A couple of weeks ago, there was a flurry of discussion about whether or not Barry Bonds would or would not – and should or should not – put some of his memorabilia in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Fortunately, that noise has died down because, quite frankly, it really doesn’t matter all that much. The baseball Hall of Fame is not part of MLB; it is a separate entity. You can argue that Barry Bonds owes something to MLB if you want to make the point that he ought to “give back to the game”. That’s not a particularly compelling topic, but you can formulate some debate around it. But the Baseball Hall of Fame is not “the game”; it’s a stand-alone corporate entity. If you doubt that, consider the following.
The Baseball Hall of Fame has dozens of articles of Pete Rose’s memorabilia; presumably, he is the one who has donated them to the Hall but perhaps other fans have put some there for display. If the Baseball Hall of Fame were actually run by and/or a part of MLB, do you think they’d “allow” those memorabilia in there?
Barry Bonds can do whatever the hell he wants with whatever memorabilia he has amassed during his life. It is not anyone’s business but his. This topic saw the light of day briefly; it should never come up again.
Similarly, any and all further discussion about whether or not Henry Aaron should be in attendance when Bonds sets the all-time home run record should be off-limits. Henry Aaron is an adult; he can – and will – make that decision for himself when the time comes. He does not owe his presence to any one or to any institution. It is his business and his alone. This topic has seen the light of day for much too long already; stifle it.
Obviously, the MLB decision to push back the dates for the World Series such that the Series could extend into November is driven by FOX’s television money. The network wants to start the Series mid-week to increase ratings by avoiding head-to-head games with football as much as possible. That’s fine – except for the fact that Mother Nature may not cooperate. Once you get into late-October/early-November, the weather in a whole lot of baseball cities can be very “baseball unfriendly”. I’m not going to go all climatological on you here, but recall last year’s World Series between Detroit and St. Louis. Can we think back to those games sufficiently to agree that the weather was cold and miserable? If I remember correctly, the playoffs as a whole had more than a few postponements due to rain and cold – weren’t there three rainouts?
So, the bottom line here is simple. In order to try to goose up ratings a tad at the behest of the guys paying the freight, MLB will probably play World Series Games under conditions that would not be tolerated during the regular season and conditions that are not remotely representative of typical baseball games. As to the comfort and pleasure of the fans who purchase tickets to those World Series games …
Raiders’ WR, Jerry Porter, wanted to change his number from 84 to 81. According to one report, Porter said that 81 made him look slimmer and faster; I have to assume that was an attempt at levity on his part. Whatever. It turns out that he’s not going to make the switch, however, because it would cost him more than 200K to do so. Say what?
Well, according to the marketing agreements that exist among the players and the league and the corporate partners that make official jerseys with names on them, if a player changes his number, he has to make some kind of reimbursement to other parties to compensate for the inventory of jersey’s that will no longer be ”official” and “available for sale”. [Aside: I wonder if the teams have to make such payments every time they change their jersey design. Somehow, I doubt that.] Anyway, there must be a significant inventory out there for Raiders jerseys with the number “84” and the name “Porter” atop the number because he would owe more than $200K for making the switch. Maybe if he had caught more than one pass for all of last season there would be a smaller “unsold inventory”?
File this under the heading, Where Are They Now? In 1999, Akili Smith was the #3 overall pick in the draft. The Browns took Tim Couch first; the Eagles took Donovan McNabb second; the Bengals then took Smith at #3 as a highly athletic quarterback from Oregon. To say he never lived up to his lofty draft status would be the understatement of the year; he stunk in Cincy and then went on to try to catch on with a couple of other teams in the NFL. I recall that Tampa Bay gave him a look and finally released him; I think there were other teams too.
Anyhow, Akili Smith is back in football. He signed on with the Calgary Stampeders in the CFL. According to the Stampeders’ website, he went into camp as the #4 QB on the squad behind Henry Burris, Ryan Cubit and Barrick Nealy. Calgary opens its CFL season on 15 June hosting the Edmonton Eskimos. Akili Smith has nine more days to move up on that depth chart…
According to an AP report today, the Miami Dolphins and the KC Chiefs have finally come to terms on a trade for Trent Green. The report says that the deal is not official yet but it seems as if the only obstacle is that Green has to take a physical in Miami. I believe the negotiations and the posturing surrounding this transaction took more time than it took raise up the Rocky Mountains, but I could be wrong here.
When Dennis Green was fired in Minnesota, someone asked where he’d go next and Green’s response was that you could find him where he always was – on the high road. Well, if Dennis Green is on the high road, he better keep an eye out so that he doesn’t run into Marty Schottenheimer. The Chargers fired Schottenheimer four months ago after a 14-2 season last year and a combined 35-13 record over the last three seasons. And for four months, I’ve not seen a single report of Schottenheimer blasting the organization or the GM or the owner in San Diego. That’s traveling on the high road.
Do a Google Images search for “Olympic London Logo”. Find the one for the 2012 games that looks like a jigsaw puzzle for the numbers 2012. Enlarge it and you’ll get an idea what the London Olympic organizers think is an attractive logo for the games. It’s not. But here’s the kicker. According to Elliot Harris in the Chicago Sun-Times, the organizing committee paid someone $796K to come up with that design. For a lot less money, they could have had the kids at some high school come up with designs that they could pick from. For a prize of $1K they would have to have gotten better designs to choose from. I hope the organizing committee at least got kissed during this process.
Finally, a note from Greg Cote in the Miami Herald:
“True story. Pamela Anderson is dating San Diego Chargers long-snapper David Binn. Please make up your own punch line. Mine might get me fired.”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports…