The NFL is now well into the third month of a management-imposed lockout, and both sides are waiting on a ruling from the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis to see which side has leverage. Both sides want the dispute settled. The players need their paychecks. They know that they cannot make up the lost wages because a pay raise won't be part of the mix and they know their careers are all day-to-day. The owners want to get the players back on the field before overwhelming negative publicity turns into a long term dip in revenues.
The NFL is the most successful, most profitable, most popular sports league in the world. The owners have had it so good for so long that it appears they have gotten greedy. Consider that in 1995, the LA Rams moved to St. Louis, into a state-of-the art domed stadium. The lease has included an out-clause in which the Rams can terminate the lease if the stadium fails to be considered to be in the top 25% of league stadiums. When the building opened, the stadium fit nicely in the top tier of NFL stadiums.
Took about two years for that to not be the case anymore....
A multitude of publicly financed stadiums have pushed the Edward Jones Dome into the lower tier, arguably the bottom 25% of stadiums in the NFL. One only needs to attend a game at the Ed to realize what a sterile, uninviting atmosphere the facility provides. The new stadiums have incorporated more natural light (or open air), better acoustics, better sound systems, fancier luxury boxes, wider concourses, and better access and egress. Really, there is nothing that can be done to the Ed to put it in the top half of stadiums, much less the top 25%. St. Louis' best course of action for using the dome is to incentivize St. Louis University to start a football team and to book more conventions and trade shows.
The Rams will need to move out of their mausoleum, and they will want jillions of public dollars to pay for it, even though their owner is worth billions and so is the owners wife.....
And there is the crux of the situation....the NFL owners realize that they can virtually no longer bilk public governmental agencies to build the profit-palaces. No longer will tax payers stand for such folly. And they shouldn't stand for such folly. Now if an owner wants to lock in a promise of low ticket prices for the life of the loan, then we can talk.....
Owners are looking forward 20-30 years at how they will be able to generate more and more revenue without public stadium support. The owners who want new stadiums are pitted against the ones who already have them.
And the best they can come up with is to take it out of the pockets of the employees.
Clearly, the objective of any business is to make as much profit as possible. There must be an appropriate level of compensation for the employees to make the formula work. For so long, owners were able to pocket so much money without accounting for the huge capital expense of stadium construction that the compensation formula got out of whack.
This is where we are now with the NFL lockout.
Recently, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell stated that this lockout is for the fans, too. How is that, exactly? No one has asked the fans for our opinion.
Mr. Goodell, since you haven't yet asked me, I will go ahead and give you my input for what the fans might want; things that could very well benefit the NFL long term upon the conclusion of all this labor mess.
First and foremost, Mr. Goodell, the NFL needs to be on the field, with a well-prepared product ON TIME this fall. If the lockout cancels games or delays them, the public backlash will be severe. You can kiss your TV blackout rule goodbye for a long, long time if the work stoppage interferes with the season. College football is incredibly popular in all regions of this country except the media-heavy northeast. Fans will get their football fix from college games, some of which will be switched to Sundays if there is no NFL, from high school ball, and from the UFL. The NFL does not want to northeast to become college football territory and they do not want to give the UFL a toe-hold. Many fringe NFL players will be playing in the UFL just to get a paycheck while the NFL is on hold. That will subtract from the depth of the teams, and will lessen the NFL product. Most fans won't notice the difference, but wait until a couple of DBs get hurt and a coach is trying to play an effective dime coverage....
Next, Mr. Commish, we the fans do NOT want an 18 game regular season. NO. NO. NO. The current season is so physically difficult on our favorite players now that we just cannot, in full conscience, allow you to extend their burden. We like seeing players extend their careers into their early 30s. If you increase the workload in a brutal sport, you shorten those careers and, again, water down the product. An 18 game season is a brutally bad idea.
Along those lines, tell your owners, sir, that we do not want to have to pay for two pre-season games at the full rack rate. That has got to be the number one thing that ticket holders complain about....you don't want to go to two home pre-season games, and you certainly don't want to pay full price for them. Heck, you can't even GIVE those tickets away, much less sell them to recoup some of your investment. I understand the league has gotten used to that money, and I have thought of an alternative plan to help you get good, enthusiastic crowds into stadiums for these games and to expand your league's reach....
Let's have each team give up one pre-season game at home for a neutral site game. This reduces every season ticket holder's investment from 10 games to 9, which will make season tickets easier to sell in every NFL market. Literally, this would bring more people into the conversation for being able to hold season tickets. What you get on the other side is 32 opportunities to sell NFL product (even in pre-season form) to millions of people who live outside of an NFL market.
A city like Orlando could get one game from each of the three Florida teams and sell a mini-ticket plan of their own. The beauty of it is that many college stadiums are bigger than NFL stadiums, so if you can sell out, you have a terrific chance to make money. I believe that if Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts were to play a pre-season game in Knoxville, TN, that you might have a pretty good crowd. How far is Tuscaloosa, Alabama from an NFL stadium? Do people there like football? They draw 92,000 for the spring game there....yeah those folks would show up. San Antonio? Sellout. Los Angeles? Someone will take their teams to play there. Lincoln, Nebraska? Sure....bring the Detroit Lions and Ndamakong Suh to town and we will paint the town red. This set up would give the NFL plenty of chances for international outreach, too.
While we are at it, let's take an idea from baseball and relocate the first five weeks of training camp in pods of activity in the northern part of the United States. Expand the Cheese League idea, and include all 32 teams. The folks in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Idaho, etc. would trip all over themselves for the chance to get 4-6 teams training there. Stuff is always moving south to better weather. This allows teams to go north to train in weather that is more hospitable for hard work. Think about what this would do for tourism? Not that NFL owners care, but the folks living in those areas would surely become bigger fans of the league if the league threw them a bone this way. Heck, you might even get public money to help with this intitiative. The players will favor this as a safety issue, too. Training camp at 75 degrees and low humidity is a lot safer than training camp at 95 with muggy conditions, especially when a guy is busting his ass on every rep to earn a half million dollar a year (or more) job.
Let's go ahead and move the NFL draft around, too. Let the city with the 1st overall pick host the draft. New York is the epicenter of the Universe. I get that. However, the TV cameras are going to work from every city. Radio City Music Hall is nice, but there are great venues to host this event in every NFL city. This would give fans in the hosting city a reason to hold out hope and think about the NFL more. You might even be able to leverage tickets to the draft into season ticket purchases for that downtrodden team. St. Louis had to endure three seasons of 6-42 football, capped off by a dreadful 1-15 season in 2009. Football fans in the Lou would have been quite excited to come to the Scottrade Center with all the bright lights, cameras, celebrities, to see the Rams select Sam Bradford. Such a spectacle would have been a feeding frenzy for the Rams, and great PR for the league.
All of these things to appease fans, and not once did I mention reducing ticket prices.....
