Date: 04 June et seq. 2010
To: www.Alumnishockerblackandgolds.com
Political Snippets # 60
The Wichita Eagle’s designated hitter and sleuth-hound scribbler bagger, Bob Lutz, is at it again. Lutz doesn’t normally cover the WSU baseball team, that’s Paul Suellentrop’s beat and job, except when the Eagle want’s to bag on the shocks, then their designated bagger scribbler is appointed for the hit job to plead a particular theme and case; or, in the alternative, Lutz is just so juiced to bag on the shocks, that he just gets the bit in his teeth and claims jurisdiction. But with his Jihad opinion, in reality a political opinion, Lutz has crossed over and escalated from simply sports commentary about the game, into the realm of politics. [As such, this Lutz snippet is going up under the Political Snippet section of our web site, not under the usual Bear Bones section for Lutz.] And, make no mistake, the clear theme of Lutz’s hit piece was:
“Yet the question persists, and sometimes it’s not even a question. It’s a statement, something like this: ‘Gene needs to go.’ “
Pleading a political decision that “Gene needs to go”, as if WSU fans were clamouring for it, when it’s just Lutz who apparently likes the power of trying to damage someone else’s life with his 55 gallon barrels of ink, and the Eagle’s 90,000 circulation [albeit dwindling, in part as a result of hit job articles like Lutz’s]. But there is no sooth to this scribbling soothsayer’s profane prayer for a self fulfilling prophecy. 41 wins isn’t enough for Lutz, it’s time to with relish kick the dog again when he is down, from no apparent fault of his own, from his normal NCAA tournament trips. Snow and bad weather cancelled Division I games that could only be replaced with Division II games; this years position players and pitcher injuries; only partial recovery of last year pitcher injuries; and critical mental mistakes by a relied upon starting senior position player; are not the fault of the coaching staff in general, or Gene Stephenson in particular. But notwithstanding, Lutz’s can’t wait to publicly relish his opinion that Gene ought to retire or otherwise be fired, as Lutz contends: “some fans are restless”. How would Lutz know, he comes to very few games, and when he does he gets a free pass and sets in the sky box media room, much to the chagrin of the fans that he should be given free passes to the games.
As I have previously noted:
“He revels at ever opportunity to swarm down upon the Shocks like carrion crows, particularly baseball or basketball. When it comes to sports, Lutz avoids bagging on KU at ever opportunity, no matter how justified. It would gravel him. It would eat at his soul to bag on the Hawks.”
Prediction here: Lutz will be writing about his much favored KU Hawks [upon which he never bags, even for any justified reason], for the Lawrence KU Journal World; years before Gene determines to retire.
Every time I go to the ball park these days, I get this question: Think Lutz will retire soon? But he has a plush job with even no hard work of thinking, gets to go to sports events free, courtesy of the folks he is bagging on [except for his frequent pilgrimages to KU that is, where he gets free hors d’oeuvres and cocktails], and only has to push a pencil for his opinion, while mostly sitting on his generous behind. Yet the question persists, and sometimes it’s not even a question. It’s a statement, something like this: “Lutz needs to go.”
The Eagle once had a sports writer named Joe Gilmartin, as I recall his name, who wrote a similar Lutz piece that Coach Ralph Miller should be fired, for the unpardonable sin of having lost by a point in overtime to Bradley, after being up about 18 points at half time, as I remember. What Gilmartin failed to acknowledge was that Bradley had a couple of All-Americans, later NBA players, Chet the Jet Walker, and Bobbie Joe Mason, and WSU was only substantially ahead at half time, because of being extremely hot, and Bradley was extreme cold the first half; which basketball fans expected could not continue in the second half at the same level. Sure enough, Walker and Bobbie Joe Mason got just as hot the second half as WSU had been the first half, and Bradley tied the game at the end of the game, and won in overtime. But a second reason for the loss was that we had a 6'3" or so guard who’s named was maybe Johnnie Taylor, as near as I can recall, its been about 50 years now, who was about a 6th or 7th man on the team, who made an egregious mental mistake that cost us a chance to win the game in regulation. With the game tied and about 10 seconds to go, WSU had the ball and Miller called time out to set up the last shot. When the time out was over, the ball was thrown in to Johnnie Taylor who was way outside of what would now be the three point line. Johnnie stood there and held the ball as no one from Bradley came out to pick him up, and the time kept ticking off the clock. The crowd got nervus and murmuring started as the clock ticked down to 5 seconds, and still Johnnie stood there like a statue and held the ball as if waiting for someone from Bradley to come guard him. By about 3 seconds left, the crowd was screaming “shoot the ball, shoot the ball”, Miller, the other WSU coaches and the entire team were up on the sideline screaming “shoot the ball, shoot the ball”. With about 1 second to go Johnnie finally got the message, jumped in the air and literarily threw the ball from about 30 feet, at the basket with no chance to go in. The buzzer went off and we went into overtime sure to lose after such a bonehead mental mistake. It turned out that Johnnie’s problem was that he thought that WSU was ahead by one point and not tied, so he was just going to run out the clock. He apparently was the only one in the round house who thought WSU was ahead by one. And for the unpardonable sin of having lost that game to a team with a couple of All-Americans we knew would be difficult to beat, Joe Gilmartin scribbled his brain dead view that Miller should be fired because the team was up by 18 at the end of the first half, and never should have been tied by Bradley at the end of the game. Was it Ralph Miller’s fault that Bradley had a quality team with two All-Americans destine to play NBA pro ball for years? Not hardly. Was it Ralph Miller’s fault that Johnnie Taylor got brain damage and didn’t know what the score was? No. Was it Ralph Miller’s fault that he called a time out and set up a play that Johnnie Taylor failed to execute? Not hardly. But Miller did correct the problem, by inviting Johnnie Taylor to transfer, and he did transfer to Friends for the next year. Within 6 months, Gilmartin was ran out of town, although he managed to make it without being tarred and feathered.
Well says Lutz, WSU lost to Illinois State in the Missouri Valley Conference championship game by 17-8. And by that singular process and game, WSU did not get the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. In the first inning, Illinois State scored two runs after Will Baez throwing error failed to get the out, allowing the runner to safely reach first. A subsequent batter when the inning should have been over, then hit a cheap home run with the wind down the line just over the wall at the 330 foot mark. Was it Gene Stephenson’s fault Will Baez threw the ball wide of a 6'8" long armed Johnnie Coy. Not hardly. WSU then came back in the top of the second inning scoring 5 runs and taking a 3 run lead. But incredibly, Will Baez made two more throwing errors, and another failure to timely cover 1st base on a bunt, in the bottom of the second inning, resulting in Illinois State scoring 5 runs, and again taking a 2 run lead. So, Will Baez makes 3 mental and physical errors and one failure to cover 1st base, that although not given an error, was in fact an egregious mental error; resulting in giving up 7 runs in two innings; and effectively took Cooper and WSU out of the game. Was it Cooper’s fault. No way. Was it Gene Stephenson’s fault? Not hardly. It was in this writers opinion precisely Will Baez’s mental and physical errors that took the game out of Cooper’s hands, and that totally changed the momentum of the game and essentially gave the game to Illinois State. Had Cooper got through the first two innings with normal defense and settled in, he might have well carried the team into the seventh or eighth inning with a 5 run lead. The loss goes to WSU, but in truth, it was a Will Baez loss pure and simple to this baseball fan’s considered opinion.
As a long time WSU baseball fan who attends most games, and is acquainted with other such WSU baseball fans, some of who even attend most of the WSU road games, if there was some kind of faction of WSU baseball fans clamouring for Gene to retire or be fired, I believe we would have at least heard of it. To my knowledge, no such clamouring exists. But everywhere Lutz goes he gets the statement “Gene needs to go.” In short, the substance has to be simply that what you see is the classic scribbler who hasn’t got the backbone to make his opinion, his opinion; so he uses the clever technique: “some say”; or “I get this question”; or “the question persists”; or “sources say”; or “authorities, who commented on the condition of remaining anonymous, say: ... ”; etc, etc, ad nauseam.
