What’s In A Name?

While every sports radio station is inundated today with complaints about who got into the tournament and who did not – – or alternatively who got seeded 10th as opposed to some other team who got seeded 8th – – I choose to ignore all that bluster for two simple reasons:

  1. Griping about any of that stuff will change exactly nothing.
  2. It is obviously not all that important because by tomorrow morning the only thing anyone will be gassing about is how to avoid getting one’s bracket busted on Thursday.

In this little backwater of the Internet, I like to use the day after Selection Sunday to have some fun with the team mascots and the names of some of the players who will participate in this year’s NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.

[Aside:  Everyone here knows that I have little positive to say about the NCAA.  However, they do organize and run the single best annual sports event on the calendar starting this week.  What they provide between now and the Championship Game on 8 April justifies their existence.  Without it, I would be joining any group of folks with torches and pitchforks that might come together to storm the NCAA HQs in Indianapolis.]

In this year’s field, mascots of the “feline persuasion” are all over the place:

  • Abilene Christian Wildcats
  • Auburn Tigers
  • Georgia St. Panthers
  • Houston Cougars
  • LSU Tigers
  • Kansas State Wildcats
  • Kentucky Wildcats
  • Prairie View Panthers
  • Vermont Catamounts
  • Villanova Wildcats

Not to worry, canines are well represented too…

  • Gardner-Webb Bulldogs
  • Gonzaga Bulldogs
  • Mississippi St. Bulldogs
  • Nevada Wolfpack
  • Northeastern Huskies
  • Washington Huskies
  • Wofford Terriers
  • Yale Bulldogs

Six of the mascots are aggressive categories of Homo sapiens:

  • Colgate Raiders
  • Michigan St. Spartans
  • Northern Kentucky Vikings
  • Seton Hall Pirates
  • Texas Tech Red Raiders
  • Virginia Cavaliers

There are multiple ursine mascots this year:

  • Baylor Bears
  • Belmont Bruins
  • Cincinnati Bearcats (or … do they belong with the felines above?)
  • Montana Grizzlies

The biological genus, Aquila, has three representatives in the field:

  • Liberty Eagles
  • Marquette Golden Eagles
  • NC Central Eagles

And of course, there are always a few unique mascots that have no ties to any others:

  • Goldy the Gopher  – – Minnesota
  • Otto the Orange   – – Syracuse
  • Peter the Anteater  – – UC Irvine

The placement of teams in the brackets by the Selection Committee allows for some ”mascot themed” Final Fours such as:

All dogs:

  • Gardner Webb, Mississippi St. Nevada Wofford

All cats:

  • Kansas St., Kentucky, LSU, Vermont

All birds:

  • Kansas, Louisville, Marquette, Oregon.

All “States”:

  • Florida St., Kansas St., Mississippi St. New Mexico St.  [If this happens look for Allstate Insurance commercials…]

The Final Four will be in Minneapolis this year.  That being the case, here is the Final Four where the teams would have the shortest trip to the games:

  • Iowa St., Marquette, Minnesota, Wisconsin

And for the sake of symmetry, here is the Final Four with the longest travel distances for the participating schools – – and their supporters:

  • Abilene Christian, Arizona St.  UCF UC Irvine

But enough with mascots and Final Fours, the focus needs to be on the players; they are the ones who will make this year’s tournament exciting.  As usual, I have scanned – – note I did not say “examined thoroughly” – – the rosters of the schools involved and I have found some interesting player names.  The first category of interesting names is a player with a name that might indicate what that player might do for the rest of his life after his college basketball career is over.  The NCAA likes to tell us that players are preparing to “go pro” in fields other than what we see them doing on TV.  So, here are some possibilities:

  • Jack Salt  UVA:  Sailor
  • Preston Cook  Auburn:  Chef
  • PJ Horne  Va Tech:  Musician
  • Joey Baker  Duke:  Obvious
  • Jack Beach  Gonzaga:  Surfer
  • Jordan Poole  Michigan:  Billiards pro
  • Jordan Bone  Tennessee:  orthopedic surgeon  – – or butcher – – or both?
  • Admiral Schofield  Tennessee:  US Naval officer
  • DJ Burns  Tennessee:  Arsonist?
  • Isaiah Livers  Michigan:  Foie gras importer
  • Phil Booth  Villanova:  Toll collector
  • Javonte Smart  LSU :  Professor of philosophy
  • Skylar Mays  LSU:  Airline pilot
  • Marshall Graves  LSU:  Mortician
  • Aundre Hyatt  LSU:  Hotel manager
  • Cedric Alley Jr.  Houston:  Professional bowler
  • Trent Forrest  Florida St.:  Lumberjack
  • Anthony Polite  Florida State:  Miss Manners’ protégé
  • Aaron Wheeler  Purdue:  Interstate trucker
  • Trey Porter  Nevada:  Longshoreman
  • Cartier Diarra  Kansas State:  Watchmaker
  • Nigel Shadd  Kansas State:  Fishing guide
  • Ty Outlaw  Va Tech:  US Marshall
  • Aleem Ford  Wisconsin:  Automotive engineer
  • Storm Murphy Wofford:  Weatherman  Channel 7
  • Mitchel Storm  Mississippi St.  Weatherman  Channel 11
  • Elijah Childs  Bradley:  Obstetrician
  • Dana Batt  Colgate:  Baseball player
  • Brendan Newton  Liberty:  Fig grower
  • Drew McDonald  Northern Kentucky:  Farmer
  • Cameron Lard  Iowa St.  Meatpacker
  • Aaron Carver  Old Dominion  Butcher
  • Rashann London  NC Central  Travel agent
  • Mario Kegler  Baylor  Professional bowler
  • Klay Stall  Utah St.  Horse trainer
  • Abel Porter  Utah St.  Sherpa
  • Anthony Lamb  Vermont  Shepherd
  • Bailey Patella  Vermont  Knee surgeon
  • Max Hazzard  UC Irvine  Insurance agent
  • Amir Coffey  Minnesota  Barista
  • Michael Hurt  Minnesota  Physical therapist

This next group of players has what I call “mirror image names”.  If you put the last name first, it still sounds like a normal name:

  • Markus Howard  Marquette
  • Walker Miller  UNC
  • Kyle Alexander  Tennessee
  • Zach Kent  Tennessee
  • Cassius Winston  Mich St.
  • Aaron Henry  Michigan St. [You surely recognize his mirror image name.]
  • Connor George  Mich St.
  • Jonny David  Kentucky
  • Reid Travis  Kentucky
  • Will Miles  Florida State
  • Lindsey Drew  Nevada
  • Dean Wade  Kansas State
  • Alex Michael  Wofford
  • Jordan Roland  Northeastern
  • Brendan Paul Syracuse
  • Frank Howard  Syracuse
  • Hunt Conroy  Minnesota
  • Brandon Courtney  St. Louis

The “ultimate” mirror image name in this year’s field – – and perhaps in any year’s field – – would have to be:

  • Bol Bol  Oregon  [Yes, he is Manute’s son.]

