For the love of the Games!

The summer Olympics has always been a hallowed event in Yard evolution. The Olympics are a quadrennial celebration of athleticism and team work. It is the only time that the Yard is fully engaged with archery, skeet shooting and cycling. When we see that ESPN has professional lacrosse on, we know the Olympics are on five other channels. The stories create the legends that become the history of these great games. Founder Pierre de Coubertin originated the idea and felt the Olympics could instill national pride and the cooperation of the world's nations may promote peace and prevent conflict. It sounded good on paper. Those first games in Athens in 1896 were almost derailed because Greece was in the midst of political and financial turmoil. We are pleased that the Greeks have but that behind them. So as these hallowed games open to the world, here in America we would respectfully request that the partisan rhetoric stand down on the Olympics. The Olympics celebrate great athleticism and teamwork. The American political parties never celebrate team work and athleticism is limited to stone throwing and back biting. We were surprised by the outrage by Nevada Senator Harry Reid about Ralph Lauren not using an American company to make the US uniforms. A Democratic PAC ran a political advertisement this week that ran footage of Mitt Romney at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics while a narrator threw stones about jobs to China, money to Switzerland and blah, blah. Romney attended the Olympics to fluff his International feathers and every comment he makes has been under attack by the Obama regime. Probably because Barry had to stay home while Mich got to go the big dance in Air Force One with the girls. He might not have another chance to go on our dime and he might be a bit pissy. The attacks on Ralph Lauren’s decision to have US uniforms made in China are ridiculous. Uniforms for many industries are made in China and overseas every day for every major apparel manufacturer. Nike, Reebok, Adidas and all of the major sporting goods vendors produce their products outside the US for sale in the US. The outrage seemed to continue this partisan mantra about outsourcing jobs from the US. The US Olympic Committee is self-funded. The USOC does employ American personnel but it is different than the US government. The USOC has a budget that they have to stay within to operate. There are over 550 US athletes on the team with multiple uniforms and outfits. Putting the best team in London within budget is their goal and objective not subsidizing US apparel manufacturing woes. Buying 500+ uniforms from a US company is not going to save this economy. Hell, $666 billion spent on freeways could not get it done. Those that would chose to politicize that non-issue are the problem not the USOC for conserving resources for the athletes. Two of the cornerstones of Mitt’s resume are his time with Bain Capital and his stewardship of the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic Games. Bain Capital, offshore accounts, and sketchy but legal tax returns are a bit too much for the Yard to bother dissecting. We not only do not have the skill, we do not have the interest. Bain Capital might be an example of what is wrong with the country but it is also an example of what is right. The attacks about Romney’s stewardship of the SLC games are surprising. The Olympics are special and anyone who volunteers to step in and take all of the risks with little upside is to be commended not attacked. The SLC games could have been a massive financial fiasco that Romney had nothing to do with until it was uncovered. Mitt came to the party when the feces were already in full spew from the fan. It was toxic and messy. Romney hoped for some political upside but the risks were enormous. The 2002 SLC Olympics were almost bankrupt in December 1999. Mitt is one of Utah’s tribe so he did have a higher calling. Salt Lake City had tried unsuccessfully to host the 1998 games that went to Nagano, Japan. It was rumored at the time that Nagano “wined and dined” the IOC delegates more aggressively than SLC to the tune of $4.4 million. Dave Johnson and Tom Welch lead the SLC Nomination Committee and they set their sights