The Sports Curmudgeon

John Sterling died yesterday at the age of 87.  He was the iconic radio voice of the NY Yankees for 36 seasons and at one point in his career, he broadcast 5060 regular season games plus 211 playoff games in a row without missing a single one.  His voice and his calls were known all over the baseball world.  It would seem appropriate to observe here that:

• ThePearllllllllyGaaates swung open yesterday.  The PearlllllyGaaates …

Rest in peace, John Sterling.

A news item from a couple of weeks ago demonstrates one of the downsides of NIL money in college athletics.  With payments needed to maintain competitiveness in the revenue sports, colleges cannot spend those same dollars twice to fund non-revenue sports.  That reality is the Economics equivalent of the Law of Conservation of Matter that everyone studied in their eighth-grade science classes.  And that reality caused the University of Arkansas to eliminate its men’s and women’s tennis teams.

Reports based on press releases by the University said that the two tennis teams spent $2.5M in 2024/2025 and created revenue of $3,284.  Even if the cynic in you believes that those numbers have been stretched to justify the decision, I would suggest that the tennis team generated red ink not black ink for the school last year.  If I had to guess, I would think that the $2.5M cost was largely due to travel expenses for the team and given the minimal revenue generated, I wonder why the school even bothered to issue and sell tickets to its tennis matches.

Do not misunderstand here; I am not arguing for the elimination of NIL money in college athletics; I support that concept.  What is important to recognize at the same time is that making fundamental changes in the way college athletics had been run for decades will cause ripple effects throughout the structure and many of those ripple effects were not quantifiable at the outset.  I will not be surprised to see other non-revenue sports suffer economic fatalities at major universities that need to remain economically competitive in the large revenue sports.

As an example, consider Mississippi State; as of this morning, the athletics website shows only 6 men’s sports at the school – – baseball, basketball, football, golf, tennis and track and field.  There are eight women’s sports because Title IX requires “equality” between men’s and women’s athletics and none of the women’s teams comes close to the roster size of the football team.

When the announcement of the dissolution of the two tennis teams came, there was the obligatory rhetoric from the AD at Arkansas about how painful the decision was:

“After considerable reflection and thoughtful discussion, we have made the very difficult decision to discontinue our men’s and women’s tennis programs.  We understand the disappointment and emotion this news will bring to many. The landscape of college athletics continues to evolve, requiring us to make challenging choices as we balance competitive opportunities, resources and the long-term sustainability of our department. Ultimately, we concluded that we are unable to provide the level of support necessary for our tennis programs to consistently compete in the SEC and nationally at the standard our student-athletes, coaches, alumni and supporters deserve. We appreciate the efforts of Coach Udwadia and Coach Clary, along with all of our current and former student-athletes.”

All I can say is that if the programs only generated about $3K in revenue, he “disappointment and emotion” that this news will bring is not to very many folks at all.

Moving on …  The MLB news of the day is that Tigers’ pitcher, Tarik Skubal will go on the IL and undergo a “procedure” to remove “loose bodies” from his elbow.  The expectation is that he could be back in the Tigers’ rotation by mid-July.  This is not a trivial matter; Skubal has won the AL Cy Young Award in each of the two previous seasons.  Right now, the Tigers are in the midst of a tight race in the AL Central; they will need to hold on by their fingernails and hope that Skubal returns to the lineup and to his previous performance level ASAP.

On the assumption that Skubal’s absence for about 10 weeks makes him a longshot to win the Cy Young Award for a third straight year, there is an interesting possibility here.  Jacob deGrom (Texas Rangers) has two Cy Young Awards in the NL.  He is coming off Tommy John surgery and will turn 38 years old in mid-June.  However, his stats so far in this young season are significant:

• His record is 2-1 with an ERA of 2.01.
• In 31.1 innings, he has 40 strikeouts and only 7 walks
• His WHIP is 0.96

Finally, this economics lesson from Steven Wright:

“If it’s a penny for your thoughts and then you put your two cents in, somebody somewhere is making a penny.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………

 

 

There are reports everywhere that LIV Golf is about to dry up and blow away in the immediate future.  There will be dancing on the grave of this entity which tried to reinvent golf such that it would have dominated the sport and relegated the PGA to minor league status.  It looks as if even the deepest of pockets was insufficient to make that happen.

