The Miracle of Castel Di Sangro: A Review

After a relaxing Spring Break, I'm finally back in the country and, naturally, back to blogging.  Vacations are usually a great chance for me to catch up on my reading for pleasure, and this one was no different; I spent a good chunk of my travel and beach time this week working through Joe McGinniss's The Miracle of Castel Di Sangro, a non-fiction book about a small-town Italian soccer club trying to maintain its status in the Italian soccer league's Serie B.  While the book is a bit long and overly dramatic in spots, I really enjoyed most of it.  The tale of the Castel Di Sangro team is a pretty impressive and unbelievable underdog story (you can read more about it here), but what I really got out of the book was how important local soccer clubs are to life in rural Italy. 

The author spent a year traveling around Italy with the Castel Di Sangro club; 38 weeks of matches, training sessions and team bonding.  Because the town of Castel Di Sangro has only 5,000 residents, the players and the townspeople were all extremely close.  The players and coach ate all of their meals together at the same restaurant everyday, and spent most of their time together socially, too.  While we are used to star athletes distancing themselves from public view, the Castel Di Sangro players understood how much they meant to the local community and embraced their roles as local heroes.  In a season full of tragedy (two players died in a car accident midway through the 1996-97 season covered by the book, and later in the year another was arrested and accused of trafficking cocaine from Chile to Italy), the club pulled together emotionally and physically and (spoiler alert!) finished in 16th place out of of 20, avoiding relegation back to Serie C (from which they had come the previous season).

The Miracle of Castel Di Sangro is worth the read, if you've got the time to work through it.

The book's coverage of the drama and suspense that surround European soccer, because of the sport's relegation structure, is perhaps the best part of the book.  Unlike in U.S. sports, underachieving European teams face the prospect of being relegated to a lower league if they finish at the bottom of the standings, to be replaced by the top teams from a lower division.  I've always been a big fan of the relegation concept (and pushed for it in Big East basketball in a post a few months ago), and the book helps show why.  While Castel Di Sangro knew from day one that they had no chance of winning a Serie B championship, they set a realistic goal of avoiding relegation back to Serie C and thus had something to play for throughout the season.  The pride of the players and the town, not to mention tons of money for the team's owners, was at stake each week, making every game critical for even bottom-dwelling teams.  Reading the book will definitely make you wish we had relegation in baseball when the Pirates and Diamondbacks are playing meaningless games this September . . .

The book's not perfect - as I mentioned, it's too long and the author thinks a bit too much of himself in spots (he repeatedly criticizes the coach for not listening to his lineup suggestions, despite the fact that the coach has over 40 years of soccer experience to the author's six months).  That being said, it's a great insider's view of soccer in Europe, a sport surrounded by such passion and emotion that it's hard for American sports fans to fully understand.  McGinniss's work brings the reader a bit closer to comprehending the madness that surrounds even the smallest of European soccer clubs, and for that reason alone is probably worth the read.

President Barack-et Obama

Right in the middle of the college basketball Madness that is March comes this article, courtesy of Fox News, which criticizes President Obama for taking time out of his busy schedule to fill out an NCAA tournament bracket while so many terrible things are going on both domestically and abroad.  Now, I don't want this post to be about politics: this certainly isn't a political blog (we certainly have enough of those . . .), and I'm not a very political person.  But I did feel like I should address this debate here on Caught Looking, especially after reading the last line of the article.

If he has any hope of re-election, or if more importantly, he hopes to solve our challenges, the President needs to forget his basketball picks and focus on the real March madness happening at home and abroad. Sadly, though, leadership is not a trait found in the faculty lounge.

Regardless of how you feel about the President (and I can't say I'm one of his fiercest supporters), if you're a sports fan you have to acknowledge how ridiculous this blurb, and the rest of the article, really is.  First off, just think about the logistics.  How long does it take to fill out an NCAA bracket?  Five minutes?  Ten?  It's not like Obama has suddenly turned into Joe Lunardi overnight.  This is something the President spends a few minutes on each year (assuming someone else doesn't fill it out for him), so saying that he should shift these precious minutes to solving the situations in Libya or Japan seems a bit crazy.

