A historic matchup indeed. 

The Tragedy of Jennifer Frey

Jennifer Frey was, by all accounts, a prodigious sportswriter. Multiple people in the newspaper industry went as far as to characterize her as a genius.

Jennifer Frey was also an addict. On March 26, 2016 Frey died of multiple organ failure. She was 47.

You likely haven’t heard of her. I hadn’t until Thursday. But to many involved in college and professional sports in the 90s, Frey was known as the most talented of writers and a joyful force of nature. She was the rising star.

You might be asking yourself why Dave McKenna’s exceptionally written profile/remembrance was posted on October 27 when she died back in March. I think you’ll find your answer if you read this story (I urge you to do so). McKenna retracks Frey’s career – from her first high school internship at the Olean Times, to the New York Times (at age 24), to the Washington Post in its heyday of sportswriting (Kornheiser, Wilbon, John Feinstein), and ultimately to her unremarkable last byline. He speaks with several writers, editors, and friends from every chapter of her life.

The story is heartbreaking because McKenna takes his time capturing just how incandescent Frey was before alcoholism pinned her down. And while she was the ‘life of the party’, she was also revered as a gracious friend and co-worker, as someone crisscrossing the globe not only for the next great story but also for a spontaneous trip when she learned her friend had been to every state but Alaska. Yes, she was passionate about her job, but McKenna finds the real point that matters: Frey was passionate about life!

This snapshot, which serves as a sort of bookend to the story, captured her success, ambition, and appreciation (remember, Frey’s 24 at the time, working for The New York Times):

Mike Wise says Frey, new as she was to New York, acted like she owned the city. He recalls sitting with Frey in her apartment in Brooklyn Heights after she’d thrown a party, and just being really happy. “We’re looking out the window at the Statue of Liberty, just this amazing view,” says Wise. “And Jennifer said, ‘It’s a pretty good life isn’t it?’ It was.”

Frey’s downfall is terrible – in all the ways you would expect, and in some ways that you might not. The star fades. She mistreats people she loved. The people who loved her run out of stamina. They reconnect when hope is gone but she’s still there. The blame and anger so insignificant in the wake of a sorrow that trails the rarest of people whose greatness was enthusiastic.

You gotta read this story. -PAL

Source: “The Writer Who Was Too Strong To Live”, Dave McKenna, Deadspin (10/27/16)

TOB: Phil did a really nice job capturing what made this story so great. As with Phil, I had never heard of Jennifer Frey, but damn if it doesn’t now feel like I did. Great writing by McKenna. And if you think you might need help, ask, before it’s too late.

Andrew Miller Was A Bust

Perhaps the biggest difference maker in the World Series wasn’t built for this. Cleveland’s reliever extraordinaire Andrew Miller was the 6th pick in the 2006 draft. He was on the big league roster 90 days after that, and he was, as writer Howard Bryant puts it, “[T]he new prototype emerging in baseball: the basketball-sized power arm.” He was a starter through and through.

So what happened in the years that followed? Why did Miller go from first round draft pick to trade bait to, as Miller himself puts it, “the worst player on my Double-A team” in 2010? Miller sums it up best:

“It just isn’t easy. I think we get sidetracked when you see the players who are the superstars, the Kris Bryants of the world, the Francisco Lindors, the guys who are young and having success and don’t look like they’re ever going to look back. I think that’s not normal. Everybody else has to go through a grind, through the ups and downs. Those guys have slumps that last a week. I’ve had slumps that lasted years.”

Spoiler alert: Miller’s broken out of his slump, and he just might be the key to a second Cleveland championship in 2016. – PAL

Source: “How Andrew Miller became the most important reliever in baseball”, Howard Bryant, ESPN (10/28/16)

A History of Badass Women in Sports

Without recognition, “women lose their history,” Ms. Guthrie, the racer, said. “They do these extraordinary things, and then they are forgotten and denied ever to have existed, so women keep on reinventing the wheel.”

I could try to write a better lead, but former race car driver Janet Guthrie nails it right there, doesn’t she? It should go without saying that women athletes are critical to the history of athletics, and I’m sure it comes as no surprise that they are underrepresented in said history, which is why this review of Molly Shiot’s new photo-essay book caught my eye.

The women, photographs, and stories featured are more than compelling, but even the inception of the book speaks volumes as well.

Shiot, an established director whose work includes a 30 for 30 documentary about the Boston Bruins enforcer John Wensink, pitched several concepts featuring female athletes. They were all given the thumbs down. Frustrated, she started an Instagram account featuring photos of badass women in sports. However, when she looked to dig deeper for researching her book, she found limited resources:

Ms. Schiot discovered her story in a public library, where she started her research for “Game Changers.” “I would pull these books out that were like, ‘She’s Got Balls,’ or ‘She’s Going to Knock You Out’ — they were so funny but so offensive,” she said. Eventually she found the LA84 Foundation, which houses a sports archive, and womenSports, a magazine published by Billie Jean King in the 1970s, which chronicled some of the people in “Game Changers.”

Two quick observations:

1. What the hell is Billie Jean King doing publishing a women’s sports magazine in the 70s?
2. Reason number 1 million proving King is a kick-ass pioneer and national treasure.

While you and I may check in on women’s athletics when the Olympics roll around, and while you and I aren’t exactly rushing home to watch the WNBA playoffs, this matters. It matters on a generational level, and it matters on a human level – far more than how many championships LeBron James wins.

Also, the photos are just awesome. – PAL

Source: “Too Good to be Ignored”, Melena Ryzik, The New York Times (10/24/16)

TOB: The photos are indeed bad ass. In my opinion, Title IX is not perfect, but then I read something like this:

Before Title IX, “girls were encouraged to have pompoms and be cheerleaders for their brothers’ baseball or football teams,” said Lynn Hill, a pioneering rock climber. “Now it’s so different that it’s hard to imagine.”

In the 1970-71 school year, fewer than 300,000 girls participated in varsity sports, Dr. Snyder said. In 2013-14, more than 3.25 million did — a record, and an increase for the 25th consecutive year.

It really is hard to imagine, and then you see those numbers – and it’s incredible. The U.S. population has increased about 50% since 1971, but the participation of female varsity athletes has increased 1,000%. That is quite the legacy.

Why Hard and Fast Rules on Domestic Violence Make (Some) Situations Worse

The NFL headlines have been dominated this week by the news about Giants kicker Josh Brown’s repeated physical and psychological abuse of his wife, Molly. The allegations are awful. But I implore you to read this story by Diana Moskovitz about how “zero tolerance” policies on domestic violence (not just in the NFL), make things so much worse for victims of domestic violence, including increasing the risk they will be killed by their partners. The problems stems from the fact that, like Molly Brown, many victims of domestic violence are financially dependent on their abusive partners. If they know their abuser will be fired, victims are less likely to report domestic violence, and thus continue to suffe. It’s a complicated situation that requires far more nuance than any one-size-fits-all, zero-tolerance policy can possibly offer. Good luck getting Roger Goodell to show any nuance. -TOB

Source: “Zero Tolerance for Domestic Violence Will Only Make It Worse“, Diana Moskovitz, Deadspin (10/24/2016)

Video of the Week: 

Song of the Week: Wilco – “California Stars”

Like what you’ve read? Let us know by following this blog (on the right side, up near the top), or:

Email: 123sportslist@gmail.com

There’s another team that hasn’t won in a really long time…and they went 7-1 against the Red Sox and Blue Jays. Watch out, National League. 

Don’t Sweat the Technique (?)

Draymond Green is very good at basketball, but more importantly his skill set of defense, rebounding, passing, scoring, and general “eff you” brashness is absolutely necessary on a Warriors team with 3 of the top 12 NBA scorers (2015-16 PPG) in the starting lineup. He’s a “heart and soul” guy, but not in the Rudy sort of way. He’s one of the best all around players in the league. He gives a team of finesse players a nasty streak. Whether or not you like it, this is a good thing.

Take this quote from a team official: “The guys might be frustrated by his antics, but they had an opportunity to prove themselves without him in Game 5 [of the NBA Finals] and they played like a bunch of [cowards].”

Draymond is also an a-hole, and he doesn’t seem to know how to shut that part of himself down after the final horn sounds.

ESPN’s Ethan Strauss positions it as a pattern. We know of the Finals suspension, and we know of the lewd photograph, and we know of the arrest for smacking a lippy fan in East Lansing. To be honest, on their own, none of these incidents seem too alarming to me. Put them together, add an organizational divide and some legit run-ins with coach Steve Kerr, and there’s some definite meat to this story. Long story to be sure, but it gets us behind the scenes of a historically loaded team and the player who might very well dictate whether or not the Warriors realize its potential by joining the Mount Rushmore of all-time great NBA teams -PAL

Source: “Golden State’s Draymond Green problem”, Ethan Sherwood Strauss, ESPN (10/19/16)

TOB: Lots of great, behind-the-scenes stuff here (for example, it sure sounds like the Lakers will be disappointed with Head Coach Luke Walton). I love Draymond – he’s a character on a team of guys who are pretty vanilla. He’s a guy you don’t want to battle against, and you absolutely want to go to battle with. He took a lot of heat for his Finals suspension, but as Mo Speights says in the article:

“If somebody put they balls on your head, what are you supposed to do?”

