The Sports Curmudgeon

There have been more than a few reports and studies done which conclude that female athletes are more prone to ACL injuries than male athletes.  If you doubt that assertion, please Google, “female athletes ACL injuries”.  When looking at such data sets or thinking about the basis for how this may be the case, it is always tempting to hypothesize that there is some genetic cause for such a predisposition.  After all, if one could find some genetic coding on the X-Chromosome that led to such a predisposition, one might then conclude that female athletes are merely suffering from a genetic make-up accident since women have 2 X-Chromosomes and men have only 1 X-Chromosome.

Such hypotheses rarely – if ever – pan out; and in these times of increased emphasis on gender equality, that sort of thinking is not generally well-received.  Nonetheless, in an article in The Telegraph in the UK, here is the lead paragraph:

“Sportswomen should go on the pill to avoid career-ending injuries, the authors of a groundbreaking study have suggested.”

You can read that entire article here.

I am surprised that this report appeared a week ago and there has not been a flurry of protest because that kind of reporting tends to draw the ire of fairly diverse subsets of the populace.  I am also surprised that it seems not to have attracted any attention in the media here in the US where women’s sports are seeking to get additional coverage.

The study in question was done by researchers at Brown University – so it is more than fair to assume that the research was controlled carefully and that the peer-review system for the work was not slipshod.  The report says that the number of women studied here was 82,874; I may not have a PhD in statistics, but that is a large sample size to have studied over a ten-year period.

Imagine for a moment the delicate nature of the following scenario:

• A male head coach of a women’s athletic team [Let’s say Geno Auriemma as head coach of the UConn women’s basketball team…] stands up in front of the team with this study in his hand and tells those young women that he thinks it would be a good idea for them to “get on The Pill.”
• What could possibly go wrong…?

Two of the NBA’s flagship franchises are in a bad way at the moment.  The LA Lakers have been a jewel in the league crown since the 1960s; the team hit a dry spell starting about 5 years ago but everyone assumed that had been brushed away when LeBron James signed on with the Lakers last summer.  Well, the Lakers’ fortunes have not soared to previously known heights nearly as quickly or as surely as Lakers’ fans anticipated – or even expected.  The Lakers missed the playoffs again in 2019 and then the franchise seemed to be coming apart at the seams:

• During the season, the team produced lots more drama than it did wins.
• Team President, Magic Johnson, abruptly quit his job without giving his boss, Jeanne Buss, prior notice of his decision and of his announcement.
• Head coach, Luke Walton, was fired/scapegoated.
• The Lakers’ top candidate for Walton’s replacement chose to go to the Phoenix Suns rather than the Lakers.  Think about that; he chose to cast his lot as a first-time head coach with a team that was 19-63 last year and which is owned and operated by the mercurial Robert Sarver as opposed to signing on with an “NBA flagship”.

Now, it appears as if Tyron Lue has walked away from talks to become the Lakers’ new head coach and there are reports that there is tension in the Lakers’ executive ranks about the power that LeBron James is trying to wield upon the franchise.  The Lakers have seen better days…

Meanwhile, in Boston the Celtics’ season in 2018/19 was almost as under-achieving as the Lakers’ season.  Yes, the team had injuries, but this was a team expected to challenge for the NBA Championship and not be a “middle-seed” in the Eastern Conference playoffs.  Most of the problems and angst in Boston focus on Kyrie Irving.  He is going to be a free agent once the playoffs are over and the rumblings have already begun regarding:

• Can or will the Celtics resign Kyrie Irving to a Super-Max Contract?

Personally, I think that is the wrong question to ask because I think there is another question that needs to be answered in the affirmative before you can get to the question above.  Here is the predicating question:

• Do or should the Celtics want to sign Kyrie Irving to a Super-Max Contract?

Kyrie Irving is a more than accomplished scorer; and every other week or so, he will effect a defensive effort which demonstrates that he can play that part of the game too – – when he chooses to do so.  Add to the frustration that kind of play might engender and consider:

• Kyrie Irving is rarely happy about anything.  He takes the slightest criticism of his play or his demeanor so personally that you have to be glad that the age of dueling is deep in the past.
• He refers to himself as a “basketball genius” even when the team loses – – casting aspersions on the other folks who are wearing the same color uniform as he is.
• He left a championship caliber team in Cleveland because he did not want to be the ‘second-best” player on such a team; he wanted to go somewhere else to be “The Man”.  The result of that is that he went elsewhere but did not show himself to be of such leadership caliber as to be “The Man” on a team that aspires to a championship.

Looking at Kyrie Irving as a whole, I think he is a perfect free-agent signing for the NY Knickerbockers.  He will fit in just fine with the crowds in the Garden and with James Dolan as the guiding spirit of the team.  Maybe if the Knicks’ fans are really lucky, the team can also convince Carmelo Anthony to return to the team to play under the wing of the self-proclaimed “basketball genius” that is Kyrie Irving.  I can only hope…

Finally, here is a Tweet from Brad Dickson about a new brand of shoes:

“There’s a new type of shoes for kids called Hickies. I’m just glad there is no possible negative connotation for this name.”