If you need a focus group for real NFL football fans, Mr. Goodell, I am available and willing to serve. My number is (904) 629-7222. I will be waiting for your call. Just tell the owners not to cut off their noses to spite their face in the mean time.
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Thoughts on Day One of the MLB Draft
To be a fan of the Major League Baseball First Year Player Draft means that you can derive enjoyment in the process of team building over the long term, and are just not seeking the immediate gratification that comes from the football and basketball drafts. The MLB draft rarely produces players who will play in the major leagues during the season they are drafted.
It's kinda like gardening, where teams sweat and toil to find the right seeds, then work the next phase to properly tend to those seedlings to have them grow to full fruition. Unlike gardening, the baseball development process takes years rather than months. Unlike football and basketball, the players taken in the MLB draft are generally not well known because viewership of college and high school baseball is a lot smaller than viewership for SEC football games or Big East basketball games.
So, that just makes me a rare breed, an individual fan who loves the process of mining for talent.
So, what do we know about this process? Well, we know that every player taken in the first evening, sixty in all, have impressive pedigrees, and arguments can be made as to why each of these players will be successful at the major league level. We also know that some of these players will fail, for one reason or another. Some will fail because they lack the mental toughness to endure and succeed through a brutal initiation in the minor leagues. Others will not stay healthy, falling aside to broken bodies or body parts. Others will just not develop they way their evaluators thought they would.
Of the ones who matriculate to the Show, another round of natural selection will take place, with some becoming stars, others just a guy, some making up to a third of a billion dollars, others never more than your average dentist.....
As the media types gush over every selection, they all seem primed to have a plaque at Cooperstown, and indeed, they all hope to have one.
But here, I will put into posterity my thoughts on some of the selections made tonight:
Gerrit Cole, #1 to the Pirates.....This kid stiffed the Yankees in the first round three years ago. Now he gets to pitch for Pittsburgh. I hope he really enjoyed the college experience at UCLA. He'll get a lot more money now as a #1 overall selection than he would have 3 years ago at the tail end of the round. He does throw 100 miles an hour, but his results weren't as good as his teammate, Trevor Bauer, the #3 selection of the Arizona Diamondbacks. Bauer truly resembles Tim Lincecum, and he better pitch like him, because the Arizona ball park is a launching pad in the tradition of Cape Canaveral.
The #4 and #7 picks were a pair of high school pitchers who hail from the Tulsa area, Dylan Bundy, considered the best high schooler at 4 to Baltimore and Archie Bradley, an Oklahoma football QB recruit, at #7 to Arizona. It was cool to see them watching the draft together and sharing their friendship and development. Both appear to be studs, and they come from a state and metro area which puts a lot of resources into the development of young athletes. A football area like Oklahoma is likely to develop tough minded young players, so I like both of the players' chances to make it and fulfill their promise.
Favorite pick of the night went to the Kansas City Royals picking at #5. They had to pick local high school legend Bubba Starling. Now they have to sign him away from playing QB at Nebraska. To do so they will have to pay the young man a king's ransom because he has enlisted Scott Boras as his advisor. And the Royals HAVE to do this because of something they failed to do when this kid was in kindergarten....draft Albert Pujols from their own back yard. Good thing this kid oozes 5 tool ability, and even better that the current Royals minor league system is loaded with future stars AND the major league team has some good young players, too. The Royals finally have a future worth looking forward to.
The Cardinals fans are already all over the message boards complaining about the pick of Hawaii second baseman Kolten Wong. Initially, I was not impressed by the idea of St. Louis selecting another smallish middle infielder. I have seen enough of those over the years, and having seen the tiny stature of their Midwest League team from Quad Cities a week ago, I was thinking this just satisfies a fetish...
However, it didn't take me long to find enough opinions of this young man to change my mind. The interview with him after his selection showed a level of passion and maturity that I am liking. Former major league General Manager John Hart described Wong as a total winner. His college coach said he was the second best player he has ever coached...to Mark Teixeira. However, it was what he accomplished last summer in New England that impresses me the most.
Wong was the MVP of the prestigious Cape Cod League during the 2010 summer season. The CCL is a long established circuit which draws elite college talent, and routinely produces future stars in the major leagues. Wong, who is from the big island of Hilo, won the MVP over 7,000 miles from home at the age of 18....playing in a league of mostly 20 year olds. That tells me the kid produces key at bats, makes plays in the field, plays smart, and executes winning baseball. If all works out well for the Cardinals, he will likely be on base when Albert Pujols gets his 3,000th hit in about 6 years.
**********
Anthony Weiner....really? Are you kidding me?
Even the Democrats are bailing of his ship. Might wanna cross party lines and call ex-governor Schwartenegger to get a referral for a divorce attorney. At least Arnold has an alternate career he can fall back on.
**********
Someone do Mike Quade a favor and throw him a life jacket. His Cubbies are taking on water, and there is nothing he can do about it. If the Cubs are going to rejoin the National League, they should just stick with Quade through thin and hope he will reward them once the talent level improves.....
**********
Do any of my readers have any suggestions on how to get rid of moles? Darn thing has burrowed on one side of my driveway, and the last few days' oppressive heat have killed the grass which has no roots. I have heard chewing gums works, but how do I know where to put the gum?
It's kinda like gardening, where teams sweat and toil to find the right seeds, then work the next phase to properly tend to those seedlings to have them grow to full fruition. Unlike gardening, the baseball development process takes years rather than months. Unlike football and basketball, the players taken in the MLB draft are generally not well known because viewership of college and high school baseball is a lot smaller than viewership for SEC football games or Big East basketball games.
So, that just makes me a rare breed, an individual fan who loves the process of mining for talent.
So, what do we know about this process? Well, we know that every player taken in the first evening, sixty in all, have impressive pedigrees, and arguments can be made as to why each of these players will be successful at the major league level. We also know that some of these players will fail, for one reason or another. Some will fail because they lack the mental toughness to endure and succeed through a brutal initiation in the minor leagues. Others will not stay healthy, falling aside to broken bodies or body parts. Others will just not develop they way their evaluators thought they would.
Of the ones who matriculate to the Show, another round of natural selection will take place, with some becoming stars, others just a guy, some making up to a third of a billion dollars, others never more than your average dentist.....
As the media types gush over every selection, they all seem primed to have a plaque at Cooperstown, and indeed, they all hope to have one.
But here, I will put into posterity my thoughts on some of the selections made tonight:
Gerrit Cole, #1 to the Pirates.....This kid stiffed the Yankees in the first round three years ago. Now he gets to pitch for Pittsburgh. I hope he really enjoyed the college experience at UCLA. He'll get a lot more money now as a #1 overall selection than he would have 3 years ago at the tail end of the round. He does throw 100 miles an hour, but his results weren't as good as his teammate, Trevor Bauer, the #3 selection of the Arizona Diamondbacks. Bauer truly resembles Tim Lincecum, and he better pitch like him, because the Arizona ball park is a launching pad in the tradition of Cape Canaveral.
