[Posted Sunday p.m. before the conclusion of Wake-Virgina]
NBA Quiz: Last Monday, the Bulls’ Jimmy Butler scored 52 points in a 118-111 home victory over Charlotte, thus becoming the eighth different player to score 50 in a game this season, tying the NBA’s single-season record. Name the other seven. Answer below.
NFL Playoffs…next….
Saturday….
Seattle at Atlanta…4:35 p.m. ET…great matchup
Houston at New England…8:15…puh-leeze
Sunday….
Pittsburgh at Kansas City…1:00…super matchup
Green Bay at Dallas…4:40…ditto
Early weather forecasts…30 degrees at Foxborough, no precip (drat!)…30s with ice and rain in Kansas City, super!
Roethlisberger is now 22-7 when temps are below 32. Just something to consider when you’re betting the mortgage in Vegas or with your local bookie. Don’t place the $250K bet until you are sure of the game-time temp.
OK, yes, Houston does have the best defense in football, according to the stats, but I see this as a 23-3 Pats win; New England’s defense being pretty darn good as well.
—
Saturday’s wild-card games sucked, unless you were a Houston or Seattle fan, and outside of those two cities it’s not like there are a lot them. I mean we aren’t talking Pittsburgh or Dallas, know what I’m sayin’?
Houston rode the spectacular play of quarterback Brock Osweiler (he typed sarcastically) to a 27-14 win over Connor Cook and the Raiders. The fact that I included Cook in that sentence tells you everything, as a superb Oakland regular season fell apart with, first, the injury to All-Pro QB Derek Carr, and, second, the injury to his semi-experienced backup, Matt McGloin.
That left Cook, the rookie out of Michigan State and he wasn’t up to the task, going 18/45, 161, 1-3, 30.0…putrid.
Osweiler, on the other hand, while hardly scintillating at 14/25, 168, 1-0, 90.1, with another TD rushing, didn’t turn the ball over.
For the game, Houston outgained Oakland 291-203. I should have gone to the local mall for a walk and research on how many stores will be left a year from now.
In Saturday’s nightcap, Seattle rolled over visiting Detroit, 26-6, as Thomas Rawls rushed for 161 yards on 27 carries with a TD, while Russell Wilson was his usual cool self, 23/30, 224, 2-0, 119.3. Doug Baldwin caught 11 of Wilson’s throws for 104 yards and a score. As all the headlines said Sunday morning, this was the old-style Seahawks. An offense led by the rushing game.
For Detroit, you wonder how much Matthew Stafford’s injured finger affected him. He had some gorgeous throws, but his receivers let him down with some bad drops. Overall he was 18/32, 205, 0-0, 75.7.
And for the record, we do have to recognize that while it probably didn’t matter in the grand scheme of things, the refs admittedly missed a facemask call on Seattle receiver Paul Richardson on the first TD of the game, a spectacular one-handed reception by Richardson, except he grabbed the defender’s facemask in the process.
Sunday, Pittsburgh hosted Miami at cold Heinz Field, and the three B’s – Ben Roethlisberger, Le’Veon Bell and Antonio Bell – fresh off their vacation for Week 17, opened the game in sterling fashion; Big Ben hitting his first 11 throws, including 50- and 62-yard scoring strikes to Antonio Brown, while Bell scored to make it 20-3, 2 ½ minutes into the second quarter, as he would juke for a franchise post-season record 167 yards on 29 carries with two touchdowns.
Miami had a chance at 20-6 to cut the lead before half to 20-13, but quarterback Matt Moore turned it over and it was officially game over, the Steelers going on to win 30-12.
Moore was a game 29/36, 289, 1-1, 97.8, but he also lost two fumbles, three TOs on three consecutive possessions.
And the Steelers ‘D’ held Jay Ajayi to just 33 yards rushing on 16 carries.
As for New York at Green Bay, let the conversation begin regarding last Monday’s little trip by Odell Beckham Jr. and Co. to Miami for some sun and fun on their day off. [Traditionally, NFL players get Tuesday off, but Giants coach Ben McAdoo changed that to Monday.]
After last Sunday’s season-ending win over the Redskins, Beckham, Victor Cruz, Sterling Shepard and Roger Lewis, the four main receivers, flew to Miami to party, including with Justin Bieber, but we were all told to slough it off, including by McAdoo and Eli Manning. No big deal, it’s a different game, they’ll be ready to work, blah blah blah.
I have to admit I wasn’t even going to bring it up in terms of the Packers game, except now we are forced to, with Beckham having two key drops early and just four receptions for 28 yards overall, though he was targeted 11 times. Sterling Shepard had four catches on 9 targets. Victor Cruz was 3 of 4.
I mean these guys did it to themselves. Was the trip responsible for Beckham’s poor play? Who knows, but Odell gave us an excuse to make it so…the a-hole.
At the same time, the Giants were tailing just 7-6 at the end of the second half when on the last play before the intermission, Aaron Rodgers threw a Hail Mary into the end zone and, inexcusably, the Giants defenders allowed Randall Cobb to sneak behind all of them to grab the perfectly thrown lob from Rodgers for a 14-6 halftime lead. It was pathetic.
Green Bay even got off from a stupid fourth and inches call by coach Mike McCarthy from around the Packers 40-yard line, stuffed by the Giants, that New York capitalized on two plays later to make it 14-13.
Because after that it was all Rodgers as the Packers scored the final 24 for a 38-13 win and a trip to Dallas.
Rodgers finished 25/40, 362, 4-0, 125.2, thus continuing his spectacular play, while Eli Manning was 23/44, 299, 1-1, 72.1.
I won’t even get into the report there were drugs on the boat Beckham and Co. were partying on in Miami. No need to…the press here will now have a field day.
–Michael Salfino of the Wall Street Journal pointed out that of the wild-card round teams that came in with winning streaks of at least six games, like the Packers, the last five teams are 4-5, none advancing to the Super Bowl. [Previously, the 2000 Ravens (seven straight to close the season) did go on to win the Lombardi Trophy.]
The last five playoff teams to lose three in a row to end the season all won their first postseason game, until the Lions.
–For the archives, I just have to note some of the leaders this past season.
Tom Brady had 28 TD passes and just 2 interceptions. Matt Ryan’s splits were 38/7. Dak Prescott 23/4. Aaron Rodgers 40/7.
Dallas rookie Ezekiel Elliott led the NFL in rushing yardage with 1,631, but rookie Jordan Howard was next at 1,313 for the Bears.
So once again, I have to remind folks what I wrote in this space last May 2:
“But I think the steal of the entire draft, though, is a running back taken in the fifth round by the Bears…Indiana’s Jordan Howard, who I told you all college football season was a keeper. The Jets didn’t need him, having signed former Chicago back Matt Forte (and re-signed Bilal Powell), but Chicago more than replaced Forte with Howard.”
As Ronald Reagan would have said to me, ‘Not bad, not bad at all.’
Meanwhile, what a year for Arizona’s David Johnson, who led the NFL with 2,118 total yards from scrimmage…1,239 rushing and 879 receiving. Johnson was also the leading scorer in the league (non-kickers), with 20 touchdowns and a two-point conversion.
Arizona’s Larry Fitzgerald had a league-leading 107 receptions, though only for a 9.6 average.
The leader in sacks with 15.5 was Atlanta’s Vic Beasley Jr., the second-year linebacker out of Clemson.
–Jets coach Todd Bowles fired five assistant coaches, while offensive coordinator Chan Gailey, who turned 65 last week, announced his retirement. But Bowles retained defensive coordinator Kacy Rodgers and special teams coordinator Brant Boyer, even though both areas were dreadful this season.
The Jets will now be looking for their fifth offensive coordinator since 2011, no one lasting more than two years.
Why did I pick this franchise when I was a little tyke? Oh the decisions one makes early in life that stay with you forever can oftentimes suck.
–Chargers owner (chairman) Dean Spanos is said to be anguished about the decision to move to Los Angeles, appealing to the NFL for help to remain in San Diego and league sources told the San Diego Union-Tribune that possible solutions are being discussed at “the league level” and “ownership level.”
Spanos has until Jan. 15 to decide to accept an option his fellow owners gave him last January when they rejected a bid by the Chargers and Raiders to build a stadium in Carson while approving the Rams’ stadium project in Inglewood.
It seems Spanos needs $100 million more in the form of a loan from the league or some kind of partnership, to go with existing proposed funding from the city, county and San Diego State ($375m), and a standard $200 million loan from the NFL toward construction of a stadium in San Diego. [The Chargers also contributing $350m towards the $1.025bn project.]
–Anyone following the NFL had to be shocked, shocked, I tell you, to hear that Cincinnati Bengals cornerback Adam “Pacman” Jones faced several charges after he was arrested last week for allegedly pushing a man and poking him in the eye after an altercation at a Cincinnati hotel. When arrested, Jones refused to enter the police car and allegedly kicked and head-butted an officer. He then spit on the hand of a nurse while he was being booked into the Hamilton County Justice Center.
Jones was released the next day and apologized to fans, denying the charges. He is now in the December file for his annual yearend appearance in the Bar Chat Awards…dirtball category.
College Football
–So as we await Monday’s national title game between Alabama and Clemson, one of the prime story lines has become the absence of ‘Bama offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin, who coach Nick Saban told to hit the road because he had become too much of a distraction after taking the head coaching job at Florida Atlantic. Kiffin was supposedly showing up late to meetings, a major no-no, and he and Saban butted heads all the time anyway.
But still, this is a distraction and disruption of a high order at this stage, Kiffin replaced by Steve Sarkisian, who has been observing the team all season from the coaches box as an adviser/analyst to Saban, though he wasn’t allowed to interact with the players.
No jokes for now on Sarkisian’s past issues. I just hope Clemson wins.
–You knew it was going to happen, but if you’ve followed the University of Minnesota situation, you kind of hoped P.J. Fleck wouldn’t have taken the bait…but he did.
Fleck, the Western Michigan boy wonder who coached the Broncos to a 13-0 regular season before their solid effort in a loss to Wisconsin in the Cotton Bowl, took the head coaching job at Minnesota, after the Gophers earlier in the week fired Tracy Claeys.
Fleck, just 36, spent four seasons at WMU and took them from 1-11 in his first season to 13-1. The guy was certainly deserving of a step up, but Minnesota is a, well, I’ll let the Washington Post’s Matt Bonesteel describe the situation (some of which I also noted the other day).
“Why Minnesota? Yes, there’s a sparkling new stadium and under-construction football facilities, and the big Ten’s myriad television deals means every one of the school’s games will get a wide airing. But frankly, that place is a mess. Claeys was fired because of his intemperate public support of the 10 Golden Gophers players who were involved in a sexual assault investigation by the school, and his firing Tuesday did nothing to ease the sizable rift that exists between the team and the school’s administrators. In fact, it might have made it worse.
“Fleck did coach under former Minnesota coach Jerry Kill at Northern Illinois, and Kill is beloved in Minneapolis. There’s just one issue: Kill also is steamed at how everything went down with Claeys, who was his longtime assistant and then successor after health problems forced Kill into temporary retirement in 2015 (he’s since taken the Rutgers offensive coordinator job).
“ ‘I won’t be stepping foot back in the stadium,’ Kill told 1500 ESPN radio in Minneapolis this week. ‘And I won’t be stepping back into the university.’”
And as I noted you had the former athletic director who resigned after sexual harassment complaints against him, and the Gophers’ basketball program’s historic issues, and the drug ring in the wrestling program….
So while Fleck is a good hire for Minnesota, as Matt Bonesteel concludes: “But is it a good job –for Fleck?”
–Pretty funny that the Big Ten had three of the top six in the final College Football Playoff rankings and all three lost, after much chest thumping and complaints that they deserved two in the final four.
Overall, the Big Ten went 3-7 in its bowl games. My ACC, cough cough, is 8-3 prior to Monday’s finale.
—Wake Forest gave coach Dave Clawson an eight-year contract extension that runs through 2024. He was 7-6 this season with that nice bowl win over Temple amid the Tommy Elrod scandal, after going 3-9 in each of his first two seasons.
—James Madison won the national title in the Football Championship Subdivision, I-AA, with a 28-14 win over Youngstown State in Frisco, Texas, Saturday, thus completing a terrific season for the Dukes (14-1), whose only loss was at North Carolina.
–According to Mark Scolforo of the Associated Press, Penn State’s costs related to the Jerry Sandusky scandal have reached at least $237 million, including a recent $12 million verdict in the whistleblower and defamation case brought by former assistant coach Mike McQueary, whose testimony helped convict Sandusky in 2012.
The school has settled with 33 people over allegations they were sexually abused by Sandusky for a collective $93 million.
The total also covers the $48 million “fine” levied by the NCAA that is funding anti-child-abuse efforts in Pennsylvania, $27 million in lawyer fees to defend lawsuits, nearly $14 million that includes the legal defense of three former administrators facing criminal charges for their handling of Sandusky complaints and $5.3 million for crisis communications and other consultants.
Penn State has said through filings that insurers have picked up $30 million in costs thus far.
Sandusky is serving a 30- to 60-year sentence on a 45-count conviction for sexual abuse of 10 boys.
–According to Bloomberg’s analysis of game data, attendance at games in the FBS (Div. I-A) dropped for a seventh straight year, though roughly just one percent each season. But the slow percentage decline is due to the sellouts still being generated at the powerhouses. In the Big 12 Conference, for example, the average crowd at Univ. of Kansas games has fallen by 50 percent since 2009. And as Bloomberg points out, despite their incredible success this season, Western Michigan Univ. didn’t come close to filling its 30,200-seat stadium.
The Univ. of Massachusetts joined the FBS in 2011 with high hopes but averaged only 15,000 fans this season.
–As reported by Brett McMurphy of ESPN.com, the average game time in college football this season was 3 hours, 24 minutes, the longest in CFB history.
I’m actually surprised this was the record because I feel like virtually every game I’ve watched the last few years has been in this neighborhood.
McMurphy writes that “In just four seasons, the average length of games increased seven minutes, from 3:17 in 2013 to 3:24 this season.”
But the number of plays has remained the same…143.
Clemson’s average game time was 3:30 this season, Alabama’s 3:22.
Texas Tech, with its big passing game, had an average game time of 3:48! Eegads! Oklahoma State was at 3:47; the two with the highest/longest average.
I mean if you were attending a Texas Tech home game, and you lived, say, 30 minutes from the stadium, why wouldn’t you watch the first quarter in person, do all your Saturday shopping for an hour, go home, use a real bathroom, re-fill the cooler, and head back to the stadium for the last quarter?
College Basketball
–Since last chat a few upsets of note, namely No. 18 Butler handing No. 1 Villanova its first loss on Wednesday in Indianapolis, 66-58, ending the Wildcats’ 20-game winning streak. Butler improved to 4-0 against ranked opponents this season.
Tuesday, Texas Tech upset No. 7 West Virginia 77-76.
