The NFL with Substitute Teachers

So, during the NFL off-season, a lockout started.  With last season's NFL lockout and then the NBA lockout and now it looks like a new NHL lockout looming, this one was relatively minor and didn't make headlines much. Then the preseason started.  And the little lockout wasn't really the focus.  Then week 1 started the regular season.  It was a bit hairy, but they pulled through.  They did better than anyone thought they would.  Maybe it will be okay.  Then week 2 got worse.  "It seems like the coaches and players were pushing to see how far they could get away with things.  Now they know and they're keeping it there.  Now week 3 is in the books and all hell is starting to break loose.  For those of you who don't know, the regular NFL refs are locked out.  That means the muscled Ed Hochuli (seen to the right) and company keeping law and order over the rough and tumble gridiron.

Now the previous (regular) refs weren't perfect; no one is.  The picture of Hochuli is actually from an old ESPN story about his apology for blowing a call that cost a game.  It happens.  But Hochuli and company maintained control of the games.  They made calls with decisiveness and quickness that maintained order, a modicum of fairness and, most of all, the pace of the game.  The replacement officials don't do any of that.  There are grievously blown calls (at least they blow them both ways) and not enough discipline during the extra-curricular shoving matches.

Where did they get these refs?  They could have probably just brought up DI (I'm not going to bother with the FCS BCS BS) referees who know the rules.  There are rules changes form college to the pros, but they aren't much to remember if you study.  Pass interference in college is up to the spot of the foul, maximum 15 yards and a first down.  The pros is spot of the foul (no limit) and first down.  So if your QB is an arm with a life support attached, you could probably get a 80 yard penalty.  There are some other rules, like a player can get back up and run if he isn't down by contact (touched while down) in the pros.  Once you're down, you're down, in college.

But these officials aren't from the DI college ranks.  For one the bigger conferences (Big 10, Pac 12, SEC) treat their officials DAMN well.  They wouldn't want to lose the gigs for a temp position at the NFL.  And most of said conferences (and the other biggies) told their officials if they left, they wouldn't have jobs to come back to.  So these officials are borrowed from the Arena league (lots of different rules and nowhere near as much pressure...if you're asking "What's Arena League"...exactly) or as far down as DIII.  When the Sports Wife asked what is DIII, the Sports Bro-In-Law explained that that's where you find Bob's Really Good College and the like.  These guys aren't ready for this kind of pressure on this stage.  They are substitute teachers and the NFL players and coaches know it.  The NFL is making money hand over fist off of fines for complaining about the refs.  It doesn't matter that the players and coaches are absolutely correct in their complaints.  They're still getting fined.  Take a minute and open another tab in your browser.  In the google bar type "replacement officials complaints."  Look at some of the links/headlines that pop up.  Fox and Del Rio from Denver have already been fined.  Belichick, Shanahan, Harbaugh, and probably some of the Green Bay Packers after tonight, will all be fined this week.

The NFL has been preaching an awful lot lately about caring about player safety. (With a class-action lawsuit from 3000 former players, I'd be preaching, too).  But hits that go uncalled, penalties unenforced, and arguments that should be diverted aren't being controlled by these officials.  Frustration boils over and leads to more vicious hits and more fights. If the NFL truly cared about player safety, they'd settle the issue with the original refs and get the game back to the way it should be.  We're three weeks into the regular season and now it is starting to affect the outcome of games.  Now that it is doing this, it will probably start getting the owners' attention.  It shouldn't have to come to that.  Roger Goodell should have settled this issue earlier.  The replacement officials are starting to lower the quality of your product.  The question is will it hurt the demand for it?  Or will we continue to complain into our beers and blogospheres while we watch?

What to do (or not to do) with King Felix

In a recent Sports Illustrated blurb, Joe Sheenan looked at the case for Felix Hernandez.  ("The Case for Felix Hernandez, Aug 27, 2012).  The piece ran just 12 days after King Felix finally achieved the elusive Perfect Game.  Sheenan makes the case that Seattle should trade its long time ace for various reasons.  1). He deserves to be on a winning team after playing for the perennial cellar-dwelling Mariners.  2). He is at his peak and they can get some offensive players for him right now.  Sheenan points out recent transactions such as the trade that gave the Texas Rangers their contender team when they traded Mark Teixeira.  Sheenan also cites the Mariners' anemic offense as the center of their woes.

The difficulty in responding to this is to try to separate the fan part of my mind from the analytic part.  I am tempted to rattle off an angry e-mail to SI because Sheenan has the audacity to suggest Seattle trade its heart and soul (undisputed heart and soul after the Ichiro trade)?  I'm I being a "homer?" I can see the point that Sheenan makes.  Hernandez would fetch quite a prize right now given that yesterday was his first loss since JUNE.  The Yankees would probably trade handsomely for Hernandez just so they wouldn't have to face him (Felix is 2-1 with an ERA of 2.35 against the Yankees this season and is holding the vaunted Yankee lineup to a piddling .213 average with 17 strikeouts).  What's more, he has ERA's of 0.00 and 0.53 against the hated Red Sox and Rays, respectively.  The problem is with the Yankees riddled with injuries and still trying to make a post-season run, they don't have any established players to trade.  The Mariners could probably get their entire farm system, though.

Of course, there are other teams to trade with.  Boston just jettisoned stars with more money tied up in contracts than the GDP of some nations. But should they trade King Felix at all?

Seattle does have a desperate need of offense.  They haven't had a feared offense since the 116-game winning season (which, by the way, was a team that didn't have certain players named Griffey, Rodriguez, or Johnson).  It is true that last season, the Mariners had a horrendous streak of offensive ineptitude when they lost 14 games in a row.  Many of those games were great pitching battles with scores like 1-0 or 2-0.  Seattle couldn't get any runs.  They couldn't string together hits.

But last season is not this season.  The Mariners may still be heading toward another sub-.500 finish (or maybe they aren't--this late in the season, they're only 5 games under .500 and, technically, have a chance to make the playoffs, it's one-tenth of one percent).  But this season, they aren't stringing together double-digit losing streaks.  This season, they are winning games 1-0 and 2-1 (today's score against the Angels? 2-1 Mariners).  They're starting to get more hitters.  While this year's team doesn't have the batting averages found with the 2001 116-wins team, they are showing improvement.  And they're young.  That is the kicker. Jesus Montero is in his first full season.  John Jaso is in his third full season and is has a higher batting average than he's had before.  There are four regular position players over 30 on the team.  The oldest of the position players is 34 (a tie between sometimes-starters Chone Figgins and Miguel Olivo).  At 26, Felix is older than every one of the regular outfielders.  This isn't a bad team, it is an inexperienced team.  With experience comes higher batting averages.  With experience comes offense.

The Mariners have a front end pitching staff that has been fearsome this season.  Felix is at 13 wins and is carrying an ERA 60 points lower than his career 2.51 vs 3.15.  Their #2 starter, Jason Vargas also has 13 wins and 116 strikeouts.  Felix Hernandez and Jason Vargas give the Mariners a core to start building around, a task already underway.  The team is improving.  Their division got a lot harder this season with Los Angeles re-tooling to take a shot at powerhouse Texas (which also added new talent).  Add them to a surging Oakland team and the AL West no longer looks like the league's forgotten division.  And Seattle is starting to compete.  Seattle is already within two wins of last season's total with a month yet to go.  Seattle has used this season to add new talent as well.  It is another season of rebuilding, but with the pitching and the flashes of potential, the Mariners show signs of life.

Sheenan points to offense being the key to filling seats.  And the fact that the Mariners are 26th in attendance seems to support that.  But trading Felix isn't going to help that statistic, but make it worse.  Seattle has a good farm system and is growing some great up and coming pitchers.  Felix is still signed for two more years, giving them time to bring the new pitchers up to shore up the later rotations.  With Trayvon Robinson and Eric Thames adding life, speed, and hitting to the outfield (and both in their first two seasons), the Mariners are working on that weak offense.  With the additions of Montero from the Yankees, Jaso from the Rays adding to their DH and catching corps, the team is coming along.

Trading Hernandez wouldn't just alienate the Seattle faithful, it would be restarting the progress they've already made.  Seattle is one of the best defensive teams in the majors.  With a young team, the expectation would be to have more errors in the field.  Seattle has the fewest, 8 fewer than the next team, the White Sox.    The Mariners also lead the league in fielding percentage.  They are tied with Baltimore for second in putouts. With the offense improving, it is the last piece a puzzle that will take the AL by surprise next season, much the same way Baltimore has this year.

And it will all revolve around keeping the Ace.  Seattle needs Felix.

Yankees Mariners Trade

On July 23rd an interesting series of events occurred.

First, I got married to my best friend, the former Sports Fiancee.  She is now The Sports Wife.  We had an awesome ceremony and wedding day that revolved around two of our favorite things--baseball and food.  We got married at Pike Place Market in Seattle, in front of the fish throwers (who photobombed the wedding pictures).  Then, we were off in pedal cabs (Greener Cab Company in Seattle is a great way to get around the downtown area, I recommend it for anyone heading to the Emerald City).  We headed to Safeco Field, bride and bridesmaids with baseball bats, groom and groomsmen with gloves.  We took pictures outside the field.  We faked a game of baseball for the camera, we posed with our accouterments, we hammed it up.  The New Sports Wife threw her bat instead of a bouquet.  We had a drink at Pyramid microbrewery across the street.  I went to get our tickets.  We headed to Crab Pot to bash things with mallets and eat them (the Sports Wife started things off with her bat, of course).

After a brief nap, we all headed back to Safeco for the game.  We heard on our way to the gate that Ichiro was traded to the Yankees.  I brushed it off.  I heard this rumor or something similar every time I approached a baseball field.  The Yankees have a flotilla of outfielders, why would they take Ichiro?  My groomsman, Bob the Pennsylvania-to-Denver Transplant, and I ran to get another ticket for a friend joining us.  We ran back around the building to the rest of the wedding party (we got there early enough that only the main ticket office was open and we were going to get in at the Center Field Gate, which is the first one Safeco opens).

When we got back to our group, The Sports Wife looked at me, nearly with tears in her eyes.  It wasn't a rumor.  Ichiro was traded.  I whipped out my phone to check the trade myself.  Why would the Yankees take Ichiro?  Why would the Mariners trade Ichiro?  What could the Yankees have offered in exchange?  Jeter?!?  No.  The Yankees sent the Mariners two pitching prospects, who would report to AAA Tacoma, and cash.  I've written blogs defending the Yankees.  I've looked at baseball as a business and a game where trades happen all the time, players move and re-move.  But this time, they took my new wife's favorite.  They took one of MY favorites.

Since deciding to visit Seattle as often as we can and go to a Mariners game equally often (with the exception of our February trips), I've grown familiar with the Mariner line-up.  I can rattle off almost as many Mariners as Yankees these days.  I can tell you who plays where and can usually get the starting pitcher (I may need to look at the previous night's/game's pitcher to see where we are in the rotation, but I have to do that with the Yankees, too).  I can watch the Mariners every game on Root Sports.  I have to wait until some channel (usually ESPN) airs the Yankees in my area.

Ichiro has been there the longest.

I cheer for the Mariners.  Every game I've gone to, with the exception of three, I've cheered for the Mariners.  Those three were last year when the Yankees were in town and Mariano was approaching the saves record.  I've rocked out when they sent in League (last year's closer).  I've screamed "BARTENDER, CLOSE MY TAB!" when they've sent in Wilhelmsen (this year's closer).  I've headbanged to "Smells like Teen Spirit" as they introduced the starting lineup for the Mariners and to "We're not Gonna Take It" when they need a 9th inning rally.  Holy Crap, I've rooted for the Mariners more times this year than I have for the Yankees!

I felt like the Yankees ruined our wedding day.

It had to be July 23rd.  Why?  Because the Yankees were coming to town and it would be the ideal time to make the switch?  Because it would give Seattle a rip-the-BandAid-so-it-will-feel-better-sooner moment to say goodbye?  Because the trade deadline was a week away?  Why did it have to be our wedding day?  We were still in our wedding clothes.  We still had our bats and gloves.

The Mariners traded Ichiro to the Yankees for cash, Mitchell, Farquhar...and me.

Monday, I did a lot of things for the first time.  I said "I do" in front of four friends, a photographer, an officiant, and total strangers.  I got goosed by my best man as I peered through the hole in the glove sculpture in front of Safeco.  I went to bed a married man. I rooted against the Yankees.  The Sports Wife had a sign that said she married a Yankees fan, so it MUST be true love.  But I wasn't a Yankees fan that night.  Or the next.  Or the next day.  I rooted for the Mariners as Millwood lost, Hernandez won (and beaned three), and Luetge let a one-run lead slip away in the eighth.  I bought a Felix Hernandez rookie card instead of a Jeter.

I put away my beloved Joe DiMaggio jersey and didn't wear it this trip.  It didn't feel right. I couldn't support the Yankees as they took away Seattle's most beloved player.  I did the research.  The trade made sense.  One of the Yankees speedy outfielders in that flotilla went on the DL for the rest of the season shortly before the trade.  A handful of the other outfield flotilla members are approaching, or already are, 40.  Ichiro is in the last year of his contract, so the Mariners could trade him and actually get something in return instead of losing him to free agency.  The Mariners also get two young players for an old one (Ichiro is 38, but is still fast, stealing a base against his former team as soon as he got on base).  Ichiro benefited in going from a last place team to a first place one.  The Yankees shored up a sudden weak point with a strong veteran.  Having Ichiro's speed when he's on base leads to more fastballs (which are easier to hit further if you know they're coming) for other Yankees because a fastball is the best way to throw a runner out when attempting a steal.  Everyone benefits...except the fans.  Except The Sports Wife who cried during the Wednesday afternoon game when Ichiro batted lead-off for the Yankees and got a standing ovation, to which he tipped his cap and bowed.  And what about the lady in the front row of right field who brings the Ichi-meter to every game?  It had a heart on it Wednesday.  It still tracked his hits through the games.  What did she do tonight?  The Mariners played the Royals--without Ichiro on either team.

So this is how it feels when a team trades away the most beloved player.  Not a player who finished his contract and moved on (like another player who wore 51, Bernie Williams), but a beloved player traded...gone...to the team that they were playing that night.  So this is how it feels to watch a sports legend in a city go.  This sucks.  I wouldn't have to feel this if I keep rooting for the Yankees.  We can usually tell who's going to stay and who's going to go.  We don't get attached to them (although I did like Bernie and I'm not anxious to see Mariano or Derek retire).  The Yankees always trade up.  They don't rebuild.

This is how it feels for a team to make the move to rebuild and look to the future.  The Sports Wife is extra critical of Carlos Peguero, who had to step into Ichiro's shoes.  "He's not as fast."  "What's with the batting average? I thought he was supposed to bring some offense."  "Ichiro would have had that one, this guy doesn't need to be here."  I have to wonder how many other Seattle fans are taking their frustrations out on the new guy.  Heaven help Mitchell and/or Farquhar if they don't produce.

It feels different rooting for a team that doesn't just win.  It is more exciting.  When the Yankees would lose, I'd be frustrated and check what it meant in the standings.  When the Mariners win it is sad, half expected, and dims the lights on the hope of a comeback from 16.5 games back.  But we root for the team all the same.  They are the underdogs.  We know their faces.  We give them nicknames (The Sports Wife and her bridesmaids think Ackley is "one sexy slice of man-pie."... I'm not even sure what that really means.  They all yell Jesuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuus when Jesus Montero comes up to bat (something I started when we went to the Giants-Mariners games in June).  We know that Wilhelmsen is "Bartender" because he comes in for closing time.

I feel connected to these players.  The Yankees are in the far away land of New York.  They are celebrities and the talk of the town.  Their fans are rabid and, at times, stuck-up and rude.  I see and listen to them sometimes and wonder if that is what I sounded like when I defended them.  No one is going to fault me for being a Mariners fan.  The Mariners don't win enough or have a deep rivalry or deeper pocketbook.

Root for one team that always wins, but everyone hates.  Root for another team that no one hates, but often loses.  Ichiro requested a trade that worked out for almost everyone.  For the fans, that remains to be seen.

Alignment and Re-alignment

It has been a busy month.  Yeah, it's been busy in sports, but I've been busy too and away from this blog.

Right now I have a precious commodity: a little time.  I've been able to multi-task and as a wind down, watch SportsCenter and keep up on the happenings of sports across the nation.  Being able to follow sports is one of the simple pleasures that can keep us grounded when the realities of life threaten to pull us out into space.  Even when the sports world is seemingly off kilter itself, it helps to ground because, unlike real life, an off-kilter sports world can be amusing and add an extra layer of suspense to a pastime already built on suspense.  Seeing the topsy-turvy start of the baseball season and which teams are doing well and which aren't is more interesting than usual.  Without further ado, a look at what's going on in the off-kilter world of sports and how that can keep fans on-kilter.

