Friday afternoon flights into Las Vegas’ McCarron airport are illuminated with all the enthusiasm and hope that exists before that first $200 is pissed away in Vegas. The bachelorette parties with matching shirts and cocktails are ready. The dancers are all coming in for the weekend to take off their shirts for cocktailers. There is laughter and excitement in the air as the city awaits the revelers and their ATM cards. Las Vegas is a city which is built on a business model of people making bad decisions while drinking alcohol. The crowd leaving on Mondays in Uggs, sweats and massive sunglasses is a testimony to the city’s pervasive ability to ensure the successful extraction of people from their wages.
Al Davis died this past weekend. Yard staffers were completely shocked by these tragic events. We actually thought Al had already died. The Lane Kiffin “firing” press conference from several years back with Mrs. Taglin’s 8th grade overhead projector will live forever but apparently Al did not. Al was always wearing those Weekend at Bernie’s shimmer suits and glasses. We thought he was already gone and his Stepford staff kept the Alster “alive” in our lives to enjoy his best team in a decade. It is unfortunate for his family but not the franchise. The Raiders upset the Titans as part of the wake festivities. It was refreshing to hear Jon Gruden and Roger Goodell praise Al’s legendary leadership while they both personally loathed the man.
The NFL potential lock out this past summer was watched almost as closely as the Cuban missile by the American public. It was headline news daily and congress attempted to get involved. The sports books in Las Vegas were reeling if regular season games were lost. Eventually a deal was reached and for the good of the Obama administration, America’s most important distraction was saved before we started really wondering how bad things are. Sport is a solvent for the residue that accumulates in the psyche of America. The anxiety of the week can easily melt into the confines of 56 inches of liquid crystal display and a few frosties before Monday beckons.
The NBA does not share this same national interest. There are NFL cities not NBA cities. College football and basketball are more important than the NBA. If you are in Des Moines or Duluth, you have an NFL telecast every weekend. There is a local college team that is followed in Lubbock and Little Rock as well as the NFL. People in Oklahoma hate the University of Texas but love the Cowboys. The NBA is only followed with reverence in a few towns. Los Angeles, Boston, Miami and Dallas of late have strong NBA traditions and following. All of the other 2nd and 3rd tier markets that do not have a local team would rather watch Celebrity bowling or poker over the NBA. In the 1970’s before Magic and Larry supercharged interest, the NBA Playoffs were only on TV on a tape delay after the local news.
The NBA is off everyone’s radar until football ends in February. Pundits figure it will get done in time. But the public apathy that exists will mature into disdain if the NBA is not careful. NBA players are the most notorious spenders and sperm donors of all professional athletes. With an extended family and sometimes a few others, missing paychecks is not part of that economics for the average NBA power forward. The megastars have their largess but the second tier guys slogging along for $7.2 million a year are going to suffer. Their pay is doled out $87,804 per game to get their millions. If the season is shortened to 76 games, $7.2 million is $6.67 million and so on. The players will cave because if they do not their siblings will be on their butts for their monthly stipend. Be careful what you wish for in today’s world.
4Th and long: The State of UCLA football is irrelevant even on the campus in Westwood. There is no buzz or excitement at the games. The team has swirled in a soup of mediocrity for nearly a decade. Every day someone inquires at the Yard if Neuheisel’s job is in jeopardy. The simple answer is these days all of our jobs are in jeopardy. The real answer is that UCLA has never gone all in with football. The 1990’s were nice but UCLA coasted when they should have had their foot on the gas pedal. The team was exciting and USC was wandering in the desert with Ted Tollner and Paul Hackett carrying the commandments. UCLA left the load of Bob Toledo feeding at the bountiful trough of Terry Donahue’s mission too long before firing his lazy ass. USC hired Saint Pete in the interim and the rest is well documented in this ugly down spiral into the depths of the Pacific 12 conference. While UCLA basketball gets a new arena, football has never had a home to call their own. UCLA Football facilities are arguably the worst in the conference with no improvement planned. Super-agent Michael Ovitz rose over $200 million for the Ronald Regan hospital. Can he find $50-75 million for football? We need an Oklahoma State’s booster like T. Boone Pickens. He gave the school $100 million and warned them not to spend a nickel of it on academics.