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

The American system of jurisprudence is safe; I was not needed as a participant this morning; the people of Northern Virginia can go about their daily lives with peace of mind.  Not necessarily so with the sports world…

John Daly asked for – and received – a waiver from the PGA honchos regarding his participation in the upcoming PGA Championship.  As a former winner of this tournament, he is eligible to play in it until he retires; however, Daly has been suffering osteoarthritis in one of his knees and he asked the PGA mavens if he could use a motorized golf cart.  The PGA folks said it was OK.

As soon as I read about this, my mind went back to Casey Martin who had some sort of congenital problem with blood circulation in his legs that made it impossible for him to walk an entire golf course – even though his golf game was good enough to qualify him for the PGA Tour.  Martin sued the PGA under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) about 20 years ago and took the matter all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States where the Justices decided that the ADA superseded the “Rules of Golf” and that Martin had to be allowed a waiver under those sacred “Rules of Golf”.

The NY Post had a report earlier this week that there have been significant budget cuts – to the tune of $20M – at the NFL Network and that several of the network’s regular programs have been jettisoned.  Frankly, none of the five mentioned in the NY Post report are anywhere near “top-shelf” from my point of view, but their removal from the airwaves makes me wonder how the NFL Network plans to fill all that airtime.  After all, there are just so many times you can show replays of past Super Bowls and compilations of the 10 Greatest Off-Tackle Running Plays of All Time.

A spokesperson for NFL Network told the Post that the network would be airing new programs tied to the celebration of the NFL’s 100^th season in existence.  That sounds like new programming to me and “new programming” does not easily mesh with the idea of a $20M budget cut.  Whatever…  The NFL Network is hardly the bedrock of my TV viewing experience.

Speaking tangentially about the NFL, the splashy part of free agency is over despite the fact that there are still some recognizable names who are not signed with any teams.  Forgetting all the signings that made headlines back in March, let me list here a few transactions that escaped a lot of scrutiny/analysis, but which could be important:

• The Niners signed CB, Jason Verrett (TCU and LA Chargers) to 1-year deal for $3.5M.  Verrett can play as shown by the fact that he made the Pro Bowl once; his problem has been injuries just about every year.  If he can stay healthy, I think the Niners got a steal.
• The Pats acquired Michael Bennett from the Eagles for an exchange of low-round draft picks.  Bennett can still play and what the Pats gave up is about equivalent to a tuna salad sandwich.
• Running backs in the NFL tend to have a “Sell By” date around 30 years old.  The main RB for the Bills last year was LeSean McCoy who is 31 years old.  In free agency, the Bills signed Frank Gore – – who is 35 years old.  Say what?
• Of course, there has to be an interesting move by the Raiders in any compilation of this sort.  Since the end of last year, the Raiders traded for Antonio Brown – giving up their version of a tuna salad sandwich – and then signed Vontaze Burfict as a free agent.  I doubt that I would get much push-back if I called each of these guys “attention-grabbers”.  If they can get with whatever the Raiders’ plan is and then stay with it, the Raiders acquired two capable players – – and in Brown’s case a VERY capable player.  If, on the other hand, these two guys go off the rails, they might easily take the entire team down with them.  As usual, it will be interesting to watch what happens with the Raiders.

The Federal trials of the folks accused of bribery and funneling college basketball recruits to various schools seemingly ended yesterday with another guilty verdict.  Now comes the interesting part; what is the NCAA going to do now that it knows for sure that there is a seamy underbelly to basketball recruiting.  Until these public trials, the NCAA could always say it was investigating this and tracking that without ever having to do anything concrete to try to provide remedies to the cheating.  Now they do not have that patina to hide behind and at the same time, the NCAA does not have a ton of evidence on its own to use as a hammer against the schools and coaches who have been “skirting the limits of the recruiting rules”.

In a perfect world, the Feds would give the NCAA the evidence at hand and the NCAA could pretend that it knew much of it prior to receiving it from the Feds and then do some sleuthing of its own.  But according to a story in today’s Washington Post, that is not likely to happen.  NCAA major domo, Mark Emmert said this at a news conference about a month ago:

• “We’re going to continue to argue aggressively that they [the Feds] should provide that information so we can get to the facts, since there’s so much interest, not just on our part, but across the country in knowing what really transpired there.”

Good for him; that is a recognition of the fact that the NCAA investigators would have no prayer of coming up with comparable evidence on their own even if pointed in the direction where it might be found.  The problem for Dr. Emmert and the NCAA comes from the story in the Washington Post:

“But according to legal experts, that possibility [getting access to the Feds’ evidence] is remote. As a rule, the Justice Department doesn’t release investigative material not made public through trials or court proceedings to private citizens or private agencies.

“’An investigation by the Justice Department is done for one purpose: to determine whether or not a crime is going to be charged … They’re not in the business of providing information to people … just because there might be some ethical violation or rule violated,’ said Nick Akerman, partner at Dorsey & Whitney law firm in New York and a former assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York who also served on the Watergate prosecution team.”

Here is where you can read the entirety of the Washington Post report on the subject; I found it interesting and informative.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/basketball-corruption-trials-conclude-leaving-ncaa-to-sort-through-aftermath/2019/05/08/41100eea-71b3-11e9-9f06-5fc2ee80027a_story.html?utm_term=.f7fc1e1b0e96

Finally, speaking of NCAA violations, here is an item from Dwight Perry in the Seattle Times from a while ago:

“The NCAA has ordered Ole Miss to vacate 33 football wins over six seasons — including 15 that All-SEC tackle Laremy Tunsil played in 2013-14 — for using ineligible players.

