The Sports Curmudgeon

Al Kaline died yesterday at the age of 85.  Kaline played 22 years for the Detroit Tigers and then went on to be a broadcaster for Tigers’ games for another 25 years or so.  His stature as one of the all-time great players in MLB combined with his long-term association with a single team made him an iconic baseball figure.

Rest in peace, Al Kaline.

It was about a year ago when there was a flurry of salacious reports related to Orchids of Asia – that strip mall massage parlor where Robert Kraft allegedly received services beyond a therapeutic massage.  As I recall, the police and the prosecutors in that Florida case asserted that the spa was part of a multi-million dollar international sex trafficking ring and that they had used that suspicion as the basis for a court-issued warrant to do video surveillance inside the spa.  Moreover, the portrayal of that spa – – and others allegedly tied to the sex trafficking ring – – was one of wretched conditions where the sex slaves were forced to sleep on the massage tables and could not leave the premises because their passports had been confiscated.  It was a pretty grim story; in addition, it was a false narrative.

After several months of lurid stories asserted by prosecutors, a Florida court was informed that no sex trafficking happened in the Orchids of Asia spa – and presumably at the other spas that were linked to the case.  The video evidence collected regarding Robert Kraft’s dalliance in the spa has been ruled impermissible as evidence because the warrant used to collect it was flawed.  Other evidence proffered by the prosecutors has also been dismissed in the case.  What is left is the Robert Kraft is still charged with soliciting prostitution – he continues to fight that charge – and that is only a misdemeanor in Florida.

A year ago, the image of Robert Kraft was as a rich guy who did as he pleased and figured that “the rules” did not apply to him.  As those lurid reports began to unravel, it is interesting that the same sort of opprobrium was not heaped upon the “Law and Order guys” in the matter.  Recently, the image of Robert Kraft seems to have gotten a significant makeover.

Working with the Governor of Massachusetts, Robert Kraft sent a Patriots’ team plane to China where they somehow got it loaded with more than a million N95 protective masks needed by health care workers battling the COVID-19 pandemic.  The bulk of those masks will remain in Massachusetts but 300,000 of them were donated to New York City.

Of course, what Robert Kraft did for Massachusetts and NYC is laudable; if Mayor de Blasio does not give Robert Kraft the “Key to the City” once the pandemic is under control, Hizzoner should be placed in stocks in a public square for a day or so.  Let me ask the Patriot-haters reading this to sit down now as a safety precaution:

• Perhaps Robert Kraft deserves the Presidential Medal of Freedom for this delivery?

[Aside:  Before the Patriot-haters get themselves into high dudgeon, please remember that Whittaker Chambers, Eddie DeBartolo, Bill Cosby and Aung San Suu Kyi are prior recipients of that award.]

However, just as the whole “Orchids of Asia” story had a bunch of loose ends, so it would seem does this one.  It is not possible to tune into CNN – or most other TV news outlets these days – without hearing governors from various states saying that they are running short of protective equipment for health care workers and that they cannot buy any new supplies.  There are stories that the states are bidding against one another and that the Feds are also in the auction game outbidding the states.  OK, I’ll buy that for the moment.  Now, how about those news sources probing this matter a bit more thoroughly:

• How did Robert Kraft find a way in just a few days to fly a plane – his own plane to be sure – into China, load it with more than a million needed N95 protective masks and fly it back to Logan Airport in Boston when various governors and the Feds are not doing the same thing?

Every time I hear one of those governors speaking into a microphone, they say that they are working night and day on the pandemic problem and that they are leaving no stones unturned worldwide to secure the PPE – personal protective equipment – for the health care workers in their state.  If that is true, how does a rich guy just waltz into the middle of this jumble and get possession of more than a million pieces of such rare and cherished cargo?  Maybe the governors should take some time away from their microphones and ask Robert Kraft how he did what they keep saying is vitally important to them.  Just asking…

The postponement of the Tokyo Olympics 2020 will cause lots of scrambling and reorganization of logistical matters in order to pull off Tokyo Olympics 2021.  The folks involved in that massive undertaking have 15 months or so to “get it done” and I am confident that they will make the Games happen.  There is a shorter-term casualty involved here that seems to have gotten much less attention:

• NBC was supposed to broadcast more than 7500 hours of Olympic coverage on TV and on streaming platforms.  There is no way that they are going to have 7500 hours of “dead air” in July/August 2020 and there is also no way for them to produce 7500 hours of new programming between now and July/August 2020.

This is serious business; advertising revenue anticipated from the Summer Games is not going to be there on the books for the year.  Executive bonuses are in jeopardy.  Holy belt-tightening, Batman!  Here is some of what we might expect:

• NBC has a cache of Law and Order SUV episodes that date back about 20 years.  If they play them sequentially as reruns, we can watch Marissa Hargitay’s career progression from Detective through Captain.
• NBC has available reruns of Chicago Fire, Chicago P.D and Chicago Med.  Maybe they will have time to produce a few episodes of a new series – Chicago Veterinarian – to augment that line of broadcasting.