If UCLA is not going to step up does it matter if there is someone out there better than Neuheisel out there? Urban Meyer is not coming. One of the top programs in the country works out in brand new multi-million dollar facilities with historical and recent greatness ten miles away. Oregon has Nike. Stanford has their rich alumni including the Google boys. UCLA has Rick and Dan and their tin can. The one guy out there who could help UCLA is Mike Leach, the former Texas Tech coach. He coached exciting teams that beat the Mack Brown coached Texas Longhorns in a legendary shootout. His teams were exciting and they were built on all of the castoffs that Texas and Oklahoma did not want. His career got derailed by ESPN and Craig James. Craig James son Adam was on Leach’s last team and apparently Leach was accused of unnecessary punishment of James’ son. James Sr. was loud as was ESPN in commenting on the situation and portraying Adam as a victim. ESPN let one of their anchors become the story.
Leach got run out of Lubbock under a sea of allegations and lawsuits with ESPN in hot pursuit. Leach has sued Texas Tech, ESPN and Craig James. We are not sure if his suit has merit but the University’s claim of sovereign immunity was thrown out which does not bode well for Tech. Apparently, Leach was due an $800,000 performance bonus two days after his firing. He had demoted Adam James to third string wide receiver just prior to the uproar. When Adam was told the news, he promptly cursed at the coach and assistant coach and did $1100 in damage to his office door. Apparently, the news was not well received by Craig James either. He was noted in court documents for his frequent and belligerent calls to the Texas Tech coaching staff to discuss his son’s demotion and remand their stupidity. His son was the progeny of a champion! Apparently, Leach’s staff did not see it that way. That did not stop James with ESPN’s support in their efforts to destroy Leach’s career at Tech.
The Yard did find it interesting that the morally outraged Father Craig James was also a prominent member of the most notorious football program in college football history at SMU. In the history of college football, no team was ever as arrogant and egregious as the SMU Mustangs and their tag team backfield of Eric Dickerson and Craig James. The Yard has no idea if James was taking improper benefits from boosters. His name or Dickerson’s never came out in the inquiry. Apparently, the second string linebacker who got caught with the envelope of money was the only culprit. Leach might be the kind of fighter and contrarian UCLA needs to come out of their pigskin dark ages.
While responding to a comment that a player was listed as day to day Vin Scully replied, “Aren’t we all?”
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Stiffing Vin
The Yard has taken a witness program approach to the blogosphere in recent months. With the apocalypse predicted and then rescheduled, the Bristol Palin Memoir hitting the presses and the Michele Bachmann Sarah Palin beauty pageant heating up for the Republican nomination, we figured it might be best to stay in hiding. The Los Angeles sports scene has smoldered into an acidic bloat of irrelevance during our sabbatical. The Dodgers demise had been predicted by Yard pundits since the first vestiges of the McCourt era. The Lakers championship run was expected to end at some just not this past May. The Bruins were supposed to find their way at some point but that point has long passed. In June of 2011, the axis of Yard myopia had crashed with the Yard hopes, dreams and three solid postings. The ruination came with such surprise, arrogance and anticipation that our staff was as bewildered as much as we were pissed off. The very malaise that has become LA sports and infected the creative juices of our fervor has resurrected our collective rage and keyboards. We had no choice but to get back to the Dell’s.
As the Dodgers swirled in the porcelain flushing our collective baseball history down with the rest of the feces, the bile spewing out of the McCourt’s divorce has grown exponentially in the City of apparently forgotten angels. Being a Dodger fan these days feels like being a plaintiff at a judicial hearing for custody of Dodgers. These unsettling events culminated in Frank McCourt dragging the Dodgers into bankruptcy this week to stave off Bud Selig’s quest to take control of the team. The bankruptcy filing was not a complete surprise as Frank tried to hang onto the one thing he never should have owned in the first place. Most of the creditors who were announced were as big a load as Spank McCourt. Steroid laden Manny Ramirez is owed $21 million. Tub of Goo Andruw Jones is owed $11 million. Marquis Grissom is owed $2 million and he has not been on the team since 2002. A last footnote in the filing was that Vin Scully is owed $153,000.