However, when LIV is lost to the great sand trap in the sky, every PGA golfer should quietly and privately lift a glass with an adult beverage therein and toast the folks who tossed millions of dollars around like nickels and for a moment scared the PGA near to death.  Here is what happened once LIV offered salaries and prize pools much larger than was customary in the sport:

• The PGA – without any major new influx of money from rights fees – raised many of its tournament purses by 50-100%.
• PGA golfers need to thank the LIV folks for that because it would not have happened without the LIV folks.
• And maybe PGA golfers need to put some pressure on the PGA financial folks because somehow they found a lot of “new prize money” in a budget that did not meaningfully expand revenues.  So, how much more “flexibility” might there be in those secluded accountings?

[Aside:  The PGA that organizes and runs the PGA Tour events is a “non-profit entity” and is exempt from Federal Tax.  Does that make sense to you?]

Moving on … NBA Commish, Adam Silver, declared a “War on Tanking” and started processes to come up with ways to drive it to extinction.  None of the ideas that were floated made a lot of sense to me and the latest suggestion is even dumber than earlier ones; the trend here is ominous.  Here is how to stop tanking – evidently:

• There will be 10 teams in the NBA Lottery – – the ones that do not make the playoffs or the play-ins.
• The “Bottom-3 teams” will each get X ping pong balls in the Lottery Hopper.
• The “Other-7 teams” will each get X+1 ping pong balls in the Lottery Hopper

The whole idea of the Draft in the first place is to help the worst teams become more competitive and this idea will punish the worst of the worst.  The only way such an idea might make sense is to assert that every team that ever finishes in the “Bottom-3” only got there by tanking.  [Aside: I saw with my own eyes the Sixers’ team that went 9-73 for a season; they did not tank the season; they were simply outmanned and outcoached.  Period.]

The US Government has in the past “declared war” on things like poverty, drugs, cancer and terror.  All I can say is that basketball fans should hope that Silver’s “War on Tanking” will be more successful than those government efforts.

• Memo to Adam Silver: Once you resolve the tanking issue, please turn your attention to integrity issues.
• Damon Jones just pleaded guilty to gambling charges; Chauncey Billups and Terry Rozier still have to face a day in court on similar charges.
• “Tanking” is an “integrity issue” just as is “gambling” an “integrity issue” and both could become existential threats to your league.

Switching gears …  Another head has rolled at Football Night in America; it appears that Chris Simms will be out of a job there.  For the moment, the cast there has been reduced by one; Tony Dungy and Chris Simms are out, and Mike Tomlin is in.  I have said here before and will repeat myself here, the cast there is far too big; there is not enough time for any of them to express a cogent thought even if they actually have one to offer.  If I count right, the current on-camera cast is 8 people which I think is about 3 too many.  I don’t like to see people lose jobs, but there could be a significant benefit there by “thinning the herd”.

Next …  Tomorrow they will run the Kentucky Derby.  My track record for picking Derby winners and profitable wagers for the race is stupendously awful.  Undaunted, I will offer here my idea for wagering on the race tomorrow with a budget of $100.

• Commandment (#6) and The Puma (#9) with
• #6, #9, Renegade (#1), Danon Bourbon (#7), So Happy (#8), Incredibolt (#11) and Pavlovian (#16) with
• #6, #9, #1, #7, #8, #11, #16  ($1Trifecta ticket costs $80)
• $10 to win on Commandment (#6) and $10 to win on The Puma (#9).  Cost = $20.

 If history is any judge, none of those horses will be a factor in the race – – whatever…

And just to be sure that no one here forgets my enjoyment of word playing with names, let me remind everyone that the #18 horse in the Derby field this year is named Further Ado (Morning Line = 6 to 1).  I do not wish any misfortune for the animal, but if by chance he turned up as a late scratch tomorrow:

• They would still run the Kentucky Derby without Further Ado.
  • • BaDaBing!   BaDaBoom!!!

Finally, WC Fields has a perfect way to close out today’s rant:

“Horse sense is the thing a horse has which keeps it from betting on people.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………

 

 

 

 

             They seem to have decided to mess with the best thing going yet one more time.  March Madness was nigh onto perfect with 64 teams – – and then they added 4 more teams causing play-in games to set up a championship bracket that is totally symmetrical.  It expanded March Madness, but it did not make it better; the finality of 6 layers of “one-and-done” play prevailed.

