The Sports Curmudgeon

I recently had lunch with an old friend.  We do that sort of thing aperiodically; but when we get together the event is “scripted”.  We meet at the same restaurant; we tell the server to take her/his time because we are going to be there for a while.  We order an adult beverage, ask perfunctory questions about the families and then spend the next two hours talking sports.  That sequence is about as reliable as death, taxes and Stephan A. Smith getting outraged over something/anything at around 10:00 AM ET every weekday.

We were lamenting the negative effect that analytics has had on baseball – – actually we were lamenting the slavish addiction to analytics that is hurting baseball.  It seems that more and more managers fail to recognize that the game taking place in front of them on a given day is not an average game nor one that necessarily fits a trend.  What used to be called “over-managing” when Alvin Dark and Gene Mauch were in opposite dugouts has now become too much sway given to the “numbers nerds”.

And then the conversation took a dark turn.  We wondered how long it will be until Artificial Intelligence wiggles its way into sports.  I certainly do not want that day to happen any time soon, but I must admit that having AI fiddle with sporting events is a lot less threatening than having AI fiddle with the nuclear launch codes.  We sort of agreed that AI would probably not find as comfortable a perch in sports like basketball or ice hockey or soccer but that there might be niches for it to occupy in baseball and in football.  Since our lunch was proximal to the last NFL Draft, my friend asked if AI might not become a contributor for some teams as they construct their draft boards.

I think he has hit upon a role for AI in an important NFL event because the Draft is indeed an important way to build a roster – – and – – blown draft picks and derail a “team on the rise” rather quickly.  When you consider that half of the first-round picks in a typical NFL Draft will not pan out nearly to the extent expected, it would seem as if any sort of a “boost” from outside would be welcomed and adopted.

Let me get a disclaimer in here quickly:

• Neither my friend nor I would qualify even as naïfs when it comes to AI.

If indeed Artificial Intelligence can learn on its own beyond the coded rules that set up the foundational machinery, then maybe the large computing power of an AI system can digest game film from college players and more accurately project those skills and abilities to a benchmark NFL level.  I am not talking here about a computer’s ability to measure things more accurately than a human can; I don’t think it matters all that much if Player A has a reaction time that is a hundredth of a second faster than Player B.  But perhaps an AI system might be able to assimilate a far greater number of observable variables and make connections that have gone unrecognized to date.

Even more “radical” might be an AI system that looked at the observables that make for successful NFL players.  Call it an idealized player sort of like a reference electrode in electrochemistry.  If a team were to think it had a handle on what sorts of things it took physically, mentally and in terms of character to become a successful NFL player, it could then have a template by which it might evaluate potential draftees.

Before you tell us this is all pie in the sky, remember what the current modus operandi produces:

• Half of the FIRST-ROUND picks will be mediocre at best in the NFL.

The standard that an AI system has to meet or beat is not all that stringent.

Moving on …  There will be two new rules in effect for NFL games this year.  Hopefully, one of them will never need to come into play and the other of them will not come into play universally.  Call the first one the “2022 NFC Championship Game Rule”.  Recall that the Niners lost both of their QBs to injury in that game and basically played out the string without a QB who had college experience at the position.  That situation is not difficult to fix, and the owners have installed a new rule to take care of it.  Actually, what the owners did was to go back to an older rule:

• Up until 2012, teams would dress 45 players for a game and an “emergency QB” who could only enter the game in prescribed ways.
• Then the NFL just expanded the roster number to 46 and let teams decide if they wanted an “emergency QB” or if they preferred an “extra DB”.
• Now, the teams will be allowed to dress 46 players PLUS an “emergency QB”.

Presumably, that is a solved problem…

The other rule change should drastically reduce the number of kickoff return attempts.  At present, a kickoff that goes out of the end zone is put in play at the 25 yardline.  Under a new rule this year, any returner can call for a fair catch at any point on the field behind the 25 yardline and the ball will still be put in play at the 25 yardline.  Seemingly, the objective here is minimize the number of kickoff returns which are considered to be less safe than ordinary plays from scrimmage.

I hope this does not remove the kickoff return from the game entirely.  This is the rule in college football and the number of return attempts at that level is significantly smaller than in the NFL.  I am not sure if I like this change or not …

Finally, having opined today on AI, let me close with this from F. Scott Fitzgerald on how to measure real intelligence:

“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.”

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

 

 

With the Philly 76ers having been eliminated from the NBA playoffs by the Boston Celtics, there are many opinion pieces out there with the following flavor:

• What will/should the Sixers do now?

Would that it were as simple as that…  Would that I had a magic elixir for someone or some ones in the organization to sip such that their wildest fantasies would be manifest in the real world.  That sort of thing happens in Disney animated movies on a routine basis; it happens in the real world far less frequently.

