Category: Daily Rants

The “Blame Game” started early in this MLB season.  It began late last week when the Pittsburgh Pirates fired manager Derek Shelton.  Indeed, the Pirates have been disappointing this season; as of this morning, their record stands at 14-28, putting them dead last in the NL Central Division and in danger of losing touch with the rest of the teams there.  This is a surprise to me because in mid-September of last season, the Pirates were within hailing distance of a wild card playoff spot.  Remember, the Pirates shut down Paul Skenes by that time in the season because Skenes had already thrown a full season of college baseball before coming to the Pirates.  I do not question for a moment the decision to do that, but had he been available for three or four more starts last year …?

So, with Skenes set for a full season and some further development anticipated from youngsters like Oneil Cruz and Ke’Bryan Hayes, it appears to have been an offseason where the Pirates added a free agent or two.  Playoffs, here we come …  Not happening; if my scanning is correct, the Pirates offseason free agent dabbling amounted to signing Tommy Pham to a 1-year deal.  Pham is a decent player, but he is not the sum and substance of a “push to break through to the playoffs”.

Yes, the Pirates are underachieving so far in 2025 – – but it is only Mother’s Day for Heaven’s sake.  Derek Shelton is not the problem in Pittsburgh; the front office – – and maybe the ownership too – – is the problem in Pittsburgh.

Once the news of the Pirates’ managerial change hit the streets, that seems to have provided cover for the Colorado Rockies to fire their manager, Bud Black.  If you look at the standings, you can say that the move is totally justified; as of this morning, the Rockies check in with a record of 7-34; they are already 20 games behind the Division-leading Dodgers.

• [Aside:  At their current pace the Rockies project to a final record of 28-134 which would make last year’s Chicago White Sox look like world-beaters.]

The Rockies are not merely bad; they are memorably bad.  They lost a game last week by the score of 21-0; earlier this year, they lost games by scores of 17-2,10-2 and 11-1; their run differential is already at minus-129; the next-worst run differential in MLB today is the Miami Marlins at a measly minus-72 runs.  The Rockies cannot hit major league pitching very well and the Rockies’ pitchers cannot get major league hitters out efficiently; that is not a managerial issue.

Dave Roberts is the manager of the LA Dodgers; he has no “lack of talent” issues on his plate.  Roberts previously worked with Bud Black in San Diego.  Here is what Roberts had to say when he heard of the firing:

“I don’t think Casey Stengel could change the outcome of that ballclub, and that’s not the manager’s fault.  But obviously, they felt they needed a change in voice or direction.  But for me, there’s not many people that are better than Buddy Black.  So yeah, that’s very disappointing; it is certainly not his doing.”

Roberts allusion to Casey Stengel there is particularly cogent because it was Stengel – – unquestionably a competent manager of baseball teams – – who led the NY Mets in the first years of that club’s existence.  Here are some stats:

• In 12 seasons with the Yankees, Stengel’s teams went 1149-696 (win percentage = .623).  The Yanks won 10 pennants and 7 World Series in those 12 seasons.
• In 4 seasons with the Mets, Stengel’s teams went 175-404 (win percentage = .302).  The Mets finished 10^th in the NL in each of Stengel’s 4 seasons there.
• Casey Stengel was “out of baseball” for one year between his time with the Yankees and the Mets; clearly, he forgot everything about how to win baseball games in that hiatus.

So, if the current standard for managerial instability is underachievement/uncompetitive records, who might be next?  I would not advocate changes here, but two situations come to mind:

1. LA Angels:  For a while, the Angels led the AL West and were playing solid/winning baseball.  Then, the Angels went into a funk, and they are now last in the AL West with a record of 17-23.  Ron Washington is the Angels’ manager …
2. Baltimore Orioles:  Lots of people – – me included – – thought the O’s might win the AL East with a bunch of really good young players.  Not so; the O’s are last in the AL East with a record of 15-24.  The big problem is the Orioles’ pitching staff; they have injuries to starters and free agent acquisition, Charlie Morton, has been shelled almost every time out; his record is 0-7 and his ERA is 8.82.  Brandon Hyde is the Oriole’s manager …

So, is there any good news in MLB this morning.  If you want to feel good about something in baseball this morning, check out Aaron Judge and the season he is having.  The season is 25% over already and here is what Aaron Judge had been doing at the plate:

• Batting Average = .414
• OPS = 1.283
• RBI’s = 40
• Runs scored = 39

Finally, today has been mostly about losing and failure.  Here is what Bill Gates had to say relative to that:

“Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose.”

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

 

 

Last week, a reader wanted to know my current thoughts about Bill Belichick.  I suspect these are not going to be satisfactory to many folks.  The BIG question in my mind about Bill Belichick is this:

• We know that he is a great football coach and that he had success at the NFL level for about three decades, but can those skills and coaching techniques translate to the Division 1-A collegiate level?

Currently, the “Belichick Story” has nothing to do with that question and had focused in on his “relationship” with a woman one-third of his age.  The intensity of the “investigations” into this “relationship” are even more smarmy than the relationship itself.  By all appearances, they are two consenting adults whose actions are scrutinized only because one of the participants is a “recognizable person”.  So, my current thought on the matter is to ignore this story for a week and it will dry up and blow away.

