D's Notebook

Tag: MLB (Page 1 of 4)

Pro Sports Notes

October 24, 2023 /

Time for a few thoughts about the exciting world of professional sports.

MLB Playoffs

I have continued to watch the playoffs most nights. Maybe not as closely as I did a few years back, but I’ve had them on which is a big step for me. Since I’ve been checked out on baseball for the past two seasons, that has turned me into one of those viewers who is amazed by seeing players for the first time in October and probably infuriates people who give the game attention all season.

Thus I’ve been infatuated with Texas Ranger Adolis Garcia. That dude’s performance in the ALCS was legitimately legendary. I don’t have any great love the the Rangers – I’ve always found them to be kind of anonymous and generic – but since it is fun to hate on the Astros, I was all-in on the Rangers winning the battle of Texas. That made Garcia’s performance, especially in the final three games of the series, even more enthralling. Nothing like getting an entire city to hate you then just destroying their hopes in the biggest moments of the year.

The Rangers-Astros series was great not just because it went seven games and had many moments of terrific drama. It was also great because of the in-state rivalry angle. Especially in 2023, when it is much easier to get tickets as a fan of the road team. The large number Rangers fans in Houston and Astros fans in Arlington gave each game a little extra juice that made them even more interesting to watch.

That got me thinking about how the nature of crowds has changed so much in recent years. It’s an on-going joke in NFL discussions that the LA Chargers play 17 road games, since they have a tiny fanbase in LA and their fancy new stadium is often filled with many more visiting fans. The Rams have a larger home fanbase but still play in front of an audience that has a healthy portion of out-of-towners, witness the amazing games against San Francisco in recent years that seemed like college bowl games instead of NFL games. Same for the Raiders since they moved to Las Vegas.

You can watch about any NFL game these days, and there will be a lot of people in the crowd cheering for the visitors, making enough noise to be noticeable on TV.

Tickets cost a ton. Parking is like buying an extra seat inside the stadium. NFL stadiums are filled with drunk, angry people. The in-stadium experience pales in comparison to watching a game at home. And going to the stadium requires an investment of at least five hours. Throw in a lot of tickets being snatched up by businesses and handed out to folks who aren’t diehards for the local team, and the makeup of crowds is just different these days. Where Arrowhead was once 79,500 Chiefs fans and a few hundred visiting fans scattered around, now the colors of the other team stick out of the sea of red.

Another thing that has blown me away about watching baseball again is the realization that we have moved into the fourth generation of postseason records. The first generation was in the pre-division days, when everything was accomplished in the World Series. Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Micky Mantle, etc all racked their numbers up in seven-game series. The second generation was from 1969 until the first Wild Card teams were added, which added the LCS. These were ruled by Joe Morgan, George Brett, etc. The third generation, when the first Wild Card teams were added, dudes like Manny Ramirez and Bernie Williams broke all the records set in the previous age thanks to the extra round of divisional play.

Finally, the current, fourth age brings in multiple Wild Card teams and the extra games associated with that expansion. It makes sense that Jose Altuve either holds or will soon nearly every postseason hitting record. Dude has been mashing in multiple series every year for nearly a decade, including four World Series appearances.

What blew me away, though, was learning that Kyle Schwarber now holds the record for most postseason homers by a left-handed batter. Kyle Schwarber?!?! I know he’s good, but it seemed crazy that he would own that record. The homers do add up pretty quick when you hit five, six, and five (and counting) homers in individual postseasons.

What was even more amazing was who held the record until last weekend: Reggie Jackson! If Kyle Schwarber breaks a record set in the Seventies and Eighties, it sure seems like someone else would have done so sooner. Surely there was a lefty in the Yankees Nineties dynasty who would have approached it. Or David Ortiz. Or Barry Bonds. But Big Papi ended his career with 17, matching Jim Thome one spot behind Mr. October’s record. Schwarber’s teammate Bryce Harper is at 16, so by the end of the month Reggie could, possibly, be in third place. Crazy.

I always hated Reggie, but I was equally fascinated by him. Props for setting a record that held up for 40-ish years.

NFL

I told you the NFL was crazy. The Niners have now lost two in a row after staking their claim as best team in the league. The Bills might be trash. Can you trust the Dolphins, Lions, or Jags?

That leaves the Chiefs, winners of six-straight, and the Ravens, who destroyed Detroit last week, as the teams of the moment. The Chiefs are incapable of losing to the Broncos, so I think they’re safe for a week. The Ravens go to Arizona this week, and it was the Cardinals who exposed the Cowboys a month ago, so you never know.

I’ll just repeat what I said last week: I’m glad I don’t gamble on the NFL, because I don’t understand how you make any sense of it.

NBA

I discovered over the summer that I’ve joined a particular demographic: middle aged white men who listen to tons of NBA podcasts but don’t watch many NBA games until the playoffs. I found out that’s a thing when the hosts of two non-hoops podcasts I listen to mentioned they fell into that category, and know lots of people like them. OK, then.

It is true, over the past year I’ve added a bunch of NBA pods into my regular rotation. I’ve been trying to figure out why this sub-group of like-minded people exists. I think it’s because you can talk about the NBA in a similar way to baseball, but analytics aren’t as prevalent (yet), so these conversations are based on people rather than numbers and remain accessible even to casual fans. Plus the NBA is a lot more fun than baseball, at least in the way it embraces drama and tension. The NBA embraces when there is beef while baseball goes totally off the rails when there is any controversy. Witness the whole Braves-Phillies stupidity earlier this month. And a single trade/free agent signing has a much bigger impact on an NBA team than an MLB one.

Anyway, the NBA begins tonight and I can’t wait to watch Victor Wembanyama play. His highlights from the preseason don’t seem like they could have been done by a human. If he can stay healthy, he is legit going to change the NBA.

Of greater interest to me is that the Pacers have the potential to be one of the most fun teams to watch. They will run like crazy. Tyrese Haliburton may lead the league in assists, and will do so with flair. Obi Toppin is a walking, talking Alley Oop. All the other parts are fast and young, and there is plenty of shooting to go around.

Now the defense is probably still going to be suspect again this year. But I’d much rather watch a mediocre team that scores the shit out of the ball than the one the Pacers ran out a few years back that struggled to score in the 90s.

A lot of NBA talking heads have fallen in love with the Pacers. Not as title contenders, let’s not be silly. But as a team that, health permitting, can easily win 45-ish games and sneak into the upper six of the Eastern Conference.

I feel like that might be a little over-optimistic, based on the one preseason game I watched. They are certainly capable of dropping 120+ points a night, but it puts a lot of stress on the team to have to do that because they can’t avoid giving up 115.

The Pacers have also had horrible injury luck in recent years. There’s no reason to expect that to suddenly end, and all it will take is Haliburton or Myles Turner or another starter missing 10–15 games to sink the season.

It is opening week, though, and time to push those concerns aside for the moment. I’m excited to watch what should be a highly entertaining team that has a great chance to make the postseason for the first time since 2020, maybe even winning a game for the first time since 2018.

Sports Notes

October 4, 2023 /

NFL

Four weeks into the NFL season and I’m not sure what to make of things. Is there a single team that deserves unquestioned trust?

The Chiefs lost at home to Detroit opening night, righted themselves over the next two weeks, then apparently looked kind of crappy against the Jets last Sunday before escaping with a win.

