Author: Jack

Congratulations to the Milwaukee Bucks as the NBA Champions.  I must say that after the first two games in this playoff series, I thought the Bucks were going to be swept; I did not think they would win a game let alone win 4 in a row.  Giannis Antetokounmpo was deservedly the MVP of the series but take your hat off the Jrue Holiday too; he stepped up his defensive game significantly as the series wore on.

Next …  Maria Taylor presumably ended the feud with Rachel Nichols when Taylor jumped ship at ESPN to sign on with NBC.I wonder just how many viewers EPSN will lose because of that contractual signing and how many of those “lost viewers” will show up in front of TVs to watch NBC Sports?  My guess is a trivially small number.  Let me say this again about this tempest in a teapot:

• Neither Nichols nor Taylor is good enough as a studio host to get me to circle either of their shows on my calendar so I can be sure to tune in.
• As sideline reporters, they are equally good or bad depending on your preferences, but do you EVER make a sports viewing decision based on who the sideline reporter is going to be?
• The time has come to move on and let this feud recede into dim memory.

Speaking of NBC Sports – sort of – I read a report that said NBC has already sold out 85% of the advertising slot inventory for the Super Bowl next February.  NBC has already collected a float in excess of $1.5B from these advance sales.  According to Adweek  this is the largest advance inventory sale of its kind.

According to Adweek, NBC asked and got $6M for a 30-second slot during the game.  That represents a 9% increase over the cost of an ad sort in last year’s game.  I think it is important to take note of these record sales considering data that indicates NFL viewership was down last year.

• Regular-season viewership dropped 7% to 15.4 million fans for live or same-day viewers.  That is the lowest average audience since 2017, according to Nielsen.
• Last year’s Super Bowl between the Bucs and the Chiefs only attracted 96.4 million viewers — the lowest since 2007.
• Notwithstanding that “bad news”, NFL games are the highest rated show on all 5 of the networks that carry those games in the US – – CBS, ESPN, FOX. NBC and the NFL Network

According to reports, a baseball team in the Appalachian League has disbanded after one of the players made terroristic threats on social media against his teammates.  Let me just say that camaraderie was not in great abundance here.  After the player made some threats, he was banned from the premises by management and that they had local police on the scene “just in case”.  That is when the player took to making his threats on social media saying things like”

• “Columbine 2.0” – – and
• “They took my life, I’ll take theirs.”

The team that has disbanded is the Kingsport Axmen.  The Appalachian League is a summer league for players not affiliated with MLB or MiLB teams.  Management for the Axmen are in the process of signing a new team – they will be called the Road Warriors – because they will fulfill the away games left on the Axmen’s schedule.

According to the report, the player who made these threats is “now under the care of medical professionals”.  I should hope so…

Here are two comments from Bob Molinaro in the Hampton Roads Virginian-Pilot:

“Over it: In a roundabout way, baseball’s mid-summer showcase reminded me that the novelty of MLB’s daily interleague play has worn very thin.

And …

“Gotta man up: For this season, unlike last, if a college football team can’t post for a game because of a COVID outbreak in its locker room, it should lose by forfeit. There are no excuses anymore.”

With regard to the first observation, I agree that the proliferation of interleague games from April to October has taken a lot away from the “specialness” of the All-Star Game.  My problem here is that the cure might be worse than the disease.  To return to the limited interleague windows, MLB would need an even number of teams in both leagues.  That leads to two possible situations:

• Sixteen teams in one league and fourteen teams in the other.  I think this is the better alternative.
• MLB expands by 2 teams so that there would be sixteen teams in each league.    Here is my problem with that.  A team’s pitching staff usually has 12 pitchers; if MLB expands, that will open roster slots for 24 minor league pitchers.  I think that is a bad idea.

About the second observation, I could not agree more.  And I do not care if one of the elite teams has to be the one to forfeit a game and ruins its chances for the CFP.

Finally, apropos of nothing, let me close with this observation from English playwright, Noel Coward:

“People are wrong when they say that the opera isn’t what it used to be.  It is what it used to be.  That’s what’s wrong with it.”

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

 

 

As an old white guy who is happily retired, I fit into several categories that are considered “privileged” these days by some of today’s social justice warriors.  I prefer to think that a bit of hard work, a few functioning synapses and some beneficial actions/choices on my part had at least something to do with my arrival at a very good place in my life, but that is not the debate I want to have today.  Rather, I simply want to point out that there is a “privilege” out there that is color-blind and gender-neutral.  It is the “privilege” of being rich and famous – – and by the way, neither adjective applies to me.

Richard Sherman is indeed rich and famous.  As noted last week, Richard Sherman was arrested in Seattle and charged with 5 offenses that included inter alia DUI, destruction of property, attempted forced entry into a home, threatening to kill his in-laws and himself.  After an evening in the hoosegow as was required by the law in the State of Washington, Sherman appeared before a judge where:

• All felony charges were reduced to misdemeanor charges (a significant benefit) and …
• He was released without bail – – not that he could not have posted bail  (a minor benefit) and…
• He was called a “pillar of the community” by the judge.