“In other words, a Tunsilectomy.”

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

 

 

Bob Molinaro had this commentary in a recent column in the Hampton Roads Virginian-Pilot:

“With home-run totals up significantly in both MLB and Triple-A, baseball mavens are discussing the aerodynamics of the ball and how the lower stitches contribute to less drag, leading to increased distances off the bat. The ball is juiced. It’s uncanny, though, how the juiciest end up in the hands of Baltimore Orioles pitchers. The Birds surrendered 73 home runs in April, obliterating the previous MLB mark of 50. In 13 games at Camden Yards, O’s pitchers gave up an average of 3.2 home runs. The Orioles’ staff would be less of a danger to itself if it worked with live hand grenades.”

Those are some rather staggering stats – even considering that the members of the current pitching staff for the Orioles are not likely to storm the doors at Cooperstown once their careers are ended.  So, I decided to do some research – – and a bit of extrapolation:

• Christian Yelich has 15 HRs in 38 games.  That extrapolates to 64 HRs for a season.
• Cody Bellinger has 14 HRs in 38 games.  That extrapolates to 60 HRs for a season.
• Nine different players have 11 HRs in something close to 38 games and all of them extrapolate to 47 HRs for a season.

While those extrapolated numbers are not comparable to the season where Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa were pounding them out, it does raise some legitimate questions about “juiced baseballs” in 2019.  Consider:

• In 2018, only 3 players hit more than 40 HRs for the year (Khris Davis, JD Martinez and Joey Gallo)
• In 2018, Nolan Arenado led the NL in HRs with 38.
• In 2018, Christian Yelich hit 36 HRs for the season.
• In 2018, Cody Bellinger hit 25 HRs for the season.

If the baseballs are not juiced – as MLB will surely aver – then maybe players are juicing once again?

Another interesting item from the world of MLB with almost 25% of the season in the books is the performance of the Tampa Bay Rays.  The team surprised a lot of folks last year winning 90 games.  They were never serious threats to win the AL East then because both the Red Sox and the Yankees were tearing things up there, but the Rays were a very good club.  Nevertheless, the Rays are a “bargain basement club” when it comes to payroll.  Here are some of the Opening Day payrolls for MLB clubs and their records so far this year:

• Red Sox   $213M   18-19
• Cubs   $208M   20-13
• Yankees   $206M   21-14
• Nationals   $181M   14-21
• Mets   $162M   17-19
• Dodgers   $153M   24-14
• Brewers   $130M   22-16
• Rays   $69M   23-12  [Best record in MLB as of this morning]
• Orioles   $67M   13-23
• Blue Jays   $67M   15-21
• Marlins   $63M   10-25

I am not saying – because I am not expecting – that the Rays will end the season with the best record in MLB, but they have put together a very competitive team on a shoestring budget.  Too bad that the fans in Hillsborough and Pinellas Counties in Florida are not showing up to see the Rays in action.  As of this morning, the Rays are averaging 13,351 fans per home game.  Only the hapless Miami Marlins are drawing fewer folks to the ballpark.

Another comment by Bob Molinaro caught my attention recently:

“Wondering: If you were a 31-year-old Triple-A rookie hitting .149 with no power and 25 strikeouts and only six bases on balls in 67 at-bats, how fast would you be released or demoted if your name wasn’t Tim Tebow?”

Obviously, the answer here is that the release or the demotion would be as fast as an axe fight in a phone booth.  Tim Tebow’s charisma/likeability/congeniality is such that the Mets are more than willing to overlook the fact that he is not a prospect for the “big club” and they just hope that he can put together a few stats that will allow the Mets to call him up to the “big club” once September rolls around.

Finally, here are two closely related observations from Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times:

“The trigger-happy Phoenix Suns are looking for their seventh head coach in eight years.

“In keeping with the theme, arena workers just installed a turnstile in front of the coaches’ bench.”

And …

“The Phoenix Suns fired coach Igor Kokoskov after just one feckless season.

“NBA fans there are already partying like it was 19-63.”

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

 

 

 

Back in January, the Chicago Bears were in the NFL playoffs.  Their exit from the playoffs was very painful for the team and Bears’ fans; it was the infamous “double-doink game” where the game winning 43-yard field goal attempt “doinked” off the upright and then “doinked” off the crossbar before it fell to the ground and was declared “Not Good”.  Cody Parkey lost his job as the Bears’ kicker as a result of that play.

This week in one of the Bears’ team activities, they held a “kickers’ competition” – but this one was a bit larger than the typical kickers’ competition held by plenty of NFL teams.  This one had 8 kickers on hand – 4 of them were under contract with the Bears and 4 others were special guests I would assume.  Here they are:

1. John Baron II (under contract)
2. Casey Bednarski
3. Chris Blewitt (under contract)
4. Emmit Carpenter
5. Spencer Evans
6. Elliot Fry (under contract)
7. Redford Jones (under contract)
8. Justin Yoon

I feel good about the fact that I actually know where 3 of those kickers played in college.  I would also suggest ever so humbly that the circumstances that led to this 8-man kicking contest demands that the winner be someone named [Chris] Blewitt.

