Brewers 1B Corey Hart to Have Knee Surgery, Miss Spring Training
News broke Friday afternoon regarding Milwaukee Brewers first baseman/right fielder Corey Hart, as he’s slated to have knee surgery to repair a torn meniscus this upcoming Tuesday according to this article from the Associated Press (via Yahoo Sports).
Tom Haudricourt, the long-time Brewers “beat writer” for the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, interviewed Brewers assistant general manager Gord Ash for his Friday article (and previous blog post on the same subject). In both places, Ash said two things: one, the Brewers still have Mat Gamel on the roster. This is significant because Gamel started 2012 as the starting first baseman for the team, and only vacated that role due to a knee injury he suffered while fielding a foul ball in San Diego in late April. And two, it’s better for this injury to have happened now rather than right before the start of the season.
While both things are true — as is Corey Hart’s assertion that he’s a “fast healer,” considering how quickly Hart returned from surgery last season (he was supposed to miss some or all of April, but ended up starting Opening Day in right field just as he — and the Brewers — had planned) — this is still not a good thing.
I have nothing against Mat Gamel and think he will make a good everyday player if he’s given a chance. Gamel’s fielding in the short stretch of games he had before hitting that pothole in San Diego due to inadequate field maintenance was quite good. His hitting was acceptable for so early in the year (Gamel was batting .246). And there’s every reason to believe Gamel would’ve done an adequate-to-better job at first base.
However, Corey Hart did an excellent job at first base after being moved there midway through the season. His batting did not suffer, either, as he hit 30 home runs, drove in 83 RBI, and batted .270 (his average suffered somewhat in September due to playing on a sprained-or-worse plantar fascia, which brought his overall average down). Hart is one of the “big three” on the Brewers and is counted on along with Ryan Braun and Aramis Ramirez to keep the Brewers in games.
(And did I mention that Hart is a two-time All-Star? No? My bad.)
The Brewers currently have a starting rotation with only one proven, dependable guy — Yovani Gallardo — which is why it’s imperative that all the strong bats the Brewers possess be in the lineup. The other Brewers who could possibly be starting pitchers include last year’s “swingman” Marco Estrada, who filled in capably for the injured Chris Narveson; Narveson, who’s coming back from a serious arm injury and may be on a limited pitch count all year, which will limit his effectiveness as a starter; second-year starter Michael Fiers; and outright rookies Mark Rogers, Wily Peralta and Tyler Thornburg. These six men will battle it out for the four remaining starting pitching positions, but it’s impossible to know how many — if any — will be successful.
Let’s just say that the possible starters for the Brewers, with the exception of Gallardo, don’t exactly scare anyone and leave it at that.
At any rate, Yahoo Sports writer Jeff Passan’s latest column on the Brewers (a preseason lookover written before the news about Hart’s injury broke) said that Ryan Braun’s big bat isn’t enough to overcome the lack of quality starters. And that’s likely to be true.
My worry is this: How much difficulty are the Brewers likely to have scoring runs when Hart’s not in the lineup? (Because before Gamel got hurt, Hart was playing every day in right field. So it wasn’t like Gamel was taking Hart’s place — instead, after Gamel got injured, Hart moved over there and Norichika Aoki played in right field every day.)
My take? Hart will come back strong, but I hope he doesn’t rush himself. He’s in the final year of a three-year contract and will be a free agent at the end of 2013 unless the Brewers give him a contract extension, which is unlikely until he actually gets on the field and performs at a high level again.
If the Brewers do not have the sense to give Hart an extension, he needs to be at full strength in order to show the rest of the league just how good he is.
I really hope the Brewers will re-sign Hart, mind you. But I’m very nervous, as I’m afraid the Brewers might be too short-sighted to realize just what they have in Hart until he’s gone.
Notre Dame Football and Rape Victims — Why You Should Care
There’s a scandal that’s been long a-brewing in Notre Dame . . . and no, it’s not related to star football player Manti Te’o or his fake girlfriend.
No, it’s much worse than that.
