Mark McGwire and Pete Rose
So, let me get this straight. Everyone and their mother knows that Mark McGwire took substances in order hit home runs. The legality of it all, which substances, for how long, etc, we’ve never gotten a straight answer on and never will. He admitted to at least taking something, though, and that particular something was probably not all he took. Regardless, it’s safe to say that good eating and a better workout regime is not what caused him to bulk up and run down Roger Maris. Despite the fact that it’s a bad move for the Cardinals as he has no professional coaching experience and he wasn’t exactly known for his hitting prowess as much as his propensity to strike out, I’m more surprised that Bud Selig has nothing to say about it and let’s him into the league as an assistant coach with no reservations. Is betting that much worse than steroids? They both violate the “integrity” of the game (which I’ve already blogged about a while back that baseball has never had very much integrity to violate) and both won’t fully admit to what happened or apologize. And yet Pete Rose, who could hit, is banned for life and can’t be admitted into the Hall of Fame and Mark McGwire, who can’t hit, can easily become a hitting coach with no apprehension from the league? What a sham of a league. Just another one of the many reasons why baseball has fallen from it’s status as America’s Pastime and is falling further behind football in our collective sports conscious. I don’t have any experience as a professional hitting coach, but I’ve taken leadership classes, coaching classes, and watched a ton of baseball. Also, in little league, I was known for my ability to strike out against any pitcher, am I qualified to coach in MLB or do I need to have done steroids and lied under oath about it first? Wait, wait, never mind, I always participate in March Madness pools, so I’m technically banned for life from baseball.
NASCAR circa 2009 vs. CART circa 1994
I am about to make a bold prediction. NASCAR will split and a new series will form within 2 years. That is my opinion, I’ve not heard rumors of such or anything. I just know that many fans are starting to feel the same way as me based off of message boards and ESPN article comments.
The first and number one reason is none other than money. If you will recall, one of the reasons for the CART/IRL split was that the series was dominated by a handful of wealthy teams. Thus has become the case for NASCAR. The cost based barriers for entry into the series are tremendous, between testing, amount of cars and personnel needed, etc. Equipment and quality of team are just as important if not more important than the quality of driver on your team. Just as Chip Ganassi and Roger Penske’s cars were so much faster and superior that they could take any driver and make them win, the same goes now in NASCAR for Rick Hendrick and Jack Roush. The TV contract is giant and the cost to sponsor a car has grown to the extent that only the largest of corporations can afford to finance a car for the entire season. All eerily similar to the CART series in the mid-90′s. Also, it’s getting more and more expensive to attend a NASCAR race, and the typical NASCAR fan isn’t your upper middle class business executive with significant discretionary income. NASCAR needs to make it’s money off TV deals and licensing fees, and not suck every penny they can out of fans on race day.
The second reason is also very important and that’s the way that the championship is decided. The Chase for the Cup isn’t working. It was designed to try and keep interest in NASCAR after the NFL had started it’s season because people were running away with the championship. It’s not a bad idea entirely. However, it negates the regular season too much. It’s not like a traditional playoff system because the guy who was 10th in points with no shot of winning the championship, now has a pretty good chance. I know that there’s some separation based on the regular season, but there needs to be more. For example, in football, there’s opening week bye’s and home field advantage. You can win every race and dominate the season, but once the chase starts, you are still just 5 points ahead of second place. Also, the points are confusing, I’ll never understand how second and third place can sometimes earn more points than the winner of the race. In CART, there was debate over whether some of the races should be worth more points than others and how many positions should earn points, etc. Many were upset with how the championship was decided. In my opinion, they need to rotate the 10 tracks that are used. If I were a NASCAR driver, I would only test and practice at the Chase tracks. I’ve seen it calculated before, you only need to finish something like 10th place on average to get into the Chase. I’m not saying that’s easy, but aiming for 10th every week is certainly easier than winning every week until you need to. The timing of the races needs to change so they are not competing directly with the bulk of the NFL games, which kick off at 1:00 pm on Sunday. Run them Saturday night, Sunday night and maybe even Friday night if possible. But they can’t survive mono e mono with the NFL and win the TV rating war, not even with a sham Championship points system, so what’s the point? Besides, what’s wrong with the best driver winning the championship? I know, I know, the best team doesn’t always win the championship in other sports either, but I guess I don’t understand why we need 36 races if we aren’t going to give the championship to driver with the best season in the end.
