The Sports Curmudgeon

As the NFL Training Camps are about to open, there are three “contract situations” afloat that need resolution.  Here is the first one:

• Most of the second-round picks from the April Draft remain unsigned.

The issue is pretty simple.  Second-round picks have slotted contract values but the amount of the contract that is guaranteed is negotiable.  The players this year want more of the contracts guaranteed than in future years and the owners have not yet met that demand.  This stalemate will be resolved because even though this crop of rookies arrives with pocketed NIL money from college days, they are not about to forgo deals worth up to eight figures with most of it guaranteed if not as much as they had hoped for.

Here is the second contract situation:

• Bengals’ first-round pick, Shemar Stewart, remains unsigned.  The issue here is NOT the money; that makes it more complicated.

Stewart was the 17^th pick in the first round back in April; the CBA says he gets a fully guaranteed contract for 4 years worth about $19M with $10.8M coming as a signing bonus.  The issue is that the Bengals want to change the contract language surrounding the means by which the salary guarantees can be voided should Stewart breach the contract.  This is not the way the Bengals have worded such contract clauses with draftees in prior years and Stewart does not think he deserves to have it in his deal either.

There are myriad ways in which a player can breach a contract; the most obvious one being that he is convicted of a felony and sentenced to jail, making him unavailable for games.  But it is not difficult to imagine other trigger events  such as:

• Suspension by the league for violation of the Substance Abuse Policy
• Suspension by the league for violation of the Personal Conduct Policy
• Suspension by the league for violation of the Gambling Policy
• Failure to show up for a game

Stewart has an interesting option available to him.  He still has college football eligibility left; in theory, he could try to go back to school – – assuming the NCAA would not declare him ineligible for hiring an agent to represent him after the NFL Draft – – and collect another year of NIL money there.  That option has several danger points:

• Suppose he gets a serious injury and is not a first round pick next year
• Suppose he has a mediocre season and is not a first round pick next year
• Suppose NFL GMs think he is a pain-in-the-ass, and he is not a first round pick next year
• Nonetheless, the option exists …

When contract negotiations are hung up over money or duration or guarantees, the path to resolution is usually obvious.  Shemar Stewart’s case is different, and it may not be easily resolved unless one of the two parties capitulates – – and that is not a good way to begin a constructive relationship.

Here is the third contract situation

• Washington Commanders’  WR, Terry McLaurin, wants a contract extension and the team has not come up with an offer that is acceptable to him.

This one has lots of dimensions.

• McLaurin is the team’s best WR
• He is an established clubhouse leader and has been since he arrived.
• He has had 100+ yards receiving for the last 5 consecutive seasons.
• He has not missed a game since 2020.
• He will make $23M in 2025 in the final  year of his last contract extension.
• He will turn 30 years old in September.

Looking at all the above, the only thing that is slightly negative is McLaurin’s age which might give the team pause when it comes to the length of the contract.  The problem is that the market price for WRs has changed significantly recently, and McLaurin’s agents obviously want him to participate in that upward momentum.  The question now is:

• How does Terry McLaurin rank in the pantheon of NFL #1 WRs?

Ja’Mar Chase got an extension worth $40M per year for 4  years.  That is the top of the market and – – good as Terry McLaurin is, he is not Ja’Mar Chase.  So, McLaurin is at $23M for this year and the top of the WR market for extensions is $40M per year.  That is a wide range for negotiations and that is probably a major sticking point in the negotiations.

The age factor is probably at work here too.  Chase is 25  years old; here are the ages for some of the #1 WRs who are comparable to Terry McLaurin:

• Marvin Harrison Jr. is 23 years old
• Amon Ra St. Brown is 25  years old
• Justin Jefferson is 26 years old
• CeeDee Lamb is 26 years old
• Brandon Aiyuk is 27  years old
• A J Brown is 28 years old
• Terry McLaurin is 30 years old.

From my perspective, the pressure here is on the Commanders to make this deal happen.  McLaurin is their best receiver, and this is the last year of his current deal.  It would not make sense for the team to let that contract expire at the end of the year and have McLaurin test the free agent market with a sour taste in his mouth for the Commanders’ Front Office.  The team does not want to lose him, and they surely do not want to lose him and get nothing back in trade.  And, if the Commanders would choose to put the franchise tag on him next year, that would mean they have to pay him about $34M with all of that counting toward the cap.  Terry McLaurin does not have a ton of leverage here, but he has more leverage than the team does.

