Do NOT leave a ball over the plate to Bobson Dugnutt!

Stay the Course or Burn it Down: Where Does U.S. Soccer Go From Here?

On Monday, the U.S. Men’s soccer team failed to qualify for the World Cup. It is the first World Cup they will miss since 1986, when I was four. I have only known the World Cup with the U.S. involved, and they have generally fared well once there, advancing out of their group in five of the last seven. The team has been graced with the Christian Pulisic, who is starting for a top tier team in the Bundesliga, and who, at age 19, pretty much no one disputes is the greatest American soccer player of all time. Pulisic has the vision, touch, and creativity that separates the great soccer players from across the world from the pretty good ones that the U.S. has produced in the past.

And now Pulisic will be sitting at home for one of the three World Cups to occur during his prime. Friggin great.

The particulars of how this happened are almost comical (a loss to Trinidad and Tobago, along with a Panama comeback win over Mexico and an Honduras win over Costa Rica on a phantom goal), especially coming off the U.S. thrashing of Panama last Friday, 4-0, which seemed to guarantee the Americans’ World Cup qualification, and really got me excited for next year’s tournament.

Instead, the U.S. must pick up the pieces and figure out where to go from here. American soccer fans expressed many emotions in the hours after the team’s failure: embarrassment, anger, amusement, and for some…relief. Relief? There is a segment of the American soccer fan base that believes U.S. Soccer, in conjunction with MLS, is rotten to its core, wanting to seem competitive, but valuing profits, especially profits for MLS owners, over the short-term pain that is required to truly turn U.S. Soccer into an international powerhouse. For these fans, the hope is that this loss causes coach Bruce Arena to slink away, never to be seen again, and for U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati to do the same. But that’s just the beginning. These fans want severe structural changes, starting at the youth levels, and did not feel it would ever come as long as the U.S. continued to juuuuuuust enough to not embarrass themselves.

Frankly, I don’t know enough about the situation. But I have read some things this week to suggest that many of those desired structural changes have already been undertaken. The shining star is the youth academy for FC Dallas, modeled after FC Barcelona’s “La Masia” (though, as that story points out, U.S. law provides severe disincentives for MLS teams to invest much in these academies, as they cannot prevent them, when they turn 18, from simply signing with an overseas club). FC Dallas’ academy opened in 2005, has a 17 field complex, has 120 players at present, and has churned out nearly two dozen professionals across both MLS and international leagues. We may soon be seeing the fruits of those efforts . For example, the U-17 World Cup is happening right now, and the U.S. has a good shot to go very far. They are currently 2-0, and need only a draw with Colombia to win the group. More than that, the team is stocked with talent that has soccer fans excited. That group, along with current young senior team stars like Pulisic, DeAndre Yedlin, John Brooks, and Weston McKennie, have many observers expecting the U.S. to be much better over the next two World Cup cycles.

Which, while promising, makes this week’s events all the more sad to me. If the above paragraph is true, then we may just be in the middle of a lost generation of American soccer, the transition between the Landon Donovan/Clint Dempsey/Tim Howard/Michael Bradley generation and the Pulisic generation’s revolution. Which means the “embarrassment” of this week wasn’t necessary at all. And, damnit, the World Cup is fun as hell. It will still be fun. I will be rooting for Lionel Messi to finally get over the top (Argentina has their own problems, and needed a Messi hat trick on Monday to themselves avoid missing out on the World Cup). But it won’t be the same. There is something fantastic about getting together in a crowded bar and cheering on the U.S. in the World Cup, and damn if the country couldn’t use that right now. Remember this:

It’s a long, four year wait for the World Cup. The wait just got a lot longer. -TOB

Source: “The USMNT Got Exactly What It Deserved”, Billy Haisley, Deadspin (10/10/2017); “F All of This”, Timothy Burke, Deadspin (10/10/2017)

PAL: USA Soccer needs to look to USA Hockey for some guidelines on how they might produce world class players. Both of my brothers have children playing hockey, and both have commented regularly at the infrastructure around USA Hockey. There is a playbook, a philosophy, developmental skills and priorities that comes from all the way at the top and feeds all the way down to the Mite level (8 and under). Also, the best players don’t necessarily play high school hockey, and the best players certainly don’t play more than a year of college hockey. There is a Juniors system in Canada and in the U.S. that allows players to hone their skills for the professional game, practice and play without NCAA restrictions, and ultimate train to become a professional.

Absent of that, I guess we look at outliers like the academy in Dallas. However, you don’t find the best of the best with only outliers. In order to compete with the top countries, the game needs to be pervasive, affordable. It has to be played in all neighborhoods. It has to be a national pastime, and a national obsession. We aren’t there. Not even close.

The Original Anthem Controversy

This is sorta funny, and given the current anthem controversy, timely, too. Nearly 50 years ago, the Detroit Tigers were hosting the St. Louis Cardinals for Game 5 of the 1968 World Series. Before the game, rising star musician Jose Feliciano sang the national anthem. Feliciano, a Puerto Rican American, put his own spin on the anthem. Listening today, I think it’s kinda fantastic.

But I am used to singers putting their own stamp on the anthem. My favorite, before hearing Feliciano’s, was always Marvin Gaye at the 1983 NBA All Star Game.

In 1968, viewers were not so accustomed. Especially at the height of 1960s turmoil, with the Vietnam War raging, and on the heels of the assassinations of both Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy, the country was as tense as it is today, probably moreso. Thus, what sounds to me like a charming and even heartfelt rendition of the anthem by Feliciano, angered many. The Detroit Free-Press published some of the letters they got from those angry viewers. For example:

“I have never heard anything so disgraceful and disrespectful. The only things that resembled our national anthem were the words. As a native Detroiter, I am ashamed of the persons who would let such a thing happen. I remember hearing John Glenn say, ‘I get chills when I hear our national anthem.’ I didn’t get chills. I got sick. No wonder our country is losing its dignity.”

In the aftermath, a live recording of Feliciano’s performance climbed as high as 50 on the charts, but Feliciano felt he was blackballed. Tigers’ legendary broadcaster Ernie Harwell, who invited Feliciano, was almost fired. But he wasn’t. Decades later, Harwell would defend Feliciano, saying “Jose treated the flag and the anthem with respect. He just put his own stamp on it—and he was the first to do it.”

Following Harwell’s death, Feliciano was asked to return to sing his version of the anthem, per Harwell’s wishes. And he did. -TOB

Source: “The World Series National Anthem That Infuriated America”, David Davis, Deadspin (10/06/2017)

PAL: I think Felciano’s rendition is excellent, too! There is something reassuring in stories like this. We have been through tumultuous, polarizing times before. Not only can we find our way out, but some good can come from the turmoil, too. However – and I know I’m in the minority here – I’ve never ‘got’ Marvin Gaye’s version. Love Marin Gaye, but his rendition has never done it for me. That backing track has always felt so cheesy…like he’s singing a karaoke version or something.

This story reminds me of the last song  – “Middle Of The Night” – Loudon Wainwright played at his concert in Berkeley on Wednesday night (by the way, Natalie and I were the youngest people there by about 35 years):

In the maelstrom of your mind you are swirled

You’re almost down the drain but not quite

It’s not the end of the world my brother

Rather the middle of the night

Portrait of a Football Coach at the End of His Rope

This week, Oregon State’s Gary Andersen abruptly resigned as Oregon State’s head football coach. Andersen left Wisconsin, of his own volition, after winning 19 games in 2 seasons, to coach the Beavers (the rumor was he didn’t want to deal with Wisconsin’s slightly more stringent than minimum academic standards). Oregon State has struggled this season, but the team was decent last year, and Andersen seems like a real grinder, and the move was shocking. More shocking, was that Andersen gave up nearly $13 million by quitting. Generally, when something like this happens, fans with some inside knowledge and media members leak out a little here and there, but the rumors are never confirmed. This time, though, was a little different. John Canzano, columnist for the Oregonian, published a story this week centered on a series of texts from Andersen to Canzano as this season progressed (with Andersen’s permission). It’s fascinating.

To me, Andersen comes off as both a good person, and as a guy who might be batshit crazy (he also needs to lay off the ellipses and exclamation points). I won’t put all the texts here, because there are quite a few, but together they show a man devolve from having some semblance of hope to one in utter despair. Andersen seems to come to the realization that he made two major mistakes: (1) taking the job at Oregon State, which has never been an easy place to win, in the first place; (2) hiring a coaching staff that he felt was not getting the job done:

Sept. 1: “Love my kids just want to see them take a step!! Don’t expect greatness but I do want to see progress!.. I will fight! It’s an interesting battle. However I asked for it and love my kids! We still need to step up around here and stop being small time!! … We played hard as hell … blown coverages and poor run fits… our youth hurt us bad… it’s on us. This team should get to a bowl game. If not I will be highly disappointed!! Getting old… patience isn’t what it used to be!!”

Sept. 3: “If the defense can not get better … I will be making some decisions I really do not like or want to make. We will grind!!”

Sept. 9: “Hard place right now… one thing I guarantee you is this: This staff needs to figure it out. I ain’t going to die doing this (expletive)! It’s on me and I get that and right now… Beaver Nation deserves much better! End of story!!”

Sept 12: “I have them by the (expletive) for every penny, no buyout for the next four not counting this year… but that’s not my style!! If it does not improve I will do some crazy (expletive) with my salary so I can pay the right coaches the right money!!”

Sept. 20: “I hired the wrong (expletive) guys and are still working our way through a bunch of recruiting years that stunk!! It’s year three! If these (expletives) can’t get it right I will not just say fire them and start over!! That’s not the way to go about it. If I (expletive) it up that bad I will take the bullet and ride off into the sunset! I will stay old school!! I will not die doing this (expletive)!! Stay tuned!”

Sept. 24.: “I AM FIXING THIS PLACE IF IT KILLS!”

Sept. 24: “Riot act has been read to this staff. We shall see what takes place. I have got to see better football regardless of who we are playing!!”

Sept. 24: “Need five graduate transfers in this class!!… I am in a good spot. Got a lot of ‘(expletive) everything’ in me and that’s when I am at my best!! Staff understands their (expletive) is on a short rope!! We are not great today but I expect to be better as we move forward this season!! I like this fight!”

Sept. 25: “It’s Oregon State! Not bitching trust me on that one!! It is what it is!! I made my bed!! Grind and fight again tomorrow with my kids!! I was in a bad funk on bye week now it will be me with my guys the rest of the way!!”

Oct. 1: “I could give a flying (expletive) about natives! I have not looked or listened to any of that (expletive) good or bad…  My plan won’t change. Coach my (expletive) off for these kids seven more times!! They will get all I got!! … I will grind for these fans they deserve that!!!”

I don’t think we’ve ever been given such naked insight into what it’s like to be a coach of a struggling college football team. Andersen reportedly lost 25 pounds since the start of the season, and it shows. He looked gaunt in recent weeks. It took a lot of guts to give up that amount of money, and it will be interesting to see where Andersen lands, if anywhere. He seems very intense, and he may just be the kind of guy who burns himself out, along with those around him, very quickly.

Source: “Gary Andersen’s Exit Rooted in Beaver Nation Deserving Better”, John Canzano, Oregonian (10/10/2017)

Joe Girardi Was This Close To Being Canned

By now we know a Yankee blunder does not matter. The Yankees beat Cleveland to advance to the ALCS. The Indians – MLB’s most exciting team the second half of the year with a 22-game win streak- were up 3 games to 1 in last year’s World Series and lost 3 in a row to the Cubs. And now this loss to the Yankees, losing (again) 3 potential series clinching games in a row. So much can be forgotten in a week.

The play in question:

The significance, per Ben Lindbergh:

With two outs and two on in the bottom of the sixth inning and the Yankees up 8–3 on the Indians, Yankees reliever Chad Green, facing his third batter in relief of starter CC Sabathia, nicked the hand of Indians pinch hitter Lonnie Chisenhall with a 96 mph fastball. So said plate umpire Dan Iassogna, who declared the hit by pitch, sending Chisenhall (who had been down 0-2) to first and loading the bases for Cleveland. But slow-motion replays showed that the ball had almost certainly nicked the knob of Chisenhall’s bat, not his hand, before deflecting into catcher Gary Sánchez’s glove.

Hit-by-pitch calls are reviewable under MLB’s replay rules, but Girardi never issued a challenge. That non-review proved pivotal: Had Iassogna’s call been overturned, the Yankees would have been out of the inning, with a win expectancy upward of 97 percent. As it was, with the bases loaded, their win expectancy was only 93 percent—or, in this instance, slightly lower, because the next batter was not the generic major leaguer that the win-expectancy model assumes, but star shortstop Francisco Lindor. Naturally, Lindor homered, plating four runs, which brought the Indians within one and lowered the Yankees’ win expectancy to 70 percent. In time, that figure would fall to zero percent, after a Jay Bruce homer in the eighth and a Yan Gomes single in the 13th gave Cleveland a 9-8 win and a 2-0 series lead.

Why not challenge? Is it to preserve his 1 of his 2 remaining challenges allotted to teams in the postseason? Nope, and even if it were the case it’s A) unlikely he would need two more challenges in the game, considering this play took place in the 6th inning, and B) a manager can still appeal to the crew chief to review non home-run calls.

Aside from not having time to get the super slow motion within the 30 seconds given to teams to challenge (despite his catcher insisting he heard the sound of a foul ball), Girardi’s reason was that – as a former catcher himself – he didn’t want to break his pitcher’s rhythm. Now I am no pitcher, but I’d rather risk a break in rhythm to make sure an Indian player not named Francisco Lindor doesn’t get a free pass when down 0-2 in a count.

If the Yankees don’t win 3 games in a row, the tide seemed to be shifting towards Girardi being fired, with his decision not to challenge serving as the final straw. Now the Yankees are rolling. Their combination of veteran role players like Brett Gardner, emerging postseason heroes (Didi Gregorius), and a lockdown bullpen (the key to every deep postseason run) are covering for their young, struggling stars (Aaron Judge, Gary Sanchez) and the Yankees are ahead of schedule in their return to prominence. It’s hard to imagine Girardi gets canned now. Seems to me like he owes Didi Gregorius a steak dinner. – PAL  

Source: “The Last Word in Joe Girardi’s Game 2 Replay Challenge Blunder”, Ben Lindbergh, The Ringer (10/9/17)

Video of the Week

He seems stable.

PAL Song of the Week: John Prine – ‘Your Flag Decal Won’t Get You Into Heaven Anymore’

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The modern bu2iness man. 2O modern. Re2pect.

Wrong Result, Right Format

Tuesday night started out so well. I walk into Irish Times in the Financial District about 5 minutes before the first pitch. I’m decked out in my Twins sweatshirt and hat, and there’s TOB saving a spot at the bar directly in front of a TV. 5 minutes later, Rowe walks in and suggests a shot to kick things off. Dozier leads off the game with a home run. Later in the inning Rosario yanks one out to right, and the Twins are up 3-0 in the first inning. We take the shot. Girardi has to pull the Yankees starter after ⅓ of an inning! I sincerely believe this is shaping up to be a Twins route in Yankee stadium.

The Yankees stop the bleeding and hold the Twins to the 3 runs in the first. The Twins starter then walks the leadoff hitter – a terrible sign. Things get worse from there. Buxton injures his back on a very good catch, and the Yankees power their way back, handing Minnesota its 13th straight playoff loss. A 13-game losing streak in the playoffs is, well, historically bad.

Yes, the night started out perfect, but then the Yankees were the Yankees and the Twins were the Twins, and the nachos were soggy, and the beer — the beer is always good. I really thought they were going to do it this time, but just like that, the postseason began and ended in a night for my beloved Twins and me.

But I love the play-in game.

I love playoff baseball. Playoff hockey is great, but for there’s nothing better than playoff baseball. Every moment of the game with no clock is filled with importance, and as a fan there’s nothing better than that sustained focus building to crossroad moments in the game. Playoffs in any sport can drag on for months, so it’s cool to have it start with an elimination game in both the AL and NL.

I had no rooting interest in the Rockies-Diamondbacks game on Wednesday night, but I couldn’t help but look over Natalie’s shoulder at dinner to see the D-Backs reliever smack a 2-run triple late in the game, only then to give up back-to-back homers in the top of the next inning.

MLB has gotten a few things wrong in recent history – the All-Star Game determining home field advantage in the World Series, interleague play, the DH, and – you know – turning a blind eye to steroids, but they got this play-in game right, and I love it. – PAL

Source: “The Yankees won because they were the better team, but there was a cost“, Grant Brisbee, SB Nation (10/04/2017)

TOB: I agree. It’s fantastic (though this is easier to say because my team is 2-0 in the Wild Card game. If they were 0-2, I’m sure I’d be bitter). As usual, Grant Brisbee nailed it for me:

There was some chatter earlier on Tuesday, spurred by Ken Rosenthal, that if the Yankees lost, there would be calls for change. It’s right there in the headline.

“If Yankees or D-Backs lose, expect wild-card outrage—and calls for change”

As a fan of the last team that will ever win 103 games and miss the postseason, my advice to the Yankees would have been to win their division. This will be my advice to the Diamondbacks if they should lose on Wednesday night. Baseball used to have a system so unfair that it made winning the pennant something that made Russ Hodges’ soul escape his body and join the public domain. Then baseball made it a little easier to win the World Series … a little easier to win the World Series … and then a little too easy to win the World Series …

And now we’re here. I’m here to argue that here is the best possible format.

Start with the idea of the wild card. I hated it, but I came around to it. It was the homework pass you didn’t deserve, but almost did, so you didn’t even feel guilty. By the time the Giants and Angels met in the first all-wild-card World Series, it wasn’t even a big deal. The wild card took all the heat, but what about that weirdo third division winner? They had things to answer for, too.

…

It was still a little weird. The Marlins have two World Series titles, but they haven’t won a division title in franchise history. The Rockies have a pennant without a division title, and they’re going for another one. There was something a little too cavalier about a wild card team waltzing in and feeling that entitled. They needed one extra obstacle.

This. This one game is that one extra obstacle. It’s just enough to make the team desperately want the division title. It’s not enough to make a team feel like they’re sitting in the corner of the postseason with a cone on their head. It’s an extra chance on the reality show, a Golden Scepter of Redemption that’s handed out by the winner of last week’s challenge. They get to have a deathmatch game.

Student-Athlete

A major story broke last week that we didn’t get to in our post. By now, I’m sure you’ve heard about the FBI investigation into bribery and fraud that involves seemingly every thread between top tier basketball recruits, AAU club teams, sports agencies, shoe companies, and college basketball programs.

I’m sure I’m leaving elements out here, but for the purposes of an overview, here’s my summary: AAU Teams are sponsored by shoe companies. Those shoe companies also have contracts with colleges. Those shoe companies are also woven in with sports agents and/or financial advisors. The idea is to get the best recruits on AAU teams that sponsored by a shoe company, then get that recruit to commit to a college that is also sponsored by that shoe company. Money is given to the player or player’s families through a variety of intermediaries in exchange for going the right school. Those that help finance the deals are then in an advantageous position to represent the player once they are drafted.

It’s not a shock that this has been going on, but until now the full view of the scandal hadn’t been exposed. Adidas and Nike are involved, and there are a lot of NCAA basketball coaches sweating it right now. Rick Pitino has already been placed on unpaid leave, as have many other assistant coaches at Arizona, USC, Oklahoma State, Auburn. It sounds like we’re just seeing the tip of the iceberg so far.

There are a ton of stories out there about the scandal, but I found a couple to be particularly interesting.

This New York Times article does a nice job explaining the scam through one player – Brian Bowen. Widely considered one of the best high school players in the country, Bowen delayed his commitment all the way into the spring of this year (the last day for D-1 players to sign a letter of intent in May 17, and most players sign well before then). He listed his final options as North Carolina State, Michigan State, Arizona, Texas, and Creighton. Then, in June he finally made his announcement: Louisville.

Louisville coach Pitino had this to say about Bowen coming to Louisville: “But they [Bowen and I’m assuming his family] had to come in unofficially, pay for their hotels, pay for their meals. So we spent zero dollars recruiting a five-star athlete who I loved when I saw him play. In my 40-some-odd years of coaching, this is the luckiest I’ve been.This is the luckiest I’ve ever been.”

That, or he was paid $100K, and Bowen committed to the highest bidder.

Which brings us back to Pitino and Louisville AD Tom Jurich. It sounds like the weren’t just benefiting from paying players to help them succeed, rather, they were profiting millions from shoe companies.

This from Andrew Wolfson of the Courier-Journal: 98% of the current deal between Adidas and Louisville goes to…Rick Pitino.

“In 2015-16, for example, $1.5 million went to Pitino under his personal services agreement with the apparel company while just $25,000 went to the program, according to a contract obtained by the Courier-Journal under the state public records act.”

Adidas and Louisville just announced a new 10 year/$160MM ($79MM in cash) contract that is set to start in July, 2018. It is unclear how much of that will go to coaches.

If you take the time to read through these articles and can still look at me and tell me these kids are student athletes, then I don’t know what I could say to change your mind. This investigation was the tipping point for me. Yes, the vast majority of soccer players and swimmers and cross country runners competing at colleges big and small are student athletes. Big time football and basketball players are not. Why should sleazeball Rick Pitino be able to get filthy rich off of them while they are forced to take money under the table.

I want to say that we need to get rid of the rule prohibiting high school players from entering the draft, and we need to crackdown on the influence apparel companies have on youth basketball, but the fact is college football and basketball are billion dollar industries. We hear the word ‘college’ and we associate our college experiences with what’s going on at major programs like Louisville, Arizona, and USC when in fact the only similarity is the shape of the ball and the dimensions of the court. – PAL

Source: “How The N.C.A.A. Recruiting’s Illicit Spoils Ensnared a Young Star”, Marc Tracy and Adam Zagoria, The New York Times (10/04/2017); “Rick Pitino Raked in 98% of the Cash From University of Louisville’s Current Adidas Deal”, Andrew Wolfson, Louisville Courier-Journal (10/05/2017)

TOB: If they’d just pay players, we’d avoid this whole charade. There’d be less money funneled to coaches. There’d be less money funneled to hangers-on and “managers”. There’d be no pressure on players to sign with certain agents or shoe companies upon entering the NBA. This “scandal” wouldn’t exist. But it does, because the NCAA insists on holding onto the archaic and B.S.-from-its-conception concept of “amateurism”. I think this scandal may be the tipping point for the NCAA. Adapt or die.

The G.O.A.T Is A Habitual Wedding Crasher

Jerry Rice crashes weddings. This isn’t a story about him crashing a wedding; this is a story about Jerry Rice’s habit of crashing weddings.

This is a funny, sweet story, right? He’s either finishing up a round of golf and there’s a reception going on in the clubhouse, or he’s on the road staying at a resort. He goes in and congratulates the new couple. Understandably, the party freaks out. It is Jerry Rice. He stays, he dances, he takes pictures.

Or, is it a bit sad? Jerry friggin’ Rice says he crashes at least one wedding per weekend. One per weekend? It makes for a great wedding day story, but it kind of feels like a guy that wants to be around happy people on the happiest of days who are even happier to see him.

Maybe I’m overthinking this. Maybe it’s just a great story, and the G.O.A.T. gets joy out of making someone’s big day even that more special. Just thinking about Rowe freaking out and crying at his and Adrian’s wedding at the sight of Jerry Rice is a good time. – PAL

Source: “No Excuses: Jerry Rice Is Playing Like a Champion”, Kevin Clark, The Ringer (10/04/2017)

TOB: He’s always struck me as a strange dude, so this is not surprising. It’s funny, but also weird.

Joel Embiid, Typical 23-Year Old in a Big City

Here’s a fun one. Joel Embiid, the 76ers’ 7-foot Cameroonian center was seen on film on a late night run through downtown. He’s hard to miss, and so his run was caught on film. As are all the other things he does around town. Like, late night tennis:

This is amusing to me, and Dan McQuade, Philadelphian, nails why:

Joel Embiid is a 23-year-old living in Center City who works out by running down Pine Street. He goes to Center City Sips. He is basically doing exactly what I did when I was 23, but taller. A 7-foot Cameroonian is the most relatable Philadelphia athlete of my lifetime.

Live your life, Joel!

Source: “Joel Embiid Is Nailing The Philadelphia Lifestyle”, Dan McQuade, Deadspin (09/03/2017)

Video of the Week

The middle-aged guy can’t help himself.

PAL Song of the Week – Tom Petty – “Walls”

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Well, yeah.

Extend the Netting, You Twits

A few years ago, MLB “recommended” teams extend the protective netting behind the plate to the ends of the dugouts for the fan safety. Most teams ignored the recommendation. The Yankees were one of those teams. On Wednesday, Yankee Todd Frazier lasered a foul ball line drive into the seats along the third base dugout, and immediately dropped to his knees:

Frazier’s ball had struck a young girl, attending the game with her grandparents.

A decade or so back, the NHL raised the nets behind the goals, but only after a child died after being struck by a puck. Are we going to have to get there in MLB before they extend the GD nets? Thankfully, it sounds like the young girl in the photo above, while hospitalized, is not going to die. But why even put her in this danger?

(I know some will blame the parents, in this case grandparents, for bringing her to a game that close. But the odds are so low that as a parent you think it’s fine. Hell, it’s more dangerous to put your child in a car and we don’t blame parents for putting children in cars when they die in an accident).

This is just so easy to fix, and I just don’t get the resistance. The most expensive seats at baseball games already have netting. Why are the seats farther down the line so sacred? And if you’ve ever sat in seats behind the netting you know that you don’t even realize it’s there. Just extend the damn nets! This is insane. In the aftermath of this girl’s injury, four teams announced immediate plans to extend the nets to the ends of the dugout. Let’s hope the rest of the league follows suit. I’m looking at you, Larry Baer. -TOB

Source: “Small Child Injured By Line Drive Foul Ball At Yankees Game“, Lindsey Adler, Deadspin (09/20/2017)

PAL: In Japan, they already extend the nets down the foul the line and have done so for a long time. As you’ll see in the HBO Real Sports below, they take it to an entirely different level:

There has to be a happy medium. At the very least, protective netting should extend to the edge of the infield. It’s time teams followed Japan’s lead. While some teams, like the Twins, already have, more need to follow.

Jared Goff: Not a Bust

I have been a Cal football season ticket holder for over 15 years now, and Jared Goff is the second best quarterback I ever saw play at Cal (behind Aaron Rodgers), including on opposing teams. That list includes NFL quarterbacks like Alex Smith, Matt Leinart, Trevor Siemian, Derek Carr, and, yes, Marcus Mariota. Goff played 3 years behind an incredibly poor offensive line, and had an amazing ability to side step the rush and deliver dimes to well-covered receivers for big yards and scores.

I was, and remain, convinced he will be a very good NFL quarterback. But after seven freaking games as a rookie, not everyone agreed. They pointed to his spread offense in college (and high school), and his poor performance his first year. He was widely panned as a bust. But was that performance his fault? This article makes a strong case that Goff’s rookie year problems were due in large part to his coaches and the players around him. The Rams fired dinosaur Jeff Fisher and his awful staff and hired some innovative offensive coaches, including 31-year old head coach Sean McVey. They also went and got him some better offensive lineman and weapons at wide receiver. The early results are quite good. Goff picked apart the 49ers defense last night, finishing 22-28, with 292 yards, 3 touchdowns and 0 interceptions.

For the season, he’s thrown for 817 yards and 6 touchdowns, against one interception and a quarterback rating of 118. Ya boy! More than that, he’s throwing the darts all over the field. He’s averaging almost 11 yards per attempt, which is very good, and he’s stepping up in the pocket in the face of pressure. I am very happy that, when Aaron Rodgers retires, there will be an elite NFL quarterback from Cal to take the baton. This article is actually more about how NFL teams can, and will need to, adapt spread offense college quarterbacks to NFL systems in order to survive, with Goff as the example. But, ya know. In Goff We Trust. -TOB

Source: “Jared Goff, NFL Disruptor?”, Adam Kilgore, Washington Post (09/15/2017)

NFL Offenses Are Conservative and Boring

NFL offenses are in a paradoxical rut. Scoring is up this decade (though down significantly in the early going this year from last year), and quarterbacks are more accurate and productive than ever before.

Why, then, does it seem like NFL offenses are so boring? Football Outsiders has an answer. They have a stat called, “Failed Completions”. Failed Completions occur when a team doesn’t get 45 percent of the yards it needs on first down, 60 percent on second down, and 100 percent on third or fourth down. While completion percentages and yards are way up, so are Failed Completions. So, while quarterbacks are more accurate because of increased reps (year-round 7-on-7 leagues in particular contribute to this), the real reason quarterbacks are completing at such a high level is because offenses have gotten very conservative. Coaches and quarterbacks would rather throw 3 yards short of the first down and punt than risk an interception down field. Of all people, Chris Friggin Simms nails it, quoted in the article:

Then you have the offensive coordinators, who, Simms said, are doing whatever they can to limit mistakes in order to earn the “quarterback whisperer” label on the back of some decent statistics.

“Everyone looks at the box score and says ‘The offense wasn’t that bad!’ But well, they sucked,” Simms said. “Quarterbacks and coaches are now very wary of mistakes.”

For years, I’ve looked at stats and said, “Wow, quarterbacks are so much more accurate now than they were 20, 30, 40 years ago.” NFL quarterbacks now routinely complete 65% (last year, Sam Bradford set a new NFL record with 84.4%). This was not remotely true a few decades ago, when anything over 50% was pretty good, and the league leaders were in the low 60s. Now I understand why: Failed Completions. It is not often that I read an article that blows my mind, but this one did. -TOB

Source: “How Football Stopped Being Fun”, Kevin Clark, The Ringer (09/19/2017)

HOT TAKE: Both Guys in this Story are Lame

This is hilarious. Generally, professional athletes keep their off-the-field/court beefs private. Especially baseball players. But this week Rockies reliever Pat Neshek aired his beef with Diamondbacks pitcher Zack Greinke on the Sportscollectors.net message board. Neshek, apparently, is a big card/autograph collector. Yes, a professional baseball player, who has made $23 million dollars in his career, collects baseball player autographs and takes it super (duper!) seriously. He’s also a former Cardinal, obviously. And he posts about it on a corny-sounding message board, a message board of which he’s clearly a regular:

I will admit it: I LOL’d at all of this. Neshek being so upset. Neshek confronting Greinke twice. Greinke telling Neshek, “I wouldn’t even sign for your kid if he asked.” Neshek clowning on Greinke’s social anxiety disorder. It’s all so funny. I thought long and hard about it and I decided: Greinke is a turd (just give the GD autograph) and Neshek is a whiney dork. As for me, I am grateful for the hearty chuckle. -TOB

Source: “Pat Neshek Is Pissed At Zack Greinke For Not Signing Autographs For Him”, Dan McQuade, Deadspin (09/20/2017)

PAL: I’m with team Grienke on this one. Why is Neshek, a MLB vet, collecting autographs of his peers? So lame. If that wasn’t enough, Neshek, an All-Star pitcher, is crying about it on collectors’ a message board. Also, the line about Greinke telling Neshek that he wouldn’t even sign for his kid sounds…well, it sounds made up. It sounds like Neshek was bummed because Greinke didn’t want to give him, a co-worker, an autograph (because it’s lame), and Neshek ran an told all his friends about what a meanie that Zack Grienke is.

Desperation is Never Attractive

Pitt football has a proud and accomplished history, but in the last 30 years or so has been mostly bad. It’s hard to be relevant as a college football team in a major metropolis when there’s an NFL team in town, especially one as successful as the Pittsburgh Steelers. Pitt is especially suffering. As a result, early on this season they have resorted to desperate tactics to attract and retain butts in seats:

Aw, geeze. So sad. And so many questions. What kind of beverage? A beer? A soda? A bottle of water? What is it? Let’s check in and see how this worked out for them:

Ouch. So many empty seats, and the ones that are filled are occupied by people who are literally asleep. Thanks to my mom for sending this story along. -TOB

Source: “Pitt Offers Free Drinks to Get Sleeping (Literally) Fans to Stay in Stadium During Blowout”, Sam Cooper, Yahoo! Sports (09/16/2017)

PAL: That’s quite a price to pay for a experimental flavor of Mountain Dew:

Video of the Week

He’s a national treasure.

Bonus Video: 

PAL Song of the Week: Tom Rush – “Wrong End Of The Rainbow”

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Hey, I know them.

Does 762 Mean Anything to You?

Barry Bonds hit his 762nd and final home run 10 years ago this week. For a sport that is historically obsessed with numbers, the ultimate number – 762 – seems to barely register. I’m a pretty avid baseball fan, but I don’t think I could have told you how many home runs Bonds had in his career prior to reading this. However, the number 755 – Hank Aaron’s total home runs – still takes up space in my brain.

Bonds’ place in baseball history is conflicted and bizarre, so it’s fitting that the same can be said for the story behind his last home run.

For one, if replay existed in baseball 10 years ago, then his 762nd home run likely would’ve been called back. When checking out the slow motions replay, a fan clearly leans over the fence to catch the ball.  

Second, his last home run should not have come on September 5, 2007. Bonds was on the other side of his prime to be sure, but he had 28 home runs, with 22 games remaining. At that point, Bonds was homering every 16 plate appearances that year. No one considered that would be his last home run, an assumption that MLB even worked off of by not authenticating baseballs during the game (they have made a habit out of authenticating game balls to prevent from fans having fakes with them in the game).

Keep in mind, although there were suspicions around Bonds and other record-breakers were still being celebrated, the balls were still fetching mid-to-high six figures at auctions.

If you would’ve told me when I was 12 that the final home run of the new home run king’s career would be all but forgotten, I wouldn’t believe it. So when we talk about the steroid era in the historical and statistical context I think we’re missing the real point. The point is the number 762 holds no place in my memory and I needed a story buried on ESPN.com ten years later to remind me that the number matters at all. – PAL

Source: “The unlikely story of how No. 762 became Barry Bonds’ final home run”, Sam Miller, ESPN (9/5/17)

TOB: First, the fan reaches over, but the ball is possibly going to go over without the fan:

More importantly, 762 doesn’t mean much because (a) no one has come close yet, (b), as Miller points out, there’s been relatively little time since it was hit. Aaron’s record 755 stood for 31 years before Bonds broke it, and Ruth’s record stood for 39 years before that. Time, and a chase, will sear 762. Keep in mind, before Bonds, the number in my mind was 715 – the number Aaron hit to pass Ruth.

That’s the video we all play in our heads when we think of Hank Aaron and his record. 715. Not 755. After you set the record, the rest is just gravy. I’d also like to point out how many people tried to delegitimize Aaron’s record at the time – based largely in racism. Aaron received death threats in his chase for Ruth’s record, and some argued it didn’t count because of the longer seasons Aaron enjoyed – Ruth played when there were only 154 games in a season; Aaron played with 162. Yes, some will always argue against Bonds – because of the PED allegations, and because they never liked him. But 762 is the number. Get used to it, puds.

PAL: Yes, that video is the lasting image, but the number that resonated, at least in my youth, was 755. And I do feel like 755 meant something before Bond’s was tracking it down, although I’ll concede the challenging of a record absolutely brings the record to the forefront. In a sport where numbers mean everything, the biggest numbers to me were 56, .406, and 755 (DiMaggio’s consecutive hit streak, Ted William as the last guy to hit over .400, and Aaron’s home run record).

The Worst Article I’ve Ever Written About on 1-2-3 Sports

About a decade ago, The Office’s Mindy Kaling had a blog whose title and concept always made me laugh: “Things That I Bought That I Love”. That is this blog: Sportswriting That We Read That We Loved. But every so often, we have to tear something down. After all, without the bitter, you can’t enjoy the sweet. And so here is a Phil-esque Take Down of a GQ article, written by Luke Zaleski, a father who has let his 8-year old son play tackle football. He tries to disarm you from the very start, to get you sympathetic for him, entitling the article, “What Kind of Father Lets His Son Play Football?” He then name-drops his friend/acquaintance/colleague Malcolm Gladwell, with Gladwell politely calling him for allowing his son to play football. He next tells a story of being shunned by his fellow suburban parents when they find out his decision:

And then, one Saturday at a potluck in my suburban New Jersey neighborhood, a few moms overheard me tell another dad I was conflicted about the decision. The moms chimed in, totally supportive. They didn’t understand why I’d worry at all. Their kids play and they love it. I should definitely sign Wyatt up.

I was psyched. Finally, some love and support for the youth game, and I didn’t even have to cross the Mason-Dixon Line to find it. But then I was confused. I asked the moms: Wait, you’re not gung-ho fourth-generation Bama alums tailgating outside the Iron Bowl, you’re gluten-free yoga moms who pack carrots for snacks…and you’re not sweating the concussions and stuff?

Screeeeeech!

Yeah. No. They were definitely sweating the concussions and stuff. So much so, in fact, that they’d automatically assumed we were all talking about flag football. When they realized I meant tackle, it was like I’d just said I’d been teaching my son how to handle a loaded AK-47 on a roller coaster I’d built myself out of jagged scrap metal I found at a Superfund site. No one actually called me a monster out loud, but I think that’s just because they were speechless. One mom excused herself, got up, and walked out of the kitchen.

The guy understands it’s dangerous for his kid, especially at such a young age. So why does he allow Wyatt to play?

As a former player myself, maybe I thought I had a special appreciation for the risks and rewards of playing football, and that this knowledge would help me protect my son. I also knew that for a boy like Wyatt, who is not unlike the kind of boy I was at his age, there are dangers in not playing football, too.

Yes, that’s right. Dangers in not playing football. What are those dangers? Well, if you unwind the long parable about football allowing him as a kid to finally get close to his abusive and mostly absentee father, and ignore the fact Zaleski attributes his brother’s battles with alcoholism and violence in part with the brother’s extended football career, it seems he’s saying that after his parent’s divorce, he quit football and lost his way:

I had lost two very big parts of my life, football and family. And I remember wanting to go back in time to before I quit, to still be on that path I thought was my birthright. With my brother off at college and none of my old friends around—no football team, no structure—I had no identity and even less self-discipline. I was drinking and smoking anything I could get my hands on. I got into fistfights. I was cutting a lot of classes and hiding out at one of my divorced parents’ empty houses. I definitely wasn’t over their breakup, and I was squandering my youth getting wasted and doing stupid shit, which eventually turned into illegal shit. When I got arrested driving a technically stolen car—it was my dad’s, but I took it without telling him and was still a year away from getting my driver’s license—I sobered up a bit.

But he quickly loses all pretense of not doing this in order to find redemption through his son:

I always wondered what I’d really given up when I quit playing. Did I lose my true self? Did I waste my potential? I wanted Wyatt to have a chance to play, not because I wanted him to be like me but because I was afraid he might turn out like me. And I couldn’t let that happen, even if it meant maybe putting him at risk on the field.

So, you feel like a quitter and you don’t want your son to be a quitter and to prevent him from being a quitter you…allow him to play football. Ok, bud. Next comes the rationalization, with Zaleski reasoning that life is inherently risky, so why try to protect your children at all!

Making a decision like this for someone you love is a big part of what parenting is. Can I watch a PG-13 movie? Can I have another cookie? Can I play a sport that could leave me in a wheelchair? Or worse?

Life is risk. A coin toss. As parents we do everything we can. Safety locks and car seats. All of it. But we know we can’t control everything, even as we try to. We have to teach them to swim ’cause we can’t be in the water with them all the time. Someday we really won’t be around. What then? What now? Can I let my boy take this risk, knowing it will make him stronger as long as it doesn’t kill him?

I’ll point out that the potential outcomes of playing football are not limited to just being stronger and dying. There’s a whole host of other outcomes, including life-long injuries that fall short of death. Zaleski ignores that, though, and lets his kid badger him into playing, with guilt trips an adult should be able to fend off. But Zaleski is not thinking like an adult. He’s thinking like the teenage boy who quit football because he was angry at his parents’ divorce. 

I haven’t gotten past the fear part, myself. I know that if he gets hurt in a way he can’t recover from, it will be my fault. But as I watch him play, I also begin to believe that this is what Wyatt needs to grow up. The things video games and your favorite kindergarten teacher and Sesame Street don’t teach you. Discipline. Competition. Courage under fire.

…

He’s pushed himself on the football field more—far more—than he ever has doing anything else.

It’s true. Football can teach you those things. But so can many other sports, and they do so without the risks inherent to football. Zaleski doesn’t care about that, though, because he loves football, as is made clear throughout the story. For good measure, there’s even a sappy little anecdote about racial harmony thrown in, to really make you feel bad:

The next week he had a game an hour from home, on a dirt field near where I’d grown up, a more working-class area. It was the third game in a row that Wyatt’s team, which was entirely white, played a more racially diverse team. Sadly, these games are the only time these kids from different towns and backgrounds ever share the same field

Jesus. And, again, this can occur in other sports, and other events. But here’s the kicker:

Malcolm Gladwell is right: I’m out of my mind to let my son play football. I know what the game can do to you, to him. But I also know what it can do for him. And sure that’s cliché, but so are all sports stories and it doesn’t mean it’s not true. How do some parents abide their sons/daughters enlisting in the military? Or becoming police officers? And how is “sometimes in life you have to fight” not a cliché, too? But sometimes you do. We all do.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME. Those parents “abiding” their children joining the military or becoming police officers? Their children are ADULTS. Making ADULT decisions. They are not EIGHT-YEAR OLDS. Again he’s arguing, “Gee, life is full of dangers and we can’t control it, so might as well let him take the risk he wants to take.” But it’s a risk an 8-year old can’t possibly fathom, with potential effects not revealing themselves for decades. That’s why you, the parent, should step in and tell him, “No.” Oh, and where is the mother in this decision?

“[She] told me that this decision was ultimately going to be mine, as Wyatt’s father and someone who played.”

MY GOD, THESE PEOPLE. -TOB

Source: “What Kind of Father Lets His Son Play Football?”, Luke Zaleski, GQ (08/16/2017)

PAL: What is this article? He’s not good with rationale, and he thinks he can call out that he knows his argument doesn’t make sense, and he expects that shortcoming of his writing to magically turn into a source of reader sympathy.

This reads like a first draft of a creative writing assignment. Click bait alert!  

YOU PLAY TO WIN THE GAME

I’ve always kinda liked C.C. Sabathia. He’s from the Bay; he chews a toothpick; he wears his hat crooked; he laughs at his own dumb teammate during a dumb brawl:

But recently Sabathia got upset at former Good Giant current Red Sox Eduardo Nunez for dropping down a bunt when Sabathia was pitching. The reason Sabathia is mad? He’s coming off a knee injury and cannot field his position, thus giving Nunez an easy base hit. Sabathia thinks bunting is “weak”, and implores the other team to “swing the bat”:

And this…this cannot stand, C.C. (fun fact: C.C. stands for Carsten Charles, which is about as white, old Southerner sounding as you can get and would be an obvious starters for Bill Simmons’ Reggie Cleveland All-Stars). Look, Carsten, bunting is part of the game. If you can’t field your position, then get back in the dugout. As Grant Brisbee points out, Cubs pitcher Jon Lester has the yips and refuses to throw over to first. Every base runner should be taking a 30-foot lead on Lester. And when Joe Torre and the Yankees refused to bunt on injured Curt Schilling in the 2004 ALCS, with Torre saying after the game, “We don’t play the game that way.” Congrats. Your fake honor cost your team the chance at a World Series.

Which takes me to this: Last weekend, Cal football won its season opener on the road against heavily favored North Carolina. Late in the game, Cal led by 11 points and UNC was driving. Cal intentionally took two defensive holding penalties, preventing UNC from scoring, while running out the clock. It looked like this:

UNC eventually called a timeout with one second left and punched it in from the 1-yard line to cut the final score to five, but leaving them no time for a miracle onside kick-Hail Mary comeback. Some viewers, including Cal fans, thought this was poor sportsmanship. Nope. It’s playing within the rules to ensure the win. It worked beautifully. It’s no different than the basketball team leading by two points electing to foul the trailing team before they shoot in order to prevent the tying 3-point shot. It’s also no different than the QB kneeldown play, which only became a thing in the 1970s after the Miracle at the Meadowlands.

As Herm Edwards, the hero in that play said: YOU PLAY TO WIN THE GAME. YOU PLAY TO WIN THE GAME.

Nunez played to win the game. Cal played to win the game. I approve. -TOB

Source: “The Unwritten Rules of Bunting Against a Pitcher Who is Hurt and Not Good at Fielding Bunts”, Grant Brisbee, SB Nation (09/01/2017)

PAL: I think someone’s excited about Cal football. TOB just took a story about a guy bunting on C.C. Sabathia and somehow we arrived at Cal football beating UNC. Get as many of those wins before Pac 12 play, my friend.

Before The Debate: Colin Kaepernick

I’m going to ask you to do something for me: set aside where you stand on the Colin Kaepernick debate(s). Wherever you fall on the kneeling during the anthem, and whatever you think the reasons are for him not being on a NFL roster as 2017-2018 season kicks off – this story (thank god) isn’t an attempt to change your mind.

This story is about his backstory. Whether you admire or admonish him, I think his backstory is worth knowing. I also think the story makes a pretty strong case that the guy is, and has always been, more about action than statements.

Take, for instance, Kaepernick pledging a historically black fraternity as a junior in college. He wasn’t a random student at the University of Nevada, he was the starting quarterback for the football team. Like most of us, he was trying to figure out who the hell he was, much to the surprise of one of his frat brothers. “You’re the star quarterback. What are you still missing that you’re looking for membership into our fraternity?”

As an adopted, biracial kid reared in a white household in Turlock, CA, a town with a 2 percent black population, Kaepernick was looking for a community that runs a bit deeper than football, and one that his family and hometown simply couldn’t provide.

So the guy took time for a frat while maintaining grades and his record-breaking performance on the field. Noteworthy, but not on it’s own. Plenty of folks pledge a frat, although I don’t know how many who were starting quarterback pledging a historically black fraternity during his junior. For what it’s worth, Kappa Alpha Psi has put its support behind Kaepernick, writing a letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, and joining a demonstration outside NFL headquarters recently.

It’s also worth noting that during his time with the 49ers – from unknown backup, to a rising superstar leading his team to the Super Bowl, to the fall apart – by most accounts his teammates had no issue with Kaepernick (the exception here would be a squabble with Aldon Smith over a woman). Not before the protest, and not after it.

Since he was a rookie with the Niners – long before his protest – Kaepernick was seeking to learn more about his roots, reading up the works of Malcolm X, James Baldwin, Ralph Ellison, Maya Angelou, and more. He later audited classes at Cal and was an active participant (this wasn’t an online class). He was curious, and sought out more information. Again, whether you agree or not, at least he took the time to learn about what he was questioning. 

After the protest exploded on the internet, Kaepernick has done the following:

• He’s donated $100,000 a month since October, oftentimes to little-known, local charities helping the likes of single mothers, black veterans, immigration rights, reproductive rights, and urban gardening.
• He’s also held three youth camps in Chicago, Oakland, and New York. These camps are set up to “raise awareness on higher education, self empowerment, and instruction to properly interact with law enforcement in various scenarios.”