Now, it seems clear from reporting just about everywhere that the college basketball mavens are going to expand it again – – this time to 76 teams.  It once was an event with 63 games; then it became an event with 67 games; now it will become an event with 75 games.  So, why do I think this is not a great idea?  After all, more tournament games should equate with more excitement, no?

Part of my problem is that the added games – – pairing off the “Bottom 24 Teams” in a bloated play- in round – – will not showcase anything that nearly approximates the best available squads.  I went back to look at teams who the “experts” assessed to be just outside the umbrella of a 68-team field in March 2026 and found these three teams:

1. Auburn – – 19-15 overall record and 7-11 in SEC games
2. Indiana – – 18-14 overall record and 9-11 in Big-10 games
3. Oklahoma – – 19-15 overall record and 7-11 in SEC games

Those are schools with a high level of recognizability; those are also teams that would not have been compelling TV draws at the end of the 2026 college basketball season.  And the fact of the matter is that unless there is a set-aside to let in more of the so-called “mid-majors” in the proposed 8-team expansion, those slots are going to go to teams in the major conferences that have already proven conclusively that they are only marginally competitive in their own conferences.  Should I have been happy to have had Va Tech in last year’s tournament field after its 8-10 record in the ACC?

• Do I like this idea?  Not even a little bit.
• Have they killed the goose that lays the golden eggs?  No; the Madness will survive.
• Is anything other than greed behind this thinking?  Sorry to say, but no.

And just as you think that decision will create some bad entertainment events, think for a moment about what is likely to happen in the women’s tournament that will also expand to 76 teams.  Here is a data point:

• Last year #2 overall seeded South Carolina played the #67 seeded Southern University in Round 1.  South Carolina won by a score of 103-34.  I’ll bet that was enjoyable to watch…

So, now the idea is to add teams not quite as good – – or slightly less bad? – – than Southern was last season to take on top teams like South Carolina or UConn or UCLA.  Keep talking; I’m not convinced just yet …

I said above that the mid-majors are going to get squeezed by this addition of slots because the real and perceptive view of “strength of schedule” will favor the eighth or ninth place finisher in a “big conference” over a middling team in a conference that might not be known to 75% of the TV audience.  If I am right in that assessment, then this must be the season for squeezing the small college sports programs dry.

Recently, I pointed out how NIL money was enticing low-round projected football players to stay in school to collect NIL money and – hopefully – to improve their Draft positioning with another year on the field.  Well, it should not be a humongous surprise to anyone reading here but there is more NIL money at the power conference schools than there is at schools in the Sun Belt or the MAC.  So, where might you guess the better players have migrated …

Consider this tidbit I ran across; I assume it is correct but do not have the time or energy to confirm it:

• Only 13 players from schools outside the Power 4 were drafted in the 7 rounds of the NFL Draft last week.

There were 256 players drafted last week.  One player did not go to a college in the US.  Ergo, 242 players taken in the Draft came from the Power 4 conferences.  That is 95% of the Draft Class.

So, of those players opting to “stay in school” and collect NIL money and hopefully improve their Draft status, how many of them are signing on with Power 4 teams as opposed to second level teams that might not attract any scouts to some of their games?

Finally, Ralph Waldo Emerson provides an interesting closing remark today:

“Democracy is morose, and runs to anarchy, but in the state, and in the schools, it is indispensable to resist the consolidation of all men into a few men.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………

 

 

There are two “paradigm shifts” afoot in the sports world today that I want to discuss.  The first shift is happening to and for players in the WNBA.  In a pre-season media day involving the Indiana Fever, a reporter lobbed a softball question at Aliyah Boston about her offseason workouts and where they had happened.  Boston’s reaction/reply was:

“You in my business.”

Reports during the WNBA Draft spent a lot of time and attention on the “reuniting” of Azzi Fudd and Paige Bueckers not as teammates but as “a couple”.

This is paradigm shift number one today; players in the WNBA are now going to be subjected to more scrutiny in their private lives than before and the reason is because the WNBA players fought for and won greater public recognition as entertainers.  The public cares about the players these days much more that it did 10 years ago when the WNBA would have been glad to accept the label of “afterthought”.  Here is a certainty in the US in 2026:

• Celebrity status = Diminished privacy

I am not advocating that situation to be ideal or even worthwhile, but it is the case.  And for the last year, the WNBA players wedged themselves into a higher level of celebrity demanding to be paid better and to be treated better by the league owners.  They got concessions from the owners – – and not insignificant ones – – which carries with it the consequence of greater public scrutiny.

