Former Omaha Royals Up For Sale?

One year after leaving Omaha for Sarpy County, the former Omaha Royals are apparently up for sale with a potential buyer in negotiations. The World-Herald report says that it's unclear whether the buyer would partially buy out one of the three owners or the entire franchise.  Ivy Walls, led by Philadelphia businessman Bill Shea, has a managing 50% interest in the team.  The other half is split by Omaha businessmen Warren Buffett and Walter Scott.  The negotiations have gotten serious enough that the potential buyers have met with Sarpy County officials, who are on the hook for paying for the new stadium out in BFE southwest of Papillion.

What does this mean?  Well, even Martie Cordaro isn't talking about it.  But let's make a few observations about the franchise:

• Attendance went up 1% last season.  That's the smallest annual increase since Ivy Walls took over control of the team...and no where near the average 20% increase that new ball parks typically generate.
• Alan Stein, who led the Royals and pushed to build the new stadium, retired last fall.  Martie Cordaro, who's been in charge in Omaha and has built a promotion machine was named to replace him.  Would Cordaro remain with the new ownership, or would he stay with the parent organization if they sell?  Key question to think about.

What direction would the new owners take the franchise?  Same effort to promote the team?  Would they be looking to change the agreement with Sarpy County?  It doesn't sound like the new owners are thinking about moving the team, according to Sarpy County's Mark Wayne.

Is this sale because of the new ballpark?  That could be read two ways:  one, is that now that the heavy lifting of the stadium is done, the franchise is more valuable and the ownership is looking to cash in.  The other is that the meager attendance bump and lack of development around the ballpark is making the investment less valuable to the current owners.  Or is this just the natural state of affairs as business conditions evolve?

I haven't changed my opinion that the new stadium was a mistake for Sarpy County...but there's no denying that the leadership of Stein and Cordaro has revitalized the franchise.  Stein's now retired, and with new ownership a real possibility, what does that mean for Cordaro?  It's something to keep an eye on.

I'll Wait and See about New Husker Basketball Coach Tim Miles

I admit that I had Tim Miles on my second tier of candidates to replace Doc Sadler at Nebraska.  UCLA's Ben Howland was that grand-slam, how the hell did you pull THAT off candidate. It was a crazy idea, but I'll credit Tom Osborne and Marc Boehm for at least opening the conversation.  Likewise with Virginia Commonwealth's Shaka Smart, though we really don't know if Nebraska even made that call.  The other two candidates I had on my top tier were Wichita State's Gregg Marshall and Ohio's John Groce. Osborne made it clear today that no matter what kind of definition of "job offer" you use, Marshall did not receive any sort of offer. Did Lee Barfknecht get his story wrong?  I'm guessing not really.  Marshall agreed to a new contract with the Shockers today, even though Nebraska appeared to be the only other school that was talking to Marshall.  OK, so maybe Osborne (or his representatives) didn't make anything all that close to a job offer.  But I suspect that at some point in their phone conversation, a $2 million salary was brought up...and Marshall declined to pursue the job

John Groce led my "most likely" list when the search began, but Ohio's run to the Sweet 16 may have scuttled that.  I had heard that Groce was not interested in the Nebraska job, but I thought he might be someone who could be "money-whipped" into taking it.  But when Ohio took North Carolina to overtime, I finally accepted that Groce would never have accepted the Nebraska job.  With the core of this season's team returning next season, Groce will be in high demand after next season.

Should Nebraska have hired an up-and-coming assistant coach? Interesting idea, but other than Scott Spinelli, how many of those would have considered Nebraska?  Typically assistant coaches cut their teeth at a smaller school before taking on a power conference job.  (See John Groce, who left Ohio State to be in charge of Ohio.)

So Miles is the guy. I'm starting to warm up to the guy, but I can't say I wasn't disappointed.  I admit I was unrealistic in hoping for Groce to become a Husker.  So it does seem that Nebraska "settled" for Miles.  I get all of the glowing reports from Colorado and Mountain West reporters. But, to paraphrase Dan Hawkins.... "This is the Big Ten!"  Miles worked his way up from NAIA to division II to the Mountain West, but he's never worked at a major college program as an assistant.  How does he know what kind of players Nebraska needs?  How does he convince these types of players to sign with Nebraska.