Kaepernick has not, however, told his story in his own words (he didn’t participate in this article). His silence has caused some to speculate that perhaps not being on a team continues to shine a light on Kaepernick and – by extension – his cause. That might be true, and Kaepernick might be sincere in his wish for the conversation to be on the issue and not on him. However, his silence has become almost as big of a story as the original protest.

I encourage you to read the full story and learn a bit more about the person in the middle of all the debates. Whether you agree with him or not, I think you’ll find that the guy has always been about putting in the work. – PAL

Source: “The Awakening of Colin Kaepernick”, John Branch, The New York Times (9/7/17)

“Hurling Is Hurling”

Before reading this, I knew nothing of hurling, a gaelic sport which seems to be a hybrid of other sports – there’s some lacrosse, some baseball, some rugby, some football. But the game is believed to be over 3,000 years old. And now that I know, it’s kinda bad ass.

Dave McKenna explains the game, both its history and its rules, and does so in an entertaining, almost poetic way. Hurling is complicated, as McKenna notes:

My mother, the child of Irish immigrants, used to tell a tale from her childhood about going to the Bronx in the 1930s with her father as he went to see fellow ex-pats play. “What is hurling?” she asked her dad in the car on the ride to her first game. He responded simply, “Hurling is hurling.”

And it’s quite a peculiar sport. Though the players are lionized, they are, to this day, unpaid. Hurlers also can only play for their home county’s team. And it’s violent as hell. If I’m ever in Ireland again, I’ll definitely check out a match. -TOB

Source: “Hurling Is Hurling: An All-Ireland Championship Preview For The Blissfully Ignorant”, Dave McKenna, Deadspin (09/01/2017)

PAL: The way they balance the ball on the stick while running is pretty impressive. Weird sports are always good for a fun highlight.

Video of the Week: 

PAL Song of the Week: Robert Randolph & The Family Band – “Going In The Right Direction”

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Dodgers Mess Up Hill’s History & Other Tough Breaks In Pursuit of the No-No

Rich Hill, a journeyman lefty for the Dodgers, almost had a very special night on Wednesday. He is one of the few pitchers to take a no-hitter into a tenth inning. He is the first pitcher to lose a no hitter on a walk-off home run. What’s more, the dude had a perfect game into the ninth.

As SI’s Ted Keith points out, this isn’t Hill’s first close encounter with perfection:

This wasn’t Hill’s first taste of perfect disappointment. Last Sept. 10 he had been removed from a game against the Marlins in Miami after throwing seven perfect innings because Los Angeles manager Dave Roberts was concerned that Hill’s recurring blister problem would pop up again and limit his effectiveness or ability to pitch at all in the postseason. It didn’t.

Despite his recent success, Hill (37) hasn’t exactly had the career you might expect from a guy who’s come this close to history. While his MLB debut came in 2005, he has only 7 years of MLB service. Arm injuries, back injuries, and recurring blisters are just the beginning. He tried to become a side arm specialists as a reliever. He returned to the minors. In 2015 he was out of baseball and playing catch with teenagers when he decided to give it one more shot. This time it would be on his terms as a starter and going back to his old, more traditional motion. By December, 2016, he had signed a 3 year/ $48MM contract.

A perfect game or a 10-inning no-hitter would have been a cool cap to his comeback. It’s too bad the world-beating Dodgers couldn’t muster one measly run for the old lefty. Such a damn shame the boys with the whitest uniforms in all the land found a way to mess it up, isn’t it?

Yep, Wednesday night was a tough beat for Hill, but, as Keith chronicles in his article, his is surely not the worst loss of all-time. Check out the list to see for yourself, but it’s hard to top Harvey Haddix’s heartbreak in ‘59. Check out this line:

12 2/3 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 8 K

Facing the two-time defending National League champions, Haddix retired the first 36 batters he faced, but Pittsburgh had not yet been able to push a run across against Milwaukee’s Lew Burdette despite picking up 12 hits. In the bottom of the 13th inning, the Braves finally got a baserunner when Felix Mantilla reached on an error by third baseman Don Hoak. Eddie Mathews, who led the majors with 46 home runs that year, followed with a sacrifice bunt and Haddix then walked Hank Aaron intentionally to set up a possible double play.

Instead Joe Adcock hit a ball over the wall in right-centerfield. Aaron, thinking the ball landed in play, stopped running and Adcock passed him on the bases. He was ruled out but Mantilla’s run, the only one that mattered, still counted, giving Milwaukee a 1-0 victory.

Don’t feel too bad, Rich Hill. Haddix had it worse, and he didn’t have $48MM to help him grieve.

By the way, did you know that more people have gone to the moon (24) than have thrown perfect games in Major League Baseball (23)? Also, the only completed no hitter of more than 9 innings that I can find is Fred Toney’s from 1917 (let me know if I’m missing any). What’s even crazier is that game in 1917 marks the only time in MLB history when two pitchers made it through 9 innings without giving up a hit. Toney preserved his, while Hippo Vaughn (what a great baseball name) lost his on a base hit in the 10th. The only run scored came by way of an infield hit by Jim Thorpe. Baseball is the best. – PAL

Source: “Extra Heartbreaking: From Haddix To Hill, Top Five No-Hitters Lost After The Ninth Inning”, Ted Keith, Sports Illustrated (08/24/2017)

TOB: This tickled me. In a bad Giants season, while the Dodgers march to an inevitable World Series title, I needed this. But Dave Roberts played this terribly. After the 9th, Hill had thrown only 95 pitches, so I’m guessing Roberts figured he wasn’t gassed, and wanted to give him a shot at the no-hitter. But once the Dodgers didn’t score in the top half of the 10th, unless you’re going to let pitch the ELEVENTH, then what’s the point of letting him pitch the 10th? I just can’t believe, even if he maintained his no-hitter through ten, that he’d have pitched the 11th. I wish a reporter would have asked Roberts about this.

Some Things Are Bigger Than Sports

After the terrorist attack in Barcelona last week, Fernando Alvarez, a 71-year old competitive swimmer competing in the Masters World Championship in Budapest, asked race officials to hold a minute of silence for the 15 victims. Officials declined. Because…well, there was no explanation. Alvarez was not content with this answer. So when the race started, Alvarez held his own moment of silence, standing on the starting block long after the other swimmers had jumped into the water and begun the race.

Alvarez ultimately did jump in the water, and completed race. In the ultimate act of pettiness, race officials did not list him in the official results. Nice. Idiots. -TOB

Source: “Spanish Swimmer Sacrifices His Race To Pay Tribute To Barcelona Victims”, Patrick Redford, Deadspin (05/21/2017)

Chess is a Young Man’s Game  

If you were to ask me to name chess players, I could name two: Bobby Fischer and the “Kasparov” guy. There’s also something on Netflix about a kiddo named Magnus (current #1 player in the world). That’s where my knowledge ends.

Chess seems like a game built on study and experience. I’m guessing a great player must commit the various strategies (and the one’s employed by his/her competitor) to memory, and draw on competitive experience to make the best decisions at pivotal moments.

It seems like a player would age nicely. More experience, more knowledge, better player.

This is not the case:

Like athletes, and – well – like all of us, chess players’ abilities peak in in their late thirties, and then most of them get worse.

Garry Kasparov, 54, is perhaps the most iconic chess legend. At 22, he became the youngest undisputed world champion. Now, 12 years since his last competitive match, he’s making another go at it. It’s not going exactly perfectly. His record thus far at a 10-player, round robin tournament with some of the best, was five draws and a loss as of Wednesday, August 23, 2017.

It appears Chess is a young person’s game, and Kasparov, considered one of the best of all-time (and this game goes back a few years), is trying maintain is elite status into his senior years. Our mental abilities, like our physical abilities can fade slightly. In a game as competitive as chess, at the level Kasparov is trying to compete, that slight downturn can make a huge difference. -PAL

Source: “Is Garry Kasparov Too Old To Dominate Chess Again?”, Oliver Roeder, fivethirtyeight (8/16/17)

TOB: I’ll point out that in high-level chess, draws occur at a very high rate. For example, in the 1984 World Championship, the first Kasparov competed in, ended 5-3-40. Yes, 40 draws in 48 games. The fact he’s 0-1-5 suggests to me he’s lost his fastball, but is still very good. In fact, the chart up there suggests his rating is damn near the same as Magnus’ rating. Also, you’ve never heard of the Spasky Bishop Block? Spasky practically invented chess!

If You Put Your Mind to It, You Can Accomplish Anything

In a short and entertaining article, the Ringer’s Kevin Clark explores the possibility of an in-game 70-yard field goal. Is it possible? Well, kinda. Justin Tucker of the Baltimore Ravens is the most accurate kicker in NFL history. In college, he hit a 67-yard, in-game field goal (the NFL record is 65). Tucker absolutely believes he can make it from 70 in a game, and practices it often. He has hit from 79 in practice, and believes he could hit from 84 in Denver, where the altitude allows the ball to travel farther. Here he is, at Pro Bowl practice, hitting from 75.

Tucker has the ideal weather in mind (80 degrees), and the game situation would have to be right, but he knows he can do it. His holder, Sam Koch, has no doubt he’d make the kick, if given the chance. But there’s the kicker: no coach is likely to give him a chance. If the kick is short, there’s the possibility of a long return for a touchdown the other way. There’s also the possibility of a blocked kick being returned, because the trajectory of the ball needs to be lower. NFL coaches are almost universally conservative play-callers, and would rather take their shot with a Hail Mary, which they see as having far less risk. But, if it’s the end of the game and you’re down 3 points or less (but not tied of leading), where’s the risk? Who cares if the other team returns it for a touchdown. Once the kick misses, you’ve lost. The return is of no importance. So, come on, John Harbaugh. Don’t be a wuss. You know your brother would try it. He’s got guts. Do you, John? Do you? -TOB

Source: “Justin Tucker’s Quest for the 70-Yard Field Goal”, Kevin Clark, 08/22/2017

PAL: Can you think of another sport that has a valuable, outlier play like kicking a field goal in football? The vast majority of the game is played one way – big, athletic men running and throwing a ball. Then, at a crucial moment, some skinny dude runs in from the sidelines and kicks a ball through a couple posts for 3 points.

TOB:  Rugby has similar kicks – both like football’s field goal and PAT. But that makes sense – the games are related. And, how dare you call Seabass skinny.

Video of the Week

PAL Song of the Week: Leo Kottke – “Tiny Island”

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That’s almost 90 mph.

Is Floyd Mayweather Going to Take a Dive?

Next week, Floyd Mayweather, the best boxer of his generation, is going to come out of a 2-year retirement and “risk” his 49-0 career record against Connor McGregor, an MMA fighter who has never boxed professionally in his entire life. When this first was rumored months ago, I shook my head at the obvious cash-grab publicity stunt. I vowed not to order the fight, and ignored the story for months.

And then over the last couple weeks, my curiosity got to me. After all, the best part of a big boxing match is the spectacle – and this would surely be a spectacle. McGregor is a better self-promoter than Mayweather. Mayweather is loud and brash and braggadocious, but if you look closely, you can get the sense he doesn’t believe what he’s saying (indeed, Mayweather did not always demonstrate the Money Mayweather persona). McGregor, on the other hand, strikes me as a truly deluded meathead who believes every dumb word that comes out of his mouth.

Now that the table is set, we can eat. When the fight was first announced, I figured both guys just saw it as a nice pay day. McGregor has never made a fortune, because the UFC controls fighter pay. Mayweather has made hundreds of millions, but he’s not very good with his money. He even owes a very large tax bill to the IRS. But then I read this interesting article by a former fight promoter, Charles Farrell, with a seemingly thrown-away line that put a bug in my ear:

If [Mayweather] didn’t care about the legacy he single-handedly constructed (and, as a brilliant con man playing out the string at the end of a long, long con, he shouldn’t care), his final stroke of genius would have been to bet against himself at the beginning of the odds cycle during the very brief time they were 225-1—before jackpot hunters and McGregor hysteria brought the line closer—and then lose the fight in a freakish manner that didn’t hurt his reputation or foreclose the possibility of a redemptive rematch and would allow him to walk away with an additional hundred million dollars or more.

