For the record, I went to high school in Boca Raton and I am in no way a "proud" alum of Saint Andrew's School.

OK, with that out of the way: Shown below is the full "statement" released by St. Andrew's to its alumni regarding the departure of lacrosse coach nonpareil Jeff Goldberg. Sorry, but this whole thing smells funky.

My guess would be that this is another flimsy move made by an administration that's more concerned with its public image than the quality of the product it produces inside -- and out of -- the classroom.

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Saint Andrew's School has announced a change in the leadership of its Boys Varsity Lacrosse Program. The School and Head Coach Jeff Goldberg have mutually agreed to move forward separately allowing Coach Goldberg to pursue his interests more fully through his Premier Players Lacrosse Academy, which offers a multitude of services for young athletes and coaches to excel in lacrosse.

“My family and I are proud of what we have accomplished together with the many fine families and administration at Saint Andrew’s School the past 18 years,” stated Goldberg. “We thank Saint Andrew’s School community for the privilege of teaching and coaching outstanding students. I look forward with great enthusiasm to the next chapter of my lacrosse career.”

Saint Andrew’s School is pleased to name former Associate Head Coach RJ Dawson as its new interim Boys Lacrosse Head Coach and will open a national search for the 2011-2012 lacrosse program.

“I’m looking forward to leading the Scots this year,” stated Dawson. “I know that I have big shoes to fill. As a team, we will continue to strive for excellence. Our goals continue to be the same; win a state title and be recognized nationally as a top program. We will work to sustain the legacy created by Coach Goldberg.”

Athletic Director David Ahern agrees and is impressed.

“We welcome RJ Dawson with open arms to the  Interim Head Boys Lacrosse Coach position,” stated Ahern. “He is a committed educator in Broward County and an outstanding gentleman who we think will continue the tradition of lacrosse excellence that Goldberg and his predecessors have helped to foster at our School.”

Meanwhile, Dawson has already personally reached out to many of the lacrosse players on campus and is looking forward to the spring Varsity Lacrosse season. He is also committed to Saint Andrew’s School’s rigorous game schedule and ongoing competition with nationally ranked high school teams. Being under the expert tutelage of Goldberg for the last two years has truly helped him prepare for this moment.

Dawson is a high school graduate of Northampton High School (MA) class of 1997, where he was a two time All-Western Massachusetts midfielder. Dawson attended Alfred University, where he received a Bachelor’s degree in elementary education and a master’s degree in literacy education. He was named team captain, Offensive MVP, and received All Empire Eight honors while being a four year starter for the Saxons. Upon graduation, Dawson coached at Northampton (MA) for two years and served as the head coach for the western/central Massachusetts Bay State Games teams in 2001-2002. Prior to coming to Saint Andrew’s, Dawson coached four years at Pine Crest in Ft. Lauderdale. In 2008, he received the Boys Varsity Assistant Coach of the Year Award as recognized by the South Florida Chapter of U.S. Lacrosse. Dawson has also coached for the South Florida Select Lacrosse program and is the Assistant Director for the Face Off Club Lacrosse Camps and the Southern Combat Lacrosse Showcase. In 2010, he was named the Assistant Coach of the Year by the South Florida Chapter of U.S. Lacrosse.

Goldberg leaves Saint Andrew's following a period of unprecedented success for the lacrosse program. The Saint Andrew’s School lacrosse program has ranked in the top 20 national teams for the last 3 years and earned recognition as the number one lacrosse program in the Southeast by LaxPower.com and InsideLacrosse.com. He has helped Saint Andrew’s develop an alumni collegiate network at some of the nation’s finest universities, including Yale, Johns Hopkins, Brown, Dartmouth, Virginia, and Notre Dame. Overall, the Saint Andrew's School community is grateful to Goldberg and will always honor the legacy left by his work.

“Coach Goldberg's departure from Saint Andrew's School is a significant loss,” said Ahern. “Over the course of the last 18 years he led the program to numerous club and state titles and has built the team to a national standard, doing so with an emphasis on sportsmanship. However, even more importantly, Goldberg's teams not only had significant success on the field, but his players also achieved outstanding success in the classroom.”

Dr. Ann Marie Krejcarek, School Headmaster, also recognizes Coach Goldberg’s renowned accomplishments.