The Bills played lethargic football against the undermanned Jets in week one, but have been kind of awesome since.

Miami hung 70 points on Denver, then lost by four touchdowns the next week.

Dallas has made a strong argument as the most complete team in the league. Well, other than losing to Arizona.

Philly is 4–0 but have been far from impressive getting there.

The 49ers are also 4–0, which means one of their stars is almost guaranteed to get hurt this week.

The top of the league seems kind of jumbled and uncertain, plenty of good teams but no great ones at the moment. Which I guess is a good thing as a casual fan of the game, as it makes for competitive games. Of course, any of those teams could go undefeated through October and a month from now we’ll be talking about how great they are.

For some reason I’m always surprised at how the Bears have been so bad for so long. 1985 was a long, long time ago, yet my brain keeps trying to convince me that they were still good until recently. They’ve been to the playoffs six times in the last 30 years. Is it just me or can other Gen Xers not get their heads around how long the Bears have been terrible?

I wasn’t able to watch the Colts Sunday, but it sounds like Anthony Richardson again dazzled. I caught a few minutes of ESPN’s NFL show Tuesday afternoon and I thought it was interesting that the panelists said they’ve seen enough, he is legit, and it’s time to start thinking about what moves the Colts need to make this offseason to both protect Richardson and put more weapons around him. He is still very raw, but is already making plays not many quarterbacks can make. I’m guessing if there was a re-draft, CJ Stroud would now be the #1 pick and playing in Carolina while Richardson would have gone #2 to Houston and the Colts would be, sadly, trying to keep Bryce Young from getting killed each week. Or maybe they would have traded down and chucked this season to go for Caleb Williams if they knew Jonathan Taylor would hold out.

NBA

What a crazy week in the association!

First, the Blazers trade Dame Lillard to Milwaukee as part of a three-team deal. Dame joining forces with Giannis made the Bucks the Eastern Conference favorites, at least temporarily.

My favorite part of the trade was Miami getting butt-hurt about being left out of the trade discussions. As if there was an obligation for Portland to make the deal that Dame wanted most but did not bring the best return for them. There was some pettiness on Portland’s part, which is kind of to be expected when the guy who still has four years left on his contract asks to be traded. But the Blazers were absolutely free to find a deal that gave them the best return as they rebuild around Scoot Henderson. Fuck Miami.

So for, what, three days the Bucks were conference favorites. Until Portland sent Jrue Holliday, who was part of their return for Lillard, to Boston. Suddenly the Celtics had one of the best perimeter defenders it the league and a thoroughly capable fourth option on offense. While there was some arguing amongst the experts, this trade made Boston at least co-favorites with Milwaukee, while some pushed the C’s into the top spot after the trade.

I loved all of this. Now we have two teams that are built to give the other absolute fits and will eye each other the entire regular season, likely battling for the top seed that would put a possible conference finals game seven on their home court. Should be a fascinating journey to get to those conference finals in late May.

And the Blazers absolutely kick-started their rebuild, assembling good pieces around the young core they already have while also grabbing a couple more established players that can be moved to add even more picks/youngsters to their stash.

I very much approve of teams making splashy moves like this. Dame or Jrue or one of their teammates could get hurt and blow this all up. Portland’s youth movement might never come together into a winner. The process sure wasn’t boring, though.

Man, the Lakers need to shut the fuck up. How do you whine about Denver talking a lot of trash last year after they swept you? Especially when the Nuggets went on to win the title. If a team sweeps your ass, they can say anything they want.

A team built around two aging, injury-prone stars should keep their mouths shut, lest the Hoops Gods notice and reward them by blowing out LeBron’s ankle again for wrecking AD’s back for the 1000th time.

MLB

I actually watched a baseball game on Tuesday, my first of the year! I didn’t plan on it, but when I was texting with L’s travel coach he said he was watching his Twins try to break their 18-game playoff losing streak. I had nothing else going on so flipped to the game. I was transfixed by the beautiful uniforms both the Twins and Blue Jays were wearing, and left it on as I did other things. I wouldn’t say I was super focused on the action, but at least I had it on. I even watched a couple innings of Arizona-Milwaukee later. I don’t know if this means I’m going to totally dive back in for the playoffs, but I may at least glance at them from moment-to-moment.

Travel Ball

Speaking of youth basketball, we finally got L’s assignment for the next travel season yesterday. I had been sweating it because I knew we were close to the deadline for rosters to be set.

As I’ve said several times, we knew the high school travel ball world is different, just not for sure what those differences were. At the final tryout the girls were told “if” they made a team, they would get an email in the next two weeks. “If.” Yikes.

It seemed like the past couple years it took a little over a week to get the assignment. But one of L’s best friends got hers last week and when L’s didn’t come, I started to panic a little.

Now I’m pretty sure that friend is going to play on a higher level team (there are three tiers of teams in high school), and figure that those teams come together first so they can fill holes.[1] But as each day went by without an email, I got more and more worried. I kept telling myself it would all work out, she will likely play a lot of minutes on the JV team this year so surely she’d land on a travel team, but she also wasn’t super happy with how she played in her tryouts, so you never know.

Fortunately the email arrived yesterday morning, coincidentally on her birthday. She’s staying with the coach she’s had the past two years, three of her teammates from those seasons are staying with her, along with one of her teammates from CHS. Another CHS girl may join them. It sounds like we might have zero size, although the coach is trying to find someone with height in the pool of remaining girls.

  1. A lot of those girls try out for multiple programs and pick from their offers. I’m not sure if money is involved for ninth graders, but L’s friend chose the team that practices closest to her home.  ↩

Sports Notes

August 1, 2023 /

I’ve stacked up a lot of sports thoughts over the past several weeks. Let’s dive in and see how long it takes to get through them.

Tour de France

After watching the Netflix show Tour de France: Unchained in June, I was all-in for this year’s tour, even ponying up for Peacock for the month to watch.[1] It was like the good (bad) old days watching Lance Armstrong as I turned the race on first thing every morning and tracked the day’s progress.

This year’s race was awesome. Week one was incredible, with all kinds of cool attacks and finishes until Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogacar, combined winners of the last three Tours, took over. The duo battled across France and stayed within seconds of each other into the final week, until Vingegaard won a convincing victory in stage 16’s individual time trial. The next day he blew the race open in the Alps. What had been a nine second lead exploded to over seven minutes. It was a remarkable two days to earn a deserved second-straight Tour win.

I had a few sources for reading about each day’s stages, one of them The Guardian. Which, being The Guardian, threw aspersions towards any biker who performed particularly well. Vingegaard got the worst of it as he took over the race. Who knows if the speculation is accurate or not. His team noted how many times his blood was tested over the month, an argument we’ve heard before. I just found it interesting it was NEVER discussed on the TV broadcast.

It also drove me nuts that the announcers, the same main two guys as back in Lance’s prime, have the same quirks they had 20 years ago. They’re looking at the same footage we are watching, and somehow almost always misread biker’s body language. Multiple times they suggested someone was in great shape, only to get dropped moments later, or that someone was struggling only for them to surge away from their rivals. And they love to speculate, with like 80 kilometers to race, that some guy with a minute lead “surely has this stage won.” I blame Europeans and their strange ways of covering sports.

