The Sum of All Fears

The first Presidential debate was to be held this week.  We figured it would be on several channels.  We searched in vain only able to find a Maury Povich type show with two old dudes screaming insults at each other.  The moderator was incapable of controlling the chaos.  We were hanging on to find out if one of them was the father, but the debate mutated into a Pollock abstract and we opted out.  We switched to Women’s hoops in an assertive display of indifference.  Politicos, if that is the product, save us the nonsense.  Just tape it in front of a studio audience and put it on Bravo with the Housewives when the election is over.  The ratings will probably be decent, and you don’t have to pay the on-air talent.

 

Nevada has become a political battleground state.  Yard staff has never figured out why, our Democrat led state, is contested so vigorously for our six measly electoral votes.  Historically speaking, politicos have been a frisky group prone to bold statements and blowing off steam.  Some of the blowing part was not always steam and Nevada provided local cover for some hijinks.  Since Biden does not have to spend a nickel to carry California, Nevada is getting pummeled with steely eyed Joe ads touting how he is going to save us. It is relentless and unnecessary.  We doubt Biden can save us, but he will carry Nevada, so enough already.  It is like Coke vs. Pepsi. They both spend hundreds of millions on advertising annually while not moving the market share needle.

 

With all the drama and trauma that this pandemic has wrought,  the return of sports has been a tonic for our gin.  Never in history and hopefully never again, have our beloved Lakers and Dodgers been fighting for championships at the same time.  For baseball to complete the season after the rocky opening weeks, is a miracle.  The NHL and NBA built their bubbles and it worked.  Not one positive test in either league inside the bubble.  Baseball with no bubble had lots of problems.  Early on there were teams that had played eight games and teams that had played nearly 18.  But somehow, they all finished on time.  Pro Football will find out soon enough if a sport that requires physical contact can contain COVID as well as every opponent has contained the NY Jets in 2020.

 

The excitement and anxiety of having both of our teams in the playoffs at the same time can be immersive. Jo at the Yard is not sure what to expect for the next two weeks but let us commence. The Lake show clinched their first ticket to the NBA finals since their last title in 2010.  That was Kobe and Phil’s last dance with Pao Gasol on alto sax. After two titles in a row and a 31-year old Kobe Bryant, Laker nation never thought it would take a decade to return to the main stage.  But alas the team’s fortunes thrashed about with the bickering Buss’s. Laker relevance in the national news was about hiring and firing coaches not winning titles.  Jeannie did not right the ship until she found a King for the Laker throne. Lebron looks primed to heal the Purple and Gold from the death of Kobe and a decade of insolence.

 

The Dodgers have been a playoff perennial for a decade, but their last WS title was a generation ago.  Winning the NL West eight times in a row without a WS title, is like being the Minor League home run champion.  So, it is with fear and trepidation these MLB playoffs unfold within our fragile psyche.  The first series is best of three.  Milwaukee has two of the best closers in the NL.  It is the only box the Brewers check over the Dodgers but in a tight, short series it could be the only box that matters.  The big Dodger bats have struggled most postseasons.  Mokie could be their Gibbie that shows them the way back to the winner’s circle.  He is a difference maker, let us hope he spreads that vibe down the lineup.

 

The Yardlings have grown up loving the Dodgers but not witnessing a title.  Their devotion is a byproduct of early imprinting on impressionable youth.  The Dodgers are their team. The Lakers have won five titles during their cognizant youth but not really moving their needle away from blue devotion. In an unfortunate turn of events many years ago, Alex at the Yard became a Celtic fan when Kevin Garnett defected from the T-Wolves.  Every Laker fan's worst fear, a Celtic progeny. It changed our mutual Laker love dramatically through those years.  There was a bitter defeat and an exhilarating title afforded both us. Many story lines Wednesday night with the Lebron Lakers in the finals with Pat Riley’s Miami Heat.  James left Miami a bit butt hurt when he announced that he was going home to Cleveland.  I mean really who does that?  Go from South Beach Miami to South Lake Erie after two titles? Everyone was a bit pissed in Miami especially after the finality of their 4-1 loss to the Spurs in the NBA finals.  This past week head coach Spoelstra recalled all the former great Heat championship players at his press conference.  He did not recall James. Strange considering Spoelstra does not have two titles on his resume without James.  D-Wade was not getting him there and did not after Lebron left.  LBJ already has an MVP size chip on his shoulder with Kobe on the other.  Erik, maybe not the right snark prior to Game one.