However, here’s “the kicker” [sorry about that one…] the coaches must not have been overly happy with the performances because:

• Only Chris Blewitt and Elliot Fry were invited to stay on the day after the kickers’ audition – – AND – –
• The next day the Bears traded a conditional 7^th round pick to the Raiders in exchange for another kicker, Eddie Pineiro who played at Florida.

Yesterday, President Trump awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Tiger Woods.  Generally, I pay little to no attention to such things; they seem to be glorified photo-ops to me.  So, I wondered how many “sports folks” had won this award and I can save you the Googling by telling you that Tiger Woods is the 33^rd person from the world of sports to receive the award.  Who knew?

In doing that search, I happened upon the purpose of the award itself.  It seeks to recognize people who have made:

“… an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors”.

When I read that statement, I had to then look at the list of 33 medal recipients from the sports world to be sure that Ted Williams was on the list given his stature in the world of baseball plus his two tours of duty as a Marine fighter pilot in WW II and then again in Korea.  Indeed, Williams got this award in 1991 presented to him by President George H. W. Bush.

Speaking of Ted Williams, I learned recently that he has been inducted into 3 different Halls of Fame.

1. He is obviously and deservedly in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
2. He is in the Marine Corps Hall of Fame for his service in 2 wars.
3. He is in the Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame (Hayward, WI).  Two of his fellow inductees there include Ole Evinrude (inventor of the outboard motor) and Izaak Walton (writer of The Compleat Angler in the 17^th century).

Such is your trivia quota for the day…

I ran across an item from the world of “sports business” recently that reinforced my sense that pronouncements from that world are usually meaningless at best and self-serving to the max.  The NFL and FOX announced that there will be changes to the telecast of Super Bowl LIV to be played in Miami next February.  Here is the deal:

• There will be fewer commercial breaks – – but each one will be a tad longer so that the same number of ads will make it to the air.

You got that right; the NFL and FOX thought that change was sufficiently noteworthy that it needed to be announced to the public about 9 months ahead of time.  One of the execs from the NFL raised her voice to say:

“For several years now, we have been working with our broadcast partners to make changes to our game broadcasts that are intended to improve the viewing experience.  We’ve seen positive results from these efforts.”

With that content-free addition to the announcement here, we can now proceed to the part where this really doesn’t matter even a little bit:

• It turns out that the NFL has been using the “fewer breaks/longer breaks” format in playoff games for the last two years now.  There has not been any praise or protest – – and in today’s world that can only mean that no one cares enough to comment on the matter on social media.

Finally, I wonder if this Tweet from Brad Dickson will offend anyone from PETA.  If it does, that is an extra bonus in my mind:

“The upside to being a race horse: unlike the Atlanta Falcons in the Super Bowl a couple years ago Maximum Security still thinks he won.”

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

 

 

Honestly, after making my two futile longshot picks in the Kentucky Derby last week, I thought I would probably be finished writing about horseracing for at least a few months or until there was some new finding(s) in the investigation as to why so many horses have died at Santa Anita this year.  Then the Derby ended; then the objection was lodged; then the winner was taken down from first to a mile up the track; then …  So, here I am writing about horseracing again today.  [For the record, I did not have the $1 Superfecta that paid $51,400.10.  I missed it by only 4 horses.]

The owner of Maximum Security says that he will appeal the stewards’ ruling from Saturday even though Kentucky’s racing regulations say that the stewards’ decisions are final and cannot be appealed.  So, who knows what that is all about?  The stewards took about 20 minutes to make their decision; it was historic; no other Derby winner had been taken down for a foul within the race itself in the 144 previous runnings of the Derby.  And that 20-minute review process showed me something that horseracing should do routinely.

• In the spirit of transparency, people should be able to see the stewards as they review the replays of the race and the times of the alleged fouls.
• Moreover, the racegoers should also be allowed to hear the stewards as they interact with one another.  The fact that there is a camera in the room with the stewards looking at the screens they see means the technology to add audio to the transmission is well within reach.
• Maybe if this practice becomes commonplace, there will be some benefit derived from the sturm und drang from last Saturday.

Bob Molinaro had this comment in the Hampton Roads Virginian Pilot last week; I totally agree with him here; so, let it be the final word on the 2019 Kentucky Derby:

“The mint julep, the signature drink of Saturday’s Kentucky Derby, is a waste of good bourbon.”

Adding a tad of transparency to the stewards’ decision making will not resurrect the sport of horseracing, but it probably will not hurt the sport either.  There is something out there on the fringes of logic, however, that will not help the sport and might do it even more damage than it has suffered so far.  I am referring to something that is in the hopper for consideration by – – hold your breath here – – the United States Congress.  Indeed, Representative Paul Tonko (D-NY) has introduced something called the Horse Racing Integrity Act of 2019.  The bill has 69 co-sponsors and has been referred to the House energy and Commerce Committee.  Here is the purpose of the bill:

“To improve the integrity and safety of horseracing by requiring a uniform anti-doping and medication control program to be developed and enforced by an independent Horseracing Anti-Doping and Medication Control Authority.”

