The Season of the Witch

The polarization of American politics started a long time ago and congealed in the summer of 1968 with the Chicago riots at the DNC. The protesters were rioting against a Democratic presidency that was escalating the war in Viet Nam. The Chicago Seven were immortalized on Netflix recalling these troubling times under Democrat leadership. President Johnson escalated the unpopular war and then opted out of running again and being held accountable during a second contentious term.  Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King were emerging political icons.  Both would be dead by assassins’ bullets before the August DNC.  It was an overwrought time of civil unrest, young men coming home in body bags being protested against a canvas of sex, drugs and rock and roll. We survived that and sex, drugs and rock and roll became big business. Hopefully, we pivot to a better consequence this time as well.

 

If another week goes by without Joe Biden being president, we all are going to die.  With his steely eyed stares or maybe half-closed eyes he has been ogling at me through my television with unwarranted access.  He said he will vanquish all enemies known and unknown, real or imagined.  If the alien invasion happens, Joe is ready.  He is going to be like Jeff Daniels or Bill Pullman, yeah Bill Pullman in Independence Day ready to jump in a fighter plane.  Barrack will be pulled in like  Capt. Will Smith.  Then Joe goes bi-partisan and has Mitch McConnell playing the Randy Quaid role. Tough talking, Sheriff Joe is ready for any battle as soon as he takes off his Aviators and remembers where he is.

 

In the most improbable of pandemics, the impossible has happened.  The baseball season was played to a conclusion and the Dodgers were crowned champions. It had been an arduous 32 years since their last title.  It was a lifetime for the Yardlings. It was a difficult stretch in myopian history.  Dodger nation has sustained long droughts between championships previously.  In Dodger history, this cavern of best effort not being best was not unprecedented.  The original Dodger team name was the Brooklyn Grays in 1883.  The Dodgers went to the fall classic for the first time as the Brooklyn Robins and lost to the Babe Ruth lead Boston Red Sox in 1916. The Robins persevered through the 1918-19 pandemic. The Zack Wheat would lead Robins to the fall classic in post pandemic 1920 and lose to the Cleveland Indians. The Dodgers would make their first named appearance in 1941.  The franchise's first title was with Jackie Robinson and the Boys of Summer in 1955.  It would take eight WS appearances and 52 years for the Dodgers to win that first title.  What made the past 32 years rough, was the hated Giants won three.  Yard psyche did not anticipate Dodger drought and Giant cornucopia of titles in parallel universes. It was to be and the trajectory of the two franchises seems to have been recalibrated towards historical truths.

 

The haters have been crushing the Yard customer service line with cries of the validity of a 60-game season, Justin Turner COVID party and just hating on the blue.  It was a short season but any baseball fan who had a dog in the fight loved it.  Every game mattered.  There were subtle changes that moved things along at a faster pace.  The DH might be in the NL to stay.  We liked starting a runner at 2^nd base in extra innings.  The playoffs were greatly expanded and required the Champion Dodgers to win more playoff games in one postseason than any team in MLB history.  Hopefully, it is a record that is never broken.  Not because of Dodger narcissus but because it would require another pandemic shortened season. Baseball  grappled through COVID, stumbled, recovered and declared a champion.  It was good for many in this nation and all of Dodger nation.  It was unfortunate that Turner got called out for COVID at the end.  He did not know when the game began but he did when he went on the field to celebrate the championship.  No one at the Yard has a problem with that. He was not a super spreader at a college frat party.  He was in a select group of healthy well-paid humans.  Turner fought with all of those core Dodgers through two previous WS failures.  He might be gone next year.  Party on JT!

 

Before the Dodgers could claim their first title of this century, the Lakers had to secure theirs for the first time since 2006.  Los Angeles has had a long title drought.  The Lakers and Dodgers refilled our champagne flutes during this season of the witch.  Lebron had declared at the first Laker game, pre-COVID following Kobe’s merciless death, that he would carry the team in his honor.  He could not have honored Mamba with no better statement.  Basketball had a more fractious season than baseball with fits and starts but the bubble was effective.  Not a single COVID case and a 17^th title for the Lakers franchise.  There were great storylines with Pat Riley and the Miami heat.  At the end of the day Jimmy Butler was really good but the Lakers were really better.  

 

In the clubhouse: The Hunter Biden narrative was floated and flouted throughout the election season.  It never seemed to get much traction which is tied to the Giuliani taint associated with its origins.  With all of Biden’s moral outrage about any potential impropriety about his son getting a $50,000/month job in Ukraine when he was VP just does not pass the smell test.  Beau Biden is hailed as an American hero, Hunter not so much. Hunter was kicked out of the Navy for failing a drug test.  He did date his dead brother’s widow for two years.  They did not have any children together, but he did impregnate a stripper while they were dating. Hunter met her at The Mpire club in DC. Ms. Roberts was a featured dancer under the name Dallas.  Hallie Biden had seen enough and ditched his cheating ass.  Hunter moved on to Melissa Cohen and married her after a solid six days of dating.  You cannot make this stuff up.  Cohen and Biden added the fifth Biden to his clan this year. Joe said there was nothing unethical in Hunter’s behavior. I cannot find any ethics in any of his behavior. If his last name was not Biden, does he get that Ukraine gig? Sounds like Hunter has the kind of rare talent that a Ukrainian gas company in a corrupt country could use.  As well as some sperm donor clinics.  If Biden wins, the Secret Service might have to protect all of these children.  They have demanded that Hunter have a vasectomy.

 

2021:  Two titles in the bank for 2020 and 2021 in the approach window.  Professional sports are glad to get their seasons under the wire.  Baseball is in good shape by finishing at about the same time as advertised albeit light 100 games and millions of fans.  The NBA has a serious situation.  The 2021 season should be starting right about now.  It does not get relevant until Christmas, but games are played.  The teams want a break until February-March with an abbreviated season.  The NBA wants a January start with a 72-game season.  The Olympics are still on for August and that is a huge marketing tool for the NBA.  The season might not be complete by then for any breathing room for the Olympics.  There might still be COVID, there might not be a vaccine and all of the games are indoors.  Let us enjoy this moment for now. Hail Los Angeles, City of Champions!

Silver Linings Playbook

 If there is any silver lining of the pandemic, it is the timing.  Not that 2020 was the best year for a virulent disease killing millions, that is never a good time for that.  But in 2020, technologies that had been spit balled on white boards went live over a weekend in March.  Millions of workers who never were able to work out of their homes were now required to work from home.  Broadband service providers and technology companies were able to flash cut from commercial to residential delivery.  The other silver timing on a more personal note, this whole home-schooling debacle.  The technologists and service providers can deliver the Zoom but that does not mean a six-year-old is going to focus.  When the children were off to school, 7:30-3:30 was quiet magic for a work from home dad.  The doorbell might ring, or the dog might bark but no unreasonable adolescent midday demands for IT support. midday. The Yard missed that bullet by about 25 years and offer condolences to those of you who must endure as a parent, teacher, IT department, and day drinker.  And only the Lord knows what this 11-year-old ADD fueled ball of nonsense the Yard would have been during COVID.  I caused enough chaos to keep half a dozen Catholic School teachers and I was at school.  The teachers were communicating with my parents so often, they became family friends.

2020 has swallowed us whole like Jonah and the Whale.  Not sure when we are going to be spit out on the other end.  It has been a wild unfortunate pilgrimage of horrors.  The daily calamities are ubiquitous through the many layers of our individual transport protocols.  As a nation, we are divided in our response but united in our desire to get past this time in history.  The 1918 Spanish Flu circled the planet for two years killing 675,000 in the US alone.   Beyond the virus, the fires, the civil unrest and the political divisiveness, the Yard’s sports myopia are lifting our collective souls.  As forecasted in the months following Kobe’s horrible passing, King James would rise to lead the Lakers against all adversaries.  This was supposed to be the Clipper’s season.  Kawhi had returned to Los Angeles while luring Paul George and with Doc managing the squad.  They had too much firepower for Bron and AD.  Unfortunately for Doc and the Claw, they did not have enough firepower for the Denver Nuggets and Nikola Jokic in the Western Conference Semifinals.  The Lakers did have enough for Denver and then the Heat.  The Lakers have their 17^th title and Doc Rivers is off to his 4^th NBA head coaching job in Philly.

