The Sports Curmudgeon

The NFL has mastered the art of headline grabbing.  Once the Draft has happened and the “grades” for every team have been assigned and analyzed, there is little if any “NFL news” to be had until minicamps in June.

“Not so fast, my friend!”  [Hat Tip:  Lee Corso.]

The NFL schedule for the 2024 regular season has probably been known to the NFL execs for weeks now, but the league uses the release of that schedule as a headline grabber in mid-May.  Not only do they release the schedule with fanfare; they do it in dribs and drabs to get the league in the news and in the headlines on multiple days.

1. All the way back in February, we learned that the league would play its first game in South America (Sao Paulo, Brazil) on the Friday of opening weekend.
2. Days after that, we found out the Eagles would play in that game – – but the opponent was “TBD” at the time.
3. Later, the league announced that the Packers would be the Eagles’ opponent in that game.
4. Last week, there was some “mystery”/”confusion” about when the full schedule would be released – – as if there were still some loose ends still in need of closure.
5. That “mystery” was unwound when insiders learned that the schedule will be released this week.
6. Within the last week, news “leaked” that the Super Bowl Champions (Chiefs) would open their season at home against the Ravens in a rematch of last year’s AFC Championship Game.
7. Yesterday, we learned that in the opening weekend, the Cowboys would go to Cleveland to play the Browns and that game would be Tom Brady’s first game on FOX as a color analyst for an NFL game.

There are seven headline manipulations by the NFL derived from something that is rather mundane – – the release of next season’s schedule – – and still the full schedule has not been “revealed” – – and will not be until later this week when it will grab headlines once again.  Indeed, the league has mastered the art or headline grabbing…

Next up …  The NFL has also been quietly paring down the NFL Network.  The daily opening show, Good Morning Football has been “on hiatus” for a couple of months now – – ostensibly to accommodate a change in the venue of the studio from which the show will originate.  The schedule for its return has been this week to coincide with the release of the 2024 schedule and there has been no announcement that those plans have changed.  Upon its return, the show will also be syndicated to run on FOX-owned local channels so the program will be getting expanded exposure once it comes back.

All is not so good news for NFLN, however.  Its later daily program, Total Access, has been scrapped and its final show will be this Friday.  Michael Irvin was one of the analysts who appeared on Total Access and other NFLN programming, but he has been let go by the network recently.  About a month ago, the network dropped a whole bunch of on-air folks along with production and promotion people.  The network is clearly in a state of flux; if the intent of all the personnel changes and schedule shuffling is to cut back on the network costs, I wonder if the exclusive NFLN coverage of all 65 Exhibition Games will continue.  Yes, those games provide lots of filler for airtime in August; but the cost of creating that content is significant.  There is more to come here …

Moving on …  The Detroit Lions had been a sorry-assed franchise for about 3 decades but have returned to relevance under Dan Campbell since he took over the team in 2021.  Last year, the Lions made it to the NFC Championship Game and only lost to the Niners by a field goal.  In winning two playoff games to make it to that NFC Championship Game, the Lions earned their first playoff victories since 1991.  That success obviously energized the Lions’ fanbase and the results carried over to this off-season.

• The Lions have sold out their inventory of season tickets as of last week.
• The team set aside some seats to be sold as “single game” tickets which will be offered for sale once the full NFL schedule is released later this week.
• The Lions raised ticket prices by an average of 30% for this season – – and still the season ticket inventory sold out or was renewed in only a couple of months.

It has been a long time since there was anything near this level of enthusiasm around the league relative to the Lions.  In fact, during the interim between the Lions playoff win in 1991 and last season, the team had worked its way through twelve head coaches.  Dan Campbell is clearly not on any sort of “hot seat” in Detroit and the team just signed QB, Jared Goff to a 4-year contract potentially worth up to $212M with $100M guaranteed at signing.  Indeed, things are looking up in Detroit…

Finally, since I mentioned headline grabbing above, let me close with one of my favorite all-time headlines; it was so outrageous that I actually thought about clicking to see what the story was about:

“Transgender woman loses bid to sue ex for throwing out her surgically removed testicles.”

