This would get Americans into soccer

Austria wins the preliminaries, but Germany won the one that counted. The Germans advance to face Portugal in the Euro 2008 quarterfinals.

College World Series

The College World Series starts today, and I might get to watch it for a change. I have always been a big fan of this event, but I haven't been able to watch much of it the last few years for various reasons. I started watching when I was in college. At that time, someone I played little league with (Pete Stanicek) was playing for Stanford.

It was kind of funny back then. For a couple of years, our little league team had a future major leaguer (Pete) and the worst hitter in the history of organized baseball (me).

College baseball is a little harder to follow than football and basketball because it doesn't get nearly the TV coverage, but that is improving. I was able to follow the end of a pretty decent season by my Boilermakers on the Big Ten Network, and if you get one of the cable/satellite sports packages, you can see most of the good teams play in the regular season. Also, ESPN covers some of the tournament regionals on its basic channels. That's how I saw Stanford, which is the only CWS team I saw more than a few innings of this season.

Like every sport, the college game is different than the pros in the level of ability (advantage pros), and the spirit with which the game is played (advantage college). Baseball is the only one I'm aware of where there is a significant difference between the colleges and the pros in the equipment used. College baseball uses aluminum bats, which is a huge advantage to the hitters, especially if the ball doesn't hit the sweet spot. Bats don't break and balls travel farther. As a result of that (and the fact that pitching and fielding aren't as good), there's a lot more runs in college baseball.

And, if my friend and CSTV colleague Eric Sorenson is right, it might really be bombs away.

So at the risk of making a complete fool of myself, here are my picks for the CWS.

Bracket 1 (Miami, FSU, Georgia, Stanford)

Florida St over Stanford and Georgia over Miami today.
Miami eliminates Stanford, Georgia beats FSU.
FSU eliminates Miami, then beats Georgia twice to get to the title round.

Bracket 2 (North Carolina, Rice, LSU, Fresno St)

Fresno St over Rice and UNC over LSU tomorrow
LSU eliminates Rice, UNC over Fresno
LSU eliminates Fresno, but loses to UNC to send Tar Heels to the title round.

UNC beats Florida St 2-1 to win championship.

Replay coming to baseball?

An AP story today reports that replay may be coming to Major League Baseball as soon as August.

According to the story, the rush to implement replay comes from a "rash of blown calls" lately, but the only two that are mentioned are home runs by the Mets' Carlos Delgado and the Yankees' Alex Rodriguez that were ruled incorrectly (supposedly - I never saw the plays myself).

I wonder if there would be such a rush to get replay going if the missed home runs were by players on the Pirates or Royals. New York whines about something and all of a sudden, it's an emergency. boo hoo.

Replay is already in use in most major sports in at least some fashion, but I have never been a big fan of using it in baseball. In general, the umps do a good job of getting calls right, and using replay could slow the game down tremendously.

Just recently, MLB instructed the teams and umpires to try to speed up games by doing things like shortening mound conferences and batters' pre-pitch preparation ceremonies. There are some guys who step out after every pitch and adjust their batting gloves, helmet, cup, shin guards, elbow pads, pine tar, makeup and 401Ks before getting back into the box. I understand the need for a routine, but that's ridiculous. .

There really aren't a whole lot of practical uses for replay in baseball, however determining whether something is a home run or not is one of them. Especially in the situation where the ball is over the fence, but bending around the fair pole, because the ball is dead whether it's fair or foul. Since those situations are relatively rare, the delays would be minimal.

The situation where the ball hits a wall near a yellow line that divides home runs from in-play doesn't work as well. If baseball decides that these plays are reviewable also, then umpires will be inclined, if not forced, to rule that anything close is still in play so that reversing the call is easy. You see something similar in football. Refs are now reluctant stop a play where there is any chance that a fumble occurred because once they stop the play, it can't be reversed.

In this situation, if the ump lets things play out, and then if the replay shows that it was a home run, it's no big deal. If the ump calls it a home run first, but replay reverses it, there's no way to remedy the situation. I suppose they could simply treat it like a ground rule double, but nobody knows what might have happened if the correct call had been made to begin with. More than likely though, the call would not be considered reversible, which defeats the purpose of replay.

The same problem occurs with fair/foul rulings on the lines, or any other play where the ball is either alive or dead, depending on the call.