The man has a point. But do you know what REALLY caught my eye in this article? This passage:

IT’S FEB. 27 in Oklahoma City, during halftime of a nationally televised game, and Green is losing his holy mind. Inside the visitors locker room, he’s hollering “I am not a robot!” at Kerr. When Kerr tells him to sit down, Green screams, “Motherf—er, come sit me down!” When he goes after Kerr, his teammates, including Curry and Thompson, step in to stave off disaster

Minutes later, in her report following halftime, ESPN sideline reporter Lisa Salters will recite a portion of Green’s explosion: “I am not a robot! I know I can play! You have me messed up right now! If you don’t want me to shoot, I won’t shoot the rest of the game!”

“I’m standing outside the locker room with the Oklahoma City police, which are always stationed outside of every locker room,” Salters will later recall. “They kind of moved me aside, and the officer just kind of stood by the door, with his hand on his weapon like he was trying to determine what he should do. It was clear that something bad was about to happen in this locker room. We’ve never heard anything like this before.”

Phil and I try pretty hard to avoid cursing on this blog, but when I read that I said, “MOTHERFUCKER.” THIS is what is wrong with police training in this country. Hey, officer, why is your hand on your gun? Even if you make the inappropriate decision to enter the locker room, WHY IS YOUR HAND ON YOUR GUN??? It’s not necessary. Your weapon should only be used to protect your life or the life of another. I don’t care what was being said in there, I promise no one’s life was in danger. This makes me so furious. Now that this article has been published and this incident is public, the Oklahoma City Police Department should investigate and suspend that guy. Maybe get him a psych eval to see if he’s fit to be an officer. An officer who even considers drawing his weapon in such a scenario is a ticking time bomb.

Kaminsky Keeping It Real

Frank Kaminsky was an excellent college basketball player and is now an average NBA player at best (7.4 PPG, 4 RPG), but that is not the point. Frank is a White Sox fan, and as everyone is climbing over each other to root for the goddamn lovable Cubbies to finally break through to win a World Series for the first time since 1908 (and appear in a World Series since ‘45), Frank is no sheep.

Dude wore a Steve Bartman Cubs jersey the other night in Chicago. I hate the White Sox, but I respect the hell out of Frank Kaminsky. Gold star to you, sir. – PAL

Source: “White Sox Fan Frank Kaminsky Owns The Cubs”, Patrick Redford, Deadspin (10/17/16)

TOB: I wish he was on the Bulls. Between the Cubs and the White Sox, the Cubs are so far and away the favorite team in Chicago.  It would be interesting to see how Bulls fans would react at the first game of the year if a Bulls player had done this. Oh well. Still funny.

5-Year Old Misses Game, Calls Team to Apologize

God, this is too funny. That is 5-year old Louis Kayes, a fan of Celtic FC in Glasgow, Scotland. Louis’ parents got him season tickets to see Celtic this year, but Louis missed last Saturday’s game because he went to a birthday party. The party was “good”, but Louis felt guilty for missing his favorite team, so he called up the club and asked to speak to the manager and his favorite player in order to apologize. As his mother said:

“He wanted to let both of them know he’d missed it in case they were looking for him.”

Damn, that’s adorable. Louis promised he would be at this Wednesday’s game, and his mom doesn’t think he’ll be missing any more any time soon.

Source: “Celtic Fan, 5, Apologises to Club After Missing Match“, BBC News (10/19/2016)

Video of the Week: 

Song of the Week: Curtis Mayfield – “Pusherman”

Like what you’ve read? Let us know by following this blog (on the right side, up near the top), or:

Email: 123sportslist@gmail.com

Name that athlete.

TOB: Only #4 gave me a moment’s pause, but I am certain I got it.

Your stirrups tell me everything I need to know, bro

I will never forget the night before my first Little League game. My older brother Matt showed me how to properly wear baseball stirrups. Make sure the sanitary socks are a crisp white. Low side of the stirrup in front (do NOT be the kid who has his stirrups on backwards at Opening Day). Fold the stirrup over the bottom of the pant to create a clean, secure interlocking system that won’t fall down after sliding or diving. It was every bit the right of passage central to any YA novel. Learning how to put on stirrups might be the first time I was told that how you dress communicates to those around you.

What was that? No, baseball didn’t play a role in my youth at all.

So, let’s nerd out on stirrups for a moment. Of course this is about personal style and preference, but some preferences are terrible, stylistically speaking. Here’s the spectrum:

Great: Understated. Underrated. Timeless. 

Good: Don’t know how I feel about one team, one dream, one stirrup length mandate, but Stanford does it well. Note #44: He’s got that ultra low, 4-inch stirrup. Looks good. 

Bad: It was ugly in 1987, and it’s ugly now. Also, maybe next week we need to write about New Balance becoming a very popular baseball cleat. What? Since when did the brand that has the dad market cornered become a popular amongst ballplayers?

Terrible: Just no. 

The 4-inch stirrup has always been my preference. The hipster trend of going fully back to the 70s and 80s is like ironically wearing Jordache jeans today. Pump the brakes.

Laugh all you want, but stirrups vs. solid socks, low-top cleats vs. high-top cleats (but always super glossy and blackout Scott Erickson style); super curved hat or a more subtle curve – these are the decisions that I spent way too much time weighing every spring when I was a kid. And here’s a way too in-depth story about the stirrup resurgence in baseball. – PAL

Source: “Baseball’s Stirrups: Always in Season, if Not in Fashion”, Seth Berkman, The New York Times (9/17/16)

TOB: I think you have your great and your good flipped, buddy. I like to see more sock. For example, the Chris Archer look (as noted in the article) is my idea of a masterpiece. Behold:

Look at that! So much sock. Stripes! Multiple colors! And the stirrup! That’s just fantastic. Also, are you saying you tucked your pants into your stirrup? I’ve never seen or heard of that, but the article mentions Sean Gilmartin of the Mets, and by golly, it sure seems like you’re talking about the same thing Gilmartin does. Wild. Anyways, I also loved stirrups as a kid, though I think if I was a major leaguer now I’d go with high socks generally and switch it up with high stirrups a couple times a week. We can both agree that the long pants over the cleats look is a plague on the game, and moreso: the kids in little league who wore the fake stirrup socks deserved to fall into a port-a-pottie.

PAL: Regarding tucking of the stirrup, you do it like this:

This is the type of retirement gift I can get behind

Farewell tours for athletes are dumb. Why the hell do opposing teams feel compelled to give players like Mariano Rivera, Derek “Jeets” Jeter, or David Ortiz gifts? Hey, thanks for kicking are asses for 15 years, here’s a surfboard. What in the absolute hell is this? I mean, is Tim Lincecum going to show up at Paul Goldschmidt’s farewell tour to publicly, hand over an amended will and leave everything to Goldschmidt, the rightful owner of Tim Lincecum and all that it entails?

With that said, the Orioles gave David Ortiz a retirement gift I can appreciate:

Why a broken phone box, you might ask. Here’s why:

Well done, Orioles. Also, the phone still worked! Can whatever company that makes those phones get into the iPhone case business already? – PAL

Source: “What Do You Get For The Baseball Player Who Has Everything? A Busted Up Phone Box”, Patrick Redford, Deadspin (9/21/16)

TOB: I agree, they’re the absolute worst. The Giants gave him something. He played here TWICE. These are so stupid. But…I know he’s not a former player, I do love what the Giants are planning for Vin Scully, when he calls his final game in a couple of weeks. The game will be at AT&T Park and the Giants are planning on switching over their TV feed to Vin for one inning. Nice tribute. We’ll have more to say about Vin next week, so I’ll leave it at that.

The Best There Ever Was?

I like this story because it reminds me of the story Phil shared here a while back about the only kid to ever strike Joe Mauer out during high school. Ayrton Senna is known as one of the greatest F-1 drivers of all-time. A well-regarded documentary about his life was made, Senna, which you can watch on Netflix. Senna died on the track in 1994. Before he was winning F-1 championships, though, he was a teenage go-kart racer. He was very good – but he was not the best. The best was a British guy named Terry Fullerton. A few years older than Senna, Fullerton beat everybody. He never lost to Senna. This fact drove young Senna so mad that he once walked by and shoved Fullerton into a pool. Senna would move on, and just before he died said that Fullerton was the best driver he ever raced against:

So why have most race fans never heard of Terry Fullerton? Because Fullerton, now 63, never advanced beyond go-karts. He chose this path because when Terry was 11-years old, his older brother died in a motorbike race. Fullerton did not want to put his parents through that again, having to bury their remaining child. So he continued to race go-karts. He even now coaches go-karts, and barely scratches out a living. When asked if he regrets it, he says he sometimes does – but when he saw the Senna documentary, and heard Senna say that Fullerton was the best driver he ever faced, he realized he made the right decision. After all, Senna is dead, and Fullerton is enjoying his life. -TOB

Source: “Meet the Man Ayrton Senna Could Never Beat”, Alex Lloyd, Jalopnik (09/19/2016)

Video of the Week: 

Bonus Video of the Week:

Song of the Week: Cahalen Morrison – “Ode To Autumn”. Do yourself a favor and check out all of Cahalen’s music. A brilliant talent who spent more than a couple nights on couch at the old spot in San Francisco. He and Eli West albums should be known far and wide.