The biggest victim of this outrage is the most important living icon in all of LA sports history-Vin Scully. It is not the money, it is Vin Scully. He is a local treasure who is nationally revered. Vinnie was there when Jackie Robinson broke into baseball in 1947. He was there when the Boys of Summer won the Dodgers only title in Brooklyn in 1955. He was in the booth calling the games for every championship the Dodgers have ever won. Scully was in the booth for Don Larsen’s perfect game in 1956. He was calling Gibson’s two run shot in the 1988 World Series. He called the catch by Dwight Clark in the 1982 NFL playoffs. He called Jack Nicklaus dramatic victory over a stunned Johnny Miller and Tom Weiskopf in the 1975 Masters. He could have called any sport he wanted from 1975-1989 and he did. But he always was loyal to the Dodgers. He never wavered in his passion to bring the Dodger game into our homes, our cars and our lives.
So the McCourt owned Dodgers file BK and now owe Vin Scully $153,000. Are you kidding me? How low can the Frank stoop to save his unpaid for legacy that he now owes our selfless hero a buck and a half large? This is not some steroid laden overpaid leftfielder. This is not a fat centerfielder who hit ten home runs for his $20 million. This is Vin Scully, national hero, cultural icon and humble voice of the Dodgers. Scully is victim of these proceeding not just financially but because he agreed to return for another year unconditionally. He did not stick around another year for this shit at age 83. None of us did and none of us have as much invested as the godfather of Dodger baseball Vin Scully. Damn you to hell, Frank and that Jamie, and those overpaid kids you spawned and that psychic you paid to find the way and the light. FU, Pay Vin Scully!
Extra Innings: It is tragic that the Dodgers are wasting this time with the McCourt’s while all of their young heralded talent is starting to perform as advertised. Andre Ethier is in the top ten in hitting. Kershaw is leading the majors in strikeouts. Chad Billingsley is performing as the #2 starter should. And Matt Kemp is the MVP of the National League as the All Star break approaches. Kemp is having the kind of monster season that was long predicted after this his season two years ago. Last season he was focused on Rihanna’s whohaa and his performance at the plate suffered. This year while Rihanna is shopping her stuff around to other interested celebrities, Kemp is getting back to the skills that will earn him a contract that can get him any whohaa he wants.
“Good is not good when better is expected”. Vincent Edward Scully
As the Dodgers swirled in the porcelain flushing our collective baseball history down with the rest of the feces, the bile spewing out of the McCourt’s divorce has grown exponentially in the City of apparently forgotten angels. Being a Dodger fan these days feels like being a plaintiff at a judicial hearing for custody of Dodgers. These unsettling events culminated in Frank McCourt dragging the Dodgers into bankruptcy this week to stave off Bud Selig’s quest to take control of the team. The bankruptcy filing was not a complete surprise as Frank tried to hang onto the one thing he never should have owned in the first place. Most of the creditors who were announced were as big a load as Spank McCourt. Steroid laden Manny Ramirez is owed $21 million. Tub of Goo Andruw Jones is owed $11 million. Marquis Grissom is owed $2 million and he has not been on the team since 2002. A last footnote in the filing was that Vin Scully is owed $153,000.
The biggest victim of this outrage is the most important living icon in all of LA sports history-Vin Scully. It is not the money, it is Vin Scully. He is a local treasure who is nationally revered. Vinnie was there when Jackie Robinson broke into baseball in 1947. He was there when the Boys of Summer won the Dodgers only title in Brooklyn in 1955. He was in the booth calling the games for every championship the Dodgers have ever won. Scully was in the booth for Don Larsen’s perfect game in 1956. He was calling Gibson’s two run shot in the 1988 World Series. He called the catch by Dwight Clark in the 1982 NFL playoffs. He called Jack Nicklaus dramatic victory over a stunned Johnny Miller and Tom Weiskopf in the 1975 Masters. He could have called any sport he wanted from 1975-1989 and he did. But he always was loyal to the Dodgers. He never wavered in his passion to bring the Dodger game into our homes, our cars and our lives.
So the McCourt owned Dodgers file BK and now owe Vin Scully $153,000. Are you kidding me? How low can the Frank stoop to save his unpaid for legacy that he now owes our selfless hero a buck and a half large? This is not some steroid laden overpaid leftfielder. This is not a fat centerfielder who hit ten home runs for his $20 million. This is Vin Scully, national hero, cultural icon and humble voice of the Dodgers. Scully is victim of these proceeding not just financially but because he agreed to return for another year unconditionally. He did not stick around another year for this shit at age 83. None of us did and none of us have as much invested as the godfather of Dodger baseball Vin Scully. Damn you to hell, Frank and that Jamie, and those overpaid kids you spawned and that psychic you paid to find the way and the light. FU, Pay Vin Scully!
