The Sports Curmudgeon

Yesterday, I mentioned the 2008 Olympic Games in terms of a potentially bad economic omen for big time sports. Today, I want to mention the 2008 Olympic Games in terms of a potentially bad TV viewing omen for sports fans. The countdown clock to the Beijing Olympic Games can now be measured in weeks and months and NBC has told us that it will put 3600 hours of “Olympics stuff” on the air using CNBC, MSNBC, USA and NBC-owned Telemundo; a little over 2200 hours of this total will be online coverage. If those numbers don’t shock you, consider that in the last Olympiad in Athens, NBC put out a mere 1210 hours of “Olympic stuff”. And we ought to remember how much nonsensical coverage had to happen just to get to that 1210-hour level.

Let’s do a little bit of math here. There are 168 hours in a week. If you took 3600 hours of television and spread it out so there were no overlaps, that telecast would run for a little over 21 weeks or about 5 months. Can there possibly be that much “Olympic stuff” that rises to the level of “interesting”? I don’t think so.

The online component of this will come as “broadband streaming” on NBCOlympics.com; and if all of this is not enough, you can sign up on that website to be able to get highlights on demand and replays of various events. Are you feeling saturated yet? Well stand by because NBC said that it is going to offer additional coverage options over wireless connections but they had not yet made all of the arrangements to make those announcements concurrent with the descriptions of how you will get to see these Olympics on TV and over the Internet.

This is overkill. There are not 3600 hours of Olympic events that matter. This means there is going to be coverage of minutiae and hours upon hours of heartwarming – yet irrelevant – profiles of athletes who have overcome all manner of hardships in their life to achieve this dream they always had - - to go to the Olympic Games as a participant. Even when there are no “hardships” in the athlete’s life, the producers will concoct some.

One more thing about “Olympic overkill” is the opening ceremonies. In the US, networks go nuts over pre-game shows for the Super Bowl but those presentations are in the middle of the day when most people are either setting up the Super Bowl party that they are hosting or getting together the goodies that they have agreed to bring to the Super Bowl party they will be attending. Other people are making final wagers on the game during the day. That wagering activity used to happen via the Internet but now that Congress has made that a situation which can put the offshore companies in jeopardy, those final wagers are now placed with the friendly local bookmaker. The whole point of this is that no one watches all of the Super Bowl pre-game nonsense. But the Olympics opening ceremony is on in prime time.

Here’s the deal. You start to watch and soon find your self nodding off and eventually you lose touch with what is going on. When you finally do snap out of it and wake up because you’ve got muscle cramps from sleeping in an awkward position on the couch, you see that it is almost midnight and the alphabetical parade of the nations is only up to Paraguay. And so you have to decide at this point whether or not you can hope to stay awake to see the end of this parade without falling asleep again because if you cramp up again, it may take four days to work them all out. This is Olympic overkill at its absolute finest.

Gordon Gee was the President of Vanderbilt University. During his tenure there, he eliminated the athletic department and made intercollegiate athletics come under the auspices of “Student Life”. Sounding at the time very much like a Dr. Myles Brand acolyte, he said that this “demotion in stature” for the athletics department was his declaration of war on “a culture that has isolated athletics from what the college experience is supposed to be all about.” And from all of the observables, it seems to have worked quite well; teams from Vanderbilt have been successful in baseball, men’s and women’s basketball and the football team has begun to win more than a game or two each season. But notice that I started the paragraph by saying Gordon Gee WAS the President of Vanderbilt University…

Gordon Gee has a new job. He is now the President of The Ohio State University. There have been more than a couple of transgressions in the Buckeye athletic department over the past few years – none rising to the level of “nationally scandalous” to be sure. On the other hand, Ohio State is a far bigger player on the national athletic stage than Vanderbilt was and it has a much larger and more “connected” base of alumni and boosters than did Vanderbilt. It will be interesting to see if Gee will even try to pull a similar “demotion in stature” for the athletic department at Ohio State and to see what the reaction will be if he does make such a play.