No. 13 Wisconsin defeated No. 25 Indiana 75-68, the Hoosiers falling to 10-5 in a very strange season already. [The Hoosiers improved to 11-5 with a 96-80 win over Illinois on Saturday.]
And No. 14 North Carolina defeated Clemson 89-86, at Clemson, with Tigers coach Brad Brownell visibly upset in the postgame handshake line, having words for UNC coach Roy Williams.
Brownell was reportedly irked by the fact that UNC senior Kennedy Meeks was trash-talking throughout the game, including making comments towards Clemson’s bench. Williams attempted to apologize to Brownell after the game but Brownell didn’t want any of it.
[On Sunday, Carolina then destroyed N.C. State in Chapel Hill, 107-56. Yikes. Folks in Raleigh won’t like this result.]
Also Tuesday, No. 3 Kansas edged Kansas State at the buzzer, 90-88, on a rather controversial no call.
Myron Medcalf / ESPN.com
“Let’s start with this: Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk did not simply travel on his game-winning fast-break layup in Kansas’ 90-88 win over rival Kansas State. He bounced through the lane like David Bowie and Mick Jagger on that abandoned road in the ‘Dancing In The Street’ music video. He skated. He jogged from somewhere near the 3-point line to the basket.
“Refs should have called it. But it’s not a reviewable play, so blame the crew and the limitations of the NCAA’s instant-replay regulations.”
—Bad week for Virginia Tech, which entered the AP Top 25 at No. 21, then promptly lost to North Carolina State, 104-78, and No. 12 Florida State, 93-78, though both were on the road.
—And then there is Duke….
Adam Kilgore / Washington Post
“On Wednesday night, Duke showed the full breadth of both its foibles and its powers, all of its thorny problems and its mammoth potential. In the final game before Coach Mike Krzyzewski undergoes back surgery scheduled for Friday [Ed. he then did have it], the Blue Devils welcomed back tripping recidivist Grayson Allen after a laughable, one-game suspension. They had just lost badly at Virginia Tech, their second defeat of a season they were expected to dominate. For the first week of January, Duke had become well-acquainted with turmoil.
“The Blue Devils found a release, at least temporarily, in basketball. They wiped Georgia Tech off the Cameron Indoor Stadium floor, a 110-57 shellacking in which the offensive capacity of a team with Allen, Luke Kennard, Matt Jones, Jayson Tatum and Harry Giles was realized….
“Duke showed it has enough talent…to surmount its issues.
“But those issues are stacked high, starting with Allen’s sudden return. Krzyzewski suspended Allen indefinitely two weeks ago, after he tripped an Elon player. The discipline came about 10 months after Allen tripped two players – one from Louisville, the other from Florida State – and received no punishment, from either Duke or the ACC.
“When Krzyzewski did not suspend Allen last season, he enabled him to repeat his behavior. A one-game suspension will not send a strong enough message. It’s weak. Krzyzewski either doesn’t understand, or doesn’t care about, how the world outside his program views Allen.
“ ‘I think it’s appropriate, and I think the things that we’ve done are appropriate,’ Krzyzewski told ESPN’s Jay Bilas, a former player, after the game. ‘There are things that you see or the public see, and there are things that you all don’t see and shouldn’t see or shouldn’t be talked about, and they’re called teachings. You don’t need to teach out in the public all the time.’
“Krzyzewski struck the same I-know-best tone after the Elon game. But he lost the right to the high ground after he failed to act last year. Whatever he thought he had taught Allen demonstrably did not work. What makes him think a piddling one-game suspension will do the trick this time?
“Maybe those behind-the-scenes lessons are spectacular. But it does Allen himself the greatest disservice to be coddled in public. Because he fits the most-reviled stereotype in college sports – the great, white Duke star – Allen is never going to be loved. Krzyzewski could have at least decreased the target on his back by forcing him to serve time appropriate for his misdeeds. It’s hard to say what that is, but it’s certainly more than one lousy game.”
As for Coach K’s back surgery, “he is a 70-year-old undergoing a difficult procedure. Until he’s back on the bench, it’s to wonder how long he’ll be gone.”
Saturday, in interim coach Jeff Capel’s first game at the helm, Duke beat Boston College 93-82, with Allen playing 37 minutes and scoring 12 points, while dishing out 11 assists. Allen also appeared to kick a B.C. player, but nothing was called.
–I watched a lot of the Seton Hall win over DePaul on Saturday, 87-56, and the 12-3 Pirates are an interesting team to follow the rest of the way, much like the squad that captured the Big East title last season. Don’t count them out of, say, Elite Eight potential in two months. I was also surprised to see former Demon Deacon Madison Jones making major contributions for the Hall as a graduate transfer.
–And I watched a fair amount of Creighton-Providence, with the Bluejays improving to 15-1 with a 78-64 win on the road, the Friars falling to 11-6. I bring this up because it seems like the whole country has discovered all at once, including myself, that Greg McDermott is a really good coach and it wasn’t always just about his son, All-American Doug McDermott, now in his third season with the Bulls. Creighton is just a very likeable school (yours truly being a fan of Omaha, and the players seem likeable, an extension of their likeable coach).
