Month: April 2025

Congratulations to the Florida Gators as the National Champions of college basketball for 2025 with an exciting and entertaining victory over Houston in the Final Game of March Madness.  I don’t know what more one might ask of the three games that led from the Final Four to Florida’s championship status; all three games featured dramatic come-from-behind rallies by the winners and all three games were seriously in doubt in the final two minutes of the contests.  In the three games this weekend, the team that had the lead at halftime wound up losing the game.  On the “Entertainment Scale” those Final Four Games pegged the needle on the “Wow Meter”.

Until I checked my email yesterday afternoon, it had not registered with me that “Mattress Mack” had not been in the news for making a large wager on the Houston Cougars to win the National Championship; he is the “Ultimate Houston/Texas Sports Fan”.  The email I received from the “reader in Houston” explained the situation.  Here is the scoop:

“Mack lost a lot of money recently to casinos regarding his promotions to return money to those who spent more than $4,000 on mattresses, so he sat out the annual NCAA promotion where he would refund money if a team from Texas won the tourney.

“For the baseball season, he has a new gimmick though. If the Astros win 10 straight (they’ve done it seven times over the last decade), he will give full refunds to those who spend over $4,000 on mattresses.

“If the Astros win 9 straight, he can hedge his potential refund to customers by going against the Astros in their next game, if he so wishes. However, with the Astros team this season, winning seven straight is a longshot, let alone ten straight.”

The Astros indeed lost some quality players in the last offseason; Kyle Tucker went to the Cubs; Justin Verlander went to the Giants and Alex Bregman signed with the Red Sox.  Those are serious losses.  However, the Astros also added Isaac Parades and Christian Walker to the roster, so the team is not exactly bereft of talent.  Jose Altuve, Yanier Diaz and Yordan Alvarez are a solid core for the Astros’ lineup.

Switching gears …  The NBA regular season is just about over.  There is minimal tension left in the schedule; the playoff teams are set in the Eastern Conference and only one playoff slot is uncertain in the West where the Mavs lead the Suns by 3 games with four games left to play for both teams.  This year, there is no late-season “excitement” in the late season NBA games unless you are looking at the tanking teams to see which ones will get how many ping-pong balls in the Draft Hopper.

• The Jazz will finish last in the West.  They have 16 wins as of today with 3 games left to play.
• The Wizards lead the race to the bottom in the East.  They have 17 wins as of today with 4 games left on the schedule.
• The Hornets could catch the Wizards and become the Ignominy of the East.  The Hornets have 19 wins with four games left to play.

The other NBA stat I want to give you this morning has to do with a complaint that I have had about NBA games for the last several years.  With a few games left to play, the NBA has set a new record for the number of three-point field goals made in a season.  Here is a line from yesterday’s Washington Post – – The Day In Sports:

“The NBA record for three-pointers in a season fell again.  Boston’s Sam Hauser connected with 6:55 left in the fourth quarter of the Celtics’ game against Washington Sunday night – – the 31,580^th made three-pointer of the season in the NBA.”

In round numbers, an average NBA game sees 27 made three-point shots out of 68 three-point attempts.  There are approximately 60 regular season games left on the NBA schedule; at this rate the previous league record for three-point shots made will be surpassed by around 4,000 successful three-pointers.  Sorry, that is a large part of the reason why I prefer college basketball to the professional variety.

Finally, since I began today with the national championship game last night, let me close with these words from Duffy Daugherty, former head football coach at Michigan State, on the importance of championship games:

“When you are playing for the national championship, it’s not a matter of life or death. It’s more important than that.”

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

 

 

Well, I will only get half of my “wish”.  I wanted to see Duke/Florida as the Final Game for the tournament this year but will be happy to see Houston/Florida later this evening.  Both Houston and Florida overcame significant deficits on Saturday night to make it to tonight’s game.  The oddsmakers have Florida as the favorite by 1.5 points and the Total Line this morning is 142 points.  If Saturday’s games were an indicator, I would be playing the UNDER on tonight’s game; I am anticipating two defensive efforts.

Meanwhile, in the women’s tournament, UConn and Geno Auriemma won their 12^th national championship on Sunday with a dominant win over South Carolina.  That 12^th national championship for Coach Auriemma is the most by any coach in college basketball – – men’s or women’s.

