Raymond Berry died last week; in the early days of the NFL, “Unitas to Berry” was a commonplace event in any Baltimore Colts game. Berry was not big and he was not fast; he was selected by the Colts in the 20th round of the NFL Draft in 1954. In today’s parlance, he was an excellent “route-runner”. Raymond Berry is in the Hall of Fame; in his 13-year NFL career, he led the league in receiving yards 3 times, made the Pro Bowl 6 times and was named All-Pro 3 times. Not bad for a 20th round pick …
Rest in peace, Raymond Berry.
With the MLB season more than one-third in the books, it is interesting to look at the standings in both leagues to see that there are 5 teams in the American League with records above .500 and 11 teams in the National League with records over .500. That seems like quite an imbalance to me and part of that is due to the situation in the NL Central where every team is over .500 as of this morning. Moreover:
- The Phillies are 1 game over .500 with a run differential of minus-26 – – and – –
- The Reds are 1 game over .500 with a run differential of minus-39.
Strange numbers there …
Sticking with baseball for a moment, the MLB owners and the MLBPA have both presented their opening positions regarding a new CBA to take effect in December 2026. These positions are more of a wish-list for both sides; there is a lot of “performance art” contained therein. Do not take anything presented by either side as cast-in-concrete at this point; each side presents its positions as the essence of virtue and the other side’s positions as demonic-at-best.
I was surprised by one element of the owners’ opening salvo there. To no one’s surprise, the owners presented a salary cap as a central part of their proposal; it was proposed at $245.3M; what surprised me were two ancillary parts of the proposal.
- The salary floor was proposed at $171.2M. According to Spotrac.com, fifteen teams were under that proposed salary floor with their opening day payrolls in 2026. In fact, six teams were $75M or more below that salary floor figure. I am surprised that the opening gambit from the owners was as high as it was.
- The owners proposed a 50/50 split of the league revenues. I imagine that the owners would like the final split to be 50/50 or better for them; so, I am surprised that they opened with that number.
The union proposal had no cap, but it had the moral equivalent of a salary floor in it. Teams who did not spend a certain amount on team payrolls would be “taxed” and teams would be required to spend any shared revenue dollars on salaries and not something else. Willie Shakespeare said that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet; in this case, a salary floor by any other name would cost as much.
Moving on … The Canadian Football League will begin their regular season on Thursday of this week when the Montreal Alouettes visit the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. Because there are an odd number of teams in the CFL, there is always a team on a BYE week. The defending Grey Cup champions – – the Saskatchewan Roughriders – – have the first week off and will begin their defense of that championship status on June 13th when the BC Lions travel to Regina for a game.
The CFL regular season will end on October 24th; the playoffs take less than a month and the 2026 Grey Cup game will be on Sunday November 15th. This year, the Grey Cup game will be in Calgary; tickets are already on sale …
Finally, insight from Will Rogers:
“Everything is funny, as long as it’s happening to somebody else.”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………