 

First Overtime: Russell Wilson has exactly zero MVP votes in his eight NFL seasons.  It is hard to earn an MVP when you play like one and never get a single vote in the process.  Russell Wilson is one of the most exciting QB’s in the NFL.  He may not be as flashy as Mahomes or Lamar but he is on their par.  He maybe should not have been MVP, but he deserves a vote or two. Hopefully, someone is paying attention to what he is doing this season on a fairly average Seahawks team.

 

Second OT:  Cindy McCain made news last week by endorsing Joe Biden. Mrs. McCain, one of John McCain’s widows, went on national TV to make her proclamation.  She is not an influencer or politician so not sure why national news picked it up other than her last name.  Cindy, while you are up your pulpit calling out others for lack of values and ethics that you hold dear, can you tell us how you and Johnny B Not So Good came into a relationship? He was married at the time of your romance and 17 years your senior, right? The two of you carried on for some time until McCain finally got a divorce from his wife and married you two weeks later.  So please, save your value judgement of others because we don’t need yours.  Your money may give you a voice, but your history is who you are.

 

Final Plea:  Baseball gods, can you help the Padres beat the Cardinals?  I know the Padres do not have much starting pitching, but they have put together a nice season and deserve some love.  And those friggin Cardinals have done some bad things to the Dodgers in the playoffs. I know the whole exorcise your demons thing, but I would rather just avoid said red devils.

People and Pivots

While the first vestiges of Yard sports mania started intensifying in the late 60’s, my father’s morning routine was being forever disrupted.  He had a routine of reading each section of the Los Angeles Times in the morning before work.  He would save the Sports section for his morning constitution.  This Yardling started to chew through the Sports page with our morning cereal.  Daddio would begrudgingly allow me to read the sports page while he read about local and national issues.  By the time his coffee was forging the desired morning output, the sports page was a disheveled, out of order  mess  caked in random Cheerios.  He would reassemble my fanatic devastation while staring at me with a harsh stink eye.

 

Heroes from that early passion for baseball were lifted off the pages of the LA Times.  Several of those Yard Icons have passed of late.  Another one was honored with his own MLB day. Lou Brock was black lightning. Everything he did in the field was suddenly. Brock was the all-time stolen base leader before Ricky Henderson obliterated that mark for all of history.  Lou would steal 938 bases in his 19 -year career.  Dee Gordon is the current active leader with 332 swipes. In 1974, Brock stole 118 bases in 158 games.  In his final season at age 40, he stole 21 bases. He was electrifying when he got on base and he did that often during his HOF career. He was beloved in the dugout and off the field.  The Cardinal teams of his era were the Dodgers biggest NL nemesis.  But Lou Brock was so fun to watch, and we always did.  Tom Seaver passed away as well after battling dementia for years.  He was the miracle of those 1969 Mets. Roberto Clemente, who died in 1972, was honored with Roberto Clemente Day.  All of the Puerto Rican ballplayers honored the Great One by wearing his #21.  He got his 3,000 hit in his final AB of the 1972 season. He still had gas in the tank and would have been back for the 1973 season.  The relief mission he was flying from his native Puerto Rico to Nicaragua crashed on New Year’s Eve into the Atlantic.  His on the field heroics foreshadowed the iconic hero he would become in death.  And my father, who sports pages I tore up all of those many years ago, passed away on September 1.  He was my hero in a golf hat with a cocktail.  Good speed Bill Seber and say hi to Mom.

 

The pandemic has created the action verb for 2020 – PIVOT.  Pivot is the  swivel that we each have had to find in our world to move to our next normal and so on. It is a fluid situation with pivots and re-pivots. Companies are pivoting from what they did in February to succeed, to what they have to do in September to survive.  Schools are pivoting from in class to online with a hybrid in between.  Hotels and airlines are pivoting to travel in 2020 and beyond.  Las Vegas is creating wind with all of our pivoting. Let us all keep pivoting as needed to get to the other side.