A secondary question in my mind about Bill Belichick is this:

• Does he really intend to coach football at UNC for real or is this merely a way to assure that his son gets that head coaching gig when Dad bails at the eleventh-hour and fifty-ninth minute?

Once again, a little “benign neglect” [Hat Tip to Daniel Patrick Moynihan] will yield an answer to the secondary question more certainly than any sort of “probing”.

Moving on …  I want to look at the offseason activities of the Pittsburgh Steelers; I think they have been unusual.  Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe the Steelers are the only team in my memory ever to jettison their leading passer from last season (Russell Wilson) and their leading rusher (Najee Harris) and their leading receiver (George Pickens).  I am not trying to say that those three players are great; they are all of “starting quality”, but for a team to clean house to that degree in one offseason is more than unusual.

I mentioned the Pickens trade to the Cowboys last week and I want to elaborate on it a bit.  George Pickens is not the best WR in the NFL, but he qualifies as a starter for a boatload of teams.  The Cowboys got him for a third-round pick in 2026 and a late-round pick-swap in 2027.  Excuse me, that appears to be a stone-cold bargain for the Cowboys who desperately need another WR for their roster.

My guess – – and it is only a guess – – is that the Steelers’ organization had had their fill of Pickens’ antics and just wanted him gone.  Last year, Coach Mike Tomlin said Pickens needed to “grow up in a hurry” after he got two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties in a game; and later in the season, Pickens was almost an hour late arriving for a scheduled game.  Now, before you conclude that the Cowboys are the clear winners in this matter, consider that the Steelers have a history of trading away talented wide receivers with “maturity issues” and surviving the aftermath:

1. In 2019, the Steelers traded Antonio Brown to the Raiders for what appeared to be a bag of beans.  Brown never played a down for the Raiders and ended his career walking off the field shoulder pads in hand in the middle of a regular season game for the Bucs.
2. In 2022, the Steelers traded away Chase Claypool to the Bears who subsequently traded him to the Dolphins in 2023.  Currently, he is on a 1-year deal with the Bills.
3. In 2024, the Steelers traded away Diontae Johnson to the Panthers who then traded him to the Ravens in the middle of the 2024 season.  After bouncing around on the waiver wire at the end of 2024, he signed a one-year deal with the Browns for 2025.

The Steelers seem to have a knack for drafting talented – – and flawed – – WRs and then trading them away for seemingly small prices and moving on as an organization.  It will be interesting to see how George Pickens fares with a star on his helmet.

Switching gears …  Darek Carr surprisingly announced his retirement from the NFL over the weekend.  Carr says he has a shoulder injury that requires surgery and rehab that would negate the entire 2025 season and thus he chose to hang up his cleats.  One report I read said that by retiring as opposed to having the surgery and going through the rehab and collecting the guaranteed money in his contract, Carr left $30M on the table.  Not to worry, if my calculations are correct, Derek Carr made something in the neighborhood of $200M over his NFL career; so, you are not liable to see him in a homeless state any time soon.

But leaving $30M “on the table” does make me wonder:

• Did the doctors tell him that the surgery/rehab would be arduous and that there is only a 50/50 chance for a full recovery?
• Does he realize his “fire for the game” is diminishing and his moral compass does not allow him to collect that $30M under “false pretenses”?

I obviously don’t know the answer(s) here, but I do know that the New Orleans Saints have a precarious QB situation now.  Here are the QBs on their roster:

• Jake Haener
• Spencer Rattler
• Tyler Shough – – 2^nd round pick in this year’s Draft.

We saw both Haener and Rattler in starting roles last year.  Neither one inspired much confidence.  The Saints have a rookie head coach (Kellen Moore) whose reputation is as an offensive innovator.  That situation could be fun to watch if it heads in a positive direction or it could be a massive dumpster fire.

Finally, since today dealt with football matters, let me close with something from Bear Bryant:

“If anything goes bad, I did it. If anything goes semi-good, we did it. If anything goes really good, then you did it. That’s all it takes to get people to win football games for you.”

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

 

 

Back from a couple of weeks in Europe visiting Dublin, Budapest, Vienna, Passau, Ringenberg, Nurenberg and Prague.  I am not quite in sync with the Eastern Time Zone of the US and I am not nearly caught up  on all that transpired during my European adventure; nonetheless, I will try to do a quick skimming of the surface regarding the last couple of weeks in sports.

In the NBA Playoffs, the Lakers went out in Round 1 losing to the Timberwolves.  Only once in 5 games did the Wolves fail to hit triple digits on the scoreboard which indicates a porous defense for the Lakers.  Indeed, in the high-profile trade where the Lakers acquired Luka Doncic for Anthony Davis, what the Lakers did was to trade away their only strong defender.  So much for the conspiracy theory that the NBA engineered the trade to get the Lakers into the NBA Finals – presumably against the Celtics – to goose TV ratings with the two blueblood franchises in the Finals.

Speaking of the Celtics, they are trailing the Knicks 2-0 in that second round series.  In both victories, the Knicks rallied from 20 points down on the road to win those games.  Game 3 is tomorrow in Madison Square Garden…  If that game does not draw a big TV audience, the NBA is in trouble.