Since I mentioned a university president, I think you need to keep something in mind the next time one of these folks – or some NCAA mannequin – holds their head up and looks down their nose at you to say the reason there cannot be a football playoff is because it would interfere with the academic progress of the student-athletes. That should be the cue for you to point out to these Patricians that i-pods also interfere with academic progress too but they haven’t yet taken action to ban them from campuses. The same could be said for beer, drugs, sex and marching bands. Very few campuses can realistically claim to be free of any of those impediments to academic progress. Keep in mind, that is all a convenient smoke screen that they are putting out there; until someone calls them on it, they’ll continue to do it.

The MLB Umpires’ Union wants to garner some economic concessions from baseball before they allow baseball to run full background checks on its members. Their argument is that this needs to be “collectively bargained in good faith” [Translation: We get more money for allowing this to happen.] and there really isn’t any reason to do it since all major league umpires are upstanding citizens without a hint of scandal. Well, up until now, you could probably have made a similar claim if you had been the head of the NBA Referee’s Union. One possible concession I heard that the umpires might seek is the addition of a seventh umpire to the crew for playoff games. Can someone tell me where this seventh guy would be stationed?

Finally, here’s a comment from Scott Ostler in the San Francisco Chronicle showing that things can always be worse than they are:

“So far, Vick and his buddies have not been accused of forcing their dogs to watch the Tour de France.”

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

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Many baseball purists are in a funk today. Barry Bonds did hit his 756th home run last night. The man that many fear cheated his way to this hallowed record is now the man who has hit more home runs than anyone to ever play the game. Lightening sent from the Almighty as a sign that cheaters never win did not strike him dead before he could accomplish that feat. How dark is their day?

I look at this differently. Yes, I also believe that Barry Bonds used performance-enhancing drugs and that it was the combination of his innate skill and those anabolic steroids that produced this record. But I see this glass as 90% full instead of 10% empty. Now we will not have to suffer ESPN showing us every one of Barry Bonds’ at bats or long and drawn out close-ups of his face between pitches or shots of him in the dugout sitting alone and looking bored. We won’t have to read about the angst of Hank Aaron or about what Commissioner Bud Selig ought to do that he hasn’t done. It’s over; it happened; we can now get back to our normal sports fandom. And isn’t that a blessing?

I want to talk about something completely different [/Monty Python] today; there was some news in the business section that had an ominous ring. General Motors announced that it will no longer be an official sponsor of the Olympic Games after next year’s events in Beijing. One report had the value of this sponsorship deal at $700M while another said it was in the range of $1B; I have no idea what GM was paying out to the IOC and the networks for this sponsorship, so let’s call it $800M as a middle ground number just for fun. Why is this ominous?

Well, if you are GM, this is ominous because it probably indicates that this is a price tag that may exceed the capacity of the GM budget these days. The Olympics are colossally over-produced television events; I happen to find them hugely annoying to watch. But the Olympics draw huge audiences here in the US and abroad. To say that the Olympics do not deliver eyeballs to TV sets in a way that is economically beneficial to the sponsors would have to imply that advertising and promotions are not working well enough to justify such outrageous costs. And there’s the other side of the ominous tone here.

Maybe GM can’t afford to play in a game of these stakes anymore; indeed, this company is in deep yogurt financially. But maybe this is also the beginning of an expression of disbelief from sponsors about the huge costs of such sponsorships and advertising spots. To the sports fan, that second option has lots more impact than a financial implosion of GM.

I do not want to minimize the direct impact on those people who would lose their jobs if GM actually imploded; they would surely suffer directly. What I want to focus on here is the impact on the world of big time sports as we have come to know it. Look at the GM sponsorship of the Olympics as an $800M pot and realize that much of that money flows to NBC and then on to the IOC. If no one else steps up to claim that sponsorship at that price in 2012, NBC will be left holding the bag because they have a fixed price deal with the IOC for future Olympics television rights.

NBC is owned by General Electric; so even if NBC lost the full $800M on this deal, they can survive. Shareholders of GE – and I am one of them – would not be pleased with that result, but both entities would survive. However, how might such a loss make NBC view its bids for future television rights in other major sports? That’s where a ripple effect could make itself felt on the business of sports and sports fans.

