Sports

Not a Bad Knot Afterall

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

The fake noose story wound up last evening on the fake news channel CNN.   It started in garage no. 4, spread through the NASCAR community faster than cars coming out of turn no. 4, went through an FBI investigation, and crashed on Don Lemon’s show.

And it seems everyone is upset.  Earlier this week in a statement NASCAR said it was “angry and outraged.”  Bubba Wallace said to Lemon last night, “I’m mad because people are trying to test my character and the person that I am and my integrity.”

What started as NASCAR making white people with rednecks unhappy that they can no longer bring their Confederate flags to the races ended with 32 race car drivers symbolically pushing Wallace’s car over the finish line as if it had run out of gas.  People had knots in their stomach over the knot in the garage.  And now the story has run out of gas.

It turns out that the noose was not a noose, but was a garage door pull visible in video as far back as October of 2019.  Or, if you prefer, it was a noose knot tied to serve as a garage door pull.  If there were any Boy Scouts left we’d ask them what it was.  What it wasn’t was a symbol of hate aimed specifically at Bubba Wallace.

So the sport that takes four left turns about 500 times every weekend took a wrong turn trying to take a right turn further to the left.  Got that?  But in today’s woke world it’s better to overreact than to underreact.  You can back away from the narrative later, but you can’t get left behind when they wave the green flag.  Gentlemen, start your narratives!

And, this makes banning the Confederate flag yesterday’s news.  If you tear down a statue today people aren’t as mad about the one you tore down yesterday.  The Movement moves fast, NASCAR fast.

Thank goodness 15 FBI experts investigated immediately.  There must be a joke in here somewhere.  How many FBI investigators should it take to thoroughly examine a garage door pull?  None.  It was 15 too many.  Let the local blue that the “peaceful protesters” want to defund investigate it.   But in today’s world enough is never enough.

NASCAR might be misfiring on a few cylinders with its fanbase.  Or, not.   Time will tell.

And you thought getting back to sports would provide an escape.

Somebody wave the checkered flag and end this nonsense already.

 

 

 

The Glass of Water is Half Full

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

It’s hard to look past Minneapolis this morning.  A terrible act of violence is being compounded by multiple bad decisions by city, state, and federal officials.  But, we will look past it.

The glass of water is half full this AM.  Believe it.  The nation had an outdoor party last weekend and a short work week as well.  It’s time to build on that.

Let’s talk about football.

Many plans have been put in place by both the NCAA and the NFL.  For now, with many fingers crossed, it seems like both will start on time and play before live audiences.

Given where we were a few weeks back, we’d be happy if the stadiums could only be, like the glass of water, half full.

For the Jacksonville Jaguars that would be business as usual.  Don’t laugh Rams fans. You’ve been practicing social distancing ever since your team decided to move back a few seasons ago.  The Chargers stadium has been full (all of 30k capacity) but it’s been with opposing fans. Shame, shame.

That aside, plenty of fun is straight ahead we hope.  We hope.

Can Joe Burrow be a savior in Cincy?  How cool will the stadium nearly on the Vegas strip be?  Tom Brady is the QB in Tampa!  What does NE look like without Tom?  Can KC repeat?  How bout dem Cowboys?  Phillip Rivers leads Indy in a wide open division.

Were the LSU Tigers a one-hit-wonder, or is Coach O building the program to another level?  Who will emerge this year from the pack to surprise?  Florida anyone?  Alabama sat home when the playoffs began.  Nick’s probably pretty mad about that.  THE Ohio St. is recruiting so well you’d almost think they were paying their players.  Does Texas get on the national stage?  Oregon is coming.  USC wants to make some noise too.  Is it still Clemson and their sons in the ACC?  Will Oklahoma actually field a defense?  Is Mississippi big enough for two egos named Mike Leach and Lane Kiffin?

We could go on.  And on.  Instead, we’ll pat ourselves on the back for our season win total winners in the NFL in San Fran(over) and Oakland (over) as well as a winning season in bones wagered, hunch bets, and wins for ABBY in the NCAA Friday column.

