Engage. Enrage. Enjoy.

Swing and a Miss

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Joe Biden closed the first night of the Democratic National Convention late Monday evening, or early Tuesday morning on the East Coast.  The Dems didn’t want him to be the starter with all the bright lights and eyes focused on him.  Say it ain’t so, Joe!

It would be even worse if he were a Major League Baseball pitcher.  MLB remembers when starters used to be stars and wants to make them great again.

How do they propose to do that?  They want anyone who starts on the mound to pitch six or more complete innings.

The Man Himself-Tommy John.   Elbow not included.

Why wouldn’t they trial balloon that idea out loud during a season that has seen more pitchers shut down for surgery than ever?  MLB leadership has a fever again.  Don’t catch it.

Tommy John on line two.

You’d think they have as much chance to institute this rule as Joe Biden has of getting reelected right about now.

But it is the MLB.   Remember, the designated hitter rule was adopted by the American League in 1973 and by the National League in 2022.  In other words, it was so good in the AL that it only took 49 years to implement in the NL.

Joe Biden was but a freshman Senator in 1973 at the tender age of 29.  Just half a century later he was President and the NL had its DH.

Keep hope alive.

Ever diligent to prevent injuries or arm fatigue, MLB would of course make a few exceptions to the mandatory six innings.  An injury would be acceptable to take out the starter.  If he reached a hundred or more pitches he could exit too.   Finally, if the starter gave up four or more earned runs he could shower early.

Thoughtful.  It’s thoughtful except a great source tells BBR that the game has changed greatly with GMs green lighting managers to instruct starters to empty their tank early and often and let the next man up pick up the ball. Why force a hundred pitches or six innings?

Should MLB senior management have term limits?  Should US congressmen?  Does a Cub play in Wrigley Field?

Control.  The pitch clock is working so well, ailing arms aside, what next?  Let’s eliminate creativity in getting the other team out.   Tampa Bay pitching backward says hello.

We need stars and we need them now.  Take Kamala for example.  Please take Kamala.

Soon they’ll decide to juice the ball with more elixer than Biden ever got before any speech.  Homeruns will be back in style.

They’ll call it “Ballz over Walz,” or something like that.

Keep pitching.  Like the DNC, someone late into the evening might still be watching.

The six-inning starter idea is a swing and a miss and should not see the light of day.

What’s weird, not like JD Vance weird, is that Joe Biden’s last pitch was almost in the light of day.

 

The Sporting World

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

As the Father’s Day grill heated up poolside so did the action on four TVs.   Four TVs and a pool.   Is that white privilege?  We’re asking for a neighbor.

The WNBA’s Indiana Fever vs. the Chicago Sky occupied one, the USGA US Open a second, the FSU vs. Virginia elimination College World Series game a third, and the former cheaters and now mediocre hometown Houston Astros were hosting the Detroit Tigers on the last one.

Caitlin Clark felt the privilege of being white on the side of her noggin midway through the second half.  Angel Reese, aka the Bayou Barbie, knocked her upside her head on a trip to the bucket and was charged with a flagrant foul.

It wasn’t Clark’s first hard knocks lesson on her rookie journey and it won’t be her last.  The WNBA’s biggest problems were 1)no one watches, and 2) it’s a $50 million a year cash drain on the NBA, never coming close to turning a profit.

Now its biggest problem is people are interested in Clark and the league’s players are interested in keeping her down.  Do blacks and black lesbians sense white privilege from this new straight star?  The political atmosphere of dividing us to conquer might have the answer to that.

Some players said last week that they wanted profit-sharing like their big brothers have in the NBA.  With this increased attendance and viewership, the league is still expected to lose $25 million.

Be careful what you wish for.  “Nothing from nothing leaves nothing,” Billy Preston once sang.

Meanwhile, Bryson DeChambeau, of LIV fame, won the Open over PGA stalwart and player spokesperson Rory McIlroy and his two missed short putts.  The golf world is seriously fractured as very rich LIV golfers make more money playing far less than rich PGA players.  Privilege personified.