I've long felt that Doc Sadler's biggest problem was in getting players who could play at the Big XII or Big Ten level. Barry Collier had a similar problem.  So going to yet-another mid-major coach would seem to be repeating the same insanity and hoping for a different result.  Miles addressed that today by suggesting that he needs assistants that are familiar with the Big Ten.  That's a positive sign.

Colorado State assistant coach Ronald "Chin" Coleman would look to be a good candidate to follow Miles to Lincoln.  Prior to joining the Rams, he was an AAU coach in Chicago for 6 years and coached four McDonalds all-Americans.  Those are connections that Nebraska hasn't had before.  Add in another assistant coach with a solid background recruiting at a power conference school, and this would alleviate my concerns. If Miles merely ends up bringing his entire CSU staff to Lincoln, I'll be sounding the alarm.

A lot of people point out that Miles has a losing record in his five years with Colorado State. Bill Doleman of the Mtn was interviewed today on KOZN-1620 AM, and put that into perspective.  The Rams lost twenty games each of the first two seasons.  Was that Miles' fault?  Take this nugget:

Really hasn't had much chance. First CSU team only had 3 schol players when camp started, Had to get APR out of 700s.

Miles had to hold open tryouts to fill out the roster, and were also hit with scholarship reductions due to the academic problems of the team.  Even so, he's gradually pulled the Rams out of the ditch and got them into the NCAA tournament with an RPI around 29 this past season.  I can't hold Miles responsible for the mess he inherited, but I can give the guy credit for rebuilding the team.

Is Tim Miles the right guy for the Nebraska job?  We won't know for a few years.  I do know he wanted the job, and he probably was the best candidate of the guys who were interested.  Should Nebraska have tried harder to convince one of those other guys to consider the job?  Sounds nice in theory, but you can't make people take a job they don't want.  The best you can hope for is that they'll reconsider.  And in this case, none of the "top tier" candidates seemed to be ready to do that.

So the job goes to Tim Miles.  We'll see where it goes from here.  The good thing about making the hire today is that Miles can go to the Final Four to fill out his staff.  When we have that, I'll have a better opinion of Miles and his potential at Nebraska.

Did Creighton Become the "Dirty Birds"? For One Game, Yes

Not sure which was worse in the aftermath of the third round NCAA tournament game between Creighton and North Carolina:  the volume and language of some Tar Heel fans, or the sanctimoniousness of the BratJay fans. Were some North Carolina fans out of line, especially on Twitter to Ethan Wragge?  Absolutely.  But Creighton fans need to own up to the fact that their Jays were thuggish at times against North Carolina.  It's really not even up for discussion; even Greg McDermott had to call Roy Williams to explain that's not the way Creighton normally plays.  And Williams later said that if McDermott hadn't called, Williams would have called anyway.


The clear evidence is on Gregory Echenique's hard shove of Tyler Zeller.  Nearly everybody who watched the replay of it agrees that Echenique should have been called for a flagrant foul.  Oh sure, Tom Shatel wrote that Zeller "took a dive to draw a charge on Echenique" in his post-game comment.  Obviously Shatel never really watched a replay of the incident before submitting his column, a fact he admitted on Monday.  (How in the heck could Zeller have drawn a charge on the play?  North Carolina had the ball and Zeller was heading towards the basket on offense.)  Let's just say this was Shatel's biggest flip-flop since the Solich-should-stay/Solich-should-go columns in 2003.

What about the other two plays?  The Grant Gibbs play on John Henson may not have been illegal, but it wasn't exactly sportsmanlike.  The wink that CBS caught was proof of the intent.  The Wragge foul on Kendall Marshall wasn't dirty in and of itself...but the other two plays set the precedent for the style of play that Creighton was exhibiting.  It clouds everybody's opinions, and when the effect was to send Marshall to the hospital, Wragge pays the price for the sins of Grant and Echenique.

Is Creighton a dirty team?  I can't answer that; other than Sunday's game against North Carolina, I haven't watched more than a few minutes of Creighton basketball since needing a technical foul to defeat the Huskers at home.  They didn't appear dirty that day, and so I have to take McDermott at his word that Creighton doesn't typically play that way.

But on Sunday, there can be no doubt:  Creighton played dirty at times against North Carolina. And just like Nebraska fans with Ndamukong Suh, Bluejay fans need to admit that their team was in the wrong on this one.

Was Hacking John Henson The Plan for Creighton?