I am a male, and I am Caucasian; but if I were in front of a judge about 24 hours after being arrested on those same 5 charges, I doubt I would have gotten those same benefits and I know I would not have been called a “pillar of the community”.  Any privilege I may or may not have does not extend to that circumstance.

This is not intended in any way to cast aspersions on Richard Sherman or to conclude that he is guilty of any or all those charges; this simply is an example of “privilege on account of fame” that is sometimes decried by celebrities who do not acknowledge their own “privileged status”.

Moving on…  I am sure you have read or heard about the fan at Yankee Stadium who threw a ball out of the stands at Red Sox outfielder Alex Verdugo and hit him with the throw.  That caused a minor uproar during the game as it should have, and that fan has now been banned for life from every MLB stadium.  That is a harsh penalty indeed, but that is the sort of behavior that cannot be allowed to stand without sanction such that it fosters an even more egregious event down the road.  The fundamental problem is that fan misbehavior is becoming more common and becoming more aggressive/dangerous.  Throwing a baseball at someone is hardly the same as taunting a player for the other team or even calling him some sort of demeaning name; a baseball in flight is far more akin to a weapon than to an accosting.

Launching objects at players – or coaches or referees for that matter – cannot continue to escalate.  Forget an exhaustive search on the Internet, the following comes from memory as examples of the problem(s) here:

• A couple of years ago, a child sitting in a courtside seat actually reached out and tried to grab Russell Westbrook in a OKC Thunder game.  Westbrook merely told the child’s parent – in no uncertain terms – that was unacceptable.
• There was an NHL game where a fan tried to reach into and engage an NHL penalty box where an opposing player was “serving time”.  Another example of unacceptable behavior …
• Fan-on-fan violence gets out of hand too.  The Dodgers/Giants rivalry is longstanding and intense – – but it should not cost any fan his life as it has in the past.

When I was a kid and went to a sporting event, the line for “outrageous fan behavior” went something like this:

• You could tell an opposing player that he stunk – – but you must not make any comment about his mother.
• You could tell an opposing player that he was lucky to have achieved what he just did – – but your most threatening gesture would be to point to him or if you were really upset you might flip him the bird.

When did it become acceptable to pour beer on an opposing player?  Who decided that racial epithets and/or indelicate comments about a player’s wife, sister or mother were de rigueur?  More importantly, how do we stop that kind of nonsense and get back to a time where fan passion stopped short of outright aggression?

Perhaps, a major contributor to the current problem is the amount of beer served at sporting events today.  Back when I was a kid, they sold no beer at the ballpark or in the arenas; sure, some people smuggled in a flask and spiked the soda that they purchased, but at least 90% of the crowd could have passed a random breathalyzer test from the start to the finish of the ongoing game.  That is not nearly the case today – – and it has not been nearly the case for quite a while.  It has been about 25 years since the infamous event at the Vet in Philly where someone who was clearly inebriated fired a flare rocket across the field during an Eagles/Giants game and – fortuitously – missed everyone in the stands on the other side of the field.  [Aside:  That incident obviously preceded the days of “stop and frisk” for any and all fans entering a stadium.]

I am acutely aware that coincidence is different from causality; my scientific education made sure of that.  However, it is interesting to note that it did not take much time between the firing of the flare rocket in the Vet and the establishment of the “Eagles’ drunk court” in the bowels of that stadium.  Judge Seamus McCaffrey presided over those proceedings and plenty of folks were called to task and remediated for their public intoxication to the point where no more flare rockets were fired during Eagles’ games at the Vet.  [Aside:  Judge McCaffrey’s career went from adjudicating drunks at the Vet to his being seated on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.  Even though I am not a lawyer, that has to be recognized as a giant step up for his career.]

I remember from those days of “Eagles’ drunk court” that some folks were outraged that highly inebriated folks were being tried while being “less than fully aware of their rights”.  I also recall Judge McCaffrey saying in an interview that they took pains to keep the folks accused of being “over-served” in isolation until they were sufficiently able to participate in the judicial events.  There was more than a court and a holding cell in the Vet; there was a place for the public defenders’ office reps to hang in there waiting for clients.

Maybe the answer is for more game venues – – MLB, NFL, NHL, NBA – – to have proceedings akin to “Eagles’ drunk court” and for there to be a few more Judge McCaffreys to take back the game venues from “fans acting like assholes” to a point of “civility”?  For one, I would not object…

Finally, since much of today’s rant deals with justice – – obliquely – – let me close with this observation from comedian, Lenny Bruce:

“In the Halls of Justice, the only justice is in the halls.”

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

 

 

Last night, my long-suffering wife and I ventured up the road a piece to Altoona, PA to take in a AA baseball game between the Altoona Curve (Pirates affiliate) and the Binghamton Rumble Ponies (Mets and Tigers affiliate).  Lest anyone ask, I do not know the difference between a rumble pony, a show pony and/or a Shetland pony.  According to the team media guide, the name was changed in 2016 to the Rumble Ponies to “reflect Binghamton’s standing as the ‘Carousel Capital of the World’”.  Who knew…?

