Rest in Peace, Bobby Bowden

Bobby Bowden died last weekend at the age of 91.  Bowden took over the Florida State football program in 1976; at that time, the Seminoles’ program was in complete disarray.  Bowden remained the coach in Tallahassee until retiring in 2009.  His record at Florida State was 304-97-4.  By all accounts he was as good a person as he was a football coach.

Rest in peace, Bobby Bowden.

I am compelled to apologize for a lapse of memory and an infusion of laziness that led me to say – totally incorrectly – last week that the Hamilton Tiger Cats won the 2019 Grey Cup game over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.  I was so sure of that recollection that I did not bother to take the 30 seconds necessary to check out my memory; that was the laziness kicking in.  A reader pointed out my error as a comment to last week’s rant, two other readers informed me via email that I got it wrong; Gregg Drinnan sent an ever so gently worded email pointing out the need for a correction.

Thanks for the civility of the communications regarding my error.  Indeed, the result of the Grey Cup game in 2019 was:

• Winnipeg Blue Bombers 33 – – Hamilton Tiger-Cats 12

Mea maxima culpa…

Speaking of emails from readers, I got one that linked me to a report at mlb.com about a perfect game that is not counted as such in baseball’s records.  It was in 1917 and Babe Ruth was the starting pitcher for the Boston Red Sox.  Ruth walked the leadoff hitter and was more than upset with the umpire about the calls that led to the walk.  The umpire told Ruth to get back on the mound and be quiet or he would eject Ruth; Ruth told the umpire if he was ejected, he would “bust you in the nose”.  The umpire threw Ruth out of the game and Ruth obliged by punching the umpire and had to be restrained by the manager and several policemen.

Ernie Shore came into the game with a runner on first.  That runner was caught stealing and Shore proceeded to retire the next 26 batters in a row.  In baseball’s records, this is considered a no-hit game but not a perfect game.  Po-tay-toe … Po-tah-toe…

Last week, there was a Reuters report printed in the NY Post with this headline:

• Germany’s modern pentathlon coach disqualified after punching horse

Obviously, I could not just let that pass by without clicking to find out what happened.  The first paragraph of the report summarizes the situation well:

“Germany’s modern pentathlon coach Kim Raisner will not be part of Saturday’s men’s individual competition at the Tokyo Olympics after she hit a horse with her fist and urged rider Annika Schleu to “really hit” the horse when it refused to jump.”

Naturally, my mind immediately went to a famous scene in the movie Blazing Saddles – no , not the campfire scene – where Alex Karras playing the role of Mongo rides into town on an ox.  He ties the ox up to a rail outside the saloon and someone on horseback says he cannot park the ox there.  Mongo walks over and knocks the horse out with one punch.  Seems to me that there is truth in the adage:

• Life imitates art…

There is big news in the world of international soccer.  Lionel Messi has left FC Barcelona where he has been since 2004.  I have no interest in debating the question as to whether he is the best player in the world; suffice it to say he is in the top handful of candidates for that label.  He wants to stay with Barcelona and the club offered him a contract that he agreed to but the rules in La Liga that are analogous to salary cap rules in various sports here in the US would not allow that contract to be in force.

I will not pretend to understand the purpose of those rules or the intricacies of the rules, but my understanding is that each club in La Liga is limited to the amount of debt it can carry relative to the salary paid to the players.  This is done to provide a level playing field in the league – – although I am not sure how that works in practice because the two teams with the biggest debt (Real Madrid and FC Barcelona) are the two dominant teams year after year.  Reports say that the current debt for FC Barcelona is more than 1 billion euros (approximately $1.2B).

What is confusing to me is that FC Barcelona and Real Madrid both rejected a bid from a private equity firm to inject more than 2 billion euros into La Liga which would have reduced the debt level for both clubs significantly.  The hang-up has something to do with TV revenue rights and such over the next 50 years – – but the subtleties of that proposed deal are way above my level of understanding.  Nevertheless, it seems to be the case that:

1. Messi wants to stay with FC Barcelona
2. FC Barcelona wants Messi
3. FC Barcelona cannot sign Messi because of the club’s debt level
4. A private equity firm wants to buy a piece of La Liga which would reduce the debt level
5. FC Barcelona rejects that offer.

Lionel Messi is not planning to retire; there are rumors that he will sign with Paris St. Germain (French Ligue 1) or Manchester City (English Premier League).  We have not heard the last of this story.

Finally, on the subject of debt, here is a comment from actor, John Barrymore:

“A man must properly pay the fiddler.  In my case, it so happened that a whole symphony orchestra had to be subsidized.”

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