The news this morning is that Don Mattingly and Larry Bowa will join Joe Torre in the dugout for the Los Angeles Dodgers. In the last ten years, every baseball fan has seen Joe Torre sitting stoically/imperturbably on the bench as tense moments of the game unfolded on the field before him. I think it is important for LA fans who might not be completely familiar with Larry Bowa to realize that if you took the outward emotion shown by Torre and Bowa and mixed it together in a vat and then portioned it equally between the two men, you’d wind up with two “normal” individuals.
Did you know that the National Lacrosse League cancelled its season for this year over an impasse in labor negotiations? If not, let me fill you in on two important background items:
1. Yes, there is a National Lacrosse League. No, this is not a belated April Fool’s prank.
2. No, Gary Bettman is not moonlighting as the commissioner of the National Lacrosse League.
In Arena Football, the Arizona Rattlers didn’t do all that well last season; they finished with a 4-12 record; obviously, they didn’t make it to the playoff rounds in the Arena League. Team ownership is either very confident in their ability to turn things around immediately or they have far more money than brains because the Rattlers have offered this unconditional money-back guarantee to season ticket buyers for 2008:
Team makes the playoffs or a full refund – no strings attached.
As of this morning, the Rattlers are sold out of their three highest priced season ticket packages – ranging from $525 to $740 for eight home games plus a playoff game. Other packages remain on sale ranging from $45 (for a season ticket!) to $455. It will be interesting to see how this plays out…
In the soccer world, the Minnesota Vikings are offering to sell access to luxury suites in the Metrodome for an exhibition game in which David Beckham is scheduled to play. The game is on 11 November and the suites, which seat up to 24 folks, can be had for $2200. I won’t be there to count the number of suites which are actually occupied on that day, but I wouldn’t be in a huge hurry to contact the Vikings if you’re interested. I suspect there will be empty suites on game day.
At a much lower level of the soccer world – in more ways than one – there is a story about a coach of a teenage girls’ soccer team in Windsor, California. According to a report in the San Francisco Chronicle, his team had played a hotly contested match recently; and after the game, he dropped his pants and mooned the opposing team. I tell you; this guy has class. Sadly, it is all second class; but he does have class.
The guy who runs NASCAR, Brian France, is beginning to sound like David Stern. NASCAR’s TV ratings have peaked; last year’s TV ratings were down 10% from the year before; this year they are down another 9%. And when you watch the race highlights – no I won’t even suggest you sit through an entire race as a TV viewing event – you will see plenty of empty seats in the stands for most of races. But the NASCAR honchos are saying that none of this matters because they are selling NASCAR on so many different platforms that they are actually increasing their fan base. That may be so, but how many of those “different” platforms sell advertising for tens of thousands of dollars a minute? Allow me to offer one simple reason why NASCAR interest may have peaked or reached a plateau:
There are a very limited number of ways in which promoters can hype an event which boils down to a bunch of guys driving in circles.
If you watched Football Night in America on Sunday night, you saw them dim the studio lights and turn the NBC logo green to be part of and NBC “programming event” to being attention to the environment. Here’s an e-mail I got at half-time of the Eagles/Cowboys game from an Eagles’ fan who has been reading these rants for about five years prior to their being available on the Internet:
“Why do we have to tolerate the NBC “green movement” ideology pre-game and at half time during this game? I’m watching a football game that is annoying the hell out of me as an Eagles fan because McNabb sucks and Andy Reid can’t coach a game to save his life with all his distractions. After this mess I won’t support anything with the Peacock logo.”
I can certainly understand how Eagles’ fans can be annoyed at the way this season is unfolding. And I can also understand how an educated audience member who reads books without pictures can be annoyed by the “NBC green movement ideology” intruding on their TV watching. Folks, we are past the point where we need to “raise awareness” about environmental problems and/or to “bring attention to them”. We need to find ways to make things better and to implement those ways to make things better after we find them. The time for yakking about all of this is over; now it is time to do something – - or at least shut up about it because all the hot air that is emanating from the pundits and politicos here is adding to global warming.
I have a simple question for the football analysts and writers based on NFL events of the past two weeks. When the Pats spanked the Redskins 52-7, there was an outcry that Bill Belichick ran up the score by throwing the ball when the score was 38-0 and then again when it was 45-0. That controversy consumed almost a week of my attention. Now, will those same people who were so righteously indignant about the Patriots actions two weekends ago please look at the game summary for the Lions/Broncos game this past weekend and explain this to me:
With 8 minutes to play in the game, Shaun Rogers intercepted a Broncos’ pass and returned it for a TD. The score at that point was 37-0.
Jon Kitna stayed in the game. Three minutes later, the Lions scored another TD to make it 44-0.
So, why isn’t this an equally horrid example of “running up the score”?
Oh, and on MNF this week the Steelers were leading by 5 TDs when Ben Roethlisberger had to be helped off the field in the third quarter. He returned to the field for one more series of plays in the fourth quarter. But that isn’t “disrespecting” the opponent and/or “rubbing it in”?
Methinks some of the commentators just don’t like Bill Belichick and are looking for reasons to say bad things about him and the Patriots. That’s their prerogative to be sure; I just wish they’d be a bit more honest about the basis for their venomous spew.
Finally, Greg Cote had this to say in the Miami Herald regarding the Dolphins’ bye week:
“As you know, the Dolphins have a bye this week. Things are looking up for Miami, though. The bye is only favored by 3 ½ points. Also, good news for Dolfans: Parking at Dolphin Stadium, today only, has been reduced to $15.”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports…