The Show.

With the multitude of issues in the sports world it's at times difficult to talk about everything, and even when you do it's exhausting. So, with that in mind, today will be the first ever, "Around the Horn" post. It'll be a monthlyish post where I select an issue from each major sport and briefly dissect and potentially come up with a solution to said issues. So, for this first installment, our issues from our four major sports are:

- Hockey: Jeremy Roenick Crying
- Football: USC's Violations and Punishments
- Baseball: Perfect Game Blunder
- Basketball: The Cloud of Free Agency


Issue #1 - Jeremy Roenick Crying

This may not be hockey's biggest issue at the moment, but it is an issue nonetheless. At the conclusion of the Stanley Cup Finals, as the Chicago Blackhawks emotionally hoisted the Stanley Cup for the first time in 49 years, emotions were also running high in NBC's analyst booth, leading to the following:



Are you kidding me!? If there's no crying in BASEBALL, how can there be crying in HOCKEY!? It bothers me that this happened because despite his stint in Chicago, Roenick also played in Philly. As an analyst he's supposed to be objective but here he is going on about, "the Chicago Blackhawks, man." When he's behind the booth he needs to be objective, other than that he can cry all he wants.


Issue #2 - USC Violations and Punishments

The NCAA has decided to step in and punish USC after it was discovered that certain players had accepted money, among other things, while still at school. The funny thing about this though is that the 3 central figures in this issue - Reggie Bush, OJ Mayo, and Pete Carroll - are all safely residing outside the not-so-long-reaching arms of the NCAA. Yes, they've taken away some wins, but at the end of the day the people who are mainly being punished are the ones who had nothing to do with the incident. Think of the juniors and seniors in USC's football program. They've paid their dues for years and now they won't have the chance to win a bowl game as leaders of their team because of how the NCAA has handled this situation. Also, if the NCAA is going to bust players and programs for accepting money, maybe they should open their eyes next NFL Draft when all the first round picks are walking up to the stage with $10,000 watches, diamond earings and $3,000 suits. How'd they get those? Allowance money?


Issue #3 - Perfect Game Blunder

This story has been beaten to death, and rightfully so, but I think two important things stand out:
1) The League made the right decision not giving Galarraga a perfect game. Yes, everyone wanted to see him get the perfect game because everyone knows he deserved it, but if you reverse that call you have to put into question every missed call baseball has ever had, big or small. I don't think you can jeopordize the integrity of the game like that, because the human element is part of the game after all. If that was the first out of the game would people have the same reaction? Of course not, and you can't react a certain way because of the circumstance, which in this case just happened to be an amazing individual feat.
2) The reaction of Jim Joyce was perfect. He admitted he was wrong countless times, and it's hard to be mad at the guy because of how sincere and genuine he was. In fact, I feel worse for Joyce than I do for Galarraga. Hopefully athletes who screw up in the future can learn from this guy and admit when they're wrong, rather than blaming others or avoiding consequences.

Issue #4: NBA Free Agency

The vast cloud of free agency has overshadowed this years NBA Playoffs, (which isn't too hard to do considering the overall excitement of this year's playoffs) and unfortunately this cloud seems to be turing into a thunderstorm. The national media has presented every possible scenario of where these free agents could go, constantly breaking down and analyzing each one as if the media is in the front office negotiating. At times it seems like they make stories and rumors up just to maintain any grasp they may have on their audience. I have a hard time regarding any opinions I hear because no one knows, and it doesn't make much sense to me to talk about it until these players are actually signed. At the present moment the NBA Finals are under way and all attention should be directed there, however the minds of analysts continue to stay on these situations that will not be resolved until July, so I suggest we wait to see what happens and then discuss it.