It’s about at least one rape, by at least one Notre Dame football player, that’s apparently been covered up by higher-ups at Notre Dame. It’s about that coverup, and about how the Athletic Director of Notre Dame, Jack Swarbrick, would rather discuss the Te’o situation, bizarre though that is, than the reputed sexual assault (or assaults). And it’s about the abuse of trust by Catholic priests, who are in positions of power in the Notre Dame hierarchy and are apparently much more concerned about the big money coming in via Notre Dame’s football program than any justice for rape victims.
Now, you might be asking, “Why do you keep saying ‘victims’ in this case, when only one (unnamed) football player has been implicated in the latest scandal?” Well, it’s simple. As Melinda Henneberger, herself a Notre Dame graduate, reported in the National Catholic Reporter back on March 26, 2012:
On her way back to St. Mary’s College from the University of Notre Dame, just across the street in Notre Dame, Ind., freshman Lizzy Seeberg texted her therapist that she needed to talk ASAP. “Something bad happened,” read her message, sent at 11:39 p.m. on Aug. 31, 2010. A sophomore in their dorm bolted from her study group after getting a similar message. When they talked a few minutes later, Lizzy was crying so hard she was having trouble breathing: “She looked really flushed and was breathing heavily and talking really fast; I couldn’t understand her. I just heard her say ‘boy,’ ‘Notre Dame,’ ‘football player.’ She was crying and having the closest thing to a panic attack I’ve seen in my life. I told her to breathe and sit down and tell me everything.”
Lizzy Seeberg”s story is the main one under discussion, as she reported the crime to the police. She wanted justice to be done. But then, as Henneberger’s account clearly shows, Lizzy Seeberg was pressured by various people at Notre Dame (mostly students) to drop the case.
Instead of dropping it, she committed suicide.
But Henneberger uncovered other current troubles. As she wrote later:
Lizzy wanted it to be better for the next woman. But one subsequent case, never reported until now, involved another young woman who decided that you really don’t mess with Notre Dame football. A year ago February, a female Notre Dame student who said another football player had raped her at an off-campus party told the friend who drove her to the hospital afterward that it was with Lizzy in mind that she decided against filing a complaint, that friend said.
So, did you catch that? Here another woman was raped, but did not go forward with her story because she, too, was afraid of being pressured.
Here’s another tidbit from Henneberger’s article:
One Notre Dame parent and longtime donor I interviewed, who asked that his name not be used because his daughter had reported being raped by a fellow Notre Dame student, said a top university official told him Lizzy was without question the aggressor in the situation: “She was all over the boy.”
So it’s obvious that the Notre Dame higher-ups appear to be seriously into blaming the victim. But they didn’t want to have to admit that’s what they were doing, which is why it was all innuendo, rumor and guess.
In a sense, Lizzy’s ordeal didn’t end with her death. The damage to her memory since then is arguably more of a violation than anything she reported to police — and all the more shocking because it was not done thoughtlessly, by a kid in a moment he can’t take back, but on purpose, by the very adults who heavily market the moral leadership of a Catholic institution. Notre Dame’s mission statement could not be clearer: “The university is dedicated to the pursuit and sharing of truth for its own sake.” But in this case, the university did just the opposite.
Henneberger also wrote a column for the Washington Post (her regular gig) explaining why she would not be rooting for Notre Dame in the BCS National Championship. As she put it:
It’s not only what I believe went on at that off-campus party, or in the room of the player Lizzy accused, that makes it impossible for me to support the team, though that would be enough. The problem goes deeper than that, and higher, because the man Lizzy accused had a history of behavior that should have kept him from being recruited in the first place. And as bad in my book as the actions of those young men was the determination of the considerably older men who run N.D. to keep those players on the team in an effort to win some football games.
Among those being congratulated for our return to gridiron glory is ND’s president, Rev. John Jenkins, who refused to meet with the Seeberg family on advice of counsel, and other school officials who’ve whispered misleadingly in many ears, mine included, in an attempt to protect the school’s brand by smearing a dead 19-year-old.