Extra Innings: It is tragic that the Dodgers are wasting this time with the McCourt’s while all of their young heralded talent is starting to perform as advertised. Andre Ethier is in the top ten in hitting. Kershaw is leading the majors in strikeouts. Chad Billingsley is performing as the #2 starter should. And Matt Kemp is the MVP of the National League as the All Star break approaches. Kemp is having the kind of monster season that was long predicted after this his season two years ago. Last season he was focused on Rihanna’s whohaa and his performance at the plate suffered. This year while Rihanna is shopping her stuff around to other interested celebrities, Kemp is getting back to the skills that will earn him a contract that can get him any whohaa he wants.
“Good is not good when better is expected”. Vincent Edward Scully
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Escaping in March
With earthquakes, nuclear and economic meltdowns and all of the other good tidings channeled to us through our television, thank goodness for college basketball. We could ponder why the Japanese engineers built a nuclear power plant to withstand a 9.0 quake while engineering the backup power to keep the plant from melting down not to withstand the ensuing tsunami. We could wonder what Plutonium-239 having a half life of 24,000 years means to us. The story of Wall Street moguls pocketing unindicted millions while 9 % of working minions are unemployed is compelling. This weekend, we would rather focus on Butler versus Virginia Commonwealth.
Escapism is a Yard tenet. Work and mortgage payments rarely permit such travel but one can dream. Since the first vestiges of March, college hoops has provided a 24/7 happy place from the wrath. The devastation in Japan is biblical. New Zealand has not recovered and that is suddenly old news. Good news is that 216,000 citizens found work while 13 million cannot. The Butler Bulldogs and the Virginia Commonwealth Rams are playing in the national semifinal on Saturday afternoon. CNN? We don’t need no stinking CNN.
The NCAA national basketball tournament goes deep beyond the arteries of the major sports cities into the capillaries of America. Saturday afternoon, Richmond Virginia and Indianapolis, Indiana will shut out the world and root for their respective local teams. The Yard will be right there with them for every shining moment. March media provided little solace from the events of the day. Tragedy was everywhere and our hearts wept for the unfortunate. College basketball was our escape during March.
Butler and VCU are our compelling stories. VCU beat USC in the play in game last summer or something just to get in. They have won one more game than anyone left in the dance VCU was soundly lambasted by ESPN’s Dick Vitale and Jay Bilas for having the audacity of accepting the 67th tournament bid. If Bilas had his druthers, the Commonwealth would have demurred on the tourney and given their bid to a much more deserving Colorado or Alabama team. There are never “one and dones” at VCU or Butler. Players go to those schools to pursue careers other than the NBA. Hoops are for these moments not the next level. The one and dones are in the UCONN-Kentucky game that follows.
Kentucky coach John Calipari is widely recognized as the best coach for players who will play one year and then go to the NBA. The University of Kentucky must be so proud of their coach’s prowess with incoming freshmen. He also holds the NCAA for vacating the most Final Fours because of recruiting violations as well. Actually, he has vacated the only two Final Fours that he has coached. Jim Calhoun will be suspended for five Big East conference games next year for recruiting violations. The Yard is pulling for Butler to do what they should have done last year and win it all. We were pulling for them last year because we hate Duke. They are a better story with this year’s run.
When college basketball was between rounds, it was also nice to see the Lakers “flip the switch” before the second round of the playoffs on their way to a championship. The Lakers stumbled into the playoffs last year with three straight losses. This year they tumbled into the All-Star weekend with three straight losses culminating in a Greek tragedy at the Quicken Loans arena starring the Cleveland Cavaliers. Mitch Kupchak pondered breaking up the team. Ron Artest and Andrew Bynum were the only people he was talking to but he got everyone’s attention. Artest was behaving and saying all of the right things. He was shooting 37% and lost on the floor. Andrew is seven feet of lost in the City of the Angels. He has a lot of potential and he should not risk finding it in Cleveland as Baron Davis has been exiled to do with a bum hip and bad beard. Both are leading the charge since Mitch’s comments.
It is one thing to take their usual bitch slap tour of Texas and beat San Antonio and Dallas by double digits. It is quite something special to come of the pasting of Dallas, fly to Salt Lake fall behind by 17 and rally to win by 11. The Lakers are never good on the second night of a back to back and most notably when flying to the city where fun goes to die. Falling behind by double digits in games like this has been a Laker tradition since the days of Magic and James. Rallying to win by double digits is an exception for this two time defending champion. Get the bus ready, there will be a parade in June on Figueroa.
