JULY 15, 2009
AN OLD SHARK
The last time Greg Norman won a tournament was 1997, and now at 53 even though he’s a long shot, Norman is going to give the Open Championship a shot.
The treacherous terrain at Turnberry will test anyone and your long and short game better be in top form if you want to be a top of the leader board when the day ends on Sunday.
Maybe the old Shark is rejuvenated. Norman married tennis champ Chris Evert last year. Or maybe he thinks he can do well, even win. Norman has only won 2 majors in his career, but one of them was the Open Championship at Turnberry.
Through out his career The Shark has had many close finishes and many collapses. This time, however, there is no pressure and playing in familiar waters may give this old Shark an edge.
It’s hard to bet against Eldrick Woods but maybe this Shark can catch that Tiger.
JULY 14, 2009
WHEN $12 BILLION IS NOT ENOUGH
When you’re Stanford University and you’ve just lost $5 billion of your $17 billion endowment, (now you’re at $12 billion, ESPN) you have to cut back. The Cardinals have cut back, like some funding to the Men’s fencing team, they have eliminated jobs in the athletic department and are not finished with the fiscal purging.
Am I missing something? Since when is $12 billion insufficient to run all your sports programs? 1% interest on $12 billion is $120 million. Now I’m sure those bright kids at Stanford can figure out how to attain a better than 1% return on that endowment or a portion there of. And even if they couldn’t I’m sure they can figure out how to maximize that measly 1%.
I have a problem understanding how they can’t figure this out in Palo Alto. Other schools have eliminated teams to save money, e.g. University of Washington has discontinued its swim teams, although this may be temporary. But other schools are not sitting on $12 billion.
I’m perturbed by this because a sport is not an excess. Superfluous spending should be eliminated and maybe it already has been. Maybe you don’t use a private jet to get to the competition. But until you have no other choice and the school is really struggling, let’s keep the fencing.
Oh, and any other sport even though it’s not called football.
JULY 13, 2009
THE JEALOUS TYPE
When you’re as gorgeous, as rich and as famous as David Beckham life can get pretty testy. People will take shots at you. Unauthorized books will be written about you. It all goes with the territory. But they say there is honor among thieves and your teammates should be on the same team.
Landon Donovan was quoted, in an upcoming book about Beckham, stating that Beckham was “STINGY” and called him a ”BAD CAPTAIN”. I don’t know, looks like jealousy has reared it’s ugly head.
Now it’s easy to be envious here but Donovan is out of line. There is no reason to besmear the guy publicly. The thing to do, is NOTHING or say it more eloquently, be less direct.
Don’t say the guy is a bad captain, say instead, you would not have gone off to play in Italy when your team needed you. And no matter how cheap Beckham is there no excuse to bring that up in public interview.
Jealousy is an ugly thing. When I watched Beckham play for the Galaxy last year it was very obvious to me that the opposing players were trying to hurt the guy. They were tackling, tripping and taking his feet out from under him. The whole thing was obvious and sad.
Some people are better looking, smarter and wealthier, that’s life. LIVE WITH IT!
JULY 12, 2009
ARGUING SEMANTICS
An amateur golfer, Dusty Schmidt wants to remain an amateur but the USGA argues that he’s a professional.
PROFESSIONAL - Following an occupation as a means of livelihood or for gain
The reason why the USGA is characterizes Dusty as a professional is because Dusty has a bet going for $1 million to anyone who can beat Schmidt at 72 holes of golf AND a game of poker. He advertised this challenge on his web site. There was also a press release. Does the fact that Schmidt may win $1 million in a bet that involves golf make golf an occupation he pursues?
A few years back I was visiting the New Jersey shore, A.K.A. THE SHORE. I happened to enter into a LIMBO contest, which at the expense of a severe groin pull I won. If there was a cash prize would that make me a professional LIMBO-ER? What if I bet someone that I would win, would that do it?
The answer is NO!
People who pursue or follow something as a means of livelihood, i.e. play golf for money and people who bet on golf are two different things. If anything Schmidt is a gambler, he stated that he has won millions gambling, mostly from online poker. So Schmidt’s profession, from which he derives his living, is poker or gambling, not golf.
The hidden agenda here, is the USGA’s disdain for gambling. The organization wishes to keep it’s sport clean of such undesirable, perhaps even stigmatic activity. And it’s grasping at legal straws to preclude Dusty from playing golf.
