There seems to be a lot of “action” these days regarding new stadiums – or major upgrades to existing stadiums – all over the country. Things seem to be in motion in St. Petersburg for the Rays and in Nashville for the Titans and in Las Vegas for the A’s and in suburban Chicago for the Bears and in Buffalo for the Bills and potentially in Baltimore for the Orioles. There has been ample media coverage for those activities/plans over the past couple of years, but there is another one that completely slipped my notice. If this one got any public airing outside its local area, then I missed it completely.
It seems that there is now an agreement between the Milwaukee Brewers and various entities in Wisconsin to spend $700M to upgrade American Family Field in a deal that would keep the Brewers in Milwaukee through 2050. Here is roughly how the funding breaks down:
- The State of Wisconsin – – which owns the stadium by the way – – will kick in $400M.
- Milwaukee City and Milwaukee County will pony up $200M.
- Brewers’ ownership will toss in $100M to round things out.
Assuming this deal marches ahead without intervening calamity, this should assure that no one in Wisconsin need worry about the Brewers pulling up stakes and moving to Beaglebreath, Nebraska any time soon.
And speaking of the Milwaukee Brewers, pitcher J.C. Mejia just flunked his second PED test and has been suspended for 162 games. [Aside: A third positive test for a PED would result in a lifetime ban from MLB.] There are two interesting angles to the reports of this suspension:
- This is the second time Mejia has tested positive for the same banned substance – – Stanozolol. The last time was 16 months ago, and he was suspended for that failed test. Not only did Mejia apparently not learn of the consequences of testing positive for PEDs, but he also seems not to have learned that Stanozolol is a substance that MLB can detect rather well.
- Mejia has appeared in 9 games for the Brewers this year throwing eleven-and-a-third innings. His ERA is 5.56 which by the way is a significant improvement over his career ERA of 8.32. If those are the results achieved while using a performance enhancing drug, I think Mejia should ask for a rebate because it does not seem to have worked.
Sticking with baseball – – sort of – – I have been focused on the AL West division race for the last six weeks or so and have not paid my normal amount of attention to the bottom feeders of MLB this year. So, to maintain my curmudgeon credentials, let me do so here.
In the American League, four teams have been eliminated from the playoffs for a while now. The White Sox, Royals, Angels and A’s need not postpone any vacation plans they may have with their families in October. One good measure of a team having a really bad season is whether they lose 100 games or more. In the AL, the Royals and the A’s have already done that and the A’s need to go 7-3 in their final 10 games to avoid losing 110 games in 2023.
In the National League, three teams have been eliminated from the playoffs. The Nats, Cardinals and Rockies are out; the other 12 teams are mathematically alive for a playoff berth. No team in the NL has already lost 100 games; in fact, the only team in the league that could possibly lose 100 games is the Colorado Rockies. The Rockies have lost 96 games as of this morning and have 10 games left to go. The odds say they will cross over into “triple-digit territory” for losses in 2023.
Moving on … Boston College announced this week that it has suspended its men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams “indefinitely” because school administrators determined that hazing had occurred within those teams. Boston College has codified examples of unacceptable hazing in its student handbook; here are things that the school specifically considers improper hazing:
“… personal servitude; sleep deprivation and restrictions on personal hygiene; yelling, swearing, and insulting new members/rookies; being forced to wear embarrassing or humiliating attire in public; consumption of vile substances or smearing of such on one’s skin; brandings; physical beatings; binge drinking and drinking games; sexual simulation and sexual assault.”
[Aside: It would seem that forcing a new team member to get a tattoo of human genitalia on their forehead is not covered by this panoply of improper behaviors. But I would not suggest that any entity on the BC campus try that out.]
Once again, I am forced to concede that I do not understand why hazing continues to exist in various organizations/teams because I do not understand what benefit derives from the hazing process. Maybe an investigation into these sorts of questions/issues could be the basis for an article in a magazine like The Atlantic?
Finally, I’ll close today with these words from the English theater critic, James Agate:
“The English instinctively admire any man who has no talent and is modest about it.”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………
Color me skeptical about the Rays stadium project. 30,000 seats max and $1.3 billion?
Doug:
Seems awfully small to me too. But this idea has gone further than all the previous ones…
In my experience, hazing is justified as a means to bring a group (rookies/freshman) closer together and build a unique bond between them as a result of enduring the hazing. In reality, I’ve seen hazing actually justified as such: “I went through it as a freshman so now the new kids have to as well because that’s fair”.
Joey B:
I suspect you are right about the “bonding issue” and that teams/organizations attribute some value to the hazing as part of the team-building process. Institutions must assign a value to hazing because without that, it seems like a pretty silly thing to do.