The Sports Curmudgeon

Today marks my 49th wedding anniversary. Today also the day of the year when my long-suffering wife looks in the mirror and asks the person looking back at her:

What the Hell were you thinking?

Yes, we are already contemplating how to celebrate our 50th anniversary next year…

There seems to be a fluttering in the baseball world this week – it does not even rise to the level of a kerfuffle in my mind – about Bryce Harper’s decision not to participate in the Home Run Derby this year. For reasons that escape me, Harper is taking heat for his decision. To everyone who is voicing even the slightest disagreement with Harper on this issue, I would like to say:

Just shut up!

In the first place, the Home Run Derby is an invitational event. Every player on every team does not have the ability to just show up and participate. Now, by definition, an invitation is something that can be either accepted or declined. An invitation is not a commitment or an obligation; the element of individual choice exists in every invitation. And, Bryce Harper has chosen to decline that invitation. There is really no reason to get your blood pressure up by even a single millimeter of mercury.

I heard one caller on a local sports radio show – remember I live in the DC area where Harper plays all the time – who said that Harper’s absence would “diminish the importance of the Home Run Derby”.

Memo to Hyper-Fan: I am not sure it is possible to diminish the importance of an event that is as meaningless and trivial as the Home Run Derby. Please adjust your medication levels…

In another bit of news related to the MLB All-Star Game, the rosters were announced this week and people immediately began saying that A-Rod was “snubbed”. Look, if he had made the team, that would mean that someone else would be off the squad and that could just as well indicate that the other guy was “snubbed”. Can we please put an end to the nonsense of “snubbing” when it comes to All-Star Games or slots in the NCAA Tournament? If the selection process allows for “judgment” and “discretion” there are always going to be decisions that some folks will disagree with. Leave it at that.

Since the calendar says that we are in the month of July, it is time for the Tour de France – one of the least compelling sporting events put on television ranking right down there with bass fishing and synchronized snoring. Here is an overview comment from Greg Cote in the Miami Herald that addresses an issue not commonly contemplated regarding the race:

“Tour de France gets underway: Still going despite all of its various doping scandals, the latest Tour de Fraud France has begun. It must be so difficult for those cyclists to peddle up mountains while simultaneously providing urine samples.”

The qualifying rounds for soccer in the 2016 Olympics are underway. In the early stages of international qualifying, there are often outrageous mismatches because every country with an Olympic Committee can enter a team in a qualifying round. Often you see startling scores when a soccer powerhouse – say Germany – has a qualifying match against a cupcake – say San Marino. This week, there was an even more startling result.

The reason it is so startling is that the winner of the game was Vanuatu – a national team that should never be confused with a “soccer powerhouse”. In this qualifying match, Vanuatu beat Micronesia by a score of 46-0. That is not a typo; the score was 24-0 at the half. One player on the Vanuatu side scored 16 goals in the game.

Micronesia is just beginning to assemble a national team and to say they are having growing pains would be a monumental understatement. Prior to the debacle against Vanuatu, Micronesia had lost games to Tahiti (30-0) and to Fiji (38-0). I will go out on a limb and guess that Micronesia will not be in the Olympics next year. I wonder if Vanuatu, Fiji or Tahiti will make the grade…

The important data/stats from the Women’s World Cup tournament – the ones that involve money, TV ratings and fan interest – are in and they show that the sport is more than merely healthy. Consider:

Total attendance: 1,353,506 (largest for a FIFA event other than a World Cup)

Matches with 50,000+ in attendance: 7

TV Ratings: CTV and FOX had highest ratings for a soccer match ever.

FIFA website devoted to Women’s World Cup had 20 million unique visits.

FIFA You Tube had more hits than same channel did for Brazil’s World Cup.

Women’s soccer did better on TV and online than men’s soccer did last year during the World Cup in Brazil. The important “business question” would seem to be whether that kind of interest can be sustained in the years when there is no international competition like the World Cup or the Olympics. I am not talking here only about in the US; countries like France and Japan and Australia and China also set TV viewing records for the games in Canada so it will be interesting to see how that surge of interest carries over into the sport of women’s soccer during “normal times”.

There were more than 20 million folks tuned into the USA/Japan final game last weekend. There is a professional women’s soccer league here in the US – the National Women’s Soccer League – and the players people watched last weekend play regularly in that league. The question now is how the league and the TV networks move to leverage the interest shown in the World Cup games – and particularly the final game – into something that can sustainably grow in the US sporting landscape. The league has a TV deal with FOX to televise a few games for the rest of this season and to televise the playoffs later this year. The next few months are very important for the future economic status of women’s soccer here in the US.

Finally, here is an item from Dwight Perry in the Seattle Times:

“Tiger Woods and Lindsey Vonn are no longer an item.
“So No. 1 on the list of Golf’s Famous Couples is once again Fred.”

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

Jason Pierre-Paul injured his hand – the extent of the injury is unknown at the moment – in a July 4th accident involving fireworks. He has a franchise tag offer from the Giants on the table worth a guaranteed $14.2M this year but has yet to sign it saying that what he wants is a long-term deal. In actuality, what he really wants is a “long-term deal with more than $14.2M of that deal guaranteed”. But let’s not quibble…

Talking heads on sports radio and ESPN pondered the situation and wondered if the Giants might pull their franchise tag offer – but that would make JP-P a free agent. Some wondered if the hand injury would inhibit his ability to sign the proffered contract prior to the deadline for such a signature. CBSSports.com reports that the Giants’ offer of a $60M long-term deal has been taken off the table for the moment. Jason Whitlock and Michael Wilbon on PTI wondered aloud what kind of poor judgment it would take for an unsigned football star to take a chance playing with fireworks when the contract is still unsigned. All of that is well and good, but let us put this in perspective:

What Jason Pierre-Paul did was careless, reckless and thoughtless.

