The Sports Curmudgeon

The number “7” was not lucky for two golfers in The Masters over the weekend. On Thursday, Ernie Els putted “7” times on his first hole in the tournament. On Sunday, Jordan Speith had the lead going into the 12th hole and proceeded to shoot a “7” on the hole and it cost him the tournament. Greg Cote put the Ernie Els “accomplishment” into perspective with this comment in the Miami Herald:

“Ernie Els 7-putted the first green at The Masters. There’s a phrase for that in golf: ‘Greg Cote.’”

The Internet is awash with mockery of the Jordan Speith debacle. One needs only to use Google to find plenty of it if anyone is interested.

While I am at it, here are three more comments from Greg Cote last weekend to bring you up- to speed on happenings in the world of tennis:

“Recently (I’m serious) the No. 75-ranked Hurricanes men’s tennis team hosted No. 41 North Carolina State. Um, is it possible college tennis might wanna tap the brakes on how many teams it ranks?”

And …

“Novak Djokovic won the Miami Open but Serena Williams did not. For once, women’s tennis is less predictable.”

And …

“The 24th-ranked men’s tennis player is an American named Jack Sock. He’s a shoe-in.”

Last week, the NFL organized and ran its “Personal Finance Camp” and 28 players (current and former) participated. This is the second time the league has done this; the “camp” is a 4-day event focusing on financial education. Given the stats that so many retired athletes face bankruptcy within 10 years of retirement, this sort of activity would seem to be very important and that is why I was surprised that only 28 players – along with some wives/significant others – were availing themselves of this opportunity.

The seminar – for lack of a better word – was organized by NFL Player Engagement in conjunction with TD Ameritrade and the University of Miami School of Business. Given that the goal here is to provide players with the knowledge they need to maintain financial security in the long term – after Father Time calls a halt to their playing careers – having access to professionals in academia and in the world of investing seems like a good idea to me.

Earlier this year, there was a Business Academy organized by NFL Player Engagement with cooperation from the University of Michigan. Similarly, the goal there was to educate players with regard to the world of business and business opportunities. Reports said that “more than 40” players and wives took part in those sessions.

Two things surprise me here:

1. NFL Player Engagement is an organization/activity that exists under the banner of the league. I would have thought that this would be an activity high on the priority list for the NFLPA.

2. There were about 1700 active players on rosters at the end of the 2015 NFL season and when you include retired players, the number of folks who might choose to participate swells to several thousand. So, how come there were so few participants?

If you are interested, here is a link to NFL Player Engagement and the various programs that they present. Until about a week ago, I did not know this entity existed.

As the baseball season begins to hit its stride, I guess it is time to take note of a few of the culinary options one might have at various ballparks this year. Here are two beauties you can get at Progressive Field in Cleveland should you choose to take in an Indians game this year:

The Fat Italian: This is a very large sandwich that contains ham, salami, capicola, pepperoni, and hot sausage and then gets topped with provolone cheese, hard-boiled egg, lettuce, tomato, onion, hot peppers and mayo.

The Spaghetti & Meatball Pizza: I guess the folks who concocted this bad boy thought that there were insufficient carbs in an ordinary pizza and to remedy that shortcoming they put pasta on top of the pizza dough.

If you do not have plans to visit Cleveland this summer but you think you might find yourself in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, consider this item offered by the Texas Rangers.

The Wicked Pig: Start with a Hawaiian roll and pile onto it some pulled pork, bacon, split sausages, prosciutto and ham to give you a variety of pig meat products. That is all topped with barbecue sauce and cole slaw. Naturally, it comes with a side of pork rinds.

Finally, here is a note from Brad Dickson in the Omaha World-Herald regarding the local minor league baseball team, the Storm Chasers:

“Auditions to sing the national anthem at Storm Chasers games were held at Oak View Mall in front of 11 judges. There are only nine justices on the U.S. Supreme Court, right? Just checking.”

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

Today is going to be a jumble of issues – a regular sports hash. About a week ago, the US Women’s National Soccer Team hired Jeffrey Kessler and he filed on their behalf a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission seeking equal pay for equal work for those women. In the majority of sports situations, I would look askance at such a complaint because there is – I believe – a measure that tilts the equality away from women in most cases:

The comparable men’s sport to which the comparison must be made brings in more revenue than does the women’s version of that sport. Pay is tied to work and work output to be sure but it ought also to be tied to the value of the results of the work – namely revenue in the case of sports.

In the case of soccer in the US, the Women’s National Team is more successful on the field than is the Men’s National Team and – even more importantly – according to reports, the Women’s National Team brings in more revenue to the US Soccer mavens than does the Men’s National Team. Jeffrey Kessler is not just some lawyer the women found by perusing the Yellow Pages; he is a formidable figure in the field of labor law and anti-trust law. I really hope he wins this case; the US Women’s National Soccer Team deserves to win.

In another area of gender equality, the IOC recently announced that they have been successful in increasing the number of women representatives on various IOC Commissions. IOC President, Thomas Bach, said that women participation is now greater than 33%; that may not sound like “equality” but it is a significant increase. Buried in his statements/announcements however was the fact that the composition of the IOC Ethics Committee [snicker] remains unchanged. The last thing they need on that committee is a fresh pair of eyes and a new set of motor neurons … no matter what combination of X and Y chromosomes might come with those eyes/motor neurons.

