Monthly Archives: June 2009

A Modern Beatitude

June 16, 2009 – 8:47 am

I have had this note on my clipboard for about a month now but had to wait until today to see if I could use it. Yesterday was the day by which all underclassmen who had declared for the NBA Draft needed to make a final declaration; up [until yesterday they could withdraw their names [...]

By The Sports Curmudgeon | Posted in Daily Rants | Comments (3)

Pittsburgh Versus Detroit

June 15, 2009 – 7:59 am

Last Friday night, the Pittsburgh Penguins traveled to Detroit to play Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals. On that same night, the Detroit Tigers traveled to Pittsburgh to play the Pirates in an interleague baseball game. I have looked to see what the TV ratings for those games in Detroit and Pittsburgh were but [...]

By The Sports Curmudgeon | Posted in Daily Rants | Comments (4)

Economics And Soccer…

June 12, 2009 – 11:44 am

I know that Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernanke, and Secretary of the Treasury, Timothy Geithner, have more important things to do than read the sports pages. Nonetheless, I hope they have glanced there to learn that the global economic downturn is over – – at least in Spain. There is plenty of discretionary spending going [...]

By The Sports Curmudgeon | Posted in Daily Rants | Comments (4)

Who Wants To Replace Tim Floyd At USC?

June 11, 2009 – 9:57 am

Tim Floyd resigned as the basketball coach at USC. Obviously, I am not privy to the inner workings of that situation at USC, but the timing of this split seems awkward. The NCAA announced that it was looking into recruiting irregularities with regard to OJ Mayo several months ago. At that point, Floyd and USC [...]

By The Sports Curmudgeon | Posted in Daily Rants | Comments (7)

Novelty Is Not Necessarily Progress

June 10, 2009 – 9:27 am

A couple of day ago, I mentioned how the LPGA Commissioner thought it would be a good idea if players “Twittered” in the midst of their rounds in LPGA events. That led to a reader comment and so I want to put a perspective on my sense that Twitter is not going to “save” women’s [...]

By The Sports Curmudgeon | Posted in Daily Rants | Comments (0)

Don’t Know What’s Missing Here

June 9, 2009 – 8:40 am

I truly do not know what is missing here but the first two games of the NBA Finals have been unsatisfying. I have no dog in this fight; I have no particular attachment to or aversion to either the Lakers or the Magic. But the first game was a boring blowout and the second game [...]

By The Sports Curmudgeon | Posted in Daily Rants | Comments (2)

The Franchise Babe

June 8, 2009 – 9:53 am

If you have not read Dan Jenkins’ latest novel, The Franchise Babe, let me recommend it to you without reservation. This novel is better than Dead Solid Perfect was and is on a par with Semi-Tough. The story revolves around a golf writer for a national sports magazine – I wonder who the model for [...]

By The Sports Curmudgeon | Posted in Topical Rants | Comments (3)

Memphis Finds Nothing Wrong … Sure!

June 5, 2009 – 12:26 am

The University of Memphis concluded an internal investigation and found no basis to believe the allegations that there were any improprieties at all associated with its 2008 Final Four basketball team. No one took a player’s SAT tests for him; no high school grades were changed; everyone who played on that team took real academic [...]

By The Sports Curmudgeon | Posted in Daily Rants | Comments (3)

Sports Teams May Never Look The Same

June 4, 2009 – 12:17 am

For reasons driven by the economy, the appearance of sports in the US is undergoing a subtle – for the moment – but significant change. For a long time in Europe, soccer clubs have had product sponsorships on their game jerseys/uniforms. In the US, there was a kerfuffle a few years ago when jockeys started [...]

By The Sports Curmudgeon | Posted in Daily Rants | Comments (6)

Is “One-And-Done” The Problem?

June 3, 2009 – 8:48 am

Marc Isenberg writes an interesting blog called “Money Players”. The blog focuses on the business aspects of sports and it often has interesting entries because they are analytical in addition to being reportorial. His entry from yesterday was titled: “Does ‘one-and-done’ lead to increased cheating?” This refers to the allegations leveled at Memphis basketball, Derrick [...]

By The Sports Curmudgeon | Posted in Daily Rants | Comments (4)