The Sports Curmudgeon

In the summer of 1974, President Nixon resigned in disgrace as President of the United States; on the same day, Gerald Ford took the oath of office and became President.  Immediately after his swearing in, he gave a short speech to the American people which contained this memorable line:

“My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over.”

That was my reaction yesterday when I read that the Brooklyn Nets and Kevin Durant have resolved whatever differences they may have had and have decided to “move forward” together for the upcoming NBA season.  The Nets’ management team has seemingly finessed bad news associated with all three of its star players:

• Ben Simmons is reportedly working on his basketball game in this offseason.  There has never been any question as to his defensive skills or his passing ability, but his offensive game has been pretty much limited to driving and dunking.  He has not played professional basketball for more than a year after sitting out a season citing mental health issues and a back problem.
• Kyrie Irving threatened not to exercise his 1-year player-option to stay with the Nets and earn $37M for next year.  He threatened to become a free agent and to sign on with the Lakers for $6M next year under a provision of the CBA called a “mid-level exemption”.  To the surprise of exactly no one, when the deadline for that option came, Irving signed  on with the Nets.  They say that money talks; well in that situation, the difference of $31M for next year spoke loudly and clearly.
• Kevin Durant issued a trade demand and when that did not materialize, he got a meeting with Nets’ owner Joe Tsai and said he would stay if Tsai fired both head coach, Steve Nash, and GM, Sean Marks.  Tsai told Durant in ever so diplomatic terms that he would make decisions in the best interests of the Nets.  Translation:  I own the team; you’re under contract; please go pound sand.

But all that is in the past.  The management team for the Nets remains in place and the three best players have now – seemingly – committed to “moving forward” in total harmony seeking an NBA championship in the next year.  Can this moment of serenity maintain itself for the next 10 months when a new NBA champion is identified?  I hope so and that sentiment has nothing to do with any sort of fandom for the Brooklyn Nets.

I want this to hold together for a much more personal reason:

• I have heard and read more than enough narcissistic nonsense from all three of those goombahs to last a lifetime.  If this holds together for 10 months, there will be a respite from any more of that crapola.
• Come next summer, this situation will return to focus because Kyrie Irving’s option year contract will be up, and he will be a free agent portending drama and nonsense.  So, if I can get a 10-month respite from such hogwash I will count it as a blessing from above.

Moving on – – but staying with the NBA – – the league released its schedule for the upcoming season.  In so doing, the NBA positioned itself first and foremost among US sports leagues in terms of virtue-signaling by announcing that it had purposely scheduled no games at all on November 8^th 2022 because that is Election Day for the mid-term elections.  The NBA does not want to put its fans in the situation where they have to decide to vote or to pay attention to an NBA regular season game.  Here is part of the statement from the league:

“The scheduling decision came out of the NBA family’s focus on promoting nonpartisan civic engagement and encouraging fans to make a plan to vote during midterm elections.”

Until the moment this scheduling quirk was announced, I had no idea that the NBA had someone in a position called “executive director for the NBA’s social justice coalition”.  I do now only because that person also chimed in about this scheduling decision:

“It’s unusual. We don’t usually change the schedule for an external event but voting and Election Day are obviously unique and incredibly important to our democracy.”

This is so transparently bullsh*t that I am proud to note that every NBA exec who participated in the schedule announcement did so without breaking down and giggling.  Let me count the ways:

1. MLB and the NFL need not worry about interfering with any fan’s “plans to vote” because MLB is in its offseason and the NFL never plays on Tuesday nights – – yet.  So, in terms of uniqueness…
2. Voting takes place during the daytime hours; NBA games take place in the evening/nighttime hours.  If fans would be tempted to favor an NBA game over voting, the temporal differences between the two events should resolve that problem.
3. Regarding the “uniqueness” of Election Day, I would suggest that Christmas Day is similarly “unique”, and that the NBA goes out of its way to schedule as many as five “quality games” for that day without any fear that they might interfere with any other activities associated with that day.

Here is the question that should have been posed to Adam Silver as the Election Day “blackout” was announced:

“Commissioner Silver, you have been with the NBA for 30 years now and the NBA has played on Election Days in the past.  Has that scheduling regimen ever caused you to miss a voting obligation because you had to be at an NBA game or in some venue watching an NBA game on TV?”

• Memo to NBA Execs:  Your fakeness is showing…

Obviously, no one asked that question because it would have been a downer on the virtuosity that was washing over everyone in the room.

Finally, let me close with the suggestion that the NBA’s scheduling quirk is properly labeled this way:

Sanctimonious (adj):  Making a show of being morally superior to other people.

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

 

 

Last night, I was checking various online sites to see if anything was happening that would provide fodder for comment this morning.  That led me to an item with this headline:

“NBA Hall of Famer Dennis Rodman says he will get involved in helping WNBA star Brittney Griner return to the US”

It has been a while since Rodman unleashed his geopolitical potential energy and the story that followed under that headline posed as many questions as it provided answers.  For example, Rodman said that he is planning to go to Russia this week to seek Griner’s release and that:

“I got permission to go to Russia to help that girl.  I’m trying to go this week.”

The question that arises from that statement is pretty obvious.  From whom did you ask permission and why?  Since the US Government is engaged with the Russians in negotiations that could lead to Griner’s release from her prison term there, I cannot imagine that folks like Secretary of State Blinken would be seeking Rodman’s intervention here.  Perhaps what Rodman means here is that he applied for a visa to travel to Russia, and he just got that visa granted by one of the Russian facilities here in the US – – but if so, that is an unusual phraseology.  Then again, we are talking about Dennis Rodman here so “unusual” is not out of the question…

One other strange comment by Rodman was noted in the report.  He said that he has had more interactions with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un but that he knows President Putin “too well”.  No way I am going to try to deduce what that could mean…

Obviously, I hope someone can find an expeditious way to effect Brittney Griner’s release from a 9.5-year sentence in a Russian Labor Camp for what can only be described as a minor infraction of Russian law.  If Dennis Rodman can do that by greasing the skids with some autographed game-worn NBA paraphernalia, good on him!

