The Ryder Cup and other moments

 This past fall weekend was a glorious immersion of sports programming that provided high-capacity couch adhesion with deft dexterity of the remote. It was a thing of beauty although Mrs. Yard conveyed a litany of disdainful looks.  Yard perseverance is legendary.  There were amazing college  football games intertwined with the Ryder Cup, the NFL and MLB regular season closing out the evening.  Yard staff mentioned that the weather was amazing, we would not know.  The AC was keeping us chilled and so were the outcomes.  The Ryder Cup was electric.  The Dodgers and Giants are going down to the wire with both teams splaying every team on their way to the playoffs.  The Bruins won at Stanford and the Trojans lost at home.  The Raiders capped the hometown schedule with an OT victory over the Fish.  All that was left was the Pinot Noir and Sushi celebration for all my good fortune.

The city of Las Vegas exploded with live sports all over the city this past weekend besides what was televised.  The Raiders had 59,000 strong for their game with the Miami Dolphins.  NASCAR left turned their way around the oval at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway before 50,000.  The Golden Knights Hockey Exhibition drew 17,000 for a freaking hockey exhibition.  125,000 revelers enjoyed a wide spectrum of sports content across the Las Vegas Valley. 

The Ryder Cup was the highlight of the weekend.  The Ryder Cup has such a rich history and the Euros have had their way with the top US Ryder Cup Teams since 1985 when the competition changed to Euros, not just the UK and Ireland.  The US dominated the UK for the first 58 years winning 22 times to just three for Britain and their constituency .  When the format changed to US against all of Europe, the outcome was 11-4 for the Euros since the participating nations changed up.  Most years, the US had the better team on paper, but the Europeans still prevailed both on their soil and ours.  The European roster of Grahame McDowell, Seve, Sergio, Rory, Ian Poulter, and the rest always seem to play their best in the Ryder Cup.  The US Team had Tiger, Phil, Rickie, and the rest of our best who all always seemed to be stumbling in the rough.  The European Team played the perennial underdog and boat raced the more revered and feared US team repeatedly.  This year’s cup might have finally flipped the paradigm.  The Euros looked old as they trotted out their mainstays including 48-year-old Lee Westwood.  But they could not keep pace with the US twenty somethings and lost by the largest margin in Ryder Cup history.  37-year-old Dustin Johnson was the stoic leader of the resurgence going 5-0 in his matches in one of the few times in a Ryder Cup match history.  Paulina Gretsky was beaming after the round which might have a bigger incentive on Sunday for DJ. These young Turks stormed Whistling Straits and set the stage for cups to come. In a prescient moment on the first tee, Ryder Cup mainstay Sergio Garcia bombed his first drive right down the middle of the fairway to the cheers of some.  The partisan crowd roared when Bryson DeChambeau teeing off second, crushed his ball on to the 408-yard  Par 4 first green.   Game on!

USC losing to the Oregon State Beavers for the first time since 1960 was newsworthy.  The Trojans have always had football success, the Beavers not so much. 61 years is a long time between wins at the Coliseum, and this was a large upset.  Clay Helton got fired for losing a home game by more than 20 as a heavy favorite just two weeks ago.  Yard staff has determined that the interim coach probably will not get whacked for the same offense.  Donte Williams did ice his exclusion from the ongoing head coach job search.  UCLA is making it interesting in 2021 and we have some cake on DTR winning the Heisman.  That is as far fetched as UCLA being relevant after twenty years wandering in a football wasteland.   We are trying to keep our historical myopia in a box in the attic until we process more data.

 