Finally, let me close today with some  observations about negotiations:

“Successful negotiation is not about getting to ‘yes’; it’s about mastering ‘no’ and understanding what the path to an agreement is.”  [Christopher Voss]

And …

“Everything is negotiable. Whether or not the negotiation is easy is another thing.”  [Carrie Fisher]

And …

“During a negotiation, it would be wise not to take anything personally. If you leave personalities out of it, you will be able to see opportunities more objectively.”  [Brian Koslow]

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

 

 

Andrew Marchand is a renowned reporter\ who covers sports media for The Athletic.  Recently he reported on a major shake-up at FOX Sports which involves canceling three shows on FS-1 and firing Joy Taylor.  Here are the canceled shows:

1. Breakfast Ball:  Craig Carton and Mark Schlereth were the main hosts here with Danny Perkins along for the ride.  Schlereth is OK; Perkins is OK; Carton is awful.  For me, he made the program unwatchable.  Some people think he is “provocative” in his takes; I think he is merely “loud” in his takes.
2. The Facility:  This program was worse than Breakfast Ball; it featured four former NFL players who basically freestyle their way through their timeslot.  The concept here was to have four athletes give an audience the players’ point of view on topics in the sports world.  That might have worked with an experienced broadcaster acting like a point guard and setting things up for the players to give their views.  Such was not the case and far too often there were interludes of chaos on the air.
3. Speak:  This used to be called Speak for Yourself and at one time I considered it good enough to be sure to watch it about 3 or 4 days a week.

            When it was called Speak for Yourself it began as a discussion/debate program with Colin Cowherd and Jason Whitlock.  Both are given to looking at sports stories from a vantage point different from just about anyone else.  They played off each other wonderfully and when they expanded segments of the program to include others, they often added TJ Houshmanzadeh to the mix, and he was excellent.  Cowherd left the show – probably due to overwork since he also did a 3-hour radio show that ended just before Speak for Yourself aired; Cowherd was replaced by Marcellus Wiley and the show was just as good as it was before.  Wiley was more like the “straight man” for Whitlock’s “out of left field takes” and the show continued to work.

Then Jason Whitlock left FOX for other endeavors; he was replaced by Emmanuel Acho and the pairing of Wiley and Acho never achieved the on-air chemistry that Jason Whitlock had enjoyed with his two partners.  It did not take me long to go from a “three days a week viewer” to a “once every three weeks viewer”.   Then Wiley left the show and in the current incarnation as Speak, the show has Paul Pierce, Keyshaun Johnson and Joy Taylor.  According to Andrew Marchand’s reporting, Speak has “struggled to find a huge audience”.  Maybe the answer is to get Jason Whitlock and Marcellus Wiley back together on the air?

Moving on …  It appears as if things are moving swiftly regarding the sale of the Tampa Bay Rays to Patrick Zalupski – a real estate developer from Jax.  Reports say that the selling price will be $1.7B and that the deal could close as early as September of this year.  That valuation for the franchise may seem minuscule given the purchase prices for sports franchises in the news recently such as:

• Celtics – – $6B
• Lakers – – $10B.

Nevertheless, the current owner – – Stuart Sternberg – – will make a tidy profit on the deal since he bought the club for a mere $200M about 20 years ago.    Zalupski is reported to be inclined to keep the team in the Tampa area but that he prefers to have the team home field located in the Tampa area and not in the St. Petersburg area.  There had been a deal that had advanced a bit to put a new stadium in St. Petersburg about a year ago, but that deal fell apart before a shovel hit the ground.  The Rays have been actively looking for a new stadium and a new stadium site for about 20 years; maybe this new owner as a real estate developer will have better luck in getting some sort of deal done with local area politicians for a new facility.

Meanwhile, money and effort are being spent on repairing Tropicana Field, which was severely damaged by a hurricane last year, forcing the Rays to play the 2025 regular season in a spring training facility stadium in Tampa.  That seems like a waste of money and effort to me because even if the stadium is renovated, it has never been able to let the Rays draw audiences that are related to the Rays on-field success.  The new owner can only hope …

Finally, I mentioned Jason Whitlock above so let me close with this observation from him:

“It is possible to set your standards too high, which can undermine a man’s confidence and ability to perform. Instead of reaching for the stars and settling for the moon, there is considerable evidence that man is better served reaching for a blade of grass and settling for an under-the-table handshake deal.”

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

 

 

The Washington Nationals had the first pick in the MLB Draft and took a 17-year-old shortstop named Eli Willits.  Speaking to the fans after that selection, the Nats’ interim-GM said that their analysis convinced them that Willits was “the best hitter in the draft” and “the best fielder in the draft”.  Given that there was exactly no consensus on who the best player available was, there could not have been broad agreement on that assessment.  Nats’ fans are hoping for Willits to be a fast-rising prospect that lives up to the interim-GM’s billing.

Here is something for those Nats’ fans to hang onto:

• Willits is the youngest player taken first overall in the MLB Draft since 1996 when Ken Griffey, Jr. was the pick.  Griffey worked out “better than OK,” don’t you know…

Moving on …  The FIFA Club World Cup Finals took place in Met Life Stadium over the weekend; President Trump was in attendance as the guest of FIFA President, Gianni Infantino.  Players and coaches were not pleased with the venue nor the weather.  It was very hot and humid to the point that some players called the playing conditions “dangerous”.  A coach complained that the grass on the field was far too short for futbol; he said the turf was such that you could putt on it.

Those sorts of criticisms might be shrugged off as bad fortune – – except the FIFA World Cup will take place in North America next summer and dozens of games will take place in stadiums around the US and Mexico and Canada.  Heat and humidity are normal climatological conditions for many of the venues for the games next summer, so those sorts of complaints need to be given a bit more than passing attention.

This “Club World Championship” tournament was an idea supported by Infantino as a way to expand soccer interest and reach.  Two major clubs – – Chelsea of the EPL and Paris-St. Germain from Ligue 1 – – made it to the final game; Chelsea prevailed 3-0.  Infantino declared the tournament an unalloyed success.  At least one futbol manager – – Jurgen Klopp, formerly with Liverpool – – begs to disagree.  He called the tournament:

“ … the worst idea ever implemented in football …”

His criticism is based on what he calls “excessive demands” on the players because of this extension to the normal club seasons around the world.  It is nice to see that some things never change.  Nothing in the world of futbol can ever have  unanimous agreement.

Switching gears …  After the Phoenix Suns traded Kevin Durant to Houston as part of a 7-team exchange of players and draft picks, the team mulled the possibility of buying out Bradley Beal’s onerous contract – – the one with the no-trade clause in it – – and that led most commentators to conclude that the Suns were setting in the west and going into a rebuild.  Then the team turned around and extended Devin Booker’s contract for 2  years and $145M.

Because the narrative had been that the Suns were on a downward arc, that move brought forth wonderment that Booker would want to stay with a team on the downslope for longer than he had to.  My answer to that is pretty simple:

• $145M over 2  years is $72.5M per year which works out to be
  • • $198.6K per day
    • $8726,25 per hour – – well beyond minimum wage.

For those sorts of numbers, why would anyone be hesitant to sign on – – especially since if he were to be traded at any time before the end of the extension, he would still be fully paid?  This does not seem too mysterious to me.

Next up …  Adrian Peterson was in a poker game and that ended up with Peterson and one of the other players getting into a fistfight and the video of that event was all over social media.  Now, it has been announced that Peterson and his poker adversary will put on a celebrity boxing event.  As commentary on that announcement developed, someone pointed out that Peterson is in financial straits despite earning more than $100M over the course of his NFL career.   According to www.celebrityworth.com, Peterson’s net worth is “$minus- 12M.”  Here is a summary of the situation from that website:

In 2019, “ … Peterson’s attorney issued a statement confirming that the former MVP was effectively broke, blaming the situation on his client having “trusted the wrong people” with his finances. The comment came in the wake of multiple lawsuits and judgments tied to unpaid debts and high-risk loans.”

Finally, Oscar Wilde seems to be a reasonable way to close out today’s rant:

“When I was young I thought that money was the most important thing in life; now that I am old I know that it is.”

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

 

 

The MLB regular season has reached the symbolic half-way mark as most players get a couple of days off while the All-Star festivities take place.  As players recharge their batteries and get ready for the stretch run of the division races, I’ll take a synoptic view of the playoff picture at this stage of evolution.  First in the American League:

• AL East:  The race there is tight; four teams are separated by only 5.5 games.  The Blue Jays are on top now but one bad losing streak could wipe out the chances for any of those four teams making the playoffs.  The Orioles are just out of it.
• AL Central:  The Tigers are dominant there; they lead the division by 11.5 games; they are the only team above .500.  The White Sox are on pace to lose “only” 109 games this year – – a marked improvement.
• AL West:  The Astros lead the Mariners by 5 games; everyone else is under .500.  The Angels’ stats are unusual; the team is only two games under .500 but their run differential is minus-62.