For about a decade, Sixers’ fans were told to “trust the process”.  THE PROCESS was a long-term plan whereby the team would stink out the joint for several years thereby accreting high draft picks such that the team would emerge as a juggernaut based on the talents of those high draft picks.  Make no mistake; that thinking makes a ton of sense – – so long as the picks made in the first round of the NBA Draft that accrue to the “stinking Sixers’ teams” bear fruit as top-shelf NBA players.

Let me interject Hamlet here for just a second:

“Aye.  There’s the rub.”

The Sixers began “The Process” back in the 2013 NBA Draft but the players they picked when they had high draft picks turned out to be closer to duds than to studs.  Consider:

1. 2013 Draft : Michael Carter Williams  11^th overall\.  Acquire Nerlens Noel via trade.  Perhaps both players achieve the label of “journeyman” but nothing more.
2. 2014:  Joel Embiid  3^rd overall.  Great pick
3. 2015: Jahlil Okafor 3^rd  overall.  Couldn’t play defense against a corpse.
4. 2016:  Ben Simmons  1^st overall.  Seemed good at first.  But now … ?
5. 2017:  Markelle Fultz  1^st overall.  Seemed like a reach at the time.  Now it looks like a wasted pick.
6. 2018:  Mikal Bridges 11^th overall but sent to Suns and 1^st round pick that stayed with the Sixers was Larry Shamet.  A horrible miscalculation
7. 2019:  Ty Jerome  24th overall and acquired via trade Matisse Thybulle.   Ho hum …
8. 2020:  Tyrese Maxey 21^st; overall and an excellent pick.
9. 2021:  Jaden Springer 28^th overall.  If you ask, “Who’s he?”, you run the risk that someone might feel compelled to tell you.
10. 2022:  David Roddy 23^rd overall.  Hey, he does not throw up on his shoes…

The harsh light of reality says that “The Process” would work just fine if – and only if – the Sixers’ braintrust was able to use their first-round picks to assemble reel and actual NBA on-court talent.  And the 10-year record under two leaders of the drafting/trading process have not shown the ability to do just that. Here is the painful reality for Sixers’ fans:

• In the last 10 Drafts and trades associated with the Drafts, the Sixers have obtained 2 very good players.  Call that a 20% success rate or a .200 batting average.  It’s the NBA equivalent of The Mendoza Line…
• They had the chance to get another star player (Mikal Bridges) but traded him away to they could draft a “journeyman-at-best”
• They had two overall #1 selections and whiffed on both.  Neither Ben Simmons nor Markelle Fultz lived up to a tenth of what a first overall should turn out to be.

We have seen various teams in pro sports in the US “tank” a season or two as a means to acquire top of the draft capital.  Such tanking can be intentional or unintentional – – but it happens; and if anyone tries to deny that it is happening, that person is either a paid stooge or a fool.

The lesson here is straightforward:

• You can try to stink out the joint and hold your top picks out for a season due to injury – – but if you whiff on your first-round picks – – even when you won the lottery and had the overall #1 pick – – then your team is going to achieve mediocrity as its upper bound.

Deal with it, Sixers’ fans.  Even if you have “Trusted the Process” since the Sixers stunk out the league back in 2012/2013, you are a decade deep in “The Process” and have little or no reason to aspire to the Eastern Conference Championship next season – – let alone an NBA Championship.

Finally, the Sixers’ braintrust has been striving to get the team to the top levels of the NBA for a decade.  So, you may expect me to finish with a quote related to the pursuit of excellence here.  Rather, I choose to close today with a pithy observation by Johann Wolfgang Goethe:

”Man errs as long as he strives.”

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

 

 

Jim Brown died over the weekend.  He was the best football player I ever saw; I know that is a statement open to debate, but that is my opinion.  Jim Brown played 9 seasons with the Cleveland Browns between 1957 and 1965; here are some of his achievements:

• He was the Rookie of the Year, the MVP and selected to the Pro Bowl in 1957
• He was named MVP in three other seasons – – 1958, 1963 and 1965.
• He was selected to the Pro Bowl every season between 1957 and 1965.
• He led the NFL in rushing in eight of his nine seasons in the league.
• He averaged 104.3 yards per game for his career.

He retired with plenty of gas left in the tank to take up a brief career as a movie actor and then as a social activist and mentor for gang youth in SoCal.  He was a giant on the field and off the field.

Rest in peace, Jim Brown …

There is a “pox” afoot in the land and it seems to be infecting young male athletes.  It occurs at the intersection of what ought to be private behavior(s) and cell phone videos made public:

• The alleged gang rape of a minor girl involving Matt Araiza
• Auburn University suspended RB, Jarquez Hunter over a “sex tape”.
• Ja Morant waving his gun around as if it were a lollipop!

These are recent examples of “the pox”; it has been around for a while involving other athletes such as Hulk Hogan and even a few female athletes.  But the question in my mind is why these folks thought it was a good idea in the first place to engage in these private matters with other people around given that in 2023 just about every person on the planet is carrying a cell phone.