Over the weekend, another headline caught my attention.  It said that Chad Brown had been arrested in a potential domestic violence situation.  My first thought was that “Chad Brown” was the former Steeler’s linebacker but the first paragraph of the story following the headline made it clear that this was Chad Brown the horse trainer whose horse, Early Voting, had won the Preakness Stakes a few months ago.  I mention this only because of the charge leveled in his arrest.  Police in Saratoga Springs, NY charged Brown with “criminal obstruction of breathing”.  Where I grew up, that was generally referred to as “choking”…

If those two reports do not have you shaking your head in bewilderment this morning, let me add a third one to the pile.  Here is the headline and here is a link to the full article:

“Rutgers Athletics spends more than $450,000 on DoorDash in past year, ongoing reporting finds”

I know that I am a troglodyte, and I am no longer shamed to admit it.  I have never used DoorDash or any other food delivery service in my life; therefore, I have exactly no idea how much it costs for them to pick up some food somewhere and bring it to my doorstep.  Nevertheless…

According to the report here, one of the “perks” afforded to the Rutgers’ football team over the past year was free DoorDash deliveries; the players could order, and the school would pay for it.  However, in a one-year timespan, it seems that players availed themselves of the service “approximately” 19,745 times.  That number was staggering to me for a couple of reasons, so I went to Google and found that the 2021 Rutgers football roster had 131 players listed.  Let me do some math here:

• 19,745 delivery requests divided among 131 player means  the “average player” ordered a delivery 151 times in a one-year period.  That comes to about three times per week per player…
• 19,745 delivery orders costing $450,000 means the average order was just under $23.  That does not seem like the cost of a delivered dinner for a college football player and is even more disturbing when you consider this line from the report:

“A review of receipts found that football players placed lavish orders from Outback Steakhouse and Red Lobster, plus pizza, tacos, chicken wings and Chinese food, oftentimes from restaurants near their hometowns across the U.S. — not near the Rutgers campus.

“In one case, a player placed orders a thousand miles apart on the same day, in Florida and New York — and then continued to make orders in Florida for two more days,” the Bergen Record found.”

Rutgers is a state university; it appears that the Athletic Department is running at a deficit per this report and others; that means the DoorDash bill for the football team was underwritten in large measure by the taxpayers in the State of New Jersey.  Given the amount of – or lack of – oversight on expenditures in this case, it is not all that surprising for me to find that an entity known as the Tax Foundation has calculated that the State and Local Tax burden in New Jersey is the fifth highest of any of the 50 States.

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

“Magnus Carlsen, Norway’s five-time world chess champion, announced he will not defend his title but denied he is retiring.

“What, are the Saudis going to bankroll a LIV Chess Tour too?”

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

 

 

Unaccustomed as I am to be starting off a rant with a positive report, let me give that a try today.  Last week, there were reports that Dick Vitale has been declared “cancer-free” which in medical terms is a step above being “in remission”.  Vitale has been undergoing treatment for lymphoma for about 6 months and this is the latest positive news from that situation.  I have commented here in the past that there have been times when Vitale’s way over-the-top exuberance on a college basketball broadcast has diminished my enjoyment of the game.  Notwithstanding that criticism, I am happy that he is cancer-free.  Cancer sucks …

The FIFA World Cup scheduled for this November in Qatar seems to be doing a land-office business regarding ticket sales.  The event organizers plan to sell a total of 3 million tickets to the myriad events that make up the tournament and a report last week at frontofficesports.com said that they have already sold 2.45 million of those tickets.  According to that report, more than 520,000 tickets were sold between July 5 and July 16 on FIFA’s online ticket site.  The site is now dark, and people are awaiting an announcement from FIFA about when the next buying period will take place.

In other economic news related to the upcoming World Cup tournament:

• Telemundo has the US Spanish-language broadcast rights for the World Cup.  They report that they have already sold 90% of their available advertising inventory for the tournament.
• FOX has the US English-language broadcast rights for the World Cup.  That network has not made a statement about how its ad sales are going but they did say recently that they will take a “small army” of folks to Doha to cover the tournament.  FOX will have about 150 people on site in Doha and that there will be announcers in the stadium for every game in the tournament.

Moving on …  The story of Tom Brady “taking off” from the Bucs’ training camp has gotten a lot of speculative commentary as to the reason for his absence.  But before I add just a smidgen to that commentary let me say that he has not taken off “under mysterious circumstances” because to say that is to misuse the word “mysterious”.  Tom Brady has left the Bucs’ training camp under “secret” circumstances.  Here is the fundamental difference:

• For the circumstances to be “secret”, someone somewhere must know why he did what he did.  Surely, Tom Brady knows why he did what he did.
• For the circumstances to be “mysterious”, no one can yet know why he did what he did.  Since Tom Brady knows, these are not “mysterious”.
• The difference between a “secret” and a “mystery” is that someone knows what the “secret” is, but no one knows what the “mystery” is.

I have heard/read speculation that Brady is tending to “family matters” to include being with someone in the family who is ill – – and/or that he is reassessing his comeback from that 4-week retirement that he announced back in the winter – — and/or that he is off recording an appearance on The Masked Singer – – and/or that his marriage is in trouble.  I certainly hope that no one in his family is ill to the point that Tom Brady feels the need to leave training camp and I certainly hope that his marriage is not in trouble.  If he is off doing The Masked Singer, I hope he does a better job at it than Terry Bradshaw did several years ago.  If he is indeed re-thinking his retirement/comeback decisions, here is economic data:

• If Tom Brady plays for the Bucs in 2022, I believe he will earn $30M if he achieves all the bonuses in the contract.
• If Tom Brady retires, he will go to the FOX broadcast booth and under the terms of that deal will make approximately $37.5M in 2022.

I am convinced that Brady will not make an economic decision here simply because I do not think that a difference of $7.5M in income for this year is sufficient for him to break a sweat mentally.  But for those of us who ponder “retirement planning”, it is interesting that he would make more money in his first retirement year than he would make by “staying on the job”.

I will not pretend to know why Brady decided to do what he did, but I will say this:

• If Brady is committed to play for the Bucs in 2022, I really doubt that his absence from training camp for a week or two will render him unprepared for the season-opener at the Cowboys on Sunday night September 11^th.

If one wanted to find things to worry about as a Bucs’ fan this year, Tom Brady’s readiness for the season opener should be low on that list.