Gregg Popovich is retiring from coaching the San Antonio Spurs; he is the President of the Spurs in addition to being the head coach; as of now, he will continue in that executive role.  Popovich was an Assistant Coach with the Spurs from 1988 to 1994.  He took over as head coach in 1996 and has been there ever since.  His teams have won 5 NBA championships, and the Spurs lost in the Finals one other time.  His regular season coaching record is 1422-869 (win percentage = .621)  Popovich suffered a stroke in November 2024; he is said to be recovering well, but the idea of continuing with the stress of coaching after such a health scare makes his retirement easily understood.

Personally, I have always admired the way Popovich has dismissed the inane questions put to him by sideline reporters.  Once he was asked on the way into the locker room at halftime of a tie game what he thought the team needed to do in the second half to pull out a victory.  His response was a classic:

“Score more points than they do.”

Moving on …  I was surprised by the precipitous fall of Shedeur Sanders in the NFL Draft.  I said prior to the Draft that I did not think he would be a great first round pick, but he lasted  until Round 5 where the Browns took him as their second QB in the Draft.  My first thought was that scouts had detected a serious flaw in his game but after thinking about it for a while I have another idea.  Maybe – – just maybe – – Sanders suffers from something I will call “Colin Kaepernick Syndrome”.  Hear me out …

• Kaepernick would be the focus of media attention and reporting on any team that signed him and given his absence from the game and his performance in his last games as a regular player, the best he could hope to be is a backup QB.  Teams do not want their backup QB to be a focus for the media; teams want their backup QB to be a wallflower not a spotlight entity.
• Shedeur Sanders may or may not turn out to be a franchise QB someday, but his draft slot says that most scouts/coaches/GMs see him as a project meaning that he will be a backup for some time.  In that case, Sanders would be like Kaepernick and draw attention to himself and the backup QB position which is not what the ideal NFL team model looks like.

The Browns have 3 QBs on their roster already in Joe Flacco, Kenny Pickett and Deshaun Watson; in the Draft the Browns took Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders.  There is little likelihood that the Browns will keep all 5 on their books; usually only one player on the Practice Squad is a QB.  Suddenly, the Browns’ Training Camp became a point of interest; can Sanders even make the cut?

The Ravens released kicker Justin Tucker.  Yes, he had a sub-standard season in 2024 but historically, he is one of the best placekickers in NFL history.  The “problem” here is the allegation that he behaved inappropriately with some female massage therapists over the years.  The message there is that it is easier for the Ravens to find a replacement kicker than it is for the team to appear to condone or accept such alleged behaviors.

And of course, the Aaron Rodgers Saga continues.  All signs point to him signing with the Steelers who did not draft a QB until Round 6 last month but you never know with Rodgers.  I have said here before that he is addicted to public attention, and I think that factor is playing into the hemming and hawing at this late date.  Once again, hear me out:

• At least 5 days a week someone writes a story about Rodgers and his “decision” for the 2025 season and beyond.  The day Rodgers signs on somewhere or announces his retirement, those stories 5 days a week will dry up.
• If he signs with the Steelers, the focus will be on how he blends in with the team not about his latest “darkness retreat” or a long weekend on ayahuasca.  He will share the storyline with teammates and with coach Mike Tomlin who does not give the impression that he likes prima donnas very much.
• And to make that storyline reduction even bigger, making his decision final would open the door to another QB “narrative” that is waiting to happen as the Niners and Brock Purdy decide what their future will be after 2025.  Purdy’s contract is up this year; he will make $5M this year.  As a franchise QB, he might ask for $50M per year; should the Niners pay him that much; will they pay him that much?  There is a storyline that could relegate Aaron Rodgers to “old news”.

Meanwhile, the Steelers also traded away WR, Geroge Pickens to the Cowboys.  Mike Tomlin said that Pickens needed to “grow up” related to some of his antics with the team and the local media.  Evidently Pickens – – an above average WR – – remained immature.

Finally, another quote from Gregg Popovich:

“I’m not too interested in talking about the past. It doesn’t do us any good whatsoever.”

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

 

 

Lee Corso announced his retirement yesterday; he has been an ESPN football analyst for the last 38 years; he will make his final appearance on College Game Day in Week 1 of the college football season.  Prior to becoming an analyst in ESPN, Corso played college football at Florida State and coached at Northern Illinois.  This should be a sad day for college football fans; Lee Corso was an icon of the sport much the same way that John Madden was an icon of NFL football on TV.

Someone pointed out to me about 10 years ago that Corso was the master of “product placement advertising”.  He told me to watch Corso’s hands on College Game Day; when he was not reaching under the table to put on the headgear of his pick of the day, he was always holding a long yellow pencil and it turns out that he then had a job with the company that makes yellow #2 pencils.  I checked it out; indeed, Corso had a pencil in his hand much of the time.

Corso’s headgear gimmick was so “off the wall” that it was entertaining, and people looked forward to that segment of the program.  Unlike recent changes to the program, it never descended into rampant jackassery though it had the potential to do so.