Let's say he did spent a little time on it, though.  Let's say it didn't affect his job performance (I'll give him the benefit of the doubt), but that he did use March Madness to clear his head, smile for a few minutes each day, and give himself an ever-so-brief opportunity to step back from everything going on around him.  What's so wrong with that?  One of the greatest parts about sports is their ability to temporarily distance us from the harsh realities of life.  On a macro level, sports helped us get over 9/11.  On a micro level, millions of people spend every day at jobs they don't like and dealing with bills they can't pay, and the only regular source of enjoyment they can find is flipping on the TV and watching a few minutes of a game.  Any sports fan can relate to that.  I just came off of a rough week of final exams, and you can be sure that the NCAA tournament helped get me through it.  Why should we think Obama is any different?

Yes, the President should be held to a higher standard than the rest of us, and of course he always will be.  Is he doing a great job as our Head of State?  Honestly, I don't know - that's so hard to say and, in my mind, not really worth debating.  But do I think the fact that he spends a few minutes on the NCAA bracket each year - connecting with "average" Americans and having a little fun in the process - is a reason to judge his dedication, committment or ability?  Please.

Don't Call It a Fluke

Last Saturday, Princeton knocked off Harvard in an epic one-game playoff for the right to represent the Ivy League in the NCAA tournament.  As proud as I was to be a Tiger after the last-second victory, I'm even prouder today.  Though Princeton came up short in their bid to knock off powerhouse (and title contender) Kentucky, the Tigers stuck with the Wildcats in a classic first round matchup.  And it wasn't just the end result that I was impressed (and, admittedly, rather shocked) with.  It was the way the Tigers played with confidence, swagger and a never-say-die attitude.

There are two types of games where underdogs come up just short against a much stronger rival.  The first, and most common, type is characterized by a blistering run by the underdog.  For a while, it seems like they can't miss a shot, every ball bounces their way, and as momentum (and the neutral crowd) shift in their direction, they start getting the borderline calls.  The second type is where, when watching the game, you wouldn't know which team was the powerhouse unless you looked at the names on the front of the uniforms.  The two teams battle like equals, neither can separate itself much from the other, and at the end of the game it comes down to one great play that the favorite makes and the 'dog doesn't.

Anyone who watched Princeton's game today knows it was of the latter type.  While Kentucky may be a much better team most days, today the Cats and the Tigers were as even as two teams can be.  When Kentucky broke out to an early lead, the Tigers rallied instead of crumbling.  When the Tigers squandered a five point lead to fall behind by five after a 14-4 Kentucky run late in the second half, Princeton could have rolled over.  Instead, they battled back, tied the game, and gave themselves a chance to win in the final seconds.  In the end, Kentucky earned the win by buckling down when it mattered, hitting an extremely tough shot with essentially no time left, and stopping Princeton from even getting off a half-court prayer before the final buzzer sounded.  Judging by how they played, though, it could just have easily been a Tiger player hitting a game-winning runner with time winding down.

Princeton played extremely well.  They defended brilliantly, rebounded strongly and played with heart.  But it wasn't as if they played an amazing game.  And by that, I mean it wasn't a once-in-a-lifetime sort of performance.  They shot well, but not incredibly well (and were particularly brutal from beyond the three-point line), and they had a few defensive lapses that cost them in the end.  Rather than a never-to-be-repeated performance that the Tigers squandered, I view this game as evidence of how good this Tiger team is.  If these two teams had to battle it out again tomorrow, the Wildcats might again come out with the victory, but I feel confident that Princeton would give them another scare.

We've already had two big upsets (to date) in addition to Princeton's scare of Kentucky, and in both of those (Morehead State over Louisville and Richmond over Vanderbilt), the underdog performances weren't flukes.  As many predicted, this bracket is filled with a bunch of approximately-equal teams.  Don't be surprised when the Bucknells and Belmonts of the world continue to scare, and knock off, the big boys throughout tonight and tomorrow.  This is the start of a new era of college basketball parity, and I'm proud that my Tigers were right smack in the middle of it.

Note: I'll be out of the country starting Saturday, so don't expect many updates until next weekend.  In the meantime, enjoy the next few rounds of the NCAAs!

Don't Fight In Front of the Kids

Let me just say this: I'm glad I have NBA basketball, March Madness and Spring Training to distract me from the disaster that is the NFL labor negotiations.  Having spent over a year of my life dealing with sports labor-related issues at the NBA, I understand how complicated these negotiations can be.  While many fans are quick to point blame at one side or the other, I know better.  There are two sides to every story and each issue has tons of additional wrinkles that average sports fan couldn't hope (or expect) to possibly understand.  In the middle of it all are the fans, who always seem to come out on the bottom.