MLB

The Nationals/Montreal Expos franchise hasn't had a real good season since the strike shortened 1994 year.  Now, they're leading the NL East.  Their pitchers (who are finally healthy) are throwing lights out.  They have a couple of great young rookies this year who have really sparked the offense.  Bryce Harper plays the game the way we were always taught to play.  Even if he hits a pop-up that is surely going to be caught, he sprints to first.  This has paid off on the rare times where the sure thing isn't and the fielder muffs the catch.  Harper is fast enough that, if there isn't someone in front of him slowing him down, he probably has an in-field double off the error.  It is good to see a team that has done so poorly do so well to start the season.  And the nationals aren't the only one.

The Baltimore Orioles have been the whipping children of the AL East.  With teams like the Yankees, the Red Sox, and in the last few years, the Rays in the same division, not keeping up with the other teams means a sure losing season.  Up until today, Baltimore has been dancing with Tampa Bay for first place in baseball's toughest division.  As of right now, the Yankees have a share of first with the Orioles.  Both are a half game ahead of Tampa Bay.  However, Tampa leads the Yankees 7-2 in the top of the ninth.  That means, unless the Yankees manage a 9th inning surge they were known for three years ago, we're going to have a third team leading the division in the last 24 hours.  And how is this for competitive, there isn't a team in the division with a losing record.  "Cellar Dweller" Boston is 29-28, good enough for three games out of first.  Five teams within three games of the lead!  If the whole division can keep this up, we might see a September to rival last years 52 card pick-up of a playoff race.

Los Angeles

And how about the friggin Dodgers?  Last year's yard sale team watched its owners go through the ugliest Hollywood divorce since OJ and Nicole.  They verged on bankruptcy due to the nastiness and were scooped up for 2 billion, (yeah, with a B) dollars by some guy from L.A. named Magic.  Since then, even injuries to their power hitter star haven't derail baseball's best team (16 games over .500!).  Tinseltown is finally fun to watch again.  Earlier this season, L.A. was the place to be for sports.  The poor staff at the Staples Center had 4 games in 2 sports in a little over 48 hours!  Over the course of the weekend, both of L.A.'s basketball teams played playoff games, one played two from Friday to Sunday.  There was a playoff hockey game in between two of the basketball games at the same facility (on the same floor! well, kinda).  And the Dodgers were also off to their hot start!  If you think your life is off kilter, try being one of the poor staff members taking apart a hardwood floor to put up an ice rink, then taking that down to put up another hardwood floor with different designs painted on it.  Yeah, I think teaching college students from around the world how to write a traditional style American essay five times a week for about an hour and half each day is looking pretty cooshy after that.

NBA

With both of the aforementioned L.A. NBA teams out of the playoffs since then, we could have two teams that have won one championship each meet in the finals.  If Miami can put Boston away, they'll face the Oklahoma City Thunder.  The Thunder, of course used to be the Seattle Supersonics, and that relates to a rant I won't get into here.  The Sonics won the finals in 1979 and never got to go back until they had the misfortune to face the best team in NBA history, Jordan's 1995-96 Bulls (remember them? the 72-10 regular season record and 15-3 in the playoffs Bulls? yeah, those guys--btw, Seattle gave them two of the three losses).  Now the franchise is back in the finals.  Will they face the Heat and their 1 championship (2005-06) or will they face the winningest NBA championship franchise in history (17 banners).  The only American sports franchise with more championships is the Yankees and they had a 44 year head start.

I think the Thunder-Heat match up would be the most amusing to watch.  I think the edge would go to the Thunder, though.  They play better as a team, have more strength off a deeper bench and pairing their two main scorers against Miami's main scorers (Durant/Westbrook VS. Wade/James) OKC has a clear advantage.  Add that Bosh is still hurt even if he is playing, and I see the Thunder giving the state of Oklahoma its first championship outside college football.  Of course, this is a no brainer, since Oklahoma doesn't have any other professional teams.

Breaking News: Miami just beat Boston to force a game 7 in Miami.  Whoever wins gets to face a rested OKC team.

When our lives need alignment, sports may not do the aligning for us, but they can help put the trouble away for a bit.  There is something to be said for mindlessly cheering our favorite teams.  Even when sports itself needs a realignment (would you believe that as late as the 2002 season one division actually included San Francisco, New Orleans, the L.A./St Louis Rams, and the Atlanta Falcons?  And it was called the NFC West!) we can watch with amusement and anticipation as they go through their aligning to make a sport make more sense.  (Now if NCAA football would figure out their geography--Boise and San Diego aren't exactly east of anything).  We can look at the scandals, the oddities, the successes, the failures, the surprises, and the predictables and take solace that our lives will never be as weird as all that.

The Sudden End of a Favored Player's Career

In 1992, one of my favorite football players ruptured his Achilles and thought about retirement.  Lawrence Taylor went down.  He thought about retirement.  I remember being in high school and being ecstatic when L.T. announced he would be back for the 1993.

Michael Jordan's sudden (first) retirement in 1993 caused me to stop really even paying attention to the NBA until rumors of his return swirled in February/March 1995.  Watching him sink the final shot against Utah in 1998 to seal the second three-peat felt like the perfect ending to the career.  Pippen was leaving; Jackson was leaving; there wasn't really a reason for Jordan to come back again.  We were able to watch that final shot and say goodbye.  While Jordan's farewell tour of 2003 after his second comeback let all the fans have a chance to see him play live one last time, it wasn't at his former glory of the 90s.  But every arena sold out, regardless of who the home team was.  Jordan was allowed to enter his last game with just over a minute and a half left.  He was fouled so that we could see his last shots (two free throws he made, of course).  As soon as the 76ers (his opposition) inbounded the ball, they were fouled so that Michael could go back to the bench.  I watched that game, a national broadcast that had no playoff implications.

In 2000, my favorite football player died in the prime of his career.  Derrick Thomas died of a blood clot that was a result of a car crash.  Unlike Jordan's final farewell, Chiefs fans weren't able to say goodbye to Thomas. Everyone thought he had more years, and he had, if he hadn't been speeding recklessly that one night.  The blood clot didn't come right away, so we could deal with him probably not playing anymore due to the accident, which caused paralysis from the chest down.  But it happened in the offseason (at least for the Chiefs, the post-season was still going).  We weren't expecting him at the next game the next week.

Yesterday, my favorite baseball player of my lifetime, second favorite Yankee, tore his ACL.  In a previous post, I had written about watching Mariano play at least one more time when New York comes to Seattle.  Before this season, Mariano had told the media that he knew whether or not this was his final season.  He just wasn't going to tell us until it was time to tell us.  Mariano is 42 years old.  42 is his number (he'll be the last player in MLB to wear 42, Jackie Robinson's number), 42 is also his career post-season saves.  The next closest player has 18.  Rivera is a competitor.  He has told people that he would never want to go out due to being ineffective or to an injury.  The question is at 42, could he come back either later this season, or would he return for the 2013 season to go out pitching?  Will he take this as a sign from God that enough is enough?  Will the numbers 42-42-42 be enough for Mariano.  Part of me hopes not.  Part of me still wants to see him play.  However, with an injury like this, where a pitcher in particular has to plant so much weight and wear on those knees pitching, will he return to form?  Or will he be a shadow of his former self, like MJ's second comeback?

On the note of saying goodbye, or not getting a chance, Junior Seau, NFL staple at linebacker from 1990-2009, committed suicide this week.  While he played for rival teams, Seau was one of the players who I enjoyed watching.  He played in two Super Bowls, one for San Diego, one for New England, but never won the Vince Lombardi.  The NFL is being sued and is investigating the effects of multiple and long term concussions over the span of a career.  Seau isn't the first former NFL suicide.  If there is a correlation between concussions and depression/suicide, then there will be more former players taking their own lives.  Seau's family donated his brain for study so that science and sports can hopefully start taking steps to prevention.

First Round NFL Draft Blog Up to the 11th Pick

I'm watching the NFL draft and recording my thoughts as I go.

Draft Pick #1 overall: Gee the Colts took Andrew Luck.  No surprise here, they won the Suck for Luck contest.  Lately, I've been hearing that RGIII is statistically the better QB and most likely will be going #2 with Washington.

Chomping at the bit waiting for the 11th pick for my Chiefs.  Sports Illustrated has them taking Luke Kuechly out of Boston College.  I kind of like the idea of another high draft pick on defense.  When the Chiefs were a dominant force in the 90s (even though they never got to the Super Bowl) they had a killer defense.  With Derrick Johnson, Tamba Hali, and a lockdown secondary, I'm excited to see this.