–Lastly, my “Pick to Click,” San Diego State, is 8-7 and, shockingly, 0-3 in Mountain West play after a 78-66 loss at Boise State on Saturday. The Aztecs were 16-2 in conference play last season in winning their third consecutive MW title. Again, Malik Pope wasn’t in the lineup but it’s the defense this season that is letting coach Steve Fisher down. Not the way he wants to end his career, but this very well could be the end.
NBA
–In a curious trade, the Atlanta Hawks sent shooting guard Kyle Korver to the Cavaliers for veterans Mike Dunleavy, Mo Williams and a 2019 first-round draft pick.
This is what LeBron James wanted, and what LeBron wants, LeBron gets as he runs the franchise. Korver gives Cleveland another three-point threat while adding depth to an injury-depleted roster. And by trading two players for one, Cleveland opens up a roster spot and, well, let’s go to Frank Isola / New York Daily News:
“And now LeBron James wants a point guard. Is Chris Paul available? Damian Lillard? What about Kyle Lowry?
“We all know how this works: the King gets what the King wants. Just ask David Blatt. And the rest of the league, especially the Eastern Conference, will just have to learn to live with it.
“This week, the Cleveland Cavaliers added Kyle Korver, a guard whose best days are behind him to be sure. But he’s also an excellent 3-point shooter and a perfect complementary player to LeBron. Korver’s presence creates space on the floor for LeBron to perform his magic. It makes so much sense for the Cavs.
“And it’s an awful trade for the NBA and especially the Eastern Conference.
“The Atlanta Hawks entered Saturday sitting in fourth place in the East with a 20-16 record. For some reason they are ready to wave the white flag, trade off their key veterans and start rebuilding. The timing is odd and odder still is trading one of those key veterans to the team at the top of the East. The same team that swept the Hawks the last two postseasons.
“It doesn’t make any sense to be helping out the defending champions.
“Kevin Durant leaving Oklahoma City to sign a free-agent contract with the Golden State Warriors is bad enough. But that was Durant’s choice. He earned the right to be a free agent and if he wants to join the best team in the Western Conference while at the same time crippling his own team that’s his right.
“The optics for the Korver deal is worse. The Hawks should be focused on beating Cleveland. Not helping the Cavs. And for what, a 2019 first round pick? LeBron is showing no signs of slowing down. In three years, that Cavs pick will likely be no lower than 25th overall.”
–Talk about bursting on the scene, if you call the terrific play of a fourth-year man ‘bursting.’ That’s the Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo, the 22-year-old 6’11” ‘small forward,’ point guard, you name it, out of Greece who has steadily improved since being taken 15th in the 2013 draft.
After averaging 16.9 points and 7.7 rebounds, with 4.3 assists, last year, this season he is 24.0, 9.0, 5.7.
I’ve only seen the guy when Milwaukee is playing the Knicks and he broke New York’s hearts Wednesday with a buzzer-beater at the Garden, 105-104, but the Knicks got some revenge in Milwaukee on Friday, 116-111. Antetokounmpo, hereinafter Giannis, had 27 and 25 points in the two games and got a tremendous amount of press from the New York scribes. Plus he’s in Sports Illustrated this week.
And get this…he’s supposed to be a terrific kid; much like the Knicks’ own budding superstar, Kristaps Porzingis. Well, both aren’t from America, so this makes sense.
But as for the Knicks, at one time they were 14-10 and I was writing I was actually watching some of their games and they were entertaining.
Well now, after losing Saturday in Indianapolis to the Pacers, 123-109, they are 17-20. Coach Jeff Hornacek, who I was praising, is facing withering criticism for the team’s dreadful defense and we’re back to the ‘same old, same old’ for the Knickerbockers.
By the way, in back-to-backs, the Knicks are 0-7 on the second legs and they have three more in January. A big problem is Carmelo Anthony always seem to look sluggish in the second contest. [The Knicks were outrebounded 53-32 on Saturday!]
Ergo, it’s not likely I’ll be watching much Knicks basketball the rest of the way, boys and girls.
—Great to see Golden State blow a 24-point second half lead on Friday night, at home, against Memphis, eventually losing 128-119 overtime, despite Steph Curry’s 40.
The Warriors are 31-6, after their record-setting 73-9 mark and then choke job against LeBron and the Cavs.
–In a huge game on Sunday in Brooklyn, the 76ers improved to 10-25 with a 105-95 win over the 8-28 Nets.
Baseball
–As I wrote recently, suddenly the Hall of Fame vote, to be revealed Jan. 18, is getting interesting based on the early ballots that have been revealed and the seeming big rise in the vote count for steroids poster boys Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds.
Even the Washington Post editorial board is weighing in:
“Baseball’s Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., is the sport’s pantheon to its greatest players (and executives, managers, umpires and writers), but not only that: It is a kind of national shrine. If that seems overblown, or quaint, then consider the morality play doubling as the current debate over the suitability, or not, of electing two prodigiously talented alleged cheaters to the hall: Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds.