He has an “injury” but not the loss of a limb or a hand.

Compare his degree of stupidity with the guy described in this link. By comparison, Jason Pierre-Paul looks like a Nobel Laureate.

A former colleague chastised me in an e-mail yesterday afternoon for failure to heap sufficient praise on the US Women’s National Team for winning the World Cup tournament. She said that I would have been “rhapsodic” (her word) had it been the men’s team that won the World Cup. She is right on both counts:

1. The men’s team winning the World Cup would be such an unexpected outcome that I and many other sports chroniclers around the world would be scanning the thesaurus for words to describe what had happened. The US women on the other hand were short odds to win it all before the tournament even began.

2. The US women’s Team dominated the Japanese with their offensive attack and dominated other opponents with a smothering defense that did not allow a goal for about 540 consecutive minutes of World Cup play. They did not win the World Cup on penalty kicks; they won it by dominating their opponents.

Ergo, in order to try to close the “rhapsodic gap” suggested by my former colleague, allow me to try to give the US Women’s Team an honorific name. Perhaps we should refer to them as:

The Girls of Summer.

While I am in the arena of rhetoric and rhapsody, allow me to pose a rhetorical question for NY Knick fans. The Knicks thus far have come up rather dry in the NBA free agency dance and that made me think about the Knicks of the past. So…

Who was the worse Knicks big-man signing in free agency?

Eddy Curry or Jerome James?

Last week, David Blatt (titular coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers) was visiting Israel and spoke to a group of businessmen. He obviously got caught up in the moment and guaranteed his audience there that the Cavaliers would win the NBA Championship next year and he likened LeBron James to Moses leading the team to the Promised Land. Look, I am no Biblical scholar and am not about to try to pass myself off as one, but my recollection is that this metaphor is contradictory.

If LeBron is Moses, then the Cavaliers are doomed to 40 years of wandering in the desert and are not going to get to the Promised Land so long as Moses – er, LeBron – is around.

I think there is a much more fundamental question on the table here:

Even if it comes to pass that the Cavaliers win the NBA title next year, will David Blatt be the coach of the team when that happens?

Reports last night said that the FIFA Ethics Committee (an oxymorn to be sure) had banned Harold Mayne-Nicholls – the former major domo for Chilean soccer – from any soccer involvement for 7 years. Mayne-Nicholls was the guy who was supposed to “inspect” the bids for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup tournaments that were awarded to Russia and to Qatar. FIFA gave no specific reasons for the ban but we do know that Mayne-Nicholls led FIFA delegations to all of the countries who were bidding for the 2018 tournament and the 2022 tournament. His “technical report” on all of the bids supposedly questioned the sanity of putting the games in Qatar due to the climate problems in the summertime and the logistical problems of holding all of the events in a single city.

From that limited information, perhaps he was banned from any national or international involvement with soccer for 7 years because he was too candid?

Finally, here is an item from Brad Dickson in the Omaha World-Herald:

“Denver Bronco Von Miller reveals he’s been fined for breaking wind at team meetings. He tried to claim Tom Brady let the air out of him.”

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

The US Women won the World Cup yesterday in a rout. All of the pre-game analysis focused on the Japan’s ability to control the ball and the pace of the game to create scoring opportunities. In the first 20 minutes or so, the US team had the ball for most of the time and did not attack methodically; they attacked in waves. And it worked… When the score was 4-0 early in the first half, the outcome of the game was no longer in doubt; the question was how big was the margin of victory going to be.

Congratulations to the US Women’s National Team. Presumably, their win will provide a “bump” for soccer here in the US; and hopefully, MLS and the National Women’s Soccer League can capitalize on that “bump”.

The NHL is poised to expand. Commissioner Gary Bettman says the league is seriously considering expansion and will seek input from cities and new ownership groups that might want an NHL franchise. Supposedly, it will take $500M to “buy into” the NHL during this expansion round; if the league expands by two teams that means the existing 30 clubs will share $1B of “buy in” money – less of course some portion the league office will hold for itself to keep the lights on in the Commissioner’s office.

Recall that a potential ownership group in Las Vegas has already held a season ticket drive there to demonstrate interest to the league and has begun to build an arena. That sort of convinced most folks that one of the expansion teams was going to go there. Then the NY Post reported that the financially strapped Arizona Coyotes were going to move to Las Vegas into the new arena since the city fathers in Glendale did not want to keep paying them to stay there.

The league – and the Arizona Coyotes themselves – were quick to issue statements of denial with regard to that story. Rather than quote them here, let me say that both of them called the NY Post report balderdash. Rather than speculate on rumors and take prepared statements as “the whole truth and nothing but the truth”, here are things we know about NHL expansion and about the Arizona Coyotes situation in Glendale:

Anyone interested in buying into the NHL has until 10 August to submit its application. Expansion teams will begin play in the 2017/2018 season.

The lawsuit involving the city of Glendale and the Arizona Coyotes is in the deposition phase – meaning that the orchestra is in the pit tuning up for the performance but there is still a lot of time until the curtain goes up.

