That smell

Word was that the air in Manhattan had a sulfurous smell on Monday. If we are to believe Hugo Chavez, that must mean that President Bush was in the area. Best to ignore Hugo Chavez entirely, of course; still, that means there was a smell on the island on Monday. But that wasn’t the only unpleasant odor. Let’s do a quick aroma roundup.

• The smell in New York could have been a number of things – swamp gas from Jersey, sewage from somewhere. No one was harmed by it, so it will likely be forgotten. But you wonder if it’s a test run for something else. Hope that’s simply paranoia.
• The smell in Glendale, Arizona came from the Ohio State Buckeyes, who got their well-praised butts handed to them by a nasty bunch of Florida Gators on Monday night. There was no question that Florida was a better team on the field; I do wonder, however, how Florida would have done if they’d played OSU during the season. One of the problems with the bowl season is that many teams don’t play for a month or more between the end of the season and the game. Ohio State’s regular season ended in November, as is typical of all Big Ten schools, while the Gators played on into December. I’m not sure if that makes a difference, but I suspect it does. The Big Ten could mimic the other conferences by adding a 12th team, dividing into divisions and having a championship game. The question is, as it has been forever, is which team would you invite? As a matter of geography, you could suggest Iowa State, or perhaps Missouri, from the Big XII. Over the years another eastern school has also been suggested, such as Pittsburgh or Syracuse. Notre Dame won’t join the Big 10 because it wants to keep its football money. I’d like to humbly suggest Kansas, probably the best academic university in the Big XII and a school with a tremendous basketball tradition. No matter what, it’s time to make the offer to some school.
• More undetermined smells emanate in the final AP poll results for college football. Because the top two Big 10 schools, Ohio State and Michigan, both flopped, there seems to be a consensus that the Big 10 is overrated. The SEC acolytes especially like to play this card. But remember that on New Year’s Day, the winners of the two Big Ten-SEC matchups were Penn State and my beloved Wisconsin Badgers, over SEC worthies Tennessee and Arkansas, respectively. The Badgers may be the only team I’ve ever heard of that went 12-1, won its bowl game and lost ground in the final poll, falling from 6 to 7 in the AP poll. Do you think the Badgers were punished for their Big 10 membership? I sure do.
• Another undetermined smell comes from the Baseball Writers of America. These press-box solons have decided that Mark McGwire does not belong in the Hall of Fame, despite career home run totals that rival the all-time greats. Big Mac is a big man and he must have used steroids, the reasoning goes. Here’s the question: even if McGwire did use steroids, how many of his home runs would have been routine fly balls had he not done so? No one knows, of course. McGwire was a great power hitter because he could time the baseball and bring his tremendous size and strength to bear on a baseball. Are the writers arguing that McGwire is really Ted Kluszewski or Frank Howard, or Greg Luzinski, sluggers of previous eras whose credentials fall short of Cooperstown? How can you know? In this case, the only thing we know is what we see; what I saw when I watched Mark McGwire was a tremendous, consistent power hitter who was one of the most feared batters of his generation. McGwire is certainly a more worthy candidate than Jim Rice, to use one example of a player receiving more votes. So how do you explain this? I’m genuinely curious to find out the rationale of these baseball writers – I’ll be watching these explanations closely.