Over the past several weeks, there have been various reports saying that Tim Tebow is considering running for public office or that he is intrigued by the idea of running for public office or – – you get the idea. When I look at the caliber of the 535 incumbents in the US Congress and add all of the folks who sought to run for the Presidential nominations this year, I just shrug my shoulders and think that it would be difficult for Tim Tebow to lower the efficacy of that mélange of folks. Therefore, in the spirit of constructive suggestion, allow me to offer some unsolicited advice to Tim Tebow:

Be sure you choose to RUN for public office. You will probably be less likely to succeed if you try to PASS your way into office.

A UNC fan has started a petition at Change.org. This petition seeks to nullify Villanova’s win in the final game last Monday night on the basis of poor/biased officiating. As of this morning, 2600 folks have signed onto this petition. Here is the link to that petition in case you want to sign on.

By the way, even if this petition were to gain 2 million signatures, the message I would have for the originator and all of the signatories is very simple:

Good luck getting the NCAA to pay attention for even a nanosecond…

The NFL will implement a new rule this Fall that would automatically eject any player guilty of 2 unsportsmanlike conduct penalties in a single game. Coaches do not like the rule; I think it will not amount to much since it is rare for there to be two unsportsmanlike conduct penalties in a game let alone 2 on the same player. However, the rule that might have a much greater effect on player safety would be a rule that links ejection to personal foul penalties. Consider one of these scenarios:

If a player commits two personal fouls of any variety in a single game, he is ejected from that game immediately. If this happens in the first half of said game, he may play in the next game. If this happens in the second half of said game, he will sit out the rest of the game and the first half of the next game.

A player is allowed 4 personal foul penalties in a season. Upon commission of the 5th personal foul, he is ejected from that game and will be suspended for the next game. For each personal foul beyond the 5th one, he will be immediately ejected and suspended also.

Speaking of the NFL and obliquely about player safety in the NFL, consider this comment from Bob Molinaro in the Hampton Roads Virginian-Pilot:

“Isn’t it rich: If timing is everything, what are we to make of this? While the New York Times writes, and the NFL denies, the league under-reported the number of player concussions over the years, Roger Goodell will be honored next week with the Jacksonville Sports Medicine Program Leadership in Sports Health, Safety and Research Award. Is this somebody’s idea of satire?”

Meanwhile, I think it is fair to say that Greg Cote of the Miami Herald is not particularly impressed with the news that the Cleveland Browns signed RG3 as their QB for next year.

“This just in. The Cleveland Browns are giving a tryout to Ryan Leaf and the late Otto Graham.”

Finally, here is an item from Brad Rock in the Deseret News regarding player names:

“A British man — with a little help from his good friend alcohol — has changed his name from Simon Smith to Bacon Double Cheeseburger.

“He says it hasn’t affected his job.

“’My work speaks for itself … people keep hiring me,’ he told the BBC.

“Somewhere Metta World Peace is thinking: ‘Maybe if I changed my name to Wendy’s Apple Pecan Chicken Salad …’”

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

As soon as I finished saying yesterday that perhaps one should not be hasty in proclaiming the Villanova/UNC game as “the best final game in history”, I figured that I would get snarky comments about being older than dirt and complaining that kids were always on my lawn. Indeed, I was tempted to try to forestall some of them by announcing that I had changed locales for yesterday’s rant from Curmudgeon Central to Geezer Gulch. What I did not expect was to get an e-mail from the reader in Houston who is my font of knowledge on sports history and sports gambling. I have never met him, but from comments he has made over time, I figure that he and I are “of a similar age” and that he has a better memory – and database – than I do.

Here is the text of his message to me:

“Was the UNC/Villanova Final Game on Monday night the best NCAA final Game ever?”

“You hit the nail right on the head when you wrote, ‘Do not allow the folks who produce sports talk radio or the ‘splashy’ ESPN TV shows to make you think that anything that happened before 1980 never really happened.’

“It’s a shame that hardly anybody alive saw or remembers the 1950 game at MSG between unranked CCNY and #1 Bradley. Actually CCNY had beaten Bradley the week before in the NIT Final also at MSG. (CCNY was a last minute invite.) In those 3 weeks, CCNY beat #12 San Francisco, #3 Kentucky, #6 Duquesne, and #1 Bradley. Then in the 8-team NCAA, they beat #2 Ohio State, #5 NC State, and #1 Bradley again.

“The 1953 NCAA Final saw Indiana beat Kansas by a point in KC. Kansas missed three shots in the last 10 seconds to win it. (Dean Smith was a benchwarmer for KU.)

“You mentioned the 1957 classic in KC between Kansas and NC.

“In 1959, California beat WVU by a point on a Darrell Inhoff tip-in followed by him blocking Jerry West’s attempted winner.

“In 1961, Cincy beat undefeated defending champ OSU (with four future NBAers and Bobby Knight – Lucas, Havlicek, and Knight are Hall of Famers) in OT.