Replay would also be very impractical on the bases and for balls and strikes. If those calls were reversible, baseball would turn into cricket, where games sometimes go on for several days.

So, until the Cubs lose a World Series because some ump blows a home run call, I'd like to see things stay as they are.

Benson Gets Bum's Rush

The Cedric Benson Era mercifully ended Monday with his release. The Bears now enter their 22nd season of looking for Walter Payton's replacement.

In 1986, Payton's last year as the every down starter for the Bears, he ran for 1333 yards. Since that time, only Thomas Jones has surpassed that total (1335 yards in 2005). That's not good when you are primarily a running team. Remember, the Bears are still looking for the second coming of Sid Luckman at QB.

Neal Anderson was the Bears leading rusher for the seven years beginning in 1987, but he only surpassed 1000 yards three times and failed to hit 750 in four of those years.

The Bears have used three first round draft choices on running backs since that time. Benson was a first round choice (4th overall) in 2005. Before that, Curtis Enis was picked 5th overall in 1998, which precipitated the release of Rashaan Salaam, who was the 21st overall pick in 1995.

Only Salaam ever did anything of note. He was the rookie of the year in 1995 with 1074 yards rushing. He only had 606 yards in the two years following.

Enis had 1497 yards in three seasons with the Bears. That was his entire NFL career. Benson finishes the Bear portion of his career with 1593 yards in three seasons.

Benson wasn't cut just for being unproductive though. He was cut for being stupid and unproductive. When you're job is hanging by a thread (the Bears took RB Matt Forte in the second round of this year's draft), you need to keep your nose clean, and Benson didn't do that.

He has been arrested twice in the last month for OWI-related offenses. The first came on his boat, and the second was last weekend in a car.

So, before we say good riddance, let's review some of the highlights of the Benson Era, thanks to the Chicago Tribune for helping to fill in some of the details.

April, 2005 - Bears pick him fourth overall. He cries, but not tears of joy. He's upset because pre-draft talks between his agent and the Bears were way off on contract basics, which meant a likely contentious negotiation.

August, 2005 - That turned out to be true, because he held out for 36 days before finally getting on board.

November, 2005 - Finally makes his first start against the 49ers, but blows his knee in the first half and his next appearance is in the final game of the season.

August, 2006 - Leaves the bench during an exhibition game, then misses a team meeting.

February, 2007 - Injured early in Super Bowl and misses the rest of the game. Finishes with -1 yard on 2 carries.

September, 2007 - Now the starter after Thomas Jones was traded in the offseason, he carries 24 times for 101 yards against KC, his only triple-digit rushing total of the season. Despite this game, he only has 538 yards on 177 carries (3.04 ypc) through the first nine games.

November, 2007 - After finally having another decent performance the week before, he injures his ankle against Denver and misses the rest of the season. It turns out to be his final game as a Bear.

May, 2008 - Legal troubles begin as he is arrested for OWI on a boat and resisting arrest.

June, 2008 - Arrested for DUI on last Saturday, cut by the Bears on Monday.

So, the Bears enter the new season with an offensive line in need of repair, a QB that is either unproven (Orton) or a proven disaster (Grossman), a rookie RB (Forte), and a receiving corps that is perhaps the biggest question mark of the unit - and obviously, that's saying something.

Hope that defense is really good.

We moved!

Last night, a series of tornadoes ripped through the area. The Chicago Tribune story details the damage, but also notes that Lake County is in now northeast Indiana. That must have been some storm if it picked up an entire county and moved it (Wizard of Oz-style) all the way to the eastern part of the state!

I was at a graduation party for the daughter of a friend of ours in St. John, IN when the sirens went off. We went outside to have a look and it looked very nasty just to our north and west. Where we were, it was just raining and it appeared to be clearing up.

I've lived in this area nearly all of my 44 years and have never seen a funnel cloud, let alone an actual tornado. I could go 44 more years without seeing one and wouldn't feel like I missed anything.

Two major political cogs go down

This was a tough week for local politicians in this area as two dealmakers were found guilty on corruption charges.

In Chicago, Tony Rezko was found guilty on 16 counts of fraud and corruption charges. He was guilty of taking kickbacks to funnel state teachers' pension fund money to certain brokerage houses. Rezko has been a rainmaker for both Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich and senator and presidential candidate Barack Obama, though both have tried to distance themselves from Rezko since his indictments. Yes, that's plural. He has at least two more trials coming.