The second “paradigm shift” is happening to NFL teams as a whole and is exemplified by the Philadelphia Eagles spending a 7^th round draft pick on Uar Bernard who is 21 years old and from Nigeria; he has all the “measurables” in terms of size and speed to be a defensive end/linebacker but here is the rub:

• Uar Bernard has never played even a single down of organized tackle football.

One reaction to this might be that Eagles’ GM, Howie Roseman, hit the jackpot several years ago drafting rugby player, Jason Mailata, and developing him into a top-shelf offensive tackle; and so, this is nothing more than him taking another shot at a big payoff.  Indeed, that may well be Howie Roseman’s mindset there, but I think there is more to that selection than that.

College football has been the “farm system” for the NFL since forever; the big difference between the NFL’s “farm system” and MLB’s ”farm system” is MLB’s system costs MLB money and the NFL’s system comes free.  This year, there were 256 players taken by NFL teams in the Draft, but the pool was not nearly as deep as has been the case in recent years.  That is not just me talking; that is what NFL scouts and “personnel people” have been saying about this draft class for at least a month.  And why might that be the case:

• NIL Money

Picture Joe Flabeetz who plays football for Whatsamatta U; Joe is three years removed from high school graduation so he can choose to declare himself ready for the NFL Draft.  But Joe is in a different position today than he would have been in years gone by; he already has an agent – – a relationship that would have rendered him ineligible for college football ten years ago.  The reason he has an agent is for the agent to negotiate his NIL money by playing off various colleges against one another in the Transfer Portal – – which did not exist ten years ago in the form it does now.

So, Joe Flabeetz has two things now that were not available in the past:

1. He is collecting NIL money which is much more than a living wage
2. He has access to someone who can sniff around and find out what NFL scouts think about him.

So, Joe Flabeetz’ agent, Sam Glotz, checks his sources at the NFL level and reports to Joe that he is unlikely to be drafted in the first three or four rounds in the upcoming draft.  That means it makes economic sense for Joe to stay in college and play another year for NIL money and potentially play his way into a higher degree of interest from NFL scouts.  And therein lies the paradigm shift.

Rounds 5-7 have always been a crapshoot for NFL teams but now the situation is made more difficult by legitimate late round picks opting to “stay in school” because it makes economic sense and football sense for them.  Hence, Howie Roseman spent an asset – – not a huge asset in a 7^th round pick – – to make sure that the Eagles would be the ones to try to develop Uar Bernard into an NFL player.

Here are Bernard’s “measurables:

• He is 21 years old.
• 6’ 4” tall and 306 lbs. with 6% body fat
• He ran a 4.63 in the 40 yard dash at the International Player Pathway Pro Day – – sort of like a “Combine” for foreign players.
• He had a 39-inch vertical jump and a 10’ 10” standing broad jump.

He was a basketball player in Nigeria starting at the age of 16 and has never played organized football, but with those measurables he compares favorably to exiting NFL players and to others in this year’s draft.  Why is he in the draft?  Because there is no NIL money in Nigeria and he did not have access to someone like Sam Glotz.

The NFL’s “farm system” has changed and GMs will need to adapt to the change.  Uar Bernard is not likely to be the last person drafted from a place totally apart from a college campus and a college football environment.

Finally, this from Norman Cousins:

“Wisdom consists of the anticipation of consequences.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………

 

 

There is a common aphorism that asserts:

Great minds run in the same channel.

My father often pointed out:

And so does sewer water.

Earlier this week, I presented here a list of college football players who I thought should be taken in this year’s NFL Draft.  Remember, I only saw these guys on TV, and I may have only seen them in one game; so, what did Round One last night say about “great minds?

I will postulate that NFL scouts and coaches and GMs know a lot more about what it takes to be in the NFL than I do and they spend thousands upon thousands more hours evaluating and measuring prospects than I do.  But my mind and some of theirs seem to resonate a bit.

Thirteen of the thirty-two players taken in Round One last night were included in my Draft Preview presentation earlier this week.

Truth be told, I did not expect to have identified about 40% of last night’s selections; but I will spend a moment here basking in the sunlight of that good fortune.

