Try this list on for size: John Elway, Walter Payton, Dan Marino, Hakeem Olajuwon, Michael Jordan, Isaiah Thomas, Ernie Banks, Jim Kelly, David Robinson, Carl Yastrzemski, George Brett, Larry Bird, and Kirby Puckett. I’ll bet off the top of your head without much thought you could tell me what team or city these athletes played the majority of their careers with. These players aren’t just hall of famers in their specific sport—they are legendary.

Will LeBron James ever have a statue built in his honor like this one of Micahel Jordan outside the United Center in Chicago? Not likely. (Photo by jimcchou on Flickr)

Now try this list: Kevin Garnett, Shaquille O’Neal, Randy Moss, Terrell Owens, A.J. Burnett, Alex Rodriguez, and Mike Mussina. Try telling me off the top of your head what team these guys have played most of their careers. You probably can’t, and if not I don’t blame you. Not quite as impressive a list, is it? These players left the teams they started with to either make more money or to win a championship. And now, LeBron James has gone from list No. 1 to list No. 2.

On the surface, I don’t begrudge James’ decision to leave his home state of Ohio for the Miami Heat. He left for less money in order to “win a championship” with stars Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. Other athletes make these decisions all the time in sports. But supposedly LeBron James isn’t one of these “other athletes.” The self-proclaimed “Chosen One” is supposed to rise above all other basketball players. After all, when you have a nickname like the “Chosen One” that’s what it implies.

However, this move proves that he’s not the best basketball player in the league. Heck, to me, this move shows HE doesn’t even think he’s the best player in the league. Did Michael Jordan leave the Bulls to play with Larry Bird and the Celtics because the Bulls couldn’t beat them? Did John Elway leave Denver to play with Barry Sanders in Detroit?

If he truly is King James, then LeBron should have brought players to HIS city. Why didn’t he tell Wade and Bosh to join HIM in Cleveland?

LeBron could have been a legend in Cleveland. Now by going to Miami he’s just another NBA star. (Photo by Dave Hogg)

Think of all the great accomplishments you’ve seen in sports. For me, some of the most memorable were when a great player finally accomplished the ultimate and won a championship after building up his team—the team he started with.

John Elway began his career with the Broncos in 1983, and went through some very tough seasons, including losing three Super Bowls in five years. Those struggles are what made his winning back-to-back titles after the 1997 and 1998 seasons that much more exciting. From that point on, Elway’s legendary status was cemented. If he had bolted after those Super Bowl losses and gone to another team, the opinion of Elway would not be nearly as high as it is now.

Could you imagine if James lost three NBA championships in five years with the Cavaliers? Right, you can’t, because even though the Cavs gave him the coach he wanted and then got Shaquille O’Neal to play with him, James still couldn’t win a championship. In fact, he only got to the finals once.

Some of the players on my first list at the top didn’t even win a championship in their city, yet they are still highly revered. Marino, Banks, Kelly, and Yastrzemski never won a title, but try going to a bar in their respective cities of Miami, Chicago, Buffalo, or Boston and bringing up their names. I’ll bet you’ll practically get a moment of silence in each case.

There’s a difference between a hall of famer and a legend. James was supposed to be a legend. Now the only legendary thing about him is how he single-handedly destroyed the Cleveland Cavaliers franchise. Oh and the way he did it, with the hour-long slap in the face to Cavs fans on ESPN? That will go down as legendary too.

It’s really a shame because I liked the idea of LeBron James. I’m not an NBA fan as much anymore, but I really was beginning to admire him. I think I would have enjoyed seeing him bring a title to Cleveland, a city that hasn’t won a championship in any sport since the Browns in 1964.

Obviously that won’t happen, so now, instead of the “Chosen One” he’s just going to be known as the “Other One.”

Photo by John Workman

Lost in the U.S. Open, World Cup, and Wimbledon craziness over the week is an event that, as Omaha World-Herald sportswriter Tom Shatel says, is “the greatest secret in sports.”

The College World Series, which has been played in Omaha, Nebraska, for the last 60 years, is in its final year at Rosenblatt Stadium. It will remain in Omaha, but the two-week tribute to college baseball will be moving from this storied stadium to a new home away from the neighborhood that nurtured it and into the newly developed downtown area.

Its hometown charm and local ties are unlike any other college championship. The football BCS title game moves from place to place each year, as does the NCAA’s Final Four for basketball. Hockey’s Frozen Four is the same way. But Omaha, for as many times as the NCAA has looked to move the venue for more glitz and glamour, has continued to shine as a welcome and appreciative host.

If I sound a little biased, it’s because I am. Growing up in Omaha, most of my summer memories as a kid revolved almost completely around the College World Series.  It really wasn’t summer until the eight best baseball teams in the country made their way into our open arms. As I think back, I’d probably say many personal qualities of mine are due, at least in some part, to the CWS.