Binghamton won last night 4-3 rallying for 3 runs in the 8^th inning against a relief pitcher who looked terrible.  Two players for the Rumble Ponies played very well last night:

• Nick Meyer looked excellent on defense as a catcher, and he has a strong arm.
• Luis Carpio made two excellent defensive plays at third base; he also had two hits and is fast.  Most MLB teams look for power hitting at third base and Carpio is a “little guy”; he may need to hit the weight room to make it at third base in the majors.

One more item from last night: The game took 2 hours and 36 minutes.  There was a 15-second pitch clock when no runners were on base.  The game moved along smartly; when MLB and the MLBPA lock horns over the next CBA, they should agree on a pitch clock for the majors.

Moving on, I read a report early this week that there were going to be changes in rugby matches played at The Aviva stadium in Dublin.  That is where my son, daughter-in-law and grandson live and that is the stadium where I saw my only live international rugby game, so I sent a note asking if this announcement portended good or evil.  Here is the response from #1 son:

“This is like a stadium in the US switching from Anheuser-Busch to Miller.”

Moving on …  On Wednesday of this week, I got an email from a former colleague that I filed away to use on a “rainy day”.  Here is the pertinent part of that note:

“Mitchell Trubisky got married on July 3^rd.  Now we know he completed at least one pass in his life.”

[Aside:  Yes, my friend is a Green Bay Packers’ fan…]

I had planned to “respond” here by wondering if the ceremony included a reception.  But for now, just recall that the marriage was on July 3^rd because that date was not completely celebratory for every NFL QB and his marital status.

Dwayne Haskins and his wife were in Las Vegas on July 3^rd to renew their wedding vows.  According to reports, they were married last March; most married couples wait a tad longer than that to renew their vows but too each his own.  That Vegas visit ended poorly for Haskins family; he lost a tooth when his wife allegedly hit him during an argument, and she was subsequently arrested and charged with domestic violence.  According to the report in the NY Post, the argument arose over a dispute about plans for the evening; Haskins and his friends went to a night club without waiting for his wife and her friends.

One report I read said that Haskins would “require surgery” to repair the damage done in the course of this incident.  The Steelers’ training camp starts in less than two weeks and Haskins needs to demonstrate an uptick in his talent, his maturity and his leadership to make the team in a backup QB role.  Somehow, I do not think this recent incident is a plus for his career.

Mentioning Las Vegas in the item above provides a segue to reports that officials from the Oakland A’s have now paid three visits to Las Vegas looking for possible stadium sites there.  The A’s desperately need a new stadium; the powers that be in Oakland and in Alameda County are not amenable to funding a new playpen; the A’s want to build a stadium and to develop the land around it at a site on the waterfront in Oakland but the infrastructure costs for that site are estimated to be at least $1B; the local officials have not shown any interest in that idea.

Hence the team’s looking around for another place to play their home games.  The most recent information is that the team and the officials in Nevada have identified two sites in Henderson, NV.  For those who have not been to that part of the world, Henderson is the moral equivalent of a Las Vegas suburb just southeast of the city.  Reports say that the aim of these visits is to find the right place to put a 30,000-seat baseball stadium that would cost $1B or so.

Is this just a power play to nudge the pols in Oakland to shift their position?  Sadly, Miss Cleo is not around to tell us how all of this will play out, but the fact remains that the A’s facility in Oakland as of 2021 is a mess.  Even the little minor league park in Altoona I visited last night does not have random sewage backups in the clubhouse and dugout areas.

If you are interested in the scope of the research here and the various actors in this potential move to Las Vegas, you can catch up with this report from the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Finally, having mentioned two NFL QBs in their role as husbands above, let me close with this observation from French writer, Honoré de Balzac:

“The majority of husbands remind me of an orangutan trying to play the violin.”

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

 

 

The NFL as an entity has found ways to provide newsworthy subjects for journalists and commentators throughout almost the entire year.  Consider:

• The regular season
• The playoffs
• Coaches fired and coaches hired
• The Super Bowl
• Free Agency (sort of) in February/Free Agency (really) in March
• The Draft – with Mock Drafts and Trade Rumors
• OTAs and Minicamp
• Training Camp and the final rosters…

There is one hole in the calendar; it resides between the end of minicamp and the beginning of training camp; we are in the middle of that hole in the calendar.  There is no natural NFL storyline in here and we all know that Mother Nature abhors a vacuum.  So, this year that vacuum seems to be filling up with news about players getting arrested for various alleged transgressions.

A few days ago, Barkevious Mingo was arrested on charges of “indecency with a child involving sexual contact”.  The incident in question supposedly happened 2 years ago when the victim – a boy – was 13 years old.  Here is a link to a report that lays out the charges and the situation that led up to the alleged sexual assault.