Courtesy SBNation

While Creighton fans might not want to admit it, the game turned when Grant Gibbs hacked John Henson on his sore wrist.  After Henson was called for the technical, Gibbs winked towards the Creighton bench, which was a clear admission that Gibbs had succeeded with a deliberate strategy... and if that was the case, North Carolina's response proved that to be a dismal failure.  Before Creighton even knew what hit them, the Heels were up by double digits...and it was game over.

Frankly, I was impressed by how close Creighton kept it the rest of the way.  I expected North Carolina to name their score, and win by 30.  Which raises the question, could Creighton have pulled off the upset if they hadn't tried to take Henson out of the game?

(Footnote from the comments:  as the Tar Heels began their run, Gregory Echenique took out his frustration on North Carolina's Tyler Zeller. Wow.  CBS' Seth Davis wonders how the refs missed this one; ESPN's Doug Gottlieb and Jay Bilas concur.)

Busted Brackets & UNO Hockey Price Hike

I'll admit it... I should have known better, but I figured that this Missouri team would be different.  All the "experts" thought they could go far in the tournament. And heck, if Missouri football could ever shake off the Pinkel Factor to be rated #1 in December, Missouri basketball could make a run.  So I went ahead and ran Missouri all the way to New Orleans.  Not winning there, of course... 

So while Missouri didn't play badly Friday, it seems...they just got outplayed by Norfolk State.  So boom goes my bracket.  So did a bunch of other people that had Missouri winning the whole thing.  So I won't throw my bracket in the trash just yet...who knows what is yet to come.

I'm always amused when I hear people talk about parking around Omaha's CenturyLink Center and TD Ameritrade Park.  "There's no parking down there!"  And once again, Omaha hosts a big event downtown with a sellout crowd ... and guess what.  The parking lots around the arena never filled up completely.  It was the same situation last year during the College World Series.  Lots never filled up, much to the chagrin of lot and garage owners that wanted to charge Rosenblatt prices when the supply of parking spaces was so much higher.

Now, will parking be an issue during the last week of June when the College World Series and Olympic Swim Trials are going on simultaneously?  Yeah...but when you've got upwards of 40,000 people attending events across the street from each other, that's to be expected.  That's the perfect once-in-a-lifetime coincedence.

Josh Jones got all ball?  Yeah right.
Photo courtesy RollBamaRoll.com

Well, I was wrong about Creighton... I thought they would get spanked by Alabama, but the Tide blew an 11 point lead as well as completely botched final few seconds.  I've watched replay after replay, and I have no idea how the refs didn't call a foul on that final shot.  But Creighton found a way to win once again...and you have to give the Jays credit for that.

When I got home last night, I found a renewal packet for UNO hockey tickets for next season.  The letter starts by expressing "appreciation" for my support by offering me the opportunity to renew my tickets at "last year's prices".

Except UNO won't renew my tickets.  They've decided to discontinue the "Red Army" ticket package...and so now not only do I need to find new seats, I'll have to pay an extra $26 per seat this season.

I'm not sure why UNO chose to discontinue the Red Army package.  They claim it's to "enhance the environment"...but UNO can't really drop the Hefty bag and cover the seats in the south end of the arena.  Blue Cross/Blue Shield probably won't appreciate their scoreboard ad being hidden.  So really, it comes down to a price increase for fans on the low end.  I guess their greasing the skids for the big price hike if UNO manages to build an undersized campus facility.

That's the part of this that really disappoints me.  I've long felt that UNO could market hockey and make it a big-time event in Omaha.  I get the feeling that UNO is giving up on that plan, and rather than trying to draw more people to UNO hockey, they just want to draw more money out of UNO's existing fans.

I'm not going to make a rash decision on this, but UNO is sure making it tough to be a season ticketholder.

Creighton Fan Distracted By Tar Heels

Everywhere I turn, somebody is asking how "Creighton got screwed/hozed/wronged/etc. by the NCAA tournament committee" about the Jays #8 seed in the NCAA tournament.  "How are they supposed to get to the Sweet 16 if they have to play North Carolina in North Carolina?"

Time for a reality check:  The Jays weren't likely candidates to advance to the Sweet 16.  Not this team.  Not the one that had to keep pulling rabbits out of their hat to escape losses for most of the last month.  They've had "one-and-done" written on them most of the season.

