HOW I BECAME A BASEBALL FAN: A 1990s Cubbie Story

It's almost that time again!
(photo courtesy of Ed Mancia)

Felipe M

Part II of the story can be read here.

Something that was brought to my attention back in January when I was listening to The Score where they mentioned that 40% of the Chicago Cubs’ home attendance at Wrigley Field comes from out-of-town tourists.  After doing a quick search on the subject, the number is more like 37% although that figure is from 2011.  Regardless of the year, it’s highly doubtful that the figure dramatically changed in 2012.  So let’s just say that 35% of the Cubs’ home attendance is composed of tourists.  As far back as I can remember, Cubs’ fans have been citing larger home attendance figures to prove their fandom’s superiority in the city of Chicago (more on the “other” team later).  But this figure proves, once again, that the Cubs are more of a tourist attraction than a real, legit, professional team (although, I’m fully aware that things are changing rapidly). 

However, I’m not here to jump on the Cubs and beat them over the head.  That’s too easy.  No, this piece is a bit more personal than petty squabbles regarding the stupid cold war that Chicago baseball fans are enamored with (and the escalated violence that might occur from such squabbles). 

I have been a Cubs’ fan since 1992 and I was part of a generation of children who ran home after school to catch the last few innings of a typical, Cubs’ day game on WGN.

Having immigrant parents, baseball was a very exotic sport—at least in my household.  Not only that, it was quasi-prohibited, but as soon as I took an interest in being a spectator, it was tolerated, but not fully embraced.  So growing up, I learned the game from Harry Caray and Steve Stone. Obviously, Caray was one of my favorite baseball broadcasters of all time and hold very high reverence towards Stone.  I think the man is a baseball genius.  “Stoney” is still the best at predicting the outcomes of at bats and does so on a regular basis that one almost takes it for granted.

As big as a homer Caray was, he spoke his mind and often after drinking a few beers.  Heated baseball discussions and arguments were common between Caray and Stone, the biggest one involved Caray playing the role of “mythbuster” whenever Stone brought up the importance of pitching.  Stone, like 85%+ of baseball fans, experts, and personnel, believed in the old adage that “good pitching always beats good hitting.”  Caray, on the other hand, only believed in that notion when it was actually working and whenever he felt like it, Caray would bait Stone into arguing with him, on air, about why “good pitching” was highly overrated and why it was just as important to have a great offense as well.  “Look at the Atlanta Braves,” Caray once pointed out during a Cubs’ telecast in the mid 1990s, “despite all of the pitching talent, they have zero championships to show for it!” 

Caray would be the same guy who would “root, root for the Cubbies,” during the 7^th inning stretch and would rally the team to “get some runs!”  Nevertheless, when the team was going bad, he'd let the TV audience know about it.  When a player was not performing up to par, Caray was usually the loudest critic.  He didn’t care if it was Greg Maddux or Bob Scanlan, if the pitcher was not recording outs, Caray would be critical of the player (which would explain why I really didn't like Maddux the first few times I watched him on TV). 

Fergie Jenkins was also the pitching coach
during this era of Cubs' baseball.
(photo courtesy of Ed Mancia)

Or when Cubs’ fans acted like idiots (which happened a lot), Caray was the first one to call them out.  He loved the camera shots of bikini-clad, female Cubs’ fans in the stands, but when Cubs fans were wrong, he made sure everybody knew about it, TV ratings and home attendance be damned!  

One instance of this occurred, circa 1993, at a Cubs’ home game.  Defensive stalwart, Rey Sanchez, the Cubs’ starting shortstop at the time, came up to bat.  After the PA announced his name to the crowd for his first at bat of the game, he received a smattering of boos from the home crowd.  

Caray was livid.  “Boo?” Caray asked to no one in particular, “How are you going to ‘boo’ a guy who’s hitting well above .300?  That’s not a player that the fans should be booing.  If anything, they should be cheering for Rey.  He’s a slick, defensive shortstop who is hitting the ball well.  He should not be booed.  Shame on these fans for doing so.”  I’m mostly paraphrasing (he might have mentioned how much of a handsome, young man Sanchez was as well), but one thing Caray did not like was ignorant baseball fans. 

It is because of Caray and Stone that I was able to pick up the game of baseball rather quickly and instantly fell in love with the game.  I will always appreciate the duo for helping me gravitate towards the game and a lot of the pathos that I have for the game currently, comes from them.  They are part of my “baseball foundation,” so to speak.