Soon enough it will all be here.  It’s under 90 days and counting right now.

We’re going to have a weekly bet column from here till the week one kickoff.  It’ll cover a wide range of propositions, teams, divisions, and cover both college and pro.

If you have a thought to share along the way, or a suggestion for a prop bet, drop us a comment or three.

Otherwise, fire up the smoker.

 

 

Trickle Down Faces Fourth Down

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

In 1980 as newly inaugurated President Ronald Reagan strode into the Oval Office the American economy was a mess.  Interest rates reached double digits, unemployment was nearing the same, and inflation was rampant.

One of his economic team’s solution bets was to dramatically reduce the higher and eliminate the highest federal tax rates on the books.  The phrase “trickle-down economics” was born.  In essence if you incent the rich the poor would benefit was how opponents spun the policy.  Political opponents of the Reagan administration soon seized on this language in an effort to brand the administration as caring only about the wealthy.

The holy Reverend Jessie Jackson actually used his outrage against it, or “Reaganomics” as it also was mockingly called, to rally his minority base and make a run a the Democratic nomination a time or two.

Today, we face severe economic challenges as well.  While interest rates and inflation are quite tame, we have unemployment levels not seen since the Great Depression over 100 years ago.  Our economic challenges are different, varied, and numerous.

And, like it or not, the effect of “trickle-down” economics is in full view all over again.  If a business cannot open, it’s employees can’t work.  If they can’t work, the gas station sells less gas.  And, so on and so on.

One such “so on” is college athletics.  Yesterday, ESPN published a story with some staggering facts about what has happened in the spring of 2020 to the programs, and more importantly what will happen if there was no college football.  In short, the loss would total $4 billion dollars to the Power Five school’s revenue. It would alter, if not eliminate men’s and women’s revenue loss programs and decimate the administrations that manage them.

But one stat caught our attention more so than all of the others.  Of the 52 public (private ones have no legal need to share revenue info) Power 5 schools included in the Syracuse University study, only 3.8% cite football ticket sales as their biggest revenue source 2017-18.  That’s but two teams of the 52!

The fallout, therefore, from game day sales of shirts, parking, booze, concessions is significant.  If you have no games, you have no parking attendants. Unemployment.  Your popcorn vendor can keep the kernels.  Unemployment.  The t-shirt manufacturer can keep the ink dry.  Unemployment.  The beer distributor can keep the hops. Unemployment.

Even if social distancing forces limiting stadiums to half capacity; half of yesterday is 100% more than nothing.

TV revenue is the most important source of income from these events for many colleges.  The TV trucks don’t drive to the location. The production team stays home.  The TV station ad salesman sells no ads.  The ad agency produces fewer ads. Unemployment times four.  You get the picture, but not on your TV.

Trickle-down, like it or not, is our economy.

How many schools’ athletic departments saved for a rainy day?  Just about as many as American businesses both big and small.

Are you hoping and praying that you will actually be able to see live college football this fall?

So are several institutions and industries that live for live football.

They bet on the trickle-down effect yearly for their livelihood.

 

 

 

Rooney Rule Redo

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Timing, they say, is everything.   The NFL wishes the enemy that we cannot see would go away as all of the rest of civilization does.  But, if it had to happen, could it have happened at a better time in a year for the league?

Shortly after the regular season was capped by Pat Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs in early February, the pandemic began.  As pitchers and catchers got going in MLB, and while the NHL and the NBA were in the middle of their regular season everything stopped.  You know how it has played out, or should we say how it has not played out.

The NFL was busy with its offseason as interest in all of its doings year around is a great marketing success story that for the other leagues is but a field of dreams.

The NFL Draft, broadcast from 32 basements without a glitch, was a runaway record breaker for viewership in late April.  The new schedule was turned into a three hour TV reveal. And now, best of all, the league is quite hopeful of being able to start and play that falls schedule on time.  Timing, they still say, is everything.

