Steve McNair, former quarter back of the Titans and Ravens, is dead.

The words are both final and unexplainable.  He was shot to death, along with a companion, in Nashville today.  He was just 36 years old.

McNair was often the bane of Colts fans.  He lead the Titans into Indianapolis in January of 2000, and came out with a hard fought victory.

His final pass in Super Bowl XXXIV came up just one foot short.

From 2002-2005 he helped the Colts and Titans establish busing and bitter rivalry, that only subsided when he left for Baltimore.

In 2003, he inexplicably shared the MVP award with Peyton Manning in a vote that still boggles the mind.

In 2006, he appeared to be the missing piece the Ravens were seeking, until he was flummoxed by the Colts defense in the playoffs, evening the score of upset playoffs wins with Peyton Manning at one apiece.

He was a warrior and a smart player.  He developed on the job and help turn the Titans into a team no one wanted to play for half a decade.  The franchise's biggest mistake was not allowing him to stay in Nashville to tutor a young Vince Young.  They unceremoniously forced him out the door, not even allowing him to work out in the team's facilities while still under contract.  Now Young, instead of being the second coming of McNair, is close to being the second coming of Akili Smith.

It is crass and wrong to write a litany of football moments to define the life of a man taken too soon  I'm sure his family and friends will remember him better and more honestly than I will. 

I'm going to resist the urge to sermonize.  The news is sad and sick.  Moralizing and finger pointing will not bring the man back.

Steve McNair, a young man, is dead.


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A recent survey named the 5 managers players would least like to play for.  Number one on the list?  My personal favorite...Lou Pinella.  Now, you all know of my antipathy for the Cubs, but I'm a huge Pinella fan, as he brought the Reds the only World Series title of my life.  What's hilarious is that the list consists of Pinella, Ozzie Guillen, Tony LaRussa, and Joe Torre (and the horrible Eric Wedge).  That list of managers is responsible for EIGHT championships. 

Why is that significant?  It is impossible to put together a list of four other active managers that have more titles than those four do.  The closest you can get is six by taking Terry Francona (2) and Cito Gaston (2) and throwing in any two of Bobby Cox, Charlie Manuel, Mike Scioscia, and Jim Leyland.  In fact, if you took all 6 of those guys together, you only get 8 titles.

All that is to say, it doesn't matter much if players like a manager or would perceive him as a great guy to play for.  The most popular list?  It was populated with great managers as well:  Cox, Torre (again), Sciosca, Joe Maddon and Francona...all combine for EIGHT championships.  I'd say that qualifies the most/least popular question as utterly insignificant.

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The Reds continue to linger like a stale fart.  Cueto and Votto.  Some days, that's all you need.

A word about BBS: 
We've said from day one that we are a general Indiana sports blog.  It's in our very first post.  We never claimed we would only talk about the Colts.

We are Colts centric, but I hate offseason blather.  Personally, I don't find it that all that interesting. 

So...We  blog about other stuff.  As much as possible.   If BBS or anyone else doesn't like it, don't read it.   I could care less what annoys BBS.

We write for us.  We always have.  I'm trying to entertain one person:  my brother. 
If anything, 18to88 is more Colts centered than we ever envisioned it.  We haven't varied from our mission at all.  Again, we state it in our Authors page:

This is a football blog primarily, but we also follow IU, the Pacers, the Reds, and IRL racing religiously. You can expect a heavy dose of all these throughout the year.

BBS's hatchet job on the Star was unfair.  The whole league is on vacation. When the team is playing, the Star coverage is very solid and useful (except for most Kravitz columns :)).  There is nothing going on right now.  The reporters are getting a much deserved vacation.  Calling them "Crap.  Pure and utter crap" just because they are getting a short break is below the belt.  The joke is that if they were writing about the Colts right now, it would just be blather, bluster and opinion.  They'd have to make stuff up to talk about.  I would much rather the Star say nothing than just yak endlessly about opinion and speculation.  Sometimes, taking a break and talking about other things is healthy.  They mentioned they would be on vacation.  Give them a break.  Do we really want more Matt Painter stories to satisfy our urge?

I wake up every day and think,  "Is there going to be a Colts' story today?  I hope so."  When there isn't, I'm faced with three choices:  I can write about other things that interest me (movies or sports), I can write nothing, I can write some made up crap about some insignificant topic to stir up trouble.  Some days I choose the first.  Other days, I choose the second.  I try to never chose the third (at least not on purpose).  That's why both my original comments, and this response didn't get their own "post". 

Trust me.  Whenever there is real Colts news to discuss, we'll be there to talk about it.  For now, the team has hung the 'gone fishin' shingle up, and everyone will just have to chill out for a week or two.  It's better than stirring up fake fights and controversies.

Ok, next topic...Sign me up for this NCAA Football playoff.  Simple.  Perfect.  I love it.

