A Dark Day at Penn State: The Scathing Freeh Report

Although not the darkest day in the history of Penn State (that is saved for the day the allegations were released), today couldn't get much worse for us Nittany Lions. The release of the scathing Freeh Report not only confirmed much of what we knew, but made it vividly clear that our leaders failed us. Our community failed us. And Joe Paterno, a man who many think could do nothing wrong, failed us.

While I am sure there are many people out there still blinded by the good Joe Paterno did for the university and will no doubt condemn this report as a biased attack on a dead man, there is no doubt, upon reading the report, that Paterno played a role in this cover-up. If you are a Penn Stater and are unwilling to admit that, then you really should re-examine the evidence, and your try to be unbiased.

Having said that, all of the great things Joe Paterno should not be forgotten. He contributed much to the university that will never be forgotten. However, as he himself said, "I wish I had done more." Joe Paterno made a fatal mistake. Spanier, Curley, Schultz, the police, and many others made major mistakes.

Obviously many people around the nation will want the death penalty for the football team or for the university itself. Critics will say that Penn State is tarnished beyond repair. Some may also even say that a Penn State degree is damaged.

That is an overreaction.

However, as the Freeh report states, the culture of Penn State must be examined. This was allowed to happen because certain people wielded so much power and the Board of Trustees did not do their proper job of oversight. While this is most definitely an issue at Penn State and much has been done in the past months to combat this culture, there needs to be a bigger discussion about collegiate football.

It is impossible to believe that something this catastrophic could ONLY happen at Penn State. Football is as important, if not more so, at schools just as Notre Dame, USC, Florida, Ohio State, etc. To believe that certain people in these organizations would not go to similar lengths to prevent bad publicity is foolish. Power promotes corruption but we put people in positions of power who we believe will do the right thing. That was not the case at Penn State. Hopefully those at other universities, corporations, and governments will take this tragic case to heart and ensure it doesn't happen again.

One last point which in no way is in no way an attempt to exonerate Paterno but merely explain some of his actions is a generational issue. From speaking with people Paterno's age, it seems that people of that generation do not understand what child rape is. Many years ago it almost seems that things like this was never discussed and that it was taboo. Again, not saying what Paterno did was right, but that he may not have fully comprehended a man raping a man.

In the end, this is a dark time for Penn State and alumni will no doubt take heavy criticism. But we must remember that tens of thousands of Penn Staters were innocent in all of this and that we represent all that is excellent at our university. The most important thing (other than the victims) in this horrific tragedy is to learn from the terrible mistakes of those who were corrupted by power. Let us all treat every decision in our lives with importance. And let us never take the easy way out in order to "save face." WE must do the right thing, even if it is the hardest. WE Are Penn State.

Nine in a Row? Whoa!

Hitting .208 with runners in scoring position; needing home runs to win games. This doesn't necessarily sound like the recipe for a long winning streak in baseball but that is indeed what the New York Yankees did over the past 9 games--win them all.

Stats can be misleading and incomplete. Despite not taking advantage of scoring opportunities, the Yanks still rampaged through the NL East due to outstanding starting pitching and opportune power hitting.

With an ERA of 1.82 during the winning streak and 15 home runs, the 16-77 stat with RISP is much more meaningless.

In years past, a sweep of 3 teams in the NL East might have been thought of as something a bit less impressive. This year however, the NL East is one of the strongest divisions in baseball and the Yanks beat the Mets,  Braves, and Nationals, all teams with winning records. According to Elias Sports Bureau, it is the first time in franchise history that Yanks had a winning streak of this length against teams with winning records.

The Yanks are definitely on fire and now head back to New York looking to make it a clear 12 and 0 against the NL East when they face the Braves tonight. And who better to take the mound than ace CC Sabathia.

The scary thing about how the Yanks are playing is that if they actually hit with runners in scoring position they would be many times better and absolutely crushing opponents. New York is playing extremely well and you can't argue with 9 in a row but if they can fire on all cylinders, they could run away with the division.

Yankees May Review: Can I Get A Hit?

Once again, about a half month late on this and I have been absent from posting since last month but I hope I can change that over the summer. A look at the Yankees in May...