The #4 and #7 picks were a pair of high school pitchers who hail from the Tulsa area, Dylan Bundy, considered the best high schooler at 4 to Baltimore and Archie Bradley, an Oklahoma football QB recruit, at #7 to Arizona. It was cool to see them watching the draft together and sharing their friendship and development. Both appear to be studs, and they come from a state and metro area which puts a lot of resources into the development of young athletes. A football area like Oklahoma is likely to develop tough minded young players, so I like both of the players' chances to make it and fulfill their promise.
Favorite pick of the night went to the Kansas City Royals picking at #5. They had to pick local high school legend Bubba Starling. Now they have to sign him away from playing QB at Nebraska. To do so they will have to pay the young man a king's ransom because he has enlisted Scott Boras as his advisor. And the Royals HAVE to do this because of something they failed to do when this kid was in kindergarten....draft Albert Pujols from their own back yard. Good thing this kid oozes 5 tool ability, and even better that the current Royals minor league system is loaded with future stars AND the major league team has some good young players, too. The Royals finally have a future worth looking forward to.
The Cardinals fans are already all over the message boards complaining about the pick of Hawaii second baseman Kolten Wong. Initially, I was not impressed by the idea of St. Louis selecting another smallish middle infielder. I have seen enough of those over the years, and having seen the tiny stature of their Midwest League team from Quad Cities a week ago, I was thinking this just satisfies a fetish...
However, it didn't take me long to find enough opinions of this young man to change my mind. The interview with him after his selection showed a level of passion and maturity that I am liking. Former major league General Manager John Hart described Wong as a total winner. His college coach said he was the second best player he has ever coached...to Mark Teixeira. However, it was what he accomplished last summer in New England that impresses me the most.
Wong was the MVP of the prestigious Cape Cod League during the 2010 summer season. The CCL is a long established circuit which draws elite college talent, and routinely produces future stars in the major leagues. Wong, who is from the big island of Hilo, won the MVP over 7,000 miles from home at the age of 18....playing in a league of mostly 20 year olds. That tells me the kid produces key at bats, makes plays in the field, plays smart, and executes winning baseball. If all works out well for the Cardinals, he will likely be on base when Albert Pujols gets his 3,000th hit in about 6 years.
**********
Anthony Weiner....really? Are you kidding me?
Even the Democrats are bailing of his ship. Might wanna cross party lines and call ex-governor Schwartenegger to get a referral for a divorce attorney. At least Arnold has an alternate career he can fall back on.
**********
Someone do Mike Quade a favor and throw him a life jacket. His Cubbies are taking on water, and there is nothing he can do about it. If the Cubs are going to rejoin the National League, they should just stick with Quade through thin and hope he will reward them once the talent level improves.....
**********
Do any of my readers have any suggestions on how to get rid of moles? Darn thing has burrowed on one side of my driveway, and the last few days' oppressive heat have killed the grass which has no roots. I have heard chewing gums works, but how do I know where to put the gum?
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Albert Pujols still the Cock of the Walk (off)
A glance at the major league transactions for the last week will not find the following: "The St. Louis Cardinals activated Albert Pujols from the inactive list." It just feels that way.
Cards fans have gotten so used to the unprecedented consistent excellence from the 10-year veteran Pujols, that the first baseman's .260 start with average power this season seemed just pitiful. Lest the Cards fans forget, Pujols is playing for a contract in the first time in his professional career, has offered to play third base (and has done so quite well), and, oh yeah, he's actually human.
For all those fans who have been quick to point to a spiral of career decline for Pujols, King Albert provided a powerful rebuttal, reminding all fans that Aubrey Huff's four homers in a series was Pujols-like, not the other way around. In the most dramatic fashion possible, Pujols changed the dynamics of his season in a little under 24 hours, from a dumpster dive type of walk year, to another season in which his name will be mentioned prominently in the Most Valuable Player conversations for the National League. Pujols' back-to-back extra inning walk off homers buoyed a team missing it's top pitcher, Adam Wainwright, it's top paid position player, Matt Holliday, and a team which came into a weekend series with a bullpen on fumes.
All this against the team most favored by conspiracy theorists to earn Albert's services after this year, the Chicago Cubs....what a delicious appetizer Albert provided the Cards fans this weekend. With Holliday on the disabled list another 12 days, with Lance Berkman ailed by a sore wrist, with surprising starting pitcher on the disabled list among others, Albert hoisted the Cards on his ample shoulders and said to the rest of the baseball world that he is still the Mang....
*********
About those Cubs....they no longer feel like America's lovable losers. Even the Northsider's most faithful fans have given up on this team, which, while not unusual for June, is notable because most Cubs fans are particularly discouraged by the level of ineptitude of this ballclub. Cub fans knew that the Cubs were facing a year of rebuilding because of a litany of historically bad contracts asigned by Cubs management to underperforming players such as Alphonso Soriano, Carlos Zambrano, and Kosuke Fukudome. But hope remained eternal because of young shortstop Starlin Castro, the signing of Carlos Pena to play first base, the acquisition of power starting pitcher Matt Garza, and some power arms in the bullpen, augmented by the return of longtime Chicago fan favorite, Kerry Wood. The Cubs may also have a closer with the best pure stuff of any closer in baseball, the electric Carlos Marmol.
But just about everything south of Darwin Barney has gone putrid for these Cubs. Staff ace Ryan Dempster has an ERA approaching six and a half, Fukudome has 6 runs batted in in a third of a season, promising outfielder Tyler Colvin is batting well below .100, Pena and Garza have not played at the championship caliber that they showed in Tampa, and injuries have exposed a lack of organizational depth for the Chicago team. First year manager Mike Quade looks like a beaten man.
And now Carlos Zambrano is showing the always anticipated stress cracks after having his last two starts lost late by Marmol.....
Not much to look forward to, and with the overpriced veterans failing to perform, this team isn't even one that those who bleed Cubbie blue can enjoy watching.
***********
I picked the Miami Heat to win the NBA Finals in 5 games, and while that may still happen, the first 3 games of the series have been so tightly contested to provide terrific entertainment value. If four more games are played like these first three, this will go down as the best Finals in league history, and quite possibly the greatest final series in the history of North American sports championships....especially so given the lack of popularity of Miami's ill-begotten All-Star team.
***********
Speaking of popularity, I know this opine is in the minority, but I so much more enjoy America's Got Talent than American Idol....just something about the variety of talent acts as well as the utter stupidity of some of the acts that make the show so much more fun to watch. That and Howie Mandel has just so much darned charisma....
**********
Back to baseball for just a bit: Why do major league baseball players, as a group, feel so compelled to have to make a fashion statement with some of the worst facial hair ever seen? This year the grill-dos are especially bad. Don't these guys have wives and girl-friends (and grandmothers) who care about appearance? Or do they just put up with it because of the direct deposits on the 1st and the 15th?
**********
Two changes I absolutely love in college sports: baseball toning down the juice within the aluminum bats, creating a more balanced game, and softball creating a more balanced game by moving the pitcher's plate back three feet. No one wants to see NCAA tournament baseball games played to the tune of 20-16 when pitching is worn thin by double elimination play, and no one wants to see scoreless games in the 15th inning of softball games, either. Kudos to the sport administrators. Now about that stupid BCS-thing in football....
Cards fans have gotten so used to the unprecedented consistent excellence from the 10-year veteran Pujols, that the first baseman's .260 start with average power this season seemed just pitiful. Lest the Cards fans forget, Pujols is playing for a contract in the first time in his professional career, has offered to play third base (and has done so quite well), and, oh yeah, he's actually human.
For all those fans who have been quick to point to a spiral of career decline for Pujols, King Albert provided a powerful rebuttal, reminding all fans that Aubrey Huff's four homers in a series was Pujols-like, not the other way around. In the most dramatic fashion possible, Pujols changed the dynamics of his season in a little under 24 hours, from a dumpster dive type of walk year, to another season in which his name will be mentioned prominently in the Most Valuable Player conversations for the National League. Pujols' back-to-back extra inning walk off homers buoyed a team missing it's top pitcher, Adam Wainwright, it's top paid position player, Matt Holliday, and a team which came into a weekend series with a bullpen on fumes.
All this against the team most favored by conspiracy theorists to earn Albert's services after this year, the Chicago Cubs....what a delicious appetizer Albert provided the Cards fans this weekend. With Holliday on the disabled list another 12 days, with Lance Berkman ailed by a sore wrist, with surprising starting pitcher on the disabled list among others, Albert hoisted the Cards on his ample shoulders and said to the rest of the baseball world that he is still the Mang....
*********
About those Cubs....they no longer feel like America's lovable losers. Even the Northsider's most faithful fans have given up on this team, which, while not unusual for June, is notable because most Cubs fans are particularly discouraged by the level of ineptitude of this ballclub. Cub fans knew that the Cubs were facing a year of rebuilding because of a litany of historically bad contracts asigned by Cubs management to underperforming players such as Alphonso Soriano, Carlos Zambrano, and Kosuke Fukudome. But hope remained eternal because of young shortstop Starlin Castro, the signing of Carlos Pena to play first base, the acquisition of power starting pitcher Matt Garza, and some power arms in the bullpen, augmented by the return of longtime Chicago fan favorite, Kerry Wood. The Cubs may also have a closer with the best pure stuff of any closer in baseball, the electric Carlos Marmol.
But just about everything south of Darwin Barney has gone putrid for these Cubs. Staff ace Ryan Dempster has an ERA approaching six and a half, Fukudome has 6 runs batted in in a third of a season, promising outfielder Tyler Colvin is batting well below .100, Pena and Garza have not played at the championship caliber that they showed in Tampa, and injuries have exposed a lack of organizational depth for the Chicago team. First year manager Mike Quade looks like a beaten man.
And now Carlos Zambrano is showing the always anticipated stress cracks after having his last two starts lost late by Marmol.....
Not much to look forward to, and with the overpriced veterans failing to perform, this team isn't even one that those who bleed Cubbie blue can enjoy watching.
***********
I picked the Miami Heat to win the NBA Finals in 5 games, and while that may still happen, the first 3 games of the series have been so tightly contested to provide terrific entertainment value. If four more games are played like these first three, this will go down as the best Finals in league history, and quite possibly the greatest final series in the history of North American sports championships....especially so given the lack of popularity of Miami's ill-begotten All-Star team.
***********
Speaking of popularity, I know this opine is in the minority, but I so much more enjoy America's Got Talent than American Idol....just something about the variety of talent acts as well as the utter stupidity of some of the acts that make the show so much more fun to watch. That and Howie Mandel has just so much darned charisma....
**********
Back to baseball for just a bit: Why do major league baseball players, as a group, feel so compelled to have to make a fashion statement with some of the worst facial hair ever seen? This year the grill-dos are especially bad. Don't these guys have wives and girl-friends (and grandmothers) who care about appearance? Or do they just put up with it because of the direct deposits on the 1st and the 15th?
**********
Two changes I absolutely love in college sports: baseball toning down the juice within the aluminum bats, creating a more balanced game, and softball creating a more balanced game by moving the pitcher's plate back three feet. No one wants to see NCAA tournament baseball games played to the tune of 20-16 when pitching is worn thin by double elimination play, and no one wants to see scoreless games in the 15th inning of softball games, either. Kudos to the sport administrators. Now about that stupid BCS-thing in football....
Friday, June 3, 2011
You can't beat the World Champs with minor league pitching
Let me say this right from the start: Cards fans are spoiled during the Larussa-Duncan years in regards to the pitching. Over the last 16 seasons, only the Atlanta Braves, fortified with 3 Hall of Famers, and maybe the LA Dodgers, can match the overall numbers that Cardinal moundsmen have produced.
Currently, the staff is doing well, despite missing Adam Wainwright, arguably one of the top 5 starting pitchers in the major leagues in the last 3 seasons. In fact, I think many observers would say the Cards are doing better than could be expected, especially considering that long-time Cards ace Chris Carpenter has not been his usual razor-sharp self. Kyle Lohse has rebounded quite well from 1 and 3/4 injury ravaged seasons, Jaime Garcia has continued to show his stuff as an elite LH starter, Kyle McClellan has shifted from the pen to the rotation effectively, and Jake Westbrook has rebounded from a slow start to be very effective the last five weeks.
With Kyle McClellan going down with a sore hip, it is testing organizational depth. The Cardinals have some depth in their minor league system, but not much of it is ready for prime time. That's why the Cards sent Mitchell Boggs down...because they see Boggs as the next-most-major-league-ready starter available. Last night, we saw proof of that.
I got to see Lance Lynn's major league debut, and even though he set down the first ten hitters, I commented to my wife that the Giants (below average offensive club) were hitting the ball exceptionally hard while making those ten outs. This is not a good sign. That being said, sometimes a pitcher can get lucky, and after 3 innings, the Cards lead 3-0....
Then, an errant curve ball skimmed the helmet of Giants third baseman Miguel Tejada with one out in the fourth. Now comes Lynn's first chance to pitch off the stretch in the big leagues. Next batter, Freddy Sanchez, a former NL batting champ, hits a hard two hopper to short, where Ryan Theriot bobbled the ball, allowing only a force out at second. Still, with two outs in the fourth and a runner on first, you have to like where the inning is.
Aubrey Huff, the Giants first baseman who did a marvelous Babe Ruth impersonation then drilled a poorly placed fastball into the right center field bleachers, giving the Giants a 2 run inning. Huff later added a homer off the Cards other rookie pitcher Maikel Cleto, also making his major league debut, before finishing off his trifecta with a homer off lefty Brian Tallet in the ninth.
