gr82be

It may have been after he left Auburn that he got the nickname and even though it ended badly I still think it’s one of the best-

Chuck Person, Rifleman

2 minutes ago, DAG said:

Unfortunately, those with the dough will probably be less inclined to do so. I feel like Auburn , probably like most schools, will prioritize football going forward as this seems to bring in the best value. The exception being those schools considered “basketball” schools.

Agree and it makes sense as well and let’s face it, football is what draws most of us here. I hate to see the other sports beyond basketball suffer anymore than they already do as a whole though. 

I wanted to share this with those who’ve never seen it, like me until a couple of days ago. It stems from baseball but says so much more…
 

A retired baseball coach was asked to speak to over 4,000 baseball coaches. If you are a career professional, business owner, government official or corporate supervisor you find this story of interest and learn something from this powerful message.

The name of the Coach who gave the speech was John Scolinos. He was 78 years old at the time and was in the hall of fame for College Baseball Coaches. Sxolinoa helped coach the 1984 Olympic Baseball team to victory. Since I did not personally hear the speech some of the details may be off but I think U will accuately convey his message.

When old coach Scolinos walked out on stage he had an "Official Basesball White Home Plate" hanging around his neck. The audience began to roar with laughter as they thought this old man was some kind of comedy act their meeting planner has scheduled.

However, the Coach immediately asked “Do we have any Little League coaches out there”? Several hands went up. “Do any of you know how wide home plate is in Little League?” Someone yelled out “Seventeen inches?” “That’s right”, the old coach said.

“Now, are there any High School baseball coaches in the room today?” Over a hundred hands shot up. “How wide is home plate in high school baseball?” “Seventeen inches,” someone said. “You’re right!” the coach said.

“How about College baseball coaches are you out there”?  Half the room raised their hands. “Well how wide is home plate in college baseball?” “Seventeen inches!” everyone yelled out in unison. Your right the coach responded.

Here's a hard question the coach aked - “Back in Babe Ruth’s day how wide was home plate"? Silence hit the room, then someone sheepishly yelled out “Seventeen inches?” “That’s right,” said the coach.

Now the coach changed his focus and asked “What do you suppose a Major League’s team’s management would do if a Big League pitcher couldn’t throw a ball over a seventeen inch plate?” He paused; the room fell silent again. Finally the said “They send him down to the minors or fire him!”

“But let me tell you what they would never ever do. They would never say, ‘Ah, that’s alright buddy, if you can’t throw a baseball over a seventeen-inch target we’ll make bigger for you - maybe we will widen it to nineteen or twenty inches so it will be easier for you; and if that’s not enough we will make it twenty-five inches wide.'”

Scolinos then asked the audience … “He is a question for each of you. What would you do if your best player consistently showed up late for practice? Or if your team rules forbid facial hair and some of your players starting showing up on game days unshaven? What about if one of your players got caught drinking after hours the night before a game? Would you hold those players accountable or would you widen home plate for them to fit their special needs?" The 4000 coaches now sat quiet as the old coach’s message began to mesmerize them.

Coach Scolinos then turned the plate on his chest towards himself and took out a black magic marker to draw something on it. When he finished he turned the plate around for the crowd to see. He had drawn a simple house complete with a front door and two windows. 

He then said “The problems with most homes in America today - and with many organizations and associations - is there are no standards for people to follow or people willing to enforce them. We no longer teach our children, our players or our employees our members accountability. It’s so much easier for parents, managers and executive directors to just simply widen the plate!” The result is there are no consequences when people today fail to meet standards. 

“Let’s face it; we have lowered standards in education. Has widening the plate helped out our schools? We’ve changed the standards in some religions – has widening the plate helped our Churches? We have lowered the standards all across government - has widened home plate made our governments better?” Then he turned the home plate on his chest around to reveal the backside of it again and said "When we fail to hold ourselves, our children, our players or our employees accountable to any standards our future gets dark – as the backside was completely black.

Coach Scolinos died in 2009 - age of 91. His message however was clear: If you’re a parent, business owner, lead an organization, hold a public office, manage a department or supervise a unit of people "Don't ever widen the plate" ... maintain and enforce the standards you have set." 

I am fortunate to work with many business organizations, local units of government and professional associations to help them solve their problems. I know from first-hand experience most of their current problems have occurred because at some point in the past someone widened the plate to make it easier on their employees, their staffs or their members. 

The hardest part about being a parent, a business manager or a government leader is maintaining the standards you have set for your home or your organization. Its so much easier to cave in and relax your standards - and the minute you do ... you have no standards.

