When the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic began the XFL suspended it’s inaugural season. The newest competition to the NFL played just five games before shutting down all operations. The league had a handful of recognizable players and it's eight teams were housed in either former MLB or current NFL stadiums. Weeks after suspending, the league laid off all it's employees and filed for bankruptcy, making a return of any kind all but impossible. This was the second coming of the XFL and the latest failed attempt to compete with the NFL (joining the first XFL and last year's football alliance). The first incarnation of the league took extreme to the next level relying on professional wrestling inspired gimmicks with all out mallees for the kick off and mic’d up players, this time it was a lot more tame with fewer gimmicks and relied on simpler, faster football, with some new rules thrown in. This time the league had what seemed like a good financial model and a vision for an initial three year run with a television contract of the same length. the XFL's viability was I always believed was in doubt and this global situation did not help. It takes a lot to compete against the NFL you need a lot of money with a strong financial backing, you need recognizable players and probably backing from an established league or figure head. I love the sport of football in it's fall season, I don't think spring football works. In the spring your competing against the Super Bowl, NCAA basketball, Golf and baseball. In a couple years another group will try unsuceffily to launch another football league.
Saturday, April 18, 2020
Saturday, April 11, 2020
Lets start sports... not so fast
As I sit here in house quarantine on day 20 something, I think a sense of normality would be good for everybody. When the sports leagues that were in season (NBA and NHL) and baseball which was towards the end of Spring Training started shutting down on March 13, some including the sports leagues thought the stoppage would be a week or two. Well it's more than two weeks and no end in sight. As much as we need to have sports back to help heal the country and provide a welcome distraction from what we're going through and will go through as we go back to life. Before anything happens the medical community has to be on board. Every sports league has been thinking outside the box as to how to get there respective leagues up and running. Most major sports leagues have insurance policies for instances like this but that doesn't help the little guy. How do we get sports up and running in a safe and economically feasible way. Until testing for the Coronavirus (Covid-19) is widely available it won't happen. The leagues have proposed putting all of their teams in some sort of biosphere.
Golf cancelled the British Open, Open Championship scheduled for July, so far that is the only major cancelled. The Masters has been rescheduled for November, the U.S Open is now scheduled for September and the P.G.A is scheduled for August. The Kentucky Derby will take place in September. I believe tennis has moved a few events and NASCAR is promising to reschedule. The WNBA season has yet to begin but they have a little bit of wiggle room due to the Olympics being rescheduled.
The NHL and NBA are kind of in the same boat, as they were finishing up their regular seasons and heading towards the playoffs. In the beginning both leagues vowed to finish their seasons have the playoffs and award the championship trophy. The NBA has proposed putting all of their teams in Vegas and somewhere else to finish, they have also talked about cancelling the season. While the NBA is having talks about what to do with the season, the NHL is having the same discussions. The NHL has proposed putting all of the teams in North Dakota amongst others to finish the season or not finish the season, they've talked about just starting the playoffs. These leagues have to advantage of playing in arenas so wherever they end up playing, they can possibly play into August.
Baseball who's regular season had not yet started at the time of the stoppage, their were about two weeks left in spring training. At the beginning of the week the MLB reported that they were working on a plan to put all the teams in Arizona to play an abbreviated season at the Spring Training sites there and Chase field. This Arizona plan had the medical community on board which is probably the most important thing in this unique situation but from a baseball standpoint there were things left to be desired. To take every major leaguer away from his family for 2-4 months or whatever it ends up being, takes some commitment especially from the veterans who have families. The younger generation of players will be happy to do this, they'll go play on a diamond at the park for fun and a paycheck. Also it is very hot in Arizona during the summer which would mess with conditioning. Players and umpires would break down faster than you thought possible and the quality of this beautiful game would suffer. You would have to have 40 man rosters with at least 15 pitchers for this to work. They were also talking about seven inning doubleheaders (like college), I would be fine with this as long as it's only for doubleheaders and we get nine in every other time. There is a lot to work out if this Arizona plan is going to work. The plan I heard about later puts in Spring Training sites might be a little more feasible. Under this plan the American and National Leagues would be combined into the Cactus and Grapefruit Leagues (Spring Training leagues), we would still have divisions with some interesting divisional matchups (Yankees and Phillies, Athletics and Cubs). Players would still have to leave their families but there's some normalcy here, with playing at your Spring Training site. The Spring Training plan yet quirky is more feasible, at least we have two leagues and can have representative World Series. Just today I heard a report from a news source about playing in Japan.
Whatever any sports league decides to do, it's going to be a strange situation. When leagues come back their might not be fans, neutral sites, announcers might be different. Who would have thought that we would be in this situation, not that we underestimated the Coronavirus (Covid-19) but I don't think many people envisioned the country shutting down. I'll say it again Sports provide a distraction from whatever your dealing with, you can sit down and watch a game for three and a half hours so hopefully we get some form of live sports soon.