Dusty, next time, keep it quiet.
JULY 11, 2009
THE RECESSION CATCHES UP TO NASCAR
I watch the financial networks and many times they report on the business of sports. One of the networks reported on NASCAR. I know how big a business it is, what I did not know is how the sponsors are affected by this recession.
Advertising is down there are fewer and fewer logos on the cars and fewer fans in the grandstands. Corporate America has withdrawn some of its marketing dollars, enough so that NASCAR is a little worried, and worried they should be. NASCAR has exploded since 2000. Its television deals with TNT and FOX yield in excess of $2 billion per year. And racing is expensive.
Cars must hit the race track to have a race. It costs over $600,000 for an owner to put on one race, and sponsors cover most of that cost. With fewer and fewer advertising dollars allocated to NASCAR the cost for owners will rise higher and higher.
This may have a negative effect on the teams. It’s possible that owners will choose who gets to drive at a particular race because they can’t afford to put both drivers on the track. The recession may play a hand in determining how many drivers are kept on the team. Make no mistake about it lost jobs and rising unemployment may change the way fans know the sport today.
Time will tell.
The enormous popularity of the sport will ensure its survival, but at what cost?
JULY 10, 2009
NCAA v. Bobby Bowden (FSU)
The NCAA has penalized Florida State University Football by taking away game wins, as much as 14 wins are at stake. Where do I begin? There is an old saying that comes to mind, “The Punishment Should Fit the Crime” and in this case as in many of NCAA cases it does not.
I’m on coach Bowden’s side on this one. For a football coach to be able to monitor and be responsible for the 100 plus players in his charge is not reasonable. You can’t expect that coach to police every movement that his players make once off the field. Which is what the NCAA is proposing Bowden do.
Students will do what they want, despite the consequences. The students in this case cheated on some on line music history exam. Now unless the athletic department or the football program facilitated this conduct in some way, unless the staff or assistants somehow encouraged, helped or covered up then by all accounts this penalty is wholly inequitable.
I’m certain that coach Bowden gives several speeches a year on how the members of the team are to conduct themselves. I’m sure he spells out the consequences for breaking the rules. There is only so much he can do.
Taking way these wins would be the same as taking away vacation days from the parents of the students who cheated. It sounds ridiculous because it is.
What does the NCAA think will happen now, Bowden will give one extra speeches on proper conduct, as if the numerous talks he already gives are not enough. And does the NCAA think that by taking away these wins the cheating will stop.
Bowden is not at fault here, at least not in this case.
JULY 9, 2009
IN THIS ECONOMY
Even the NBA is feeling the pinch. The association announced today that the salary cap for each team will be $57 million, $1 million less than last year.
This is a first for me I’ve never seen anything like this. The recession has affected even the ultra rich NBA, a sports monopoly with no competition. But this salary cap is really a façade because there is this Luxury Tax thing they have. A team can go over the soft cap if it’s willing to pay extra. This cap does not level the playing field. The rich, large market teams like the Lakers, Knicks and Celtics will pay extra to sign the big talent.
Make no mistake about it the recession is getting worse the NBA employs a financial staff that monitors the markets and accountants who crunch numbers to figure this out.
The cap is said to be even lower in 2010, perhaps as low as $50 million. This is due to the league’s decreasing income. The BRI or basketball related income is expected to decrease by 2.5%. Folks just don’t have a lot of discretionary income these days, the stock market is down 40%, unemployment is up to 9.5% and climbing with no relief in sight.
So it’s not just you out there feeling the pain. What the league should really do is encourage each club to reduce ticket and merchandise prices and this may still happen. But to see such drastic measures from an industry that is usually not affected by recessions tells you this is no ordinary downturn.
This actually IS your grandfather’s recession.
JULY 8, 2009
THE TWITTER KING
Chad Johnson, A.K.A OCHO CINCO, is yapping again how he’s going to wow the league with his TD celebrations, or that he’s going to twitter or tweet or what ever the heck you call it. It’s important Chad or Ocho or 8 or whatever the heck he wants to call yourself that your audience should laugh WITH YOU not AT YOU.
I want to write that I like Chad. I think he’s a very good receiver and he has a good sense of humor, but sometimes, it isn’t funny. Don’t make yourself bigger than the team, don’t make your celebration more important than winning and don’t think anyone cares about the class clown when it’s time to take the test.