Unfortunately, being a Cubs’ fan can be one of the most heartbreaking, frustrating, discouraging, and insane thing one can be in this country.  I grew up reading a lot about the New York Yankees in grade school and could've easily been a Yankee fan for life.  Technically, I was offered a clean slate as no one else in my family liked baseball.  I wouldn't have to face the grief from disappointing family members or friends. 

Alas, due to arbitrary loyalty to the city that I live in, I naturally became a Cubs’ fan.  For those that don’t understand what it’s like to root for a team that since the day I was born, up until I became a fan in 1992, had 3 combined playoff wins, it’s like this: it’s like Married…with Children and how Al Bundy really doesn't care about Peggy Bundy, and it’s doubtful if he even really loves his wife, but due to a common bond, history, and loyalty to Peggy, Al risks his neck and constantly swallows his pride for his wife.  He does it because he feels it’s his duty in doing so, but more often than not, he does it out of pure instinct as well.  Like he involuntarily protects and defends the honor of his less than spectacular wife and kids for no other reason than the simple fact that there’s a mechanism inside his head that tells him to unhesitantly do so.  That’s basically what it’s like to be a Cubs’ fan: I’m Al Bundy and the Cubs are my Peggy and my kids.

Let’s Rock!

The Hawk!
(photo courtesy of Ed Mancia)

I grew up watching players like:

• Mark Grace
• Ryne Sandberg
• Andre Dawson
• Greg Maddux
• Paul Assenmacher
• Bob Scanlan
• Kal Daniels
• Sammy Sosa (he was my favorite player almost instantly when he was acquired in 1993 despite being a bonehead on the field and on the bases...and off the field...)
• Derrick May
• Mike Morgan
• Randy Myers
• Bob Patterson
• Kevin Foster
• Mike Harkey
• Steve Buechele
• Rick Wilkins
• Doug Dascenzo
• Luis Gonzalez
• Jose Guzman

The list can go on forever!

Unfortunately, the losing was damn near unbearable.  As mentioned before, I grew up reading a lot about the Yankees and there was one common theme in that franchise's history: they're always winning!  So when my mom bought me a Cubs' Almanac at a dollar store, it was interesting to see how successful the team was in the first half of the 20th century, but how sour and terrible the team got after 1945.  I remember how sick to my stomach I was after reading blunder, after blunder, after blunder....

Eventually, however, the losing finally go to me...  The false sense of hope finally got to me… The digging through a tunnel and finally see a light at the end of it…only to find out that it was a train coming my way to crush me finally go to me…the history of losing… the bad trades…not being real players in the free agent market…refusing to re-sign good players…the bad draft picks…the terrible farm system…all of this finally got to me. 

1997, after 5 seasons of being a Cubs’ fan, I finally had enough! So what happened?

Part II of the story will be available soon.

To read the rest of our MLB content, click here. 

SUPER BOWL PARTY SCENARIOS

Super Bowl Party!
(photo courtesy of Ed Mancia)

Donny R

Felipe M

Dan Bernstein’s wrote an advice column on watching the Super Bowl, where he essentially warns you to not attend any party whatsoever as people tend to ruin the experience of the NFL Championship Game.  Donny Rodriguez and Felipe M, on the other hand, warns readers to know beforehand what exactly to expect at these Super Bowl parties and what you can do to make best of the following situations.  

Scenario #1:  You know someone at the party you will be attending, usually a girl, will make a point to say, “I only watch the Super Bowl for the commercials.”  Your friend’s fiancée will reply, “I know!  Me too!”  And they will go on and on swapping stories about the commercials from past years and how they went online and already had a sneak peek at some of the more, marquee advertisements.  And as they discover that they both have so much in common in terms of their knowledge of Super Bowl commercials, their chatter volume will grow louder and higher to almost unbearable shrieking levels and constant responses of “Oh my God, right?  Like, me too!” 

Best Possible Move: You and your buddy will both despondently glance at each other and take a swig of your brew of choice.  If you’re hoping that more people who want to talk football come and rescue you, you will be disappointed as women usually dominate these parties.  If anything, more women who have not watched a single game all season long will join in the Super Bowl commercial conversation, which ultimately leads to Halftime Show performances where about 5 minutes will be devoted to Beyonce and the rest of the night, they will be singing the praises of Brittney Spears and Madonna’s legendary performances at this event.  Hope this party has plenty of your favorite beer.  I feel sorry if you’re stuck drinking Light beers.