So, last Friday NFL.com leaked out some info on the league wanting to incentivize teams to hire black head coaches and GM’s. According to the release, several new proposals were under consideration.  Simply stated all involve draft pick position.   If a team hires a black head coach they move up six spots in the third round in the next year’s draft.  Hire a black GM and move up ten more.  Hire a black QB coach and get an extra end of the fourth round compensatory pick.  Keep the GM or the head coach around for three years and move up five spots in the fourth round as well.

The league cites the facts that 1) only 3 of the 32 head coaching positions are filled by blacks, and 2) only one of five openings this year was filled by one, and 3) two recently hired Steve Wilks and Vance Joseph were fired after one and two years respectively.

If any of the measures were adopted it would have been the first addressing hiring in any way since the Rooney Rule was adopted in 2003 whereby owners must interview at least one minority candidate for consideration.  The now-deceased Art Rooney, a very respected and now deceased Pittsburgh Steeler team owner and rules committee leader, is who, why, and how the name of the rule came about.

We wonder what Mr. Rooney would have thought of these proposals.  We wonder what the current Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin thinks of them.  Tony Dungy coached many years in the league, is a very well thought out and even voice, and a studio analyst for NBC Sunday Night Football.  He came out against them.

Tomlin enters his fourteenth year as head coach, has won 64% of his games, a Super Bowl, and has 208 victories in all.

Here are a few thoughts that we wonder about as we wonder what Tomlin thinks, or thought, about it.

Doesn’t each team hire the “best” coach for their team’s needs each time there is an opportunity?  If they don’t, is the league accusing its own owners of being prejudiced?

We are going to strongly assume that Wilks and Joseph “earned” their way in and “earned” their way out.  A bad hire is a bad hire.  Regardless of color, they aren’t the first to be shown the exit door in short order.

Are any of the above-detailed incentives really that much of an incentive?  Dare we say that it’s tokenism?  No one is going to hire someone to move up six spots in round three.  Teams trade draft picks and move around the board like the board game “Chutes and Ladders.”

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said last year that there is no reason why half of his leagues’ coaches shouldn’t be women.  Should the NFL incentivize hiring women, too?  How about Hispanics?   If you’re going to emphasize minorities, why be selective?

Are you reading this saying to yourself “it’s because there are so many black players, you BBR staff writer dumbass?”  If so, what does that have to do with it?  Should the league incentivize teams to draft more white players?  Of course not.   Hiring the best for every employable position on every team from water boy to team president is always a good idea, isn’t it?

We viewed the possible plans as an embarrassment to the league.  It took 17 years to go from the well-intentioned but often criticized Rooney Rule to this.

We are happy to report that yesterday the proposition was widely criticized and voted down by the league owners.   Now the Rooney Rule has been expanded to ensure two minority candidates are interviewed.  Maybe that’s some type of progress.  Or not.  In 17 years maybe it will be expanded to “must interview three.”

How many extra picks should the Steelers get for having Tomlin so successfully coach for fourteen years?  We bet Tomlin would say “none.”

Let the best man win off of the field as they do on the field.

 

 

 

 

2020 NCAA Football. Kickoff or Punt?

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Although it’s never really the offseason anymore, the NCAA football programs usually enter the offseason filled with questions that need answers.  This offseason was no different on the questions part.

Schools are out for summer and plenty of the questions remain.  A few that were answered are subject to change.  That is life in 2020 as the biggest questions still loom and the answers remain unknown.

Will colleges play football in the fall?  Will the NCAA allow it?  Will the virus allow it?

We offer eight questions below and offer more than eight answers.  It’s always good to hedge your football bets.