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

Today will be a game of hopscotch around the sports world …

Ippei Mizuhara will plead guilty to “fraud charges” as a result of him transferring about $15M out of Shohei Ohani’s account(s) to a bookie to settle gambling losses incurred by Mizuhara.  I am sure that the Dodgers’ brass and the MLB execs hope this is the final chapter in this mess and that there is not another cinder block ready to drop on the scene.  And even though I am not a conspiracy theorist, this story just does not hold together in my mind.  For me to believe that Mizuhara’s action was totally on his own, I also must believe:

1. Over about a three-year period, Ohtani never noticed the missing funds from his account(s).
2. Ohtani’s agent never noticed that his client’s account(s) were short a sizeable amount of money.
3. Ohtani’s financial advisors – – and his tax preparers too – – never saw any shortage(s).
4. The bank handling Ohtani’s money on deposit was allegedly duped by Mizuhara more than a dozen times as he pretended to be Ohtani thereby gaining access to the account’s funds.

Of course, those four things may indeed have happened – – but the fact that Ohtani has not fired his agent and his financial people seems to indicate that he does not believe they were asleep at the switch there.  Moreover, I bet that the bank involved here will not use any of those duping incidents in their advertising for new accounts.

In this morning’s Washington Post, there is a report by Gus Garcia-Roberts linking the alleged bookie who was on the receiving end of Ohtani’s money – – allegedly again sent by Mizuhara alone and undetected – – and the bookie’s involvement with some Las Vegas casinos that might be just a tad “shady”.  Here is a link to that report.

Color me skeptical here…

Next up …  The NHL’s Arizona Coyotes are pulling up stakes and moving to Salt Lake City.  The Coyotes have been problematic for the NHL almost since their “birth” in 1996 when the Winnipeg Jets moved southwest.  In 2009, the NHL had to take over the franchise because it had not gained a strong foothold in the Phoenix area; the team’s owner at the time declared bankruptcy and turned the team over to the league; things were bleak.

A Canadian billionaire sought to buy the team out of bankruptcy, but the NHL blocked the sale because he was going to move the team to “southern Ontario” which was a euphemism for Hamilton, Ontario and the longstanding franchise in Toronto did not appreciate that idea even slightly.  That kept the team in Arizona and the simple fact of the matter is that Arizona is not a hotbed of hockey for simple climatological considerations.

The team has been trying to get a new arena – – primarily at public expense – – for years now and every time there seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel of those negotiations, that light turns out to be a gorilla with a flashlight.  And so, the NHL has now decided to let the Coyotes be reorganized as a team in Salt Lake City, Utah and a naming process is underway.  [Aside:  Of the names reportedly under consideration, my preference would be the “Utah Yeti” due to its alliterative nature.  But no one involved with the NHL has or will ask my opinion.]

On one hand, the NHL has finally recognized after more than 25 years that the Phoenix/Tempe AZ area is not “Hockeytown USA”.  On the other hand, they have approved the movement of the team to another region in the country that does not appear to have any “hockey history”.  Well, at least there are winter sports and winter sports enthusiasts in Salt Lake City…

Last item for today …  A week ago, I pointed out that four of the five QBs taken in the first round of the 2021 NFL Draft are no longer with the team that took them originally and that none of the four returned anything of significant value to the teams that traded them away.  I have said before that scouting for prospects in pro sports is a difficult undertaking and that drafting and scouting are nowhere near a science.  Perhaps it is an “art”; certainly, it is a “crapshoot”.  And here are two other data points that indicates the lack of scientific predictability for drafting:

1. In that same 2021 NFL Draft, 32 players were taken in the first round of the Draft.  Only 18 of those 32 first round draftees had their fifth-year contract options exercised by the teams that took them originally.   Only 56% of the first-round picks were deemed to be worth “keeping around” for a fifth year on the team.
2. By the way, these data are not “cherry-picked”.  In the 2020 NFL Draft, only 12 of the 32 first round picks (37.5%) had their fifth-years options exercised by the team that took them originally.

Finally, since I declared myself “skeptical” above, let me close with this cautionary observation about skepticism by George Santayana:

“Skepticism, like chastity, should not be relinquished too readily.”