I am not confident that the Jays will win the AL East but with 6 teams qualifying for the playoffs, the Jays are in a good position to be in.  As it looks now, the AL playoff breakdown will be:

• Tigers from the Central
• Astros and Mariners from the West
• “Three teams” from the East.

The interesting focus on the AL should be on the AL East race and the Mariners’ run for a wild card slot in the West.

Now over in the National League:

• NL East:  The Phillies and the Mets are in a virtual dead-heat now while the rest of the division is irrelevant
• NL Central:  The Cubs lead the Brewers by a game with the Cards and Reds lurking about 5 games off the pace in the division race.  Only the Pirates are clearly out of it in the NL Central.
• NL West:  The Dodgers still have a comfortable lead in the division despite going 3-7 in their last 10 games.  The Padres and Giants are probably contending for a wild card entry into the playoffs while the D-Backs seem to be fading.  Not to lose sight of epic levels of ineptitude, the Rockies project to a final record of 37-125.

The real focus in the NL should be on the wildcard races.  Either the Phillies or the Mets will win the East, and the losers will battle for a wild card invitation.  The same situation applies in the Central with the Cubs and Brewers – – but in the Central other teams could make the wild card race interesting.  And in the West, after the Dodgers win the division, at least two and maybe three teams will scramble for a wild card entry.  Remember, there are only 3 wild card slots per league …

Moving on …  Two MLB players who will be on a break as the All-Star festivities take place have ominous names given their roles with their teams.  Here you have two relief pitchers – – guys who are asked to step in and “hold the fort” so to speak in the hopes that the team offense can score more runs than the opponents have when they enter the game.  Here are the names:

• Scott Blewett:  He is currently with the Orioles but has also been on the Braves’ and the Twins’ rosters in 2025.
• Aaron Bummer:  He is on the Braves’ roster meaning there was a time earlier this season when the Braves bullpen had a “Bummer” and a “Blewett” at the ready.  Not exactly a great vibe …

Next up …  The MLB All-Star Game has always been the least offensive spectacle as compared to other major sports in the US.  The MLB All-Star Game actually bears a resemblance to actual MLB games to a much greater extent than the NFL or NBA equivalents.  Having said that, I am picking up a sense that the MLB game may be on the decline.  Several players have opted out of participating.  That sentiment might blossom into a nonchalance about the game on the part of the participants and if it does, that would sink the MLB All-Star Game to the level of the other sports.

The NFL just threw in the towel on the Pro Bowl because it could not put on an entertaining event that resembled a real NFL game; now they play flag football.  The NBA All-Star Game is simply a travesty.  It would be a shame to see the MLB game evolve in that direction of irrelevance; I hope this year is not the beginning of a trend.

Finally, here is a perspective on the All-Star Game from former MLB manager Whitey Herzog:

“The only thing bad about winning the pennant is that you have to manage the All-Star Game the next year. I’d rather go fishing for three days.”

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

 

 

Readers here know that I like to have fun with the names of players/coaches.  Ab out 15 years ago, I ran across the name of a QB at Eastern Washington University and immediately he became one of my “favorites”.  His name is Bo Levi Mitchell – – and my immediate reaction then was:

• I’m a BoLiever in Bo Levi !

He has had a long and successful career in the CFL – – 10 years with the Calgary Stampeders and the last 2  years with the Hamilton TigerCats – – compiling a record of 99-39-2 as a starter.  I mention this as an introduction to a game last week where Mitchell and the TigerCats beat the Toronto Argonauts 51-38.  Here is Bo Levi’s stat line:

• 19 of 24 for 332 yards with 5 TDs and 0 INTs

[Aside:  WR Kenny Lawler caught 6 passes for 207 yards and 3 TDs, so he had quite a good game too.]

I had an e-mail exchange working with Gregg Drinnan – – former sports editor of the Kamloops Daily News – – and he pointed out that there was another unusual occurrence in that Hamilton/Toronto game beyond a team scoring 50+ points and a QB having a night like that:

“During that Hamilton-Toronto game, there were two kickoffs returned for TDs. That earned a guy named Roy Lyster of New Westminster, B.C., a cool $1 million. (Actually, $50,000 a year for 20 years.) A Canadian grocery store outfit (Save-On Foods) runs a Million Dollar Touchdown To Win contest and has for a number of years. This was the first time it paid off.”“

Moving on …  The US Men’s National Team (USMNT) made it to the finals of the Gold Cup Tournament and then lost to Mexico by a score of 2-1.  The USMNT had been going through some rough times in various friendlies but seemed to be getting its act together in the Gold Cup tournament.  That is a good sign because the team will be in the World Cup next year because the US will be host to more than half the games in that event.