  1.  Will the NCAA dictate if and when the schools, teams, and conferences can kickoff.  No.  They’ll give generalized recommendations, but NCAA President Mark Emmert already stated that there will be no uniform start date this fall suggested by the for now governing body.
  2. Why did he say that?  He said that because he is smart enough to know that there isn’t one answer across hundreds of schools and fifty states.  He is also smart enough to know that the Power 5 conferences are watching carefully.
  3. Why are the Power 5 conferences watching carefully?  Well, they rule the roost.  If ever there was a time that they might break free of the NCAA and form their own governing body this might be it.  Football is BIG money for the BIG 12, BIG 10, PAC 12, ACC, and SEC.  It supports (with a bit of help from basketball and rarely baseball) all other sports teams, both male and female, that are revenue drains not adds.  Some schools subsidize their academic costs with football generated revenue.  If ever there was a year when revenue is needed, 2020 is it.  If you take the air out of football you’ll take the air out of the entire 2020-21 academic sports calendar year.
  4. So, will college football be played in the fall?  No, yes, and maybe.  “No” is the answer if the enemy spikes in the next four weeks to the point where wisdom and prevailing sentiment dictate otherwise.  “Yes” is the answer as of today for some schools in some states that crave it, depend on it, and have state government support for it.  That’s first and foremost the SEC.  Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and Louisiana are opening back up for business in an aggressive manner v. many other states.  LSU announced its intention to have classes on campus as early as summer session number 2 in July.  “Maybe” is the answer for many schools as of now as they take a wait and see approach.
  5. What if half suit up and half don’t?  Follow the money.  Teams will reschedule opponents to the level they can to fill the fall calendar, and collect TV money to fill the bank accounts.
  6. Would the SEC go it alone and schedule a full slate of all in conference games?  It’s only a guess, but our answer is yes.  Why?  Aren’t you listening?  Follow the money.  If people are watching the NFL Draft, the MMA, and South Korean baseball (yes they are) in record numbers, can you imagine the ratings for SEC slugfests?  America is craving live sports.
  7. Could the season start late?  Sure.  It will have to if summer workouts and especially fall camps cannot start on time.  The risk of injury due to a lack of conditioning is real.  The fallout would be quite negative.  Sure.  The virus might have a thing or two to say about the date as well.  Sure.  The reconfigured schedule possibility could include fewer, and later in the fall games as an option.
  8. Would colleges field teams to play if they don’t have on-campus classes?  This one seems highly doubtful.  The criticism would be fast, furious, and ongoing.  The academic elite crowd already looks down their nose and around their reading glasses at the double standard of academics and big-time sports.  You can’t decide to virtually teach for social distancing safety and actually have sweat, blood, and tears flying on a field, can you?  The optic would be a difficult one to sell.

Take limited fans in the stands for $150 to win $100.

Take major college football being played for $100 to win $125.

Say What?

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

It’s Friday.  Another week of sheltering in place, whatever that means these days, has nearly passed.   It means another week of no sports has nearly passed too.  We miss sports.  We miss sports characters too.  With the help of a valued reader, we dug up some colorful quotes from some colorful sports characters.  A baker’s dozen follow.

1. Chicago Cubs outfielder Andre Dawson on being a role model:
    “I wan’ all dem kids to do what I do, to look up to me. I want all the kids to copulate me.”

2. New Orleans Saint RB George Rogers when asked about the upcoming season:
    “I want to rush for 1,000 or 1,500 yards, whichever comes first..”

3. Torrin Polk, University of Houston receiver, on his coach, John Jenkins:
    “He treats us like men. He let us wear earrings.”

4. Football commentator and former player Joe Theismann:
   “Nobody in football should be called a genius. A genius is a guy like Norman Einstein.” (a follow-up appearance was deemed necessary)

5. Senior, unamed, basketball player at the University of Pittsburgh :
    “I’m going to graduate on time, no matter how long it takes..”

6. Bill Peterson, a Florida State football coach:
    “You guys line up alphabetically by height..” and “You guys pair up in groups of three, and then line up in a circle.”

7. Boxing promoter Dan Duva on Mike Tyson going to prison:
   “Why would anyone expect him to come out smarter? He went to prison for three years, not Princeton ..”

8.  Lou Duva, veteran boxing trainer, on the Spartan training regimen of heavyweight Andrew Golota:
     “He’s a guy who gets up at six o’clock in the morning, regardless of what time it is.”