But there's another group that stands to lose big time from these labor negotiations: this year's NFL rookie class.  This week, it was reported that the NFLPA asked the top pro prospects to skip the NFL Draft as a sign of solidarity towards the current NFL players.  Today it seems like the NFLPA has changed its tune: while the Players Association won't have the rookies-to-be boycott the event, it did acknowledge that the draft experience this year would be "different."  One possible example:

Agent Tom Condon, who represents quarterback Blaine Gabbert -- currently tabbed as the No. 1 overall pick by ESPN NFL draft expert Mel Kiper in his latest mock draft -- told ESPN's "SportsCenter" that the NFLPA might hold an "alternative event" for the players who will be drafted.

Regardless of what this "alternative" NFL Draft experience will entail, it's a shame both for the fans and for the prospective NFL draftees.  It's clear that the NFLPA is using current college students - who currently have no bargaining power and are not yet part of the NFL, let alone the Players Association - as pawns in its game of chess with the league.  And while I'm sure the current players are pressuring their college counterparts to team up with them against the NFL, you can be sure that when it comes time for a compromise during negotations this summer (or fall . . .), the first thing the veteran-controlled NFLPA will give in on will be lowering the rookie salary scale.  The rookies' reward for standing by the NFL veterans will likely be a significant pay cut.

It's also a very shortsighted move by the NFL.  Football players get comparatively few opportunities to show their faces and personalities to the world - they wear helmets when they play and, outside of a few star skill-position players, are more or less treated as commodities. The NFL Draft is a player's introduction to the league, and the opportunity to showcase the player side of the league to millions of fans.  Without the rookies actually in attendance, the NFL Draft becomes (even more) like a fantasy draft, where random combinations of names and colleges are announced without any smiling faces, ridiculous three-piece suits or fedoras to accompany them.

Without the players at the draft, you can bet no one will be wearing a black suit, shirt and tie.

If the NFLPA is smart, they'll have the Draft go on as planned.  Regardless of the status of the current labor negotiations, this draft is happening next month - the Players Association might as well get on board and take advantage of some free player publicity before heading into what is sure to be a long, ugly and unpopular battle with the league and teams.

A Picture Worth 500+ Words

UPDATE: Incredible homemade video of the crowd reaction now added at the bottom of the post.

Many people have requested my take on Princeton's epic buzzer-beating victory over Harvard from yesterday afternoon.  At this point, though, what can I say about it?  As sad as it is to admit, my heart was honestly pounding during the last few minutes of the game.  Always a pessimist (or, as I like to say, a "realist" . . .), I assumed the game was over just before the Tigers were set to inbound the ball from the baseline with 2.8 seconds to go.  Harvard seemed destined to steal the victory away from the Tigers, and I was already mentally planning my "It was a great season; just hanging tough with a team as talented as Harvard at a neutral site is impressive" routine.  Then, Douglas David changed everything, and I began wondering when / where / who Princeton will play in the NCAAs instead of whether or not they'd get an invite to the NIT (I don't think I could have dealt with another appearance in the budget CBI . . .).

As you'd expect, I was running around my studio apartment screaming after the win.  Even though the refs had to go to the monitors to review the shot, I knew it was good.  I was overjoyed, I was proud to be a Princeton alum, and I was excited for the opportunity that lies ahead for Princeton's hoops team.  Then, I was emailed the following picture from a friend (and fellow Tiger alum) who was at the game in New Haven, and my mood shifted.  While watching the game on my computer and following diligently from afar was satisfying, the contrast between the celebration (alone) in my dorm room and the celebration in the photo below made me realize what I had missed by not being there.

How I wish I could have been somewhere in that sea of orange and black . . .

While the analogy might be a bit of a stretch, the Princeton finish reminded me of the U.S. Soccer Team's last-second victory over Algeria in the 2010 World Cup.  The main difference for me (other than millions of viewers) was the fact that I wasn't at the Princeton game in person.  While I'm certainly more of a basketball fan than a soccer fan, and care about Princeton hoops more than I ever will about U.S. Soccer, this couldn't top the World Cup match.  Witnessing a moment of greatness like these in person changes the entire experience.  While you can see a last-second goal or shot on TV as well as (or better than) you can in person, what you can't really feel from home is the roar and vibration of the crowd, the shift in energy from one fan base to another, and the bond you form by sharing the moment with thousands of other similarly dressed, similarly insane fans.