Lynn gave up a couple of runs in the sixth before being pulled, and the bullpen allowed one of his inherited runners to score, so his line of 5 1/3 innings pitched and 5 earned runs looks pretty bad. Many observers would say it is worse than he pitched. I am not one of those many, however.
Lynn was not fooling anyone, the Giants were centering the ball all night, even when he was recording outs. His stuff was just OK, but he is not a pitcher that is ready to contribute to a division winner. Maybe next year with some refinement....maybe he can be better and it was first-game jitters. Just don't call me impressed.
Back to McClellan's hip injury....this is very concerning, almost to the point of alarming. It was reported this morning that McClellan is going to try to change his mechanics to lessen the load on the plant leg during his pitches. Good gracious that sounds like a recipe for disaster. How about trying to strengthen the leg???
Dave Duncan has been a major league pitching coach of some acclaim for over 30 years. But you can't tell me that trying to change a 4th year major leaguer's basic throwing mechanics IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SEASON is a good idea. To begin with, many pitcher has gone to the scrap heap because a change in mechanics changed the stress on the arm, which lead to arm injury. Secondly, even if he doesn't get hurt doing this, how can we expect his command of four pitches to be as good when he is fundamentally changing his motion...the motion that not only got him to the big leagues, but has sustained him, and made him an above average major leaguer!
KMac is 6-2 at this juncture, but I will predict that he either finishes the season hurt or below .500. that does not bode well for the Cards.
Bottom line is, no major league team should be expected to maintain the excellence the Cards have long established when the staff Ace is out for the season and another starter is banged up. Unless Colby Rasmus begins hitting like he did last night and Albert Pujols starts being Albert Pujols again, the Cards are due for a mid-season swoon.....kinda like what we annually see from the Chicago Cubs. The Cards are 8 games over .500 today. I will gladly take 8 games over .500 at the All-Star break....8 games over keeps you close to the division lead, gives KMac time to heal, gives Berkman and Holliday time to heal, and gives Albert time to find Albert.
**********
Posted pictures of Joplin today on my Facebook page. The thing that is most awe-inspiring is that all that carnage took place in a matter of two or three minutes. Lives, property, and memories destroyed. Working in the mid summer heat of SW Missouri to clean up that mess will be a hell of an experience. However, the destruction is so severe and widespread that the people of Joplin and their hired help will take years to rebuild.
**********
Enjoyed our time in the Tulsa area this weekend. It's a neat town. The area reminds me a lot of the Jacksonville area in Florida how it encompasses such a large geographical footprint. Amazing how they can be in Tornado Alley, yet the high water table doesn't allow most residents to have a basement. That would scare the urine out of me....
Gordie's burgers also made an impression on me. Very good burgers. I understand they are a local treasure. However, we ate at their signature resturant and I must say that they are leaving an amazing amount of money on the table by not effectively branding themselves. How about selling some t-shirts or coozies, and livening up the place??? The owners should take a drive to Lambert's Cafe or to Ted Drewes' Custard in St. Louis. Those joints have made a name for themselves and have cashed in.
Currently, the staff is doing well, despite missing Adam Wainwright, arguably one of the top 5 starting pitchers in the major leagues in the last 3 seasons. In fact, I think many observers would say the Cards are doing better than could be expected, especially considering that long-time Cards ace Chris Carpenter has not been his usual razor-sharp self. Kyle Lohse has rebounded quite well from 1 and 3/4 injury ravaged seasons, Jaime Garcia has continued to show his stuff as an elite LH starter, Kyle McClellan has shifted from the pen to the rotation effectively, and Jake Westbrook has rebounded from a slow start to be very effective the last five weeks.
With Kyle McClellan going down with a sore hip, it is testing organizational depth. The Cardinals have some depth in their minor league system, but not much of it is ready for prime time. That's why the Cards sent Mitchell Boggs down...because they see Boggs as the next-most-major-league-ready starter available. Last night, we saw proof of that.
I got to see Lance Lynn's major league debut, and even though he set down the first ten hitters, I commented to my wife that the Giants (below average offensive club) were hitting the ball exceptionally hard while making those ten outs. This is not a good sign. That being said, sometimes a pitcher can get lucky, and after 3 innings, the Cards lead 3-0....
Then, an errant curve ball skimmed the helmet of Giants third baseman Miguel Tejada with one out in the fourth. Now comes Lynn's first chance to pitch off the stretch in the big leagues. Next batter, Freddy Sanchez, a former NL batting champ, hits a hard two hopper to short, where Ryan Theriot bobbled the ball, allowing only a force out at second. Still, with two outs in the fourth and a runner on first, you have to like where the inning is.
Aubrey Huff, the Giants first baseman who did a marvelous Babe Ruth impersonation then drilled a poorly placed fastball into the right center field bleachers, giving the Giants a 2 run inning. Huff later added a homer off the Cards other rookie pitcher Maikel Cleto, also making his major league debut, before finishing off his trifecta with a homer off lefty Brian Tallet in the ninth.
Lynn gave up a couple of runs in the sixth before being pulled, and the bullpen allowed one of his inherited runners to score, so his line of 5 1/3 innings pitched and 5 earned runs looks pretty bad. Many observers would say it is worse than he pitched. I am not one of those many, however.
Lynn was not fooling anyone, the Giants were centering the ball all night, even when he was recording outs. His stuff was just OK, but he is not a pitcher that is ready to contribute to a division winner. Maybe next year with some refinement....maybe he can be better and it was first-game jitters. Just don't call me impressed.
Back to McClellan's hip injury....this is very concerning, almost to the point of alarming. It was reported this morning that McClellan is going to try to change his mechanics to lessen the load on the plant leg during his pitches. Good gracious that sounds like a recipe for disaster. How about trying to strengthen the leg???
Dave Duncan has been a major league pitching coach of some acclaim for over 30 years. But you can't tell me that trying to change a 4th year major leaguer's basic throwing mechanics IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SEASON is a good idea. To begin with, many pitcher has gone to the scrap heap because a change in mechanics changed the stress on the arm, which lead to arm injury. Secondly, even if he doesn't get hurt doing this, how can we expect his command of four pitches to be as good when he is fundamentally changing his motion...the motion that not only got him to the big leagues, but has sustained him, and made him an above average major leaguer!
KMac is 6-2 at this juncture, but I will predict that he either finishes the season hurt or below .500. that does not bode well for the Cards.
Bottom line is, no major league team should be expected to maintain the excellence the Cards have long established when the staff Ace is out for the season and another starter is banged up. Unless Colby Rasmus begins hitting like he did last night and Albert Pujols starts being Albert Pujols again, the Cards are due for a mid-season swoon.....kinda like what we annually see from the Chicago Cubs. The Cards are 8 games over .500 today. I will gladly take 8 games over .500 at the All-Star break....8 games over keeps you close to the division lead, gives KMac time to heal, gives Berkman and Holliday time to heal, and gives Albert time to find Albert.