I saw most – – not all – – of the game on TV and after the game there was a lot of complaining by the US team about the officiating.  There was one critical call that went against the Americans which could have had a bearing on the ultimate outcome.  Inside the penalty box, a Mexican player had lost his balance and was clearly extending his arm to break his fall onto the ground.  He was not looking in the direction of the ball at all.

As he fell, a US player took a shot at the goalkeeper and the off-balance player’s hand trapped the ball, stopping it completely as the off-balance player went to the ground.  Obviously, the Americans wanted that to be a penalty kick for a handball; the Mexicans were happy that the referee ruled that the hand contact was incidental.

Back in the 80s, Diego Maradona scored a goal for Argentina in a World Cup game against England, and it is pretty clear that the goal was caused by Maradona’s hand not his feet.  The English side was upset at the time and remains upset to this day; Maradona coyly said afterward:

“Even if there was a hand, it was the Hand of God.”

Well, if Maradona’s goal was scored by “The Hand of God”, then the blocked shot in the US/Mexico game was saved by that same “Hand of God”.  The symmetry of the universe is restored.

Switching gears …  The NY Knicks found a coach – – and a pretty good one at that.  Mike Brown will take over the team next year; he has been the NBA Coach of the Year twice in his career; his winning percentage in the NBA is .599.  I think this will be an interesting situation to watch.

Like departed Knicks’ coach Tom Thibodeau, Brown has emphasized defense over the course of his career.  One of the weaknesses of the Knicks poses an interesting situation for coaches who like to have their teams stop the other guys from scoring occasionally:

• The Knicks’ two best offensive players – – Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns – – are both well below average as defenders.
• Both need to be on the court together to maximize the Knicks’ scoring potential AND when both are on the court together, the team is playing 3 against 5 on defense.

Mathematicians tried for centuries to “square the circle”; the Knicks’ situation will not persist for centuries, but it may prove to be similarly intractable.

One other aspect of Brown’s signing with the Knicks, the team must have driven a hard bargain.  The ousted coach, Tom Thibodeau, was reportedly making $11M per season.  Brown’s deal is reported to be 4 years and $40M.  I need not be a world-class mathematician taking time from my attempts to “square the circle” to figure out that an average of $10M per year is less than $11M per year.

Finally, apropos of nothing, I’ll close today with these words from Albert Einstein:

“The only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once.”

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

 

 

Because I want to contemplate abundance and scarcity in the sports world today, let me begin with a digression.  If you have not read Ezra Klein’s and Derek Thompson’s new book,  Abundance, How We Build A Better Future, let me recommend that you do so.  It is easily read over a rainy weekend; it is both inspiring and frustrating at the same time.  It deals directly with the concepts of abundance and scarcity in present-day America.

Over in the sports world it seems that we have moved through environments of:

• “Scarcity” – – It was unusual to turn on the TV randomly and find a sporting event on the air on the channel you randomly tuned into …
• “Abundance” – – Sporting events were plentiful on the airwaves and then onto …
• “Glut” – – Who knew that was even a “sport”?

When I was a kid, the only baseball games on my TV – – short of the World Series – – were when the home team was on the road or if there was a Sunday afternoon game which there almost always was.  Maybe there would be an NFL game on a random weekend after the World Series was over; there was almost no college basketball on TV and there was an NBA Game of the Week on Saturdays.  The only sports event that was “certain” was Friday Night Fights – – the Gilette Cavalcade of Sports – – on NBC.

As a young adult, sports programming spread nicely.  MLB had a Game of the Week on Saturdays and college basketball for the “local schools” was  used as time slot filler for the newly emerging UHF channels which challenged the hegemony of Channels 2 through 12 that had existed for about 25 years.  As a kid, I thought it was great to be able to see sports on TV instead of things like “Lawrence Welk” or “Arthur Godfrey” or “Omnibus”.