I think it will be interesting to keep an eye on two things here:

1. Does another company step forward to claim the sponsorship role GM had with the Olympic Games at a similar level of financial commitment?

2. Does GM continue to buy huge blocks of time for NFL telecasts and specifically for the Super Bowl where 30 second spots cost multi-millions of dollars?

Meanwhile, several levels down on the financial scale, a minor league baseball team is doing something for charity that is worth noting. The New Hampshire Fisher Cats play in the Eastern League as the Toronto Blue Jays’ AA team. On August 25, they will change their team name to the “New Hampshire Primaries” – in honor of New Hampshire’s position as the state with the first Presidential primary election – and after the game, the team will auction off the game-worn jerseys with the proceeds going to a local charity. This may not be a deal worth $800M, but it’s definitely worth mentioning because it shows why minor league baseball is such an attractive product on the local level.

A couple of days ago, I said that if Michael Strahan said that his holdout had nothing to do with money, I would conclude that it had everything to do with money. Strahan has said just that. I need now to modify that position slightly after reading that Strahan and Lawrence Taylor are tied for the Giants’ all-time sack leadership. Money is a huge motivator for the modern athlete; so is ego gratification. One motivator tells Strahan to hold out and score a bigger deal; the other says to haul his butt into camp with about a week to go; then go out and record a sack; and then pull a hammy.

I read yesterday that Pacman Jones has indeed signed on with one of the wrestling promotion companies and will be part of an upcoming pay-per-view event. This is the activity that Pacman says will keep him out of trouble during his yearlong suspension from the NFL. Let it be said; let it be done.

Now for a Quick Quiz:

Which reputation – Pacman Jones’ or professional wrestling’s – will be damaged more by having Pacman perform as a ‘rassler?

500 words or less…

Here’s a public service announcement for everyone. Tonight is National Sneak Some Zucchini Onto Your Neighbor’s Porch Night. So, how will you be celebrating this?

Finally, here’s syndicated columnist, Norman Chad, presenting the case for the NHL playing two 30-minute halves instead of three 20-minute periods:

“The NHL should not continue to give viewers two 15-minute opportunities to find a more violent TV option. Let’s say you’re grazing around during the second intermission of a Penguins-Rangers game and come upon ‘The Godfather’. Are you going to reject Vito Corleone and return to Jaromir Jagr? I think not.”

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

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On more than a couple of occasions, I’ve made fun of Mark Cuban for his assertion that any publicity about a sport/league is good for that sport/league because it gets people talking about it and therefore might increase interest. In the vast majority of situations, I think that’s pretty silly, but maybe today we have the exception that proves the rule?

We now have reports of a possible betting scandal in men’s tennis. Point shaving by players and/or less than fully impartial referees/judges do not enhance a sport’s attractiveness in most circumstances; but in this case, these allegations have put men’s tennis on the front page of the sports section. And that is unfamiliar territory for men’s tennis over at least the last 10 years - - and maybe 20. In this case, it’s not that the scandal is getting more people talking about men’s tennis; it’s that people are not entirely ignoring men’s tennis and that is potentially a benefit - - even if the news is pretty bad.

In case you have ignored the story because you don’t follow men’s tennis, here’s a brief summary:

A British Internet wagering company, Betfair, actually voided all bets on an ATP match in Poland last weekend. They saw “irregular betting patterns.”

There were large sums of money wagered relative to the normal interest in such a match (approximately ten times more than Betfair would have expected) and lots more money was bet against the defending champion (Nickolay Davydenko) in this tournament than was bet on him. That’s always something bookmakers need to observe.

However, the “voiding of all bets” happened when wagers against the winner of the first set (Davydenko) actually increased as he acquired the lead in the match.

Davydenko retired with a foot/leg injury in the third set so those large wagers against him would indeed have been winning bets.