Finally, let me close today with an item I found in Gregg Drinnan’s blog, Taking Note:

“RORY WITH AN ACE — Rory McIlroy has been outspoken against those golfers who turned their backs on the PGA Tour for the Saudi Arabian cash of the LIV circuit. To which Patrick Reed, who isn’t the most-liked golfer in the world, said: ‘He’ll never win a Masters to complete a career Grand Slam.’ . . . That is said to have brought this response from McIlroy: ‘The only chance Reed has of getting a Grand Slam is at Denny’s.’”

For the record, the Grand Slam at Denny’s is a good breakfast…

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

 

 

The latest chapter in the Deshaun Watson dramatic tour de force came to a close yesterday.  It si not over, but we can move on to a new phase.  By now, you surely have heard/read that Watson, the NFLPA and the NFL agreed that he will miss 11 games in 2022 and that he will pay a $5M fine (donated to a charity) and that he will undergo a therapy plan.  That is more punishment than the arbiter who heard the case originally mandated but it is less than what the NFL reportedly sought in this case.

Before I get to my take on yesterday’s events, please let me point you to Sally Jenkins’ column today in the Washington Post.  Jenkins has been a severe critic of both Watson and the NFL from the outset of this multi-act drama; to call today’s column “biting” would be a serious understatement.  Just to whet your appetite, here is the headline for the column followed by a brilliantly crafted turn of phrase:

“Deshaun Watson is the star the NFL deserves: A cynical, empty narcissist”

And…

“Once you place your finger squarely on this, you can’t hear anything said by the league or by Cleveland Browns officials as anything other than a concerto of condescension and connivance.”

Psychologists define a condition, cognitive dissonance, as the discomfort that is created when one holds two or more conflicting values/beliefs/attitudes in mind at the same time.  People struggle to resolve – or at least minimize – the discomfort created by such a conflict  Deshaun Watson must have some degree of cognitive dissonance after yesterday’s settlement with the NFL and his statements to the public.  Where to start?

In a prepared statement, Watson said:

“I apologize once again for any pain this situation has caused. I take accountability for the decisions I made.”

In dealing with the press after the settlement was announced, he said:

“I’m going to continue to stand on my innocence.  Just because settlements and things like that happen doesn’t mean that a person is guilty for anything.”

So, what is he apologizing for if he is not “guilty for anything”?  When an innocent party apologizes for something (s)he has not done, you have to suspect immediately that the apology is just a tad insincere.

The NFL pooh-bahs must also be suffering some cognitive dissonance this morning too.  The settlement agreement among the parties here calls for Watson to “comply with a professional treatment plan” yet to be specified and that his return to the field after sitting out 11 games is contingent with his compliance.  Really?

• What is Watson to be treated for?  If he is innocent, how can he comply with something that starts from the premise that he did lots of bad things?
• How will the league, the union and Watson’s representatives decide on who will treat him for what?  I am unaware of any mental health expertise among the group of Roger Goodell (NFL Commish), DeMaurice Smith (NFLPA head) and/or Rusty Hardin (Watson’s defense lawyer).  Yet, they will have to agree that someone will treat Watson for something that at least two of the parties contend is hunky-dory.
• Who gets to determine in Week 12 when Watson is eligible to return to the field that he has complied with the treatment?  That troika mentioned above?  What happens if there is “dissent” after Week 11?
• How does anyone know now – when there is probably no agreement as to what is to be treated – that it might be sufficiently ameliorated by Week 12 that Watson can return to the field and not revert to whatever it was that he “didn’t do” to start this whole saga?

I am glad this chapter of the book is over; I have no interest in revisiting any of the allegations made by any or all of the two dozen women who have received civil settlements from Deshaun Watson.  Nor do I want to hear any more convoluted nonsense from Watson; and most assuredly, I would hope for both Dee Haslem and Jimmy Haslem to shut the [bleep] up about second chances and moving on to solve the real problems facing the country.

Here is the bottom line:

• Deshaun Watson got off easier than he would have if I were the original arbiter and/or the person assigned to rule on the appeal.

Still left in the air is any sort of resolution regarding the actions of the Houston Texans that may have facilitated Watson’s alleged actions.  Recall the team helped him find massage therapists and one of its employees supposedly gave Watson non-disclosure agreements for new therapists to sign.  Or is this just another situation where all of us need not pay any attention to the man behind the curtain…?

Finally, let me close with this off-field football related item from David Whitley in the Gainesville Sun:

“[Steve] Spurrier’s Gridiron Grille celebrated its first anniversary last week. Managing partner Freddie Wehbe said it’s quickly become the fifth-busiest restaurant in Florida. Among the stats: 128,962 cocktails and 38,644 bottles of wine were sold, which rivaled the record amount served in the Gator Bowl parking lot before the 1976 Florida-Georgia game.”

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

 

 

MLB has José Canseco whose mission in life seems now to be to inject random outrageous thoughts into the sports conversation aperiodically.  For a while, Terrell Owens served in that capacity for the NFL, but ever since T.O. boycotted his own induction into the Hall of Fame, he seems to have moved on to other pursuits in his life.  It appears to me that the “football vacuum” created by Owens’ retreat toward sanity is now being filled by Antonio Brown.

The last time we saw Brown in an actual NFL game wearing an actual NFL uniform, he punctuated his presence by removing that uniform in the middle of the game and walking out on the Bucs rather vociferously.  That dramatic exit – – stage right as I recall – – put him in the position to become the NFL random gadfly and it appears that Antonio Brown has seized that opportunity.

Recall that there have been multiple reports saying that Brown was signed by the Bucs at the urging of Tom Brady and that Brady had welcomed Brown to the Patriots where his stay was very brief due to off-field events.  After the end of the last season, Brown said that Brady was a great teammate and one of his “true friends in the midst of adversity”.  Measure all that sentiment against later remarks:

• Brown alleged on social media that Brady “lied to him” about being targeted if he played in a game where he was hurt.  He says he played but Brady never threw him the ball and that was part of why Brown left the field sans uniform,
• Brown followed that up with an appearance on a podcast where he said, “Tom Brady’s my friend why? Because I’m a good football player. He needs me to play football. People have different meanings of what friendship is.”
• Now that Brady has taken about a week off from Bucs’ camp for “personal reasons”, Brown has once again seized the opportunity to hit social media again with this gem – – “Tom brady 9sic) manipulate the game gets 14 days go home get his mind rt lol Now u see the difference Put that Shit on”
• That mysterious exposition which failed to explain what “manipulate the game” might mean in this context was followed up soon after with this bit of insight – – “No hard Feelings But these Feelings Hard,”

In the span of about 6 months, Tom Brady has gone from a great teammate and a true friend in the midst of adversity to a guy who only likes Antonio Brown because he needs Brown’s football greatness and who is now manipulating the game.  I don’t know about you, but I think that is quite a journey in such a brief time.