Back in the mid-90′s, a major complaint against CART was all the regulations and lack of stock equipment. NASCAR is supposed to be stock car racing, however, need I remind you of the Car of Tomorrow. Which has reduced the variances in manufacture, increased the amount of standardization and regulations, and reduced the amount of stock equipment used in the car. There are more manufacturers than ever with the addition of Toyota, but less actually variety in cars. It was supposed to increase cost efficiencies for the teams, but if it did, why are only the richest, largest teams the most successful? I understand that for safety and competition reasons, the cars can now longer be suped up cars that you can buy off the street, but I think the fans would like to at least see some resemblence of them and some slight variety in body type.
Another problem with CART was the drivers. Most of the top open wheel drivers were foreign and the fans wanted more American drivers. As more top drivers are choosing NASCAR over other racing series, the amount of foreign drivers are not increasing, but more drivers are from areas outside the South. Though NASCAR has tried to leave its Southern roots and have a broader fan base, it’s roots are Southern and traditional. As it leaves those behind, some of its fans have been left behind too as they can’t identify with the newer drivers like they could with a Dale Earnhardt, Junior Johnson, Cale Yarborough, etc. Also, NASCAR has done a lot to limit fan exposure to drivers and has significantly reduced driver personality from the equation by placing stiff fines and point penalties for ‘bad behavior.’ Drivers can’t have a personality anymore or voice an opinion for fear they get docked points and made to look selfish and egotistical in the NASCAR controlled media outlets. That connection with the fans to the drivers that NASCAR has tried to eliminate, in my opinion, mirrors the disconnect that CART fans had with the foreign driver dominance at the time of the open wheel split.
One of the reasons that the IRL was successful was because it was backed by the owner of Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Therefore, CART lost its premier race, the Indy 500. Can NASCAR lose one of it’s premier races? If a startup or alternate series were to spin up, their key to success would be to steal a big race, such as Daytona, Talladega, or Charlotte from NASCAR. By involving one of those track owners in their ownership group, they may be able to. With more than one top billing race, NASCAR could probably afford to lose one, but as with CART/IRL, the fans would be split. The TV revenues would die down and sponsorship would dwindle trying to support two series. Ultimately, the open wheel market was not large enough to support two series, and stock car racing wouldn’t be either. Remember too, that when the IRL started out, it was much smaller and CART dominated for several more seasons until the IRL took over. A startup series wouldn’t challenge NASCAR in the beginning. But it could slowly chip away, stealing a driver here and there, then a major sponsor or two, then a major team (like when Chip Ganassi left CART for IRL in 2000) to slowly gain that momentum and turn the tables.
In the end, I feel like when/if there is a split, someday the two series will merge back into one like CART and IRL now have. But it will not come about without some bloodshed on each side. In due time, a split and the competition would help NASCAR. It will force them to re-evaluate their series and the way they do things and hopefully make the needed changes that will make them stronger in the end. I think that the CART/IRL split and now reunification as the IRL has helped open wheel racing. The fan base, TV ratings, etc are not what CART enjoyed at its height in the mid 90′s, however, had the IRL not happened and CART continued on as is, open wheel racing as we know it may not exist right now. Too many entertainment options, disconnect with the fans in an increasingly connected world, the NFL, the growth of NASCAR, etc, and open wheel racing would be in serious trouble in the 2000′s. But the IRL changed that, it lowered the barriers to entry and brought the series back to its true fans and brought about the changes that open wheel racing needed to survive in the 21st century. For NASCAR, a split may be the best thing that can happen and help stock car racing take that next step in moving up our sports world consciousness that NASCAR has been on the verge of, but unable to cross so far.
Red River Rivalry and more…
As I’m sure you’ve heard, this weekend is the big Red River Rivalry game between Texas and Oklahoma. Whereas this game has been a great game in years past and has had national title implications the last couple years as well as this year, I tend to think Texas wins this game by 14. They are still upset that they were left out of the Championship game last year even after beating OU (which I still think was the right decision, by the way) and I think the revenge factor, injuries for OU, and the OU offensive line will be the difference. I’m a little concerned that they haven’t dominated their weak competition so far, and for that reason I see OU taking an early lead and then Texas charging back and dominating the second half.