An artist needs to have many different hues on his palette to create whatever image is in his mind.  Here are players in this year’s tournament whose names might inspire such an artist:

  • Coby White  UNC
  • Jack White  Duke
  • Fabian White, Jr.  Houston
  • Paul White  Oregon
  • Leaky Black  UNC
  • Anthony Green  Northeastern
  • Dominic Green  Washington
  • Gerald Grey Jr. Northern Kentucky
  • Barry Brown K-State
  • Gabe Brown  Mich St.
  • Jordan Brown  Nevada
  • Darrell Brown  Bradley
  • Bryce Brown  Auburn

[Aside:  Bonus points here should go to Bryce Brown (Auburn) since Auburn is also a color.]

If anyone chose to do so, they could find an “All-Presidents Team” among the players in the field this year:

  • Kennedy Kincaid  Gardner Webb
  • Howard Washington  Syracuse
  • PJ Washington  Kentucky
  • Chris Taylor  Northern Kentucky
  • Quinn Taylor  Utah St.
  • Quinn Clinton  St. Mary’s
  • Jorday Ford  St. Mary’s
  • Tyler Jones  Fairleigh Dickinson
  • Jazz Johnson  Nevada
  • Taishaun Johnson  Prairie View
  • Prentiss Nixon  Iowa St.
  • Reagan Lundeen  Washington

Players with names that are clear Biblical references are sprinkled everywhere in the brackets:

  • Zion Williamson  Duke
  • Zion Griffin  Iowa St.
  • Isaiah Wilkins  Va Tech
  • Isaiah Bigelow  Wofford
  • Isaiah Still  Iona
  • Isaiah Ross  Iona
  • Elijah Cuffee, Jr. Liberty
  • Elijah  Elliott  Kansas
  • Elijah Thomas  St. Mary’s
  • Elijah Hardy  Washington
  • Noah Dickerson  Washington
  • Noah Neubauer  Washington
  • Jonah Geron  Washington
  • Ceasar DeJesus  UCF
  • Micah Potter  Wisconsin
  • Messiah Jones  Wofford
  • Christian Turner  Gardner Webb
  • Christian James  Oklahoma
  • Solomon Young  Iowa St.
  • Solomon Ruddell  UC Irvine

Lots of players bring alliterative names to the tournament:

  • Adrian Autry  Syracuse
  • Barry Brown  K-State
  • Brennan Besser  Duke
  • Paul Pennington  Gonzaga
  • Jeremy Jones  Gonzaga
  • David DeJulius  Michigan
  • Jalen Johnson  Tennessee
  • Braden Burke  Mich State
  • Matt Mooney  Texas Tech
  • Darius Days  LSU
  • Courtese Cooper  LSU
  • Breaon Brady  Houston
  • Wyatt Wilkes  Florida State
  • Kyle King  Purdue
  • Sasha Stefanovic  Purdue
  • Makol Mawien  Kansas State
  • Mike McGuirl  Kansas State
  • Devon Dotson  Kansas
  • Kobe King  Wisconsin
  • Michael Manning, Jr.  Wofford
  • Brendan Bailey  Marquette
  • Justin Jenifer  Cincinnati
  • Luqman Lundy  Bradley
  • Bolden Brace  Northeastern
  • Oscar Okeke  Fairleigh Dickinson
  • Obim Okeke  Baylor
  • Payton Pritchard  Oregon
  • Kur Kuath  Oklahoma
  • Chris Clerkley  Georgia St.
  • Trevor Thompson  Arizona St.
  • Harrison Hookfin  Ohio St.
  • Michael Mayernick  Belmont
  • Eddy Egun  Montana
  • Kelby Kramer  Montana

In the category of alliterative names, however, there has to be special mention for two players whose alliterative name is also alliterative with their school:

  • Matt McQuaid  Mich St.
  • Brock Bertram  Buffalo

[Aside:  I continue to look for a “grand-slam” alliterative name such as Tom Terrific  Texas Tech or Ivan Iola  Illinois Institute or  Carl Carlson  College of Charleston.  No luck yet…]

This last assemblage of players’ names is offered here only because there are copy editors at newspapers all over the US who are fervently hoping that none of these players becomes the focal point of a major story that they need to edit.  So, as a tribute to those copy editors and the work they do, consider these players:

  • Mamadi Diakite  UVA
  • Ignas Brazdkeikis  Michigan
  • Saddiq  Bey  Villanova
  • Francesco Badocchi  UVA
  • Norense Odiase  Texas Tech
  • Mfiondu Kabengele  Florida State
  • Nisré Zouzoua  Nevada
  • Goodnews Kpegeol  Kansas State
  • Ochai Agbaji  Kansas
  • Wabissa Bede  Va Tech
  • Chuma Okeke  Auburn
  • Mamoudou Diarra  Cincannati
  • Eliel Nsoseme  Cincinnati
  • Nnamdi Van Dulm  N. Dakota State
  • Nadi Beciri  Fairleigh Dickinson
  • Dominik Olejniczak  Ole Miss
  • Paschal Chukwu  Syracuse
  • Bourama Sidibe  Syracuse
  • Jethro Tshisumpa  Mississippi St.
  • Ivan Aurrecoechea  New Mexico St.
  • Kalu Ezikpe  Old Dominion
  • Ernest Aflakpui  Temple
  • Sedee Keita  St. John’s
  • Roche Grootfaam  Utah St.
  • Neemias Queta  Utah St.
  • Yuat Alok  UCF
  • Ibrahim Famouke Doumbia  UCF
  • Luguentz Dort  Arizona St.
  • Sandro Mamukelashvili  Seton Hall
  • Yagizhan Selcuk  Montana
  • Gorjok Gak  Florida
  • Miye Oni  Yale

Finally,  Tim Kaine is an assistant coach at Murray St.; no, he is not the same guy that ran for Veep in 2016.  And, Ky Feldman is on the team at Syracuse; how did John Calipari miss out on Ky for Kentucky?  However, the most interesting names I could find in this tournament field belong to:

  • Tommy Falls  Montana – – and – –
  • Ty Hands  Florida St.

Both of their names are complete sentences.

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

 

 

 

Beware The Ides Of March…

The Ides of March are upon us.  Julius Caesar departed this world on this date 2063 years ago.  Seems like only yesterday…

Speaking of yesterday, I mentioned the competitive imbalance in MLB and there were some comments offered by readers on that topic.  In addition, I got an email from a reader who chose to give me his idea in that channel; the idea there is sufficiently innovative that I want to present it here so everyone can see it:

“My idea for mixing things up is to align the divisions by pay roll.  So, if for example the five highest salaried rosters in 2018 were the Red Sox, Yankees, Dodgers, Cubs and Angels, that’s your top division for 2019. Playoffs would involve divisions 1, 3 and 5 in one half, 2, 4 and 6 in the other.  And no division would get more than two teams into the playoffs.  Adjust the schedules accordingly, with some deference to rivalries like Dodgers/Giants, Cardinals/Cubs.

