The Gift That Keeps On Giving

In the past, I have referred to José Canseco as “the gift that keeps on giving”.  I realize that someone else has applied that label to genital herpes but my reference here has a completely different meaning and intent.  I can count on Canseco to do or say something at least once a year that will provide material for one of these rants.  He is like an ATM that never runs out of twenty-dollar bills.

On Monday, one of my news aggregators had a headline from Bloomberg.com that made me stop and do a double-take.  Here is that headline:

“Jose Canseco Has Some Big-League Advice For Trump When It Come to the Federal Reserve”

Here is the link to that Bloomberg.com item.

The report says that Canseco should become the Chairman of the Federal Reserve in place of Janet Yellen.  Should that happen, Canseco assures the President-elect that the Dow Jones Industrial Average would be at “40K in 4 years”.  For the record, the Dow is currently at 20K.

Bloomberg.com is a reliable news source; but this report seemed sufficiently outrageous, that I went looking to see if anyone else had a similar report.  It turns out that lots of news outlets had the same thing.  Fortune had an article that reproduced Tweets from Canseco to the President-elect saying that he would be open to being Ambassador to Cuba or to be the Fed Chair.  CBSNews.com had the story as did the SF Chronicle and the Wall Street Journal and Vanity Fair.  In this era of so-called “fake news” – such a contradiction in terms – one needs to be careful when taking in something that is out of the ordinary.

Canseco ended some his tweets with “#Yeswecanseco”.  I gotta give him high marks for creativity on that one.  And once again I have to acknowledge José Canseco as “the gift that keeps on giving” …

I also read yesterday that the NFL will play 4 “London Games” next year:

1. Saints/Dolphins
2. Ravens/Jags
3. Vikes/Browns and
4. Cards/Rams.

In addition, the Pats and Raiders will play in Mexico City next year.  That will be two years in a row for the Raiders in Mexico City; could that be a signal that the NFL might want to put the Raiders there instead of in Las Vegas?  I am not a tea-leaf reader but I am sure someone will find a way to build a logical bridge between the facts of the games and the prospects of a new home for the Raiders.

However, since the beginning of this rant ventured every so slightly into the realm of politics, that announcement by the NFL seems as if it might draw the attention of the President-elect.  After all, one of the cornerstones of the message from the President-elect throughout the campaign was that he wanted to keep American jobs in America.  There are lots of people who work on an “as employed basis” at NFL games as parking attendants and as concession vendors and as security personnel.  Those folks will be missing out on “five work days” and their jobs will surely be out-sourced to the UK and to Mexico.

Before anyone takes the political argument here seriously, let me say that my hidden agenda here is to put a lid on “London Games” specifically and on foreign games – outside of places such as Toronto or Montreal or Vancouver etc.  The Pats have to travel 2300 miles to get to Mexico City for a one-off game; is that really necessary?  Does that make a significant difference to the NFL?

The NFL has been experimenting with putting an 8^th official on the field for the past several Exhibition Seasons.  Division 1 college games often had 8 officials on the field and in 2015 the “eight-man crew” became standard.  Some folks now say that the NFL is poised to do the same and expand its officiating crews.  There is a yin and a yang to that expansion – if indeed it is being seriously contemplated:

Yin:  More officials on the field will mean more eyes on close plays with more officials having a good view of what happened; that ought to mean “getting more calls right”; it is hard to contend that this would be anything but beneficial.

Yang:  More officials on the field will almost assuredly mean more penalty flags; it is hard to contend that this would be anything but detrimental.

Finally, here is an item from Brad Rock’s column Rock On in the Deseret News yesterday regarding the upcoming bowl game between Boise St. and Baylor in Phoenix:

“The smaller bowl in Phoenix this year is the Motel 6 Cactus Bowl.

“Nobody’s saying it will be lightly attended, but when the motto is ‘We’ll leave the light on for you …’”

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