Dirk Nowtizki. You rang?

Thing We Already Know: The NFL is Awful, Evil

Working PR for the NFL must be a nightmare. The latest example came this week when the NFL fined Steelers players William Gay and DeAngelo Williams for uniform infractions. Their crime? Gay wore purple shoes during a game for domestic violence awareness in honor of his mother, who was shot and killed by his step-father when Gay was 7-years old.

Williams wore eye black with “We Will Find a Cure” and the breast cancer awareness ribbon printed on them, during Breast Cancer Awareness Month, which the NFL heavily pushes to its own massive profit (from the breast cancer awareness products it sells, the NFL donates only 5% of proceeds to the American Cancer Society, pocketing 90% as profit).

These fines for Gay and Williams came on the heels of the NFL fining Steelers linebacker Cameron Heyward for writing “IRON HEAD” on his eye black in honor of his late father, the great NFL running back “Iron Head” Heyward, who died a few years back from brain cancer. Just what the hell is the NFL’s problem? Seriously. I get it – if you allow some messages, then players will begin to push the line. So what. As long as nothing is inappropriate, political, or an advertisement, why do they care? Because they’re the NFL and they are evil and they do. Roger Goodell is an idiotic, heartless human being. I wish he would just go away. And I feel sorry for the PR professionals working for the NFL who have to spin this – they must hate their job. For their part, Gay and Williams asked that their fines be donated to support their respective causes. Good for them. -TOB

Source: “William Gay Wore Purple Shoes for Domestic Violence Awareness, Got Fined”, Josh Alper, Pro Football Talk (10/28/2015); “NFL Fines DeAngelo Williams For Raising Breast Cancer Awareness During Breast Cancer Awareness Month”, Ben Rohrbach, Yahoo! Sports, 10/28/2015

PAL: I have nothing more to add on the NFL. As I said last year – I’m just out. Granted, I’ve never been a huge football fan, but the NFL sucks so consistently that they’ve lost me as a casual sports fan. Baseball is too good. The NBA is too good. The NHL playoffs are too good. Soccer is getting way better. What the hell do I need the NFL for, anyway? They can no longer see the forest for the trees. When common sense is involved, the NFL is incapable of making the obviously correct call. I’d love to hear Susan O’Brien’s take on this (TOB’s wife), as she’s got 10 years experience in the PR industry and is as good at her job as anyone I know.

Careless Omission: Tadich Grill

Terri Upshaw – widow of deceased football great Gene Upshaw – is the daughter of Steve Buich, the owner of Tadich Grill, 160+ year-old SF restaurant. When she was 23, she met and fell in love with Upshaw. Earlier this week, she told the Washington Post that her family disowned her because Upshaw was black.

“Her parents, now in their early 80s, and siblings have never met Upshaw’s sons, 28 and 25. She says they didn’t reach out when her husband died. She says that she has tried over the years to make contact with her family — that they ignored her at her grandmother’s funeral. When her oldest son was 3 months old, she says, she took him to her parents’ house and was ordered to leave.”

However, The Washington Post article leaves out one detail, and – according to Steve Buich, it’s the most important detail: Gene Upshaw was married when he and Terri started dating. Per the SF Chronicle: “[Steve Buisch] says that his decision in 1983 to disown daughter Terri Upshaw, who was 23 at the time, had to do with the fact that she’d begun a relationship with a married man — pro football player Gene Upshaw, who was 38 at the time, recently retired from the Oakland Raiders, and in the process of getting a divorce.”

Here’s the deal: regardless of where your gut might fall on this issue, isn’t it extraordinarily careless of the Washington Post to publish this without at least noting that Upshaw was married at the time the relationship with his future wife took place? I’m not siding with either version of the story here, and my bet would be there’s probably some truth to both versions of the story; however, you’d think the Washington Post might want to mention that there may have been other factors at play before positioning this story as a father disowning his daughter because she was in love with a Black guy. – PAL

Source (initial story): “Terri Upshaw says she had to choose between family and love”, Loanne O’Neal, The Washington Post (10/25/15)

Source (follow-up): “Tadich Grill’s ex-owner: This wasn’t about race”, C.W. Nevius, San Francisco Chronicle (10/28/15)

TOB: Phil said pretty much what I thought – but let me add this: When the story was first reported by the Washington Post, users who had never been to the Tadich Grill flooded the Tadich Yelp page with 1-star reviews. It shouldn’t, but this drives me insane. Yelp is useless when people do things like this. I JUST WANT TO KNOW HOW THE FOOD TASTES. Driving down the rating of a restaurant because you don’t agree with what may or may not be the personal beliefs of an old man who hasn’t run the restaurant in 20 years defeats the purpose of Yelp.

C.R.E.A.M.

