East Side!

After watching the first half of my high school's varsity football game, I went with a couple other teachers in my school to East St. Louis High School to watch East Side High play unbeaten suburban school Belleville East. My teacher buddies, both of whom had been teaching for a long time and had connections to the local sports scene through their coaching experience, told me the whole way how big of a treat it was going to be.

The game was definitely everything they had talked it up to be. The stadium was beautiful, and we had to wait for 20 minutes just to get in. The crowd was huge, with 4,000 or 5,000 people there. The East St. Louis community supports their team impressively, and Belleville East came out with strong fan support as well.

While both teams seemed ready, it was clear from the start who was the better team. East St Louis won 53-14 over the unbeaten Lancers, and it would have been even worse if Belleville East had not gotten several favorable, possibly shady spots from the officiating crew. (That issue is a completely different topic though.) I was one of the few white people on the East St Louis side of the stadium, and I wholly enjoyed the experience. The level of play was amazing, the energy level was about as high as any I had experienced at a football game at any level, and the fan support from both teams was great too. Thank you, East St Louis/Belleville, for showing me what high school football is really all about.

East Coast Bias?

The topic of the Eastern media has been a hot one as of late. It most recently got on my nerves when I was listening to Stephen A. Smith on the radio. He was talking about NLCS Game 1, played in Arizona, when the home fans started throwing objects on the field in response to an interference call made on the home team. Smith started complaining about how the media was so soft in its treatment of the Arizona fans and went on to say that if the same thing happened in New York, Boston, Philly, or "even Baltimore," that the fans would be criticized all over CNN and would be front-page news.

Normally, I like Stephen A. And he brings up a valid point in the case of regional media bias. But he is ridiculously biased in his media criticism. So he is complaining about the bias toward regions of the country in the media. Well, Stephen, that's a wonderful cause, but where was your criticism of the bias when the Pac-10 conference is consistently underrated year in and year out? Where is your criticism of the overwhelmingly lopsided media coverage of the Yankees/Boston teams at the expense of teams west of Pennsylvania? Where was your criticism of the media lavishing MVP praise of East Coasters Ryan Howard in 2006 and Jimmy Rollins this year over athletes with better numbers on teams that advanced farther than the Phillies (see Pujols in 2006 and Matt Holliday this year)? Where was your criticism when the media blamed the Yankees' ALDS loss to Cleveland not on the players but on the annoying insects just attacked Yankee pitcher Joba Chamberlain in the 8th inning, when at the same time the media conveniently forgot the fact that Cleveland pitcher Fausto Carmona dealt with the very same bugs the next inning and actually managed to pitch well in spite of them? Or when you made a prediction just a few seconds after your complaints of bias in the media that Boston would beat Cleveland in the ALCS in "five, maybe six" games? (By the way, how's that prediction coming?) I could go on and on with examples. Stephen A, when you make an argument, PLEASE be balanced in your criticism of the media.

Speaking of East Coast media, how about this whole Tony La Russa to New York possible story? True, Tony works well with veteran players and has a history of winning, both qualities that the Yankees need. But how in the heck would Tony be able to handle the New York media when he can't even take the pressure from the "big, bad" media in St Louis? Imagine how surly La Russa would get in New York, especially when he starts playing favorites (such as when he pulled Brendan Ryan for swinging at a 3-0 pitch but giving Rick Ankiel a free pass when he did the same thing). You know what, Tony? Go to New York. I'll just have to keep my TV viewing area stocked with plenty of popcorn.