There is a Class 5 Tornado on the loose in Lawrence that will end up – predicted here – in the forced retirement or firing of KU athletic director Lew Perkins; and the Eagle’s designated bagger sleuth-hound Bob Lutz comments upon the potential forced retirement or firing of Lew Perkins, are nowhere to be found; but instead Lutz is hot on the trail of his personal Jihad fictitious self made issue of the retirement or firing of Gene Stephenson. As I say, Lutz will be writing for his Lawrence KU Journal World years before Gene retires. Gene could well coach WSU for another 10 or 15 years, before he decides to retire, and deservingly so. Perkins on the other hand is in deep trouble, and for apparent egregious ethics if not criminal violations. The facts indicate on reason and balance, that Perkins received a free loan of $15,000 to $35,000 worth of exercise equipment for his home in exchange for KU men’s basketball tickets, and when the massive KU ticket scalping scam in KU’s athletic department became public knowledge, Perkins instantly realized his personal involvement and knowledge of at least his portion of the scam and procedure, and decided his previous agreement and arrangement wasn’t a quid pro quo at all, but that 5 months after the fact, it was a loan of equipment, and he then required his $5,000 “back rental payment” to be accepted by one of the owners of Medical Outfitters, then having went through bankruptcy, with LSI International Inc. as the purchaser of the Medical Outfitters assets out of bankruptcy. Perkins also apparently required Dent, a former athletic department employee, to take physical possession of the exercise equipment; with Dent ultimately demanding a payment for storage; and Perkins ultimately alleging blackmail in that Dent threatened to go public with the story if Perkins didn’t pay him for the storage of the exercise equipment.
In the first instance, if you rent most anything, normal business practice is you have to make at least a payment up front; not wait 5 months while using the equipment, get into a bind apparently ethically and perhaps criminally, and then try to unilaterally convert a free loan quid pro quo for basketball tickets agreement, premium or otherwise; ex post facto into a rental agreement, force a “back rental payment”, and force possession of the equipment onto an involved 3ed party.
In the second instance, if the equipment was in fact “rental equipment”, then it was still the property of Medical Outfitters and should have been listed as part of the assets of Medical Outfitters in its bankruptcy estate. Withholding and not listing assets from a bankruptcy assets filing certified to under oath, would subject the officers of Medical Outfitters responsible for the bankruptcy filing and certification to federal criminal bankruptcy laws. In all likelihood the responsible officers of Medical Outfitters, probably the owners Mark Glass and Patrick Carpenter, would not subject themselves to such potential criminal liability. And there is no doubt they would sign the filings and certification with full knowledge of their legal responsibility to list all the assets of the bankruptcy estate of their corporation. In reason, it would therefore appear that Mark Glass and Patrick Carpenter considered they gave the exercise equipment to Perkins in exchange for and as a quid pro quo for the KU basketball tickets, so that the exercise equipment was not considered owned by Medical Outfitters at the time of its bankruptcy. If so, Perkins illegally transferred KU basketball ticket property in exchange for his own exercise equipment personal property, and took possession of such property for some 5 months.
In the third instance, Perkins is reported to receive a salary of $900,000 a year, a portion of which is paid from state funds. [By the way, I would venture to guess that no state funds pay any portion of any athletic salary at WSU. Why is it do you suspect KU is apparently treated differently?] With $900,000 a year salary, Perkins could have easily bought the $15,000 to $35,000 worth of exercise equipment, or if it was in fact a rental, otherwise paid the rental fee, not wait 5 months and then unilaterally determine the amount of rental, and require a “back rental payment.”
Given the continual egregious bagging on WSU at every slightest opportunity, some fans suspect [as Lutz would say – read myself]: that somewhere in the distant past of Lutz’s academic career, some WSU professor gave Lutz a “D” in English Composition, and he has been on a get even with them Jihad ever since. Who knows, but his continual exhibited relish of bagging on WSU has no apparent justification and has to have some rational basis in fact somewhere.
The KU ticket scam situation is a major story of national importance. The related intertwined Perkins story is a big time story in and of its self. For Lutz to contrive a local non-story personal political opinion, to sleuth-hound pick out Gene Stephenson to bag on and allege he should retire or be fired; while at the same time being quiet as a church mouse about a significant national story and related issue of whether or not Lew Perkins should resign, be fired, and/or be otherwise ethically of criminally prosecuted; says more about a predisposed bias bigoted protective KU sycophant apologist mind set; than it does even about the lack of comparative substance of the two circumstances.
If it looks like a skunk, has stripes and smells like a skunk, it probably is a skunk. And just to be safe, if you want to be seen as an equal opportunity bagger, you need to shoot the skunk before you get sprayed. But poor Lutz, he has already been sprayed by his own pet skunk.
Sincerely submitted,
By: Fred Marrs
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