“While it’s likely one of the top salaried teams would make it to the world series, that’s no different from the way things are now.  And it’s arguably better.  The way things are now Dodgers v. Sox or Yankees a definite possibility, almost every year.  And the wild card single game elimination would be wide open.  Consider that in 2018 the Phillies were for sure in the bottom tier.  Tampa Bay may have been there too.  But in a single elimination game either one would have had a real shot with Aaron Nola or Blake Snell pitching.

“And if baseball really wanted to go off the deep end, there could be an automatic move between divisions like in soccer. Finish first in division 2, move up to division 1.  Finish last in division 1, drop down to division 2.  But while in any one year there may be a few teams who recognize going in they have no shot at the postseason, at least there won’t be a dozen like the past few years.”

Any baseball purist who finished reading those 3 paragraphs probably needs the paddles of a defibrillator across his chest about now.  I think these ideas have merit and could be an interesting way to introduce novelty to the MLB regular season.

Over in the world of college football, recall that Kansas fired head coach David Beatty in mid-season last year but allowed him to finish the season on the sidelines coaching the team.  His contract called for him to receive a $3M buyout unless his firing was “for cause”.  At the time the AD said that the reason for the firing was lack of success on the field, so Beatty expected his $3M.  That is where the story gets dicey; Beatty just filed a lawsuit against Kansas seeking his $3M payment.

  • Kansas officials say that in the process of exit interviews with assistant coaches and staff, they learned about some potential NCAA violations committed by the team on Beatty’s watch and they did some investigating and then contacted the NCAA.  Kansas says they have put the $3M in escrow awaiting the outcome of the investigation and any NCAA action.  [Aside:  If payment is pending an NCAA decision, that could mean the money will still be in escrow when David Beatty’s great-granddaughter starts collecting social Security.]
  • Beatty’s suit claims that Kansas is merely looking for any way possible to avoid making the payment.  Thu suit says that Kansas is looking for “something” to hang around his neck – – such as “a dead hooker in [his] closet”.
  • This one might get interesting…

And speaking of hookers, I read a report about a week ago – – and did not record where I found it so I cannot cite it here – – that Robert Kraft’s arrest for solicitation of prostitution should not have any effect on his eligibility for the Pro Football Hall of Fame.  The argument there was that the bylaws that direct the Hall of Fame voters thinking and consideration specifically say that the voters should ignore any off-the-field stuff – either positive or negative.  [Since I have never been part of the nomination/election processes here, I take that statement to be factual; I have no experience to confirm it or deny it.]

Here is my problem with that argument:

  • Robert Kraft would enter the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a “contributor”.  He would join a list of folks who owned teams or were NFL Commissioners or were successful GMs.  A few of these folks also played the game (Dan Reeves and Jim Finks come to mind) but most of them never strapped on a helmet for an NFL game.
  • Ergo, the only reason Robert Kraft MIGHT be considered for the Hall of Fame is because of his “off-the-field activities/deeds”.  Hmmm…

[For the record, while I think the allegations against Kraft are super-sleazy, I do not think they should condemn him to eternal damnation even if proven to be true.  When I think of other team owners who have been elected to the Hall of Fame, I would have to say that Kraft’s teams’ accomplishments are commensurate with the standard those other owners represent.]

Brad Rock had this comment about Robert Kraft’s arrest in the Deseret News a couple of weeks ago.  It captures well my general sense of the gravity of the matter:

“Patriots owner Robert Kraft pleaded not guilty to charges of soliciting a prostitute.

“But he did plead guilty to wearing a colored shirt with a white collar 30 years after they went out of style.”

Finally, let me close with another observation by Brad Rock right around the NBA trade deadline:

“In a four-day span, former Portland teammates Nik Stauskas and Wade Baldwin were part of four organizations: Portland, Cleveland, Houston and Indiana.

“But the worst news is they’re expected to be waived.

“On the bright side, they’re now part of one more organization: the Delta Diamond Medallion club.”

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

 

 

It’s Pi Day…

Happy Pi Day.  One of the local supermarkets here has a sale today where you can buy a pie for $3.14.  I like apple pie, please…

MLB and the MLBPA have reached some agreements on some rule changes.  No, these are not going to be changes to the sacred rules that govern on-field play; any change along those lines would demand a convocation of important figures and august leaders equivalent to the Diet of Worms.  However, it is significant that they did reach agreement on some things because in the recent past – – and in the distant past – – MLB and the MLBPA would not agree that night came after day or vice versa.

  • The optimist sees all of this as a sign that the two sides know they will each need to compromise on issues when the new CBA must be hammered out in 2 years.
  • The pessimist sees all of this as the spending of a few small things the two sides can agree on meaning there are fewer seed crystals for an agreement later.
  • The pragmatist sees this as a set of small steps in a positive direction.

I like the first area of agreement a lot.  Starting now, there will be a single trade deadline – – July 31.  There will be no waiver-trades in August.  Frankly, if they moved this back until July 1 it would be fine with me.  Too many teams throw in the towel too early in the season rendering too many teams and games less than important in the final weeks of the regular season.  I understand that the job of a GM just got a bit harder because final decisions on making a playoff run must be backed up a month and because a significant injury in August cannot be addressed with a trade.  System depth just got more important to contending teams.

Another rule change involves a change in the voting process to select the All-Star Game participants.  It too will be implemented this year; it involves a two-step voting process; in the grand scheme, this just does not matter.

Next year, the major league roster will expand to 26 players and will limit teams to 13 pitchers.  In addition, the September rosters will only expand to 28 teams with a maximum of 14 pitchers.  That too is a step in the right direction – but does not go far enough.

Here is why MLB and the MLBPA need to stop finding ways to disagree with one another.  The 2019 season is about to begin in 2 weeks – not counting an opening game in Tokyo between the A’s and Mariners.  There are 30 teams in MLB, and I want to set a very low standard for teams to achieve in order to be successful in the eyes of their fans.  Here is the standard:

  • My team will play .500 baseball for the 2019 season.