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

Sports entities and many publications that focus on sports like to issue awards.  Some are very specific and narrow – – such as the Heisman Trophy given to THE best college football player of the year.  Others are such qualified awards as to make one glance at the announcement and move on quickly – – such as the “Best AFC Offensive Player of the Week Who Wears an Odd Numbered Jersey”.  [Aside:  The Issuers of this award would need to have world-class mathematicians on hand to adjudicate if the number ZERO is odd or even.  Just in case …]

I would like to propose today the winner of the “Meathead of the Month” award for his accumulated meatheadedness over the past couple of months.  He is too young to call it a “Lifetime Achievement Award”, but it is possible that he has demonstrated a lifetime of meatheadedness for your typical sports fan.  Ladies and gentlemen, I give you:

• Rashee Rice – – WR, Kansas City Chiefs

Let me get some good stuff about M. Rice on the table here:

• In his rookie year with the Chiefs, Rice – – a second round pick in 2023 – – emerged as one of the best WRs on the team who made some big plays for the Chiefs in the latter parts of 2023.
• He caught 79 passes last year accounting for 938 yards (11.9 yards per catch) and 7 TDs.

Everything was cool until late March when Rice and friends were allegedly racing on some Dallas streets and got into a car crash.  Not a big deal – – until you consider that Rice was driving a rented Lamborghini allegedly traveling at 119 mph and to put a cherry on top of that silliness, he and some of his buds – – allegedly again – – simply walked away from the scene of the accident.  I cannot find any reporting related to the authorities charging him and others with “leaving the scene”, so all of this is still up in the air.

Rice seemed to respond to this situation like an adult; he said he would make everyone involved here whole which sounds like the antithesis of a Meathead.  A couple of civil lawsuits have been filed based on that incident probably to hold him to his word of making everyone whole.  And while he still faces multiple driving charges stemming from this silliness, he is “out and about” on a $40,000 bond.

The “apparent adult” that I alluded to above seems to have been at home and napping while Rice was out and about with some friends earlier this week.  Sometime after midnight at a “high-end nightclub” in Miami, Rice got into a confrontation with a photographer and Rice allegedly struck the photographer causing injuries to the photographer’s face which required treatment at a Miami hospital.   Not cool and definitely not smart …

It seems to me like an open and shut case that Rashee Rice violated the NFL’s tidy Personal Conduct Policy meaning he is open to a suspension in the tribunal of Roger Goodell.  On top of the various reckless vehicle charges and possibly leaving the scene of an accident you may now add charges just for good measure which could involve jail time; Rice is now potentially involved in an assault/battery situation which can involve time in the hoosegow.

Here is an indicator of how good the Chiefs think Rice can become:

• The Chiefs have not suspended him or disciplined him in any way using the dodge that they want “the criminal system to run its course.”
• If Rice were a practice squad player who coaches thought might some day be a fourth WR on the team, he would have been cut weeks ago.

I give you Rashee Rice – – Meathead of the Month.

Switching gears …Every sports fan who tunes in to watch games on TV knows about the “Announcers’ Jinx”.  The most common occurrence is in basketball where Joe Flabeetz is about to shoot a free throw and the announcer says:

• Flabeetz is a 92% shooter from the line; he is 7 for 7 tonight and has made his last 19 straight free throw attempts.

At least half the time – – or so it seems – -, Joe Flabeetz will clank that free throw attempt as badly as a scrub on a 12-year-old recreation league player might.  Play-by-play guys and color analysts chortle over such a “Jinx” but fans know that it seems to be a real thing.

I bring this up because of a situation that took place on MLB Network earlier this week.  The Dodgers were taking on the Marlins; the Marlins stink and the Dodgers were starting their rookie sensation Yoshinobu Yamamoto.  The MLB TV talking head, Greg Amsinger, said:

• There was a no-hitter alert in effect for the Dodgers/Marlins game even before the first pitch was thrown.

That “no-hitter alert” lasted exactly one pitch.  The Marlins’ leadoff hitter, Jazz Chisholm, swung at the first pitch and hit it over the wall in right-center field.  So, was that an “Announcer’s Jinx” or was that a “message from the baseball gods” to MLB TV pundits to cool their jets a bit?  You make the call…

Finally, in the TV sitcom, All In the Family, Archie Bunker called is son-in-law a meathead all the time and once offered this pearl of wisdom:

“I’d say that the Meathead probably got magnesia and forgot where his mouth was.”

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

Yesterday, the CFL suspended Chad Kelly – – last year’s MVP in the CFL – – for all of the pre-season and for a minimum of 9 games in the regular season.  This action comes after an investigation into charges by a female assistant strength coach related to “gender violence”.  The league has a specific Gender-Based Violence Policy and a third-party investigation must have given the league sufficient evidence to get the league to impose this suspension.