Steve Ballmer made his billions being the 800-pound gorilla in the software industry as the CEO of Microsoft.  Microsoft became so dominant that the US government brought an antitrust suit against MS, Ballmer, and Bill Gates in 2001.  So, Ballmer is not going to play second banana to the Lakers in LA.  The Lakers may have 17 titles and the Clippers zero and Ballmer desperately wants to change the LA mindset and narrative.  He was the window with the Bickering Buss’s spinning the drain after Jerry died.  He got Kawhi over everyone in the big free agent haul last year.  But they traded away their future to get Paul George from OKC.  They hemmed in their salary space with money tied up in Leonard and George.  Both can opt out after the 2021 season.  Ballmer hopes that Ty Lue can bring some championship DNA, but it is a short runway.  The Lakers will be re-loading while the Clippers are retooling and still playing all their games on the Lakers home court. The #Sterling screwed up Clipper history does still waft in the Staples Center for Clipper home games.

The Dodgers NLCS charge was one for our ages.  In the storied history of the Dodger franchise, the Dodgers had never recovered to win a series after trailing 3-1.  The team's record was 0-9 under such duress.  Dodger fans know the pain and suffering associated with the past 32 years and beyond.  This is the Dodger’s 21^st trip to the World Series with six titles for their effort.  The titles were exciting, but the heartbreak is very genuine. 1988 was a historic WS with the greatest single moment in LA sports history.  We do not need a great moment; we need a bunch of them to kill the incubus at the Ravine.  The children raised by all of us maniacal fans deserve it.  We deserve it. Go Dodgers!

The Sum of All Fears

The first Presidential debate was to be held this week.  We figured it would be on several channels.  We searched in vain only able to find a Maury Povich type show with two old dudes screaming insults at each other.  The moderator was incapable of controlling the chaos.  We were hanging on to find out if one of them was the father, but the debate mutated into a Pollock abstract and we opted out.  We switched to Women’s hoops in an assertive display of indifference.  Politicos, if that is the product, save us the nonsense.  Just tape it in front of a studio audience and put it on Bravo with the Housewives when the election is over.  The ratings will probably be decent, and you don’t have to pay the on-air talent.

 

Nevada has become a political battleground state.  Yard staff has never figured out why, our Democrat led state, is contested so vigorously for our six measly electoral votes.  Historically speaking, politicos have been a frisky group prone to bold statements and blowing off steam.  Some of the blowing part was not always steam and Nevada provided local cover for some hijinks.  Since Biden does not have to spend a nickel to carry California, Nevada is getting pummeled with steely eyed Joe ads touting how he is going to save us. It is relentless and unnecessary.  We doubt Biden can save us, but he will carry Nevada, so enough already.  It is like Coke vs. Pepsi. They both spend hundreds of millions on advertising annually while not moving the market share needle.

 

With all the drama and trauma that this pandemic has wrought,  the return of sports has been a tonic for our gin.  Never in history and hopefully never again, have our beloved Lakers and Dodgers been fighting for championships at the same time.  For baseball to complete the season after the rocky opening weeks, is a miracle.  The NHL and NBA built their bubbles and it worked.  Not one positive test in either league inside the bubble.  Baseball with no bubble had lots of problems.  Early on there were teams that had played eight games and teams that had played nearly 18.  But somehow, they all finished on time.  Pro Football will find out soon enough if a sport that requires physical contact can contain COVID as well as every opponent has contained the NY Jets in 2020.

 

The excitement and anxiety of having both of our teams in the playoffs at the same time can be immersive. Jo at the Yard is not sure what to expect for the next two weeks but let us commence. The Lake show clinched their first ticket to the NBA finals since their last title in 2010.  That was Kobe and Phil’s last dance with Pao Gasol on alto sax. After two titles in a row and a 31-year old Kobe Bryant, Laker nation never thought it would take a decade to return to the main stage.  But alas the team’s fortunes thrashed about with the bickering Buss’s. Laker relevance in the national news was about hiring and firing coaches not winning titles.  Jeannie did not right the ship until she found a King for the Laker throne. Lebron looks primed to heal the Purple and Gold from the death of Kobe and a decade of insolence.

 

The Dodgers have been a playoff perennial for a decade, but their last WS title was a generation ago.  Winning the NL West eight times in a row without a WS title, is like being the Minor League home run champion.  So, it is with fear and trepidation these MLB playoffs unfold within our fragile psyche.  The first series is best of three.  Milwaukee has two of the best closers in the NL.  It is the only box the Brewers check over the Dodgers but in a tight, short series it could be the only box that matters.  The big Dodger bats have struggled most postseasons.  Mokie could be their Gibbie that shows them the way back to the winner’s circle.  He is a difference maker, let us hope he spreads that vibe down the lineup.

 

The Yardlings have grown up loving the Dodgers but not witnessing a title.  Their devotion is a byproduct of early imprinting on impressionable youth.  The Dodgers are their team. The Lakers have won five titles during their cognizant youth but not really moving their needle away from blue devotion. In an unfortunate turn of events many years ago, Alex at the Yard became a Celtic fan when Kevin Garnett defected from the T-Wolves.  Every Laker fan's worst fear, a Celtic progeny. It changed our mutual Laker love dramatically through those years.  There was a bitter defeat and an exhilarating title afforded both us. Many story lines Wednesday night with the Lebron Lakers in the finals with Pat Riley’s Miami Heat.  James left Miami a bit butt hurt when he announced that he was going home to Cleveland.  I mean really who does that?  Go from South Beach Miami to South Lake Erie after two titles? Everyone was a bit pissed in Miami especially after the finality of their 4-1 loss to the Spurs in the NBA finals.  This past week head coach Spoelstra recalled all the former great Heat championship players at his press conference.  He did not recall James. Strange considering Spoelstra does not have two titles on his resume without James.  D-Wade was not getting him there and did not after Lebron left.  LBJ already has an MVP size chip on his shoulder with Kobe on the other.  Erik, maybe not the right snark prior to Game one.

 

First Overtime: Russell Wilson has exactly zero MVP votes in his eight NFL seasons.  It is hard to earn an MVP when you play like one and never get a single vote in the process.  Russell Wilson is one of the most exciting QB’s in the NFL.  He may not be as flashy as Mahomes or Lamar but he is on their par.  He maybe should not have been MVP, but he deserves a vote or two. Hopefully, someone is paying attention to what he is doing this season on a fairly average Seahawks team.

 

Second OT:  Cindy McCain made news last week by endorsing Joe Biden. Mrs. McCain, one of John McCain’s widows, went on national TV to make her proclamation.  She is not an influencer or politician so not sure why national news picked it up other than her last name.  Cindy, while you are up your pulpit calling out others for lack of values and ethics that you hold dear, can you tell us how you and Johnny B Not So Good came into a relationship? He was married at the time of your romance and 17 years your senior, right? The two of you carried on for some time until McCain finally got a divorce from his wife and married you two weeks later.  So please, save your value judgement of others because we don’t need yours.  Your money may give you a voice, but your history is who you are.

 

Final Plea:  Baseball gods, can you help the Padres beat the Cardinals?  I know the Padres do not have much starting pitching, but they have put together a nice season and deserve some love.  And those friggin Cardinals have done some bad things to the Dodgers in the playoffs. I know the whole exorcise your demons thing, but I would rather just avoid said red devils.