#2 Robert Griffin III goes to the Redskins.  Again, no real surprise.  I'm curious to see how Griffin deals with Shanahan's system.  Now the NFC East has two speedy big armed quarterbacks (Vick).  Washington also needs to work on a defense.

ESPN has four selections for who the Chiefs will take at #11.  The People's Choice is Courtney Upshaw, DE/OLB from Alabama.  Not a bad choice either.  Expert Todd McShay choses Kuechly; Mel Kiper chooses David DeCastro, OG from Stanford.Kent Babb of the KC Star also says DeCastro because he doesn't think the DE that they want (Upshaw) will be there.

While I do like to watch a great defense, and the Chiefs have a young one going into the next season.  They're going to have to brush up on pass defense with Manning, Palmer, and Rivers as opposing QBs in their division. I've made no secret of my disdain for Matt Cassel.  But now, he is undoubtedly the worst starting QB in the division.

#3 Cleveland selects Trent Richardson.  Another no-brainer.  The Chiefs just took the Browns disgruntled former starting RB and Richardson is the best RB on the list.  They have a QB up and coming in Colt McCoy, so now they have a more dynamic offense instead of allowing linebackers like James Harrison to just key on (and unload on) McCoy.  My question is why did they trade away draft choices to move up one spot in the order?  The Vikings had this pick and already have a franchise RB in Petersen.  They've been looking at Kalil the whole time.  The only reason I'm thinking they made the trade is because they knew Minnesota was going to shop their spot.  If they had traded it to TB, then another team in dire need of a RB would have jumped in front of the Browns for Richardson.

Almost out of the predicted picks.  1, 2, 3 are almost all certain picks and not catching you off guard (Edgerrin James in 1999 notwithstanding).  This year, though, I'll say the first four picks are pretty obvious.  While the Vikings are next and need just about friggin everything but a running back, they've been looking at Kalil a lot.  He's probably the best offensive lineman in the draft.  ESPN says they'll draft a OT.  This makes sense since they were tied with most sacks allowed last year.  They have a decent quarterback when he's not on his back and a stud running back (who is still rehabbing an injury).  They also need a corner (and are in a division with KILLER wide receivers), a safety (see previous aside), and a wide receiver.

#4 Minnesota took Matt Kalil, the OT that ESPN predicted.  SI also predicted Kalil, but said that they should have taken Morris Claiborne.  I would agree with that, but I'm defensive biased and Claiborne is a great college corner who is fun to watch.  He won't have to wait long for a phone call.

Jags have the next pick (seriously these trades up and down are messing up my magazines here).  Note to self, blog about the strategy of trading up and down for draft picks.  There is a strategy here that rivals most complex board games.

Jacksonville has this pick after trading with Tampa Bay.  To move up two slots Jacksonville gave up a 4th and 7th round pick.

#5 Jacksonville took Justin Blackmon out of Oklahoma State.  Can't say I blame them.  They were a one dimensional offense last year behind Maurice Jones-Drew.  Jones-Drew is a beast, but when a defense can ignore your quarterback and put 8 men in the box, your team isn't going to win many games (and they didn't).  I like this pick.  And apparently I agree with Jon Gruden on that.  He's a great WR.

Dallas has traded up to get pick #6.  Seriously, the only draft pick that was in the original order was the Colts at #1.  Every other one has been a swap to move up or down. Dallas gave up a second round pick to move up to the Rams spot at 6 (where they originally traded down from #2).  The Rams have made off like bandits out of this draft.  Which is good because they need pretty much a new team.  The Cowboys are gunning for someone.  It makes me wonder why these teams take so long to announce their picks.

#6 Dallas takes Morris Claiborne.  I'm glad my favorite team isn't in the NFC East now.  The Cowboys have some deadly corners now.  They paid a ransom to Brandon Carr, one of the Chiefs high notes last year, at one corner and just took the best corner in the draft to line up on the other side.  They'll face RGIII twice a year, but they'll also see Vick and Eli Manning twice a year.  Although apparently Claiborne is going to be like another Deion Sanders.  Great at interceptions, but a liability on rush defense and not a great tackler.  He also doesn't really jam receivers at the line.  A strictly cover corner....but a damn fine cover corner.

With all these trades and waiting for the announcements, how do they get the players' names on the right jerseys so quickly?

Tampa Bay on the clock at #7, originally 5.  I'm guessing they're going to take a safety.  Yup, they just took Mark Barron of Alabama.  That's two Tide players drafted in the top ten.  Surprised? Not really, they're the national champs.  Barron is a hybrid, playing safety, but also showing the ability to move up to linebacker.  He also gave LSU fits in the championship game with some lock down defense.

Why didn't Kansas City trade up or down? Maybe they will by the time #11 rolls around.  It might not make sense for the Chiefs to move around since a lot of the players they were looking at aren't predicted to go much earlier than 11.

Miami on the clock at #8, the second pick not to move around.  It is predicted they'll take Tammehill, Texas A&M's QB.  If they do, he'll be the first QB drafted in the first round by Miami since a guy named Marino.  Gregg Easterbrook's latest Tuesday Morning Quarterback was analyzing playoff teams from last season.  He found that almost all of them were led by a first round drafted quarterback.

Miami just took Tannehill  I'm not sure about this.  He was rumored to be looked at by Kansas City, but I wasn't sure then.  He doesn't seem like a top echelon quarterback.  He only played 19 games at QB.  I don't think he has the experience to face the NFL's defensive backs.  Granted, Miami needed a quarterback badly. And Kiper has Tannehill as the third best QB in the draft.  I don't think he is the savior of Miami.  The Dolphins are struggling to draw fans back in and, unlike during Marino's first year, they aren't the only sports franchise in town.  Between then and now the NBA expanded with the Heat and MLB just moved the Marlins to town.  I don't think he's going to start right away and will sit a year.  This is a draft pick that probably should have been traded down.  They probably could have taken Tannehill in the teens or twenties and gotten a bunch of other draft picks for the #8 slot.

Carolina is up.  With Cam Newton (last years #1 overall) they've got some great offense.

Carolina just took Kuechly...Damn, there goes KC's best pick.  He's the first linebacker to be drafted.  He's toted as a throwback to the ideal middle linebacker.  They just compared him to Brian Urlacher.  That's going to really help Carolina's middling defense.  On a good note, only the Bills stand between the Chiefs and the rest of the draft board.  The Chiefs are also looking for a gigantic defense lineman and ESPN's predicted Carolina pick, Quinton Coples, is now still there.  I'm starting to think that the teams take so long to make selections that they're almost surely to make in order to give ESPN time to babble at me.

The Bills just took Stephon Gilmore out of South Carolina.  Another cornerback picked in the draft.  I don't know much about this guy.  He wasn't on anyone's draft board for Buffalo.  Everyone thought they'd need a wide receiver or defensive line.

I do like that Gruden just said that KC is set when everyone is healthy.  I DON'T like that he likes Cassel.  KC just took Dontari Poe, their big beefy nose tackle out of Memphis.

I don't like this pick at #11 of the first round.  Poe is too much of a risk.  If he's good, he's going to be great, but if not, then this is a bust.  There weren't really a lot of other teams looking at him and Kansas City could have followed the pattern of the evening and traded this pick away for a boatload of later rounds.  I think if they were going to keep this pick, they should have gone for one of the offensive linemen still on the board or one of the good linebackers.  Poe probably would have been a better pick with the second round selection.

Those are my thoughts on the first 11 picks (and mostly the Kansas City Chiefs).  It is the end of the semester and I have projects to do otherwise I'd probably keep going with the draft.

Although, I'll be curious for Friday's second round (Rams have 3 picks thanks to first round trades.  Hopefully that pays off).

The Unity of Music and Baseball

Think about music and baseball.  Whether it’s the traditional organ at the ball park or the modern lead up music for the batters, there is always music at the ballpark.  As a fan of the former Page 2 section of ESPN.com and the weird lists that they would put out, I’ve decided to make my own list of great baseball music.  Some of it is music for situations (“Caught Stealin’ by Jane’s Addiction when a catcher guns out a base runner stealing second); some of it is just classic baseball songs (“Centerfield”); some of it is just songs that are associated with players (Ken Griffey, Jr.’s lead up song for his whole career was “Down with OPP” by Naughty by Nature).

Without further ado, my best baseball songs in whatever order I think of them:

1.       Enter Sandman  As I wrote about in an earlier post “Sports’ Spine-Tingling Moments,” when Mariano Rivera comes in to close out the ninth in Yankee Stadium, he runs across the outfield to Metallica’s hit.  As soon as the opening riff starts, the entire stadium goes ape shit.  606 times, he’s gotten the save.  75 times, he’s gotten the W.  I will see Mariano pitch at least one more time (when the Yanks visit Seattle this summer), but it looks doubtful I’ll ever see him come out of the bullpen to Enter Sandman again. (Just added, in Mariano’s Sunday Conversation on ESPN he admitted that if it had been up to him, he never would have chosen this song.  He doesn’t “listen to that type of music.”

2.      Centerfield  When listening to this song and thinking about little league it’s just a great song about wanting to get into the game.  Put me in coach, I’m ready to play, today.  Look at me, I could be, centerfield.  But when you really look at baseball, this is a gutsy request.  Centerfield is the fastest position on the team.  Where the shortstop is the leader of the infield and nothing can happen without the pitcher/catcher battery, the centerfielder has the most area to cover.  Little league might not get as many hits out to the deep field (outside of the serious programs in the Little League World Series every year).  The “kid” who wants to get in and play, especially centerfield, is a gutsy little guy.

3.      Take Me out to the Ball Game  My students in Japan were learning this one.  You can’t CAN’T have a seventh inning stretch without this ode to peanuts and Crackerjack at the ballpark.  For those of you old enough to remember Harry Carey singing it (badly) during Cubbies games, it takes on a whole other legendary status.  The song is simple and fun, and really just silly.  You can stand up and sing it while your team is getting creamed, or you can stand up and sing it while you’re up big.  It is just that great.  Can you possibly stand up and sing it without swaying with total strangers in the same section?  No, no you cannot.

4.      Star-Spangled Banner  There are kids out there who think the last words to the first verse of our national anthem are “play ball!”  The Star-Spangled Banner and baseball are linked in the definition of American.  The poor song has had its ups and downs.  I heard David Hasslehoff sing it in Dodger Stadium.  I heard Rosanne Barr sing it (thankfully on TV so I could mute it).  Good, bad, or ugly, this song is forever linked to MLB ball. 

5.      Down with OPP  Like Enter Sandman, this isn’t a purely baseball song.  This was Ken Griffey, Jr.’s lead up song for his entire career.  With so many players changing with popular music or changing with streaks or slumps, Griffey had this always play.  Now, I might also be a bit biased because every time I hear it, I’m reminded of hanging out in high school with my best friend, Nate.

6.      All the Way  Vedder’s pen to being a Cubbies fan.  Written on the eve of the 100^th year of the Cubs Curse, Vedder captures our hero worship of our favorite players.  The magic of walking into our sacred stadiums.  The hope that the Cubs will one day finally return to glory after a century.

7.      Cheap Seats  Alabama goes to the minor leagues and sings about being a fan in the stands.  There is a celebration of the ballpark experience.  Yelling at the umps, sitting way out in the outfield and not having enough people to do a decent wave…kind of like late season Seattle lately.  Here’s hoping again this season.

Honorable mention: Empire State of Mind, Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio, Talkin’ Baseball, For Boston (Drop Kick Murphys version even though it has been mostly used for BC football), New York, New York (Yankees play Sinatra after a W, Liza Minnelli after an L), Here come the Mets, Say Hey.

Why it’s not on the list: God Bless America.  This song has been crammed into baseball.  In the days after 9/11, we were driven to feel like patriotism had to permeate every damn aspect of American life or “the terrorists win.”  The Yankees, Dodgers, Mariners, and Braves (arguably the four corners of baseball) play it every game; others during major patriotic holidays and post-season games.  This song is not baseball.  It was proposed to replace “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” but has since been coupled with it, rather than one or the other.  To me, this forcing in is akin to the outspoken religious leaders smacking you upside the head with their religious views.  We know that this is America’s pastime; we don’t need to have the American patriotic songs every time we turn around.

In the grand scheme of things, music affects just about everything.  Put the wrong score with a movie and it changes the mood.  Put an awesome score with a movie that sucks and it can at least help carry one aspect.

Hearing certain songs in sports, especially baseball, takes us back to ballpark memories.  We can hear our favorite players’ songs.  The traditional songs also remind us of the kids’ game.  The beauty of watching grown men play this game, the hope at the beginning of every season, and the joy we feel as our team takes the field.  Baseball songs and baseball music helps to immortalize these feelings.

The Debate of Which Sport has the Best Athletes

In a recent family debate (of which I was only party to over text messaging) the Sports Fiancee and the Sports Soon-To-Be-Brother-In-Law got into it on whether the NFL or MLB has better athletes.  Now I get to weigh in from the relative safety of my own blog.  I worry neither about the venom from the SSTBBIL nor do I worry about the Sports Fiancee making me sleep on the Sports Couch.  Depending on how you look at the argument and whether you are a glass half empty or glass half full type of person, they are both right and both wrong.

There are MLB players who are better athletes than some NFL players.  There are some NFL players who are better athletes than some MLB players.  With so much diversity in position, stature, body size, heritage, specialty, and skill sets, there is no way to lump all football players or all baseball players into one category.  There is also no standard of comparison.  You couldn't say, oh, Pujols is not a good athlete because he couldn't pick up a blitz like Marshall Faulk used to.  On the other side of the same coin, you couldn't say oh, Peyton Manning isn't a good athlete because he couldn't hit a split finger fastball.  There have been few notable exceptions in players who actually could do both (Bo Jackson, Deion Sanders).  One would argue that neither of them could tackle well, Bo being a running back and Deion being a skinny corner who relied on not letting his receiver catch the ball instead of tackling him.  Michael Jordan was arguably the greatest NBA player ever.  Was he less of an athlete because he couldn't hit a curve ball in the minor leagues?  I'd say no.

It is all about the different skill sets.  Yes, Michael Vick could throw a football 50 yards from his knees.  Is he more of an athlete than Randy Johnson who could hit 100+ mph with a fastball?  Yes, your fast wide receivers and corners can run ridiculous 40 yard dashes.  Now, time Curtis Granderson or an in-his-prime Ichiro on a dead sprint to first.  Home to first is 127 feet, just over 42 yards.  Does speed make the athlete?  Shaquille O'Neal didn't need speed.  NFL linemen aren't known for blazing foot speed, neither are MLB pitchers.  Does that make them less athletic?  Speed doesn't even translate into success.  Ask the Raiders of the 90s (four of the fastest receivers in the game for most of the decade, no championships).

There is simply no comparison between the different sports.  Baseball players play the longest season with the most games and least between game downtime.  Football players play a more brutally physical game.  Basketball players play the fastest paced game.  Soccer players play the longest timed game without breaks.  Sumo wrestlers have the most dedication.  Rugby players go the longest without a true offseason.  Every sport takes different skills.  Every position within each sport takes different skills.  Within the same sport or even same team, you have different skill sets that can't determine who is the better athlete.  Is Payton Manning less of an athlete because he has less running speed than Demaryius Thomas?  Is Derek Jeter a better athlete than A-Rod because Jeter has more rings?

Every professional American sport has the opposite argument as well.  There are examples strewn throughout the sports world of athletes reporting out of shape.  Charles Barkley once called Oliver Miller "UFO, Unidentified Fat Object." Nowadays, Sir Charles calling anyone fat would be a case of pot and kettle.  Of course, Chuck hasn't stepped foot on a basketball court as a professional since 2000.  Examples can be found off the hardwood: CC Sabathia is huge; pick any offensive lineman from the NFL; Dirk Nowitski of the world champion Dallas Mavericks reported overweight and out of shape in the post-lockout season.

Being able to throw a spiral is the mark of a quarterback.  It's not even the mark of a good quarterback.  I can throw a spiral (a topic that came up in the aforementioned family debate in the form of a $10 bet).  I played defensive line in high school.  Being able to pick off a batter on 1st or 2nd is a good skill for a pitcher. Mtich Williams was good at it.  Unfortunately, he had very little control, earning him the nickname "Wild Thing" before Charlie Sheen's Rick Vaughn character. Williams is most famous for his blown save in giving up the walk-off home run to Joe Carter in game 6 of the 1993 World Series

Football players have to do all the stuff they do and do it in pads.  (Catchers notwithstanding) baseball players don't.  On the other hand, rugby players make fun of football players for wearing pads.  There is no sure fire skill that translates across the different sports t measure who is the most athletic.  The only skill that does translate across the sports is athleticism itself.

The Beauty of Opening Day

MLB's Opening Day has come and gone.

The beauty of a new season is not only new hope, but also a chance to see new faces, and changed teams.  This season, for the first time in memory, the Yankees didn't make a huge acquisition.  They added an outfielder and a starting pitcher who promptly went on the DL.

