Thanksgiving weekend always brings family, friends, football and food together with random precision. Some years that weekend also hosts the USC-UCLA rivalry game. It used to be every Thanksgiving when the Yard was but a mere sports sapling. It was a treacherous weekend in those days. USC was winning national championships and UCLA was earning their gutty little moniker with an occasional upset of their cross town rivals. Yard allegiance to the Blue and Gold was embedded by mom. She attended UCLA for a year or so before dad promised her the world if she dropped out of school while he cleaned things up in Korea working for the US Army. We have to always respect that decision so UCLA came with the deal.
As the Yard evolved, it became apparent that mom had few allies in this UCLA loyalty even within the family. Apparently, granddad attended USC School of Pharmacy and with the right mix of a USC pounding of UCLA and Tennessee sour mash he could be one mean SOB. Mom had his sister and her husband as UCLA defendants. They were teetotalers with too much southern genteel for school yard taunts. Grandpa usually had the better fuel on the field and in his tank. Cousin Mike was the most vocal Trojan booster and the king of vodka inspired vitriol. It was unclear if he ever attended the two night classes at USC that he claimed. This fact never mitigated his passion for the Cardinal and gold. In any event, there was a lot to be thankful for but UCLA never brought much to the dinner in those days. In the years since, we never looked back on the original commitment with mom but damn it is never easy.
The NBA is moving rapidly into the abyss of irrelevance on the sports landscape. We sort of understand that the NBA player feels that they are the show that people pay to see play. That same show goes on every day on the play grounds of Los Angeles and New York in front of less fortunate and the only money changing hands are side bets. Without a stadium, parking, television rights, merchandising there is no revenue to share. The NBA under David Stern built those revenue streams and underwrote all of the associated risk. The NBA players are taking the stance that the business built by ownership with ownership money is 57% theirs.
Foolishly management had given them 57% of their business in the last labor negotiation.
Understandably, the players wanted to maintain that inequity. The players failed to consider a few things in this disastrous work stoppage. It is lost on them that the economy has been a bit sketchy of late. A whole bunch of people are not working at all. Those that are working are figuring out what to spend their discretionary income on and the NBA is moving off most household wish lists. No one is asking their ownership for a 50/50 split or they are striking! The NBA has a flash of relevance on Christmas Day when the Lakers play someone who has won a recent NBA title or have a grudge with Kobe. Then it disappears to TBS until after the NFL and March Madness ends. If the Christmas games get scrubbed, that will be the unofficial end of this NBA season. 70% of the American public already reported to USA Today that they do not care if the NBA cancels this season. Tick, tock…
Revenue sharing has been an issue in professional sports for the past decade. It is not just the revenue between the players and ownership but small market teams and large market teams. The Lakers spend more money on players than the Indiana Pacers or Milwaukee Bucks. The Yankees spend more than three teams in their division...COMBINED! It is a more complex issue than this Blog is chartered to debate.
Forget about these over entitled professional athletes and owners, what about the inequities in college athletics? The SEC will probably win the BCS title this year again. It will make it six in a row for one conference of sixteen teams. It is not one dominant team. Four different SEC teams have won national championships since 2006, Florida, LSU, Alabama and Auburn. At this moment, the top three teams in the BCS standings are from the SEC. We are quite certain that the math and chemistry departments at these fine institutions have not seen a whole lot of this BCS largess. Donors are quite clear to these schools that the money needs to go to the football program.
Other schools have taken notice. Oregon’s emergence is financially inspired by Nike founder Phil Knight. Oklahoma State is in the mix in no small part to the $200 million T. Boone Pickens gave the school with explicit instructions that the money was not to be frittered away on academics. Pickens wanted every penny spent on improving the football and basketball teams. UCLA Alum and super-agent Michael Ovitz spearheaded a campaign to raise $200 million for UCLA. Would the money upgrade the moribund athletic facilities? Would there be an on-campus football stadium? No, UCLA built this Ronald Regan Medical Center. It is supposedly world class and people are getting cured and stuff but man…priorities!
This is a good place to end this diatribe to wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving from the Yard!
"I celebrated Thanksgiving in an old-fashioned way. I invited everyone in my neighborhood to my house, we had an enormous feast, and then I killed them and took their land." Jon Stewart
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Say it ain't so, Joe!
The Yard usually tries to find the humor or irony in the world and delivers it in a sports themed wrapper. This week there is no humor or irony and unfortunately the wrapper is still tied to sports.
