Season of the Witch

It is the season of the witch.  Halloween is just a week out and it seems my neighbors are all in this year.  After the COVID muted the past two years, every measure of demons and miscreants are inflated across their lawns.  Everywhere in the news there are mentions of Witch Hunts and the former president Trump.  The FBI, New York AG, the DOJ, and the Jan 6 committee among others are conducting independent Witch Hunts regarding Herr Trump and his miscreants.  The Yard is not sure if this is a seasonal or ongoing thing.  If the Republicans win the midterms, the witches turn away from the Trump family and towards Hunter Biden and his famous laptop.  The Yard is just hoping we have some extra Twix dark chocolate bars at the end of Halloween night.

 

The amazing regular season for the Dodgers ended in the calamity of a loss to the Padres in the NLDS.  The Dodgers have owned the up-and-coming Padres forever.  The only time San Diego was tough on Los Angeles was when they were awful and that was often.  Since they have tripled their payroll and relevance, the Dodgers have slapped them around like a rookie forward in the G League.  This Dodger team won 111 regular season games, the most in franchise history. The crew had a remarkable season with a winning percentage of .685.  They won over 50% of the 111 against their division rivals.  They won 80% of their games against the NL Worst and 60% against everyone else.  Walker Buehler never got started and got shut down in May until 2023. Dustin May got shut down in May 2021 and never really came back. Dodger “closer” Craig Kimbrel blew five saves in 27 chances. He had a record of 6-7 with a 3.75 ERA.  You do not want your closer to have thirteen decisions.  Kimbrel the closer was left off the playoff roster, say no more.

 

The Dodgers did not have a playoff series winning pitching staff all season. Julio Urias started slow but finished in Cy Young fashion and registered the only playoff win.  Kershaw was his usual uneven playoff self.  Gonsolin was a Cy Young candidate through mid-August with a 16-1 record. He has always struggled on the big stage and only lasted 42 pitches in game 4.  He gave up four hits and a run and Roberts knew the outcome by the end of the. 2^nd. The bleeding stopped in that game, but the Dodger bats remained holstered for the series.   After taking a 5-0 lead in Game 1, the offense never had another 2-run lead.

 

It is the end of an era with this Dodger team.  There will be some favorite sons who will be gone.  This core group has been through the Astro cheating scandal tainted loss in the WS.  The boat race by the Red Sox in 2019.  The bubble wrapped title in 2020 with the JT testing COVID positive during the game and getting yanked. But back for the celebration, the champagne and national outrage. Beyond their 2020 title, their best result was beating the great last gasp by the aging Giants.  That was a sweet victory even if it led to the defeat in the next series when all the pitching was exhausted. We can only hope the Giants continue to piss away salary on aging veterans to reclaim their fading legacy.  Joey Bart was their best prospect in years, and he is not an All-Star. Aaron Judge is just waiting to take San Francisco’s $350 million for ten years.

 

It appears that the Padres are now our Huckleberry.  With Fernando PED-tis coming back next season the Friars are going to be solid again.  Who are these upstarts, Padres?  It starts at the top of the organization.  Peter Seidler is the managing partner for San Diego.  Peter is the grandson of Walter O’Malley.  In 1997, when his father Peter Sr., sold the Dodgers to Fox for $350 million, it was a major deal.  Fox had enough with MLB ownership and sold the team to Frank McCourt for $420 million in 2004.  McCourt was a hated owner and eventually cashed out in 2012 for $2 billion.  Peter O’Malley realized he sold too early.  His investment group bought the Padres in 2012 for $800 million.  The O’Malley’s know what it takes to win a title.  There was an O’Malley at the helm for every Dodger Title before the 2020 title.  The Dodgers won six titles during O'Malley's tenure, but they lost eight as well.  There were delicious victories over the Yankees and A’s as well as disastrous losses to these same two franchises.  The Padres are making the moves for the long run mixing veterans with draft picks.  Their payroll would appear unsustainable given their market and current TV deal, but things could change.  The Dodgers have been making the right moves for decades.  It will be a battle for years.  Giants are going to struggle to keep pace, but they do have those garlic fries.