As Derrick Coleman would say about that level of expectation, “Whoop-di-damned-doo!”  However, even with that low a standard, I think that fans of at least 40% of MLB teams would be happy to see that outcome for 2019.  Of course, there must be teams with losing records in order for there to be teams with winning records that go to the playoffs and the World Series.  But it takes more than a .500 record to be a playoff team – – absent a stunningly unusual set of season circumstances – – and I think these teams will begin play in April with zero expectation that they will even win 81 games let alone the 90 game or so that the top teams will win.  Here is my list of thirteen “little-to-no-hope teams:

  1. Blue Jays
  2. D-Backs
  3. Orioles
  4. Mariners
  5. Marlins
  6. Padres
  7. Pirates
  8. Rangers
  9. Reds
  10. Royals
  11. Tigers
  12. Twins
  13. White Sox

[Aside:  If you twisted my arm, I could add the Giants to this list thereby covering 47% of MLB teams.]

[Second Aside:  Note that four of the five teams in the AL Central are on my list above.  That should make for a real nail-biter of a race in that division.]

Granted, this is not as unbalanced as the NBA; but it is not an ideal set-up.  Not meaning to pick on the Mariners or their fans, but when the ceremonial first pitch is thrown in Tokyo for that opening game in about a week, what percentage of the Mariner fanbase is seriously considering that game to be the first step toward this year’s playoffs?

When MLB and the MLBPA sit down to negotiate the next CBA – and they better start soon – they are going to focus on “economic issues” involving distribution of league revenues and alleged collusion to limit salaries for aging players and the economic effect(s) of the luxury tax and revenue sharing in MLB.  Of course, those will be contentious issues and it will take time to find avenues of compromise.  However, I think that the two sides also need to address bridging the gap that exists between the “haves” and the “have-nots” in MLB.

Bob Molinaro had this comment in the Hampton Roads Virginian-Pilot last week:

“Plungers: MLB commissioner Rob Manfred’s request that sportsbooks in Nevada and other states refrain from taking bets on spring training games was shrugged off by the gambling industry. As it should have been. But think about it. Who is throwing money at Grapefruit and Cactus League games? People who need help, most likely.”

I agree with Professor Molinaro here; betting on Spring Training games – and/or NFL Exhibition games – is not remotely interesting to me.  But Commissioner Manfred is off-base asking sportsbooks to take those games off the board.  It is almost as if Manfred thinks that by doing so, people will refrain from betting on Spring training games.  If he does believe that, he needs to be introduced to a few local bookmakers; those entrepreneurs will take action on Spring Training baseball or junior league curling if there is sufficient demand.  It is not as if the sportsbooks are creating the marketplace.

Finally, consider this comment from Dwight Perry in the Seattle Times related to baseball and wagering:

“Yankee Stadium could soon host sports betting if New York legislators pass pending legislation.

“If the Reds covet a parlor of their own, ‘The Rose Garden’ has a nice ring to it.”

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

 

 

Movement Around the NFL…

The opening acts of NFL free agency are not “sustainable” – to use a word currently in vogue.  There may be an important signing with an eye-popping dollar total we have not seen yet; there may be a big trade out there that has not come to fruition.  But it is unlikely that we will have as many big movements in such a short time period until next year when NFL free agency begins.  To me, the most interesting thing to observe is the wide variety of prices paid by teams to acquire big-play wide receivers.

  1. Most expensive WR:  Odell Beckham Jr. went from the Giants to the Browns.  The cost to the Browns was a 1st round pick this year (17th overall) plus a 3rd round pick this year plus Jabrill Peppers a good young defensive back.
  2. Next-most expensive WR:  Antonio Brown went from the Steelers to the Raiders.  The cost to the Raiders was a 3rd round pick and a 5th round pick this year.
  3. Bargain-basement WR:  DeSean Jackson went from the Bucs to the Eagles.  The cost to the Eagles was a 6th round pick this year – – but they also get a 7th round pick next year in addition to Jackson.

I think we would all agree that Jackson is the least valuable of those three WRs at this point in his career; he will be 33 in December.  However, he did lead the entire NFL last year in yards per catch at 18.9 yards per catch.  The cost to the Eagles to acquire him and to give the team a legitimate deep threat was trivial – – unless you want to fantasize that the 6th round pick sent to the Bucs is going to turn into the 2019 iteration of 6th round pick Tom Brady.

If you compare Antonio Brown and Odell Beckham Jr., you are looking at two of the top five or six WRs in the league.  Brown will be 31 when the season starts; Beckham will be 27 in November.  Brown has caught 100+ passes in each of the past 6 seasons and led the NFL in TD receptions last year with 15; Beckham has enviable stats but not ones that are equivalent Browns.  In that light compare the costs and implications:

  • Did the Giants fleece the Browns?  Or, did the Steelers take a yard-sale price in their deal just to get Brown out of town and out of their division?
  • Are the Browns playing a long game acquiring offensive assets to add to Baker Mayfield thereby justifying the cost?  Or, are the Raiders in something of a “win-now mode” acquiring the older WR of the two?

People will argue about who get the best deal here and which team lost out here; those arguments will extend at least until the teams finish the 2019 season.  However, the disparity of “prices” paid for WRs in the early flurry of free agency does raise an interesting question:

  • What is the market value for some of the remaining WRs who are free agents?  Here are a few possibilities:  Randall Cobb, Michael Crabtree, Golden Tate…

The fact that these three accomplished WRs moved around with draft picks used mainly as the currency for their acquisition leads me to cite an observation made by Bob Molinaro in the Hampton Roads Virginian-Pilot last week:

“Reality check: I hope Kyler Murray turns out to be as impactful as his biggest fans imagine. The NFL can’t have too many good quarterbacks. But I find it funny when his Heisman Trophy is cited as proof that he’s got the goods. Come on now, you could wallpaper your house with the press clippings of Heisman quarterbacks who bombed out in the pros. Two words: Gino Torretta. Two more: Danny Wuerffel. Must I go on?”

Oh, but you should go on; the list of Heisman QBs who failed to make the jump to the NFL with any impact is a long one:

  1. Steve Spurrier (1966)
  2. Gary Beban (1968)
  3. Pat Sullivan (1971)
  4. Andre Ware (1989)
  5. Ty Detmer (1990)
  6. Chris Weinke (2000)
  7. Eric Crouch (2001)
  8. Jason White (2003)
  9. Matt Leinart (2004)
  10. Troy Smith (2006)
  11. Tim Tebow (2007)
  12. Johnny Manziel (2012)

More interesting to me is the list of great NFL QBs who failed to win the Heisman Trophy such as:

  1. Troy Aikman
  2. Terry Bradshaw
  3. Len Dawson
  4. John Elway
  5. Brett Favre
  6. Dan Fouts
  7. Jim Kelly
  8. Dan Marino
  9. Joe Montana
  10. Warren Moon
  11. Bart Starr
  12. John Unitas
  13. Steve Young

I’m sure I left someone off this list who belongs here…

Finally, since today was all about NFL happenings, here is a comment from Greg Cote of the Miami Herald from soon after the Patriots’ Super Bowl parade in Boston last month:

“A thrown can of beer hit Rob Gronkowski in the head during the Patriots’ championship parade. Alternate punchlines: A) He didn’t feel a thing. B) That’s terrible. What a waste of beer!”