Bonne chance, Lee Corso.  The game of college football that you helped to grow and prosper is entering a new way of life.  With your retirement, so are you.

With the departure of Corso from College Game Day the back-and-forth among the serious voices on the show will likely change a lot.  Kirk Herbstreit and Lee Corso had a style of banter that was serious and light-hearted/breezy at the same time.  I’m not sure that Herbstreit and Coach Saban can pull off that second characteristic of their interactions.  That is not a knock on Saban at all; that is simply a recognition that change is coming to the program.

And since I brought up Coach Saban and the jackassery element that has seeped into the show:

• Am I the only one who looks at Saban during a “silly segment” and thinks that he would rather be prepping for a colonoscopy than be part of that silliness?

I know that ESN pays its on-air talent well, but Coach Saban cannot possibly “need the money”.

Moving on …  It was on March 12^th when the NY Jets released Aaron Rodgers; that was more than 5 weeks ago.  I am not surprised that he has slow-played his decision as to his playing status for 2025; that keeps his name in the headlines which is something that seems to be of great importance to Rodgers.  Yesterday, he was on Pat McAfee’s program – one of his favorite outlets – and answered some questions that have been hanging fire at least since March 12^th and for some folks since about the middle of the 2024 NFL season when the Jets up and fired both their coach and their GM.

In typical Rodgers’ fashion, some of his answers were maximally nuanced:

• What has taken so long for you to decide if you are going to play again in 2025?  

“I’m open to anything and attached to nothing. So yeah, retirement could still be a possibility. But right now, my focus is on … my personal life.”

There have been rumors about Rodgers signing with the Giants, the Vikings and the Steelers.  Based on the NFL’s schedule rotation, the Steelers and the Jets will play each other in 2025; and that game will be in NY.  Every sports radio talk show host is lighting candles in church and offering up prayers for Rodgers to sign on with the Steelers because that single event can fill up a dozen radio segments the day after the signing and multiple dozens of segments for the week leading up to that Steelers/Jets game.

Switching gears …  With MLB fully engaged, fans at the ballpark will be challenged in 2025 to order up and consume some new culinary concoctions.  Here is one awaiting Arizona D-Backs’ fans for 2025:

• Start with a heap of Cajun Fries.  Top with thick cut bacon strips and “white cheddar mac and cheese”.  Then garnish with deep fried onion strips.
• Wash that down with a couple of lagers and you may have had your recommended input of carbohydrates for three days.

Finally, a question to ponder from Steven Wright:

“What’s another word for Thesaurus?”

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

 

 

The Sacramento Kings lost a play-in game to the Dallas Mavericks last night.  That is newsworthy only in the fact that it will be the Mavs and not the Kings taking part in the NBA Western Conference playoffs.  What is different about that game is what happened after the game:

• The Kings and their GM, “mutually agreed to part company” but the Kings did not fire their coach – – at least for now.

The Kings have hardly been a stalwart franchise in the NBA for the last decade or so, but someone there decided that the loss last night was at least equally due to roster construction as it was to coaching strategy and tactics.  Have the Kings broken new ground here?

Moving on …  The Atlanta Braves have to be pleased to see Sencer Strider back on the mound.  Strider missed all of the 2024 season following elbow surgery and he had been working his way back in minor league games.  He appeared in 3 games with the Gwinnett Stripers in the Triple-A International League; his performance there was very positive:

• He threw 13 2/3 innings in those games and struck out 27 hitters.

Yesterday, Strider made his first start for the Braves facing the Blue Jays.  Although the Braves lost the game, Strider’s inaugural appearance was encouraging:

• He went 5 innings yielding 2 runs and 5 hits while striking out 5 batters.

The Atlanta Braves are off to a miserable start in 2025; if they are going to right the ship and make a run at the division title, they are going to need to have Strider performing well for the rest of 2025 and to get Ronald Acuña, Jr. back from his ACL injury.  Recent reports on Acuña’s status are promising.  According to a report at SI.com Acuña has been cleared to take at bats but is not yet ready to run out of the batter’s box.  He is “cleared to ramp up activities” and the hope is that he could be back in the Braves’ lineup “next month”.

Sticking with baseball and rehab assignments …  Late last season, Dodgers’ starter Clayton Kershaw had to leave a game due to pain in his left big toe.  He never returned to the mound for the rest of the season or for the playoffs and then had surgery on that toe and on his knee around Thanksgiving.  Yesterday, Kershaw had a minor league rehab start for the Oklahoma City Comets of the Triple-A Pacific Coast League.  Rehab from surgery is a series of small steps and Kershaw took a small first step yesterday with these stats:

• He threw 3 scoreless innings, gave up 2 hits and struck out 2 batters.
• He threw 30 pitches and 22 were for strikes.

According to a report in the LA Times, the Dodgers hope that Kershaw can be back in the big leagues in mid-to-late May.  That timetable would give him four or five more rehab appearances in Oklahoma City.  Kershaw has been with the Dodgers for his entire career dating back to 2008; his career accomplishments point him to the Hall of Fame soon after he retires:

• 10-time All-Star
• 3 Cy Young Awards
• 1 NL MVP Award

Switching gears …  Recently, I noted here that all was not well in the Kent St. football program.  With Spring Practice about to begin, the school put head coach Kenni Burns on administrative leave with pay while it investigated some unspecified issues.  I pointed out then that Burns’ two-year coaching record at Kent State (1-23) was not going to provide him with much cover during that investigation.  Indeed, it did not.

