Baseball, Football And The Caribbean…

As I was checking MLB results from the weekend, I noticed that the Yankees had lost 5 games in a row and that they were swept in a series by the Cards in St. Louis.  I went browsing into Yankee stats to see if anything jumped out at me to explain how or why this was happening and found nothing obvious.  But I did do a bit of math on one player stat that I think is interesting.

• The Yankees have played 109 games so far in 2022.
• Aaron Judge has hit 43 home runs in those 109 games.
• A linear extrapolation here says Aaron Judge will hit 64 home runs in 2022.

Let me go on record now and say:

• If Aaron Judge hits 64 home runs this season, then I will consider him to be the “Home Run King” for MLB.

Roger Maris’ record has stood for more than 60 years.  The folks who hit home runs in the 60s and 70s during the Steroid Era have no claim on that record as far as I m concerned.  I am not denying that three players all hit more than 61 home runs in a season; they most certainly did.  However, I believe they accomplished those feats in a biochemically-enhanced condition and that belief allows me to ignore those numbers and focus on the number 61.

Surely, someone in the audience will ask how I know that Aaron Judge is not “on the sauce”.  And the answer to that is – – of course – – that I do not know.  But even if I acknowledge that “cheaters” are always a step ahead of the “police” in the world of PEDs, I still do not believe that Judge fits the pattern of a “user”.  Aaron Judge did not bulk up between 2021 and 2022 – – or between any previous seasons.  He is simply a very large human being; baseball-reference.com lists him as 6’7” and 282 lbs and he has been that way for several years.  My assessment is that he is having a storybook season and if he continues on this pace, I will consider his home run record for 2022 as THE MLB record.  Please feel free to disagree…

Dwight Perry found a headline in The Onion that is pertinent here:

“Slumping Aaron Judge fails to hit home fun for entire at-bat.”

Aaron Judge also leads MLB in RBIs so far in 2022; he has driven in 97 runs to date.  So, how might he stack up in a race for the season record for RBIs?  The answer is that he is not even close to threatening that record:

• A linear extrapolation here says Aaron Judge will have 144 RBIs in 2022.
• The MLB record is 191 RBIs in a season held by Hack Wilson in 1930.  That record is in no danger in 2022.

[Aside:  After Wilson had 159 RBIs in 1929 and then 191 RBIs in 1930, he played 4 more seasons in MLB.  In those 4 years combined he had only 298 RBIs – – an average of only 73 per season.]

Speaking of people named Aaron, we had an announcement from Aaron Rodgers late last week that he and his former girlfriend had taken a trip to Peru and had taken some psychedelic substances on that journey.  Rodgers attributes his two recent MVP seasons to those psychedelic experiences.  According to Rodgers, taking a dose of ayahuasca “helped me see how to unconditionally love myself.”  As you digest that snippet let me give you what followed in Rodgers’ “testimony”:

“It’s only in that unconditional self-love that I’m truly able to unconditionally love others. What better way to work on my mental health than to have an experience like that? The greatest gift I can give my teammates is to show up and be someone who can model unconditional love to them. Obviously, it’s important I play well and show up and lead all that stuff. But they won’t care about what you say until they know how much you care.”

Please note here that Rodgers can now unconditionally love others and combine that thought with the fact that he had this experience with his former girlfriend…

Moving on …  In the world of “bad optics” you can debate which organization is the gold standard.  Big Tobacco, various Teachers’ Unions and the Congress of the United States would all be part of a list that I might construct here and news over the weekend reminds me to add the Washington Commanders to that list.  The Commanders announced late last week that there will be a Commanders’ Fan Cruise in the Caribbean next March.  It will be a 7-day event where fans can meet and party with “Commanders’ Legends” and that it will be a time of:

“ … meet-and-greets, Q&A’s and photo opportunities, trivia, karaoke, dancing and more, all while enjoying the company of up to 30 Washington Legends.”

So, what makes this “bad optics”?

1. It was a photo shoot in Central America – – near the Caribbean – – where cheerleaders were ogled as they were dressing for a calendar photo shoot.
2. Danny Boy Snyder took to his super yacht to stay in international waters so that he could not be served with a subpoena by the posers on a committee of the US Congress.
3. One of the potential “Legends” that could be invited would be Fred Smoot. He qualifies as a “Legend” in these parts; if you wonder why he would be “bad optics” please Google “fred smoot party boat”.

Finally, let me close with another offering from Dwight Perry in the Seattle Times:

“Dr. Anthony Fauci will throw out the ceremonial first pitch at Tuesday’s Mariners-Yankees game in Seattle.

“In keeping with the theme, the catcher will be wearing an extra mask.”

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