A New Sport On The Radar…

There is a new sport out there attempting to compete for our attention. It is called FootGolf because it is a hybrid sport between soccer and golf. The object is to kick a soccer ball on a course and into a hole in the fewest number of kicks. The first shot for a hole comes from a designated area – analogous to a golf tee area – and the player has to navigate the ball around trees, hills, streams and the like to reach the equivalent of the greens. FootGolf has an international footprint; there are a dozen countries with FootGolf associations.

In the US, FootGolf is played on some golf courses where the holes are in the rough and away from the golf greens; obviously, its proponents think that FootGolf is the next big thing.

Before getting overly excited about the emergence of FootGolf as a major player in the US sporting cosmos, consider this comment from Brad Dickson of the Omaha World Herald:

“A new hybrid sport called FootGolf combines soccer and golf. The basic goal is to combine the elements of soccer with the elements of golf to create a TV viewing experience that functions as a cure for insomnia.”

I read a report that Donovan McNabb wants to retire as a Philadelphia Eagle and hopes to sign a one-day ceremonial contract with the team. While McNabb had a fruitful and productive career in Philly, I think it is fair to say that his tenure with the Eagles was not one focused solely on happy times. Let me review the bidding here:

    A host on the local sports radio station, Angelo Cataldi, wanted the Eagles to draft Ricky Williams. He “organized” a delegation of fans to go to NYC for the NFL Draft with the specific intention of booing any selection other than Ricky Williams.

    The then-Mayor of Philadelphia and future Governor of Pennsylvania, Ed Rendell, was on board with this and lent his support to that kind of welcome to the city.

    Rush Limbaugh’s mercifully brief tenure on FOX Sports came to an end when he opined that the only reason McNabb was seen as a top-shelf QB was because he was Black. Since the mainstream media desperately wanted a great Black QB, they over-valued everything McNabb did.

    Of course, there were those tranquil and idyllic times with Terrell Owens as a teammate…

    A local NAACP official in Philly said that the reason McNabb did not run with the ball as much as the official thought he should was because McNabb did not want to be stereotyped as a “Black QB” and so he made himself into a pocket passer to play more like a “White QB”.

Given that brief summary of his time with the Eagles, I have to wonder why he would want to revisit them. There is at least a 50/50 chance that some fans will boo him at the podium as he announces his retirement – if the Eagles allow any fans to be within shouting distance. However, if that is what he wants to do to put a punctuation mark on his NFL career …

Speaking of Donovan McNabb reminds me of Eagles’ QBs and that brings me to Michael Vick who seems to be the guy who will keep the job as the starting QB in Philly despite the change in coaches and offensive systems. For those fans in Philly who continue to harbor some kind of animus toward McNabb – the ones that would boo him at his retirement ceremony if allowed in the audience – they might want to keep this tidbit in mind:

    The last time Michael Vick was on a team that won a playoff game was in 2004.

Moving on … A few years ago, Brett Favre became a hugely annoying figure when he played Hamlet and dragged out any decision as to his retirement from the NFL vis ã vis a comeback. Fortunately, we have had none of that for a while – but I am beginning to pick up0 vibrations from a “Brett Favre wannabe” out there with two characteristics whose purpose is only to keep his name in the news:

    1. He is sort-of retired and in his happy place, BUT

    2. He might really want to come back.

I am talking about Phil Jackson.

    Memo to Phil Jackson: Make a decision dammit. More importantly, make the decision privately and then act on your decision. We can deal with either status without any news leaks or intrigues. You are on the verge of becoming a pain-in-the-ass.

After the Toronto Maple Leafs blew a 4-1 lead in the third period against the Boston Bruins in the Stanley Cup playoffs forcing overtime where the Bruins won the game, the Toronto Sun had this great headline:

    “The choke’s on us.”

Finally, here is an item from Brad Rock in the Deseret News:

“A few hundred Jacksonville Jaguars fans have petitioned President Barack Obama to ask the team to sign Tim Tebow.

“… if that works, the next step will be to get the President, by executive order, to force Tebow to throw spirals.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………

May 17, 2013 – 9:44 am Categories: Daily Rants | Comments (9)

Carlos Zambrano Update

As noted in a comment on yesterday’s rant, Carlos Zambrano will not be playing for the Long Island ducks in the Atlantic League; he signed a minor league contract with the Phillies yesterday and will be in “extended spring training” for “evaluation”. Zambrano is 32 years old; he has a career record of 132-91; he has been to the All-Star game several times. The Phillies have lost Roy Halladay from their rotation for the season due to shoulder surgery and another of their projected starters, John Lannan, has been on the shelf for most of the season with a knee injury. Looking strictly at the numbers, you would say this was a smart signing…

Then, there is the dark side… Zambrano is mercurial to put it as politely as I can. He has a history of lashing out at teammates, opponents and umpires. His final game with the Cubbies back in 2011 saw him give up 5 HRs, then throw at Chipper Jones and suffer an ejection. He went to the clubhouse, cleaned out his locker, told the clubhouse guy he was retiring and left the stadium before the game was over.

Here is a bright side to this signing. As a pitcher, he is a well-above-average hitter. He sports a career batting average of .238 with 24 homeruns and 71 RBIs. He might just give the Phils another bat on the bench…

According to reports, the minor league contract he signed has an opt-out clause in it whereby the Phillies have to put him on the major league roster by 1 July or Zambrano can demand a release and become a free agent once again. He did pitch in the World Baseball Classic in March so he is coming to “extended spring training” in somewhat better condition than as if he had been sitting on his keister all winter. Having said all of that, the pivotal issue here is the condition of Zambrano’s brain and the degree to which it has a measure of control over his emotions.

I also mentioned yesterday the story that 78,000 people had “signed up” to take a one-way trip to Mars. That got me to thinking… As currently envisioned, the voyage to Mars would take 4 people on the journey so – in a perverse way of looking at it – this represents a way to rid Planet Earth of 4 souls. At the same time, there are four faces carved into Mount Rushmore. You see where this is headed, no doubt… Here is the question:

    Who is on your Mount Rushmore of folks to send to Mars in the ultimate “addition by subtraction” activity for Planet Earth?