ND-USC – I don’t see this as big of a game as everyone else. I still haven’t quite figured out what everyone sees in Notre Dame that I’m missing. I see this as a blowout. Probably a 17 or 21 point win for USC. Don’t get me wrong, I still see at least one more loss for USC this season, but not the Irish.
TCU has looked really good so far this year and I feel like they should be getting a little more respect. I’m looking forward to the upcoming BYU-TCU game. I won’t be surprised if they run the table and break into the BCS, they are playing better than Boise State and are very well coached. I would be surprised to see them slip up and not give every game their best. Iowa is a very dangerous team too that is not getting much respect and flying under the radar right now because not many pollsters picked them to do well.
I think we should get rid of the over celebration penalty in college football. It irritates me. These are young kids who aren’t getting paid and 99% of whom are not going to be playing in the NFL. They can and should get excited when they’ve made a big play. Taunting should still be a penalty and it pains me to see a player celebrating a sack or tackle for loss when his team is down by 30, but a touchdown in the closing minutes of a game or big play to ice the game, you should be able to celebrate that. Another uncool rule in college football, pass interference. I hate it. It’s so vague and subjective. Unless it’s just completely obvious, let’s not throw the flag. I don’t like refs bailing out offenses for bad play calling and inability to make plays. It gets called so often, every time there is a play on the ball the receiver is begging the ref to throw a flag. Shut up, you didn’t catch it, the defender made a play, leave it at that.
I’ve never been one to blame the refs for costing a team a win because in the end, you should make the plays to win the game and a bad call here or there shouldn’t cost you the game. But the refs can change the way the game is played over time, and I feel like they have with pass interfence. We need some clarity on the rule and it shouldn’t be called nearly as much.
Americas Pastime
Has America’s pastime changed? You can make a strong argument that it has. Baseball has long held the spot as “America’s Pastime.” I’m reading a book right now called “Playing with the Enemy” about baseball just before, during, and immediately following WWII. It’s interesting to see how differently Americans viewed baseball then, 50-60 years ago. Back then, we had traveling baseball teams that toured around and played in front of the troops just behind the front lines to entertain the troops. Baseball to them was patriotic and what set Americans apart from other countries. Nowadays, I’m not sure baseball is even second on our minds. It may not even be third. This is a football culture now. This week, the Yankees clinched a playoff birth, the NL Wild Card is still up for grabs, the AL Central is going to come down to the wire, the NASCAR “playoffs” just started, the US Open in tennis just finished up, the Tour Championship is going on in golf and many more stories. But what do we care about? Mike Vick may start this week, the ongoing Meyer-Kiffin feud, Plaxico Burress goes to jail, and whether or not the Jets lied on their injury reports. I’m not a Yankees fan, I’m a Red Sox fan, but I think says clearly that our sports focus has shifted when ones of the lead stories on ESPN is who will and won’t start on Sunday (several days away) instead of the Yankees clinching a spot in the playoffs. There is still a lot of interest in baseball, but I think our sport attention spans and “we want it now” mentality. It will lead to longer NFL and NCAA seasons. In my opinion, baseball still has a chance. They need to make some changes though to keep from falling too far on the back burner of our minds. Now is the time. Football has taken over and shows no signs of slowing down. Right now, baseball, NASCAR, golf, basketball, everything is just something we follow in football’s offseason. Below are a couple suggestions that I think could baseball keep up with the NFL and NBA before things get out of hand. Over the last 40 years as football and basketball have overtaken baseball as our pastime, they’ve made changes. Steriods and pitching specialization aside, baseball hasn’t. Even being a traditionalist, I realize, some times you have to change. For baseball, it’s time.
1. Embrace technology. Sink millions into it. I read an interesting article in NetworkWorld this week about the Pittsburgh Penguins where they are streaming video, replays, and stats to fans with PDAs that are inside the arena. You need to do this and much more. Be creative and find ways to use technology in and around the stadium and as a way to interact with the fans between the games. I’m not just talking about some additional marketing with a lame Facebook page and some Twitter tweets, I mean really embrace the technology that is out there and flood the fans with it. They will love you for it.
