The Outsiders Edge – May 29, 2013

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Welcome back to another edition of The Outsiders Edge, my must read column on Texas and the sports world in general.  We’ve gone through another eventful week, so lets get to it.

Women’s Sports Carrying the Load: The Texas Softball team kicked ass the last couple weekends and has qualified for the Women’s College World Series. In her home finale, Blaire Luna no hit Florida State as the Longhorns swept the Super Regional.  The Women’s Basketball team has signed Krystle Henderson of the NJCAA National Champion Trinity Valley (Athens TX)  Cardinals to their strong and improving squad.  The Volleyball team won the National Championship.  Meanwhile, your Football program is at a make or break point, your Men’s Basketball team would make the average man vomit if they actually showed up to see it, and the baseball team missed every tournament possible.  Softball playing for a ring. Baseball dead last. You’re already upset over the state of things, but admit it, without the women getting it done right now, you’d feel MUCH worse.

Now, keep in mind its not a new thing the women suddenly came up with. In general,  Texas women are feared throughout the land, and naturally they do well in sports. You didn’t notice until now because the big three won so much you didn’t care.  Come next March, you may very well be looking at a Men’s basketball team under .500 and a women’s basketball team in ranked in the top 15 in the country.

Texas Women’s Athletic Director Chris Plonsky is doing something right folks. Maybe her counterpart on the men’s side should take some notes.

Coca-Cola Fiasco: Admittedly I’m not the biggest fan of watching guys make hundreds of left turns, but I occasionally watch NASCAR, and I will argue with anyone who says it takes no athletic prowess to sit in an oven travelling at 200mph for three hours. Those guys work hard, and it’s a shame FOX can’t check its equipment. A broken nylon rope crashed a camera into the stands hurting several people. The carnage also spilled out onto the track damaging race cars and altering the race itself.

Use something beside nylon FOX….it’s not like you can’t afford something a bit stronger…..

The Houston Astrodome: Once hailed as the “Eighth Wonder of The World”, the Astrodome is now a shell standing in the shadows of Reliant Stadium, and Harris County wants to do something with it. The lowest bid to demolish the dome and convert it into 1,600 parking spaces is just over $29 million dollars, mainly due to the depth the dome was built at and the strength of the super structure itself. The dome was built to withstand a Catagory 4 hurricane with Catagory 5 gusts.

I think we all have a “Dome” story, or at least remember the first time you saw it. I was there in 1995, on the way to an 8th out of 200+ teams finish in a cow judging contest. Walking the floor of the Astrodome was awe inspiring to me. Now the place is a run down pile of junk, full of code violations so rampant no one can go in but the security guards.

So the question is, what do you do with it?  One proposal I like is stripping the dome to its steel skeleton and making something out of it people can use who go to Reliant Stadium, but I’m sure you folks have other thoughts and ideas.  The building is not currently (oddly) on the list of historic places, so the time would be now (before it can’t be fixed).

A few NBA thoughts: David Stern and his fixing squad make the game awfully hard to watch sometimes. The flop rules are so unethically enforced its insane. To remedy this, I propose the NBA come up with a “Flop-1”  for guys they like, and “Flop-2” for the rest of the league. You’re on your way out the door anyway Dave, be the jerk we know you are with pride.

San Antonio just keeps on going, the ultimate, and sadly probably last, example of doing it right in the professional sports world. Good luck in the Finals guys.

Mark Cuban has been catching a ton of heat for saying in a recent interview he had a two year plan to rebuild the Mavericks. Bottomline internet trolls, you can’t say a guy who has amassed a $2.5 billion dollar empire AND won an World Championship doesn’t understand business or sports. I would LOVE to see Cuban in the NFL one day as owner of the Dallas Cowboys.

Two Twits for the Road: Jose Canseco is accused of rape. He named his accuser on Twitter and called her out. When he dies, I hope they study his brain extensively.

Amanda Bynes FINALLY got arrested, and is currently claiming she was sexually assaulted by NYPD and doesn’t use any drugs. If you buy that, I’ve got some ocean front property just south of Phoenix for you.

Until next week, Keep Calm and HOOK EM!