9. Chuck Nevitt , North Carolina State basketball player, explaining to Coach Jim Valvano why he appeared nervous at practice:
    “My sister’s expecting a baby, and I don’t know if I’m going to be an uncle or an aunt.

10. Frank Layden , Utah Jazz president, on a former player:
   “I asked him, ‘Son, what is it with you? Is it ignorance or apathy?’
   He said, ‘Coach, I don’t know and I don’t care.'”

11. Shelby Metcalf, basketball coach at Texas A&M, recounting what he told a player who received four F’s and one D: (NOW THIS IS FUNNY)
    “Son, looks to me like you’re spending too much time on one subject.”

12. In the words of NC State great Charles Shackelford:
    “I can go to my left or right, I am amphibious.”

13. Former Houston Oilers coach Bum Phillips when asked by Bob Costas why he takes his wife on all the road trips,
   Phillips responded: “Because she’s too ugly to kiss goodbye.”

Goodbye till Monday.

 

 

 

 

It Ain’t Over Till It’s Over

Posted on by thependulumswings staff
It’s Friday and it’s week four, or five, or six of your shelter in place life.   Who’s counting?   Is there light at the end of the tunnel?  Gilead Sciences Corporation thinks so.  Donald Trump thinks so.  He rolled out a general guidelines plan for states to interpret as to how and when they can “return to normal.”
Can sports be far behind?  Maybe.  Big crowds in confined spaces seem like a dream at this point.  But a dream is far better than this nightmare.  With that hope, we give you a few great quotes from sports figures from years gone by below.
Some are fun.  Some are inspirational.  Some are competitive.  Some are saucy.  We need all of them right about now.
Muhammed Ali
“It’s just a job.  Grass grows, birds fly, waves pound the sand.  I beat people up.”
Bobby Knight
“When my time on Earth is gone, and my activities here are past, I want them to bury me upside down, and my critics can kiss my ass.
Paul “Bear” Bryant
“It’s not the will to win that matters-everyone has that.   It’s the will to prepare to win that matters.”
Bobby Jones
“Competitive sports are played mainly on a five and a half-inch court, the space between your ears.”
Yogi Berra
“It ain’t over till it’s over.”

Ten Piece Nuggets-NFL

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

We miss sports.  A week from tonight the NFL gives us a respite from the drudgery as their annual draft begins.  It’ll be different for sure in a virtual sort of way.  If you’ve kept your social distance from the NFL recently we have Ten Piece NFL Nuggets for you.  We are running low on vegetable oil at the virtual world headquarters, so we oven-fried them instead.