There was the time when I was about 9 or 10 years old when I was heading to the game with my dad. As we parked the car and got out, I closed the door on my thumb.

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One of my co-workers sent me a link to a New York Times article a couple weeks ago that talked about a disturbing trend of increased injuries in youth sports. More kids are being overworked and burned out at younger and younger ages, causing many more athletic injuries.

While the health aspects of this phenomenon are interesting by themselves, I was even more interested in the psychological and social aspects. There’s a portion in the article that I found particularly interesting:

The problem was put into focus three years ago by the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Council on Sports Medicine and Fitness. In a report in the academy’s journal, Pediatrics, Dr. Joel S. Brenner wrote, “Overuse injuries, overtraining and burnout among child and adolescent athletes are a growing problem in the United States.”

The goal of youth participation in sports, the council said, “should be to promote lifelong physical activity, recreation and skills of healthy competition.

“Unfortunately,” it went on, “too often the goal is skewed toward adult (parent/coach) goals either implicitly or explicitly. As more young athletes are becoming professionals at a younger age, there is more pressure to grab a piece of the ‘professional pie,’ to obtain a college scholarship or to make the Olympic team.”

If only it were this simple. We could start an educational program for adults explaining that about 0.5% of all high school athletes ever become professionals. That would be the easy part.

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Many may have heard the news last week that the University of Nebraska is going to leave the Big 12 Conference and join the Big Ten starting in 2011.

Colorado has accepted an invitation to join the Pac-10 Conference starting in 2012. There are many rumors circulating, but as of now, the Big 12, err, 10, will stay in existence. Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State were considering joining the Pac-10, but, at least for now, that will not happen.

And while it’s hard to imagine the Nebraska Cornhuskers not being in the Big 12  (especially for me, an Omaha, Nebraska, native and fan of Cornhuskers football), these crazy shifts in conference affiliations are nothing new.

I will say I’m disappointed at the prospect of Nebraska not being in the same conference as Kansas and Kansas State. But watching football games every year against the likes of Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Purdue, Ohio State, and Penn State sounds very exciting.

Although all of this change seems pretty jarring, there was a time, believe it or not, when Nebraska and Iowa were in the same conference. There was also a time when teams flipped conferences almost yearly.

Of course, back in the day, the major reason for all the shifting was not the television rights money grab it is today. Heck, there wasn’t even TV back then! Basically, schools were just trying to find other teams that actually played the game of football.

A look at Nebraska’s conference past will show you just how tumultuous it was back then:

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I go back and forth on how I feel about steroids and their impact on some of the all-time baseball records. On one hand, I’d say you’ve got to put some of these players in, because you just don’t know where to draw the line. This player was suspected of using steroids, but this one wasn’t. Some players we don’t know for sure did, but we speculated they might have at one time. On the other hand, with admitted steroid users—or those who failed tests—shouldn’t their records be eliminated?

Alex Rodriguez (Photo by Keith Allison)

Regardless of how you feel on this issue, as Alex Rodriguez, an admitted steroid user, continues his climb up the list of home run sluggers, I have to wonder something. What do the old players think as they are getting past by steroid users? Two weeks ago, Rodriguez passed the great Frank Robinson for seventh all-time on the list.

I haven’t found anything where Robinson specifically addresses Rodriguez, but here are his thoughts on the steroids and baseball records issue.

“Where do you go back, stop and say, ‘OK, when did he start using steroids?’ To eliminate all that, and get the players’ attention, you wipe the whole thing out,” Robinson told MLB.com. “Why put the burden on baseball to try and figure out where to go, and maybe put an asterisk? Just wipe the whole thing out.”

Frank Robinson (Photo by Rubenstein via flickr)

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News came down last week that Houston Texans linebacker Brian Cushing tested positive for HCG, a fertility drug that is on the league’s banned substance list. From what I understand, HCG is used after a cycle of steroids to continue the body’s production of testosterone. This drug was the same one the Dodgers’ Manny Ramirez tested positive for in baseball last year.

Brian Cushing, playing for Southern Cal before being drafted by the Houston Texans. (Photo by Bobak Ha'Eri)

Not surprising, Cushing says he doesn’t know how it got in his body (stop me if you’ve heard this before) and that he neither injected nor took any banned substances. USA Today’s story and an article in the Houston Chronicle detail how it just can’t be possible for Cushing to be on steroids.

Everyone likes to talk smack about baseball’s steroid policy, but let me tell you, those people are being unbelievably hypocritical in relation to the NFL and its policy. Have you ever seen an NFL locker room? I mean, come on! You’re telling me all these players look the way they do, and only a handful who get caught are on steroids? Give me a break.