Since I made up the game, I get to make up the rules too. I am going to eschew any and all political figures here and limit the possibilities to celebs and sports folks. I have two reasons for imposing that stipulation:

    1. I do not want to get into a rock-throwing political argument here because as a dedicated centrist I would be the target of rocks from all directions.

    2. If I allowed the 535 members of the US Congress to be eligible for this game, I would need at least a year to cut the list all the way down to 50 – and I am not sure I have enough years left exchanging oxygen in the biosphere to whittle it down to 4.

My guiding principle here would be to have a crew of 4 on the vessel such that the world would be a better place for their departure in that I would never need to hear from or about them again. I do not intend to use this as “retribution”; I have a friend who is a Phillies’ fan and who has never forgiven Mitch Williams for giving up the homerun to Joe Carter in the 1993 World Series; he might want Mitch Williams on the trip to Mars; I will not use my list for that purpose.

My ten nominees are – in alphabetical order:

    Lance Armstrong – Let him off the ship first so that the first man to set foot on another solar system body would also be named “Armstrong”

    Celine Dion – If you have to ask, I could never explain why.

    Mark Emmert – He is the head of the NCAA; that is plenty of justification.

    Nancy Grace – The sound of her voice feels like someone is running a cheese grater up and down my spinal cord.

    Terrell Owens – I never need to hear from or about him again.

    Alex Rodriguez – Enough already.

    Jacques Rogge – He is the head of the IOC; see “Mark Emmert” above.

    David Stern – I would never lament the absence of the Viscount of Verisimilitude.

    Joe Theismann – I would never have to fear hearing him announce a football game again.

    Donald Trump – Think of the great real estate development opportunities for him on a virgin planet…

Note the absence here of names like José Canseco and Dennis Rodman. The reason I would not put them on the one-way journey is that there remains some humor value in the outrageous things these folks say. I just looked at my ten nominees and none of them provides me with any chuckles – ever.

Now, I invite readers to add and subtract from the list and then we can put a bunch of folks into “astronaut training” and ultimately come up with “The Crew to Mars”.

Finally, here is a note from Greg Cote in the Miami Herald about someone who came close to getting on my list of ten nominees above:

“Kobe Bryant and his mother are feuding in court over her right to sell his memorabilia. Not sure who’s less likable here. Someone who seems to be doing a rotten thing, or Kobe on general principle.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………

May 16, 2013 – 10:11 am Categories: Daily Rants | Comments (14)

Tip Of The Hat To Tony Kornheiser

For those of you who did not read the Washington Post from about 1980 until 2005, you probably only know Tony Kornheiser as the host of Pardon the Interruption or as one-third of the MNF announcing team for a couple of years. In addition to those credits, Tony Kornheiser was an accomplished columnist at the Post; and if he was still writing sports columns today, he would be on the list on the left side of this website under the heading “Columnists I Read”. I mention this because in his sports columns, he frequently referred to the Washington Capitals as “choking dogs” due to their tendency to get nice leads in Stanley Cup playoff series only to lose that lead and the series.

Were he still writing, the Caps would be “choking dogs” again this year. They led the Rangers 2-0 in the playoffs and then they led 3-2. The series went to a Game 7 and in typical “choking dog” fashion; the Caps lost Game 7 by the blowout score of 5-0. That win by the Rangers was the first time in franchise history that the Rangers had won a Game 7 on the road – and recall that the Rangers have been around since 1926. Let me put that game in perspective for you:

    A. Losing any hockey game 5-0 is bad.

    B. Losing a hockey game 5-0 on your home ice is shameful.

    C. Losing a hockey game 5-0 on your home ice in the 7th game of a Stanley Cup playoff series ought to be sufficiently embarrassing so as to send everyone in the organization into hiding for at least 6 weeks.

    D. The first question someone should have asked the Caps at the obligatory news conference after that game is, “Who let the dogs out?”

The Washington front-running fans behaved in their typical fashion. They left the building early in the third period when the Rangers scored their third goal. It is fashionable for Caps fans to wear the red Capitals jerseys to home games and the marketing slogan is:

    “Rock the Red”

If truth in advertising principles were to apply here, that would need modification to:

    “Rock the Red – - So Long As We Are Ahead”

Alex Ovechkin disappeared in the series scoring all of 1 goal in 7 games. Here is how Charles P. Pierce described Ovechkin’s performance in Game 7 at Grantland.com:

“Alex Ovechkin, for example, skated all over the ice, hitting everything except the net. (Ovechkin finished the series with one goal, but he was credited with 13 hits Monday night, and 13 hits is great if you happen to be the Supremes, but not so hot if you’re one of the most gifted offensive hockey players on the planet.)”

In other hockey news, Iron Mike Keenan has another coaching gig – this time in Russia in the Kontinental Hockey League. To say that Keenan can be abrasive at times is sort of like saying that Sally Struthers may have gone back to the buffet table for seconds once in a while. The announcement of his hiring prompted Mark Whicker of the Orange County Register to Tweet:

“Mike Keenan hired by Mettalurg Magnitogorosk of KHL. And they thought Putin was a tough guy.”

Switching gears, the Long Island Ducks of the Atlantic League are assembling an amazing roster for this season – providing they can find a way to turn the clock back to about 2005. According to a report in the Chicago Sun-Times, the Ducks recently signed Carlos Zambrano to pitch for them adding to previous signings that include Josh Barfield (no longer on the roster), Ben Broussard, Ramon Castro, Vladimir Guerrero (no longer on the roster), Ian Snell and Dontrelle Willis. The Ducks are in third place this morning in the Liberty Division of the Atlantic League (there are only 4 teams in the division) with a record of 8-16. Nonetheless, they stand only 2.5 games out of first place in that division because the Bridgeport Bluefish lead the division at 11-14.

In the Atlantic League, it would appear as if the “powerhouse team” is in the Freedom Division. The Sugar Land Skeeters lead that division with a current record of 22-3. The Skeeters have 6 players hitting .295 or higher as of this morning and 11 pitchers with an ERA less than 3.00 – including three relievers who have yet to give up a run this year.

The West Michigan Whitecaps play in the Midwest League as the A affiliate of the Detroit Tigers. The Whitecaps play their home games at Fifth Third Field where you can – if you dare – obtain a Fifth Third Burger. Here are the makings of the Fifth Third Burger:

    5 burger patties each at 1/3 of a pound each with a slice of cheese on it.
    Chili.
    Chips with nacho cheese, sour cream and salsa.
    Tomato and lettuce – and –
    A hamburger bun that weighs 1 pound.

This “snack” packs 4,890 calories. If you can finish it by yourself, you get a T-shirt and you get your picture hung in a “Hall of Fame” among other gourmands.

Finally, I sent an e-mail to Dwight Perry (Seattle Times) making sure that he had seen an item in Time Magazine reporting that 78,000 folks had “signed up” to be considered for a one-way trip to Mars. I suggested to him that I had a long list of folks that I would be happy to see on that trip – with the guarantee that it was indeed a one-way trip. Here is the response I got back from Dwight Perry:

“Actually, it’s 77,999. Dennis Rodman’s application is considered a return flight.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………

May 15, 2013 – 8:29 am Categories: Daily Rants | Comments (8)

Return Of The Dead Owls

A while back, I introduced the idea of “Dead Owls” as a way to describe things I do not give a hoot about. I think that I want to spend my time at the keyboard today laying out a few more “Dead Owls”…

I do not give a hoot about “three man teams” announcing sporting events. In the last 40+ years, there have been exactly two “three-man-booths” that were worth listening to for more than about five minutes. Chronologically, they were:

    Frank Gifford, Howard Cosell and “Dandy” Don Meredith: They made MNF – and by extension NFL – games entertaining and not merely sporting events that had a singular outcome.

    Dick Enberg, Billy Packer and Al McGuire: They are the “Gold Standard” by which all announcing teams for NCAA basketball should be measured.

    That’s it. That’s the list…

I do not give a hoot about which athlete or pop culture celebrity may or may not be humping some other athlete or pop culture celebrity. These folks are only “special” in the sense that they entertain us with their talents that are well beyond the norm for humankind in their specialty. What they do in their private lives – and with whom they do it – is of little interest.

    As a corollary, I also do not give a hoot about what any athlete or pop culture celebrity has to say about any political candidate for office or about any of the “hot-button” issues of the day such as gun control, health care, immigration or the debt ceiling. The fact that a person might be able to hit a baseball better than 99.999% of the human race or sing a song more melodiously than 99.999% of the human race does NOT mean that person has any important insight into socio-political issues that make them interesting to listen to.

    In fact, experience says that most of the folks of this ilk who demand to be heard on socio-political issues are shallow thinkers who add nothing of substance to the debate.

I do not give a hoot about any more identification of the Dallas Cowboys as “America’s Team”. Seriously, even if you live in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area, are they really?

I do not give a hoot about sports movie sequels. There are tons of bad sports movies out there; the ones that do succeed seem hell-bent to make sequels of themselves and the sequels are usually awful at the very best. Consider:

    Does the world really need Major League IV? What might that movie entail other than Jake Taylor playing on blades like Oscar Pistorious, Ricky Vaughn losing his glasses and putting a spectator sitting behind the third base dugout into the ICU with a ball to the head while Pedro Cerrano has to sacrifice larger and larger animals on a daily basis in order to avoid striking out 4 times a game? Are you really going to sit through that nonsense?

    If they ever make Rocky VIII, they will have to fashion a script wherein Rocky Balboa defends his title despite having to wear a colostomy bag throughout the contest.

Enough already!

I do not give a hoot about the myriad college football bowl games that pit mediocre teams against one another in truly meaningless games sometime prior to New Year’s Day.

I do not give a hoot about anything related to the NBA regular season prior to Valentine’s Day.

I do not give a hoot about shaving cream pies for baseball players in post-game interviews. That “tradition” lost its freshness at least 5 years ago. If baseball players do not have the mental acumen to come up with something new/different for such situations, then they should be ashamed of themselves.

I do not give a hoot about any pre-season rankings or polls related to college football or college basketball. Those things are beyond meaningless.

I do not give a hoot about draft listings and mock draft projections for the NFL made the week after the NFL Draft for a given year where 90% of the guys actually drafted this year have yet to sign on with the teams that hold their rights.

I do not give a hoot about anything that might be offered up to Sports Nation on ESPN for sports nation’s opinion. The issues are universally vapid; the voters are – in the main – mouth breathers; why is this even interesting? It is surely not important.

I do not give a hoot about television coverage of:

    America’s Cup races: These might be marginally interesting if “Moby Dick” were on the loose in the midst of the course and it was out to claim a boat for Davy Jones’ locker.

    Golf on TV where there is no time limit on players: Honestly, I could make a BLT sandwich in the time it takes some players to line up a single putt.

    The Tour de France: This event pits a bunch of guys in tights who have yet to be caught by the PED testers riding bicycles up and down hills on roads in a place that few folks have ever seen in person.

I do not give a hoot about your fantasy team – or anyone else’s fantasy team – in any league in any sport. If I happen to care in a specific circumstance you can be sure that I will ask you about said fantasy team; otherwise, keep all information related to your team, your league and your standings in your league to yourself. I know that I have mentioned this one before, but so many people seem not to be aware of the depths of my disinterest in this area that I thought it needed repetition.

Finally, here is a bit of perspective from Greg Cote of the Miami Herald:

“The Masters field included 14-year-old amateur Tianiang Guan, the youngest player ever in golf’s biggest event. My greatest accomplishment at 14 was being adept at faking nausea so I could skip school.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………

May 14, 2013 – 12:09 am Categories: Topical Rants | Comments (8)

Random Thoughts…

For those of you who believe that bad things happen in threes, here is corroborating “evidence”. A week ago, Titus Young found himself under arrest in California twice on the same day on two different charges. On Friday, Titus Young was in the hoosegow for the third time in a week. Here is the summary of the charges:

    First arrest: DUI

    Second arrest: Burglary for trying to steal the car he was driving at the time of the DUI from the impound lot where it had been taken.

    Third arrest: Burglary for breaking into a house in San Clemente CA and then adding resisting arrest and assault of a police officer to his tab when he fought with deputies in the process of his arrest.