Everyone is a contender right now.  No one is more than 4 games back with 158 games to go.  The AL East is being led by Baltimore.  The West? Seattle.  There are no overlying controversies to sully the new season (shut up, Ozzie).  Everyone has a shot at the playoffs and the World Series.  Ball parks are still full as people pack stands even during weekday day games (a form of hooky I fully endorse) and night games are enjoyed just as fully with dinner at the park.  I'll probably have to wait until May to get to see any game.  (It'll be the Mariners against whoever happens to be visiting at the time I'm in Seattle).

The newness of the season hasn't allowed us to become bored of the grind, when we stop paying attention to most of the teams in late July or August.  We tune back in if our team is still in the hunt in September or if there is a particularly close pennant race (although, it won't be as much fun this year with the stupid "extra wild" wild card).  But for now, we look forward to seeing the new faces.  We want to hear the crack of the bat again.  We want to smell the hot dogs, popcorn, and beer of a ball park.  With baseball finally here, we are reminded that summer is close.  That summer vacations are coming.  We are reminded of counting down the days and being young again.  Kids of all ages will go to the ball parks.  Kids of all ages will watch the new pitchers.  Kids of all ages will relish in the game during the birth of a new season.

And it doesn't get any better than that.

This Just In, Pat Roberson is an Idiot

So Pat Robertson has decided that the Denver Broncos treated Tim Tebow poorly.  They cast him off when they signed Peyton Manning.  They traded him for cash and fourth- and sixth-round draft picks.  Honestly, the only reason Robertson even cares about this is because of Tebow's over-publicized Christianity.  If this were any other player, let alone quarterback, in any sport, Robertson wouldn't have a clue.  Looking at the deal, the Broncos let Tebow have a say in where he was traded.  He chose the New York Jets.  Most players, when they are traded can usually veto a trade if they don't like it, but don't get to choose where they go.  The Broncos treated their sub-par quarterback better than most other players get treated in any sport.

Robertson also said that it would be fitting if Manning were to get injured.  This from a religious leader.  However, as with most religious leaders, they don't exactly practice any of the real tenets of Christ.  At least Robertson is consistent.

Was it because they traded him to a team that they knew would put him on the bench?  Tebow wouldn't start for any team in the league once Denver got Manning.  He ranked last in completion percentage, the only quarterback with 200 or more attempts to complete less than half of them.  His completion percentage last season was 46.5%.  His QB rating was 72.9, good enough for 28th of the 34 qualifying quarterbacks.  Yay, he went 7-4 in the regular season and 1-1 in the playoffs, which in and of itself is ridiculous.  As for the 7-4 part, let's look at the games: Overtime against an as of yet winless Dolphins team; a win against a .500 Oakland team still orienting a new quarterback; a 7 point win over a Kansas City team that would lose a starting quarterback, lose to a winless Dolphins team, and fire their head coach by seasons end (Tebow would complete 2 passes that whole game); a .500 Jets team, a 4-7 Chargers team; the 2-10 Vikings by 3 points; and the only team in the regular season with a winning record to lose to Tebow, the Cutlerless Chicago Bears, who would also lose to the anemically scoring Chiefs.  All of those victories except the win against Kansas City, the Broncos had to come from behind, scoring in the fourth quarter.  Once teams looked at Tebow and realized that he was just running on them, not so much beating them with any sort of air game (Denver would finish 31st out of 32 teams in passing, but first in rushing), the Broncos were beatable.  Even the quarterback who everyone called for Tebow to replace, Kyle Orton, got revenge when the Chiefs beat Denver in the regular season finale.

The Denver defense, inconsistent as it was, kept the Broncos close enough and stayed energized enough to lock down the fourth quarter.  They'd make big plays after adjustments in the second half.  In games where the Broncos lost, the defense didn't play well.  New England just flat out exploited them.  Detroit moved the ball at will, as did a late-season Buffalo team.  The defense played poorly those games; Tebow played like Tebow in every game.  In some games, the defense had kept them close enough to come back.  They couldn't do that against strong teams like the Lions, Patriots, and, lesser extent, Bills.  The Kansas City defense came alive for new coach Romeo Crennel and locked down on Denver for the entire four quarters.  The key was when Tebow would get out in space, the linebackers would rush him and he'd pass over them.  Once teams realized that Tebow couldn't throw, they'd let him run, get across the line of scrimmage, and then drill him for little or no gain.  Once defenses started playing this way, and loading 7-8 men in the box, but not blitzing, Denver started losing.  Pittsburgh's blitz wacky defense leads to some entertaining plays, but big blitzing also gives up big plays (like an 80 yd touchdown pass to open overtime).

Going back to why Robertson even cares.  Tebow is Super-Christian.  He wears his religion on his sleeve but we can't talk about it if it is negative. Charles P. Pierce does a good job looking at it for Grantland.com. Robertson is another Christian who likes to beat people over the head with his religion.  Where was his outrage when Kurt Warner (a Christian who would tell you if you asked but not flaunt it) was let go by the St. Louis Rams? Or Emmit Smith being traded to the Arizona Cardinals with very little fanfare?  Or Reverend Reggie White going to Green Bay?  Or San Francisco firing Christian coach Mike Singletary?

The only reason that Robertson even cares was because it really was miracles that provided Denver with wins.  Now they have a legitimate shot at real victories over teams with better records that .500.  They don't need miracles to win; they have a quarterback with skill.

As a Chiefs fan, I was really disappointed that Manning chose Denver.  KC now has to play him twice a season and compete with him for the division.  I was kind of rooting for KC's young defense to get in and hit him around Denver's weaker defensive line.  However, I despise Robertson more than I despise the Broncos.  I don't want Manning to get injured.  I'll actually find myself wanting to root for Denver (when they're not playing KC or going for the same playoff spot).  And really, Manning is aging for an NFL quarterback.  Chances are, unless he goes Favre on us, he's only got 3 years, tops left in him. With a surgically repaired neck/spine, combined with his age and weak offensive line, an injury isn't entirely out of the question.  For Robertson to call for one, if it does actually happen, he'll chalk it up to God.  Honestly, the God I worship doesn't work that way, Pat.

So a Sports Guy Walks into an Anthropology Conference...

Wooo, spring break in Pendleton, Oregon.  It didn't suck.  I'm so glad I didn't have any money riding on the Final Four; my brackets look like the poor mangled wrecks that BigFoot used to run over.  Seriously, two number 15 seeds into the round of 32?

Why was I at The Wild Horse Casino for spring break?  Why, for the NorthWest Anthropological Conference of 2012, of course.  The Sports Fiancee is an aspiring anthropologist who contributed research to one of the presentations at the aforementioned NWAC.  I, being an aspiring linguist (among other things) tagged along and went to some of the presentations, especially those on linguistic anthropology.

What the hell does this have to do with sports?  Well, one of the great things about English and anthropology is that we can study/write about just about anything.  I went to a talk on the Bacon Phenomenon.  I also went to a talk about Sportscasters' language in sports.  I found the title interesting and decided that this would be more fun than losing money at the slots or crying in my beer at the sports bar as my brackets were taken out behind the woodshed and put down like a rabid chihuahua.

One of the points of said paper/presentation was to lament the use of language by sportscasters to describe role players in college and professional basketball.  Looking at how much the announcers would talk about the stars on the teams vs. said role players, how much playing time one would get vs. the others, and how the players were talked about.  The presenter used Marxist theory to point out that the sportscasters are using language to keep this lower/working class of basketball player down.

This also piqued my interest.  Are we keeping these "noble savages," to use a phrase now frowned upon in anthropological as well as literary circles, from achieving their full potential by not talking about them as much as the Kobe Bryants, LeBron Jameses, or Derrick Roses of the basketball world?  Are we infringing on their rights as people and basketball players to be treated with dignity and respect?  Are we hindering their eventual earning potential by not highlighting them and giving them as much playing time as the previously mentioned stars?  Are we $^&#ing stupid?!

Do the NBA and NCAA need more reasons for us not to really care about watching?  Yes, there is a discrepancy between your mega stars and bench players.  Commentators talk about the stars more because they play more.  They play more because they are better players.  Go fig, teams that want to win keep their stars in until the game is far enough out of reach that they are no longer needed.  Kobe is averaging 38.8 minutes per game this season, LeBron is averaging 37.6 minutes, and Rose is averaging 35.6.  Note that I didn't really have to use their full names because if you have even a passing knowledge of NBA basketball you know Kobe and LeBron.  A regulation (non-overtime game is 48 minutes).  This means that, not surprisingly, these three players play a bulk of their teams minutes at their position.  Would we want to watch the Lakers with Andrew Goudelock playing at shooting guard?  Do you think he scores as much as Kobe?  Do you even know who the hell he is?  What about Shane Battier, LeBron's back up.  He, at least, is the foil to the "they don't talk about role players" argument.  Battier has been written about quite a bit.  Rose's bad back and toe have led to his replacement, C.J. Watson, having more playing time to a point we've also heard of him beyond passing (if you pay attention to the NBA).

