Reporter Uses Davies' Misfortune as a Cheap Gain

I haven't written on this thing in forever. I almost didn't even remember it existed. Between Twitter & Facebook, I figured that anything I had to say could effectively be conveyed there. But with BYU basketball's dream season apparently crashing down in a day, I was thinking a lot about how/why Jay Drew decided that he needed to take it upon himself to publish exactly what it was that Sophomore forward Brandon Davies did to earn his suspension. I'm not talking about the story itself. Obviously that - as disappointing as it may be - is newsworthy. What I'm referring to is exactly what Davies did to earn himself the dismissal. To me, that's where the line was crossed.

First, it's important to understand that the Salt Lake Tribune goes out of its way to establish itself as the Liberal paper in the area. That's fine.

I didn't read it growing up or really until the latter part of my stay in Provo, but now that I'm away from BYU, the Trib & Deseret News are good ways to keep up with Cougar sports. It seems like every week the Trib runs a story that either paints the Church in a negative light or goes after some other hot-button political/social issue from a left-of-center point of view. Their message is clear: "We aren't the Deseret News. We aren't run by the Church & we won't let you forget it!"

Yet they're "most read" stories are ones that clearly appeal to an LDS audience (which is why any story on the Church or BYU is quickly moved to "most read" status). They know who their main readers are, yet intentionally provoke them by masquerading around pretending to cater to an entirely different audience.

Now onto the matter at hand.

Jay Drew has useful information, and by-and-large he is a good sports reporter, but he frequently seems to come close to crossing that line. He was hot off the presses about what Harvey Unga & O'Neill Chambers did when they had their respective issues. It's almost as if he's trying to make a name for himself and he'll do whatever it takes to make it happen.

I respect the journalistic side of things. Really, it's his duty as a journalist to investigate issues. In this case, that is to make sure Davies didn't do something against the law or something similar. But once his "source" sold out Davies, Drew should have kept the specifics to himself. Now Davies is trending WORDLWIDE & ESPN's first headline involved Davies/sex. This guy is a college athlete - an amateur. He doesn't deserve this. Already he has to live with the consequences - this just exacerbates the problem.

I am grateful to my alma mater for staying true to the principles and standards that make BYU the great place it is. It would be disappointing if it were handled in any other way. There's more to the matter than just this, but it suffices to say that Drew used Davies' unfortunate circumstance as his "cheap" way to get a little public notoriety.

Here's to hoping Jimmer & co. can circle the wagons and salvage what's left of an otherwise special and memorable season.

Gusalina

Pretty funny stuff...is it Club Trillion's own Kyle Madsen or not?!?

They've seen better days....

Even their tailgating seems to bring bad results. Taken before CSU's 31-28 overtime loss to state-rival CU (CSU is 0-3 too!), all the Berguin brothers can do now is look foward to their Week 9 showdown when someone will finally be guaranteed a victory.

UNL sucks

What else would I title this? It's quite simple really; I hate Nebraska. The state itself is one thing (the College World Series and Omaha steaks are the only two positives I can think of right now), but I HATE the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Growing up as a little kid, I knew no better than to root for CU (boy have times changed, eh? I still find myself casually wanting them to be successful, but ONLY in sports and even then I cringe at times), so that's what got this whole "I hate Big Red" going.

Tonight's ASU-Nebraska game only stirred those emotions up and reminded me of why I hate them so much.

Random Thoughts, Con't.

No rhyme or reason for making a second post, I just know that as a personal rule I tend to read more thoroughly if the posts are broken up and spaced out.

Moving on, props still go out to my brother. I'll be missing him big time over the next two years and can't wait to hear all the awesome things he'll be doing. What a stud.

No real sports news to delve into. The Rockies are absolutely atrocious and I find myself secretly hoping they unload Helton. The guy is the ultimate work-horse, a class act wasting away his best years stuck in the middle of a terribly managed franchise that is going nowhere (maybe in three-five years, but nowhere until at least then). Helton is one of the few players I'll follow and cheer for no matter WHERE he goes (even if it is to the hated Yankees, the overrated Cubs, or the annoyingly over-played Red Sox). I'm a fan of Barmes, but his groceries/deer meat/ATV accident/incident has kind of simmered any positive vibe he had going.

I'll be intrigued to see (or hear rather, I'll have no idea firsthand) what the Nuggets do next week, and also to see where the big names (if that's possible in this year's draft) end up. Oh, and quite possibly the most hilarious early-entry since (and there's no irony here) William Avery has to be one Shavlik Randolph (click here for the story). I mean, I guess I can see why he did it, he averaged over 6 points a game in his 36 career starts. Nothing like a little Duke-ness to remind me why I love college basketball.