The late breaking story of the day however has nothing to do with college basketball; over in the world of MLB, the news is that the Blue Jays and Vladimir Guererro, Jr. have reached an agreement on a contract extension worth $500M over the next 14 years.  Guererro was in the final year of his contract with the Jays and was going to be THE blue-chip free agent in baseball over the next offseason; that drama is now avoided with this huge extension.  Guerrero is 26 years old; this contract extension – – with no deferred money by the way – – will pay him through the MLB season where he is 40 years old.  The Jays must realize that they will be overpaying in that final season; so, they also anticipate that they will be getting a bargain over the early seasons in the deal.

The Jays have another player on an expiring contract to deal with.  Bo Bichette will be a free agent this winter; while signing him will not take another $500M commitment by the team, he too is a player who will attract a lot of attention if he hits the free agency market.  The Jays were active in the last offseason signing vets like Max Scherzer and Jeff Hoffman which indicates that Jays’ management sees the future of the team being in the near future.  Perhaps, Toronto is a place to focus baseball attention these days?

Sticking with MLB, I think the entire kerfuffle over “torpedo bats” is even less interesting than a tempest in a teapot.  The bats are perfectly legal according to MLB rules for 2025; here is the pertinent information from “Rule 3.02 The Bat” from MLB’s official rules for 2525:

• (a) The bat shall be a smooth, round stick not more than 2.61 inches in diameter at the thickest part and not more than 42 inches in length. The bat shall be one piece of solid wood.
• (b) Cupped Bats. An indentation in the end of the bat up to 1¼ inches in depth is permitted and may be no wider than two inches and no less than one inch in diameter. The indentation must be curved with no foreign substance added.
• (c) The bat handle, for not more than 18 inches from its end, may be covered or treated with any material or substance to improve the grip. Any such material or substance that extends past the 18-inch limitation shall cause the bat to be removed from the game.
• (d) No colored bat may be used in a professional game unless approved by Major League Baseball.

As Porky Pig was wont to say, “That’s all, folks!”  If the so-called torpedo bats meet those criteria, they are legal.

Here is one more baseball item for today; it is an unusual stat that I ran across:

• The Reds lost 3 consecutive games by the score of 1-0.  The last time that happened in MLB was in 1960 when the Phillies accomplished the same feat.
• Reds’ fans need to hope that their team does better in 2025 than did the Phillies in 1960.  That Phillies team finished dead last in the NL with a record of 59-95 and were 36 games behind the league-leading Pirates.

For those of you who are numbers-oriented, you probably noticed that the MLB season in 1960 was 154 games in length.  In fact, that was the last MLB season of that length and I think it is time for MLB to begin to think about contracting its season back a little bit.  Here’s why:

• With the expansion of the playoffs – – and the desire not to have advancement in the playoffs determined by single elimination games – – the baseball season now has too many “cold weather games” on the schedule in both late March and in late October/early November.
• Combined with the economic aversion to schedule double headers, the MLB season eats up too much real estate on the astronomical calendar.

Baseball is not a cold-weather game.  By shrinking the regular season a bit – – and committing to scheduling double headers on Memorial Day and July 4^th – – MLB can dodge some of meteorological bullets that are inevitable in many of their venues such as Toronto, Boston, NY, Minnesota, Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Philly where all the parks are open air parks.  Ideally, I would reduce the regular season to 144 games with two days devoted to double headers.  I know that will cause the baseball purists to cringe; so, I would settle for going back to 154 games in the regular season with two days devoted to double headers.

Just a thought …

Finally, since most of today was about baseball, let me close with these words from Mr. Baseball – – Bob Uecker:

“I hit a grand slam off Ron Herbel and when his manager Herman Franks came out to get him, he was bringing Herbel’s suitcase.”

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

 

 

As part of its determination to dominate sports media all year round, the NFL held one of its scheduled owners’ meetings this week and tweaked some of the rules.  In order to minimize the incentive for teams kicking off to simply kick the ball out of the end zone, the league moved the starting point for offensive drives out to the 35-yardline instead of the 30-yardline.  The underlying idea here is to add more kickoff returns to the game because kickoff returns can be exciting plays.