Moving on …  I had hoped not to have to extend my comments on the Mike Vrabel/Dianna Russini situation, but I am afraid I must.  So, before I begin, let me state explicitly that I don’t care at all about what the depth of their relationship is or was and the fact that both are married to other people is of no concern to me.  There are professional standards that either or both may have ripped to shreds here, but I have no interest in balancing any moral dimensions here.

Mike Vrabel faced the press earlier this week and gave responses to questions that did not exactly reek of credibility.  After first telling the NY Post when the “incriminating” photos were first published that their meeting was a “completely innocent transaction” and that any conclusion other than that was “laughable”, he said this week that the interaction was a “personal and private matter”.  Those two characterizations are not congruent.

Later in the press event, Vrabel said that he has had some difficult conversations and that he has been apologizing.  He never said with whom he has had said “difficult conversations” or what he has been apologizing about, but if this is all a “completely innocent transaction” and nothing more than a personal/private matter why the need for difficult conversations and apologies in the first place?

And later it was announced that Mike Vrabel will not be in the Pats’ Draft War Room for Day 3 of this year’s Draft because he will be seeking counseling.  Ah yes, counseling – – the panacea for any and all “bad decisions” or “unfortunate circumstances” that might befall any/all public figures.  Just that announcement raises more questions than it answers:

• If counseling is important here, why wait until Day 3 of the Draft, which is a Saturday?
• Do therapy venues not admit new clients on Wednesdays or Thursdays or Fridays?
• What counseling is relevant here:
  • Marriage counseling?
  • Discretion counseling?
  • Public relations counseling as to comments on a potential scandal?

And then there is the question as to how long the sessions will take.  Team OTAs start in about 4 weeks, do not expect Mike Vrabel to miss even a moment of those activities because the NFL has announced that it will not discipline him in this matter and there is no way in the cosmos that the Pats are going to have him miss those sessions.  Interestingly, here is the language in the NFL’s Personal Conduct Policy that nominally applies to everyone involved with the league:

“We must endeavor at all times to be people of high character; we must show respect for others inside and outside our workplace; and we must conduct ourselves in ways that favorably reflect on ourselves, our teams, the communities we represent, and the NFL.”

Hmmm …

One other point here …  Dianna Russini resigned from her job with The Athletic and perhaps may have been fired had she not resigned.  We will never know about that.  Mike Vrabel may just skate on this one with some public opprobrium and “counseling sessions”.  And that is NOT a double standard or an expression of malignant misogyny.

• Dianna Russini’s job was to get inside info on the NFL and NFL teams; she was in her position as a journalist.  Her journalism credibility took severe – perhaps fatal – damage in this matter.
• Mike Vrabel is a football coach; his job is to win games; while there may be credibility issues within the Pats’ locker room over his behavior not matching what he would want from his players, there is no obvious reason today to believe he cannot be a winning coach in the future.

If that sounds transactional, that’s because it is.  And with those remarks, I hope I need not return to this matter again.

Finally, this from Elanor Roosevelt:

“Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………

 

 

I know the NFL Draft begins tonight, but there is college football news that needs to jump the line this morning.  The University of Alabama just gave head football coach, Kalen DeBoer, a contract extension and a raise.  There was still plenty of time left on his existing deal, so this indicates to me one of three things:

1. The Money Boys at ‘Bama really like Kalen DeBoer.
2. Some other school was sniffing around trying to figure out DeBoer’s buyout deal
3. Alabama was bidding against itself here

The contract extension was for two years on top of the five existing years on DeBoer’s previous deal; he is now committed to Alabama through 2033.  He was slated to earn $10.5M this year on the old deal; now he gets a raise over the course of the new contract to $12.5M annually.  And according to reports, there are plenty of “sweeteners” in the deal over and above the $2M per year raise in the contract:

• Buyout is $10M in January 2027, $8M in January 2028 and $6M in January 2029.  Those are trivial numbers these days.
• If ‘Bama fires him, they owe him 90% of the balance of the contract with no mitigation clause if he takes another job.
• He gets personal non-business use of a private jet for 55 hours per year
• He gets an automobile allowance of $16.5K per year
• He gets a skybox and general admission tix to distribute at home games.
• He gets free transit for wife and kids to road games
• He gets a country club membership.