The only other NFL player who can come close to Antonio Brown  when it comes to random mercurial thoughts/actions would be Aaron Rodgers.  It was only about a week ago that Rodgers felt compelled to tell everyone about his psychedelic experiences in Peru with his former girlfriend and how those experiences had shown him how to love people unconditionally and how that was so important in football.  Earlier this week, he showed that unconditional love for his teammates by berating the young wide receivers in training camp with him for “a lot of drops, a lot of bad route decisions, running the wrong route”

But that exhibit of unconditional love was ameliorated by a meeting yesterday between all the Packers’ QBs and all the WRs in camp.  Obviously, I was not in that meeting but one of the young WRs there, Romeo Doubs, said this was his takeaway from that meeting:

“Aaron spoke to us about what he likes or what not just based on concepts or what he sees.  He just wants us to see what he sees.  So then that way we can be able to react faster, play faster and just be able to dominate and continue to be who we are.”

Do not even try to parse that first sentence and try to find significance in it.  People like to talk about “value-added processes”; in that first sentence, each word after “what he likes” is a value-subtracted process.  Move along to the second sentence and ask yourself if any QB at any level of football would want or say anything different.  Of course he wants you to see what he sees; were that not the case, there would be no need for practices or designed plays.

And then the third sentence demonstrates the clarity of Rodgers’ communication under his aura of unconditional love.  Playing faster leads to dominance which allows everyone to “continue to be who we are”.

• Memo to WR corps:  The last thing you want to do is to continue to be who you are.  You are “insufficient” now – – or else there would be no need for such a meeting.  You need to change for the positive and do it quickly.

On the other hand, the WRs should not worry all that much because Aaron Rodgers loves them unconditionally…

One bit of news out of the Lions’ training camp caught my eye this week.  Third-year RB, DeAndre Swift set a goal for himself in the 2022 season that is lofty indeed.  Swift said that he wants to amass 1000 yards and 1000 yards receiving during the season.  Only three players in NFL history have ever done that:

• Christian McCaffrey 2019:  1387 yards rushing and 1005 yards receiving
• Marshall Faulk 1999:  1381 yards rushing and 1048 yards receiving
• Roger Craig 1985:  1050 yards rushing and 1016 yards receiving

Setting personal goals is a good thing; setting achievable goals is critically important.  DeAndre Swift’s goal is clearly achievable since it has been done before, but it will take top-shelf effort from him to get there.

Bonne chance, DeAndre Swift…

Finally, let me close here with an observation by Larry Bird that might be useful for DeAndre Swift:

“A winner is someone who recognizes his God-given talents, works his tail off to develop them into skills, and uses these skills to accomplish his goals.”

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

 

 

Last week, I set out to identify – for myself – the “Greatest Living Baseball Player”.  I came up with Willie Mays in that role and did not get any real opposition.  I did not consider pitchers in that exercise – – or Designated Hitters either – – and said that I might try to identify the greatest living pitcher one of these days.  That statement got several notes of encouragement from family members and readers so I thought I would give it a go – – so to speak.  I fully expect plenty of disagreement with this selection.

As before, I have my own personal “ground rules” for this search; I did not consider any relief pitchers/closers for the title.  That means several excellent members of the Hall of Fame will not be under consideration here including:

• Dennis Eckersley
• Rollie Fingers
• Mariano Rivera
• Lee Smith
• Bruce Suter

I began this exercise the same way I began the previous one; I went to the Hall of Fame website and looked over their listing of the living Hall of Fame members.  That search gave me a list of 9 pitchers that I felt deserved a second look:

1. Steve Carleton
2. Tom Glavine
3. Sandy Koufax
4. Randy Johnson
5. Greg Maddux
6. Juan Marichal
7. Jim Palmer
8. Nolan Ryan
9. John Smoltz

I recognized quickly that this list is too long for close consideration given that I would probably be adding a few names of active players or those not yet eligible for Hall of Fame induction.  Therefore, I did a triage on the list above and dropped Glavine, Marichal, Palmer and Smoltz leaving me with 5 living Hall of Fame members.

Considering the not-yet-inducted members of the Hall of Fame, I made a preliminary list of seven more names:

1. Madison Bumgarner
2. Gerrit Cole
3. Jacob deGrom
4. Clayton Kershaw
5. Shohei Ohtani
6. Max Scherzer
7. Justin Verlander

Just because I like symmetry, I chose to remove Bumgarner and deGrom from this list to have 5 current Hall of Fame members and 5 someday-to-be Hall of Fame members on my consideration list.

Here began the much more difficult winnowing  of the list:

• Carleton:  He must be on this list simply because of his 1972 season.  The Phillies were an awful team in 1972 finishing in last place in the NL with a record of 59-97; but Carleton won 27 games that year by himself – – 46% of the team wins for a season.  He completed 30 games that year and at one point was the winning pitcher in 15 consecutive starts.  He was in the major leagues for all or part of 24 seasons and had a career ERA of 3.22 over more than 5200 innings.
• Cole:  He has been in the major leagues for 10 years now having spent half of his career working for some less-than-competent Pirate teams.  His career record so far is 126-67 with a career ERA of 3.21.
• Johnson:  He was in the major leagues for 22 seasons.  He was selected to the All-Star team 10 times, and he won the Cy Young Award 5 times.  He ranks second to Nolan Ryan in all time strikeouts having registered 4,875 Ks.  He also has a perfect game to his credit.
• Kershaw:  I don’t want to hear about how his playoff record does not match his regular season performance; Clayton Kershaw is a great pitcher.  He has been in the majors for 15 seasons; he led all of MLB in season long ERA 4 times and in another season his ERA was 1.69 but that was not even the best ERA in the National League.  He is a nine-time All Star, a three-time Cy Young winner and was MVP once in 2014.
• Koufax:  He was in the major leagues for 12 seasons.  From 1963 through 1966, his record with the Dodgers was an eye-popping 97-27.  His ERA over those four seasons was 1.85.  He was an All-Star 6 times, the Cy Young winner 3 times and the MVP once.  He threw 4 no-hit games and one perfect game.
• Maddux:  He spent 23 years in the major leagues.  He was an eight-time All-Star, a four-time Cy Young winner and he received a gold glove for fielding in 18 seasons.  He started 740 games and threw just over 5000 innings with a career ERA of 3.16.  His career strikeout to walk ratio was 3.37 and for the 3-year stretch from 1995 to 1997 his strikeout to walk ratio was 7.46.
• Ohtani:  It is way too soon to have him on a list such as this one, but I have him here because he is a baseball unicorn.  He is achieving statistical feats that have not been seen since Babe Ruth and that statement alone allows him to be under consideration here.  He has been in the major leagues for 4 seasons and in that time, he has been rookie of the Year, a two-time All-Star and the league MVP once.
• Ryan:  Let me do this one with a series of numbers.  27 seasons in MLB; 5386 innings pitched; 5714 strikeouts (more than one per inning over 27 years); gave up 6.6 hits per 9 innings – the lowest in MLB history’; started 807 games and completed 222 of them.  In his career, he threw 7 no-hit games.  ‘Nuff said…
• Scherzer:  He has been in the major leagues for 15 seasons and is signed with the Mets for two more.  His record is 198-99 and his career ERA is 3.11.  He has thrown 2 no-hitters in his career.  He has 8 All-Star appearances and 3 Cy Young Awards.
• Verlander:  He has been in the major leagues for 17 seasons, and he missed all of the 2021 season while recovering from elbow surgery.  His career record is 231-142 with an ERA of 3.26.
  Three times, he has led all of MLB in total wins for a season and is currently leading MLB in wins with a record in 2022 of 15-3.  He was Rookie of the Year in 2006; he has been on the All-Star team 9 times; he has 2 Cy Young Awards and an MVP award.

The only “easy” elimination from this list is Shohei Ohtani simply because he has not been in MLB long enough to have accumulated enough stats to match others on this list.  However, remember that he has been compared to Babe Ruth by various stat-folks and that simple comparison means he should be kept in mind when someone down the line compiles a list like this one.

After that “elimination” I took a walk with the list of 9 possibilities in hand and just did a free association with my recollections about these pitchers.  When I came back, I had the list narrowed down to three:

• Sandy Koufax
• Greg Maddux
• Nolan Ryan

            Given another 15 minutes or so to ponder that troika here is my pronouncement:

• The Greatest Living MLB Pitcher is – – – Sandy Koufax.

            As noted above, I do not expect anything resembling unanimity on this choice and there are sound arguments to be made in favor of others on my list and others that never made it onto my list.  Let the discussion begin…

Finally, today’s exercise has been about an evaluation of “greatness” made even more difficult by the time span of the achievements of these pitchers.  So, let me close with an observation by Michael Jordan on that subject:

“I believe greatness is an evolutionary process that changes and evolves era to era.”

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

 

 

Pete Carril died yesterday at the age of 92.  Carril was the head basketball coach at Princeton from 1967 to 1996 and his record over those years at Princeton was a gaudy 514-261.  Carril used what came to be known as the “Princeton Offense” which was deliberate and featured a lot of passing to get close-in/open shots.  Many teams were unfamiliar with that style of play, and it made Princeton a dangerous opponent in the NCAA Tournament.  In the late-80s, Princeton – – seeded 16^th – – took top-seed Georgetown to the wire losing 50-49 when a last second jump shot by the Tigers did not fall.  Then in 1996, Carril’s Princeton team beat the defending NCAA Champion UCLA Bruins in the tournament by the score of 43-41.  Coach Carril is enshrined in the Naismith Hall of Fame and in the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame.

Rest in peace, Pete Carril.

Let me stay with the sport of basketball for the next item for today.  The Kevin Durant Days of Discontent with the Brooklyn Nets continue to bubble up and take new forms.  Recall that Durant demanded a trade about 3 weeks ago, but nothing has materialized because there are not a lot of teams that want to give away the ranch to get a really talented player who also seemingly has difficulty staying happy with whatever team he is playing for this week.  The Nets realize his talent and have made it clear that they will only trade Durant for a huge haul of assets in return – – and Durant has only a minor bit of leverage here because he signed a deal with the Nets that puts him in Brooklyn for the next 4 seasons.

The latest twist in this soap opera is that Durant asked for – – and presumably got – – a meeting with owner Joe Tsai in which Durant said he would be willing to stay with the Nets if they would only fire head coach Steve Nash and GM Sean Marks.  According to reports, owner Tsai essentially told Durant that owner Tsai would make those sorts of decisions for the team and not Durant.

If Joe Tsai holds the line on these sorts of points, he will vault to the head of the line for “great owners in US major sports in the 2020s.”  Just as it was true that owners and leagues had players under their thumbs for many years in the past, the fact is that “player empowerment” over the past decade-and-a-half has spun out of control.  According to Forbes, Joe Tsai is worth $8.5B; even if he must pay Kevin Durant to play as a disgruntled employee, Joe Tsai and his family will not need to be shopping at Dollar General any time soon.  And Kevin Durant has only the smallest amount of leverage here:

• Durant is 34 years old and is committed to the Nets for the next 4 years.  If he gives even a smidgen about his “basketball legacy” he has to find a way to get on the court and stay there playing at a high level for a few more years.
• Durant could – theoretically – sit out and refuse to play if not traded.  According to spotrac.com, he would either forfeit his $45M salary for the upcoming season and maybe the contract would toll extending his tie to the Nets for another year.
• The Rudy Gobert trade earlier in this NBA offseason set the current market.  Gobert is a very good player but not nearly as good as Durant.  When the Jazz traded him, they got 4 first round picks plus the guy picked in the first round this year by the Timberwolves.  So, Joe Tsai has a benchmark he can use to see if any trade offers “measure up”.

This soap opera is not over by a longshot.  If Joe Tsai stands firm on his current position, this could become VERY interesting in another 6 weeks or so.  Hold that line, Joe Tsai…!!