None of these folks have done anything illegal – – assuming of course that Ja Morant has registered his gun and assuming that allegations about the gang rape victim assuring participants that she was of age – – but what they did “in front of the camera” so to speak should have been done in private.  I have said before and will reiterate here:

• Sex is not a spectator sport.

Analogously, carrying a registered handgun is not a reason for public exultation.  There is a vaccine for this “pox” already in existence; it is called Common Sense; sadly, it seems to be in short supply.

Moving on …  There were no cell phone videos involved in the Trevor Bauer situation, but there were allegations made about his “rough sex encounter” with a woman.  The case became widely known and even though Bauer was never charged with a crime let alone convicted, his full year suspension from MLB cost him about $30M in lost wages.  Once the suspension was served, he was released by the LA Dodgers and no other team signed him.  So, he had to go to Japan in an attempt to re-establish his bona fides as a pitcher.  In case you were wondering how things are going for Bauer in the Land of the Rising Sun:

• In his first three starts, Bauer pitched to an ERA of 8.40
• His team, the Yokohama BayStars, sent him down to their minor league affiliate presumably to get back in the groove.
• The first batter he faced in his first minor league start hit a home run.

All is not lost, however.  That was the only run Bauer allowed in his “adjustment start” and the expectation is that he will return to his Japanese major league team soonest.

Switching gears …  There was a report at CBSSports.com saying that the NBA is considering changes to its All-Star Game.  I was encouraged by that idea since the NBA All-Star Game is a joke and this year’s contest was labeled the “worst basketball game ever played” by the Denver Nuggets’ coach, Michael Malone.  After all, the NFL eventually admitted that the Pro Bowl was a meaningless farce and gave into reality and made it a flag football game; could it be that the NBA – – widely lauded as progressive in its thinking and its marketing – – might come up with something significantly more palatable than a game where the losing team can score 170 points?

Not really.  Here is the “change” that is under consideration:

• Return to the format where players from the Eastern Conference play against players from the Western Conference.  No more playground selection of teams.

That, sports fans, is your nothing-burger of the month…

Finally, since too much of today’s rant dealt with sex let me close with this observation by William Butler Yeats which seems to agree with my observation that sex is not a spectator sport:

“I am still of the opinion that only two topics can be of the least interest to a serious and studious mood – sex and the dead.”

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

 

 

Don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched.  It ain’t over till its over. The show isn’t over until the fat lady sings.  We have lots of ways to get the same message across, so pick the one you like best because today there is a report at CBSSports.com saying that there just might be a glitch in the mechanism that would allow the Oakland A’s to become the Las Vegas A’s.  The headline on the report seems innocuous enough:

“Oakland to Las Vegas: A’s move could be held up over request for nearly $400M in public funding, per report”

According to this report, the A’s originally asked Las Vegas for $500M in “aid” to build a stadium in Las Vegas and that number has been reduced to $400M somehow or someway.  The current “plan” is for the stadium to be on The Strip at or near the Tropicana and evidently that site needs the $400M contribution from the folks who run either Las Vegas or Clark County or both.

Here is the “issue” in a nutshell according to The Nevada Independent:

“Nevada lawmakers have not yet introduced legislation to bring the Oakland A’s to Las Vegas because they are only willing to contribute up to $195 million in transferable tax credits for stadium construction funding, not the full $395 million the team is seeking, sources close to negotiations told The Nevada Independent Thursday.

“The amount the state will offer depends on how much money Clark County will offer in the form of county-issued bonds paid by taxes generated on the ballpark site. Sources added that lawmakers are discussing between $150 million and $195 million in transferable tax credits, but nothing is set in stone until the county details are finalized.

If you think you have heard this song before, that is because you have heard this song before.  However, this time I want to point out that there might be a couple of good reasons for the A’s owners and MLB to reduce the ask from wherever it is that the A’s will play on a long-term basis.  Consider these stats:

• The A’s just completed a 7-game home stand.
• The biggest attendance they drew for that home stand was 8,230 folks.
• Two of the seven games drew fewer than 3,000 fans.
• Total attendance for these 7 games was 35,031 or 5,004 fans per game.
• For the entire 2023 season the A’s average attendance is only 8,695 fans per game.

Those numbers tell me that the A’s must be losing money even if they have a stripped-down payroll in the neighborhood of $50M.  The A’s need a new home; it could be in Oakland in a new stadium; it could be in Las Vegas in a new stadium; it could be anywhere in the Mountain or Pacific Time Zones where there is a proper facility.  The only certainty is that it cannot be in whatever it is that they are calling the Oakland Coliseum these days.  So, maybe it is time for the owners to dig into their pockets and get something done to move the team because even if they get a deal done with Las Vegas today, the financial bleeding will not stop until at least 2027 because:

• The A’s lease for the Coliseum runs through the 2024 season; they are stuck there.
• The probability that the A’s would try to extend that lease and that the folks in Oakland would agree is next to nil.
• The putative Las Vegas stadium would not be ready until the start of the 2027 season.
• So, the A’s might have to play their home games in Las Vegas at the ballpark currently serving as the home to the A’s AAA minor league team.
• That stadium has 8200 seats and a capacity of 10,000.
• So, even a Las Vegas move would entail at least 3 more years of abysmal attendance translating to limited revenue.