Kalen DeBoer is 51 years old and has been a head coach at the college level for five-and-a-half years – – a year and a half at Fresno State, two years at Washington and most recently 2 years at Alabama.  His overall record is 57-17 – – win pct = .770.  His record at Alabama is 20-8 overall and 20-4 in SEC games; considering the pressure he has been under in the last two years as the successor to Nick Saban at Alabama, that record is laudable.  And yet, that contract extension is surprising …

Moving on and staying in the realm of college football, there was an ESPN report last week that the NCAA Football Oversight Committee – – who knew such a thing existed? – – recommended starting the full college football schedule a week earlier than is the case now.  Currently there is something called “Week Zero” where a few games are played and it is the week before Labor Day.  The recommendation is to start the full schedule in that week and using the “added week” for the season to allow for a second BYE Week for teams.

That “extra week” could be a useful thing if the CFP mavens continue to ponder a 24-team playoff field as is rumored.  It also gives teams and conferences some wiggle-room if there is a push to maintain conference championship games and have a standalone weekend for Army/Navy.  In the current process, those “Week Zero” games come into being because schools apply to the NCAA for a waiver allowing them to start the week before Labor Day; the committee recommendation would remove the need for such a waiver and just let all schools start then.

I like this idea and the networks should like it too because it would give them 14 weeks of regular season college football inventory as opposed to 13 weeks.  There would still be a waiver process for teams to begin a week earlier – – call that “Week Minus-One?”.  I’m not sure there is a loser in this recommendation.

I wonder how long it will take for the NCAA to receive the recommendation and then put together another group to study it and make recommendations on top of the current recommendation.  As is often the case, my suggestion for the NCAA would be:

• Do something – – even if it’s wrong. 
• Because if it’s wrong, you can always fix it. 
• Your error will not cause the entropy death of the universe.

Finally, speaking of the universe, here is something from Neil deGrasse Tyson:

“The universe is under no obligation to make sense to you.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………

 

 

Andrew Marchand covers sports media as his beat for The Athletic; over the years, his reporting has been authoritative.  One of his latest reports is that Mike Tomlin will join the NBC team for Football Night in America starting in the Fall.  It took no time at all once Tomlin stepped down from coaching the Steelers for speculation to begin about his taking a TV commentary job; and now, according to Marchand, he has one.

NBC has an opening of sorts on the show since it decided not to renew the contract for Tony Dungy; I say “of sorts” because I believe what the network needs to do is to reduce the number of people with speaking roles on the show.  But that is off on a different vector heading…

I think Mike Tomlin is a natural for TV; when he was behind a microphone in press events during his coaching tenure, he was comfortable and he was agile with his turns of a phrase.  Once when speaking about a player who supposedly wanted to be traded, he said that the Steelers wanted “volunteers not hostages” making it clear how he interpreted the situation.

Mike Tomlin is only 54 years old; he can return to the sidelines in the NFL if that is what he chooses to do.  He coached the Steelers for 19 seasons and never had a losing season; that item alone should get him any interview he would like to have.  But there are few guarantees in life.  Tomlin’s predecessor in Pittsburgh was Bill Cowher who left coaching at the age of 49 and has remained as a TV presence ever since.

I have mentioned this before but let me repeat it here in brief.  Football Night in America has too many commentators.  None of them ever have the opportunity to develop a thought before it is time to move on to the next person’s turn to speak.  I understand that the network’s goal there is to give the program an energy level that does not exist on the other network program offerings of this type, but “frenzy” does not equate with “energy” or with “entertainment”.

Moving on …  MLB has instituted some radical changes in the past several seasons and most seem to be working out well.  [Aside: That last comment does NOT apply to the “ghost-runner rule” in extra inning games.]  All those changes were tried out and tinkered with in Minor League games for years before coming to the big leagues; so, I was wondering if there were any more “experimental situations” under investigation.  And the answer is that there are.  Here are a couple of them:

• Starting pitcher can be removed and still re-enter the game.  There are three conditions that accompany this allowance:
  • It only applies to the starting pitcher.
  • He must have thrown at least 25 pitches in the inning when he was removed.
  • He must re-enter the game in the inning immediately after his removal.
• The ABS will be expanded to include challenges to a call of a checked swing.
  • The same challenge system will be in place; only pitcher, catcher or hitter may challenge and there are limits to the number of challenges.
• Pitch clock refinements.
  • No stoppage when the catcher leaves the catcher’s position to signal defensive changes.
  • Everyone but the pitcher must be outside the circumference of the mound by the end of the Mound Visit Clock countdown.
• Moving second base.
  • The baseball diamond is not a perfect square; second base is further out toward centerfield than it should be to make the diamond a perfect square.
  • Putting second base “where it belongs” will move second base closer to first base and to third base by more than 6 inches – – encouraging more stolen bases?