We watch to watch stars.  Arguably, that's the whole reason we have All-Star games.  The NBA suffered a HUGE drop in popularity after Michael Jordan's three retirements.  The championship runs of the San Antonio Spurs led to drops in NBA Finals ratings.  It wasn't because the Spurs were a bad team.  The fact they have multiple championships illustrates quite the opposite.  But they aren't flashy.  Tim Duncan, their star center during the duration is a fundamental player.  He will kill you and he will kill you by the book.  Manu Ginobli and Tony Parker make great plays, but they don't do it with flash.  They don't rock the boat (Kobe, LeBron) they get out and do their jobs.  Like it or not, Kobe, LeBron, Kevin Durrant, Rose, the Chris Paul/Blake Griffin duo are the faces of the NBA.  They are the stars.  They have their own highlights nightly on SportsCenter or YouTube.  And we tune in to watch.

Are we going to watch highlights of Adam Morrison (deep bench warmer who has 2 more rings than you or I do) for the Lakers when he averaged a whopping 7.8 minutes per game in 2010?  Is anyone outside of the Spokane area going to care that Morrison even made it to the NBA?  It isn't some Machiavellian plot to keep Morrison down.  It is because he didn't really play an NBA caliber game.  Announcers talking about an Adam Morrison either don't use his name ("Lakers emptying the bench now") because most fans won't know it anyway or they don't use it because then they'd have to stop and tell you who the hell he is.

One of the complaints the anthropological presentation made was that role players are reduced to their roles.  The particular phrase "the coach is putting in a couple of big bodies" irked the presenter.  He thought that these players were being reduced to their limited role in the defense (maybe offense) to take up space, get rebounds, and hinder close shots.  I have to ask if the speaker would have been offended if the statement was  "the coach is putting in Purdue and Worthington for a couple of big bodies."  Does that make the statement any less offensive because we know the names of the two individuals we've never heard of?  What if the statement was "the coach is putting Shaquille O'Neal and David Robinson, for a couple of big bodies?" Does it make a difference if we know their names when they are Hall-Of-Famers?  We've actually heard of them.  Viewers who had a working knowledge of the NBA at the time would recognize the two.  So why wouldn't it be offensive to call them a couple of big bodies?

Why are announcers going to spend time talking about a guy who's on the bench all but 7 minutes of the game unless he just tripped someone or got a technical for storming the court or some other boneheaded play?  Describing why these players are coming in (couple of big bodies, 3-point specialist, defensive specialist) lets us know what the role is of these players who we've never seen.  Most of the announcers actually do use players names when they are talking about them.  They don't simply say "New Jersey's Center" (I have no idea who he is starter or otherwise, New Jersey isn't nationally broadcast and isn't really a very good team anymore, either) they say (pause to look it up) "Shelden Williams is checking in," or "heading to the bench" or "shooting an ill-advised three."

The speaker also complained about these poor players being pigeonholed into their positions.  Seriously, are we going to have a debate as to why a 7 footer shouldn't play point guard?  Or why Jeremy Lin shouldn't try his hand at power forward?  Sometimes your body actually does define your job. Watching Shaquille O'Neal try to dribble down the court was amusing from the side but terrifying from the view in front.  As evidenced here...note the bench finding it hilarious.  Imagine Shaq bringing the ball down the court in a set play.  If an actual point guard moved up to guard him, Shaq would either have to pick up the dribble and pass or the point guard (some of whom could stand under Shaq's dribble) would easily steal the ball and be off to the races the other way.

Bottom line newsflash:  Players are not equal.  You don't treat a pawn like a queen in chess; you don't treat a role player like a star in basketball; you don't treat a center like a point guard.  All men are not created equal in the sports world.  It is a fact.  It is the way things are.  If all men were equal skillwise, and everyone was equal with Michael Jordan, games would be closer and a hell of a lot more amusing to watch.  Trade rumors would be non-existent because trades would be non-existent.  I'll trade you this player who is perfectly equal to that player wouldn't make sense at all.  Fantasy sports would be boring or equally nonexistent.

The language of basketball announcing reflects this nature.  It isn't some insult or put down to a player if they are referred to as a "big body" or "defense specialist."  It is defining the role of that player on the team.  That player has a job to do within that association. The sportscasters are simply filling in those of us following along at home what that role is.  Some roles are not needed as often as others.  With a slight lead late in games, stars who were liabilities at the free throw line (Shaq) would be on the bench while five free throw shooters were on the floor.  In many cases, teams would go with either five guards or have a small forward mixed in.  Some of these guys wouldn't play all game, but would be in to shoot free throws during the final two minutes of a game.  In this case, the game is on the line with "scrub" players in.  And stars on the bench.  Equal? No.  Part of the sport? Yes.

No Sports in a Sports City

Ah, Seattle.

Home of the 12th man in Football.

Home of the Mariners, where one pitcher has his own section of fans.

Home of MLS's Sounders.

Home of no NBA teams since 2008.

Seattle is one of the towns who has a constant buzz about their teams.  They are the city who cheered so loud during a football game, the nearby university (U of Washington) registered a 3-point earthquake.  This is a city that has Mariners memorabilia everywhere, even during these last few leans years.  There is still Supersonics memorabilia around this city even after being abandoned nearly four years ago.  Sorry, Oklahoma City, I grew up in one of your suburbs (Mustang), but I will never root for your Thunder, the team that used to be the Supersonics.  In a time where so many NBA teams are so mismanaged and so many fans need to dredge care out of Give A Fuck Bay in order to even care about the local NBA team, the NBA pulled out of a city that genuinely cared about their team.

There is a proposal in Seattle to build a new stadium.  SafeCo Field is state of the art and friggin awesome!  QWest, now Century Link (the Clink) are state of the art.  And now the city of Starbucks and Microsoft takes aim at once again getting an NBA team.  Or possibly an NHL team, or, heaven forbid, both.  But Seattle is still classy.  They've been the jilted lovers.  They don't want to take another city's team.  The downside to that is that, after the recent lockout, the operating losses for mid-and small market teams (seriously, if you can't manage to make money in American sports, for the love of God, never breed), and the low attendance for teams, it is highly unlikely that Stern and company are going to be in any shape for expansion.

Right now, the NBA owns one of its own teams (don't get me started on Stern's meddling in the CP3 trade) in the New Orleans Hornets (who packed up and ran out of Charlotte in 2002).  Since New Orleans did just trade CP3 (the fact that they did isn't what gets my hackles up, but that Owner's Monkey Stern blocked the trade because Paul would have gone to a major market, only to trade him to the same major market, just another team) the Hornets have gone way downhill.  Since they won against Linsantiy and the Knicks on Friday, the Hornets are all the way up to 7 victories.  Attendance is down because their best player is now the LA Clippers best player.  New Orleans is riding high on the successes of the Saints, but with no baseball, New Orleans would feel the hurt of going back to being a one sport city. They would also be one of the cities to have two NBA teams leave (the Jazz moved to Utah in 1979 because, you know, when I think Jazz, I think Utah).

Another possibility of a team for Seattle is one that has practically moved out of their stadium and turned off the lights already--the Sacramento Kings.  What could be better for King County than to have the Kings play NBA ball in Seattle.  If Sacramento doesn't build a new stadium, the Kings are gone.  They almost moved to (you guessed it) LA (Anaheim) putting 3, count 'em 3! NBA teams in the LA area!  And Owner's Monkey Stern has already all but signed off on it.  Sacramento hasn't been relevant in the NBA since the Clinton administration.  But they suddenly have a core of young talent (if they can afford to pay them once their rookie contracts are up) to build on.  If the Kings are already gone, then why not go to King County, Washington?  They want a new stadium, Seattle is building it.  They want a new city that is growing despite the economy?  Seattle is still booming away.

My trip to Seattle this month was strangely subdued.  This was my second time into the town when there were no major sports going on.  The first time, I didn't know enough about the pulse of the city to be able to tell.  But this time, after visiting the city during the height of baseball season last June and baseball/football last September, Seattle felt more subdued.  People were excited about seafood and Pike Place, which are normal tourist busy points.  The area was buzzing about a recent visit by Andrew Zimmer and Bizarre Foods on the Travel Channel, which had aired the week before my own trip.  But the stadiums were still.  The Sodo district (where all three current Seattle teams play) was quiet.  There was a Presidents of the United States of America concert, but even that was downtown.  Key Arena was silent. The nearby Space Needle and Experience Music Project being a bigger draw.

