The Raiders of the First Half

When the Raiders sprinted to a double-digit halftime lead against the Patriots last Sunday, we knew the silver and black was in trouble. While middling through Josh McDaniel’s maiden voyage on the pirate ship, the Raiders have had five double-digit halftime leads in 2022.  One would think a team with five significant leads at halftime, the Raiders would boast more than an 6-8 record.  The Raiders never won any of those games, losing all five games in the 4^th quarter.  The Raiders had not lost that many games with that lead in team history let alone in one season.  McDaniel got the scary vote of confidence from Mark of the bowl cut. With their playoff backs against the urinal, they stormed to a 17-3 halftime lead.  The Raiders then allowed the Pats to score 21 unanswered points.  With under a minute left, Derek Carr tossed a hail Mary TD pass in the deep recesses of inbounds.  There would be overtime and a chance for salvation. Billy B’s New Englanders had thirty seconds, two timeouts and 50 yards to field goal range.  The unexpected happened when the Patriots did their Cal v Stanford routine and tossed the game to the silver.  A surprising win and cover for the Yard and the Raiders. We have heard from sources that the flight back to New England was chilly.

 

The World Cup was one of the best for the Yard.  We are not a soccer outlet.  We follow when the US team is respectable, which happens every few decades.  1994 was fun and WC was in the US with the championship at the Rose Bowl.  The US beat Columbia that year and it cost a few Colombian soccer players their lives. The US team made it to the knockout round then and again this year.  In between, the only thing we recall is Landon Donovan.  The 2022 final was as advertised except for the beer.  Lionel Messi playing in what would be his last WC and Argentina trying to find their first title since Maradona.  Messi delivered and there was scoring, drama and scoring. Soccer always has drama, scoring not so much. A bonus was rooting against France. It is always great to watch the French lose.

 

Baseball free agency has exploded with 10-year $300 million deals for all the big names. Trea Turner a Yard favorite, bolted for the city of brotherly love. He wanted to get back east and share some love with his bro Bryce Harper.  Trea got a title in Washington, but Bryce had already gotten his $300 mil and left before the parade. Aaron Judge turned down the Yankees seven-year $214 million deal before the season.  The oft injured Judge doubled down on himself and had one of the greatest years in American League history. His bet rewarded him with a nine-year $360 million contract.  Aaron is 6’7’ and that frame leads to some prodigious home runs, it also exposes lots of moving parts to strain or tear. The Yankees could not let Judge go to San Francisco. The spurned Giants set their sights on WS cheater Carlos Correa.  SF needed to make a splash to maintain relevance in Bay area sports.  The Warriors keep racking up titles.  The 49ers are back in the championship discussion. The Giants last title was 2014.  Attendance is down 27%. The homegrown talent has not blossomed, and the originals are getting old or gone.  Signing Correa would be noisy and bold for the franchise. They pulled the trigger and before the first news cycle had closed, Carlos the thief was off to the Mets and Steve Cohen.  The Giant nation lost a few more craft garlic fry customers with that disclosure.

 

Steve Cohen made his billions running the hedge fund SAC Capital Advisers.  Cohen was profiled on 60 minutes and downplayed his success story from its humble beginnings in Great Neck, NY.  He bootstrapped his way to the top while running his firm with tyrannical demands for his traders. SEC compliance was at the hairy edge for these traders and their insider contacts.  SAC Capital advisers went down in an SEC firestorm. $1.9 billion in fines and disbanding the company.  Two of his star traders went to prison but Cohen escaped with his billions.  Before the scandal hit Wall Street, Cohen was a finalist to buy the Dodgers from Frank McClown.   He lost out to Guggenheim and then the SEC turds splashed down in his crystal punchbowl.  Stevie was barred from building another investment firm and he retired to his $150 million compound in Greenwich, CT.  Cohen laid low while his narrative distilled down to retired billionaire hedge fund manager.  The Wilpon family had owned the Mets since the heydays leading up to the 1986 title, Mookie Wilson, Billy Buckner, and all of that. The Wilpons were heavy investors with Bernie Madoff and got out before the collapse.  The SEC tried to claw back on the Wilpons, but they also managed to escape with their billions and the wrath of vigilante investors. It was pirates selling their booty to barbarians.

 

The Mets team salary for 2023 comes in at $380 million.   The Padres projected payroll will be $241 million.  The Phillies are going to fork over $242 million. The Dodgers are poseurs at $223 mil.  The AZ Diamondbacks are working for minimums at $92 million.  The Nationals, two years after winning the championship are slumming it as well. The inequities in baseball are going to continue to diverge like the bourgeoisie and the proletariats.  Cohen told MLB ownership that he would not bloat his payroll to win a title.  When his payroll is $120 million more than the next highest bloat, he might have fibbed a bit to the MLB, but he is used to lying to investigators.