Let me guess?  They have nothing, but Lite Beer
at this party, huh?
(photo courtesy of Gabe Ponce)

Scenario #2: Guess what?  The group of people who have talked up a storm about the commercials and Halftime Shows are also waiting on the Puppy Bowl. If you arrived early because you did not want to miss the pregame narratives on how Ray Lewis benefitted from ‘deer antler' spray pills (oxymoron?) to grow into a beautiful mammal, you’re out of luck because these people want to watch a different kind of animal—puppies!  So guess what you’ll be watching instead of #52’s great fight from morphing into a woodland creature? 

Best Possible Move: Just watch the Puppy Bowl and continue to drink your light beer.  16 of those will get you drunk enough to loosen you up and somewhat enjoy the casual fans’ dominating presence.  Just don’t get too drunk that you actually forget to tell someone to flip it to the damn game.  Besides, can you really endure 1-2 hours of “deer antler” references?

Scenario #3: As you start watching some of these new commercials, in your drunken stupor, no less, you are probably mildly exacerbated and indignant.  You’re feeling that you are marching towards a belligerent state.  You can’t get there quick enough because, again, you’re drinking nothing, but light beers.  You’ll probably start thinking to yourself:

“these advertisers lack so much creativity.  They’re literally just parrots, echoing what we all say and think is funny or cool.  ‘Oh wow, here’s a commercial with someone getting tackled;  oooohhhh, here’s one where an animal is talking; here’s one where a former celebrity attempts to resuscitate his/her career; Nuh-huh, this one stars a black guy you’ve never seen in real life outside of Wicker Park.  Sort of like this guy’”:

Best Possible Move: Just remind yourself that if you wanted to help in producing these commercials, you would have majored in Business/Marketing/Advertising instead of earning your phony, Liberal Arts degree from Gudger College.  Just remind yourself to breathe and keep drinking your light beer.  After 1 hour of pregame ceremonies and a 6 minute rendition of the National Anthem, they will eventually begin the coin toss.  Look at the bright side: you’re only an hour away from a 50/50 chance of winning a prop bet. 

Hello, Donny?  Some of us are still living
that fantasy football season.
(photo courtesy of Felipe M.)

Scenario #4: You finally made it to your 12^th lite beer (a whole case?  Congratulations!) and you finally got a good buzz going.  Unfortunately, the game is a snooze-fest as both teams are playing ridiculously conservative and both quarterbacks are proving to be more inaccurate than an unclean AK-47.  Heck, even that girl who was irritating you with all her talk of commercials is starting to look kind of cute.  And she even seems sort of cool too.  So what if she doesn't care about the Super Bowl?  Your fantasy football season has been over for six weeks and you could care less which slot receiver caught the ball (Was it Anquan Crabtree or Jacoby Ginn Jr.?).  You have no rooting interest and you have no shot at winning any squares.  Maybe, just maybe, you too don’t care about the game, just like the girl whose only interest is the glitzy commercials.  

Best Possible Move: Hello?  There’s only one move to pull here.  During—err, scratch that—before halftime, you might want to start calling her out about her “unnatural obsession” with these ads.  While you’re at it, give her the business about the Puppy Bowl and the upcoming Beyonce, lip-synching extravaganza that should start in about—hmmm, let’s see, they’re in the 2 minute warning—1 hour or so.  Why pick on her like an elementary schoolchild?  Nonsense!  This is the 21^st century, guy!  If there’s a better way to flirt with someone of the opposite sex, I would love to hear all about it…

Scenario #5: I guess at this point, we should probably mention something about the game.  You’re probably nearing your 20^th lite beer of the evening, but with all the food available to you, the beer is having no effect on you.  It’s like your drinking water at this point.  That means you should be coherent enough to pay attention to the game.  You’ll see the following events occur in this game:

• Ray Rice has just as many receiving yards as rushing yards.
• Randy Moss proves he’s the “best Wide Receiver in the game” by making two catches on three targets for 24 yards.
• The 4^th quarter comes down to the final drive, but you are apathetic at this juncture of the game.