Several times in the past, I have said that José Canseco is the gift that keeps on giving. Today, it seems as if José and his brother Ozzie are committed to creating “news” that is worthy of note here:

Ozzie Canseco was recently named as the hitting instructor for the Sioux Falls Canaries – a team in the American Association of Independent Professional Baseball. As of this morning, the Canaries are in second place in the North Division of this league. That is the good news. The bad news is that they are 15 games behind the division leaders. Here are the credentials of the Canaries’ new hitting instructor:

In three seasons in MLB, Ozzie Canseco appeared in a total of 24 games. In 65 at bats, his batting average was .200 and his OPS was .590.

Meanwhile José recently was a “guest designated hitter” playing for the Pittsburg Diamonds in the Pacific Association of Professional Baseball Clubs. He struck out a couple of times in a game against the San Rafael Pacifics and also pitched a couple of innings throwing his infamous knuckleballs which once were going to get him back into MLB. José also recently hosted a high stakes poker game at his home in Nevada where one of the players was a former winner of the World Series of Poker – but he had to call in his regrets that he could not be there to host the game because he was stranded in Pittsburg CA after that baseball game. The gift that keeps on giving…

Speaking obliquely about MLB, here is a comment from Bob Molinaro in the Hampton Roads Virginian-Pilot:

“Selig’s legacy: Speaking of gimmicks that have run their course, how much enthusiasm still exists for MLB’s interleague play? I’d say a lot less than a few years ago. Is it really creating more excitement over the long season? Maybe in rare cases, but not enough to justify its continued existence.”

Indeed, the creation of two leagues with an odd-number of teams in each league has demanded interleague play from opening day until the final series of the regular season. It was once an event; now it is merely a happenstance. However, there is a different holdover from Bud Selig’s regime that I believe is higher on the list of things baseball needs to get rid of:

Allowing the All-Star Game result to determine home field advantage for the World Series.

Interleague play was a good idea when it was proposed and first implemented. Nothing similar can be said of the marriage of the All-Star Game to World Series home field advantage. If MLB wants to make a change to signal a new day for the sport under new leadership, let me suggest that making that All-Star Game change is the way to go.

Finally, last week I mentioned the World Egg Throwing Championships. Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times also took note of that event with this comment:

“Hear the one about the Patriots’ entry getting DQ’d at the World Egg Throwing Championships? Seems they got caught using hard-boiled eggs.”

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

The NBA season of free agency is in full swing. Rather than hyperventilating about every signing or rumored signing, I prefer to watch the whole process to see where all of the players realign before investing any analytical energy. However, the trade earlier this week between the Sacramento Kings and the Philadelphia 76ers stands out as so bizarre that it deserves comment.

For the record, neither team is any good; this exchange will not make either team any good; whatever passes for the “balance of power” in the NBA is unaffected. While all of that is true, the exchange of assets here is stunning.

The Sixers get:

Nik Stauskas: He was the 8th pick in last year’s draft but his rookie year was disappointing to say the least. He averaged 4.4 points per game in only 15 minutes per game. Perhaps, he will benefit from the Sixers’ “up-tempo” style – – or not. He fits the Sixers’ mold of young player with potential.

Carl Landry: He is a 31-year old power forward whose career averages are middling at best and whose contract runs through 2017 at $6.75M per year. He will lead no one to the Promised Land.

Jason Thompson: He is a 28-year old power forward who does not score as much as Landry but who gets a couple more rebounds than Landry. He too has two more years left on his contract and his total salary for the next two years will be $13.25M. Ho-hum.

They also get a future first round pick from the Kings (GM Sam Hinkie loves those draft picks) plus the Sixers have the right to swap two future first round picks with the Kings.

The Kings get:

The rights to two foreign players the Sixers took in the second round of this year’s draft – Luka Mitrovic and Arturas Gudaitis.

A future second round pick.

To summarize, the Sixers get two mediocre journeyman power forwards and a guy who did not come close to living up to his lofty draft status as a rookie plus draft picks in the future that they can use on players that do not fit into a team. The Kings dumped a little more than $30M worth of salaries over the next two years and got two players who are not going to play in the NBA any time in the next two years. Oh, and they also got a second round pick they can use on some other player who will not play for them.

The key question to ask about this trade is:

What’s the point?

It sure looks to me as if neither team got much of anything out of this – unless you count the Kings’ added cap room as “something”. I do not think that is a big deal because I doubt that the Kings are going to get a couple of top-shelf players to sign on in Sacramento and there is a truism in the NBA that is irrefutable. “Cap room” does not win games. Nonetheless, some analysts are saying the Sixers made out like bandits here. If you say so…

CBSSports.com has a report this morning involving Rush Limbaugh and the NFL. As soon as you see those two entities linked in a report, you have to check it out to see just how off-the-wall the story is. Here is the gist:

Limbaugh said that the reason the media has been so harsh with regard to RG3 and his struggles at QB after a very successful rookie season – despite the fact that RG3 is an African American QB which Limbaugh has said the media pines after – is that “it’s suspected that RG3 is a Republican”.

Seriously, that is the report. You can read it here if you think I am making it up…

Personally, I think RG3 is struggling because I suspect he is actually a Jupiterian sent to Earth to check out the environment here just in case Jupiter’s Great Red Spot blows its cork and the inhabitants there have to evacuate quickly. Since Jupiter’s gravity is much greater than the Earth’s and the atmospheric pressure here is so much lower, RG3 is having trouble adjusting his metabolism to these new conditions. Makes sense to me…

If you are looking to grill hot dogs for the Fourth of July, let me suggest that you do not attempt to emulate one of the “augmented” hot dog offerings on the Chicago Cubs’ menu at Wrigley Field. This concoction is a hot dog – beloved in Chicago – topped with mac-and-cheese and garnished with Cheetos. That is a culinary and chemical concoction that even a Jupiterian would find hard to digest.