This is the latest in the string of victories for US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald in Chicago. Fitzgerald (not to be confused with Northwestern football coach of the same name) came to the Northern Illinois district in 2001 and has been taking down corrupt pols ever since, including former governor George Ryan. Many of us are waiting to see if he ever gets to the big fish, Blago and Chicago Mayor Richard Daley.

Rezko was also allegedly part of a group of local pols that included former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert that tried to get Fitzgerald pushed out of his job and this investigation killed, but that plan failed, obviously.

The Tribune's John Kass writes that Rezko may not just be trouble for Obama, but even some republicans.

Lake County, Indiana has a level of corruption that not only rivals, but surpasses what happens in Chicago. Our county's reputation for shenanigans was the reason local officials were the butt of a national joke on the day of our primaries when they couldn't promptly count and release vote totals.

One of the reasons why corruption goes on unfettered, and barely under the table, is because we don't have a Peter Fitzgerald willing to take on the politicians. Perhaps that is finally changing.

Yesterday, a key Lake County political dealmaker, Bob Cantrell, was convicted on 11 fraud and corruption related counts. Cantrell got kickbacks for arranging for local judges, including his daughter Julie, to send people to a friend's addiction counseling service company. He also got hit with tax fraud charges for not reporting that income.

The NW Indiana Times has a blog detailing the trial.

So, maybe the feds will use the momentum from this verdict and go after more local pols. It's a well that will never run dry.

Money can't buy you brains

Last week, Michel Fournier tried to set a world record for the highest and fastest free-fall. The plan was to float 25 miles high in a special balloon and jump. According to news reports, he spent two decades and $20M of his own money to make this happen.

Then, when the balloon was filling with helium, it took off by itself because it wasn't properly attached to the capsule.

I don't know anything about ballooning (I'm afraid of heights), but you would think "Attach balloon to capsule" would be near the top of the pre-flight checklist.

Indiana Palms and the Temple of Baseball

With much trepidation, I wanted to try to take the entire family to a Cubs game this year. It's a quest fraught with peril, because you have to first find tickets, then get to the game, keep the younger ones entertained so the rest can enjoy the game, and finally, you have to get the whole exhausted brood back home. Oh, and you have to finance the adventure, but fortunately, rates are reasonable right now.

The hardest part is the first one, finding the tickets. Finding five tickets together, either online or over the phone, is impossible for two reasons: the games are near sell-outs and the system for purchasing the tickets isn't really designed to be helpful.

Everything is based on the date of the game, which makes sense of course. Most people want to go on a specific day or, say, weekend. We had a lot of flexibility though. We wanted to go to just about any day game. To get tickets online, you first pick the date. Then a screen comes up to choose a pricing level (or best available) and the number you need. Then you are taken to another screen to enter one of those security codes, where they put numbers and letters in a box that has lines and stuff in it to make it hard to read. Then, you can finally get to the screen where you can buy the tickets - or in my case, find out that what you need is not available.

Not very useful. Now imagine doing that for every day game, for three or four different pricing levels, and you can see how frustrating that can be. I didn't do that of course. I eventually gave up and called the ticket folks.

That didn't work either. It appears that they have no better way to find tickets for you than you can do for yourself online.

So I turned to a friend who I had hoped might be able to put me in touch with the right person. One of the many people who regularly interview me during basketball season is David Kaplan of WGN in Chicago, which just happens to be the station that carries the Cubs. He did better than put me in touch with the right person. He found me tickets for some pretty nice seats.

When you have four kids, going anywhere, even places like the grocery store, is an adventure. Wrigley Field is tough to get to by yourself. You can drive, if you don't mind the traffic and paying $40-50 to park within walking distance of the park. The other option is to take the L (train), which is very crowded, but much cheaper and drops you a block from the park. That's the way to go, even for us. Our biggest problem is getting a double stroller on a crowded train, but we have always managed it so far. We also still have to pay to park downtown, but that is much cheaper than parking at Wrigley. And the kids, especially the younger ones, love riding the trains.

Another place the stroller can be an issue is the ballpark itself. Last year, when we went to a game, we sat upstairs and stashed the stroller in a corner by the bathroom entrance. That actually worked surprisingly well.

This year, as we walked in, the ticket taker said we could check the stroller for free at the customer relations office. That's a nice feature.