Like what you’ve read? Let us know by following this blog (on the right side, up near the top), or:

Email: 123sportslist@gmail.com

Rules for Bills tailgates…or words to live by?

Perhaps the Greatest Radio Call in History

In theory, I get why we arrest fans who run onto athletic fields during an event. I also get why they don’t show it on TV, to discourage people from doing it to get on TV. It interrupts the game, it could pose a danger to the athletes (and the fans). I get it. But…the anarchist in me thinks it’s hilarious. I love everything about it. The crowd cheers as they see what’s going on, the TV cameras pan/cut away. The fan tries to make it as long as possible before getting crushed by out of shape security guards who have been huffing and puffing for 60 yards undoubtedly thinking, “I don’t get paid for this shit!” The fan then gets dragged away, in handcuffs, as the crowd cheers their conquering hero.

Most announcers do not have a sense of humor about this and get all huffy about the idiot on the field interrupting the game. Lucky for us, Kevin Harlan is NOT most announcers (I’ll never forget tuning into a March Madness online streamed game about ten years ago and hearing a hot mic catch Harlan ripping Bobby Knight for being overrated). Thus, during Monday Night Football this week, idiot on the field met Kevin Harlan and magic was made. 16-year old Santa Clara 49er fan William ran onto the field, and Harlan, announcing the game on the radio, called it like a huge play in the game.

I have watched this a dozen times. It never stops being funny. “Some goofball in a hat and a red shirt. NOW HE TAKES OFF THE SHIRT…” Please watch, and enjoy. And then read the hilarious interview Deadspin conducted with the kid (he had written his phone number across his chest). Because he was 16, he got off with little more than a slap on the wrist. Damnit. I missed my window. -TOB

Source: “The Idiot on the Field at MNF Wrote His Number on His Chest, So We Called Him”, Lindsay Adler, Deadspin (09/13/2016)

PAL:

1. The fan tries to make it as long as possible before getting crushed by out of shape security guards who have been huffing and puffing for 60 yards undoubtedly thinking, “I don’t get paid for this shit!”  I don’t know, man. I think a good portion of the security guards dream of that moment to out a good lick a fan out in front of a stadium crowd.
2. William’s use of ‘hella’ is pure interview magic. Sidebar: At what age does the word ‘hella’ need to be removed from a Californian’s vocabulary? Or is asking that question only proof I’m not from these parts? I mean, at 16, William can say it every other word and it’s idiotically endearing. But is TOB going to be dropping it at soccer games in 3 years? Has TOB let one slip in the workplace? Does Rowe use it while hot on the trail for some 20 year-old engineer genius? What about AP at PlayStation…I bet they use it all the time there.

TOB: As a Californian who used “hella” liberally, I’m not sure when I stopped. Maybe when I got married? Maybe when I became a lawyer? I’m really not sure. I accidentally said it about a week ago and I felt completely ridiculous – like the old alumnus at the college frat party trying to hit on the sorority girls. It was not ok. I am getting so old.

Old Man, Big Chain, Historic Season

David Ortiz played parts of his first 6 seasons with the Twins. He got hurt and failed to live up to expectations. This year, we were told, this is the year Ortiz figures it out. The Twins ended up RELEASING him. He goes to Boston and becomes an icon, likely on the Mt. Rushmore of Boston sports figures. With this likely his last year, is David Ortiz having the best farewell season of all time? If nothing else, Jayson Stark’s rankings makes for great bar discussion. Here’s his list:

1. Ortiz
2. Ted Williams
3. Sandy Koufax
4. Barry Bonds
5. Shoeless Joe Jackson

Of those names, only Ortiz and Williams retirements were a result of it simply being time. Koufax arm was a throbbing mess by age 30. No MLB team wanted to touch Bonds after a very solid year at age 42 due to the ongoing PED story. And Shoeless Joe…well, we know why he couldn’t play anymore.

Maybe Ortiz is getting some help, if you know what I mean, but I was chatting with my brother-in-law the other night (Red Sox lifer), and we agreed on a new rule: no drug tests for anyone competing at the age of 40. Free pass. Ortiz’s season is pretty absurd, not to mention crucial for a team in the thick of a three-team division race. I mean, this dude will get MVP votes at age 40! Here are some of his more absurd numbers this year:

• Ortiz shares the lead for most extra-base hits for all of MLB
• The big guy is on pace for 50 (!) doubles and 37 home runs
• (My favorite) “If Big Papi keeps mashing at his current rate and finishes with those 37 homers and 50 doubles, he would be the 12th player in history to reach both of those plateaus in a season. He’s 40. All of the other 11 did it before they even turned 30.”

Do check out the article. Stark’s breakdown of Bonds, Williams, Koufax, and Shoeless Joe are great. What a great decision to by the Twins to let him go. – PAL

Source: “Is David Ortiz having the greatest farewell season of all time?”, Jayson Stark, ESPN (9/14/16)

TOB: I dunno, Readers. I think Phil can step up the bitter. Bring it, Phil. Give me a REALLY good Twins rant. After the second half the Giants have had, I need the catharsis.

PAL: All I’m saying is this: When he’s a Twin he hurts his wrist, he hurts his knee, he hurts his wrist again…then he finally hits well (20 HR, 75 RBI in 125 games in 2002), and they can’t even trade him. Then he goes to Boston, becomes healthy and immediately hits 30 bombs. Gee, I wonder what happened in Boston with Manny Ramirez? The only thing that allows me to sleep at night is knowing the Twins unloaded A.J. Pierzynski to the Giants for Joe Nathan and Francisco Liriano.

The Big, Badass Paralympics Pit Crew

I haven’t given much attention to the Paralympics. Most of us know they follow the Olympics in the same host city, but by the time we get into September many are prepping for a baseball playoff run or turning our attention to football. But the following story is a really interesting vantage point on a wonderful event with a history spanning 68 years: the repair shop.

“When athletes arrive at the Paralympic Village here, they care most about three things: internet access, food and the location of the repair shop…”

The sheer scale and breadth of capabilities, technology, and old fashioned problem-solving that goes into getting the athletes their equipment dialed-in before they compete is inspiring. The spectrum of technology seems to expand decades: While athletes from, say, the United States and Germany are using cutting edge solutions, athletes from third world countries are competing with prosthetics that are flat out obsolete.

“The unpredictability of the job demands an array of skills from the technicians, beyond an expertise in prosthetics, welding or wheelchairs. Specialists who hail from 29 countries and speak 26 languages, they must be calm enough to handle the pressure of a workplace that handles at least 100 repairs every day. They must also be creative and intuitive enough to solve problems they have never seen before.”

What an awesome achievement of service, ingenuity, and support. – PAL

Source: “Paralympics’ Repair Shop Addresses Athletes’ Equipment Needs”, Ben Shpigel, The New York Times (9/15/16)

A Turning Point in Athletes Standing Up For Social Justice?

A few weeks back, Carmelo Anthony called on athletes to demand change and speak out in support of social justice. After the last few generations of athletes have cared more about protecting sponsorship money than using their social podium for good, I was skeptical any change would actually occur. Happily, I appear to have been wrong. In recent weeks, Colin Kaepernick has dominated the headlines by sitting and then kneeling during the national anthem in protest of the treatment of people of color in this country. Many NFL players, and athletes in other sports, have joined him. In addition, University of Wisconsin basketball player Bronson Koenig, the first ever Native American to play in the NCAA title game, announced plans to drive 11 hours to Bismarck, North Dakota and join the Dakota Access Pipeline Protest (Koenig will also host a free youth basketball camp while there). Thousands have protested the construction of the pipeline, which will cut through numerous Standing Rock Sioux sacred sites and burial grounds. The protests have been successful, at least temporarily – as construction has been put on hold to reconsider the plans.

It’s a great time to be alive, if you ask me. Things are not perfect, by any means. But the tide seems to be turning – people are beginning to care and to demand change and to do something about it. And that is the first step. Kudos to Carmelo, Kaepernick, Bronson Koenig and so many others for using their platform for good. And to small-minded people like Trent Dilfer, who only care about about the effect a protest like Kaepernick’s has on his football team…get some god damn perspective.

I also highly recommend former Grantland writer Wesley Morris’ great piece in the New York Times Magazine on the Kaepernick protests. -TOB

Source: “Why Wisconsin’s Bronson Koenig is Joining the Dakota Pipeline Protest”, Jeff Eisenberg, Yahoo! Sports (09/12/2016)

PAL: Well put, TOB. A bit more context on the importance of Koenig joining the protest. He is the most prominent Native American basketball player in the country and averaged 13 ppg for a Sweet 16 Wisconsin team (he also played in 40 games for the 2014-15 team that lost in the National Championship). He is a sports hero to the Native American community on the level of a LeBron James. I bring this up not to say his athletic accomplishments make his joining the protest more important than anyone else, but to underscore the fact that he is a leader within the community.

Whatever side you find yourself on with regards to the construction of the pipeline, I hope we can all appreciate young men and women putting action behind their beliefs. TOB’s right; it’s really cool to see more athletes taking a stand lately.