I would suggest that NBC execs might be in line for the Presidential Medal of Freedom simply if they refuse to yield to the temptation to give us reruns of America’s Got Talent and Miami Vice.

Finally, here is a timely comment from Bob Molinaro of the Hampton Roads Virginian-Pilot:

“Worth saluting: Good news for some of us of a certain generation. Under the current self-distancing rules, it’s now a patriotic act to yell, ‘Get off my lawn!’”

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

 

 

Last week, Chase Daniel signed on to be the backup QB for the Lions; reports said that the deal was 3 years for $13M.  Given the numbers associated with QB signings these days, that dollar figure is not eye-popping.  What made me stop and think for a moment was that the deal was for 3 years.  In the back of my mind, I had Chase Daniel in a mental slot where I didn’t think he had 3 years left in him.  So, I went looking…

Chase Daniel will be 34 years old in October; I thought he was at least 4 years older than that; I was wrong.  In the process of checking up on his age – and his stats – I came to the conclusion that Chase Daniel could very well be part of the NFL for several more decades.

• Daniel played his college football at Missouri and his senior year stats (in 2008) were more than respectable.  Nonetheless, he was an undrafted free agent who signed on with the Skins – – but never made it out of training camp.
• The Saints picked him up and he spent 3 seasons there.  He has a Super Bowl ring from that part of his career.
• He then meandered around the league – Chiefs, Eagles, Saints (again), Bears – before signing this deal with the Lions.
• Daniel has started only 5 games in 10 years in the NFL; his record in those starts is 2-3.
• Counting this current contract, it appears that he has earned between $30M and $35M as a backup QB and as a placekick holder.

I said above that Daniel may be around the NFL for decades.  Obviously, he will not do that as a player but given the “reviews” he gets as a backup QB who quickly learns new systems and given the wide range of contacts he has established in his meanderings, it looks to me as if Chase Daniel has set himself up to become a QB coach when his playing days are over.  If he plays out his current deal, Daniel will be 36 years old the next time he has to “find a new job” …

Sticking with the NFL, the new CBA provides for the NFL to play a 17-game regular season starting as early as the 2021 season.  Since this was a major issue for the owners, one should assume that they will implement that change as soon as the logistics and legalities can be ironed out.  The obvious benefit for the owners is that they can sell an extra weekend of “activity” to their “network partners” and that means increased revenue.  For many players, the 17-game season was a bad idea for health and injury reasons.  The players received a fairly significant increase in their share of the revenue in exchange for their agreement to the 17-game season, and there’s more.

I am not here to say which side got the better part of this last negotiation; I am not nearly qualified to do that.  However, in exchange for the 17-game season and the expanded playoff format:

• The roster of active players for each game will increase from 46 to 48 players.  [Aside: I have never quite understood why there was a 53-man roster but only some of the players on that roster were eligible to play on “any given Sunday”.]
• The 53-man roster will become a 55-man roster because two players on the practice squad can be assigned to the main roster every week.  [Aside:  No; I do not understand the cosmic significance of this one either.]
• The practice squad itself will increase from 10 players now to 12 players under the new CBA.  Moreover, practice squad players will get a raise; under the old CBA they made $8K for every week they were on the practice squad; as of 2022 they will be making $11.5K per week for every week they are on the practice squad.  That means there are more players – and more union members.

The biggest concession won by the players in this last negotiation was the increased share of the national revenue contained in the new CBA.  It was 47% in the old CBA; it will go to 48% immediately in the new CBA and could go as high as 48.8% depending on the outcome of the league’s negotiations for new broadcast rights deals.  An increase of 1.8% may not sound like a lot until you recognize that the current league revenues are about $16B.  That seemingly small increase here translates to an extra $288M for players as the basis for salary cap calculations.  Moreover, that revenue number is likely to increase significantly when new TV deals take effect.

Two players – who obviously do not like the new CBA and surely voted against its ratification – have now filed suit to nullify the deal and its ratification.  Russell Okung is the plaintiff in one suit and Eric Reid is the plaintiff in the second one.  I have tried to understand the basis for Okung’s complaint to the National Labor Relations Board, but it is over my head.  He says at one point that the NFLPA – the union representing the players – used illegal means to prevent debate regarding the new CBA.  Believe me, it is not nearly as simple as that might sound.  Eric Reid’s suit alleges that the CBA that was ratified is not the one that was signed and agreed to because there were changes after the ratification vote.  You may be certain that I am not going to go and try to “prove” or “disprove” those sorts of things.

Switching gears …  This may be a sign of the apocalypse but there are online proposition bets tied to Wrestlemania this year.  The show will take place this weekend and according to an offshore Internet sportsbook, here is one option that does not have anything to do with the outcome of the ‘rasslin’ matches themselves:

• Will Donald Trump Tweet about Wrestlemania?  Yes = +600  No = -1500

Finally, here is an entry from The Official Dictionary of Sarcasm:

“Decaf:  Coffee that doesn’t work.”

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

 

 

I don’t know what the status of the Sports Section in your local paper is today, but I can tell you that the lack of activity in the sports world has shrunk the Washington Post Sports Section down to 3 pages and it is now appended to the Style Section.  The only good news to come out of such a situation is that there is more room for the Post’s talented writers to fill and many of the columns go deeper into subjects than they typically were able to do.

With that as a prelude, let me point you to a column by Sally Jenkins that appeared in the Washington Post earlier this week.  The overall thread of the column is that the USOC sought to get money from the Congress as part of the recently passed relief legislation and Jenkins argues that what the Congress should have done was to dissolve the USOC as an entity that gets any Federal support.  This column should be read in its entirety.

Speaking obliquely of the Olympics, there are reports that the “sport” of breakdancing is close to attaining Olympic status.  There will be a meeting in December 2020 where a vote will be taken regarding the inclusion of breakdancing in the Paris 2024 Games.  Breakdancing was labeled a “provisional sport” by a unanimous vote by an Olympic committee a couple of years ago.

The US seems to be in the mainstream of whatever efforts there are to gain acceptance for breakdancing.  An organization called USA Breaking seems to be setting itself up to be the country’s governing body for breakdancing as a support to the point where USA Breaking has developed a rulebook for the sport which sets out that scoring system that would be used in events sanctioned by USA Breaking.  The current idea is to have the competitors scored by 3 judges and then to average out the 3 scores given.

As you might imagine, breakdancing as a sport will hold exactly none of my interest even though the participants will be accomplishing athletic feats.  Dwight Perry offered this analysis of breakdancing as a sport in the Seattle Times a while back:

“There’s talk that breakdancing might be a medal sport at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.

“Just think if it as Mary Lou Retton at hyperspeed on pavement.”

Regarding MLB, there is still plenty of uncertainty regarding the 2020 season – if there is to be one.  We don’t know when it will start, how many games will constitute a regular season, if there will be fans in the stands for all the games, what the playoffs might be like and etc.  However, we know a few things.  ESPN reported that the players and the owners have agreed on some general principles for starting the baseball season; according to those reports, the season should not begin until:

• Any existing travel restrictions are lifted.
• Medical folks assess that the risk to players and fans is minimal.
• Restrictions on mass gatherings are lifted.

The first two of those general principles will probably hold; the third one may need to be modified because the ban on mass gatherings may continue to exist after the first tow conditions have been met.  If that were to be the case, MLB would likely choose to play in an empty stadium rather than sit back and wait for the mass gathering restriction to go away.

A couple of other “baseball happenings” deserve some comment here simply because they run counter to a lot of what is considered “normal behavior”.  MLB owners are often portrayed as ultra-rich people who exploit players and fans simply to make their fat wallets even fatter.  When it comes time for contract negotiations and/or CBA negotiations, the players are often portrayed in similar ways because they make so much more money that typical employees do in other industries.  Well, today, there are three items that run counter to those portrayals:

1. The MLB owners will extend $400/week as stipends and will continue to offer full medical benefits to their minor league players through 31 May.  Minor league players are not represented by a union; the MLB owners are not obligated to do this; $400/week represents about what a minor league player would earn in a normal season so this is close to “full salary” while not working.
2. Additionally, MLB has shelved – at least for now – the idea of getting rid of about 40 minor league teams that are affiliated with MLB clubs.  What that does is to preserve about a thousand of these admittedly low-paying minor league jobs for the time being.  MLB owners are in a time of lower revenue and they have stopped pushing for a way to reduce their costs at the same time.
3. Texas Rangers’ outfielder Shin-Soo Choo will give every minor league player in the Rangers’ farm system $1000.  According to a report I read, the Rangers have 190 minor league players under contract so you can do the math here pretty easily.

One piece of “certainty” exists for the 2020 MLB schedule.  There were to be 6 regular season games played outside the US – two in Mexico City, two in Puerto Rico and two in London.  All six of those game have been cancelled; if any of them are eventually played, they will not take place in the originally scheduled venues.

Finally, let me close today with another item from Dwight Perry’s column, Sideline Chatter in the Seattle Times:

“Las Vegas’ Cosmopolitan casino is suing San Jose Sharks forward Evander Kane, claiming he failed to pay back $500,000 in gambling markers from April.

“Possible penalties range from a huge fine and restitution to two minutes for charging.”

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

 

 

If you came here expecting to find an April Fool prank, let me apologize in advance.

The NFL owners have officially ratified the 14-team playoff format for 2020.  The 2 “extra games” for the wildcard round this year will be televised by NBC and CBS and the format will be a TV triple-header on both Saturday and Sunday.  When the original idea was floated, I wondered if the NFL would consider putting one of the wildcard games in a Monday night slot simply to extend by a day the intense focus on the league and its playoffs.  So, that settles that … or does it?

The NFL used the opportunity of announcing this playoff change to make a few other announcements:

• The NFL expects to play a full season in 2020 starting the week after Labor Day.
• The NFL Draft will go as scheduled on April 23-25.  The coronavirus has changed the event from a Las Vegas extravaganza expected to draw hundreds of thousands of fans to the live event to a TV only event.  All the details for that telecast have not been finalized yet, but that’s what’s gonna happen.
• The NFL “has begun planning” to establish rules that would “allow teams to conduct virtual offseason programs”.  No; I have no idea what that is all about.
• The NFL is trying to develop contingency plans in case some games need to be played at a venue other than the originally scheduled venue.
• The London Games are still the NFL’s “Plan A” and the schedule will be released on May 9^th specifying those dates and the teams involved.

I hope every one of these announcements comes to pass without even a minor speed bump along the way.  However, I would like to offer a minor cautionary note as provided by Dr. Anthony Fauci when he has been asked to project the future course of the coronavirus pandemic:

“We don’t set the timetable; the virus sets the timetable.”

Earlier this week, I said that the game of football as we know it would be an effective vector to spread the highly contagious coronavirus.  The plans announced by the NFL yesterday seem to me to sit on a fundamental belief that something will be done to mitigate either the spreading of the virus and/or something will be available to treat effectively those who contract the virus and that either or both of those things will happen in the next 3 months.  For the record, I certainly hope they are correct.

Now, even if all of this comes to pass – paging the NFL’s fairy godmother – there are likely to be dislocations in the NFL games for this season besides potential schedule uncertainties and empty stadiums.  The fact is that the NFL has directed all teams to “postpone” all their offseason program activities.  Every team has already missed weeks of strength and conditioning activities and weeks of film study and playbook familiarity.  The mantra of coaches for decades has been that performance in the regular season flows directly from the focus of coaches and players on the offseason activities.  If that is true, then the 2020 season should be a bit haphazard.

Teams with new coaching staffs that are “trying to install a new system” should be at a disadvantage this year.  Quarterbacks taken at the top of the Draft in a few weeks will be expected to play well for the teams that draft them pretty quickly; without film study and OTAs leading up to Training Camp their learning cycle will have to be accelerated indeed.  [Aside:  Training camps should be opening in about 15 weeks.]  Offensive lines that have changed personnel should also be at a disadvantage since effective offensive line play needs choreography and cohesion; those conditions exist when the people playing those positions get to work together.

I hope the announcements made by the NFL yesterday are perfectly accurate.  My guess is that there will need to be some contingency plans inserted into the season along the way and I hope they are all minor tweaks…

I received an email from a reader yesterday that had an idea that I had not contemplated.  It requires a rather dystopian view for the sporting landscape for the rest of 2020, but this is only a gedanken experiment so no harm will come.  Here is the proposition:

• Suppose the coronavirus forces the cancellation of the entire college football season in 2020.  [Take a deep breath here; exhale.  This is only a “what if” …]
• How would that affect the NFL Draft in 2021?

The league GMs wanted this year’s Draft pushed back from the dates in late April because they did not get to interview players sufficiently nor did they have time to schedule private workouts.  But they did have a full season of tape to watch to see how players perform on the field.  Now imagine if they had to make decisions without having that game film…  Perhaps there would be weeping and gnashing of teeth?

Finally, let me close today with a Tweet from Brad Rock now retired from the Deseret News:

“This work from home mandate has really cut into my side gig as a porch pirate.”

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

 

 

Yesterday, I focused on some comments from Kirk Herbstreit regarding the possibility that there will be no football season – or perhaps a truncated football season – in the Fall of 2020.  As someone who depends on happenings in college and professional football for material to write about, you may be certain that I hope Herbstreit is wrong and it would seem that I am joined in that hope he is wrong by the folks at William Hill – a sports wagering entity.  The folks there have published their win-total proposition bets for the NFL 2020 regular season, and it has an interesting feature.

• If you add up the win-total lines for all 32 teams, it comes to 255 games.

The NFL regular season has 256 games AND the propensity of the betting public is to bet “Overs” and not “Unders” in these sorts of prop bets.  Often, if you add up the win-totals this far in advance of the season, the sum will be a few games higher than 256 meaning that the average bet spread out over the entire league will fall under the total line.  This year, it is much closer to 256 games than usual and it is Under the actual number of games.  [Aside:  Since the wagers pay out on the total number of wins, if there is one tie game in the regular season, it is possible for the win-total lines to equal the number of games won during the season.]

• The Ravens and Chiefs have the highest win-totals on the board at 11.5.
• 19 of the 32 teams have win-totals of 8 games or more.
• The Jags have the lowest win-total on the board at 4.5 games.

There is a report this morning that the NBA is considering a variety of playoff options as a way to determine a champion for its truncated season.  Given current circumstances, it is doubtful that the league could – or would – begin such an endeavor before late June or even mid-July.  But reports say that the thinking involves the following factors:

• Prior to the playoffs, some “postponed regular season games” may be necessary simply to get players back and game-ready.  Those games would clarify playoff seedings.
• The early rounds of the playoffs will be 3-game series and not 7-game series.
• The length of the final round of the playoffs is still TBD.
• If restricted travel is still in place in the US, the playoffs could be held in one city – presumably a neutral site.
• Reports say “neutral site cities” under consideration include Atlantic City, Las Vegas and Louisville.