Record: 14-14

Offensive Stats:
Batting Average: .261 (6th in AL)
Slugging Percentage: .445 (3rd in AL)
Home Runs: 39 (3rd in AL)
RBI: 108 (11th in AL)
Runs: 112 (11th in AL)
Hits: 246 (9th in AL)
My Grade Average: 2.50 (~B-) 

Thoughts: It was a rough month for the offense and my B- average might be a bit generous. Although they were 14-14 they still have yet to win a game where they haven't hit a home run. As has been well documented across the media, hitting with RISP has been atrocious and even worse has been hitting with the bases loaded (still a sub-.200 average). The good news is that the home runs keep coming. Brett Gardner is still out and looks to be for a long time so the Yanks have to find other ways to produce runs. Cano has started to hit and A-Rod and Tex showed some signs of life although they haven't been as good as they should be. Overall a mediocre month for the bats.

Pitching Stats:
ERA: 3.97 (6th in AL)
Hits Allowed: 252 (6th most in AL)
Earned Runs Allowed: 108 (10th most in AL)
Home Runs: 38 (2nd most in AL)
Walks: 79 (12th most in AL)
Strikeouts: 210 (7th in AL)
My Starting Pitching Grade Average: 3.02 (~B)
My Bullpen Grade Average: 3.20 (~B+)

Thoughts: The pitching was on the upswing for the Yanks in May, much improved from their quite dismal April start. The return of Andy Pettitte added a nice spark to the rotation and he has been a solid number 2 starter. The stat categories listed above showed much improvement from April and the ERA has dropped significantly to a much more acceptable level (it has been even better in June so far).

Pitcher Breakdown (# of starts); Starter Grade/Offensive Support Grade/Bullpen Support Grade

Sabathia (5): 3.60/3.07/3.33 (Yankees were 3-2 in his starts) 
Kuroda (5): 2.73/1.60/3.07 (Yankees were 2-3 in his starts)
Hughes (6):  2.95/2.83/2.89 (Yankees were 3-3 in his starts)
Nova (6):  2.89/2.72/3.78 (Yankees were 4-2 in his starts)
Pettitte (4): 3.42/2.50/3.17 (Yankees were 2-2 in his starts)
Phelps (2): 2.17/1.67/2.50 (Yankees were 0-2 in his starts)
Thoughts: A fairly blah month for starting pitching as a whole. Phelps provided a quality bridge to Pettitte despite the 2 losses in his starts. The Yanks won 4 of 6 starts by Nova who continues to get run support and good bullpen relief (highest for the team). Sabathia was fairly consistent although had a sub-par outing or two. Kuroda was hit or miss but seemed to find himself late in the month. The enigma that is Phil Hughes continued but fortunately June seems like a much better month for the right-hander.

Yankees April Review: The Bullpen Shines

**This is the first installment of the Yankees monthly review.  I'll summarize the previous month and give my grade averages for each category and starting pitcher for the month as well as the cumulative averages.  Grades are numerically calculated using a GPA type system where an A+ is a 4.33, A is a 4.0, A- is a 3.67, B+ is a 3.33 and so on.  The numbers are then averaged for each category.** 


So this about a half a month overdue but better late than never. Let's take a look at the month of the April for New York.


Record: 13-9  (16-9 in 2011)


Offensive Stats:
Batting Average: .273 (3rd in AL)
Slugging Percentage: .472 (3rd in AL)
Home Runs: 37 (1st in AL)
RBI: 116 (3rd in AL)
Runs: 120 (3rd in AL)
Hits: 208 (3rd in AL)
My Grade Average: 3.09 (~B)


Thoughts: A successful start to the season with an unusual red-hot start from Nick Swisher. Someone is looking for a ton of money in the off season. The middle of the order had a slow start and you begin to wonder if A-Rod is in decline given his age. Teixiera on the other hand always seems to start slow and has been battling a cold. Thankfully, Derek Jeter has just turned 25 years old and is amazing everybody with his ridiculous start. Hitting .440+ versus left handers and .330ish since his 3,000th hit last summer. Biggest issue with the offense is the lack of manufacturing runs without the long ball. It always seems to be a problem and doesn't get any easier with Brett Gardner out.


