WSR Gridiron Report

Nice report.

Keep the grass. Put Field Turf in at Sancet, and get rid of the (now) useless baseball stadium.

As for baseball practice, do it all a couple of miles away. They have four practice fields there. Heck, baseball might even begin to pay for itself now.

Would make sense except you play in 5-7 different stadiums every season and they don't all have the same surface.

The baseball team already practices at Hi Corbett and the surrounding annex fields.

Probably wouldn't take a reporter, just an average fan who plunks down his money for tickets.

Do we have any volunteers?

Actually, it might be good if that person had some experience in the public administration field. Hmmmm? Is there anyone around here that has those qualifications?

You made that last comment based on what he did when he was 13 months old? Sheesh

I wonder if Kozachik would accept this level of staff due diligence for a Rio Nuevo project?

This is blowing up on RR. Good lets blow him tohellout of town.

Jim

Every piece of verifiable scientific evidence has shown that R.R.'s supposed reasons for preferring Field Turf are bogus. But we are supposed to suck it up and see how it plays out? It's gonna play out hot, with continued knee injuries and him with a satisfied smile on his face because he got what he wanted. Is Jim's reaction anymore radical than RichRod's? He took a job without even having been in Tucson or on the campus. He'd never seen the turf but he wanted to replace it (Byrne has recently acknowledged that it was a point in initial job discussions). The question, in light of the studies from respected institutions like Stanford, and Penn State should be why is it so important to Rich Rodriguez? First time he talked about it he said it was the safest surface. Can't say that anymore. First Byrne was questioned, he elaborated in his weekly email and cited a study that was ambiguous at best. Now, Byrne has acknowledged the heat issue so the new spin is that we can practice on the stadium. Again, I say, bull. I remember sitting back in the stands pre-season in the 80s watching Larry Smith practice the Wildcats in the stadium at night and it was no big deal. Same when Weber was coach. It wasn't an issue with the AD because he had no grounding in our proud stadium's natural turf and the history and tradition of our turf advancement through our Ag Dept. What all of us should be concerned about is, can Greg Byrne "manage" his newest coaching rock star, or is the rock star too big and powerful for him? Go back and read the John U. Bacon book again, especially the part about West Virginia.

The absurdity is that people like you would say something like that in the face of documented evidence that it is hot and dangerous and gives us no advantage.

I would say those who want it, want it in spite of the evidence that it is both hotter and more dangerous to the players than natural grass.

I think Greg was ignorant when this thing started and had no clue about Field Turf vis a vis natural turf. That's obvious based on his early comments and citations of studies that I assume were fed to him by Rodriguez. I think his concern now is that he doesn't want to be in a position of having to say "No" to his rock star.

I will say, reading some of the posts from some of the people here that have surprised me, this whole thing is taking on the color of "Arab Spring."

Well that would certainly be enough anecdotal evidence for RichRod. BTW, I haven't said I want to run Rich out of here, but I have said I can see the writing on the wall that if he doesn't get his way he'll be gone at the first opportunity. I also see that he doesn't give a damn about finding out about local nuances; he just wants his way. He came in here like he and his West Virginia blue gummers were the pros from Dover and everybody in Tucson are hicks if you don't buy in to his system and pull his rope in his direction. He didn't know that he wanted to be a "Michigan man" until he was on the verge of getting his azz fired, then he was begging to be one. If he wants to be an Arizona man he should take stock of the local landscape, find out about the university he is now at, and at least live through one summer/fall before embarking on a direction that is going to create misery for players. The fact that he is not interested in taking sound science into consideration first bothers me a great deal.