In the world of tennis, reports say that the good folks who run Wimbledon have chosen the non-equivocation route there.  According to those reports, Wimbledon will be cancelled for 2020 and not merely postponed while people scramble to see what logistical arrangements can be made to cobble together some sort of delayed competition.  I don’t know if that is the best decision they could have made, but it is definitive as was the NCAA’s decision to cancel March Madness.  In these days where folks need to adapt their behaviors and their life rhythms, there is a lot to be said for certainty in decision making.

Staying with the idea of making decisions with certainty, the IOC announced today that the Olympic Summer games will begin in Tokyo on July 23, 2021.  If you had hotel reservations in Tokyo for this summer, maybe you can roll them over to next year?

There is an interesting irony regarding the now-postponed 2020 Summer Games and a Japanese government decision announced today.  The government raised the level of a travel advisory for people in Japan urging them to cancel plans to travel to more than 40 countries as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak.  That makes a lot of sense – – just as it made a lot of sense for the government of Japan to have told the IOC to postpone those Summer Games wherein athletes and fans from many of those 40 or so countries would be coming to Tokyo and spreading the virus all over that densely populated city.

The English Premier League is on hiatus for now; Euro 2020 has been wiped out.  Reports say that the EPL hopes to complete its season by playing later into the summer than usual; the cancellation of Euro 2020 should help with that endeavor – – assuming of course that the league can see a way forward to starting the games once again and playing them in empty venues.  Teams have played 28 or 29 of their 38 scheduled games for this season.  If the season ended now, Liverpool would be runaway champion with a record of 27-1-1 in its 29 games.  The three teams that would be relegated if these are the final standings would be:

• Norwich City  5-18-6  21 points
• Aston Villa  7-17-4  25 points
• Bournemouth 7-16-6  27 points

[Bournemouth, Watford and West Ham all have 27 points, but Bournemouth would be the team relegated based on total goal differential.]

Finally, here is a comment from Bob Molinaro in the Hampton Roads Virginian-Pilot with which I totally agree:

“In passing: What I wouldn’t mind missing this month are media and others telling me what they miss about the NCAA tournament.”

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

 

 

A former colleague retired and moved to California; he is the one who routinely asks me why there is no Tennis Tuesday if there is to be a Football Friday.  Last weekend, I got an email from him suggesting that I change my sign off line for these rants:

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

His suggestion was to make the sign off line more in tune with the times.  He suggested that I end these rants with:

Now, go wash your hands………

While I do like that as a closing line, I can’t bring myself to drop the one I have been using since these things began back in 1996 – well before the Internet saw its first one.  Somehow, I feel as if changing the closing line here would be like seeing a rerun of an old Red Skelton show and having him say something other than “Goodnight and God bless,” at the end.

Kirk Herbstreit is a thoughtful and analytical sports commentator whose focus is college football.  Last week, he said something that sounded out of character for him because he is normally not one to sensationalize.  Here is the surprising part of what he said:

“I’ll be shocked if we have NFL football this fall, if we have college football. I’ll be so surprised if that happens, just because, from what I understand, people that I listen to, you’re 12 to 18 months from a [coronavirus] vaccine. I don’t know how you let these guys go into locker rooms and let stadiums be filled up and how you can play ball. I just don’t know how you can do it with the optics of it.”

There are huge swaths of geography in this country that went into shock when they heard/read those words.  Everyone knows what a big deal college football is in the southeastern part of the US.  Well, it is a big deal in other places too…

• When there are 85,000 people in Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, NE to watch a football game, the “population” of the stadium is the third largest city in the state of Nebraska.
• Beaver Stadium in State College, PA has a seating capacity of 106,572; don’t try to walk up and buy a ticket for a Penn State game at the box office window.
• The Red River Showdown (Texas/Oklahoma) fills the Cotton Bowl every year with more than 92,000 folks every year.

Let me say from the start that I really hope Herbstreit is wrong – – but I fear that he could be right.  He is right to say that an effective vaccine for the coronavirus will not be available prior to the normal starting time for the 2020 college football or NFL season; he is also right to say that an effective vaccine is really necessary for the protection of the players – – and the fans.  The coronavirus can spread through the air – – that is why “social distancing” is strongly recommended and insufficiently practiced.  It can also spread by contact with contaminated individuals and/or the surfaces that those individuals have touched.

Now, picture a football game between two teams in any of the venues above – – or at one of the games at your alma mater.  The game of football cannot be played with anything that resembles “social distancing” nor can players avoid contact with other individuals or the surfaces that those other individuals have touched.  Indeed, the majority of plays in a football game end up with a pile of bodies on the field.

Oh, and while you are contemplating those aspects of this imaginary game, take a peek into the stands to watch how closely packed the fans are and the degree to which they will be high-fiving one another and or shouting in to the face of a neighboring fan.  Put a dozen infected individuals randomly in a stadium packed with 90,000 “clean” individuals and there will be hundreds of infected people leaving the venue at the end of the game.