That does not sound like an NFL WR who is a free agent and looking for a new job. That sounds more like a guy who wanted to catch the attention of Jerry Tarkanian for a slot on one of Tark’s squads not overly burdened with scholar-athletes.

According to a report in the Las Vegas Review Journal by Matt Youmanns, there are now lines for every NFL game for the 2013 regular season courtesy of Cantor Gaming in Las Vegas. If you just cannot wait to get down on an NFL game, you now have 256 options available to you. If you just cannot wait to get down on an NFL game, you also have the option of getting yourself to a rehab clinic near you… Here are three interesting observations in Youmanns’ report:

    1. The Pats are never an underdog; they are favored 12 times and are “pick ‘em” the other four games.

    2. The Broncos, Niners and Seahawks are favored in 13 of their games but each of them is an underdog one time.

    3. The Jaguars have 2 “pick ‘em” games and are underdogs in the other 14.

Sticking with the topic of sports wagering in Nevada, a bill passed in the Nevada State Senate recently that would allow sports books to take bets from “private equity groups”. At the moment, a sportsbook in Nevada may only accept wagers from individuals. Proponents say that this bill will attract some of the money wagered illegally in states other than Nevada to the sportsbooks in Nevada.

I presume that means that under the proposed new law, I and my friends who journey to Las Vegas every Fall could form a “private equity group” and engage a resident of Las Vegas to join our group as the person who would go to the sportsbooks and make wagers on behalf of our “Putative Private Equity Sports Wagering Cooperative Ltd”. If my interpretation is correct – and I am more than willing to be corrected here – it seems that there are a couple of logical conclusions:

    1. A new cottage industry could spring up in Nevada in terms of “private equity group representation”. Pretty soon, you might expect these Nevada legislators to claim that the bill is a “jobs creator”.

    2. The handle in the Nevada sportsbooks should grow. One report I read said the sportsbook handle could triple in five years if the bill became law. I do not know if the growth potential is that great, but surely, the sportsbooks’ handle will grow – and Nevada will collect more state tax revenue on that growth.

    3. If this bill became law, the potential for using this mechanism to launder money is not insignificant. Regulators and law enforcement folks will need to pay attention.

Receiving much less attention than this bill, the Nevada Senate also passed a measure that would permit sportsbooks to take wagers on Presidential and Congressional elections. While that might be a significant sociological change for the country, I just do not see that measure attracting a large handle for the books…

Here is an item tangentially related to gambling… Jerry Jones recently signed QB, Tony Romo, to a 6-year contract extension worth $108M and with more than $50M of that money guaranteed to Romo. When I first read about the deal, my reaction went along the lines that Jerry Jones like to do things in a big way and he has always been a believer in Romo’s talents, so in his mind, this deal probably makes sense. Later, I read this quote from Jerry Jones in the Dallas Morning News:

“If Tony, for instance, would be here Monday through Saturday … from seven in the morning to six o’clock at night all over this place then that’s better than the way it’s been. We’ll have more success, and Jason [Garrett] believes that [also].

Excuse me… Tony Romo has been with the Dallas Cowboys since 2003; he has been the starting QB for the Cowboys – interrupted only by injuries – since the middle of the 2006 season. Tony Romo should not be a “mystery” to anyone who had been associated with the Cowboys for any length of time – such as Jerry Jones. If you have noticed that Tony Romo has not done enough time-on-the-job to achieve as much success as you believe he has in him, then why would you agree to give him such a lucrative contract?

If you find yourself in Minneapolis/St. Paul and have the time to go and see the Twins play, you might find this culinary option at Target Field interesting:

    One of the wraps offered at some concession stands consists of a stuffing of spaghetti and meatballs.

Everyone who is on the Atkins Diet just shuddered after reading that sentence…

Finally, here is a comment from Greg Cote in the Miami Herald that harkens back to some of the gambling related items above:

“Parting thought: The Redskins’ nickname is under fire again. Am trying to think of a suitable replacement that would reflect the great heritage and legacy of the American Indian, but Washington Casino Operators seems a bit unwieldy.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………

May 13, 2013 – 9:03 am Categories: Daily Rants | Comments (9)

Sir Alex Ferguson Is Going To Retire

Manchester United in the Barclay’s Premier League in England is THE most valuable sports franchise in the world according to Forbes. They value the franchise at $3B. Just for comparison purposes, here is how Forbes values some franchises that are more widely known in the US:

    NY Yankees $2.3B
    Dallas Cowboys $2.1B
    NE Patriots $1.64B
    LA Dodgers $1.62B
    Washington Redskins $1.60B
    NY Giants $1.48B
    Boston Red Sox $1.31B
    NY Knicks $1.1B
    LA Lakers $1.0B
    Toronto Maple Leafs $1.0B

The point here is that Manchester United – owned by the same folks who own the Tampa Bay Bucs – is a major sports entity in the world even though there are lots of sports fans in the US who consider themselves “sports sophisticates” but do not know Manchester United from Manchester Untied or United Airlines. I bring this up because Sir Alex Ferguson – the man who has been the manager of “ManU” for the last 26 years during which time “ManU” has won the Premier League Cup 13 times – announced that he is retiring at the end of this season which is only a couple of weeks away.

Before any US sports fan dislocates his knee with a kneejerk here by trying to compare Sir Alex’s record to John Wooden’s tenure at UCLA, allow me to inform anyone of that bent that John Wooden began coaching at UCLA in 1948 and he did not win his first championship until 1964. John Wooden went 26 years without a single championship in the same tenure that Sir Alex Ferguson won 50% of the championships available to him.

This man has been knighted by the Queen of England as a recognition of his accomplishments as a manager of a futbol team. There are – and have been – great coaches and managers of sports franchises in the US Indeed, there is no equivalent to knighthood here in the US; nevertheless, it would be difficult to point to a more successful coach/manager in US sporting circumstances than Sir Alex Ferguson.

