Why do you lefty eggheads have to wreck all that is good and right about America? Like the gas tax holiday, big time college sports and the sterling student-athletes who participate provide us with a diversion from the wearying world. A little bit of relief. Is it so much to ask that we support a system which allows a working man (or woman) to relax and take their mind off more quotidian problems?

Thinking has never solved anything. It usually just causes more problems.

No, I was neither serious nor referring to you as a lefty.

As a professor at a D-I university who has written academically on sports, I actually have pretty strong feelings about the topic. For instance, I would prefer to have all sports be club sports (ie, student-run, school-insured, volunteer coaches, no scholarships or special admissions).

If athletics are actually part of the educational mission, then I am completely willing to require all students (disabilities allowing) to participate in either phys ed classes or intramural sports for credit. If athletics are not part of the educational mission (and they're not) then they should be returned to their original form: student run clubs no different from the ski club or any other club on campus.

It's not likely that that is going to happen, but there is the example of schools like NYU and University of Chicago which voluntarily downsized from being major players in the college athletics to D-III, after their first attempt at reform, the NCAA (founded by NYU president McCracken) failed to clean up college athletics.

I do agree with your proposal to allow students to major in their sports more or less. One can easily imagine a major which included historical/sociological examinations of sports, business classes, coaching classes, kinesiology classes, communication classes etc. which would prepare students for a variety of jobs in the sports world from gym teacher to sports information to Athletic Directorships etc.

Finally, I have a lot of athletes in my classes. Invariably, I never have female athletes who are so focused on their sport that they don't succeed in their classes. I almost never have male runners or swimmers who do. I consistently have male basketball players and football players who do. That's not an accident. Nor do those sports attract dumber people. It's structural.

I graduated highschool in 1988. My first REM album was Life's Rich Pagent, which is no Fables of the Reconstruction or Document, but still an eye opener for me as a 15 year old. By the time to got to college, the hip folks had already written them off as hypercommercialized because of the success of "End of the World As We Know it". I found this crazy and attributed it to the hipper-than-thou strain of music appreciation. If everyone's in the club, then it's not cool any more.

But, c'mon, Shiney Happy Fucking People? Honestly, wtf? Kate Pierson? That WAS selling out, recording a crappy song with the flavor of the month novelty band (right, right, I know, Rock Lobster was a classic, whatever).

But I still hoped for something better until the last REM show I went to c. 1990 or 1991 at which Michael Stipe lectured the crowd for 3 minutes between every fricking song about environmentalism or Latin America or whatever. It wasn't that I disagreed even with his politics, but really, you're a musician. Write a song about it don't lecture me. Fall on Me had more of an effect on my environmental consciousness than any lecture I've ever heard, especially from a musician. PLUS, there was this huge screen with words on it which the crowd was reading along with between songs. It was like a bad parody of The Wall.

So my point is that REM became irrelevant mostly because they became boring, lecturing nags who were very Serious and had Serious Things to Say. Good God, get over yourselves. Michael Stipe bores me to tears, but I hope the new album is as good as people say it is.

Now, Cracker... there was an awesome alternative, jangly guitar band worth their weight in gold...

Hey King,

What's up with the letters thread being closed on the bean ball story? Is this a new feature? If so, it stinks. Some of us are slow getting to an article but still would like to post.

What's the deal?

I know Shawn has got to be a troll and that feeding the trolls only encourages them, but c'mon. You can say stupid things all you like and declare them fact, but that does make them fact.

Obama's going to lose NJ, NY and CA?

Real Clear Politics has Obama beating McCain by 9% and Clinton beating him by 5% in NJ.

I don't see polls for CA & NY, but national polls have Clinton and Obama both beating McCain by 4-5%.

NY is NOT going red. It will deliver big for whichever Democrat runs. It went for Gore by 25% and Kerry by a similar margin. CA went for Gore by 14%.

To predict that Obama will lose NY or CA marks you as delusional. Maybe you're not a troll; maybe you're just a Hillary dead-ender.