It’s so petty in that world that 2023 US Ryder Cup captain Zach Johnson chose his PGA buddy Justin Thomas over a LIVid DeChambeau last fall for the team.  The US was all but eliminated on day one last October.

Thomas was in and remains in the worst slump of his career.  The unconventional DeChambeau’s stock was and is soaring.   DeChambeau finished at -6 yesterday while Thomas missed the cut carding a two-round total of +11.

Meanwhile, the CWS has a bit of NIL and transfers to deal with nearly daily.   Still, its relative innocence, camaraderie, and imperfections make one yearn for simpler times and purer competition.   Watching 30 FSU dudes fly over the dugout railing to congratulate a teammate after a knock is refreshing.   Have a few Jell-o shots and enjoy the Omaha scene.

The once invincible Astros are now very ordinary.  The interest pales in comparison to the above.

Remember when the cheating scandal was front page news while the WNBA wasn’t, LIV wasn’t, and NIL wasn’t?

The sound of that trash can-turned drum is but a distant echo.

Maybe it wasn’t so bad way back when.

 

 

 

2,4,12,14—16?

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Once upon a time, there were a couple of dozen bowl games at year’s end.   Afterward, the “best” NCAA football team of the year was voted on by a bunch of 65-year-old dudes from around the country.

Opinions mattered.

The format changed around the turn of the century.   The BCS computer program determined the final two “best” NCAA football teams to square off for the national championship.

Opinions no longer mattered.

Then man decided that the computer didn’t know diddly squat about football.  An esteemed panel would select the best and final two for the BCS.  Opinions mattered all over again.

Then humankind decided that deciding on two teams was not inclusive enough.  The College Football Playoff system replaced the BCS beginning with the 2014 season. The CFP puts the top four ranked teams in a single-elimination bracket with semifinals being played in bowl games.

Four was better than two.  But, soon enough, controversy enveloped the committee as America felt that the first team left out had a reason to feel left out.

Viola.  As conferences devolved into a ratings war, geography be damned, a proposal came before the NCAA and their esteemed ADs and Presidents to expand to a 12-team format.  This format will start this year, 2024.

But, before we even find fault with the dirty dozen format, we have conscientious objectors yet again.

“How about 14 teams?” someone asked.  “Will that make us more money?” someone followed up.  “Sure!” came the confident reply.

And the confident conference power brokers weaseled in a proposed guarantee addendum.  How about we guarantee three spots for the Big 10 and the SEC, two spots for the Big 12 and the ACC, and one for the highest-ranked non-power five?

What about the PAC 2?  We digress.  What about Notre Dame?  Touchdown Jesus watches over them.  We digress again.

That leaves three at large bids.

So in our never-ending quest to find the best teams, more teams and more money will help us get there.  Or will it?

Follow the money, always follow the money.

What happened to choosing the best based on the on-field performance of the teams, conference affiliation be damned?  And what about those computer programs that are almost 20 years smarter than they were before?

For now Big 10 teams USC and UCLA, or new ACC teams like Cal and Stanford, they’ll have plenty of time to contemplate those questions when they fly coast to coast to try to get into the final 14.

Or, will it be the final 16 by the time they touch down?

 

Take the Money and Run

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Two months ago Gavin Newsom got taken to the woodshed by Ron Desantis in a FOX News Debate.   Even his staunchest supporters would agree.

Two years ago Gavin Newsom and the Cali government took the old-school NCAA student-athlete no pay model to the woodshed.  Even his biggest detractors would agree.

Pay-for-play from coast to coast was on.  You can’t put toothpaste back in the tube.

Speaking of toothpaste, Gavin himself cashed in on the money, inking NIL deals with Pepsodent Toothpaste and even Brylcreem.  But, we digress.

And now the ever and rapidly revolving college sports landscape continues to search for new solutions to opportunities for NIL.  The NCAA significantly loosening the rules on transferring has made shopping for a new school and more dough a coast-to-coast escapade.

These changes affect all sports and all genders (there are only two) at all universities.  Adapt or die.

Nick Saban, perhaps the best college football coach ever, didn’t die.  But he did move on.  Was it time to go, or what does Nick know?

Nick knows control.

But, there is only so much that you can control today.  If a kid wants to change schools the door swings open early and often in the academic year.

If a kid wants more NIL he knocks on the door.  Short on cash?  The player might be short-lived at your favorite alma mater.

Saban walked out of his own door.  Had the game passed him by?  Well, when it comes to Xs and Os, hardly.  But, when it comes to runny noses Saban is no babysitter.

He walked out on the Dolphins years ago after only two years at the helm.  Why? A good guess would be that he couldn’t control his team like he could in college.    The pro players have plenty of leverage.  They have a union, an agent, and more money than the head coach.

So, when old Nick walked he said,” There never is a good time, but I thought maybe this was the right time.”

He hinted at health reasons, then said he and Miss Terry were fine.  He hinted at workload, but he’s a workaholic.

Isn’t it all about control?

He isn’t alone.  The head coach at a major university is a CEO, salesman, recruiter, rubber chicken circuit speaker, and major fundraiser.  And on rare occasions, he coaches.

Head football coach Jeff Hafley is leaving Boston College to become the defensive coordinator of the Green Bay Packers.  LSU DC Matt House left to go back to coaching linebackers in the NFL.  Both want to put their hand in the dirt rather than shake dirty hands.

Dabo Swinney is learning the hard way that if he doesn’t play by the rules of the new game, the new game will play him.

In 2022 over 1400 football players transferred.  In 2023 the number reached closer to 1800.  Will more than 2024 dudes (there are over 1400 in it right now) pull up to a new dorm in 2024?

Gavin might have lost a debate, but there is no debate that he and a few others have dramatically changed the game.

Nick knows.

 

Game On

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Yesterday’s four-hour, OT, very enjoyable Rose Bowl game and the well-into-last evening’s Sugar Bowl thriller gave most NCAA College Football fans what they want and need.  An escape.

But, make no mistake about it.  The toothpaste is out of the tube and, as you know, it’s awfully hard to put it back in.

Conference realignments, opt-outs, transfer portal entries, expanded playoffs soon, TV money, coaching carousels, coaching buyouts, more opt-outs, and maybe most of all NIL money have transformed the game at a dizzying pace.

Three unnamed Athletic Directors in a sit-down round table interview offered some quick takes recently.    One said, “Be careful what you wish for.”    A second followed, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”  The third one uttered, ” The only thing constant in the game is change.  Embrace it.  Adapt to it.  Or, die from not.”

Is it possible that they are all right at the same time?  Is it probable?

Is the third one ahead of the others?  Yes.

It’s likely the new normal will be like a fine wine- an acquired taste.

Unlimited transfers through the portal are the college’s equivalent to free agency.  There’s one big difference though.

In the pros, you sign a binding contract for a specified period of years.  You give, you get.   In college you only get.  And, if the grass(read as money) looks greener at the next U, you go get it.

There’s nothing wrong with capitalism, it just reminds us that there never has been and will never be an “I” in “team.”  The reasons for that truism have multiplied.

So who’s on your team next year?  There is no static answer to that question.  It’s who’s on your team at this minute to buckle up a chin strap.  Tomorrow is a ways off, we’ll have to see.  It makes games like Army v Navy even more appealing to purists.

So, who wins?  When it comes to money, seemingly everyone does.  TV charges more to advertisers.  Then it doles out more money for big conference alignments.  Schools make more that are a part of the mega conferences.  Coaches make more.  And, with NIL the kids now get a legal bag, too.

But who consistently wins on the field?  Perhaps it will be the programs that offer the best chance at future development and convince the kids and their entourage that a long-term plan beats a short-term dash for cash.  A bunch of good 21-year-olds usually beat a bunch of good 18-year-olds.

Recruiting great players is still the path to success, but now the above-the-table cash has to be there as well.

Maybe the NCAA will strengthen the transfer rules a bit too.  How?  That’s the difficult part.  Lawsuits will challenge any restrictions from where we are today.

it’s doubtful that TV ratings will suffer.  It’s doubtful that in-person attendance will either.

But.

Fans are the one who pays for all of this(NIL indirectly as well) by watching at home or in person.

Doesn’t it feel like everyone involved wins, but the fan loses?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beep Beep

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Happy birthday to our nation’s leader, President (in name only?) Joe Biden.   Old Joe from Scranton is 81 today.  He’s done the people’s business for a long time.

He’s also told us that he’s taught college classes, was arrested for advocating on behalf of Black people, conducted an Amtrak train, and driven an 18-wheeler.

Heck, he even said he played football at the University of Delaware.  Was he considered for the Heisman Trophy?  Probably not.  That would have raised some hubbub.

And speaking of the Heisman Trophy and hubbub, this year’s race to the Downtown Athletic Club is as hotly contested as next year’s presidential election will likely be.

Despite Oregon quarterback Bo Nix playing lights out on Saturday, there’s a new player in his rearview mirror when it comes to winning the Heisman Trophy.

LSU QB Jayden Daniels (nicknamed JD5) made a nice move up the oddsboard Saturday night, passing up Washington QB Michael Penix Jr.  Daniels is now the new co-favorite with Nix to win college football’s most prestigious award.

Most of the wanna-be’s have fallen well off of the pace.  Thankfully, after Marvin Harrison Jr’s Saturday three-catch 30-yard performance his run seems halted.  The media tried awfully hard to pimp a really good wide receiver with pretty good stats and thought his name would help the narrative.

Harrison could go nuts in The Game, aka Michigan hosting his Ohio State squad this weekend and try to jump back in the conversation.  It’s doubtful.

Penix will get one more game than Nix and Daniels to showcase his talent in the PAC 12 Championship on 12/2.  Votes are due back on 12/4.

Nix transferred two years ago from the SEC to the PAC 12 Oregon team.  Daniels transferred two years ago from the PAC 12 to the SEC LSU team.

If statistics are the final factor, Daniels has a big advantage over Nix.  Daniels’s rushing yards added to his passing yards making his total combined yards well ahead of Nix and against a tougher schedule.   If the West Coast narrative is the final factor, Nix is playing in a beleaguered league in its last year before the PAC12, which really has 14 teams, becomes the PAC 2.

Oregon has lost once.  LSU has lost three times.  Why does that matter if you’re giving it to the best individual player?

JD5 is smoother than freshly woven Italian silk.  He runs like the cartoon character Road Runner.  He makes the chasing defense look like Wile E Coyote.  No one catches him.  Beep Beep, or is it meep meep?

His touchdown to interception ratio is a spectacular 9:1 with 36 TDs to 4 picks in 303 throws.

Old, mostly white, and mostly crotchety men of the press corp, about 850 in all, vote from coast to coast.

May the best man win fair and square like Joe Biden mostly did in November of 2020.

For this writer, it better be JD5 to avoid another J6.

Just kidding.  Sort of.

 

The Last Shot

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Novak Djokovic battled past Daniil Medvedev 6-3 7-6(5) 6-3 and into the tennis history books on Sunday, winning the U.S. Open and his record 24th major championship victory.

But the numbers don’t tell the entire story.  In fact, they tell very little of it.

When the last shot of Medvedev fell short, Djokovic fell to the ground in pure joy and reflection.

Also, when the last shot fell to the ground, the ESPN announcing duo of Fowler and McEnroe had to do their duty for a sponsor and pick the “Moderna Shot of the Day.”  They chose the last shot of the day.

The irony.

You see Djokovic was not allowed to participate in the last two US Opens, because he did not get a shot or two, or three from Moderna, nor Pfizer, nor J&J for that matter.  For him, the Open was closed.  His last shot will also be his first.

He looks fairly healthy without the jab don’t you think?  But, but, but he could spread it.

Progressive Disney owns progressive ESPN-at least for now.  It telecasts the progressive US Open.

The Open has signs everywhere boasting “50 years with equal pay.”  It’s nice work if you can make the same money playing at most three sets when the men play up to five.

It’s even nicer when the audience for the women’s finals is usually about 1/2 of the men’s.  It used to be called capitalism.

The women’s final was played on Saturday.  Coco Gauff beat Aryna Sabalenka.

Also, the country’s national anthem isn’t played there.  They only play a mixture of America the Beautiful and Lift Every Voice and Sing.

And there he stood accepting the trophy at Center Court without a mask nor a 6-foot social distance perimeter in sight.  That’s surprising because the last two weeks we’ve been told by the CDC and NIH experts that a new strain of the coronavirus is coming at us like a Djokovic ace.

It’s called Corona 24.b.a.firefauci.nbc.whocares.+ 2.#juststopit.enoughalready, or something close to that we heard.

The stiff in the suit who presented the trophy to the champ said, “Welcome back to New York Mr Djokovic, we’ve missed you.”

When Djokovic is pronounced the D is silent.  So it’s “joke o vic.”

Last night the joke was on them.

And, the smile was on Novak’s face.

 

 

Ugly Americans

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

The Megan Rapinoe penalty kick that went terribly awry hadn’t yet landed in row twelve Sunday, sending the USWNT home way earlier than expected from World Cup 2023, when Twitter and other mediums fired up the disgust, disdain, and downright hate.

America loves a winner that also loves America.  America empathizes with a loser that also loves America.  America hates a loser that also hates America.

Ms. Rapinoe(we aren’t sure that she would approve of the MS) became the lightning rod in the middle of the storm that this team created.  They managed to skip/kneel/ and act disinterested during the National Anthem one too many times for one too many American.

Their gripes were plentiful and aimed at a country that gave them opportunities a plentiful.  Social injustices were just the start.  Equal pay became the cry.  And, mint dyed hair herself said that her greatest accomplishment over the last eight years with this team was “equal pay.”  Interesting answer.

People’s want for equal pay in America is tempered by doing an equal job in the capitalist arena.  When far fewer folks watch the tv pays far less to teams because advertisers and sponsors get charged less.  Usually.

Don’t believe it?  Ask any WNBA player.

And, the last straw was her overtly expressed desire for trans women to be allowed to play soccer, and for that matter all sports, with the biological kind.  American sentiment runs strongly the other way.

The kick and the team’s shortfall have now been labeled “the woke choke.”

Megan Rapinoe is on a very short list of the most controversial sports personalities of the 21st century.  She’s got a lot to say on a lot of topics.  America prefers to keep sports as an escape from the daily discourse that is far too rampant.

Some, predictably and as is their right, dribbled in her defense.

Pablo Torre, Spanish soccer player for La Liga club Girona tweeted, “Nothing says AMERICA FIRST more than rooting against *checks notes* the literal U.S national team because they *checks notes* peacefully exercised freedom of speech.”

Someone needs to tell Pablo that freedom of speech in the USA works both ways. If you don’t like red, white, and blue, red, white, and blue might not like you either.  If he would have received a Presidential Medal of Freedom as Rapinoe did, he would know that.

The penalty for missing a penalty kick is that you get sent home.  The penalty for missing a penalty kick when you have repeatedly trash-talked your home is far greater.

Rapinoe’s world stage just collapsed and not a moment too soon.

That is unless Joe Biden invites them to the White House to celebrate their 16th-place finish.

 

On Your Mark, Get Set, Go

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

In 1972 the US government passed legislation known as Title IX abolishing discriminatory differential treatment based on sex in federally funded high school and college education.

It opened, “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”

By 1979 this ruling started to creep and then roar into college sports participation.  By the mid-1980s over 400 men’s sports programs were eliminated, an unintended but direct result in order to achieve compliance.