It seemed to me that “Morning in America” arrived when ABC began to put Wide World of Sports on the air in the early 1960s not when Ronald Regan proclaimed its existence in his 1984 Presidential Campaign.  Long before Archie and Edith Bunker sang Those Were The Days, my sense was that I was living in a time when I had access to the full abundance of the sports world.  Not so …

As people tuned in to more and more sports programming, networks and local stations began to put more and more on the air.  Selling TV rights to events became the major revenue stream for schools and college conferences and professional franchises.  And in that economic sphere, more revenue is always preferable to less revenue meaning more sports on TV is always better than less sports on TV meaning …

Today, we have entire networks that do nothing but telecast sporting events and programming about sporting events.  Moreover, those networks are not only available to us on our TV sets in our homes – – or at places called “sports bars” that never existed when I was a kid.  No, those networks are omnipresent on our tablets and phones that we carry with us everywhere all the time.  We have passed from scarcity through abundance to arrive at a State of Glut.

I know the solution for individuals is simply to turn off the TV or look at a different app on the phone to avoid the sports assault on the senses; my problem is that the Sports Glut has created an environment where the events themselves are diluted.  Let me use the NBA as an example here:

• The NBA playoffs used to be semi-finals and finals.
• Today the NBA playoffs involve 20 of the 30 teams in the league.
• More “dramatic games” and more television inventory.

Here is something to consider:

• If two-thirds of a league will be in the playoffs at the end of the regular season, must that regular season be 82 games in length and involve 1230 individual games?

The same can be said for MLB and for the NHL.  What the “State of Glut” does to leagues is to devalue the majority of the regular season games.  They are no longer “events”; they have become “occurrences”.  That status is demonstrated by the secondary market for most regular season games in MLB or the NBA.

Lots of season-ticket holders recognize that they will not want or be able to attend every game for their favorite team over the course of the season and many of them try to sell their excess ticket inventory at places like Stub Hub.  Often, those secondary market tix can be had for as little as 10 cents on the dollar as compared to what the season ticket holder paid for them up front.  That secondary ticket market is driven almost exclusively by supply and demand and the low ticket prices indicate a very small demand.

It is possible that the “State of Glut” can lead to an economic slide that will do damage to the sports and the leagues that have fed the monster that has become the “State of Glut”.  If fans are not willing to buy up all the “spare tix” on the secondary market even at 10 cents on the dollar, who is to say that those same fans might find other things to watch on their TVs and phones instead of sports events?  Here are data:

Ratings for regular season games in MLB and the NBA have been trending down.

• Ratings drive the value of advertising slots.
• Lower value for advertisers means less revenue for networks meaning less revenue for leagues.
• And so it goes …

Please note that almost none of the above applies to the NFL.  I believe the reason for that is that the NFL presents “weekly events” and not “daily occurrences”.  There is an abundance of games; the playoffs are short because they are “one-and-done”; there are only 272 regular season games and most of them matter.  I think it would behoove other leagues and other sports to consider the meaningfulness of their games as part of their strategic planning and to focus less on revenue streams for the next quarter or two.

Finally, I’ll close with these:

“From abundance springs satiety.”  Livy

And …

 “Gluttony is not a secret vice.”  Orson Welles

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

 

 

For the 2025 season, the Rays and the A’s are both drawing fewer than 10,000 fans per game at home.  That fact is easily rationalized; both teams are playing in minor league facilities for the 2025 season and neither stadium has the capacity to hold a typical major league crowd.  It is no surprise that those two teams have the lowest home attendance in MLB so far this season.

The third lowest home attendance figure for 2025 belongs to the Miami Marlins at 11,698 fans per game.

• That average crowd could almost fit into the Rays’ home field in Tampa.
• That average crowd would fit fine with seats left over in Sacramento.

The Marlins’ attendance woes have nothing to do with the number of available seats on sale; the Marlins’ attendance woes are endemic.  The Marlins entered the NL in 1993; in that inaugural season, the team drew 3.06M fans; euphoria was in the air.  Then, in 1997 the Marlins drew 2.36M fans – – and by the way, the Marlins won the World Series in that 1997 season.  Fast forward to 2012, when the Marlins drew 2.22M fans.  The “occasion” for that attendance bump in 2012 was the opening of a new stadium for the team – – the one that exists today.

In more than 30 seasons, the Marlins have drawn more than 2 million fans only three times and all three of those occasions involved an unusual confluence of events:

• Inaugural season
• World Series victory
• New stadium

[Aside:  The Marlins also won the World Series in 2003 but drew only 1.30M fans that season and 1.72M fans in the subsequent 2004 season.]