“Both were diamond deities in Major League Baseball’s steroid era – mainly, the 1990s – and there is strong evidence both used performance-enhancing drugs, known as PEDs, to juice their bodies and prolong their careers. Until now, it has been widely, and rightly, assumed that Mr. Bonds, baseball’s all-time home run titleholder, and Mr. Clemens, the dominant pitcher of his generation, had disqualified themselves from induction into the Hall of Fame through their suspected PED use. Now, suddenly, the 400-odd baseball writers whose votes determine who gets admitted have had a rethink, and the doping duo’s prospects have improved.
“They shouldn’t. The arguments in favor of enshrining the two are an exercise in twisted judgment and logic-bending rationalization whose underlying assumption is that actions need have no consequences if undertaken by athletes of transcendent talent.
“The tortured justifications for elevating, and excusing, Mr. Bonds and Mr. Clemens come in various flavors. One that has gained particular currency is that it is unfair to bar entrance to the hall to the two superstars given that Bud Selig, baseball’s commissioner during the steroid era, was recently enshrined. Putting aside the wisdom of Mr. Selig’s induction…the argument fails the laugh test. If one Hall of Famer’s faults absolve those of prospective inductees, then value judgments themselves are suspended.
“Perhaps more to the point, the eligibility of Mr. Bonds and Mr. Clemens, unlike that of Mr. Selig, rests exclusively on their prowess on the field. Yet that prowess, while not to be dismissed, was almost certainly pharmacologically enhanced. PEDs would have imparted an advantage other players did not enjoy.
“In the baseball world, some would go soft on the two superstars because at the time of their suspected doping, baseball had not yet adopted written rules or penalties against it. But plenty of people in the game did not dope and knew full well it was wrong. Those who doped also knew it was wrong and, consequently, sought by various means to hide it.
“But hey, say proponents of inducting the two, they were really, really great – how can baseball possibly exclude them? The answer is that they were indeed great; they are also ordinary mortals. And for ordinary mortals – Russian pole-vaulters, philandering spouses, politicians on the take, even Lance Armstrong – cheating equals disgrace, dishonor and ignominy.
“Rules should not be suspended for a batter who clouted enough home runs, or a pitcher whose fastball was unhittable. To do that would be to make a mockery of the rules, and of baseball and of Cooperstown.”
Hear hear!
David Waldstein / New York Times
“(Part of the reason for the change of heart among writers) appears to be the decision last month to induct Bud Selig into the Hall. Selig, who served as commissioner of baseball as the record books were being obliterated by bulked-up players, was granted entry into Cooperstown by a veterans’ committee that is separate from the writers’ bloc.
“Selig had long been criticized for failing to combat the doping scourge sooner. Now he was headed to Cooperstown, joining, among others, the former manager Tony La Russa, who was inducted in 2014 and who oversaw a number of highly successful teams that benefited from the presence of steroid users….
“As a longtime beat writer (for the San Francisco Chronicle, Susan) Slusser is well respected by her fellow writers. (And) her statement (that it was ‘senseless’ to keep out players who were accused of using drugs) got their attention and seemed to contribute to the shift now taking place.
“ ‘There is nothing good about the whole era,’ Slusser said in a telephone interview. ‘And I just decided that if you honor the central figures of the era – the execs and managers and players and media people are all going in – then it’s putting the entire wrongs of that era on two guys.’”
Other voters clearly share Slusser’s thinking.
Last year, Clemens received 45.2 percent of the vote, Bonds 44.3 percent. The early voting that has both named on about 70 percent of the ballots is expected to come down, but if they both end up around 60 percent, there will be no doubt they’ll get in with five years of eligibility left, though what helps set these two apart is they both faced criminal charges that they lied about their drug use in legal settings. But this is bothering a fewer number of writers.
Bob Nightengale / USA TODAY
“The only man on this year’s Hall of Fame ballot to ever publicly test positive – and be suspended – is Manny Ramirez. He was suspended twice, 50 games the first time with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2009 and 100 games in 2011 with the Tampa Bay Rays, effectively ending his major league career.
“Ramirez might be one of the game’s greatest right-handed hitters, but he should never be in the Hall of Fame. He cheated when baseball actually had punishment for PED use. The suspensions severely damaged his team’s chances of winning without him.
“The same goes for Alex Rodriguez when he comes eligible. He not only admitted to using steroids at two different junctures in his career, but he also received the longest drug suspension in baseball history, sitting out the 2014 season and costing the Yankees a shot at the playoffs.
“The moment they were suspended, they blew their chance at Cooperstown.
“It’s completely different with Bonds, Clemens or anyone else we suspect of steroid use but who never tested positive or was suspended. There were no rules before 2004. No signs in clubhouses banning PEDs. You were free to take whatever you desired with no testing, no penalties, nothing.
“It’s as if you were on the highway and told there will be no police monitoring the stretch of road for the next 300 miles. Do you really believe you’d still go 55 mph?
“We can’t retroactively establish rules guessing who used, who didn’t, how much or when.
“The time has arrived to accept that Bonds and Clemens belong in the hallowed halls of Cooperstown.