The ballpark staff was generally very nice, which includes the Octogenarian Ninja Ushers. If you have ever been to Wrigley, you will have undoubtedly noticed that the ushers in the seating area are all very senior citizens. I even saw one wearing one of those oxygen backpacks.

Don't let the grandmotherly (or grandfatherly) look fool you though. They are not pushovers and they'll get after you if they need to. If you go where you don't belong, they go right down there and grab you by the ear and take you away.

I wanted to get down by the wall to say hello to another media friend of mine who was on the field before the game, but the ONU wouldn't let me get there. I got out before I got the ear-pull though.

We saw the Padres when they were in town on May 15th, which is back before Spring started around here. Spring this year was from May 25-June 3. It's now Summer, but I digress.

The point is, it was cold. My wife and kids were all in their winter gear. I refuse to wear a winter coat in May, and especially to a baseball game.

The weather kept the crowd down a bit. There were a lot of no-shows around us, and a few of the people were clearly not interested in the game. Like, for example, the lady across the aisle from me who was there by herself and doing her knitting.

We also had the requisite loudmouth half a section behind us, but fortunately, he kept it clean. Even better, he ran out of hot air half way through the game.

Most people wear Cubs gear to the game, but one young lady in front of us must not have had anything, so she wore a blue Cub Scout neckerchief as a bandanna. I guess that's the best she could do.

We sat about 15 rows from the field, looking right up the first base line. We were just at the edge of the net, which was nice because with the kids, we can't spend every second watching for line drives to come back at us.

The game itself was pretty good. The Cubs won 4-0, getting all four runs in one inning off of former Cub Greg Maddux. He got a standing O as he left the field because many of his think it might be the last time he pitches at Wrigley. The game was played quickly (under 2:30), so we weren't out in the cold any longer than we needed to be.

Our younger kids were entertained by the two kids sitting in front of us that were about the same age. Although, I have to say, my two-year-old daughter liked the game itself. She still doesn't talk much, but one of the first words she ever said was "ball," and she loves playing and watching anything with a ball. She's the only two-year-old in America who would rather watch Big Ten Tonight than Teletubbies. At the game, when she would see someone swing the bat, she would swing her arm across her body to mimic that. Now, when ever she sees the Cubs logo, she yells "Ball!" and swings her arm.

After the game, we waited around for the crowds to die down so we were among the last ones out. Before we headed to the train, we walked over to check out the new Ernie Banks statue, just on the third base side of the entrance at Clark and Addison. The sculptor did a great job capturing Ernie. It's a great tribute to Mr. Cub.

Getting home was relatively easy, except for some rush hour traffic. The car was a lot quieter as some of us slept. A great time was had by all, and it was definitely worth the effort.

Thank you, sir! May I have another?

Gas around here shot up over $4 per gallon for the first time today. At the rate it's going, we'll see $5 before the 4th of July and $6 by Labor Day.

Don't spend it all in one place

Last week, I was among the many who received property tax rebate checks from the county as a result of a cap passed by the state legislature a few months ago. However, even something good like this provides another example of how inefficiently our local government operates.

Thousands of Lake County taxpayers received rebate checks for $0. The county spent whatever its postage rate is x however many people got those checks to let them know they got nothing. I wonder if anyone tried to cash them.

And speaking of incompetent customer service resulting in paltry rebates, I heard back from American Airlines. They supposedly sent me a check for my hotel for the extra night I spent in San Antonio. I should have stayed in a nicer place.

The e-mail I got announcing that my reimbursement was on the way said, they would work hard to prevent future schedule disruptions. Of course, that completely misses the point. Schedule disruptions happen. It's the insufficient response to those problems that needs to be prevented.

1...2...5 (3, sir!)

Lake County took a lot of national abuse for not getting ballots counted promptly on election night. It was well after 10 PM Central time before the county began reporting any numbers.

Many folks in the national media assumed some kind of shenanigans was going on. This is, after all, the most politically corrupt county in the nation. One CBS reporter contacted the Post-Tribune (a local paper) and asked if Lake was borrowing from Cook County (Chicago) politics, but really, the Cook County folks are jealous of what goes on here.

CNN and Fox News had a field day with Lake County also. Here is a link to a snippet of Wolf Blitzing Gary Mayor (and county Dem chair) Rudy Clay.

The official explanation was that the county decided not to release numbers until after the over 11,000 absentee ballots had been counted. Counting that many ballots takes a lot of time. After all, each counter only has 20 fingers and toes (in most cases).

