May 1, 2008
Where Are The Hypersensitive NCAA Folks?
I am really surprised that those mighty protectors of all things noble and good - - and inoffensive to anyone and everyone – in the NCAA have missed out on this one. Those are the folks who forced schools to change their nicknames because they might have been offensive to some – but not all – Native Americans. These are the folks who try to regulate or at least put boundaries on the kinds of signs that might appear at NCAA games or on the themes of halftime shows by some collegiate bands. These are mightily sensitive folks; you would have thought they would have acted by now.
You see, the NCAA gives out an award every year to the best pitcher in college baseball and they call it the Roger Clemens Award. Now if the NCAA will force changes in team mascots and try to limit the expression of students at NCAA events on the possibility that someone might be offended, don’t you think they ought to change the name of that award? Might not someone, somewhere, be offended by the allegations of steroid and HGH use followed by an assertion that Clemens and an underage girl had a relationship of some kind? What about the feelings of those potentially offended folks? Shouldn’t there be some kind of appreciation for their outrage at NCAA headquarters?
As the tawdry part of the Roger Clemens story continues to play out in the media, I am amazed at how the mighty have fallen. Two years ago, Roger Clemens name was being associated with Christy Matthewson and Walter Johnson and Sandy Koufax as one of the great pitchers of all time. Now his name is being associated with Jerry Lee Lewis and Luis Polonia. Sic transit gloria mundi.
There was a column in the LA Times earlier this week by Wallace Matthews. It puts a perspective on Roger Clemens situation without any grand rhetorical flourish. I commend it to your reading.
According to a column by Craig Smith in the Seattle Times, a high school pitcher in Spokane Washington struck out 21 hitters in a 7-inning game. Do the math. He struck out every batter. Two years ago, a columnist might have allowed himself to do a huge extrapolation and refereed to this kid as “the next Roger Clemens”. I don’t think there is any great temptation to do that today…
Staying with baseball pitchers for a moment, here is a quick quiz courtesy of Dwight Perry in the Seattle Times:
“Barry Trotz” is:
“A. The coach of the NHL’s Nashville Predators.
“B. A digestive-tract disorder that afflicts Giants fans whenever Zito takes the mound.”
After the Chicago Cubs lost to the Washington Nats by a shutout, Cubbies’ manager Lou Piniella did a post game interview on cable TV for the Chicago area. According to the Chicago Tribune, he said:
“When you don’t score runs, it definitely increases the other teams’ chance of winning.”
I should say so. Since baseball allows no tie games to exist, if you don’t score the chances that the other team will eventually win are 100%.
There are headlines proclaiming that the European Champions League title will be contested between two English soccer teams. Manchester United will play the winner of a Liverpool/Chelsea match in Moscow for the European Cup. Here is another potential “first” for this match up – even though I would not know how to gather the data to prove it:
If the final teams are Manchester United and Liverpool, not only will this be the first time two English teams have played for the championship, but also this has to be the first time that both teams in the finals would be owned by Americans.
I haven’t seen any reference to that in any of the British papers that I scan online but if this happens, I will expect to see a reference to the intrusion of those bloody colonials into “the beautiful game”. After all, those blokes over there don’t know football from a foot stocking…
High definition television has to be the best thing that has happened to the NHL in the last 50 years. Ratings for the NHL on NBC were up 11% this year and ratings on Versus are up more than 25% for the playoff games so far. Be careful about reading too much into ratings increase on Versus; the number was trivially small to begin with so a 25% increase is really a very small increase in viewers. But it beats a decrease by a mile!!
NBC also announced that it will exercise its option to do NHL games next year putting the NHL on Sunday for at least 10 games. This may not be as good as having ESPN pick up the telecast rights – and putting the full ESPN cross-promotional hype machine on the case. But it beats no TV exposure other than Versus by a mile!!