The institution of the so-called “Dynamic Kickoff” where the defenders do not get a running start for 40-50 yards before colliding with blockers and returners was done to promote more returns and to reduce player injuries.  Nonetheless, special teams’ coaches and defensive coordinators seemed willing to have the offense take possession at the 30-yardline because less than a third of the kickoffs were actually returned last season.  Nonetheless, the rule had some positive result because there were 300 more kickoffs returned in NFL regular season games in 2024 than there were in 2023.

According to reports, there may be some more changes to this rule after the owners meet again in late May.  In the meantime, it seems to me that the rules mavens may be setting the incentives incorrectly here.  Suppose the rule went like this:

• Kickoff goes out of the end zone on the fly and the ball comes out to the 35 yardline.
• Kickoff goes into the end zone and is not returned by the receiving team, and the ball only comes out to the 20-yardline.  [Aside:  That was the rule for decades in the NFL.]

Now, the incentive is for the receiving team to do something other than take a knee and for the kicking team to keep the ball on the field of play.  If they keep the player lineups as they were in 2024, they will have more kickoff returns in a situation where it appears injuries were also reduced.  Just a thought …

Another rule change for 2025 is that regular season overtime games will use the same rule for overtime as in playoff games in the sense that both teams will be guaranteed to have the ball on offense.  Under this rule, it is advantageous for the team winning the overtime coin toss to choose to kick off.  By doing that, the team winning the coin toss will know exactly what it needs to accomplish on its possession to win or tie the game and that is a significant advantage.  On balance, I like the new rule better than the old rule for regular season overtime games.

Regular season overtime games will differ from playoff overtime games in terms of the length of the game.  In the regular season, overtime is limited to 10 minutes; in playoff games, play goes on until there is a winner and a loser.  Since the NFL playoffs are single elimination, such is a necessity for playoff games.

Another change for 2025 will be a new authority granted to the on-site replay official.  Starting next year, the on-site replay official will be allowed to reverse penalty flags for hits on defenseless players, facemask/horse collar violations and the distinction between roughing the kicker and running into the kicker.  However, this new authority only allows for reversal of penalties called on the field, the replay official cannot “discover” a new penalty while reviewing a play no matter how obvious that might be.  Again, this sounds like an improvement to me.

The most revolutionary rule change for 2025 involves measuring for first downs; the chain gang will have “secondary responsibility” – – whatever that means – – and measurement will use visual technology developed by Sony.  The system is called “Hawk-Eye”, and it will be operated in the Game Day facility in NY; the system does its calculating, and that result will be communicated to the officials on the field theoretically in less time than it takes for the chain gang to come onto and off the field.  I guess the chain gang’s presence in “secondary responsibility” is insurance if there is a technology hiccough during the games.

Several proposed rule changes were tabled for further consideration at the meeting in May.

1. Should the “tush-push” continue to be allowed as a legal offensive play?  If it is deemed to be improper, then I think any and all plays where ball carriers are assisted by teammates should be outlawed.
2. Should there be rule changes to increase the probability of recovery for onside kicks?  I would have to see the proposed new rules to know if I like these or not.
3. Should playoff seeding in each conference be based on regular season records as opposed to division championships?  I would vote for this one immediately.

One proposed rule change was voted down.  The Lions proposed that the automatic first down that accompanies a defensive holding call or an illegal contact call be removed as part of the penalty.  I think the owners got this one right; if the automatic first down were removed, I think there would be a spike in defensive holding and illegal contact situations and that would not be a plus for the games.

Switching gears …  Set yourself a reminder for tomorrow evening at 6:00 PM ET so that you do not miss the NCAA semi-finals on CBS.  There are no “pretenders” left; each team in both games is worthy of winning it all; Saturday night should be great sports entertainment.  I said two weeks ago that I thought Duke/Florida would be an entertaining Final Game; that matchup remains a possibility …

Finally, another gem from Al McGuire:

“I think everyone should go to college and get a degree and then spend six months as a bartender and six months as a cabdriver. Then they would really be educated.”