I think they were just trying to get a little spotlight on themselves by reporting last, and by possibly changing a close presidential race. If that was the plan, it failed because the Clinton-Obama race wasn't that close.

However, the race between the democratic candidates for governor, Jim Schellenger and Jill Long-Thompson, was neck-and-neck all night, with Schellenger up by a slim margin before Lake County reported. The late Lake numbers were enough to put Long-Thompson past Schellenger for the win. Long-Thompson had been endorsed by the steelworkers union, so it was expected she would do well here.

The play for attention worked, though, but probably not the way they hoped. Now, the entire nation thinks our county is either run by idiots who can't even count, or is so corrupt that they'll try to fix an election even in the bright spotlight of the national media. Correct on both counts.

The best and most ironic comment on this was in the Times (another local paper) this morning. George Van Til, the county surveyor, said we (the county) look "stupid" because of all this. This comes from a guy who won reelection in spite of the fact that he stole gas from the county and let his teenage son drive his county-issued car around - until he got caught. It's not the inability to count votes that makes us look stupid. It's continuing to elect guys like him.

Former President visits

Last week, those of us in Schererville got a chance to see something we had never seen before. A former President of the United States came to visit.

Bill Clinton made an appearance to stump for votes for his wife, Hillary, in advance of Indiana's primary today.

Those of you who have read my profile know that I don't favor either party particularly. However, I always vote, and in the primary, I always vote in the Democratic. That is because Lake County, where I live, is so heavily Democratic that the primary is the only chance I have to vote for local officials. The Democratic primary is the de facto general election locally. The fact that I always vote in their primary means that the local Democrats think I'm one of them.

It also means I get to vote for Hillary or Barack Obama, the Senator from Next Door, so I thought it might be useful to hear what Bill had to say. I also thought it would be a good chance for my older boys (11 and 9) to see a former President and get a taste of the process.

But first, we had to hurry up and wait.

The doors to the little banquet hall that Clinton would be speaking at opened at 2:45. We were not told when Bill would actually speak, but we were prepared for a long wait.


The crowd waits breathlessly

We showed up right at 2:45 and had to wait in a little bit of a line to get in. Security was not as tight as I would have expected for a former President. Bags were checked, but that's about it. In fact, I went through a more thorough security check to get into the arenas for the NCAA tournament.

For the occasion, in honor of Hillary's drinking habits, I wore my most obnoxious Boilermakers shirt.

The place was standing room only, but not because it was overly crowded. There were no chairs, so all we could do was stand. The room was a little less than half full, maybe about 200 folks. It was almost all adults too. My kids were the only grade school age children there. There were a couple of babies and toddlers, and a few HS kids as well. There were also a few media types, and seemingly every Schererville cop. It would have been a good day to rob a bank.

I was about 40 feet from the podium, which meant I could see OK, but it would have been better if I'd worn heels. My kids had trouble seeing, but they could find an angle on occasion.

Clinton started around 3:30, so it was only a 45-minute wait. Bill has a reputation for being a charismatic speaker, and he did not disappoint. He was concise, by his standards, funny, and at times blunt. And his style wasn't typical of most politicians. Politicians generally speak as if they are talking to idiots. In many cases, they are. They'll pause. After. Every. Word. As if you need a few minutes to process each one. I can't stand that. Bill spoke like he had somewhere else to go (which he did), even though he went on for 40 minutes.

He was giving us some of the main points of Hillary's platform (jobs, energy, health care, education, balance the budget, get out of Iraq, etc), the details of which I'll leave out here. You can get that in other places.


Bill doing his thing

His speech didn't end until ten minutes after the doors opened at his next stop in Crown Point. Those folks undoubtedly had a longer wait than we did.

Even though he was campaigning for his wife ("I'm just here as a volunteer campaign worker."), I expected to see more presidential stuff. Perhaps this is against protocol - I certainly wouldn't know - but I thought the presidential seal would be on the podium, but it wasn't. He does have security, though. I saw four Secret Service guys total. There was one on each side of the stage when he spoke, and two others joined the party when Clinton shook hands afterwards.

My sons and I got close enough to shake his hand, so we did. He and I actually chatted a few seconds about No Child Left Behind, which I think is useless and which he said Hillary wants to do away with.

And then he was gone, off to Crown Point.

