Over the top? Kind of cool? Right in line what this whole recruiting production has become?

Give Kief a 9.5 for use of props and for creativity. The whole DerekKief.com thing, though? Produce first, kid. All that stuff can come later.

We were all young once, I guess.

I started thinking about all the games my dad took me to through the years when I was young — and how leaving early to beat the traffic became his signature move. We never went to a hockey game, but as the Bruins and Blackhawks started that third overtime I started doing a little math. With a little luck, we probably would have been home to catch the game-winner on TV.

Yes, from Chicago back to Akron. That’s how we rolled.

That’s not really how we rolled. We never (grossly) broke the speed limit, and we probably never would have gone that far on a school night.

Unless I really, really whined and threw a tantrum about it. I was pretty spoiled. My dad hated crowds, and traffic, and loud noises and the way I wanted to go from everything from the the USA Basketball team’s pre-Olympic tour to the St. Ignatius-St. Xavier state championship game, but he always took me. I always loved every second of it. And we always left early.

It’s probably not a coincidence that I hate crowds, traffic and loud noises these days. I don’t get to leave early. But I have a damn good gig, so that’s OK.

This borderline-unhealthy sports obsession I’ve had since I was old enough to read was fostered not just by my dad but by mom, too. And all four of my grandparents. And by my friend’s dads who coached us, and by the other kids and dads in the neighborhood, and the list goes on.

Going all the way back even past when I can really remember, my grandparents never missed a game. My dad was almost always my coach. And my mom never really discouraged me from thinking every one of those silly games was the most important thing on Earth that day.

If nothing else, Father’s Day is probably a good time to thank all involved for everything. Thirty-some years into this adulthood experiment, I’m still in need of all the help I can get.

One of the coolest places sports has ever taken me is the College World Series last June to cover Kent State’s improbable run. Father’s Day was a practice day for Kent State, which took a bus about 25 minutes out of Omaha to a place called Bellevue East High School for batting practice and a light workout. Among the onlookers and recipients of the home run balls were several young kids from the neighborhood who had come over to watch practice with their dads.

Down on the field, then-Kent State coach Scott Stricklin had his father in the dugout and got to throw a little batting practice to his young son. I talked to Stricklin this week and brought that up.

He told me he was going to get choked up thinking about.

I remembered sneaking away from the field and calling my dad and both grandfathers, thanking them for everything. As I wrote at the time, there’s a reason a career .117 hitter in the Manchester t-shirt league found himself at the College World Series.

Because I’d been caught up in my last-minute Omaha travel plans, it was really only then that I realized it was Father’s Day and that I was missing our annual friends/family golf Father’s Day golf outing. For probably eight or nine years now we’ve played in a mini-outing with friends and their fathers/grandfathers/uncles, a four-man scramble with some of the worst golfers around.

In some years, I’ve played with both of my grandfathers. What a thrill — and we all learned a lot, of that I am sure.

In other years the roster has varied. My brother was out of state for a while. Divorce court knocked a cousin’s husband off the roster. My grandfathers still love to golf, but it’s a big commitment for them to say they can stick out 18 holes of the Father’s Day Open.

Eighteen holes of golf is a lot. Eighteen holes of me whining and checking Twitter and driving the ball 150 yards while my brother hits towering drives that land 450 yards right of the intended fairway makes 18 holes seem like 80.

It’s raining this morning, but sign us up for all 80.

If you’re going to be spoiled, you might as well be all the way spoiled. You might as well be grateful, too, and I certainly am that.

Thanks, Dad — and all dads — for everything.

The Indians hope that turns out to be true.

The team’s first choice in baseball’s First Year Player Draft signed his contract on Saturday, realized he was $3.5 million richer (signing bonus) and then took batting practice with the first group of Indians.

“It was different,” Frazier said with a smile. “I felt like I could go out there and hit some HRs pretty easy, but not today.”

If today wasn’t easy you’d like to see when it is. Frazier acted like a seasoned pro, spraying balls to left and right field and hitting several into the bleachers in left (one unofficial count had him with seven home runs and five off the wall). It was batting practice, but Frazier was giving his first impression with Terry Francona, Ty Van Burkleo and Sandy Alomar watching intently from the backstop.

Frazier, who had a school-record 63 home runs at Loganville (Ga.) High School, met with Francona briefly on Friday, and spent 20 minutes talking with Jason Giambi, who advised him not to make the game harder than it is.