People and Pivots

While the first vestiges of Yard sports mania started intensifying in the late 60’s, my father’s morning routine was being forever disrupted.  He had a routine of reading each section of the Los Angeles Times in the morning before work.  He would save the Sports section for his morning constitution.  This Yardling started to chew through the Sports page with our morning cereal.  Daddio would begrudgingly allow me to read the sports page while he read about local and national issues.  By the time his coffee was forging the desired morning output, the sports page was a disheveled, out of order  mess  caked in random Cheerios.  He would reassemble my fanatic devastation while staring at me with a harsh stink eye.

 

Heroes from that early passion for baseball were lifted off the pages of the LA Times.  Several of those Yard Icons have passed of late.  Another one was honored with his own MLB day. Lou Brock was black lightning. Everything he did in the field was suddenly. Brock was the all-time stolen base leader before Ricky Henderson obliterated that mark for all of history.  Lou would steal 938 bases in his 19 -year career.  Dee Gordon is the current active leader with 332 swipes. In 1974, Brock stole 118 bases in 158 games.  In his final season at age 40, he stole 21 bases. He was electrifying when he got on base and he did that often during his HOF career. He was beloved in the dugout and off the field.  The Cardinal teams of his era were the Dodgers biggest NL nemesis.  But Lou Brock was so fun to watch, and we always did.  Tom Seaver passed away as well after battling dementia for years.  He was the miracle of those 1969 Mets. Roberto Clemente, who died in 1972, was honored with Roberto Clemente Day.  All of the Puerto Rican ballplayers honored the Great One by wearing his #21.  He got his 3,000 hit in his final AB of the 1972 season. He still had gas in the tank and would have been back for the 1973 season.  The relief mission he was flying from his native Puerto Rico to Nicaragua crashed on New Year’s Eve into the Atlantic.  His on the field heroics foreshadowed the iconic hero he would become in death.  And my father, who sports pages I tore up all of those many years ago, passed away on September 1.  He was my hero in a golf hat with a cocktail.  Good speed Bill Seber and say hi to Mom.

 

The pandemic has created the action verb for 2020 – PIVOT.  Pivot is the  swivel that we each have had to find in our world to move to our next normal and so on. It is a fluid situation with pivots and re-pivots. Companies are pivoting from what they did in February to succeed, to what they have to do in September to survive.  Schools are pivoting from in class to online with a hybrid in between.  Hotels and airlines are pivoting to travel in 2020 and beyond.  Las Vegas is creating wind with all of our pivoting. Let us all keep pivoting as needed to get to the other side.

 

As the election season fast approaches caked in COVID, America girds for political combat.  The future is uncertain, but the book writers are prolific.  No matter which wavelength of the Donald Trump spectrum refracts your light, it is polarizing bandwidth on both sides.  It is truly amazing the number of books that have been written about Trump during his presidency.  There have been over 60 written so far and most have been quite negative.  There will still be more to come but the real money is pre-election.  Already in the bank, James Comey $3 million, John Bolton $2 million, Mary Trump $1.3 million and Stormy Daniels bringing up her rear at $500k. Bob Woodward and former esteemed legal mind Alan Dershowitz have written two books each.  The Yard would like Big Al to write just one book about his adventures with Jefferey Epstein.  He was on the Lolita express and his Island on many occasions.  At the Yard, we are far more interested in his adventures with Billy Bob Clinton on Jefferey’s island playground than his irrelevant opinion on Trump.  Trump has been good for industry, especially the publishing industry. His most fervent detractors are more than happy to line their pockets with their “insider” tales.

 

Not to be left out, Barry Obama is finally getting his second book out.  He announced in the press that he wanted to reflect on his presidency.  He wants to provide an accounting of his campaign and his time in office.  We must admit, we were interested to hear what he did as well. Besides the much-maligned Obamacare, he did not engage with Russia, China, North Korea or Israel.  He visited our long-term allies and took nice photo ops while lamenting his inability to work with his political opponents.  He tied in vacations in Marbella and elsewhere with the family.  Crown Books was curious as well to the tune of $65 million for Barry and Mich.  It does appear that the Obamas have figured out how to monetize being a former president.  While GW, has retired to his ranch in Texas to paint and relax with his grandkids, the Obamas are getting $250,000 to speak at events.  $50 million for a Netflix production deal plus the aforementioned book deal.  They are almost egregious as the Clintons in their schilling for money.  The Obamas know the real money is to start a foundation.  Hire your children and friends, pay them fat salaries while appearing to be doing the right thing with nebulous agendas.  The Dems still trot out Clinton even after all of the factual details of his many trips with the Epstein entourage.  He was not with Epstein for the Clinton foundation. He was there for the Clinton libido.  Trump won’t be writing any books, building libraries, starting foundations or getting production deals with Netflix.

 

Sports was gone for 120 days and then returned in an explosion of sports programming.  Never in history have the NBA, MLB, NFL, NHL, WNBA and the MLS all been playing important games in September.  All NFL games are important because there are only 16.  MLB playing this curated 60 game schedule, has made each game more interesting.  NBA and NHL playoffs in the bubble have been outstanding.  Lebron and Anthony Davis are leading a resilient Laker team that sat for 4 months to get into the bubble. The team was still smoldering in the aftermath of Kobe’s death.  The healing had not begun when the season was quarantined.  James has been outstanding and now he is playing for Kobe with a chip for being dissed in the MVP voting.  Yard staff does not think the King expected to beat out Giannis for MVP but 85 votes for the Greek and 16 for the King is disrespecting that GOAT.  Milwaukee got bounced by the upstart Miami Heat 4-1.  So, MVP is all of that and an early flight back to Athens.

 

The Yard is keyed up for the Raiders first home game at the $2.2 billion Allegiant Stadium Monday night.  Jo at the Yard and I ventured down to the 19,000 square foot Raider Image store at the stadium  If the size, the crowd and the inventory heading out the door are indicators, the Raiders are going to do just fine.  The Saints are coming in for the home opener.  The Saints have already taken down a GOAT in a Pirate costume last week in NOLA.  My father loved the Raiders. Not a huge NFL fan but just loved the history and folklore of the Raider franchise.  He loved their irreverence and the rascal Al Davis.  Dad, I think there are seats available for the game Monday and bring Mom.  Go Raiders and at least cover the six!

Frightening Excitement

The PGA Championship last weekend was the kind of elixir that can soothe and distract from the toxins around us.  23-year-old Collin Morikawa was the leader in the clubhouse with some of golf’s biggest names chasing his stunning final round 64.  None of them caught him.  His only mistake was lifting the trophy and dropping the lid. He gained $1.9 million GW’s and exemptions for the next five years to all the big dances with his victory.  The Yard laid a Hamilton on Collin at 55:1.  We were as nervous as he was on those last three holes.  The eagle on 16 unclenched our sphincter.  Collin was hardly ruffled.  We wished we had laid a Jackson instead of Hamilton. 

 

For months there were no sports.  The Las Vegas sportsbooks have been punished by COVID.  They were barely eking by with parlays on Korean Baseball and Table Tennis.  Golf came back and golf got more action in the first week than in previous years.  The action has remained high on golf but now almost everything is back. It is as exciting as it is frightening.  Never before have the NBA and the NHL played games in August.  The Las Vegas Raiders had their first practice in pads on their new practice facilities.  The NFL is more adult than college football.  Teams have more control but there is no NFL bubble. Baseball can makeup games with double headers, but an NFL outbreak is the end of the season for some teams.  The 2020-21 NBA/NHL seasons are going to be truncated.  The Olympics are a year out and looking shaky.  We hope it all ends well.