and their wallets on the 2002 games. They immediately sent Stetsons to all members of the IOC nomination committee. They made numerous trips all over the world racking up dinners and courting the votes. What started with cowboy hats morphed into all inclusive ski trips, thirteen college scholarships, plastic surgery, Super Bowl tickets and cash! They were very effective and SLC was awarded the 2002 games. Three years later an IOC whistle blower outed the financial misdeeds of his associates and the generosity of Messrs. Welch and Johnson. The leaders of the SLC OC resigned almost immediately in disgrace. Ten members of the IOC were relieved of their duties and ten others were sanctioned. It was the first and still the worst scandal in over 100 years of the IOC. The sanctity of the Olympics had been denigrated to a solicitous sleazy side show. Sponsors ran towards the exits and the cash to finance the games dried up. The SLC OC had planned a $1.1 billion budget that quickly spiraled into a $379 million budget shortfall. The Mittster was raking in his millions at Bain. However they were doing it, they were doing well. Romney could have kept on taking home large paychecks within the financial cocoon he had created for himself and his family. But he resigned his day to day duties at Bain and returned to the Mother Land to attempt to right the Olympic ship. He does not get all of the credit for “saving” the Olympics but he was the very public face of that effort. There a lot of work to be done, disgraced organizers to be replaced, financing to find, lobbying in Washington and attempt to woo sponsors back. The image of those games had stepped off a cliff and no one was getting back up the hill without scrapes and bruises if at all. The games could have easily gone down into a financial abyss that the Montreal games did in 1976. It took Canada thirty years to pay of the $1.5 billion deficit from their games making their last payment in December 2006. The SLC games turned a profit of $40 million when the snow melted in the spring of 2002. That original endowment still funds the upkeep of the Olympic facilities in Salt Lake to this day. The Yard is not a Mitt Romney shill but we do get outraged when the President and his cronies are taking political pot shots using the Olympics as the back drop. The accusations are barely credible or relevant. So as they in London-“Piss off!” Overtime: USADA dogged pursuit of Lance Armstrong is also troubling. By all accounts Mr. Armstrong is allegedly an arrogant prick and many would be happy to see his reputation sullied. The USADA may think it is their mission to chase Lance Armstrong to his grave to recover the seven Tour de France medals he won. They may feel it is important to taint a man who has raised millions and millions of dollars for cancer research. The USADA feels entitled that they are doing the right thing in pursuing their current myopic effort to take down the evil Lance. The Yard feels the same way about Lance as we do about Clemens. It is impossible to imagine that Lance of the one testicle beat all comers seven times while every single challenger was busted for cheating with both of their balls. Yard sense feels that the USDA pursuit is motivated by this current economic crisis. The USADA is not a non-profit or for profit it is US government funded 110%. When municipalities are declaring bankruptcy, entitlements are strangling all levels of government an agency whose mission is to chase wealthy athletes and take away their ill-gotten rewards would seem to be the first cut of any budget. The USADA has to keep in the headlines pursuing high profile, attention getting cases or they might lose their funding. As a nation, do we have time and budget for such endeavors? It is like the arts. It makes sense to fund when there are surpluses but not when people are losing their homes and their livelihoods. We all want to keep steroids away from our children and we should. That is the job of parents and international federations not the US government. Yard Notes: Yardiot Sam wanted all readers to know that Northern Illinois Huskies have the longest current winning streak in D1 football. They have won nine in a row and face Iowa in their home opener at Soldier Field September 1.