2. Shorten the season. Not by much, but it’s way to long. 162 games. Our attention spans as a society have become way too short to keep up with anything for 162 games. It probably needs to be wrapping up the season or starting the playoffs when NFL kicks off. Can’t we tell who the best team is after 140 games? I know a lot of the single season records and career records would be skewed, but, we can’t compare one generation to the next now anyway, what difference will 20 games make?
3. Speed up the game. This has to be done. Our attention spans are way to short to see a play step out of the box 10 times during an at bat. Can you imagine a football team calling 10 timeouts during a drive? And don’t try to compare a huddle and play clock in football to stepping out of the box. Simple experiment, time the amount of time it takes between plays in football and the amount of time between pitches and change the rules until they match. And the commercial break between every half inning is an invitation to change the channel. Find other ways to advertise on the screen like soccer does and reduce the multitude of commercial breaks and between inning breaks.
4. Add a salary cap and a salary floor. It’s just not as fun if not everyone can compete. Currently, before the season even starts, you can name 5-8 teams that won’t even be in contention by the end of April. That doesn’t make the game intriguing to anyone, the fans, media or players. You could build a lot of excitement for the game (and ticket sales) if 25 teams are in contention in August instead of 10.
5. DH or no DH. Just make a decision already. Either both leagues have a DH or both don’t. Personally, people like to see higher scoring so I think you put a DH in both leagues. But it doesn’t matter, just make it the same.
NFL Blackouts
One of the stories this year in the NFL is an expected one, NFL teams are unable to sell out their stadiums and therefore several are faced with blackouts for the local viewing area. San Diego and Jacksonville could potentially not sell out a single game this year. Of course, NFL teams and their markets are blaming the economy and the recession on falling ticket sales, and asking the NFL to lift the blackout rules. But that’s not the issue. Hundreds of colleges sell out their games across the country and 32 NFL teams (most with smaller stadiums that college teams and in much larger markets) can’t sell out? No, the problem is basic economics. Supply and demand. Without a large capital investment to reduce or increase the amount of seating, NFL stadium capacity is for the most part fixed or static. So, supply of seats is inelastic. In that unique economic situation, the only way to increase demand is to reduce prices. NFL teams are unwilling to even consider this possibility, so, therefore, they don’t sell out and don’t make as much revenue from the large NFL TV contracts because the games are blacked out. If the average ticket price is $200 and you can’t sell them, basic economics says that by reducing the average price to $100, you can sell double the amount that you could sell at $200 because supply is inelastic. Any NFL team should easily be able to figure out the percentage of empty seats in the stadium that they need to fill to sell out and reduce average ticket price by that same percentage. Then every game is a sell-out and you maximize your local TV contract, NFL TV contract, concession sales, souvenir sales, parking lot fees, etc on down the line. I’ve heard several times in the past that because of the huge NFL TV contract and revenue sharing, no NFL team needs to sell a single ticket to be profitable. Might as well reduce ticket prices and get the most money you can, right? Another economic principle largely ignored by NFL teams is opportunity cost. That upper deck ticket that costs $80, unsold it makes you $0. Sold for $50, it makes you $50. I understand event security, parking attendants, etc all cost money and I’m not saying to operate game day as a loss, but not selling a ticket is far more expensive that selling it at a reduced price that barely covers expenses or breaks even. As kickoff nears, sell the remaining tickets cheap to radio stations, fan websites and blogs, and local business for them to give away as promotional items. They get a great marketing tool and you get a sold out stadium. Basically, the whole “the recession has caused us to not be able to sell out” argument several teams are making really irks me. You can’t sell out because you priced out the real fans years ago and now all those corporate sponsorships are drying up because they are cutting back costs. Time to go back to the real fans and start selling to them again, but remember, we can’t afford those hi-jacked prices you were charging to corporations.
MLB Trade Deadline
Can someone please explain the MLB trade “deadline” to me? How is it that teams are able to trade after it? There have been several trades in the recent weeks, like Scott Kazmir being traded to the Angels and I know Boston has made one as well. I’m sure I’m just missing something, but I’m really curious as to how these teams are allowed to continue to trade after the “deadline.”
Anyone know?
NFL Preview
NFC East
Philadelphia
NY Giants
Dallas
Washington
NFC North
Green Bay – Tie
Chicago – Tie
Minnesota
Detroit
NFC South can all the teams possibly finish 8-8?