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

 

 

Proposed NFL Rule Changes

The “football news frenzy” of the day is focused on what free agent signed with which team and who got traded where.  That sort of stuff will sort itself out over the next 3 months as teams prepare to begin training camp in July, but there are more imminent NFL happenings that should be considered.  Teams have made proposals to the NFL’s Competition Committee regarding rule changes they would like the Committee to consider for 2019; those findings by the Competition Committee will be presented to the NFL owners at one of their convocations which will happen two weeks from now.

Each of the teams fills out a questionnaire at the end of the season related to things like rules and player safety and technology that may or may not be used during a game.  Those questionnaires are part of the agenda building process for the Competition Committee for consideration.  The protocol then is that the Committee recommends rule changes and the owners either approve or disapprove.

According to reports, here are some of the things that teams wanted the Competition Committee to chew upon:

  • KC Chiefs:

The Chiefs want both teams to get a possession in OT even if the first offensive team scores a TD.  [After the outcome of this year’s AFC Championship Game, I am not remotely surprised at this suggestion.]

The Chiefs want the OT coin toss eliminated and the coin toss at the beginning of the game to prevail.  Not sure why this is a step forward, but it does not seem like a step backward either.

The Chiefs want all overtimes eliminated in Exhibition Games.  So obviously a good idea, I wonder why it has not already been written in stone,

  • Denver Broncos:

The Broncos want to eliminate onside kicks.  Similar to the AAF rule, the Broncos want a team that wants to try an onside kick to have the ball at its own 35 in a 4th adn15 situation.  Convert and the ball is theirs; miss the conversion and the ball goes over.  Should it be 4th and 10 or 4th and 12 or 4th and 15?  That is something for the data crunchers to deal with.  I have no problem with the concept here.

The Broncos want all fourth down or goal line plays that are spotted short of the line to gain would be subject to automatic review. Similarly, the Broncos are also proposing that all extra point and two-point conversion attempts be subject to review.  That sounds like a lot of mandatory reviewing.  Is this a solution in search of a problem?

  • Washington Redskins:

The Skins want anything and everything to be reviewable by the officials.  Under the Skins’ proposal, all plays that occur during a game could potentially be subjected to a coaches’ challenge or review by the officiating department in the instant replay system.   I think this is overkill.

The Skins also want personal foul calls to be reviewable.  This seems like a subset of the suggestion above.  If the above rule change were implemented, plays could be reviewed, and personal fouls not originally called might be imposed by the review process.

  • Philadelphia Eagles:

The Eagles want any scoring play or any turnover that is negated by a penalty to be subject to an automatic replay review.  Those are potentially game changing plays; reviewing them to be sure the penalty call is correct is not a bad idea – – and there just aren’t that many of these sorts of plays in a typical game.

In addition to those team-specific recommendations to the competition Committee, the reports say that the Eagles, Panthers, Rams and Seahawks all want the rules to permit coaches to challenge “player-safety related fouls” called on the field or not called on the field.  This sounds good – – but I wonder what the scope of “player-safety related fouls” might be.

Here is the Curmudgeon Central Rule that should have been implemented as soon as the NFL had enough cameras in the stadium to consider implementing instant replay for anything:

  • Whenever there is a fight or an altercation that leads to a flag or flags being thrown, replay should be used to determine the player that started the altercation and his team should be the one penalized – – unless the retaliation by the other team exceeds the original provocation.

Time to move from reality/practicality/rationality to the part of the world inhabited by José Canseco.  Earlier this week, Canseco used a Tweet to accuse A-Rod of cheating on his fiancée, Jennifer Lopez, with Canseco’s ex-wife.  Minutes after that Tweet “hit the streets”, Canseco put out another one to challenge A-Rod to a boxing match or an MMA match “anytime you want” – – apparently as a way for Canseco to defend Jennifer Lopez’ honor.  I guess I am glad that he suggested boxing or MMA to settle this matter and stopped short of suggesting they reinstitute dueling with pistols at 10 paces…

About a month ago, a Notre Dame WR, Javon McKinley, was arrested on battery and alcohol misdemeanor charges.  There were two charges of battery related to McKinley allegedly punching two campus police officers.  [Aside:  Getting into a fight whilst intoxicated is never a good idea; getting into a fight with two police officers whilst intoxicated is a really bad idea.]  McKinley is suspended from the team pending resolution of all this stuff…

Finally, we are in that part of the sports calendar when the TV promos for the upcoming Masters golf tournament happen daily.  Ergo, consider this comment from Lee Trevino who briefly boycotted the Masters tournament for several years in the 1970s:

“Golf is a game invented by the same people who think music comes out of a bagpipe.”

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

 

 

Yet More Bryce Harper News

Silly me.  I thought that when Bryce Harper finally signed a contract with an MLB team, he would cease to be the “headline of the day” until such time as he actually did something on a baseball field that affected the outcome of an actual baseball game.  Actually, Harper followed up the news of his signing with two stories that made headlines.  The first story came from the Westgate Sportsbook in Las Vegas; they posted the odds for players to win the MVPs and the Cy Youngs in both leagues.  Harper led the way in the National League.  Let me list the players with the lowest odds in all of these categories and offer a couple of comments:

NL MVP:

  • Bryce Harper PHI 7-1
  • Nolan Arenado COR 8-1
  • Paul Goldschmidt STL 10-1
  • Kris Bryant CHC 12-1
  • Manny Machado SDP 15-1

AL MVP:

  • Mike Trout LAA 3-1
  • Mookie Betts BOS 4-1
  • Aaron Judge NYY 10-1
  • Alex Bregman HOU 12-1
  • Jose Ramirez CLE 15-1

NL Cy Young:

  • Max Scherzer WAS 5-2
  • Jacob deGrom NYM 7-2
  • Aaron Nola PHI 7-1
  • Clayton Kershaw LAD 12-1
  • Noah Syndergaard NYM 15-1

AL Cy Young:

  • Cory Kluber CLE 7-2
  • Chris Sale BOS 4-1
  • Luis Severino NYY 7-1
  • Justin Verlander HOU 12-1
  • Carlos Carrasco CLE 15-1

A few comments about these listings.