 

Baseball seems to be teetering down the hairy line of truth.  At this time, the Cardinals have played nine games.  Miami has played 15 games. The Dodgers have played 23.  The teams are all supposed to play 60 games in 70 days.  The 70 days are still marching forward, but all teams are not on the same cadence.  It is hard to imagine how it all the teams get to the playoff check point.  Where do the Cardinals make up 15 games with teams that are off to other game locations?  Teams might start to be dropped from the league into COVID DQ.  It is hard to see how this ends well for MLB.  The Yard sure hopes it does because the Blue Crew with Captain Mookie look like they are ready to launch. 

 

1988 was the Dodgers last World Series title run.  It has been a long time and we are reminded often by Giant fan.  Baseball ownership was found guilty of collusion for the 1985 season and any of the free agents during that period got fresh look rights.   Kirk Gibson was one of those who got this opportunity and signed a three-year deal with the Dodgers in 1988. The 1988 Dodgers were a good team but did not have a World Series champion in the clubhouse.  Orel Hershiser would emerge as the bulldog that season on his way to the Cy Young.  Gibson won a title with the 1984 Tigers.  He was a champion. He was the straw  that stirred the Blue crew punch.  During Spring Training, in an effort to lighten up the prickly Gibson, Jesse Orosco decided to go old school and put shoe black in Gibson’s cap.  Not only did Gibson not find the humor in these shenanigans, he stormed into the clubhouse and dressed the whole team down.  He let them know there is no room for hijinks.  He was there to win games not play games.  He was the MVP of the NL with a pedestrian .290 average, 25 homeruns and 76 RBI’s.  It was his leadership in the clubhouse not just his play on the field that lead to the honor.  Gibbie could have been the MVP for the World Series upset of mighty Oakland A’s.  He only had one at bat in the WS, but it was the historic game winning homerun off Dennis Eckersley with two outs in the 9^th. Forever one of the greatest single moments in LA sports history.

 

In 2020, the Dodgers made the big trade for Mookie Betts.  They traded among others the young talented Alex Verdugo to get Betts.  Before Betts signed his monster contract, he came into Spring Training and asked to address the team prior to taking the field for the first time as a Dodger.  Yard detectives cannot find a transcript of his speech, but he spoke for five minutes. He has since emerged as the leader of this young team.  The Dodgers and Mookie put the rest of the league on notice when they agreed on a 12-year $365 million contract.  Gibson never had another year like 1988.  He was 31 and the downside after a decade of rugged play and battered knees.  Mookie is a 27- year old witch of a player.  He is a World Series Champion. Betts is a spright 5’9” housed in a slight frame.  But when he flicks his bat at a pitch, the ball can explode off the bat as it did three times in a game against the Padres last week.  He is now tied with Johnny Mize and Sammy Sosa as the only major leaguers to hit 3 HR in a game six times.  This year, he has nine homeruns and 21 RBI’s while primarily batting leadoff.  Mookie plays with a perpetual smile and singular focus in each moment. He has a lot to smile about with his game and 12 years of solid cake streaming his way. He will lead this young team and show them how a champion gets it done.

 

College football is a microcosm of how our nation’s leadership is handling the COVID plague.  Certain conferences have already decided the risks outweigh the rewards and are shutting down while watching millions get sucked out of their depleted athletic department budgets. All of the multitude of sports network are going to be replaying “Classics” not live content.  The SEC, Big 12, ACC and a few others are holding out hope they can play a conference schedule and have some semblance of a championship.  The players are already playing a game with inherent risk, COVID is looked at as just another.  Not sure if that is the smart science.  These are college kids in a petri dish of parties and hookups.  The libido is not a rationale organism.  It does not look like it is going to end well. 

 

It is ironic that villains these days are the ones not wearing their mask.  Such a lightning rod masks have become in various parts of our country.  We are a nation who was once revered for taking on dictators, sending our soldiers off to fight on foreign soil.  Now that is difficult, and people signed up for that duty.  Wearing a mask, not so difficult for most. Some 50+  loggerheads in Henderson are actually protesting in the streets without masks but with banners and placards.  Not sure who has time to demonstrate regarding their desire not to wear a mask? Most of us are doing what is safe and trying to eke out a life, enough already. 

Masking our Problems

We were working with clay in Vancouver with Seth Rogen and just lost track of time.  Is the pandemic still going?  The Las Vegas strip lit up a few weeks ago like nothing happened, so who knew.  Social distancing is complicated with table games and alcohol.  The casinos need games of chance and the influence booze has on their prized customer’s judgement.  The two sins together form a petri dish of uncertainty.  Gamblers by nature take risks and COVID-19 is just another one in their daily decision tree of life.  Unfortunately, we are all at risk for the risk’s others take.

The virulent response to the demands for people to wear masks in public is comical if not frightening.  The anti-mask movement has some maniacal postings on You Tube.  It seems a bit over the top for a rather innocuous request.  People are citing their constitutional rights in their refusal to wear.  Public shaming for non-masked is also on the uptick.  People, we are all in this together.  Wearing a mask can help slow the spread of COVID.  That is a fact. As fellow citizens, we should be doing everything in our power towards that goal.  You are not being asked to fight a war just wear a mask.  It is not about you; it is about those who maybe did fight in a war. You are protecting them.

Sports can potentially be the elixir that heals our nation.  Or maybe the cauldron that sinks us.  At the Yard, hope springs eternal. The NBA and the NHL are going with the bubble wrap plan.  Lebron, G-Freak and company will move into Disney World and play out the season.  The Yard likes Lebron and his Lake show in this moment.  After Kobe’s death, Lebron told  a grieving Laker nation that God gave him broad shoulders for times like these. James has been one of the more vocal athletes regarding BLM and civil protest.  He has seethed on the quarantined sidelines.  He is not content to just win; he wants to transform. These are moments when kings rise and lead.  The Lakers are looking to ride King James’ cape to their 18^th NBA title.  Florida is starting to pay for their sins of disinterest in the early days of COVID-19 with cases spiking in Florida.  The NBA season might get airballed before the first tip.

Historically, Major League baseball has helped our nation to heal our collective anxiety.  During WW2 and following 9/11, baseball provided an escape from the daily horrors of war and terrorism.  With 30 million Americans unemployed, the very public money spat between the owners and the players was tone deaf. The players and owners were disputing the economic toll of billionaire owners paying players to play in front of no one.  They haggled over the players pro-rated millions based on number of games played.  The owners relented on the no fan in stands salary clip. The players agreed to skinny the season down to sixty games and mitigate the lost game day revenues. Neither side was happy with the outcome with pending labor unrest in 2021.  Play ball!

History Rewritten The national unrest that has ignited across this nation has exposed the deep wounds from our nation’s creation and history.  Our history has revealed that all men were not treated equally as demanded in our hallowed Declaration of Independence.  The first significant Civil Rights legislation passed by government was in 1968, 200 years after the Civil War.  Protestors and municipalities are removing statues that recognize great Southern War heroes.  In this age, to have memorials for people who fought to maintain slavery is abhorrent.  For the state of Mississippi to have the Confederate Flag embedded in their state flag after all these years is repulsive.  It is the very least that can be done to heal these centuries of embedded racism. Just as the Nazi swastika has been a symbol of racism, so is the Confederate flag.  There are no WWII monuments in Germany, just Concentration Camps.

Let's Dance!

The pandemic has given the World a timeout.  The daily news cycle feeds us like a mother bird feeds her young by throwing up in their mouth.  The grim details of the virulent assault on our physical health nationally have been less than forecast but painful for many.  The anxiety surrounding financial health has ruptured our emotional backbone. But hey, what are you going to do?  President Trump turned to hydroxychloroquine.  In a contrast of science, the Yard household has been on a strict Pinot Noir regiment.  Both the President and the Yards are showing no signs of the disease.  We are not sure if the President’s science is sound, but it was impressive that he correctly pronounced hydroxychloroquine repeatedly on national television.  It does not slip off the tongue as easily as morbidly obese, but such is our partisan politics.