The Atlanta Falcons signed Mingo to a contract during this year’s offseason.  When the Falcons learned about the charges here, they released Mingo after only the briefest moment of “gathering information”.  Mingo’s attorneys have chastised the franchise for rushing to judgement because their view of this matter is that Mingo is innocent and that the charges are not much more than a “cash grab” from their client.

Indeed, the Falcons reacted to this situation very quickly.  I do not pretend to be able to read minds, but I believe a significant part of the thinking by the Falcons’ braintrust went something like this:

• These charges are not anything like the sorts of behaviors that the Falcons’ organization can condone – – or even sit still for.
• Mingo could be a piece for our defense – – but not anything near “face of the franchise” or “foundation of the defense”.
• The Falcons would have been Mingo’s seventh team in the last seven seasons; teams have moved on from him quickly in the past.
• Let us move on too…

I am not saying what the Falcons did here is right and proper, but I do think that sort of logical thinking was part of how the team got to where it is today.

Another player who ran afoul of the gendarmes yesterday is Richard Sherman.  According to this report from yardbarker.com, Sherman is under investigation for a single car hit-and-run violation involving only property damage and was arrested on charges of burglary domestic violence.  Allegedly, he tried to enter forcibly the home of his in-laws who summoned the police and then fought with police once they were on the scene.  A point of clarity here – the domestic violence has to do with his attempted entry to the home and not to any incident of violence against an inhabitant there.

Richard Sherman is a free agent; so, there is no team going through the same sort of calculus that the Falcons probably did regarding Barkevious Mingo.  However, I am convinced that Richard Sherman is on the minds of a variety of entities related to the NFL.  Consider:

• The Commissioner’s Office may need to decide if what allegedly happened – and more importantly what actually happened – causes Richard Sherman to face sanctions under the league’s Personal Conduct Policy.  Could he even wind up on the Commissioner’s Exempt List?
• The NFLPA Executive Committee has Richard Sherman as one of its members.  Sherman was elected to be a Vice President back in March.  How might the players’ union handle such a situation?
• Several teams around the NFL must have had Sherman on their radar as a late signee as Training Camp approaches in about 2 weeks.  Consider that Sherman has been named as a first-team All-Pro 3 times and has been selected for the Pro Bowl 5 times in his career.  The reasons that teams may have to sign Sherman just got a bit more complicated by the potential overhang of the events here.

It is unfortunate for Richard Sherman that Al Davis is no longer on this side of the grass.  A veteran free agent with lots of honors in his previous career and now a “bad boy” on top of all that would have been an irresistible commodity for Davis.

Finally, yesterday, I closed with a rather negative view of San Francisco from Ambrose Bierce.  Today, let me offer a less-than-positive view of Chicago from Hunter S. Thompson:

“This vicious, stinking zoo, this mean-grinning, mace-smelling boneyard of a city: an elegant rockpile of a monument to everything cruel and stupid and corrupt in the human spirit.”

[A view not endorsed by the Chicago Chamber of Commerce…]

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

 

 

On this date, 232 years ago, French peasants stormed the Bastille in Paris marking the start of the French Revolution that overthrew the monarchy there.  On this date, 5 years ago, a guy drove a truck through a crowd of people in Nice who were celebrating Bastille Day.  It is OK to celebrate historical events that are violent, but it is not OK to inflict violence.  I shall try to offer my remarks for the day in the spirit of peace and harmony.

MLB put on its All-Star Game last night.  It was a happenstance instead of a happening.  A quick summary here:

1. The AL won the game.
2. The teams wore uniforms made specifically for the All-Star Game.
3. The uniforms were genuinely ugly.

Moving on …  Back in 2008, the decision makers at the University of Tennessee reacted to a losing record in football by firing head coach, Phillip Fulmer who had been on the job since 1992.  His record at Tennessee was 152-52-1 including an undefeated season in 1998.  That firing began a sequence of coaching hires where the expectations of fans and boosters were never even approximated.  Since 2009, the Vols have gone through 4 head coaches – not counting guys who took over for a fired coach in mid-season – and have a combined record of 73-75.  Phillip Fulmer came back as the AD at Tennessee and hired the last of the procession of coaches that came after he was fired but his time as the AD was less than wonderful.

I mention all that because there is a report from the NBC affiliate in Knoxville that Tennessee has spent more than $650K since last November on a law firm that specializes in “NCAA compliance reviews”.  Tennessee fired its last coach, Jeremy Pruitt, along with two assistants after internal investigations disclosed significant violations of NCAA rules.  [Aside:  If a coach is going to violate NCAA rules to the point that he is fired for cause by a school, he should do better on-field than a 16-19 record.  Just my opinion…]

The $650K billed to the university by the law firm came during the time of the internal investigation and then subsequent to the firing of the coaches by the school.  This matter is probably nowhere near the end because coach Pruitt is contesting his “firing for cause”.  In so doing, Tennessee would not pay Pruitt approximately $12M for the balance of his contract there.  Stay tuned…

If you read a headline somewhere that indicates that a boxer “took a dive” in a fight, you would not be shocked.  If you read a headline somewhere that indicates some “point-shaving” by some college basketball players, you might be mildly surprised.  Those sorts of things have been known to happen in those sports.  However, I was a bit surprised to read a headline at CBSSports.com that read:

Wimbledon 2021: Multiple matches being investigated for fixing, per report

According to this report at least two matches in the tournament are under scrutiny for “several very specific and suspicious bets” that took place on the matches and during the matches.  Here are the descriptions of the matches and the bets from that report:

“… suspicions were raised over a first-round men’s doubles match. There were large bets placed against a favored duo at “irregular times.” The pair ended up winning the first set and that increased the odds that they would be defeated. However, the tandem ended up losing the next three sets.