There are always things to do in Seattle.  But when the sports are done, there isn't a unity that comes with the support of a team.  There isn't a feeling of citywide celebration, even being there on the weekend before Mardi Gras, that comes with a sports team when they are bringin it.  Seattle is one of the cities that needs, needs needs sports year round.  Right now, there is nothing between January NFL and St. Paddy's day when the Sounders start up again.

Move the Kings, move the Hornets (and for the love of God, rename them), or resurrect the Sonics, but bring the NBA back to Seattle.

And, as always, send Stern packing.

More Karma (?) in Sports...Beware Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc

Bill Belichick has lost another Super Bowl.  That means he is now 3-2 as a head coach in the Big Game.  He is 0-2 since SpyGate.

Gregg Easterbrook who writes Tuesday Morning Quarterback, one of my regular weekly reads during the football season, here, links SpyGate and Belichick's Super Bowl losses to the Football Gods raging against him. They rage because he has never admitted that it was outright cheating, but only a "misinterpretation of the rules."

There is a correlation between the two.  Before SpyGate, Belichick was undefeated in the Super Bowl.  But is it Karma and the Football Gods catching up to him that has put the Patriots at home while another team gets a NFL Championship Parade?  I would suggest several other factors before crediting the Football Gods.

Disclaimer: I actually do believe in Karma.  I invoked the Football Gods during the final rivalry game of U of I and Boise State when BSU was still throwing long bombs despite being up by five touchdowns.  They lost to Nevada two weeks later and also lost any hope of playing in a major bowl game.  It serves them right. But was it an angry Football God that made their kicker miss two easy ones?

On to Belichick.  There are several other reasons why Belichick hasn't won the big one since SpyGate.  Think about it, he was nigh unstoppable before they caught his cameraman...could it be because he HAD A CAMERAMAN ON THE OPPOSING SIDELINES?!?!  And now he doesn't and he isn't unstoppable.

Belichick is a very good coach.  He is intense, knows how to draft (or at least knew), and studies more than just the other team's players, but also coaches' tendencies as well.  He plain outfoxed Fox in the first Denver meeting.  But he hasn't done a lot of innovation lately.  He is the IBM of the NFL (mmm, alphabet soup).  He has stopped innovating.  He throws different defensive looks at teams, but most teams have realized he doesn't have a dominant secondary anymore.  They've realized he's stuck with an aging pass rush, too.  New England's defense was among the worst in the NFL.  But it's offense could carry it...against poor teams.  Of the teams that New England beat in the regular season, only one finished with a winning record.  Teams with decent defenses knew that Brady was going to drop back and pass...and pass...and pass. Name a starting running back for the Patriots...John Jacob Jingleheimer-Schmidt BenJarvis Green-Ellis? 667 yards rushing...sandwiched in the rushing leaders by Cam Newton (706) and Tim "Oh Dear God, Let's Not Keep Talking About Him" Tebow (660).  Green-Ellis, New England's leading rusher was down there among the quarterbacks, running quarterbacks to be fair, but still quarterbacks.  Teams knew what the Patriots were going to do.  The teams that beat them, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, and New York (twice), had defenses good enough to stop Brady.  In the playoffs, the Ravens (who should have beaten the Pats if not for a shanked close field goal) also had a defense good enough to stop Brady.  In the second half of the Super Bowl, the Giants were in nickel almost the entire time.  How do you beat a nickel or dime?  You rush.  This is one case where a quarter rarely beats a nickel.  Coughlin knew Belichick despised the run this year.  He dared him to run.  Belichick didn't/couldn't.

Belichick's former drafting greatness has fallen by the wayside as well.  With the notable exception of Rob Gronkowski in the second round in 2010, he hasn't drafted a star or diamond in the rough in years.  New England had a raft of first round draft picks and has another two in the upcoming draft.  But they haven't been making headlines with their players.  Belichick has even been credited with a few busts in recent years.

Another reason for the lack of trophies in Foxborough for the past 7 years could also be that the NFL is a copycat league.  The wildcat has come and gone.  We are again in a spread offense and running quarterback phase (Cam Newton meet Randall Cunningham).  The NFL caught up to Belichick.  They figure him out.  Drew Brees had more yards passing than Brady did this season, even though both broke Dan Marino's single season record.  In a game of Tecmo Bowl (1991 NES video game, for those of you not familiar) pass wacky offenses could work.  Some teams didn't need running backs.  Run heavy teams could also work.  But that was a video game.  If a team never rushes, they face a secondary that gets coverage sacks, like a few we saw Sunday.  If a team is run heavy, they wind up facing seven or eight men in the box, like New England did to Denver during the regular season and playoffs.  It became obvious that Belichick's innovative offense was pass wacky.  Coughlin is a good enough coach to see that and plan for it.  The Giants have a good enough defense to follow through on those plans.

Yeah, there might be some modicum of karma in sports.  But don't assume for a minute that that was the only reason New York was victorious Sunday.

The Death of an Icon

Joe PA

JoePa is dead.

The winningest Division I college coach and the icon for longevity and loyalty to one institution died of lung cancer this morning/last night.

A pox upon Penn State!  Penn State will now be the new Boston Red Sox pre-2004.  The curse of JoePa will be the new Curse of the Bambino.  The way that PSU let Paterno go, firing him in the aftermath of the breaking of the Sandusky accusations, will insure a pox upon the program.

Columnists (Easterbrook, Reilly) have pointed out the two-facedness of the PSU regents' actions.  Their actions show that they had to know something.  They threw Paterno under the bus but retained the two administrators (long enough that the university paid their legal fees for perjury) that Paterno did report the accusations to, the athletic director and then president of the university.  Paterno cooperated in the investigation, the other two were tried for perjury for lying about their knowledge.  But it was Paterno who was fired, even after announcing that he would retire at the end of the season.

Compare the PSU scandal against the Syracuse scandal.  Syracuse stands by Bernie Fine and hasn't touched Jim Boeheim.  There is damning evidence against Fine, recordings and even his wife knew about his inappropriate relationship with at least one ball boy.  Paterno admitted he knew.  Paterno went through college channels reporting the abuse when then Grad Assistant McCreary told him.  And was fired.  Should he have done more?  Absolutely.  Even he acknowledged that he should have done more.  Everyone should have done more.

Then it came out that he was diagnosed with lung cancer.  Then he broke his pelvis.  With all the media attention, we practically watched the post-football decline of a man who's very nickname carries the nickname of the state where he coached for longer than some people live.  He was at Penn State for 62 years, 46 as a head coach.  How many people even work for 62 years?  Let alone at one place.  JoePa was Penn State.  And they kicked him to the curb.

Do you know those people who are completely defined by their job--by what they do?  Not in a bad way.  Not in the I have to do this above and beyond anything and everything.  But in the "that was what he was put on this earth to do" kind of way.  Think Charles Schultz, the creator of Peanuts.  Defined by Charlie Brown, Schultz died the same day the last new Peanuts strip ran.  In an interview in 2008, a sportswriter asked him about life after football and the possibility of retirement.  JoePa didn't know what he would do.  Think about it.  He had been doing football for 62 years at Penn State.  That doesn't count playing at Brown.  JoePa was football.  Paterno responded to the question that he didn't know what he'd do after football.  He was scared to think about life after football.  As it turns out, there was only 77 days of life after football.  JoePa didn't have to watch a Penn State game that he wasn't coaching after being fired.

After Paterno was fired, Penn State only won one game.  Against a struggling, unranked Ohio State team that would later fire its own coach.  Over the season, Penn State didn't beat a ranked team.  Of course, the only ranked team that faced Paterno's Nittany Lions was Alabama, then ranked #2.  The team was 8-1 when Paterno was fired.  They finished 9-4.  At least two highly ranked high school prospects withdrew commitments to Penn State.

Without JoePa, Penn State will fade into obscurity.  Beyond talking about the Sandusky scandal, Penn State will be irrelevant.  They will not be a highly ranked team.  They will not play in any of the big bowls.  They will not win another national championship.

They owed more to JoePa.  Penn State has an all-time record of 827-360-43.  409 of those 827 wins were JoePa's.  Only 136 of those losses were his.  Only 3 of those ties were his.  He put Penn State on the NCAA Football map.

He deserved more.