One strange thing about this event was that there was no handouts, which is a sign, I suppose, of how cash-strapped Hillary's campaign is. There were no buttons, stickers, pins or signs given away. They did have a place to sign up to help, but as you can see, they weren't getting much interest.


Little help? Please?

They did give us a black-and-white flier on the way out, but I wasn't sure what we were supposed to do with it. It wasn't any different than the one I received in the mail earlier that week.

Bill and Hillary hit this region hard. We hardly saw Obama in NW Indiana, but the Clintons were here at least once a week. We'll see today if that pays off.

Sports(wo)men of the year

The leaders in the clubhouse for the Sportsmen of the Year award should be the ladies of the Central Washington University softball team, who literally carried Western Oregon University's team to victory in a game last week. It wasn't just any loss for CWU either. It ended their postseason hopes.

Credit CWU first baseman Mallory Holtman for thinking of the idea to carry WOU's Sara Tucholsky around the bases. I would have never thought of that, not because I wouldn't have wanted to help, but because I would thought it would be illegal. She asked anyway, and found out it wasn't.

Kalama-Air Zoo

Last weekend, I took my two older boys to a Cub Scout overnighter at the Kalamazoo Air Zoo museum.

The itinerary for the event called for a night of building rockets, touring the old museum building, where we were sleeping that night, and watching a movie. The next day, we would shoot off the rockets and tour the new Air Zoo building.

The only problem with this schedule is that it didn't start until 7 PM, and once the rocket construction ended around midnight, that is when they would show the movie. That's fine if you have a bunch of HS kids, but these are all elementary schoolers. Most of these kids are usually in bed by 9, and now we're keeping many of them up until 1:30 or 2 AM to watch a movie.

For me, this kind of event means a night of next to no sleep. I do not sleep well away from home generally, and do particularly poorly when I sleep in a crowded room on an air mattress on the floor.

Still, I thought I'd try to take advantage of the relatively quiet time in our sleeping area during the movie and try to sleep then. That plan was foiled because the father and son camped out closest to me (about 10-15 feet away) happened to be the Fabulous Fartersons, and they chose that moment to launch and all-out Fart Fight.

The next 30 minutes - or perhaps it was a week, I don't know - went like this:

Father: RIPPPPPPPPPP!
Both: "heeheehee!"
Father: "SHHHHHHHHHH!"
Son: RIPPPPPPPPPP!
Both: "heeheehee!"
Father: "SHHHHHHHHHH!"

And so on. If that's not a special father-son bonding moment, I don't know what is. Just think of the stories the son will be able to proudly tell his children and grandchildren. With any luck, that particular skill will be hereditary so they can show it off at family reunions. Imagine, a four-generation fart-fight. A veritable choir of flatulence. This assumes, of course, any of them can overcome that overwhelming talent and successfully breed anyway.

After that, we learned that the father is also a world-class snorer, but he wasn't the only one in the room. So, I didn't so much sleep as pass out and come to a couple of hours later.

I did learn something in those wee hours of the morning though. I didn't realize Kalamazoo's airport, which the museum borders, has commercial flights, but two Northwest flights left there by 7:30 Sunday morning.

Before we launched the rockets on Sunday, we got to visit the hangar where the museum does its restorations. Among the equipment we saw was a Sopwith Camel, which is best known as the kind of plane Snoopy flied in his fantasy battles with the Red Baron. The real Red Baron was supposed shot down by a fighter in a Camel, but it was later learned that he was down by Australian ground fire.

The rocket launch was fun for the kids. It was a very windy day, so they traveled a long way. The new museum was also fun. It had more newer planes than the old one, including a Navy Tomcat and a Blackbird spy plane. They also have a flight simulator where you can control the flight and do things like barrel rolls. It got the better of my kids though. They got upside down and couldn't get out of it.

Still, it was a fun time for the kids. I hope someday to forget it.

We're so sorry, but go pound sand

That's the basic message I got back from American Airlines after I wrote them about their policy that assured that people who were stranded by the MD-80 inspections remained that way.

To review, my flight was one of the first ones canceled when the FAA ordered AA to inspect their entire fleet of MD-80s. When I called the airline to ask about getting home, all they were willing to do to me was rebook me on another of their flights the next day. That flight was also on a MD-80, which meant it had zero chance of leaving as scheduled, and we both knew it. It also meant that I would have to go through the same run around for yet another day. I believe it was four days before AA flew out of San Antonio again.

