A Day Later

Yesterday I said that we were likely to see some sloppy play because of the layoffs between the end of the championship series and the beginning of the World Series, and unfortunately I turned out to be correct. Six errors were committed by both teams last night. In addition, an 11-7 score is just not good baseball. Cliff Lee finally got beat, and no one can say to me that his layoff did not have something to do with his inability to hit his spots. He had 8 days between his starts, normally he has four. This is supposed to be the best baseball that can be played by the two best teams, but year after year that is not the product that is put on the field. MLB has to address this.

Notre Dame yesterday lost one of their students when the tower in which he was filming football practice collapsed. Declan Sullivan, a twenty-year-old Junior, died from his injuries at a local hospital. I have written here about football coaches needing to be made to understand that they are responsible for their athletes in a way that is much deeper than just as some commodity which can be replaced at will, and I guess I need to broaden that perspective.

The University has said it will conduct a full investigation, and many reporters are saying they hope that negligence will not be found. How can negligence not be found? A student was sent up a fifty-foot tower in fifty-mile-an-hour winds. There is no other way to describe this than as negligent. What is even worse is that Sullivan tweeted both before he went up and while he was on the tower that he was “terrified.”

Even if he went up of his own volition, the university hires adults to make decisions that students might not be able to make themselves. Sometimes being the person in charge includes stopping people from doing what they should not do, even if they want to do it. This is a tragedy that should never have occurred. Practice had been held inside the day before because of these same winds, so it was not as if there was a sudden burst of wind that brought the tower down.

I truly hope the University is committed to this investigation and is willing to take the necessary steps to make sure it never happens again, which must include firing staff. That to me would include anyone, up to and including the coach, who saw him up there and immediately did not say “what is someone doing up in a tower in fifty-mile-an-hour winds,” and order him to be brought down. I’m sure the universities insurance company is already preparing a check that contains at least 6 zeros.

My prayers go out to the Sullivan family and his friends.