 

Final Seconds: The Raiders cannot afford to lose another game this year and their last three games are a gauntlet.  50 years ago, this weekend, the Raiders suffered one of the most tragic, iconic defeats in the annals of the NFL.  The game was a defensive struggle with Steelers leading 6-0 with 1:17 to go.  John Madden replaced Darryl the mad bomber Lamonica after the mad one threw his second interception.  The legend of Kenny The Snake Stabler would be born that day.  Yard youth loved the Snake. Stabler snaked through the Steel curtain for a 30-yard TD run.  The Raiders only needed to hold on for 77 seconds for a 7-6 victory.  What happened next is one of the most historic plays in NFL history.  The Immaculate Reception by Franco Harris lead to the winning TD as time and the Raiders expired.  There are no words to describe and lives forever on YouTube. Franco passed away this week and is remembered for his HOF career and that catch.  The Raiders return to Pittsburgh this weekend to try and save their season.  The ghost of Franco will be willing the Steelers to victory. Raider nation should be getting ready for 2024 and praying for Tom Brady.

Let the games begin

The College Football Playoffs, the CFP, are set for the opening round of games.  The CFP for D1 NCAA Football is still for the mighty teams not all the teams.  Nick Saban and Alabama did not make the elite four for the first time since 2020.  The Tide has been in the CFP seven times in the nine seasons the playoff has existed.  The NCAA and the Bowl organizers have struggled to design an equitable solution to crown a true champion.  D3 football figured it out decades ago.  They are rolling though their playoffs now with 16 teams at the starting line.  FCS football has hosted a playoff with 12 teams for decades.  It does seem that North Dakota State always wins.  The Big Boys of CFP can only figure out how to have the top 4 get to play and there is always controversy.

 

This year Michigan and Georgia are undefeated and the best in the land.  It gets a little murky from there.  Saban has been Saban rattling that his team would be favored in any game and gosh darn it, we should be in the CFP.  Sonny Dykes almost gambled the TCU Horned Frogs chances for the CFP by going for it on 4^th and goal in the Big 12 Championship OT and failing.  Sonny Dykes does sound like a gambler but that was stupid move when an FG keeps you in the game.  The committee slipped TCU into the dance despite Sonny’s dopey coaching and much to the chagrin of Little Nicky.  USC Nation had hoped to see the Trojans leapfrog into the discussion. The Pac-12 hoped for them to make it as well.  The Ute Nation had a different agenda and pounded the Trojans and King Caleb into submission. Troy fell into the Cotton Bowl against Tulane. Caleb should win the Heisman but not a championship. Ohio State snuck into the CFP after getting smashed in the mouth at home by the Wolverines.  It was Michigan first win at the Horseshoe since 2001.  Harbaugh seems to have figured out the next level.  This might be their year, but the Bulldogs are having another year of the way and their truth. Georgia has been the favorite since August, and nothing has changed.

 

The 40-year anniversary of Instant Replay first used during a college football game was on December 7, 1963.  It was used during the broadcast of the Army Navy game that year.  Roger Staubach led the undefeated Midshipmen into the game days after being awarded the Heisman trophy.  Navy was ranked #2 and Army had but two losses at kickoff before 100,000 at the old Municipal Stadium later renamed JFK.  The game had been delayed several weeks because President Kennedy had been assassinated on November 22, 1963.  The game helped the nation heal from the tragic killing of JFK.  Instant replay was the icing on the broadcast cake. Staubach was exciting to watch and looking at his spectacular plays over and over was exciting for the TV audience.  Flash forward to 2022, Army and Navy are playing this weekend in Philadelphia.  The total for the Army Navy game has gone to the under for 16 straight years.  There is report that if someone invested $110 in 2006 to the under and rolled the winnings over it would be worth $3.4 million today.  Of course, that would mean in 2020 this person would roll over $850K to the under followed by $1.7 million in 2021.  Those are some serious cajones to make those last two bets.  The Yard gets sphincter stress with a $25 parlay.  With Over Under at 32.5, Instant Replay probably will not be as exercised Saturday as much as it was in 1963. 