“In 1963, Loyola came from 15 down with 14 minutes left to beat two-time defending champ Cincy on a Vic Rouse tip-in. That was the first Championship Game in which a majority of starters (7) were black. Eat your heart out Texas Western.

“But since those games weren’t on National TV, were not part of what we now know as “March Madness”, etc., it’s like they never happened except maybe to fans of the respective schools/teams.

“As far as recent best games go, how about Duke-Butler, which ended with Haywood missing the three-pointer to end the game. Butler was a 7.5 point dog. In 1999, UConn was a 9.5 point dog to Duke and they won, as the biggest point spread dog winner in an NCAA Final. When a big dog wins, it has to be up there as a “best” game nominee.”

So, as great as the Villanova/UNC game was on Monday night, keep in mind that plenty of NCAA final games have been excellent games and have gone down to the final play.

Allow me one more “follow-up comment” concerning the dominance of the UConn women’s basketball team and how that helps/hurts the sport of women’s college basketball. The UConn women won their fourth consecutive NCAA tournament championship on Tuesday night beating Syracuse by 31 points. I do not know what the final line on that game was, but at one point on Monday, I happened to see that the line was UConn – 26. So, if you had money on the game, it was “close” down to the end; if you did not have money on the game, the outcome was not in doubt for most of the contest.

In a blockbuster investigative report over in the world of business news, the revelation of the “Panama Papers” is that lots of rich people in the world use lots of shady dealings to avoid paying lots of taxes in lots of countries in the world. I sort of suspected those kinds of things were ongoing but the details provided here go far beyond what I had “imagined’. And let me be clear, I do not pretend for even a moment that I understand all of the intricacies that these shady deals involved themselves with. What I did notice was that there was a part of the Panama Papers’ revelations that intersected with the sports world and as soon as I read it my reaction was:

Isn’t that special…? [/The Church Lady]

According to The Guardian, the new FIFA president, Gianni Infantino, is “mentioned” in the Panama Papers. Infantino is the man selected to take over from Sepp Blatter and the other rascals who raised the corruption levels of FIFA to such heights that FIFA actually challenged the IOC as the Sleaziest Organization on the Planet – in the category of “Non-Political Parties” of course. Infantino, the former head of UEFA, was portrayed as IOC’s reformer, its White Knight, its moral compass, its …

Here are three paragraphs from The Guardian report:

“Files seen by the Guardian will raise questions about the role Fifa’s president, Gianni Infantino, played in deals that were concluded when he was director of legal services at Uefa, European football’s governing body.

“According to records, Uefa concluded offshore deals with one of the indicted figures at the heart of an alleged “World Cup of fraud” despite previously insisting it had no dealings with any of them.

“The emergence of the contracts from 2003 and 2006, which were co-signed by Infantino, link Uefa for the first time to one of the companies involved in the huge unfolding scandal that has brought down former Fifa president Sepp Blatter.”

If Infantino was the guy that the soccer mavens elevated to clean up the giant puddle of cat-vomit left behind by Blatter and company, then either the soccer mavens are easily fooled or the level of corruption in the sport goes down to the lowest levels imaginable and there is no intention to reform the sport at all. Let me recommend that you read this report in its entirety.

Finally, here is an observation from Greg Cote last weekend in the Miami Herald:

“Somebody check on LeBron James, make sure he’s OK. It’s been almost a week since he’s said or done anything to call attention to himself.”

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

Far too much time and “intellectual energy” was spent yesterday pondering the questions:

Was the ending of the UNC/Villanova game on Monday night the best ending to an NCAA Final Game ever?

Was the UNC/Villanova Final Game on Monday night the best NCAA final Game ever?

Back when I was working for a living, a colleague and I used to lament something we called the “tyranny of the inbox”. What we meant was that we could allow ourselves to be so caught up in the issues/” crises” of the moment that we lost perspective on what was far more important in the long term. My colleague and I used to remind each other that we needed to step back from the issues that were “immediate” once in a while lest we lose track of the issues that were truly important. It is in that spirit that I offer this observation…

Monday’s UNC/Villanova game was a great game; the outcome was always in doubt and the teams played well. Neither team played in a way that it was out there to lose the game. Nevertheless, to say that the game itself or the eventual outcome was significantly “better” than these games is a stretch:

NC State beating “Phi Slamma Jamma” on a dunk with no time remaining on the game clock.

Villanova beating Georgetown by shooting about 88% from the floor for an entire game.

St Joe’s beating Utah in quadruple OT in the consolation game in 1961.

And in a game that far too many of the sports talk radio hosts are waaay too young to remember:

In 1957, UNC played Kansas in the NCAA Final Game. UNC earned a slot in the game with a triple OT win over Michigan State. The Final Game went to Triple OT and UNC won by a score of 54-53.

If you want drama and a game decided by the slimmest of margins, you have to consider that Final Game as the prototype by which any future games might be measured.