And that smearing was brutal. This was a young woman who volunteered her time at her local church. She was a political conservative (not that it matters). She was someone who firmly believed she should save her virginity for marriage, all according to Henneberger’s NCR report.
Yet she was called “mentally unstable.” A sexual innocent, she supposedly was “all over the boy.”
And this caricature of a young woman is something most rape victims will recognize, especially if they’ve tried to report a sexual assault at Notre Dame. According to Henneberger’s report:
In 1974, a South Bend woman who was hospitalized and then spent a month in a psychiatric facility after reporting being gang-raped by six Notre Dame football players was described by a top university administrator as “a queen of the slums with a mattress tied to her back.” No charges were filed, but the accused were suspended for a year for violating school rules. At the time, even so revered a figure as Holy Cross Fr. Theodore Hesburgh said: “We didn’t have to talk to the girl; we talked to the boys.” Hesburgh, who is 94, made that remark to Notre Dame alumnus Robert Sam Anson, who in his student days had founded the campus newspaper. Anson quoted Hesburgh in a story very much like this one, written 35 years ago.
Those who argue that, if anything, Notre Dame is too hard on its athletes regularly cite the 2002 expulsion of three players and a former player accused of gang-raping a woman, though none of them served a day in jail. But their accuser insists they were only expelled after officials failed to dissuade her from going public: “First they said, ‘No one’s going to believe you.’ ” When she went to South Bend police anyway, Notre Dame officials “treated me horribly at every opportunity. I had PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder] and I was afraid they [the players] were going to come after me again, but [school officials] wouldn’t let me park my car on campus because they said that wouldn’t be fair to the other students. When I tried to make an appointment with the counseling center, they called me back and said they couldn’t see me because of pending legal matters, though the legal matter they were talking about was the state versus these four rapists.”
So the anecdotal evidence is overpowering. But you might be asking yourself, why isn’t there more of a paper trail regarding all of these various accusers? (Much less a public outcry on the level of, say, the Penn State debacle of a year ago, something the Nation’s Dave Zirin wonders about as well.)
It’s simple. The town of South Bend, Indiana, doesn’t have much in the way of industry any longer. It’s economy is dependent upon Notre Dame, and to a substantial extent, on how many fans come to see Notre Dame’s football team every year.
Because of this, there’s a motive for covering things up. There’s a motive to say, “No, that couldn’t have possibly happened here,” even when it’s obvious that something bad has happened. And it sounds like from Henneberger’s exhaustive report at the National Catholic Reporter that Notre Dame, systematically, has done its level best to silence as many rape victims as it possibly can.
And I’m not the only person to feel that way. Henneberger, in her Washington Post column, talked with Kaliegh Fields, a St. Mary’s junior who attempted to help Lizzy Seeberg back in 2010. Pay close attention to what Fields has to say, as her final question is the one that’s been perplexing me ever since I started reading about Lizzy’s plight:
“I’ve watched almost every game this season and there’s not a single time that I don’t feel extreme anger when I see [the accused] on the field,” said Kaliegh Fields, a Saint Mary’s junior who went with Lizzy to the police station. “Once I start thinking about the people who put the school’s success in a sport over the life of a young woman, I can’t help but feel disgust. Everyone’s always saying how God’s on Notre Dame’s side,” she added. “And I think, ‘How could he be?’”
So after all this, you might be wondering why you should care about what’s going on at Notre Dame besides its football program. Or besides the current scandal with regards to Manti Te’o and “did he, or did he not, know that his girlfriend wasn’t real.” Or besides the fact that this one place, South Bend, Indiana, is dependent upon Notre Dame and its football program to stay alive in these uncertain economic times.
But if you have read everything I’ve posted, and honestly cannot understand why I’m hopping mad that Lizzy Seeberg did not get justice done . . . well, as Mr. T used to say, “I pity the fool.”
And the longer I think about it, the more I agree with Dave Zirin: the Notre Dame football program should be given the NCAA’s death penalty, because there’s something wrong when life becomes far less important than football.