“The second match allegedly is focused on the opponents of a German player in a singles match. After the second set, there were extremely high bets that were placed on the exact score of the third bets and prop bets surrounding the number of service games. Those bets ended up coming to fruition.”

The report goes on to say that the International Tennis Integrity Agency was doing the investigating here but that it had not released any details of any findings to date.  The most important thing I learned from that portion of the report is that there is something called the International Tennis Integrity Agency.  A quick glance at Wikipedia let me know that these folks appear to be busy indeed.  There are significant numbers of players, officials, coaches and chair umpires who are currently suspended or banned or banned for life.

Speaking of headlines that caught my attention recently, here is another one from CBSSports.com:

Jerry Rice hypes ‘explosive’ 49ers receiver heading into his second season with San Francisco

Naturally, I wanted to know who this “49ers receiver” might be if for no other reason than Jerry Rice thought highly of him.  The player who has impressed Rice is Branden Aiyuk and here is what Rice had to say about him:

“I think he’s going to come in and, you know, with a year under his belt he is going to be a better football player.  His commitment, his route-running; he is very explosive downfield, he can catch the ball underneath, he can do it all.”

Those are nice words to hear from the best WR I ever saw, and I am sure Aiyuk’s agent will be citing those remarks when it comes time for Aiyuk to negotiate his next contract.  At the same time, those words can become a real burden for Branden Aiyuk.  Niners’ fans who experienced the greatness of Jerry Rice close up may take those comments and put similar expectations on Aiyuk.  Even if he is all that Jerry Rice says he is, that is a difficult standard to be measured by.

Finally, having mentioned Jerry Rice and the San Francisco 49ers, let me close with this comment about San Francisco by Ambrose Bierce who was the author of The Devil’s Dictionary:

“I’d never set foot in San Francisco.  Of all the Sodoms and Gomorrahs in our modern world, it is the worst.  It needs another quake, another whiff of fire – and- more than all else, a steady trade wind of grapeshot.  That moral penal colony of the world.”

[Statement not endorsed by the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce.]

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

 

 

I ran across a disturbing report yesterday from the ABC affiliate in Denver where the MLB all-Star Game will take place tonight.  Police in Denver arrested 4 men who had registered in a Denver hotel proximal to Coor’s Field after a hotel maintenance employee reported seeing “dozens of weapons and hundreds of rounds of ammunition inside one of the rooms Friday night”.  You can read the report from Channel 7 in Denver here.

The report says clearly that the conjunction of lots of weapons with ammo plus proximity to the All-Star Game venue plus the expected crowd of people led authorities to worry about a “Las Vegas-style shooting”.  In the body of the report there are several other items that would make me more than a little concerned:

• All four men arrested had multiple charges filed against them.  All four were charged with “investigation of possession of a weapon by a previous offender”.  Not only were there elements similar to the “Las Vegas incident”, all of these me had previous records and were in possession of weapons, nonetheless.
• Two of the four men had warrants for their arrest from jurisdictions other than Denver – – and they were in possession of weapons, nonetheless.
• The FBI issued a statement saying that the Bureau was not aware of any threats to the All-Star Game and had no reason to believe these arrests had anything to do with the game other than the proximity.  [Aside:  I sure hope they were right on that point because if they had no reason to think there was a problem but there really was a plot to shoot up the crowd …]

Sports are entertainment for the fans who attend or watch the game(s) on TV.  They are – and are intended to be – a release from “the administrivia of life”.  When I hear about situations like the one in Las Vegas or this one here, I wonder to myself how humankind got to such a point…

After that sort of depressing or anger-inducing news, I feel a need to lighten things up a tad.  There is one source to go to whenever you want a chuckle and/or an oddball view of the world; that would be TheOnion.com.  Let me direct you to this “article” which will take you about 30 seconds to read under this headline:

‘We’re So Screwed,’ Says Detroit Lions Fan After Seeing They Got Matched Up Against Other Teams Again

At the end of the article, the fan is quoted as saying he looks forward to the BYE week this year.

