiating that "friendly" lease. They also paid a decent chunk of the construction costs ($100 million) for the stadium.

I'm not saying they're required to open the place to my next Christmas party, but this is grass-roots high school sports, our kids, and, again, we paid for the darned thing. If we can't give our kids a break on the price, if we can't get past our budgets and our it's-just-business posturing, what are we saying about ourselves and our priorities?

It says that Lucas Oil Stadium and the CIB are in the business to make money and they are charging what they would charge anyone else.

It doesn't help that the CIB needs to tap into a contingency fund in order to help cover the operating costs.

Somehow, I can't imagine a vote on a stadium would have passed if we were told, "Yeah, it'll be nice, but it will be too expensive for the high school state football tournament."

If it had been put up to a voted, it very likely may not have passed because of the overall cost. Football fan-wise, most people would have voted for it because of the Colts and would not have cared about high school football.

Of course, in this part of the world, we don't get to vote on these kinds of things.

Movers and shakers simply make things happen and then stick the rest of us with the bill.

Welcome to real life, Bob-o! Of course, without these "movers and shakers" we may not of gotten the Hoosier Dome back '84.

The city gives conventions all kinds of breaks to lure them, and while the sum isn't extraordinary, the IHSAA finals produce money for the city, roughly $36 million worth, according to one study.

The city is not Lucas Oil Stadium or the CIB!

Somebody needs to step up and do the right thing.

The high school state football finals belong at The Luke.

Now and forever.

Yes, I would agree that the high school state football finals need to stay at LUCAS OIL STADIUM.

Now, Bob, why don't we go over some of the topics you failed to address.

Yes, the IHSAA had to pay more this year than last year, according to you. I have not been able to get a second verification on that yet. Even so, let's do a little bit of math. I like math.

In 2007, the state football finals two-day attendance was 51,217. Tickets cost $10 a piece. And we will go with the assumption that everyone who attended the games had to pay for their tickets.

51,217 tickets x $10 per ticket = $512,170.

$512,170 less costs of $161,000 = $351,170 gross profit (assuming 2007 cost was $100K less than 2008)

In 2008, we had a record attendance of 56,050. Tickets prices increased to $15 each.

56,050 tickets x $15 per ticket = $840,750.

$840,750 less costs of $261,000 = $579,750 gross profit.

So even though the IHSAA had to pay an additional $100K this year, not including other costs, they took home over $228K more this year! I know that there are other costs the IHSAA has to pay and some of the tickets may have been given away or comped to schools/students.

It is also interesting that this is just coming out now. The IHSAA should have know for a while that the CIB would charge them the 12% rent fee on ticket sales and the other costs that they would incur, so the total amount should not have been a true shock. Why did the IHSAA not publicly ask for a lower fee or start drumming up public support to lower the cost earlier in the year?

I'm pretty sure that the IHSAA is not going to go anywhere else for the state football finals. If they try to move it to Memorial Stadium, Rose Ade Stadium or even the Butler Bowl, they would not have the attendance they do now and would lose a lot more revenue than the costs they would save. I am curious to know how much IU or Purdue would charge the IHSAA to host the finals?

I did not hear any griping about the ticket increase from $10 to $15 per day? I think that $15 is still quite reasonable to see two or three games at the new stadium. The concession prices may kill your wallet, but the ticket price is quite acceptable to me.

Once again Bob has presented us with a valid article topic, but does his usual half-assed job and presents only some of the facts to back up his point. I'll try and let our resident Jedi, Slut, return for the next Bob-o article.