What impression did he make on the one time he had to make a first impression?

“Very polite, very respectful,” Francona said. “And he’ll give ya a handshake that …”

Frazier handled himself with the poise of a veteran with the media as well, answering questions fully — and often with a smile. Just like he smiled when he walked into the Indians clubhouse for the first time as an 18-year-old and saw the major league players waiting for him wearing red wigs, a tribute to his mop of red hair.

Frazier leaves for Arizona on Sunday, where he will start in rookie ball with the Indians Arizona team. That he’s leaving his family for the first time on Father’s Day was not lost on him

“It’ll be very bittersweet,” Frazier said. “My Dad just told me this is the best Father’s Day present anybody could have. I’m glad to be able to come out here and bring a smile to his face and enjoy the last moments with my family. Obviously, going into the new life that I’m going to be living is something they’re very proud of.”

With runners on second and third and one out, Kipnis hit a hard ground ball that Adam LaRoche dove and snagged. But when LaRoche got to one knee to throw home, Kipnis veered ever so slightly off the dirt and onto the grass in fair territory at Progressive Field. End result was he got in the way of where LaRoche wanted to throw and Drew Stubbs beat the throw home for the winning run in a 2-1 game.

The evidence for interference is here (complete with requisite complaining by the Washington broadcast team). It’s pretty compelling.

Baseball rule 7.09 (b) states ”it is interference by a batter or runner when … before two are out and a runner on third base, the batter hinders a fielder in making a play at home base; the runner is out.”

Had umpires ruled that way, rule 7.08 (g) states that Kipnis would have been out, Stubbs would have gone back to third, and Michael Bourn back to second. Nick Swisher would have been up with two out.

Screen shots of the above video linked to earlier do illustrate the play pretty well. The live one is blurry, but shows Kipnis on the inside grass:

As does this one replay:

Here, Kipnis has just hit the ball, and is starting to run.

But it’s not long before he sees LaRoche has made a great play, and he veers left:

By the time LaRoche has thrown, he’s on the grass:

Did it matter? The play was close at home … though LaRoche’s throw went to the left of Kipnis and right of the catcher, who could not get the tag back in time.

Kipnis was not asked about where he ran after the game, but he did address the play, saying: “It actually lined up perfectly where when I’m running down the line I was kind of  not in his way a little bit, but maybe could hinder his throw a little bit.  The ball was coming right at me so I had to duck a little bit.”

Getting in a guy’s way when he makes a throw is part of the game. And Kipnis’ game is filled with hustle and scrappy plays like this one.

But doing it out of the baseline is not supposed to be legal.

Clearly this is a judgment call, and the result stands. The umpires may have felt Stubbs would have beaten the throw regardless. They did not see it as interference and nobody from the Nationals argued. They may have simply felt it was baseball gamesmanship, with Kipnis doing what he could to help the team win (gamesmanship that has been part of the game forever).

But Kipnis  also might have gotten away with one — for the team.

The sounds in the background are the manager and teammates congratulating Kipnis with high fives and smacks on the back.

Turns out I was incorrect. That’s happened once before, maybe twice.

It wouldn’t be a terrible idea though, right?

Gordon, who will miss the first two games of the 2013 season due to violating the NFL’s substance abuse policy, will not be attending the 2013 symposium later this month. That was confirmed earlier this week by NFL spokesperson Corry Rush, who checked with the powers that be and responded to my inquiries.

The NFL considers the rookie symposium a big deal. It devotes a ton of money and resources to making sure its messages about money, decision-making, career management and substance abuse reach the 200+ drafted rookies who attend. It brings back former problem children to address the next generation. Seems like Gordon would be, in some ways, the symposium’s absolute target audience, no?

When then-Vikings receiver Percy Harvin missed the 2009 symposium due to sickness, there was some dicussion that he’d have to attend the following year. When the time came, the NFL did not require Harvin to attend because “he received the appropriate training during the season at the club level through the Vikings’ player development department.” Presumably, the NFL thinks the same of Gordon.

During the lockout year of 2011, the NFL Players’ Association held its own symposium-like event even though no league-sanctioned event could be held. More than 100 players didn’t show for that, but Terrelle Pryor — who was in that year’s supplemental draft — did.

The symposium is usually held in late June. The Browns selected Gordon in the supplemental draft in mid-July last year so, like Harvin and Pryor, he did not attend.

