Congratulations, Aaron judge

Aaron Judge did it. Against the Texas Rangers, he hit his 62^nd home run for the 2022 season passing Roger Maris’ record of 61 home runs which has been the AL record for 61 seasons.  Judge is 30 years old and will be a free agent this winter; who will open the bidding for his services in 2023 and beyond at 5 years and $250M?  Could happen…

Two days ago, I wondered if fans in Texas would show up in greater numbers than expected hoping to see Judge break the record.  Before the Yankees arrived for this final series of the year, the Rangers average attendance was 24,538; yesterday, a total of 38,882 fans turned out for the game.  Given that the Yankees had clinched their division a while back and that the Rangers were 38 games behind their division leader, the game itself had no implications at all.  Normally, one would have expected a crowd below the average for the rest of the season.

The fact that attendance was about 60% above average must be attributed to Judge and his pursuit of the AL home run record.  Congratulations to Aaron Judge …

The joint NFL/NFLPA investigation into what happened to Tua Tagovailoa and into their concussion protocols has gotten to the point that investigators are about to interview Tua himself.  According to a report this morning:

• “Others involved in the case already have been interviewed.”

This all sounds good; investigators are proceeding at a reasonable pace; they have deferred talking with Tua early on allowing his head to clear a bit as he remains in the regimen of the existing concussion protocol; the league and the union are keeping reporters up to date on progress and status of the investigation.  There is, however, a discordant note here.

Recall that the independent neurological consultant who supposedly saw Tua at halftime of the game against the Bills was “fired” over last weekend before this joint investigation got underway.  His “firing” came because the union withdrew their acceptance of that person and these independent neurological consultants need to be accepted by both the league and the union.  That seemed at the time to be a tad hasty and smelled of scapegoating.  The league and the union did not make that situation any better by a joint statement released over the weekend.  According to that statement the NFL and the NFLPA:

“ … share a strong appreciation for the unaffiliated neurotrauma consultants who contribute their time and expertise to our game solely to advance player safety.”

If I were a “neurotrauma expert” – – which I am not – – I think I would be looking to lend my time and expertise in some other venue where my overseers with no neurotrauma expertise might not fire me before conducting their investigation to see what happened.

Moving on …  The college football game of coaching musical chairs has gotten an unusually early start this season with five Power 5 jobs already up for grabs.

1. Arizona St.
2. Colorado
3. Georgia Tech
4. Nebraska
5. Wisconsin

The presence of Colorado on that list is interesting because the coach just fired there, Karl Dorrell, was hired late in one of those hiring cycles because the incumbent Colorado coach, Mel Tucker, bolted to take an attractive contract at Michigan St.  Last year, Michigan St. upped the ante and gave Tucker an extension for 10 years and $95M.  That seemed to make sense last year; Sparty had an 11-2 record in 2021.  That contract extension seems to have lost some of its luster in 2022; Michigan St. is 2-3 to date in 2022 and those two wins came over Western Michigan and Akron indicating that Michigan St. could be a big deal in the MAC – – but Michigan St. plays in the Big-10.  The Spartans three losses against teams from conferences that matter have all been by double-digits and this week Ohio St. comes to East Lansing for a game as a 27-point road favorite.

From a purely economic standpoint, Tucker is in no danger of being fired even if Ohio St. wins 103-0 this week.  Eating nine of those years on the contract extension works out to more than $80M and that is comfortable cushion for Mel Tucker’s coaching position.

Interestingly, there is another college football coach who was rewarded in 2021 with a contract extension reported to be 10 years and $95M.  That would be Jimbo Fisher at Texas A&M.  There is a boatload of “booster money” available for the Aggies football program so the announcement of that extension raised an eyebrow or two but did not engender shock and awe by any means.  Coming into 2022, there were great expectations for the Aggies; they had several “Top-Ten recruiting classes” at the school and many thought they had the best recruiting class of all for this year.

• [Aside:  Ratings of high school players is mysterious at best and phony at worst.  Remember that Tom Brady was a “zero-stars” prospect coming out of high school.]

The Aggies have done better so far in 2022 than Sparty; the Aggies are 3-2 and only one victory was against a cupcake opponent.  Nevertheless, the two losses came at the hands of schools that are “not supposed to beat elite teams”; Appalachian St. and Mississippi St. seem not to have known their role as overmatched opponents in the presence of Texas A&M.  Like Michigan St., the Aggies have a stern test this weekend when they visit Alabama and find the Tide as a 24-point favorite.  Alabama may be without the services of its Heisman Trophy QB, Bryce Young who left last week’s game with a “sprained shoulder” and is considered day-to-day for this weekend’s game.  The worst outcome for the Aggies would be to lose badly even if Alabama plays with its backup QB, Jalen Milroe.

Texas A&M was a Top 5 team in the preseason polls; as of this week, they have not only dropped out of both the AP Poll and the Coaches Poll, but they are also way down in the list of “Others receiving votes”:

• In the AP Poll, the Aggies got significantly fewer votes than Illinois, Tulane and James Madison.
• In the Coaches Poll, the Aggies trail Minnesota, James Madison and Maryland.

There is a boatload of “booster money” available to the Texas A&M football program, but probably not enough to put the axe to a coach who still has more than $80M left in his deal…

Finally, having spent some time today suggesting that some football coaches have been “overpaid”, let me close with this observation by Woody Allen:

“What if everything is an illusion and nothing exists?  In that case, I definitely overpaid for my carpet.”

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