And that's the thing: if the team is thinking about "woe us" and "North Carolina" like the fans are...well, North Carolina is the least of their worries.  They'll be home on Sunday.  Alabama might be the polar opposite of Creighton.  The Tide' best scorer is suspended, while Creighton likes to spin the scoreboard.  But there's the other side of the equation:  Alabama plays defense, while Creighton is the basketball equivalent of Kevin Cosgrove.  Well, maybe not THAT bad... but playing Creighton is a great remedy for whatever offensive woes you might have.

So what happens when a bad offense meets a bad defense?  History suggests the bad offense suddenly regains it's mojo.  (Witness Nebraska's blowout of Illinois three weeks ago...)  So Creighton had better have amnesia of what they said on Sunday night...and not even think about what could theoretically could await them this Sunday.

Let's talk for a second about the NCAA messing up the seeds.  I understand Creighton fan hoped to be seeded higher.  But the reality is that Creighton's play down the stretch earned them an eight seed. They point out Wichita State got a five, and they beat the Shockers by 7 in Wichita.  Then conveniently forget that in February, the Shockers pounded Creighton by 20 in Omaha.  Who deserves the better seed?  Wichita.  Period.  San Diego State?  Yeah, the Jays won that game... in November.  You can talk RPI and AP polls all you want, but whenever you hear the committee talk about criteria they use, those things are guidelines and they also emphasize how the team is playing at the end of the season.  And Creighton - aside from the blowout of Evansville - hasn't played well since January.

If Creighton hasn't figured out a way out of their funk in their two weeks off, and if they are still thinking about North Carolina, the Tide is going to Sabanize the Jays.  My bracket has Alabama winning this one.  If the Jays pull off the victory, I'll eat my words of course.  But for some reason, I don't think I'll be needing any ketchup Friday night.

UNO Hockey Season Ends With Six Game Losing Streak

Deep down, I wasn't surprised that UNO was swept by St. Cloud State in the first round of the playoffs. That being said, I also wouldn't have been surprised if the Mavs had swept the Huskies either. Lack of surprise shouldn't equate to lack of disappointment. It's extremely disappointing to see the Mavs finish the season on such a low note:  long losing streak, sub-.500 record, and with a whimper.

It's too easy to get dismayed to how the season ended, but there is a reason to be optimistic about the future. Let's start with the roster, which only has two seniors that, frankly, didn't play much.  Another senior, goalie John Faulkner, is actually a junior in eligibility after redshirting as a freshman.  He could be back next season, though that raises questions about the roster.  The Mavs have four goalies on this year's roster, with Mike Taffe taking a year off to play in juniors for the Lincoln Stars.  That's five.  Then Anthony Stolarz committed to play for the Mavs next season.

(Correction:  Yeti from the Lincoln Stars Blog updated me that Taffe did not make the Stars roster, and is now playing in Amarillo of the NAHL  So I'm even more skeptical that Taffe will be back in Omaha in the fall.)

Does UNO need SIX goalies next season?  Hardly.  There will be roster attrition over the summer, as there also needs to be room for incoming freshmen as well.  That's the downside of the UNO situation.  The upside is that UNO will have a wealth of experience returning next season.  This season, they just plain ran out of gas.

The final turning point in my mind was the dismissal of Alex Hudson in December.  At the time, Blais talked about shortening his bench because he didn't have depth at center.  Well, this squad ran out of gas.  Call it a character building experiment, call it whatever you want.  We didn't see as much of the racehorse style of hockey after New Years that have been the trademark of a Dean Blais squad.  And the loss of a talented player like Hudson in and of itself is a huge problem; Hudson's currently playing for Manchester in the AHL...one step short of the NHL.  Not seeing a lot of ice time, mind you...but that's where he is.

So a long offseason begins.  There's a lot of unfulfilled promise on the Mavs roster, and it's not a stretch to think that the Mavs will be a contender next season.  It just wasn't in the cards for UNO this year.

How Does the B1G Think About Tournaments?

The Big Ten Baseball Tournament is looking for a new home, and two candidates are in the Omaha area.  Each has it's own attributes that stand in stark contrast to each other, and many people look at various attributes to point out why the Big Ten would prefer one over the other.

The Omaha World-Herald's Lee Barfknecht provided a little insight on Wednesday on what the Big Ten might consider important.  Sayeth Lee:

The downtown Indianapolis area is the best ever for access for everyone to hotels, arenas, restaurants and watering holes. This town gets it.