The NFL has the same problems that college football has; they are intrinsic to the game.  But the NFL enjoys an advantage here.  The NFL could survive financially playing in empty – or virtually empty – stadiums because it is the TV money that keeps the NFL afloat.  Owners will not like the loss of “gate revenue”, but teams will not be going belly-up.  College football has a strong TV revenue stream but it is not as big as the NFL and it does not represent as large a fraction of the total revenue as it does in the NFL  College football does need money from game attendance to provide for the football program and for the other sports that survive financially only because of the revenue brought in by football.  If the average ticket for a Penn State game is $40 – – remember there are lots of student tickets – – then the ticket revenue alone for a single game at Beaver Stadium is $4.5M.

Football – and basketball – are not ideal activities until there is either a coronavirus vaccine or a treatment regimen that makes recovery from a coronavirus infection probable.  [Aside:  That seems to be the case with Ebola now; the WHO and NIH announced about a year ago that treatments now “dramatically raise survival rates”.]  MLB is a middle ground case.  For much of a baseball game, social distancing naturally occurs – other than between the home plate umpire and the catcher.  Little of the game involves contact between players although the ball itself might be a disease vector if the pitcher or catcher were to be infected.

Moreover, baseball has had some experience dealing with crowds where social distancing can be maintained:

• Spread out the attendees at a typical Miami Marlins home game and social distancing is not a challenge.
• Look at the fans sitting behind home plate in Yankee Stadium.  The cost of those seats has effected social distancing by economic measures and not medical ones.

Interestingly, it seems as if I should end today’s rant by saying:

• Now, go wash your hands………

But I’ll stick to tradition here and say, don’t get me wrong, I love sports………

 

 

“Curly” Neal died this week at the age of 77.  He was a Harlem Globetrotter for more than 20 years known for his exotic dribbling skills and his shaved head.  “Curley” Neal entertained millions of people over his career in 97 countries.

Rest in peace, “Curly” Neal.

ESPN reported yesterday that the Cowboys and Dak Prescott’s people are back at the negotiating table regarding a long-term deal for the QB.  Recall that the Cowboys put the “exclusive rights franchise tag” on Prescott about 10 days ago.  According to the ESPN report yesterday, these negotiations would likely wind up making Dak Prescott the highest paid player in the NFL.  If that turns out to be the case, then Dak Prescott is a great example of a person being in the right place at the right time.

• Prescott is a valuable commodity.  He is a good, young NFL QB with experience; there are not a lot of them standing around.
• His rookie contract is up just at the time when there is a new CBA that will raise the cap significantly AND will allow the NFL to negotiate even bigger TV deals very soon – – meaning another rise in the salary cap.
• Is Prescott the best player in the NFL?  Clearly not, but he is in the right place at the right time.

Another NFL QB finds himself at loose ends this week.  The Panthers have released Cam Newton making him an unrestricted free agent.  Three years ago, that would have been unimaginable but pro football is a game that changes direction because of injuries more than any other team sport.  Newton had a shoulder injury two years ago that clearly diminished his ability to throw the football; he had surgery to remedy that.  Last year he had a foot injury that made him miss virtually all the season.  That was a double whammy:

1. The second injury provides teams with another area of concern when it comes to signing him and expecting him to be healthy enough to play 16 games this year.
2. Missing almost all of last year did not let teams see the extent to which that shoulder surgery was successful in restoring his ability to throw the football.

About an hour after Newton’s release had been announced, I got an email from a former colleague asking if I thought Newton would sign on with the Skins to be reunited with his coach from Carolina, Ron Rivera.  At the time, I said that I doubted that, and Rivera has pretty much confirmed that assessment subsequently.  Here is what I said regarding why I thought the Skins were not in Cam Newton’s future:

• The Skins handed Rivera a young team with the intent that he would build it into a contending team.  Cam Newton will be 31 years old before teams show up for Training Camp; he does not fit the profile.
• The Skins have invested draft capital in the QB position.  Last year they took Dwayne Haskins in the first round of the draft – at the insistence of owner Danny Boy Snyder.  If Haskins in not the starting QB for the Skins this year and is not injured, that is a clear signal that Ron Rivera and his staff are totally convinced that Haskins is a bust and cannot play NFL football.  Oh, and by the way, the Skins also sent a 5^th round pick to the Panthers this week to obtain Kyle Allen who was Newton’s backup in Carolina last year.
• The Skins do not really need a “veteran QB to mentor” Haskins.  Still with the team is Alex Smith who can provide that service even though it is virtually certain that Smith will never again play in an NFL game.

So, where should Cam Newton land as a free agent?  I have seen plenty of arguments saying that going to LA to play for the Chargers is the right match.  I agree that the Chargers are a talented team – albeit one that was devastated by injury last year – but the Chargers have a hole at QB.  Philip Rivers is in Indy now; the guy on top of the depth chart for the Chargers this morning is Tyrod Taylor.  Meaning no disrespect to Taylor at all, a healthy Cam Newton is a better QB than Tyrod Taylor.  Having said all that, I think there is a better fit for Cam Newton and a team but that fit will only come to light after the NFL Draft:

• IF the Dolphins manage to draft Tua Tagovaiola in this year’s draft, I think it would be smart for them to sign Cam Newton to a 1-year contract with a team option for the second year.
• In Year One, Newton could play QB with Ryan Fitzpatrick as his backup while Tua never sets foot on the field.
• At the end of Year One, the Dolphins can then reassess their situation, Tua’s health and decide what is best for the 2021 season.