The Colts are 14th in ESPN's ultimate franchise rankings after being #1 last year.  Why the drop?  Tony Dungy retired.  The Pacers improved to 96th.    My Reds finished surprisingly high at 36.

Schrager likes the Colts.  But someone needs to explain to the guys at Foxsports.com that Moore and Mudd are coming back.  I'm not sure what is so confusing about the situation now.

Buenísimo.  Es una decisión inteligente. Los hispanos representan un pueblo con pasión (y plata). Un aplauso.

Demond Sanders:  A couple of points.  This site is primarily about analysis rather than news gathering.  So unless Peyton is out there tossing touchdowns in some obscure Japanese summer league... there isn't all that much to say right now.  We are Indiana sports fans.  I'd rather see DZ write something about the Pacers/Reds/Indy 500/Irish etc. than make something up about how Lance Ball is making great strides. 

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Forbes list of the Fortunate 50 is out.  This is the list of the 50 highest earning athletes in the USA.  It combines salary, winnings, and endorsement deals.  What's fascinating is that it reveals exactly what is wrong with the NBA, and why people need to ease up on football players.

NFL players put their bodies on the line, but earn comparatively little when juxtaposed with stars from other sports.  The list is dominated by NBA stars, many of whom are not very good.  The top ten reads:
Woods
Mickleson
LeBron James
ARod
Shaq
Garnett
Bryant
Allen Iverson
Jeter
Peyton Manning

The fact that Shaq and AI are among the 10 highest earning athletes in the USA is appalling.  People joke about Manning's endorsement deals, but Shaq actually earns more in advertising $.  Manning does very well for an NFL star, as the next ten spots are owned by SEVEN more NBA players including Jason Kidd, Stephon Marbury and Jermaine O'Neal.  That makes 12 of the top 20 NBA players.

The NFL doesn't see another player on the list until Tom Brady checks in at 28th.  Meanwhile, the NBA racks up 6 more players between 21-30 including "mega-stars" Steve Francis, Vince Carter, and Rashard Lewis.  The NFL fares better in the next 10 spots, with three more players including Dwight Freeney at 40th. 

Finally, the list finishes out with Mike Bibby making more money than Roethlisberger.

The perception is that the NBA is a league of overpaid loafers.  It's hard to argue that based on this list.  NFL players must produce or be cut.  In the NBA, once a player signs a big deal, he's set for the next several years regardless of how he performs. 

You could argue that no one is worth the big money, and it's all ridiculous.  Maybe so, but in some cases, it's a good deal more insane than in others.

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You called it, Shake.  It's June!  Time for Fukudome to start his slide to oblivion.  His OPS has dropped 220 points in the last 6 weeks.  Soooo predictable.

Clark behind Witten and Winslow?  Not sure I'm buying that...
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This post will be somewhat self indulgent even for a blog, but I just put the last period on my first (last? only?) novel.  I have no other place to really mark the moment, so I figured I'd share my thoughts with all of you.

1.  I'm actually sad.  I enjoyed writing the book, and it's actually difficult to say goodbye to the characters.  I don't know if anyone else will miss them after the book is read, but I will.

2.  The hardest part (other than, you know, writing a book) is going to be the next month.  I won't touch the manuscript for at least four weeks.  The book needs a serious revision before I share it with my wife and brother (who are my first readers).  I need to let it sit, while I clear out my mind and attempt to gain some objectivity before I work it over.

3.  I'm really grateful to my wife for letting me squeeze extra time out here and there writing it.  She also wrote a book, and has been incredibly supportive and inspirational.

4.  Unless my friends and family tell me it's total crap (and they might.  They are mean like that), this book will see the light of day one way or the other.  Just don't expect it before the end of the year.

5.  I'm going to be working on a website promoting the book sometime this next month.  As soon as I have something up, I'll link it up here.  It'll be oblique and creative (I hope).

6.  While I still fantasize about getting signed for the book (a process I'll embark upon after the third draft is finished), I'm expecting to publish myself and am working on a variety of guerrilla marketing techniques.  All ideas accepted, just email them to 18to88@gmail.com.

7.  I'm counting on all our loyal readers to buy a copy, eventually.  That will guarantee me at least ten sales!

8.  Hopefully, this will mean 18to88 will get a bit more attention in the coming weeks.  I promise a Classic Colts post up this week (unless something interesting happens).  You can't wait, I know.

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The interesting part about this survey is that the Colts would have been second with Dungy still around.

From my friend Brian.  Edge hauled water melons as a kid.  I think he also ran some drugs for an uncle or something.  They didn't print that part so I don't know.
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From the Onion's AV Club, comes the story of ThinkGeek's April Fool's Day joke gone horribly, horribly right.

You can follow the story with the link, but long story short, a new Tauntaun sleeping bag has been accidentally invented.



 I just shared this news with Demond.  What follows is an actual transcript of the chat:


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