That would be the ultimate fuck you. I don’t think Mayweather is smart enough or secure enough to pull it off.

I just kept thinking about this and thinking about this. Would Floyd do this? Would he risk his perfect record? And then I started to piece some things together, like the director of Loose Change. Consider:

Right after the fight was announced, each fighter released a training video. Here they are, side-by-side:

Mayweather, though 40, looks as sharp as ever. McGregor, who again is not a boxer, looks like dog crap. He’s slow, rather uncoordinated, and looks like the amateur boxer he is. So, why would McGregor release this video? At first I thought, maybe this idiot doesn’t realize how bad he looks? Then I wondered if he wanted Mayweather to see it and not take him seriously? But after I read that passage above about Mayweather taking a dive, I got to thinking: Mayweather opened a -2,500 favorite (meaning you’d have to bet $2,500 on Mayweather to win in order to profit just $100), and Gregor opened at +1100 (meaning a bet of $100 would net you $1,100 if McGregor wins). So, what if they coordinated this video release to try to get the betting public to put money on Mayweather, and thus drive the odds on McGregor higher still? Ok, the evidence is weak so far, but let’s keep going.

Mayweather retired at 49-0, equaling Rocky Marciano’s record for most wins in an undefeated career. This fight would make it 50. Farrell thinks Mayweather will not risk that legacy. But, Mayweather is not as dumb as some think. What if, after he retired, he realized no one cared about 49-0? While generally considered the best of this generation, no one seriously ranks Floyd in even the Top 10 fighters of all time. Maybe Floyd, facing financial troubles, decided his legacy was worthless, and why not make his $100M on this fight, and also bet a huge amount of money on McGregor to win. At the opening odds, Mayweather could bet $10M on McGregor and net himself another $110M. Plus, if he loses, a rematch would be likely, where he could make another $100M. This is all still speculative. Is there anything more concrete I can point to that suggests the fix is in? I’m glad you asked.

Floyd has had a long history of hand problems. It’s one of the reasons his fights got so boring as he aged. He’s a defensive wizard, yes. But he was at one time a knockout artist, too. 13 of his first 15 fights ended in knockout. 19 of his first 27 did, too. After that, only 6 of his last 22 fights ended in knockout, the rest going to decision. Not surprisingly, around that time is when his hand issues began. In his 26th fight, he suffered his first career “knockdown” when Floyd punched his opponent and felt so much pain in his hand that he dropped his hand to the ground. He was never really the same fighter. Late-career Floyd embarrassed opponents with his footwork, quicks, and smarts. But he did not destroy them, and rarely even put them in trouble. It was like watching a boxing clinic, not a war.

What’s this have to do with Floyd throwing the fight? Well, about a month ago Floyd’s dad was interviewed. His dad has been part of the hype machine for this fight, saying Floyd is gonna “whoop [McGregor’s] ass.” But in this interview, Floyd, Sr. let it slip that he doesn’t think his son can knock McGregor out because Floyd, “has something wrong with his hands.” This is not really news to anyone following Floyd’s career, except for the fact that after a two-year break, the hands are still a problem.

And this is where things get inexplicable. In boxing, fights in Nevada at 147-pounds and above (this fight will be at 154-pounds) must use 10-ounce gloves. This is to protect the fighters. But last week, both McGregor and Mayweather petitioned Nevada boxing authorities to allow them to use 8-ounce gloves. McGregor is known as a strong puncher in MMA, and MMA fighters use 4-ounce gloves. His preference for lighter gloves makes sense. But for Floyd? Who is not a strong puncher, has a history and reportedly lingering hand injuries? Why on Earth would Floyd Mayweather want smaller gloves? He wore 10-ounce gloves in his matches against Oscar de la Hoya, Miguel Cotto, and Canelo Alvarez (he did wear 8-ounce gloves in his rematch against Marcos Maidana, but that was a peculiar case where Mayweather was risking both his 147 and 154 pound titles, and both fighters were required to make the 147-pound weight).

Surprisingly, on August 17, the Nevada State Athletic Commission agreed to a one-time exception. They will use the smaller gloves. I can’t shake the feeling Floyd is trying to set up a situation where he loses, has an excuse for it, and sets up a rematch. As I said at the outset, if he bets against himself and sets up a rematch, he stands to make an enormous profit. If he simply wins, he won’t be set for life, after paying his outstanding tax bill, plus the taxes on this purse.

Charles Farrell doesn’t think Floyd is smart enough or secure enough to do it. But considering all I’ve outlined, it makes ya think, doesn’t it?

Source: “Floyd Mayweather, Jr. Vs. Conor McGregor Is The Second-Biggest Possible Fuck-You”, Charles Farrell, Deadspin (07/28/2017)

PAL: The 0 in Floyd’s 49-0 record is what makes him culturally relevant. Everything about his brand, aura, mystique is contained within that zero. I would argue it’s priceless to Mayweather.

While I understand you’re pulling the 10MM number out of thin air, it leads me to questions. When someone makes a $10MM bet, word gets out. I mean, that seems like a massive number. Even if Mayweather passed out the money to a handful of people to make the bet for him, there would be buzz, right? Also, he’s at claiming he doesn’t have the cash on hand to pay his taxes (he’s asked the IRS to give him until after the fight to pay the taxes), but he’d put the money up on a fixed bet. Never mind the legacy – does he have the cash to pull this off. If not, who would bankroll it? This seems like a plan you’d want as few people as possible to know about. I wouldn’t be borrowing money to throw a fight. 

Yes, the largest best is a $880,000 (I haven’t seen $888K). The Maloof brothers — former owners of the Sacramento Kings — put it down as a PR play for a charity. I know this because the bet was big enough to attract national press. One of the Maloof brothers was on Dan Patrick’s radio show on Wednesday. Again, it seems like a PR move on their part, but a bet for less than $1M attracted a lot of attention. Just saying.

Hey, if you’re right, then this would be a great call. Almost as great as my Patriots comeback call in the Super Bowl. I should’ve put my money where my mouth was, and maybe you should, too, TOB.

TOB: As you note, I pulled the $10M figure out of thin air. But it’s not far-fetched. Of course he can’t place personally place a bet against himself, and of course he can’t have someone make a $10M bet all at once. As you said, the largest bet taken by a casino is $880,000 (on Mayweather). But if Mayweather gives 10 of his buddies $1M each, and they made bets at various casinos, they could easily dispose of the $1M each rather quickly. Of course, there are always mob-types to arrange this, too. It’s boxing, and it’s Vegas.

As for the 49-0 – this was my thought, too. But my argument here is that, after two years, he realized 49-0 doesn’t matter as much as he thought it would. I am so angry at myself for thinking this, let alone typing it, but I can’t wait to see what happens.

Finally, EXPLAIN THE GLOVES, PHIL. EXPLAIN THE GLOVES!

Trick Play Freezes Time

Every high school baseball team has a trick play. They are fun, choreographed, off-the-wall, sometimes outright rule-breaking plays that rarely work.

There’s the one where the pitcher fakes the pickoff throw, and everyone on defense acts as if he has thrown the ball into the outfield:

There’s the old hidden ball trick:

There’s the straight fake throw from a catcher

And there’s the old third-to-first:

There’s also the rumored “skip third” play where a baserunner simply cuts the corner at third base and advances home. This only works if there are two inattentive umpires calling a game. I’ve never seen it and I can’t even find evidence of it on YouTube.

There are a lot of trick plays, but I’ve never heard one as creative and bizarre as the one at the center of the this story.

For one, the ‘Skunk in the outfield’ play lasts over two minutes and thirty seconds. That is an absolute eternity for a baseball play to be live.

Second, it  exposes a rule I never knew existed. “In the rulebook, the baseline is not — contrary to what most people think — the line between two bases. Rather, it’s a straight line between wherever the runner is and the base he’s going for when a tag is attempted.”

Third – and perhaps most ingenious – is The Skunk Play is sheer absurdity. It depends on the defense reacting to something it’s likely never seen before.

So, with runners on first and third here’s how it works:

Did the play work? You’ll have to read the story to find out. Sam Miller clearly had fun writing this story, and it’s one of the most enjoyable reads so far this year. – PAL

Source: “Skunk in the outfield”: How the most epic trick play in history broke baseball, Sam Miller, ESPN (08/17/2017)

TOB: Great read. I love this play. [PAL: SPOILER ALERT. TOB indicates the outcome of the play in the next sentence.] Hats off to the pitcher, though, who defensed it perfectly. When it began, he didn’t balk or panic, which is what the play is designed to get him to do. That’s a ball player!

Respect The Game!

Good: Funny choreographed handshakes amongst adult teammates.

Bad: Handshake between teams.

Why don’t MLB teams shakes hands after a series? Be it the formality of the NHL playoff series or the more informal gathering at the center of an NFL football field or NBA court – the tradition holds true in other major sports. Why not baseball? ESPN’s Dave Schoenfield breaks it down in his column and gives us a tease that a handshake might be coming to an MLB game real soon.

We’ll get to that in a second. Why no handshake?

Baseball teams play almost every day for 7-8 months out of the year. Unlike other sports, the regular season is broken up into either a three or four game series. A handshake after every game would be a bit much. I get that, but I didn’t know that there’s actually an MLB rule that prohibits it: “Rule 4.06, which has been on the MLB books since at least 1950 and dictates that ‘players of opposing teams shall not fraternize at any time while in uniform.'”

Schoenfield points out that the rule does nothing to stop opposing players for shooting the bull during batting practice or the lovefest that ensues when a first basemen and a baserunner laugh it up during the game, but it’s interesting the the rule exists in the first place.

For a game that loves to use the argument of “respect the game” more than perhaps any other sport, it seems incongruous that a handshake doesn’t take place after the last game of a series or at the very least when a playoff series ends.

This all might change, for one night at least, in Williamsport, PA.

On Sunday evening, Matheny and the Cardinals will face the Pirates in the inaugural MLB Little League Classic. The game, which takes place right smack dab in the middle of the Little League World Series, will be played at Bowman Field in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. The pint-sized park has about 2,500 seats, nearly all of which will be occupied by Little Leaguers and their coaches and families. Translation? If ever there were a time to green light Operation Handshake, this would seem to be it.

First of all, how cool is it that an official MLB game – in August – is being played at a 2,500 seat park, in Williamsport, during the Little League World Series? Is this being promoted? This is the first time I’ve heard about it. MLB should be shouting about this as its answer to the NHL Winter Classic. I would love to go to this game, and if they do it next year, TOB, we got to go.

Second, this is absolutely the setting for an MLB handshake. Little League preaches about sportsmanship like it’s gospel. It feels like the announcers have to mention it a minimum of once every inning. Let’s see the idols live by the same expectations we preach to the kids. I dig it. The only thing that would be better is if an MLB player bawled after this game like a 12 year-old who just lost at the Little League World Series. If it would ever happen, it would probably will be a player from the Cardinals. – PAL

Source: “Forgotten lessons from Little League: Why don’t MLB players shake hands after games?”, Dave Schoenfield, ESPN (08/15/2017)

TOB: Yadier.

The Taste of Revenge is Salty

The Pittsburgh Penguins’ Phil Kessel is a supremely talented athlete. He doesn’t have the appearance of one, despite being one of the fastest skaters (if not the fastest) and a big time goal-scorer in the NHL. All the more reason to like him, right? Especially considering he has back-to-back Stanley Cups.

Before Pittsburgh, he was run out of Toronto. In fact, Toronto will be paying over $1M of Kessel’s salary for the next eight years for him to not play for the Leafs. It got bad between him, the fans, and the media – I’m sure Kessel’s to blame for some of it – but on his way out one columnist tried to give him a kick in the ass. Per, Steve Simmons:

“The hot dog vendor who parks daily at Front and John Sts. just lost his most reliable customer. Almost every afternoon at 2:30 p.m., often wearing a toque, Phil Kessel would wander from his neighbourhood condominium to consume his daily snack.”