Over at ESPN, the on-air talent seems to be hellbent on making statements that might be taken as racially biased.  Clearly, that ought not to be the intent of the network or the on-air talent, but there has been an unusual amount of it presented to the public view recently.  The most recent – – unless someone this morning has said something inflammatory – – came from Stephen A. Smith who opined that Shohei Ohtani was not and could not properly be the “face of MLB” because he chooses to speak through an interpreter.  I have a question to pose based on Stephen A Smith’s remarks:

• More than a few people said similar things about the inappropriateness of players like Roberto Clemente, Willie Mays and Jackie Robinson being the “face of MLB”.  When we confront that sort of thing today, we say it was “racially motivated” if we are being polite and “racist” if we choose to be less polite.  So, just how are these comment about Ohtani not of the same stripe?

For the record, I have read elsewhere that Ohtani speaks English well but uses an interpreter because he does not want to misspeak in idiomatic English.  I presume those reports are accurate but have no direct knowledge to the point.  Oh, by the way, just how is the “face of MLB” determined?  Is there a secret subcommittee of the Trilateral Commission that makes this determination?

The other current political correctness kerfuffle at ESPN – the one involving Rachel Nichols and Maria Taylor – is kept smoldering by the continuing NBA Finals.  Reports say that ESPN and Taylor are in contract negotiations and that Taylor is seeking a contract that would pay here something close to what the network pays Stephen A. Smith – – who is arguably the “face of ESPN” at the moment.  Some folks have gone to the point of saying that either Nichols or Taylor will have to “leave town” when this is over and done with because the network cannot have both on staff.  [Aside:  How anyone might know this to be the case is never explicated.]  Rather than become part of that struggle, may I please pose another question here as a way to look at all this from another perspective:

• Have you ever tuned in to ESPN specifically to see either Rachel Nichols or Maria Taylor do what it is that they do on the air?

For the record, I have not.  There are other studio hosts/reporters I want to see but neither Nichols nor Taylor comes close to being on my list.

Finally, apropos of nothing, let me close today with an observation by columnist/satirist, Mike Royko:

“The Super Bowl unites us.  It’s our substitute for war.  It’s our one unifying element, more so than even the World Series.

“Baseball isn’t violent enough and the games are too long.”

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

 

 

Just as there was no joy in Mudville when Casey struck out, there is no joy in England today.  The English National Team made it to the Finals of the European Championship against Italy; the Three Lions led at the half but could not hold on.  The game went to penalty kicks and the English goaltender saved two of the five Italian tries.  But three of the English penalty kicks were unsuccessful and the Italians prevailed 3-2 on penalty kicks.  The game was played in London making it a “home game” for the English but “home field” has not been kind to teams in the European Championships over the years.  The last team to win the Finals on a home field was France in 1984.

Congratulations to The Azzurri – the Italian National Team – as European Champions for 2021.

In another bit of international soccer news, Argentina won the Copa America on Saturday with a 1-0 win over Brazil.  This was the first major championship win for Lionel Messi as part of the Argentine National Team.

Congratulations to the Argentine National Team as Copa America champions in 2021.

About a week ago, the NY Mets and the NY Yankees played a subway series.  As you might expect, tickets were hard to come by and when one could find access, the prices were steep.  No problem there; no big surprise – – so far.  Then, there was rain on the night of the opening game and here is what happened:

• The game was announced as “delayed” and fans made their way to Yankee Stadium.
• Fans were held in suspense for more than 2 hours – while indulging in food and drink and perhaps visiting the team stores – before they were told that the game has been postponed.  But wait, there’s more…
• For the make-up double header, the games were each 7 innings in length AND there were separate admissions to the two games.

I know that price gouging has become commonplace in professional sports but someone in authority needs to issue an edict here:

• When double-headers are 7-inning games, there is a single admission to both games.  If there are to be separate admissions, each game must be of the 9-inning variety.
• So let it be written; so let it be done…

I was perusing Gregg Drinnan’s blog, Taking Note, and ran across these stats for Bob Gibson in the months of June and July in 1968.  That was the “Year of the Pitcher”, and MLB lowered the pitcher’s mound starting in 1969 to bring more offense into the game.  Gibson was the most dominant of the hurlers that year; here are his June/July stats:

• 12 starts
• 12 compete games
• 12 wins
• 8 shutouts
• 6 runs allowed.
• Drinnan added also, “0 pitch count worries”.

Two things came immediately to mind when I saw that.  First, I chuckled at the idea that any starting pitcher in 2021 would be allowed to stay in for 12 complete games in a two-month span.  Indeed, loads of starting pitchers do not throw 12 complete games in a four-year span anymore.  But second, I thought that it is probably unfair to pitchers today to hold them to a standard from 50 years ago – – just as it would have been wrong to think of Gibson’s achievements as “marginal” as compared to Cy Young in the deeper part of baseball history.

Today, the Mets’ Jacob deGrom is having an outstanding season.  His record is 7-2 and he has an ERA of 1.08.  Those stats are exemplary without any sort of qualification or comparison.  deGrom has only 1 complete game in his 15 starts in the three-and-a-half months of the 2021 season but that does not diminish him as a pitcher; it reflects a significant difference in the way baseball is played and managed in 2021.