Of Wizards and Roses

It had been days of wine and roses at the Yard. The Bruins landed one of the top basketball recruiting classes in the nation. The Lakers and Clippers were into the second round of the playoffs. McCourt was finally out as owner of the Dodgers. The Dodgers responded with their best start since their last World Series Championship in 1988. The Galaxy was bumping with Obama about their championship at the White House. The Yard became a hockey fan as the Kings took out the top seeds in the west and made the Stanley Cup Finals as an eight seed. The Staples Center hosted six playoff games in four days. It was the first time in the history of the building that all three tenants made the playoffs. It was the best of times. A week later, the Lakers were run out of the playoffs by the OKC Thunder. The Clippers got swept by the Spurs. Matt Kemp was on the DL. The prescient had tantalized and flirted with our shallow objectives. The future grounded it fallow. The Lakers and Clippers came to the dance with much expectation. The Kings, not so much. For the first time in many years, all three teams were still playing in the building that the Lakers built. The Kings are still playing hockey in June for the first time in 19 years. The Clippers have never played basketball in June so they were just happy to make the second round for the second time in franchise history. Go Kings! It was bad enough that the young guns in Oklahoma ran the aging Lakers out of the building but then they clowned the Lakes at the post game press conference. Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant came to the press conference in their Rerun glasses and brightly colored bowling shirts. Apparently, every NBA star except Kobe and anyone on the Celtics is required to be festooned in wide framed glasses at press conferences. No one seems to have a vision problem on the court but when facing the media, clown glasses are required. They did boat race the Lakers so the Yard needs to deal. Go Spurs! The Yard is rooting for a Spurs-Celtics NBA Final. We do not particularly like either team but we despise their opponents. It is shaky ground for the Yard to root for the Celtics but Miami is the team to tip the balance. Lebron James is the league MVP but he is not the man with the game on the line. Lebron would rather be the guy inbounding the ball with 7.6 seconds left than the guy who is receiving that inbounds pass with the clock clicking. Lebron is the man for the first 46 minutes. He is rare to take an important shot. He struggles with an important free throw late in the game. Kobe Bryant is a polarizing individual but he will take the final shot in any game any time under any circumstances. He has been doing that since he was seven years old. He will fight to get open with 1.2 seconds left to attempt a ridiculous 3-pointshot. He fails more than succeeds but he takes them all. Kobe is fearless despite his failures. He shows up at the press conference without facial apparatus or excuses. Lebron fears failures so he defers to others to take that shot. He is the league MVP for quarters 1 to 3. He is still the MVP with two minutes to go but if the game is the on the line, he is always making one more pass to anyone else. Kobe rarely gives up the ball up with the game on the line. Lebron does it instinctively. Go Celtics! Many times a team gets rid of a bad manager or a disruptive player and the team responds. We do not recall an instance when a team responded, like the Dodgers, when the owner was replaced. The Guggenheim billionaires have placed Magic in the owner’s seat as the face of the franchise. Magic is popular but the sheer joy of Frank McCourt not being in that seat has brought the fans back. Last year with Jamie and Frank were haggling over our city’s most cherished team and who would own it, Dodger Stadium became a morgue of discontent. Frank was never at the games because he was reviled. Jamie was not at the games because she was just vile. Magic sits proudly in their seats with Tommy most nights and brings his smile and spirit to LA’s first franchise. It is good to see him there but better to see Frank and Jamie nowhere. We are truly sorry the new owners had to pay those bitches so much money for a team they ran into the ground. Feces happen. After the SI article about Bruins in ruins, it was great to see UCLA basketball rise like a Phoenix out of the bong water. It had been a particularly miserable stretch after Ben Howland had generated so much expectation in his first five years. The SI article probably enhanced UCLA’s chances at landing this recruiting class of McDonald’s All Americans divas. With sordid stories of VIP limo rides to Beverly Hills mansions, plenty of weed and girls, what All American would not want a piece of that action? Hopefully, Howland can corral the show ponies into a team. Howland will never replace the Wizard Wooden in UCLA history and mythology. It is a tall task for any coach at any University. But there had always been another wizard in Westwood even when Wooden was doing his basketball magic. Harry Potter was not the only sage at Hogwarts just the guy with his name on the franchise. Wooden’s name will be everywhere at UCLA for now and for always. UCLA volleyball coach Al Scates retired this year after 50 years as the head coach. During Al’s tenure as UCLA head coach, John Wooden coached UCLA to ten titles. Al Scates coached the Bruins to 19 NCAA titles in volleyball. John Wooden won 620 games in 27 seasons. Al Scates coached the Bruins to 1,217 victories over 49 seasons. Wooden won seven titles in a row. Scates won only three titles in a row but his teams did it three times. No team in any sport has ever won three titles in a row three different times. From 1970 to 1998, Scates’ teams won fifteen titles or nearly half of the available titles. In 2006, UCLA was 12-12 and was in jeopardy of missing the playoffs for only the second time during Scates career. Al Scates had not coached a championship team since the 1998 campaign. The 67 year-old Scates coaxed a team without a single All-American to fourteen straight victories to close the season. UCLA swept #1 CSULB to become the lowest seeded team to make the NCAA Final Four for volleyball. UCLA faced Penn State in the finals which were hosted at Penn State. UCLA swept the Nittany Lions to win Al’s 19th and final championship. UCLA volleyball did not pay Scates for the first ten years. He was never paid his worth and that was never his goal. Al Scates paid it forward for two generations of Olympic medalists, beach volleyball superstars and the grand University he served for most of his adult life. God bless Al Scates! "Al Scates?! Precisely. The one and only. The man who is to volleyball what (John) Wooden was to basketball, (Red) Sanders was to football, Napolean to artillery..." Jim Murray.

Let Games Begin

It has been a slow season of late at the Yard. The teams of our destiny have not performed as cached in our memories. The sordid scandals of the past year have squished the comic tendencies out of our cynical nature. Our research staff did uncover this quiet little story about an Ivy League Taiwanese kid rising from obscurity to become a starting point guard of the New York Knicks! We hoped to get the word out to our loyal membership but Sports Illustrated trumped us while we were stranded wine tasting in Napa. It was a great story but the barrel tasting at Peju Vineyards winery is not something to be skipped for a scoop. Linsanity would have to wait and it appears to have run its course anyways. There are not many priorities at the Yard but Napa cabernets always trumps Asian point guards even if they play in NYC.