Here’s what I think would really make hockey more exciting on TV – now that Hi-Def allows you to follow the puck easily. If the league were to contract to somewhere between 16 and 20 teams and put another three or four teams in Canadian cities where the fans really care about the game, there would be energy in all of the games. I’ve never been to Winnipeg or Regina so I don’t know if there are sufficient numbers of fans there to garner TV ratings for games involving those teams but I just know that the fans in the building there would be passionate hockey fans and I would be able to sense that as a viewer at home. Watching a game with the local fans in Atlanta or Florida or Columbus? Not so much…
Finally, Greg Cote had this item in the Miami Herald recently:
“Dale Earnhardt Jr. has opened a new bar, Whisky River, in Charlotte, N.C. Cannot confirm the bar aims to be a place where people can come in, relax and feel like they haven’t won a race in 70 consecutive starts.'’
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports…
Hope the 21 K kid has better luck than Ron Necciai, 27 Ks in a 9 inning game in D ball (there was a groundout early, but a 4 K 9th)
http://www.blueridgecountry.com/necciai/
Old Roger is now linked with one of John Daly’s exes too… real class act
VERSUS NHL ratings up 25% !!! They got a fifth viewer!!
BTW - The St John’s U Redmen were once a proud Big East basketball program - Chris Mullin, Walter Berry, Louie Carnesecca (sp)- briefly even ranked #1 in the mid 80s - classic battles with Georgetown. Then they changed their name to Red Storm - seen them lately? The jinx of the Red Storm…
Well the Cubbies certainly figured out how to score runs in one game. Wonder what the stats are for scoring 19 in a regulation game. Not enough wonder to do any searching whatsoever on the stat, mind you, but wonder just the same.
I’m not sure what the NHL has to do to gain a following in the US. I like the occasional game when I see it but it never did strike my fancy as the glorious NFL does. Getting some exposure might help but Hockey seems to be missing that one thing that I can’t put my finger on. I’ve watched more NHL this year than MLB but I watched and listened to more about the NFL draft than the two combined. I’m not sure if the fans in the audience really make that much of a deal. I can’t remember caring about the fans in an NFL game. I just don’t know what can be done to make Hockey relevant anymore. Well, except to apply MMA rules to any scrum that takes place. Just take down the plexiglass and put up chain link. Too WWE perhaps?
JJC:
Most of the NFL games you will see on TV nationally are games where there is “energy” in the stadium. Unless you are in a local feed area where you have to see a gawd-awful game in mid to late season where no one gives a damn, none of the games you’ll be exposed to are snoozers. The NFL minimizes the exposure of its bad games because it has lots of good to very good ones to offer to networks.
If you watch regular season NHL games and see one in an area where hockey has not “captured the imagination of the populace”, you can see the game on the screen but you’ll see/hear nothing there to help you care about the outcome.
A similar situation exists with regard to MLS. If you see a DC United game on TV from DC, you’ll see and hear a raucous and enthusiastic crowd. You might even think they imported those folks from Europe. Then watch another MLS game on Fox Soccer Channel from a city where soccer is an afterthought - - ooops the Columbus Crew comes to mind again. The atmosphere surrounding the game is not quite funereal, but it’s close.
Crowd enthusiasm is part of what comes through the TV set to create a sense of “specialness” in a sporting event. And in too many of the telecast NHL games I see, that is a missing element…
“I just know that the fans in the building there would be passionate hockey fans and I would be able to sense that as a viewer at home. Watching a game with the local fans in Atlanta or Florida or Columbus? Not so much”
As a hockey fan from Columbus, I take exception to their inclusion in the list. Due to a lack of national exposure, most of the rest of the country forgets the Blue Jackets exist, but they’re certainly a major factor around here. Every time I go to a game at our local facility, the arena is rockin’ and folks care.
This may change if they don’t start winning soon, but for now…
Ed:
The Jinx of the Red Storm. I love it.
Tony:
Since the Blue Jackets are not on national TV all that often, I will admit that I have not seen them more than 3 or 4 times in the last two years.
However, when I have seen them, the crowd does not compare in “enthusiasm” or “intensity” or “whatever term you like here” with places like Toronto or Detroit or Vancouver.
Maybe it’s because the team isn’t at the top of the league at the moment? Maybe there is just more “hockey passion” in other cities?