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 4th 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.
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