  1.  No one has cleaned their house more this offseason than the Carolina Panthers.  Incoming head coach Matt Ruhle, OC Joe Brady, and QB Teddy Bridgewater are a change to the look and culture of the franchise.  BBR expects them to be bold and active in the draft as well.
  2. Yesterday they tore up the old and wrote the new contract for Christian McCaffery.  It’s now an eye-popping 4 years for a total of 64 million Panther bucks.  Joe Brady will get him isolated on a linebacker much the same way he did with Clyde Edwards Hellaire at LSU and how Sean Payton does with Alvin Kamara at New Orleans.  Good luck stopping that.
  3. Last year the Panthers went 5-11 in Ron Rivera’s last year.  It was also Cam Newton’s last year.  In the upside-down NFL they could reverse that W-L record if the ball even gets snapped in 2020.
  4.  Who knew a QB that started 25 games in college, threw 30 TD’s against 17 interceptions would become the greatest QB in NFL history? Bill Belichick, we guess. That was Tom Brady’s resume coming out of Michigan in 1999.   Though even clairvoyant Bill B. would only invest a 6th round pick on him at the time.  What did Mel Kiper think then?  Kiper wrote, “He’s a straight dropback passer who stands tall in the pocket, doesn’t show nervous feet, and does a nice job working through his progressions.”  That was pretty accurate, just like the QB himself.  He had a fifth-round grade on him then.  His complete writeup from 1999 is here.
  5.  The Patriots likely will be looking around the draft for a QB.  Jalen Hurts anyone?  Belichick is great at using the best of what someone has and building around them as opposed to the opposite.  No doubt he has looked around the league and seen what Westbrook, Mahomes, and Jackson have done.  If the shoe fits?
  6.  The annual head faking is going on as teams jockey for position in the draft to get to the QB they may really covet.  Rumors abound and one has Justin Hebert (Oregon) now considered ahead of Tua Tagovailoa.  Doubtful, but you never know.  Miami has more draft pick capital than anyone in the draft and sits at #5.  They could move the board or move around the board if they so chose.
  7. If/when Tua starts for the team that makes him their choice he’ll be the first lefty to do so since 2014.  The last one?  Michael Vick.  Who was he playing for then?  If you guessed the J-E-T-S you’re in midseason form in the offseason.
  8.  Tom Brady’s new address in Tampa makes him an NFC South Division resident as well.   Vegas has the win total for the Bucs season at nine.  If New Orleans is the favorite to win the division again, and if the Panthers are poised to rebound it’ll be a tough division for sure.  Could the Atlanta Falcons be in for a long season?  There are only so many wins to go around when you play everyone twice inside the division.
  9.  The Dirty Birds are but one of seven teams with new uniforms or tweaks of old ones for 2020.  It’s always a good day to obsolete old unis and sell new ones if you are in the apparel biz.  You can see a good bit of the changes or the hints at the yet to be revealed ones here.
  10.  The draft will be very different this year for many reasons.  Scouts haven’t had the pro workout days they covet.  Individual interviews were kiboshed.  Team management will not huddle in the war rooms.  And, most of all, when Roger Goodell gets ready to announce the first pick of the entire draft he won’t be drowned out by the annual booing.  Too bad.

Cincinnati you’re on the clock.

16 innings, 2 pitchers

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

Baseball should be in full swing by now.  As you know, it’s not.  And, it’s might be a while before it is.  So, in its absence, inspired by a Super 70’s Sports tweet, we went digging and found box score gold.

It also took a while to complete a regular-season ballgame on July 2nd, 1963 when the San Francisco Giants hosted the Milwaukee Braves (they moved to Atlanta in 1966) at Candlestick Park.  All told the game lasted 4 hours and 10 minutes.   That’s not crazy long by today’s standards, but it was back then.

What took so long?  It was a 16 inning game.  Why didn’t it take longer?  It didn’t take longer because there were zero pitching changes and likely very few trips to the mound.  Additionally, our guess is that very few batters stepped out of the box for very long either.

Loser Warren Spahn’s record dropped to a still sterling 11-4 when his screwball offering was accepted by Willie Mays in the bottom of the 16th.  Mays hit it over the left field fence for a walk-off 1-0 victory.  It was starter Spahn’s 201st pitch!  It also was his 42nd year on earth!

The winning pitcher was Juan Marichal (13-3).  Marichal threw 227 pitches!  Somewhere right now Tommy John’s left elbow is deep in a bucket of ice.

Fifty-nine times a Brewer stepped to the plate.  Eight got hits, four walked, and one reached on an error.  None scored.

Feared hitters Hank Aaron and Eddie Mathews from Milwaukee and Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Felipe Alou, and Orlando Cepeda from San Fran went a combined 4-31 before Mays ended it.

San Fran manager Alvin Dark called it “the greatest game he ever saw pitched.”

“I said to myself three times, ‘This will be my last inning’,” a weary Juan Marichal said quietly. “Each time I went out there again.”

Who needs relief pitchers anyway?

If you’re a baseball geek, or if you remember getting your baseball news in the next day’s paper, the boxscore is below.

Take a look.  You’ve got plenty of time on your hands these days.