You can read the bill itself and see where it stands in the legislative process here:

https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/1754

The Horseracing Anti-Doping and Medication Control Authority cited above would consist of the following membership:

1. The chief executive officer of the United States Anti-Doping Agency.
2. Six individuals selected by the United States Anti-Doping Agency from among members of the board of the United States Anti-Doping Agency.
3. Six individuals selected by the United States Anti-Doping Agency [who represent the racing industry and equine medicine]

For those who complained about the length of the 20-minute process involving the stewards at the Derby last Saturday, please recognize that it sometimes takes the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) a couple of years to decide if an athlete’s urine sample contains enough of a banned or unknown substance to warrant a disqualification.  If you want to understand why the processes here take as long as they do, please check out the USADA Adjudication Process here:

https://www.usada.org/testing/results/adjudication-process/

There is indeed a problem in horseracing with medications and performance enhancing drugs and the like; there has been said problem for decades.  Why the co-sponsors of this bill believe that the same folks who have cleaned up the sport of track and field – – and several other sports to be sure – – so certainly are the ones to rely on here is something only a Congressthing might understand.

Another way to look at this situation is through the prism of the now declared unconstitutional law related to sports betting.  Walk through this with me, please:

• In 1992, Congress passed PASPA making it illegal to bet on college and pro sports.
• PASPA was declared unconstitutional in 2018.
• Does anyone – even a Congressthing – believe for even a nanosecond that sports betting stopped illegal gambling on sports in the US between 1992 and 2018?
• So, why would a rational person think that the Horseracing Integrity Act of 2019 will resolve the doping problems related to the sport and/or instill integrity into the sport from 2019 into the future?

Finally, here is a definition from The Official Dictionary of Sarcasm:

“Bank:  A place to enjoy waiting in line when you can’t make it to the post office.”

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

 

 

The Kentucky Derby will happen tomorrow.  With 2 horses scratched, the field will be 19 horses this year.  Favorites have dominated the Derby for the last 6 years, but for a while there it seemed as if longshots would win every time out.  I am not thrilled by any of the favorites this year so here are two longshots for anyone who is betting on this race to consider for exactas and other exotic bets:

1. By My Standards – First in the Louisiana Derby last time out
2. Spinoff – Second in the Louisiana Derby last time out.

Reports yesterday said that ESPN will not replace Jason Witten as part of the Monday Night Football announcing team.  Witten is returning to the Cowboys’ roster and by all accounts ESPN had conversations with Peyton Manning to join the MNF team; when those conversations did not go anywhere, the decision was made to revert to a “two-man booth”.  I think that is a good way for ESPN to go.

Joe Tessitore is good on play-by-play; and if, somehow, he – and the ESPN overlords – can find a way to meter out his hyper-enthusiastic calls such that they only happen on big plays, I think he can become a top-shelf announcer.  More importantly for me, is that this move gives Booger McFarland a level of prominence he has not had in the past.  I believe that Booger McFarland is very good now and will blossom into a star in the sports broadcasting cosmos.  He is insightful; he is candid, and he has a natural sense of humor.  This move will get him in the booth and out of that stupid “Boogermobile” that ESPN used for most of last season.  [Aside: Whoever thought up that idea and whoever else “green-lighted it”, should be made to wear dunce caps and sit in the corner for 2 hours.]  Personally, what I would do now with the Boogermobile itself would be to dismantle it; put the parts in a steel container and jettison the whole thing into the Marianas Trench.  But that’s another issue…

There is an interesting – to me – angle to the assignment of NFL color commentators by the networks.  This year will be the final year of Tony Romo’s contract with CBS; he will be the announcers’ version of an unrestricted free agent.  Moreover, his tenure with CBS has been an unmitigated success.  I have to think that there will be a bidding war for his services for all the networks that carry NFL games – – except for NFL Network itself.

Added to that potentially intriguing set of circumstances that will unfold at the end of this NFL season, Peyton Manning has not said he has no interest in announcing and every network that carries NFL games would want him if he ever hinted at being interested.  So, there are two huge names and personalities out there overhanging all the existing announcing teams for NFL games.

The Super Bowl will be televised by FOX this year so Tony Romo’s last game for CBS under his current contract will be the AFC Championship Game on January 19, 2020.  Meanwhile, this summer, Peyton Manning will host a 5-part series celebrating the 100^th “birthday” of the NFL – not a game announcing position to be sure but a “television-related activity”.  As they say in the business, stay tuned and don’t touch that dial…

I read a report recently that a school district in Central New York will not use any pesticides on any of the athletic fields in the district.  Folks there have run across some “organic stuff” that will be applied to the fields and that will supposedly take care of all the pests that might be associated with large grass fields in that climate zone. How ecologically friendly is that?

I wonder why they don’t take the next rather obvious step here and end the use of mowing equipment whose 2-cycle engines spew all sorts of environmental nasties into the air.  For the cost of a bit of fencing the school district managers could get a few goats and turn them loose on the field to let Mother Nature really take over there…

The under-achieving Washington Nationals fired their pitching coach, Derek Lilliquist, earlier this week.  To be sure, the Nats’ staff – and very particularly the bullpen staff – has been butt-ugly awful so far this year.  How much of the blame belongs to Lilliquist is up in the air as far as I am concerned.  Let me explain:

• The Nats signed Trevor Rosenthal as a free agent reliever in the offseason.  In six prior seasons with the Cardinals, Rosenthal recorded 121 saves and an ERA of 2.99.  Not exactly Hall of Fame numbers, but reasonable ones for a guy whose slot was “8^th inning bridge to the closer.”
• In his first four appearances with the Nats, Rosenthal failed to get a single batter out.  His ERA was infinite for those games.
• Rosenthal’s stats as of this morning go like this.  He has been in 7 games; he has thrown a total of 3 innings; he has given up 12 earned runs on 7 hits with 9 walks and 5 wild pitches.  His WHIP is 5.33.