The pitch clock refinements could be implemented in MLB almost seamlessly; so, if those rules find favor with the rules’ mavens, we might see them in MLB sooner rather than later.  My guess is that the other experiments would require a lot more study and tinkering before anyone attending a major league game would see them enforced.

Finally, here is an observation from Thomas Sowell:

“If you have always believed that everyone should play by the same rules and be judged by the same standards, that would have gotten you labeled a radical 60 years ago, a liberal 30 years ago and a racist today.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………

 

 

A former colleague and reader of these rants for a long time used to be a baseball umpire at the college level.  College baseball in the DC area is not usually contested at an “elite level”, and he had some instances where games spiraled out of control.  However, he may never have had a situation quite as out of control as the one that unfolded in a Lehigh/Coppin St. baseball game last week.  The game was at Coppin St., so Lehigh led off in the first inning:

• The leadoff batter was hit by a pitch.
• In the first eight batters, three more batters were hit by pitches
• Also in the first eight batters there were two walks and two hits yielding 8 runs before the first out was recorded.
• At the end of the top of the first inning, the score was Lehigh 20 and Coppin St. 0
• In that first inning there were 11 walks, 6 batters hit by pitches, a single a double and a grand slam.
• The final score of the game was Lehigh 38 and Coppin St. 6.

I feel confident in saying that the umpires were glad to see the final out recorded in that contest and from personal experience I know that the kids broadcasting that game over the college radio station were glad to see it come to an end.  Whew!

Moving on …  In the recently completed WNBA Draft, the Dallas Wings selected Azzi Fudd (UConn and Geico commercial star) with the first pick.  The side-story to that selection is that it reunites Fudd with Paige Bueckers (former UConn teammates) and evidently, Fudd and Bueckers are a couple.  That tidbit sent a few commentators into a tizzy.  The line of thinking went something like:

• Might the locker room split into factions if the “couple” chooses to “decouple” down the line?

I think this is a concocted argument; any situation has the potential to go south but most are just dealt with calmly and logically.  Moreover, the Wings’ management knows about the relationship here and would calmly and logically seek to use it constructively and not destructively.  For me, this “story” has little if any news value; this is “dog bites man” and not “man bites dog”.

• Lesbians on WNBA rosters are not news in 2026
• Married lesbians on the same team are not news; and in fact, one married couple had twins while on the same team.
• Two players on the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury are currently engaged.

Move along … Nothing to see here …

I mentioned the “Bobby Layne Curse” here in the past; let me do a reset:

• After winning the NFL Championship in 1957, the Lions traded Bobby Layne to the Steelers and gave Tobin Rote the starting QB job in Detroit.
• Layne said the Lions would not win another championship for the next 50 years as a result of that decision.

In fact, the Lions have not won an NFL Championship or a Super Bowl – – or even an NFC Championship – – in the years after 1957.  That streak is now entering its 68^th NFL season; fifty years of futility is left in the dust of history.  Just to rub some salt in the wound back in 2008 – – the year that the “Curse” would be lifted – – the Lions went 0-16 for the year.  And there is yet another angle to the story here.

The “Curse” arises from a mistaken decision by the Lions as to their starting QB.  Well between the time that Layne was traded in 1958 and the arrival of Matthew Stafford in Detroit in 2009 – – the year after the Lions went 0-16 – – the Lions only had one QB selected for the Pro Bowl in those 50 seasons.  That happened in 1971 and the QB was Greg Landry.

The “Bobby Layne Curse” ranks right up there with the “Curse of the Bambino”, the “Billy Goat Curse” and the “Sports Illustrated Cover Jinx.  Those are all examples from US sports, but here is one dealing with a foreign sport that is really eerie:

• Mayo is a Gaelic football club, and they won the Irish championship in 1951.
•  As the story goes, the team mocked a funeral procession on its way back from the game to their home ground and the “curse” is that Mayo could not win another championship until all members of the 1951 championship team were dead.
• In fact, Mayo has not won the Sam Maguire Cup – – the Irish equivalent of the Lombardi Trophy – – since 1951 which was 75 years ago.
• Cue the music from The Twilight Zone…

Finally, this from Oscar Wilde:

“Work is the curse of the drinking classes.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………