Given Gordon’s college troubles and his latest issue — and that the symposium is now held in Cleveland — maybe someone inside the Browns’ organization could give Gordon a nudge or a whisper about voluntarily attending? Per the CBA, it probably can’t be more than a nudge.

There is precedent. Another talented but troubled player, Nick Fairley of the Detroit Lions, showed up at last year’s symposium after being drafted during the lockout in 2011.

If Gordon showed up, he might win some goodwill and some PR points. More importantly, something there might stick with him. And he might learn from past offenders that it’s best to straighten up before it’s too late.

Team USA coach Mike Krzyzewski, Irving’s coach at Duke University, will direct the camp. It is scheduled for July 22-25 in Las Vegas.

Krzyzewski will be assisted by Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau, Pelicans coach Monty Williams and Syracuse University coach Jim Boeheim.

Team USA’s next competition is at the World Championships in Spain in 2014.

The list of invitees:

Ryan Anderson (New Orleans Pelicans)
Harrison Barnes (Golden State Warriors)
Bradley Beal (Washington Wizards)
Mike Conley (Memphis Grizzlies)
DeMarcus Cousins (Sacramento Kings)
Anthony Davis (New Orleans Pelicans)
DeMar DeRozan (Toronto Raptors)
Andre Drummond (Detroit Pistons)
Kenneth Faried (Denver Nuggets)
Derrick Favors (Utah Jazz)
Paul George (Indiana Pacers)
Taj Gibson (Chicago Bulls)
Gordon Hayward (Utah Jazz)
Jrue Holiday (Philadelphia 76ers)
Kyrie Irving (Cleveland Cavaliers)
DeAndre Jordan (Los Angeles Clippers)
Ty Lawson(Denver Nuggets)
Kawhi Leonard (San Antonio Spurs)
Damian Lillard (Portland Trail Blazers)
Greg Monroe (Detroit Pistons)
Chandler Parsons (Houston Rockets)
Larry Sanders(Milwaukee Bucks)
Klay Thompson (Golden State Warriors)
Dion Waiters (Cleveland Cavaliers)
Kemba Walker (Charlotte Bobcats)
John Wall (Washington Wizards)
Tyler Zeller (Cleveland Cavaliers)

Tickets for the 2013 USA Basketball Showcase on July 25 go on sale June 13.  Tickets start at $10 and can be purchased by calling 702-739-FANS or at UNLVtickets.com.

Scott coached the Cavs for three seasons, before being fired a few days after the regular season ended. If he were to get the Clippers job, it could potentially reunite him with point guard Chris Paul — whom Scott coached when the two were together with the New Orleans Hornets (now Pelicans).

Paul is an unrestricted free agent, free to sign with any team. However, those around the league believe a return the Clippers for a maximum contract are in his plans.

Scott has compiled a 416-571 record in 13 NBA seasons. He led the New Jersey Nets to back-to-back Finals appearances in 2001-02 and 2002-03 (both losses), but finished last in the Central Division in all three seasons with the rebuilding Cavs.

Scott compiled a 64-166 record with the Cavs.

According to the Times, the Clippers are also set to interview Indiana Pacers assistant Brian Shaw, former Portland Trail Blazers coach Nate McMillan, and Lionel Hollins, who led the Memphis Grizzlies to the Western Conference Finals before his contract expired.

Charlie had a minute for everybody.

Charlie Coles stories provided laughs for days and years.

He wasn’t well, which led to his retirement just over a year ago. It positively stinks that he didn’t get more time to enjoy his retirement, but I’m absolutely certain that he never got cheated while he was here.

This is a guy who died on the court once — really — before medics brought him back. That was 25 years ago.

He kept coaching, kept cracking jokes, kept telling the truth. Kept entertaining everybody he encountered.

I knew when I wrote this in the winter of 2012 that it was an obituary of sorts at least terms of his coaching career, and that it didn’t do Charlie justice. I just read it myself a few minutes ago and I laughed. I’d have started to cry, but I pictured Charlie laughing.

And making faces like he did after that famous Kentucky game.

And getting all red-faced like he did with officials.

Read (and heed) the beer-buying offer at the end of the story. That was Charlie. He meant it.

I’ll toast one him this weekend. Charlie Coles was truly one of a kind.