Finally, here is a baseball note from Greg Cote in the Miami Herald:

“Here is another example of the change in Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria. His players have a new private team jet that includes a massage table. They used to have to make their own bats on a wood lathe.”

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

Kabuki is a Japanese art form that involves ritualized dance moves as a means to tell a story. It is very precise and calculated; it has a long history. Here in the US, there are events related to the sports world that emulate kabuki in the sense that the events are very precise and calculated; the history is not nearly as long, but there is a history to all of it.

Naturally, I am referring to the ritualistic events that must occur over a long period of time when a pro sports franchise thinks about relocation – either thinks about it for real or thinks about it to extort more “goodies” from its current location. That kabuki dance is ongoing now involving the NFL and several of its franchises and the City of Los Angeles. Two days ago, an important element of the dance took place involving a meeting between the mayor of Los Angeles, the owner of the Chargers and the owner of the Raiders. Even if those three men only discussed their mutual admiration for medieval Norse needlepoint, the meeting was required by the precision and calculating nature of the franchise relocation kabuki.

That meeting got me to thinking and it dawned on me that the City of Oakland is the pro sports franchise punching bag of the moment.

The NFL Raiders are looking to move to LA – jointly with the Chargers and hence Tuesday’s meeting – so long as owner Mark Davis can come up with his portion of the costs to build that stadium complex in Carson. Some say he does not have the liquidity to do that and so he may have to ponder a move for the Raiders to San Antonio without a new facility in Oakland.

The NBA Warriors already have a new arena in the works in San Francisco. Yes, San Francisco is part of the Bay Area as is Oakland, but in terms of neighborliness, most denizens of Oakland consider SF a neighbor about the same way astronomers consider Mars a neighbor of the Earth.

The MLB A’s have been trying to leave Oakland for at least the last 5 years but the venue they covet is part of what the Giants claim as their territory and MLB has had a “Blue Ribbon Committee” studying this matter for most of those last 5 years to no avail.

Oakland is not a city with lots of surplus cash rolling around in its checking accounts. Several years ago, the state took over the school system in the main because the school system was financially strapped. The city itself has had years of “budget shortfalls” and at least for a while had to cut back the police department to the point that USA Today reported in 2013 that the California Highway Patrol was assisting in policing the city.

It is a given that the stadium for the Raiders and the A’s is antiquated and sub-standard; any time you have raw sewage backing up through the drains and onto locker room floors, you are being most diplomatic using the label “sub-standard”. The city’s problem is that a new stadium for either the A’s or the Raiders – and neither one would prefer to share the venue with the other – will cost hundreds of millions of dollars that the city does not have and may only be able to borrow at extremely high interest rates if they could borrow that much money at all. Oakland’s finances seem to be such that they would be called “an adversity” at the moment; paying for a new stadium or two might change that descriptor to “ruination”.

There was another report earlier this week that made me recall the old TV show, Lost in Space. A robot was programmed to guard a young boy named Will Robinson; whenever there was any threat, the robot would intone:

“Danger, Will Robinson!

That phrase immediately entered my mind when I read an SI.com report that Brett Favre told them that he thought he could play in the NFL once again. Favre said he could still throw 50 yards where it used to be 80 yards but that it did not matter being able to heave the ball more than 50 yards. He did say that he was not thinking of coming out of retirement but still… I would like to have a picture of him saying that with both hands in plain sight to know that he did not have his fingers crossed. Sports fans have been relieved of the necessity of following the yes/no oscillations of Favre and his play/retire decisions for several years now. Frankly, it has been an enjoyable several years.

Memo to Sports Media Folks: Please do not ask Brett Favre any leading questions that might get him thinking of coming back – or worse yet thinking about all the publicity he could get by letting all of you know that he is thinking about coming back.

Go and read the Uncle Remus story about Br’er Rabbit and the Tar Baby…

Last weekend, the small town of Swaton, England hosted the World Egg Throwing Championships. Swaton is in Lincolnshire in the British Midlands. I have to admit that I did not know that there were such championships until I read this Reuters report but evidently there is a World Egg Throwing Federation that sanctions the event and that Federation claims that egg throwing is at least a sport with a 700-year history.

The “main event” is a team event. A thrower and a catcher stand 10 meters apart; the thrower tosses an egg and the catcher catches it. If the egg breaks, they lose and go off to clean up the mess. If the egg survives, they step back and continue playing catch with the egg until it eventually breaks. Clearly, the team that achieves the greatest separation prior to breaking their egg is the winner.

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

“And the latest drug scandal in sports involves … Russian racewalkers?

“ ‘It’s a bad sign if you can’t distinguish between a sport and a group of people rushing to the bathroom,’ said CBS’s James Corden. ‘Doping for racewalking is like robbing a bank that you know has only $2 in it.’ “

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

I wrote about golf yesterday and I want to start with two golf items today. I suspect that has never happened before in the history of these rants. There were reports a few days ago that Phil Mickelson had something like $3M of his money linked to a Federal money laundering investigation involving someone who transferred sums of money approximating that amount among bank accounts to fund illegal gambling activities. Mickelson is not a suspect in the investigation nor is he charged but the report of that much money nominally belonging to him and “illegal gambling” makes you sit up and take notice.

Recall a couple of years ago that Mickelson was investigated – and ultimately cleared – in an investigation involving insider trading. I do not remember the details, but “insider trading” like “illegal gambling” conjures up a set of images that is not nearly congruent with the public image that Mickelson works to portray. Perhaps, Messr. Mickelson should consider the advice contained in an old aphorism:

You are known by the company you keep.