Why?  Well, the Super Bowl, unless your hometown team is participating, is just a time to get together with those you hold dear and watch football for the last time until September.  It’s like Christmas or Thanksgiving, but without the awkwardness that only certain family members bring: because you can actually be more selective in terms of whom you want to see at the Super Bowl party.  You’re not forced to tolerate anyone at these festivities.  Ok, you do have to tolerate the game and the players who constantly point to the sky as if divine intervention stepped in and helped them win the football game.  Just one more drive is holding you back from putting this God-forsaken season in the books and getting out of this party so you can drive home and go to sleep because you have to get ready for work on Monday.

Best Possible Move: Again, remember to breathe, and as the game dwindles down, start game-planning how you’re going to plan your goodbyes.  Try to time your exit to sync up with that one girl who likes the commercials.  You probably have a good shot at getting her phone number.  Who knows, you might go to a sports bar next Friday where both of you are sipping your drinks rather bunglingly for an hour as both of you stare at the establishment’s flat screen.  And in between conversations, both of you will watch the commercials and you will think to yourself, “I’m really glad I went to that Super Bowl party.”

Check out Donny Rodriguez's Chicago Bulls Mid-Season Review.

More NFL content is always available, here. 

KOBE, MJ, and TWITTER: A Weird Mix

Outside of the United Center where Michael Jordan is permanently
dunking over people.
(photo courtesy of Ed Mancia)

Felipe M

We asked our sports' panel about live tweeting.  Here are their thoughts.

Kobe Bryant was live-tweeting his 81-point performance which was re-aired last week on NBA TV. Which sports’ figure, past or present, would you like to see live tweet their paramount, career event?

Here’s what the panel wrote:

• “Keeping it current, I would love to have Raul Ibanez live tweet his game tying HR & Walk-off HR against the Baltimore Orioles in the 2012 ALDS.”—C. McLain
• “Marshawn Lynch—“Beast Mode” against the New Orleans Saints in the playoffs.”—Dan P
• “Araon Rodgers’ 2010 Super Bowl run.”—Johnny J
• “I would love to have seen Michael Jordan live tweeting about the D.C. Wizards at MSG vs the New York Knicks on March 9 2003. A 39 year-old Jordan scored 39 points in 43 minutes of action.  The Wiz were battling for a playoff spot in Jordan's final year. He out-played the combined effort of everyone in that game.  I watched this game while it was happening on NBC, MJ wanted to win the game so bad, but Latrell Spreewell & the Knicks ended up winning.  The most impressive effort I have watched during a basketball game.”—Donny R

Very interesting choices and Dan's choice is one of the funniest videos out there.  Is it racist?  That's for Daniel Tosh to decide.  

I had a hard time coming up with one event I would have liked to have seen be live-tweeted.  So I will share five instead:

• Michael Jordan playing with the flu at Utah in the NBA Finals.
• Kerry Wood’s 20 strikeout game.
• Peyton Manning and Ray Lewis playing a game of chess… or at least live-tweeting the last game they will every play against each other. 
• Patrick Kane live-tweeting the game-winning goal to clinch the Stanley Cup Championship for the Chicago Blackhawks.  Also, live-tweeting how he celebrated afterwards would be just as, if not more, interesting.
• And staying in the NHL, the greatest hockey game I have ever watched was on March 26, 1997 between the Colorado Avalanche and the Detroit Red Wings.  Not a fan of the goonery, but one can’t deny the raw emotion and the venom that was spewed throughout this hockey game.  Just figuring out who would be best qualified to do a live-tweet is proving to be difficult.  Do we go with the captains, Joe Sakic and Steve Yzerman? Or do we ask guys like Kris Draper  and/or Darren McCarty to give us their take while countering with Claude Lemieux for the Avalanche?  How about the goalies, Patrick Roy and Mike Vernon who most likely had the best, on-ice view of the whole scene before they got involved with the fighting?  What about the coaches?  So many potential candidates.   

Speaking of Kobe, the Los Angeles Lakers, fan or hater question: how happy/mad are you about their season so far?

The Lakers are so bad, that even "die-hard" superfan,
Jack Nicholson is leaving games early and getting
ready for baseball.
(Source: Mike McCann, Field of Fotos)

No one has gotten more glee out of the Lakers’ struggles this season than me.  I’m a Laker-hater and thinking about them literally makes my blood boil.  Yes, Kobe Bryant has back-to-back games of 14 assists, but with all that talent, it is an absolute joke that they’re not living up to the hype.  With that being said, let’s see what everybody else thinks of the Lake Show this season.