Have a healthy and prosperous retirement, Sir Alex Ferguson; you have earned it

Oh, by the way… Bonne chance to the person who gets to follow you in that post…

The NBA playoffs are into the second round and both the Lakers and the Celtics are on the sidelines. Both of the NBA’s iconic franchises need significant makeovers. Even if Kobe Bryant can come back next year from his Achilles’’ tendon injury and play like the “Kobe of old”, this team needs help. Kobe is 34 years old and his contract – worth $30M in round numbers next year – is up at the end of next year. If the Lakers’ brass were devising a 5-year plan, they would be wise not to have Kobe in a prominent role within that plan as a focal-point player in the fifth year of said plan. And, that reality leads to questions:

    1. Is Dwight Howard capable of being the face of the Lakers’ franchise in the future? He is probably the best pure center in the NBA at the moment, but is this the guy who is going to be the leader of the Lakers in the same tradition that folks like Kobe and Magic and Jerry West and Elgin Baylor and George Mikan were leaders of that franchise?

    2. Oh, by the way, who is going to be the point guard on the future Lakers’ teams that approach the standard of excellence set by previous Lakers’ teams? I seriously doubt that person is on the roster at this time.

If you think I have painted a bleak picture for the Lakers, let me say now that the outlook for the Boston Celtics may be even bleaker. Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce may both deservedly be in the Hall of Fame one of these days. Nevertheless, they are aging stars on the downward arc of their careers and they are not able to carry a team by themselves to a Championship – or even to the Finals – anymore. Father Time has caught up with them…

It is reasonable for Celtics’ fans to expect Rajon Rondo to return at some point next year fully recovered and rehabbed from his injury and surgery. Might that be enough to change the balance of power in the NBA East from the Heat to the Celtics? Candidly, the answer is “NO!” The way for the Celtics to rebuild/retool is to find a way to trade both Pierce and Garnett (who will make a combined $27M next year) and use that salary room to restructure the team. If all the team does is to let the Pierce and Garnett contracts expire, they will be left with Rondo – a top-shelf point guard – and the following list of goombahs:

    Brandon Bass
    Avery Bradley
    Jordan Crawford
    Jeff Green
    Courtney Lee
    Fab Melo
    Jared Sullinger

No offense intended her to a group of players who had productive and honorific college basketball careers, but that lineup plus Rajon Rondo is not going to “unseat the Heat”…

It has been a while since the NBA faced a period where both the Celtics and the Lakers might be “inconsequential” for a few years. Conspiracy theorists will be looking for the next big trade that is lopsided in favor or either or both of these teams…

For the record, I really like Bob Costas and Jim Kaat as an announcing duo for MLB games. I do enjoy hearing Joe Buck and Tim McCarver a lot but with McCarver retiring at the end of this season, I think Costas/Kaat will become the undisputed top announcing tandem for MLB games.

Finally, commenting on the cold weather games that MLB fans endured in the early season 2013, Dwight Perry had this item in the Seattle Times:

“The Mets and Rockies played in 28-degree weather in Denver on Thursday.

“How cold was it? All the players wore No. 99 in honor of Wayne Gretzky.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………

May 10, 2013 – 12:29 am Categories: Daily Rants | Comments (3)

Baseball Disappointments…

I know that it is only the first week of May and that the baseball season has barely begun; but still, I have to wonder what is wrong with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. As of yesterday, the Angels were 11-21 for the season; that projects to a season with 106 losses. Can they really be THAT bad? As of yesterday, they were only 2.5 games ahead of the Houston Astros – a team that is “major league” only in terms of the competition that it plays.

The Angels have spent big money in the last two free agent markets. Last winter they signed Josh Hamilton for 5 years and $125M. They gave him a $10M signing bonus and $15M for this year. In 2016 and in 2017, Hamilton will make $30M each season. A year and a half ago, the Angels dipped into the till to sign albert Pujols to a 10-year contract worth $242M. Pujols makes $16M this year but his deal goes through the 2021 season and the Angels are on the hook to pay him a total of $87M between 2019 and 2021. Here is how those investments look as of the moment:

    Josh Hamilton: In 126 at bats, he has 26 hits (hitting .202) and has struck out 40 times. He has hit 2 homeruns and has grounded into 3 double plays. He has driven in 9 runs.

    Albert Pujols: In 121 at bats, he has 28 hits (hitting .231) and has struck out 18 times. He has hit 5 homeruns and has grounded into 7 double plays. He has driven in 19 runs.

When you consider that the Angels are committed to paying both of these guys a total of $367M, the most polite way to evaluate that investment would be to say it is “underperforming expectations”. Both players had career batting averages of .300 or better at the start of this year and both have been MVP winners in recent times. This is just a slump and both of them will pull out of it, right?

Not to put all the blame on those guys, consider the Angels pitching staff this year. Through 32 games, the Angels team ERA is 4.68 and they have issued 132 walks (4.1 walks per game). Currently, their #3 starter is Joe Blanton who is 0-5 with an ERA ever so slightly below 6.00.

I cannot think about what is wrong with the Angels without also wondering what is wrong with the Toronto Blue Jays. After they acquired most of the bona fide major league players on the Marlins’ roster from last year in a trade, they signed Melky Cabrera and got R.A. Dickey from the Mets. Yes, José Reyes is hurt and out for a couple of months but that does not explain why the Blue Jays have a 13-21 record – one that projects to 100 losses for the season.

As a team, the Blue Jays are batting .238. The team has 270 hits and 271 strikeouts. Combine that with a team ERA of 4.71 and you can see why the Jays have had trouble winning games. Looking at the “big off-season acquisitions” for the Jays:

    R.A. Dickey: Record is 2-5 with an ERA of 5.36.

    Josh Johnson: Record is 0-1 with an ERA of 6.86 (four starts)

    Mark Buehrle: Record is 1-2 with an ERA of 7.02.

    Emilio Bonafacio: Hitting .160 with 12 hits and 25 strikeouts.

    José Reyes: On the DL.

    Melky Cabrera: Hitting .270 – the highest of any regular starting player.