Video of the Week:

Bonus Video of the Week

Marshawn is a national treasure. Bear Grylis is barely tolerable.

PAL Song of the Week: Johnny Cash – “Sea of Heartbreak”

Like what you’ve read? Let us know by following this blog (on the right side, up near the top), or:

Email: 123sportslist@gmail.com

I feel you.

After the Gold Rush: Charlie Weis

Now that we’re a week or two into the college football season (depending if you’re counting the Cal-Hawaii game in Australia), you can expect two stories:

1. Boosters at a big time program calling for the head of the head coach (Les Miles seems like the likeliest candidate after LSU lost to Julia Pflepsen’s Badgers)
2. The next program renovator extraordinaire is identified. The hot stock destined to take the best available job (University of Houston’s Tom Herman’s stock is at an all-time high after a 13-1 2015 season, followed by a beat down of Oklahoma in the 2016 opener.)

These two stories intersect, but the more interesting story just might be what happens after a one-time savior is pushed out. Remember Charlie Weis?

Offensive Coordinator for the Patriots when they won 3 out of 4 Super Bowls. The chunky giant took the reins of his Alma Mater Notre Dame. He would restore the Golden Domers back to a powerhouse, and do so with the perfect crew cut to boot. It was perfect. Until the wins stopped piling up.

Tommy Tomlinson’s “where is he now” profile of Weis is by no means a “good guy, bad luck” story. Far from it, and it captures just what the hell happens to these guys after the the door hit them where the good lord split them. Some of the more interesting moments:

• Sitting at home, Weis made $2.5 million from Kansas and $2.1 million from Notre Dame last year, which made him in effect the eighth-highest-paid coach in college football.
• Weis and Jon Bon Jovi are friends, and text each other Bon Jovi lyrics. Read that again, folks.
• According to Weis, as Notre Dame wouldn’t comment on the following: Charlie Jr. was on track to enroll at Notre Dame. Weis says Jenkins himself had promised that he would be accepted, as long as his grades and test scores qualified, which they did. But after Weis was fired, Notre Dame sent a letter deferring Charlie Jr.’s acceptance. Not long after that, Weis says, he got a call from someone in Notre Dame’s development office making him an offer: If he’d donate some of the money Notre Dame owed him back to the school — “seven figures,” Weis says — Charlie Jr. could get in.

All in all, this was a pretty interesting look behind the curtain after the failure settles. – PAL

Source: “The Lexicon of Charlie Weis”, Tommy Tomlinson, ESPN (08/24/2016)

TOB: A few things to note. The wins never really piled up for Weis. When Weis was hired, he promised that Notre Dame would win because they “would have a decided schematic advantage”. Translation: I’m smart and everyone else is dumb. He got an insane extension in the middle of his first season, even though his team was just 5-2, based on a close loss at home to #1 USC. That extension was for TEN years and FORTY MILLION DOLLARS. Weis was once quoted as saying ND would never lose to Michigan State under his watch. He went 2-3. When he moved on to Kansas, he went 1-18 in the Big-12. That’s not a typo. 1-18.

One last thing: the anecdote was about him texting Bon Jovi is only the second most fascinating Bon Jovi mention in this blog’s history. You’re welcome.

Nothing More to Say: Giants Slump

The Giants are struggling at a bad time, folks. Their atrocious second half has the team with the best record at the All-Star break now 5 friggin’ games back of the Dodgers in the west. Can’t hit. Bullpen can’t do anything but give up hits. Downright tough to watch right now, so it’s understandable the beat writers are having a tough time with it, too.

Longtime Giants beat writer Andrew Baggarly shared the lineup in his post the other day, then followed up with this:

“That’s it, really. Not much more to say. But the SEO wizards tell us that Google likes articles that are more than 41 words. So here’s a little more[…]”

Dog days, indeed, Bags. Let’s look on the bright side: Giants still have a .5 game lead in the Wild Card. There’s still time, right? Right! I mean, they have the starting pitching for a post-season run, a couple bats can get hot here in the stretch run (I’m looking at you, Belt), and maybe the bullpen…actually the bullpen is just terrible. But, hey, we can never forget what Hova has taught us:

We’re getting to the best sports time of the year – baseball playoff runs – and it would be more fun if the Giants stuck around for it. – PAL

Source: “Giants Beat Writer Files World’s Best, Laziest Column Amid Team’s Massive Slump”, Patrick Redford, Deadspin (09/07/2016)

TOB: Ugh. This is an even year, damnit. What the god damn hell.

Your Weekly Reminder the NFL Sucks

I can’t help myself and I still watch this evil league and this dangerous sport. I commend you if you are able to tune out. Alas. I watched the NFL’s season opening game on Thursday night. If you stuck around for the end, it was a heck of a game that ended on a missed game winning field goal by Carolina’s (and my fantasy team’s) kicker, Graham Gano. But here’s what I want to point out. On the final drive, Carolina was around midfield with under a minute left. Cam Newton was flushed from the pocket, facing heavy pressure. He was being tackled and threw the ball away, and just after he did so his head got destroyed by the crown of the helmet of a Broncos defender:

What was the result of this dangerous and intentional play? Thanks for asking. The result was a replay of the down. Why? Because while the Bronco defender was flagged for roughing the passer, Newton was also flagged for intentional grounding because the pass did not make it to the line of scrimmage and HOLY HELL that is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. One penalty is much worse and should take precedent. But in the NFL’s wisdom, they offset and it’s like the down never happened. Meanwhile, Cam Newton stayed in the game, likely concussed, and apparently couldn’t remember the end of the game. Great job, NFL. -TOB

Source: “Cam Newton’s Brain Scrambled; Is Left in Game“, Timothy Burke, Deadspin (09/08/2016)

Your Weekly Reminder that the NCAA Sucks

Not to be outdone, the NCAA suspended approximately FORTY Charleston Southern players, including the entire offensive line, from this weekend’s game against FSU. FORTY? Yup. The players’ crime? You see, players are given a stipend to buy text books and the players who had leftover money used it to buy supplies from the campus bookstore…notebooks, pens, etc. Those awful kids, trying to put the “student” in “student-athlete”. Ugh. What an insanely dumb decision. They might as well forfeit the game, but of course they’re likely getting a big payday for making the trip. They being the school, of course, not the players. Ha! Like the players should be paid for making millions for others. What a foolish idea. -TOB

Source: “Dozens of Charleston Players Apparently Suspended Over Bizarre Bookstore Violation“, Patrick Redford, Deadspin (09/09/2016)

PAL: You got it wrong, TOB. These mastermind students were about to pull off the perfect crime. Almost got away with it, too. You see, they were utilizing the remaining amount on their stipend to buy extra stuff from the Charleston Southern bookstore (I’m told it’s the Ferrari of college bookstores), to then turn around and sell online at a markup, obviously due to their celebrity (I mean, who doesn’t want a trapper keeper owned by an offensive lineman at Charleston Southern?). And who knows what these Charleston Southern jocks would’ve done with the money. If I know one thing, it’s that a Charleston Southern football player can do whatever he wants and get away with it. I’m just thankful the NCAA was able to nip this gross misconduct in the bud before someone got hurt. The players at big time college football programs like Charleston Southern are out of control.

Video of the Week: 

PAL Song of the Week: Van Morrison – Madame George (The Complete Bang Sessions version)

Also, TOB and Mrs. TOB just welcomed their second little dude to the family. It’s about to get real in the O’Brien house. Congrats! That’s the good stuff.

Like what you’ve read? Let us know by following this blog (on the right side, up near the top), or:

Email: 123sportslist@gmail.com

Can’t stop. Won’t stop. John Rose Oval style.

Simone Biles: The Greatest Gymnast of All-Time

Look, I am well aware of recency bias, especially in sports. But GOD DAMN. This week, Simone Biles won the Olympic Gold Medal in the all-around competition by 2.1 points over the Silver Medalist (and Ryan Rowe’s  Heartthrob), Aly Raisman. 2.1! That’s a larger margin than the gold medalist beat the silver medalist in every Olympics from 1980 to 2012…combined. Truly historic. And this is not a fluke. Simone has been destroying her competition for the last three years, including winning the last three World Championships.

And for a little historical comparison, here is the winning vault at the 1968 Olympics next to the winning vault at the 2012 Olympics:

So, gymnastics is only getting better, and Simone just somehow took a gigantic leap ahead of everyone else.

Ahead of her curb stomping of the rest of the world, the New Yorker profiled Simone, and it’s worth reading. Biles has had an amazing young life – before she was The Greatest Gymnast of All-Time, Simone was born to a drug and alcohol addicted mother, and was placed in foster care with her sister. Her grandparents later adopted her, and Simone considers them her parents. But there are a lot of insights into what it takes to be a world-class gymnast, as well. For example, Simone has a boyfriend, and her coach told him, “I think you’re sweet, but if you screw with her mind I will kill you.” Simone says that getting ready for competition involves “repeatedly convincing yourself you aren’t going to die.” Luckily, she is persuasive, because she goes out there and does things that are frankly unfathomable:

“I kind of blow my own mind…I wish I could crawl out of my skin and see it happen from a different perspective.” She says that during her tumbling runs, “the only thing she sees is the colors of the ceiling and the floor, whizzing past in revolving blurs.” Simone Biles is awesome. -TOB

Source: “A Full Revolution”, Reeves Wiedeman, New Yorker (05/30/2016); Companion Video: “The Mind-Blowing Athleticism of Simone Biles”, Reeves Wiedeman, New Yorker (05/27/2016)

PAL: Great profile on a great athlete. Really well written, too. Biles is pushing the sport to new frontiers, no doubt, but I’m excited that I finally understand the new gymnastics scoring system: “The new system, laid out in the Code of Points, is an open-ended one, in which gymnasts are given two marks: one for execution, worth up to ten points, and another for difficulty, which is theoretically infinite.”

That makes so much more sense than the old 10-point system!

A gymnastics podcast nut put in this way: “The code was a fantasy—a perfect, unattainable ideal. Then Simone was born, and the code became a reality.”

Historically Historic Perspective

Michael Phelps broke a record that’s stood since well before the birth of Christ. For real. Until tonight, the most individual Olympic “wins” was 12. Why do I say “wins” instead of “gold medals” – because medals weren’t given out until the beginning of the modern olympics in 1896.

The record Phelps broke was held by Leonidas of Rhodes. He dominated the Olympics…in 160, 156, and 152 BCE. Michael Phelps is awesome. – PAL

Source: “Michael Phelps Tied (Broke) A 2,168-Year-Old Olympic Record”, Barry Petchesky, Deadspin (08/10/2016)

TOB: I’ve come full circle on Phelps. I rooted for him in 2004. He was overexposed in 2008 and so I was secretly hoping he’d lose one of those eight events. In 2012 I thought he was washed up and felt a little bad. And now he’s (maybe?) better than ever, with a good shot to pick up his fifth and sixth gold medals of these Olympics. At 31! Amazing! (What’s not amazing is naming your kid Boomer, I mean…c’mon) But I think the most amazing stat about Phelps is that he has appeared in 26 Olympic finals…and he’s won 22 golds, 2 silvers and 2 bronze. Of his two non-medal finals, one occurred when he was 15. Incredible. Even though I think that swimming medals are inflated by the insane variations they create, with every conceivable distance for four different strokes and every permutation of relay and medley and medley relay you can possibly think of, Phelps still has to go down as the greatest Olympian of all-time.

CHANGE THIS DUMB RULE

In the 2012 Olympics, American Jordyn Wieber was ranked 4th in the All-Around qualifying but did not qualify for the All-Around final. 21 gymnasts who had lower qualifying scores did qualify for the finals, though. Why? Because for some insane reason only the top 2 qualifiers from each country qualify for the finals. Sometimes sports have rules so dumb I can’t even comprehend why they exist, but at least, I figure, they will get fixed. Not so in this case, because the same friggin thing happened this Olympics. This time the victim was American Gabby Douglas, the defending Gold Medalist in the all-around. Douglas’ qualifying score was the third highest, and she did not qualify for the finals. 22 gymnasts with worse qualifying scores did qualify for the finals, though.

This is so utterly stupid. I get that they don’t want one country to sweep the medals, but that is entirely antithetical to the spirit of the competition. Change the friggin rule. I’ll check back in with gymnastics in 4 years. Let’s hope they right this wrong. -TOB

Source: “A Bizarre Rule Will Keep Reigning U.S. Olympic All-Around Gold Medalist From Defending Her Title”, Cork Gaines, Business Insider (08/08/2016)

PAL: This reminds me of The Avery Rule, and by that I mean this is so obviously an absurd rule that they could have simply changed two days ago and no one really would’ve put up that much of a stink. It’s absolutely horrible to think that competitors – from any country – prepare for a moment that comes at best once every four years, who then don’t crumble under the unbelievable pressure but rather perform at a level that earned them a spot in the finals, and who are then undone by some b.s. youth sports rule that’s prioritizes representation over excellence. Did they hand out orange slices on the podium, too?

History’s Forgotten, and Hilarious, Olympic Events

Over the years, the Olympic Committee has added and removed Olympic events as it has seen fit. For example, baseball and softball were discontinued a few years back (they’ll be returning in 2020). But some of the events that we’ve lost are far more obscure, and sound hilarious. For example, Plunge For Distance, held only in the 1904 Olympics. What was plunge for distance? “A diver leaps from an 18-inch platform and has 60 seconds to travel as far across the pool as possible without moving his arms or legs.”

What in the actual hell? What a bizarre event. It must be reinstated! In 1922, an author criticised the event as “not an athletic event at all”, but a competition favoring “mere mountains of fat who fall in the water more or less successfully and depend upon inertia to get their points for them.” Yes, precisely why I want to see it. Other long-forgotten Olympic Events: Tug of War (YES), Dueling pistols (YES!), Horse High Jump (HELL YES!) – TOB

Source: “The Olympics’ Sad History of Defunct Medal Events”, Adam Kilgore, The Washington Post (08/05/2016)

PAL: First:

• No: plunging, baseball, golf, synchronized diving, soccer
• Yes: Tug of War, Wrestling (always!), HHJ (Horse High Jump to you amateurs).  

At its best, the Olympics inspires national pride in all the best ways. It’s also very good that the Olympics exposes us to random-ass sports. We need to keep space for these fringe sports, which is why we really don’t need baseball, golf, or soccer in the Olympics. These sports have their stage, so I vote we leave some room on the Olympic stage for the oddball sports.

Video of the Week:

PAL Song of the Week: Fela Kuti – “Zombie”

Check “Zombie” and all of our weekly picks below:

“Their daughter told my son that he looked like Tom Petty and in a negative way.”

– Catherine

It’s that time again…

Walk Up Songs: A Far More Serious Study Than I Expected

Walk-up songs matter. They give 45,000 strangers a little window into who you are. But there might just be more to it, statistically speaking. Wanna drop bombs? Then you might want to listen to Sinatra. How about a high batting average? Electronic might be the best genre for you. Walk-up songs comes up as a topic of conversation during every baseball game I attend. Does my love of Buster Posey suffer just a little because he walks up to the god-awful “Hell On Wheels” by Brantley Gilbert? Yes. Yes, it does.

Although it’s a year old, this page breaks down everything you could possibly want to know about walk up songs and the corresponding stats. Seriously, this is a comprehensive study. We’re talking graphs, charts, and a tool to search every big league player’s walk up song.

I’ve just burned 20 minutes poking around this site. The ultimate question – and we’d love to hear from you! – is what would your walk-up song be? While moods change, I think I’d go with “Showdown”, by Electric Light Orchestra:

Imagine that blaring during a playoff game with the strings just sizzling on that intro while I sauntered up to the plate with a couple ducks on the pond late in the game. It’s not about smacking people across the face with a heavy metal…it’s about the attitude. I’d like to have the place grooving. Calm, cool. Collected. A Song with swagger. The place would lose its collective mind!

Best all-time walk-up is a no-brainer – Sergio Romo & “El Mechon,” by Banda MS:

And if I were commissioner, I’d hand out the 1-2-3 Sports! Playlist at the rookie symposium, because a good portion of the player song selections are not so good.   – PAL

Source: “MLB Walk-Up Songs“, Fanatics (no date given)

TOB: I can’t get over how thorough this is. Or how out of touch I am. For example, WTF is Jason Aldean? I also can’t get over the author saying that Major League gets lost in the pantheon of great baseball movies. As Phil would say: What the what!? That movie is great and everybody knows that. As for our own walk-up songs, Showdown is a good one. Nice call, Phil. I think I’d be the type to change it up often, perhaps even multiple songs per day. Like, for the first game of a road trip? Willie Nelson’s On the Road Again. Coming up with runners in scoring position? Maybe Run to Your Mama by Goat (big ups to the 1-2-3 playlist!) or Refused’s New Noise. Stuck in a slump? Lil Troy’s Wanna Be a Baller. And as Phil says, the best ever is Romo with El Mechon. I’d throw that in there when I’m leading off the 9th down a couple runs.

Scientists to Olympic Marathon Swimmers: Close Your Mouths

Ugh, gross. Remember a few weeks back when I expressed a boy-who-cried-wolf feeling about the Rio Olympics? About that:

“Foreign athletes will literally be swimming in human crap, and they risk getting sick from all those microorganisms,” said Dr. Daniel Becker, a local pediatrician who works in poor neighborhoods. “It’s sad but also worrisome.”

Turns out, with the games right around the corner, the waters are worse than expected, filled with rotaviruses that cause diarrhea and vomiting and drug-resistant “superbacteria” that can be fatal. So keep your mouth shut when you swim, ladies and gents. The oceans are no better, with disease causing viruses at 1.7 million times the level of what would be considered hazardous on a Southern California beach. IOC and city officials tried to minimize that risk by noting that athletes competing in sailing and windsurfing events have “minimal” contact with water. I guess they’ve never watched windsurfers, who falls into the water plenty. And as a Dutch sailor said, “We just have to keep our mouths closed when the water sprays up.” Ew. -TOB

Source: “Aquatic Olympians Face a Toxic Stew in Rio”, Andrew Jacobs, New York Times (07/26/2016)

PAL: I tried to tell you, but you just wouldn’t listen, would you? Seriously, tell me one thing more frightening than whatever image you conjure up when you hear the word “superbacteria”.