The New York Times covered a class at my alma mater, UC Berkeley aka Cal, regarding an independent study class aimed at student-athletes with promising professional careers ahead. The class is entitled “Personal Finance and Brand Management in Professional Sports” and it is taught by Stephen Etter, one of the founding partners of Greyrock Capital Group. Etter developed the class after meetings with then Cal football player Nnamdi Asomugha in 2002. Asomugha would go on to do great things, both in the NFL and off the field. Featured in this article is Etter’s current pupil, Cal quarterback and possible 2016 #1 NFL Draft pick Jared Goff, but past students include former Cal athletes Marshawn Lynch and decorated Olympic swimmer Missy Franklin. Etter teaches his students about how to deal with the massive amount of money they are about to be handed, and how to think about money in general. It seems an invaluable resource – I may not have millions, but I sure wish I could take that course. -TOB

Source: “Before Student-Athletes Earn a Penny, a Course in How to Manage Millions”, Karen Crouse, New York Times (10/23/2015)

Innocent Doing Work

This one hits real close to home. I’ll try to paint the picture. Como is an offshoot of St. Paul, and it’s mostly blue collar sprinkled with some nicer homes close to downtown (I always thought of it as a neighborhood where University of Minnesota professors lived). Como Lake was the location of my grade school’s annual “marathon” (translation: get neighbors to pledge x amount per mile that you ran/biked/rollerbladed around the lake). The fact that this incredible story takes place in Como makes me smile, and the budding Cross Country refugee at the heart of the story – Innocent Murwanashyaka – is a reminder to never complain. This kid kicks ass in all ways – Cross Country, holding down a job at Menards (think Lowe’s, but Minnesota, with the best commercial jingle ever), and bursting at the seams to go to college. 100% feel good. You can have the phenoms; I want more stories reminding me of the true American Dream. – PAL  

Source: “Innocent Is Independent: The Story of A Cross Country Runner”, Sarah Barker, Fittish (10/25/15)

My Favorite Website: Baseball-Reference.com

Here’s a short, neat article on my favorite website: baseball-reference.com. Baseball Reference is amazing. It has every conceivable baseball statistic for every player who ever played, including stats from the minor leagues. It has statistics as far back as 1871, when Lip Pike of the Troy Haymakers led the National Association with 4 home runs. I routinely get lost, diving deep into weird statistical wormholes. Finding names like Lip Pike are one of the true joys of a baseball-reference visit. One time I wanted to find the time my Grandpa took me to an Angels game when the Angels scored 4 runs in the 9th to beat the Brewers. With a little educated guesswork and some sleuthing, I found the game – it was Thursday, July 25, 1996. JT Snow led off the 9th with a home run, and light-hitting shortstop Gary Disarcina hit a walk-off 3-run jack to win it. My Grandpa had tried to leave after the Top of the 9th – but I wouldn’t let him. Another time I found the date this photo was taken:

Saturday, April 20, 1991: My first game at Candlestick Park. Bud Black threw a complete game, 5-hit shutout against a stacked Astros team (Biggio, Bagwell, Caminiti, Steve Finley, Luis Gonzalez). If you love baseball and have never perused Baseball-Reference, do so now. You’ll find lots of great stuff. -TOB

Source: “The Sublime Simplicity of Baseball-Reference.com”, Michael Weinreb, Rolling Stone (10/28/2015)

PAL: What a dad story to post.

Video of the Week

YOU LIKE THIS WEEK’S POST. YOU LIKE IT.

PAL Song of the Week: Loudon Wainwright – “The Swimming Song”

Check out our full playlist here. It’s like finding $10 in an old pair of pants.

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Maybe I’m spending too much of my time starting up clubs and putting on plays. I should probably be trying harder to score chicks.

-Max Fischer

Boss.

Wazzu Popcorn Guy: You Are Not Alone, Nor Are You Forgotten

A little inside baseball on what goes into getting the very best crowd reaction shots on sports broadcasts, specifically college football. What do those crowd shots mean? What feelings do they convey? What are the stories behind those people? Featured are some famous blasts from the past, including my favorite of all time – the Wazzu popcorn fan in the rain. Behold:

I don’t think anything illustrates the feeling of being a sports fan, especially that of a perennial also-ran, as that video of that sad, pathetic man pouring the dregs of his bag of popcorn all over his rain-soaked face, as the drops continue to fall upon him. I can relate. -TOB

Source: “Meme People: The Meaning of College Football Viral Fan Shots”, Bryan Curtis, Grantland (10/13/2015)

Say Goodbye to the Ol’ Ball Coach

A bit lost amidst the stories of USC’s firing of head football coach Steve Sarkisian after he allegedly showed up to work Sunday morning drunk (and possibly was drunk during a recent game), is the fact that legendary coach Steve Spurrier abruptly resigned this week from his post as the Head Ball Coach(™) at the other USC – South Carolina, effective immediately. My b.s. detectors are going off, but as of now there are no reasons for his resignation, other than the fact that he is done. Spurrier is a funny guy – very easy to despite, especially if your team routinely played his team. But from a distance, especially as an adult, I can appreciate the way in which Spurrier didn’t take himself, or his position in the world, too seriously. Here’s an excerpt that pretty well illustrates Spurrier’s persona:

“He was a bully and a pre-Internet troll and he was so adept at issuing undermining one-liners that a Florida sports columnist compiled a book of them. What is my favorite Spurrier noodge of all time? Maybe it’s the time he was informed that a dormitory fire at Auburn had destroyed 20 books, and he replied, “But the real tragedy was that 15 hadn’t been colored yet.” I mean, I have nothing against Auburn, but that’s A-list Don Rickles material right there.