**********
Posted pictures of Joplin today on my Facebook page. The thing that is most awe-inspiring is that all that carnage took place in a matter of two or three minutes. Lives, property, and memories destroyed. Working in the mid summer heat of SW Missouri to clean up that mess will be a hell of an experience. However, the destruction is so severe and widespread that the people of Joplin and their hired help will take years to rebuild.
**********
Enjoyed our time in the Tulsa area this weekend. It's a neat town. The area reminds me a lot of the Jacksonville area in Florida how it encompasses such a large geographical footprint. Amazing how they can be in Tornado Alley, yet the high water table doesn't allow most residents to have a basement. That would scare the urine out of me....
Gordie's burgers also made an impression on me. Very good burgers. I understand they are a local treasure. However, we ate at their signature resturant and I must say that they are leaving an amazing amount of money on the table by not effectively branding themselves. How about selling some t-shirts or coozies, and livening up the place??? The owners should take a drive to Lambert's Cafe or to Ted Drewes' Custard in St. Louis. Those joints have made a name for themselves and have cashed in.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Getting caught up after Memorial Day weekend
We had to see Joplin. Just had to see the damage to this small, Southwestern Missouri town....we had seen the damage on TV, and just had to take a look for ourselves as we cruised east bound on I-44, headed back home from a weekend visiting relatives in Oklahoma.
We exited the interstate and started north on the drive through town. The GPS was set to take us to the hospital, the now famous St. John's Regional Medical Center...so we knew that we would see the scene soon. Having seen hours of TV coverage, we knew we would see the familiar frame of the hospital and we would recognize the immediate area. As we headed into town, Joplin looked as normal as any small American city. We drove perhaps a mile and a half into town and didn't see anything out of the ordinary, except for the occasional flag at half mast or a business sign which thanked the volunteers for their help.
We came over a ridge, and that's where the enormity of this catastrophe hit us....There are few things in life that are truly jaw dropping, witnessing the birth of a child, perhaps, but THIS was jaw dropping. This was unbelievable. And to think that all this happened to this town in just a few short minutes. I can try, but words cannot describe what we saw. Miles and miles of complete and utter devastation. We're not talking about a tree down on a roof or some windows blown out....we are talking about a swath of destruction in which every building was completely demolished. Complete devastation. After seeing the site, I am completely flabbergasted that "only" 144 or so people have perished.
What struck Lou Ann and I was that as we looked at the mortally wounded Regional hospital, we realized that this tragedy could have been far worse. You see, the hospital was on the edge of the path of the tornado. Move the hospital even 100 yards to the north, and the entire facility would have been leveled, and many, many more serious casualties would have occurred.
May we all pray for Joplin, for the families there, for the injured and deceased, and may we also pray for the workers there busily cleaning up, attempting to restore what will never, ever be the same.
*********
What now, Ohio State? Jim Tressel is gone and the Bucknuts have got to be hoping that the NCAA shows them some clemency when it comes to punishment time. My guess is it won't work, that the NCAA has seen it's worst nightmare come to life in Columbus and it will stomp HARD on tOSU as a pre-emptive strike to get all the other cheaters to clean up their act. I can't say that I feel sorry for the Scarlet and Grey faithful, because the culture of over-the-top, look the other way, pamper the spoiled athletes culture there that so many fans have fed into is much to blame. If there wasn't someone willing to pay top dollar for game-used jerseys, then they wouldn't be for sale. My guess is that a loss of scholarships will be very close to what USC has gotten and at least a two year bowl ban goes in place....that just helps move my Illini into a much better position to earn a January bowl bid in the next few years....
**********
Question for the Cardinals equipment manager: Just exactly how do you get tire tracks off of Jaime Garcia's jersey? Tony LaRussa threw the young left-hander under the bus during a bad start in Colorado, leaving him in to absorb a brutal beating and over 100 pitches. I sure hope the kid bounces back in his next few starts.
**********
The NBA Finals begin tonight, and I have to cast my lot with the Miami heat. Just too much athleticism and star power. When properly motivated, the Heat are the best in the business. Many folks are negative about the Heat, but I admire LeBron James and Chris Bosh for leaving more money on the table to go to South Beach to WIN. As Herman Edwards once said during his time as the New York Jets' head coach, "You play to win the game." James and Bosh proved it with their contracts....not that they are starving or anything....
Heat in 5. Dirk Nowitzki gets hot and helps Dallas win one game. Other than that, Metroplex sports fans, you still have the good Rangers team and maybe the Cowboys will play this fall.
**********
In closing, I want to say THANK YOU to all the veterans of the US Armed Forces for serving our country and protecting our freedoms. So many have given so much, and I am thankful to them all. God Bless you and God Bless the USA.
We exited the interstate and started north on the drive through town. The GPS was set to take us to the hospital, the now famous St. John's Regional Medical Center...so we knew that we would see the scene soon. Having seen hours of TV coverage, we knew we would see the familiar frame of the hospital and we would recognize the immediate area. As we headed into town, Joplin looked as normal as any small American city. We drove perhaps a mile and a half into town and didn't see anything out of the ordinary, except for the occasional flag at half mast or a business sign which thanked the volunteers for their help.
We came over a ridge, and that's where the enormity of this catastrophe hit us....There are few things in life that are truly jaw dropping, witnessing the birth of a child, perhaps, but THIS was jaw dropping. This was unbelievable. And to think that all this happened to this town in just a few short minutes. I can try, but words cannot describe what we saw. Miles and miles of complete and utter devastation. We're not talking about a tree down on a roof or some windows blown out....we are talking about a swath of destruction in which every building was completely demolished. Complete devastation. After seeing the site, I am completely flabbergasted that "only" 144 or so people have perished.
What struck Lou Ann and I was that as we looked at the mortally wounded Regional hospital, we realized that this tragedy could have been far worse. You see, the hospital was on the edge of the path of the tornado. Move the hospital even 100 yards to the north, and the entire facility would have been leveled, and many, many more serious casualties would have occurred.
May we all pray for Joplin, for the families there, for the injured and deceased, and may we also pray for the workers there busily cleaning up, attempting to restore what will never, ever be the same.
*********
What now, Ohio State? Jim Tressel is gone and the Bucknuts have got to be hoping that the NCAA shows them some clemency when it comes to punishment time. My guess is it won't work, that the NCAA has seen it's worst nightmare come to life in Columbus and it will stomp HARD on tOSU as a pre-emptive strike to get all the other cheaters to clean up their act. I can't say that I feel sorry for the Scarlet and Grey faithful, because the culture of over-the-top, look the other way, pamper the spoiled athletes culture there that so many fans have fed into is much to blame. If there wasn't someone willing to pay top dollar for game-used jerseys, then they wouldn't be for sale. My guess is that a loss of scholarships will be very close to what USC has gotten and at least a two year bowl ban goes in place....that just helps move my Illini into a much better position to earn a January bowl bid in the next few years....