Note the two sentences and take each individually.  Best access to hotels, arenas, restaurants, and watering holes.  Omaha has two candidates:  the Trailer Park out in BFE, which features an Embassy Suites a couple of miles away, as well as an Arbys a couple of miles to the west.  Oh, and Shadow Lake Town Center about a five minute drive east.

Or TD Ameritrade Park, which has over 1,000 hotel rooms within a five minute walk of the ballpark. Oh, and restaurants, watering holes, and the like.

Now take the second sentence.  Which ballpark "gets it"?

Hint... definitely not thinking Arby's...

Huskers and Jays Headed for One-n-Dones.

Tonight in all likelihood will be the final game in the Doc Sadler era at Nebraska.  Tom Shatel pretty much summed it up in today's Omaha World-Herald:

If Doc could ever get the players, Nebraska might have something here. Good coach, good guy, winner.

The thing is, I wasn't alone. It's not going to work out for Doc. And there are Husker fans who are sad about it. Mostly because they like Doc. When Tom Osborne speaks of Doc, the first thing he says is, "Doc is a really good guy."

But the other thing is, good guys don't last long in major college hoops. Not unless they can recruit good players.

And that's what will get Doc in the end. He never had a plan to get players. If he did, it was flawed. 

Aleks Maric was a nice player for Doc...but he was a Barry Collier (or more accurately, Scott Spinelli) guy. And really, guys like Maric as well as assistants like Spinelli were what Doc needed to have in Lincoln. You can forgive a few bumps early on due to the timing of his arrival.  But we're past that point now.  Doc owns the problem now. I've had the argument with others as to whether the players have given up on Doc. I don't think so...but he doesn't have the players to compete at this level.  Three years ago, you could blame others.  Not anymore.

So in all likelihood, tonight is Doc's last game at Nebraska barring another "what the hell was that" Illinois type of game.  They just don't have the players and play too inconsistently to expect a victory tonight in Indianapolis.  One and done.

That'll draw a guffaw from the folks on the Hilltop, but the ugly truth is staring them in the face:  Creighton is also looking at a one-and-done as well.  Oh, sure, some people (Dirk Chatelain, bwahahahaha) talk Sweet 16.  It's possible.  After all, we don't have any idea how the brackets will set up at this point.

But let's recognize that Creighton hasn't exactly been playing their best basketball the last month of the season.  They followed a three game losing streak with victories against a woeful Southern Illinois team then three nailbiters that went to the final seconds of the game.  Could have easily been losses; some might argue, should have been losses. And only one of those games was against a tournament caliber team. Oh, they got their mojo back against Evansville in St. Louis with a blowout...but that's a team they needed overtime to beat at home by a point one week earlier.  Then had to pull one out in overtime against Illinois State.

The Jays RPI and Sagarin ratings don't match their performance as of late.  Teams that do well in the tournament usually are playing well down the stretch, and the Jays aren't doing that.  A two week break might do them a world of good...but Creighton is staring a "one and done" in the face.  Again, that's a statement made in the absence of seedings and an opponent.  They could be a 7 seed and have to play a motivated #10 seed who will have seen the tape and know that the Jays can be beaten. Or the committee could pull a 4 seed out and set up a mismatch with a #13 seed.  You never know what they'll be matched up against.  It just smells like a one-and-done as well.

But right now, Creighton fans probably will be back in town in plenty of time to watch Kansas and Missouri in the third round of the NCAA tournament in Omaha.  That is, if they haven't already scalped their tickets.

Mavs Fail To Defend Home Ice Against Denver

After being swept by Denver this weekend, UNO has now lost five straight hockey games at home.  Two weeks ago, they looked to be ready to make a push for not only home ice, but perhaps even a top two seed if they could pull off a couple of sweeps.  Instead, it was the Mavs getting swept...and now they head on the road next weekend to St. Cloud State. Truth be told, I have to think that's almost a better option for UNO now; the Mavs have been a .500 team on the road this season.

Due to sick kids, I didn't get to attend last night's game.  But UNO seemed to be heading towards a 2-1 victory until Andrew Schmit was called for a hooking penalty that had UNO fans and coaches in an uproar.  Dean Blais censored himself in his post-game comments by saying that "you can't criticize officials in the WCHA."  That penalty led to the game-tying goal by Luke Salazar with :38 left in regulation.  The deflated Mavs still had a chance to claim home ice with a tie...but Daniel Doremus' goal 1:57 into overtime sent the Mavs heading for a bus trip next weekend.