I watched that game on a small screen black-and-white TV

Do not allow the folks who produce sports talk radio or the “splashy” ESPN TV shows to make you think that anything that happened before 1980 never really happened. Those long-ago games did happen and some of them produced equally exciting endings as the one we all witnessed on Monday night of this week. I do not mean to detract in even the slightest way from Villanova’s win or Kris Jenkins’ shot – – but there is a long-term context to the NCAA Tournament that must be considered when affixing superlative labels such as “greatest” or “best” or …

I suspect that I may get myself in hot water with this next commentary – – but that has never deterred me in the past. Consider these two recent jury verdicts:

Erin Andrews got a $55M judgement in her case against Marriot because a jury decided that Marriot made it easy for a demented stalker to get a room next to hers where he could take videos of her in the nude which then found their way onto the Internet.
For the record, I think the “videographer” in the case is a slimeball when/if he ever achieves the acme of his human potential.

“Hulk Hogan” got a $115M judgment in his case against Gawker for a sex tape that they publicized involving “Hogan” and the wife of a former friend of his who set up/endorsed the sexual encounter and recorded the “event” without the consent of either party to the sexual acts.

For the record, the person who arranged this assignation and then covertly recorded it is the “real” bad person here. The folks who put the recording on the Internet seeking profits from its publication took an economic gamble that seems not have paid off for now.

Once more for the record, I have NOT viewed either of the tapes that were part of the evidence in these matters. Both of them involve private matters that I believe are none of my damned business. Therefore, I cannot – and will not – comment on any particulars involved in either court case.

On the surface, both Erin Andrews and “Hulk Hogan” deserved to win the suits they brought in court to my mind. Were I on the jury in either case, I am virtually certain that is how I would have voted. If a person – man or woman – is in a hotel room and is dressing himself/herself, that person should be relatively certain that their dressing behaviors are not being surreptitiously recorded so that others might “peek in”. If two adults are engaged in a consensual sexual act, they too should be relatively certain that their activities are not being recorded for a future sharing with “whomever” on the Internet.

And now that I have made my position on both cases rather clear, I find it interesting that there seems to be a “pay disparity” between male victims and female victims here.

The “male victim” here – “Hulk Hogan” received a judgment that is 110% more than the “female victim” – Erin Andrews received.

Judge for yourself which victim was more improperly violated. I cannot make myself think that either of them was “violated” twice as much as the other was…

Finally, consider this comment from Greg Cote in the Miami Herald:

“NBA referee Joey (Uncle Fester) Crawford is retiring. Divest in technical fouls. They’ll plummet.”

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

Yes, the NCAA Championship game was decided with a buzzer-beater; and when a game ends that way, it has to be listed among the “great games” just because of the drama involved. Last night’s game was a great game from start to finish; the outcome was always in doubt; the teams played efficiently and effectively; the crowd was definitely into the game; the announcing team did not detract from the game nor did it over-dramatize an excellent contest.

When I was growing up, we had a neighbor who loved baseball and liked football. But he hated basketball. He characterized it as a bunch of guys running and jumping in their underwear. No one could change his mind on the subject. Well, my old neighbor would not have liked last night’s game between UNC and Villanova and I suspect that if you watched it and did not like it, then you too just do not like basketball.

In the NBA, the Warriors are chasing history with the potential to win 73 games this season. If they do that, they will be the winningest regular season team ever and that has created a lot of “discussion” seeking to compare this year’s Warriors with the 1995/96 Chicago Bulls who won 72 games that season. After the first such “discussion”, my interest in that topic wanes significantly. I just do not get emotionally involved in comparisons of teams or athletes from different eras because in the end there is nothing that remotely comes close to a definitive test to whatever hypothesis is offered. I did however run across one comparison between the Warriors and the Bulls that may explain the greatness of the two squads as well as anything else:

The 1995/96 Bulls had Luc Longley at center. Longley is from Melbourne, Australia.

The 2015/16 Warriors have Andrew Bogut at center. Bogut is from Melbourne, Australia.

So, there…

Rabid fans of teams around the world will go to great lengths to show everyone their level of fandom. They will dress up their children or pets in team gear; they will travel immense distances to see their team play; they will brave outrageous weather conditions to be “at the game”. And, sometimes, rabid fans contemplate meaningless actions/protests.

The New England Patriots have a lot of rabid fans and the team has rewarded that rabid fanbase with more than a little success over the past 15 years or so. Now according to reports, some of the rabid Patriots’ fans are contemplating an action that will take them ‘round the bend.

To protest the NFL’s confiscation of the Pats’ first round draft pick this year stemming from the Deflategate mess a year ago, some Pats’ fans have tried to organize a boycott of the televised NFL Draft for the first round. The plan is to wait until the first round is over and then to tune into the programming for the subsequent selections.

In case anyone cares, I do not think that the Patriots should lose any draft picks here for a variety of reasons that I will not bother to list here because I do not want to resurrect the Deflategate debate yet again. I think the NFL acted in haste and I think the NFL is more concerned about saving face at the moment than it is about doing the right thing and putting the entire mess behind it. By saying that, you might imagine that I would be one with the folks planning this boycott/protest. Let me channel Lee Corso here for a moment:

“Not so fast, my friend.”

