I ran across a stat that was unusual enough that I went to check it out. Lou Gehrig was part of the famous Yankees’ team in 1927; he set a record for consecutive games played at 2,130 that stood until Cal Ripken, Jr. broke it about 60 years later; he also hit 4 home runs in consecutive at bats in a single game in 1932 – – a feat that has not been duplicated. Those are “highlight stats” that most baseball fans know by heart. Here is another amazing Lou Gehrig stat:
- From 1927 to 1937, Gehrig played in 1695 games.
- From 1927 to 1937, Gehrig had 1690 RBIs.
The math for that says he drove in .998 runs per game which is close enough to 1 RBI per game to generate this sort of mental musing:
- What sort of contract might a current player get if he had driven in 162 runs in 162 games over even a 3- or 4-year span?
- The last player to exceed 162 RBIs in a single season was in 1999 when Manny Ramirez drove in 165 runs.
- Over the last 10 years, the highest total for RBIs for a season in MLB was last year by Matt Olsen; he drove in 139 runs.
- The MLB record for most RBIs in a single season is held by Hack Wilson (Cubs) in 1930; Wilson drove in 191 runs that year.
Moving on … The landscape for Spring Football in the US has changed. The USFL and the XFL have figured out a way to merge into a single entity that will be called the UFL – – the United Football League. Both the USFL and the XFL competed with 8 teams last year; because of the merger, the number of franchises will be halved; the UFL will consist of 8 teams. Play will commence in March 2024 if all goes according to plan.
The 8 teams in the UFL are going to be located in an interesting array. There will be two conferences – – the USFL Conference and the XFL Conference presumably to acknowledge the roots of the UFL. Let me first list the teams here to make an observation:
XFL Conference:
- Arlington Renegades – – Arlington, TX
- DC Defenders – – Washington, DC
- San Antonio Brahmas – – San Antonio, TX
- St. Louis Battlehawks – – St. Louis, MO
USFL Conference:
- Birmingham Stallions – – Birmingham, AL
- Houston Roughnecks – – Houston, TX
- Memphis Showboats – – Memphis, TN
- Michigan Panthers – – Detroit, MI
Half of the teams in the new UFL are going to play in areas where there is an existing NFL franchise. The other half will be in “virgin territory” for pro football. The thing that I find interesting is that of the ten largest TV markets in the US, the UFL will only have a franchise in three of them:
- #5 – – Dallas/Fort Worth
- #6 – – Houston
- #9 – – Washington DC
The reason I find this interesting is that FOX and ESPN both have some sort of ownership stake in the merged UFL and that would have led me to think that the new league would have a team in either NY or LA or Chicago just to “plant the flag” in one or more of the Top 3 TV markets in the country. But such is not the case …
On the other hand, if the new league is willing to make a go of it outside the big metropolitan areas in many of the franchise locations, I wonder why the new league chose to compete with the Cowboys, Texans, Commanders and Lions with four of the new franchises. If I were looking for a place to put a Spring football franchise that would compete for local attention with an NFL team, I would think of Chicago where the Bears are looking to get out of town leaving a functional facility in the “downtown area” that could be readily available. But I am not a TV mogul from either FOX or ESPN …
I have no reason to wish for the UFL to fail; its existence will potentially provide grist for these rants. Nevertheless, I would lose “Curmudgeon Credibility” if I did not point out that one way to look at this merger is as a 50% contraction as compared to the two previous Spring football entities. Normally, when commercial enterprises contract, it is an indication that they cannot sustain themselves within the bounds of their current and projected revenues. From that viewpoint, it becomes a bit more difficult to take seriously the words from Daryl Johnson who will serve as the head of football operations for the UFL:
“As we come together to create the UFL, we can build something powerful, exciting and very cool for football fans — a spring league with lasting impact for all the players with a dream to play pro football and the ‘hardest workers in the room’ mentality to make their dreams come true.”
Finally, Spring football in the US has been an aspiration for more than 40 years now; leagues have come and go; when they are in the “coming stage” there is an abundance of hope in the air. So let me close today with these words from Nietzsche:
“Hope in reality is the worst of all evils, because it prolongs the torments of man.”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………