Here is a little back or the envelope math:

• If the A’s played in the minor league park and sold out EVERY home game at an average ticket price of $50, they would generate about $40M in ticket revenue.
• That does not match the stripped-down player payroll for this year and does not account for a single “overhead expense” such as “travel costs”.

At some point there will be a need for the A’s owners to stop the bleeding.  Maybe that is why the folks in Las Vegas and in Nevada have been tightening the screws on this deal when they behaved very differently in their pursuit of the NFL’s Raiders…

Finally, these words from Hippocrates seem applicable here:

“And if there be an opportunity of serving one who is a stranger in financial straits, give full assistance to all such.”

The A’s owners probably hope the good folks in Nevada will heed these words.

The folks in Nevada probably think the A’s are in “financial straits” and that gives the Nevadans leverage.  And we should recognize the power of leverage from the words of Archimedes:

“Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.”

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

 

 

In my 12^th grade English class, one of the class assignments was to read Charles Dickens’ novel, A Tale of Two Cities.  In short, it was not nearly a pleasurable assignment; reading that book gave me an appreciation for the word “slog”; it was long, and it was difficult to understand, and I wanted it to be over much sooner than it was actually over.  Today, I want to produce a tale of three NFL QBs who are without a team as of this morning.  I know it will not be nearly as long or difficult to read as Dickens’ novel and I hope you do not find it to be a “slog”.

The first QB is Tom Brady.  Yes, he is still holding true to his retirement decision, but he still manages to stay in the news.  CBSSports.com reported that Brady is “in deep discussions to become a limited partner of the Las Vegas Raiders”.  The fact that Brady and Raiders’ owner, Mark Davis, are already partners in the ownership of the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces lends credence to this report.  Even if these “deep discussions” lead Brady and Davis to common ground, it will still require a 75% positive vote of the NFL owners for the deal to close.

Assuming that no scandalous information related to Brady surfaces between now and the time he and Davis come to some sort of agreement, I cannot think of a reason why the owners would not support whatever deal came to their attention.  However, I am not so sure that the TV execs at FOX will be nearly as enthralled.

Starting in the 2024 NFL season, Brady will begin a 10-year deal with FOX to do color commentary on NFL regular season games.  That 10-year deal is reported to be worth $375M.  I am on record saying that I do not believe that Tom Brady is going to like the job of color analyst and that because he is not going to like the job, he will not do the job well.  That is not a knock on Brady; that is a statement that applies to most people who do not like their job.  But there is more to it than just liking the job.

If Brady is a limited partner in the Raiders, what might that do to his “credibility” calling a Raiders’ game?  Or how about games involving teams in the AFC West who compete directly with the Raiders for playoff positions?  It is difficult for a color analyst when he has to call a game involving one of his former teams; it is a higher hurdle to cross if a color analyst is calling a game involving a team he partially owns.  I can see the FOX execs squirming a bit here.

But that is not all the squirming that may be happening.  Longtime Raiders’ fans still harbor “less than positive feelings” toward Walt Coleman who officiated the infamous “Tuck Rule Game” and the beneficiary of the “Tuck Rule” was none other than Thomas Edward Patrick Brady, Jr.  Can/Will those fans now embrace the Tuck Rule Beneficiary and make him part of Raider Nation?

The second QB today is Matt Ryan.  Last year, Ryan was with the Colts; this year he has signed on with the team at CBS to become a studio analyst and a game analyst for that network.  CBS has multiple platforms that relate to the NFL and the plan is to work Ryan in on most if not all of them.  According to the announcement of Ryan’s signing on with CBS, he will appear on:

• CBS HQ
• NFL Monday QB
• The NFL Today
• That Other Pre-game Show – – and – –
• “Select NFL games on CBS”.