One final parting shot for the night. While at school, my comptuer was almost a part of me. I lived on it, I breathed on it, I even ate on it. Now I'm at home, and it's not just the fact that my notebook is no more. I stay away from it. It's like kryptonite. I come to check ESPN.com, email, a blog or two, and any AIM-ness that awaits, but then I quickly retreat and get away as fast as possible. Even ESPN.com's Bill Simmons has been replaced by Jim Rome as my favorite all-time sports journalist (if you could call either one that). Rome is amazingly witty, smart, funny, sarcastic, and downright logical. Plus, it's easier to listen to him at work then to try to come home and sift through Simmons and his 80's movie/song mentions.

Until tomorrow....

Is this thing on?

Yeah, I know - it seems like forever and a day ago that I last wrote. For a while my computers (yes, plural) were down. My laptop has been retired and sent out to the scrapyard (although not before extracting all he data) and all that's left is the old Windows ME operating system: no way to access iTunes on that. Not that that really mattered anyway, my iPod's click-wheel stopped working the the replacement (at least SOMETHING is still under warranty) also was defective, thus I am living off of a computer that had it's pinnacle reached back when Ray Bourque was hoisting the cup for the Avalanche (oh, what a day that was) with no iTunes, no iPod, not even a radio in my brother's (quasi-my) car.

What am I doing to fill the void? Nothing, unless you include making something of my life and actually being a productive and contributing member of society. I have a job working maintenance at a golf course, something which requires me to be there at 6 am every single day (something that was absolutely terrible for the first little while and is now nothing but habit for me now). Couple that with Church at 9 am on Sundays and you have a kid that hasn't slept in for over a month (that's really saying something for me - I needed to break that terrible cycle that was my ASU sleep-schedule). Now I'm actually remembering why it is that adults don't stay out forever and also am seeing my bank account go in another (the right) direction (for a change).

So sad to disappoint my one reader out there who is next-blogging, but I'm afraid my return may be short lived. It all starts on Wednesday morning at 9. That is when my first name will be retired for two years (as will my casual wardrobe). I will attempt to enlighten my dad as to how to post exerpts (or entire) letters from the mish, but I make no promises. It's a risky way to be, but with a brother that's tearing it up on a Connie Mack team in Denver, Plan B must shift into action (and I know the entire cyber-world will be holding its collective breath to see how it will all turn out).

Speaking of my brother:

GJHS TIGERS (24-2) - 2005 CLASS 5A STATE CHAMPIONS
Ryan Bernal (jr.) - .403 avg., 27 H, 25 R, 26 RBI, 8 2B, 2 3B, 4 HR, 2 SB, All-State Honorable Mention (Denver Post)

I'd been meaning to do that for a while, but prohibited myself from mentioning anything about their playoff run for fear or freakishly jinxing it and robbing the Western Slope (and Junction in particular) of any glory and respect. Not that Cherry Creek has any for us anyway, as they all got in the Lexus' and Escalades and drove home to the 10,000 square foot homes anyway (with any and all of their "transfers" [kids that creatively snuck into Creek through their parents getting "jobs" in the district]). But on that day it didn't matter, they could have said whatever they wanted. I don't know if it's me living vicariously through my brother or me just loving to watch him succeed, but that day will be one I will never forget. I was as nervous as a parent, and I did an all-out, full-on hug (full embrace, not the one-armed tapping of the back variety) with Brandon Berguin after Mark Novotny's GRAND SLAM in the 7th to give the Tigers the lead, and again after that final out to win GJ their title.

Perhaps I should make a list when these type of hugs are appropriate; rest assured that if I do, any situation involving a sporting event (especially one where said person has a vested interest in the team, be it through attending the school having a family member on the team, I don't care - you pick and include whatever other reasons [excuses] you want) will be reason number three (behind any sort of funeral/wedding [funny combo to include together, I know] circumstance and any extended absence sort of thing (I'm talking of the long variety, let's say two years as an example). Okay, maybe I threw in number two as a crutch should I break down from my normal stoic stance when it comes to goodbyes and other would-be emotion-provoking moments, but you've got to give me some slack here.

Technical Difficulties

The culmination of the school year perfectly coincided with the destruction of BOTH BOTH BOTH BOTH of my conmputers. Thus, as I wait to get both fixed, the site (as you can tell) will be down. Hopefully it'll be up and running again here in the next week or so.

Until then: I hope all of you are sleeping as much as I have been. Es muy bueno.

Too much wasted time.

Inefficiency is death.

Time to step it up and crank out a few essays.


As always, enlighten me with your comments (and further contribute to my inefficiency).