The Yard deviates on principle but most of our principal motivations are deviations of sports.  The dearth of any sports either live or in print media has shaken our beliefs to their core.  It is fair to argue that those beliefs have their core closer to the surface.  The Yard never professed depth, but we have tried to widen our scope.  The Last Dance documentary covering the 1998 Championship run by Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls was excellent.  It was not just for basketball fans; it covers the times. It is amazing to see the footage from the locker rooms and hotel rooms with the characters on the team.  Jordan had a cigar in every scene in a postgame hotel or locker room.  Dennis Rodman was making his transition from eccentric to bizarre.  Scottie Pippen was his phlegmatic best. It is unvarnished and coarse at all levels.  The NBA film team was given unprecedented access to the Bull’s forecasted last dance.  The mania for Jordan was bigger than anyone today.  There was no Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.  Jordan transcended everything during his era.  He grabbed the baton from Magic, Isiah and Bird and rammed it down everyone else’s piehole including teammates. MJ was ruthless with his will and the imposition of it on others.  This Jordan Imposition did lead to six championships in eight years with the culmination documented in The Last Dance.

It was great to see that Kobe was interviewed for the documentary.  Jordan was a huge influence on the youthful Bryant.  Kobe played against Jordan for a few years when he was still a teenager, but the Lakers were still wandering in the post-Magic wasteland.  Kobe reached out to Jordan constantly for counsel on basketball.  He pestered him constantly a teary-eyed MJ shared at Bryant’s unexpected eulogy.  Kobe was often compared to Jordan and they were wired the same when they stepped on the hardwood.  Rabid competitors who can alienate teammates with their drive and myopia.  The eleven NBA titles between the two of is evidence of commitment bringing results. 

Kobe left it all on the floor that last night at staples when he scored 60.  Jeannie Bush tried repeatedly to get Bryant to take any position with the Lakers after his playing career ended.  Kobe would have none of it, he was on to the next chapter in life.  He was a girl dad, a movie auteur and entrepreneur.   He wanted no part of the NBA anymore.  He accomplished all he could in his 20-year career and then he vanished.  Jordan won a championship with a championship shot as time expired in Salt Lake City in front of 18,000 Mormons and with Jazz nemesis Byron Russell in his face.  It would have been one of the greatest endings of a career by anyone.  Jordan did retire but he couldn’t stay retired.  Three years later he would return to play for the Washington Wizards and average 20 points a game for a team going nowhere.  His competitive spirits could not carry the day or get Kwame Brown to play harder. 

Jordan’s snarky attitude towards those that he feels have slighted him is legendary.  He was still reliving battles 22 years later when interviewed for The Last Dance.  It makes it very compelling, but lays bare the competitive psychosis that enraged Jordan to legendary feats at the cost of those around him.  He had one of the most expensive divorces in US history after his playing days ended.  He unfavorably called out the High School coach who did not start a 15-year-old Jordan.  Who does that?  Interestingly, Utah Jazz coach Jerry Sloan and star guard John Stockton were in that 2009 HOF class with Jordan.  Jordan ripped their hearts out in 1998 when Sloan had the greatest Jazz team in their history. They would never win a championship and 1998 was their best chance.  And then when they get their moment in the sun at the induction ceremony, there is Jordan with his 23-minute diatribe full of tears, rants and rebukes of his “enemies”.   The HOF fame speech Kobe will never make would have been joyful and emotional, but he would only call out those he loves not the slights.  Jerry Sloan RIP.

The Yard has never been a huge Tom Brady fan.  We would agree it is probably jealously.  Why does one guy get to look that good, have a wife that hot, make huge cake and win six Super Bowl titles? Too much good stuff for one person and we don’t like it!  But then Tom played in the golf match with Tiger, Payton and Phil and he was human.  We are analyzing the footage, but we do not think he hit a fairway off the tee.  He chunked shots out of the rough and into a sand trap.  He looked absolutely horrible at times and he had Charles Barkley barking at him.  The Twitter feeds scrolling on the TV showed everyone was enjoying Tommy’s struggles. It was fun to watch, and Brady hung in there.  He silenced the critics with his miraculous 150-yard shot into the cup and split his pants.  He found his mojo and made it a match.  It was fun and made for good TV.

Bottom of the 9^th:  The entire World just hit the pause button for two months.  That has never happened in history.  Hopefully, never again. We are fortunate that if you are going to have a pandemic, we have the technology today to endure.  If this had happened 10-15 years ago, we would have had a far worse situation than we have today. There would be civil unrest and riots if we closed the country for two months.  People and students would not have been able to work or learn from home. In 2020, we can, and we did.

We are almost there.  Calibrate your credit card limits and get ready to engage.  Las Vegas will be back open for business on June 4.  There are ridiculous deals to be had on Southwest and every hotel.  The casinos are cleaner than they have ever been since they first opened.  It is time to reflect on where we were and where we are.  It is time to refract positive spectrum out into the world as we cope with toxic politics and national anxiety.  It is time to ignite your own trajectory for what comes next.  We got this.  Let's dance!

Space, time and trajectory

The Yard wants to toast all of the classes of 2020.  Being part of the class of 2020 is the rock star designation for your diploma and tassel. Unfortunately, it has been the worst of graduation seasons for this class.  Graduating college is exciting and all that follows before what comes next.  High School graduation is a seminal moment in most of our lives.  What comes next is still at least 90 days out and most times years away.  The high school senior is at the top of the heap for that magical summer following commencement.  For the next 90 days after the walk, whatever is happening next is not happening now.  Other stuff is.  I did graduate in 1975 so that perspective refracts through a Pink Floyd prism. What a bummer of a summer for these graduates? For Senior Ditch Day, do the kids get together on a backchannel Zoom meeting when they are really supposed to be Zooming to Coach Skeese Chemistry lesson? John Krasinski did a nice job with the virtual prom on You Tube but if you cannot leave the house, how does one stay out all night? There are potential stories and the milestones that can occur on that night.  Zoom cannot carry the emotional freight to the finish line.  It might be a nice time for reflection this summer, but hedonism was a lot more fun and there is a lifetime of reflection ahead.

The mayor of Las Vegas Carolyn Goodman has made her position on the casino closure maniacally clear.  It made for good TV but not much sound reasoning. It is chilling to see the strip completely closed except for the sanitation crews scrubbing the place down.  Her crazy lady rant with Anderson Cooper did call attention to the insanity of closing a billion-dollar industry for COVID-19 which has infected less than 5,000 and killed less than 250 in Nevada at this time. The slot machines are sanitized down to the wingnuts. The strip will survive but there is another tier of gaming establishment that so far did not get bailed out like Caesars did.  Dotty’s is one of these venues.  Their revenue is 95% from video poker and alcohol.  Smoking is required and we hear Dotty’s has some of the best secondhand smoke in the entire valley.  The Governor’s lockdown orders have kept Dotty’s closed but we believe the virus wants no part of that place.  Those customers have already cast caution to the wind about death and disease a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.  Ironically,  Bella’s Hacienda Ranch in Wells, NV got their CARES grant approved. Bella’s brothel services were considered nonessential, but she is getting assistance to help Bella and the ladies weather the storm.

In previous lamentations, the absence of baseball in this whole pandemicky thing is most trying.  The potential of this Dodger team was going to be fun and we hope it still happens.  Baseball has always been a unifying force in the history of this nation.  There might not be a more important inflection point in this country’s history than right now.  The games may need to be played initially before television audiences only.  The players are going to have to take a haircut on their salaries that are in part derived from the turnstiles and concession stands.   Salaries are paid per game played by the team.  All salaries were based on fans in the stadiums and 162 games.  The collective bargaining agreement does not cover pandemics that interrupt the schedule. Reality is looking like it may be August start, play 100+ games and go to the playoffs.