 

Tarnished Legacies: Brett Favre was a HOF QB for the Packers.  His exit was messy with Aaron Rogers waiting on the sidelines.  Rogers sat for three years while Favre worked to cement his legacy for passing yards and interceptions.  His passing yards records have been surpassed.  Interceptions is an all-time lock at 337.  The next closest is George Blanda at 277.  The closest active are Tom Brady 204 and Matty Ice 177.

 

Favre went to the Jets for a bit.  He was there long enough to make Page 6 because he was sending dick pics to a Jets cheerleader.  He denied all of it, but the texts were already out there. Now Brett is accused of soliciting the former Governor of Mississippi to divert Welfare money away from the needy.  Favre wanted the money for his alma mater so a new volleyball facility could be built for his daughter’s team.  He went back to the well to get money for an indoor practice facility to lure Deion Sanders' son to MS.  Favre denies any wrongdoing, but the texts are already out there.  He is being pilloried from one news cycle to the next.  We have seen this movie.

 

Trivia: Who is the only Hall of Fame Pitcher to never win the Cy Young award?

Legends and Legacies

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.

Open Memories

The Yard has always been huge fans of The Open.  St. Andrews is where it all began back in the 1500’s.  While the colonies were fighting for their freedom, the Brits were sipping whiskey and playing golf at St. Andrews.  St. Andrews is the origin of the rules, traditions, and evolution of golf. The Swilcan Bridge between the 1^st and 18^th fairways is iconic.  But the Yard loves that almost every bunker on St. Andrews has a name.  There are over 40 named bunkers on the links style course. A Descent into Hell is infamous just 100 yards short of the 14^th green. It took Jack Nicklaus four shots to get out of the ten-foot pit in 1995.  Miss Grainger’s Bosoms is a Yard favorite and apparently so was Miss Grainger in the 19^th century.  The bunker is on the 14^th hole and identified by two prominent mounds.  Cameron Smith raced past a conservative Rory McIlroy with five birdies on the back nine while Rory carded none.  The last Aussie to win The Open was Greg Norman in 1993.  No one remembers the Shark fondly these days.  He is working with the House of Saud to overthrow the PGA.  Offering guaranteed payouts with their causal 54-hole stroll and no cut, is a competitive joke.  Who wants to watch this meaningless exhibition where everyone gets paid for showing up?  Jim Nantz hopes an audience shows up in the next four years. Nantz burned his ships and went all LIV.  Regardless, we took Cam at 18:1 in The Open, which was kind of nice.

 

The MLB All-Star game is the best All-Star game of all the professional sports.  Professional league AS games in general are not that great but baseball was the first and still the most entertaining.  Yard youth attended the 1967 AS game at Anaheim Stadium.  That was back when the Angels were in Anaheim not Los Angeles by way of Anaheim.  The Yard was already a maniacal baseball fan at age nine.  Yard Daddio got the tickets in the left field bleachers, it was thrilling.  The stars of the game played most of the game.  Hank Aaron, Orlando Cepeda and Roberto Clemente all batted six times.  They managed two hits.  Clemente struck out four times.  Juan Marichal started for the NL followed by Fergie Jenkins and Bob Gibson.  The AL countered with Angel Dean Chance, Al Downing and Catfish Hunter. Brooks Robinson, Tony Oliva, Harmon Killebrew and Tony Conigliaro all got to bat six times and managed three hits amongst them.  Robinson’s one hit was a homerun.  The great Yastrzemski was three for four in that game on his way to winning the Triple Crown in 1967.  There were 17 hits and 30 strikeouts. It was a fifteen-inning game that ended 2-1 by way of three homeruns.  Don Drysdale got the win and Tom Seaver the save. We stayed until the end.   I got to see all my heroes that day and still tingles to troll the memories.

