There are reports everywhere that LIV Golf is about to dry up and blow away in the immediate future. There will be dancing on the grave of this entity which tried to reinvent golf such that it would have dominated the sport and relegated the PGA to minor league status. It looks as if even the deepest of pockets was insufficient to make that happen.
However, when LIV is lost to the great sand trap in the sky, every PGA golfer should quietly and privately lift a glass with an adult beverage therein and toast the folks who tossed millions of dollars around like nickels and for a moment scared the PGA near to death. Here is what happened once LIV offered salaries and prize pools much larger than was customary in the sport:
- The PGA – without any major new influx of money from rights fees – raised many of its tournament purses by 50-100%.
- PGA golfers need to thank the LIV folks for that because it would not have happened without the LIV folks.
- And maybe PGA golfers need to put some pressure on the PGA financial folks because somehow they found a lot of “new prize money” in a budget that did not meaningfully expand revenues. So, how much more “flexibility” might there be in those secluded accountings?
[Aside: The PGA that organizes and runs the PGA Tour events is a “non-profit entity” and is exempt from Federal Tax. Does that make sense to you?]
Moving on … NBA Commish, Adam Silver, declared a “War on Tanking” and started processes to come up with ways to drive it to extinction. None of the ideas that were floated made a lot of sense to me and the latest suggestion is even dumber than earlier ones; the trend here is ominous. Here is how to stop tanking – evidently:
- There will be 10 teams in the NBA Lottery – – the ones that do not make the playoffs or the play-ins.
- The “Bottom-3 teams” will each get X ping pong balls in the Lottery Hopper.
- The “Other-7 teams” will each get X+1 ping pong balls in the Lottery Hopper
The whole idea of the Draft in the first place is to help the worst teams become more competitive and this idea will punish the worst of the worst. The only way such an idea might make sense is to assert that every team that ever finishes in the “Bottom-3” only got there by tanking. [Aside: I saw with my own eyes the Sixers’ team that went 9-73 for a season; they did not tank the season; they were simply outmanned and outcoached. Period.]
The US Government has in the past “declared war” on things like poverty, drugs, cancer and terror. All I can say is that basketball fans should hope that Silver’s “War on Tanking” will be more successful than those government efforts.
- Memo to Adam Silver: Once you resolve the tanking issue, please turn your attention to integrity issues.
- Damon Jones just pleaded guilty to gambling charges; Chauncey Billups and Terry Rozier still have to face a day in court on similar charges.
- “Tanking” is an “integrity issue” just as is “gambling” an “integrity issue” and both could become existential threats to your league.
Switching gears … Another head has rolled at Football Night in America; it appears that Chris Simms will be out of a job there. For the moment, the cast there has been reduced by one; Tony Dungy and Chris Simms are out, and Mike Tomlin is in. I have said here before and will repeat myself here, the cast there is far too big; there is not enough time for any of them to express a cogent thought even if they actually have one to offer. If I count right, the current on-camera cast is 8 people which I think is about 3 too many. I don’t like to see people lose jobs, but there could be a significant benefit there by “thinning the herd”.
Next … Tomorrow they will run the Kentucky Derby. My track record for picking Derby winners and profitable wagers for the race is stupendously awful. Undaunted, I will offer here my idea for wagering on the race tomorrow with a budget of $100.
- Commandment (#6) and The Puma (#9) with
- #6, #9, Renegade (#1), Danon Bourbon (#7), So Happy (#8), Incredibolt (#11) and Pavlovian (#16) with
- #6, #9, #1, #7, #8, #11, #16 ($1Trifecta ticket costs $80)
- $10 to win on Commandment (#6) and $10 to win on The Puma (#9). Cost = $20.
If history is any judge, none of those horses will be a factor in the race – – whatever…
And just to be sure that no one here forgets my enjoyment of word playing with names, let me remind everyone that the #18 horse in the Derby field this year is named Further Ado (Morning Line = 6 to 1). I do not wish any misfortune for the animal, but if by chance he turned up as a late scratch tomorrow:
- They would still run the Kentucky Derby without Further Ado.
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- BaDaBing! BaDaBoom!!!
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Finally, WC Fields has a perfect way to close out today’s rant:
“Horse sense is the thing a horse has which keeps it from betting on people.”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………