  1. The odds-on Mike Trout dropped to 2-1 the day after they were posted when someone bet $4000 on Trout to win the Award at 3-1 odds.  Money does move the line…
  2. The Westgate Sportsbook oddsmaker said the reason Harper was the clear favorite in the National League was that he would be playing in a “Little League park” and that he should post huge numbers there.  The dimensions of the stadium in Philly and Washington are very similar so I am not sure I understand that sentiment.
  3. That is an awfully big jump in odds from Mookie Betts at 4-1 down to Aaron Judge at 10-1.
  4. I think Clayton Kershaw’s days as a Cy Young Award caliber pitcher are in the past; he will still be a good pitcher but not to that level.
  5. The Indians have two pitchers in the “Top 5” regarding the AL Cy Young Award plus Trevor Bauer as a starter.  Not a bad rotation at all…

And then, Bryce Harper got himself involved in a kerfuffle with the management of the LA Angels when he said he would like for Mike Trout to come and join him in Philly when Trout’s contract is up with the Angels.  People want to know if that is tampering which poses some interesting questions:

  • Can “tampering” apply to players as opposed to teams and team management?
  • How would tampering rules apply to players if the players involved were brothers?  Or father and son?
  • If Harper had privately called Mike Trout such that no one knew about it until months after the fact, does that make the alleged tampering less severe or more severe?

As I understand the rules in baseball regarding tampering, the punishment is a fine.  Bryce Harper just signed a deal that guarantees him $330M.  Leading up to this contract, my estimate is that Harper made $50M; I could be off by 10% there.  Nevertheless, there is no reasonable fine that MLB might levy that would have any meaningful adverse effect on Bryce Harper’s exchequer.

Moving on …  The NY Post reported that Jason Witten will leave ESPN and the Monday Night Football booth to return to the Dallas Cowboys and play tight end once again.  I thought Witten had promise as a TV analyst, but he did not grow into the job very much as the season rolled on; many commentators were highly critical of his performance and they have rejoiced at this news.  The question for ESPN now is where will they go with an announcing team for MNF?

  • The word is that ESPN covets Peyton Manning in the booth.  I think he would be interesting to listen to during a game, but I think he might demand that he never have to call a game where Eli was playing – – and ESPN is not really able to offer such a “guarantee”.  [Aside:  That is not “inside info”; that is just a sense that I get when I listen to the two brothers talk about one another.]
  • There is work for ESPN to do over the summer.  Joe Tessitore has to exhale and do some calming down between plays.  Every 6-yard run off tackle is not worthy of hyperventilation.
  • Booger McFarland might become a top-shelf analyst; he is knowledgeable and casually funny.  However, ESPN must put the “Boogermobile” in the garage and lock the door on that baby.  Booger needs to be in the booth interacting with his broadcasting partner(s).

If I were the ESPN decision maker here, I would look at the football folks already on TV in various places and here would be my order of preference:

  1. Louis Riddick:  Measured, rational, intelligent commentary.  He is “anti-bombastic”.
  2. Deion Sanders:  Colorful, entertaining, candid.  A latter-day Howard Cosell?  Maybe not that outrageous…
  3. Steve Young:  Cerebral, analytical and candid.

Finally, here is a comment on college football recruiting from Mike Bianchi in the Orlando Sentinel:

“In the span of a week, FSU has lost two big-time football recruits — not to Alabama, Ohio State or Georgia but to MARYLAND! This is like losing a ‘Battle of the Bands’ to Insane Clown Posse.”

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

 

 

Southern California Blues

Santa Anita Park is a mess.  The racetrack has been one of the major horseracing venues in the US for the last 85 years.  Today, it is shut down while officials there try to determine why 21 horses have died there since about Christmas 2018.  The problem is not some equine virus that is spreading among the resident animals; the problem is the main dirt track where horses are breaking legs, ankles etc. such that the animals have to be euthanized.

All racing has been canceled at Santa Anita.  There had been some restrictions on racing and workouts recently and the track was preparing to get back to normal after an inspection of the track and some analyses had been done.  Then a 4-year old filly was “breezing” in a morning workout when she “sustained fractured seismoids” and had to be put down raising the number of horses in that condition to 21 in the last 10 weeks.  Those circumstances – a breezing workout for a mature horse – are not normally associated with fatal injuries.

The weather in southern California has been very unusual this winter.  The track received 11.5 inches of rain in February alone; normal rainfall for February is 3.74 inches.  In fact, in February of this year, the track got more than half of the average annual rainfall for that part of the world.  In addition, February saw abnormally low temperatures.  It is tempting to blame the climatological conditions there for these problems except for the fact that no rational linkage has been found.

The track had closed briefly at the end of February to allow for an evaluation by a consultant from the University of Kentucky whose specialty is racing surfaces.  He took soil samples at varying depths and did not find any flaws in the track composition, so training resumed.  Then came the death of the filly in a training session and the track shut down completely.

This is a situation that needs fixing quickly and reliably.  Santa Anita is not some rinky-dink track in suburban Beaglebreath, WY.  Santa Anita is slated to host the Breeders’ Cup races this November.  There is no way the owners of the horses who are eligible to compete at that level of racing are going to put their assets at risk on a racing surface that averages 2 deaths per week.

Maybe space aliens are beaming some sort of disruption ray at the southern California area because in addition to Santa Anita Park being a mess, the LA Lakers are also a mess.  Last summer when LeBron James took his talents to LA, most folks thought that the Lakers would return to the playoffs after a lengthy – for them – absence.  Only the biggest Lakers’ fanboys thought that they might make it to the NBA Finals this year, but a slot in the playoffs appeared to be in the bag.

As of this morning, the Lakers are in 11th place in the Western Conference; they are 6.5 games behind the LA Clippers who are sitting in the 8th and final playoff slot.  The Lakers have 17 games left in the regular season; making up that margin is not impossible – – but it sure does not look likely.

IF the Lakers miss the playoffs, it will be interesting to see what sort of analysis comes out of that circumstance.  Here are some possible threads:

  1. LeBron James has been in the NBA Finals for 8 consecutive seasons and a couple of those teams did not feature strong supporting casts for the best player on the planet today.  Ergo, this young group of Lakers must be a lot less than they were cracked up to be.
  2. LeBron James creates drama wherever he goes.  This young Lakers’ team could not handle the drama – – see how they fell apart right after the abortive attempts to trade for Anthony Davis engineered not by LeBron James but by LeBron James’ agent.
  3. LeBron James is a coach-killer except he could not get the Lakers’ owner to fire Luke Walton this year and so he did not put his full energy into the team this season.
  4. LeBron James has begun to feel the presence of Father Time.  His stats are still exemplary, but he missed 17 games this season due to injury and he no longer plays 40+ minutes every night and he plays even less defense than he has in recent years.

At the moment, I would lean toward the second thread above.  LeBron James has offered up plenty of passive-aggressive commentary about his teammates and coaches in the past and those comments have gotten former teammates to shape up lest they be the target of some upcoming passive-aggressive verbiage.  It appears that this Lakers’ roster has not reacted in the same way; this team plays as if they are afraid to hear what is coming next.

Finally, here is a comment from Dwight Perry in the Seattle Times about a former Lakers’ superstar’s current situation:

“Shaquille O’Neal’s Big Chicken Shaq restaurant has unveiled an $8.29 Charles Barkley sandwich.

“OK, we’ll bite: It’s a healthy slice of ham on huge buns?”