Someone will have to explain to me how it is Derek Lilliquist’s fault that a pitcher who only threw 14 wild pitches in 6 years and 325 innings with the Cardinals has now thrown 5 wild pitches in 1 month and 3 innings with the Nats.  Moreover, will someone explain why it took until this week to discover that Rosenthal “has a virus” and needs to go on the 30-day IL so that he can get in some rehab work at the minor-league level?  The pitching coach makes those sorts of decisions?

I have my own explanation for the Nats’ under-achievement from 2018 and into the first month of 2019 and none of it has to do with Derek Lilliquist and his abilities or shortcomings as the pitching coach.  Please remember, the same guy that signed Trevor Rosenthal also hired Derek Lilliquist in the first place.

Finally, speaking of pitching woes, here is an item from Dwight Perry in the Seattle Times:

“Seven consecutive Mets batters reached base via walk or hit by pitch in the fifth inning against the Twins last week, the first to do it since:

• “a) the Yankees, in 1994
• “b) 2,178 Little League teams, just 24 hours earlier.”

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

 

 

Gino Marchetti passed away earlier this week at the age of 93.  Marchetti was a Hall of Fame defensive end who was on those Baltimore Colts teams in the 1950s that won two consecutive NFL championships – including the sudden death game in 1958.  Marchetti was a dominant “edge rusher” before that term was coined.

In addition, Marchetti and his teammate Alan Ameche founded a chain of fast food hamburger drive up restaurants called Gino’s.  Back then, you went to Gino’s to get this new-fangled dish known as Kentucky Fried Chicken – – before the Colonel found ways to open his own restaurants.  Gino’s was eventually bought out by Roy Rogers who in turn was bought out by McDonald’s.

Rest in peace, Gino Marchetti…

Last year, as the Miami Marlins were in the process of stripping its roster down to its bare bones, they traded Christian Yelich to the Milwaukee Brewers.  Yelich merely won the NL MVP last year leading the league with a .326 batting average and an OPS of 1.000.  In return the Marlins got Lewis Brinson and three other living beings.  It was always going to be difficult for the Marlins to come out even in this trade given Yelich’s MVP status last year, but things took a turn for the worse this week when Brinson was sent down to the minor leagues.  It was not a quick hook…

Like Yelich, Brinson played the outfield in the National League all last year.  Unlike Yelich, Brinson’s numbers were bad no matter how you look at them:

• In 109 games last year, Brinson hit .199 and posted an OPS of .577.
• He had 76 base hits and struck out 120 times in 2018.

The month of April 2019 was not a good one for Lewis Brinson.  Here are some of his numbers as he goes down to AAA New Orleans:

• In 27 games this year, Brinson hit .197 and posted an OPS of .510.
• He had 15 base hits and struck out 28 times in 2019.

Back when the trade was struck, some of the Marlins’ commentary compared Brinson to Ronald Acuña, Jr.  It surely looks as if Brinson is not going to live up to anything resembling the stature of Acuña or Yelich and this trade certainly is not a great launching point for the career of Derek Jeter as a baseball executive…

Ever since Peyton Manning retired after winning the Super Bowl with the Denver Broncos in February 2016, the Broncos’ QB situation has been stranded at the intersection of chaos and mayhem.  Here are the people that have started at QB for the Broncos in the last 3 seasons:

• Case Keenum – 16 games
• Paxton Lynch – 4 games
• Brock Osweiler – 4 games
• Trevor Siemian – 24 games

The Broncos have also had guys on their roster for the last 3 seasons who never started a game; so, it is not as if there has not been a parade of potential replacements for Manning at the position.  As of today, it seems that John Elway is taking the shotgun approach to finding a competent starting QB; the so-called “quarterback room” in the Broncos’ training camp will need to house a throng.

• The Broncos signed free agent, Joe Flacco.  Barring some sort of accident that results in dismemberment, Flacco will be the starter for the Broncos in September.
• In the second round of the draft, the Broncos took Drew Lock (Mizzou)
• Holdover QBs from 2018 on the roster are Kevin Hogan and Garrett Grayson.
• Then, this week, the Broncos signed undrafted free agent QB, Brett Rypien (Boise St.) – the nephew of former Skins’ QB, Mark Rypien.

Speaking of QB prospects, I like the fact that the NY Giants took Daniel Jones with the sixth overall pick in the draft last week.  It is not because I think Jones is a sure-fire franchise QB who will be a star in the NFL for more than a decade, nor is it because #2 son went to Duke and Jones is a “Dookie”.  I like that pick because it is very likely to adjudicate the chasm of opinion that exists about Jones’ fitness for having been selected that high in the draft.