Pitching Stats:
ERA: 4.33 (11th in AL)
Hits Allowed: 204 (4th most in AL)
Earned Runs Allowed: 95 (3rd most in AL)
Home Runs: 27 (4th most in AL)
Walks: 64 (9th most in AL)
Strikeouts: 192 (1st in AL)
My Starting Pitching Grade Average: 2.61 (~B-)
My Bullpen Grade Average: 3.57 (almost an A-)


Thoughts: You can never have too much starting pitching. After the ineffectiveness of Garcia we saw Pettitte and Phelps in May who both pitched much more effectively. However the starting rotation continues to struggle. Hughes was pretty terrible in April (although he has turned it around in May). Nova had a good record but poor ERA--inconsistent. CC got on track after a few poor outings to start. Kuroda still seems to struggle with the American League--will be interesting to see how he fares. Bullpen continues to be a strength though. But we all know how that would fall apart after April with Mo's ACL and Roberston's ribs. It will be very interesting to see May's bullpen effectiveness.


Pitcher Breakdown (# of starts); Starter Grade/Offensive Support Grade/Bullpen Support Grade

Sabathia (5): 3.47/3.93/3.73 (Yankees were 4-1 in his starts)
Kuroda (5): 3.07/2.47/3.86 (Yankees were 2-3 in his starts)
Hughes (4): 1.59/2.17/3.25 (Yankees were 1-3 in his starts)
Nova (4): 3.50/3.75/3.83 (Yankees were 4-0 in his starts)
Garcia (4): 1.08/3.09/3.08 (Yankees were 2-2 in his starts)


Thoughts: Clearly Nova and Sabathia stood out as the 2 good starters. Kuroda had a decent start but struggled at times. Garcia and Hughes were terrible quite frankly. Especially Garcia who received 2 consecutive grades of "F". That's pretty impressively terrible. The good news is that the Yanks were able to win 3 of the 8 starts by Hughes/Garcia. All starters benefited from good bullpen support while CC got a ton of offense in his starts.

Stats, Stupidity, and Shaving Cream

It is that time of year again. The time of year I attempt to blog consistently about the Yankees and inevitably end up failing by the summer. The good news? My longest Yankees blogging streak was last year and it lasted into July. So maybe I'll aim for August in 2012.

I've realized that my goal of blogging about every game with grades on each one was a bit over ambitious so I'm going to relegate it to series or "whenever I see fit" (aka "I don't know when I'll have time so this covers everything"). However, I will still be grading the Yanks for each game (although I won't be posting about each game) and do plan on issuing monthly "report cards" on the team.

So, as a little sneak preview here are some of the stats (Subjective grades) I've compiled thus far. A more comprehensive report will be forthcoming once April is.....OVER! (Blue Band reference)

I have used a simple GPA system for grading. A+ = 4.33, A = 4.00, A- = 3.67, etc. Yes you can get an F, that would be 0.00.


Offense thru 4/27: 3.12
Starting Pitching thru 4/27: 2.60
Bullpen thru 4/27: 3.47

Best Starter: Nova with a 3.50

Clearly the starting pitching has not been up to par and if I have time this weekend maybe I'll put together some stats on how the Yanks rate thus far in that department...it isn't pretty.

On a more timely note, good win for the Yanks tonight. Too bad Joe West can't get out of his own way. Like many, I can't stand the man and he is a terrible umpire who cares more about himself than the game. The prime example of that was when Russel Martin was plunked with a foul ball tonight and instead of Joe West walking the ball out to Mariano (the common practice--when either an ump or catcher gets nailed the other gives the victim a little time to shake it off), Joe decides to just keep on playing the game. We wouldn't want the game to go on any longer than necessary, would we Joe? Especially since he finds the Yanks/Red Sox 4hr+ games unprofessional. Jeez...what a joke. The MLB should get rid of him...oh wait he is the president of the World Umpires Association.

Now that that rant is complete...the Yanks did have a nice win tonight on the walk off wild pitch but no pies were forthcoming. I mean, you can't really pie Avila can you? Seriously though, that would have been hilarious for Swish (who may be taking over the pieing duties from AJ) to find Avila and hit him with some shaving cream. Wonder if AJ will be the pier in Pittsburgh...I mean, what else is he good for anyway?