"I extend my own deep appreciation to Jeff Goldberg for building a successful club program and then moving that club program into the realm of a recognized FHSAA High School state team," stated Krejcarek. "I also must note the generous support of our athletic department, the Booster Club, and the parents who have all been a part of this program’s success.  It has been a team effort, but we have been fortunate to have a legendary coach at the helm of our lacrosse program in Coach Goldberg. We wish Jeff the best of luck and success in his professional lacrosse endeavors."

Happily, the Goldberg family will still be part of the Saint Andrew’s community with his wife Jennifer continuing to teach in the Lower School and his son Kade being a member of the class of 2020.

Alright, so this situation isn't quite as egregious as some of our other editions of Our Poor Language (such as this dandy from LenDale White, or my personal favorite from FAU defensive back Tavious Polo), but this is just as fun for a variety of reasons.

As much as I love Twitter, you'll notice that social media (such as Twitter and Facebook, or anything like AIM, text messages, etc.) is where you'll find most of the OPL happenings. It's unfortunate, but that's why Our Poor Language posts like this are here: To show everyone how dumb some people may look when they use our poor language so... poorly.

Over the weekend, Miami Hurricanes third-year D-lineman Marcus Forston threw out a tweet that fired me up just enough to make me actually respond:

"Tweeple what it is tonight" ... I'll give him a pass on "Tweeple" because that's becoming a part of "Twitter Language." Whatever. That's fine. But for reasons that every other grammar snob will appreciate, I just couldn't let the "what it is tonight" sit there without a snide and obnoxious reply:

There we go! Now we're talking. Clever, obnoxious, unecessary and corrective. What else could you ask for?

Well, regardless, Forston replied to my reply:

And there we go. Honestly, I love it. First off, Forston's a big man, and second, I've never met him before and I can only assume that he's a fine dude. So there's no reason to go back at him when I have no real problem with him. I pointed out the instance of OPL and mission has been accomplished. The last thing I want is to rip into Forston and have another Duron Carter situation on our hands.

And because Forston derisively called me "boss man" I'll be rooting hard for him.

So, to answer the question again: "what it is tonight"? It is time to search for the next OPL.

Two wrongs very rarely make a right, and right now Dwyane Wade is not right.

We get wrapped up and twisted and tangled when athletes compare their sports to battle and to combat and, most egregiously, to war. It's an ignorant comparison on its face, it's a bafflingly insensitive comparison at its heart.

But athletes make mistakes. They mis-speak, they're quoted out of context, they slip up and get caught in emotion. Media members like myself and fans like yourself can fall into the same traps; athletes can apologize, so can we.

Dwyane Wade made a mistake over the weekend. He tried to equate losses by his new Heat Superteam to what was perhaps the greatest tragedy seen on American soil. For reference, here are Wade's words (as re-transcribed by the Sun-Sentinel):

"We enjoy the bulls-eye. ... Of course, there's going to be times when we might lose one or two games in a row, maybe two games, three games in a row, you never know. It's going to seem like the world is crashed down. .. You all are going to make it seem like the World Trade has just went down again. .. But it's not going to be nothing but a couple basketball games lost and we'll have to get back on track. So we're going to have fun with this season. We understand this dynamic doesn't come around too often and we're a lucky team right now."

For more reference -- and for context and tone -- here is the ESPN 760 exclusive audio.

Well, if nothing else, Wade is guilty of poor word choice. But it goes far beyond that.

Wade chose to go to a place that is -- still even almost a decade later -- quite taboo for a great deal of people. On top of that, by not realizing that his comment would touch a nerve in those affected by September 11, 2001, Wade shows that he's incredibly daft and insensitive; his lack of perspective is bordering on astounding.

And finally, Wade is complaining about a comparison that the media will make (Heat losses to September 11, 2001), even though he's the one making that comparison.

For once, it's not the media's fault, yet; it's Wade's fault.

But Wade had a chance to make-good here and he issued an apology through the Miami Heat:

“In an interview yesterday, I attempted to explain how some people may view the Miami HEAT losing a few basketball games in a row during the upcoming season. It appears that my reference to the World Trade Center has been either inaccurately reported or taken completely out of context. I was simply trying to say that losing a few basketball games should not be compared to a real catastrophe. While it was certainly not my intention, I sincerely apologize to anyone who found my reference to the World Trade Center to be insensitive or offensive.”

And Wade swung and missed.

Given the opportunity to admit that he should never have equated something as inane as wins and losses to something as weighty as the death of countless people in an unfathomable act of terrorism, Wade decided to half-apologize and half-place-blame. It's not Wade's fault, it's the media's fault: We reported the story inaccurately, we took Wade's comments out of context.