In an era where college coaches are getting increasingly conservative (and I don’t mean politically), Spurrier will be missed. -TOB

Source: “So Long, Head Ball Coach: Steve Spurrier Steps Away From the Game He Forever Changed”, Michael Weinreb, Grantland (10/13/2015)

How to Get Thrown Out at First on a Hit to Left Field

A quick but decent read: Former major leaguer Sean Casey recalls the time he got thrown out at first base on a ball hit to left field:

Now watch Casey’s appearance on Dan Patrick where he laughs about it:

The video is a classic, and Casey’s re-telling is just as good. -TOB

Source: “Let’s Relive the Time Sean Casey Got Thrown Out at First From Left Field”, Tom Ley, Deadspin (10/14/2015)

Video of the Week

-Me, on Saturday, if Cal had managed to beat Utah. (Click the photo to open the video.)

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It is so choice. If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up.

A Life in Baseball Through the Lens of a Father

This is a cool photo essay by Giants’ third baseman Matt Duffy’s dad. The photographs and anecdotes chronicle Matt’s baseball career, starting at age two, and ending with Matt’s breakout 2015 rookie season. He’s a proud papa, and while reading it, a liiiittle part of me hoped that one day I can begin a similar photo essay with this photo:

Hey, a dad can dream! -TOB

Source: “A Father, A Son, and A Dream”, Tom Duffy, The Players Tribune (10/07/2015)

PAL: We all had that kid on our team whose parent hovered with the massive lens snapping 450 pictures at a meaningless Tuesday night game at a crappy, dirt-infield park. In the moment, you’d love for them to put the damn camera away; in retrospect, you’re glad they were there. Side note: there are few logos that bubble up the nostalgia as much as the ol’ Little League patch seen in some of these pics.

The Things You Learn at the Neighborhood Block Party ℅ roommate Jamie J. Morganstern

The ol’ roomie sent along this gem. I liked his email so much that we’re just dropping it right in here. – PAL

Yesterday at the Annual Ewing Terrace Block Party I learned a little more about the history of the neighborhood. Most of us know that the property used to be one of the city’s cemeteries before they moved a lot of graves to Colma.

A few years later, in 1914, they decided to build “Ewing Field/Park,” which was the new home of the San Francisco Seals baseball team, a professional team at the time. One of the old timers at the party told me this story and explained that Ewing was actually the name of the owner of the SF Seals.

“1914–Ewing Park becomes the new home of the San Francisco Seals, intended to be the finest minor league park to date, located one block south of Geary at Masonic.

“San Francisco Chronicle said, ‘The only possible drawback is the possibility of meeting bad weather conditions.’ Indeed, the new park was a fiasco. The club returned to Old Rec Park in 1915.”

The park was short lived. The foggy weather didn’t work well for baseball. Pop flies disappeared into the outfield.

Maybe others knew this already? Anyways, I thought I’d share the story and the photos. One of the photos shows that old building on Geary that is now a long-term storage facility.

Source: “Baseball Teens – 20s”, foundsf.org

TOB: Wow. That is so cool. I already loved Phil’s neighborhood, but this pushes it over the edge. Life goal: Buy a house on Ewing. *checks Zillow estimates* Shoot.

That Time Agent Zero Almost Got Got

You may remember the batshit story of the Wizards locker room gun incident involving Gilbert Arenas and Javaris Crittenton from back in 2009. But the reports were kind of cryptic and I always wondered what really happened. Well, Caron Butler (who has lived a very interesting life) wrote an autobiography. This excerpt covers his first-hand account of what happened – how it started and how it went down. It’s even more insane than I imagined. (FWIW, Arenas today posted a rebuttal, with his version of the events. It is no less insane, but you can read it here). And this story is even more spooky when you remember that Crittenton is currently serving a 23-year prison sentence for voluntary manslaughter. Gilbert Arenas may, as he said, “play with guns” – but Javaris Crittenton does not play. -TOB

Source: “I Play With Guns: Caron Butler’s Inside Account of the Gilbert Arenas Gun Incident”, Caron Butler, Washington Post (adapted from his autobiography “Tuff Juice: My Journey from the Streets to the NBA”) 11/08/2013

PAL: When Keeping It Real Goes Wrong”:

Bill Belichick: Master Motivator

Bill Belichick could provide a very interesting test case for a psychologist. Belichick’s motto is “Do Your Job.” He instills that mantra in his players. Accordingly, Bill does not hand out individual praise lightly. After all, if you do what you’re supposed to do, you don’t deserve praise (insert Chris Rock reference here). So on the rare occasion that he does hand out individual praise, it means a lot to the recipient – so much so that the players can recall the very specifics – the game, the play, what Bill said. These are grown men, at the top of their professions, acting like well-trained dogs who get excited when their owner pats them on the head. Fascinating.