Kent St. fired Kenni Burns last week after the investigation turned up “multiple violations of his contract, including how he  used a personal credit card”.  It is more than a bit late in the game for Kent St. to hire a new coach for the 2025 season so the former offensive coordinator, Mark Carney, will be the interim head coach as a coaching search develops over the next season.  Carney has his work cut out for him; Kent St. was 0-12 last year; their defense won my “Brothel Defense Award” for giving up the most points per game in college football last year.  Here is what the first half of the schedule looks like for 2025:

• Vs. Merrimack – – a Division 1-AA team – – a winnable game at home
• At Texas Tech – – Probably a 2 TD underdog against an 8-win team from the Big-12.
• Vs. Buffalo – – A conference game against an opponent that won 9 games last  year
• At Florida St. – – Seminoles were really bad last  year, nevertheless …
• At Oklahoma – – Sooners were disappointing last year, nevertheless …
• Vs. UMass – – Could be a race to the bottom in this contest.

Finally, these words from Dave Barry:

“Camping is nature’s way of promoting the motel business.”

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

 

 

I think it’s time to check in on the UFL in its second season.  The eight teams have played three games apiece; the regular season is 10 games in length and the post season adds another two weekends.  When the UFL season ended last year, folks involved in the league could point to some positive signs for the fledgling spring football league.

On the surface, things are not looking quite as rosy as might have been predicted.

• Last year, TV audiences on the various networks that carried UFL games were around 800,000.  That is not a “knock your socks off” number, but it is a respectable number for a new league trying to sell a product that has not sold well in the past.
• This year, TV audiences are down in the early season to about 650,000.  That is still not a terrible showing, but it is down in the vicinity of 20%.
• The St. Louis franchise was the bellwether of the league last year; for the home opener of last year’s season, the Battlehawks played in front of 40,000 fans; this year, the crowd was 32,000 – – another 20% drop.

True, this is a part of the sporting calendar that provides stiff competition for the UFL.  March Madness and the MLB Opening Day excitement surely took some of the air out of the UFL balloon.  Now those things are in the past along with The Masters so perhaps the UFL can regain some of the eyeballs that it has “lost” so far in Season Two.  We shall see …

One of the cornerstones of the NFL’s dominant place in US sports is the widespread interest in betting on NFL games.  I do not get any sense that gambling on UFL games is taking hold and growing a fanbase motivated to focus attention on the product.  This could be a long haul for the UFL.

Meanwhile, the NFL just chugs along generating revenue.  According to a report in Sports Business Journal, the NFL’s revenue for its last fiscal year (ended in March 2025) was more than $23B.  About 20 years ago, the NFL said its objective was to be a $25B a year business by the middle of this decade.  It certainly looks as if they are on-target to meet that objective.

From reports in Sports Business Journal you might conclude that it would take an utter moron to own an NFL team and lose money.  Consider these two numbers:

1. Each NFL team will share equally in the TV revenue, the national sponsorships and the NFL licensing revenue.  For this fiscal year, that share will be about $415M per team.
2. The largest single expenditure for a team is the salaries they pay to the players.  For the upcoming 2025 season, that number is capped at $279.2M.

So, before a team sells its first game ticket and before it collects its first parking fee and before it sells local broadcast rights and before it gets a piece of the concessions, the owners have at least a surplus of almost $136M.  Cue Sonny and Cher:

“And the beat goes on …”

It is the recognition of those sorts of revenues and costs that makes people like us stop and take a deep breath when team owners ask for – – and receive – – public subsidies for stadiums and practice facilities.  I am not talking about government expenditures for things like roads around the stadium; I mean owners asking for the various levels of government to pay to build the facility itself.  Right now, the focus of that sort of posturing and negotiating is in the State of Ohio where the Browns want to build a new facility in suburban Cleveland and the Bengals say they need an upgrade to their facility.

Without going into detail, the Browns would like about $600M in bonds from the State and another $600M in bonds from the County to cover about half of the cost of a new playpen.  The Bengals say they need $380M from wherever the source for their needed renovations.  Recently, those dealings got some ice water thrown on them when the Governor of Ohio – – Mike DeWine (R) – – said in a radio interview that he opposed such an expenditure.  It’s never a good idea to ask for money from the State and to have the Governor oppose the idea but, in this case, it was a bit more pointed.  That radio interview was aired right after the Ohio House of Representatives passed a bill to authorize such a bond issue.

DeWine’s term as Governor runs through 2026; he is term-limited and must be replaced in January 2027.  Perhaps we will see a classic game of “kick the can down the road” there so that the Browns and Bengals can try to coopt whoever is the new Governor of Ohio two years from now.

Finally, I think it is appropriate to close today with these words from Mark Twain:

“We have the best government that money can buy.”