Last week, Serena Williams announced that she will be “evolving away from tennis” after the US Open event which runs from August 29^th through September 11^th.  She is not “retiring”; her announcement of her new status allows for her to pick and choose tennis events she might “evolve into” as her new status allows.  The US Open was Williams’ first “major” back in 1999 and just that data point tells you something about her greatness as an athlete.  Longevity is an important element in assessing the greatness or near-greatness to a world class athlete; Serena Williams has a longevity factor of more than two decades of outstanding tennis play.  Think about the players who are at or near the top of their sports in the US and ask yourself how many of them have been in that status for 22 years.  The answer is – – not a whole lot of them…

#2 son sent me a text saying that Serena Williams was the best women’s tennis player he ever saw and asked me if I thought she was the greatest tennis player ever.  For sure, she is the best woman I ever saw play tennis – – but I am an old codger who remembers Rod Laver at the top of his game which put him at the top of the tennis game.  I have enjoyed watching Serena Williams dominate on the tennis court for a long time now – – but if pushed to name the greatest player I ever saw, I would have to stick with Rod Laver.

Finally, apropos of nothing, let me close with this observation by Laurence J. Peter – – known for his identification of The Peter Principle:

“A bore is a fellow talking who can change the subject back to his topic of conversation faster than you can change it back to yours.”

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

 

 

Late last week, MLB announced that Fernando Tatis, Jr. would be suspended for 80 games for a violation of the PED policy.  Tatis, Jr. suffered a broken wrist from a bicycle crash in the off-season and has not played at all this season; reports about two weeks ago said he was ”taking live batting practice” and could possibly be back in the Padres’ lineup in September.  Now, that is surely not going to happen because the Padres only have 63 games left in the 2022 season meaning Tatis, Jr. will not be in any playoff games this year and will sit out a bunch of games next April.

Reports say that he tested positive for clostebol which is an anabolic steroid that is banned by MLB and is on the banned list for the Olympics also.  The story here is that Tatis, Jr. used a skin balm containing clostebol to treat a case of ringworm; he has apologized for his error and the Padres’ brass has been supportive in public but has to be very unhappy in private.

In Al Capp’s classic comic strip, L’il Abner, there was a character named Joe Btfsplk; Joe was terminally unlucky; Joe was a jinx to anyone and everyone who was near him; Joe was so unlucky that he did not even have any vowels in his family name.  I am beginning to wonder if Fernando Tatis, Jr. is a real-life Joe Btfsplk or if Tatis, Jr. is simply dumb beyond measure.

Tatis, Jr. came to the Padres in 2019 at the ripe old age of 20.  In three seasons with the Padres, he has a .292 batting average and an OPS of .965.  The Padres recognized that they had a talent on their hands and signed him to a 14-year deal worth $340M.  Since that time, he has had the bicycle accident; he did not seek surgery or corrective measures promptly making a bad situation worse than it had to be; then came the “ringworm” which he treated without consulting the Padres medical staff and now he is suspended for 80 games.  [Aside:  I am certainly not a physician, but why might one treat a case of ringworm with an anabolic steroid?]  Oh, and doctors have told him that he needs shoulder surgery, but he has refused to go under the knife; maybe he can use his suspension time to get that item taken care of.

If my calculations are correct, the Padres are still on the hook for more than $300M for a guy who does not seem to be able to get out of his own way.  The situation is even more confusing given that Tatis, Jr. is the son of a former major leaguer meaning that he should be in sync with concepts such as team responsibility and working with doctors to keep his body in good condition.  Tatis, Jr. is an excellent player who could be a face-of-the-franchise guy.  At the moment, he is looking like a waste of talent.

Moving on …  Another story from last week that made me wonder was the announcement by the Washington Commanders that they had fired defensive line coach, Sam Mills III.  Teams normally do not fire assistant coaches in the middle of training camp and of all the parts of the Washington Commanders’ roster, it sure seemed to me that the defensive line was a bright spot.

The Commanders’ coach, Ron Rivera, is a stand-up guy, so I paid attention to his explanation for this move:

“Just a difference in philosophy for the most part and we’ll go from there.”

So, just move along … nothing to see here.  Except maybe there is something to see.  Sam Mills III began his coaching career with the Carolina Panthers in 2005.  He had been with the team for 6 seasons in a variety of positions when Ron Rivera took over the head coaching position there in 2011.  Rivera kept Mills III on his staff from 2011 until 2019 when the two parted company because Rivera was fired.  Mills III stayed on with the Panthers until Rivera took over the Commanders in 2020 whereupon Rivera hired Mills III.

So, let me review the bidding here.  These two guys worked together for most of a decade and Rivera specifically hired Mills III when Rivera got a new position in the league – – and now suddenly in the middle of training camp, there is a “difference in philosophy”?  Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain…

One more interesting note from last week …  People say that a good reason to go to a baseball game is that you may see something happen there that you have never seen before.  Well, that surely happened for the folks who went to see the Springfield Cardinals play the Amarillo Sod Poodles in a AA minor league game in the Texas League last week.  The Cardinals’ Tyler Chandler did something that no player in the history of MLB has ever done.  He hit for “The Home Run Cycle” meaning that he hit a solo home run, a two-run home run, a three-run home run and a grand slam home run in the same game.

Finally, since a “difference in philosophy” was part of an item here, let me close with some views of philosophy:

“Philosophy is an unusually ingenious attempt to think fallaciously.”  [Bertrand Russell]

And …

“Philosophy, n.:  A route of many roads leading from nowhere to nothing.”  [Ambrose Bierce]

And …

“I think I think; therefore, I think I am.”  [Ambrose Bierce]

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

 

 

The NFL’s Exhibition Season begins this weekend and for most of the players selected in April’s NFL Draft, this will be their first “live action” in an NFL uniform.  Fanboys around the country will be watching these rookies closely and projecting future greatness on each and every one of them.  That is why fanboys do not make good coaches of GMs in the NFL.

The reality is that about 250 players were selected in the Draft about 3 months ago and about half of them will never see the field in an official NFL game.  In fact, there will be players taken in the first round of this year’s Draft who will prove to be “less than was expected” even though first round picks get more intense scrutiny from scouts and coaches than others.