The “why” is simple.  Women’s sports on campus are money drains.  In fact, most sports programs are.  If you add new money drains you have to reduce existing money drains.

Colleges make a lot of money each fall on men’s football, some do on men’s basketball, a scant few do on men’s baseball, and then they hold on for dear life as the other programs drain the positive cash flow to zero.

Men’s scholarships went to women’s scholarships.  Equality has a price.

Now men are going into women’s sports.  Fifty years after Title IX gender identification has a price.

At its January 19, 2022 meeting, the NCAA Board of Governors updated the transgender student-athlete participation policy governing college sports.

The resulting sport-by-sport approach preserves the opportunity for transgender student-athletes while balancing fairness, inclusion, and safety for all who compete.

How do you balance fairness?  You don’t.  Males that choose to wear a women’s bathing suit swim faster than females.  Fact.  Period.  End of story.

Participation is scant as of now.  But, like the southern border, once you announce an open door people walk/run in.

What isn’t shocking is that women transitioning haven’t attempted to enter male sports.  We all know why.  It’s the opposite sentence of the swimsuit one above.

What is shocking is the relative silence of the feminist community, women’s rights groups, etc.  What it took forever to balance is now being undone.

Why oh why aren’t more biological females coming to rescue themselves from the want to be women?  A few speak out, but fear in today’s society about not being politically correct (some call it woke) outweighs calling a male a male.

Cancel culture is the great equalizer.  It’s stronger than all of the Title IX words combined.

The aforementioned updated participation policy has three phases.  Each phase lowers the bar for participation.

And, unfortunately, this will phase out the real competition and marginalize that which many have rightfully fought so hard to get.

Some people that shouldn’t now get to participate and win.

Others actually don’t want participation ribbons and no longer have a chance at winning.

 

If You Think Bigger They Will Come

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

“If you build it, they will come!”  That is the way the actual line, “If you build it, he will come!” uttered by Kevin Costner to his character in the movie Field of Dreams is often misquoted.

But, we think “they will come” is apropos for Major League Baseball.  They’ve done a nice job turning an otherwise ho-hum mid-August evening into a spectacle. Fan attendance is sold out strong and the TV ratings, unknown at this point, will likely point to success in year two of this showcase.

It feels very baseball, hot dogs, apple pie, and Chevrolet.  America needs way more red and white feelings to go along with the blue ones.  Thanks, MLB.

But, could you do so much more with the Field of Dreams?

How?  We’re glad you asked.

Did you know that an investment group bought the field (now two fields) and the surrounding acreage for $7 mil last year?  They plan on turning some of it into a training facility for youth baseball and girls’ softball.

That’s nice, but not groundbreaking when breaking the ground for that purpose.  And, the construction will scratch any MLB games there in 2023.

Maybe MLB should offer them $14 million and take ownership of it and even more land that surrounds it?  $21 million?  Why not?

How about playing the All Star Game there once?  Twice?  All-star games in the NFL (Pro Bowl), NBA, and MLB are stale.  Take the lead.

If you keep it as is, how about dumping the Geico and all other real and virtual ads in the stadium?

Sure, money talks.  But so does the sacred non-commercial look that the original field in the movie had.  Take us back to our past, please.

Augusta National limits ads to roughly 4 minutes an hour on The Masters broadcast.   And you won’t see a billboard/ad of any type on the hallowed grounds.

How about playing seven games in seven days with fourteen different teams?  Turn it into a bucket list item.  Make it a vacation destination for baseball purists in late summer.   A hotel off in the distance owned by MLB, maybe?  Augusta has bought any and all land adjacent to its property.  Big plans will be realized soon.

Sure scarcity creates demand.  But demand also creates demand.

It’s a venue and a mindset that is unique to America’s National Pastime.   And, it’s past time that they got out in front of the other sports marketing-wise just once.

Doesn’t everyone yearn for one more game of catch with their dad?

Build it and he and they will come.