Thanks for your response....

Posted on: August 5, 2016 at 21:46:35 CT

But I couldn't disagree with you more, on so many levels. First I admire your candor, and your thoughtful responses. I sense that you and I are very much alike in our passion for the softball program. I can tell you care about it every much as I do. I just wonder how we can come to such very different conclusions. I'm glad that you admit you could very easily be incorrect in your conclusions, and you know nothing for certain. Frankly, neither do I. I'm a softball fanatic, both on the local level for Mizzou and on the national level, and don't have to prove that to anyone here. And I'm not close to the program in any kind of insider way, I just read a lot and talk to people who share my interests. I've never witnessed a Mizzou practice, and know nothing about what EE has said to any player at any point in time. I suspect you haven't either. So neither of us has any personal, first hand knowledge of the interactions EE has with his players.

Full disclosure, I am no knee jerk supporter of everything about EE. He is a flawed person and coach, as many great coaching successes are. I think he is one of the best softball coaches in the country, and largely misunderstood, and in some cases, vilified unjustly by the larger national softball community. But I have not been hesitant to criticize him before, from his stubborn insistence on starting the season a week later than everyone else, to his removing mention of transferring players in a matter of minutes from the schools rosters, to his awful, juvenile behavior in the email exchanges with the Mo State coach. He has seemed incapable of understanding that his personal behavior brings ridicule and disrespect not just to him personally but to Mizzou as an institution.

But you make some really nasty, and I mean nasty, allegations about him. Without apparently any first hand knowledge. Overworking players to dangerous (health) levels. Forcing players back from injury before being medically appropriate. Restricting players diets to extreme levels, leading to some players developing eating disorders. Those are serious accusations.

When I hear allegations like these, what strikes me is how stark the contrast is with the caricature you present of a truly awful person (if those things are true) and the support he has from the vast majority of current and former players. How do you account for that? How do you account for players like Emily Crane and Amanda Sanchez?

Crane is one of the 5 best Mizzou softball players of all time. But set aside her accomplishments on the field. She also impressed all Mizzou fans as are really well rounded, good person. Her parents must be so proud of her. She was an integral part of this program for 4 years. Attended every practice, every meeting. And despite the awful, nasty conclusions you have shared here, she thinks he is an amazing coach, and would run through a wall for him. How do you explain that? Her testimony, and that of so many other current and former players of similar reputation, from Chelsea Thomas to Ashley Fleming to Rhea Taylor to Sami Fagan, creates a huge paradox for Mizzou fans to deal with when they hear allegations and conclusions like you made.

Sanchez should be the poster child for your accusations about weight and diet. Did EE encourage her to lose weight after her freshman season or risk losing her starting position at 3B? Absolutely. She didn't have the range to continue there. She lost weight, locked down the 3B position as a sophomore, started every game there, and improved her hitting from .347 to .354, even while having a power drop off from 14 HRs to 6, and 56 RBI to 42. Yet she is one of the most outspoken supporters of EE; her, Rathburn, and Baumgartner have been the strongest supporters of EE among the returning players during the investigation. Is she wrong too? Covering up for EE? Sitting silently aside, like Emily Crane, as EE commits these horrible abuses of other players? As they watch it happen? Really? Is that what you believe?

I dont doubt your support for Mizzou softball. I just couldn't disagree more with your opinions and conclusions.

How do you account for Chelsea, Ashley, Rhea, Emily, Sami, Amanda, Danielle, and countless others? How do you reconcile their first hand experiences in the program with your 'opinions and conclusions'? To believe you, means accepting that these good persons who know far more than you do are lying and giving a blind eye towards a person committing serious abuses in the softball program, far beyond a series of f bombs. I believe them, frankly. Not you.

Edited by bluetiger_ at 06:13:39 on 08/06/16