PART THREE: How to Win a Vezina in Two-Thirds of a Season, and Other Thoughts on an Amazing String of Games

I was thinking of calling this part “The Promised Land” for the first two parts of the season in review series weren’t all that uplifting.  Sure, the Columbus Blue Jackets’ defensive evolution over the first 20 games of 2013 was something to see, but the wins just weren’t coming.

Well, my friends, I’m glad you stuck around because this is where it starts getting good.  And it starts with the goaltender.

As I type, Sergei Bobrovsky is a finalist for the NHL’s Vezina Trophy, given to the league’s best goaltender.  Wait a minute – Bobrovsky?  The guy who was 3-6-3 over the first 20 games, splitting time with now-Philadelphia Flyer Steve Mason?  The guy who was letting nearly 3 goals a game slip by him over that same period?

Yeah, that guy.  And Bob’s up for the Vezina for a reason – because his performance between games 21-48 was that impressive.

People often talk about how a team draws confidence and inspiration from its goaltender, how a few incredible saves can lift a franchise’s confidence.  I’ll suggest that the team’s defensive performance in games 14-20 lifted Bob to a higher plane.   Or maybe it really was Bob  finally making the mental transition from the larger KHL (European) ice sheets to the smaller “rock-em, sock-em robots” ice sheet of the NHL.  Point being, we got this out of him:

Ay caramba!  Bob shed over a goal per game when comparing the first 20 games against the final 28.  That’s mind-blowing, especially when you think about the six one-goal games lost in the first 20.  In a 48-game season, winning just one or two of those six one-goal losses…well, it would have put the Blue Jackets in the playoffs.

And let’s be clear: While Bobrovsky surely benefitted from Todd Richards’ nearly airtight team defensive scheme, he was pulling his own weight.  For example, have you ever seen a guy stop seven shots in roughly ten seconds?  If I wasn’t there live to see it right in front of me, I would think that this video was a fabrication:

Take a moment and catch your breath.  Or watch it again and marvel at some of the most amazing goaltending that you may ever see.  Can’t blame you if you did.

So yes, the goaltender’s play appears to have been the missing link for the Blue Jackets in 2013.  When Sergei Bobrovsky finally stepped up and asserted his dominant self, the Blue Jackets went on an epic run, one that came within a hair of the playoffs.

Thanks for playing, Henrik Lundqvist.  So glad you came, Antti Niemi.  Enjoy your honor as a Vezina Trophy nominee because there’s no way on this still-somewhat green earth that anyone but Sergei Bobrovsky is going to win the big prize.

Let’s put Bob’s exploits into a full team context.  To do that, we’ll go back and look at the tables and charts that we considered in Part Two.  How important was the team defense?  Try this on:

Eight more games and two fewer tight losses.  The defense clamped down, and Bobrovsky was sealing the deal.

But look further.  With the defensive scheme etched in stone, the offense finally started to spread its wings in the final two-thirds of the season with eight wins that could be categorized as “not tight”.  Not good enough for you? How about this?

Goal scoring distribution, games 21-48

This is nearly the mirror image of the first 13 games.  Remember that – the “nightmare scenario”?  Permit me to dredge up that memory for comparison’s sake:

Goal scoring distribution, games 1-13

See how the percentage of the opposition goals for dropped back so far?  The bad guys scored two goals or less in 68 percent of the Blue Jackets’ games over the last 28 – up from 40 percent  in the first 20 games.   At the same time, the Blue Jackets’ offense saw games with three or more goals went up to 62 percent of the games, again up from 40 percent in the first 20.  The worm had turned.

And while the story of this season is a story of team improvement, let’s not delude ourselves and think that this team, as constructed in 2013, is built to be destroyers of worlds and crushers of dreams.  The Blue Jackets were still 25th overall in goals for over the course of the season – 2.40 goals per game, nearly a whole goal behind the league-leading (and future divisional foe!) Pittsburgh Penguins and their 3.38 goals per game.  This, despite the improvement in scoring mentioned above.

The true improvement for this team, to nobody’s surprise, came on defense.  The Blue Jackets were 10th in the league in goals against with 2.40 goals per game (same as goals for – go figure!).  To give you a sense of the spread, Chicago led the league with 2.02 goals against per game, and Florida trailed the league with 3.54 goals against.