The 2022 season will be the 5^th season in the league for players taken in the 2018 Draft.  For players taken in the first round, the standard contract for draftees at that level would mean that the team that drafted them would have exercised the team option for the player to be on the squad this year.  So, let us look at the players taken in the first round of the 2018 NFL Draft – – in the order they were taken – – and see what happened to those good folks.

• Baker Mayfield – – He had an up and down relationship with the Browns that ended less than harmoniously.  Mayfield is now in Carolina competing for the starting job there.  Mayfield is certainly not a bust, but the Browns got little value from the overall #1 pick here
• Saquon Barkley – – He was the Offensive Rookie of the Year in 2018 but was injured and missed most of the 2020 season.  Last year his numbers were down from what they were prior to the injury.  As with Mayfield above, Barkley is not a bust – – but he has not been a value pick either.
• Sam Darnold – – The Jets took him and gave up on him.  Darnold is now in Carolina competing with Baker Mayfield for the starting job there.  In 4 seasons, Darnold’s completion percentage is below 60%.  Personally, I keep waiting for Darnold to ‘break out”; maybe I am waiting for Godot?
• Denzel Ward – – The Browns got a better return with the 4^th pick than they did with the 1^st pick.  Ward has been in the league 4 years and has been selected to the Pro Bowl twice; he is a mainstay of the defense.  Excellent pick…
• Bradley Chubb – – He has been injured in two of the four seasons he has been with the Broncos.  In his two “healthy years” he recorded 12 sacks as a rookie and 7.5 sacks in 2020.  He is a good player when he avoids the injury bug.  Good pick…
• Quenton Nelson – – Offensive guards do not get much “celebrity attention”; so, you may be surprised to see that Nelson has been selected to the Pro Bowl in all four of his seasons with the Colts and he has been a first team All-Pro 3 times and a second team All-Pro 1 time.  The Colts got an excellent value with this pick.
•  Josh Allen – – No need to comment here.  Josh Allen is an excellent NFL QB.
• Roquan Smith – – As a linebacker for the Bears, he has averaged 3.5 sacks per year and 131 tackles per year.  He has been named as a second team All-Pro twice.  The problem here is that contract talks have not enhanced the player/team relationship and Smith has now requested a trade.  Excellent pick – – but lousy aftermath…
• Mike McGlinchey – – Has started every game at OTwhen he has been healthy.  Missed half of last season with injuries.  Good pick…
• Josh Rosen – –  He lasted 1 year in Arizona then was sent to Miami and then to Atlanta.  This year he is with the Browns hoping to be an understudy there.  That is not what was envisioned by the Cardinals when they took him 10^th in this Draft.  Clearly, this is the worst pick so far on this list by a mile…
• Minkah Fitzpatrick – – He was taken by the Dolphins in this Draft and then traded to the Steelers in 2019.  He has been selected for the Pro Bowl twice and was named first team All-Pro twice.  An excellent pick and I am still not sure why the Dolphins decided to trade him…
• Vita Vea – – He missed most of the 2020 season with an injury but in his other three years he has been an excellent run-stopper in the middle of the Bucs’ defense and has recorded a total of 11.5 sacks from that position.  He was selected to the Pro Bowl last year.  Excellent pick…
• Daron Payne – – A solid performer at DT he has recorded a total of 14.5 sacks for the Skins/WTFs/Commanders over 4 seasons.  He was hoping for a contract extension this year but that has not happened yet.  Good pick
• Marcus Davenport – – As a pass-rusher he has averaged 5.25 sacks per year but as a defensive end he has only recorded an average of 28 combined tackles per year.  Meh!
• Kolton Miller – – He has started 63 games out of 65 possible games on the OL for the Raiders in the last 4 seasons.  He has no awards to his credit, but he has been a reliable offensive tackle from day one.  Good pick…
• Tremaine Edmunds – – He plays inside linebacker and still has recorded 4 INTs in his career; also, he averages 116 combined tackles per season.  He has been to the Pro Bowl twice in four years.  Excellent pick…
• Derwin James – – He missed most of the 2019 season and all the 2020 season.  He has been to the Pro Bowl twice and was a first team All-Pro once.  He just needs to stay healthy…
• Jaire Alexander – – He missed most of the 2021 season with an injury but was available for most of his first three seasons.  He was named to the Pro Bowl and was as a second team All-Pro in 2020.  Good pick …
• Leighton Vander Esch – – He has missed 13 games in his career due to injuries.  He was selected for the Pro Bowl and as a second team All-Pro in his rookie year.  Good pick…
• Frank Ragnow – – Offensive lineman are often the most overlooked players on a team; offensive linemen for a team as bad as the Lions are in the NFL’s version of the Witness Protection Program.  He missed most of last season with injuries but was named to the Pro Bowl and as a second team All-Pro in 2020.  Excellent pick…
• Billy Price – – He played his first three seasons with the Bengals and then was traded to the Giants where he appeared in 15 games last  year.  Meh!
• Rashaan Evans – – From the inside-linebacker position, he has recorded 3 sacks in 4 seasons and only averaged 79 combined tackles per season.  Meh!
• Isaiah Wynn – – He missed all his rookie year; he has only been in 34 of a possible 65 games for the pats since the Draft.  Meh.
• DJ Moore – – He has played in 63 of the 65 regular season games for the Panthers since they took him in this Draft. His numbers are OK but nothing stands out.  Meh!
• Hayden Hurst – – He played two seasons with the Ravens who then traded him to the Falcons where he played the next two seasons.  The Falcons did not exercise his fifth-year option, so he was a free agent in the last offseason; he signed a 1-year contract with the Bengals in the Spring and is competing for a job there.  Meh!
• Calvin Ridley – – His first two seasons with the Falcons were good-not-great but he had a very good year in 2020 being named second team All-Pro.  Last year he was injured and only saw the field in 5 games; and while he was injured, he placed at least one bet on the Falcons in a legal sportsbook and that has him indefinitely suspended by the NFL with that suspension extending to all the 2022 season at a minimum.  Ouch!
• Rashaad Penny – – He has only carried the ball 280 times in 4 seasons with the Seahawks, so you cannot say he has been a mainstay of their offense.  Last year, he led the NFL in yards per carry by a running back averaging 6.3 yards per carry.  Meh!
• Terrell Edmunds – – He has missed only 1 game in 4 years with the Steelers.  Meh!
• Taven Bryan – – He appeared in 63 games for the Jaguars registering 5.5 sacks as a defensive tackle but only 86 combined tackles in those 63 games.  The Jaguars did not exercise their fifth-year option, so he was a free agent in the last offseason.  He signed a 1-year contract with the Browns and is competing for a job there.  Meh!
• Mike Hughes – – He had 3 ordinary seasons with the Vikings who traded him to the Chiefs for a 6^th round pick in for the 2021 season.  As a free agent last winter, he signed a 1-year contract with the Lions and is competing for a job there.  Meh!
• Sony Michel – – His first three seasons with the Pats had injury issues and he was traded to the Rams for the 2021 season.  The fifth-year option was not exercised making him a free agent after the 2021 season and he signed a 1-year deal with the Dolphins.  Meh!
• Lamar Jackson – – In his 4 years with the Ravens, he has been named to the Pro Bowl twice; he was the MVP of the league in 2019 and was also named as a first team All Pro that year.  Obviously, the Ravens exercised their fifth-year option and Jackson is scheduled to make $23M this season and is in negotiations with the Ravens for a long-term contract.  Excellent pick.

So as a message to all the fanboys who will be salivating over the real and imagined skill sets on display this weekend by rookies and draft picks, they don’t all live up to expectations.  Having said that, I know for sure that my advice here will fall mainly on deaf ears.

Finally, since I just mentioned “advice”, let me close with the definition of advice from The Official Dictionary of Sarcasm:

“Advice:  the only thing in the world more unwelcome than a baby in a movie theater.”

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

 

 

I ran across a reference to the fact that Joe DiMaggio used to be introduced at Yankees’ Old-Timer games/events as the “greatest living baseball player.”  And that got me to thinking about who would be anointed as such in 2022.  Obviously, I began my search by going to the Hal of Fame website and looking at the members there; fortunately, they have a listing of the living Hall of Fame members.  There are 75 living members of the baseball Hall of Fame, and they are not listed alphabetically; in fact, if there is an order to the listing, it is not obvious to me.

However, the first player on the listing there is Willie Mays.  So, I went through the listing simply asking myself, is this guy better than Willie Mays or not.  The answer was “No” for the 74 other member of the hall of Fame who are still alive.

So, then I had to think about the best player who is not  yet in the Hall of Fame with the idea of comparing him to Willie Mays.  Quickly, I adopted three sorting rules for my search:

1. I was not going to include any pitchers on my list.  I told myself that maybe I would try sometime in the future to identify the “greatest living baseball pitcher” but not today.
2. Points would be deducted if a significant part of a player’s accomplishments were the result of him being a Designated Hitter.  I think the “greatest living baseball player” also had to demonstrate fielding and baserunning skills.
3. I was not going to consider young players who are still in the prime of their career because this sorting will be hard enough without rosy projections of possible future accomplishments.  So, there is an unfilled list of players as “Not Yet” including folks such as Bryce Harper, Fernando Tatis, Jr., Ronald Acuna, Jr. – – you get the idea.

So, I began making a list because I was not able to keep all of this in my mind without notes and save for alphabetizing, here is my list along with  some notes:

• Barry Bonds – – Nope, chemical enhancement
• Miguel Cabrera – – Sure to be in the Hall but not greatest player
• Albert Pujols – – Strong candidate
• A-Rod – – No
• Pete Rose – – Great baseball player; miserable human being
• Mike Trout – – Very good at everything

Fortunately, I did not have to worry about any rank ordering of that list for a very simple reason.  No one on that list is comparable with Willie Mays as an all-around baseball player.  So, my conclusion is that as of August 10, 2022, Willie Mays is the “greatest living baseball player.”

The reason I included today’s date in the paragraph above is that Willie Mays is also the oldest living member of the Hall of Fame; Willie Mays celebrated his 91^st birthday back in May.  And that got me to thinking about current living members of the Hall of Fame who might inherit Mays’ status down the line.  Again, save for alphabetizing, here is my list of candidates with notes:

• Rod Carew – – Career batting average of .328.  In MLB for 19 seasons and was an All-Star in 18 of those seasons.
• Orlando Cepeda – – Did everything well except baserunning. Overshadowed by teammate Willie Mays early in his career.
• Ken Griffey, Jr. – – Excelled at every phase of the game
• Reggie Jackson – – Great player with one ignominious stat.  He struck out 2597 times in 21 seasons; no player ever struck out more times.
• Mike Schmidt – – Best third baseman ever notwithstanding Orioles’ fans thinking Brooks Robinson was better.
• Frank Thomas – – Had a 19-year career with career batting average of .301 and career OPS of .974.
• Yaz – – Was an All-Star 18 times in a 23-year career.

Choosing from that list is not easy; if there were an “Elite Members Only Wing” of the Baseball Hall of Fame, all these folks would have keys to the amenities in that wing.  If I had to pick one player from the list, it would be Ken Griffey Jr. because he was great in the field, on the bases and at the plate.

Obviously, I do not expect unanimous agreement here.  As they used to say in the car commercials, “Your mileage may vary…”

Up above, I said that I was not going to include young players in my thinking for “greatest living baseball player” but as I was ruminating, I did keep a separate list of “Current active players who should make it to the Hall of Fame”.  Just for giggles, here is my list:

• Acuna, Jr. – – only needs to stay healthy
• Altuve – – forget the sign-stealing business, he is a great player
• Arenado – – good at the plate and excellent in the field
• Betts – – ???
• Cabrera – – Shoo-in
• Guerrero, Jr. – – can join his father in the hall…
• Harper – – must avoid injuries
• Machado – – Shoo-in
• Molina – – ??? longevity as a catcher is a plus
• Pujols – – Shoo-in
• Soto – – ???
• Tatis, Jr. – – ???
• Trout – – Shoo-in
• Votto – – great player on some awful teams

Finally, let me close today with this description of the movie, Star Wars taken from The Illustrated Dictionary of Snark:

“Star Wars:  Let’s see; A woman with two sticky buns on her head, a shag carpet, a vacuum cleaner, and a gay robot save the universe.  Could happen.”

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