So, while the chairman of American was going on television telling everyone how American was getting people on their way, even if it meant rebooking on another carrier, I was left to fend for myself.

I eventually got home on Southwest the next day. Ironically, Southwest had a similar problem a couple weeks earlier.

American wrote to tell me that they were "sorry that you found our rebooking policy to be less than convenient," but that since I was unwilling to spend an indefinite period of time in beautiful San Antonio waiting for them to get their act together, all they would consider reimbursing me is my hotel cost for the extra night. They aren't even promising that, just that they'll consider it if I send in the proper documentation.

"Less than convenient." That's a big, steaming pile of something less than pleasant.

Oh, they did refund my ticket for the trip I never made. Big of them.

I will send in my documentation, and perhaps before my kids go to college, I'll get a refund for my hotel. You'll pardon me though if I don't hold my breath.

Wake me when the big one hits

After a pretty restless night of not much sleep, I was pretty surprised this morning to see that we had one of the bigger earthquakes on record here in the Midwest overnight.

The Chicago Tribune reported that this was a near-record event, but it must have happened during the little bit of time that I was sleeping because I didn't notice it. Folks closer to the epicenter experienced some damage, and even people around here got rattled around a bit. My mother-in-law, who lives near Indy, was shaken awake.

It also awakened my wife, who is a very light sleeper. At that time of the morning though, she's pretty groggy. She wasn't sure at first if it was a quake, a strong wind, or if I was shaking the bed. She finally concluded that since everything was rattling, it must be a quake. But she didn't try to wake me.

Nothing and no one else in my house was disturbed, although with four kids, the house is such a mess that shaking it up might actually make it cleaner.

Stuck in San Antonio

I came to San Antonio to cover the Final Four for CSTV.com, but like so many folks, I'm stuck here due to American Airlines being grounded. Actually, it's only their Super 80 planes that are grounded, but that's all they fly out of here.

The airport was very full yesterday with people trying to leave, but at 3:30, AA announced it was canceling all of its flights. All they were willing to do for me was was rebook on another of their flights the next day, but not only were many of those full, but they were on the same type of plane.

Some people waited hours (yes, plural) at the AA counter in the hopes of getting rebooked and perhaps a hotel room for the night. I wasn't going to wait hours, only to have to do the same thing again today. I did manage to get my flight refunded over the phone though.

So, my brother-in-law worked the internet at home (I had no access myself at SAT) and got me a reservation on Southwest and a hotel room here, so if everything goes well, I'll get home sometime tonight.

Meanwhile, here in San Antonio, internet access has been difficult to find. My hotel is near the airport, but in a light industrial area, so even finding food meant a long walk.

Today, while making that walk, I went about a mile and a half before finding a Denny's (as if I didn't have enough of that this week - our hotel was right next to a Denny's). I had no luck finding places with internet access.

After giving up, I started the long walk back to my hotel thinking one of my favorite phrases, "could be worse, could be raining," when - you probably guessed - it started raining.

Fortunately, there was a car dealer nearby, with a rental car company inside. It turned out to be relatively cheap to rent a car for a few hours and drop it at the airport, so I did. Now, I could check out of my hotel and search for internet access.

I drove a little ways before finally coming upon a McDonald's. That's perfect for me because I can access the internet there for free. However, it didn't like my id and password, so it took a half hour on tech support before we could figure it out and get me online.

So, to review, rating the degree of difficulty of some of the things I did this month while covering the tournament from easiest to hardest:

Getting into Canada without proper documentation

Getting my credential to get into the Final Four

Getting out of San Antonio (although this has not actually happened yet, so it could fall down the list)

Finding internet access in San Antonio

If you would like to read some of my other coverage from the NCAA tournament trail, you can go to CSTV.com's Hangtime blog for my off-day adventures, and the Posting Up blog for my in-game coverage.

Merry Christmas!

Normally, I write one of those Christmas letters and send them in the mail. This year, like a lot of things in my life, I didn't have time to do it. Honestly, there wasn't much to write about, and I'd just as soon forget the whole thing.

It wasn't all bad though. Here are some of the highlights.

* Mathew (10) is still being homeschooled and working about two years ahead in most things. He played soccer in the spring, and that's his only sport now. He is pretty involved in church activities, including children's chimes and choir. He's also an acolyte. His highlight of the year though was his first communion this fall. He had been looking forward to that for at least two years. He had a great deal of enthusiasm for his church activities. He is also in the last year of Cub Scouts. We'll see if he goes on to Boy Scouts.