The reign of terror that Jerry Sandusky was allowed to perpetrate at Penn State University is not humorous or ironic. Joe Paterno was collateral damage yesterday when his unprecedented reign at Penn State was terminated by the board of trustees. The trustees took swift actions in an attempt to reconcile events from over a decade ago. Swift action a decade ago would have ended this story before it ended this way.
Tuesday, Joe Pa tried to orchestrate his departure as has been able to do for so many things for the past half century at Happy Valley. He encouraged the trustees not to waste one second of their time thinking about his status as coach. He would gladly retire at the end of the season. Joe figured he could get past this. He lamented that he should have done more as the egregious actions of his former defensive coordinator, Sandusky came to light this past week. The Yard is not sure if Paterno could have done more when these events were brought to his attention. We are most certain that it would have been impossible for him to have done any less.
The rioting on campus by PSU students demanding that Paterno not be fired is ignorant and misguided. Joe had to go, not coach another game and not collect another paycheck from PSU. If anyone’s doubts Paterno’s culpability in these horrific events go the Yard blog site for a link to the grand jury transcripts. It is a rugged read and tears will flow as witness testimony recounts the activities of a sexual predator that Paterno and the PSU administration let roam free.
In 2002, then graduate assistant coach Mike McQueary ventured into the Penn State locker room looking for his tennis shoes. The lights were on when they should not have been and he went to investigate. What he came upon is not for the faint of heart. He found Sandusky raping a ten year old boy in the shower. He ran from the scene and it took him a night of soul searching to report this not to the police but to Paterno which he did the following morning. Joe Pa reported it to the athletic director. His superiors reported it to no one and Sandusky remained a PSU coach for another 18 months.
The story got distilled by the university in this manner. McCreary witnessed a rape and reported it to Joe. Joe reported that something might have happened that was of a sexual nature. The administration testified that it was merely horse play and possibly the boy’s genitals were touched. The University looked out for the University not the victim. Quietly, Sandusky was allowed to retire in 2003 while being promoted to the position of professor emeritus. He was awarded a full pension and full access to the University’s facilities. He was instructed not to bring any children on the campus anymore. Penn State really stood their ground on that note. They knew what he was doing and they firmly told him not to do it on campus. They still did not tell authorities.
Sandusky molested, raped and abused another 7-8 young boys in the years that followed. He was in a position of trust and influence as the head of his foundation. He was not helping disadvantaged youth, he was trolling for them. The PSU administration knew what type of demon he was. Monsters that rape young boys did not make an error in judgment or a mistake. They have violated the core of our very existence. They are demons that need to be locked away from society. The fact that Paterno allowed Sandusky to continue to coach and work in the foundation with immunity is a crime of monstrous proportions. Joe, wished he had done more? Joe, would you let one of your 27 grandchildren spend the night at the Sandusky house? You wished you had done more? You did virtually nothing hoping it would all go away and your legacy would live on untarnished.
This story is not over. There will be more victims. There will be Catholic Church size lawsuits and payouts. Penn State will never be the same place. Joe Paterno will never coach another game and his career will forever be tarnished. The victims will never recover and their lives will never be the same. PSU student body, protest the actions of the administrators who are now indicted for covering this up. Protest the lack of institutional control that your university has displayed. Do not spend another second in front of Joe Pa’s house praising his saintly leadership and legendary career. He allowed a demon to operate in your midst for over a decade. What if the victims were your nephew or your cousin?
Interestingly enough, the NCAA has not said anything yet. If Sandusky had given an athlete an extra tee shirt or dinner, PSU would be on probation and lose scholarships and bowl games. Rape a ten year old in the shower and it is outside their jurisdiction. USC was cited for lack of institutional control when Reggie Bush’ parents took money from agents. PSU allowed a known sexual predator to roam free on their campus for over ten years.
Humor and irony will return to the Yard soon. Today we pray for the victims. We all need to protect our youth and keep an eye out for the monsters that walk among us. May Jerry Sandusky find out what rape is all about daily for the rest of his miserable life behind bars.
The reign of terror that Jerry Sandusky was allowed to perpetrate at Penn State University is not humorous or ironic. Joe Paterno was collateral damage yesterday when his unprecedented reign at Penn State was terminated by the board of trustees. The trustees took swift actions in an attempt to reconcile events from over a decade ago. Swift action a decade ago would have ended this story before it ended this way.