A lot of talk in sports nowadays revolves around new technology, and how improvements in television and online sports consumption will slowly start to erode ticket sales.  Ask the people who went to New Haven for the Ivy League basketball playoff yesterday, however, and I'd bet they'd tell you that they are more likely than ever to attend another sporting event.  While not every game you go to will give you the dramatic finish that Douglas Davis and the Princeton Tigers did last night, even the remote chance that something that special might occur should be enough to keep fans rolling through the turnstiles.

"Concrete Jungle Where Dreams Are Made Of"

Though I grew up on Long Island going to primarily baseball and hockey games, I always knew that New York City was a basketball town.  While my friends and I would spend the year hitting up Mets games at Shea Stadium or Islanders Games at the Nassau Coliseum, Manhattan seemed like some far away, mysterious place where basketball ruled.  As a child of the 1990s, the Knicks rocked Madison Square Garden on a nightly basis, the St. John's Redmen (later Red Storm) were a relevent (and sometimes dominant) college basketball program, and kids rocked NBA-themed Starter jackets (the Charlotte Hornets and Houston Rockets were both strangely popular) while roaming middle school hallways.  Basketball owned New York.

In the 2000s, basketball almost disappeared from the New York sports landscape.  While inner-city youth still loved the game and dominated the city's playgrounds, city kids lacked a stable supply of New York-area basketball stars to look up to.  The Knicks were terrible, St. John's crumbled and in their place the Yankees began their dominant run.  Kids traded their Starter jackets for Mitchell and Ness throwback baseball jerseys and New Era 51/50 Yankees caps.

While there were still plenty of great sports to follow in New York, something seemed "off" without competitive hoops.  Well, the tide has turned here in the 2010s.  And while the Knicks, led by Amar'e and Carmelo, will get most of the credit and attention, they are hardly alone in this New York basketball Renaissance.  Despite losing to Syracuse in the Big East tournament earlier this week, St. John's is ranked and headed to the NCAA tournament for the first time in years.  Long Island University in Brooklyn will also return to the NCAA's (for the first time time since 1994), and I'm currently watching Long Island's Stony Brook University battle (and lead) favored Boston University for the America East title and a spot in the field of 68.  Clearly, whatever the Knicks caught this year is contagious.

I've forgotten how great it is to have competitive, local basketball to watch deep into March.  Because recently the Knicks have been eliminated from playoff contention by February and the New York-area colleges haven't been competitive, I typically associate the spring with pre-season baseball and the NFL combine.  Starting this decade, though, New York basketball has returned.  Welcome back, roundball - you have been missed.

Winner Takes All

It's March, which means a lot of college basketball posts here on Caught Looking (as opposed to April, which will likely be dominated by baseball).  While I absolutely love the first few rounds of the NCAA tournament (how could you not?), I find Championship Week almost as exciting.  For major conferences such as the Big East and the Pac-10, the tournaments feature some excellent basketball and give bubble teams a chance to prove themselves against some of the top competition in the country.

But what about tournaments for smaller, one-bid conferences?  While the tournament-winner-gets-the-NCAA-bid format certainly adds a lot of excitement to the first week in March, I think it's bad for these smaller conferences.  Teams play an entire conference season from December through February, jockeying for position against rivals.  The conference tournaments render much of that irrelevant - while regular season standings determine tournament seeding, teams can still come out of nowhere and steal NCAA bids from the top teams in the conference.  For leagues whose regular season champion has no realistic chance at an at-large bid, wouldn't it make sense for these leagues to skip the postseason tournaments and guarantee that their best squads go to the NCAAs?

Of course, I'm biased here - this is how the Ivy League (and only the Ivy League) operates.  This year, the Ivy has two dominant teams - Princeton and Harvard - and those two teams tied for the top spot in the conference after Tuesday's regular season finale.  Because of the tie, the Crimson and Tigers will battle in a winner-take-all game for the NCAA bid Saturday at Yale.  By foregoing the conference tournament, the Ivy has ensured that only its top two teams have a chance to represent the conference in the NCAAs - there's no chance that a Yale or Penn could steal the bid and embarrass the conference with an exceptionally weak first-round performance.

The post-season tournaments in small conferences are a classic example of shortsightedness in sports.  Conferences are desperate for short term gains and attention, so they use tournaments to generate a little excitement and extra revenue at the end of each season.  Instead, what these conferences should be focused on is guaranteeing that their top teams represent the conference on an annual basis and hoping that these schools can knock off a BCS-conference school every couple of years.  It's big tournament wins that will really build momentum for small conferences (like Cornell's wins did for the Ivy League last year), not gimmicky conference tournaments that put sub-250 RPI schools in the NCAA tournament.