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

 

 

I mentioned yesterday that Mike Budenholzer might be fired as coach of the Phoenx Suns after the team significantly underperformed expectations in 2024/25.  Well, that happened overnight; and Budenholzer is now looking for work having an NBA Championship on his résumé.  He coached the Bucks to the title in 2021.  Meanwhile, the Suns will be hiring their third coach since May 2023 when they fired Monty Williams.

Let me give you some facts about the Suns’ recent coaches:

• Monty Williams was NBA Coach of the Year in 2022 as the coach of the Suns
• Frank Vogel won the NBA Championship in 2020
• Mike Budenholzer won the NBA Championship in 2021.

            I am beginning to think that it might it be the case that “the problem” with the Phoenix Suns is centered elsewhere in the organization.  You make the call …

Sticking with the NBA, the play-in round of the Playoffs starts tonight.  The NBA now has 20 teams out of 30  that qualify for the Playoffs and, frankly, that is too many.  Consider this data:

• Of the 4 play-in teams in the East, none posted a winning record in the regular season.
• The 7^th seed in the East (Orlando) is a “Playoff team” with a record of 41-41.
• The 10^th seed in the East (Miami) is a “Playoff team” with a record of 37-45.
• Adding in the 4 play-in teams in the West, there are two more teams with records below .500.

Theoretically, the next two nights should be dramatic in the NBA.  The play-in round is single elimination; there should be energy and anticipation for these games.  Well, if there is any such energy, I don’t sense it at all.  In fact, I know I will not be watching both games in full tonight because I really do not care who wins and loses in this playoff round.

Moving on to MLB …  The Rockies lost to the Dodgers last night by a score of 5-3.  By scoring those 3 runs, the Rockies broke a scoreless streak of 31 innings which set a club record.  While that sounds amazingly inept, it is not even close to the MLB record for consecutives scoreless innings; that record stands at 48 scoreless innings, and it was done by two teams:

1. The Philadelphia A’s in 1906
2. The Chicago Cubs in 1968

The Colorado Rockies are off to a miserable start in 2025; their record of 3-13 is the worst in MLB – – even worse than the White Sox.  Their run differential is minus-46; a negative figure is to be expected with a 3-13 overall record, but the Rockies are outpacing the other bottom dwellers in that category too.  The next worst run differential belongs to the A’s at minus-24.

And this morning, the Rockies got another piece of bad news.  Outfielder Kris Bryant was put on the IL with “lumbar degenerative disk disease”.  I am not going to pretend to be an orthopedist, but that sounds extremely ominous.  Bryant has been with the Rockies since signing on there as a free agent in 2022, but his time there has been spent on the Injured List more than it has on the field.

• Since he signed on in Colorado, the Rockies have played 502 games.
• Bryant has appeared in only 170 of those games.

Kris Bryant is a former Rookie of the Year and a former NL MVP and a four-time All-Star.   His future does not seem nearly as bright as his past …

In other baseball “news”, the NL West standings this morning have the Dodgers in third place which is odd because some had speculated that the Dodgers might go 162-0 this season with its star-studded lineup.  Both the Padres and the Giants hold small leads over the Dodgers as of this morning and the Padres have an interesting twist to their record:

• The Padres are 3-3 on the road.
• The Padres are 11-0 at home.

The Padres are scoring runs this  year.  As of today, the Padres run differential is +36 which is second in MLB to the Cubs who are at +37.  Can the Padres – – and/or the Giants for that matter – – keep this up and make it a race in the NL West?  There is still a whole lot of baseball to be played …

Finally, I’ll close today with this observation by Oscar Wilde:

“Some cause happiness everywhere they go, others wherever they go.”

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

 

 

The NBA regular season which began back in November of last year is over; the playoffs are set; frankly there are only two real surprises to me in the final standings:

1. The Phoenix Suns will not be part of the playoffs at all.
2. The Detroit Pistons are not only in the playoffs but are above the “play-in zone”.

So, let the playoffs begin …  but before we focus on those events, allow me to present you with some data from a completely meaningless game last Friday between the Oklahoma City Thunder (best record in the league) and the Utah Jazz (worst record in the league).  Per the box score in the Washington Post:

• The Thunder attempted 53 three-point shots.  (They made 24 of them.)
• The Jazz attempted 63 three-point shots.  (They made only 17 of them.)
• In 48 minutes of game time, the teams combined for 116 three-point shots which is 2.4 attempts per minute, or one three-point shot every 25 seconds of game time.
• Attendance at the game was listed as 18,175; I sure hope those fans enjoyed that action.