Giants’ GM Dave Gettleman has taken a lot of heat – enough to melt steel, don’t you know – over the pick.  Myriads of commentators and draftniks have put his football IQ somewhere on the scale between stumblebum and village idiot.  Gettleman has doubled down saying that he loves the pick and that his vision will be “vindicated” in 5 years.  And that is why this pick is such a good one for people like me who are happy, willing and able to sit back and see how things manifest themselves over time – – unlike fans of the NY Giants who want certainty and instant positive results.

The spectrum for the righteousness of Gettleman’s decision to take Daniel Jones at #6 seems to be bounded on one end by “Stroke of Genius” and  by “The Greatest Football Cataclysm Since Art Schlichter” on the other end.  Grab yourself a cold one; put your feet up; sit back, and watch…

Finally, speaking of making difficult decisions, here is an observation from Dwight Perry in the Seattle Times:

“Alabama publicists’ biggest concern this spring: Is Nick Saban’s hip-replacement surgery considered an upper- or lower-body injury?”

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

 

 

The second game of the Warriors/Rockets NBA playoff series last night was a lot more interesting than the first one.  There was less flopping and less bitching and moaning to the officials last night and both teams shot much better from the 3-point line as compared to Game 1 where it was brick after brick after brick.  The Warriors took a 2-0 lead in the series 115-109 but this game was always in doubt.  Game 3 on Saturday night in Houston should be a good one.

The second game of the Celtics/Bucks NBA playoff series last night was a mirror image of the first one.  In Game 1, the Celtics defense smothered Giannis Antetokounmpo and dominated the game winning by 22 points; the score reflected the Celtics’ dominance.  In Game 2, things were close at the half – Bucks led by 4 points – and then came the deluge.  There was a stretch in that third quarter where the Bucks outscored the Celtics 28-2 and coasted from there to a 25-point win.  For Game 3 in Boston, the oddsmakers have the Celtics as a 1.5-point favorite; toss a coin here…

As the federal trial related to college basketball recruiting practices continues to reveal “irregularities” that the NCAA super-sleuths never knew existed, the NCAA actually did something constructive regarding another collegiate sport.  The NCAA revised some of the football rules in favor of increased player safety.  For every ton of contempt one should heap upon them for being unable to enforce their own arcane recruitment rules, give them a couple of pounds of respect for the football safety decisions:

1. When a play involving possible targeting is under review, the officials must now either confirm the call or overturn the call.  No longer can they “let the call on the field stand”.  [Good change]
2. Players will not be allowed to hit an opponent with a blind-side block if the blocker “attack[s] an opponent with forcible contact.”  The result will be a 15-yard penalty – – and it could involve targeting also.  [Lots of ambiguity in “forcible contact” here…]
3. Overtime rules have been changed.  After 4 OTs conducted as they have been in the past and if the score is still tied, teams will run alternating two-point conversions instead of offensive possessions from the 25-yardline.  Also, there will be two-minute rest periods between the second and third overtimes and another two-minute break after the fourth overtime.  [Probably will affect less than a half-dozen games a year.]
4. On kickoff returns, teams will no longer be allowed to use a “two-man wedge formation”.  [I presume there is data to suggest this will reduce injuries; therefore, it is a good change.]

Speaking of rule changes, MLB is experimenting with rule changes in a different way.  MLB has “partnered with” the Atlantic League – one of the country’s independent baseball leagues – to try out some changes that could have a significant change to the game.  [Aside:  I suspect that “partnered with” translates simply to “MLB has tossed a wad of cash in the direction of the Atlantic League.”  Whatever…]  The independent leagues are rarely avenues that players follow on their way to the major leagues, but the quality of play is above college baseball and compares to the low minor leagues.  Most of the experimental rules are aimed at speeding up the game; some others intend to increase the number of balls put in play and total scoring.  Here is a sampling:

1. Time between innings is 1 minute and 45 seconds.  In MLB it is 2:00 for locally televised games and 2:45 for national games.  Players and pitchers need to run from the dugout to their positions to loosen up.
2. Radar will be implemented to assist home-plate umpires in calling balls and strikes; the umpires will wear an earpiece to “get advice”.
3. There are no defensive shifts allowed.  There must be 2 infielders on either side of second base when the pitch is delivered.
4. The size of the bases will be increased from 15”X15” to 18”X 18”.  [Aside:  I am not sure I understand why this is important, but what the heck…]
5. There are no mound visits by managers, coaches or players allowed.  Period.

Those five rule changes are dramatic departures from the way the game has always been played, but those five are nothing as compared to a sixth experimental change that will come to pass in the second half of next season in the Atlantic League:

• The pitcher’s mound will be moved back 2 feet; it will then be 62 feet and 6 inches from home plate.  [Two dozen baseball stat geeks just passed out as I typed those words.]

The idea behind that experiment is simple.  If every team has a pitcher or three who can approach or exceed 100 mph on his fastball, that increases strikeouts and suppresses scoring.  There is no real way to put a “speed limit” on fastballs so maybe the way to accommodate this “problem” is to move the mound back and give hitters a tad more time to read the pitch.

Let’s do some math:

• A baseball traveling at 100 mph is traveling at 146.7 feet per second.
• At the current mound distance, it arrives at home plate in 0.41 seconds.
• With the mound moved back, it would arrive at home plate in 0.43 seconds.