First of all, Cushing won the NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year Award last year, and there was a call for a re-vote after these revelations about his positive test came out. Did the writers take back the award? No! He still won, even though tests said he cheated.

While this alone is enough to make you shake your head, let me remind everyone that Shawne Merriman, the San Diego Chargers linebacker, also won the NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year Award (in 2006) and later tested positive for steroids. Did they take back Merriman’s award either? Of course not.

And what is the NFL’s punishment for these violations? These two guys got a four-game suspension under NFL rules. That’s one quarter of the season. Baseball’s 50-game suspension for first timers is much more painful, taking away almost one third of the season.

The final thing in this NFL charade is that Cushing tested positive in September last year. SEPTEMBER? Why are we just now finding out about this? Why wasn’t he suspended during the season when the test was found to be positive?

I’m sorry, but NFL writers and fans are hypocrites if they enjoy taking pot shots at MLB’s steroid underbelly without taking a look deep inside their precious sport. I am happy baseball is scrutinized like it is, but the same should be done for the NFL.

And if your answer is, “well, everyone is doing it,” that’s just not acceptable. It’s not acceptable for my six-year-old son, and it certainly isn’t going to fly coming from grown football players, fans and writers.

It was a sad day yesterday in the baseball world, as Ernie Harwell, the voice of the Detroit Tigers, passed away at the age of 92. It was not a sudden death, as Harwell had been battling cancer in his bile duct for about eight months. Still, the baseball community was hit pretty hard by the news.

Ernie Harwell at a college game in 2006 as a Blue Cross Blue Shield spokesperson. (Flickr photo by mwlguide)

“Not that many people in our game are that influential. This guy was one of the most influential guys around the Detroit area. That’s pretty good,” Detroit Tigers manager Jim Leyland said to the Detroit Free Press. “When you met him, he was one of those guys that you felt like you knew him all your life, and you felt like he knew you. Ernie never met a stranger, I don’t think.”

I’m not sure if everyone knew this, but Harwell was a resident at our community in Novi, MI. He had been a resident at Erickson’s Fox Run for more than six years with his wife, who he affectionately called Lulu. They had been married 68 years. Erickson’s mission of living life to the fullest couldn’t be better exemplifed than through Harwell, even after he retired from the booth. He wrote books, songs, and was even a spokesperson for Blue Cross Blue Shield.

There are plenty of people in baseball, or sports in general, who, when they die, are described as “nice.” But there’s a difference between nice and virtuous. And there are plenty in sports who are described as lovable, but there’s a difference between lovable and honorable.

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The three-day marathon of the NFL Draft is finally over. Thank goodness. I know, for many NFL fans that probably sounds like blasphemy, but I really don’t understand the interest in this non-event. Someone who sees this may chime in that ESPN’s ratings were up 27 percent from 2009, and I would say that’s 27 percent more people who are wasting their time watching people read names off slips of paper.

Many will say, “teams can make or break their seasons, if not their entire franchises in the draft. That’s how important it is.” While I do agree with that statement, that doesn’t mean it makes for good TV. Nobody, especially the dozens of talking heads on ESPN and NFL Network, have the first clue if ANY of the players drafted will be successful. Every single one of them is talking out of their “you know whats.”

I’m glad I don’t have to hear phrases like “value pick,” “measurables,” “huge upside,” and “best available” for another year. Now, for the sake of full disclosure, I’m not as big an NFL fan as the rest of the country is, so I do admit bias here.

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Last Thursday was Jackie Robinson Day at all major league baseball parks across the country. To commemorate Robinson breaking the color barrier, every player, coach, and manager on the field wore No. 42 in his honor—and I think that is a terrible idea.

Now before you get all fired up and start calling me names, hear me out. I think having Jackie Robinson Day in baseball is a wonderful idea. Awhile back, when the No. 42 was retired from every team, meaning no one would be allowed to wear that number again, I thought that was a great idea as well. Robinson deserves to be recognized for his contributions every year.

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Have you ever heard of Charles “Old Hoss” Radbourn? Neither had I until driving to the airport last Saturday. While in the car, we were listing to an NPR reporter talking to author Edward Achorn about his new book Fifty-nine in ‘84, the story of a tough, moody, driven pitcher in the dawning age of baseball in 1884. He played for the Providence Grays, and the more Achorn talked about this guy, the more intrigued I became. Here’s a discription of Radbourn and the book:

In 1884, Providence Grays pitcher Charles “Old Hoss” Radbourn won an astounding fifty-nine games-more than anyone in major-league history ever had before, or has since. He then went on to win all three games of baseball’s first World Series.

Fifty-nine in ‘84 tells the dramatic story not only of that amazing feat of grit but also of big-league baseball two decades after the Civil War-a brutal, bloody sport played barehanded, the profession of uneducated, hard-drinking men who thought little of cheating outrageously or maiming an opponent to win.

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