When Bob Gibson was on his dominant streak in 1968 – or when Robin Roberts threw 28 consecutive complete games spanning two seasons in the 1950s – there was no managerial fear that Gibson or Roberts would have to face batters for a third time in a single game.  That fear is a byproduct of the analytics guys who did not exist in 1968.  None of this is of Jacob deGrom’s doing; he need not be held to a standard that does not exist anymore.

[Aside:  deGrom’s ERA of 1.08 is other-worldly but he has come close to this before.  In 2018, with 32 starts and 217 innings pitched, his ERA for the season was a miserly 1.70.]

Bob Molinaro had this comment obliquely about Jacob DeGrom in the Hampton Roads Virginian-Pilot last week:

“Skipping: The Mets’ Jacob deGrom, the game’s most dominating pitcher, can’t be bothered to attend the MLB All-Star Game. Neither can Houston Astros infielders Carlos Correa and Jose Altuve, and who knows who else? That’s bad form, but the players are sending a message. All-star games are obsolete.”

I totally agree with Molinaro on this point.  The most damning part of his comment is that the MLB All-Star Game is the best of the lot by a significant margin – – and it too is obsolete and irrelevant.

Finally, since much of today’s rant dealt with NYC and its players/teams, let me close with a comment about New York by author Donald Barthelme:

“This muck heaves and palpitates.  It is multi-directional and has a mayor.”

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

 

 

I have demonstrated here more than a few times that I would never have made a career in the field of marketing/promotions/advertising.  I also know that Oscar Levant once observed that there is a fine line between genius and insanity.  It was with all of that in mind when I read a report from Greg Wyshynski at ESPN.com with this headline:

• “Rink Ice from Tampa Bay Lightning’s Amalie Arena used in limited-edition beer”

After clearing my mind momentarily of the wide variety of gross and disgusting “impurities” that might have found their way onto and into that ice I read the report thinking that it was a humorous piece.  It was not.

“Coors Light has used ice collected from the rink at Amalie Arena during the Stanley Cup Final to brew “Champions Ice,” a limited-edition beer. It will be available on tap in Tampa-area bars and in 32-ounce collectable crowlers starting the week of July 12 — including on the day of the Lightning’s Stanley Cup parade.”

The ice in question was shaved from the rink after Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals; it was shipped in cryogenic containers to the brewery in Colorado where the good folks at Coor’s “filtered out the unhealthy stuff” and brewed a batch of beer with that ice – melted into water to be sure – as part of the ingredient list.

I am not a beer connoisseur by anyone’s definition so the fact that I do not personally think Coor’s Light is even drinkable when brewed in its normal fashion may cloud my reaction here:

• This offering is not enticing.  It is disgusting.
• I would not drink this limited-edition beer with your mouth.

But hey … if you are a Lightning fan or someone who loves hockey and Coor’s Light, Mazel Tov!

Here is the link to Greg Wyshynski’s report…

I have avoided comment on the brave new world of “Name, Image and Likeness” (NIL) that has been thrust upon intercollegiate athletics by about a dozen state legislatures and by the Supreme Court decision in the Alston case that I did  I mentioned before.  The reason is that I am convinced that there are far too many twists, turns, speed bumps and open road ahead of everyone regarding NIL to make any short to medium term predictions as to what is going to happen.  The only thing I am confident in saying is that the collegiate athletics model of “amateurism” is dead.  There will be in the short term a tsunami of college athletes who become “brand ambassadors” for a variety of products and services offered to the public by businesses of all sizes.

Good for those college athletes; I do not begrudge them even a penny of what they might earn in those circumstances.  However, if you ask me then to conclude that this change is an unalloyed success for intercollegiate sports, my response is that I will have to get back to you in about 10 years for a grounded conclusion there.

For now, it seems to be like the Wild West out there; athletes in minor sports are getting endorsement deals; businesses are signing on with players daily.  It is like one of the verses in the song Creeque Alley by the Mamas and the Papas:

“And everybody’s gettin’ fat ‘cept Mama Cass…”

Is this how things will continue to proceed?  Perhaps – – but probably not.  Boom and bust is a commonplace scenario in the world of economics so I have no idea how this will look in 2030 and I suggest that lots of the “analysis” offered up today is more speculation and extrapolation than it is real analysis – – because there is not enough data to analyze yet.

Let me just throw out a couple of things that might happen to cause changes in plans:

• Joe Flabeetz is the star RB for Disco Tech.  Joe signs a deal with a local car dealership; his pitch is that their cars run even better than he does.  In a TV ad, he is standing by one of the vehicles bedecked in his Disco Tech uniform.  Disco Tech wants a piece of the action here because it is their uniform not his.
• Suzy Flabeetz (Joe’s twin sister) is the captain and leading scorer for her school’s basketball team.  She knows that her days as an athlete are going to end once her senior year is over; she is not going to make it as a pro basketball player.  She is looking to some sort of NIL deal that will go beyond the end of her college days and she discovers Only Fans where she sets up her own channel, charges subscription rates and posts sex tapes there.  The school decides it does not want to be associated with such behavior and expels Suzy.