Source: “The Patriots’ White Whale: Praise from Belichick”, Kevin Clark, The Wall Street Journal (10/06/2015)

Video of the Week:

PAL Song of the Week: Jim James & Calexico – “Goin’ to Acapulco” (Bob Dylan)

Check out our playlist. It’s the top playlist on Mel Kiper’s big board.

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“I love his music. I do. I’m a Michael Bolton fan. I celebrate the guy’s entire catalogue.”

-Bob Slydell

Call Raiders owner Mark Davis “Men’s Wearhouse” because he likes the way he looks.

Mark Davis Doesn’t Give a Damn What You Think

This is an amazing piece of journalism, by one of my longtime favorite sportswriters, Tim Keown. Keown profiles Raiders owner Mark Davis, who took over the team when his dad, Al Davis, died in 2011. That guy up top of this post? That’s Mark. Do you see that haircut? Mark has been rocking that awful hairdo for years, and people have been mocking it for just as long. But Mark Davis doesn’t just like that haircut. He travels 500 miles to Palm Springs to go to the same barber to get that haircut. Does he know people laugh at it? Yep. Does he care? Nope. The dude is worth $500 million and he does not care what you think. Check out the opening paragraph to the story:

Most days start the same — behind the wheel of a white 1997 Dodge Caravan SE outfitted with a bubble-top Mark III conversion kit, a VHS player mounted to the roof inside and a r8hers personalized plate. Mark Davis pilots this machine from his East Bay home to the nearest P.F. Chang’s, where he sits at the left end of the bar, same spot every time, puts his white fanny pack on the counter, orders an iced tea and unfolds the day’s newspapers. Beside him on the bar, next to the papers, is his 2003 Nokia push-button phone with full texting capability. When someone calls and asks him where he is, he says, “I’m in my office,” and sends a knowing nod to the bartenders. It gets ’em every time.

I have read that five times and I laugh every time. If that doesn’t make you click this story to read the rest, I give up. -TOB

Source: “Just Live Up to Your Dad’s Name and Solve the NFL’s L.A. Problem, Baby!”, Tim Keown, ESPN the Magazine (10/01/2015)

PAL: The next time someone tells you “I don’t care what other people think,” you can call bulls*&t. Simply pull out your phone, have them read this story. Mark Davis doesn’t care what other people think, and he’s the only one. Hilarious story. Great find. Also, the man is worth $500 million and he drives a conversion van with a vanity plate. Can we get the Mark Davis biopic movie into pre-produciton already?

Another High School Football Death

Evan Murray, a 17-year old from New Jersey, died during a high school football last weekend. Murray was the third high school football player to die from injuries suffered in a game in the month of September. From 2012 to 2014, thirteen high school football players died from injuries suffered during a game. I have discussed in this space many times the guilt and mixed feelings I have because of my enjoyment of football. There is not much more for me to say but to acknowledge my hypocrisy. Still, this is a good read: Grantland’s Charles P. Pierce discusses the complicit culpability we all have in the death of Evan Murray, and other players like him. -TOB

Source: “The Death of Evan Murray”, Charles P. Pierce, Grantland (09/30/2015)

Mascot Rampage

This is amusing. The guy pictured below, with the fantastic mullet, went to a minor league baseball game in North Carolina last weekend.

He got so drunk that he passed out in a stairwell and awoke around midnight, long after the ballpark had been deserted. While leaving, he stumbled upon the team’s mascot’s costume. He put the costume on and met up with friends at a local bar – dancing the night away and, as he put it, “ragin’, dude.” Nice work, guy. Also, excellent headline, Creative Loafing Charlotte. -TOB
Source: “Homer’s Night on the Town: If You Drank a Shot With the Knights’ Mascot on Sept. 20, You Were Basically Harboring a Fugitive”, Ryan Pitkin, Creative Loafing Charlotte (09/30/2015)

PAL: Since there is nothing I could possibly write to make this story any better than it is, please read this excerpt:

He said he was at Hooters, so I told him to stay there. I start walking down the hallway to leave and I look to my right and see the mascot dressing room. I thought, there’s no way this door is unlocked. I turned the handle and it opens right up and there’s the damned costume.

So, I suited right up, walked out the door and proceeded to Hooters. I walked right up into Hooters and my buddy didn’t even know it was me. I was ragin’ dude.

