Local Boy Does Good, Real Good

Last week former UC baseball star Kevin Youkilis officially became a big time major league star. He was rewarded for his outstanding performance with a 4 year $41 million dollar contract by the Boston Red Sox. Last year Youkilis finished third in the leagues MVP balloting. Youkilis batted .312 with 28 home runs and 115 RBI's in 2008. These numbers earned him the Hank Arron Award as the American Leagues best offensive player. It wasn't long ago that he was here in Clifton living on a college kids budget. His former head coach Brian Cleary could not be prouder the Cincinnati native.

Kevin was recently named to the World Baseball Classic preliminary roster to represent the USA. The final 28 man roster must be set by February 24th. Play for the United States begins March 7 in Toronto.

Bearcat Sports Page.com will have Coach Cleary's comments about the upcoming season early next week. Play for the Bearcats begins in Florida at the Big East/Big Ten Challenge where UC will go up against Purdue, Michigan and Ohio State the weekend of February 20.

Willy And Youk

Early Saturday morning the final buses rolled on to campus and unloaded the students and the band.  The 2009 Orange Bowl is now history.  Now how long will the "analysis" last?  Questions will be asked and debated, but in the end it's still a 20-7 loss.  

We agree, certain adjustments could have changed the game.  For example, we saw WLW superstar Bill Cunningham wearing a "Taco Bell" hat (see picture for hat) early in the game when UC was winning.  Why did he take it off?  Was that the Bearcats "mojo"?  Another question worth raising.  Former Bearcat and current Boston Red Sox star Kevin Youkilis was in the stands cheering on his Cats.  Wasn't Kevin at the UCONN game?  Did he see only two games this year....both losses?  We hope Kevin snuck in a win,  other wise is he a bad luck charm?   

So next year when the Bearcats return to a BCS game it doesn't' matter if they stay with P Diddy at the Ritz or if Tony Pike runs on 2nd down.  It will again come down to if "Willy" can keep the Taco Hat on for the entire game and if Kevin can get a Bearcat win under his belt during the season.