We needed to rest up anyways for our largest event of the year-The NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. For 14 days of March and the first two days of April, college basketball and all of its madness will rule the Yard. There will be 62 basketball games played all over the nation. We had a practice run during championship week trolling through 272 conference tournament games starting last weekend and culminating with the Big Ten title game. There have been upsets and upstarts and the first round is still four days away.

Preparing for the 48 hour Thursday-Friday shift of 32 tournament basketball games later this week is not a regiment we take likely. With three TV’s playing three different games, the Yard was scanning round robin through the ACC, SEC, Conference USA, Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, Atlantic 10, Big 10, Southland Conference, Pac-10 and Mountain West Conference season ending tournament games. We got started on the Deuce at 8:00 AM settling in for the highly anticipated Vermont Catamounts versus the Stony Brook Seawolves matchup. We warmed up the second 48 inches of LCD madness at 8:30 with the Marshall-Memphis game on CBS. Remote dexterity had to be taken to another level with the SEC and ACC Semifinals tipped off simultaneously on ABC and ESPN. Four games and only three TV’s, our skills were being tested to extreme viewing levels. Jo at the Yard was caught switching on the Food Channel on the main screen when we took a quick lunch break after the UNC-NC State game. No explanation was needed as we recovered the remote with extreme prejudice and returned to our myopic programming. Anthony Bourdain will still be on TV April 3 and Jo is just going to have to hang in there until then.

With household priorities re-established, the day marched on. There was a small tear when the Norfolk State University Spartans earned their first ever NCAA bid with their victory over the Bethune-Cookman Wildcats. Duke gave us another reason to root against them when they signed Austin Rivers. The Dukies were already in our cross hairs but signing the progeny of Celtic head coach Doc Rivers was another pinch of venom in our legacy cauldron of distain. It was nice to see them get upset in the ACC semifinal by Florida State. Ohio State looked formidable against the Michigan school in Ann Arbor. The State University in East Lansing will be a more formidable opponent for the Buckeyes. Coach Tom Izzo is gearing up for another long run into March. If Missouri does not get the #1 seed in the Midwest after winning the Big 12 Tournament, there should be an SI investigation. The Tigers boat raced Baylor in the Championship game after Baylor boat raced the Jayhawks in the semifinal. Kansas and Missouri split the season series. Kansas will get the #1 seed because they are Kansas. Missouri will get shipped out as a #2 seed because they are Missouri. Pacific 10 conference tournament is the worst of the lot. Colorado versus Arizona is like watching a mid-major before that was a cool thing. UCLA may be on well documented hard times but the whole conference sucks this year. The Mountain West has better players and is more entertaining to watch than any team in the moribund Pac-12. Let the games begin!

All of the major recruits who left UCLA in the past three years will be playing in the NCAA tournament this year. If all of them had stayed at UCLA, the Bruins would have been a Final Four type of team. Chace Stanbach and Mike Mosher of UNLV left UCLA and were All Conference selections in the MWC. Kendall Williams and Drew Gordon were MWC All Conference selections at New Mexico. Matt Carlino was all WCC Honorable mention as a freshman point guard at BYU. With those who stayed, UCLA will be lucky to get an NIT bid.

Final Seconds: UCLA has marketing posters at the Sports Arena asking for donations to help support athletics. The poster broke down all of the related costs for a student athlete including tuition, housing and books. The data factored in $3,875 for health and fitness per student athlete. The numbers sounded reasonable but the student athlete that was the canvas for the narrative was UCLA’s 6’10” 305 pound center Joshua Smith. Observing Josh’s health and fitness these past few years as he has piled on the pounds while huffing and puffing up and down the court, one has to wonder where that money went? Not the best example for that marketing pitch.

Overtime: There are some records that will never be broken in every major sport. Most of them are unreachable because of changes in the games related to numbers of games, longevity of players, performance enhancements and other clinical stuff. One such record that had escaped our radar was the NBA record for average minutes per game by a single player. For any player to play all 48 minutes of an NBA basketball game is rare. It has happened on occasion and it is always well noted in the sports world. In 1961-62season, Wilt Chamberlin averaged 48.5 minutes per game for the entire season. He played an 80 game season.