Friday night's game might have been the worst UNO hockey game I've ever seen.  Certainly, UNO has been overmatched and outscored by more, but I don't think UNO has ever played worse.  Sloppy, lackadaisical passes, and seemingly unable to even clear the zone at times. UNO had three power plays in the second period and they barely could get the puck into the offensive zone each and every time.  Credit UNO fans for sticking around for the entire game and not booing, even though the performance was absolutely boo-worthy.

One player who didn't seem to take Friday night off was sophomore Matt White, who's emerged in recent weeks as a offensive force. But it's going to take much more than White to have UNO's season extend past next weekend. They'll have to win two out of three to make it to the Final Five in St. Paul.  And UNO's sub-.500 record means that the only way UNO makes it back to the NCAA tournament is with the auto-bid that comes with winning the Broadmoor Trophy in two weeks.

I keep tempering my disappointment in the end of this season by looking ahead to the future.  Dean Blais took over so late in the summer of 2009 that he's really only had two recruiting classes to bring in players suited to his style. There are only two true seniors on this roster, though goalie John Faulkner is graduating this spring and seems unlikely to return with four other goalies expected on the roster next season.  Those ten freshmen on this years roster should seem some benefit from a full offseason of conditioning to be ready to play the racehorse style of hockey Dean Blais prefers.  We haven't seen as much of that this season...but I get the ffeeling that's been out of necessity due to the circumstances of this year.

Which makes me ask the what-if question that's made wonder most of this season...just what would this season been like if the Alex Hudson from last season had been part of the team?

Feeling Snarky About Journalism in the Twitter Era

Earlier this afternoon, the word broke on Twitter that Nebraska was looking to hire Tennessee secondary coach Terry Joseph to replace Corey Raymond. First it was Pete Roussel of coachingsearch.com on Twitter, followed by reporters from the World-Herald and Lincoln Journal-Star, as well as the hosts on KOZN-1620 the Zone.  The story seemed to be falling into place pretty quickly.  Then just as I was leaving work, came a contrary word from Sam McKewon of the Omaha World-Herald:

From the Nebraska end of DB coach search, I've learned there are "half a dozen" candidates, including Terry Joseph.

And here we go again.  Shades of "Joe Paterno is dead (on Saturday night)".  "Lady Gaga is performing at the Capital One Bowl."  A story goes out on Twitter where it starts repeating as outlet after outlet merely passes on the report (sometimes without attribution to the original source), and sometimes omitting key details. And then after everybody is dead convinced the original story is fact...we then find out that the report was wrong and too many media outlets are left holding the bag.  In the rush to be first, they forgot that it's more important to be right than first.

McKewon's report seemed to squash all the furor over the hiring of Joseph.  Joseph is just a candidate?  Well, once again...people jumped the gun.  Or so I thought...and tweeted at that moment:

At least someone locally still investigates MT @swmckewonOWH I've learned there are "half a dozen" candidates, including Terry Joseph.

A little snarky?  Maybe a whole lot of snarky. Well, Kevin Kugler of 1620-AM radio saw that and felt offended, responding:

@Husker_Mike We confirmed, while actually doing a show, that Terry Joseph had received an offer. Does that count?

And you know what... it looks like my snarkiness was wrongly placed. Everything still points to Joseph being offered.  He hasn't accepted yet.  I wasn't listening to 1620, so I didn't hear Kugler or co-host Mike'l Severe say they had confirmed the offer.  And that's all it is at this point.  Nobody says that he's hired...just that an offer has been made.  And nobody has rebutted that story at this point either.

My bad.  My only defense is that the quick response and nature of Twitter leads to quick exchanges.  We shouldn't expect total accuracy in coverage of breaking news.  (Anybody remember the Darren Rovell/Richard Sandomir Twitter war last month?)  That applies outside of Twitter.  (Witness storm coverage on our local television stations, for example.)

So yeah... local media guys... looks like you are handling this one right.  This time, I was the guy who ran off half-cocked and was dead wrong.  I was the guy guilty of that which I criticize others for.

Tonight, hypocrite, thy name is Mike.