Laughs are good but wins are better.
I understand that Chad is working hard to get back to be the kind of receiver who has 90+ catches 4 of the 5 years from 2003 to 2007. Like I wrote this is a very good receiver, but letting everyone know that you will be TWITTERING OR TWEETING during the game takes way from the task at hand.
This is not the attention you want and this is not the achievement you want to be remembered for.
Who does anyone remember, the guy with the end zone dance or the guy with the ring.
JULY 7, 2009
THE UNQUESTIONABLY STUPID
In October of this year a new professional football league is set to debut, The United Football League, (UFL). I’m not that good a writer to articulate how stupefying this idea is, but I’ll take a shot.
To put it simply, this will be a colossal failure. The UFL will consist of 4 teams, for starters and make that for finishers as well, this fiasco of a venture will not survive long enough to add any more teams.
What strikes me is how grown, and I assume experienced, people/investors don’t know any better. It takes quite a bit of money to get something like this off the ground and on to the grid iron. I assume the people behind this venture are wealthy, intelligent and knowledgeable. Yet with all these tools at their disposal the idea they chose to invest in is a professional football league which will compete directly with the NFL.
THIS ONE IS A HEAD SCRATCHER.
I’m sure these savvy individuals are familiar with the USFL, which tried in every way to be successful, but lost $163 million in 3 years. The USFL understood that they needed to attract the top athletes so they paid out of this worlds salaries to such notables as Steve Young, $40 Million for 10 years in 1984 (LA Express) and Herschel Walker (NJ Generals). These hyperbolic contracts were unsustainable and eventually led the USFL into bankruptcy and the famous antitrust law suit against the NFL where the NFL was found guilty but awarded the USFL $1.00 enough to buy a subway token to get to defunct-ville.
The same fate would befall on the AFL, the Arena Football League. It went belly up as well. But it was not a total loss, the AFL did yield Kurt Warner, who has taken 2 separate teams to the Super Bowl.
The NFL is entrenched in our American consciousness and no other league will supplant it.
Which brings me to my point, this league WILL fail. The foul stench of desperation has already permeated the air. The new UFL is thinking of signing that sadist, Michael Vick.
Good luck I say, and try not to have a dog as a mascot.
JULY 5-6, 2009
NO MATCH
On this day of July 5th, 2009 Roger Federer is the greatest tennis player of all time. Federer defeated Andy Roddick in a grueling 5 set match, 14-12 in the fifth, to take his 15th singles title and his 6th Wimbledon title.
I didn’t think Roddick would play as well as he did but he got motivated for the dual. This would have been quite an upset, but it was not to be as RFed was too much at the end. RFed passes Pete Sampras (14 titles) to become the greatest winner in tennis and has a French Open on his resume, something that Sampras was unable to do.
Federer will be 28 on August 8th and is currently the world’s #1 player.
The US Open is the last major of the year and Federer will be the favorite in New York. He has won two Grand Slams this year (French Open, Wimbledon) and with Nadal struggling to stay healthy Federer may take the US Open trophy as well
Roger should add a few more titles by the time he is done, a total that may never be surpassed.
15 and counting.
JULY 4, 2009
2 IS THE NEW 1
Serena Williams takes her 3ed Wimbledon title defeating her older sister. Serena had 12 aces and 72 for the tournament, a record. The dynamic duo has won 8 of the singles titles handed out in London this decade, now that’s dominance.
Venus was not at full strength her taped left knee was a noticeable hindrance. She did not need to be at 100% to beat the others but to best her sister she needed to be in the best shape.
Serena has won 2 Grand Slams so far this year but is currently ranked #2 by the WTA she is behind Dinara Safina (Russia), who has not won any. This is another example of how these computer rankings with their convoluted mathematical formulas come up with absurd results.
Maybe the Russians devised the WTA computer program.
Of course at the end of the day or career no one will put more importance on the weeks a player spends at #1 than on how many Grand Slams a player has won.
And at 27, Serena has some more Grand Slams ahead to look forward to.
JULY 3, 2009
BEWILDERING CURIOUS SYSTEM (BCS)
The BCS is simply a creation by the rich schools to maintain their wealth under the pretence of fairness. It is a trust, an agreement, an arrangement among the BOWLS and the NCAA to share the wealth amongst themselves in the glorious name of TRADITION College Football is the only sport that does not have a playoff system. For many painful years the winner would be determined by a vote, YES, a vote. The AP writers and the NCAA Football Coaches would vote on the National Champion. There would be NO GAME PLAYED. How should I describe this, STUPEFYING, ABSURD, RIDICULOUS, UNFAIR, MORONIC, need I write on.