While I am at it, let me ask how the LA Dodgers – who spent money more frivolously than the US Congress over the winter – can possibly sport a 13-19 record and trail the San Diego Padres? One reason might be that in a recent game, this team that has the highest payroll in MLB started an infield of Luis Cruz, Dee Gordon, Nick Punto and Juan Uribe. Wow! The Dodgers’ preferred outfield lineup would be Carl Crawford, Andre Ethier and Matt Kemp. This trio will make $53.5M between them this year. Now take a look at their production so far:

    Carl Crawford: Hitting .304 with 5 homeruns but only 8 RBIs. He has stolen 6 bases. So far, he is the best of the lot…

    Andre Ethier: Hitting .243 with 3 homeruns and 10 RBIs.

    Matt Kemp: Hitting .273 with 1 homerun and 14 RBIs. Not exactly the stats you would expect from someone billed as “All-World” by the fawning LA press corps.

Clayton Kershaw has pitched 48.2 innings with an ERA of 1.66 and his record is only 3-2. He should sue the rest of the team for non-support or nonfeasance. Kershaw’s contract is up at the end of this season…

At the other end of the expectation spectrum, no one expected the Miami Marlins to do anything but stink this year. The team is living down to those expectations sporting a 10-24 record, which projects to 114 losses for the season. Giancarlo Stanton was obviously the best player on this wretched team – one who could start for just about every other club in MLB – and then he pulled a hamstring, which should keep him on the shelf for about a month. The Marlins went to their minor league system and called up Marcel Ozuna who – so far – is hitting .419 in his first 8 games.

Ozuna started the year in AA ball and this is his first year at that level. Up until now, he has been in a rookie league, a short-season A league and a full-season A league. So far, he is having no problems with major-league pitching. Is he a phenom or a flash-in-the-pan? We will probably figure out that he is a phenom if the Marlins trade him sometime this summer.

Finally, Greg Cote had this item recently in the Miami Herald:

“Racing has returned to Calder, which advertises itself as ‘20 minutes from anywhere.’ Believing it, a man from Buffalo, N.Y., left his home Saturday for the track and missed the first post by three and a half days.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………

May 9, 2013 – 8:28 am Categories: Daily Rants | Comments (8)

Bad Person – Or Bad Career Advice?

Exactly 1600 years ago today, in 413 AD the Emperor Honorius granted tax relief to several Italian provinces that had been sacked and plundered by the Visigoths. This information comes from Wikipedia but I can find no mention in Wikipedia if said tax relief engendered a filibuster in the Roman Senate at the time…

In my former life, I often had the responsibility to provide career guidance and counseling to young professionals. Obviously, Titus Young never had good counseling or he never paid attention to any career counseling advice. Let me review the bidding for the WR that the Lions released a few months ago:

    Complained he was not getting the ball enough in Detroit.

    Intentionally lined up in the wrong position to “sabotage” certain plays.

    Said – with a straight face – that he was a better WR than Calvin Johnson.

    Sucker-punched teammate Louis Delmas earning a team suspension.

That is not much of a curriculum vitae for a WR who averaged 40 catches and 5 TDs per season over a two-year career. After the Lions released him, Jeff Fisher signed him for the Rams but that lasted about a week until the Rams let him go with Fisher saying that Young might fit in better with another organization. [Translation: Clearly, this guy is not worth the hassle.] Last night, Young took his already soiled image and found a way to make it even less attractive to perspective employers. He was arrested twice in a day for two different crimes.

    1. Around midnight, he was arrested for alleged DUI in Moreno Valley, CA.

    2. The next afternoon, he was arrested and charged with burglary when he tried to take his car from the impound lot where it resided as a result of the earlier arrest.

If Titus Young had ever shown “Jerry Rice Talent”, he would still be employable by an NFL team. Having failed to do so, I suspect that his opportunities in the NFL are extremely limited. Hopefully, he paid attention in his classes at Boise State…

That wish for Titus Young calls to mind a comment from Brad Dickson of the Omaha World-Herald recently:

“President Obama gave the commencement address at Ohio State University. Obama has now been on the OSU campus five times in just over a year. There are scholarship football players at Ohio State who haven’t been on campus that often.”

Switching gears, Chicago Cubs chairman, Tom Ricketts said last week that the Cubs might have to move from Wrigley Field if they cannot reach multi-party agreement that would allow the Cubs to make changes to Wrigley Field to include a large video scoreboard. Said Ricketts:

“The fact is that if we don’t have the ability to generate revenue in our own outfield, we’ll have to take a look at moving – no question,”

Let me be clear; I am not one of those folks who think that Wrigley Field is an idyllic baseball venue that harkens back to the essential roots of the game. Wrigley Field is an old stadium that has been showing its age badly for the last two decades; it was never mentioned as a “dump” when bad stadiums were being discussed over the past 20 years because Shea Stadium, the Vet and RFK Stadium were still in use. Wrigley Field is better than all three of those places used to be – but not by a lot.

Having said that, the Cubs are not really going to leave Wrigley Field. Yes, they do have an offer in hand from the mayor of Rosemont IL – a Chicago suburb near O’Hare Airport less than 20 miles as the crow flies from Wrigley Field – to get a 25-acre piece of land in Rosemont where a “modern Wrigley Field” might reside. No, they are not moving to Rosemont. Part of the problem Ricketts faces in terms of dealing with the city of Chicago and the folks who live around Wrigley Field is that Forbes listed the Cubs as the most profitable baseball organization last year. Also, in trying to claim that the Cubs’ revenue is hurt by those rooftop seats across the street, the claim is weakened to a degree by the fact that the Cubs are a minority partner in one of those rooftop ventures – according to Forbes. Crying poor and claiming that others are poaching on his revenue streams are just not supported by the facts.

    [Aside: The Cubs lost 101 games last year. Their average attendance was 37,307 which ranked 10th among the 30 MLB teams. By comparison, the Astros lost 107 games and drew only 22,244 fans per game.]

The folks who run Chicago and the people in Wrigleyville whose property values are propped up by Wrigley Field should give thanks that Jerry Reinsdorf does not own the Cubbies. If he did and if he had an offer in hand for a place to put a new stadium and the multi-party negotiations to get what he wanted in the old Wrigley Field were at a standstill, Reinsdorf would apply pressure to get things moving and to get what he wanted – pronto.

Jay Leno summed up all of the Cubs/Wrigley Field drama with this commentary:

“In baseball news, the Chicago Cubs said they will move if improvements are not made to Wrigley Field. And Wrigley Field said it will move if improvements are not made to the Chicago Cubs.”