I mentioned the NFL Draft above; it is on the schedule for a month from now; it was supposed to be a Las Vegas extravaganza until the coronavirus put the kibosh on such large gatherings.  Earlier this week, the NFL GMs expressed their desire to postpone the Draft in light of the virus and how it has affected their scheduling regarding

• Individual pro days with draft candidates
• Meetings with scouts
• Interviews with draft candidates.

The Commish nixed that idea; the Draft will go on as scheduled and I think that is the right decision.  Frankly, the processes that have evolved that lead to the NFL Draft have taken on an “Alice in Wonderland” air.  There is lots of hustle and bustle and dashing about – – and still the odds on a first-round pick being far less than what was expected is close to 50/50.  Maybe this year will convince the GMs to cut back on some of the “showy stuff” and rely on game film analysis to answer what is the seminal question facing them:

• Can the guy whose name you are about to send to the podium play football at the NFL level?

Finally, Dwight Perry had this observation in the Seattle Times a while back and it relates to the problems that face NFL GMs:

“The average male cries 5 to 17 times a year, according to the American Psychological Association.

“What, you think it’s easy running a fantasy football team?”

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

 

 

Today was supposed to be MLB’s Opening Day; there is a good reason why that will not happen today, but that does not mean that I can’t be sad about its absence.  There are all sorts of reports out there speculating on when the season will start.  One says that the owners and the union want to start in June which means that teams would have to reassemble for some sort of Spring Training by late May.  Because players will earn a pro-rated portion of their salary for 2020, the players and the owners both want to get in as many games as they can.  One idea floated out there is to have double-headers on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

Several of the projections call for the regular season to end in mid-October.  That makes me a bit uncomfortable because the MLB playoffs and World Series as currently configured take a month or so to complete.  There are too many cities with MLB franchises whose weather as you approach Thanksgiving does not blend with baseball.

Scott Boras took off his super-agent hat and put together an idea for a 2020 MLB season that would run either 144 games or 162 games with this wrinkle:

• Game 6 of the World Series – if there need be a Game 6 – would take place on Christmas Day.

The Boras Plan would have all the playoff games take place in warm weather stadiums in southern California or in domed stadiums.  There are seven of them at the moment and the Rangers are about to get one, so the Boras Plan has eleven venues available for hosting games even in mid-December.

I will be surprised if the Boras Plan is adopted but I like the fact that he is thinking about the idea of moving playoff games to recognize the reality of weather conditions on the games.  I don’t know if way back in the deep history of MLB if a playoff game has ever taken place in a park that was not the home field for either team.  I was pretty sure that even the San Francisco earthquake that interrupted the 1989 World Series did not result in a change of venue; a Google search confirmed that recollection.  Nonetheless, the Boras Plan has elements within it that ought to be considered inside and outside the confines of his specific proposal.

Notwithstanding the suspension of Spring Training and the absence of regular season games, there are injuries to MLB players still in the news.

• The Yankees must have scoffed at the injury gods and are being punished for that slight.  Two starting pitchers were on track to miss most or all of the 2020 season; Gary Sanchez was hurt early in Spring Training; Aaron Judge had a stress fracture of his rib AND suffered a punctured lung (Ouch!) and Giancarlo Stanton had a calf injury that is reportedly still bothering him.  Imagine if the team were actually playing baseball every day…
• The Red Sox will play 2020 without Chris Sale.  He needs Tommy John surgery.  In addition, Dustin Pedroia has a knee injury.
• The Mets will play 2020 without Noah Syndergaard.  He also needs Tommy John surgery.
• The Astros will have to do without Justin Verlander for at least part of the 2020 season.
• The Nats have Max Scherzer “on the shelf” for now with an unspecified injury to his side.

Those are just some of the contending teams and their recognizable players who are injured.  And theses injuries happened without the stress and strain of a full MLB schedule…

Another sport that is in limbo due to the coronavirus is golf.  I am sure that the golf mavens are working diligently to figure out how they can salvage as much of their season as possible.  But in the world of sports journalism related to golf, that sort of reporting is blasé.  Here is the headline at CBSSports.com today related to professional golf:

• “Tiger Woods is facing another lost season”

As if on cue, the golf story of the day must focus on Tiger Woods.  Come on, now; every golfer on the PGA Tour is “facing another lost season”.  Every PGA golfer has to adjust his preparation for what is an uncertain season due to events beyond his control or anyone’s control.  Tiger Woods is hardly alone in this dislocated period of time.