Listening to Ryan speak in post-game press conference settings, he is clearly articulate, and he comes across as a relaxed but serious speaker.  If he does not fall victim to either stage fright or to a hyperfocus on minutiae, I suspect he will be pretty good as he gains experience.  Good luck to him …

The third QB today is Carson Wentz.  The last couple of NFL seasons have not been kind to Carson Wentz; he went from the starting QB for the Eagles to the Colts and then to the Commanders.  After last year, the Commanders released him; and he still has no spot on any NFL roster.  Being released by the Commanders is a slap in the face because here is the Commanders’ depth chart at QB as of this morning:

1. Sam Howell – – has played exactly 1 game in the NFL
2. Jacoby Brissett – – excellent as a career backup QB over 7 seasons; his record as a starter, however, is 18-30-0
3. Jake Fromm – – started 2 NFL games in 2021 and lost both of them
4. Tim DeMorat – – undrafted free agent from Fordham

I just read a report that said Carson Wentz was “biding his time” and “considering all of his options” and that he was “open to” an offer to be a backup QB somewhere.  I have no idea what options he may or may not be considering or if he is actually biding his time, but if he is truly open to the idea that his role in the NFL for 2024 is as a backup QB, then he has achieved a measurable degree of self-awareness.  And that is important because the behavior and the profile of a starting QB in the NFL is markedly different from the behavior and profile of a backup QB.

If Carson Wentz is ever to become “the guy” for an NFL team down the road (remember, he was the overall #2 pick in the Draft and is only 30 years old), he will have to play his way back and the way for that to happen is for him to become a really good locker room presence who can support and assist the starter on the team.

Finally, obviously I will close today with words from Charles Dickens.  I think he has some life advice for Carson Wentz here:

“No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of it to anyone else.”

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

 

 

A video appeared online over the weekend that showed Memphis Grizzlies’ star Ja Morant riding in a car driven by a friend with Morant flashing a handgun.  Recall that he did something similar at a strip club on a team trip to Denver earlier this year.  He was suspended by the team and the league; he went to “therapy”; he returned and spoke with the higher-ups in the NBA who pronounced him cured and aware of the potential consequences of his carrying handguns around and “flashing them.”  That “therapy” lasted 10 days; I suspect that even the therapist would agree that there is just a little more work to be done there.

After the Grizzlies were eliminated in the playoffs by the Lakers, Morant told the press after the final game that he realized that he was partially responsible for the loss.  He said then that he:

“… just [needs to show] more discipline.”

That was just a couple weeks ago and now he is once again showing discipline and restraint by flashing a handgun.  The NBA is in a dicey position on this one.  It is perfectly legal for Morant to own a handgun and presumably he has been smart enough to obtain all the permits necessary for him to carry that gun with him in public.  Nevertheless, if Morant and his gun are involved in a shooting incident somewhere down the road, there will be blowback that lands on the NBA as an “enabler” in the matter.

Ten days of counseling and “therapy” are not going to have much of an effect here; Morant is 23 years old and seems to have the maturity, discipline and social awareness of a 14-year-old.  There is no magic elixir that confers maturity on someone partaking of it, but someone or some organization needs to connect with Ja Morant and work with him over an extended period of time.  At some point, he will either need to grow up or he will have earned the moniker:

• Ja Moron.

Moving on …  Late last week, another wave of euphoria rolled over the fanbase in the DC area when it was announced that Josh Harris and Daniel Snyder then had a signed agreement for Harris to purchase the team and that his offer for the team was exclusive.  No more bids were going to be introduced into the sales process.  There were no reports of “dancing in the streets” [Hat Tip to Martha and the Vandellas] but there were many fans intoning “Ding, dong the witch is dead” [Hat Tip to The Wizard of Oz].  Things are indeed looking up for Commanders’ fans in the DC area – – and also for the other owners of NBA teams.  What happened last week was one more step toward a moment in time where the fans and the league are disassociated with the stench that that has been attached to this franchise for more than a decade.

Having said that, the deal is not done yet; no one should subject themselves to a case of premature exultation.

The NFL owners will meet in a regularly scheduled convocation next week in Minnesota.  The hope was that the NFL Finance Committee – – made up of 8 owners – – would recommend to the owners in plenary session that the sale be approved such that a vote of the 32 owners could ratify the deal.  According to the Washington Post this morning, that is not likely to happen.

According to the Post, the Finance Committee has been reviewing the deal since even before the deal was jointly signed and the deal was declared to be exclusive.  That is evidently an unusual happenstance.  The Post report references a person who is “familiar with the inner workings of the NFL” who says that there are two major forces at work here:

1. The owners as a group would be happy to disassociate themselves from Daniel Snyder with “as little rancor as possible.”
2. The complexity of the financing presented by Josh Harris and his “large number of limited partners” is going to make it difficult for the Finance Committee to sprinkle holy water on the deal and send to the owners for a vote.

Obviously, I know nothing about the fine structure of the bid that Josh Harris has put forth here.  Even if I were to be presented with the full scope of that bid, I would probably not be competent to pass judgement on its viability vis á vis NFL standards for such a transaction.  However, I suspect that the impetus provided by “Major Force #1” above will keep up momentum for an approval recommendation to come out of the Finance Committee eventually.  There may need to be some details modified in the substructure of the deal involving all those limited partners and some details related to any future liabilities on the league arising from activities during Snyder’s ownership of the franchise.