If that does not seem bleak enough for you consider that in the lifespan of the Marlins, they have drawn fewer than 900K fans in a season five times – – and that miserable statistic does NOT include the COVID shortened season in 2020.  The low-water mark for Marlins’ season attendance came in 2021 when season attendance was 642,617 for an average attendance of 7,394 diehard souls per game.

MLB has four franchises that are laggards at the gate just about every season:

1. The Rays need a new stadium because a hurricane destroyed the old one – – the one that people say was awful and caused the Rays’ attendance woes.  That all happened last year; and so far, there has been no dirt moved to start a new construction project.
2. The A’s have broken ground on a new home field in Las Vegas.  Given the attendance successes for Las Vegas franchises in the NFL and the NHL, there is reason for optimism there.
3. The White Sox field is not in the best part of Chicago and there seems to be little if any interest in public contributions to a new home for the team in the city.  The team owner, Jerry Reinsndorf, is almost 90 years old and is not likely to fund a new stadium construction project on his own.
4. The Marlins’ situation is described above.

MLB wants to expand from 30 teams to 32 teams; officially, that is not a front-burner issue, but the league and the owners would love to divvy up those two expansion franchise fees.  And that presents a dilemma – – make that a trilemma:

1. Do these lowly attendance figures depress the price that expansion owners might be willing to “ante up”?  If so, MLB may need to think about moving the Rays, White Sox or Marlins to “greener pastures”.  That would be a modern-day analog to “salting the mine”.  OR…
2. Would moving those existing franchises to “greener pastures” take up space where there is enthusiasm for an MLB franchise but now the slot is filled, and the league must look for “lesser venues”?  OR …
3. Would the movement of the first existing franchise to a “greener pasture” encourage local pols in existing teams that have not  yet been relocated to ease up on the public purse strings a bit and be a bit more generous in their dealings with the team and the league?

If MLB were to embark on a strategy akin to the expansion/relocation ideas outlined here, where might they cast their gaze?

• Charlotte – – either expansion or relocation site
• Memphis or Nashville – – either expansion or relocation site
• Montreal – – relocation site
• Portland – – expansion territory
• Raleigh/Durham – – either expansion or relocation site if Charlotte is a non-starter
• Salt Lake City – – expansion territory
• Indianapolis?  Orlando?  San Antonio?  Tidewater, VA?  Vancouver?

Finally, here is Yogi Berra on attendance at baseball games:

“If people don’t want to come out to the ballpark, nobody’s gonna stop ‘em.”

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

 

 

Last week, I mentioned in passing that the lowest paid attendance for a World Series game was in 1908 between the Tigers and the Cubs.  Well, that is not all that was notable about that game and I learned more about it from the “reader in Houston” later that day:

“Regarding the smallest attendance at a World Series game between the Cubs at Tigers in 1908, the crowd of 6,210 in attendance at the game was more than the Tigers’ average regular season attendance, which was 5,665 at Bennett Park (capacity 8,500 – increased to 14,000 in 1910).

“That Game 5 was also the fastest World Series game in history being clocked in at 1:25 and the last championship by the Cubbies until 2016.”

And now you know.

Moving on …  The Washington Nationals are not a good MLB team this year and have not been “above average” for the last 5 years.  Over the weekend, the Nats fired their manager and their GM.  On one hand, you can look at the record since the Nats won the World Series in 2019 and think that the management team of Mike Rizzo and Dave Martinez deserves to be out looking for work.  In his tenure with the team, Martinez’ cumulative record was 500-622 – – and there was a World Series season included in that cumulative record.  Both men were in the final year of their contracts so one could also wonder why a firing near the All-Star break is going to matter much; this morning the Nats are in last place in the NL East and are 16 games out of first place in that division.  Only the woeful Colorado Rockies have a worse record in the NL as of this morning.

For those of you who do not live in the DC area and have no reason to follow the Nats closely, I think at least an equal measure of blame for the team needs to rest with the owners themselves.  The Nats have drafted and developed lots of young talent, but the owners do not pay them once they get to free agency.  Here are young talents that have come and gone since Dave Martinez took the job 8 years ago:

• Bryce Harper
• Anthony Rendon – – perennially injured
• Juan Soto
• Stephen Strasbourg – – suffered career ending injury
• Trea Turner

It is nice to note that two young Nats are going to be in the All-Star Game this year.  Pitcher MacKensie Gore and outfielder James Wood deserve that recognition.  And, fans in this area have exactly no reason to think that they will continue to be with the Nats once they accumulate enough MLB time to become free agents.