* Erik (8) is the family athlete, by Palm standards, anyway. He plays soccer, football and basketball. After being one of the smallest kids on his football team last year, he got taller (if not wider) and played left offensive tackle this year. I think soccer is his best sport, but he has also played that the most. He is one of the best defensive players in his age group. I think he likes basketball the best, but that is also the current sport. He is also taking an interest in watching college and pro sports. Sometimes, he'll get up in the morning and instead of turning on cartoons, he'll turn on the Big Ten Network.

He is also working ahead of grade level at homes going reasonably well. He is at the Bear level of Cub Scouts and joins Mathew in the children's chimes group at church.

* #3 son, Karsten (4) is starting to do some pre-school work at home. He's reached the age where he wants to do everything his big brothers are doing, which includes schoolwork. He knows all the letters and can write most of them. He is now constantly asking us how to spell things. He also started Sunday School this year, which he just loves.

* The last but not least Palm child, Annika, will be 2 in March. She's adorable, of course, though I may not be the most objective observer. She's also wants to do everything the older kids do, but we haven't armed her with a pencil yet. Right now, she's into learning parts of the face, so whenever we hold her, she's poking our eyes, sticking her fingers in our ears, etc, wanting us to tell her what part that is while we also try to stop the bleeding.

She is also trying to talk and has a few words, mostly names for all of us. Mommy and Daddy she has down pretty well, although sometimes it's "mommies" and "daddies." I know I'm big, but I didn't think I was big enough to be plural. Mathew is "Momo," Erik is "Ay-yah" and Karsten, who was the first one to get a name from her, is "da-DEE", where the last syllable is kind of like a squeal.

This is such a cute age.

* The newest thing in my work is that I have been covering games instead of just writing about ratings. That actually started last fall, with Notre Dame football. I didn't cover them as much this year. :)

I also covered a lot of basketball games, including the Missouri Valley, Big East and NCAA Tournaments. All this game coverage is for CSTV.com, which is where I do most of my freelance writing.

* Cheri has been trying to keep the household from falling apart, and despite all our best efforts to thwart that, she succeeds. None of us function without her.

I hope you all have a Merry Christmas! I started writing this before 5 AM, so naturally, Mathew and Erik are already up. We never see them this early the rest of the year.

Motor City Bowl live blog

I'm trying out some new live blogging software on the Motor City Bowl. Join in where you can.

Random Thoughts

Football season has been chaotic this year and consuming more of my time even than usual. Basketball is also getting underway, so this is the no-sleep time of year for me.

In fact, I'm covering the Chicago Challenge for CSTV.com. Follow the action on the Posting Up blog at CSTV.com.

Enough of the shameless plugs.

Meanwhile, I'm managing yet another fantasy football team right into the toilet. When it comes to fantasy baseball, I'm undefeated. Seven or eight seasons, seven or eight championships. The number is a little fuzzy because I haven't run a team for several years. It interferes too much with my real job.

But when I did play, I had the Midas touch. In fantasy football though, it's the Minus touch. Everybody I draft underperforms, gets hurt, gets arrested, etc. Drew Brees struggles this year? My fault. Travis Henry's drug problems? My fault. Robbie Gould's comedown year? My fault. For the record though, Rex Grossman's problems are his own. I'm not stupid enough to draft him for a fantasy team.

Is it Kyle Orton's turn yet?

Speaking of toilets, it's about time for the annual Thanksgiving plumbing disaster. Actually, a couple of things are bubbling up in that area, but until they actually blow, I'm not going to jinx things by writing about them.

Cubs President John McDonough resigned to take the same job with the Blackhawks, which is like going from the penthouse to the outhouse. McDonough is credited with marketing the Cubs so well that the stadium is full, win or, way too often, lose. Now, he needs to put lipstick on the pig that is the Blackhawks franchise, but there is hope. Now that Bill Wirtz has passed on and his son Rocky has taken over, changes are being made that indicate that the status quo is no longer acceptable. This is one of them, and a desire to put home games on TV is another. Putting a winning team on the ice is the most important thing, of course, but in the meantime, they need to try to rebuild their once-strong fan base.

That's it for now. Happy Thanksgiving to all! For me, I'll be thankful if I can get through the weekend without needing hip waders.