KU Hoops

I’ve never followed up on my May thoughts, after Hunter Dickinson committed. It’s been a busy summer.
Both Zuby Ejiofor and Ernest Udeh transferred out, which really, really sucked. I totally understand why they left, and that is the big downside to adding a massive transfer in like Dickinson. I wish Bill Self could have talked at least one of them into staying. Udeh ending up at TCU was a real bummer, but better than Kansas State, which was one of his other options.
Kevin McCullar decided to come back, which was huge.
Christian Braun’s brother transferred in, giving KU another body in the front court.
Zach Clemence, who had said he was transferring to UCSB, changed his mind and announced he was returning and would redshirt.
Incoming freshman Chris Johnson saw the roster crunch in the backcourt and decided to de-commit and go to Texas.
Then, after a couple weeks of summer school, fellow freshman Marcus Adams decided Lawrence was “too country” for him and bailed, burning his free transfer in the process, for Gonzaga.

Suddenly a super-deep roster was kind of thin. There were rumors KU might grab an international player who could come in and play this year, but those rumors have faded. There could still be a grad transfer to add, but it looks like KU might roll into the season with just nine eligible players, assuming Clemence sticks with redshirting. Self normally only plays 7–8, but all it takes is a couple tweaked ankles or the flu running through the locker room for the bench to get shallow real quick.

The Jayhawks go to Puerto Rico this week to play a few games, two of which are against the Bahamas national team and could include several NBA players. Just need no one to get hurt…[2]

Pacers

Man, the Pacers had a nice summer. They made smart draft picks to start. Then they signed Bruce Brown. During the NBA Finals I knew someone would overpay him after his great performance, and I was bummed when it was the Pacers.

However, while his contract was reported as two years, it is basically a one-year deal that the Pacers can get out of if he doesn’t perform this year, or re-sign him on better terms for each side next year if he has a good season. A savvy, win-win signing.

Then they traded for Obi Toppin, which seems like an awesome move. He was always forced to play out of position in New York, and seems like a perfect match for Tyrese Haliburton. The duo showed up at a local pro-am league last week and combined for approximately 800 alley-oops. Toppin has vibes of the classic guy who needs a change of scenery to finally capitalize on his potential. I don’t think he’s going to be a superstar, but he fits what the Pacers are trying to do.

They still need to massage the roster a bit, the young guys need to develop, and Haliburton and Myles Turned need to stay healthy. But they could be one of the most fun teams in the league next year, and should battle for a playoff spot.

Royals

Props to the R’s! They won their last three games of July, giving them their first three-game winning streak of the season. No one keeps the Royals from winning three consecutive games for four months!

Colts

The team didn’t even get to training camp before drama popped up. Jonathan Taylor was part of a group of running backs around the league who met virtually to discuss how their position gets screwed by the current collective bargaining agreement. Then he suddenly was placed on the PUP list when camp opened. Two days later he requested a trade. This from the guy who has been the epitome of how you want a player to behave, and kept insisting he wanted to play his entire career in Indy.

I totally get where he, and his fellow RBs are coming from. Only kickers are compensated less under the franchise tags since the NFL has decided that running backs are basically interchangeable and dispensable. But that’s an argument they need to aim at their own union, not at ownership that is following the agreed upon rules.[3] And I also understand Taylor’s specific fears. He was hurt last year and had off-season surgery designed to keep his ankle healthy. The Colts drafted a dual threat QB who is going to be given the keys to the offense soon enough, which will cut down on Taylor’s carries, yards, and touchdowns. If he doesn’t get his money now, he might not get it next off season.

The Colts don’t seem inclined to move him; I wonder if they’ll have the guts not to play him. Regardless of cause and odds of resolution, it’s not a great way to begin the season. Especially when his prime backup broke his arm in practice on Monday.

Oh, and I read this morning that the Colts have dropped hints that Taylor also hurt his back over the summer working out on his own, a claim Taylor angrily denied. We’ve moved beyond ugly and are pushing irreparable.

USWNT/World Cup

Ooof. I was not up at 3:00 AM today to watch the US women’s national team’s final group stage game against Portugal. Pretty glad I did not set an alarm. The outcome could have been worse, but not much. A team that has looked sluggish through their first two games failed to score and had to rely on Portugal hitting the post in stoppage time to advance to the knockout stage.

Head coach Vlatko Andonovski has faced a lot of criticism for how he’s constructed the team and how they played in the run-up to the tournament. I haven’t watched enough nor know enough about high-level soccer tactics to be able to critique his choices. At some point, though, the most talented team in the world, filled with both veterans who own two World Cup titles and some of the brightest young stars in the world, have to take responsibility for their play. Even if Andonovski has made terrible tactical choices, they should be good enough to overcome his errors.

I guess the only good thing about the team’s subpar performance is that so few Americans can watch it because of the time difference.

  1. Strangely convenient how our free access to Peacock thanks to being Xfinity customers expired the day before the race began.  ↩
  2. Jinx. You read it here first.  ↩
  3. Note is, as it may be a first: me siding with ownership over labor.  ↩

Notes on Relocation, Bad Owners, and Loyal Fans

June 22, 2023 /

I have not returned to baseball this year. The Royals are truly terrible – on pace for their worst season ever – and have given me no reason to drop my boycott of the sport, prompted when the dishonest and corrupt combination of MLB ownership and commissioner Rob Manfred manufactured last year’s labor strife.[1]

I don’t have much idea what’s going on in the sport right now, other than the Royals sucking. I have enough Reds-fan friends to know they are on a historic winning streak. But I haven’t turned on one of their games either, something I used to do quite a bit.

(A big downside to my boycott: I LOVE the Royals’ City Connect collection, but refuse to give MLB a dime, let alone $30–40 for a new hat or shirt.[2] I may crack on this one, but for now I’m holding firm.)

Despite my boycott, I read this excellent, lengthy piece about the Oakland A’s relocation. It brought back some memories.

The Long, Sad Story of the Stealing of the Oakland A’s

My high school year in California was spent one BART stop away from the Oakland Coliseum. The Royals and A’s were rivals at the time – the A’s had abandoned Kansas City for the Bay Area 20 years earlier for crying out loud! – and I would argue with my classmates about how the ascendant A’s would never catch my beloved, but aging, Royals.

At lunch I would sit with other sports fans as we would pass around the sports sections from the San Francisco Chronicle and Oakland Tribune. I would focus on the national stuff, or on my teams from back in KC, while listening to the A’s and Giants fans bicker, the A’s fans gush about the young Jose Conseco and Mark McGuire or how they were building a dominating starting rotation.

The thing I picked up in my 11 months in California was that Oakland fans had an immense, almost defensive, pride in their teams. I think it came from the collective chip on their shoulders about being the city across from The City. They all still loved the Raiders, who had left Oakland for the first time a few years earlier, because they couldn’t bring themselves to root for the 49ers. They knew the Warriors had no chance to beat the Magic-Kareem Lakers, but went crazy the night Sleepy Floyd went off and stole a game from the mighty Lakers in the 1987 Western Conference semifinals.

And the A’s were their team, even if they had been mostly horrible since the end of their early ‘70s dynasty.

There’s always been that small, intense core of fans in Oakland. Through various ruinous ownership groups that often seemed more focused on finding a way out of town, that group has held on.[3]

I don’t know that any city deserves a team. The Bay Area might be massive, but perhaps having the Giants is enough. Still, I feel for A’s fans. They’ve put up with a lot of shit in the nearly 60 years the team has been based there. And, despite playing in a dump of a stadium, they’ve always come back when the team gave them a reason to believe.