Tuesday, Joe Pa tried to orchestrate his departure as has been able to do for so many things for the past half century at Happy Valley. He encouraged the trustees not to waste one second of their time thinking about his status as coach. He would gladly retire at the end of the season. Joe figured he could get past this. He lamented that he should have done more as the egregious actions of his former defensive coordinator, Sandusky came to light this past week. The Yard is not sure if Paterno could have done more when these events were brought to his attention. We are most certain that it would have been impossible for him to have done any less.
The rioting on campus by PSU students demanding that Paterno not be fired is ignorant and misguided. Joe had to go, not coach another game and not collect another paycheck from PSU. If anyone’s doubts Paterno’s culpability in these horrific events go the Yard blog site for a link to the grand jury transcripts. It is a rugged read and tears will flow as witness testimony recounts the activities of a sexual predator that Paterno and the PSU administration let roam free.
In 2002, then graduate assistant coach Mike McQueary ventured into the Penn State locker room looking for his tennis shoes. The lights were on when they should not have been and he went to investigate. What he came upon is not for the faint of heart. He found Sandusky raping a ten year old boy in the shower. He ran from the scene and it took him a night of soul searching to report this not to the police but to Paterno which he did the following morning. Joe Pa reported it to the athletic director. His superiors reported it to no one and Sandusky remained a PSU coach for another 18 months.
The story got distilled by the university in this manner. McCreary witnessed a rape and reported it to Joe. Joe reported that something might have happened that was of a sexual nature. The administration testified that it was merely horse play and possibly the boy’s genitals were touched. The University looked out for the University not the victim. Quietly, Sandusky was allowed to retire in 2003 while being promoted to the position of professor emeritus. He was awarded a full pension and full access to the University’s facilities. He was instructed not to bring any children on the campus anymore. Penn State really stood their ground on that note. They knew what he was doing and they firmly told him not to do it on campus. They still did not tell authorities.
Sandusky molested, raped and abused another 7-8 young boys in the years that followed. He was in a position of trust and influence as the head of his foundation. He was not helping disadvantaged youth, he was trolling for them. The PSU administration knew what type of demon he was. Monsters that rape young boys did not make an error in judgment or a mistake. They have violated the core of our very existence. They are demons that need to be locked away from society. The fact that Paterno allowed Sandusky to continue to coach and work in the foundation with immunity is a crime of monstrous proportions. Joe, wished he had done more? Joe, would you let one of your 27 grandchildren spend the night at the Sandusky house? You wished you had done more? You did virtually nothing hoping it would all go away and your legacy would live on untarnished.
This story is not over. There will be more victims. There will be Catholic Church size lawsuits and payouts. Penn State will never be the same place. Joe Paterno will never coach another game and his career will forever be tarnished. The victims will never recover and their lives will never be the same. PSU student body, protest the actions of the administrators who are now indicted for covering this up. Protest the lack of institutional control that your university has displayed. Do not spend another second in front of Joe Pa’s house praising his saintly leadership and legendary career. He allowed a demon to operate in your midst for over a decade. What if the victims were your nephew or your cousin?
Interestingly enough, the NCAA has not said anything yet. If Sandusky had given an athlete an extra tee shirt or dinner, PSU would be on probation and lose scholarships and bowl games. Rape a ten year old in the shower and it is outside their jurisdiction. USC was cited for lack of institutional control when Reggie Bush’ parents took money from agents. PSU allowed a known sexual predator to roam free on their campus for over ten years.
Humor and irony will return to the Yard soon. Today we pray for the victims. We all need to protect our youth and keep an eye out for the monsters that walk among us. May Jerry Sandusky find out what rape is all about daily for the rest of his miserable life behind bars.
Keep the rally alive!
The Occupy somewhere ralliers are springing up everywhere. The Yard was taken by their dilettante efforts and strident spirit in saying, “We are mad as hell and we are not going to take it anymore!” The Yard decided to join the cause to support their cause. This past Saturday, we occupied our sofa for most of the day. Pictures of the occupation will eventually be displayed at the blog spot. It was a particularly fortuitous weekend to occupy our sofa with USC playing Stanford in a thriller. We were fervent in our desire to support those occupiers everywhere with our La-Z-boy recliner, refrigerator stocked with beverages and a remote control to take us around the nation with limited motion. There was nothing that could stop our fervor. Not on this Saturday, no way. Monday was a business trip but we have committed to be full tilt sofa every Saturday until stuff gets better.