New Orleans
Atlanta
Carolina
Tampa Bay
NFC West
Arizona – Could possibly win the division at 7-9
Seattle
San Francisco
St Louis
Wildcards: Chicago, NY Giants
AFC East
New England
NY Jets
Miami
Buffalo
AFC North
Pittsburgh – tie
Baltimore – tie
Cleveland
Cincinnati
AFC South
Indianapolis
Tennessee
Jacksonville
Houston
AFC West
San Diego – best regular season record in AFC
Denver – my sleeper team, I think they finish 9-7
Kansas City
Oakland
Wild Cards : Tennessee, Baltimore (Just missing out: Denver)
Super Bowl: New England vs. Green Bay
I’m torn on the NFC playoff picture. Right now, I have Green Bay, which I know is a popular pick, but I also really like Chicago and the Giants. I can see either of them making it to the Super Bowl as well and it’ll come down to matchups and weather in the playoffs.
Week 1 Review and Looking Ahead
So much for sportsmanship week! I’m guessing that’s not quite was the American Football Coaches Association had in mind. That’s why handshakes don’t work in football, players gets amped up, there are a ton of rivalries and traditions, the regular season means so much more because there isn’t a playoff system. You just can’t put that amount of players in front of each other all amped up before or after a game and expect nothing to happen. I thought it was a bad idea when I heard about it and I still think it’s a bad idea. The fact that we made it through the weekend with just a suckerpunch and not a complete riot on the field before a game, especially a game like Noles v Canes, we’re lucky.
Notre Dame vs Michigan this weekend. Both of these coaches need a win very badly. With big wins over cupcakes last week, this game sets nicely and despite not really caring for either team, I’m interested in the matchup this weekend because I think it will make a huge difference on the rest of the season for each team.
Blowouts – As usual, lots of blowouts in week one. Not only just in games against cupcakes, but in other games as well because some teams just aren’t as prepared as others. Here’s my suggestion for the NCAA regarding opening weekend. Let’s have everyone play FCS teams. Sure, almost every game will be a blowout, that’s why we aren’t going to count it toward the BCS standings and we aren’t going to count it in the overall record. That will give everyone a chance to hit and run the offense full speed against someone other than your own defense. Similar to the preseason in the NFL, the opening game would serve as a warm-up for the season, a chance to see what you have without much risk. The better teams could play their second and third teams the second half and get a better idea of how the depth chart should look like. But that’s it for the FCS team, after week 1, no one can play a FCS team the rest of the season. I’m also considering saying that in Week 2, no one is allowed to play league games and everyone needs to play out of conference. Since FCS teams are off the table after week 1, we’d get a ton of great games for week 2. In fact, we could even have a small incentive (like $5000/team) to play another school from a BCS conference.
ACC - Embarrassing. Ouch. Especially Virginia and Duke. And Maryland. Virginia and Duke lost to William & Mary and Richmond respectively! That is embarrassing. Last week, the ACC made the Big Ten look good.
Important games this week – Obviously, everyone is talking about USC-Ohio State. I’m thinking that I’ll be changing the channel by halftime, sorry Ohio State fans, I just don’t see how OSU is going to score on USC at all. I think UNC-Conn should be a good game and I’m hoping that the ACC can somewhat redeem itself. UCLA-Tennessee intrigues me and I think Tennessee pulls out a surprising win. I’m interested in the Mississippi State-Auburn game because like the Notre Dame/Michigan game, I think both teams need a win to give their teams confidence or it could be a long season for either team.
Mountain West Preview
Since the Mountain West is bound and determined to be a BCS conference without adding more BCS-quality schools, I thought I would do a quick Mountain West preview. I’m not as versed in the MWC, but plan on becoming more so, so next year, these should be more detailed.
