The Yard has been observing a period of silence since the passing of the narrator of our origin, Vin Scully. The first memories of the sports mania that would become our life’s work were reported by Scully. Scully was our hometown announcer, but he was also a national treasure. “In a season of the improbable, the impossible happened” is a favorite as Kirk Gibson’s HR landed in the RF seats in 1988. The radio broadcast is piped in the men’s restroom near our seats. One might linger at the porcelain to hear Vin describe that moment of the game. Beyond calling the Dodger games for over 60 years, calling the WS for a national audience and the MLB Game of the week, Scully worked other sports. The 1975 Masters is a legendary championship. Jack Nicklaus held off Tom Weiskopf and Johnny Miller by one stroke to win his fifth green jacket. As Jack is playing the final hole, Vin is making the call. When Joe Montana and Dwight Clark connected for “The Catch” to win the NFC championship in 1981, Scully was on that call as well. He was an artist who painted with his words and wit. He was our humble servant until the end. He was a unicorn. I was fortunate to enjoy him for the entirety of my life. He is missed.
Presidential libraries are the on-going legacy of former presidents. There are six libraries in the president’s hometown. Ten libraries are in the president’s home state. Seven are located near pre-presidential workplaces. Three are located near where the President retired. Ronald Reagan’s is near his former home in San Ynez. Air Force One is parked on the grounds and it costs $30 to walk around inside. The mission of presidential libraries is to safeguard a president’s papers and to offer an impartial record of his or her time in office. Even Richard Nixon has a presidential library in Yorba Linda to burnish his positive impact beyond the disgrace of Watergate. The Obama Library caused a brouhaha based on proposed costs on potential locations. GW’s might have some finger painting.
Obama has raised $700 million and counting for his legacy project. DT has some well-heeled friends who could lay that out to start his legacy although that process has not started. In fact, there has not been a lot of discussion regarding the Donald Trump Presidential Library. It is unclear what papers the Trumpster authored that need to be preserved. His Twitter account is probably where most of his best work is stored in Tweets. Maybe Elon or Jack Dorsey or whoever is running the Twit show could put it up in the cloud for future record. The FBI took an aggressive start to repatriating some of the presidential papers with their raid on August 8. It appears Trump had started his presidential library in the basement of the Mar-A-Lago resort. Excellent location in Southern Florida although a bit cramped and not easy to find according to the FBI. It is not on Trip Advisor yet, but let’s see how this unfolds.
College football starts in earnest this weekend. 2022-23 might be the last vestiges of traditional college football if it still exists at all. Oklahoma and Texas are still in the Big 12 or whatever is left of that Power Conference. They are looking to get bludgeoned in the SEC for next decade, UCLA and USC are planning to bolt the Pac-12 to the Big Ten which now has about 16 teams and $8 billion TV contract. The Pac-12 network has not been a robust success and mostly because the product is inferior. Without USC, UCLA and possibly Oregon, the PAC-12 is more like the WAC. The network is on life support at best. The Bruins and Trojans were getting $20 million+ this year. The Big Ten is offering something in the $80-100 million per year range. The BTN will be offering a coast-to-coast product. No other conference can offer such robust programming. It comes at the expense of other conferences. The altruism and egalitarianism of college athletics has left the stadium. The universities have learned well the money-grubbing ways of the NCAA to milk every dollar from their previously unpaid athletes.
Nation, Image and Likeness or NIL, have taken the players to getting paid NIL to getting paid millions. The whole debate over NIL was started by Ed O’Bannon. I watched Ed and the 1995 UCLA Bruins race past the Arkansas Razorbacks for the NCAA Title. I got to watch the game with my good friend Paul. He claims I did not breath except during timeouts. Years later EA Sports released a video game that included that title game. Ed had 30 and 17 in that game while leading the Bruins to their only title since the Wizard retired. In 2011, when viewing his performance inside the video game, O’Bannon was shocked by the real image and likeness with his name in the game. EA Sports and the NCAA were making millions from licensing these images. Mr. O’Bannon received NIL as in nothing for his efforts. Finally in 2014 and with the support of Oscar Robertson, a judge overruled the NCAA’s self-serving rules and declared them anti-trustworthy! That ruling opened the doors to where we are today. Not only college but high school athletes are getting in on the action. At some level, it is great to see college athletes get their due and not at the expense of the university. On another level, boosters have figured out how to manipulate the system for the benefit of their school. Texas A&M apparently has benefitted more than others much to the chagrin of Nick Saban. He has called out his former assistant Jimbo Fisher in the press for their NIL shenanigans and #1 recruiting class. Tuscaloosa gets all the southern five-star recruits, but it is not the large media market where NIL branding prospers. Saban does not need NIL revenue to win championships, but it levels the playing field of which Darth Saban wants no part. The NIL market might get properly regulated in the future, but the fresh faces of college athletics has been permanently scarred.
GOAT The Serena Williams show dropped the mic last week at Flushing Meadows. Serena is the GOAT of women’s athletics at all levels. No other woman or most other male athlete has been competitive at an elite level for over two decades. Serena won her first Grand Slam title at the US Open in 1999. She beat her sister Venus to win her last at the Australian Open in 2017. She has lost in four GS finals since the last title At age 42, she is more competitive than Jordan or Kareem was at that age. Ausie Margaret Court won 24 GS Titles. Thirteen of those titles were before the Open era. During that period, professional players were not allowed to play in the majors. Only the very best became pros so Margaret beat the best amateurs for most of her career, just not the best in the world. Hell, she couldn’t beat Bobby Riggs. Serena beat the best for every one of her 23 GS titles. She survived Will Smith, er ah I mean King Richard and conquered the world. Serena may be done between the lines but we have not heard the last of this GOAT.
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