The Daily Take: Vick Still Hasn't Learned

Michael Vick still doesn't get it.   He has definitely matured as a person during his time in jail but if you are to take him at his word of what he said in the recent GQ article, I am not sure if he still has true remorse for what he did.  Instead of actually talking about remorse, he was rationalizing his actions and excusing them.  His excuse was that it was necessary growing up in a poorer neighborhood.  I hate to tell you Vick, but its not at all necessary and plenty of people are able to get buy in those sorts of neighborhoods without turning to dogfighting.  He might actually be sorry for what he did, but that's different from remorse and rarely do remorse and rationalization go hand-in-hand.

Since the last post, the Indians took another 3 of 4 games that they played. During the month of August, the Indians are 9-6, but there is more too it.  10 of the 15 games have been against 1st place clubs and a majority have been on the road.  In the 9 wins, the Indians have outscored their opponents by 25 runs and in the 6 losses, they have been outscored by 7 runs.  A couple days ago, the situation looked dire.  They had just used up their whole bullpen in a loss and were a half a game away from slipping into 3rd place.  Thanks to a stellar performance by Fausto and Masterson being his normal self, they have a comfortable lead over Chicago and now are only 1.5 games behind Detroit and go to Detroit tonight.  And all this with Jason Donald at 2nd.  

For Indians fans, the biggest news was something that didn't even happen to the team.  Jim Thome hit his 600th home run.  Better yet, the homer helped the Indians gain a half a game on Detroit.  Thome put up some incredible numbers but he put up those numbers about as quietly as you can dominate at the plate.  Who are the power hitters people will remember from the steroid era?  The flashy personas: Bonds, McGwire, Sosa, Griffey, Manny, and A-Rod.  Heck, casual fans probably think of Frank Thomas than they do of Thome.  They will not realize that Thome will go down as one of the greatest power hitters of all time.  Steroids may inherently taint the legacy of any slugger from this era, but no one ever seriously suspected Thome.  The evidence that often accompanies steroid use was never there.  

The University of Miami has been in the news for violations, but they aren't getting the coverage that the OSU scandal got.  They should get more coverage but it is not at all a surprise the way it was covered.  OSU is one of the biggest schools in the country and has one of the biggest fan bases.  Because of this, they are going to get a ton of coverage when their are violations because there are so many fans and so many who want to root against them.  This explains that why they received more airtime and more criticism than the agent party that was going on at UNC or the ridiculousness right now for the 'Canes.  The violations at Miami are so severe that they could receive the NCAA "death penalty", banning them from competition.  Tressel might have hidden tattoos, but at least he is not in jail for running a ponzi scheme like Nevin Shapiro.