The real emotional trauma is unfolding in the MLB playoff picture particularly in the NL West.  The Dodgers and Giants have battled all season.  The biggest lead either team had was five games and mostly it has been between 1-2 games all season.  They have the two best records in baseball.  This was expected of the Dodgers especially before Bauer went rogue.  The Giants looked  like they were stitching a patchwork team together of veterans and other old people. Unfortunately, the pumpkin patch flipped the game board and did not just keep pace but surpassed the Dodgers in this moment.  There are few games left to close it out but neither team wants that Wild Card game.  To win 100+ games and lose a play in a game would be painful. My heart rate heightens as I type.  The one and done situation is scary but what is scary is that the other WC team is most likely the Saint Louis Cardinals.  The Cardinals have been the Dodgers playoff kryptonite the past 20 years winning four of five playoff series.  The Cardinals just won 17 in a row to roar into the second WC spot from the back of the pack.  We had the Cards over 86 wins at the book, so it was bittersweet. The Dodgers will be tough out in any playoff series, but a one game winner take all can turn out badly without a tomorrow to recover.  The Giants are the Cardinals Huckleberry, so we know who they are rooting for next week if they hang on to first.  It is not over for the NL West Crown and this Dodger team is never satisfied.  With all the injuries and the one miscreant, they are tailgating the Giants to the finish line.  It will be a NASCAR finish. Last night when Mad Max did not have his good game and blew a big lead, the Dodgers bombed four homeruns in the 8^th to overcome the friar’s uprising. They won another game that should have been a defeat.  The Padres have been on the wrong side of several this year.  It should be a fun run; we hope it is a long one.

 

It is only Rock and Roll!

 The Yard has always had rock and roll underpinnings since our first charter.  Yard youth went to see Led Zeppelin at the Forum in 1971 at age 14.  It was an incentive offer from Bill Seber for a diffident Yard and his schoolwork.  This Yardling indicated to Billy Bob Seber that he would be incentivized by going to a Led Zeppelin concert.  Senior Seber figured a concert is a concert.   The Yard hit the mark and the tickets were purchased.  To say that Mr. & Mrs. Seber were a bit shocked at the Forum that August night would be as understated as UCLA football successes.  Daddio was in a suit and mom was in a stole.  The people behind us, and there were not many with the ticket’s pops secured, were smoking copious amounts of weed.  Jimmy, Robert, John Paul and Bonzo rocked the house for three hours and forever changed my world.  Rock and roll would be a driving force that would lead nowhere but we listened to a bunch of great music and checked out the weed thing a bit.

John Bonzo Bonham succumbed to his rock persona and drowned in his own puke after slamming back 40 shots of vodka in a twelve-hour period in September 1980.  Zeppelin crashed after that and was discontinued as a band.  For all of Jimmy Page and Robert Plant’s brilliance, their songs were not lyrical masterpieces.  Really, what is a bustle in your hedgerow?  There were lots of Tolkienesque references and other mysticism. Music got very poppy in the 80’s with Madonna, Michael Jackson and George Michael dominating the charts and the airwaves.  No one rose with the power riff dominance of Led Z.  until the summer of 1991.  Over a period of 45 days, three upstart bands from Seattle released seminal albums that would forever change rock again just like the Beatles, Stones and Zeppelin did two decades earlier.  Nirvana, Soundgarden and Pearl Jam would release breakthrough albums that became legendary.  With hard riffs and simple, real world biting lyrics, these boys said something, and it exploded.  Nirvana led by the late Kurt Cobain, Soundgarden led by the late Chris Cornell and Pearl Jam was led by the very much still alive Eddie Vedder.  They stripped away the flamboyant excesses of rock stars and sang stark songs of disillusionment, isolation and loss with big guitar riffs that still resonate with youth today.  Nirvana’s Nevermind would rise to #1 on the US Billboard Top 40 replacing Michael Jackson’s Dangerous.  Nevermind would average 300,000 LP/week in sales eventually selling 30 million albums and still pressing.

So that is some Yard history and our journey to whatever this is.  It was not a straight line or necessarily well planned but we are still hopscotching to the beat.  The beat this time of year is all about college football and major league baseball.  The NFL garners some of our attention and the Raiders are our next story.  But college has always been our favorite football.  UCLA did what we thought they would do after upsetting LSU in a stunner.  They would get upset by Fresno State as 11-point favorites two weeks later with a bye in between to prepare for mighty Bulldogs.  The Bruins took a lead with 45 seconds left and appeared to stave off the upset.  But alas the gutty little QB at Fresno State limped down the field in five plays to steal the victory and my Sunday morning.  The bloody game kicked at 7:45 PM on a Saturday night.  So, I saved my joyful rendition for Sunday AM, note to self.

