Sports sanity

There is no better sports commentator in America than Frank DeFord. His novel Casey on the Brink is the funniest baseball novel ever written, including books by Malamud and Coover. His Wednesday morning commentary on NPR is usually the highlight of my sports week.

And so this morning. DeFord, always a major critic of the NCAA, today called for all Div II and III schools, which actually have student athletes, to leave this corrupt sports cartel. Why associate themselves with the college obscenity of the Kentucky basketball team? He called on alumni to contact college presidents to this end. I love it.

In particular, Kentucky's victory in the NCAA basketball championship — all thanks to a handful of young transients barnstorming for a few months as what the NCAA calls student-athletes — has shocked casual observers of the educational sporting scene. Good grief, The New York Times was even stunned enough to feel obliged to editorialize on the matter.

Trust me: It's only 10 days since Kentucky took the title, but the NCAA is safely again where it likes to be, flying under the ethical radar, tucked away on the sports pages and in the warm embrace of ESPN.

Read or listen to the commentary.