I left Hooters and there was a big line at Tilt next door. I just said, “Yo man, can I go in?” The guy said, “No,” and I was like, “Dude, You’re not gonna let Homer the f*&kin’ mascot into your bar right now?” Then he said I could go in. There was nobody on the dance floor. I come sliding in and start getting it. I was doing all the moves you always wanted to try but are too embarrassed to.

Videos of the Week

Baseball Locker Room Celebrations are the best.

https://twitter.com/JimmyTraina/status/649782111919046657

PAL Song of the Week: Jungle – “Busy Earnin‘”

Check out our full playlist here. It’s Cialis for your ears.

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On This Strange and Mournful Day

Earlier this month, the A’s called up Barry Zito from the minors. Zito was drafted and began his career with the A’s, winning a Cy Young and earning a giant free agent contract from the Giants. His time with the Giants was mostly poor, but they likely do not win the 2012 World Series without his great performance in the NLCS, so Giants fans can forgive the other mediocre (and worse) seasons he had while with the team. A’s fans, of course, look back on Barry’s time in Oakland fondly, as he was a member of the Big Three – Hudson, Mulder, and Zito, that led the early-aughts A’s to a number of division titles. Zito took 2014 off, and then signed with the A’s, surprisingly accepting an assignment to AAA and spending the entire season there. When the news of Zito’s call-up broke, excited A’s and Giants fans looked at the schedule and noticed that former A/current Giant Hudson was scheduled to start for San Francisco in Oakland on September 26. Fans began to clamor for the A’s to start Zito, for a Big Three reunion, of sorts. Immediately, the A’s squashed it. But, a couple weeks later, it is on. Hudson vs. Zito, in Oakland, this Saturday. Mulder will be in attendance (and all three will throw out the first pitch on Sunday). Jonah Keri takes some time to look back at the Big Three – how they came together and where they went – in advance of this throwback game. -TOB

Source: “Baseball’s Big Three: “A Look Back at Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder, and Barry Zito in Oakland”, Jonah Keri, Grantland (09/23/2015)

PAL: It’s cool how each of the guys were so distinct while all having sustained success. The undersized southern bulldog in Hudson (most impressive), the Golden Boy in Mulder (oh yeah, he was really good for a while), the guitar-strumming California boy in Zito (most compelling). Keri also brings up a great point – how are none of these guys even mentioned in Moneyball when they were integral to that team’s success? With regards to Zito – this dude’s all right by me, despite the contract with the Giants. He showed up big-time in ‘12 for the Giants – “In two combined starts between the NLCS and World Series, Zito fired 13.1 innings and allowed just a single run, winning both games…” – and by all account he never bickered, always worked hard, and was a solid teammate for the entirety of what was considered a horrible contract. It didn’t work out how it was supposed to, but he never appeared to lean into it. This Hudson – Zito matchup is a fitting punctuation to the trio’s story.

A Full Life: Yogi Berra (5/12/1925 – 9/22/2015)

Yogi Berra’s pop culture persona overshadowed the fact that he was a fantastic player. A legit all-timer. While he was portrayed as an idiot savant, that wasn’t close to the truth. As Robert Lipsyte wrote in 1963, “He has continued to allow people to regard him as an amiable clown because it brings him quick acceptance, despite ample proof, on field and off, that he is intelligent, shrewd and opportunistic.” And how about this – the man appeared in 21 World Series as a player, coach, or manager. You read that correctly. 10 World Series championships as a player. The 8th grade dropout from St. Louis also took a break from baseball to serve in the Navy, was at Omaha Beach in Normandy. Add to all of this that he and his wife had a 60+ year marriage. We reach to make the connections – I know – but while reading about Berra I kept thinking of my grandpa – the limited formal education, the WWII service, the marriage…a remarkable life. Collier’s magazine may have described Berra as someone who “could pass easily as a member of the Neanderthal A.C.”, but in the end the ledger shows he was a winner in every way that counts. Make sure to check out the slideshow for incredible photos covering Yogi’s career. – PAL

Source: “Yogi Berra, Yankee Who Built His Stardom 90 Percent on Skill and Half on Wit, Dies at 90”, Bruce Weber, The New York Times (9/23/15)

TOB: As a baseball fan, I didn’t realize how much Yogi Berra had seeped into American pop culture. I know he did those GEICO commercials over the last few years, but I figured many non-baseball fans had no idea who he is, other than a memorable name they had heard a few times. And then he died. Wednesday, my mom sent me not one but two articles she read about Yogi. That evening, Yogi’s death was mentioned on TV and my wife exclaimed, “Yogi Berra died!? I liked him.” I didn’t even realize she knew who he was, but Yogi was that famous. Though, as Will Leitch notes here, Yogi was a real human being, not just a witticism juke box. By all accounts, he was kind and wise, a great person. The world could use a lot more people like Yogi.

