RIP Len Dawson

Len Dawson died earlier this week.  He won an AFL championship with the Dallas Texans – – later to become the KC Chiefs.  He was the Chiefs’ QB in Super Bowl I losing to Vince Lombardi’s Packers in that game.  He was also the Chiefs’ QB in Super Bowl IV when the Chiefs upset the heavily favored Vikings and Dawson was the MVP of that game.  After his career was over, he was also deeply involved in broadcasting and commenting on NFL football, and he is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame both as a player and as a broadcaster.

Rest in peace, Len Dawson.

There are several baseball issues worthy of discussion this morning.  Let me start with a report that Fernando Tatis, Jr. may be in the process of maturing.  He said earlier this week that he made a mistake and that resulted in his 80-game PED suspension.  That may not seem like a big deal at first, but I think it is a huge step forward from “I’m sorry I used some meds that contained a banned substance”.  Adults make mistakes; functional adults learn from those mistakes and the learning process begins with an acknowledgement that the functional adult screwed up.  Perhaps we have the beginnings of a breakthrough here…?

Here is the big mistake Tatis, Jr. made – – assuming the rest of his story is true:

• As a member of the San Diego Padres, he has access to top-shelf medical advice, diagnostics and treatment at no cost to him.
• Rather than avail himself of those resources, he chose to avail himself of local medical resources in the Dominican Republic.
• The Dominican Republic is not quite as backward as a Third World country – – but it ain’t SoCal when it comes to comparisons of medical expertise.

Tatis, Jr. now says he accepts blame for this situation AND he says he will use his “time off” to get the shoulder surgery that has been recommended to him for the past 18-24 months which he has resisted.  He is 23 years old, and it appears that he is now starting to think like and behave like a functioning adult.  Stand by here because if he can harness his immaturity and allow his physical gifts to express themselves, he could be a special player in MLB for the next decade.

Moving on …  We know that the Washington Nationals are up for sale, and they have been for the past several months.  Reports say that four or five potential buyers have gotten approval to look over the Nats’ books to structure a bid for the team.  Forbes says the Nats are worth $2B meaning the franchise will probably sell at a premium to that evaluation.  Now comes word that the Los Angeles Angels may also be on the block.

Reports this week say that owner Arte Moreno has retained a financial firm to “explore the possible sale of the Angels’ franchise.”  Moreno purchased the Angels in 2003 for $185M; Forbes now puts a value of $2.2B on the franchise; when he finds a buyer, the transaction will not leave him destitute.

Moreno had been working to get approval for purchasing the stadium the Angels play in along with land adjacent so that he could develop the land and get a new ballpark.  It looked as if a deal was in place but a Federal probe turned up more than a little “corruption” in the deal sending it to the dead letter office.  It appears as if Moreno will be reimbursed for his costs to date and the folks involved in the “corruption” are no long in a position to make this deal happen; so, it looks as if Moreno thinks it is best to cash in now and let someone else start the dealing processes over from scratch.  Here is a link to a report that can give you a more complete review of what this might mean for the Angels and MLB.

• [Aside:  Recall that members of the Angelos family are suing one another over possible control of the Orioles and that the patriarch of that family, Peter Angelos, is 93 years old.  In fact, there could be three MLB franchises on the market.]

Another franchise that could potentially see a major change – – not necessarily in ownership but in locale – – would be the Oakland A’s.  The A’s have proposed a plan whereby they would build themselves a new stadium in Oakland if they also get control of acreage in the city that the owners would develop but the city has to chip in the “infrastructure costs”.  The county and the state officials seem to be favorable, but things are moving at a snail’s pace.  Meanwhile, things in Las Vegas are moving much more quickly.

Reports say that execs and representatives of the A’s have met with a hotel owner in Las Vegas, Phil Ruffin, twice in the past month.  According to those reports, their meetings have focused on a large piece of “open land” known as the Las Vegas Festival Grounds that is owned/controlled by Ruffin.  This open land is along the Las Vegas Strip near Circus Circus and the Sahara Hotel.  Supposedly, MLB would “demand” at least $275M in public financing from any group that might want to bring the A’s to Las Vegas.  Notwithstanding the fact the things are moving faster in Las Vegas than they have been for the past decade or so in Oakland, this deal is nowhere near ready to go to closure.

About 15 or 20  years ago, Las Vegas was once again trying to attract an MLB franchise to the city – – I don’t recall the details.  Someone asked the mayor of Las Vegas back then if they could have a stadium built in in less than three years and his answer was along these lines:

• We know how to build hotels with more than a thousand rooms in less than three years.  A stadium is easy to build compared to a hotel.  We could use the stadium as a training ground for our construction people.

I accept the premise that building a stadium is less complicated than building a hotel/casino/resort, but I am still not persuaded that it is a trivial undertaking to go from groundbreaking to a finished facility as a “training ground”.

Finally, let me close today with this entry from The Official Dictionary of Sarcasm:

“Jerk:  What you probably should not have called that cop.”

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