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

 

 

Maryland was my “sleeper team” in this year’s tournament and made it to the Sweet-16 before taking its leave.  Its coach, Kevin Willard, had been at odds with the former Athletic Director who had just moved on; so, under normal circumstances, you would think that Willard would be back trying to improve on a Sweet-16 appearance next year. Nope, that would be too normal.

Willard complained that the basketball program was a poor stepchild in the Maryland Athletic Department and spoke of the happiness he felt when he was in the Big East (Seton Hall) where football did not dominate every thought and action in an Athletic Department.  As soon as Vilanova fired its coach after a third straight year without a March Madness invitation, speculation was that Willard wanted the job.  Indeed, he took the Villanova job and went back to the Big East and the Terps went out and hired Buzz Williams in his place.

I think both Villanova and Maryland upgraded at the basketball coaching level.  Do not take that comment to mean that I think Williams is clearly superior to Willard as a coach; rather, I mean Williams seems far more content to work in what is the “Maryland environment” than Willard was – – and that is a big plus.  Consider that Williams’ last two jobs were at Va Tech and Texas A&M.  Clearly, football is the dominant interest at those two schools; Williams seems to be adapted to that sort of environment for the basketball program.

But it is that “environment for the basketball program” that remains at Maryland and has existed ever since the Terps jettisoned the ACC for the Big-10.  With that move, Maryland chased “football money” even though there is no way for Maryland to be a “champion” in Big-10 football anytime in the next few decades.  Now, if Willard is to be believed, the Athletic Budget constrains the basketball program significantly.  According to reports, Willard asked for the team to stay together in a NY hotel for a night over the Christmas Holidays and was told there wasn’t money in the budget for that.  But when the football team travels to play Stanford, there is money for a much larger squad to stay in a hotel in the SF area …

Buzz Williams will be successful at Maryland; he has been everywhere else.  But I predict that he too will finally chafe under the financial constraints that he will endure there and his success with the Terps will land him a bigger job somewhere in the next 5 years or so.  Maryland is a “basketball school” who is seeking to become a “football school”.  That is not an impossible undertaking, but it is not an easy one either.  And it is going to make the position of “head basketball coach” a revolving door for a while.

Moving on …  The “Oakland” A’s had their home opener in Sacramento this week; they lost that game 18-3 but that was not the worst news item to come from that game.  They played in the minor league stadium for the Sacramento team which seats 14,000 fans.  And for the home opener in the new venue, the A’s did not sell out the venue; attendance was 12,119.  That is the bad news.  The good news is that the A’s did not average 12,119 fans last year in Oakland and I guess it looks better to play in a stadium that is 85% full as opposed to one that is 20% full.

In the longer term, this does not auger well for the A’s.  They will be in a minor league park for at least two seasons and probably longer; I will go out on a limb here and say that fact will not be a selling point for free agents to consider the A’s as a destination nor will it make any current players who become free agents more prone to “stay home”.  Yes, they signed Luis Severino in this offseason; but I wonder if that was merely an aberration.  Time will tell …

Switching gears …  The Braves could not possibly have anticipated the horrendous start the team got for the 2025 season; as of this morning, the Braves are 0-7 having been outscored 32-14 in those 7 losses.  I know; the Braves still need to get Ronald Acuna, Jr. and Spencer Strider back onto the field regularly; that will kickstart the team.  However, the Braves need to do better than they have lest they fall so far behind in a competitive NL East that they do not have enough season left in order to “catch up”.

One more item today …  Here is an example of why it is important to look at statistics in context.  Data Set #1:

• The average TV audience for March Madness is up 3% this year as compared to the TV audience in 2023.  AND …
• The average TV audience for the Women’s NCAA Basketball Tournament is up 43% from 2023.

Let those numbers marinate in your brain for a moment and get a sense of your reaction to them  Now consider Data Set #2:

• The average TV audience for March Madness in 2025 is 9.4 million viewers.  AND …
• The average TV audience for the Women’s NCAA Basketball Tournament in 2025 is 367,000 viewers.

Both statements are true according to reports from places that track such data.  Most folks will react rather differently depending on which data set is presented to them.

Finally, another observation from Al McGuire:

“When I was losing, they called me nuts. When I was winning they called me eccentric.”