The team needs more genuine goal scorers, something that general manager Jarmo Kekalainen tried to address in acquiring Marian Gaborik from the New York Rangers for Derick Brassard, John Moore, Derek Dorsett and a 2014 6th round draft pick.  Brassard, the only real scoring contributor in the bunch, put up 6 goals and 9 assists over the 26 games of February and March before getting shipped off to the Rangers.  Brassard probably would have challenged Mark Letestu for the team lead in goals (despite having lost his will to play hockey).  Kekalainen apparently realized the madness inherent in trusting a bunch of sub-18 goal scorers to win him games – and picked up Gaborik, who put together a quick 3 goals and 5 assists over his 12 games in Columbus while nursing an abdominal injury.

I promised you happy in this post, and I’ll deliver happy as we wrap up the review of games in the CBJ’s 2013 campaign.  There were a number of terrific moments down the stretch, but none struck me as deeply as a single incident on March 9th, when Vinny Prospal – having taken a little too much grief from a losing Detroit Red Wing named Justin Abdelkader.  The Blue Jackets were up by a 3-0 score (which ended up as the final), and Abdelkader was trying to Get His Goon On.  Prospal would have nothing of it, so he pointed at the scoreboard.

That’s right.  After, what, a dozen years of being Detroit’s poor cousin to the south, the Blue Jackets not only controlled the game but also the season series against the Red Wings.  And Vinny Prospal reminded Abdelkader of this fact with a gesture that I never thought I would see in this context.

Prospal took a ten-minute unsportsmanlike misonduct penalty for the move, something even the Red Wings announcers howled over:

The season wound up on April 27th at Nationwide Arena, where the Blue Jackets manhandled the Nashville Predators, 3-1 in regulation.  The team had salvaged their season after their terrible start, putting themselves into a virtual tiebreaker situation with the Minnesota Wild.  The CBJ dropped the puck an hour earlier than the Wild, who was playing against the Colorado Avalanche, so the regular season ended with no idea of whether the incredible second-half run would be enough to put the team into the Stanley Cup playoffs for the second time ever.  A couple thousand fans sat in their seats as the Wild-Avalanche game was shown on the Nationwide big screen, hoping against hope that the terrible Colorado team could pull the upset.

Minnesota won their game, and they, too, had 55 standings points.  The Blue Jackets had more shootout wins than the Wild, however, and the first tiebreaker went to the team with more regulation and overtime (non-shootout) wins.  The Wild advanced, and the Blue Jackets went home.

It was a terrific run, one that Blue Jackets fans will not soon forget.   As I said back in the preseason:

The sports saying goes that while it is enjoyable to live life in your league’s penthouse, the real fun is in taking the elevator ride to the top.

 

It appears that the elevator ride took a little while to get started, but it flew like a rocket once it did.   And we all enjoyed the ride – thrilled with what we saw and full of expectation for the ride still to come.

So there’s the season.  There are a couple loose ends to tie up, and I’ll cover them in the next (and final) season in review post.

The answer is allow their general manager and coach to walk away.

It’s true, as former GM Masai Ujiri split to take the same position with the Raptors — and in the latest news, the Nuggets have parted ways with coach George Karl.

Keep in mind that Ujiri was named NBA Executive of the Year and Karl named Coach of the Year. This has to be a first, and not the good kind.

Now, the Nuggets are supposedly reaching out to Pacers assistant Brian Shaw, as well as Grizzlies coach Lionel Hollins — whose contract expired and who is looking for work after leading his team to the Western Conference finals.

Karl, of course, is reportedly talking to the Grizzlies about Hollins’ job.

Welcome to today’s NBA, where success is rewarded almost exclusively with insanity.

Karl once coached the Cavaliers (and Warriors, SuperSonics and Bucks), and has fared well in e very spot. When he was fired by the Cavs back in the 1980s, he said he would return with another team and he would win.

He’s done that quite a bit in the time that’s passed. In fact, it was the Nuggets’ victory in Cleveland this season that prompted Cavs owner Dan Gilbert to tweet that when his team returns to relevancy, it’ll be with defense.

The season ended, coach Byron Scott was fired, and defensive-minded Mike Brown was hired (for a second time in Cleveland).

As for the Nuggets and Grizzlies and several others, there are plenty of other big names out there — Karl, Hollins, Stan Van Gundy and even the untested-but-highly-regarded Shaw.

Question is, will having a really good year even mean anything when these guys do land a job?