This was an NBA regular season with several head-scratching events.  In fact, about the only NBA news that I shrugged off as “business as usual” was the fact that Joel Embiid and Kawhi Leonard were injured, and both missed a lot of games.  Here are four of the “abnormalities” of the regular season in no particular order:

1. The Mavs traded Luka Doncic to the Lakers for Anthony Davis.  Since the Mavs braintrust thought trading Doncic was a good idea in the first place, it makes a modicum of sense that they would also think Anthony Davis was sufficient return on investment as a trade.  No one else did.  [Aside:  Unsurprisingly, Davis suffered an injury in his first game with the Mavs that kept him out for a couple of weeks.]
2. The Kings fired their coach, Mike Brown.  It was only two seasons ago that Brown was the NBA Coach of the Year, and it is not as if the Kings have a long history of dominance in the league that Brown’s team failed to uphold.  At least the Kings made the playoffs this year limping into the “play-in round” as the ninth seed in the West.
3. The Grizzlies fired their coach late in the regular season.  Why is that strange?  Well, at the time of the firing, the Grizzlies’ record was 44-29 (winning percentage = .603) and the team was solidly in position to make the playoffs.  In the wake of that coaching change, the Grizzlies are still in the playoffs, but their record is 4-5.
4. Not to be outdone, the Nuggets fired their coach even later in the regular season – – with only 3 games left on the regular season schedule.  The Nuggets are seeded fourth in the West for the playoffs and finished the season with 50 wins.  And yet, they fired their coach who only two seasons ago won the NBA Finals with the Nuggets.

Given that it seems like winning games is not a good enough reason to retain coaches in the NBA anymore, might there be a coaching bloodbath in the near future?

• I mentioned above that the Suns somehow missed the playoffs surprisingly.  Their coach is Mike Budenholzer, who incidentally coached the Bucks to the NBA Championship a few years ago, and you have to wonder if he can/will survive the Suns’ 36-46 record this year.  How did he forget his winning ways so quickly?
• The Sixers obviously thought that getting Paul George to play alongside Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey would make them contenders.  Embiid and George each missed a lot of games; Maxey missed fewer games; the Sixers not only failed to make the playoffs, they finished the season with a dismal record of 24-58.  Their coach is Nick Nurse, who incidentally coached the Raptors to the NBA Championship a few years ago.  How did he forget his winning ways so quickly?

There is at least one island of coaching stability in the NBA at the end of this regular season.  The Trailblazers have extended the contract of coach, Chauncey Billups despite the fact that the Blazers missed the playoffs and had a 36-46 regular season record – – same as the Suns by the way.

Finally, since today has been mostly about coaching, I’ll close with this from Tom Landry – – the longtime coach of the Dallas Cowboys:

“Really, coaching is simplicity. It’s getting players to play better than they think that they can.”

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

 

 

Yesterday, I marveled at a minor league baseball game where pitchers could not find home plate if  you game them a radar; that game saw 32 batters reach base with a walk.  Today, I want to report on another oddball happenstance in a minor league game.  Today’s focus is on the Midwest League and a game between the Beloit Sky Carp and the Cedar Rapid Kernels.  Emaarion Boyd is an outfielder for the Sky Carp; in yesterday’s game, Boyd stole 6 bases which is impressive by itself.  What makes it just a tad unusual is this:

• He did not have a hit in the game.

He was walked once, hit by a pitch in another at-bat and reached first on a fielder’s choice.  On those three occasions, he stole second and third base.  Boyd is 21 years old and has been in pro baseball for three seasons; in 2023 he played in 91 games for Clearwater in the Florida League and stole 56 bases there.  Boyd is in the Marlins’ minor-league system for now and has appeared in 6 games for the Sky Carp this season with 7 stolen bases as of today.

Sticking with baseball …  The Atlanta Braves have gotten off to a miserable start to the 2025 season; this morning they are dead last in the NL East with a 3-9 record.  However, they did get a bit of good news yesterday in the performance of Spencer Strider in a rehab start.  Strider had an alternative to Tommy John surgery last year to repair a partial tear in his ulnar collateral ligament and last night was his third rehab start as he prepares to return to the Braves.

Last night, Strider threw 5 1/3 innings and struck out 13 batters in a Triple-A game between the Gwinnett Stripers and the Norfolk Tides.  The Braves’ awful start can be attributed to their lack of offense; the Braves have scored a total of 38 runs in 12 games this year; only the woebegone White Sox have scored fewer runs (35 in 12 games).  If Strider returns to the Braves’ rotation and pitches to his previous standard, that would be a blessing for the Braves as they wait for their bats to wake up.

Moving on …  The oddsmakers had the NBA’s Phoenix Suns as one of the favorites to win the NBA Championship this year with futures odds at +650.  As a point of reference, the co-favorites on the futures board were the Celtics and the Nuggets at odds of +450.  Talk about underachieving, the Suns have been eliminated from the playoffs – – let alone the NBA Finals and will finish the season with a record below .500.

I think there are two components to this underachievement that could get less scrutiny than they deserve:

1. There is more to winning than just scoring; it helps to be able to keep the other guys from scoring at will.  The Suns signed/acquired three star players – – Bradley Beal, Devin Booker and Kevin Durant.  All of them are proven scorers; none of them are more than average defenders.  I recall a chat I had with a friend back at the beginning of the NBA season; he is into wagering on NBA games – – among other events – – and he said that whenever he thinks about the Suns he immediately thinks, “Take the OVER.”
2. Maybe the “problem” isn’t always the coach.  Maybe what a winning team needs is some consistency on the bench and some time for the coach to get his “system” ingrained in the roster.  The Suns fired Monty Willians who had amassed win percentage of .628 with the team; they hired and then fired Frank Vogel whose win percentage with the Suns was .598.  Mike Budenholzer is the current coach and given the disappointing performance of the Suns this year, I would suggest that he is not a shoo-in to continue in that position.  Here’s the thing; all three of those coaches have been successful NBA coaches and two of them were successful in Phoenix.  And yet, they are gone.