If I mention the name Beau Brinkley, you will probably furrow your brow and try to figure out if this is Beau Bridges’ real name or if he is the son of David Brinkley – unless of course you are a Tennessee Titans’ fan. In that case, you would know immediately that Beau Brinkley is the long-snapper for the Titans. This week, Brinkley was playing in a golf tournament in Nashville and one of the sponsors was the Jack Daniels bourbon folks. Brinkley sank a hole-in-one on a par 3 hole and won a sponsor’s prize – a full barrel of Jack Daniels bourbon. He even gets to go to the distillery and sample from barrels to pick the one he wants. I know it is a real long-shot but if the titans win the Super Bowl there will be some kind of team celebration at Brinkley’s place…

The US Women’s National Team advanced to the finals in the World Cup tournament last night beating #1 ranked Germany 2-0. The US will play the winner of the Japan/England game next Sunday in Vancouver for the championship. This is the fifth consecutive shutout for the US women and what makes this shutout all the more impressive is that the Germans had scored 20 goals in the tournament coming into the game. I will not pretend to be an expert in soccer strategy and tactics, but the defense line and the mid-field players on the US team were all over the German attackers from start to finish.

A few days ago, Yahoo! Sports reported that John Calipari had been in several discussions with the Sacramento Kings and this led to the speculation that the Kings might offer Calipari the jobs of coach and GM there. Yesterday, there were reports from several outlets saying that Calipari would stay at Kentucky and that his “discussions” with the Kings’ owner related to former Kentucky players who were now with the Kings like Boogie Cousins and Willie Cauley-Stein.

Normally, I would take that kind of deflection/denial to be a half-truth in the sense that the former players were the justification for the initiation of the discussion but then, things evolved. In this case, I tend to believe Calipari for a simple reason:

John Calipari is a very intelligent man and I think he realizes that whoever is the coach/GM of the Sacramento Kings is doomed at the outset. At least for now, the job(s) in Sacramento are about as attractive as a tire fire.

Calipari’s contract at Kentucky reportedly will pay him $7.05M this year – with incentives on top of that. Of course, an NBA team can offer him more than that if they want to, but it is not as if Calipari is working for chump-change in Lexington. If he were to make the move to the NBA, I would have to think that he would be looking to go to a team that is at the very least poised to be a contender for a Conference Championship. The Sacramento Kings are nowhere near that baseline level of competence. Moreover, the Kings’ owner has a ton of money but also has a seemingly irrepressible urge to meddle in the basketball operation of the franchise. I am sure that fans and alums put pressure on Calipari at Kentucky, but I would be shocked if the AD or the University Chancellor would dare to interfere with the running of the team itself.

I would not be surprised if John Calipari decided to take an NBA job one of these days before he hangs up his whistle. Moreover, he will get offers to do that because he is a good coach – and because he has plenty of his former players in the league. However, I do not think he will be going to one of the “outposts” of the NBA or to a franchise with a meddlesome owner.

In another NBA-related report, the Knicks are supposedly the leaders in the race to sigh Aaron Afflalo and they are offering a 3-year deal worth $38M. Afflalo is a good defender who shoots at a decent percentage aided somewhat by the fact that he only averages 7 or 8 shots per game over his career. Clearly, the Knicks can use any player who is even average on defense; and Lord knows, they do not need anyone else on the floor who wants/needs to take lots of shots. Having said that, I suspect that Knicks’ fans will not create a flash mob that stops traffic for 3 blocks around Madison Square Garden when/if the Knicks finalize this deal. Nor should they…

Finally, an item from Dwight Perry’s column, Sideline Chatter, in the Seattle Times:

“NASCAR star Dale Earnhardt Jr. finally popped the question to longtime girlfriend Amy Reimann.

“In keeping with the theme, they’ll be exchanging his and hers piston rings.”

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

The July/August issue of Men’s Journal has an article by Karl Taro Greenfeld entitled:

The Death of Golf

He paints a rather bleak picture of golf today and has serious misgivings about its future as a major sport; I certainly agree with his assessment that golf is in decline at this time, but I am not yet ready to put a toe tag on the corpse. He begins his essay with the story of his daughter who decided to try out for her high school golf team. Greenfeld recalled his days in school when the golf team was made up of people who had played regularly and had had some tutelage in the game. That was not his daughter. So, when she made the team, he spoke to the coach about how things were different. Here is the golf coach:

“There just isn’t the interest we used to have 14, 15 years ago. Now, I have kids showing up who have never hit a golf ball before. Kids are just less aware of golf. They have too many other options. And then when they find out it takes five and a half hours to play 18 holes, they’re just not interested.”

It is dangerous to draw conclusions from anecdotes because anecdotes are not data; it is more than merely dangerous to do so on the basis of one anecdote. However, the article goes on to cite statistical data showing that the number of golfers has dropped from 30.6 million in 2003 to 24.7 million in 2014. There are still plenty of golfers but that drop does represent a 19.3% decline. Other data shows that young folks playing golf dropped almost 30% over the same period of time.

Golf as a professional sport faces a challenge similar to the one facing MLB. Young folks are not drawn to the game in the same numbers as before and “pace of play” or “lack of attention span” or whatever similar label you might attach is part of the problem. Moreover, just like baseball, golf is never going to be converted into a fast-paced, action-packed event. It is more drama than adrenaline. Proposals to speed up golf have included things like cutting a round back to 15 holes; that is the same as changing baseball to a seven-inning event. If that is the “solution”, it may be time to consider pulling the plug.