I think we can agree that the A’s ownership group is terrible and have treated their fans like crap. Good luck making money in Las Vegas, with your tiny stadium and disinterested local fan base.

History—and hell, too, probably—reserves a special place for people who relocate pro sports teams. Every sports fan knows Art Modell, for example, as the guy who wrenched the Browns out of Cleveland. And we know Clay Bennett as the Oklahoman who stole the Supersonics out of Seattle. We remember these men for the damage they caused, which extends beyond the fan bases they forsook. Rather, it corrupts the foundation of faith on which fandom depends. Fans everywhere are poorer for it.

  1. Then, after crying poor for months, immediately after winning pretty much every aspect of their battle with the players, instituted like a dozen new ways of screwing the fans for more money.  ↩

  2. Hell, I won’t even link directly to MLB’s site to show off that gear.  ↩

  3. When we moved to Kansas City in 1980 and started getting the paper, one of the first stories I remember is about Charles Finley being close to selling the team to a new owner who would take them to Denver. That move fell through when the Raiders announced they were heading to LA and Oakland/Alameda County made big concessions to keep the A’s.  ↩

Weekend Notes

October 17, 2022 /

FNL

For the ninth-straight year Cathedral ended their regular season schedule against Center Grove. They are almost always great games, although CG had a 6–2 advantage coming into this year’s game. Two years ago the game came down to Cathedral being unable to get less than a yard on fourth down. This year the game also came down to one team coming up one yard short. Kind of.

Center Grove (No. 2) was up 14–13 after very even first half, the difference being a missed CHS (No. 3) PAT.

Then CG ripped off 15-straight points in the second half. Cathedral was committing too many penalties, turned the ball over twice, and was unable to get stops on defense.

Center Grove has this loud, stupid train horn they blast after every positive play. Fans have a collection of horns and cowbells the join in with. It’s annoying. When they are kicking your ass, it is really annoying. You can’t even hear the radio announcers the main horn is so loud. After Cathedral threw an interception and they blasted it for at least 15 seconds I was close to turning the game off because I was sick of hearing that dumb horn.

Cathedral forced a fumble but gave the ball right back shortly after and Center Grove drove deep into Irish territory as the game moved to the fourth quarter. Any more points and the game was likely over. They had fourth and goal at the one and ran the ball. The horn started blaring, the crowd roared. But the refs said Cathedral stopped the runner short of the goal line. Turnover on downs.

The Irish offense hadn’t done a thing in the third quarter. They had nine minutes to figure something out.

So they calmly drove 99 yards to score. The two-point conversion failed, 29–19.

On the next drive CHS forced a three-and-out and then blocked the punt, recovering it for a touchdown. 29–26.

Center Grove got the ball with about 3:00 left. Cathedral had all their time outs. A couple first downs and this game was over. CG drove to the CHS 26, but on third down were sacked and lost seven yards. They went for it, Cathedral held, and got the ball with 1:34 left.

On the ensuing drive, CHS converted a fourth and long, getting a huge 33-yard completion. The next play was a 35-yard TD pass. 32–29 Irish! 51 seconds left.

Center Grove returned the short kick to nearly midfield. Cathedral lost this matchup two years ago because they let CG drive 50 yards in less than a minute to score in the game’s final seconds.

Not this time; interception on the first play!

But CG still had three time outs left so the Irish needed at least one first down.

They got nine yards on first down. Time out.

They lost two yards on second down. Time out.

On third down the quarterback flipped a screen pass to his tight end, a kid who is going to Western Michigan next year. He busted through a couple tackles and rumbled 60 yards for a big EFF YOU touchdown.

40–29, final.

What a game!

Cathedral looked dead in the water and completely out-classed going into the fourth quarter. Then they somehow found something and scored 27 points in less than five minutes against the two-time defending 6A state champs. The final score makes it look like an ass kicking when, in reality, Center Grove was one yard from being the ass kickers. Sports are crazy sometimes.

It was the first Center Grove loss to an Indiana team since the state title game in 2019. First regular season loss for them since Cathedral beat them that same season. First home loss since August 2019.

With Cathedral now in 6A these teams could meet in semi-state. However, Cathedral would likely need to beat #1 Brownsburg, who handled them fairly easily in week two, in the regionals to get that far. (Update: Brownsburg lost to the #4 team Friday. Brownsburg also lost their quarterback to an injury and they have a very tough opening game in sectionals.)

M was up in Chicago for a Harry Styles concert. When the game was over, I texted her the score and a brief summary, figuring she would see it after the show was over. But she responded right away. “Harry is about to go on. We were checking Twitter obsessively!” Glad she’s turned into a football fan in her four years at CHS.

Kid Hoops

It was Championship Saturday for L’s travel team. To remind you, the back to school league finished with four-team brackets, and her team’s first opponent forfeited on Monday, so they had a bye into the championship game.

The opponent: a team they beat 35–32 three two months ago. L hit two free throws late in that game it help ice it.

This game started the way we started so many games this season: in a 12–0 hole. We whittled it down to three at one point – L hit a nice floater to get us to that point – but trailed by five at halftime.

We came out on fire defensively in the second half and quickly took the lead, going up by 3. But we turned that around by giving up seven-straight, which turned into an 11–2 run. It wasn’t looking good.

The girls battled back again. We could not hit an outside shot to save our lives, but we started getting steals and layups. We hit a couple and-ones. Finally, with about 2:00 left, down four, L was wide-open from the top of the key. Twice she had fumbled the ball and couldn’t get a shot off in a similar station. This time she handled the pass cleanly, squared her body, and drained the 3 to cut the lead to one. On the next possession she drove the baseline, drew the defense, then flipped it to a teammate who scored as she got fouled. That girl missed the free throw but we never trailed again. We got the lead to five once and ended up winning 34–31. L’s 3 was our only trey of the game; we went something like 1–20. But it was enough!

She had a really good game. Nine points on 4–7 shooting. Three rebounds, a couple steals. The only flaw was two bad turnovers, both when she was stuck between driving and either passing or shooting and shuffled her feet.

And now her first year of travel ball is officially complete. That team will go on the shelf for a few months as the girls settle out onto their school-based teams. Her Cathedral team will likely play this coming weekend.

KU Football

Well, we knew the regression was coming. It made sense that it would happen the week the Jayhawks went to Oklahoma. Especially with the backup quarterback starting. As much as OU losing three-straight made you want to believe this would be a chance for KU to get bowl eligible, decades of history made that seem unlikely.

I saw most of the first half and that was about what I expected. I think OU remembered they are a collection of four and five star recruits and needed to start playing like it. And it seemed like KU’s defense did not show up at all. Jason Bean looked like a guy who wasn’t good enough to win the starting job over the summer: he made some spectacular plays and some brain-dead dumb plays. Add all that up and the more traditional OU kicking KU ass seemed like it was in order.

But it looked like KU at least made it respectable in the second half, even covering the late 10.5 point line. I don’t know if that was more a function of OU taking their foot off the gas, though, since I was watching L’s team play then.

A bummer of a loss, especially when a lot of people were picking KU. But it made sense, given all the other factors that went into the game. The key is they competed. There were stretches where they were bad, but they never stopped playing and it wasn’t an embarrassment, as so many games against OU have been in my life.