The first two words that jumped to my mind when I heard about the planned boycott were “feckless” and “impotent”. A boycott – in order to be effective – must deny some sort of economic or social benefit to the entity that is the target of the boycott. As soon as you recognize that the NFL – and Roger Goodell as its personification in this case – is the target, you will recognize the fecklessness of such an action. The NFL will lose nothing based on this proposed action. Now that you recognize that the NFL will not suffer at all, you can see why the proposed action is impotent because it is feckless.

I read a report last week about a baseball trade rumor. Normally, you have to wait until the end of April before stories about baseball trades start to populate the Internet so I was interested to see what this one was about. Here was the rumor:

Red Sox trade Pablo Sandoval to the Padres for James Shields.

That is an interesting deal to contemplate. Sandoval is one of the few players in MLB that would make his team happy if only he would “hit his weight”. He has $75M left on his contract (assuming a club buyout in 2020); absent that buyout, the total remaining on the deal is $87M. There are also minor incentives in the contract but none of them involve him staying under a pre-ordained weight limit. Sandoval’s contract is bloated and his physique is bloated; instead of calling him “The Panda”, Sox fans should start to refer to him as “Bloated Squared”.

James Shields is a 34-year old pitcher who will make $21M per year in 2016, 17 and 18. Then the Padres have a $2M buyout option in 2019 or they can keep Shields then at age 37 for $16M. So Shields would cost the Padres either $65M or $79M. As a point of reference, the Padres’ opening day roster will earn a total of $99.3M for 2016; James Shields accounts for 21% of the team payroll. Like Sandoval, Shields has a bloated contract; unlike Sandoval, James Shields is not fat.

As I said, that trade is worth contemplating even if it never progresses one millimeter beyond where it is right now…

Finally, here is a comment from Dwight Perry in the Seattle Times:

“Man U star Wayne Rooney, sitting in the front row at a WWE event in Manchester, floored 6-foot-7 Wade Barrett with a right-hand slap after the rassler walked up and taunted him.

“Rasslin’ judges scored the flop a 9.3, but it rated only a 3.7 in soccer circles.”

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

Neither of Saturday night’s Tournament semi-final games even resembled a “nail-biter”. The fact that the outcomes were not in doubt for a significant portion of the second half allowed for watching for some of the smaller aspects of the games. For example:

As I wrote in an earlier rant, I would be very concerned as an NBA scout about Buddy Hield’s ability to “get his own shot”.

Syracuse guard, Malachi Richardson, had no need to inform his bench that “they can’t guard me” as he did in the game against Virginia. The UNC defenders were on him like a sleeping bag.

Jim Boeheim has grown calm in his advanced years. Twenty years ago, he would have pitched a fit on the sidelines if his Final Four team played the way they did Saturday night. This year, he just took in what was happening in front of him as “reality”.

The spread for tonight’s final game is UNC – 2.5 points with an OVER/UNDER of 149.5. I think tonight’s game will be more competitive than either of Saturday’s games but if I had to make a pick, I would take the game to go OVER.

Moving up a notch on the basketball ladder, the Hall of Fame inductees for 2016 were announced over the weekend. Heading the class in my mind are – in alphabetical order:

Zelmo Beaty
Darryl Garretson
Allen Iverson
Tom Izzo
Shaquille O’Neal

There are other inductees about whom I have no significant reaction one way of the other. And then there is Yao Ming…

I understand that Yao Ming is a semi-deity in China and that the NBA is all in to cultivate the “China market”. Now if that is the basis for Yao Ming’s placement in the Hall of Fame, I have no difficulty whatsoever; after all, they are also inducting Jerry Reisndorf as the Chicago Bulls owner and I have no idea what makes him a significantly greater owner than another dozen owners except that he signed Michael Jordan and watched MJ go out and win 6 NBA championships.

What would bother me a lot is for Yao Ming to be in the Hall of Fame for his on-the-court accomplishments in the NBA because the fact is that those accomplishments were sparse indeed. Granted, he had several very productive seasons and it was a series of injuries that limited the length of his career. Nevertheless, as a player, I do not think of him as “one of the all-time greats”.

I suspect that someone may look at my list of 5 people with whom I have no problem getting into the Hall of Fame and wonder how I can have Zelmo Beaty on that list after my Yao Ming comments. My first response would be to say that Zelmo Beaty had the great misfortune to be born at a time that made him play in the NBA at the same time as Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell, Nate Thurmond and Walt Bellamy. Back then, the NBA only had 12 teams meaning that Beaty took the court against an outstanding opponent about 30% of the time. Oh, and back then, the NBA played man-to-man defense exclusively.

Let me stay with basketball today and suggest that the suits in the NBA exec suites have to breathe a sigh of relief when they look at the standings in the Western Conference and see that the LA Clippers are going to be in the playoffs. Were that not the case, the NBA would face a set of playoffs where all four of their teams in the two largest TV markets (NYC and LA) would be sitting home waiting for the draft lottery to happen. The other three teams in those huge TV markets have been a hot mess this year.

The Lakers created their own “relevance” this year despite being a team with a record of 16-60 as of this morning. The Lakers have been on a barnstorming tour with the “Kobe Bryant Farewell Ceremonies” as their calling card. As that got old and tired, the team then gave us the Deangelo Russell/Swaggy P prank video operetta. At least the Lakers provided drama – and they could still have a very high draft pick in June unless they get pushed out of the top 3 teams whereby their pick would go to the Sixers.