Those issues could make it impossible for the owners to see a fully vetted and sanctioned offer put before them next week in Minnesota.  But I suspect that there will be such a recommendation put before the owners eventually – – and that is now in question.  If the Post report is correct and there is no vote or decision by next week, the timing of the next step is unclear.  The next regularly scheduled owners’ meeting is in October 2023; that would be in the middle of the NFL regular season, and it would be messy even by the standards of this sale process to date.

There is precedent for the owners to set an ad hoc owners’ meeting specifically to address a franchise purchase.  That happened just last year when the owners met in August to give the final approval for the sale of the Denver Broncos to Rob Walton.  Perhaps, that is the light at the end of the tunnel for Commanders’ fans.

• Then again, sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel turns out to be a gorilla with a flashlight…

Finally, the sale of the Commanders’ franchise is something that must be appreciated in the long run.  So, let me close today with this observation about “the long run” by the economist John Maynard Keynes:

“Long run is a misleading guide to current affairs.  In the long run, we are all dead.”

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

 

 

After several days of rumors and leaks, the NFL put on a press extravaganza last night and released the regular season schedule for all 32 teams in 2023.  Because the NFL schedule is formulaic, we have known for months which teams would play which other teams overall; what was revealed yesterday is the order of the games and their venues.  Last week, Bob Molinaro of the Hampton Roads Virginian-Pilot quite accurately predicted the hullabaloo that surrounded the announcement:

“Up next: In its ongoing quest to eclipse all other sports news and conversation, the NFL will grab headlines again next week with the release of its regular-season schedule. As always, media will treat it like the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls.”

Because we have known the opponents for all teams for months but not their order, one of the themes about the scheduling for 2023 is that the Philadelphia Eagles have the “toughest schedule” in the league based on the cumulative record of all their opponents in 2022.  Once the schedule was announced, I went to see what the “toughest schedule” looked like when it stared me in the face.  Here are a couple of impressions:

• The Eagles – like all NFC teams in 2023 – play 8 home games and 9 road games.  Of the 8 opponents who will visit Lincoln Financial Field, 6 of those visitors made the playoffs in 2022.
• The Eagles have a 7-game stretch between November 5^th and Christmas Day where all 7 opponents made the playoffs in 2022.  Here is what that schedule looks like:
  • • Vs. Cowboys
    • BYE Week
    • At Chiefs
    • Vs. Bills
    • Vs Niners
    • At Cowboys
    • At Seahawks
    • Vs. Giants

There was another event related to the NFL earlier this week that did not receive nearly the same amount of attention as the schedule release or the amount of coverage that the start of the story received.  About a year ago, Matt Araiza was a rookie punter for the Bills until the team released him in the wake of an accusation that he had participated in the gang rape of a 17-year-old girl at a party while he was in college.  In retrospect, the coverage at the time represents a black mark for journalism.  At least 90% of the coverage/commentary assumed that Araiza was a loathsome creature from whom great punishment(s) should be extracted.  Far too many commentators generalized this purported kind of behavior and placed it on young testosterone-fueled athletes.  Here is the not-so-minor problem:

• After months of investigation, the authorities in San Diego announced that there would be no charges brought against Araiza and that a witness at the party in question said that Araiza left the party an hour before the alleged gang rape happened.

There were volumes of opprobrium hurled at Araiza about a year ago over this; this week, there was not a similar wave of apologies for jumping to conclusions without evidence.  Journalists are highly vocal when any behavior that might limit their freedom of expression arises; there is no reticence then in wrapping themselves in the First Amendment.  Well, here is a situation where those proponents of the Constitution rode roughshod over the Fifth Amendment which is the basis of the American tradition – – innocent until proven guilty.

Switching gears …  The NFLPA is scheduled to name a successor to its Executive Director, DeMaurice Smith.  The union’s rules require that there must be at least two candidates for the position and potentially as many as four.  The union president, former Browns’ center JC Tretter, announced that there would be a meeting in June of this year focused on finding Smith’s successor.  What makes this interesting is this:

• The meeting is scheduled for next month but there is no news on who the candidates for the job might be.
• The slate of candidates for this position is hardly TOP SECRET/DESTROY BEFORE READING information and with the meeting scheduled sometime in the next 6 weeks, one would think that at least some applicants for the job would be identified.

For the record, I am not implying that there is something dastardly or nefarious going on here.  I do think it is unusual to shroud this sort of thing in any level of secrecy and that makes me wonder why Tretter and the rest of the NFLPA officers would go to the trouble of holding on to that information.  It is not as if the new Executive Director will do the job opaque to the public and the press.  And in the spirit of full disclosure, I am not one of the potential candidates for the position.

Finally, let me close today with this observation by Edward Teller – – widely known as the “father of the hydrogen bomb”:

“A fact is a simple statement that everyone believes.  It is innocent unless found guilty.  A hypothesis is a novel suggestion that no one wants to believe.  It is guilty, until found effective.”