Speaking of the Cubs and the improvements needed there, the team has a propensity for issuing outrageous contracts to middling players. The 8-year contract to Alfonso Soriano for $136M is a milepost in terms of over-valuation of a player’s worth. Nevertheless, the Cubs seem not to have learned from that blunder. Last winter they signed Edwin Jackson to a 4-year deal worth $52M. Jackson got $8M to sign and will get $11M per year through the 2016 season. At the time of his signing, his career record was 70-71; as of this morning, here are his stats for 2013:

    Record is 0-5
    ERA is 6.39

At least Soriano’s contract will come off the books in 2014; Jackson’s contract goes through 2016.

Finally, here is a comment from Greg Cote of the Miami Herald demonstrating why he does not write the “society column” for that paper:

“Heat coach Erik Spoelstra, 42, is dating a former Heat dancer, Nikki Sapp, 26. Strange, right? I don’t mean the age difference. I mean that in 50 years she’ll be an old lady named “Nikki.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………

May 8, 2013 – 9:53 am Categories: Daily Rants | Comments (1)

Baseball Hall of Fame – Who’s In and Who’s Out?

Last week, I did a rant headlined Bad Boys and that rant caused Rich, a long-term reader, to pose this question as a comment:

“Speaking of bad boys, my beautiful wife Mary has just found a poster we picked up at a home run hitting extravaganza here in Las Vegas’ Cashman Field in year 2000. Depicted on the poster are the following notables: Rafael Palmiero, Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Jose Canseco, Manny Ramirez and Alex Rodriguez, who collectively have a few thousand home runs to their discredit. Also included are some players who have not sullied their own reputations with PED’s: Ken Griffey Jr., Shawn Green, Nomar Garciaparra, Mike Piazza and Chipper Jones. I am wondering which of these players, some with astounding careers, would in your opinion gain entrance to the Baseball Hall of Fame?”

Before answering that question directly as I will eventually, I need to state what I think the Baseball Hall of Fame ought to be. In the past, I have made it clear that some inducted members of the Hall of Fame should not have been so honored; they belong in my opinion in a “Hall Of Very Good Players” but not the Hall of Fame. I shall not belabor that point here. The reason I bring it up is that I believe that the Baseball Hall of Fame should honor those players who were truly “The Best” of their times in the game. At the same time, the Hall of Fame is not the “Hall of Great Human Beings”; it is a merely place to recognize great baseball players some of whom were only slightly removed from the primordial slime on the evolutionary scale.

Given my definition of what the membership of the Hall of Fame ought to be, there would be no exclusions for ne’er-do-wells before or after the fact of their retirement. Pete Rose would be in the Hall of Fame AND there would be as a permanent part of his repose there an explanation of his admitted betting on baseball games. Joe Jackson would also be in the Hall of Fame AND there would be as a permanent part of his repose there an explanation that he was part of the Black Sox team in 1919 but that he and others were exonerated at trial for fixing World Series games. Please do not tell me that such a thing would “demean baseball accomplishments” in some way. Remember, baseball is the game that allowed its commissioner to put an asterisk on Roger Maris’ 61 home run season in 1961.

By the way, just to be complete, I would add to the existing Ty Cobb and Tris Speaker memorials that there is some reason to believe that both of them fixed at least one game and wagered on its outcome. That allegation has never been proven of course – just as Joe Jackson’s participation in the Black Sox scandal has never been proven.

Even with that focus, the question here poses a conundrum. More than a few of the folks on Rich’s list have prodigious home run totals and batting accomplishments that would put them squarely in “Hall of Fame territory”. The thing that has to be considered is that some of them used PEDs to amass those statistics; therefore, to what degree might one “discount” some of the numbers?

I believe that as time goes on, the players of the steroid era will be seen in a less harsh light than they are today and that future voters for Hall of Fame induction will be less inclined to use the Hall of Fame ballot as a form of retribution. What follows is how I would vote for the players that Rich named in his question and why:

    Rafael Palmiero: I would vote NO. His home run total is more an achievement of time and not of greatness.

    Barry Bonds: Eventually, I would vote YES. Before the time when he went through his rapid “bulking up” he was a great player; I personally believe he was a prodigious user of PEDs but even discounting the effect they had on his stats, I believe he was one of the great baseball players ever.

    Mark McGwire: I am really on the fence with this one. His career batting average is only .263 but his career OPS (enhanced to be sure by his slugging numbers) is .982. He was an All-Star 13 times but was never voted MVP. Probably, I would vote NO.

    Sammy Sosa: I would vote NO. He had a few years with prodigious home run totals but I never saw him as one of the dominant players of his time.

    José Canseco: I would vote NO. I just do not see him as one of the best players of his time in MLB.

    Manny Ramirez: Eventually, I would vote YES. Ramirez’ lifetime batting average is .312 over a career that spanned 19 years; in 17 of those seasons he hit .290 or better.

    A-Rod: Eventually, I would vote YES. Even before there were any allegations of his use of PEDs, A-Rod was one of the best players in MLB.

    Ken Griffey Jr.: Clearly, he should be voted in on the first ballot and I would vote YES if I had a vote.

    Shawn Green: I would vote NO. He does not come close to my mental construct of what a Hall of Fame player ought to be. In 13 full seasons in MLB, he only made the All-Star team twice.

    Nomar Garciaparra: I would vote YES. With a career batting average of .313, I could put him in the Hall of Fame – - but just because they were contemporaries, I would have him wait until after Derek Jeter was in the Hall.

    Mike Piazza: Interestingly, Rich has him in the “no PEDs category” while there are some who are “convinced” that he was a user. Obviously, I do not know the facts here. His numbers as a catcher are most impressive (career BA .313; career OPS .922 and 427 home runs). Whether or not he was a “user”, he was one of the dominant catchers in the game during his run in MLB. I would vote YES.

    Chipper Jones: I would vote Yes. I am not sure which of his stats might fall short of the yardstick set by other Hall of Fame members where Jones falls short.

Rich did not have Roger Clemens in his listing so let me answer that one. I am convinced that Roger Clemens was a PED user; nonetheless, I believe that his stats make him a player worthy of induction into the Hall of Fame.