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

 

 

Law And Order Today …

Three men have been sentenced in federal court as a result of the charges brought against them for paying college basketball recruits – or the families of those recruits – “improper payments” to assure that they attended schools sponsored by Adidas.  Two men will spend 6 months in federal prison – pending appeal of course – and the third will spend nine months there.  I have said all during the judicial process here that the US Government would not have wanted me on that jury because I have yet to be convinced that what these folks did was contrary to federal law.  It was indeed in direct opposition to NCAA rules and regulations, but I do not think that is what the FBI and the DoJ should be out to enforce.

In other “criminally connected news”, there is an ESPN report that expands on the Tim Donaghy scandal from about 10 years ago.  There is a long report at espn.com saying that the involvement of Donaghy in “gambling irregularities” was a whole lot more than was reported about 10 years ago.  This report says that he not only provided info to big time gamblers but that Donaghy himself was betting on games that he personally officiated.  This is a LONG piece and there are lots of internal links to other reports inside to corroborate and expand the information here.  I recommend that you read it in its entirety.

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/25980368/how-former-ref-tim-donaghy-conspired-fix-nba-games

Buried in that piece is an interesting sidebar.  According to this report, when the FBI made David Stern aware of the results of their investigation, Stern’s major reaction was that he was angry/concerned that NBA’s Security Staff had not been the ones to make this finding.  While that may seem at first to be an improper reaction, I think it is very appropriate for the NBA Commish in such a circumstance.  Consider:

  • The NBA says that its Security Department provides for safety for players and fans; and, in addition, it works with federal and local authorities at the highest level to monitor any possible security issues”.
  • If the FBI is in the Commish’s office telling him about a referee being associated with known gamblers, David Stern must have been thinking along the lines of “What the Hell am I paying those guys to do, anyway?”

And the current espn.com investigative report ought to send a shiver down the spinal column of current NBA Commish, Adam Silver.  The Tim Donaghy mess is 10 years old; Donaghy has been tried, convicted and has already served his time in jail; he is out and about as we speak.  For those intervening 10 years, the good folks in the NBA Security Department have not been able to come up with the information that is contained in the ESPN report.  So, the idea that must have floated through David Stern’s head way back then should be front and center once again:

  • What the Hell do these guys get paid to do, anyway?

I officiated basketball for 37 years.  To be sure, I never got anywhere near the level of officiating an NBA or a college basketball game; but I probably did 3,000 games of one kind or another.  Even though I never consciously sought to determine the outcome of any game I was involved with, I know for certain that I could have manipulated that outcome if I had chosen to do so.  No one should read the ESPN report and think that this is some sort of fantasy world.  A referee who has a direct financial interest in the outcome of games for which he is the official can win 75-80% of the bets that he makes on those games manipulating either the spread result and/or the Total Line result.

The data in the ESPN report is not probative, but it is more than mere “eyebrow raising”.  And it needs to be put into the context of the NBA’s constant opposition to expansion of sports gambling up until the US Supreme Court said that the law the NBA sought to uphold at any cost was unconstitutional.

  • Could it be that part of that strong opposition came from a recognition that the NBA Security Department is simply not up to the task of maintaining what the NBA likes to call “the integrity of their games”?

The NBA plays 1230 regular season games – – many of which are meaningless.  The sportsbooks in Las Vegas and on the Internet do not make any distinctions about meaningfulness; they will take action on all 1230 of them.

  1. Do I believe that a significant fraction of those games has the outcome manipulated by referees whose motivation is financial gain from the manipulated outcome?  NO!  The NBA regular season is not rotten to the core.
  2. Do I believe that a game here and there has a manipulated outcome and that it is one or more of the officials assigned to the game that is doing the manipulating?  Yes.  The information in the ESPN report tells me that all the “infrastructure” is in place to effect such manipulation and that if done without getting greedy that manipulation can go undetected for a LONG time.

Shifting gears …  The world’s #1 bridge player, Geir Helgemo of Norway, has been stripped of some titles he won and has been suspended from competitive bridge for about year because he failed a drug test.  Evidently, he showed elevated levels of synthetic testosterone and a female fertility drug.  Because the “bridge folks” have agreed to follow the World Anti-doping Agency rules about drug testing, that led to Helgemo’s suspension.  If you expect me to try to explain how elevated testosterone levels – synthetic or natural – provide one with some sort of advantage in playing bridge, I am certainly going to disappoint you here.  This makes little to no sense to me…

Finally, since today’s rant focused on law breaking and rule breaking and drug test failures, consider this comment from Dwight Perry in the Seattle Times:

“Police were called when two women, 86 and 79, came to blows over seating arrangements during Bingo night at a retirement home in Rideau Lakes, Ontario.

“Because it was Canada, both returned to action after serving five minutes for fighting.”

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

 

 

Home From Arizona…

So, I saw 3 Spring Training games in the Cactus League in the last week.  They used the 20-second pitch clock; none of the pitchers appeared to have suffered any physical or psychic damage.  And, it would appear – based obviously an a VERY small sample – that it does speed up the game a bit.  Here is one datum:

  • In a game that encompassed 8.5 innings, there was a total of 17 runs, 23 hits, 2 errors, 4 batters hit by pitches and a couple of walks i.e. lots of base runners. In addition, there were two mid-inning pitching changes.
  • That game took 3 hours and 20 minutes to play.

The pitch clock is turned off when there are runners on base.  However, I think that part of the value of the clock is that it gets pitchers in the rhythm of getting the ball back from the catcher and getting ready to do something with it other than holding it in the glove while taking a stroll around the mound.  When the clock was in use, many was the time the pitcher began his wind-up with about 10 seconds left on the clock.

In another game we saw, the final score was 1-0.  There was a total of 7 hits in the game with no errors and only 1 base on balls.  That game took 2 hours and 30 minutes to complete.  Granted, this is Spring Training and not the World Series; the pressure is far less than it will be once the regular season is underway.  Nevertheless, I think the “imposition” of the pitch clock is not nearly the end of Western Civilization as we know it – – despite what some of the players may say.

Obviously, the baseball news over the time I have been gone was the ending of the Bryce Harper soap opera.  Our long national nightmare is over; we can go to sleep now knowing where Harper will ply his trade for the next 13 years.  That venue will be Philadelphia where I am not so sure things will be all peaches and cream between now and 2032 when the deal expires.  Just remember that Philly fans got on Mike Schmidt’s case enough that he unloaded on a reporter in another National League city calling the Philly fans a “mob scene” and worse.  The reaction was so strong that he needed to wear a wig and sunglasses on the field in batting practice when the team came home.

Mike Schmidt was the best third baseman in the history of baseball; he had led the Phillies to a World Championship and to another World Series.  But Schmidt was not beloved in Philly because he was not a “blue collar guy”; he was aloof/cerebral/detached.