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

 

 

Earlier this week, West Virginia’s men’s basketball coach, Bob Huggins was doing a live interview on the radio and uttered a homophobic slur.  Actually, taken in context, it may have been a dual slur – – homophobic and religious – – but that is not really important.  Huggins is 70 years old; he is clearly an adult and is in the final stages of his career as a basketball coach.  In today’s hyper-sensitive and easily triggered environment, what might be his fate?

Huggins apologized as is required behavior in such situations; and so, the first reaction was to debate the sincerity of his apology – – something only he could possibly know.  That was followed by people exhibiting and expressing varying levels of shock and horror that a person who is supposed to mold young men into model citizenry would even think such vile thoughts.  And soon after that came calls for his head on a plate – – figuratively of course; folks merely wanted him fired and shunned.

Here is West Virginia University’s course of action:

• Huggins will be suspended for 3 games next year.
• Huggins’ salary will be reduced by $1M – – and that money will go to the school’s LGBTQ Center.
• Huggins will be required to meet with “LGBTQ leaders” in West Virginia – – presumably to get him to better appreciate that segment of society.
• Huggins’ multi-year contract will convert to a year-to-year deal removing future salary guarantees.

On one hand, I doubt that any of the sanctions leveled here will change whatever it was in Bob Huggins’ mind or soul that led him to say what he did.  Then again, I doubt that firing him from his job and relegating him to the status of a non-person would make that sort of change either.

At the same time, please do not take the position that Huggins’ remarks have gone unnoticed or unpunished.  Granted that the suspension means little to nothing and the meetings with “LGBTQ leaders” will probably be staged events at best.  But Huggins has been “fined” $1M and has had future salary guarantees taken from him.  That loss of salary will not put Huggins and his family in the poorhouse, but it is something significant.

• [Aside:  The WVU President is E. Gordon Gee who – interestingly – has a history of uttering religious slurs of his own.  When he was President of Ohio State, he was asked about the possibility of Notre Dame joining the Big Ten Conference and he said that would not happen because Notre Dame’s priests are “not good partners” and that you can’t trust “those damned Catholics”.  And this is the guy handing out punishments to Bob Huggins.  Physician, heal thyself…]

Moving on … The ongoing search by the Oakland A’s for a new stadium/home appears now to rest on the Nevada State Legislature appropriating some funds to flesh out the financing for a new stadium in Las Vegas on a tract of land that the A’s owners have purchased there.  There is posturing and dancing going on as this comes to a head; legislators say the A’s have not given sufficient guarantees about moving should the monies be appropriated and the A’s saying they can’t do anything more without funding certainty.  Tweedle-dee and tweedle-dum…

Personally, I do not like the idea of taxpayers footing the bill for stadiums unless the jurisdiction owns the stadium and leases it at a reasonable price to the team in town.  That never seems to happen.  However, the folks who are in power to govern Las Vegas seem to have decided that having major league sports in the city is beneficial to the city and the residents there.  If the A’s actually take up residence in Las Vegas, that will give the city franchises in the NFL, NHL, WNBA and MLB.  Last I checked, Nevada was a jurisdiction based in democracy; if the folks in charge in Las Vegas are wrong and the people who live in Las Vegas recognize that the vison of the city as a sports hub is not what the people want, then the people can go to the polls and run these guys out of town.

If I were a resident in some other part of Nevada remote from Las Vegas, I would surely not want my legislative representatives to spend some of my tax dollars in this way.  But I am not a resident of Nevada so my opinion on that subject is just that – – my opinion; I have no dog in this fight.

It does seem to me that the city of Oakland has more to lose here than Las Vegas has to gain.  The economy of Las Vegas is rather robust as is; adding an MLB team to the list of “attractions” there seems to be of marginal value to the city of Las Vegas and its “prestige”.  Oakland, on the other hand, stands to lose something that is an identifier for the city – a recognizable entity directly associated with the city.  Moreover, this is not the first such recognizable entity that has been lost by Oakland:

1. Oakland lost the NFL’s Raiders – – twice
2. Oakland lost the NBA’s Warriors
3. Oakland lost the NHL’s Seals – – eventually becoming the San José Sharks
4. Oakland now stands to lose MLB’s A’s …

The folks in power in Oakland have chosen to resist agreeing to plans that would cost the city large sums of money to retain the A’s domicile there.  I agree philosophically with their position; I would support those elected officials were I resident in Oakland; and at the same time, I see that the city is going to pay a price for that principled position.  Even if the Nevada State Legislature does not come thorough with funding, I think the writing is on the wall that the A’s are leaving town and going “somewhere else”.

Finally, here is what Groucho Marx had to say about “principles”:

“These are my principles.  If you don’t like them, I have others.”

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

 

 

The tenth of May is abbreviated as 5/10 and so let me be the first to wish you a Happy Woolworth’s Day.

