The Sports Curmudgeon®

Today is Groundhog Day and I am in south central Pennsylvania - - albeit not in Punxsutawney, PA. All I can say is that damned rodent had better not see his shadow today and head back into his hole because it has been colder than a well-digger’s “private parts” this weekend and this part of the world is in need of some hints of spring.

A recent announcement from the folks who run the Iditarod - - where it is even colder than it is here - - told of the fact that they were going to “test mushers for drugs and alcohol” in March proximal to the race. At about the same time, the organizers of the Iditarod announced that they had lost significant funding over the last year and would have to cut purses for this year’s race by $100 – 200K. Here is a suggestion:

Do not spend money on drug and alcohol testing and put those savings into purse money.

No one cares if the mushers are “on something”. In fact, if you gave truth serum to most sports fans and asked them if they thought you would have to be “on something” to subject yourself to the conditions of the Iditarod, 90% would say something like, “Of course they are…”

I read over the weekend that the Obama Administration is considering changing the venue of the trial of Khalid Shiek Mohammed from New York City. I do not want to get into any discussion as to whether or not he should be tried in a US court under US legal rules; I want to address the potential change of venue. According to reports in the NY Daily News, the city fathers in NYC want the trial to be elsewhere because it will cots the city a ton of money in terms of added security as the trial proceeds. I agree; that will be a huge burden on the city. HOW-EVAH:

The same city fathers in NYC spent more than a bit of money and expended a lot of effort and rhetorical gas just a few years ago trying to bring the Olympic Games to NYC. Excuse me, but what might the security costs be for that goat rope? I do not care where this trial takes place but is there even a shred of shame left in NYC politicos? If you do not want to spend money stupidly on security measures, so be it; but please stop trying to woo the IOC to come to your town…

And speaking of the Olympics, let’s look for a moment at the latest projections as to what this will mean to the lovely city of Vancouver in the next month or so. The original concept for the Winter Games 2010 called for an expenditure of $660M of taxpayer funds. The latest estimates have the expenditure level closing in on $6B and the meter is still running. Oh, by the way, the security costs for the Winter Games were estimated to be $175M, which is hardly chump change. Notwithstanding that fact, the final security costs alone should exceed $1B. Vancouver will not come close to recouping those costs; NBC will lose its shirt on the telecast rights. So, will anyone tell me why any city in any moderately developed country would want the Olympic Games held there - - unless the IOC footed the bill for the costs in their entirety?

Greg Oden has had injuries to both knees in his brief NBA career; Tony Kornheiser says that Oden is as fragile as a China doll. Now we have the reports that nude images of Greg Oden are on the Internet exposing to the world Oden’s third leg - - so to speak. Question:

Can he possibly find a way to blow out the knee in that third leg too?

With all of the angst that spilled out regarding which cap Andre Dawson would have on his bust in the Hall of Fame, Cubs’ fans have taken the news that it will be an Expos’ cap and not a Cubs’ cap as a reason to continue to lament the fact that their beloved Ron Santo has not yet been voted into the Hall of Fame. Longtime readers here know that I believe that there should be a Hall of Fame in addition to a Hall of Very Good Players. And the major criterion for getting into my version of the Hall of Fame is pretty simple:

You just know that the player in question belongs in the Hall of Fame.

Willie Mays belongs in the Hall of Fame. Mike Schmidt belongs in the Hall of Fame. Ernie Banks belongs in the Hall of Fame. Stan Musial belongs in the Hall of Fame. Ted Williams belongs in the Hall of Fame. Sandy Koufax belongs in the Hall of Fame. Tom Seaver belongs in the Hall of Fame. You get the idea…

Now, for all sports fans who do not sleep in Chicago Cubs pajamas, are you certain that Ron Santo belongs in that same Hall of Fame with those other players? Here is a good rule of thumb:

If you have to resort to lengthy statistical arguments to draw your inference, then the player in question belongs in the Hall of Very Good Players…

The Los Angeles Sol of the Women’s Pro Soccer League folded last week after one year of existence. The Sol were the property of AEG Worldwide, which is hardly a fly-by-night shoestring operation; take a look at their website to see all of the things they own wholly or in part. The Sol had the consensus best women’s soccer player on the planet – Marta from Brazil – on the roster; nevertheless, in a strong soccer market in Los Angeles, the team could not draw decent crowds to the Home Depot Center.

The last time folks tried to create a women’s pro soccer league in the US was right after the US women’s team won the World Cup and Brandi Chastain made sports bras famous. That league lost a ton of money in its first year and then tried to get by for enough time to become viable; it failed. History seems to be repeating itself now with the Women’s Pro Soccer League…

Did you notice that 42-year-old Matt Stairs signed a deal with the San Diego Padres last week? If there were a proposition bet as to how many games in the 2010 season Matt Stairs would use a fielder’s glove in anger and the over/under line was 2.5 games, I would take the Under.

Did you watch the Pro Bowl? I caught a few brief moments and felt badly for wasting those moments of my life. Even if you believe the hype that this is a “fans’ game” and the fans should get to see whomever they want to see, the game had to be a disappointment. Fans wanted to see Peyton Manning or Tom Brady or Philip Rivers be the QB of the AFC team. None was there; neither was Carson Palmer nor Ben Roethlisberger. Instead the QB depth chart for the AFC was (in alphabetical order):

David Garrard
Matt Schaub
Vince Young.

Pardon me if I am underwhelmed here…

David Garrard can now lay claim to the fact that he is a “Pro Bowler” despite the fact that no one outside the Garrard nuclear family would even pretend that he had a 2009 season comparable with a half-dozen other AFC quarterbacks. I do not mean to pick on David Garrard because there are other examples to be had here, but the label “Pro Bowl Player” has become significantly diluted in recent seasons…

Finally, let me yield the floor to David Whitley of AOL Fanhouse regarding the Pro Bowl:

“What if they threw a Pro Bowl and a Missouri Valley Conference All-Star Game broke out? Hold on to your tickets, football fans. It just might happen. The Pro Bowl is scheduled for Sunday in Miami, meaning there is still time for the remaining starters to be replaced by David Garrard’s pool boy. It seems everybody who’s anybody won’t be showing up at the supposedly new and improved game. In short, this is the worst NFL facelift since Jerry Jones.”

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