“Yep, just like a year ago with Piazza, who had to wait four years because of strong steroid suspicions. And (Jeff) Bagwell, who has waited six years, largely because of similar suspicions. And maybe Ivan Rodriguez, who could make it in his first year of eligibility.
“They were great players from the steroid era.
“Just not the greatest.
“That legacy belongs to Bonds and Clemens.
“One day, you’ll be able to see their plaques in Cooperstown, where they belong.”
–I forgot to note last time the passing of an original Met, and the first All-Star in San Diego Padres franchise history, Chris Cannizzaro, who died at the age of 78 on Dec. 29.
Cannizzarro was taken in the Expansion Draft and played in 59 games for the 1962 Mets, getting 581 at-bats over four years with them, 1962-65, with zero home runs, batting .236. But he was a good fielder.
He would later play in the Padres’ first game and went on to make the All-Star team that season, 1969, but his best year at the plate was 1970 when he hit .279, with 5 homers and 42 RBIs.
Overall, in 13 seasons, he batted .235 with 18 home runs, though he threw out 41 percent of the baserunners attempting to steal, an outstanding percentage.
Golf Balls
—23-year-old Justin Thomas won the first event of 2017, his second of the 2016-17 PGA Tour wraparound season, defeating Hideki Matsuyama, 24, in the Tournament of Champions in Hawaii. For Thomas it was his third career triumph, the same number as Matsuyama, and a great bet to make, if you’re young enough, would be who wins more by age 30 (or 35, or 40)? It’s time to put them both in the same category as Jordan, Jason, Rory and Rickie. Golf is stacked. Every major the next 15 years could be special.
—Tiger Woods will make his 2017 debut Jan. 26 in the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines in San Diego, will play the following week in Dubai, take a week off, and then play back-to-back weeks again in the Genesis Open at Riviera Country Club and the Honda Classic at PGA National in Florida.
Pretty ambitious. If he can get through this stretch without dropping out of an event, that’s a pretty good sign.
–Steve G. passed along some hard copies of betting sheets in Vegas and for the 2016-17 FedEx Cup Championship, recent odds had Rory McIlroy and Dustin Johnson at 4/1, Jason Day 9/2, and Jordan Spieth 6/1.
I love Matsuyama at 20/1 (I’m sure he’s not that today), Justin Thomas 30/1 (ditto) and Emiliano Grillo 40/1.
For the Masters, the same Vegas sheet had Jason Day a favorite at 5/1, with Jordan Spieth next at 11/2.
Man, I’d have fun with this one, which had Grillo at 75/1, Russell Knox 100/1, Bill Haas 80/1, Shane Lowry 65/1…I mean those are worth betting on if you can get those odds today.
Premier League
With a break this weekend after the heavy holiday schedule, and with some PL teams involved in FA Cup play, the only game to mention since last chat was Tottenham’s stirring 2-0 home victory over Chelsea that ended the Blues’ 13-match winning streak (thus preventing Chelsea from becoming the first Top Flight team to win 14 in a row).
The knock on Tottenham all these years that they have been moderately successful is that they can beat those below them, but can’t beat the elite and so this win at White Hart Lane was huge.
Budding superstar Dele Alli, just 20, scored both goals on brilliant headers, one in each half, with both on crosses from Christian Eriksen (my second favorite player on the team next to Harry Kane), giving Alli seven goals in his last four Premier League contests, which is pretty, pretty good.
So with this one win, Tottenham puts itself directly in the conversation after a fifth successive victory. The Spurs haven’t won the title since 1961.
Alli, by the way, was signed for $8 million from third-tier Milton Keynes Dons two years ago, what is now being called one of the best signings in PL history (this being a pittance in PL terms for a player with Alli’s star power, or as Tottenham Coach Mauricio Pochettino described him, before the Chelsea match, the “most important player to emerge in English football in recent years.”)
[Tottenham, Sunday, advanced to the fourth round of the FA Cup with a 2-0 win over stubborn Aston Villa.]
PL Standings after 20 of 38 matches….
1. Chelsea 49 points
2. Liverpool 44
3. Tottenham 42
4. Man City 42
5. Arsenal 41…had to rally from down 3-0 to tie Bournemouth last Tues.
6. Man U 39…six straight wins
15. Leicester 21…defending champ
17. Crystal Palace 16
18. Sunderland 15
19. Swansea 15
20. Hull City 13…bottom three get sent packing
Now, these last 18 matches, watching the battle over relegation can be as interesting as the struggle at the top. Aston Villa, for example, was relegated last year.
Stuff
–The Columbus Blue Jackets’ winning streak ended at 16 in Washington on Thursday night, the Capital winning 5-0. Columbus was one shy of the NHL record of 17 in a row held by the 1992-93 Pittsburgh Penguins.
That Penguins team was led by Mario Lemieux and the streak began on March 9, one week after Lemieux returned from missing 24 games to receive treatment for Hodgkin’s disease. Lemieux then scored 27 goals and 24 assists in the 17 games, with Pittsburgh scoring 10 goals twice and 9 once. Good lord. That season, Lemieux had 160 points in just 60 games.