With each passing year the demise of Major League Baseball is predicted and it is derided for its pace and relevance in today’s sports universe. The nation’s oldest pastime has been challenged to shorten the games and become more in touch with a generation of fans who might not appreciate the nuances of the historic game while texting.
In Los Angeles, most fans were unaware that the games were so long because they listen to the last two innings of any game they attend on the drive home. The games can sometimes be four hours or two and a half because there is not a game clock. The team with the lead does not have the option to run out the clock. The team that is behind only has to keep the rally alive. It is what makes baseball special in sports history and in Yard patronage.
The 2011 baseball season came down to the last hour of the final day of the season before the Saint Louis Cardinals knew that they were in the post season. The Cardinals were 10 ½ games out in of a wild card spot in late August. Albert Pujols was leaving. ManagerTony LaRussa was probably gone and soon so would be the 2011 Cardinal Season.
So it should not have been a surprise Thursday night in Saint Louis, the Cardinals were down to their last strike twice in an elimination game. If the batter strikes out, the Cardinals not only lose the game, they would have lost the 2011 World Series. If they lost, that is all that would be remembered. In the bottom of the 9th with two out and with two strikes, an unlikely hero in David Freese banged a two run triple off the right field wall to tie the game. It was historic but it only tied the game. Josh Hamilton looking like the Natural gave the Ranger another two run lead with a majestic stroke that silenced the crowd. In the bottom of the 10th, and most of the mojo juice spent in the Cardinals down one with two out and gray bird Lance Berkman strokes a two strike single to tie the game. That spent all of the Mojo juice Ranger coach Ron Washington could brew in the visitor’s dugout David Freese puts the ball where only the fans can catch it in the 11th and the rest is the history of baseball. Baseball is much like life, there is always enough time if there are enough out. You can never lose if you just keep rallying.
Bryant Gumbel shook up the sports universe this past week by making very strong comments about NBA Commissioner David Stern. Gumbel stated in an editorial during his HBO show that “Stern’s version of what’s been going on behind closed doors has, of course, been disputed. But his efforts were typical of a commissioner who has always seemed eager to be viewed as some kind of modern plantation overseer, treating NBA men as if they were his boys.”
The Yard is not sure who should be more outraged by Gumbel’s comments Stern or the NBA players he apparently was supporting with that comment. It is also an outrage to the history of racial atrocities to compare an NBA player to a slave. The horrors that happened to a slave on a plantation are not akin to the lifestyle of any NBA benchwarmer anywhere.
David Stern is arguably the best commissioner in any professional sport. He is accessible to the press, hard-nosed and creative. Gumbel and the NBA players should hearken back to the days before Stern was commissioner in 1983. There were 23 teams. There were no Nike shoe deals. There was no Dream Team. There was an awful TV contract and the NBA playoffs were on tape delay after the late news in most markets. There were rampant drug problems throughout the league which were well documented in the eight hour news cycle of the day. In 1982, three NBA players were making $1 million a year or more, Kareem Jabbar, Moses Malone and Magic Johnson. The average salary for an NBA player was $65,000 per year. A player could hardly spawn a second family on those paltry dollars.
Since Stern became commissioner that NBA has added seven new teams. Each team employs fifteen players, multiple coaches, back office personnel and staff. Stern’s NBA has built nine new basketball arenas employing hundreds of people playing before thousands of fans. The NBA now enjoys the most lucrative contract in league history. NBA games are televised live on TBS, TNT, ESPN, ABC and multiple regional sports networks almost nightly. The NBA expanded into Canada and internationally. NBA player jersey sales rank among the highest of all sports. The average player salary is $6.5 million and over 20 players make more than $15 million annually. The NBA is in a much better place since David Stern took the helm of this flagging sport. The plantation was never a better place for the slaves.
Bryant Gumbel took issue with Stern being an egocentric and self-centered. This is very interesting commentary from one of the real prima donna loads in television history. The celebrity as diva bar is set rather high and Bryant has cleared it into the finals at most career stops. Gumbel’s ego, back stabbing and tirades have been well documented from his days as the host on the Today to his current position at HBO. He is Wilbon like in his positioning of his question as more important than the answer from his guest. His comments were to shock us into thinking that Gumbel is part of our social relevance. I forgot what were we talking about again?