The rest of the schedule is a beast, but if KU’s defense can figure out how to mix in the occasional stop again and the offense can work out some kinks as long as Bean is the starter, I don’t think we need to start thinking the rest of the season is a lost cause.

Other College Football

We got home in time to see much of Alabama-Tennessee and Oklahoma State-TCU. I really needed two TVs as both games worked their way to fantastic finishes within moments of each other. What a scene in Knoxville as the Vols finally got that elusive win over the Crimson Tide! That TCU win helps KU’s RPI, right?

Baseball

I set aside my baseball boycott when I heard about the craziness in Seattle Saturday. I watched innings 16-through–18. Seattle fans deserved better than a 1–0 loss and series sweep. I wanted the M’s to win, but was not strongly invested. The experience felt like back when I watched hockey a bit in the mid–90s and came across a playoff game that would stretch into multiple overtimes. At some point you’re rooting for the spectacle more than a result, hoping for great plays – shots that hit the post in hockey or diving catches by outfielders in baseball – that keep the game going.

Then I woke up Sunday morning to see that the Padres had knocked the Dodgers, by far the best team in baseball this year, out of the postseason. No surprise the “We Need To Fix The Baseball Playoffs” takes started rolling in right away.

Listen, the new baseball playoffs suck. They diminish the meaning of the 162-game regular season, even more than the previous expansion of the playoffs did. The Padres, who have a huge payroll of their own, knocking off the Dodgers has zero in common with St. Peter’s upsetting Kentucky in the NCAA tournament.

But Rob Manfred and the owners don’t give a shit about what’s fair or right or what the fans want. As long as they can sell more advertising time in prime time in October, and expand the field so cities like Seattle, that are hungry for playoff baseball, gobble up tickets, they are aren’t going to change a thing.

NFL

The Colts looked super shitty early, and I was more concerned with spending our last nice day for a week or so outside getting some work done in the yard than watching them continue to suck.[1] But they rallied nicely and even looked competent on both sides of the ball in the second half. The AFC South is about as stinky as you can get, so this team might still find its way into the postseason.

We had other things going on so I wasn’t able to watch much of the Bills-Chiefs game. It looks like it was entertaining, if not as crazy, as January’s playoff game between the teams.

In recent weeks I’ve heard plenty of “Josh Allen is clearly the best quarterback/player in the league” talk. I mostly hear it because of KC fans in my social feeds bitching about it.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot because I think it’s a weird argument, and I’ve tried to figure out why people are making it.

I’ve come up with these explanations.

First, it’s hot take-y. Everyone knows Patrick Mahomes is redefining what it means to be an NFL quarterback. Saying Allen is better gets people fired up, clicking links, and otherwise engaging.

Second, Mahomes, while still young, is old news. We all know he’s brilliant. Maybe not everyone knows that Allen is also brilliant.

Finally, I think some of it is because of their games. Mahomes seems like he’s from a video game, doing things no one has ever seen before in ways we would never have predicted. He does things that flat out don’t make sense. Meanwhile Allen is like the prototype for the perfect NFL QB for any era. He’s big. He’s aggressive. He throws a ridiculous long ball. I think that appeals to the same part of some people’s brains that can’t comprehend what Mahomes is doing. Allen is a modern John Elway, where there has never been anyone like Mahomes. Right or wrong, some folks will elevate Allen because of that.

Mahomes has a ring and another Super Bowl appearance. So he has a bragging rights/legacy boost over Allen. This season, most weeks, I think you can say they are 1A and 1B, or at worst 1–2 in any order. Unless you are a Chiefs or Bills fan, though, to say one is “clearly” better than the other is dumb.[2] Why can’t we just say they’re both awesome and not have to nitpick to declare one better than the other?

  1. It is after noon on Monday, cloudy, gusty, and only in the 40s. We are expected to have a hard freeze tonight. Yesterday it was in the mid–60s. Next weekend mid–70s. Fall in the Midwest!  ↩
  2. I still think it’s dumb for Chiefs or Bills fans to claim their guy is clearly better, but at least that’s homerism and choosing with your heart. I can understand that.  ↩

Weekend Notes

October 10, 2022 /

A quick run through a busy weekend.

FNL

It was Cathedral’s homecoming week. They pounded their Jesuit brothers pretty easily, winning 42–21 with two of those scores against coming late in the game. I went for the first half but it was chilly, C’s back was bothering her (she’s been seeing a chiropractor), so we left after we watched one of M’s best friends since kindergarten win homecoming queen.

Next week is the big season finale: at Center Grove, who have lost one game – by one point in overtime to a team from Kentucky – in the past three seasons.

KU Saturday Experience

I haven’t watched ESPN Gameday in years. Neither for football nor basketball. I just hate the whole “panel of experts talking over each other” concept no matter what the setting. Gameday hasn’t felt fresh in years. Even when KU is involved during basketball season, I will record it and go back and watch the stuff directly related to KU later.

But Saturday, with the show making its first ever visit to Lawrence for football, I was glued to the TV for all three hours. I don’t know if the crowds were bigger, smaller, or the same as on other campuses, but it looked great on TV. Especially as the stadium began to fill up behind the set. The Booth isn’t a great venue to watch football – and thank goodness it might finally be on the verge of being made into something better – but it has always been a beautiful setting on sunny, fall days like Saturday. Even when the play on the field was terrible.

It was an unbelievable and unexpected moment for the school and program to shine after so many years of mistakes and horrible football. I don’t think any KU fan is kidding themselves into thinking the rebuild is even close to being complete. But hosting Gameday gave us a confirmation that things have finally changed, and better days are ahead.

As for the game…well, I only say the first half. L, of course, had a game that caused us to leave the house at halftime. The second quarter was brutal. Jalon Daniels fumbling on the one, TCU taking approximately eight seconds to go 99 yards and score, KU dropping a pass that would have converted a fourth down and put them in the red zone, and then Daniels suffering a shoulder injury that forced him from the game. I wasn’t too upset to leave the house because things sure didn’t seem promising for the Jayhawks. The Frogs looked so much faster and more physical on defense, and it felt like it was just a matter of time before the KU defense cracked under the pressure the TCU offense puts on you.

On the way to L’s game I heard Jason Bean come in and first tie the game, and then give KU the lead. What the heck is going on?!?!

As I sat and watched L play I followed the game on my phone. That third quarter seemed like an all-time doozy. Forty-two combined points after just 13 in the first half!

Like so many times in KU football past, the game came down to the inability to stop a score on one end and the inability to get one score on the other.

Perhaps if I watched the entire game I would have been more upset/disappointed with the result. I think not seeing a couple close calls go against KU on their final drive (or so I was told) certainly helped my mental state.

But, I walked away from the day feeling as positive about the program as I can remember. TCU is a damn good team, and we went toe-to-toe with them for 60 minutes. A couple bad-luck moments changed the outcome. Our savior QB got hurt and his backup came in and played even better, becoming the first KU QB in 14 years to throw four touchdown passes in a half. This is a game KU could have easily won without it being a fluke. And that’s not something you could say about this program against a quality opponent since 2008.

Progress, and I’ll hang my Jayhawk hat on that. Now the hope is that Daniels isn’t done for the season, that Bean can continue to be steady as long as he has to play, and that the team can find at least one more win to validate the season with a bowl game.

Kid Hoops

It was the final regular season game of L’s Back to School league. They played a younger team – I never figured out what age they were – and lost by two. This team was really good. They had these tiny girls who took 22-foot 3’s and hit them, plus a big girl three inches taller than our “tall” girls who got every rebound.

We had a sequence with about five minutes left in the game where we missed an open shot in the lane then gave up a layup and a foul to go down eight. The dad I was sitting by and I looked at each other, shook our heads, and agreed that was the game.

That lead stretched out to 10 before we made a valiant run. Three backcourt steals. Converted some layups. Forced two turnovers in the front court. We got it down to two points, with the ball, in the final minute. Our leading scorer got fouled and stepped to the line. She missed the first, hit the second, and then we had to foul to stop the clock. We lost by two but it might have been the best they have played in this league.

L didn’t play well on offense. She was 1–3 from the field and I credited her with five turnovers, although an official scorer might have placed the blame for one of those on her teammate. But she was good on D and got a couple big defensive rebounds when we were making that run.

Next week is the “tournament.” We got a break because the team we were supposed to play – which has been getting annihilated every week – already forfeited. So we are into the championship game of our bracket. From 2–6 to the championship game! What a turnaround!

The team she will play on through Cathedral for the next few months had their first practice on Sunday. They will start play in two weeks. The grind never ends.

MLB

I did not watch a minute of the playoffs so I have no comments. I did enjoy the various tweets from fans new to the playoffs on what a grinder they are for fans. Examples:

“Playoff baseball is like watching a loved one defuse a bomb.”
“Why watch playoff baseball when you can drink 6 pots of coffee and intentionally vomit instead.”

Yes, I remain mad at the game. But I also miss how October baseball can take years off your life.

TNF

I feel obligated to mention how horrible Thursday’s Colts-Broncos game was. I was rooting for a tie. I’ve decided these Colts stink, they aren’t going to get much better, so why not go for history and try to get as many ties as you can?

Baseball Notes (+1)

September 29, 2022 /

My season-long boycott of baseball has continued. It’s really not been hard since the Royals have been so shitty this year. I’m not feeling any inclination to crack in a week when the playoffs begin. I’m sure I’ll watch some of the games, but I don’t expect to be as into them as I have been in recent years. I have plenty of other things that can entertain me during evenings in October.

Still, I thought I should drop a few baseball related thoughts.

Dayton Moore Fired

This is over a week old, but the Royals have finally moved on from their long-time general manager/president of baseball operations, the architect behind the 2014 pennant and 2015 World Series winning teams.

This was a good move.

Everyone says Dayton is a decent man who loves the franchise and the Kansas City area, and I don’t doubt that. But his methods had become outdated and it seemed like as long as he was in charge, the organization would remain stagnant.

When you look back at his career, it’s really remarkable that the R’s ever got to the postseason. It’s not that they weren’t deserving; those teams were filled with high draft picks and smart acquisitions. Rather what made those two Octobers seem so unlikely are the seasons around them.

I think Dayton was probably one more under-performing season away from losing his job in 2014. And the post-World Series era has turned into an absolute disaster.

A Twitter commentator said that championships are never truly flukes – it takes too much to win one in any sport to write them off as breakdowns in the matrix – but when you look at how the Royals performed in Moore’s first seven or eight years, and then in the seven years since, that title seems like a huge outlier.

I’m hopeful that J.J. Picollo, despite being a Moore protégé, is the right choice to move the franchise forward. He seems more open to using advanced stats and more modern training methods than Moore ever did. Perhaps that will unlock the potential of all the pitchers the R’s have collected in the past five years. His changes to the organization’s hitting philosophy are promising, so that bodes well.

The Dayton Moore era was filled with contradictions. The Royals were one of the few franchises that looked to take care of all of its employees during the pandemic. His efforts to build a new baseball academy are exactly what the sport needs to stay relevant and capitalize on talent that doesn’t come from the baseball factories of the American south or Latin America. Then there was his weird interest in educating players about the dangers of watching porn. Of all the ills in the world, that’s the one he chose to take a stand on? Bizarre.

There was a lot of shitty baseball between 2006 and 2013, and again since 2017. But what happened in the middle can never be discounted, no matter how much of an outlier it was.

Aaron Judge

I’m sure my long-time readers will be shocked that I’m super-annoyed by the coverage of Aaron Judge’s pursuit of the American League home run record, a mark he tied last night.

There’s the way ESPN has covered it. I don’t watch a lot of Sportscenter these days, but when I switch by it drove me nuts how the crawl would say something like “Judge Still Stuck at 60.” Still stuck. Two games after he hit #60. God I hate American journalism sometimes.

There was the same whining that happens anytime a record is being pursued and a hitter gets walked a lot. It’s not the job of the opponent to serve up meatballs, especially when they are fighting for a playoff spot. Ironic that some of the people complaining about Judge’s walks are the same people who fit into the next group and are allegedly concerned with the sanctity of the game.

But what has annoyed me most is the commentary around his chase, and the idea that should he break Roger Maris’ 1961 mark, he will become the “real” home run king.

That is garbage.

The MLB home run record is 73. It doesn’t matter if you hate Barry Bonds, if you think he didn’t play a clean game in his life, and if you think everything about that era was suspect. Those games, and those home runs, happened. You can’t strike them from the record without removing everything that happened in that era. So, Yankees fan, do you want to eliminate the team’s consecutive titles between 1998 and 2000? Roger Clemens was on those teams. Andy Pettite was on those teams. Jason Giambi. Kevin Brown. And those are just the big names we know about.

And you know how I feel about steroids. Do we know for certain that Judge is clean, or that he’s not using something now that is illegal but won’t be allowed in five years? The PED line is always moving, there are always advances in medicine, and I refuse to get upset about who is/is not using when the criteria for what is/is not allowed is not fixed.

Aaron Judge is a marvel, and what he’s doing is one of the most impressive performances in baseball history, especially when you compare his numbers to the other power numbers. He’s in position to break the AL home run record while also winning the Triple Crown, which is nuts. Let’s just celebrate that without trying to re-litigate 20-year-old grievances.

Albert Pujols

Hey, Pujols has had a remarkable summer, too. I figured when he signed with the Cardinals it would be for a victory lap, maybe a couple home series in the summer in front of packed crowds, then he’d slip away with an injury that would keep him on the IL until the final weekend of the season when he would come out for a few final ABs and hat tips to the crowd.

Boy was I wrong! Despite being 52 years old,[1] he’s somehow rediscovered the magic he lost over a decade ago and has bashed his way to 700 career homers and is OPS+-ing a cool 142.

It’s pretty amazing how a player can decline for a decade and suddenly find it agin. It’s weird how there’s been all the kvetching about Barry Bonds, Mark McGuire, and Sammy Sosa but no discussion of Albert’s miraculous comeback. Not saying it’s not legit, just saying be consistent if you’re going to complain.

Brett Favre

Not baseball, but he’s a piece of shit. Not that this was a surprise.

  1. Or 42. Allegedly.  ↩

Weekend Sports Notes

July 18, 2022 /

Some sports happenings over the past few days.

Royals

As if being shitty wasn’t bad enough, ten Royals players “did their own research” and decided not to get vaccinated against Covid, preventing them from traveling to Canada for the series with the Blue Jays over the weekend.

Just an exhausting moment. As I am barely interested in the team or sport right now, this does not make me want to come back.

Let’s move on…

Pacers Go Big…Almost

The Pacers have never been big players in the free agent market. Good players who are healthy generally don’t want to come to Indianapolis, and the Pacers have generally run a tight financial ship and refused to overpay to get talent to come to town.

That nearly changed last week. They signed restricted free agent Deandre Ayton to a massive offer sheet. Ayton had a strained relationship with the Phoenix Suns who seemed lukewarm on bringing him back on a max contract. There had been rumors for weeks the Suns and Pacers were talking about a deal that revolved around Ayton and the Pacers’ Myles Turner. If those talks were serious, though, they never resulted in a trade agreement.

So the Pacers sent out only the second offer sheet they’ve ever tendered, the biggest in league history, for Ayton. For about three hours Pacers fans were debating whether to be excited about the prospect of Ayton joining a young roster or to worry about Ayton getting hurt or just sucking and turning the deal into a disaster that sunk the franchise for the 2020s.

That debate only lasted a few hours because the Suns quickly matched the Pacers’ offer. Which could be a good thing. Offering $133 million for a big man in the current NBA seemed ultra aggressive, especially for one like Ayton, who is a good player but certainly not among the league’s elite.

It was cool the Pacers tried to make a splash, at least. Now I wonder where they go. They seem set up to remain on the outside of the eastern conference playoff picture next year, but also not bad enough to enter the Victor Wembanyama sweepstakes. They have a ton of cap room and a lot of picks stacked up for the next few years. Plus they still have to figure out what to do with Turner, an elite shot blocker and serviceable 3-point shooter whose total game does not match his ego or financial desires. Do they package Turner and some of their picks for a difference maker? Hang onto Turner until the trade deadline to see if he meshes with their new lineup (and can stay healthy)? Or do they move Turner now, take on a bad, expiring contract, and hope they are crappy enough to get deep into next year’s lottery and then make rapid improvement?

Kid Hoops

L’s team decided to get together for one more tournament. Saturday they played two teams they played two weeks ago, including the team that knocked them out of that tournament. They pounded that team pretty good, although they were playing without their best player. We were three players short, including a starter, but not sure that was an even trade. In game two they got a 14-point win over a team we have now beaten three times. This was our best performance against them.

In Sunday’s semifinal we had a five-point lead early in the second half but lost by 10. Our girls just got waxed in the last 10 minutes or so. The other team was too fast on both ends, our girls neglected to play any help defense, and we missed a ton of easy shots early that could have had us up by double digits early in the game.

L had a mixed weekend. She shot the ball like crap going 3–20 overall. Saturday she hit the top of the backboard with 3 pointers from behind the NBA line.[1] Apparently she’s been working out too much. In the second game she missed two wide open layups and another two contested ones. But she did score six in that game. And she turned the game around with her defense. We were down seven when she checked in. Five minutes later, when she checked out, we were up six. In that span she had two points, two rebounds, two assists, and three steals. She just shut down their point guard, getting steals on three of four possessions. We never looked back after that.

We’ve been doing some good shooting over at the YMCA, so I don’t know if she was just sped up, if her contacts weren’t locked in, or if it was the classic case of the improvement she’s making in practice not translating to games yet. Whatever the explanation, her shooting was gross. Afterwards I reminded her, though, that back in January if she ever took a 3-pointer, it was usually two feet short. Now she’s shooting them 3–4 feet long from behind the NBA line. So she has the range, she just needs to lock in the accuracy.

The Open

Jeeeeez what a let down. Rory McIlroy seemed like was finally going to break his eight-year major-less streak, playing beautiful golf all weekend. He was a little less stellar Sunday, missing six putts by a combined six inches, but still played well enough to win.

Except Cameron Smith went nuclear and hit every freaking putt on the back nine. Shooting 30 on the last nine of a major – six birdies and three pars – is pretty dope. Rory couldn’t even finish second as Cameron Young snuck by him with a final round 65.

There was no meltdown round this time. Rory played great all four days. Perhaps he was a little too cautious Sunday. Or the nerves caused shots that gave him short birdie looks the first three days to leave him much longer looks in Sunday. Whatever the cause, it felt like a massive letdown when he couldn’t close it out. Sometimes you just get unlucky and end up on the wrong side of a legendary closing round by another golfer.

It was really a magnificent tournament. St. Andrews is barely hanging on against modern players and technology, but it produced a terrific weekend of golf. Saturday, when six or seven players all seemed to be in the mix, was amazing to watch. It came at a perfect moment for professional golf, which has seen the 2022 season dominated by the break between the PGA and the Saudi-backed LIV tour. But you also have to wonder when we will see a tournament like this again. The 2023 major season could be drastically different as more players defect to the LIV, which could affect their ability to play in future majors. Perhaps it was that, more than Rory coming up short, that made the end feel a little extra somber.

  1. The tournament was at Jeff Teague’s gym, and we played both Saturday games on the NBA court, which is longer than the other two high school courts at the facility, and only has the college and NBA three point lines parked. Not sure why they had kids as young as fifth grade playing on it without the high school arc marked.  ↩

Sports Notes

June 9, 2022 /

KU Hoops

I still need to do an NIL post, and now that things finally seem to have calmed down a little on that front, I’ll move that up in the mental queue.

KU’s roster appears to be locked in for next year, so a few thoughts on how that has shaken out.

In general I think the transfer portal is a good thing, as it gives players more control of their careers. But I think it also gets misused as players bail on situations that are simply less-than-ideal instead of truly bad or jump at any opportunity to trade up in prestige of program. For fans, I think we expect too much from players who are transferring-in, expecting them to replicate what made them stars at their previous school while playing in different systems, with different teammates, often with very different roles.

I think the best move for KU this off-season would have been to keep the roster completely intact and not add any players. Even had some guys at the back end of the roster left, I would have been fine going forward with 11–12 scholarship players instead of trying to fill a bench player’s spot with a transfer who had started elsewhere.

There are just a whole lot of guys who will be fighting for playing time this year, and clearing out a spot wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world.

That said, replacing Christian Braun with Kevin McCullar, Jr was about the best move KU could have. They are different players, but since McCullar is complementary on offense and position-less on defense, he can slide right in and not be disruptive. I don’t think he will struggle to find his role the way pretty much every transfer last year did. While he adds to the roster crunch in the wings rotation, his presence also means that neither Gradey Dick nor MJ Rice will be expected to have an immediate impact for the team to win games in November and December.

Jalen Wilson coming back was the right move for him and potentially a huge move for KU. It’s unrealistic to expect him to take the jump Ochai Agbaji did last year, but after a solid NBA combine, it’s not unreasonable to see a leap in his game. I can see him having a tremendous statistical year, in the range of 15–16 ppg and 10+ rebounds per game.

Right now I think there are three players locked into starting roles: Wilson, McCullar, and DaJuan Harris. I would guess Zach Clemence is most likely to be the starting big man today. And then someone from the pool of Bobby Pettiford, Joe Yesufu, Dick, or Rice fill the remaining spot, depending whether Bill Self wants two small guards or a larger wing to join the other five. One of the freshmen bigs – Ernest Udeh or Zuby Ejiofor – should play a lot. I think Bill Self loves KJ Adams, so he will play.

I just named 11 players. Both Cam Martin and Kyle Cuffe are on scholarship, and most people think that Cuffe has a bright future. It’s hard to see either of them getting minutes, and I’m a little surprised Cuffe didn’t decide to jump somewhere that would give him a better opportunity to play.

Bottom line, the roster is deep, loaded with options, and seems pretty good here in June. They should be elite defensively if a big man can become a shot blocker. Offense may be a struggle at times, so I expect more games in the 60s than last year.

It’s a long way until practice begins, let alone the first games in early November. The defending national champs may not be in the true list of betting favorites (they are actually rated pretty high by Vegas at the moment, but that seems irrational) but they are going to run back a pretty good squad in ’22–23.

Professional Golf

I don’t know that it’s been on many of my reader’s radars, but men’s professional golf is in the midst of one of the most important weeks in its modern history. For a year or so there have been rumors of a league to rival the PGA, with rumors of multiple competing leagues at various times. The option that seemed the most serious and likely is backed by the government of Saudi Arabia, as part of their “sports washing” efforts to use their massive piles of cash to distract the world from the regime’s awful record on human rights. The LIV Golf tour begins this week and several notable PGA players have renounced their PGA Tour status and made the jump. Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson are rumored to be receiving between $100 and $200 million for joining the new tour. Others have received less but still more than they can make in many years on the PGA Tour. The weekly purses are also far beyond the already crazy money players are earning on the PGA Tour.

For obvious reasons, there has been a kerfuffle about all this. There is the fact these players are turning their backs on the tour than made them rich. The fact they are taking blood money from an oppressive government that had an American citizen murdered and chopped into pieces because he was publishing articles they didn’t like. The fact most of these golfers are trying to act like they are doing this for the “good of the game,” or in belief that golf can change the world. The idea that golf will somehow turn Saudi Arabia into a Jeffersonian Democracy with equal rights for all citizens is one of the dumbest things about this whole enterprise.

It’s all a little ridiculous. I think Dustin Johnson is the only person who has pretty much said he’s doing this for the money. Good for him. Be honest, take the heat, and know that it will fade. I disagree with his decision, but respect the fact he’s not hiding behind the BS most of his fellow LIV jumpers are spouting.

I’ve been more interested in the media/public reaction. Granted, my view is heavily skewed by the side of Golf Twitter that I follow, which is unusually progressive for golf in general and, likely, much more aware of all the details than the wider golf public. What has stuck me most is the heat these people are taking. A lot of the public is jumping on the side of the players, usually defending their taking the life-changing money. Which, again, I get.

I wondered how many people making this argument defend other professional athletes who chase money. Do they say, “Well, the Yankees offered him more, I don’t blame him,” when their favorite baseball player leaves their team for a bigger market? Or when the wide receiver their NFL team drafted and developed goes elsewhere when he is a free agent, are they as understanding? I can hazard a guess. I imagine terms like “greedy” and “disloyal” get thrown around.

What makes that question fascinating to me is that you can make a legitimate economic argument for why NFL/NBA/MLB players chase money. You may think that team X overpaid for your shooting guard, but his new contract was determined by market conditions, often based on offers from multiple teams. Nothing about what these golfers are getting paid makes sense from an economic standpoint. They weren’t sifting through a stack of offers similar to what the Saudis had on the table. Saudi Arabia is paying far beyond the true economic value of these golfers in an effort to legitimize their new league. Several golf writers have pointed out that these contracts make even less sense because LIV hasn’t offered any kind of business plan for how to grow and maintain their league. That won’t matter to the Mickelsons and Johnsons who are set for life based on their initial contracts and have PGA Tour status basically for life based on winning majors. But that’s a legit question for the lesser-known players who have joined LIV, and could have their careers wrecked if the league falls apart and they are banned from the PGA Tour.

This whole thing is just Saudi Arabia doing what they do: lighting cash on fire at a moment when oil is as expensive as it’s been in ages to try to get people to forget beyond their flashy architecture and lavish spending, most of country, from its leadership down, live lie it is still the 16th century.

Splitting sports leagues is pretty much never a good thing. The big names jumping to LIV are getting money that can literally set up their families for generations. While they have the right to make those decisions, I don’t think they realize the long-term damage this split is going to do to professional golf. In a decade or so, if TV contracts and exposure have shrunk and golf is even more niche than it is now, I’m not sure the next generation of players will be thanking the players who took the Saudi money and ran.

Royals

Good Lord the Royals suck. As of this morning, they are two games worse than Oakland and Cincinnati, two franchises that are trying to lose. I’m still not watching, listening, or paying much attention. But I still have several Royals commentators in my feeds and get enough of texts from friends who are still on board to have a sense of what a disaster this season has been.

For a long time it felt like the Royals were handling their post-title rebuild the right way and were poised to break back to respectability this year and possible contention next year. Especially with the new, expanded playoffs this year.

At the moment, it sure seems like they’ve bungled it all. And it seems like it’s time for new owner John Sherman to clear out the front office and coaching staff and start anew. Still won’t get me to re-up my MLB subscription this year.

Weekend Notes

April 11, 2022 /

That was a weird weekend. No big sports of any kind. No basketball or football on the TV for the first time since Labor Day. No kid sports.

Sure, I watched some of the Master’s, but we were often busy during the peak watch times so I wasn’t able to give it a ton of attention. Plus it wasn’t a super interesting tournament this year, so when I did sit down to watch, I did not feel compelled to remain seated for hours.

Baseball has begun, but I’m in one of my baseball moods right now and not ready to dive back in. Out of protest at the owners’ bad faith during their lockout of the players, I cancelled my MLB.TV subscription rather than let it renew annually as I’ve done for at least a decade. A few days later MLB automatically put all accounts on hold pending a resolution to the labor conflict. But I still felt like I got one over on them, withholding my $120 on my terms.

I have yet to go back and re-up.

A big piece of that is the dishonesty and unfairness that the owners built their entire lock-out argument on. They wanted to prevent the players from taking their fair share of the revenue pie in a moment when said revenues are skyrocketing.

And as soon as an agreement was made, MLB started trotting out all these new ways that baseball will be broadcast. Each of which is a new revenue stream for owners but which also makes it harder for fans to see their favorite teams. National broadcasts that wipe out local broadcasts and require a subscription of some kind to see. Added to a refusal to adjust the existing, ridiculous MLB blackout rules, these are just another example of how hostile to fans ownership and the MLB office are. Throw in that it’s damn near impossible for a family with more than a couple kids to take the entire household to an MLB game without dropping $500+ and I can’t help but be soured on how the game is run and where it’s headed.

My little protest won’t mean a thing to any organization’s nor MLB’s bottom lines. But it’s hard to get interested in a game that really doesn’t seem interested in the fans in any way other than finding more ways to get money out of us.

Of course, if the Royals are playing well in a month I may cave and start watching again.

We did have one big family event on the calendar this weekend: M got inducted into the National Honor Society. The ceremony was Sunday afternoon and we drug her sisters along with us. They were thrilled. We told them we expected to do this again in two and four years for each of them, so no pressure.

That was the first moment in a big month for M. Prom is two weeks away. She has a dress, a date (a friend, they are going with a large group), and as a class officer is responsible for setting things up the morning of the dance. We’ve also told her to get serious about what colleges she wants to visit so we can start making plans to get on those campuses between now and September.

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