A Tale of Two Series: Yanks 3-3 Start

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Well I guess that doesn't really apply to the first two series for the Yankees but at least I'm using a cultural reference to my title of this blog (quick, who wrote that novel?)

It was quite the series in Tampa for the Yanks leading off the season. Joe Girardi had a poor managerial season debut, CC got knocked around, Kuroda didn't show why the Yanks spent so much money on him, Mo blew his first save of the season. On the bright side, the Yanks did score runs (12 in 3 games) off of a quality Rays pitching staff (in fact Hellickson shutout the Bombers).

Fortunately, the Yanks schedule allowed them to face the curer of all problems...the Orioles. Despite Baltimore's 3-0 start, their pitching couldn't hold up against the Yanks, dropping the 3 game set to New York. Two of the games went to extra innings with the Yanks winning on a Raul Ibanez RBI in game 2 and a Nick Swisher HR in the 10th. Luckily the game didn't go longer, or New York could have run out of pitchers after depleting the bullpen in the second game of the series (that went 12 innings).

The Baltimore series showcased the Yanks brilliant bullpen and saw Rivera pick up his first and second save of the season. However despite the 3 wins, New York struggled with runners in scoring position (RISP) going .184 (7-38) and an abysmal 2-18 in the second game of the set.

In the end, it was a decent start to the season for New York despite the sweep in Tampa Bay.

Winter Has Returned to State College After A Long, Harsh Summer...

I woke up this afternoon the sweet sound and smell of spring rain....I mean the harsh metallic pounding of sleet on my window.

Yes, it's April in State College and after a long, hot summer in March, winter has returned to central Pennsylvania. It won't be long now until the Christmas lights go up and carols are being sung in the streets.

All kidding aside, by the reactions of some people you would think this change to wintry weather is the apocalypse, that when it's 80 degrees in March, it's going to be 80 degrees until September. I mean, why not? That is one of the effects of global warming, right? That's what I've been told by MSNBC.

In fact, the average snowfall in April in State College is 1.9 inches and the record is 20.5 inches! So to all the complainers...after a March that was the 2nd warmest on record with an average high temperature of 59 degrees, numerous days in the 70s, and the 3rd least snowy March on record you have no right to complain about a little cool down in April--we were spoiled.

One important job of a meteorologist is to put the weather in context for the public. In this case, meteorologists should be communicating how UNusual March was but how USUAL this current weather is.

This blog post wouldn't be complete without my once a year hail vs. sleet rant (one of my biggest pet peeves as a meteorologist, along with using relative humidity instead of dew point to describe how sticky it feels outside--I'll save that argument for a different time).

I saw/heard many comments today, including from the official Penn State Facebook page, that it was hailing! I mean... like oh my god it's totally hailing outside. There must, like, definitely be tornado nearby.

Now I'm not going to condemn and put all the blame on the public for being so ill-informed because the fact that so many people don't know the difference between hail and sleet is partially the fault of meteorologists. We need to do a better job educating the public.

In any event, NO ONE saw hail today (in State College)--if you live in Texas you would beg to differ I bet :) What fell from the heavens today was sleet, or graupel (pronounced GRAW-pull), or ice pellets. Basically, you were experiencing partially melted and then re-frozen snowflakes. Technically there is a slight difference between graupel and ice pellets but that's insignificant to this discussion.

Simply put, sleet occurs from late fall through early spring (in the Northeast) and generally falls during a snow storm or showery type of event.

Hail on the other hand is formed by convection (aka thunderstorms). Ice particles in a cloud fall toward the surface of the Earth and partially melt. Before they fall out of the cloud though, strong winds in a thunderstorm pick the ice back up and throw it back high into the atmosphere where it accumulates more water droplets (thus adding to its size and weight). Eventually, once the hail stone becomes too heavy for the winds to keep it airborne, it falls out of the cloud as hail.

A quick (but not fool proof or scientific) rule for determining between hail and sleet is that if it is thundering, it's hail. If not, it's sleet.

And I'm done...

Sleet, a generally late fall through early spring phenomenon (in the Northeast), is formed when snowflakes high up in the atmosphere fall through a layer of above freezing air and partially melt