Halloween In Athens

If you ask anybody around the country one of the top parties in America most of the time Halloween in Athens will come into the conversation. This party is by far one of the most popular parties around and it is also one of the most fun. The only problem is when you take a campus of about 20,000 people and then throw in another 50,000 random people you are bound to have some problems. I usually wouldn't mind everyone coming down for the weekend but it seems like everything gets trashed and the people trashing it don't have to deal with it, students do. Maybe the town of Athens should limit the people they let into campus that weekend. There would be a lot less trouble and a lot less violence. To me when all of these people come into the campus it takes away the family feeling we have here. Instead of seeing people you know all the time you just see random drunk idiots making a seen. Don't get me wrong, the party is a great time without a doubt, but not to sound cocky but it's just another weekend for us OU students. We do this all the time, this time we are just dressed up. Athens does a great job of keeping tabs on the campus making sure nothing to crazy happens, but it would be a lot easier if they just reduced the amount of people coming into town. Having so many people all the time really just gets annoying to. I am from Columbus Ohio and i go to something called Red, White, and Boom every year. It is the fireworks show the city puts on every year and it is held downtown. It is pretty much one of the craziest things that goes on. People from all around the city or even the state come to see it and there are nearly hundreds of thousands of people. It really takes the fun out of it though when you can't walk without running into someone. That is the same thing here on campus, all those people in a little place is just not fun.

How Can You Turn Down Five Million Dollars?

After the Yankees lost to the Indians in the playoffs the first question that arises in New York was will Torre be the Yankees manager next season. Some said yes and some said no, the question in general was really up in the air and couldn't have been predicted, the public would just have to wait and see what was going to happen. When the decision was finally made and it hit the press we all found out that Torre turned down a one year five million dollar deal to return to the Yankees next year according to http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3069115. Now should Torre have done this, was this the best decision? The answer is yes without a doubt for many reasons. First of all money is not a issue for Torre, five million dollars will not make or break this man considering he was with the Yankees for twelve straight years, not to mention the four world series titles which I'm sure he got a little of a bonus for. Secondly he didn't need to return to prove anything, he has done that already. It's not like he thought to himself "if I return next season I may be able to rebuild my career." This man is definitely going to make it to the hall of fame regardless of this year. The final reason he needed to turn down the offer is for respect. This man has done wonders for this team, he may not have won twelve straight titles but I think four is pretty good. The Yankees have no right to even question him returning next year but the fact they did just shows they didn't have much faith in him. Yes, they did offer him another year but that doesn't matter because it never should have been questioned. Overall Torre not returning next year was a great choice because he is a great manager so for a team to treat him like that is out of the question.

Torre's Future On The Lin

Joe Torre coach's one of the most hated team in sports history. He has led them to four world series out of six appearances according to http://blog.stats.com/2007/04/should_torre_be_on_the_hot_sea.html. Regardless of how many people hate the Yankees and Torre the question is does he deserved to be fired after losing to the Indians. My answer to this despite my hate for the yanks is no I don't believe so. He has led the Yankees to twelve straight playoff appearances (http://www.cbc.ca/sports/baseball/story/2007/10/10/mlb-yankees-torre-limbo.html?ref=rss) which is good no matter what team you are. The main reason I think his job is on the line is because he has some of the best talent in baseball but has been unable to use it to win a world series lately. The Yankees owner is a winner, he doesn't need to worry about money because he has plenty of it, he wants another championship. With all the talent he has I think he is totally right for wanting it too. Another reason I don't think he deserves to lose his job is because he has bonded so well with the teams top players such as Mario Rivera who says "I do not feel good about it, I do not see why they are even thinking it" (http://www.cbc.ca/sports/baseball/story/2007/10/10/mlb-yankees-torre-limbo.html?ref=rss). The fact of the matter is a good manager is supposed to win you games, which he does, a good manager is also supposed to get along with his athletes, which he does. I just think that this is a case of greed to some degree. Don't get me wrong, I don't think just because Torre has a good past is reason enough to keep him around but as long as he is making the playoffs every year that is good enough for me. There are managers who would kill to have a career like he has had, many of those managers have not even made it to the playoffs once and they still have jobs. I guess all we can do is wait to see how the whole thing plays out.

Is It Time For A Change?

Unfortunately for the Padres they are now heading home for the winter. Is it because they blew their last three games, all of which they had leads in? Could it be because they were up two runs in the bottom of the thirteenth inning and managed to blow that too? Regardless of these two very important point the real reason they did not head to a fourteenth inning against the Rockies is because of a blown call at home plate. The bang-bang call at the plate between Holliday and Barrett could have gone either way, unfortunately for the Padres it went the wrong way. The question now arises should instant replay be used in Major League Baseball? For me it is a very touchy subject because I lean both ways. The reason I feel it shouldn't be used is because baseball is a sport of of decisions, if you throw in instant replays then it takes away the chance of error because the umpires may never be wrong, this would just take away a lot of the excitement of the game. In reality though I do agree with putting in instant replays for this exact reason. A manager should be able to challenge certain calls just like the NFL does. The only thing they shouldn't be able to challenge would be balls and strikes but other then that anything goes. It wouldn't cost Major League Baseball that much to install the system either. According to writer Gene Wojciechowski of ESPN.com it only cost the NFL $9.5 million dollars to put high definition TVs in all NFL stadiums (http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=wojciechowski_gene&id=3047023&sportCat=mlb&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab6pos1) This is merely pocket change for Major League Baseball. Many sports such as football, basketball, tennis, and nascar all have issued instant replay in their sport and all of which has seemed to have worked. Overall I feel that it would be a huge change in the game of baseball but I think it would be a change for the better. Yes, you will always have to "old timers" who may think it will ruin the game because that's how the game was made and that's how the game should stay, but how can you have all this technology and not make it available for the umpires to use? It is like when Jack Nicklaus complained that the new generation of golf was changing and the only reason that golfers such as Tiger were hitting the ball farther was because of the new age clubs, you mean to tell me Jack you wouldn't of used them is you had them? Installing instant replay could make the game that much better because now you would know that the call was right and the better team will prevail, not just get lucky.