ill Take: Jim Tressel Steps Down

Ohio State head coach Jim Tressel stepped down this morning under the light of increased speculation of continued program violations at OSU.

"After meeting with university officials, we agreed that it is in the best interest of Ohio State that I resign as head football coach," Tressel said in a statement Monday morning. "The appreciation that Ellen and I have for the Buckeye Nation is immeasurable."

I spoke at length about Tressel a couple months ago and what I said then still applies now. After what occurred with former player Ray Small and what he said late last week and the rumors are that his conversations lead to this development.

While I'm not the biggest fan of college coaches and I find many of them to be insincere, I know that Tressel is not alone in these actions in the NCAA, there are numerous programs that are guilty of major NCAA infractions and won't be caught because of how well the violations are hidden.

Tressel should have been fired months ago for his actions and the fact that it took more accusations for him to realize what long-term harm he's causing to the program is ridiculous.

What he did isn't the problem for me, it's how he did that screams the loudest and now the Ohio State program will be under a very watchful eye for years to come as people talk about OSU receiving a penalty as harsh or harsher than USC's.

The most eye opening thing about this is not that Tressel was caught, but how easily everything can unravel for a upstanding university like Ohio State in a matter of months and the reality is that all the major programs despite the image of compliance and hanging on by a thread because of the possibility of that one athlete opening his mouth or being spurned by the university from spilling the beans about events that could put his/her school on lockdown.

Now we're going to hear more talk about how the NCAA should pay its athletes and allow this and that, but it'll never happen and if anything more rules will be enforced to prevent future nonsense from happening at the top schools and things are only going to get worse as a result.

Photo Courtesy of the Associated Press

Fifth Starter Struggles Again

For one day, all the struggles and controversy that's plagued the Mets organization had subsided. On Sunday afternoon, the Mets beat their biggest rival and did it convincingly while the Phils were left wondering about their fifth starter again.

The Mets defeated the Phillies (33-20) by a score of 9-5, as the Mets were able to avoid being swept at Citi Field by the Phillies for the first time since the ballpark opened.

New York scored nine runs for the first time since early May as they snapped a three game losing streak and had previously lost six out of seven games before their win yesterday.

Vance Worley got he start for the Phillies and was hit all the ballpark for his three innings of work.

The Mets racked up a season high 17 hits in the victory and a amazing 12 of them came off of Worley.

The 12 hits surrendered by Worley are the most given up by a Phillies starter this season and yesterday's outing marks the second shaky start in a row although Sunday's game definitely sparks more concern than his previous start against the Reds did.

Ultimately on a day where many of the Phillies starters were resting since they are currently in the midst of a brutal stretch for the team, the Mets loss isn't overly concerning.

The only potential worry out of the game was just how defeated Worley looking on the mound, which was a complete contrast to the other three outings where even when he was hit, he bounced back and remained his composure on the mound, stuff-wise.

A bad fifth starter won't hurt the Phillies too much, they were able to get by Blanton's 5.50 ERA before he got hurt, but one has to wonder just how much better would the Phillies be if they had a competent fifth starter, although depending on Worley's next outing he may well prove that he could be the guy for that spot and this could be just one really bad outing.

Photo Courtesy of the Associated Press