Baseball was not in session when Jackie Robinson day was celebrated nationally on April 15, 2020.  The celebration was muted with the shutdown.  It was in the news but all of the planned festivities to be shared across the nation were suspended along with baseball.  Jackie famously broke the color barrier for Major League baseball.  He could have easily broken into the NFL with his two UCLA teammates, Woody Strode and Kenny Washington.  Strode and Washington played less famously for the Los Angeles Rams in 1946.  Regardless, they all took risks at a time when the government offered scant protections for blacks.  Baseball fought integration but finally relented. The National League was the first to embrace these talented athletes who had been banned based solely on the color of their skin.  Over the two decades that followed Robinson breaking in 1947, fifteen of the next twenty MVP awards in the NL were won by African Americans.  Integration changed the trajectory of baseball forever.  It is shocking to think that eighty years after the Civil War, people of color were first allowed to play in an MLB game.  The Negro leagues had historic talents who never got to play in our national past time. It is hard to comprehend these historical truths in this time and space.

And it is a strange time and space that we are all in these days.  Two things we seem to have plenty of are time and space.  When physical interaction with other humans is parsed, the amount of time that is made available is quite remarkable.  With smart phones, Zoom and other social media, we can remain spatially apart while staying connected at a digital level.  We were already evolving in that direction and the coronavirus just changed the trajectory.  What it will look like when we come out of the other side, no one can know.  It will be different, and the differences will be revealed disruptively to our norms.  Hopefully, there are lessons learned, antibodies discovered, and a vaccine developed from this event horizon. The fictional dystopian dramas that have entertained us on the big screen, invaded our homes screens in real time these past several weeks.  There has been expansive creativity shared and heroism displayed that reinforces our human persistence.  Opportunities will arise as we emerge from our collective cocoons. We are in it to win it! Clutch those you hold dear when safe to do so.  Get ready to launch!

Out and about: Please make sure that we all tip the shit out of all our servers when we get back to being served.  Hail to all of the people that bring us food, and drink, who cut our hair, who provide us our services. Their “in-shelter” lost revenue is lost forever.  

Dark Star and Cocoon

These past three weeks, the country has been slowly collapsing into our homes like a dark star, sucking in all of the light while compressing the energy.  It is rolling blackouts as the fire bells ring.  New York sounded the alarm first for the incoming virus that was already here.  Broadway shutdown on March 12 furloughing thousands.  Broadway generated $1.8 billion annually for 15 million patrons in 2019.  Nevada closed all of the casinos on March 18 furloughing hundreds of thousands casino workers and entertainers.  The economic losses are in the tens of billions.  On March 18, Florida officials announced they were keeping the beaches OPEN over the Spring Break weekend. Florida finally furloughed 142 lifeguards, shuttered seven Dairy Queens and Moon Doggies surf shop.  Then all those spring break revelers went home to infect their friends and families.  Florida has now closed their borders and does not want New Yorkers coming down to escape NY.  Florida officials also maintain there is a no pee zone in the Municipal pools.

March Madness being cancelled was painful at the Yard.  The tournament consumes our minds for a month or more.  Stories are earned.  Legends are born and a champion emerges.  It was not to be.  Wimbledon one of our favorite tournaments in tennis was cancelled.  Fortunately, Wimbledon had pandemic insurance.  Tournament officials took out a policy 20 years ago and are getting paid $141 million for not holding this year’s tournament.  No matches, no people, no winners except Wimbledon. Not their fault and whoever voted to take that policy out probably took heat at the time.

The suspension of Major League baseball is especially painful at this time.  Baseball is the elixir that has healed this country in the past.  In January of 1942, FDR issued his famous Green Light Letter that green lighted the 1942 baseball season during WWII.  President Roosevelt said, “I honestly feel that it would be best for the country to keep baseball going. There will be fewer people unemployed and everybody will work longer hours and harder than ever before.” The fans had a brilliant season with the Cardinals taking out the defending champion Yankees 4-1 after losing game one.  Twenty-three-year-old Ted Williams appeared in his third All-Star game and finished second in the MVP voting.  He would leave after the season to fight in WWII for the next three seasons.  The greatest generation would emerge, and baseball’s popularity remained unchallenged for decades.

After 9/11, baseball shut down for a week.  The first professional sporting event in New York after the attacks was the Mets hosting the division-rival Braves in the midst of a pennant race. With the Mets trailing 2-1 in the bottom of the 8th, Mike Piazza stepped into the box for his fourth and final at-bat of the night and went deep for the go-ahead two-run homer.  It was a magical moment for NY.  The Yankees would eventually carry the city all the way to the World Series.  Randy Johnson, Curt Schilling and the Arizona D’backs would deny the story book finish but baseball helped the city heal.

Since FDR’s bold declaration that this nation needs baseball, this nation has responded.  In 1942, baseball was the only game in town.  There were early versions of the NFL and the NBA, but these sports would not emerge nationally until the 1950’s.  Baseball was already popular in 1942.  Babe Ruth had put baseball into the mainstream consciousness a decade earlier.  As Jane Levy asserts in her book The Big Fella, Ruth was the first real celebrity in this nation.  He was baseball’s rascal and ambassador.  He manipulated the media like a Kardashian.  There were many more NY newspapers in the 1920-30’s and getting to Ruth was competitive.  Baseball was roaring down the tracks and the Babe was driving the engine.  With the popularity of the sport, the coverage in the sports page were expanded.  Baseball had statistics, storylines and characters.  The public ate it up and when the newspapers figured out how to publish photos of these icons, the paparazzi were born.  President Trump is sounding like he is ready to declare his own Green Letter.  Not sure if that is the right move in this time and space but someone is going to need to put a toe in the water in May.  I am trying to determine whose hand I might take a chance and shake and when.

Baseball has been this nation’s national past time since there was such a thing.  It has been mine since the late 1960’s.  I inhaled that sports page every morning before my father could, much to his chagrin.  I usually spilled cereal and milk all over it and never put the section back together correctly.  My father was not a fastidious man and I had already lapped his overall interest in mainstream sports by the time I was eight.  So, he let it go.  Oh, how I harken back to the days of those glorious LA Times sports pages in the day.  Jim Murray you were the best.  The Sports Page today is a discussion on when sports are coming back, the NFL Draft, and This Day in Sports. I have not been on ESPN in a month.

This past week one of the all-time greats Hall of Famer Al Kaline passed away. In 1968, the powerful St, Louis Cardinals played the surprising Detroit Tigers in the World Series.  The Cardinals had future Hall of Famers Bob Gibson, Steve Carlton, Lou Brock and Orlando Cepeda.  Cardinal Curt Flood who would later challenge the reserve clause that lead to free agency was their All-Star centerfielder.  Kaline was the only Tiger from that Tiger team to make the HOF. Atlanta Braves legend Eddie Matthews was on the roster at the end of his HOF career at the end of the bench.  The Cardinals had the pedigree and the superstars.  Bob Gibson’s ERA for 1968 was 1.12. He had 28 complete games in thirty-four starts.  In 2019, the entire MLB had 46 complete games.  The Cardinals were the defending WS champions and the hated ones for Yard youth.  We rooted for the Tigers. 

The Tigers had the personalities if not the fame.  Denny McClain was the last 30 game winner winning 33 that season.  He would be out of baseball by 1971 and eventually end up in prison. Gates Brown had a very wide stance and a powerful swing that was imitated by a former life- long friend who become known as Gator.  Jim Northrup had 21 homeruns that year and four were Grand Slams.  He hit his 5th in the WS and a game winning triple in Game seven against Bob Gibson.  Mickey Lolich was Detroit’s portly #2 starter who was demoted to the bullpen in August of 1968.  Lolich would be the WS MVP rallying the Tigers from a 3-1 deficit in October.  Lolich would pitch three complete game victories in the WS.  He and Bob Gibson battled for nine innings in Game 7 with the Tigers prevailing.  