Chad Kelly – – the nephew of former Bill’s QB, Jim Kelly – – is no stranger to discipline for improper behavior.  According to Wikipedia:

• In 2014 he was dismissed from the football team at Clemson for conduct detrimental to the team.
• He was drafted by the Broncos in 2016 and was released by the Broncos in 2018 following his arrest on charges of “criminal trespassing”.  He pleaded guilty to lesser charges and served a short NFL suspension for violation of the Personal Conduct Policy.
• Now the CFL suspension …

Chad Kelly is 30 years old.  He obviously has talent as a QB as witnessed by his NCAA and CFL stats, but it would not be a stretch to say that he has squandered much of that talent.  His uncle – – Jim Kelly – – has said that Chad is a better athlete than Jim Kelly was.  I have no idea if that is a fact or if that is just an expression of family pride.  However, if any QB at any level of the game is compared to Jim Kelly, that is indeed high praise for that other QB; few would deny that Jim Kelly is properly enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Here is part of a statement by CFL Commissioner, Randy Ambrosie as it relates to this suspension:

“Players are the ambassadors of our great game. They are expected to be leaders in the locker room and role models in the community. It was important that we performed our due diligence to properly review this matter from all points of view. That in-depth investigation found that Mr. Kelly unequivocally violated the CFL’s Gender-based Violence Policy.

“Mr. Kelly’s suspension is the direct result of his behaviour. The addition of mandatory counselling focuses on his need for self-reflection and understanding of his actions. He must take full advantage of this opportunity for personal betterment in order to return to the CFL.”

The Toronto Argonauts will be without Kelly’s services at QB through the first nine games of the CFL season.  [Aside:  The CFL regular season is 18 games.]  The statement by Commissioner Ambrosie regarding the counseling and Kelly’s need for “personal betterment” leaves the door open for additional sanctions.  At age 30, this would seem to be a crossroads in Kelly’s football career.  As Yogi Berra might say, he has come to a fork in the road – – and now he is going to take it.

Moving on – – with a somewhat awkward segue …  Four young NFL QBs may also be at or near a crossroads in their football careers for totally different reasons.  None of the four young NFL QBs have been accused of any sort of nefarious behavior but all four have been accused of not living up to expectations – – and that can be just as devastating to a career as an off-field “incident”.  The four QBs I am referring to are the four QBs taken in the first round of the 2021 NFL Draft after Trevor Lawrence was taken with the overall #1 pick.  None of these four young QBs has had their fifth-year contract option picked up and none of these four young QBs is still with the team that took them in 2021:

1. Zach Wilson:  Taken with the second pick, Wilson found himself in a difficult NFL situation.  The Jets’ OL was substandard, and his pass-catching corps was similarly less talented than other teams.  He had a defensive-oriented coach and the added pressure of producing for the fans in NYC.  Wilson was traded to the Broncos for a bag of beans.
2. Trey Lance:  Taken with the third pick – – for which the Niners traded up to acquire – – Lance was outplayed in practice and then on the field by Brock Purdy who was taken dead last in the 2022 NFL Draft.  He was traded to the Cowboys where he is currently listed as their #3 QB.
3. Justin Fields:  Taken with the eleventh pick- – for which the Bears traded up to acquire – – Fields found himself in a situation similar to Zach Wilson.  The Bears’ OL was a mess, and he had no outstanding playmakers.  He was traded to the Steelers where he will compete with Russell Wilson for playing time there.  The Bears got a meager return in the trade.
4. Mac Jones:  Taken with the fifteenth pick, Jones began his career with the Pats in an excellent fashion leading the team to a 10-7 record and a playoff slot.  Not bad for a kid who merely had to follow in the footsteps of Tom Brady …  However, the next two seasons were not kind to Jones, he started 25 games in those two seasons and posted a record of 8-17 before being replaced as the starter by Bailey Zappe.  He was traded to the Jags this year for a bag of donut holes.

Finally, today has been about football QBs who have not fully expressed their talents on the gridiron.  So, let me close with this statement by President Calvin Coolidge:

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence.  Talent will not:  nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.  Genius will not:  unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.  Education will not:  the world is full of educated derelicts.  Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”

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

The defending champion Denver Nuggets are in deep trouble in this year’s second round of the NBA playoffs.  It’s not just that they lost last night or that they are now down 2-0 in this series against the Timberwolves despite playing both games at home.  The champs have a bleak reality to face:

• One of Denver’s stars – – Jamal Murray – – is either injured or totally discombobulated.  He shot 3 for 18 from the floor in last night’s loss and struggled to get open.
• The Nuggets’ bench was basically AWOL in last night’s game.  Other than Justin Holiday who hit a bunch of 3-point shots, the rest of the Denver subs scored a total of 10 points and grabbed a total of 7 rebounds in a combined 41 minutes on the floor.
• The Nuggets managed to score only 80 points in last night’s loss despite the fact that the Wolves’ best defender, Rudy Gobert, sat out the game.

The Nuggets have – arguably – the best player on Planet Earth on the team in Nikola Jockic; so, it may be premature to count them out.  However, the Nuggets looked like a beat up Chevy last night and the Wolves looked like a Ferrari.

Switching gears and sports …  I have not watched an entire UFL game so far this year, but I have watched parts of several games.  From those bits and pieces, I have a few generic observations to share:

1. The quality of the play is not quite at the level of games involving the elite college teams.  I suspect that “deficiency” is not due to a lack of talent on the field; I suspect it is because the UFL teams have had much less time practicing and playing together than top-shelf college teams have.
2. The UFL defenses are ahead of the UFL offenses.  Half of the league teams average fewer than 20 points per game; one team averages only 14 points per game and that team is not winless in its 6 games.  To some degree, football fans have been conditioned by the NFL to expect to see explosive offense; if the UFL is going to capture a significant part of that audience, it needs more offense.
3. Attendance is spotty at best.  Some of the games I have seen take place in “full-sized football stadiums” meaning the sparsity of the crowd is magnified.  The team in St. Louis – – the Battlehawks – – leads the UFL in average attendance in the first six weeks of the season; the Battlehawks draw about 35,000 fans per game which is outstanding for the young league.  However, the other seven teams average only about 10,000 fans per game and that is bad for the league in two ways.  That means seven teams do not generate a ton of “gate revenue” and that means that any televised action in those seven venues makes it clear to viewers that this product is not “the in thing.”

Both FOX and ESPN have equity stakes in the UFL.  That does not mean the league cannot possibly face insolvency, but it does mean that there are some deep pockets involved in ownership that could allow the league time to set down roots.  But from a TV perspective, the UFL has to find ways to get more people in the stadiums to convince a few viewers to come out and spend a springtime afternoon taking in a UFL game in person.  I have often mocked weeknight MAC games for their lack of attendance and interest; some of the crowd shots for UFL games show even sparser attendance.  There have been field goal attempts shown where the caption on a still screen shot could easily be:

“Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse…”  [Hat Tip: C.C. Moore]

Here is an idea for the league to consider.  It is not a new idea; it has been done before.

• The UFL should consider “wallpapering the house”.  It should throw a celebratory party at the venue of its network televised games and then anyone who attends the party can see the game FREE.
• If all the league can expect is 10,000 paying fans at a game, it might be better in the long term for the league to forego that chunk of ticket revenue today in order to try to create “juice” for the league games that then translates to larger game attendance and larger TV audiences.

Just a thought…

I don’t want to give the impression here that all is gloom and doom with the UFL in its inaugural season.  Actually, some of the data show that the UFL is pretty healthy:

• The televised games average audiences of more than 800,000 viewers.  That is a larger audience that SVP gets for the late-night SportsCenter; that is a significantly larger audience than First Take or Get up! draws; that is more than double the audience for Pardon the Interruption.
• The league following on social media sounds impressive to someone like me who is not heavily involved in social media.  The UFL has more than 4 million followers over the spectrum of social media networks – – Facebook, Instagram, Twitter etc.

Finally, Ambrose Bierce lived and wrote in the latter part of the 19^th Century, but this observation might have some resonance today:

“The gambling known as business looks with austere disfavor upon the business known as gambling.”

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

One of the older sports debate topics is to identify those sports records that will never be broken.  Obviously, all of them could be broken someday, but there are a few that appear to be unassailable as of today:

• Joe DiMaggio’s 56 game hitting streak
• Wilt Chamberlain’s 100- point NBA game
• Boston Celtics’ eight consecutive NBA Championships
• Cy Young’s 749 complete games
• Emmitt Smith’s 18,355 career rushing yards

I am beginning to think there is another one to consider for this list:

• Secretariat’s time of 1:59 1/5 for the Kentucky Derby.

They ran the Derby last Saturday and folks are almost euphoric about the three-horse photo finish to the race.  Indeed, it was a tight call; the separation between the winner and the horse that finished third was merely a head.  But lost in the euphoria of the photo-finish and the long-shot odds for the winner, Mystik Dan, is the fact that this was a slow race.  Mystik Dan ran the 1 ¼ miles in 2:03 1/5.  Here is an inexact but good approximation of how that relates to Secretariat’s time in the Derby 51 years ago:

• Race handicappers believe that every fifth of a second in time difference equals one length in distance difference.
• Using that equivalence, Mystik Dan and the two horses that were right there at the wire with him would have finished 20 lengths behind Secretariat.

Moving on …  As the baseball season settles in, I noticed a report on a new dining option named “The Renegade” offered by the Pirates at PNC Park.  Here is the description:

• A foot-long hot dog topped with 8 pierogies, pot roast, onions and pickles.

That sounds like dinner for two not a snack to munch on as you watch a game, but with just a bit of searching thanks to Google, one can encounter some other outrageous ballpark offerings:

• Arizona D-Backs:  They too start with a foot-long hot dog and top it with smoked bacon, ranch beans mustard, mayo and pico de gallo.  This one is called the “XL Sonoran Hot Dog”.
• Atlanta Braves:  Order up a “Fielder’s Catch” and you will come to appreciate the expression that nothing exceeds like excess.  Take a deep breath and contemplate two lobster tails, three fried oysters on a hard roll topped with bacon, lettuce, tomatoes and peach remoulade.  As if that were not enough, it comes with sweet potato fries on the side.
• Colorado Rockies:  They serve up a 20-ounce piece of beef still on the rib bone.  It comes with bread and a side salad.  They call it the “Dino Rib” and I am trying to figure out how one might eat this while watching a game on the field.  Surely, they don’t expect you to slice that beef with a plastic knife…
• Detroit Tigers:  They have taken pierogies in a different direction with their “Grilled Cheese Slider”.  This menu item consists of a pierogi on a slider roll with sauerkraut, cheese sauce and a slice of melted Velveeta cheese.
• NY Mets:  Start with a half-pound burger and top it with lobster salad, lobster/cheese fondue and put all of that on a fennel brioche bun.  The interesting thing here is the name of this concoction; they call it the “Championship Burger” which seems out of place at a Mets’ game, no?

Just scanning those six culinary items makes me want to grab a Rolaid …

Switching gears …  In an interview proximal to the NFL Draft, Roger Goodell said that he thought it would be a good idea to add an 18^th game to the regular season and cancel out one of the Exhibition Games that lead up to the season.  The reason that is a “good idea” is that it would increase revenue by adding another week or so of real games to the media packages; in fact, played properly it might add two weeks.

• Start the season on Labor Day Weekend not the next weekend.
• Add in a second bye week for each team to ameliorate – not eliminate – wear and tear on players’ bodies
• Move the Super Bowl back to the third Sunday in February.

Hear me out.  If the NFL does not want to “infringe on Labor Day” for some reason, then that “added week” could be made up by eliminating the two-week gap between the Conference Championships and the Super Bowl.  The loser in that decision is the newly minted flag-football game.  Ho hum…

AND by pushing the Super Bowl back a week, the NFL gives its fans something that many of the fans have wanted – – a day off after the Super Bowl to accommodate food and drink excesses at parties on Super Bowl Sunday.  The third Monday in February is already a Federal Holiday and that would give lots of fans what they want – – at no cost to the league.

Finally, since I mentioned baseball food offerings above that could be categorized as “gluttonous”, let me close with this remark by author, Peter De Vries:

“Gluttony is an emotional escape, a sign something is eating us.”

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

I want to start today with something from Bob Molinaro’s column in the Hampton Roads Virginian-Pilot about a week ago:

“It goes without saying that the MLB pitch clock has virtually nothing to do with the pandemic of elbow injuries to pitchers. The Astros’ Justin Verlander, a former Old Dominion star who knows something about pitching and injuries, says, ‘It would be easiest to blame the pitch clock,’ but cites instead the changing style of pitching, ‘everybody throwing as hard as they possibly can and spinning the ball as hard as they possibly can.’ When raw power displaces craftiness, something’s got to give. More and more, it’s the ulnar collateral ligament.”