No, Dwyane, you said something you should regret having said. You made the mistake. We transcribed and played back a quote full of poor judgment. You screwed this up, not us.

According to the Sun-Sentinel, Wade's people didn't think to issue an apology until hearing the audio of his comments starting to make the rounds on radio (thanks, in large part, to ESPN 760). If that is indeed the case, then Wade isn't responding to what was a faulty initial transcription by the website Fanhouse; he's responding to the clear audio being played around the country. That's not contrition, that's sour grapes.

Dwyane Wade made a mistake -- a lapse in judgment -- something we've all been guilty of at one time or another. Wade had a chance to make it good and he decided to push blame to everyone not named Dwyane Wade.

Not surprisingly, the initial lack of perspective Wade showed is seeping out every time he opens his mouth. Time to shut it and play basketball.

At least it isn't Casey Kotchman...

Poor Mike Carp, the guy just can't catch a break. For those new to this blog, I've been championing Carp's case since first seeing him in person when he was playing for the Mets' Hi-A affiliate in Port St. Lucie and I was calling play-by-play for our Florida State League game of the week.

My broadcast partner -- former major leaguer and University of Miami star Joe Grahe -- and I agreed that Carp looked like a kid who would push his way to the Majors via a consistent glove and a strong ability to get on base. Carp finished the 2006 season (a season in which he celebrated his 20th birthday mid-year) with the following line:

136 G  /  491 AB  /  17 HR  /  .287 avg   /  .379 obp  /  .450 slg

Even better was his 2008 performance -- his first full season at Double-A. In Binghamton, Carp finished 134 games with a .403 OBP and nearly as many walks (79) as strikeouts (88).

Big things, people. Big things.

Following an off-season trade to Seattle as part of the J.J. Putz deal, Carp spent 2009 getting on base better than 37% of the time, and a brief 54-AB run in the Majors was impressive. But 2010 has been much of a debacle. On the surface, Carp's shown slightly improved power, but a major dip in patience (walk rates down, on-base way down).

In a previous post, we visited the idea that perhaps Carp's confidence was cut down when Casey Kotchman was given playing time at the Major League level over trying out a kid (Carp) who could probably do the job just as well for a fraction of the cost. Who knows how much that's weighed on Carp's mind during a relatively-down 2010 season?

And then the Mariners traded Cliff Lee.

In a coup, the M's brought back Justin Smoak from the Rangers, acquiring perhaps the finest true first base prospect in the game going into this season. Barring an unforeseen (and unfortunate) injury to Smoak, the Lee-Smoak deal seals it for Carp: He's not playing first base for the Mariners any time soon.

So, with that as the backdrop, let's take an updated look at the people's champ, Mike Carp, and his season heretofore. At last check, at the All Star break:

61 G  /  224 AB  /  15 HR  /  44 RBI  /  38 R  /  23 BB - 54 SO  /  .250 avg  /  .320 obp  /  .487 slg

So, to be fair, it's not like Carp was blowing down the door, pushing the Mariners to avoid trading for Smoak.

That said, Carp will play at the Major League level, he will be better than serviceable, and he will contribute. Mark it down.

Florida Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria -- a noted Yankee fan -- has released an official statement regarding the death of long-time Yankee owner George Steinbrenner:

George Steinbrenner was passionate not only about the Yankees, but also all of baseball. Everyone in and around Major League Baseball, along with millions of Yankee fans, will miss George’s larger-than-life presence. I knew George personally for more than 35 years, and I was very fond of him. George was very proud that his beloved Yankees were left in good hands. The entire Marlins organization joins me in extending condolences to the Steinbrenner family.

Welcome, LeBron James. Pat Riley and Dwyane Wade are giddy:

PAT RILEY:  “We are thrilled that LeBron James and Chris Bosh have decided to come to Miami to join forces with our truly great player, Dwyane Wade. We are looking forward to the opportunity of building something that our fans in Miami will be proud of for a long, long time. The journey is just beginning.”

DWYANE WADE: “I am thrilled to welcome LeBron James to the HEAT family. I look forward to playing alongside LeBron, Chris Bosh and our teammates, and together representing the great city of Miami . There's magic in the number 3. This is the beginning of new chapter in HEAT history and very exciting for both fans of the Miami HEAT and the NBA.”