Looks like the Michigan Baseball team is finally back to the College World Series, after a three-decade absence from the annual event. Good job, Blue Boys, you made it, you won the league tourney to get the automatic bid. Way to go, hoo hah.
What the sports media want you to forget about is what happened to UM Baseball since the last time they made the CWS. Do you remember?
Michigan was caught paying their baseball players
at the end of the 1980s.
That's against NCAA rules!
How many times will the sports media mention this key historical fact while covering the UM Baseball team this week? Our "over-under" for such references is ZERO. The sports media are too deeply in love with Michigan to mention the truth about the UM past.
Paying players in college sports is much worse then deflating footballs in pro sports. Doing so creates the ultimate "competitive advantage", so penalties for getting caught paying players go well beyond most other infractions.
The reason UM hasn't made the CWS since the 1980s is because they were cheating at baseball. Coach Bud Middaugh created fake jobs to funnel cash to players, like walking around Michigan Stadium on football game days wearing a bib and holding up gameday programs. Players "found" $500 checks in their lockers on a periodic basis. Middaugh denied the allegations, but they were so obvious that Michigan Athletic Director Glenn Shembechler fired him almost immediately.
The banners came down, the trophies were returned, the record-books were changed, the scholarships were taken away. And the program sunk to the lowest level, after riding high for decades.
The screen shot below was taken from a CBS Sports web site. Links to other reference articles on the history of University of Michigan Baseball are listed below.
The reason UM hasn't made the CWS since the 1980s is because they were cheating at baseball. Coach Bud Middaugh created fake jobs to funnel cash to players, like walking around Michigan Stadium on football game days wearing a bib and holding up gameday programs. Players "found" $500 checks in their lockers on a periodic basis. Middaugh denied the allegations, but they were so obvious that Michigan Athletic Director Glenn Shembechler fired him almost immediately.
The banners came down, the trophies were returned, the record-books were changed, the scholarships were taken away. And the program sunk to the lowest level, after riding high for decades.
The legacy of Michigan Baseball is
much the same as Michigan Basketball.
They cheated, got caught, and were
punished by the NCAA.
The screen shot below was taken from a CBS Sports web site. Links to other reference articles on the history of University of Michigan Baseball are listed below.
 |
| FROM CBS SPORTS WEB SITE |
Tweet ****** Click on NO COMMENTS (or # comments) below to enter and view reader comments. ----- Remember to check Spartan Headline links, updated real time, in the left column of SpartanResource.com (Web version only). *****Note: If you are receiving this post via automated email, you need to go to the site to view headline links and embedded videos in this post: http://spartanresource.com/ (Web version only). SIGN UP TO RECEIVE POSTS VIA EMAIL, TWITTER OR FACEBOOK IN THE RIGHT COLUMN.*****
While we know that the reason you compared paying college players to the sensational news story of deflate-gate, it find it funny that even that example was perpetrated by a former Ann Arbor U player. Lots of smoke coming from that place.
ReplyDeleteJust like Steve Fischer, Tom Brady DENIED IT happened, then was found guilty by the authorities.
DeleteNow the UM Baseball team made the CWS for the first time since - - - what the sports media will not tell you about - - - happened.
I don't begrudge them their success, they won the league tournament over every other team, and therefore qualified for the CWS. But if MSU were in the same boat, all of the sports media stories would focus on the bad thing that happened in the past.
Michigan folks only use the past when it sounds good for them.