So another college football season has completed, and once again the Bowl Championship Series has failed fans with a dud of a championship game that protects the power conferences’ big money interests. LSU (the first ever BCS Championship Game team coming in with two losses, thus belying the argument that the regular season is a week-by-week playoff) completely dominated Ohio-verrated State in a match-up that most likely would not have occurred in a playoff system. What a joke.But perhaps there is a ray of hope. I read on Yahoo! Sports an AP story stating that the BCS is going to seriously evaluate a “plus-one” system which would effectively create a four-team playoff using bowl games for the semi-finals in time for the 2010 season. Now serious discussions of a playoff system and the BCS may sound like an oxymoron and should definitely be taken with a grain of salt, but even the mere mention of such consideration is a huge step forward. Apparently a sizable percentage of the major conferences are in support of such a system, with the Big Ten and Pac-10 notable exceptions. Those two conferences have a contractual relationship with the Rose Bowl and claim that such a playoff system would devalue that game. But even in the current system that contract doesn’t always play out, so by agreeing to the BCS in the first place they’ve already weakened their own argument.I suppose you can’t blame the Big Ten. Considering the current mediocrity of the conference (once again exhibited today), instituting a playoff system would effectively end its chances of bringing home a national title. At least the Pac-10 has USC. All joking aside, it’s very interesting to note that neither of these conferences have conference championship games, either.So let’s all hope that this slim glimmer of a hope is realized and that college football fans will finally be treated to a playoff that will determine a real champion.
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I haven’t been a fan of Barry Bonds since he broke Pittsburgh Pirates fans hearts after the 1992 season and signed with the Giants for a lot more money than the small-market Bucs were able to offer him.
I had the good fortune to attend the 1993 home opener for the Pirates, where the Giants happened to be the visiting team. As soon as Bonds took his position, a shower of dollar bills, coins and flags given away that night littered down upon the field. It took seven minutes to clear the field before play could resume.
Surliness with the press and allegations of steroid use hasn’t helped Bonds’s image in my mind.
That having been said, I thought asking Bonds’s in the post-game press conference after he broke Hank Aaron’s record last night whether the record was tainted was completely out of line.
I didn’t catch who asked the question, but for this one night, I felt that the media should ignore the scandal. Steroid use or not, 756 home runs is an amazing feat. If it turns out, surprise of surprises, that he is clean after all, he should have been able to enjoy this moment unspoiled.
The questions and arguments can begin again today, and an asterisk can be added at some point in the future if he is found guilty. But the reporters last night should have just let it be.
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So as the NFL continues to stall on taking any actions to suspend and/or otherwise punish Michael Vick for illegal dogfighting, the question that remains to be answered is why?
Waiting for the legal proceedings to play out, as the NFL “claims” it is doing, has never stopped the league from suspending players before. Regardless of trial outcomes, suspensions are the NFL norm in substance abuse cases. Even more precedent under which the league should punish Michael Vick immediately lies in the recent suspension of Pacman Jones — without a criminal conviction — for his off-the-field behavior.
So why does the league fail to act? One possible answer is that new commissioner Roger Goodell, facing his first major controversy as the NFL chief executive, simply doesn’t have the mettle of his predecessor, the great Paul Tagliabue.
A second, more insidious, answer is that the NFL is already well-aware how deep dogfighting runs inside the league and its players. Punishing Vick would mean publicly acknowledging the issue, an issue which the league would rather see simply disappear. Having set a dogfighting precedent, the league’s hands would be tied in any further cases–whether they came to light on their own accord or by Vick naming names to lessen his own legal woes.
And there is definite reason to believe that dogfighting is extremely prevalent inside the NFL. Take for example, Clinton Portis’s despicable defense of Vick in an interview on WAVY-TV, “I know a lot of back roads that got a dog fight if you want to go see it. But they’re not bothering those people because those people are not big names. I’m sure there’s some police got some dogs that are fighting them, some judges got dogs and everything else.” Portis went on to say he saw nothing criminal about dog fighting. Portis’s fellow interviewee laughed at his statements.