Verlander is correct to exonerate the pitching clock; the injuries arise from the stress/strain put on pitchers’ arms by the way they are throwing the baseball and not by the time interval between the throws.  And I think there is another “culprit” here – – “Analytics”.

As more data becomes available on the efficacy of high velocity pitches combined with high-spin rates making the ball break sharply, pitchers are encouraged to use that combined effort as often as possible.  If it is more difficult for the opposing batters to hit the baseball, that is a plus for the team in the field.

No one invented this advantageous pitching style; it was available all along to pitchers back in the “olden days” of baseball but without radar guns and instruments to measure spin-rate and the computing power to figure out what that combination produces, pitchers did not try to throw every pitch at 98mph or greater while also trying to make it break/drop by a foot.  Maybe by accident a fireballer like Bob Feller tossed one of these new-fangled pitches but he did not make a living doing so and he lasted quite a while.

This is the dark side of “Analytics”.  It can never be wrong.  The numbers are unassailable; they show that pitchers are more effective when they “bring the heat” and “spin it up”.  So, how can it possibly be wrong to throw that “stuff” as often as possible?

As of this morning according to Spotrac.com there are 77 starting pitchers on MLB’s Injured List and there are an additional 76 relief pitchers in the same status.  They do not all suffer from the same injury, but “shoulder” “forearm” and “elbow” are the prominent designators for why those 143 pitchers are not actively pitching.

Having pinned some of the blame for pitching injuries on “Analytics”, let me now suggest that there might be an area for expanded analytics seeking to reduce injury rates in MLB.  The news that Mike Trout will need surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his knee and that he will be “out indefinitely”, got me thinking about baseball injuries other than the ones to pitchers’ arms.

Mike Trout seems to be cursed by at least one of the baseball gods; in the last three seasons, Trout has only been able to play in 237 of the 486 scheduled games (just under half the games).  But there are plenty of other position players in the IL with maladies such as “hamstring” or “back” or “ribs” or “hip”.  There are 227 players on the IL already in the 2024 season and I wonder if any of the “Analytics” experts are looking to see if there are flaws in training techniques used by MLB teams that allow for high injury rates.  Let me do some simple math here:

• 30 MLB teams X 26 active players per team = 780 active players.
• Almost 30% of the number of active players in MLB this morning is on IL.

Intuitively, that seems like a high percentage to me – – and so, I wonder if there might be “studies” done to seek some preventive measures.

Moving on …  The NBA Playoffs have arrived at the interesting point; six spots in the NBA’s “Elite Eight” have been determined.  Still hoping for a chance to continue playing are the Cavs and/or Magic in the East and the Clippers and/or the Mavs in the West.  The six teams that have advanced so far make up a pretty “chalky” list.  Only one team that was a lower-seeded team advanced so far; that was the six seed Pacers eliminating the three seed Bucks.

There is a minor bit of schadenfreude in that Pacers/Bucks result.  Back in mid-season the Bucks were cruising along with a 30-13 record when the team chose to fire their young head coach, Adrian Griffin.  The explanation then was that the Bucks were not playing effective defense and that the team’s braintrust concluded that improvement there was essential to having success in the playoffs.  So, the Bucks hired Doc Rivers to take over the team and to make the defense better.

Statistically, the Bucks’ defense improved in the second half of the season.  Nevertheless, the Bucks lost in the first round of the playoffs, and one will never know if the coaching change in the middle of last season was a good idea or a bad one.  I think it was certainly a premature one.

Finally, I started today with an item from Bob Molinaro, and I will close today with a bookend item from the same source:

“Sarcasm ahead: Virtually every TV highlight from baseball’s spring training is a long ball, as if that’s all the game is about. That would be like daily NBA highlights of nothing but dunks and three-pointers. Uh, never mind.”

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

Because I enjoy watching sporting endeavors, I always have in the back of my mind that someone somewhere is earning or intends to earn a buck from the presentation.  And that does not bother me even a little bit because I figure that I am the real beneficiary of their efforts to make some money.  So, let me begin today with some “money stuff” related to sports.

Next year, the Super Bowl will be carried on FOX.  The network has already told Variety that they want advertisers to pay “at least” $7M for a 30-second ad slot during the game.  Why such a lofty price?  Well, according to Nielsen, last year’s Super Bowl game had an audience of 123.5 million folks.  Even if only half that audience might be paying attention to an ad, that is a lot of eyeballs on a sponsor’s product/service.  It is not surprising that ad rates for the Super Bowl continue to increase, but in the report that announced FOX’s anticipated price for next year there was an interesting tid-bit.