A Rivalry on Hold

Last night, my Princeton Tigers played for the Ivy League championship.  With a chance to capture the outright league title with a win at Harvard (in a game "televised" nationally on ESPN3.com), the Tigers fell to the Crimson in a tough, well-played game by both teams.  As a result, Harvard clinched at least a share of the Ivy League title for the first time ever, and Princeton can remain tied for first - and force a one-game, neutral-site playoff for the NCAA automatic bid - with a victory in their last game of the season on Tuesday.

Normally, I'd have been going absolutely nuts while watching this game.  While I was in college, the end of season game for the Ivy League title was almost an annual ritual, and each one of those battles would be the highlight on the entire college athletic calendar.  The difference between yesterday's tilt and those "good ole' days" was that we weren't playing Penn this time around.  Any game for the title is obviously huge, but the event feels so much more significant when you're playing your rival for the right to advance.  For years, Penn and Princeton closed the season with a Tuesday night game to determine who went to the NCAAs.  Now, Princeton needs to win at Penn on Tuesday to stay alive, but it's Harvard that they'll have to play again if they want a chance at the big boys.

Duke and UNC fans can probably understand what I'm saying - those two college hoops titans played for the ACC regular season title last night too, and all seemed right in the world.  On the flip side, though, it's been odd watching Ohio State football dominate Big Ten competition over the past five years (for example) while rival Michigan flounders.  Instead of the Buckeye-Wolverine game determining the Rose Bowl bid (as it should), Michigan has recently been just another small speedbump on Ohio State's road to the BCS, while other Big Ten contenders such as Wisconsin and Michigan State vie for the league title.  While it's still fun to watch, it just isn't the same.  That's how I feel about this year's Ivy League basketball race.

Don't get me wrong - I was invested in last night's game versus Harvard, checking in with friends who were there in person and watching on the computer.  Had it been against Penn at the Palestra, however, I would have been on the edge of my seat for two straight hours.  Even though the Tigers have lost the chance to be outright league champions and face a difficult road to the NCAAs (they'll have to win at Penn and against Harvard within a three-day span), I am ecstatic for their trip to the Palestra.  While the Quakers may be down this season, nothing beats watching your favorite college team take on their most hated rival. 

Spring (Training) In My Step

Earlier this week, I proclaimed to anyone willing to listen that Spring had begun.  Must people looked at me like I was crazy, given a) it was still February and b) temperatures were still cold.  According to virtually every definition of Spring except one - the Major League Baseball preseason calendar - we're still in the tail end of winter.  Now that pro baseball teams have emerged from dugouts across Florida and Arizona, however, I can safely say that this week starts a new part of the year.

I'll just come out and say it - I absolutely love Spring Training.  Part of it is the optimism that comes prior to the start of any sports season - as of right now, every MLB team is undefeated and has a shot at a World Series run.  While this feeling isn't unique to baseball (and, in fact, it's normally associated with football because of the level of parity in the NFL), it's still a great feeling.  Despite all of the upgrades the Phillies have made to their pitching staff (Halladay, Lee, Oswalt and Hamels in the same rotation?!?), I still feel like my Braves have a shot at the NL East.  Irrational and unrealistic?  Maybe.  Uplifting and exciting?  Absolutely.

There's a lot more to love about Spring Training, too.  I love the way that so many different guys play in each game, and I get to catch a glimpse of the future of baseball towards the tail end of each matchup.  I love the intense position battles that can last for weeks, where each individual at bat or batter faced can make or break a player's chances of making the Opening Day roster.  I love seeing who will be the last guy(s) to make each team, even though their reward for a great Spring will be the last spot on the bench.  I love watching managers have to make the tough decision between calling up a young phenom (perhaps too soon) and sending him down for more work in the minor leagues.  I love watching bullpens come together, and trying to figure out how each reliever will be used come the start of the season.

Yes, it's only Spring Training.  The top players only play a few innings each day (if at all), and most teams don't even have names on the back of their jerseys.  Some of the games are split squad matchups, so Chipper Jones and Martin Prado might be playing in Vero Beach while Jason Heyward and Freddie Freeman are in Orlando.  But it's still baseball, and I'm happy to have it.  While there's plenty to watch right now between college basketball, NBA and NHL, nothing compares to the first time the Boys of Summer  come charging out of the dugouts.