Finally, speaking of Hall of Fame players, here is an item from Dwight Perry in the Seattle Times:

“April 11 marked the 101st anniversary of the Yankees trademark pinstripes.

“Or 93 years since Babe Ruth first asked, ‘Does this uniform make my hips look too big?’ ”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………

May 7, 2013 – 12:35 am Categories: Topical Rants | Comments (9)

Silliness First – Then Seriousness

I want to begin today by citing Greg Cote’s analysis of the Cinco de Mayo holiday and his celebration of the same in yesterday’s Miami Herald:

“Happy Cinco de Mayo, everybody! Non-imbibers refer to this as a ‘drinker’s holiday.’ The rest of us refer to this as ‘a day ending in y.’ ”

If you are like Professor Cote – and like me –, I hope you have recovered from yesterday’s festivities to the point that the crack of dawn this morning was not obnoxiously loud.

Last week, I tried to convey the message that Jason Collins announcement of his sexuality was not of particular importance to me even though that announcement was obviously very important to him. Here is a note from Gregg Drinnan’s Keeping Score column in the Kamloops Daily News over the weekend:

“After NBAer Jason Collins revealed that he is gay, Los Angeles Kings forward Dustin Penner (@Dustinpenner25) tweeted: ‘Honestly I don’t care if you are gay or straight as my teammate. As long as you don’t listen to Nickelback.’ “

I am certainly no expert on Nickelback’s body of work but I can recall listening to some of their songs because a friend was driving me somewhere and had them on in his car. From an admittedly small sample, I can understand exactly where Dustin Penner is coming from…

Last week, I also expressed a small bit of surprise that the Jacksonville Jaguars categorically ruled out the idea of working out and possibly signing Tim Tebow for the team. Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel took my comment a mile further down the road after it was announced that Jags’ WR, Justin Blackmon, would be suspended for the first 4 games of the upcoming season for running afoul of the league’s substance abuse policy for the third time in about three years:

“The Jaguars will take a chance on a substance-abusing wide receiver, but won’t take a chance on Tim Tebow – a proven winner, a hometown hero and a role model to people throughout the world. The Jags’ organizational stance on Tebow bafflingly seems to be this: ‘He’s the most popular player in the league who has won at every level and could sell tickets and make us interesting. Why in the world would we want THAT?’ “

I am not going to agree that Tebow is the most popular player in the NFL nor will I stipulate that he would win in Jax, but he would sell some tickets and he would make the Jags a lot more interesting than they are today.

Andy Staples had a report on SI.com last week about a convocation of “several dozen Division 1 athletic directors” meeting in Santa Monica to discuss current issues involving the business model of college sports in a setting where no one from the NCAA was around. It is definitely worth following the link to read the entire report. According to Staples’ report, the NCAA has continued the “vision” of Dr. Myles Brand and moved to consolidate power and authority in the hands of university presidents thereby isolating the athletic directors. And, not all that surprisingly, the university presidents and their advisors do not bring a lot of knowledge and experience in managing collegiate sports to the party. Here is a portion of Staples’ report:

“The athletic directors want to have an open dialogue with the NCAA about the pending Ed O’Bannon lawsuit, which could radically reshape the business model of major college sports. They want to talk about the potential impact should former football players sue over concussion-related issues. They want to talk about conference realignment, which has upended the industry in the past three years. They talked about all those issues Thursday and Friday in Santa Monica because the NCAA leadership doesn’t seem to want to discuss any of it with them. And the people in charge of some of the nation’s most powerful athletic programs are fed up.”

Here is the most telling part of Staples’ report. The ADs that spoke with him and participated in this meeting/convention/whatever would not allow themselves to be named in the piece because they fear retribution by the NCAA in the following sense:

“”We don’t want the NCAA getting back at us by going looking for one of our kids who might have gotten a free soda once.”

Let me be clear; I do not put all collegiate Athletic Directors on a pedestal and honor them for the grand societal function that they perform. Nonetheless, when folks at that level of experience and responsibility in an industry that produces billions of dollars of revenue are fearful of their overseers, one might conclude that there is “something rotten in the state of Denmark”. [/William Shakespeare]

In that vein, let me offer up a thought for the day regarding the NCAA and what it purports to exist for. The NCAA tries hard to make it appear as if it is a benevolent keeper of order so that noble amateur student-athletes might find ways to compete in intercollegiate athletics on a level playing field. The NCAA runs multiple series of advertisements and promotional messages trying to hammer that point home; the NCAA is merely there “for the student-ahtletes”. Think about those ads for a moment:

    The NFL does not run ads to convince us that it is all about garnering huge TV ratings thereby assuring they will generate even more revenues next year than they did this year. We know that is their fundamental objective and that is what the NFL does…

    Minor league baseball teams do not announce that their wacky promotions are little more than good fun ways to get local folks out to the ball park. We know that is their fundamental objective and that is what those wacky promotions are…

The point is that it is hugely unnecessary for any organization to fire up a bunch of ads to tell us the obvious about itself. Wal-Mart and Starbucks do not produce ads saying that one of their objectives is to drive out competition from small local businesses; but that is what they do. The ads encouraging young folks to enlist in the US Army do not feature the fact that soldiers frequently kill other people and are killed themselves; nevertheless, those are the facts of the matter. Organizations produce ads to try to convince us that they are something they are not such as “philanthropic” or “environmentally conscious”. It is like politicians who try to convince us that they are something more than careerists whose only objective is to be elected to office and then to be re-elected to office again and again and again…

The NCAA’s own self-pumpulating ads ought to convince any thinking person that the organization that approved the expenditures to produce those ads must not be what the ads are trying to portray. If that were the case, it would be a colossal waste of resources.

Finally, since I started today with a line from Greg Cote of the Miami Herald, let me close with another of his observations – this time on the NHL Draft and why it is not about to overtake the NFL Draft in popularity:

“In a lottery this week, the Panthers won the second overall pick in the upcoming NHL draft. They are expected to select someone you’ve never heard of from a Canadian junior team with a funny name.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………

May 6, 2013 – 7:37 am Categories: Daily Rants | Comments (6)