Recall that last year’s Super Bowl was won in overtime by the Chiefs.  Well, ad slots in the overtime period had not been sold before the game; so as the game wound down and overtime became more and more likely, the folks at CBS that had the game last year worked quickly with “top sponsors” to sell more ads for the overtime period.  Those on-the-fly sales netted an extra $60M for CBS.

Moving on …  A new stadium for the Buffalo Bills is well into its construction phase in Orchard Park, NY; the scheduled opening for the facility is 2026.  New Highmark Stadium will seat 62,000 in an open-air facility with a heated playing field.  The estimated cost for the new playpen is $1.7B, about half of which comes courtesy of the taxpayers in the State of New York.  But there is going to be another revenue stream that intends to offset at least some of the “private funding” for the construction.

• Personal Seat Licenses (PSLs) have been around for at least 30 years now; a PSL is bought by a fan and that purchase then allows that fan to buy season tix for the seat to which he has a license. You read that right; you buy a PSL which gives you the right to spend more money to buy game tickets.  Such a deal …
• According to a report in the Buffalo News, the cost for PSLs in the new stadium will top out at an outrageous number.  Some PSLs will cost $50K per seat – – and remember, all that does is allow the license holder to buy season tix at market rates.
• That seems outrageous enough – – but the Bills are not yet done with their attempted fleecing of the flock.  Many of the seats in the existing stadium have PSL owners attached to them.  So, you would expect that those licenses would carry over – – or at least they would get some credit for license fees already spent.
• Nay, nay, yon teenager.  [Hat Tip to Jerry Blavat.]  If a current PSL holder and season ticket purchaser wants to retain that PSL at a comparable location in the new facility, he/she gets to pay full price for it – – again.

Switching gears …  There will be new looks in the studios and in the broadcast booths for NFL TV coverage this season.

• At FOX, Tom Brady will replace Greg Olsen as the color analyst on the network’s #1 gameday team pairing with Ken Burkhardt.  Olsen occupied that chair for the last couple of seasons and will “drop down” to the #2 broadcast crew this year working with Joe Davis to call NFL games on FOX.
• One change at ESPN will mark the arrival of Jason Kelce to the world of broadcasting.  He will be part of the crew that brings Monday Night Countdown to the air and according to some reports, he will be replacing RG3 on that studio panel.  [Aside:  Other reports say that the network has not yet decided RG3’s role for 2024 with ESPN.]  Others in the Monday Night Countdown cast are Scott Van Pelt, Ryan Clark and Marcus Spears.
• Another change at ESPN will involve Bill Belichick assuming a “recurring role” on the ManningCast with Peyton and Eli.
• At CBS, there has been a major shake-up for the network’s studio show, The NFL Today.  Boomer Esiason and Phil Simms will be replaced by Matt Ryan this year.  James Brown, Nate Burleson, Bill Cowher and JJ Watt will make up the rest of the show’s cast.

I am on record saying that I am not confident that Tom Brady will be a great broadcaster because I never got the idea that he enjoyed being “on a microphone”.  I am not rooting against him; I do not hope that he fails.  I simply will not be surprised if he is nothing more than “an OK voice” during games.

Jason Kelce seems to me to be the antithesis of Tom Brady in the sense that Kelce seems attracted to and energized by having a microphone in his presence.   Fans can count on Clark to create some controversy; I have a hunch that Kelce will join Clark in working that side of the street.  We shall see …

I am confident that I will find Bill Belichick’s comments insightful and interesting – – if not mesmerizing.  I am looking forward to seeing how the Manning brothers make that work.

Regarding the CBS “shakeup”, I will not miss Boomer Esiason at all, and I will not miss Phil Simms more than the slightest little bit.  Their acts had run the course.  Perhaps, the overseers at CBS might now take notice of the fact that Coach Cowher’s comments do not change much from week to week or year to year.  His “keys to the game” are always “defense” and “run the football.”

Finally, the situation about the PSLs in Buffalo remind me to close today with two observations by W. C. Fields:

“Never give a sucker an even break.”

And …

“It’s morally wrong to allow a sucker to keep his money.”

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