The two teams in NYC are a different story. Those teams stink and there is just about nothing you can point to that might lead you to believe that they are going to do anything other than stink for at least next year and probably several years to come. Both the Knicks and the Nets will end the season with losing records; in fact, the Nets will have to win four of their last 5 games just to get to the 25-win mark for the season. But it gets even worse for the Knicks and Nets…

As a result of previous trades, neither the Knicks nor the Nets will have a first round draft pick this year. Even worse, those first round picks belong to Eastern Conference rivals (Raptors and Celtics) who are ahead of the Knicks and Nets in the standings and ahead of the NY teams in the building process.

Let me put that into stark terms here:

Help is NOT on the way.

Knicks’ and Nets’ fans have reason to be disconsolate these days. However, I want to offer them something to cling to as they go through the agonizing steps on the way back to basketball relevance for their favorite teams.

Only 90 miles to the south, the fans in Philly are in an even worse state as they try to discern even modest improvements in the Sixers.

Things may look bleak for NBA fans in NYC – but imagine how dark and bleak things are in Philadelphia.

Finally, here is an item from Bob Molinaro in a column last week in the Hampton Roads Virginian-Pilot. He nailed this comment:

“Duh: A new research paper about big-time football and men’s basketball finds little correlation between a coach’s career advancement and the academic success of his players. Now that’s what I call a scoop.”

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

I am sure you have read and heard about DeAngelo Russell’s blockheaded behavior within the Lakers’ team. Yes, I know that Russell is only 20 years old; I do not accept for even a moment that indisputable fact as mitigating for what he did. His latest statement – one that reeks of “prepared by someone else and rehearsed by Russell prior to its release – says that he will work to regain the trust of his teammates and not let it ruin his NBA career.

The crux of his explanation is that this was nothing but a “prank” and such “pranks” were commonplace on the team. He had no intention of letting the recorded video become public – except that it did.

Memo to DeAngelo Russell: Those are the sorts of “pranks” that might be commonplace in a middle-school setting. You are 20 years old; you have nominally spent a year in college; you are a professional basketball player. Act as if you have two functional synapses.

Earlier this season, there were “rumors” and “inside stories” with no names attached to them about Russell being an entitled prima donna and that coach Byron Scott had to shake him up with things like no playing time in the 4th quarter of games to get his attention. As far as I am concerned, those “rumors” remain in that status – but Russell’s recent behavior surely did not enhance whatever stature he may have held within the team hierarchy.

Another Memo to DeAngelo Russell: So far this year you are averaging 13 points per game and 3 assists per game while playing 28 minutes per game. Just in case none of your teammates will speak to you on this topic, let me tell you something you need to know:
It will take a lot better stat line than the one you have generated before any teammates will think of putting up with your “pranks”. Think in terms of 20 points per game and 9 assists per game…

Enough about a man-child who has yet to show that he has sufficient talent to be worthy of this much attention. Let me move to a subject far more important in the world of sports.

Money!

The NCAA Tournament is raking in the dollars this year. For the first two weeks of last year’s tournament leading up to the Final Four, the advertising revenue that rolled into the 4 networks televising the Tournament totaled $551.4M. That is a lot of money to be sure but it pales in comparison to this year’s revenue tsunami which sits at $775.8M so far. In case you do not have a calculator app on your computer, that is a 40% increase year-over-year.

If you have watched many of the games, I need not tell you that there have been loads of commercials during the games. So far this year, there have been 709 ads run by 347 sponsors. In terms of spending, here are the Top 5 sponsors:

AT&T – $43.5M
The NCAA – $31.1M
Buick – $27.8M
Southwest Airlines – $22.4M
Capital One – $22.4M

Capital One always ends by asking, “What’s in your wallet?” Well, I can safely say that the four networks televising the Tournament games have plenty of cash stuffing their wallets…

Now, before you get too bedazzled by the NCAA Tournament’s revenue tsunami, let me channel my inner Emeril Lagasse here and “kick it up a notch!” We are still a bit over 4 months away from the start of the 2016 Olympics in Rio and NBC announced that it has already sold more than $1B in advertising for those events. That total includes over-the-air telecasts, cable networks and “digital platforms”.

As you would expect, passing such a milestone was an opportunity for NBC to toot its horn a bit. Consider this statement from the Executive VP for Advertising Sales/NBC Sports Group:

“The value of live, big-event programming is more important than ever to advertisers because of its ability to reach large audiences. The Olympics’ ability to dominate primetime for 17 consecutive nights is unmatched. If brands want to reach viewers and their customers in the third quarter, they have to be in the Olympics.”

OK, perhaps a tad hyperbolic but indeed advertisers will reach a large and diverse audience when they pay to put their ads in front of the folks who watch the myriad Olympic events.

“Advertisers know that integrating their brands in front of Olympic viewers is good for their businesses.”

Uhh … what is the difference between “integrating their brands in front of Olympic viewers” and “running ads during the Olympics telecasts”? Can we have that in English, please?

“Digital sales, which are reserved for our largest linear customers, are healthy as well. Our premium advertisers recognize that they receive more value by extending their messaging across multiple platforms.”

Now we are really down in the weeds. What is a “linear customer” as opposed to a “parabolic customer” as opposed to an “hexagonal customer”? What is the difference between “extending their messaging across multiple platforms” and “buying ads in a variety of places”?

With 4 months to go, you need not worry that NBC is out of advertising slots because the horn-tooting announcements ended with a sales pitch:

“Some of the most valuable inventory is gone; but, there is still some primetime availability on the network as well as cable-channel inventory.”

Translation: The phone lines are still open…

Finally, here is Scott Ostler in the SF Chronicle explaining why it will be a while until he reads Steve Williams’ “tell all” book about Tiger Woods:

“No. 1 on my list of books to skip is Stevie Williams’ whineography, tales of working for Tiger Woods. After raking in an estimated $8 million for bagging Woods, Williams moans that Tiger would flip clubs on the ground, treating Williams “like a slave.” Aside from the money and the freedom to walk away at any time, I guess there are a lot of parallels.

“Tiger must miss Williams, who was such a jerk and bully to galleries that he made his boss look like a sweetheart.”

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

Earlier this week, a tempest in a spittoon erupted when Boston Globe columnist, Dan Shaugnessy, suggested that the dominance of UConn women’s basketball was not good for the sport. To the surprise of exactly no one, UConn women’s coach, Geno Auriemma, took umbrage and said that the dominance of Tiger Woods for about a decade did not hurt golf but that it did create an environment into which there evolved a lot of really good golfers named something other than Tiger Woods. To get in a final dig, Auriemma added:

“There are a lot better writers than Dan Shaugnessy. But that doesn’t mean he’s bad for the game.”

As is often the case, both of the folks involved here are partially correct. Auriemma is correct that his team is good for women’s basketball because they attract some viewers who might not ever think of watching women’s basketball just to see how good these women – the ones who are dominating every team that takes the court with them – can be. In addition, there are plenty of examples in “sports history” where the presence of a truly dominant team adds to a following for the sport just because some folks are devout front-runners and bandwagoners while other people cannot wait to see the giant slain. So, Auriemma has a point…

At the same time – using me as an example – I only watch the UConn women once or twice a year for the simple reason that whenever I tune in, the game is a blowout and blowouts are not fun to watch. Then, after I have seen what UConn can do, the next time I tune into a women’s game I am sort of “disappointed” because neither team on my TV set can play at anything like the level of play I saw fleetingly in my UConn-viewing. So, I am not attracted to women’s basketball any more today than I was yesterday. So, Dan Shaughnessy has a point…

In case you think I am over-stating the degree of dominance for the UConn women’s team, consider these stats from this season;

UConn won its first 4 games this season by 40 points or more.

Then in game 5 they won by 16 and in game 6 they won by only 10.

After game 6 they won 18 games by 39 points or more.

Only twice has their margin of victory been as small as 10 points.

Sorry, but when UConn is dominating an opponent on its way to a 107-45 win (over Cincy back on December 30) or on its way to a 106-51 win (over UCF back on January 20), I lose interest and go looking for something else to watch. I am not suggesting that everyone’s viewing habits or tastes are the same as mine – if that were the case there would be no MMA or poker on TV – but I can understand Dan Shaugnessy’s criticism here. At the same time, I can understand why Geno Auriemma did not take that sort of commentary all that well.

In another women’s basketball happening – this one far down the ladder from the position UConn occupies – Prairie View A&M fired coach Dawn Brown after the coach suspended two of her players earlier this year for dating – – one another. The players claim they were discriminated against based on their sexual preference; Brown says she is the injured party here because the school’s Title IX administrator knew of the situation and “approved” the suspensions. I will be shocked if this matter does not wind up in a court to determine if this firing is appropriate under all of the prevailing circumstances.

Let me say this:

Dawn Brown’s record at Prairie View A&M was 13-15 this last season and it has been 41-51 over her 3-year tenure there. If in that 92-game span, her teams’ record had been 89-3, I suspect there might be a very different vibe surrounding this situation.

Based on a report in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the sportsbooks there are rooting for someone to beat Syracuse next weekend. Here are two items from a report earlier this week:

“In early January, according to Westgate sports book director Jay Kornegay, four wagers, including one for $100, were placed on Syracuse at 1,000-1 odds to win the NCAA championship.”

And …

“Two weeks ago, after the Orange slipped into the field of 68 as a No. 10 seed — much to the dismay of bracketology gurus and CBS analyst Doug Gottlieb — the Westgate posted Syracuse at 300-1 to win the title and William Hill posted 400-1 odds.

“’Just a couple tickets at that number, no major dollars,’ [the William Hill director] said. ‘But Syracuse is our worst result.’”

Looking at that situation from the point of view of the bettor and not the sportsbook, consider for a moment that you were the person who put down $100 on Syracuse to win the NCAA championship when the odds were 1000-1. Now imagine that Syracuse bests UNC on Saturday night in the semi-final game. Question:

Would you let the bet ride as it is and go for the entire $100K winnings – or –

Would you “hedge” and bet the opponent to win in the final game such that you take home “something” instead of possibly “nothing”?

Since I will not be the person in that position, let me say that I would “hedge” the bet just a bit and be sure that I took home a nice chunk of change.

Finally, here is an item from Brad Dickson in the Omaha World-Herald that relates to women’s intercollegiate athletics and to the travesty of the NCAA continuing to refer to “student-athletes”:

“The Creighton softball team returned to Omaha after a 24-game road trip. Christopher Columbus and Lewis and Clark weren’t gone that long.”

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

We are closing in on Opening Day for MLB and over the last month or so, I have read a couple of reports that I find disquieting. One report from about a month ago said that MLB Commish, Rob Manfred, “continues to be optimistic about Montreal as a venue for baseball”. That statement made me wince just a bit until I read that he also said he does not see MLB expanding to go back into Montreal as a “venue for baseball”.

Let me be clear here. I have no animosity about the city of Montreal or about having another Canadian team in MLB; there is no territoriality in my feelings here. I am simply opposed to any expansion of MLB into any market – new or recycled – for a pretty simple reason:

There is an insufficiency of quality pitching to go around for 30 MLB teams as things stand today.

If MLB were to add 2 teams (adding an odd number of teams would be a scheduling nightmare), that would add about 20 – 22 more pitching slots to MLB that would need to be filled.

As far as I am concerned, I need that situation about as much as former UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali needs another Boutros.

One of the newspapers in Montreal has suggested that perhaps Montreal and Tampa might “share” the Tampa Bay Rays since the Rays continue to have attendance woes in St. Petersburg. While that might sound alluring at first, I doubt that whatever fanbase the Rays might have along the Florida Gulf Coast would take kindly to having the Rays play a couple dozen of their home games about 1300 miles to the north. I know that the Rays are “studying” the possibilities for a new stadium site in the Tampa/St. Pete area with the idea that a new stadium in a more favorable locale will boost attendance in that market. Taking some of the games out of that market will not ease the processes that might lead to a new stadium. The suggestion from the Montreal paper is probably well-meaning but it would be short-sighted for the Rays or for MLB to consider it for more than a moment.

If that was all the “chatter” about MLB expansion, I would have forgotten that suggestion about sharing a franchise between Tampa and Montreal. However, in other circumstances, reports said that Manfred mentioned future expansion sites in the US (Charlotte, Portland and San Antonio) and said that even further into the future MLB might think of expanding to Mexico. Sorry, but I do not want to hear about any of that…

And then, I read in the Austin Business Journal that the Commish said he would like to see MLB expand to 32 teams sometime after 2020. Why was this in the Austin Business Journal? Well, some folks have opined that Austin would be a potential landing place for a new MLB franchise. You can read here why this particular author believes such thinking is off base – so to speak. Nonetheless, the idea of “expansion” remains in the public discourse probably meaning that some of the folks in MLB are giving this much more serious consideration than I would wish for.

In another bit of baseball economic news, the NY Mets are reaping the benefits of their post-season successes from last year. According to the NY Post, season ticket sales for the Mets are double what they were in the last week of March in 2015. In addition, group sales are up about 33% and advance sales for tickets to individual games are up almost 25%. Obviously, winning plays a major part in these increases but give credit to the folks on the business side of the Mets’ franchise for thinking ahead.

Last season as the Mets were making their push to get to the playoffs, the team began to market season tickets for 2016 with the promise that people who bought 2016 tickets would get good seating options for the 2015 playoff games. Even though the season is not that far off – the Mets open on the road and do not have a home game until 8 April – the team continues to sell season tickets because they have a few “milestone games” on the schedule this year and as of now the only way to get tix to those games is to buy season packages. The “milestone games” include:

August 1 and August 2: Mets host Yankees

July 29 – July 31: Mike Piazza Retirement/Hall of Fame Weekend: Mets host Rockies

May 28: – 30th Reunion of 1986 Championship Team: Mets host Dodgers

Who knows? If the Mets continue to win and keep ticket sales booming the way they are, they may recoup all of the money for the owners that Bernie Madoff hooked them for…

I said above that talk about MLB expansion was not something I wanted to hear about; well, here is something even worse. Consider this item from Bob Molinaro in the Hampton Roads Virginian-Pilot:

“Something different: Whether it’s here by popular demand or not, there’s a website in this country that has started to offer daily fantasy game wagering on sumo wrestling in Japan. The fantasy world just got a little weirder. And fatter.”

Does not the world have enough fantasy sports as it is? Really, sumo wrestling? What’s next? Daily fantasy synchronized swimming?

Finally, here are two comments from Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel that just seem to go together:

“My operatives tell me that NASCAR driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr. got fellow NASCAR driver Danica Patrick the same Valentine’s Day gift as always: A dozen long-stemmed socket wrenches.”

And …

“Did you see where Danica Patrick was fined $20,000 by NASCAR for angrily walking near the race track after she wrecked last week? Judging by her NASCAR finishes, angrily walking might get Danica to the finish line quicker than actually driving.”

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