Even at Notre Dame.
A Quick Friday Update
Folks, I’m starting to feel a little better. After nearly two weeks’ worth of general crappiness, the slight bit of additional energy I’ve had over the past twenty-four to forty-eight hours has been warmly welcomed.
That said, life didn’t stop while I was ill. I rescheduled some internship hours, but did work most of them (the one shift I couldn’t reschedule immediately will be made up before my internship ends in a few weeks). I finished another big editing project. And I started putting together a collection of my and Michael’s shorter fiction (novellas on down) for possible publication.
So I wasn’t idle by any means, even if sometimes it felt that way.
That said, no fiction writing got done and very little of a non-fiction nature also got done (as evidenced by this blog, where I haven’t posted since last Saturday due to illness). But more posts should be on the way soon, including one I just have to write about a current scandal at Notre Dame — and no, I’m not talking about Manti Te’o and his fake girlfriend.
Anyway, I’m still alive and I’ll continue to do my best to remain so. (How’s that for a plan? And I’m only being slightly sarcastic, too!)
You do your best to do the same.
A Quick Saturday Update
Despite my best efforts, whatever it is that I’ve been sick with for the past several weeks has grown worse over the past few days rather than better.
This has necessitated that I rest, drink much water, take over-the-counter medication and then rest some more.
The only good thing about being ill is that I’ve finished a number of books, including Janet Edwards’ EARTH GIRL, Beth Revis’ ACROSS THE UNIVERSE, Gennifer Albin’s CREWEL and Victoria Alexander’s A VISIT FROM SIR NICHOLAS and THE PERFECT MISTRESS (the last a delightful story set in 19th century England about a ghost, her great-granddaughter and the need to embrace life). All of these were thought-provoking books, but the reason I’m going to review Edwards’ EARTH GIRL over at Shiny Book Review is that it’s an extremely rare example of what could be a utopia as no one hungers, thirsts, or lacks for medical care while everyone is educated to the limit of his or her ability. But there are still problems, mostly dealing with the Handicapped (those who cannot portal to other worlds and must stay on Earth), which gave Edwards the ability to show conflict even in a mostly utopic setting.
Edited to add: review of EARTH GIRL is up at SBR.
Still doing my best to write, edit and regain my health. But this flu — or whatever it is that has me laid low — is really not any fun whatsoever.
Should Packers WR Donald Driver Start Against SF?
Earlier this evening, as I often do on Mondays, I listened to sports-talk radio on WTMJ-AM 620 out of Milwaukee, WI. The question posed by hosts Greg Matzek and Jeff Falconio (known as “the freak” and “the geek”) was this: Should Packers WR Donald Driver play against San Francisco?
And of course, as you might expect, Falconio and Matzek’s answer was that Driver should not play. Driver’s stats this year do not look good, as he’s played very few downs. With only eight receptions for 77 yards and no touchdowns, Driver has not been the same cog in the Packers offense that he was for so many years since being drafted back in 1999.
My question, therefore, is different: Should Donald Driver start against San Francisco, even knowing Driver hasn’t been able to do much this past season?
I say yes.
Before you go ballistic, hear me out. Driver’s history needs to be factored into the equation. He’s a three-time Pro Bowler with seven seasons of 1000 receiving yards or better. He’s a well-prepared professional with enough speed and smarts that it’s quite possible he can still make plays, even at his advanced football age of 37.
Yes, yes, I know that Driver only had 565 yards receiving in 2010 and 445 in 2011. I know by those numbers that he was starting to slow down, and that opposing defenses had fully adjusted to him.
Still. Driver has heart. He continues to have skills. And he can still help the Packers win — but he must be on the field and have a chance to catch the football in order for this to happen.
My thought is this: the 49ers definitely won’t be expecting Driver to start, especially as Driver was a “healthy inactive” for the playoff game versus Minnesota this past Saturday. They’ll be feverishly studying game film on the other Packers receivers — Greg Jennings, Jordy Nelson, James Jones and Randall Cobb — and will forget about Driver, as Driver appears at this moment to be nothing but an afterthought.