Golf cancelled the British Open, Open Championship scheduled for July, so far that is the only major cancelled. The Masters has been rescheduled for November, the U.S Open is now scheduled for September and the P.G.A is scheduled for August. The Kentucky Derby will take place in September. I believe tennis has moved a few events and NASCAR is promising to reschedule. The WNBA season has yet to begin but they have a little bit of wiggle room due to the Olympics being rescheduled.
The NHL and NBA are kind of in the same boat, as they were finishing up their regular seasons and heading towards the playoffs. In the beginning both leagues vowed to finish their seasons have the playoffs and award the championship trophy. The NBA has proposed putting all of their teams in Vegas and somewhere else to finish, they have also talked about cancelling the season. While the NBA is having talks about what to do with the season, the NHL is having the same discussions. The NHL has proposed putting all of the teams in North Dakota amongst others to finish the season or not finish the season, they've talked about just starting the playoffs. These leagues have to advantage of playing in arenas so wherever they end up playing, they can possibly play into August.
Baseball who's regular season had not yet started at the time of the stoppage, their were about two weeks left in spring training. At the beginning of the week the MLB reported that they were working on a plan to put all the teams in Arizona to play an abbreviated season at the Spring Training sites there and Chase field. This Arizona plan had the medical community on board which is probably the most important thing in this unique situation but from a baseball standpoint there were things left to be desired. To take every major leaguer away from his family for 2-4 months or whatever it ends up being, takes some commitment especially from the veterans who have families. The younger generation of players will be happy to do this, they'll go play on a diamond at the park for fun and a paycheck. Also it is very hot in Arizona during the summer which would mess with conditioning. Players and umpires would break down faster than you thought possible and the quality of this beautiful game would suffer. You would have to have 40 man rosters with at least 15 pitchers for this to work. They were also talking about seven inning doubleheaders (like college), I would be fine with this as long as it's only for doubleheaders and we get nine in every other time. There is a lot to work out if this Arizona plan is going to work. The plan I heard about later puts in Spring Training sites might be a little more feasible. Under this plan the American and National Leagues would be combined into the Cactus and Grapefruit Leagues (Spring Training leagues), we would still have divisions with some interesting divisional matchups (Yankees and Phillies, Athletics and Cubs). Players would still have to leave their families but there's some normalcy here, with playing at your Spring Training site. The Spring Training plan yet quirky is more feasible, at least we have two leagues and can have representative World Series. Just today I heard a report from a news source about playing in Japan.
Whatever any sports league decides to do, it's going to be a strange situation. When leagues come back their might not be fans, neutral sites, announcers might be different. Who would have thought that we would be in this situation, not that we underestimated the Coronavirus (Covid-19) but I don't think many people envisioned the country shutting down. I'll say it again Sports provide a distraction from whatever your dealing with, you can sit down and watch a game for three and a half hours so hopefully we get some form of live sports soon.
Thursday, April 9, 2020
Sports movies
Let's talk about some sports movies that I have seen today. These are some of my favorite sports movies, not necessarily in order.
1. Field of Dreams- I love this movie Kevin Costner's character Ray Kinsella reunites with his father through baseball by following mysterious voices while working in his corn field
2. Major league- The Charlie Scheen "Wild Thing" character is fascinating along with Bob Uecker over the PA
3. Rudy- A scrappy young kid determined to play in a Notre Dame game as a walk on
4. Rocky- A Series of movies about a young underdog boxer from Philadelphia, who becomes the heavyweight champion. There are about 5 or 6 movies in this series while all unique in a way, they reach a little. (training in siberia to fight Drago) at the end of the day Rocky Baboa lives up to his nickname, The Italian Stallion.
5. Creed- The Rocky series had hit a wall several times, Michael B Jordan injects heart and soul into these movies where the best scenes don't necessarily have to do with boxing. (2 in this series)
6. Miracle
7. Remember the Titans
8. The Natural
9. Rush
10. The Fighter- A scrappy movie about a working class boxer
11. The Longest Yard- Burt Reynolds creates a football team of prisoners to go against the guards. honorable mention, Adam Sandler remake.
12. Ali
13. Pride of the Yankees
14. Chariots of Fire
15. Hoosiers
16. Little Big League
17. Bad News Bears
18. Eight Men Out
19. Moneyball
20. Million Dollar Baby
21. A League of their Own- There's no crying in baseball
22. Raging Bull
23. The Sandlot
24. Seabiscuit
25. The Natural
1. Field of Dreams- I love this movie Kevin Costner's character Ray Kinsella reunites with his father through baseball by following mysterious voices while working in his corn field
2. Major league- The Charlie Scheen "Wild Thing" character is fascinating along with Bob Uecker over the PA
3. Rudy- A scrappy young kid determined to play in a Notre Dame game as a walk on
4. Rocky- A Series of movies about a young underdog boxer from Philadelphia, who becomes the heavyweight champion. There are about 5 or 6 movies in this series while all unique in a way, they reach a little. (training in siberia to fight Drago) at the end of the day Rocky Baboa lives up to his nickname, The Italian Stallion.