2 hours ago, AURaptor said:

So both sides were carrying and then it was a shootout? 

I guarantee that every college if not HS kids have been told to make good choices, and yet this stuff keeps happening. 

Agree but if other kids, after hearing this story, will make better choices going forward then at least it might make a difference for them. 

38 minutes ago, aubiefifty said:

wow.i went to five sites and even youtube let me down. i will check back again later folks.

7 hours ago, augolf1716 said:

Oh they will definitely end up similar to that as well as Jordan Hare becoming Milo's Jordan Hare stadium. Got to find more ways to bring in revenue lots of changes coming. Get ready for it

Nike

Air Jordan Hare Stadium. 

Joking aside, I’m dreading the inevitable. 

12 hours ago, AU-24 said:

  The attitude I took with professional sports: they won’t/don’t get one dime of my money and by not one dime, I mean: no professional sports paraphernalia, certainly no game tickets, parking, concessions, etc… I have emailed all professional sports major sponsors and told them I would not be buying any of their products for myself, my family and friends to include Christmas presents, birthdays, other holidays, etc.

  The only professional sporting event I have watched on television for approximately the last ten years has been the Super Bowl possibly every other year. That is usually because I’ve been invited to a Super Bowl party. Even then, I refuse to watch the ridiculously, politically motivated halftime shows.

  Not saying, everyone should be like me, but if everyone did this, financial situations and decisions would certainly change. It simply baffles my mind that people making $20,000 a year and above will buy overpriced tickets into a professional sporting event, pay for parking, pay $7.00 or more for a beer, then go to the local sporting goods stores and pay $65-$165 for a team jersey. I just don’t get it!

  I hate to think of doing the same with college sports and my Auburn Tigers but if I have to, I will.

  My obvious point: putting a stop to all this nonsense is in our own hands and wallets… But back to the professional sports example, I guess people are just too addicted to it, to put a stop to it. I just hate the fact that college sports is going down the same road.

Boycotting might make people feel like they are sticking to principles but it’s darn near impossible to boycott major sponsors of the NFL just by doing normal life. Fed Ex delivers to the world whether you chose them or not. I respect your choice but I guess I try to consider that there are people working for these companies who may not like some things going on as well but they have to eat so… I haven’t always agreed with everything my place of employment has stood for but I’d probably have to start my own company for that to change. I agree with you on the halftime shows, haven’t watched those in years. 

Congratulations @augolf1716. I know this is huge for you. I don’t watch a lot of golf but I got home in time to watch the final three holes. Aside from having one heck of a team I think I figured out how we won a NC. No referees involved to call it unfairly 😂 Just talent and ability. Auburn is so snake bitten in situations like this but not this time. War Eagle!

The genie is out of the bottle and it’s not going back in it. I’m old school but I know I can either accept the current mess or stop watching. I’m not going to threaten to not watch because I know better, I would watch. This isn’t like my preferred music of the ‘70’s and ‘80’s where I can set my Sirius station to 7 and pretend the other stuff doesn’t exist. The way I see it is that those of us who don’t care much for how things are right now have two choices. 98% of the ones here like myself will still watch and pull for Auburn in tiddlywinks if we have to. Everyone needs to just accept this is what we have to deal with for now. 

6 hours ago, cbo said:

Feels a little like victim blaming to me. While Brian is still in the hospital. 

I personally didn’t mean to be disrespectful to Brian or his brother by my comment but if the circumstances were reversed and Brian had shot and killed the other shooter then the victim would be someone else and Brian would be arrested for murder. This really didn’t seem to have a good way to end based on what information has come out to this point. Sometimes innocent bystanders get hurt or killed but this doesn’t read like that based on what has come out. Maybe I missed something. 

The same is true for everyone involved but if you go looking for trouble you can usually find it. I hate this for Brian and his brother. You don’t always have to prove you’re tougher than the other guy. Sometimes you just need to avoid situations, it doesn’t make you a coward.  Continued prayers for all. 

15 hours ago, NCAubs said:

Some people have way too much time on their hands for these type of shenanigans.  

The drive thru at McDonalds has lulls from time to time so they take advantage of it. 

I hate it for the people losing their jobs but I’ve never cared for there products. 

Prayers for the Battie family and Brian’s recovery. Evil exists in some people but it does not exist in the instruments they use for evil. Sometimes people step into a harmful situation by choice and sometimes by circumstance but in anything that happens, God can use it for good for someone else. 