 

Shohei Ohtani is a unicorn talent for the Angels.  No player has pitched and hit like him since the Babe.  And Babe did not do what Ohtani is doing.  Mike Trout is arguably the best everyday player in all of baseball.  Ohtani won the MVP last year and is a favorite this year.  Trout won the MVP in 2019, 2016 and 2014.  During this period with these brilliant players on the Angels they have made the playoffs just once.  They have rarely finished above .500.  Arte Moreno bought the Angels from the Cowboy’s estate in 2003.  He hired Mike Scioscia as his first manager, and they went on to win the 2004 World Series over Dusty Baker and the San Francisco Giants.  It was the first and only WS title in Angel history.  It was the first World Series title in Southern California since 1988.  It was a low period for the Blue Crew and ad executive Moreno decided to lay claim on the larger market outside of the Magic Kingdom.  He rebranded the California Angels into the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, LAA.  He took out billboards all over the LA metro area and let us know the Angels were taking over Los Angeles as well as the OC.  Moreno jumped the shark with that attempted encroachment on Los Angeles Royalty, the Dodgers.  It took the Dodgers 15 years to win their seventh title in 2020.  The Angels have been hardly relevant since that 2004 title.  Arte has pissed franchise money away on Josh Hamilton, Albert Pujols and Anthony Rendon.  He tried to bring in the Joe Maddon magic, but nothing has worked since that miracle in 2004.  Arte might have sold his soul for that title.  Gene Autry probably would have sold his for a title before he rode off into the sunset.  Moreno bought the Angels for $184 million so we think he will be alright even if they never sniff another title.  This year’s edition faded almost as fast as they started.  Trout and Ohtani are wasting away in Tomorrow land.

 

Reminiscing about that 1967 AS game this week was fun. Recalling the 2004 World Series when the Giants were attempting to win their first title since moving to the Bay Area was entertaining.  Dusty Baker’s three-year-old son almost getting run over at home retrieving a bat is a You Tube Classic.  The Angels roaring back to take the title after being down 3-1 was the most I have ever rooted for the Angels ever.  The Giants had their best record in 2021.  Better than any of the WS title teams.  They won the most games in SF Giants’ history and they lost to the Dodgers in the playoffs.  It was the best series of the playoffs.  This past weekend was the freshest and best memories.  Thursday night, the Dodgers storm out to a 5-0 lead against the hated ones.  The Giants blast back into the lead with Darren Ruff’s grand salami.  Then Mookie showed why he gets $30 million a season with a soul crushing three-run stinger into the left field pavilion. When the Giants mounted a 9^th inning rally Betts ended it horizontally outstretched in the RF corner.  Friday night Bellinger hit the game changing slam.  Saturday and Sunday, the Giants were in each game only to fail.  Giants are 16.5 back and fading back to their historical levels faster than forecast.  The Yard does like to kick the Giants when they are down.  They hung onto their faded heroes longer than the Yard’s 501’s.  With the lack of young talent, it will be a middling journey for the club the next few years.  Hang in their Gabe.  You look better in the dugout than Bochy.  He just coached better.

 

Extra Innings The Baseball HOF inducted new members this past weekend.  Big congratulations to David Ortiz, Big Papi.  His 542 home runs were his ticket to the ball as well as his leadership.  He led the Red Sox to their first titles in nearly 100 years in 2004 and then again in 2004 and 2013.  He was beloved and he still is.  Jim Kaat, Tony Oliva, and Minnie Minoso have the Veterans committee to thank alleged PED offenders.  Kaat won a respectable 283 games but lost 237 during his 25-year career. Noteworthy but HOF worthy?  Tony Oliva had some quality years and 1917 hits.  Noteworthy as well. Roger Clemens with seven CY Youngs and Barry Bonds with six MVP’s are still sidelined under the steroid cloud.  Yard Opinion it is time to get past the sordid history and recognize them for their partially tarnished accomplishments. They competed against similarly juiced talent.  Why do the baseball writers get to judge them? The fans are mostly past it. No one was prohibited from using the juice in the era.  It was illegal in most places except the MLB.  It seemed many were complicit, but no one was convicted.  With 27 states now offering legal sports betting, do we need to keep Peter Rose out of the HOF any longer?  Times are changing and so should our look back on history.