1. BYU – On the strength of the offense, this year’s Utah
2. Utah – Won’t repeat last year’s season.
3. TCU – Could end up with just 2 losses.
4. Air Force – Great coach that gets a lot out of his teams
5. New Mexico – this is where they all start to run together
6. UNLV
7. Colorado State – around here is where you start to remember why they aren’t in the BCS
8. San Diego State
9. Wyoming.
SEC Preview
East
1. Florida – Obviously, you’ve heard it all already, Tim Tebow and the entire 2 deep on defense. This is a deep and extremely talented team. What scares me the most about Florida is not anyone on their schedule, it’s the hype. I’ve already heard several talking heads say “best team ever” and “no way they can lose” and they haven’t even played yet. We’ve heard that before about teams, and normally when the expectations are that high, it’s hard to meet them. We heard the same thing about USC in 2007 and that team lost 2 games, including a home loss to a Stanford team that finished the season 4-8. They have to keep their focus and play every game like it’s the National Championship, and that wears on a team throughout the season as every team give them their best shot. This is obviously the best team in the conference and the country, only time will tell if they can run the table.
2. Georgia - Under the radar this season a bit after being last season’s preseason #1, but this is still a very good team and the defense will be great if they can stay healthy, something they were unable to do last year. It’s tough whenever you lose players like Stafford and Moreno, but Florida is the only other team in the East with as much talent as them.
3. South Carolina – Earlier in the offseason, I would have had Tennessee slotted here, but I’ve heard reports of drastic improvement on SCar’s offensive and defensive lines and Tennessee has no healthy receivers left. They have just 58% of their lettermen returning and need to get better at protecting the ball.
4. Tennessee - Time to shut up and put up some points for Lane Kiffin. After the offseason circus that was Tennessee football, it will be interesting to see how the players repond come gameday and if he is able to recruit SEC caliber talent over the long run. Hopefully Kiffin won’t try too many 76 yeard field goals like he did in the NFL and keep the Vols in some games.
5. Vanderbilt - Could it be? Vandy out of the basement in the East for two straight years? They have 17 returning starters and just 15 letterman lost. They lose their QB Nickson and star CB DJ Moore, but this is still a very talented team and could find their way into a bowl game for a second straight year with just one or two upsets. They have a great front 7 on D and the offensive line is much more experienced and should be improved.
6. Kentucky - Don’t get me wrong, Rich Brooks has done a great job here. However, they have just 12 returning starters and the defense is rather inexperienced. It probably won’t be the worst defense in the league, but likely the worst in the East and winning in the SEC requires a stout defense. Unless they lose a lot of talent to the draft early, this will be a team to look out for next season.
West
1. Mississippi – I feel as if Ole Miss is overrated by some publications and websites, however, I still think they are the best of the West. All of their games fall into the winnable category, although, they will lose at least 2 to the toughness of the schedule. Still, 10-2 in the West should get them into the SEC title game where they may not like the result of their grudge match with Florida. I think Houston Nutt is a great coach and Arkansas should have never let him go. This year, I think he’ll prove to everyone why.
2. Alabama – After a 12-2 season last year and 9 returning starters on defense, I wonder if I’m not making a mistake by slotting Alabama here. Julio Jones aside, I have questions about the offense and their ability to win ballgames. However, it would surprise me if they win less that 10 games.
3. LSU – LSU has the toughest schedule of any team of the top 3 in the West and that’s why I have them here. They will again be of the the best teams in the SEC and will top last year’s 8 wins.
4. Arkansas – Bobby Petrino is still a couple years away from challenging the top teams the way Arkansas ways think the Razorback fans think they should every year. In fact, Razorback fans forget they are Arkansas fans and not LSU fans. This is a pretty good team, but not good enough to compete with the top 3 in the league.
5. Auburn – Gene Chizik? Really? You are Auburn and have your pick of any top assistant in the country or about 1/2 the head coaches in the country to chose from, and you pick Gene Chizik? He couldn’t even win in the Big 12, how is he going to win in the SEC? All it takes is one bad hire to set your program back 10 years and that’s exactly what Auburn did. Get used to the #4 or 5 spot in the West for the next couple year Auburn fans. They have a talented team, but the schedule is tough and a completely new coaching staff will be making a lot of changes on both sides of the ball. They could return to a bowl game, but I don’t expect better than a 6-6 or 7-5 regular season.
6. Mississippi St - Not much to write about here, when people say “There are no off weeks in the SEC” and boast about how every team in the SEC would be undefeated in a different, “easier” conference, they forget about Mississippi State. The Bulldogs couldn’t even win the Big East. Just 10 starters returning, new coaching staff switching from a run offense to a pass offense, it’s clearly a rebuilding year for the Bulldogs. I just haven’t figured out what they are rebuilding from yet.
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