We hope it all gets back to some degree of normalcy in May.  Sports might be the elixir even if the fans are not there.  As the worm emerges from the cocoon a beautiful butterfly is born, so may the economy. Or maybe that was the worm that went down with the last shot of tequila on Easter.  Regardless, be smart, be safe and be ready to hit the gas when the light goes green.

Corona V Potpourri

The Yard covers a potpourri of topics, but sports is our feral grounding.  As a youth, the sports page was devoured like the Playboys we found at grandpa’s house.  We just did not look at the pictures we read the articles.  The Yard has also had tangential and juxtaposition skills that allowed tethers to our other theme elements.  Alas, the entire evaporation of sports in the past two weeks has crippled our typical thought processes.  The Dodgers were looking like they could slay their demons.  The Lakers appeared to have championship timbre. The Clippers and Lakers might still play in the West Conference finals if there is one.  The Angels look better with Shotani getting healthy and the signing of Anthony Rendon. It was all going to be so much damn fun.  We hope it still is.

This virulent pathogen has upset all of our daily lives except for several hundred thousand spring break revelers in South Beach and other Gulf Coast hot spots. Fortunately, those Darwinian test subjects returned home to infect their clan.  In these circumstances, we have found ourselves with more time to pursue potential distractions.  I did rekindle a years old desire to finish Breaking Bad. We watched the first season but then binged over to happier video streams. As we hunker in place to deter transmission, we have found time in the day to follow the zany antics of Walter and Skyler White in their pursuit of their dreams.  It has been warm and endearing watching their daily quest to stay alive. It seems more predictable than what the traditional news outlets are over reporting these days. 

The news cycles have been a grind.  We have limited our absorption rate to a morning dose with coffee and an evening dose with wine.  There is not a lot of good news except maybe the market’s rebound from its bear-like descent.  The only people we are finding are pleased with the news coverage of COVID-19 appear to be the Houston Astros.  When the virus was a thing in China and Spring Training was raging towards Opening Day, the Astros were everyone’s whipping boy.  They were the poster children for a team run amok.  They were taunted at every turn by every opposing team.  Daily there were articles reviling the Astros and their larceny.  Those sinners that were on a new team not called the Astros, were verbally abused as well for their crimes.  There has not been a single mention of the Astros in weeks since all sports were shut down.  The sports section is basically the NFL report, an occasional MLB trade or another athlete testing positive for the virus.  The Sports sections should still have a F*&k  the Astros section daily.  We will have to all agree to double down on our vitriol when the MLB returns.

Another COVID-19 winner appears to be Harvey Weinstein.  When last we spoke, Harvey bent at the waist and was old man shuffling to court each day with a walker.  It was an Academy award performance  that Weinerstein thought would help mitigate the nasty narrative playing out in lower Manhattan.  Stories of his disfigured penis and disgusting assaults undermined his attempt at sympathy.  The jury slammed the Harv with 23 years up the river.  It is probably a death sentence for the 68-year-old.  Before settling in at Rikers, Weinstein needed an emergency heart procedure.  He got a few weeks of hospital care before getting shipped to Rikers.  Hospital food is awful but probably seems like Ruth Chris compared to prison chow.  As soon as Weinstein got shipped to Rikers, he tested positive for the Coronavirus.  He immediately got shipped back to the prison hospital where he is in quarantine.  While working on his appeal, he has agreed to be a test subject for the CDC and any other donor diseases.

We want all to know that the Yard has got your back.  While funkering down (that is having fun while hunkering), we will try and remember the people that made us who we are. Whoever you are and what you made us into, it is what it has become.  Just deal and stay six feet apart while well sanitized.  Keep an eye on the old folks unless you are one and then keep an eye on each other. We will all survive, well not all of us but most of us.  Actually, many more than most. Live, laugh, love it will all be over soon.

The Day the Madness Ended.

In these times on infection, it is time for inflection.  The Coronavirus has been known of since the 1960’s.  The current strain COVID19 is the most recent release.  No one on the planet has an immunity for this virus except for those who are already infected with it.  Containment is the only short-term solution. The Yard has hunkered down in Las Vegas and asked the rest of the staff to work remote.  We made our national emergency order for the Yard about seven days before our President did the same for the nation.  The Donald trying to calm the nation with his usual bluster but was ineffective.  Wall Street crashed while Target and Costco cashed with our ambient anxiety. It is surreal but the 2009 swine flu infected 55 million people in the US and 11,000 lost their lives.  Startling numbers for sure and a national emergency was declared by Barack Obama on October 24, 2009.  There was no suspension of the NBA, the NHL, MLB or anything at that time and we survived and prospered. This disease may be more contagious and dangerous, but we will survive and prosper again.

At times of national stress, sports can be a wonderful elixir for our collective souls. Mike Piazza’s game winning homerun at the first baseball game in NY after 9/11 will always be historic as the Mets helped heal the city. We are now all sidelined together. The Yard will continue our emergency measures with binge watching allowed after 11:00 AM and Happy Hour commencement times relaxed until April 6.  We have also limited our coronavirus exposure from all media outlets with extreme prejudice.  What is the good news?  It just keeps getting spasmodically worse.  Check in on family and friends not CNN and MSNBC.  Meet your neighbors, at a safe distance or maybe just wave and shout “Hi, how are you?”

The next two weeks were to be the greatest sports time of our year.  Our tickets from Brother Tom were set for Opening Day with Clayton dueling Johnny Cueto and the dastardly Giants.  The Bruins were making a late run and had a good shot at making the Madness dance albeit without any real chance of a deep run.  The USC-UCLA basketball game on March 7 at the Galen Center was an outstanding prelude to the tournament.  The since shuttered dance was going to be one for the ages.  We will never know who the top seeds or eventual champion would be but there were so many great stories going into the tournament.  The disappointments for the seniors getting their last shot at creating their own magic moments.

One great story line going into the tournament was the Dayton Flyers .  They were one of the best basketball stories of the 2019-20 season.  The Flyers have been a perennial darling of the Atlantic 10 for many seasons.  But this year’s team had real championship pedigree.  Dayton would have most likely received a top regional seed.  The Flyers were 29-2 with their only two losses in overtime to Kansas and Colorado.  They went 18-0 in the competitive A-10.  Their big man, Obi Toppin was a nightly Sports Center clip with his 20 ppg and 8 boards.  There was more to the team than Obi, but he was a difference maker in every game, and he played every game.  The city of Dayton has been one of the hardest hit since the great recession.  Recently, there were the random murders of nine  Daytonians in the Entertainment district last year.  The Flyers were something that brought great pride, enthusiasm and healing to the region.  The Flyers were moving everyone’s needle until it all stopped.

The Seton Hall Pirates were another Yard darling this past season.  The Pirates play in the rugged Big East conference.  They had a steady diet of tough matchups with Creighton, Butler, and Villanova who joined the Pirates in the final top 25 rankings.  Myles Powell was the best guard in the Big East.  The Hall has not been that relevant since PJ Carlesimo before he was strangled by Latrell Sprewell.  Seton Hall was excited and poised to make a deep run.  Both schools were shocked and disappointed with the decision, but both knew it was the only decision. There were going to be lots of amazing moments in the coming weeks.  Now, I get to finish the last five seasons of Breaking Bad…instead.  Not the preferred course of action but I have heard that it is good.  God speed to the prospering and God bless us all.

Versions of Mamba -- RIP

It has taken some time to wrap our collective psyche around the tragic passing of Kobe Bean Bryant.  Bryant was certainty going to outlive the Yard and we thought he would outlive us all.  Moments of melancholy has sprinkled through our days as remembrances of Kobe emerge since the crash.  The NBA ceremony at the All-Star game was beautiful.  The celebration of life planned for February 24 will be emotional. The passion that Mamba brought every night for the Lakers for twenty years was only surpassed by the passion he brought to his life after the Lakers.  There is no silver lining in this one.  It is a tragic tragedy of miserable proportions. At a time where Kobe had become the best version of himself, he was gone. Father, investor, media tycoon and Laker icon.

April 13, 2016 Kobe played his final game in a Laker uniform.  It was the most amazing final regular season game by any athlete in any sport ever.  The game was a microcosm of Bryant’s Laker career.   The opening minutes brought a resurgent Kobe racing all over and throwing up five missed shots including an airball in the opening minutes of the game.  It was reminiscent of the afro-wielding, petulant 18-year-old trying to find playing time for Del Harris in 1996.  Del played Kobe 15 minutes a game and he averaged seven points that year.  Del would come to regret some of his obstinance with the strong-willed Bryant later in both of their careers.  

By the beginning of the 4^th quarter, Kobe had 37 but the Lakers were down 75-66 to the Utah Jazz who were fighting for a .500 record and the last playoff spot in the west.  The Lakers were fighting to win Kobe’s final game, but it would only be their 17^th win of the season against 65 losses.  Bryant was a hollow version of himself in his career twilight.  He had missed more games the past two seasons than the previous 18 combined. He was averaging 17 points a game so 37 is a remarkable number in his final game especially with a team which started Roy Hibbert at center.  In that heroic 4^th quarter that night, Bryant found his inner Black Mamba and took that game over from everyone.  It became his game.  Bryant outscored the Jazz 23-21 in the final quarter by himself.  He did to Utah what he did to Del Harris every time the Laker’s played the Dallas Mavericks in his later years.  Phil took Kobe out when he had 60 points by the beginning of the 4^th quarter against Del’s Mavs.  Dallas was the West champions that year, but Kobe lit them up just like the Jazz in his final game.  Just as he had done over his 20-year career, Bryant put the team on his shoulders to victory.  He led the Lakers to their 17^th victory on the same night the Golden State Warriors would win their record 73^rd.  Kobe’s night was bigger.

When Kobe dropped the mike that night after his post-game speech to the crowd, he was gone.  He was not a Magic or a Jordan who tried to come back after a few years in retirement.  He did not miss the game as much as the game missed him.  He was not showing up at games and offering commentary on the current state. He was on to the next life with the passion he played during his NBA phase. Few in the history of the game brought the intensity that Bryant brought every night.  His will to win was unrepentant. Sweat dripping from his face, tongue hanging out, calling for the ball with three on the clock, contorting into ridiculous shots and pumping his fist as they cleared the net. Jordan  might have set the bar, but Kobe raised it.  In a terrible foreshadow of this tragedy, Bryant handed Lebron his mantle as James passed him on the all-time scoring list the night prior to the crash.  Kobe showed us all what single-minded focus looks like when delivered every night.  He showed us what was possible if you gave everything that you had to the things that you loved.

There have been many in the press to call out the Bryant hero worship while reminding us all that he was accused of rape.  Kobe was accused of having non-consensual sex with a 19-year old hotel lobby clerk in 2003.  Coincidentally, Kobe was 24 years of age at that time. When the indictment was announced, Bryant held a major press conference for all of the media, sitting with his wife Vanessa at center court at Staples Center. Looking directly at his wife, he admitted that he had cheated on her.  It lives forever on YouTube. He publicly recriminated himself for his adultery.  He disagreed that it amounted to sexual assault.  He may never be forgiven by some, but he stood before the world and admitted he was an adulterer but not a rapist. Under the scrutiny of 2020, 24-year-old Kobe’s response may have not been enough.  It was still much different than the transgressors we see in today’s spotlight.  Celebrities are running for cover when accused hiding behind attorneys, publicists and sex rehab resorts while waiting for the villagers with the pitch forks to tire and go home. The charges were eventually dropped, and Kobe settled a civil suit in 2004. What happened in that Eagle Creek hotel room will never be fully understood.  Bryant spent the rest of his life making up for it to his wife, his family and Laker nation. Let us all hope that in death the last version of Kobe Bryant is the one cauterized in our collective memories for history.  RIP Mamba.

The Houston Astros cannot sweep their illicit behavior under the infield apron.  It is sticking to all of these Astro highwaymen who absconded with our nation’s World Series title.  The media glare of spring training has exposed the Astros as unapologetic and tone deaf.  Altuve, Bregman and Correa did offer up some lame rationale.  Correa has gone on the offensive telling Cody Bellinger to stand down because he does not know the facts.  Alex the shortstop says that players need to be informed before they make any comments on the Astros cheating. Justin Verlander lamented the comments made by other players “who do not know all of the facts”.  Astros Owner Jim Crane contended that the Astros won “fair and square”?!  How can that be when one team had a technological advantage in their home ballpark over their opponent in a championship?  How can it possibly be fair if one team has the capacity to steal the opponent’s pitching signs and relay them to their batter, but the opponent does not?  How does a scheme of this magnitude go on for possibly years and no one on the Astros thinks it is wrong and deceitful until caught?  Astro fan wants to claim the victory of the better team but not acknowledge their obvious advantage. If it was not advantageous, why do it? Astros share with us all of the facts.   Please inform us in explicit detail. We all want to hear how this plan was hatched, executed and how far up in the organization this scandal leeched.  Regardless of who participated, everyone knew about it.  It was cheating and it was wrong.  The Astros can keep the title, but players should donate their WS dollars to charities.  The Astros should be suspended from the 2020 playoffs.  Their title is forever tainted in Wikipedia and beyond.

The impact of this cheating has not been fully revealed.  Mike Bolsinger is suing the Astros for $30 million because their trash can signal relay effectively ended his career on a single August night in 2017.  He gave up four earned runs on 29 pitches that night.  The audio of the game is punctuated with trash can crescendos.  Bolsinger never pitched in the majors again.  We have already discussed the impact on the historical legacies of Yu Darvish and Clayton Kershaw with their WS woes in 2017.  MLB said that they could not pursue the players because of the strength of the MLB Players Union.  How good is a union that fights for one team’s sins at the expense of the other 31? Bets were placed on the outcomes of important games without thinking that the Astros could have video superiority to steal the Dodger’s pitching signals and impact the outcome.  We wonder how that mattress knucklehead who keeps betting millions on the Astros feels?  The Astros won and he paid for hundreds of bed sets but what is the price of your chosen team’s integrity? This is worse than the bad actors of the steroid era who hid their misdeeds in clinics and bathrooms. Everyone knew and looked the other way.  This Astro cheating was an enterprise wide scheme.  No one knew outside of the Astros. Many, many had to be involved at all levels within the organization. This was not sandpaper, pine tar in the mitt or HGH in the left butt cheek.  It was systemic and that is scary at any billion-dollar corporation.  This story is far from over, but the Astro’s season may be.  Their first step in the forthcoming death spiral was hiring Dusty Baker. 

The Tale of Two Jimmy’s: In 1995, UCLA won their last basketball National Championship in the history of the legendary program.  In 1996, the Dallas Cowboys won their last Super Bowl in their storied history.  Jimmy Harrick was the UCLA basketball coach and Jimmy Johnson was the Dallas Cowboys coach.  Both coaches were at the helm when their teams had their last moments at the top.  Both coaches had fractured relationships with their boss which lead to their leaving.  Pete Dalis never liked Jim Harrick who was his 3^rd or 4^th choice when the Walt Hazzard era needed to end.  Emperor Pete did not feel UCLA should have to hire the Pepperdine coach but no one else wanted the job at the time.  Jimmy Johnson started to bristle under Jerry Jones as they fought for credit for the first two Super Bowls that the Cowboys won in the 90’s.  Jimmy left and Jones brought in Barry Switzer to shepherd the aging team to one more title and he did.  It was the Cowboys last hurrah as it was for the Bruins.  Both coaches are still treated like pariahs by their former teams.  UCLA should invite Harrick back and honor him.  The Cowboys need to recognize Johnson and put him in the Ring of Honor.  Time to honor the past and break the spell.