“I’m mad!  I wanted to see some competitiveness in the playoffs. It won't be as intense if Kobe's not in it.”—Johnny J

I think these playoffs will be more competitive than ever.  It is almost near unpredictable to forecast what will happen tomorrow in the NBA, let alone what will happen in the playoffs.  One thing is for sure, however, and that is that come playoff time, the stakes are raised a bit higher and the games get more intense.  Besides, there’s plenty of storylines in the NBA outside of Kobe and the Lakers.  The playoffs will be fine.

• “They were purple and bold, but now about to fold--in 2013.”-- Dan P
• “Hater and happy because, like in actual chemistry, when you mix elements that don’t sit well with each other, the whole experiment explodes.”-- C. McLain
• “If I cared any less, it'd still be too much.”-- Donny R

So the panel was harsh on the Lakers and rightfully so.  It was reported by David Schuster on WSCR THE SCORE 670AM that Kobe was still sitting an hour-and-a-half after the game against the Chicago Bulls by his locker stall, just pondering and trying to figure out what to do with the Lakers.  We give it up to Kobe: he’s a true professional, he cares about winning, and he tries every game.  

But knowing his past as a spoiled, child-like, NBA player, all of these recent struggles couldn't have happened to a more qualified person. 

So it’s safe to say that PATHOLOGICAL HATE will continue to hate on Kobe and the Lakers.

How do we fix the Lakers besides making Kobe Bryant the team's de facto point guard? Dan Plotsky has the answers.  Read Part I and Part II. 

NBA stuff is available here. 

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THE CURIOUS CASE OF: Joe Paterno

Felipe M

BACKGROUND: Joe Paterno, in terms of wins, is the most successful college football head coaches in NCAA history.  He coached at Penn State University for generations, putting the sleepy town of State College, PA on the cultural map.  If you're a college football fan, you don't need me to tell you the accomplishments and accolades he brought to the university.

A CLASS OF ITS OWN: All these accomplishments brought Joe Paterno immense power.  And what better guy to possess all this clout?  He stood for moral righteousness.  He encouraged his athletes to "do the right thing."  The NCAA thought the same thing as it is very hard to find any NCAA violations--which we all know, everything in the NCAA is a violation: you can't buy your players pizza or ice cream after a game could also be deemed a violation.  If one were to think of all the big time violations and scandals in college athletics in the last 30 years, one has to marvel how this particular school was able to have such a relatively clean record.

A GENERATION OF SCANDAL: Name another collegiate institution with a successful football or basketball program (the top revenue machines at the big universities) and in all likelihood they have been marred with NCAA violations and legal scandal.  Schools like Nebraska who have had multiple players in domestic abuse and sexual assault scandals, Florida State with players stealing from a sporting goods store, Iowa with harboring a known rapist in basketball player Pierre Pierce, Baylor covering up a murder involving basketball teammates, and most infamously Southern Methodist University getting the "death penalty" for paying their football players to play at the school.

Through it all, Joe Paterno has been able to keep his football program away from such scandal and people can say with confidence "that at least they're doing it the right way at Penn State."  It turns out, however, that they were just as sleazy as any other institution of higher learning, if not more so. 

THE TRAGIC TRUTH: And then it turns out that Joe Paterno had a pedophile on his coaching staff in Jerry Sandusky.  It is hard to pinpoint when and if Paterno knew that his friend and top assistant had any notion that he had a sexual predator on his staff, but these are the facts:

• Pedophiles are known to have an average of 100+ victims in their lifetime.  The current allegations involve incidents that go back to 1994. Nevertheless, it's safe to assume that Sandusky has been molesting and raping children well before this time period.
• Public Record shows that Paterno should have known about Sandusky as early as 1998 (I strongly believe that Paterno knew about Sandusky well before 1998).  Instead of ousting this monster, the university forced him to retire and gave him "unlimited access to all football facilities, including the locker room."  How much was Paterno involved in keeping his friend and former top assistant out of the football program, but still remain at the university as a full time employee?
• It was believed that Sandusky would not only be the heir apparent to the Penn State head coaching job, but was also a hot commodity to be the next head coach at any other top-notch university.  Nevertheless, it was rumored that during interviews for other head coaching vacancies, Sandusky looked to have no desire to really coach at another university and always brought up the topic of his Second Mile foundation, ad nauseam.  
• Why was Sandusky forced into retirement at the age of 55 years-old in 1999?  Was it for the safety and well-being of Paterno's football program?  Furthermore, why did the University insist on keeping this predator around campus where he used school resources to hold events and activities for his Second Mile organization? 
• Paterno was known to have clashes with school professors and administrators and despite symbolizing the true spirit of amateur/academic sports and putting "student" first in "student-athletes," many of his players still, ironically, received a lot of special treatment at the school. 
• Rabid fans around 2002-2003 protest the potential investigation into the matter.  Among fear of an ensuing chaos and rioting, local police dismiss investigation.
• 2004, Penn State officials ask Paterno to step down as head coach of the football program.  Paterno refused to do so and continued coaching until he was fired in 2011 after the child rape scandal was uncovered.
• Paterno was the moral authority and had more power and clout at Penn State than any other school administrator, dean, president, and any other higher-up imaginable.  As a school employee, he also had the duty to report such incidents to the proper government authorities, NOT THE PENN STATE CHAIN-OF-COMMAND, that there was a sexual predator on campus that preyed on young children.
• Penn State gave Paterno a massive funeral ceremony fit for a King or a dictator.  Not bad for, as many of his fans would defend, someone at the bottom of the Penn State Chain-of-Command totem pole.  

A LEGACY OF HYPOCRISY: Despite the accomplishments and the many high school athletes he turned into men after participating in his football program, his legacy is forever tarnished and will always be remembered as the guy who was too busy with his precious football program to save any young boys from a known child rapist.  Many of his defenders will say that 99.99999% of Joe Paterno's time at Penn State was positive and that the rest of the small percentage was negative and just a "mistake."  But when the "mistake" involves the known endangerment of children into the hands of a child rapist, it is unforgivable and cannot be justified with his past achievements.  To paraphrase THE SCORE's Dan Bernstein, a Chicago radio sportscaster, "400 wins does not justify little boys getting raped."    

Just like Paterno told Penn State, countless number of times by the way, that he was Joe Paterno and he refused to leave the head coach position, he could have easily gone up to this issue and scream out, "I'm Joe Paterno and I am about doing what is right and at this point, I don't think it's right for a known child rapist to be running around my campus chasing little children around under my watch!  I WANT HIM OUT AND WANT AN INVESTIGATION TO BEGIN TO PUT THIS CRIMINAL IN PRISON WHERE HE CAN BE WITH OTHER CHILD RAPISTS!" The fact that he did not do this, is what will forever define his role at Penn State.  

IN CONCLUSION: It turns out that Joe Paterno was a hypocrite, just like the many right-wing, moral conservative Republicans he supported throughout his life.  The people who scream the most about moral righteousness are the ones who usually have the most to learn about the subject matter.  Joe Paterno and Penn State was just like every big time, college football program in America: money and athletics are priority #1, everything else is optionally unnecessary.  Paterno's program was as corrupt as the Catholic Priests at Notre Dame and as criminally ridden as the Miami Hurricane convicts he defeated for a meaningless football title.  Joe Paterno will forever be known as the man who enabled and harbored a child rapist to run loose at his program.  Why?  Because those are the standards that he supposedly instilled at his precious football program.  The images of him being a mentor, educator, and father-figure who happened to be a football coach are just myths.  Let us never forget this so we don't get suckered into believing such deceitful lies, deify these morally conflicted football coaches/players, and really hold these universities to a higher moral standard where they're not harboring, enabling, and protecting murderers, drug dealers, rapists, money whores, and pedophiles.

Pathological Hate would like to thank the Boers and Bernstein radio show (THE SCORE, 670AM) for being the voice of reason amid the Penn State child rape scandal.  We urge you to listen to their podcast.  

We also highly suggest to listen to the Boers and Bernstein "Who Ya Crappin?" segment from January 26, 2012.  The segment has become a Chicago, sports staple and had a lot of listeners calling the program to show their disgust at Penn State and their handling of the child rape scandal and Joe Paterno's funeral. 

ESPN has provided a timeline for the Penn State child rape scandal as well.  

To read the child rape scandal Grand Jury testimony, click here.