That difference is small enough that I am glad to see that MLB is doing some experimentation to see if it matters at all before trying it in MLB because someone thought it was a good idea.  Another thing I hope someone pays attention to is the effect this change might have on breaking ball pitchers.  With an extra 2 feet to play with, some sinker ball pitchers might be able to start their sinker chest high and have it drop below the knees by the time it gets “into the hitting zone”.

Finally, since I was mentioning baseball below the major league level here, please consider this item from Dwight Perry’s Sideline Chatter column in the Seattle Times recently:

“Some well-meaning baseball parents trying to dry off the infield for their sons’ high-school game in Ridgefield, Conn., poured 25 gallons of gasoline onto it, lit it — and got only 15-foot flames and a $50,000 tab to remove contaminated soil for their efforts.

“In other words, third base wasn’t the only hot corner at Governors Field.”

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

 

 

Kevin Blackistone is a sports columnist for the Washington Post in addition to being one of the rotating panelists on ESPN’s Around the Horn program.  His columns are usually about things in sports that are apart from games and strategies; importantly, his columns are always well-written and thought provoking.  However, his column here, takes me to a place where worlds collide and where some cognitive dissonance occurs.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/dabo-swinney-opposes-professionalizing-college-athletics-he-just-signed-a-93-million-deal/2019/04/29/353d576c-6a7e-11e9-be3a-33217240a539_story.html?utm_term=.e428ce197dd8

Blackistone is aghast that Clemson football coach, Dabo Sweeney, just signed a 10-year contract with Clemson for a total of $93M.  For the record, I am not “aghast”, but I do wonder where all of this is going to end because it surely seems out of control to me.  When you read the column, you will see that Sweeney has also found ways to monetize his name and some of his motivational sayings – things a football player would not be allowed to do.  Blackistone decries the fact that the coach and the school are getting rich while the players are unpaid for their labors.

As everyone here knows, I am not in favor of paying college athletes.  At the same time, I don’t think any coach in any collegiate sport is worth $9.3M per year and I think that every college and university should be taxed on all the revenue that comes in through college athletics.  It is an industry associated with universities; it is not the fundamental mission of that university.

However, here is where I get to the “world’s colliding” …  Blackistone takes the revenue generated by Clemson football last year and divides that number by the number of Clemson scholarship players.  The result is $611,764 per player and Blackistone labels that as “fair market value”.  If that is the case, then those football players are hugely “underpaid” since all they get is a full tuition scholarship out of the deal.  But time out for a moment:

• Apply that same logic to the Clemson women’s rowing team or women’s cross-country team.  If you divide revenue generated there by number of participants to determine “fair market value” you will get a trivially small number.  Any scholarship athletes there are being hugely “overpaid”.
• Moreover, the law says Clemson cannot just get rid of those “money losing” / ”economically inefficient” sports.  Title IX will not allow that.

I do not read minds, but I am positive that Kevin Blackistone does not want to revoke Title IX.  However, its existence makes it the case that those football players who are “underpaid” are – at the same time – providing some of the funding that allows the women on the rowing team to compete.  Here is the dichotomy:

• The NCAA rules create the situation where the players do not get paid – beyond a full tuition scholarship – but the coaches earn regal sums.
• Federal law creates the situation where the players do not get paid – beyond a full tuition scholarship – and part of the money they generate for the university goes to fund other sports.

There are plenty of inequities there; the football – and basketball – players are the ones on the short end of the stick.  But leaning on a flimsy concept such as an athlete’s “fair market value” is not the path to any sort of remedy.

Moving on …  The first month of baseball is in the books.  There have been some early surprises and as the calendar turns to May tomorrow, here are some things I will be looking for:

• The Boston Red Sox lost 8 of their first 10 games this year and the Tampa Bay Rays have started the season by posting the best record in MLB.  As of this morning, the Rays are 7.5 games ahead of the Red Sox.  I will be looking to see how that lead holds up towards the end of May…
• Fernando Tatis, Jr. has been a major factor in the Padres first 29 games posting a batting average of .300 and an OPS of .910.  Given the hype, we should expect Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. to give the Blue Jays a kick-start starting about now.  I will be watching to see how these guys play over the next month or so…
• The rash of injuries suffered by the Yankees to this point in the season is a huge statistical outlier.  Yet, the Yankees are only 2 games behind the Rays in the AL East.  I will be watching the Yankees to see how they keep things together until at least some of the “regulars” get back to the status of playing more than “simulated games” or “rehab assignments” …

There is another MLB “situation” I will be watching simply because I do not understand why it has not been resolved already.  There are several “good teams” out there who need bullpen upgrades to have a shot at being a “really good team” this year.  Just in the NL East, that situation seems to obtain in Atlanta, Philly and Washington.  At the same time, Craig Kimbrel is still unsigned as a free agent; and while he may not be Mariano Rivera, Kimbrel is an awfully good relief pitcher.  Quo vadis, Craig Kimbrel?

Finally, Greg Cote had this item in the Miami Herald about another MLB relief pitcher:

“Dodgers reliever Joe Kelly strained his back while spending five hours minding the boiling crawfish at a Cajun party for teammates. I blame the Dodgers. His contract prohibited skydiving and motorcycle racing but said nothing of minding boiling crawfish.”

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