I am not saying any of the above – let alone all the above – is going to happen; I am saying that low probability events happen every day and some of those low probability events have long lasting/widespread effects – – e.g. the guy who ate the bat for dinner in Wuhan.

I suspect that whatever form NIL economics takes in the future the Power 5 schools and the ones with rabid and wealthy boosters are going to do better than the smaller schools in Division 1 and Division 1-AA.  The rich will get richer until and unless there is some sort of modulation of behavior – – which is what the NCAA purportedly was there to do and seems to have done so poorly.

Finally, since I mentioned Oscar Levant in passing above, let me close with something he once said to an obnoxious person he had been introduced to:

“I’m going to memorize your name and throw my head away.”

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

 

 

The NHL awarded this year’s Stanley Cup last night.  The Tampa Bay Lightning repeated as champions beating the Montreal Canadiens 4 games to 1.  I tuned in just after the Lightning had gone ahead 1-0 in the second period; the Canadiens did not go quietly in the third period but the Lightening defense – – and specifically the goalie – – were excellent.

• Congratulations to the Tampa Bay Lightning …

The European Championship soccer match is set.  England needed extra time – – we call it overtime here in the colonies – – to beat Denmark 2-1.  That win advances England to play Italy in the Finals on Sunday.  The game will be a “home game” for the Three Lions taking place in Wembley Stadium.

• Congratulations to the English and Italian national teams …

Roger Federer had a much less enjoyable day yesterday.  He was matched against Hubert Hurkacz – seeded 14^th in the Wimbledon draw – – in the quarterfinals of the championship but was dispatched in straight sets 6-3, 7-6, 6-0.   Roger Federer is 39 years old; in tennis terms, he is pushing Methuselah’s record.  He has won Wimbledon 8 times in the past; it would be unseemly if this were his last appearance there to have his final set be 6-0.

• Bonne chance, Roger Federer …

Earlier this year, the CFL and the folks who now own the defunct XFL 2.0 announced that they were going to seek a “meaningful partnership” between the organizations.  Yesterday, came an announcement from CFL Commissioner, Randy Ambrosie, that the talks have ended without an agreement.  Here is the meat of his announcement:

“Our talks with the XFL exploring the potential for collaboration and innovation have been positive and constructive.  While we remain open to finding new ways to work together in the future, we and our XFL counterparts have jointly decided to not pursue any formal arrangements at this time.”

Translation:

• We could not figure out a way for both sides to make money out of a partnership.

Earlier this week, Albert Pujols became only the 4^th player in MLB history to accumulate 6000 total bases for his career.  The other three players on that list are:

• Henry Aaron
• Willie Mays
• Stan Musial

Congratulations to Albert Pujols; that is good company you are with …

With the Opening Ceremonies for the Tokyo Olympics 15 days away, it now appears that the games will begin at a time when the Japanese government will be acting in a newly declared State of Emergency.  CBSSports.com reported yesterday that Japan has had rising numbers of COVID infections over the past several months and that trend has the government there poised to issue a new emergency proclamation that is expected to last for at least the duration of the Olympic Games.  The emergency status might bar local fans from attending Olympic events; current restrictions already have banned international fans from the venues.  Therefore, it is possible that the Games could go on without any fans in attendance; supposedly there is to be a meeting between the organizers and the IOC and government representatives in the next few days to resolve this.

Three pandemic related stats have alarmed public health folks in Japan:

1. The number of new COVID-19 cases in Japan this week is the largest number of new cases since the week of May 13^th.
2. More than half of the new infections this week are in Tokyo – – where the Games will take place.
3. Only 15% of the Japanese population is fully vaccinated as of today.

Moving on …  The Los Angeles Dodgers did something unusual yesterday.  They canceled – not postponed, canceled – Trevor Bauer Bobblehead Night which had been scheduled for August 19^th.  Recall that Bauer is on a 7-day suspension by MLB as it and local police investigate actions that might lead to criminal charges related to domestic violence.  In addition to canceling that promotional event which would have taken place 6 weeks from today, the Dodgers also removed all “Trevor Bauer merchandise” from its online store.

Not having access to any information about the incident(s) in question or the investigations(s) in progress, I would look at that action by the Dodgers as one of two things:

1. The team is acting “in an abundance of caution” because it recognizes that the allegations here are rather smarmy and the team figures that it can put that merchandise up for sale in the future if this turns out to be a tempest in a teapot.  Or …
2. The Dodgers have gotten sense that this smarmy problem is not going away quickly, and they need to begin to dissociate the “Dodgers’ brand” from the matter as soon as possible.

Finally, since today is the 55^th wedding anniversary for my long-suffering wife and me, let me close with two observations by Groucho Marx:

“Hollywood brides keep the bouquets and throw away the grooms.”

And …

“The husband who wants a happy marriage should learn to keep his mouth shut and his checkbook open.”

Fortunately, my long-suffering wife and I have survived without either of those conditions having obtained …

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