Greenfeld points out another serious problem facing golf in California and in desert areas. On average, it takes 135,000 gallons of water each day to maintain a golf course. In California’s draught conditions, that could become a social issue giving golf courses a “black mark” and without courses there will be less participation.

The folks who promote golf and use it as the economic basis for a business or a club have to deal with an iron triangle of issues. None of the issues can “be solved” but they all need to be ameliorated to a degree:

Playing golf is a very expensive pastime for kids. Lessons and coaching are expensive and so are rounds of golf.

Playing golf is difficult. Most kids – indeed most people – do not walk out on a golf course and play well from the moment they pick up a club.

Playing golf is time-consuming. In these days of two-career families where parents take turns helicoptering in on their kids, golf can be difficult to schedule.

As I said, I am not yet ready to send golf to “The Sports Coroner” just yet; but the arguments made in this article do indicate that there is indeed weakness on the links out there. Folks who love to golf – or to watch it on TV – may want to read this article in its entirety here.

Since I mentioned above MLB as being in a similar situation to golf, I find it interesting to see what may be in store for MLB in the future. Reports from just last week indicate that Commissioner Rob Manfred may be considering expansion of MLB. Recall that when he took over from Bud Selig he said one of his objectives was to grow the game internationally – particularly in Mexico. Now, the idea that the Commissioner might have expansion as an issue that holds even a tiny part of his attention leads me to wonder where MLB might put a new franchise. Here are eight candidate cities in alphabetical order so that no one might surmise that I think there is a “pecking order” established:

Charlotte: The market supports the NFL and the NBA and it has a minor league baseball team too. The NHL franchise is in Raleigh not Charlotte.

Las Vegas: They would have to have a domed stadium, wouldn’t they? They would not dare enlist Pete Rose to be their “point-man” when making their pitch.

Mexico City: The Commish said he wanted to grow in Mexico and I presume that does not mean putting a team in Juarez.

Montreal: Many people believe there is lots of support for baseball in Montreal so long as they play in a reasonable stadium. This also fits the criterion of “growing the game internationally”.

Portland: Probably a long shot because the city has not had a good history of supporting its minor-league teams over the years.

Salt Lake City: They have had a AAA team for most of the time since the late 50s and they support an NBA team. The downside is that this would be a very small market team forever.

San Antonio: The NBA does well there and the city is trying to lure the Oakland Raiders. If they pull that off, why not MLB too…?

Vancouver: This checks the “international” box and it provides a natural rivalry with Seattle on day one.

Finally, here is a golf item from Brad Rock in the Deseret News recently:

“Sweden announced recently that newborn Prince Nicholas Paul Gustaf will also go by the title Duke of Angermanland.

“But sources say the country will have to purchase the naming rights from Tiger Woods, who has been using it ever since his career started slipping.”

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

In last week’s comments on the NBA Draft, I omitted one of the notes I made while watching the event. For the sake of completeness – and not because I think there is some fundamental wisdom contained therein – I shall include it today:

I think the Utah Jazz made an interesting pick at #12 in Trey Lyles from Kentucky. I thought Lyles was the most complete big man on the Kentucky team last year but he definitely will need to add muscle to be effective in the NBA. Utah is one of the NBA’s “middling teams” at the moment. They are not nearly poised to make a run at the Conference Championship; they are not nearly as bad as a half-dozen other teams. The questions – I believe – are whether the Jazz can or will be patient with Lyles as he develops and whether Lyles puts in the work to get a lot stronger. He is only 19 years old.

What I really want to talk about this morning is the resignation of Ryne Sandberg as the Phillies’ manager last week just before game time. Let me be clear about one thing from the start:

The Phillies have not done well in the time that Ryne Sandberg was their manager. That is not Sandberg’s fault; it would have taken a miracle worker to get the extant Phillies’ roster to play .500 baseball. When he took over for Charlie Manuel, the team was aging fast and the star players that had won the NL East routinely for the past several years were already on the wane.

Having said that, Sandberg’s sudden departure is strange. First of all, he resigned in the middle of his contract meaning that he left money on the table. I know that money is not the most important thing in the world and that Sandberg has made more than a little bit of it over his career such that he does not dine in soup kitchens. Nonetheless, that is not an exit path used by many coaches/managers in sports these days.

Like many other players who made it to the Hall of Fame, managing did not come as easily to Sandberg as did playing the game. However, unlike many other Hall of Famers who went onto the managerial track, he was not handed a top job on a platter. Sandberg spent years in the minor leagues in the Cubs’ system and then in the Phillies’ system. In the minor leagues, his teams won. However, the Phillies with their aging roster and depleted farm system had no chance and it was all unraveling on Sandberg’s watch. I presume – because I cannot possibly know – that the frustration of that situation is what kicked him over the edge and into resignation.

I am sure that Phillies’ fans who watch every game can point to errors in his judgment and/or strategies. Looking at the bigger picture, I think it is fair to criticize Sandberg for not getting the team to over-achieve – and by “over-achieve” I mean play such that they would not lose 100 games this year. [The Phillies are on pace to lose 105 games this year.]

Measuring a manager by the criterion of “over-achieving” is a tough one. Paul Molitor – another Hall of Fame player – surely seems to be doing that in Minnesota so far this year with the Twins 5 games over .500 and in second place in the AL Central as of this morning. Ryne Sandberg clearly did not make that happen in Philly this year or last.

One interesting outcome from all of this will be to see when/if Ryne Sandberg gets another job with an MLB team – as a manager or a coach or a minor league manager or a front office guy. Obviously, he knows something about the game and how to play it; however, he resigned – which some may equate with “quit” – in the middle of a disastrous situation in Philly. I wonder if that decision by itself will pollute the waters should he seek another job in another venue.

One other interesting thing to keep an eye on will be the Phillies’ scouting system. Only the Brewers have a record nearly as bad as the Phillies so it would not be outrageous to suspect that the Phillies will have one of the top three picks in next year’s draft – if not the top pick. The pressure is on…

Bob Molinaro had these two comments in his column last week in the Hampton Roads Virginian-Pilot:

“Adding spirits: The University of Maryland submitted a proposal to its local liquor board to sell beer and wine during football and basketball games because, says Maryland president Wallace D. Loh, ‘it will enhance the fan experience.’ But fans have always found a way to, ahem, enhance their game-day experience with tailgate drinking and by sneaking flasks and miniatures through the gates. For college crowds, locating booze is not a problem, though if Maryland gets its way, Terps fans finding their cars after the game might be.”

And…

“Boo to booze: Texas is another institution of higher learning that wants to sell beer and wine at games. Noting that his school is resisting the trend, Texas A&M chancellor John Sharp wryly commented: ‘Our athletic program has not reached the point where we require the numbing effects of alcohol.’ A zinger that good deserves a toast.”

I would respect Maryland president, Wallace Loh, if he simply spoke the truth here. Selling beer and wine at the football and basketball games is a new revenue stream and the school needs to find way to increase its athletic revenues. If, in fact, the objective was to “enhance the fan experience”, then Maryland would be selling the stuff at cost with no mark-up. If they REALLY wanted to “enhance the experience” they would be handing the stuff out. Does anyone actually think either of those scenarios will come to pass?

I went to college in the 1960s; I went to an Ivy League school where football was not nearly the iconic part of campus life that it is at Texas. Nonetheless, in the student sections, at least 25% of the students could not have passed a breathalyzer test by halftime. Some were over the limit when they entered the stadium with pre-game parties often starting at 0900 and bringing adult beverages into the game was not even a challenge.

This entire business is just that; it is a business decision to dip deeper into the pockets of the fans. It has the potential to go way down south…

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

“The Indianapolis Colts hung a ‘2014 AFC Finalist’ banner at Lucas Oil Stadium to commemorate their 45-7 loss to the Patriots in the AFC Championship Game.

“Yes, and Custer was a finalist at the Little Big Horn.”

For the record, Custer was a “finalist” in more ways than one at the Little Big Horn…

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

Mercifully, the NBA Draft is over and we can put Mock Drafts on ice for a while. I did not watch all of the festivities last night, but I did make a few notes and I have looked over the entire draft list quickly. Here are first impressions – which ought never to be confused with giving teams a grade for the draft before these guys ever set foot in a real NBA game.

Sam Hinkie, GM of the Philly 76ers, has a plan. He has been there for several years now and it seems as if the plan is to put 5 players on the court all of whom are 6’ 11” tall – or taller. After taking Nerlens Noel two years ago and Joel Embiid last year, the Sixers took Jahlil Okafor at #3 last night. Maybe that will work; Noel can play defense and not worry about shooting which he cannot do. Okafor can play offense and not worry about defending which he cannot do. Embiid can rehab his foot.

If you think I am exaggerating here, check the Sixers’ 2nd round picks:

Guillermo Hernangomez is a 6’ 10” center from Spain. He is headed to the Knicks for 2 future draft picks one of whom will be used to secure the rights to Andre the Giant should he return from the grave.

Arturas Gudaitis is a 6’ 11” center from Lithuania. Playing in the Lithuanian League last year, he averaged 6 points and 4 rebounds per game. Oh swell…

Luka Mitrovic is only 6’ 9” so he can be the Sixers’ point guard on their skyscraper lineup. In the Serbian League, he averaged 8 points per game and 5 rebounds.

The Knicks took Kristaps Porzingis at #4. They say he is a shooter who cannot/will not defend. Knicks’ fans loved Andrea Bargnani, right? They may have found his clone…

I think the Heat got a steal at #10 in Justise Winslow.

If the Sixers are trying to corner the market on centers, maybe the Celtics are trying to do the same with guards. Taking Terry Rozier in the first round is not surprising; having the Celtics take him with their top pick was indeed surprising. Their next pick was another guard, RJ Hunter who will be a 3-point shooter but will give up a ton of points too.

The Cavs taking Tyus Jones was a good move. Now they have someone to bring up the ball and set the offense other than LeBron James.

The Rockets got Montrezl Harrell in the 2nd round. How did that happen?

I shall put the NBA in the rear view mirror for a while with this comment from Brad Dickson in the Omaha World-Herald as he gets to the heart of the story in the NBA Finals:

“Golden State defeated Cleveland for its first NBA title in 40 years. That’s the uplifting part of the story. The downside: The last time Cleveland won a professional sports championship, the team’s punter was Meriwether Lewis.”

If you believe the talking heads on ESPN, Roger Goodell is going to “take his time” before rendering a decision in the Tom Brady appeal matter. That means that we will have a period of time where this story is like the Chinese water torture. The reports will come regularly and will have no new content – because until he renders his decision, there is nothing new to report.

Some folks say that this episode is important to Goodell because his job may hang in the balance. Obviously, I do not know if that is the case; but if it is, let me remind everyone of something I wrote last September. The job of NFL Commissioner – and the Commissioner of all the other major sports too – is to grow the league and to do so in a way that maintains labor harmony. That is the job.