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

 

 

ESPN’s SportsCenter has been a foundation piece for the network since ESPN signed onto the air in 1979; I read somewhere that there have been more than 60,000 “episodes” of SportsCenter in ESPN’s history.  About 15 years ago, the network decided to move the operation completely to Los Angeles and to end the idea of an “Eastern” version from Bristol, CT alongside an “Western” version in LA.  I remember that my reaction at the time was that SportsCenter was not broken so why fix it.  After all, moving lots of people and crating a new set and infrastructure in LA was going to cost ESPN a lot more than “three easy payments of $39.95”.

Now, ESPN has decided to close down the LA operation and move SportsCenter back to Bristol in its entirety.  The company cited “current business needs” as the basis for this decision to relocate.  Plus ça change …

I don’t care even a little bit where SportsCenter originates; I only care that it does what it set out to do in 1979 which is to provide scores and highlights for various games/matches/tournaments/whatever.  I don’t care if the presenters are male or female; I don’t care of the graphics are flashy or plain; if the hosts can add some humor to the telecast naturally and not ham-handedly, that is good but not necessary.  The final LA-based SportsCenter will be sometime in mid-May.  Please let the show’s producers recognize that the move back to where the program started can also be a message to get the show back to what it was always intended to be.

That is only one bit of programming change slated for ESPN in May 2025.  The network announced that Around the Horn will air its final episode on May 23, 2025; the show has been on the air 5 days a week since November 4, 2002, so it has had a good run indeed.  ATH was the lead-in program for Pardon the Interruption and at one time it reliably drew audiences of more than 750,000 viewers on a cable network outside of prime time.  Those audience numbers have eroded significantly in recent years, and I will use my experience as the basis for an explanation there.

The five participants in the first episode of Around the Horn were:

1. Max Kellerman – – Host/Moderator
2. Bob Ryan – – Boston Globe
3. Jay Mariotti – – Chicago Sun-Times
4. Woody Paige – – Denver Post
5. TJ Simers – – LA Times

Whether or not you like or agree with any or all those five participants, you must admit that it is an impressive lineup.  Around the Horn gave me access to the ideas and opinions of people with gravitas in the sports world; there was a reason to pay attention to what all of them had to say and to decide after listening if you agreed with them or not.  Such is no longer the case.

When I tune in now – – and it is far less frequently than I did even 5 years ago – – I often change the channel as soon as I see the panel for the day.  There are never “four heavyweights” on a single day; in fact, I consider it worth staying and watching if there are at least “two middleweights” on the show.  Far too often, when I see who will be “debating” the sports issues of the day, my reaction is:

• Why should I care what he/she has to say about that?

Rather than using highly regarded columnists as the panel, ESPN used the program to expose some of their ESPN Radio personalities to a wider audience clearly in an attempt to solidify that person’s position in the sports commentary cosmos.  That is a logical business decision; it is simultaneously a lousy programming decision.

The producers of Around the Horn fail to see something that is important to me – – and if the numbers could speak, they would likely agree with me.  There are a few timely sports issues worthy of “discussion/debate” every day; the key word there is “few”.  So, if I turn on my TV at 5:00 PM ET and see a genuinely junior varsity panel about to yap at me, I know that I can just wait 30 minutes and hear Tony Kornheiser and Mike Wilbon discuss many of the same topics.  In that situation, there is no doubt about what I am going to do; if the panels on Around the Horn went back to possessing gravitas, I would watch both shows to get solid opinion and analysis but that is no longer reliably available on Around the Horn.

When SportsCenter had its 40^th anniversary, ESPN reunited Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann for one presentation of SportsCenter.  That tidbit of nostalgia was fun.  I wonder if the producers of Around the Horn might think of a reunion show for its finale?

• TJ Simers has passed so the original panel cannot be reunited.
• Jay Mariotti, Woody Paige and Bob Ryan are still around.
• Max Kellerman would be a worthy addition as a panelist even though he was the “moderator/host” for the first episode.
• Tony Reali could sign the program off with the signature paper wad toss at the camera at the end.
• Just a thought…

Finally, since I got several positive comments on Al McGuire’s closing comment yesterday, I will take the suggestion of a reader and close with other “McGuireisms” until the Tournament is over:

“A team should be an extension of a coach’s personality. My teams are arrogant and obnoxious.”

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