This could be a dangerous mistake.
Driver can still beat any team in the NFL if given a chance. He knows the opposing defensive players and their tendencies. He knows the opposing defensive coordinators, too, much less their tendencies. And he knows what he has to do to make plays, even though he’s gotten little opportunity to do so this past season in Green Bay.
Besides, if this is Driver’s last game with Green Bay, he should be treated with the respect he has earned due to his three Pro Bowl seasons and his seven 1000-plus yardage seasons.
That’s why I believe that Driver should start the game against San Francisco, much less play. Because I truly believe that Driver still has more to give, if only head coach Mike McCarthy will allow Driver to do so.
Ill this week
So far, folks, 2013 is starting out the same way 2012 did, as I am under the weather.
As I need to save my energy for the paying (or potentially paying) work, right now my blog is going to have to take a rest.
I hope to resume writing next week.
As for any reviews, expect them next week also.
Sorry.
Just Reviewed Two Romances at SBR
Folks, it’s Romance Saturday at Shiny Book Review (SBR), and I kept meaning to review two romances all month.
But time kept getting away from me, as it always does . . . then I looked up and realized, “Hey! It’s nearly the New Year! I still have these two romances hanging fire here. What’s to do?”
So I reviewed them both tonight over at SBR.
This was quite a different thing for me, because the two novels, while both were romances in one way or another, were wildly different. The first romance I reviewed is Sherry Thomas’ Victorian era TEMPTING THE BRIDE, book three in the Fitzhugh trilogy (and yes, I did review the other two books earlier this year, which you know if you’ve been reading my blogs). I liked this novel far better than I liked either of the first two, mostly because I really liked the characters and felt the emotional resonance between them scanned the same way a real couple would if someone dropped into this same scenario (which is, of all things, the dreaded amnesia plot).
The second romance is Marie Lu’s young adult dystopian near-future LEGEND (say that three times fast). This is Ms. Lu’s debut novel, and it’s a fast-paced thriller that still gets the emotional resonance right between our two teenage protagonists — June, from the military elite at the top of the economic scale, and Day, a fugitive from the “wrong side of the tracks” who is nevertheless extremely gifted in military matters. Normally the two would never meet, but June’s brother is killed under highly suspicious circumstances, which throws the two together (mostly because the military elites running the place do their best to make it appear that Day killed June’s brother).
These may be the last reviews I do before the New Year — in fact, it’s highly likely that this is the case — so what better way to end 2012 than with two romances I really enjoyed?
I truly hope you’ll enjoy them, too — or that you’ll at least appreciate my reviews. So have at, and in case I don’t get a chance to blog between now and then, Happy New Year to all . . . and to all a good night!
Quick Weekend Update
As the new year approaches, I’ve been rushing to get some projects taken care of that have been “hanging fire” for a long time. One of those was an intensive editorial project for a nearly six-hundred page epic fantasy novel, which has now been completed.
However, I still have the final ELFY editing changes to go over as I delayed work on that due to the amount of work required for the other project.
This is one reason why reviews have been few and far between (by my standards, at least).
Otherwise, I’ve had a nagging cough and cold that doesn’t seem to want to go away but also doesn’t seem to be getting any worse. It’s added to the intensity of some headaches, but otherwise hasn’t done a whole lot other than slow me down.
All of this is a long-winded way of saying that aside from editing (both for the in-progress internship and the large editorial project just completed), I haven’t done a whole lot of writing this week, on my blog or off.
One would hope that once the new year commences that I’ll be able to write a few more blogs on the various and sundry subjects I’ve previously discussed — or maybe even some new ones. (Hey. It could happen.)
Other than that, I hope to be able to at least review one book tomorrow night, a romance, over at Shiny Book Review. (That, and the internship hours, and maybe some work on the ELFY changes, are my plan for Saturday. Obviously, I lead an exciting life.)
Enjoy your weekend, everyone.
Barb Caffrey's Blog 