One of these days, the PGA will announce when and where it will begin to stage its events.  If today’s headline is any guide, here is what to expect from the golf coverage once we know the revised schedule:

• A report that Tiger Woods used the golf hiatus to study mindfulness to control his reaction to a missed putt.
• Another report on Tiger Woods’ new breakfast choice – organic granola.
• Tiger Woods changed his pedicurist and now is more comfortable walking the course.

Please, stop this…

New Orleans Saints coach, Sean Payton, tested positive for coronavirus and went into self-quarantine.  The latest news there is that Payton has been retested and the latest test is negative.

Finally, Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times offered this perspective on the seriousness of the coronavirus:

“Three sure signs the coronavirus is serious stuff:

• The U.S. scuttled March Madness.

• Canada canceled hockey.

• Ireland closed its bars the day before St. Patrick’s Day.”

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

 

 

The IOC finally recognized the reality of the 2020 Summer Games and postponed them.  Actually, it is probably more accurate to say that the action of the Canadians jolted the IOC out of its blissful state of denial and into the present.  The Canadians announced that they would not be sending any athletes to Tokyo in July of this year.  Immediately after that, the Australians and the Poles informed the IOC of the same thing.  US institutions tied to the Olympics did not go quite that far, but they did urge the IOC to postpone the Games.  So, sanity prevailed in the end.

I feel sorry for the athletes who have devoted so much time and energy to training for these Summer Games.  But the games will likely take place in 2021; so, many of those athletes will get to compete in the Olympics on a different time scale.  The Olympics have never been “postponed” although the Olympics were cancelled during WWI and WWII.  The difference between a “postponement” and a “cancellation” is simply the time interval between games.

From the data I can find on the Internet, Japan does not have nearly as many coronavirus cases as many other countries.  At first glance, one might think that Tokyo would be a “safe space” for the athletes until you realize that many of those athletes and many of the spectators who would come to see the events would be coming from places where coronavirus is much more prevalent.  Tokyo would no longer be a “safe space”; it could well become a hotspot of its own.

I have used the absence of March Madness and MLB Opening Day from the calendar this year to think about possible ways to make sports better.  I have suggested changing the MLB playoffs to a double elimination tournament to mimic the College World Series; I have suggested that the NBA regular season should start on Christmas Day and should only be 58 games in length.  Well, the more time I spend in self-imposed isolation here in Curmudgeon Central the more ideas I get for changes that might improve sports in the US.  Today MLB is in the spotlight:

• The beginning of the baseball season should see as many games as possible played in a “warm weather city” or in a domed stadium.  Baseball is not a game that is best played when the temperature is in the 30s and if the season continues to kick off around April 1 – give or take a few days – there is certainly going to be cold weather at night in the northern cities that host MLB teams.
• [Aside:  Of course, another approach to this would be to start the season later and play double-headers every weekend to narrow the time of year when games will take place.  By the same logic, having the World Series games take place in venues where there is a potential for snow makes no great sense either.]
• During the MLB playoffs – no matter what the format may be – there will always be weekend games.  There should be a rule in place mandating that at least one playoff game scheduled for a Saturday should be played in the afternoon.  If MLB seeks to attract “the next generation of fans” to the game, it would make sense to put at least a few of their signature games on TV at a time when kids can watch the whole game.
• Tanking in MLB is a serious problem; not every team is seriously competing in 2020 – – assuming that there is a 2020 season.  Tanking is a palatable strategy from an owner’s perspective for financial reasons.  Yes, attendance will drop; but team payroll drops too.  One estimate for the Orioles’ team salary on Opening Day – had there been one – was $44M.  To address the tanking problem, maybe MLB should institute a rule mandating a salary floor for every team.  Suppose every team had to have a roster on Opening Day slated to make a minimum of $100M – or maybe even $120M.  With that on the expense side of the ledger, owners might not accede to a strategic plan that involves tanking for several years.  Indeed, if teams had to spend that kind of money, it might be more difficult for them to be confident that they will wind up with a top pick in an upcoming draft.
• [Aside:  The MLBPA would have to be consulted on a rule change but I doubt they would put up much of a fight over this one.]

I have read reports that MLB is contemplating rule changes involving the use of electronic means to steal signs.  I have no objection to the baseball overlords working on that “problem”, but I would prefer that they spend some time looking at other aspects of the game besides the hot topic on top of the inbox.  A former colleague often said:

“When we spend all of our time working on what is urgent, we never have time to work on the things that are important.”

Enough with rule changes and schedule changes, I have a stat question for the baseball seamheads.  Some folks have proposed that extra inning games should place a baserunner on second base to start an inning.  This proposal aims to prevent games from going 15 or 17 innings with a middle infielder being the final pitcher for one of the teams.  Let me assume that such a rule is adopted and now imagine that the following situation obtains:

• A pitcher has thrown a perfect game for 9 innings, but the score is still tied 0-0.  In the 10^th inning, this pitcher appears on the mound with a runner on second base through no fault of his own.  Question:  Is he still pitching a perfect game?

Finally, I think that I can draw the following conclusion without fear of contradiction:

• When a child is born in the US in mid or late December 2020, its biological parents were not adhering to “social distancing” guidelines promulgated in March 2020.

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