That last post by Sammie is concerning since he has played in the NFL. I hope he’s exaggerating now and he isn’t actually “always broke”. 

8 minutes ago, GwillMac6 said:

💰🤑💵 there’s nothing going on besides that. We don’t have the deep nil pockets as other schools. It’s really as black and white and cut and dry as that.

Cincinnati would probably have more to spend on basketball because I doubt they need to spend more for less on football talent. Also Bruce might think he’s a starter and Mitchell might think he’s a starter but Bruce won’t guarantee it or at least I don’t think he would. 

10 minutes ago, bishoptf said:

Again no one disagrees with what he has done in regards to recruiting, it's the coaching that he appears to have a problem with...hopefully that will improve this year but he seems to make a lot of excuses instead of taking responsibility for his decisions. Again hoping he looks better on the coaching side of things this year...

NMSU was a complete failure but we probably had no business taking Alabama to the brink or being in the game with UGA. His coaching, as a whole, just isn’t the question for me that it is for some. 

I learned through years on the job to be careful who you complain about because you haven’t seen their replacement yet. That became true when Harsin was hired to succeed Gus. We need to be patient with Freeze as long as he is working his tail off like he is. We tend to forget that the other teams are always trying to get better too so to catch up Freeze has to work even harder.  Auburn getting consistently better isn’t the hardest part. Auburn getting consistently better than the top 3-4 teams in the SEC is what’s going to take more time. That’s where showing progress the first 3 years is so important. Unless Freeze does something harmful to Auburn we need to hope we can, at a minimum, get through his initial contract. Can’t keep paying coaches to go away 

4 hours ago, aubiefifty said:

you folks bare with me i have chemo brain

I will bear with you but I will NOT bare with you.  

I’d be fine with us playing Troy, Alabama A&M or another school along those lines but why did we drift away to the pitiful excuse of an ADay that we play now anyway? Reduced game time, weird scoring or spotting the defense points. Just put the first team offense and second team defense against the first team defense and second team offense and play the game as it used to be played. Trying to fix what is broken when you’re the one who broke it shouldn’t be that hard. 

10 minutes ago, RedDirtFan said:

What about the former PAC12 coaches that will now spend their seasons flying from coast to coast, away from families, trying to recruit into that mess...there are some quality coaches in there.

Excellent point. 

On 3/19/2024 at 9:04 AM, aubiefifty said:

secrant.com

Dodgers Mistakenly Gave Their Minor League Team New Name That Translates To 'J*rk Offs'

Larry Leo

~2 minutes

The L.A. Dodgers didn't do their homework before naming their new minor league team...

Loading Twitter Embed....

Per LA Times...

quote:
Chaqueta is the Spanish word for jacket. But it also has another meaning that is, let’s just say, NSFW. The word can also be slang for masturbation. The Rancho Cucamonga Quakes were unaware of the word’s second meaning when they chose the nickname Chaquetas for Minor League Baseball’s Copa de la Diversión series this season. The Dodgers’ single-A minor league affiliate has decided to stick with Chaquetas as their name during their three Copa events this season — but only after a few tense hours following their announcement of the moniker Thursday morning.

“We went live at 10 o’clock and we’re so excited,” Grant Riddle, Quakes executive vice president and general manager, told The Times in a phone interview Friday. “You know, we’ve been working for this for two years, gone through this extensive process, all of that. And then we started to get some comments that we didn’t understand.”

And through all of that, Riddle said, the team never heard anything about the slang definition of chaquetas. But folks on social media were quick to point it out Thursday morning, causing the Quakes to remove all of its announcements regarding the name from social media for a few hours while they went through an expedited version of the vetting process all over again.

(Barstool Sports)

As a Braves fan I think it’s the perfect name for them. 

That’s just really bad. 

Late to the conversation but this is something where you don’t just look at Dior and simply say he has baggage. I’m always for looking for redemption in a person but this one is a tough one. He didn’t steal something, he physically harmed another person and it was a female at that and the story reads like the girl may have feared for her life at some point. That, to me, requires a longer road to redemption than it has been. Bringing him to Auburn brings that potential to Auburn and if I was a female I wouldn’t go near him. Has there been enough time for him to have truly changed his ways and seek forgiveness? Sure there has, but there hasn’t been enough time for people to necessarily forget and welcome him if they know about it. It’s a risky move to entertain the thought of considering him as a player. I hope Bruce knows what he’s doing because if any one of our current players have witnessed domestic abuse against their mother or sister when growing up, it could be rough.