The full NFL schedule will be announced tomorrow, but the league has already announced the Europe Games for 2023.  There will be five of them and the folks in London and in Germany are going to get to see some upper-tier teams this year; lots of playoff teams from last year will be venturing across the pond this year.  And Jax – – a playoff team last year – – will play two games in London.

1. Week 4:   Jags/Falcons – – Wembley Stadium in London
2. Week 5:   Jags/Bills – – Tottenham Hotspur Field in London
3. Week 6:   Ravens/Titans – – Tottenham Hotspur Field in London
4. Week 9:   Chiefs/Dolphins – – Frankfurt, Germany
5. Week 10: Colts/Pats – – Frankfurt, Germany

With an odd number of regular season games, this is the year that AFC teams have the “ninth home game”.  That is the reason why AFC teams are the “home team” in all five of the Europe Games; that way all the NFC teams get a full slate of “home games” as part of their revenue stream.

Switching gears …  The rule changes implemented this year by MLB that have led to shorter games with a higher “action density” than in recent years seem to be working.  Notwithstanding some dire predictions by some baseball fans/historians, the Earth has not ceased to spin on its axis in response to these changes.  I love the pitch clock; the larger bases have put the stolen base back into the games.  Originally, I did not like the idea of “banning/limiting The Shift” but I have learned to live with it rather quickly.  But maybe the winds of change are not over when it comes to MLB.

The baseball mavens continue to experiment with robo-umpires to call balls and strikes in minor league games.  The Atlantic League – – made up of independent teams of minor league players – uses robo-umps to call balls and strikes.  One of the noted benefits so far is that there are no arguments with the home plate umpire about a called pitch because all the human umpire is doing is relaying the call he got in an earpiece from the “computer”.  Arguing about or grousing at a call is pointless; the agent making the call in question is not human and not present.  Fewer meaningless baseball arguments cannot be all bad…

In Triple-A games there are also robo-umps, but they are used differently.  The human umpire makes the calls on balls and strikes; teams have limited numbers of challenges where they can appeal the human’s call to the robo-umpire.  I have not read much about how this is working out, but the idea seems sound to me – – if the number of permitted challenges is small.

If/when robo-umps come to MLB, there will need to be a uniform way to set the standard for a strike zone.  The dimensions of home plate do not change so two of the three spatial dimensions are fixed for every hitter.  It is the vertical dimension that will need to be set and defined.  The rulebook defines that vertical dimension, and it has been largely ignored for decades.  Is that rulebook definition the strike zone that would be enforced by robo-umpires?  Moreover, the strike zone for different players will move up and down in the vertical dimension.  Using players from baseball’s past, consider the height of the strike zone for Freddie Patek (5’ 5” tall) and Dave Kingman (6’ 6” tall).

Neither of those two “issues” should be disqualifying for the use of robo-umpires should everything else associated with their introduction appear positive, but they are issues to be addressed.  One subtlety associated with robo-umpires is in the mindset of the umpire behind the plate.  The robo-umpire is focused solely on the position of the ball as it comes to the catcher – – was it or was it not in the strike zone.  So, the robo-umpire may tell the home plate umpire that a pitch was a “Ball” – – but the batter swung and missed so it needs to rung up as a strike.  Absent concentration and attention to detail can lead to confusion for the home plate umpire.

As they say in those infomercials that air at 3:00 AM, “But wait, there’s more …”

Here are some other rule changes that are in the early stages of contemplation:

• The Double Hook:  This rule puts a burden on a team’s starting pitcher.  If he goes five full innings, all goes as normal.  However, if the starter is removed from the game before five full innings, then the DH is removed also, and the incumbent pitcher would have to bat in the slot previously occupied by the DH.  This rule would effectively end the idea of a team using an “Opener”.  I think I like this rule change…
• The Designated Pinch Runner:  A bench player can be used as a pinch runner once in a game and both players would be allowed to return to the game.  This could allow a manager the strategic advantage of a faster base runner at some point in the game without sacrificing the player who is run for.  The player in the game would return to his normal position at the end of the inning and the designated runner would be eligible to come into the game as a pitcher or position player later in the game.  I think I like this rule change too – – so long as it can only be done once in a game.
• The Single Pick-Off Move:  The rule change implemented this year limits a pitcher to two pick-off/step-back events per batter.  That tends to speed up the game and enhances base stealing at the same time.  The idea here is to limit the pitcher to only one such event per batter.  I am not nearly as interested in this concept as I am in the two listed above…

These three rule change possibilities are also being tested in the Atlantic League.  It remains to be seen if any or all of them will make their way into the normal minor-league baseball structure.

Finally, I’ll close today with these words about change from Alfred, Lord Tennyson:

“And slowly answered Arthur from the barge:

The old order changeth, yielding place to new;

And God fulfills himself in many ways,

Lest one good custom should corrupt the world.”

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