Ragnar Might Have Overestimated Negotiation Position

A part of me wants to agree with KNBR’s Kate Scott’s theory that perhaps some Viking employee leaked Joe Juranitch was seeking a $20K/game (up from $1,500/game) over 10 years (over $2M if you include pre-season games). Yet, if it wasn’t true why wouldn’t Juranitch dispute it publicly now that it’s over? Here’s what I want to know: Who was in his ear saying, “Come on, Joe! You’re freakin’ Ragnar! You’re worth 10x what they’re paying you, man!” Bottom line – you’re an unofficial mascot, Joe. Take the field level pass, ride your Hog onto the field in front of 60,000 berserk fans, and drink it in. There are a lot of Norseman in Minnesota with beards and bikes who will jump at the chance taking your place for half the price. Lastly, it chaps my ass that an AP writer penned a story for the St. Paul paper about the local football mascot! Times are indeed tough for the Pioneer Press. – PAL

Source: “Ragnar no longer Vikings mascot after contract dispute”, Jon Krawczynski, St. Paul Pioneer Press (9/22/15)

TOB: That pic up top of this post? That was posted by Ragnar during the Vikings’ home opener, with the caption: “It doesn’t feel right sitting at home. This is not by my choice…I don’t make those decisions..At this point it was made for me. I miss all my fans and your support …let’s all stay positive as we move forward. I gotta say: I like his gusto. Asking $20k per game to ride a friggin motorcycle onto the field pre-game? Blaming others for not paying you that $20k? That takes brass.

Bing Crosby: Baseball Hero

Kinda, anyways. I found this article, published 5 years ago this week, on my Facebook Memories feature. I shared it on Facebook back then, and it’s just as cool of a story today. Decades after Bing Crosby’s death, the only known recording of Game 7 of the 1960 Yankees/Pirates World Series was found in Crosby’s wine cellar in his Hillsborough, California home. Bing was part-owner of the Pirates and was extremely superstitious. He was afraid to watch the game live, because he thought he might jinx the team. So he and his wife flew to Paris (rough life) and ol’ Bing listened to the game on the radio. But, he knew he’d want to watch the game later, so he had someone record the game on a kinescope, and kept the recording all these years. The discovery of the recording has allowed the game to be seen for the first time since the broadcast – the networks discarded game recordings immediately after airing until the 1970s. But thanks to Bing, and a lucky discovery in 2010, MLB now has the recording and in 2010 put together a retrospective on what many consider to be the best game ever played. -TOB

Source: “In Bing Crosby’s Wine Cellar, Vintage Baseball”, Richard Sandomir, New York Times (09/23/2010)

Video of the Week

PAL Song of the Week: Baby Huey & The  Baby Sitters – “Running”

Check out our all of our picks here. This playlist will make you more attractive to the attractive people.

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‘Tis the season…I call this “The Lion”.

Drink Roger Goodell’s Tears of Unfathomable Sadness

As you’re probably aware, a federal judge ruled against the NFL in the Deflategate/Ballghazi “scandal” this week. If you’ve read this blog from the beginning, you know that I despise Roger Goodell, and the news absolutely delighted me. The whole “scandal” was absolutely ludicrous, starting with the fact that the NFL apparently took ball inflation so seriously that instead of paying someone to safeguard the game balls after they were measured before the game, they allowed each team to hold them instead. And when the Colts complained to the league for their AFC title game against the Patriots, the NFL could have reached out to the Patriots and said, “We got this complaint. We are informing you now that we will be periodically checking the game balls throughout the game.” Instead, they decided to try a sting operation. If the Patriots did cheat, then the NFL knowingly allowed the first half of the AFC Championship game to be delegitimized. That is pure stupidity – and the whole thing went downhill from there. This article is a nice little summary of Goodell’s failures, and again – I enjoyed every second of it. -TOB

Source: “This is Roger Goodell’s Defining Defeat, and the One He Deserves”, Tom Ley, Deadspin (09/03/2015)

PAL: This ball deflation crap might be the dumbest sports story I can recall (not this article or TOB’s write-up,  but the ongoing story). However, if you remove the who and the what from this, there is something interesting about CBAs between ownership and its…NOPE still the dumbest story. Hey, I tried.

TOB: It’s ok, Phil:

The Hitting Concession

Madison Bumgarner is a pitcher who can hit, which is very rare. Why is it so rare? How can someone who’s played baseball his entire life be so bad at hitting? It wasn’t always this way. Jonah Keri puts the question this way: “So, how did we get here? In an analytically driven sport constantly striving for excellence, how did we reach a point where everyone now accepts total incompetence in one out of every nine times at bat?”

The designated hitter has been around my entire life, so I’ve never paused to consider why it’s acceptable for a position player (in the literal sense) to be so bad at one of the fundamentals of the game.  Pitchers – especially starter pitchers – are specialist, yet, unlike a kicker in football or even a goalie in hockey, they are at the center of the action for the majority of the game. The more I think about it, the more I’m shocked there at least one .300 hitting pitcher each year. Just one naturally gifted hitter who happens to pitch.

