Pete Rose and Patrick Reed, because being nice is just too hard

Aug. 18—As the fall season gets under way, I think this has been the best first week weather-wise I can remember. I am sure there are some brutal days ahead but for players, fans and coaches, I say thank you for now.

On the local front, just about everyone is underway and I think the first week has produced a just a glimpse into the rest of the season. Sophomore WHS soccer player Izzy Howell opened her season with a pair of goals, while Emma Dant and Chloe Browning also look like they will be very solid offensively. Unfortunately they lost senior Sydney Melton for an extended period of time to a knee injury in her first game.

Ellie Reed of the Hatchet volleyball team is just a freshman, but also looks like she will be dominant player for the next four years. Jaylen Mullen of North Daviess has started his tennis season off to a 2-0 and it's not inconceivable he could go through the regular season unbeaten. Barr-Reeve's volleyball team opened with a win. The ranking haven't come out year, but it will be interesting to see where they are ranked in 3A. I imagine Loogootee will be highly ranked in Class A as well. The WC boys have a new coach in boys' soccer, veteran Stacy Bryant, and it didn't take long to give him his first win. There is a good chance that team could make some noise at sectional.

Although the Field of Dreams game was a week ago, I think Part 2 lost a little of the luster from last year. I still think it is a great idea and probably is a lot more interesting than the all-star game. I do think MLB missed an opportunity, as the original movie was about redemption and having Pete Rose come out of the corn would have been the ultimate redemption for his accomplishments. Although Rose is a reprehensible person, he is the all-time hits leader and 32 years is enough punishment. Just for the record, the guy who was second on that list was no great humanitarian (Ty Cobb) either. Come on MLB. The all-time home run leader (Bonds), hits leader and a seven-time Cy Young winner (Clemens) are not in the Hall. If they aren't in the Hall of Fame, then you don't have a Hall of Fame, just a gift shop with a big annex.

Rose is not a good guy and you don't have to dig far to figure that out. Even recently the Philadelphia Phillies canceled plans to honor Pete Rose, citing unspecified "recent events." In a court document made public, an adult woman provided sworn testimony that Rose had sexually abused her when she was a minor in the mid-1970s. Because of that, the Phillies destroyed the Rose bobble heads they were going to give away that day.

What makes Rose a bad guy are probably are the same thing that drove him on the field. You don't have to like him, revere him or respect him, just acknowledge his accomplishments.

The most interesting and egregious thing I've read this week is that former PGA player Patrick Reed is suing the PGA TOUR, Golf Channel and announcer Brandel Chamblee for 750M dollars for defamation of character.

Why? Is it because he is the most hated player in golf (which he is), or because he has been accused of cheating at multiple levels (which he has), is it because when he won the 2018 Masters in Augusta, he had his parents banned from the course (who actually live in Augusta) and had them kicked out of the US Open? Is it his constant criticism of the TOUR, in spite of the $32,000,000 he has made while playing on it for nine years or was his reputation so damaged, that the estimated S50,000,000 he got from joining the LIV Tour barely enough to keep the wolves at bay? I imagine that is worth three-quarter of a billion dollars due to hardship he has faced.

If you wonder why it is harder and harder to be a professional golf fan — Patrick Reed makes it very easy to understand.