Switching gears …  Last week, Clayton Kershaw recorded his 3000^th strikeout.  That earns him membership in a rather exclusive club; only 20 pitchers in MLB history have ever done that and Kershaw is only the 4^th left-hander to do so.  [Aside:  Steve Carlton, Randy Johnson and CC Sabathia are the other three lefties on that short list.]  So, naturally, that raises the question:

• Is there another active pitcher who might make a run at 3000 career strikeouts?

Here are 4 possibilities:

1. Chris Sale is 36 years old and has 2528 Ks to his credit.  His injury history is catching up to him – – but he has a shot at 3000Ks if he stays healthy.
2. Gerrit Cole is 34 years old and has 2251 Ks to his credit.  He is out rehabbing from elbow surgery and will not pitch again until at least 2026 – – he too has a shot if he can have three or four healthy years ahead.
3. Charlie Morton is 41 years old and has 2124 Ks to his credit.  I think he will need to drink from the Fountain of Youth to find 876 more Ks to record.
4. Yu Darvish is 38 years old and is the only other active pitcher with 2000+ Ks to his credit; he has 2007 of them.

            Sale and Cole might make it to the “3000-Club” although neither would be an odds-on favorite to do so.  Looking at the list of the Top Ten active pitchers with strikeout totals, only Aaron Nola (age 32) is under the age of 35.  It could be a while until fans see another pitcher record 3000 strikeouts.

Finally, Connie Mack, former owner and manager of the A’s, had this to say about striking out:

“You’re born with two strikes against you, so don’t take a third one on your own.”

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

 

 

Happy Independence Day, everyone.  Celebrate safely and sanely.

I know that NFL teams have not reported to training camp yet and that the start of real NFL action is about 8 weeks in the future, but there is a confluence of events in the NFL that I will be very interested to watch unfold once things get underway.  Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you:

• The 2025 version of the Pittsburgh Steelers

This is a franchise known for stability, staying the course, patience, a blue-collar identity …  You get the idea.  Their last “losing season” was in 2003 – – albeit there have been four seasons with records of 8-8-0 in that streak.  The team has been in the Playoffs in four of the last five years.  What might entice such an organization to make a big change in “philosophy” with that history?

The Steelers have had a few divas over that time span, but their most accomplished players were the antithesis of “diva”.  Check this list of top-shelf Steelers’ players and try to apply the “diva label” to more than one or two:

• Jerome Bettis
• James Harrison
• Cam Hayward
• Santonio Holmes – – plenty of “diva” mixed in there
• Troy Polamalu
• Ben Roethlisberger
• Hines Ward
• TJ Watt
• Rod Woodson

And that list does not include any of the stars of the Super Bowl teams in the 1970s none of whom were remotely in the “diva category”.  So, in the offseason between 2024 and 2025, this stable and stay-the-course franchise decided to:

1. Sign Aaron Rodgers
2. Trade for DK Metcalf
3. Trade for Jalen Ramsey
4. Get into a “contract stare-down” with TJ Watt

Mike Tomlin has been the Steelers’ head coach since 2007; he is the longest tenured coach with an NFL team at the moment; this current roster may contain more personnel who represent “potential turmoil” than all the Steelers’ rosters combined in the Mike Tomlin Era.  And what I will find interesting to watch is this:

• Will Tomlin adapt to the new personnel dynamic?
• Will the rest of the roster adapt to the new personnel dynamic?
• Will Tomlin and the Steelers “squelch” the “diva potential” on the roster?

I am well aware of the adage that “Winning cures everything”.  So, if the Steelers make it to the AFC Championship Game, it will not matter – – nor will it be apparent – – how the team coalesced to get  there.  By the same token, if the Steelers have a miserable season and are drafting in the Top Three for next year’s Draft, there will be so many fingers pointed, and stories floated about the collapse that it will be difficult to separate fact from fiction.  Since I expect neither of those extreme scenarios to play out in 2025, that means it could be possible to take a synoptic view of the team and perhaps divine why they took the course they did and how the coaches managed the change.

Finally, since I began today with Independence Day wishes for everyone, let me close with a line from the morning time DJ at a local rock-and-roll station from my youth.  Here is what Bill Wright Sr. told everyone about having a safe Fourth of July:

“To have a safe Fourth, don’t buy a fifth on the third.”

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