And then I look up how many .300 hitters are in the 2015 season. Care to guess? Over or under 40.5? The answer (as of Thursday night, 9:24PM PST): 25. That’s less than 1 per team! I guess the reason there aren’t many good hitting pitcher is that there aren’t many good hitters, period.  – PAL

Source: “An At-the-Plate Anomaly: Madison Bumgarner and the Rapid Decline of the Hitting Pitcher”, Jonah Keri, Grantland (9/2/15)

TOB: Right. Think about it this way. Hitting a baseball and throwing a baseball have almost no physical connection. There is no overlap in skills. Both are extremely difficult to do at the major league level, and the odds are extremely low that a single person would be naturally gifted at both, and have the time to develop those natural abilities to a level to perform at a high level in the major leagues.

PAL: How about this: “In 1925 — at age 37, no less — Walter Johnson  hit .433/.455/.577 in 107 PA with two HR and 20 RBI.”

Vin Scully May Love the Dodgers, But He Is a National Treasure

The Giants have had a bad week. After losing two games over the weekend to the Cardinals, they went down to L.A. and got swept – losing each game by a single run – to fall 6.5 games behind the Dodgers. I hate pretty much everything about the Dodgers, except Vin Scully, the Dodgers announcer since 66 years and counting. Vin is likely a Dodgers fan, but you might not know it when listening to him call a game. His voice in smooth and soothing, and he tells a story like no other. This video is a great example of why I like Vin, as he narrates two young kids, one a Dodgers fan and one a Giants fan, and projects a narrative explaining their respective behavior. It’s great, and Scully is right – it’s been a bad week for the Giants, but the memory of three World Series wins in five years is still fresh. -TOB

Source: “Youngsters Amuse Scully”, MLB.com (09/01/2015)

PAL: Never in my life have I strung together a handful of sentences as elegant and plainspoken has Scully’s vamping in this video. Move over Morgan Freeman; Vin Scully is the narrator in my imaginary movie.

Who’s Got Next?

Grantland put together an amusing article about how American pickup basketball games need to stop counting by 1s and 2s and start counting by 2s and 3s. In a 1s and 2s game, the “3-point shot” is severely overvalued. Of course, as a jump shooter, this is why I love going by 1s and 2s. This is pretty obvious for anyone who ever stopped to think about it – but it’s still fun and the math they use to back it up is illuminating. -TOB

Source: “How to Fix Pickup Basketball With Analytics”, Kirk Goldsberry, Grantland (09/02/2015)

Video of the Week

Randy the Sports Dad. Something we all inspire to be.

PAL’s Song of the Week: Ludella Black – “I’ve Just Seen a Face”

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Glad to be a Charlie Brown. Happy Birthday, Dad! -TOB

Twins.com

This is one of the funniest stories I’ve ever read. Durland and Darvin are twins. In 1995 they registered for the URL twins.com. In the 20 years since, all but 3 URLs for MLB baseball teams have been secured by the MLB. The holdouts: The Giants (football team got that one), the Rays (a restaurant in Seattle has that one), and the Twins. While the Giants and Rays situations make sense, the Twins URL makes for a great, absurd, hilarious story. I don’t want to spoil too many tidbits about these brothers – remember, their names are Durland and Darvin – but here are a couple teasers:

• Aside from living together, at one point they had complementary black and a white humvees.
• They were in a successful San Francisco band…a “copy” band of course, and nearly made the finals of a national Battle of the Bands in the early 80s against eventual winner…Bon Jovi.

I want a 30 for 30 doc on these brothers, and I want it now. – PAL

Source: “The Website MLB Couldn’t Buy”, Ben Lindburgh, Grantland (8/27/15)

TOB: I cannot recommend this story highly enough. It is completely absurd and I laughed out loud at least a half dozen times.

Under Armour & Maryland: The Next Oregon?

With Under Armour supplanting Adidas as the second largest sports apparel company, its founder and University of Maryland alumnus Kevin Plank is following in the footsteps of Nike’s Phil Knight. Like Knight has done for Oregon, Plank is putting big money into the University of Maryland. Under Armour recently signed a 10-year extension giving the university $33M in cash and gear. Additionally, Plank personally donated $25M for renovations to Cole Field House, which will house an entrepreneurship academy, the sports medicine department, and the Terrapin Performance Center. Money no doubt lifts athletic programs success, and billionaire alumni like Knight, T. Boone Pickens at Oklahoma State, and Plank serve as proof. It will be interesting how soon the investment will pay off at Maryland as a newcomer to a Big 10 Conference that includes the likes of financial giants Michigan and Ohio State, whose annual athletic departments’ budgets exceed $100M. – PAL

Source: “Under Armour Seeks to Do for Maryland What Nike Did for Oregon”, Marc Tracy, New York Times (8/25/15)

College Sports: Too Big to Fail?