Baseball Almanac Box Scores

Milwaukee Braves 0, San Francisco Giants 1
Milwaukee Braves ab   r   h rbi
Maye lf 6 0 0 0
Bolling 2b 7 0 2 0
Aaron rf 6 0 0 0
Mathews 3b 2 0 0 0
  Menke 3b 5 0 2 0
Larker 1b 5 0 0 0
Jones cf 5 0 1 0
  Dillard ph,cf 1 0 0 0
Crandall c 6 0 2 0
McMillan ss 6 0 0 0
Spahn p 6 0 1 0
Totals 55 0 8 0
San Francisco Giants ab   r   h rbi
Kuenn 3b 7 0 1 0
Mays cf 6 1 1 1
McCovey lf 6 0 1 0
Alou rf 6 0 1 0
Cepeda 1b 6 0 2 0
Bailey c 6 0 1 0
Pagan ss 2 0 0 0
  Davenport ph 1 0 0 0
  Bowman ss 3 0 2 0
Hiller 2b 6 0 0 0
Marichal p 6 0 0 0
Totals 55 1 9 1
Milwaukee 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 – 0 8 1
San Francisco 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 – 1 9 1
  Milwaukee Braves IP H R ER BB SO
Spahn  L (11-4) 15.1 9 1 1 1 2
Totals 15.1 9 1 1 1 2
  San Francisco Giants IP H R ER BB SO
Marichal  W (13-3) 16.0 8 0 0 4 10
Totals 16.0 8 0 0 4 10
  E–Menke (12), Kuenn (5).  2B–Milwaukee Spahn (3,off Marichal), San Francisco Kuenn (6,off Spahn).  HR–San Francisco Mays (15,16th inning off Spahn 0 on, 1 out).  Team LOB–11.  IBB–Mays (2,by Spahn).  Team–9.  SB–Maye (5,2nd base off Marichal/Bailey); Menke (1,2nd base off Marichal/Bailey); Cepeda (2,2nd base off Spahn/Crandall).  CS–Crandall (1,2nd base by Marichal/Bailey).  IBB–Spahn (2,Mays).  U-HP–Ken Burkhart, 1B–Chris Pelekoudas, 2B–Frank Walsh, 3B–Jocko Conlan.  T–4:10.  A–15,921.

baseball almanac flat baseball

The Show

Posted on by thependulumswings staff

For the NBA and the NHL, the regular season quickly became the suspended season.  For MLB, the regular season that was about to start became the delayed season.  For the NFL, the offseason goes on.

The NFL really doesn’t have an offseason though.  One of the greatest marketing machines that the world has ever known, the NFL has turned the offseason into a continuum of events and news stories all perfectly designed to hype it’s players, about to be players, teams, schedule, and league.

The scouting combine is followed by the free agency frenzy.  Individual workouts, mock drafts, more mock drafts, rumors, and then the real draft is next.  Offseason voluntary OTA’s (organized team activities) are numerous and anything but voluntary.  The preseason gives way to the regular season which gives way to the post-season playoffs.  And the grand finale, with two weeks off to build the hype, is the Super Bowl.

The year 2020 is threatening to be different though due to an overtly obvious 500-pound gorilla in the room.  The NFL draft is a three day made for TV extravaganza.  It’s so big that two productions, ESPN and the NFL’s own NFL Channel, cover it.

Yesterday by a 6 yay to 1 nay vote the GM committee that oversees the draft process voted to delay it.  How can we properly conduct individual workouts, administer physicals, and administer psychological exams they wondered?  And, what if teams in “hot spots” cannot conduct the draft from their headquarters?

The NFL office said thanks for the recommendation.  And then they said, the draft will go on April 23-25 as planned.  They already put the planned Vegas draft pick flotilla to the middle of the Bellagio Fountains on dry dock.  It’s being moved to a studio for all to see.

GM’s work for the owners.  Owners like revenue then publicity then GM’s.  Some like publicity then revenue then GM’s.

Will the draft go on as scheduled?  Could it be a bad look for the league to showcase itself in the middle of the global pandemic?  Or, would it be viewed as a very welcome relief from the replay boredom that a sports starved world craves?

It’s a big decision.  It’s why Roger Goodell makes the big bucks.  Actually, he makes the big bucks because the owners pay him so.

WWJJS?  What will Jerry Jones say?

The NFL never takes a knee unless it’s lining up in victory formation.   Ask Colin Kaepernick.

The show must go on!