  • Memo to Bryce Harper:  This is what you signed onto with no opt out clause in your 13-year contract.  I hope I am wrong, but I think you are going to experience a totally different relationship with the fans in Philly from what you are used to with the fans in DC.  Mazel tov…

That signing presumably puts an end to the Phillies’ dealing in this off-season.  Prior to this signing, the Phillies traded for Jean Segura (from the Mariners) and for JT Realmuto (from the Marlins) and signed free agents David Robertson and Andrew McCutcheon.  They were indeed busy over the winter.

Personally, the two best moves in the MLB offseason to my mind were:

  • Cardinals traded for Paul Goldschmidt.  The Cardinals have needed a top-shelf bat in the middle of their order for a couple of years now and Goldschmidt is just that.
  • Rockies sign Nolan Arenado to an 8-year contract extension for a total of $260M.

There was a cryptic/incomplete story coming out of Montreal over the weekend saying that the Montreal Alouettes had released QB, Johnny Manziel.  Given the fact that Manziel’s stats last year were hardly eye-popping (106 for 165 for 1290 yards with 5 TDs and 7 INTs), his release is hardly shocking.  However, there was a twist to the news release:

  • The CFL has said it will not register any contract between Manziel and another CFL team; that means Manziel is banned from the CFL.

So, here is what the Alouettes’ GM had to say about this:

“We are disappointed by this turn of events. Johnny was provided a great deal of support by our organization, in collaboration with the CFL, but he has been unable to abide by the terms of his agreement.  We worked with the league and presented alternatives to Johnny, who was unwilling to proceed.”

Not knowing anything about the “terms of his agreement” with the CFL, it is impossible to do anything other than speculate about where the “violations” in the terms arose.  I prefer not to get into the “guessing”/”speculating” business here so I will simply note that Manziel’s performance and personal conduct made him persona non grata in the NFL; now he has been kicked out of the CFL; there are probably some AAF teams that might give him a look (the one in San Antonio is close to where he played college football) and the XFL 2.0 will come into existence next Spring.  The trend here is not his friend…

Speaking of troubled souls, Cowboys’ DE, Randy Gregory, has been suspended again – – this time for an indefinite period.  It is his 4th suspension since coming into the NFL in 2105.  Once again, the suspension is due to a violation of the NFL substance abuse policy; the last suspension was for 1 year; this suspension is for an indefinite period.  Gregory has been in the NFL for 4 seasons; in those 4 seasons he has only appeared in 28 games.  His problems have not been injuries.

Finally, this comment from Dwight Perry in the Seattle Times tells me all I need to know about the situation involving Antonio Brown and the Pittsburgh Steelers:

“Disgruntled Antonio Brown and the Steelers have agreed to part company.

“In other words, AB’s gone from wide receiver to split end.”

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

 

 

Baseball Stuff Today

Yesterday’s big news was the contract extension signed by Nolan Arenado with the Colorado Rockies.  The deal replaces Arenado’s current contract which had one year to run with an 8-year deal worth $260M – that is $32.5M per year if you don’t have access to a calculator right now.  It has a full no-trade clause and an opt-out clause for Arenado after the third season (2021).  Arenado is 27 years old; he has led the National League in home runs three times in his career.  Last year he hit 38 home runs, drove in 110 runs and posted an OPS of .925.  And he is no slouch in the field either.  From my perspective, he has another important asset that he brings with him to the field:

  • To this point in his career, he has been low maintenance and has produced no soap opera level drama.

And that brings me to the masters of baseball drama – – Bryce Harper and Scott Boras.  Yesterday, there was a headline in the Washington Post that read:

“Arrieta knows Harper’s dilemma”

I am not providing a link here because the headline is the portion that is important.  The dilemma is posited as getting a fair and reasonable deal from his perspective on one hand and getting into Spring training to “get up to game speed and build team chemistry” on the other hand.  Would that I thought it was nearly so noble.

I think there is a more insidious way to look at Harper’s current situation where he can only work out by himself and not be with his future teammates.  That insidious view goes something like this:

  • Scott Boras has been doing the agent-thing since Harper graduated from high school saying that he was a transformational player who comes along once in a lifetime.  That is what Boras is supposed to do.
  • Bryce Harper has come to believe that sort of narrative – even when faced with the reality that there are other players in MLB who are as good as he is in some cases and better than he is in other cases.  He is an exceptional talent; he is not a once in a lifetime player.  Put into less polite terms, Scott Boras’ agent-speak has pumped sunshine up Bryce Harper’s ass.
  • Scott Boras has an agenda to work here.  He let it be known that Harper might be worth a $400M deal about 2 years ago.  Now as a free agent, it is pretty clear that he will not get that big a deal and now Boras needs to deliver a deal that is record-breaking just to maintain the “Boras Mystique”.
  • The dilemma Bryce Harper faces in this scenario is much more basic.  He has to decide if Scott Boras works for him or if he works for Scott Boras.  No matter what happens, he will be making enough money to change the lives of his progeny and this progeny’s progeny for several generations.  Sometime soon, he must decide who works for whom in his relationship with Scott Boras.

I enjoy reading much of the statistical analyses published at fivethirtyeight.com – particularly the ones related to sports and to politics.  I do not pretend to have a solid understanding of all the math that underpins many of the features there, but I have faith in the statisticians there to get the calculations right.  Earlier this week, a reader here sent me a link to an article there by Nate Silver with this headline:

“Relievers Have Broken Baseball. We Have A Plan To Fix It.”

This article does not focus on the effect a parade of relief pitchers has on the length of games or the pace of play; this article focuses on a statistical analysis of what happens to offensive stats in MLB when teams bring in what Silver dubs “OMG” pitchers.  OMG in this case stands for One-inning Max-effort Guys.  Getting through a lot of stats and math here, offense is stifled in this circumstance and the way teams set up to be able to implement this strategy is to carry 12 or 13 pitchers on the MLB roster and then use minor league call ups and the injured list creatively to assure they always have enough of those sort of guys in the bullpen for every series.

Silver’s proposed solution is interesting.

  • Each team should be limited to carrying 10 pitchers on its 25-man active roster, plus an Emergency Pitcher.

The Emergency Pitcher is an interesting concept.  He is not a guy on the 40-man roster; he is signed on to come in and pitch in games that have gotten out of hand or if the starter is injured or it is long extra inning game.  Moreover, when the rosters expand and teams have 40 players available in September, he would require any called up pitcher to throw at least 60 pitches in any game appearance.

Here is a link to the article.  If you are a baseball stat fan, you will like this one.

Relievers Have Broken Baseball. We Have A Plan To Fix It.

Finally, here is a Tweet from Brad Dickson:

“There’s a new bill in the Kansas Legislature establishing the polka as the official state dance. How the hell did the Nebraska Legislature miss this one?”

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