5. Creed- The Rocky series had hit a wall several times, Michael B Jordan injects heart and soul into these movies where the best scenes don't necessarily have to do with boxing. (2 in this series)
6. Miracle
7. Remember the Titans
8. The Natural
9. Rush
10. The Fighter- A scrappy movie about a working class boxer
11. The Longest Yard- Burt Reynolds creates a football team of prisoners to go against the guards. honorable mention, Adam Sandler remake.
12. Ali
13. Pride of the Yankees
14. Chariots of Fire
15. Hoosiers
16. Little Big League
17. Bad News Bears
18. Eight Men Out
19. Moneyball
20. Million Dollar Baby
21. A League of their Own- There's no crying in baseball
22. Raging Bull
23. The Sandlot
24. Seabiscuit
25. The Natural
Wednesday, April 8, 2020
NYY Mount Rushmore
There are many, many great Yankees in history. What else can we expect from a team that has 27 world championships in there history. When you think of the Mount Rushmore of Yankee history and realize you can only pick four, it becomes a difficult task. When doing this you have to think of the era's that they played in because you don't want to look at this through a microscope and just put the first four players you can think of up there. If you just put the first four up on the mountain your just looking at the first 40ish years of Yankee history and forgetting about the next 80ish and hundreds of potential players. For this great and proud franchise which started as the Yankees in 1913 some stand out. Babe Ruth without question stands out as the first player on the mountain. Ruth had an unbelievable career in the 1920's with home runs galore and he was a pretty good pitcher as well until he gave that up to focus on hitting. For number two I think you can choose between Mantle, Gehrig and Dimaggio. Mickey Mantle is regarded as one of the best switch hitting sluggers in history. Lou Gehrig was the Iron Horse. Joe D is best known for his 56 game hitting streak. I'll go with Gehrig for number two. The Next two are tough, according to my list, there are six players to choose two from. On the list I have Yogi who has ten World Series rings as a manager and coach, "The Chairman of the Board" Whitey Ford. You can also choose from Derek Jeter the first Yankee with 3,000 hits and Hall of Fame electie, Bill Dickey, Mariano Rivera the all time saves leader and Roger Maris set the single season home run record until it was broken in 98'. With all of this being said the four I'm going to put on my New York Yankees Mount Rushmore are Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Yogi Berra and Derek Jeter. There is no right answer here, I Just feel like those four are on the list for many different reasons and span multiple eras.
1. Babe Ruth (stand alone)
2. Mickey Mantle
3. Lou Gehrig (any order)
4. Joe Dimaggio
5. Yogi Berra
6. Whitey Ford
7. Derek Jeter
8. Bill Dickey
9. Mariano Rivera
10. Roger Maris
honorable mention
11. Bernie Williams
12. Thurman Munson
13. Reggie Jackson
14. Ron Guidry
1. Babe Ruth (stand alone)
2. Mickey Mantle
3. Lou Gehrig (any order)
4. Joe Dimaggio
5. Yogi Berra
6. Whitey Ford
7. Derek Jeter
8. Bill Dickey
9. Mariano Rivera
10. Roger Maris
honorable mention
11. Bernie Williams
12. Thurman Munson
13. Reggie Jackson
14. Ron Guidry
Friday, April 3, 2020
Lebron vs. Jordan, the Goat
In the NBA the only real player player comparison is Lebron James vs Michael Jordan. The Lebron and Jordan era's are close enough (one after the other) that they're the only ones worth comparing, MJ's career spanned three decades from the mid 80's-early 2000's and Lebron's career went from the early 2000's to the present day. First MJ showed us all his athleticism after winning numerous award in college at UNC including ACC freshman of the year. MJ was drafted by the Chicago Bulls and despite having trouble early in his career, he was able to win three titles in his first stint with the team. He retired early after the 93' season to sign with the Chicago White Sox and play in their minor league system, he wasn't a bad baseball player and probably would have been a replacement player had they been used during the 94' MLB strike. MJ returned to to win three more titles with his 98' title performance considered one of the greatest finals clutch performances in history, he retired again after that 98' season only to make one more comeback. Jordan's third comeback with the Washington Wizards was not as alustrus as his first two with no more titles and a balkey knee. Lebron James skipped the college thing and was drafted by his hometown Cleveland Cavaliers out of high school. Lebron made a NBA Finals and won a couple MVP awards at the end of his first stint in Cleveland. It was in Miami that Lebron really grew up and got his career rolling. It was good for him to leave the comforts of home and win those two NBA championship and the MVP with the Heat. He utamitaly returned to Cleveland to bring that city and franchise it's last championship trophy for now. King James as he is sometimes referred to is now with the Los Angeles Lakers where they're trying to build a supporting cast around him for a final championship run. In today's NBA you can't win without a two or three man supporting cast, MJ played before you needed support and Lebron had some when he went to Miami and when he came back to cleveland. Through about the same number of games the numbers are pretty even except when it comes to Finals, as MJ is six for six and Lebron has only won three of eight (titles are where it counts). MJ had the better prime of his career winning those six titles when I think the majority of the competition was better. Jordan can walk down the street in his Air Jordan's and know he is the GOAT and that's good with him.
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