Still crazy after all these years

James Conner Photo: Bleacher Report … Chiefs lose right guard after M.D. opts out When James Conner was a junior at the University of Pittsburgh in 2015, he was diagnosed with stage 2 Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a cancer of the lymph glands. He had already lost the season because of a torn ACL and surgery for that, but this was a stage beyond that.  Last year, he said on a podcast that doctors said that he was fortunate that it was discovered when it was, or he could have been in trouble, "My heart, I got tumors growing all around it," Conner said during  a podcast  hosted by Michael Seander, who performs as a hip-hop artist named Mike Stud.  Then when he spoke with a doctor about the diagnosis, Conner told Seander, "He said you got about a week — if you didn’t get this treated, you had about a week, at the rate it was growing." Charlotte Carroll, “James Conner says doctors gave him ‘About a week’ to live  at time of cancer diagnosi...

Danny Murtaugh Photo: Pinterest … Bruce Markusen made a great case more than a decade ago Eleven years ago, a writer named Bruce Markusen persuasively argued for the enshrinement of Danny Murtaugh in the MLB Hall of Fame, Whitey Herzog ,  Davey Johnson  and  Billy Martin  have drawn most of the headlines of the managers listed on this year’s Hall of Fame ballot, but none has a stronger case for Cooperstown enshrinement than a far less publicized fellow. Of all the former managers listed on the Veterans Committee ballot, the late  Danny Murtaugh  is as deserving as anyone. Bruce Markusen, “Cooperstown Confidential: Danny Murtaugh and  the Hall of Fame,” The Hardball Times, Dec. 4, 2009 Over a period of 20 years from 1957 to '77, Danny coached the Bucs for 15 of those years, winning two World Series crowns and five divisional titles. In all of them, the Pirates were a small-market team, but yet they defeated the powerful New Yo...

... but there are some good guys like Sean Miller My Conclusion: There is no educationally-redeeming value to big-time college athletics The Greedy Guys Saban, Calipari, Swinney Penn State With many highly-paid coaches and administrators taking voluntary pay cuts, Franklin was asked if he has those plans. He said he and his wife, Fumi, are pledging a gift to Penn State for scholarships. “We’re a little different than other places because the athletic department is self sufficient,” he said. “Obviously, the longer this goes, the conversation changes daily.” James Franklin, Penn State, refused to take a pay cut Neil Rudel, Altoona Mirror To say that NCAA athletics are in trouble right now would be an understatement. The major difficulty is that the colleges and universities are hurting financially because of the coronavirus. They are not certain if students will return to campus, which most want, or if they will decide to sit out the year u...