The Yard’s laser focus is on major league baseball.  We scoffed at the Giants in April.  We gave them some Yard cred in July.  In September, we are still waiting for their wheels to come unhinged, but they keep winning improbably many nights.  Their aging veterans are having career years.  Their pitching staff has been great.  The Dodgers have the 2^nd best record in baseball just one game behind the surprising Giants. Dodger fans are hoping the Dodgers can spurt past these pumpkin posers in the closing weeks.  This Dodger team is better than last year’s edition except for Cody Bellinger.  Cody has been struggling all season to find that swing and stay healthy.  He has accomplished neither.  Andrew Friedman has worked his magic all season.  The pieces are starting to congeal into a potential champion. 

When the Dodgers lost Trevor Bauer on administrative leave after his rough sex encounters, it made the clubhouse better.  Bauer has always been a weird one and known to alienate teammates.  With the family environment of Chavez Ravine, having a $30 million/year sexual miscreant is bad optics at any level.  Max Scherzer was the biggest midseason acquisition.  He is undefeated since joining the rotation and he will be nails in the playoffs if the Dodgers make it to the main pool.  Mad Max is 7-0 with 79 K’s in his seven starts. Kershaw is well rested and rounding into championship form.  Buehler and Urias have been solid all season.  Jansen is much better than last year.  The Dodgers have the best pitching in the MLB and will be a tough out. 

When the Dodgers acquired Albert Pujols after the Angels had released him in the final year of that mammoth contract, it seemed like a nice thing not a great thing.  King Albert has been a great addition to the clubhouse.  Flushing out Bauer and bringing in Pujols had an accretive positive impact.  The young Dodgers look up to the future HOF player and feed off his presence.  Albert has responded with more production than he has in years.  He is batting .261 since joining the team with 12 home runs.  He was batting .198 with 5 homeruns when the Angels released him.  One of the greatest baseball moments in recent regular season history was when Pujols returned to  Saint Louis for the second time since leaving after the 2011 season.  Albert is beloved in STL to this day, and he received a 40 second ovation when he came to bat in the first inning.  Pujols rewarded the faithful by homering in that at bat.  The faithful cheered their legendary superstar even though he led the Dodgers to a slamming victory over the Cards.

The Tampa Bay Devil Rays clinched their third consecutive trip to the playoffs.  The Rays were in the World Series last year against the Dodgers.  They battled and were a quick hook of Blake Snell away from winning. Currently, they are leading the rugged AL East by 6.5 games over Boston and 8.5 over the Yankees.  Before Tommy Brady and the Buccaneers won the Super Bowl LY, the Rays were the most successful sports franchise in Florida not playing hockey.  You read that correctly.  For all the Rays success, they are averaging 8,900 butts in the seats most nights.  The Rays have been to two WS without success but that is more success than the Bucs have had since John Gruden was coaching the team.  The Tampa Bay Lighting are a hockey team in Florida that averages over 18,000 a game.  The  Buccaneers have always drawn 50,000+ on Sundays.  Baseball has been a tough sell in the Sunshine State.  The playoff games will be packed but the attendance is why the Rays’ payroll is $63 million.  That is Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton’s combined salary.

Just win, baby and the Raidahs are baby.  Al would have been proud of this John Gruden coached edition.  The Yard was given a tour of Allegiant this week.  It is remarkable and pays homage to Al Davis in many ways, most notably the Al Davis torch.  The Raiders have responded by opening 2-0 against Baltimore at home and the Steelers in Pitt.  They were underdogs in both games and won convincingly home and away.  It could be an exciting season and the Yard has cake on Raiders winning 8 or more games.  This is a playoff team and more at least in September.  The Yard has signed on for a month-to-month subscription on the Raider bandwagon.  The AFC West is rugged as much as the AL East, but the Raiders will be in the mix.  The Stones will be at Allegiant in November and rock the house before the final stretch drive.  It is only Rock and Roll and we love it.

In the Clubhouse:  For the Love of the Game is one of the great baseball movies that Kevin Costner always seems to make.  Great story, great cast.  Who knew the Tigers had Costner? Vin Scully doing the play by play with JK Simmons, John C. Reilly and Kelly Preston. Bob Seger songs. It is a fun story.