“Since baseball time is measured only in outs, all you have to do is succeed utterly; keep hitting, keep the rally alive and you have defeated time, you remain forever young.” Roger Angell
With each passing year the demise of Major League Baseball is predicted and it is derided for its pace and relevance in today’s sports universe. The nation’s oldest pastime has been challenged to shorten the games and become more in touch with a generation of fans who might not appreciate the nuances of the historic game while texting.
In Los Angeles, most fans were unaware that the games were so long because they listen to the last two innings of any game they attend on the drive home. The games can sometimes be four hours or two and a half because there is not a game clock. The team with the lead does not have the option to run out the clock. The team that is behind only has to keep the rally alive. It is what makes baseball special in sports history and in Yard patronage.
The 2011 baseball season came down to the last hour of the final day of the season before the Saint Louis Cardinals knew that they were in the post season. The Cardinals were 10 ½ games out in of a wild card spot in late August. Albert Pujols was leaving. ManagerTony LaRussa was probably gone and soon so would be the 2011 Cardinal Season.
So it should not have been a surprise Thursday night in Saint Louis, the Cardinals were down to their last strike twice in an elimination game. If the batter strikes out, the Cardinals not only lose the game, they would have lost the 2011 World Series. If they lost, that is all that would be remembered. In the bottom of the 9th with two out and with two strikes, an unlikely hero in David Freese banged a two run triple off the right field wall to tie the game. It was historic but it only tied the game. Josh Hamilton looking like the Natural gave the Ranger another two run lead with a majestic stroke that silenced the crowd. In the bottom of the 10th, and most of the mojo juice spent in the Cardinals down one with two out and gray bird Lance Berkman strokes a two strike single to tie the game. That spent all of the Mojo juice Ranger coach Ron Washington could brew in the visitor’s dugout David Freese puts the ball where only the fans can catch it in the 11th and the rest is the history of baseball. Baseball is much like life, there is always enough time if there are enough out. You can never lose if you just keep rallying.
Bryant Gumbel shook up the sports universe this past week by making very strong comments about NBA Commissioner David Stern. Gumbel stated in an editorial during his HBO show that “Stern’s version of what’s been going on behind closed doors has, of course, been disputed. But his efforts were typical of a commissioner who has always seemed eager to be viewed as some kind of modern plantation overseer, treating NBA men as if they were his boys.”
The Yard is not sure who should be more outraged by Gumbel’s comments Stern or the NBA players he apparently was supporting with that comment. It is also an outrage to the history of racial atrocities to compare an NBA player to a slave. The horrors that happened to a slave on a plantation are not akin to the lifestyle of any NBA benchwarmer anywhere.
David Stern is arguably the best commissioner in any professional sport. He is accessible to the press, hard-nosed and creative. Gumbel and the NBA players should hearken back to the days before Stern was commissioner in 1983. There were 23 teams. There were no Nike shoe deals. There was no Dream Team. There was an awful TV contract and the NBA playoffs were on tape delay after the late news in most markets. There were rampant drug problems throughout the league which were well documented in the eight hour news cycle of the day. In 1982, three NBA players were making $1 million a year or more, Kareem Jabbar, Moses Malone and Magic Johnson. The average salary for an NBA player was $65,000 per year. A player could hardly spawn a second family on those paltry dollars.
Since Stern became commissioner that NBA has added seven new teams. Each team employs fifteen players, multiple coaches, back office personnel and staff. Stern’s NBA has built nine new basketball arenas employing hundreds of people playing before thousands of fans. The NBA now enjoys the most lucrative contract in league history. NBA games are televised live on TBS, TNT, ESPN, ABC and multiple regional sports networks almost nightly. The NBA expanded into Canada and internationally. NBA player jersey sales rank among the highest of all sports. The average player salary is $6.5 million and over 20 players make more than $15 million annually. The NBA is in a much better place since David Stern took the helm of this flagging sport. The plantation was never a better place for the slaves.
Bryant Gumbel took issue with Stern being an egocentric and self-centered. This is very interesting commentary from one of the real prima donna loads in television history. The celebrity as diva bar is set rather high and Bryant has cleared it into the finals at most career stops. Gumbel’s ego, back stabbing and tirades have been well documented from his days as the host on the Today to his current position at HBO. He is Wilbon like in his positioning of his question as more important than the answer from his guest. His comments were to shock us into thinking that Gumbel is part of our social relevance. I forgot what were we talking about again?
“Since baseball time is measured only in outs, all you have to do is succeed utterly; keep hitting, keep the rally alive and you have defeated time, you remain forever young.” Roger Angell
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