And in ESPN’s recent “Outside the Lines”, the net’s informant inside the dogfighting world “says Vick is not the only professional athlete deeply involved in the blood sport, estimating that at least 20 to 30 others, mostly football players, are in the dogfight game.”
If this were an isolated incident, would the NFL be afraid to act? Probably not. Why risk tarnishing the league’s image over one player? But if the NFL is already aware of wide-spread dogfighting amongst its players, it is very easy to see why league might be unwilling to act. In ignoring the issue, the NFL itself may very well be complicit in Vick’s and other players’ guilt.
Now that the case is out in the open, there will assuredly be leaks about who else has been involved in dogfighting… and who else knew about it and looked the other way. I, for one, hope the NFL does come to the conclusion that the Vick charges are severe enough to warrant immediate suspension. Otherwise, I will only be watching college football this fall.
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So it’s come and gone. One of the most highly anticipated rookie debuts in ages. And Daisuke Matsuzaka, “Dice-K”, lived up to the hype.
What makes Matsuzaka so fascinating is that he was a legend before he ever threw his first major league pitch. He has been a legend in Japan since an unbelievable run in the high-school Koshien Tournament in 1998, capped with a no-hitter in the finale. His legacy grew even greater with his MVP performance in the World Baseball Classic, which also served as his introduction to American audiences. That was followed by an epic bidding war between several Major League Baseball franchises just to have the opportunity to negotiate with Matsuzaka, with the subsequent contract negotiations with the Boston Red Sox being no less manic. The clincher? Dice-K may or may not throw a pitch which may or may not exist–and if he does, he may be the only person in the world who can throw that pitch.
That’s the stuff of which legends are made. And what does that make Matsuzaka? Quintessantially baseball.
In a review of the new director’s cut DVD of The Natural that I recently wrote for Collider.com, I discussed how that film “perfectly captures the time-transcendent mythology of baseball” and how “legendary names like Babe Ruth, Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio still tower over the game years after they all stopped playing”. Baseball is all about history, mythology and legends, and Dice-K’s career to date perfectly falls into that structure.
The only real question that remains is, can he acutally throw the gyroball?
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Congratulations to the Indianapolis Colts on winning Super Bowl XLI. As a New England Patriots fan, I was rooting against them, but they played excellently and deserved to win. It was also great to see Tony Dungy finally win the big game.
My question is, why did Peyton Manning win the game MVP award? He wasn’t terrible but he was by no means great. Manning’s numbers were mediocre, even subpar for him, and by no means did he win the game for the Colts. That job was performed by the two running back Dominic Rhodes and Joseph Addai. The MVP award is not meant to be a popularity contest but a tribute to the game’s best player. So I propose that we start the first annual “Real” MVP award, to be decided by acutal game watchers who haven’t decided whom they’re going to pick before the game even starts. And to kick off the award, this year we have co-MVPs, Rhodes and Addai.
And now for the commercials. As someone who actually cares for the game, I feel that those people who are only watching for the commercials should just stick to the trash tabloid TV that would normally be occupying their little minds. To me the ads are a pleasant diversion in what otherwise might be snack or bathroom break time. That having been said… I believe the era of big-budget ads for the Super Bowl has passed. Overall quality has been declining for several years, and with ad time currently running about $2.5 million per thirty second spot, one gets the feeling that advertisers are skimping on the commercials just to afford the time spot. The SalesGenie spot, for example, had such horrendous acting that the commercial played like a bumper ad for a late-night infomercial, and Coca-Cola, one of the world’s largest advertisers, repurposed their movie theater spots! Sure, there will always be a few stand-outs, but the peak has passed.