Finally, All Those Whiffle Ball Games Pay Off!

When playing the 20th whiffle ball game in a day as a kid, you go to a different place. Specifically, you start emulating big league batting stances . About 12 people in the world find this interesting, or are there more of us? The New Yorker would suggest I’m not alone. Here’s a fun quiz. I expect no less than 5 out 6 correct answers from baseball fans. I’ll give you a hint: One of the stances comes from a player with almost as many stances as games played. I registered 6 correct answers for the 6 questions. TOB may have passed the Bar, but his 4 out of 6 barely registers over 65%. I’m not upset. I’m just disappointed.

It’s a slow sports week, folks. Just saying.  – PAL

Source: “Quiz: Name That Batting Stance”, Zach Schonbrun, The New York Times (7/21/16)

TOB: In my defense, I don’t remember ever seeing one of those guys play, and as Phil said: another changed his stance so many times, it’s impossible to remember. And in conclusion, may I please remind you it does not say R.S.V.P. on the Statue of Liberty!

VIDEO OF THE WEEK

Baseball Players Are Dumb, Fun

Baseball players have a lot of time on their hands, and as with any cross-section of life, it seems there are a lot of dumb ones. Hence, the Detroit Tigers killing time by playing Rock-Paper-Scissors, best two out of three, with the winner getting to bonk the loser on the head with an empty water cooler bottle:

God damn, I wish I played professional baseball. -TOB

Source: “Don’t Play Rock-Paper-Scissors With the Tigers”, Hannah Keyser, Deadspin (07/27/2016)

PAL Song of the Week: Oh Pep! – “Doctor Doctor”

Check out “Doctor Doctor”, and all of our weekly picks below (youtube & sp:

Like what you’ve read? Let us know by following this blog (on the right side, up near the top), or:

Email: 123sportslist@gmail.com

The NBA Salary Explosion is Bonkers

Let me start by saying: I am absolutely pro-labor in all pro athlete vs. ownership battles. And so I am very happy to see the insane contracts middling players are signing (hey, Evan Turner at 4 years and SEVENTY MILLION), and the even more insane ones that good players are signing (Mike Conley. 5 years. ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY THREE MILLION – over $30M per year). The immediate cause is simple: under the Collective Bargaining Agreement, players are guaranteed around 45% of “Basketball Related Income” (TV money, ticket sales, etc.). This year, the new TV deal kicks in. The new deal jumps from roughly $950 Million per year to roughly $2.3 Billion per year. That means the players are guaranteed an extra $607 Million this season (there will be even more next year, so get ready for another summer of insane contracts). So the cap went from $70 Million to $94 Million.

But as the article notes, the TV money isn’t the only thing distorting contracts for middling players like Evan Turner. The NBA is not a free market, and in addition to the soft salary cap ($94 Million this year) there’s a hard salary floor (teams MUST spend 90% of the cap, or $85 Million next year). And there are max contracts (35, 30, or 25 percent of the salary cap, depending on a player’s tenure). This means that while teams would gladly pay LeBron $50 Million per year, they can only pay him around $30 Million. That means that because many players cannot make as much as they would in a free market, and because teams must spend a lot more this year than last year, mediocre guys like Timofey Mozgov gets 4 years $64 Million and Solomon Hill gets 4 years $48 Million. It’s has to go somewhere. Maybe now Tim can stop doing those awful and hilarious local commercials, but I sure hope not. – TOB

Source: “The CBA’s Distorting Effects Caused Today’s NBA Free Agency Bonanza,” Kevin Draper, Deadspin (7/1/16)

PAL: Wouldn’t eliminating max contracts and maintain a salary cap and floor help with this a bit? Allow really great players to earn what they’re worth relative to the the market. LeBron, Steph, Anthony Davis – go north of $40M per year.  I’m assuming ownership wouldn’t jump at this – being pinched with a cap and a floor while players are set free. I mean, by allowing LeBron to make what he’s worth, don’t we also prevent mid-level players from making more than they’re worth? I’m sure it’s more complicated than that, but it seems like a good start…because Matthew Dellavadova and his mouthguard should not be making nearly $40M over 4 years.

TOB: Makes some sense. But who wants it? Not the rank-and-file NBA players who will suddenly make way less. And they are the majority voting bloc for the NBAPA. The owners don’t want it either. They like the max contracts because max contracts save the owners from themselves. If I offer LeBron $60 Million, then I don’t have enough money to put a good roster around him, and then the team isn’t good enough. So, I don’t see it happening.

PAL: Good point – Players unions are chartered to get the most amount of money, benefits, and flexibility for the most amount of players. But wouldn’t it be interesting if the system put it on LeBron and players of his stature? Yep – you can make as much as you want, super duper stars, but capping yourself will give you the best opportunity to actually field a competitive team. I just like that it puts more onus on the players to regulate themselves.

Rio’s Sh#tshow

In one of our first posts we shared a story ahead of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Corruption, mass protests, and security forces handing out pamphlets instructing visitors how to act when robbed. Not a good look. Now the Rio Summer Olympics are fast approaching, and the situation doesn’t sound much better in Brazil. If anything, it sounds worse.

• Antibiotic super bacteria (not the same as Zika, and has the potential to infect many more people)
• Zika
• Rio’s waterways are full of poop. So much poop.
• Hospitals are running out of meds.
• The police are disgruntled, underpaid, and telling people “Welcome to hell.”
• Murder and robbery rates are up 15% and 25% respectively.
• The occasional human body part washing up on the beach where competitions are being held

Add to all this the dubious notion that short-lived, global events boost the local economy, and I’m even more convinced that in most cases a limited number of host cities with the infrastructure already in place to put on the Olympics might be the best route. Consider this breakdown from Binyamin Applebaum’s 2014 article in The New York Times Magazine:

The idea that big sporting events are good for growth is relatively new. A 1956 article in this newspaper noted the curious hopes of Australian officials who were “somewhat optimistic” that visitors to the Melbourne Olympics might settle in the city, or perhaps do a little business there. “Ordinarily,” it said, “being host for the Olympic Games is unlikely to gain a nation much beyond prestige.” But as the cost of hosting rose inexorably, so did the supposed benefits. The Olympics and the World Cup are now routinely described as economic engines. Four American cities — Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington — recently announced that they were flirting with hosting the 2024 Summer Olympics, and in each case a justification was economic development. In Massachusetts, a state-appointed commission led by a construction executive suggested that a Boston Olympiad could “catalyze and accelerate the economic-development and infrastructure improvements necessary to ensure that Massachusetts can compete globally now and into the future.”

Such claims are based on the idea that the Games can serve as a tourist attraction, a chance to catch the eye of global business leaders and a way to rally political support for valuable infrastructure projects. The lean and profitable 1984 Los Angeles Olympics are often invoked. So are the 1992 Barcelona Games, which amplified that city’s revival.

But there is strikingly little evidence that such events increase tourism or draw new investment. Spending lavishly on a short-lived event is, economically speaking, a dubious long-term strategy. Stadiums, which cost a lot and produce minimal economic benefits, are a particularly lousy line of business. (This is why they are usually built by taxpayers rather than by corporations.) And even though Brazil, like other recent hosts, has sought to make stadium spending more palatable by also building general infrastructure, like highways and airports, the public would derive the same benefit at far less cost if the transportation projects were built and the stadiums were not. The Los Angeles Olympics were successful, after all, because planners avoided building new stadiums. Barcelona, long neglected under the rule of Francisco Franco, was in the midst of a renaissance that would have probably occurred without the Olympics.

While it seems this story is written before every global sporting event (Beijing, Sochi, Qatar), the Rio Olympics are less than 1 month away, and I really don’t see how some of these health and safety issues are fixable in that amount of time. I’m sure the networks will show us the rose-colored version of the event, but this does seem like a recipe for very real disasters. – PAL

Source: “All the Reasons the Rio Olympics are F%$#ed”, Ashley Feinberg, Gawker (7/6/16)

TOB: There’s a little boy who cried wolf thing going on for me at this point. I don’t doubt it’s an absolute economic boondoggle. Some people are getting very rich constructing all the new stadiums and infrastructure. But the health stuff? They said before Beijing that the smog would be so bad that people would have trouble breathing. It was fine. They said before Sochi that nothing would be done. And it was. As you note, NBC will show us the rose-colored version and likely ignore the real problems. But absent some real and serious health issues befalling athletes or tourists, I think this will be much ado about nothing, in the end.