Switching gears – – but staying with basketball …  JT Toppin was an important part of Texas Tech’s run to the Elite Eight in this year’s March Madness.  Demonstrating how college athletics have changed over the past year or two, Toppin announced that he will not enter the NBA Draft this year and that he will not enter the Transfer Portal either.  He will stay at Texas Tech for another year and will get an NIL deal that reports say will be worth $4M.

Toppin has played two years of college basketball so he has “eligibility” left – – whatever “eligibility” might mean these days.  Just suppose Toppin really likes living and playing in Lubbock, TX; if he were to stay there next season and the one after that for $4M a year, what would be wrong with him continuing to play basketball for Texas Tech beyond that?  The whole idea behind “eligibility” was to try to prevent colleges from amassing a set of “ringers” who were not students but were there as “hired hands” to win games.  And that is exactly the situation now in college athletics and Toppin’s decision simply brings the details of such a deal out of the shadows and into the open.

Finally, in support of my suggestion that defense is part of winning basketball, let me close with this from Tom Glavine:

“There is no second baseman in the game who can turn the double play better than [Mark Lemke].  Why are people always looking for offense at that position? What’s more important is getting outs, and turning the double is a huge factor in getting outs.”

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

 

 

They say that when you go out to see a baseball game, there is always a chance you will see something you have never seen before.  Well, that was certainly true for the 327 people who attended a Florida State League game between the Dunedin Blue Jays and the Jupiter Hammerheads.  The final score was 19-5 in favor of the Jays but that is not the story by a long shot.  Here is the deal:

• Seven pitchers for the Hammerheads gave up 22 walks in the game.

Not only is that a Florida State League record; it is a record for all of full-season minor league baseball and it eclipses the MLB record for walks in a game by 3.  In MLB, the Washington Senators had pitchers issue 19 bases on balls in a game in 1971.  Let me give you a smattering of highlights from the box score of the Dunedin Blue Jays’ victory here:

1. The Jays’ pitchers got into the spirit of the game by walking 10 Hammerhead batters – – including 5 walks for the Hammerheads’ leadoff batter.
2. It was just not a day for hitters; in addition to the 32 walks issued by all the pitchers, there were a total of 24 strikeouts in the game.
3. One Jupiter pitcher worked one third of an inning.  He walked 3 batters and struck out one.
4. Another Jupiter pitcher worked 1 1/3 innings walking 3 batters and striking out 3 other batters.  He also found a way to give up 6 earned runs in that short stint on the mound.
5. On top of all this, four players were hit by pitches in the game.
6. Oh yes, there were also 3 wild pitches and a balk.
7. The time of the game was 3 hours and 39 minutes.

Here is the stat I would want to know that will never appear in the box score:

• How many cold lagers did the home plate umpire quaff after that bit of torture?

Earlier this week, there was another unusual baseball happening.

• Yeshiva University beat Lehman College 9-5, and three huge losing streaks were ended on that day.

The two schools had a double-header scheduled.  When the two teams took the field in Game One, Lehman had a 42-game losing streak working.  Lehman won the first game 7-6 and ended that losing streak.

Yeshiva started the day with a 99-game losing streak and by losing the first game it moved into triple-digit territory without a win.  However, in Game Two, Yeshiva finally emerged victorious by a score of 9-5.  Losing streak #2 went down the drain …

Since Lehman was working on a 42-game losing streak that day, I have to assume that Lehman is not a college baseball powerhouse.  Nevertheless, the third losing streak to be broken on that day involves Lehman’s dominance of Yeshiva over the  years.  Until that win in Game Two earlier this week, Yeshiva had never beaten Lehman in a baseball game.  When Yeshiva won that second game, they ended an all-time 18-game losing streak to Lehman.

If ever there were a reason to storm a college baseball field, I think this would be it.

Last year, the White Sox lost 121 baseball games, and they have opened this year losing 9 of their first 11 games.  In order to lose that many times, you would think that teams would need to invent ways to fend off victory.  Well, the White Sox did that this week.

The Sox trailed the Guardians 3-1 in the ninth inning, but they had the bases loaded with two out.  No, Casey did not strike out there; the Sox found a better way to lose.  Miguel Vargas singled to left scoring the runner on third and the runner on second – – Mike Tauchmnan – – went steaming around third base intending to tie the score.  And then Tauchman pulled up lame and was tagged as an easy third out.  It seems that for the White Sox, when it rains, it pours.

Sticking with baseball – – but on a more positive note now – – the first two “Players of the Week” for 2025 have been named.

• In the National League, it is Kyle Tucker of the Cubs
• In the American League, it is Alex Bregman of the Red Sox
• Bregman was signed as a free agent this winter; Tucker was acquired by a trade this winter.
• Both were longtime Astros – – Tucker for 7 years and Bregman for 9 years.

Finally, since today was about baseball, let me close with this from Tommy Lasorda:

“There are three types of baseball players: Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen and those who wonder what happens.”

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