A Mishmash Today

Just as the reader in Houston put me onto a website that keeps track of how much baseball players make while they are on the injured list – not playing baseball – he also provided me with a way to track the same thing in the NBA.  Since the regular season ended yesterday – – were you able to handle all the drama and excitement of the final weekend of games? – – I thought I would present you with some data on that subject.

The website tracks players who were on the injured list, players who have been designated as “rest” meaning they got “approved leave” from the team and players who missed games for “personal” reasons.  The number of injured players and games missed by those injured players dominate here as does the salary earned so I will not do the breakout here; I will provide totals only:

• Number of games missed by players = 6,319
• Salary earned while not playing = $906,171,634

The website is listed by player and category.  If you want to see how much your favorite player earned while not playing, follow this link.

With the end of the NBA regular season in hand and the play-in portion of the NBA playoffs about to begin, please consider this comment from Dwight Perry’s column last week in the Seattle Times:

“So, which NBA team will be the first to hoist a ‘2021 Play-In Champion’ banner next season?”

Congratulations to Sam Houston State for beating South Dakota State 23-21 in the NCAA Division 1-AA football final game to earn the national championship.  The game was close all along and it was won on a TD pass in the final minute for a come-from-behind win.  The game suffered from horrible weather in the first half causing a 1-hour delay while the teams cooled their heels as lightening strikes were observed around Frisco, TX where the game was played.

Last week, I said that I had already heard enough about a couple of sports storylines but that they would continue to be beaten to death.  One was the Tim Tebow saga of signing on as a tight end with the Jags.  Well, I was right on that one.  Since I said there was nothing of note to report/comment on, here is what has happened:

• The Jags continued to negotiate with Tebow, and he had not signed as of yesterday morning.  That lack of a contract was considered newsworthy.
• Various people have made statements about the “rectitude” of this entire matter.  Please do not ask me why because I wonder why anyone thought it was important to report such commentary.

While trying to avoid this entire matter until something real happened – – like Tebow signed a contract or there was an announcement that this was not going to happen despite all the sturm und drang that had preceded it – –  I ran across a link to an article with this headline:

“Gene Simmons defends Tebow from backlash to potential NFL return”

That headline drew me to the article – – as is the purpose of headlines – – for a couple of reasons:

1. I wondered who Gene Simmons is and why his perspective mattered.
2. I wondered what the “backlash” was all about.

After reading the article, I now know who Gene Simmons is, but I still do not have a clear understanding of why his opinion on this matter is any more interesting than Joe Flabeetz’ opinion on this matter which I know to be uninteresting.  As to the backlash, it has to do with Tebow getting a potential shot at a position on the Jags while Colin Kaepernick cannot get a comeback try in the NFL.

The comparison there is pretty thin gruel in my mind.  Yes, both men earned their fame by playing quarterback and yes, both men famously genuflected on the sidelines during football games.  After that, the analogies get more and more tenuous.  As I said last week, I wish that the only report I read about this matter relates to the terms of the contract that Tebow eventually signs  with the Jags.  After that, sports commentators can fall all over themselves dissecting how well he performs in agility drills at the Jags’ minicamp in June.

Albert Pujols has found another job in MLB – – not a lot of controversy on that move yet – – and he will not need to move far if at all.  Pujols was released by the Angels a week ago and over the weekend CBSSports.com reported that he had signed on with the Dodgers.  His contract with the Dodgers is supposedly for the MLB minimum which currently is $570.5K per year.  Pujols was under contract with the Angels for $30M this year and he will collect the balance of that from the Angels with only that minimum salary as an offset.

The Dodgers have suffered injuries to first basemen this year and obviously hope that Pujols can increase his performance at the plate from the .196 batting average he posted in his time with the Angels.  The Dodgers currently sit in 3^rd place in the NL West a game-and-a-half behind the Padres and two games behind the Giants.

Finally, here is Dwight Perry again on Albert Pujols’ release by the Angels:

“Albert Pujols, just released by the Angels, grounded into an MLB-record 403 double plays in his career.

“Instead of having a street renamed in his honor, maybe he should be awarded his own 643 area code.”

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