Kessel neither lived nor worked near Front and John Street. Although the rumor was more or less dismissed, Toronto fans looked at his chubby face and bad attitude, and the hot dog story stuck.

Kessel hasn’t forgotten either:

I think that’s what Duane Kuiper calls “ownage”. – PAL

Source: “Phil Kessel Ate Hot Dogs Out of the Stanley Cup,” Satchel Price, SB Nation (08/14/2017)

What Is Art? Are We Art? Is Art Art?

Every time the Marlins hit a home run, the gigantic “sculpture” in left-center field is set in motion. If you’ve never seen it, enjoy:

When the stadium first opened a few years ago, people were horrified. It was the butt of many jokes. But time passed, and as often happens, the once reviled “sculpture” became…sorta beloved. The sculpture hit its peak at the All-Star Break, hosted by the Marlins. This great article by Grant Brisbee is a good example. Not long after the break, though, the Marlins announced their intention to sell the team to a group that includes Boring-as-Hell Derek Jeter. It did not take long before news leaked that the group, and Boring-as-Hell Derek Jeter in particular, planned to remove the sculpture. WHY DO YOU HATE FUN, JETER?

Thankfully, the local government has stepped in. The sculpture will not be going anywhere:

Standing 73 feet tall, the mechanical display sends marlins and flamingos whirring whenever the Marlins hit a home run (TOB Note: Haha. Still funny). It was commissioned as part of Miami-Dade’s Art in Public Places program, which requires construction of county buildings to include art as well. The sculpture by well-regarded pop artist Red Grooms is named “Homer,” cost $2.5 million and, like Marlins Park, belongs to Miami-Dade’s government.

“The County commissioned and purchased the Home Run Sculpture with the public art funds generated by the ballpark project,” Michael Spring, head of the county’s cultural affairs arm, said in an email Thursday. It “was designed specifically for this project and location and is permanently installed. It is not movable.”

HAHA. EFF YOU, JEETS! -TOB

Source: “County on Marlins home Run Sculpture: ‘It is not movable.’ (Also, the Mayor Doesn’t Like It)“, Douglas Hanks, Miami Herald (08/17/2017)

PAL: If anything, it will serve as a very large reminder to never publicly finance another stadium.

Chick-Fil-Ha!

The Falcons new stadium opens this season. Cool, cool. Another terrible waste of taxpayer money. But that’s not why I’m writing about it. I’m writing because the stadium has a Chick-fil-A inside. Mmm, delicious, chicken-y (homophobic) Chick-fil-A. Wherever your politics land, Chick-fil-A is inarguably tasty. Not the best, but tasty, especially for fast food. Falcons fans are no stranger to Chick-fil-A. It is headquartered there, and there are dozens in and around the city of Atlanta. But if you’re at a Falcons game this Fall, it is very unlikely you’ll be able to get some Chick-fil-A. Why? Well, Chick-fil-A observes the sabbath. No Chick-fil-A, no matter where it is located, is open on Sundays. Can you see where this is headed? Yes, they built a Chick-fil-A, in the stadium, that won’t be open on Sundays, when NFL teams generally play. It will only be open when the Falcons play on Thursdays or Mondays. This year, that will occur once. HAHA. Dadgum, that’s some terrible planning. -TOB

Source: “The Falcons’ New Stadium Has a Chick-fil-A, Which Won’t Be Open For Most Falcons Games“, Matt Bonesteel, Washington Post (08/16/2017)

Video of the Week: 

PAL Song of the Week: Ryan Adams – “Ashes & Fire”

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Swing for the fences, Benny.

The Olympic Gift That Keeps on Giving

One year later, it is safe to call the Olympics an absolute disaster for the city of Rio de Janeiro. The laundry list of problems is exhausting:

• 15 of 27 venues have not been used even once since the Olympics ended.

RICARDO MORAES/REUTERS

• The Maracaña, the iconic soccer stadium built for the 2014 World Cup just two years prior to the Olympics, has been vandalized and had its power shut off due to an unpaid $950,000.00 electric bill.
• Olympic park, “long hailed by Brazilian politicians and Olympic proponents as a path to upgrade one of Rio’s poorer neighborhoods, is shuttered.”
• “The community pool that was supposed to come out of the canoe slalom course was closed in December and has yet to re-open.”
• The pool at the Deodoro Aquatics Center “is now covered in bugs, mud and rodent feces.”

ANTONIO LACERDA/EFE

• A fire from a “flying lantern” torched the velodrome roof, badly damaging the track.
• The plan to turn the handball arena into four public schools has been abandoned.
• The 31-tower Athlete Village, which was said to be turned into luxury condos, sits largely vacant.

Oh, but that’s not all! No, no. That is not all!

“Promises that the Olympics would modernize Rio and make its streets safer and favelas cleaner have also failed. According to Brazil’s Institute of Public Safety, street robberies are up 48 percent and deadly assaults by 21 percent, to the highest rates since 2009. In the first three months of 2017, violent crime spiked 26 percent compared with the same period in 2016. The state of Rio is still unable to pay its teachers, hospital workers, police and other public employees on time, if at all. Many favelas still lack running water or proper sewage removal.”

When Brazil was awarded the 2016 Olympics way back in 2009, its politicians promised the Olympics would transform the nation’s sports infrastructure. And it did, for a while.  The government and private industry poured money into Brazilian athletics over the next 7 years in order to maximize Brazilian performance at the games. But since?

“Athletes who had been showered with opportunity in the lead-up to Rio were now in the middle of a nightmare, a few with the Olympic medals around their necks…. And perhaps no segment of Brazilian sports has been hit harder by the post-Olympic downturn than aquatics. For 26 years, the Brazilian Postal Service sponsored Brazil’s entire aquatics federation. But after Rio, that investment was slashed by 67 percent, from $5.2 million to $1.7 million a year. Earlier this year, the president of the Brazilian Olympic Committee, Carlos Arthur Nuzman, admitted that economic investment in Brazilian sports has recessed to where it was in 2000, nine years before Brazil was even awarded the 2016 Games.”

In some ways, this is for good reason. The economy is so bad, and the corruption so deep, that the country can’t afford to spend money on athletics:

“Coupled with sagging oil revenues, the people’s lack of trust in government led Brazil into its worst recession in history. Ten days after the closing ceremonies, Rousseff was impeached, largely blamed for the country’s crisis. No segment of the government was immune from scandal, including sports leaders. Coaracy Nunes Filho, the president of the Aquatic Sports Federation, and two of his directors were arrested and charged with the misuse and misappropriation of $13 million in funds, for their own personal gain and by giving favorable contracts to associates. Sensing a larger problem, the TCU launched an investigation into 10 sports entities, including Brazil’s Olympic Committee. Nine of the 10 were found to be misusing public funds. The only organization that wasn’t: the Brazilian Confederation of Sports for the Visually Impaired.”

Unlike the U.S., Brazil’s government has long provided stipends to its Olympic athletes. Those stipends are being slashed. And who can fault that, at this point? As Judo Gold Medalist Rafaela Silva puts it, “Everybody will want a good performance in 2020, but sports are no longer a priority. We understand the government had to decrease the investment. How can you justify the expense of millions on sports when we have no hospitals?” -TOB

Source: “After the Flame”, Wayne Drehs and Mariana Lajolo, ESPN (08/10/2017)

PAL: It’s been a pretty common topic over the past few years: hosting the Olympics does jumpstart an economy is bureaucrats promise when they are pitching the idea. I’ve made my opinion known several times on the blog that the Olympics should rotate between a handful of locations with the infrastructure in place and a history of putting on the event. Those arguments can feel a little abstract. Drehs’ story does a good job of putting the impacts of the Rio games right in your face:

Even some of the medals awarded to the athletes have tarnished or cracked, with more than 10 percent of them sent back to Brazil for repair. Rio officials blame poor handling by the athletes.

Almost a year since the Games closed, the Rio 2016 Organizing Committee still owes $40 million to creditors. Bloomberg reported in April that the Olympic organizers were attempting to pay creditors with air conditioners, portable energy units and electrical cables. In July, the organizing committee asked the International Olympic Committee for help with its debt; the IOC said no.

Above all else, the perhaps the most fitting symbol of the lasting impact of Rio 2016 are the seedlings every athlete carried with them during the opening ceremony. These seedlings were to be planted in Rio to help offset the environmental impact of the games, but they also represented a bigger promise: Rio 2016 was not to be a circus that came through town, but rather it would mark the beginning of a long term investment in the community and its athletics. Where are those seeds now?

[J]ust over a year later, there is perhaps no greater example of the Rio Games’ complicated legacy. The seedlings sit in planting pots under a sheer black canopy on a farm 100 kilometers from Rio. Prior to last week, Marcelo de Carvalho Silva, the director of Biovert, the company responsible for the seeds, hadn’t heard from Olympic organizers in months. He had no idea what the plans were for the seeds, but he painstakingly watched over them for free, knowing what it would mean for his company — and the country — if something happened to them.

That’s when the TCU, following up on the Olympic promises made for Rio, started asking questions. And then, sure enough, Olympic officials finally reached out. Twenty-four million seedlings were supposed to be planted to offset the environmental impact of the Games. But that has not happened. The trees that were part of Olympic Park are dying from a lack of irrigation and maintenance. The mayor blames the organizing committee; the organizing committee the government. And, as a result, there is a stalemate.

What a scam.

I Was So Much Older Then, I’m Younger Than That Now

The Ringer’s Bryan Curtis explores the retired athlete’s impulsive, seemingly unavoidable need to tear down the accomplishments of today’s athletes. As Curtis notes, this has been going on since at least as long as modern sports have existed – in September 1939, Hall of Famer Tris Speaker was asked about young Joe Dimaggio. Speaker spat, ““Him? I could name 15 better outfielders!” Joe D was 26, and finishing up a season in which he’d hit .381 with 30 home runs, and an OPS of 1.119, FYI (Speaker later walked back his assertion…sorta).

More recently, Dennis Rodman said the early-90s Run-TMC Warriors were better than today’s Warriors. His reasoning? Run-TMC scored 130 points per game, and the Warriors did not. For the record, the Warriors scored just 115 last year, while giving up 104, while the Run-TMC Warriors scored 116 and 116 (never close to 130), and gave up 119 and 115, in 1990 and 1991, respectively; they missed the playoffs in 1990 and won a single round in 1991. The current Warriors fared a bit better.

Michael Jordan is perhaps the most interesting recent case. When asked to compare Kobe and LeBron, MJ said Kobe is the better player because “5 is more than 3”, referring to the number of titles each player won. This analysis is flawed on many levels. For one, Kobe’s career is done. LeBron is still in his prime. For two, it ignores so much more that goes into career. No one other than Laker fans would argue Kobe was the better player than LeBron. But Jordan has a reason to argue Kobe is better – Kobe, who again is retired, is no longer a threat to MJ’s legacy. After all, 5 is less than 6, using Jordan’s logic.

Legacy protection aside, what’s this phenomenon all about? Curtis makes a strong argument:

Anyone who has listened to their grandfather complain about the modern world knows these complaints are most interesting as a window into the insecurities of an aging man. Imagine a star player being the greatest for his entire career. Then, in his golden years, he is constantly baited: What do you think of the New Guy? Is he better than you? Are you ready to surrender your title as homerun/touchdown/scoring king?

…

The particulars of the gripe are less interesting than the yearning behind it: Oh, to be a young man enjoying the pleasures of the modern world. Now that’s a story.

(In true Ringer fashion, the ending of this story is abrupt and off-putting. But, I still enjoyed the article, so there you go.) – TOB

Source: “Sportswriting’s Old-Timers Game”, Bryan Curtis, The Ringer (08/08/2017)

PAL: All this talk of Mike Trout being the best centerfielder – give me a break. Kirby Puckett has 2 World Series rings. 2 is more than zero. Puckett is the best. That’s all I can add, because Curtis nails it. However, he fails to mention how much we love it. We love talking about what the old, out-of-touch player said about so-and-so. It fills our afternoons of sports radio and podcasts every day.