 

As the election season fast approaches caked in COVID, America girds for political combat.  The future is uncertain, but the book writers are prolific.  No matter which wavelength of the Donald Trump spectrum refracts your light, it is polarizing bandwidth on both sides.  It is truly amazing the number of books that have been written about Trump during his presidency.  There have been over 60 written so far and most have been quite negative.  There will still be more to come but the real money is pre-election.  Already in the bank, James Comey $3 million, John Bolton $2 million, Mary Trump $1.3 million and Stormy Daniels bringing up her rear at $500k. Bob Woodward and former esteemed legal mind Alan Dershowitz have written two books each.  The Yard would like Big Al to write just one book about his adventures with Jefferey Epstein.  He was on the Lolita express and his Island on many occasions.  At the Yard, we are far more interested in his adventures with Billy Bob Clinton on Jefferey’s island playground than his irrelevant opinion on Trump.  Trump has been good for industry, especially the publishing industry. His most fervent detractors are more than happy to line their pockets with their “insider” tales.

 

Not to be left out, Barry Obama is finally getting his second book out.  He announced in the press that he wanted to reflect on his presidency.  He wants to provide an accounting of his campaign and his time in office.  We must admit, we were interested to hear what he did as well. Besides the much-maligned Obamacare, he did not engage with Russia, China, North Korea or Israel.  He visited our long-term allies and took nice photo ops while lamenting his inability to work with his political opponents.  He tied in vacations in Marbella and elsewhere with the family.  Crown Books was curious as well to the tune of $65 million for Barry and Mich.  It does appear that the Obamas have figured out how to monetize being a former president.  While GW, has retired to his ranch in Texas to paint and relax with his grandkids, the Obamas are getting $250,000 to speak at events.  $50 million for a Netflix production deal plus the aforementioned book deal.  They are almost egregious as the Clintons in their schilling for money.  The Obamas know the real money is to start a foundation.  Hire your children and friends, pay them fat salaries while appearing to be doing the right thing with nebulous agendas.  The Dems still trot out Clinton even after all of the factual details of his many trips with the Epstein entourage.  He was not with Epstein for the Clinton foundation. He was there for the Clinton libido.  Trump won’t be writing any books, building libraries, starting foundations or getting production deals with Netflix.

 

Sports was gone for 120 days and then returned in an explosion of sports programming.  Never in history have the NBA, MLB, NFL, NHL, WNBA and the MLS all been playing important games in September.  All NFL games are important because there are only 16.  MLB playing this curated 60 game schedule, has made each game more interesting.  NBA and NHL playoffs in the bubble have been outstanding.  Lebron and Anthony Davis are leading a resilient Laker team that sat for 4 months to get into the bubble. The team was still smoldering in the aftermath of Kobe’s death.  The healing had not begun when the season was quarantined.  James has been outstanding and now he is playing for Kobe with a chip for being dissed in the MVP voting.  Yard staff does not think the King expected to beat out Giannis for MVP but 85 votes for the Greek and 16 for the King is disrespecting that GOAT.  Milwaukee got bounced by the upstart Miami Heat 4-1.  So, MVP is all of that and an early flight back to Athens.

 

The Yard is keyed up for the Raiders first home game at the $2.2 billion Allegiant Stadium Monday night.  Jo at the Yard and I ventured down to the 19,000 square foot Raider Image store at the stadium  If the size, the crowd and the inventory heading out the door are indicators, the Raiders are going to do just fine.  The Saints are coming in for the home opener.  The Saints have already taken down a GOAT in a Pirate costume last week in NOLA.  My father loved the Raiders. Not a huge NFL fan but just loved the history and folklore of the Raider franchise.  He loved their irreverence and the rascal Al Davis.  Dad, I think there are seats available for the game Monday and bring Mom.  Go Raiders and at least cover the six!

Frightening Excitement

The PGA Championship last weekend was the kind of elixir that can soothe and distract from the toxins around us.  23-year-old Collin Morikawa was the leader in the clubhouse with some of golf’s biggest names chasing his stunning final round 64.  None of them caught him.  His only mistake was lifting the trophy and dropping the lid. He gained $1.9 million GW’s and exemptions for the next five years to all the big dances with his victory.  The Yard laid a Hamilton on Collin at 55:1.  We were as nervous as he was on those last three holes.  The eagle on 16 unclenched our sphincter.  Collin was hardly ruffled.  We wished we had laid a Jackson instead of Hamilton. 

 

For months there were no sports.  The Las Vegas sportsbooks have been punished by COVID.  They were barely eking by with parlays on Korean Baseball and Table Tennis.  Golf came back and golf got more action in the first week than in previous years.  The action has remained high on golf but now almost everything is back. It is as exciting as it is frightening.  Never before have the NBA and the NHL played games in August.  The Las Vegas Raiders had their first practice in pads on their new practice facilities.  The NFL is more adult than college football.  Teams have more control but there is no NFL bubble. Baseball can makeup games with double headers, but an NFL outbreak is the end of the season for some teams.  The 2020-21 NBA/NHL seasons are going to be truncated.  The Olympics are a year out and looking shaky.  We hope it all ends well.