Final Thoughts: Jay Bilas and Dick Vitale speak about a mid-Majors resume like they are applying for a job. They seem to be saying that there is a career path to becoming a major-Major and get CBS’s respect. Jay, you are starting to morph into Billy Packer. Be careful, he got sent packing. Dickie V, try to talk without your hands just for one shining moment or at least block out a bit more of your mug with those mitts. You also made a great prediction about Louisville making a long run in the tournament. We know Pitino is your big buddy but his Cardinals did not make it to lunch time on the first day of the dance.
Escapism is a Yard tenet. Work and mortgage payments rarely permit such travel but one can dream. Since the first vestiges of March, college hoops has provided a 24/7 happy place from the wrath. The devastation in Japan is biblical. New Zealand has not recovered and that is suddenly old news. Good news is that 216,000 citizens found work while 13 million cannot. The Butler Bulldogs and the Virginia Commonwealth Rams are playing in the national semifinal on Saturday afternoon. CNN? We don’t need no stinking CNN.
The NCAA national basketball tournament goes deep beyond the arteries of the major sports cities into the capillaries of America. Saturday afternoon, Richmond Virginia and Indianapolis, Indiana will shut out the world and root for their respective local teams. The Yard will be right there with them for every shining moment. March media provided little solace from the events of the day. Tragedy was everywhere and our hearts wept for the unfortunate. College basketball was our escape during March.
Butler and VCU are our compelling stories. VCU beat USC in the play in game last summer or something just to get in. They have won one more game than anyone left in the dance VCU was soundly lambasted by ESPN’s Dick Vitale and Jay Bilas for having the audacity of accepting the 67th tournament bid. If Bilas had his druthers, the Commonwealth would have demurred on the tourney and given their bid to a much more deserving Colorado or Alabama team. There are never “one and dones” at VCU or Butler. Players go to those schools to pursue careers other than the NBA. Hoops are for these moments not the next level. The one and dones are in the UCONN-Kentucky game that follows.
Kentucky coach John Calipari is widely recognized as the best coach for players who will play one year and then go to the NBA. The University of Kentucky must be so proud of their coach’s prowess with incoming freshmen. He also holds the NCAA for vacating the most Final Fours because of recruiting violations as well. Actually, he has vacated the only two Final Fours that he has coached. Jim Calhoun will be suspended for five Big East conference games next year for recruiting violations. The Yard is pulling for Butler to do what they should have done last year and win it all. We were pulling for them last year because we hate Duke. They are a better story with this year’s run.
When college basketball was between rounds, it was also nice to see the Lakers “flip the switch” before the second round of the playoffs on their way to a championship. The Lakers stumbled into the playoffs last year with three straight losses. This year they tumbled into the All-Star weekend with three straight losses culminating in a Greek tragedy at the Quicken Loans arena starring the Cleveland Cavaliers. Mitch Kupchak pondered breaking up the team. Ron Artest and Andrew Bynum were the only people he was talking to but he got everyone’s attention. Artest was behaving and saying all of the right things. He was shooting 37% and lost on the floor. Andrew is seven feet of lost in the City of the Angels. He has a lot of potential and he should not risk finding it in Cleveland as Baron Davis has been exiled to do with a bum hip and bad beard. Both are leading the charge since Mitch’s comments.
It is one thing to take their usual bitch slap tour of Texas and beat San Antonio and Dallas by double digits. It is quite something special to come of the pasting of Dallas, fly to Salt Lake fall behind by 17 and rally to win by 11. The Lakers are never good on the second night of a back to back and most notably when flying to the city where fun goes to die. Falling behind by double digits in games like this has been a Laker tradition since the days of Magic and James. Rallying to win by double digits is an exception for this two time defending champion. Get the bus ready, there will be a parade in June on Figueroa.
Final Thoughts: Jay Bilas and Dick Vitale speak about a mid-Majors resume like they are applying for a job. They seem to be saying that there is a career path to becoming a major-Major and get CBS’s respect. Jay, you are starting to morph into Billy Packer. Be careful, he got sent packing. Dickie V, try to talk without your hands just for one shining moment or at least block out a bit more of your mug with those mitts. You also made a great prediction about Louisville making a long run in the tournament. We know Pitino is your big buddy but his Cardinals did not make it to lunch time on the first day of the dance.
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