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The other night I went to the Luc Robitaille jersey retirement game at Staples Center. It was a great evening acknowledging the achievements of a wonderful player, and, more importantly, a complete class act. Number retirement is one of the two highest honors that can be bestowed on a team-sport professional athlete; the other, induction into his sport’s Hall of Fame, surely awaits Robitaille in his first year of eligibility.
Two players who also exhibited excellence both on and off the field were just elected into baseball’s elite Hall of Fame club–Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken, Jr., both in their first year of eligibility. Notably missing from that collection was Mark McGwire, whose Hall of Fame numbers have been tainted by the suspicion of steroids.
Who wants to bet that, other than McGwire, no one is more upset about Big Mac’s exclusion than Barry Bonds? If the suspicion of steroids is enough to exclude McGwire, whose numbers are undoubtedly Hall of Fame caliber and who was well-liked by both fans and the media, what does that say about Barry Bonds’s chances for induction? Bonds, who never met a performance-enhanching drug he didn’t like, is generally despised by both fans and media everywhere except in San Francisco. The guy is the epitome of a non-class act, selling out his teammates (perhaps even falsely) to try to save his own skin.
Bonds likes to play the victim, but McGwire’s exclusion is going to make any whining if Bonds isn’t elected seem even more petty than his usual complaints. It also completely invalidates any attempts by Bonds to cry racism, an old standby in his bag of tricks.
Sure, McGwire may still be elected. It was only his first year of eligibility. But the baseball writers have spoken. Barry Bonds beware. If only something can prevent him from breaking Henry Aaron’s home run record. Hammerin’ Hank was a class act all the way. And he was victimized in ways Bonds can’t even imagine.
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Ξ September 24th, 2006 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Sports |
The designated hitter has been a controversial subject for baseball since its introduction. It’s all I’ve ever known in my lifetime, but, at the same time, as a baseball purist, I believe pitchers should hit. If nothing else, pitchers batting makes for more interesting strategy.
That having been said, I do believe the DH should be considered for the Most Valuable Player Award, and I disagree with the unwritten policy of disregarding DHs because they don’t play in the field. The Most Valuable Player award, by definition, should go to the person who, by virtue of his play, makes the biggest difference for his team (this same argument can be applied to pitchers, who many think should be ignored for the MVP because they have the separate Cy Young Award).
This is the problem that Boston Red Sox DH David Ortiz faces in the MVP voting this year. Ortiz’s clutch hitting this year has been among the best in baseball hitting. Absolutely unreal, uncanny. He singlehandedly has changed the face of countless Sox games, with game-winning hits in the bottom of the ninth while leading the American League in home runs and RBIs. Let alone the pyschological effect on the opposing pitcher, and the strategy shifts by the opposing team. Ortiz will also do whatever it takes to help his team–few power hitters have ever been as willing as he is to bunt to beat a shift.
No player in baseball does more for his team than Ortiz. Just because he is the DH does not mean he should be ignored for the MVP. This is not a case of an older player extending his career by hitting only. Ortiz is in his prime, and if the AL did not have the DH, Ortiz would be the everyday first baseman. His bat is just too valuable.
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What seems to be lost in the controversy surrounding Barry Bonds passing Babe Ruth’s home run mark is that the current record–and the only one that really matters–looks more and more unattainable.
The soon-to-be forty-three-year-old Bonds has hit only 5 homeruns in the 35 games the Giants have played so far this year. At that pace he will only hit 23 over the course of the full 162-game season (only, of course, being a relative term–23 homeruns is not a bad year). That would put him at 731 for his career, 24 short of Hank Aaron’s 755. Now whether the dropoff in Barry’s production is due to age and bad health or now being off steroids, that means the earliest he could expect to challenge Aaron is the end of next season–assuming no further drop off in production and that he does stay healthy. And when you’re 44, as Bonds will be then, those are big ifs.
So maybe, hopefully, Aaron’s mark will stand and there will be no controversy over a possibly steroid-tainted record.
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