 

Baseball seems to be teetering down the hairy line of truth.  At this time, the Cardinals have played nine games.  Miami has played 15 games. The Dodgers have played 23.  The teams are all supposed to play 60 games in 70 days.  The 70 days are still marching forward, but all teams are not on the same cadence.  It is hard to imagine how it all the teams get to the playoff check point.  Where do the Cardinals make up 15 games with teams that are off to other game locations?  Teams might start to be dropped from the league into COVID DQ.  It is hard to see how this ends well for MLB.  The Yard sure hopes it does because the Blue Crew with Captain Mookie look like they are ready to launch. 

 

1988 was the Dodgers last World Series title run.  It has been a long time and we are reminded often by Giant fan.  Baseball ownership was found guilty of collusion for the 1985 season and any of the free agents during that period got fresh look rights.   Kirk Gibson was one of those who got this opportunity and signed a three-year deal with the Dodgers in 1988. The 1988 Dodgers were a good team but did not have a World Series champion in the clubhouse.  Orel Hershiser would emerge as the bulldog that season on his way to the Cy Young.  Gibson won a title with the 1984 Tigers.  He was a champion. He was the straw  that stirred the Blue crew punch.  During Spring Training, in an effort to lighten up the prickly Gibson, Jesse Orosco decided to go old school and put shoe black in Gibson’s cap.  Not only did Gibson not find the humor in these shenanigans, he stormed into the clubhouse and dressed the whole team down.  He let them know there is no room for hijinks.  He was there to win games not play games.  He was the MVP of the NL with a pedestrian .290 average, 25 homeruns and 76 RBI’s.  It was his leadership in the clubhouse not just his play on the field that lead to the honor.  Gibbie could have been the MVP for the World Series upset of mighty Oakland A’s.  He only had one at bat in the WS, but it was the historic game winning homerun off Dennis Eckersley with two outs in the 9^th. Forever one of the greatest single moments in LA sports history.

 

In 2020, the Dodgers made the big trade for Mookie Betts.  They traded among others the young talented Alex Verdugo to get Betts.  Before Betts signed his monster contract, he came into Spring Training and asked to address the team prior to taking the field for the first time as a Dodger.  Yard detectives cannot find a transcript of his speech, but he spoke for five minutes. He has since emerged as the leader of this young team.  The Dodgers and Mookie put the rest of the league on notice when they agreed on a 12-year $365 million contract.  Gibson never had another year like 1988.  He was 31 and the downside after a decade of rugged play and battered knees.  Mookie is a 27- year old witch of a player.  He is a World Series Champion. Betts is a spright 5’9” housed in a slight frame.  But when he flicks his bat at a pitch, the ball can explode off the bat as it did three times in a game against the Padres last week.  He is now tied with Johnny Mize and Sammy Sosa as the only major leaguers to hit 3 HR in a game six times.  This year, he has nine homeruns and 21 RBI’s while primarily batting leadoff.  Mookie plays with a perpetual smile and singular focus in each moment. He has a lot to smile about with his game and 12 years of solid cake streaming his way. He will lead this young team and show them how a champion gets it done.

 

College football is a microcosm of how our nation’s leadership is handling the COVID plague.  Certain conferences have already decided the risks outweigh the rewards and are shutting down while watching millions get sucked out of their depleted athletic department budgets. All of the multitude of sports network are going to be replaying “Classics” not live content.  The SEC, Big 12, ACC and a few others are holding out hope they can play a conference schedule and have some semblance of a championship.  The players are already playing a game with inherent risk, COVID is looked at as just another.  Not sure if that is the smart science.  These are college kids in a petri dish of parties and hookups.  The libido is not a rationale organism.  It does not look like it is going to end well. 

 

It is ironic that villains these days are the ones not wearing their mask.  Such a lightning rod masks have become in various parts of our country.  We are a nation who was once revered for taking on dictators, sending our soldiers off to fight on foreign soil.  Now that is difficult, and people signed up for that duty.  Wearing a mask, not so difficult for most. Some 50+  loggerheads in Henderson are actually protesting in the streets without masks but with banners and placards.  Not sure who has time to demonstrate regarding their desire not to wear a mask? Most of us are doing what is safe and trying to eke out a life, enough already.