Tell Me Who You’re Loyal To

Getty Images/Ringer illustration

I remember reading somewhere – maybe it was about Chuck Klosterman talking about Kevin Durant coming to the Warriors – that the real “team” of an athlete isn’t found on jersey they wear, but rather the shoes they wear. Kevin Durant, LeBron James, Steph Curry – Nike and Under Armour will likely pay them more money than any NBA team. These are the athletes primary employers. 

It makes sense when you extend that thinking to coaching and trainers, too. Coaches come and go. There are exactly 3 NBA coaches that have been with their team for more than 5 years. With a revolving door of coaches (and their staffs), who is thinking about the individual player’s development over the long haul?

Enter Rob McClanaghan. This former gym teacher is carving out one hell of a life for himself as a trailblazer in the new world of specialized trainers. He’s not there to make sure Steph Curry is lifting weights or adhering to his diet. Nope, he’s there to make sure that beautiful, perfect shot stays just so. Makes sense, right? A lot of guys can keep a professional athlete in shape and eating right, but not a lot of dudes can keep a shooter’s stroke finely tuned.

McClanaghan’s small empire started like many small empires – with a flier. The high school gym teacher started with kids, then met college players in the area. His persistence and his players’ results finally got him a gig at the legendary ABCD camp (invite only camp for the best high school players in the country). At around that time, in 2007, former NBA player and new sports agent B.J. Armstrong had an idea.

[I]t occurred to Armstrong that elite draft prospects should spend the nearly three months between the college season’s end and the NBA draft training to transition to the NBA, rather than playing in the various, then-popular All-Star games. Armstrong saw the average age of draftees drop and more NBA teams hire coaches with “development” in their titles.

“The draft started placing emphasis on potential,” Armstrong says. “The guys were 19 and 20 instead of 22 and 24. Summers went from honing your craft to real basketball development. The attention to potential shifted development.”

A mutual friend suggested Armstrong discuss the idea with McClanaghan, whose name had become known around the league.

In the span of 5 years he went from charging $40 for a personal lesson with a kid to training lottery draft picks and NBA stars like Derrick Rose, Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and Steph Curry.

We’re seeing it more and more in all sports. Like McClanaghan, quarterback coaches, hitting instructors, and skating coaches are working with ‘clients’ from middle school to professionals on one component of the game. Honestly, a part of it makes me shake my head, but I concede that it makes sense, I guess. More than anything, I like how McClanaghan saw an opportunity and hasn’t taken his foot off the pedal ever since. – PAL

Source: “Meet the Man Behind Your Favorite NBA Jump Shots”, Sam Fortier, The Ringer (08/09/2017)

Video of the Week

PAL Song of the Week: Neil Young – “Till The Morning Comes”

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Our thoughts exactly.

What’s Right with Sports, c/o Tour de France

MONT DU CHAT, France — A white-haired man was dancing naked in the middle of the mountain road, his sunburned body rocking imprecisely to a pop song pounding from a set of speakers. His halfhearted attempt to cover himself with one hand as he swayed was mostly ineffectual, which only made his friends laugh harder and cover their eyes. Behind them was a 20-foot-long, homemade banner that read, “VIVE LE TOUR.”

This could be the first line of a novel (and one I’d no doubt keep reading). Instead, it is the opening to a story about the rabid crazies who run alongside cyclists as the chug, heave, and trudge up mountains in the Tour de France.

Every year fans make their way up winding mountain roads, set up camp to witness a sporting event they will see with their own eyes for less than 30 minutes (the overall race is takes place over the course of 21 stages and covers over 2,000 mile). Some fans come up days before, and others scope out the prime real estate along the route weeks before the riders suffer past them. They pass the time with seasons of Top Chef, wine, endless games of pétanque (a french lawn bowling game), more wine, late night firecrackers, and beer, all along a mountainside. Obviously, the race is just a small part of it. Said one spectator, “If the cyclists never came up on Sunday, we’d still be O.K.”

It’s not just retired guys crossing off a bullet on their bucket lists, and it’s not just college kids looking for an excuse to drink on a mountain. No, it’s all of them and everyone in between. And it’s exactly the kind of loose, unsponsored tradition that hits me just right.  You’ve got some experienced crews, who’ve learned over the years that a little class and fine cuisine don’t weaken the camping experience:

And then you have these idiots (I use that term affectionately):

The fridge, the TV on someone’s desk from school, the grocery cart – it all screams college adventure. Of course, all of this leads to the race. Spectators choose to watch on the mountains because of the speed. On flat portions of the race, teams whiz by in a blur. It’s different in the mountains:

Crowding the course, inches from the cyclists, the spectators could yell almost directly into their ears and look straight into their eyes. George Bennett of New Zealand cracked a big smile when he spotted a man dressed like an insect, furiously snapping his cloth pincers. But otherwise the riders had blank, detached expressions. Some seemed pained. A few of the stragglers received pushes from helpful fans.

The irony of my speaking to the purity of the spectator experience of a sport that has been anything but on the up-and-up is not lost on me, but I want to do this. It looks like a lot of fun. Hell, a woman from a nearby town brings up fresh baguettes each day! – PAL

Source: “On Tour’s Mountain Roads, Beer, Baguettes and, Briefly, Bikes”, Andrew Keh & photographs by Pete Kiehart, The New York Times (07/18/2017)

TOB: I’m certainly not one to turn down a party, but there’s something about this I can’t get behind. Hanging out for up to a week to see some dudes ride by on bicycles for a few minutes? As one of the spectators said, “You’re here so long, and then it’s over so quick. It’s bizarre, if you think about it.” I’m with you, dude. I would have a lot of fun, but I don’t think I’m traveling to France for that. 

The Greatest Tennis Player Ever is Still Doin’ the Damn Thing

I’m not really a tennis fan, though I find it interesting to follow from afar. That doesn’t particularly make sense, but it’s true. I don’t watch, but I like to read about the players, and the rivalries, and the records. From a distance, I’ve become a huge Roger Federer fan, despite watching maybe three Federer matches in my lifetime. The first was his Wimbledon Final in 2008 against Rafael Nadal. Nadal won in an epic match, and I woke up at like 5am to watch (it lasted nearly 5 hours). The most recent time I watched Federer was this year’s Wimbledon Final, last weekend, against…honestly I already forgot his name. Celic? Cilic! Roger crushed him, though to be fair Cilic was suffering from a truly gnarly blister on his foot.

There’s something about Federer that makes him easy to root for. A lot of it, for me, has to do with his age. He’s just a few months older than me, and he’s playing tennis at a level no one his age has ever played. He’s also simply, undeniably, great, which is something I can always appreciate in an athlete. And there’s something just likeable about him. As Giri Nathan points out…it shouldn’t be that way. Federer should be an absolute tool. But he’s not! Or he comes off not that way. Even his opponents report being unable to dislike him. He’s just too goddamn nice. And not in a fake way. He wipes the tennis court with his opponents. He’s an absolute killer out there. And then he smiles and embraces his foe afterwards, almost apologetic for the whuppin he just gave.

I tuned into this year’s Wimbledon Final (ok, on DVR-delay – Roger and I aren’t 26 anymore, ok?) because this really could be his last. After last year’s Wimbledon, even Federer thought he might be done. He needed a break. So he took a full 6 months off from tennis. When a 35 year-old athlete does that, the end is near. But what did Federer do? He came back and won the Australian Open and Wimbledon this year.

But how long can he keep it up? He’s now outlasted his once young, upstart nemesis Nadal, age 31 (while he won the French Open this year, it was his first since 2014, after having won 9 of the previous 10). He’s also outlasted his even younger upstart nemesis, Novak Djokovich, age 30, who failed to make a semifinal in a major this year for the first time since 2006, and is battling injury.

So, this might be it for Fed. Or it might not. I hope not. The match last week was nothing special, but I will gladly watch him do things like this a few more times:

-TOB

Source: “There Is No Hiding From Roger Federer”, Giri Nathan, Deadspin (07/17/2017)

PAL: We have some really great writing in the stories this week. Giri Nathan’s musing on rooting for Goliath nails it:

If he is in your commercial break or in the pages of your magazine, he is peddling things outside the realm of almost every viewer’s means. If he is on the tennis broadcast, he is doing things outside the realm of almost every peer’s physicality. Nor is he particularly bashful about any of this. His personal monogram, a precious little gilt alloy of his initials, could inspire a world of resentment, but, somehow—no, this makes a weird sort of sense, even when it appears on corny cream blazers or cardigans. Maybe this is the most direct way of framing the issue: I see a man walk onto court caked up in all this, as Federer did in 2009—

—and not only do I not loathe this man or cheer for his humbling, I even hope for him to win, and want him to keep winning even after he’s already won more than any other man ever has.

Like TOB, I’ve maybe seen Federer play five times, and yet I was sucked into watching a “best Federer shots” compilation at lunch today. That one-hand backhand is…damn, if it isn’t a thing of beauty, headband and all. I don’t really care enough to take into account whether or not Federer is a good guy. I just like to see obvious, masterful grace in a sports.

Do It for the Bumper Sticker

With SF Marathon taking place on Sunday (remember that, drivers), it’s fitting to share this cool, interactive series of 7 runner profiles from the Chronicle. In addition to their varied backstories and reasons for running, the subjects also share training logs. It’s pretty interesting to see the different approaches. Jorge Maravilla, who finished 3rd in last year’s race, has a very different training program than someone who’s trying to finish his or her first marathon. That much is a given. But would it surprise you to find that he doesn’t log the most miles, or even the most elevation gain?

It’s also a bit alarming to see some of the training logs, and you find folks only putting in 3 days of running in a week. Not going to lie – I think Lauren going to be struggling at mile 19 on Sunday. She’s averaged 18 miles of running a week in her training.

And then you have the over-achieving family. The dad runs ultra marathons at record-setting times. The dude’s 70. He’s the guy running more miles than the guy hoping to win the damn thing. His daughter ran seven 20+ mile runs in her training and is hoping to qualify for Boston. Hell, they ran together on her wedding day.

All kidding aside – all the best to the runners this weekend. Don’t poop your pants. – PAL

Source: “Seven Runners, One Mission”, Erin Allday, Emma O’Neil, The San Francisco Chronicle (no date given)

Goals.

This is a shameless shoutout to my father-in-law, Ed, a loyal reader of the blog. Ed loves soccer more than you love any non-living thing. I’m fairly certain of that. Ed is 71, which sounds old (sorry, Ed), but he doesn’t let that keep him on the sidelines. Ed plays soccer every week (multiple times per week?) with a group of guys around his age. But they aren’t a bunch of old dudes struggling to motor around the pitch. No, Ed and his team, Golden State Legends, also travel the world to lay waste to the competition. In recent years, soccer has taken him as far as Peru. Last week, Ed traveled to Nashville, Tennessee, for the United States Adult Soccer Association’s Soccerfest, and, for the third straight year, Ed’s team took home the championship. Competing against teams from as far away as Japan, Golden State Legends won the title 3-1 against a team from Georgia. Ed even scored a goal in the tournament, while wearing a do-rag, and there’s photographic proof!

I have mentioned before that I play a weekly basketball game in my neighborhood with a bunch of guys as young as their 20s and as old as 70 or so. I have always hoped my body will hold up and allow me to continue to play basketball until that age. But now I have a new goal: play basketball at such a high level, at age 70, that someone gives me a big ol’ trophy.

Congrats, Ed! -TOB

PAL: The things guys will do to curry the favor of the in-laws, am I right, folks? I kid! I kid! Love that Ed and his buddies are getting after it, chasing down titles, and doing it with a little do-rag flair to boot.

Video of the Week

The drive-by-dunk challenge. Not nearly as cool as the pool slam dunk craze from a few summers back. Good lord, teens are bored.

PAL Song of the Week: Pink Floyd – “Have A Cigar”

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Loyal readers,

It’s the week of Independence Day, and we’ve gone fishin’. Picture us as LeBron, more or less.

We’ll be back next week.

-PAL and TOB

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