You see the Bowls, A.K.A. “TRUST MEMBERS” have been in bed with the NCAA for over 75 years. And now because of this long standing arrangement they put forth the argument that it’s “TRADITION”. They were willing to appease the critics some what by instituting a 5th game so that a team from outside one of the six BCS conferences, (BIG 10, PAC 10, BIG EAST, ACC, SEC, BIG 12,) is allowed to participate in the cash bonanza.
This 5th game has brought us instant classics. In the greatest bowl game that I’ve ever had the pleasure to witness the Boise State Broncos defeated the mighty Oklahoma Sooners in over time and last year the Utah Utes DOMINATED Alabama.
Yet still there is no playoff.
There is some silly computer program that spits out some ranking and the NCAA defends it’s fairness by saying the computer is unbiased, but the program takes into account the same AP writers’ votes or some ESPN Poll or some nonsense OTHER THAN A PLAYOFF.
David Frohnmayer, president of the University of Oregon and chairman of the BCS Presidential Oversight Committee, state the proposals for a playoff system "disrespect our academic calendars, and they utterly lack a business plan."
Well what else would you expect the Chairman of the BCS Oversight Committee to say. After all, the University of Oregon (PAC 10) is a schools that belongs to one of the conferences that gets an automatic bid to play in a BCS game where over $15,000,000 is shared by the two participants.
It’s about the money you see, it always is. They, the NCAA and the big 6 conferences have it and they don’t want to share, that’s what monopolies do. And as far as the academic calendar is concerned, that insults my intelligence. Players don’t go to class, the teams are practicing for a 2-4 weeks before the games. A 16 team playoff will not alter the current schedule one bit. Four weeks of games would yield more revenue as well.
The NCAA wouldn’t possibly say no to more revenue would they.
JULY 2, 2009
DOG DAY OF SUMMER
I’ll tell you straight out, I don’t follow Baseball. So this time of year, July mainly, is really hard for me, Football training camps are a month away and college Football is nearly two months away.
What to do? This dilemma is not easily solved. So I’ve come up with a few ideas;
1. I could watch the NFL network, but there isn’t anything going on this time of year.
2. I could watch some old game on the Classic, but I probably already know the outcome.
3. I could go on TWITTER and I have, but the experience is overrated.
4. I could try to watch Baseball, but it’s not October so what’s the point.
5. I could try to see THE TRANSFORMERS but not even Megan Fox can make that watchable.
There are, however, some Wimbledon story lines brewing. Federer going for #15, the most major wins all time. The Williams sisters are on a collision course to meet in the finals. And I have to write these are intriguing stories indeed. But what then, after the last serve has been returned, what then?
Maybe Baseball can institute tackling.
JULY 1, 2009
REAL SPENDTHRIFT
Spendthrift – a person who spends possessions or money wastefully or extravagantly.
I am writing today about Evander “The Real Deal” Holyfield, who’s 54,000-square-foot home in Atlanta is in foreclosure. WHAT?!?! You read me, FORECLOSURE.
I’m not very good in math but let me just run the numbers for you. The “REAL DEAL” has grossed over $200 million, just in the ring, we’re not even talking endorsements. The man made $34 million in the last Tyson fight where half his ear was bitten off (1997.)
Let’s just say, for argument sake, that Holyfield paid 50% in taxes which would leave the poor guy with $100 mill. 2% interest is $2 million per year earned and that’s taxed at 50% so the guy is left with $1million to live on. Of course Evander couldn’t live on that kind of cash. And like so many before him he spent with reckless abandon.
Apparently the REAL DEAL has been real busy. Holyfield is rumored to have 11 children, RUMORED? Does that mean there could possibly be more?
However many there are, Holyfield has not been keeping up with the payments.
Not splurging on those Trojans seems pretty stupid right about now huh big felloa’
I thought BREWSETER’S MILLIONS was just a movie. Oh, but leave it to those wacky athletes to show you how life can indeed imitate art.
Tags: Boxing Evander Holyfield "real Deal" Nfl Nba Ocho Cinco