The conundrum for Roger Goodell now is similar to the one he sort of found his way out of in the Ray Rice Affair. He has to grow the league and keep peace with the NFLPA, but – and this is as big a “butt” as any nose tackle in the league – he is also required by the CBA to be the NFL disciplinarian. Those two things just do not fit together well and in the next CBA the league and the union need to come up with a way to have an independent person or body take care of the discipline business.

Please note that this is an issue that needs attention by the league and the union jointly. To my non-legally trained mind, a Collective Bargaining Agreement is analogous to a contract; and in order for it to be a contract and not an edict, there needs to be at least two signatories. The NFL pushed to have the discipline power in the hands of the Commissioner over the years; the NFLPA acquiesced to that – and probably got some concession somewhere in return for that concession. In any event, the two sides need to correct this situation the next time bargaining happens.

Finally, here is – hopefully – the final word on the 2015 US Open golf course from Dwight Perry in the Seattle Times:

“Hear about Sergio Garcia, Ian Poulter and Billy Horschel teaming up to bankroll a line of Chambers Bay wine? It’s 100 percent sour grapes.”

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

I am sure you have read about Sean “Diddy” Combs’ arrest in California on charges that he assaulted an assistant UCLA football coach with a kettlebell at a practice there. Evidently, the coach had been yelling at Diddy’s son who is a DB on the team and things escalated from there. Diddy is out on bail and his PR folks released a statement saying that Diddy was merely trying to defend himself in the matter. This is a tempest in a teapot but it does boil itself down to a very simple question:

Diddy do it – – or not?

My apologies, I will go and sit in the corner for five minutes…

A friend and former colleague spent a lot of time as a youth baseball coach and one of his protégés went on to college and was recently taken in the third round of the MLB Draft by the Arizona D-Backs. His first assignment will be in Hillsboro, OR pitching for the Hillsboro Hops in the Northwest League. That sent me to check out the MLB Draft – something I never do in any detail – and that led me to some interesting player names:

Skye Bolt was drafted by the A’s. It seems to me that he ought to play Thor in the next Avengers movie.

Bowden Derby was also drafted by the A’s. His name sounds like a horse race for 3-year olds.

Icezack Flemming was drafted by the Yankees. His name sounds like a cure for a respiratory infection.

Bucket Goldby was drafted by the Marlins. Do you think Bucket has a list?

Tucker Tubbs was drafted by the Red Sox. If his baseball career does not pan out, he should be a natural for NASCAR.

Ever since folks have used Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 to provide women’s sports a sort of equal footing with men’s sports in college, one of the long-range goals was to have professional athletic opportunities available for women similar to those of men. That is not in the law of course, but it has been a tacit objective. To date that has not come to pass here in the US. However, Bob Molinaro had this observation in the Hampton Roads Virginian-Pilot recently:

“Controversy: It’s a gross understatement to call U.S. women’s soccer goalie Hope Solo a polarizing figure. From the New York Times to ESPN’s Keith Olbermann, she’s being portrayed as unfit – or at the very least, an uncomfortable fit – to represent her country in the World Cup after her arrest last June on domestic violence charges. There’s plenty to read about that on the Internet, and Olbermann’s video pulls no punches. But whatever your take on Solo, there’s no denying her abilities in goal, where her presence strongly suggests that women’s sports are becoming more like the men’s, in which talent trumps character.”

The matter involving Hope Solo and the alleged domestic violence remains in medias res. I agree with Professor Molinaro that this is not the way folks envisioned women’s sports becoming akin to men’s sports – but it may indeed be one of the leading similarities for the moment. I suspect that it will not be long into the future when I choose to put Hope Solo into my Just Go Away Club. In that club, talent does not trump character; the major criterion that gets one there is the achievement of sustained annoyance to the general public. I see the potential to achieve sustained annoyance in Hope Solo…

I ran across this item from Brad Rock of the Deseret News from a time when I was on my road trip:

“Miami Dolphins kicker Caleb Sturgis was injured last week during a team-endorsed kickball game. He’ll be sidelined at least four weeks.

“Sources say the Dolphins are compiling a list of other risky activities they plan to ban, including Twister, hopscotch and door-crasher sales on Black Friday.”

Just a quick Google search for what this is all about reveals that the kickball game was part of the Dolphins’ OTAs and that Sturgis’ injury was a pulled quadriceps muscle. If he pulled that muscle trying to kick the ball in the kickball game, the Dolphins need to worry; kicking a ball is what they pay Caleb Sturgis to do. It would be of much lesser concern if he pulled the muscle jumping to catch a ball someone else had kicked…

One of the trade-rumor stories that has filled a lot of space in a lot of newspapers recently is the Kings’ possibly trading Demarcus Cousins. Of course, they deny that he will be traded and he swears that he is committed to staying in Sacramento; without those elements the story would not have legs. The latest rumor has the Kings in discussion with the Lakers with regard to such a trade. I have exactly no insight into what is ongoing here but I do want to make an observation:

I have difficulty imagining a smooth working relationship between Cousins and Kobe Bryant. They are very different kinds of people with regard to the way they approach the game. There is certainly room for both men in the NBA based on talent, but I seriously wonder if they will be an effective pairing.

We shall see…

Finally, since I mentioned Hope Solo above, here is an observation from Jimmy Kimmel regarding the Women’s World Cup:

“The Women’s World Cup is under way again. Soccer, of course, is the sport in which you’re only allowed to use your hands if you’re the goalie or taking a bribe.”

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