Normally, I ignore men’s tennis in these rants; it is a sport that flourished in the 1970s and 80s but it now commands about the same level of interest as professional lacrosse. And today, I led off with several paragraphs about men’s tennis. So, maybe Mark Cuban was correct in this instance. Or maybe this just shows the wisdom of the adage:

“Every cloud has a silver lining.”

Of course, the obverse of that adage would be:

“Every silver lining has a cloud around it.”

By the way, I’ve never seen tennis wagers or props in any of my trips to Las Vegas - - but then again I’ve never been to Vegas when major tennis tournaments like Wimbledon or the US Open were happening.

Apropos of nothing, here’s an item from Mike Bianchi’s column in the Orlando Sentinel last week:

“Did you see where O.J. Simpson turned 60 recently? A belated birthday song: ‘Happy birthday to Juice. He is no recluse. He’ll never rest easy. While the real killer’s still loose.’ “

C’mon and sing along. You know the tune…

With NFL camps in full swing, I want to identify three NFL players that I think are severely under-rated/under-appreciated.

1. Randy Thomas – OG, Washington Redskins: He is a very good player in the middle of a decent but hardly outstanding offensive line. Chris Samuels gets all the recognition on that OL, but Thomas is the better player. If Thomas gets hurt in training camp and can’t go this year, the Redskins may not win more than the 5 games they won last year.

2. David Carr – QB, Carolina Panthers: The reason he “didn’t get it done” in Houston is that he was routinely buried under a significant fraction of a ton of defensive players. I’m not saying he is the next coming of John Unitas, but he’s not someone who should have been run out of Houston by such a bad football team.

3. Tommie Harris – DT, Chicago Bears: All I can say here is that the Bears’ defense was significantly less fearsome once he got hurt last season.

College football teams are preparing for their seasons too. The following is a statement from Wake Forest defensive lineman, Matt Robinson, which shows that he has definitely been practicing his interview skills wherein he says a lot of words that don’t add up to a lot of information. He may be ready for the pros already based on the following:

“There is no one in the country that can come out on the field and beat us. But we also realize there’s no one that we can’t get beat by. So long as we keep that in our heads …”

Let me finish that last sentence for him.

So long as we keep that in our heads we’ll be sufficiently confused about the capabilities of our opponents that we might not be able to remember whether our protective cups go in the front or the back.

Lon Krueger is the head basketball coach at UNLV; before that, he had been at Illinois. Recently, Krueger had sextuple coronary bypass surgery taking four hours. The news release said this was not an “emergency procedure”. I guess that means he didn’t arrive at the hospital in an ambulance having had the paddles discharged across his chest a half dozen times because the idea of having to replace SIX portions of the arteries that feed the heart muscle seems pretty much like an emergency to me.

Finally, here’s an observation from Greg Cote in the Miami Herald:

“Parting thought: In Pamplona, nine people were gored in the annual ‘Running of the Bulls’. Medics said all nine were suffering from being idiots for allowing themselves to be chased by wild bulls.”

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

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For the past week or so, there has been an obvious and necessary focus on Barry Bonds’ progress toward breaking the all-time home run record. It doesn’t matter if you think he achieved the record with “chemical enhancement” or not; it is a huge milestone and the chase to break that record should be followed closely. At the same time, there has also been a large and largely unnecessary focus on Alex Rodriguez’ efforts to hit his 500th career home run. I don’t mean to diminish that feat; not many players ever get to that level, but it isn’t so exclusive a “club” that it needs such intense media attention. And it gets worse…

Commentators are talking about how A-Rod can project to hitting more than 800 home runs in his career and that he might surpass Barry Bonds in 2012 or 2013. If that is a portent of things to come – meaning that A-Rod’s chase to catch Barry Bonds – is going to start as soon as Bonds hits his 756th home run, I’d like to get off that train right now. I surely don’t need to hear about this in any level of detail for the next five or six or seven years. I’d like to propose a moratorium on this as soon as A-Rod hits his 500th and lift that moratorium only when he is about to hit his 600th and/or 700th. Then maybe the next “home run chase” can start up again.