**********
Question for the Cardinals equipment manager: Just exactly how do you get tire tracks off of Jaime Garcia's jersey? Tony LaRussa threw the young left-hander under the bus during a bad start in Colorado, leaving him in to absorb a brutal beating and over 100 pitches. I sure hope the kid bounces back in his next few starts.
**********
The NBA Finals begin tonight, and I have to cast my lot with the Miami heat. Just too much athleticism and star power. When properly motivated, the Heat are the best in the business. Many folks are negative about the Heat, but I admire LeBron James and Chris Bosh for leaving more money on the table to go to South Beach to WIN. As Herman Edwards once said during his time as the New York Jets' head coach, "You play to win the game." James and Bosh proved it with their contracts....not that they are starving or anything....
Heat in 5. Dirk Nowitzki gets hot and helps Dallas win one game. Other than that, Metroplex sports fans, you still have the good Rangers team and maybe the Cowboys will play this fall.
**********
In closing, I want to say THANK YOU to all the veterans of the US Armed Forces for serving our country and protecting our freedoms. So many have given so much, and I am thankful to them all. God Bless you and God Bless the USA.
Friday, May 27, 2011
A look at the Baby Birds and Carlos Martinez
Last night I had a great opportunity to plop down $10, brave unseasonably cool St. Louis temperatures and watch the Quad Cities River Bandits (Low Class A farm club of the Cards) play at Busch Stadium III against Kansas City's team, the Kane County Cougars. With seating being general admission, I got there early and got the best seat available....first row behind the green seats (those were reserved for scouts), situated just in the left hand batters box, so I could get a good view of the pitching. I also had clear view of three radar guns.
Of course, I was there to see Carlos Martinez, the Cards exciting 19 year old Dominican bonus baby, who was making just his fourth United States professional start. Martinez is a lithe athlete, small in stature, maybe 5'11, but only 160 lbs. He has been compared to Pedro Martinez, and I can see why. I do believe when he is 30, he will be bigger than Pedro, however.
The baseball just explodes out of his hand. The kid was throwing "easy cheese" 97 mph regularly, and he touched 99. His ball has great movement, especially when he throws down and in to right handed hitters. That pitch will be fouled off a lot of shins of future big leaguers. His breaking pitch is erratic, but it is a whopper of a curve ball, thrown at 80 miles an hour with a huge hard break. It breaks so much it is hard to control. His change up also remains a work in progress.
The kid is just dripping with potential, but needs to refine his command. He is not just blowing guys away, as Kane County touched hit for seven hits in five innings, but once he is better able to command his off-speed stuff, he will be really special. His mechanics are smooth, but he seemed to overthrow a little bit, and he was cramping up in his left hamstring beginning in the third inning, so the local fans did not see him at his best.
The Quad Cities catcher is Robert Stock, a very high draft choice for the Cards in the 2009 draft. Stock was a collegian, who in his third season, should be beyond this level of minor league ball. Stock was a pitcher/catcher in college with a 95 mph fastball, and therefore, would be compared to Cards reliever Jason Motte. Stock is a polished receiver, and I think he is still catching just to handle Martinez until Martinez moves up to High Class A. Stock came into the game hitting .125, which is about what I would hit in Low Class A at the age of 48...oddly, though, the kid did have two nice at bats last night. Runs very well for a catcher, too. Stock retains the pwerful throwing arm, but takes too much time to release the ball....my guess is that when Matinez moves to Palm Beach in about 5 or 6 more starts, then Stock will take his place on the pitching staff at QC.
Beyond the QC starting battery, there is nothing else worth seeing on the QC team, except for a left-handed pitcher I will discuss in a bit. The QC players across the board were small guys, except for an exceptionally thick bodied, out of shape third baseman. This seems to be consistent with the Cards recent player development system, but I have to question that approach, as little guys just don't grow up to be productive major league hitters very often. I just don't see any player other than Martinez and the relief pitcher ever reaching the big leagues.
The Kane County team, however, looks pretty good and athletic. This just follows what we have been reading about Kansas City's loaded farm system.
OK, back to the little lefty. I actually met Justin Wright's father outside the stadium before the game. He was a proud papa, and told me his son was a little lefty who would pitch that night. The kid came into the 9th inning, down 3-1, and was the best-polished pitcher I saw all evening. He is little, maybe 5'7", but he had good velocity, perhaps 90 mph (I had moved away from the low vantage point by then). He had a perfect 1-2-3 inning, but what struck me was his command. His first four pitches were all strikes and they were all different pitches....he is a strongly built young man, and everything looks the same coming out of his hand. I now have a favorite minor leaguer to follow in the Cards chain, Justin Wright.
**********
Just wrote a check for $2000 to a roofing company to get a new roof after a bad hail storm at the house last month. Interesting how the vultures come out after a storm....and all the companies, except the one I chose, want to do the work for what insurance pays us.....I couldn't even get estimates performed from most companies without them seeing what the insurance check was. I got news for those guys....you are scam artists. Screw you. Once that check is in my bank account, it's nunya business. Lou Ann and I are happy to be getting a new roof and having $2700 left over to do other stuff, too.
Of course, I was there to see Carlos Martinez, the Cards exciting 19 year old Dominican bonus baby, who was making just his fourth United States professional start. Martinez is a lithe athlete, small in stature, maybe 5'11, but only 160 lbs. He has been compared to Pedro Martinez, and I can see why. I do believe when he is 30, he will be bigger than Pedro, however.
The baseball just explodes out of his hand. The kid was throwing "easy cheese" 97 mph regularly, and he touched 99. His ball has great movement, especially when he throws down and in to right handed hitters. That pitch will be fouled off a lot of shins of future big leaguers. His breaking pitch is erratic, but it is a whopper of a curve ball, thrown at 80 miles an hour with a huge hard break. It breaks so much it is hard to control. His change up also remains a work in progress.
The kid is just dripping with potential, but needs to refine his command. He is not just blowing guys away, as Kane County touched hit for seven hits in five innings, but once he is better able to command his off-speed stuff, he will be really special. His mechanics are smooth, but he seemed to overthrow a little bit, and he was cramping up in his left hamstring beginning in the third inning, so the local fans did not see him at his best.
The Quad Cities catcher is Robert Stock, a very high draft choice for the Cards in the 2009 draft. Stock was a collegian, who in his third season, should be beyond this level of minor league ball. Stock was a pitcher/catcher in college with a 95 mph fastball, and therefore, would be compared to Cards reliever Jason Motte. Stock is a polished receiver, and I think he is still catching just to handle Martinez until Martinez moves up to High Class A. Stock came into the game hitting .125, which is about what I would hit in Low Class A at the age of 48...oddly, though, the kid did have two nice at bats last night. Runs very well for a catcher, too. Stock retains the pwerful throwing arm, but takes too much time to release the ball....my guess is that when Matinez moves to Palm Beach in about 5 or 6 more starts, then Stock will take his place on the pitching staff at QC.