How To Join a Pickup Basketball Game

As with the author, I have been joining pickup basketball games for most of my adult life. I have managed to ingratiate myself into long-running games with former college basketball players/athletes, games at Mormon and non-denominational Christian churches. Games with the worst and nicest people you’d ever want to meet. This article has makes a lot of good points: Be normal (so, don’t be this guy. Actually, that’s hilarious. Be that guy), don’t talk trash, ask for the court rules, don’t call too many fouls, and do bust your butt on defense. All very good advice. I’ve got a couple tips to add, though, more related to style of play. Don’t try too hard to make a fancy pass, but if you can show that you know how to find the open man, you will be appreciated quickly. If you’re a pretty good shooter, the first couple times you play in a new game, don’t shoot too much. And if you miss your first couple shots, only shoot when wiiiide open. It might not be your day and no one wants to add a guy to their weekly game who they think can’t shoot well and shoots too much. If you’re tall, crash the boards. Basically, you want to play like Chris Bosh when he played with LeBron and Wade: Hit the open man. Crash the boards. Only shoot when wide open. And keep your mouth shut. You’ll be fine. -TOB

Source: “How to Play Pickup Basketball Without Being a Pain in the Ass”, Jay Willis, Deadspin (06/27/2016)

PAL:  I only have one addition – never go full Jordan:

You Can’t Separate Sports and Politics

In a recent email panel, Sports Illustrated asked 7 sports media members their view on whether or not sports and politics mix. More specifically, they are asked whether or not the media members should impart politics into their commentary and social media posts. The extended piece is here. First off, it appears that those questioned have a different definition of politics. While some seem to define the word more narrowly (support or criticism of candidates), others identify issues are at the heart of politics. Most of those questioned come off informed and reasoned (Jemele Hill):

NEWSFLASH: Sports is political. This idea that sports is untouched by politics is bull. In both little and big ways we’re exposing our political views all the time. We just buried arguably the greatest athlete of all time in Muhammad Ali, and the majority of conversations about Ali were about his beliefs and politics. If you express open admiration for Ali because he stood up against the war, or if you’re among those that still consider him to be anti-American, aren’t you exposing a little bit about your politics? When Richard Sherman criticized the Black Lives Matter movement, my co-host Michael Smith and I took him to task, and thus exposed our politics. Congress inserted itself in the performance-enhancing drug and concussion issues. We have billion-dollar stadiums being built on taxpayer money.

Others come off like scared self-promoters without an original thought (Adam Schefter):

It does not impact how we go about our jobs. Sports figures who publicize their political viewpoints only serve to divide the audience. People are drawn to sports as an escape from politics. Even for someone like Andy Katz, who gets President Obama’s NCAA picks, Andy should not have to disclose his political views because he’s doing the interview. The focus of their interaction is basketball, not politics, as it should be. Though also allow me to say that while we’re on the topic of reporting and the White House, no President ever has invited me to make his playoff picks up to and through the Super Bowl. If whichever President is in office will have me down to Washington to do this story in January, I’m all in, Democrat, Republican, independent or any party.

Aside from the fact, as Petchesky points out, politics absolutely impacts how Schefter goes about his job, I love how Schefter uses the forum as a segue to getting a segment with the future POTUS and her NFL Playoff picks. What a turd.

I’ve never understood the notion of sports as an escape. I love watching big sporting events. Joining friends, family, and my community to rally around a playoff run is one of my favorite things to do. It’s a part of my life – not an escape from it. We are intelligent enough to have more than one truth take up real estate in our brains: Sports are enjoyable, sports are big business, and sports – like every other segment of society – struggles with issues. – PAL

Source: “I Can’t Believe Adam Schefter Is Really This Naive”, Barry Petchesky, Deadspin (6/27/16)

TOB: Very subtle insertion of Phil’s radical politics into that one. Did you catch it? STAY YOUR LANE, PHIL! Nah, I agree. I think there is a fine line here, but no one needs to be Michael Jordan (“Republicans buy sneakers, too”). And…Schefter, such a turd.

PAL’s Song of the Week: Sam Cooke – “Bring It Home To Me”. And check out all of our weekly picks here:

Video of the Week:

That’s right, Bennet Brauer here with another commentary. Didn’t think the suits would have me back perhaps. Thought they’d have my dairy-air replaced by one of tem store mannequin well maybe I’m not “the norm”. I’m not “camera friendly”, I don’t “wear clothes that fit me”, I’m not a “heartbreaker”, I haven’t had “sex with a woman”, I don’t know “how that works”, I don’t “fall in line”, I’m not “hygienic”, I don’t “wipe properly”, I lack “style”, I don’t have “self-esteem”, I have no “charisma”, I don’t “own a toothbrush”, I don’t “let my scabs heal”, I can’t “reach all the parts of my body”, when I sleep I sweat profusely. But I guess the powers that be will keep signing my pay check until Jack and Jane K. Viewer start to go for the remote so they can get back to commentators who don’t “frighten children”, who don’t “eat their own dandruff”, who don’t “pop their whiteheads with a compass they used in high school”. Thank you, Kevin.

– Bennet Brauer

TOB is working hard, and PAL is hardly working up at the cabin compound in MN. Review your MN watercraft laws before the big weekend, folks.

He makes that bottle of Cristal look like a bottle of MGD Light.

Requiem for a Great Team

Hoo, boy. The Warriors. What the hell happened? Did they tire themselves out going for 73? Maybe. But if so, I support it. They have a title already. Go for history. So what was it? Was Curry injured? He seemed good at points, but he definitely had a tougher time creating space with his dribble (see that last possession where Kevin Love defended him) and had an even tougher time getting to the rim and finishing (see that last possession where Kevin Love defended him; also see what seemed like 1,000 times he got swatted at the rim in the series against OKC and Cleveland). Did someone actually castrate Harrison Barnes? Did teams figure simply figure them out? They could have easily lost 3 or 4 against Portland; probably should have lost to OKC; and did love to Cleveland. So, maybe. Or…was there something more at work? Karma, perhaps? Back in early April, the Warriors were 68-7. They weren’t playing quite as well as they had in November and December, but damn. 68-7. And then owner Joe Lacob opened up his conceited rich venture capitalist asshole mouth in the New York Times. If you haven’t read it, you should. It was hilarious and dumb and widely mocked at the time. After the Warriors lost, it’s even better. The most important passage was this:

“He boasted that the Warriors are playing in a far more sophisticated fashion than the rest of the league. ‘We’ve crushed them on the basketball court, and we’re going to for years because of the way we’ve built this team,” he said. But what really set the franchise apart, he said, was the way it operated as a business. “We’re light-years ahead of probably every other team in structure, in planning, in how we’re going to go about things,”he said.

What an asshole. There are actually insightful moments, but there are way too many moments where you think, “God, what a rich prick.”

Ok, so. 68-7. Lacob opens his big mouth. And the Warriors record since then? 20-11. That’s a solid record! But that’s not an all-time great team’s record. So, the Warriors lost game 7 to the Cavs. You might think Lacob would, you know, tone it down.You might think that, if you don’t know rich pricks. Lacob spoke this week (less than 4 days after the Warriors lost the Finals) at Stanford University (OF FRIGGIN COURSE). And he said more dumb things. Dumber things, even:

“We drove this idea of small ball, and it’s a different style of play,” he said. “Having said that, I think it’s important to know that whenever everyone else starts doing things, it’s time to start doing what’s next. We’re on to the next idea — How can we iterate to evolve to get an advantage? I can assure you we’re very forward thinking in that regard.”

Oh, REALLY, Joe? You’re moving on from small ball. How are you going to do that? Are you going to trade Curry? Draymond? Both? Sign a bunch of 7’2 centers? GTFOOH. I’m tired of you. You make it quite easy to be glad the Warriors didn’t win another title. -TOB

Source: “Shut Up, Joe Lacob”, Patrick Redford, Deadspin (06/22/2016)

PAL: Hot take alert! Hot take alert! Here’s my real take away from the NBA Finals: I’m not a true fan of basketball or the Warriors. I say that relishing and thoroughly enjoying this season. I love it! And yet, when they lost game 7 I slept like a baby. I’m a baseball fan. I love the Minnesota Twins, and I like the San Francisco Giants. I would be sick if the Twins lost a game 7 after being up 3-1. Sick and mean. When LeBron blocked Iggy my reaction was not “NO!”; rather, “Damn, that’s impressive.”

As far as owners go – the hell with ‘em. No one cares about you, Mr. Lacob. Your recognition comes in the form of tremendous wealth and court side seats. Enjoy, because that’s all you get. You can’t buy admiration or credit.

My Problem With LeBron James

I have a problem with LeBron James. On paper, he is nothing but extraordinary – the rarest of athletes that exceeds expectation on the court and avoiding any semblance of trouble off of it. He’s a superstar of the highest order, yet perhaps his signature move is a pure hustle play – the chase-down block. He hasn’t forgotten where he’s from, and he puts his money where his mouth is in terms of charitable work (He’s committed to donating $41M – forty-one million – to send kids to college, for starters).

So why does he rub me the wrong way? For no good reason.

• 23. Dude, get your own number if you want your own legacy. Kobe didn’t even wear 23.
• The Announcement
  • Why I hated it: “I’m going to take my talents to South Beach.”
    • Who in this world says “I’m taking my talents…” anywhere. What a turd.
    • Who breaks his home state’s collective heart on national TV.
    • Me, me, me.
  •  Why I’m wrong:
    • He was 26 year-old who didn’t go to college and never left home…I made much worse mistakes at 26 – I can assure you of that.
    • Do we really care that ESPN milked his free agency for all that it was worth?
    • The telecast raised $6M for charities.