Michael Strahan is not in training camp with the Giants. He says he is considering retirement; others have suggested he wants to renegotiate his contract with the Giants because he is playing “below market value” now that the cap has expanded; still others have said that this is merely a ploy by a veteran who just doesn’t need all the hassle of another training camp run by a martinet of a coach. Since I do not read minds, I have no idea what is actually going on within his cranium or between him and his agent. Here is what I do know about Michael Strahan’s finances.

A court ordered him to hand over $15.3M to his ex-wife as a result of their hugely nasty divorce proceedings; and in addition, the court ordered child support payments of $18K per month. [That’s $216K per year in case the batteries in your calculator are dead.] People say Strahan will head to the broadcast booth when he is finished playing. If he gets with a network, he will make a nice salary but it will be quite a while in that industry until he surpasses the $4M+ he will make this year and next year as a defensive end. I haven’t yet heard him say anything along the lines of “It’s not about the money.” If I hear him say that, then I’ll conclude that it is only about the money.

Strahan’s argument that he is playing “below market value” does have merit. Gaines Adams is a rookie defensive end for the Bucs; he was taken very early in the NFL Draft in April and has never played a single down for any team in the NFL. Adams signed a contract for the next 6 years that will pay him up to $45M with a signing bonus of $15M. Gaines Adams may become a Hall of Fame caliber player some day; on the other hand, he could become a journeyman defensive end; time will tell. But in 2007, he cashed a $15M check and will earn more as his salary for the season. Michael Strahan will cash checks from the Giants in the amount of $4M or so. Strahan isn’t making “market value money” because the market has gone haywire.

Here’s a thought. Maybe it’s time for Gene Upshaw and Roger Goodell to think about an amendment to the CBA that would adapt the NBA concept of a rookie salary schedule to the NFL. That change could serve two positive purposes from the standpoint of the union and the league:

1. Rookies would tend to sign more quickly and be in training camp on time. Quarterbacks JaMarcus Russell and Brady Quinn are still not in camp because they are haggling over contract terms. The numbers being tossed around in Russell’s case seem to indicate that his agent is looking for guaranteed money over the life of the contract in excess of $30M - - for someone who has never taken a snap in the NFL.

2. Current players – the veterans who have “paid their dues” in the league – would have to get more money since there is a salary floor for every team in addition to a salary cap. If the Raiders, for example, don’t spend all of that $30M on JaMarcus Russell, they’ll have to spend it on other players such as the ones already on their team or other free agents.

Owners of sports teams have been known to say some really stupid things. Leon Hess said he was in his eighties and didn’t have a lot of time left to win a Super Bowl and that was why he hired Richie Kotite to coach the Jets. Marge Schott called Dave Parker her “million dollar [n-word]” and opined that Adolf Hitler did good things in the beginning but “just went too far.” Those are classically stupid comments. Now we have another potential entry in this race to infamy simply because of its insensitivity and self-absorption. In the wake of the bridge collapse in Minneapolis, here’s what Zygi Wilf had to say:

“We all understand that there has to be a focus on the infrastructure, that we have to dedicate ourselves to make transportation a priority for the sake of safety and for the sake of a growing community that needs transportation infrastructure that will move us into the 21st century. That does not exclude the fact that we understand that the Metrodome is also one of the oldest facilities in the league, and we want to make sure that we have a facility that meets the standards of the 21st century.”

Now, if you are a legislator in Minnesota or a civic leader, do those comments make you more willing to work to find a way to build him a new football stadium or less willing? Is Wilf trying to assure that there is no new stadium built there so he can move the team somewhere? Or did he just run blindfolded through the Forest of Stupidity without missing a single tree? You make the call.

Finally, two observations from Scott Ostler in the San Francisco Chronicle:

1. “If steroids don’t help you hit a baseball better, or pitch a baseball better, they must be awfully damn tasty, because a lot of guys risked their dignity, health and careers to take ‘em.”

2. “Every time [Barry] Bonds sits out so he can ‘freshen up’ [manager Bruce Bochy’s phrase], I think of the line from Airplane – ‘Looks like I picked the wrong week to give up amphetamines.’ “

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

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