 

 

There was some history this week.  The UCLA Women’s Soccer team won their second NCAA title in school history.  It was the Bruins 120^th NCAA title across all sports trailing only Stanford and ahead of USC.  The Lady Bruins trailed 2-0 when they finally scored in the 80^th minute.  They scored again to tie the game with sixteen seconds left in regulation.  They outlasted the legendary NC women in two overtimes to win 3-2.  NC has won ten women’s soccer titles with their HOF coach Karen Shelton’s 42 years. At the same time, Andrew of the Yard’s school the University of Chicago won their first NCAA D3 Soccer title.  It was solid 2-0 for the Maroons over the Williams College Ephs.  The Ephs had been the Cinderella story of the D3 tournament until Chicago struck their midnight. The real story is Maroon head coach Julianne Sitch.  She became the first woman to coach an NCAA Men’s Champion in any sport.  Congrats to coach Sitch and the Maroons.

The Fall in Qatar

Last week, I was trying to buy Taylor Swift tickets using proceeds from my FTX Bitcoin account.  It was a race to the bottom.  Tay Tay shut down Ticketmaster faster than FTX went to zero. It was a cataclysm of cosmic proportions for both platforms. We bounced back to reality and decided on George Thorogood at the Pearl.  Classic rock at a vintage price worked better for the budget.

 

The Yard World Affairs director had forecasted the war in Ukraine would be over by now.  It appears we are now entering the obliteration phase.  Destroying infrastructure and driving Ukrainians from their homes is not sustainable even if the Russians prevail. It is a Stalin-esque move by Vlade. Upping the ante going into winter.  In 1932-33, it was food withheld from the Ukrainian people by Stalin. He brutally starved them into submission. Putin is using missiles and drones.  Without gas and electricity, he is going to turn Kherson into a Siberian death camp.  Russia has been exposed as a second world military enterprise on the battlefield.  Putin has become the new Rocket man. Kim Jung is jealous and stepping up his air show.  Whoever is running the dumpster fire that is Iran is cheering Putin on as well with Iranian drones.  Lunacy is a bonding thread for dictators. Xi is keeping his arms folded with his own protests blowing up across his country.  He is waiting for a winner to support. We hope they can still find a path to diplomacy.  Putin needs a win to save that Botox infused mug.  He lost his long fight after status as world leader last February. He should get shirtless back on the horse for his people when the weather warms up.

 

The NCAA transfer portal has changed the mechanics of building basketball and football programs for head coaches.  USC recruited Lincoln Riley to resurrect Troy from the ashes.  He brought his guy Caleb Williams with him, and they did rise from the ashes of the past decade.  Oregon did a quick upgrade bringing in Bo Nix from Georgia. Michael Penix decided to play a fifth year and left Indiana for Washington.  It was the best move of his career and he capped it with a big win against WSU in the Apple Cup.  He beat another transfer portal refugee, Cam Ward.  The Pac 12 had seven starting QB’s using the transfer portal in 2021 for the 2022 season.  Dorian Thompson Robinson turned in another great year. Yard staff thinks it is his 6^th year with Chip Kelly and the Bruins.  There was some COVID truncation, but DTR and the fan base finally benefitted with a nine-win season.

 

The World Cup is finally here.  It is usually in July, but it is 120 degrees in Qatar in July.   November is a more fan friendly month even if the country is anything but fan friendly.  Qatar has stressed to the world to respect their draconian, 12^th century culture.  FIFA has told the players to respect Qatar and not display symbols of LGBTQ. Instead look at all the shiny new things we built with our cadre of third world labor. Budweiser is a major sponsor of FIFA.  They were quite surprised when Qatar announced just weeks before the World Cup that beer would not be sold at the venues.  Alcohol in general is heard to come by in the country full of no fun.  The fact the World Cup is In Qatar at all is blasphemous.  Qatar is not a soccer power.  The only way Qatar plays in their first World Cup is to buy it and they did. They bought the tournament from FIFA.  The World Cup had always been for sale by FIFA.  FIFA leadership has historically lined their own pockets with meal, college tuition and Benjamins while pimping out Cup rights.

 

 

Night Cap:  West Coast college football is always more interesting when USC is in the national mix. USC is one of the OG’s in CFB. Chip Kelly has a good gig at UCLA.  Nine-win seasons to keep employed, beat USC occasionally.  The Rose Bowl or another New Year’s Bowl would be kind of nice.  UCLA has not competed for a national title since the 1990’s.  UCLA went down to wire with the Trojans a few weeks back.  DTR had his first mistake prone game of the season at a bad time.  The Bruins had a chance to win the last minute.  We hope Caleb Williams wins the Heisman and makes a Mark Sanchez straight to the NFL.