It’s been a bad couple of weeks for college football, and it is clear that major college sports are completely broken. As this Newsweek points out, college football is under siege on at least three fronts: (1) the dangers of playing football; (2) whether football players are employees and whether they should be paid; and (3) the value of education to a football player. There are a number of stories over the last two weeks illustrating these points: To wit:

• After the NLRB rejected Northwestern players’ bid to unionize, Deadspin went in-depth on the negative ramifications for former Wildcats QB Cain Colter’s spearheading of the attempt. Unsurprisingly, Colter was ostracized by the Athletic Department and has suffered greatly.
• In the article Phil discussed above, it is noted that $25M of the funds for the renovations to Cole Field House are coming from the State. Former student leaders wrote an op-ed objecting to this use of State funds, but their complaints fell on deaf ears.
• Against near-unanimous consensus from the faculty, Auburn’s athletic department convinced the University administration to not eliminate the “Public Administration” major, a fluff major in which roughly half of the students were athletes. The athletic department saved the major by offering to directly pay Public Administration faculty and staff. That is insane. The chairman of Auburn’s economics department said that the athletic department at Auburn is so powerful that it operates like a “second university.” Auburn is not unique in this regard.
• While reading about the drunken speech that USC head coach Steve Sarkisian gave at a booster event over the weekend, I was reminded of former Michigan football coach Gary Moeller’s firing back in 1995. Out of curiosity, I found an old article from the time. The article noted that Moeller’s salary was $130,000. Adjusted for inflation, that is $203,000. In contrast, last December Michigan hired Jim Harbaugh at its new head coach, at a salary of $7 million. That is approximately 35x more than Moeller’s inflation-adjusted salary.
• This year, for the first time, college football players are being paid a small amount of money for “incidentals”. They receive a few thousand dollars for the year. What did some college coaches attempt to do? Institute a system to fine players of that cash for minor transgressions, of course. Look at this crap. $50 for a dirty dorm room. $50 for a dirty locker. $10 for missing breakfast.  Virginia Tech wasted no time in implementing their fines, (when word got out the University quickly put a stop to it). Cincinnati wasted no time, either. These kids finally get a little pocket change (what amounts to less than $100/week), and millionaire coaches immediately start trying to take it away.
• Football players at Idaho were caught shoplifting. Their head coach, Paul Petrino, made it go away in the most shady way possible, actively interfering with a police investigation.
• Baylor football player Sam Ukwuachu was convicted of sexual assault. Ukwuachu had transferred from Boise State after he was dismissed from the team for beating up his girlfriend. After the conviction, Baylor head coach Art Briles said he had no idea about the violent incident that led Ukwuachu to transfer from Boise State. Washington head coach Chris Petersen, who was the Boise State coach at the time of Ukwuachu’s transfer to Baylor, released a statement directly contradicting Briles’ contention. Petersen said that he personally called Briles and told Briles exactly why Ukwuachu was dismissed. The two went back and forth in the media for a couple days.

Every single one of these stories is embarrassing for the NCAA, and this was not an unusual week in terms of the number of embarrassing stories. I don’t know how we fix college sports, but the amount of money involved seems to be the root of the problem. There is so much money at stake that corners are going to be cut. That’s not ok, but it seems as though college sports are “too big to fail” and major changes are not coming anytime soon. -TOB

Source: “College Football Under Fire From Three Sides”, Glenn Altschuler, Newsweek (08/22/2015)

When Keeping It Jeter Goes Wrong

Russell Wilson is a corporate shill, devoid of personality, only serving as a vessel to endorse products. He is Derek Jeter 2.0 (in the least surprising news of the week, Jeter is Wilson’s role model). But that harmless and boring vacantness took a turn for the irresponsible this week, when Wilson, on both Twitter and an article in Rolling Stone, touted “Recovery Water”, a product for which Wilson is an investor, as helping him to prevent a concussion in last year’s NFC Championship game.

Wilson is an investor in Reliant Recovery Water, a $3-per-bottle concoction with nanobubbles and electrolytes that purportedly helps people recover quickly from workouts and, according to Wilson, injury. He mentions a teammate whose knee healed miraculously, and then he shares his own testimonial. “I banged my head during the Packers game in the playoffs, and the next day I was fine,” says Wilson. “It was the water.” Rodgers offers a hasty interjection. “Well, we’re not saying we have real medical proof.” But Wilson shakes his head, energized by the subject. He speaks with an evangelist’s zeal. “I know it works.” His eyes brighten. “Soon you’re going to be able to order it straight from Amazon.”

Recovery Water is freaking sparkling water, not a miracle cure for anything. In this article, brain researchers and doctors take Wilson to task for his irresponsible claim. Wilson is the worst. -TOB

Source: “Russell Wilson Claims His New Water Heals Concussions. That’s Corny and Dangerous”, Adam Kilgore, Washington Post (08/27/2015)

Video of the Week

New life goal: Make one of these compilations.

PAL’s song of the week: Bahamas – “Lost In The Light”

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