Beyond the QC starting battery, there is nothing else worth seeing on the QC team, except for a left-handed pitcher I will discuss in a bit. The QC players across the board were small guys, except for an exceptionally thick bodied, out of shape third baseman. This seems to be consistent with the Cards recent player development system, but I have to question that approach, as little guys just don't grow up to be productive major league hitters very often. I just don't see any player other than Martinez and the relief pitcher ever reaching the big leagues.
The Kane County team, however, looks pretty good and athletic. This just follows what we have been reading about Kansas City's loaded farm system.
OK, back to the little lefty. I actually met Justin Wright's father outside the stadium before the game. He was a proud papa, and told me his son was a little lefty who would pitch that night. The kid came into the 9th inning, down 3-1, and was the best-polished pitcher I saw all evening. He is little, maybe 5'7", but he had good velocity, perhaps 90 mph (I had moved away from the low vantage point by then). He had a perfect 1-2-3 inning, but what struck me was his command. His first four pitches were all strikes and they were all different pitches....he is a strongly built young man, and everything looks the same coming out of his hand. I now have a favorite minor leaguer to follow in the Cards chain, Justin Wright.
**********
Just wrote a check for $2000 to a roofing company to get a new roof after a bad hail storm at the house last month. Interesting how the vultures come out after a storm....and all the companies, except the one I chose, want to do the work for what insurance pays us.....I couldn't even get estimates performed from most companies without them seeing what the insurance check was. I got news for those guys....you are scam artists. Screw you. Once that check is in my bank account, it's nunya business. Lou Ann and I are happy to be getting a new roof and having $2700 left over to do other stuff, too.
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
NBA Labor Situation More Important than NFL
We all recognize the NFL as the most powerful collective sports enterprise on Earth, and the ongoing lockout of the players by the owners is all over the sports news of the day. Everyone has a take on it as the owners try to choke down on the players to grab an extra billion dollar slice of a very big pie. To all football fans, it's a very big deal, and to the interested parties it is really a pressing set of issues to be resolved before we see football again.
However, for the very elemental, long-term success of the NFL, the settlement of this labor dispute peacefully and quickly is not nearly as important as it is the the NBA.
Because the NBA is still playing, and because the NFL is so overwhelming in it's size and media reach, the looming NBA labor unrest is flying under the radar of consciousness for many fans, especially in non-NBA markets. But the labor troubles are on the horizon, and I fully expect a lockout on the pro hardwood, too.
For the NBA, it's not so much about the actual dollars they are spending on payroll, but about competitive balance. The NBA is the favorite league of conspiracy theorists, from the Kareem Abdul Jabbar trade to the Lakers, to the Patrick Ewing draft lottery envelope to the Knicks, to Michael Jordan's first retirement right in the middle of six championships, to LeBron James' migration from Cleveland to Miami....(hey, I would have gone to Miami, too)
The fact of the matter is that for the league to be fully viable and profitable, the NBA needs to come up with a compensation and player's contract rights agreement which allows teams in the secondary markets like Portland, Oklahoma City, Orlando, Cleveland, and Milwaukee to not only retain their talented core players, but to also supplement them with good players so that the fan bases in those cities have a reason to buy tickets, merchandise and to watch the games on TV.
More than any other league, the NBA has featured a few historically good franchises, and the rest basically have no chance. Boston and the Lakers have combined for almost half of the total NBA titles. That's great if you love the Celtics or the Lakers, but not so great if you're a 76er fan, a Grizzlies fan, or a Raptor follower. NBA Commissioner David Stern knows he needs more balance, and there are a whole lot of voting owners who will DEMAND it in the next round of negotiating with the players. Why pump hundreds of millions of dollars into owning a team (a very expensive hobby), when your team has no chance? Devaluing 3/4th of your franchises, ultimately devalues all the franchises. Kind of hard to call NBA owners part of a Bourgeoisie, but most of the teams know they are not part of the league's Aristocracy.
********
And now we digress back to baseball...
The Cardinals have the third best record in the big leagues right now, at 30-20. Really a pretty good number after 50 games, especially with Adam Wainwright gone for the year, with one win from Chris Carpenter, with Albert Pujols' having the worst 1/3 of a season in his career, with several others being injured on the Disabled List, and of course with the second most blown saves in all of baseball.
If the Cardinals had just successfully converted 5 of their nine blown saves, the record would be 35 wins in the first 50 games....imagine, 35-15 looks a whole lot different than 30-20. Right Cubs fans??
However, for the very elemental, long-term success of the NFL, the settlement of this labor dispute peacefully and quickly is not nearly as important as it is the the NBA.
Because the NBA is still playing, and because the NFL is so overwhelming in it's size and media reach, the looming NBA labor unrest is flying under the radar of consciousness for many fans, especially in non-NBA markets. But the labor troubles are on the horizon, and I fully expect a lockout on the pro hardwood, too.
For the NBA, it's not so much about the actual dollars they are spending on payroll, but about competitive balance. The NBA is the favorite league of conspiracy theorists, from the Kareem Abdul Jabbar trade to the Lakers, to the Patrick Ewing draft lottery envelope to the Knicks, to Michael Jordan's first retirement right in the middle of six championships, to LeBron James' migration from Cleveland to Miami....(hey, I would have gone to Miami, too)
The fact of the matter is that for the league to be fully viable and profitable, the NBA needs to come up with a compensation and player's contract rights agreement which allows teams in the secondary markets like Portland, Oklahoma City, Orlando, Cleveland, and Milwaukee to not only retain their talented core players, but to also supplement them with good players so that the fan bases in those cities have a reason to buy tickets, merchandise and to watch the games on TV.
More than any other league, the NBA has featured a few historically good franchises, and the rest basically have no chance. Boston and the Lakers have combined for almost half of the total NBA titles. That's great if you love the Celtics or the Lakers, but not so great if you're a 76er fan, a Grizzlies fan, or a Raptor follower. NBA Commissioner David Stern knows he needs more balance, and there are a whole lot of voting owners who will DEMAND it in the next round of negotiating with the players. Why pump hundreds of millions of dollars into owning a team (a very expensive hobby), when your team has no chance? Devaluing 3/4th of your franchises, ultimately devalues all the franchises. Kind of hard to call NBA owners part of a Bourgeoisie, but most of the teams know they are not part of the league's Aristocracy.
********
And now we digress back to baseball...
The Cardinals have the third best record in the big leagues right now, at 30-20. Really a pretty good number after 50 games, especially with Adam Wainwright gone for the year, with one win from Chris Carpenter, with Albert Pujols' having the worst 1/3 of a season in his career, with several others being injured on the Disabled List, and of course with the second most blown saves in all of baseball.
If the Cardinals had just successfully converted 5 of their nine blown saves, the record would be 35 wins in the first 50 games....imagine, 35-15 looks a whole lot different than 30-20. Right Cubs fans??
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