• The Miami Pep Rally
  • Why I hated it: When his coronation took place in Miami, James’ response to coming to Miami to win championships was “Not 2, not 3, not 4, not 5, not 6, not 7…”
  • Why I’m wrong: It was a goddamn party. He’s having fun and getting the crowd going. Upon re-watching, he’s really just going with the moment and feeding off the crowd.
•  LeBron isn’t cool…and he really wants to be: You know what made Jordan cool? Me! Upon reflection, was his McDonald’s ad cool? No. Was his “Be Like Mike” commercial cool? NO! Corny crap. The 10 year-old version of myself made him cool, and that shit seeps into our adult head, and we call it nostalgia. He was cool because there was some mystery to him. All we saw was panel group tested campaigns, which is the exact opposite of cool. MJ in his prime on Instagram would have absolutely lowered his cool factor. We consider Jordan cool because he didn’t to try to be cool, and that’s wrong; he was cool because all we knew about him is that he won and the spoonfed message Nike, McDonald’s, Gatorade, and Hanes allowed us to gobble up. He was also cool because he won. And yet what made him a winner is that he was (and remains) a cold-blooded, obsessive-compulsive, single-minded m-effer on the court. Know anyone like this in your life? They are not cool!
• LeBron is immature and passive aggressive. Again – and, god how I hate this argument, but…social media was built upon passive-aggressive behavior. So Kevin Love wasn’t in the team photo…and neither were 7 other dudes on the team. Besides, why is that on LeBron anymore than it’s on Kevin Love? And why must 14 adult males who work together all hangout together at all times?
• He’s contrived and self aware. Sure, but find me a superstar that plays harder than him (you won’t). Find me a superstar that actively involves his teammates and at his core is more of a team player (you won’t). 

• His hair. No joke. LeBron would get so much love if he shaved his head tomorrow and said, “I fought the good fight. It’s over. I can bring championships to Cleveland, but I can’t bring my hair back, no matter how hard I try.” It drives me nuts that someone who has so much make a pathetic attempt at controlling the one thing – literally the only thing God didn’t give him. What does that say about his personality? It says he’s like just about every thirty something who’s losing his hair: It sucks, and he’s trying to hold on. There’s nothing that makes him more human to those that don’t know him than his attempt to hold onto a lost cause.

• He has more influence on a sports team than any other athlete. Stop getting coaches fired, and stop demanding trades, LeBron. You aren’t the GM. Just ball.

• Yet no one – no one person – directly contributes to the competitive and financial success of the franchise more than LeBron James. With only 5 players on the court, no other team sport is dictated by the talent more than basketball, and LeBron might be the most talented player we’ve ever seen. By all accounts, he’s a brilliant basketball mind, and the team rides or dies with him anyway…you could do much worse than LeBron as a GM, not to mention he isn’t thinking about the long-term future of the Cavs, which fans should love right now!
• Why wouldn’t I support more power to the working force? The more power and influence LeBron has, the more earning potential the mid-level player has. While the new TV deal would have been big even if LeBron never existed, he’s not a bad cherry on top either.

I still don’t like LeBron James, but I don’t know him either. If the worst thing he’s done is be somewhat of a harmless tool who is exceptionally talented and who tries really hard, well…then I just need to let it go, because there are a lot of athletes much less talented and less accomplished than LeBron that are so very much worse than he is. All that said, he’s a Yankees-Cowboys fan…so I retract everything that I’ve written. Only the rarest of tools claim both of those teams. – PAL

Source: “LeBron James dazzles hometown crowd in Akron title party”, Dave McMenimen, ESPN (06/23/2016)

TOB: You seem to have mostly talked yourself into LeBron, welcome to the light. Everything is great here. You get to root for the best player in basketball, and will get to tell your kids you saw one of the two greatest basketball players ever play the game. But a few pointed retorts:

“Taking my talents…” – I did not know this, and NO one seems to remember, but I saw this recently:

Kobe used that dumb phrase first! Which is not really a vote in LeBron’s favor because Kobe is the absolute worst. But LeBron got a ton of crap for that line, and as it turns out, he was just copying Kobe. Copying Kobe is never a good thing. I think LeBron has learned his lesson.

Jordan and “Cool” – You hit the nail on the head there. No one cool would EVER dress like this:

Or this:

MJ was great at basketball. That is about it.

LeBron’s influence on team decisions: This is as old as sports. Nothing new. Magic got a coach fired in his second year, for example. He’s the best player of his generation and his legacy will be determined by how many championships he wins. Damn right he deserves a say (he of course cannot blame his supporting cast if he chooses them). We also don’t know how much influence he actually has. We just have rank speculation that he does.

Self-awareness: Yes, he’s a little contrived and hyper-self-aware. But he’s been under the national spotlight since probably his junior year of HIGH SCHOOL when he was on the cover of Sports Illustrated. And in those 15 years, he has never had one iota of trouble. His self-awareness has allowed him to do things like commit to send 3,200 kids in his hometown of Akron, Ohio to college, and unlike someone else we all love, LeBron will actually follow through.

Passive Aggression in Social Media to Teammates: How would YOU like to play with lazy a-s Kevin Love? If you’ve got to call out a teammate who is supposed to be an All-Star, then that’s on him.

The hair: Yeah, ok. Shave that shit.

The Texas Rangers: Forcing Me to Publicly Agree with Bill Simmons (ugh)

You’ve probably seen those incessant TV ads for Bill Simmons’ new HBO show, Any Given Wednesday, where he takes a page from Crash Davis and lists the things he believes in.

For example, Simmons, ever the dork, thinks soup is the perfect food. Ok, buddy. (Though the worst is the Kanye one), He closes with the only thing he says worth saying: billionaires should pay for their own fucking stadiums.

We’ve covered that before, but there’s an especially egregious situation in Texas, where they have decided for some reason that the 22-year old Ballpark at Arlington (seriously, it opened in 1994) isn’t good enough anymore, and so they’re building a new one. The new stadium will cost $900M to build, it is being pitched as the costs are being split equally between the city and the team. Cool, cool. Fine. Not great. No city should spend $450M on a stadium. But it could be worse and I’m really jaded about these deals. But…as it turns out, the 50/50 split is a load of bull. You see, this deal included an “admissions and parking tax” for people who use the stadium. In most cases, this money is what the city uses to raise its share of the cost of the stadium. But not here. In this deal, the Rangers get that money themselves. It is expected to be about $300M over the 30 year financing of the deal. Which means that the city is turning tax revenue over to the team and is thus really paying closer to 80%. That is outrageous. I don’t live there, but shouldn’t those people be outraged? Why aren’t they outraged? Why aren’t they picketing? This is the side of sports that can make you so cynical. Phil, I hope you have something happier for us this week. -TOB

Source: “‘Unprecedented’ Clause in Rangers Ballpark Deal Will Sneakily Cost Taxpayers a Few More Hundred Million Dollars”, Barry Petchesky, Deadspin (06/22/2016)

PAL: You know what else these bullshit stadium deal-with-the-devil scams do? In the spirit of not raising (or minimizing) tax increases, they pull from a general fund. This is money set aside for – you know, public schools and parks – and that fund can be depleted in the name of not raising a stadium tax. Here’s a little excerpt about the new Atlanta Braves stadium (its current stadium was built for the 1996 Olympics, by the way):

“Every time a city or county funds a stadium through hotel taxes or by dipping into a general fund, local politicians and team cheerleaders proudly say that residents won’t see their own taxes go up. This is a damned lie.

“Not only does putting public money toward a stadium take away money that could actually go to the public good (SunTrust Park was approved at a time Cobb County schools were desperately slashing budgets), but the general fund is no longer there to prop up existing and future bonds, forcing taxes to be raised to pay off those debts.”

While there won’t be a stadium tax, taxes will be raised for many other things once the general fund gets wiped out covering the stadium costs. There is no sport-related issue that I’m more passionate about than the scam that is publicly funded professional stadiums.

The Best Father’s Day Gift J.R. Smith Could Give

J.R. Smith is, uh, colorful. He’s had his ups and downs, but he just played a key role in winning an NBA title, defeating the 73-win Warriors in the process. It happened to be Father’s Day. And J.R.’s dad happened to be there. During the postgame press conference, someone asked J.R. about his father, and, damn.

Is someone cutting onions in here? But don’t worry, J.R. Smith isn’t changing. That same night the Cavs flew to Vegas to celebrate (God, that does sound awesome. Why couldn’t I have been 6’6 with a 40” vertical) and ESPN reporter Arash Markazi tweeted video of J.R. pouring an entire bottle of champagne on a female server’s head. SMH. -TOB

PAL: That’s nice. I’ll be the insensitive turd here…my single favorite part of this video is the concert poster behind J.R. Smith’s dad:

TOB: That’s ok. I laughed at that, too.

PAL Song of the Week: Fruit Bats – “When U Love Somebody”

Check out all of the weekly picks here. It’s the good stuff.

Video of the Week:

Like what you’ve read? Let us know by following this blog (on the right side, up near the top), or:

Email: 123sportslist@gmail.com

“All I’m gonna do is write essays. I don’t know what they’re going to be. They might be erotic. I don’t know. But I’m just going to write lots of essays.”

-Richard Jefferson, retiring NBA player