But the two-time Cup Champions lost in the Division Finals to the Islanders. Montreal won it all that season.
[The Rangers then beat Columbus on Saturday, 5-4.]
–Rebecca R. Ruiz / New York Times
“United States intelligence officials have determined that last year’s cyberattacks on the World Anti-Doping Agency originated with the Russian government, perpetrated in apparent retaliation for what President Vladimir Putin deemed to be an American-led effort to defame Russia for widespread doping.
“That conclusion was published Friday in a declassified intelligence report ordered by President Obama. The report centered on Russia’s efforts to affect the 2016 American presidential election at Mr. Putin’s direction, while also referring to Russia’s related ‘influence efforts against targets such as Olympic athletes and other foreign governments.’
“ ‘A prominent target since the 2016 Summer Olympics has been the World Anti-Doping Agency,’ the report said.”
—Ashton Eaton, one of the greatest track and field athletes of all time, announced his retirement Wednesday. Eaton successfully defended his decathlon title at last year’s Olympic Games in Rio. He holds the world record for the highest score ever in the discipline.
Eaton’s wife, Brianne Theisen-Eaton, who won a heptathlon bronze for Canada at Rio, also announced she was retiring.
Eaton, a great guy, I have to add, said, “It’s my time to depart from athletics; to do something new. Frankly there isn’t much more I want to do in sport.”
Can’t say I blame him. I saw him set the world record in 2012 at the U.S. Olympic trials in Eugene, Ore., a mark he then broke at the 2015 outdoor championships in Beijing.
No doubt we’ll see Eaton on NBC’s track and field coverage in future Olympics. An articulate stud, frankly.
–ESPN is drastically scaling back Chris Berman’s duties at the network. Yippee.
–Sad story out of California. A mountain lion kitten known as P-52 was recently struck and killed by a vehicle on the 118 Freeway – the same freeway where his mother was killed last month – wildlife officials announced Thursday.
The 7-month-old kitten died a few miles away from where the mother, P-39, was hit and killed on Dec. 3, as I wrote at the time. Officials then were concerned over the health and safety of the three kittens left behind (the others being P-50 and P-51).
So this is mountain lion no. 14 to die on California roads since 2002, the National Park Service said.
Actually, there were five kittens in two separate dens in the Santa Susana Mountains, two mothers, one father, the latter P-38. At least the lions are reproducing successfully, but no word on the status of P-50, P-51.
–‘Beaver’ is off the suspended list at the ASL, but there was this tale from Jorge Poblete of the Los Angeles Times.
“It seemed like a good idea at the time.
“Transplanting 25 pairs of Canadian beavers to Tierra del Fuego would provide raw material for a fur industry, bring jobs to a sparsely populated region and – as an advertisement in 1946 suggested – possibly attract tourists to this remote part of the hemisphere by ‘enriching the local fauna.’
“Seventy years later, the placement of the nonnative, wood-chewing mammals in Fagnano Lake along the Chile-Argentina border is viewed as a colossal mistake. On the Chilean side of Tierra del Fuego alone, the beaver population has swelled to about 200,000, and the giant, semiaquatic rodents can be found near the wind-swept city of Punta Arenas, some 200 miles northwest from the lake.
"Probably with human help, they even have crossed the Magellan Strait to inhabit several islands.
“The problem is that the beavers, being beavers, have built hundreds of dams, and though beaver dams can invigorate some ecosystems, in Patagonia they are creating harmful floods that threaten the primeval forest of lenga trees and nearby lakes.
“According to Wildlife Conservation Society figures, 25% of the forest and 95% of the archipelago basins have been affected by beaver dams, and thousands of old-growth trees are dead or dying, as well as bountiful peat bogs.”
So now the Chilean government is fighting back and is going to start trapping the beavers, with humane traps that kill quickly.
I have no problem with this. But you can see that perhaps the new Trump administration should consider incorporating beavers into any future infrastructure programs. It would certainly save money, in terms of not needing to offer the rodents any benefits. You know, create a BCC, Beaver Construction Corps. [Beaver Conservation Corps not making too much sense.]
Part of the problem in Chile is that the beavers have no natural enemies, no predators to worry about, whereas in North America, wolves and bears kill them. By the way, what does beaver taste like?……Why chicken, of course.
Meanwhile, Argentina has its own eradication project and aims to kill 100,000 beavers in the years to come. This is coming under criticism from animal rights groups, which want beavers returned to Canada, but if the population isn’t reduced, soon you’ll have one of those disaster flicks, with beavers causing giant floods that swamp London and Tokyo; these two cities having an amazing ability to bounce back from one movie disaster after another, it goes without saying.
I mean in how many natural disaster and alien invasion movies has London been blown to bits and/or washed away, and yet the London Stock Exchange opens the very next day.
—An Australian man and his 11-year-old son were bitten by a tiger snake inside their home in Melbourne the other day.
From the BBC:
“Matt Horn was bitten while trying to protect his boy, who was struck first, said snake catcher Mark Pelley. Both were treated in hospital and released.
“Tiger snakes, found along Australia’s coast, are one of the world’s most venomous reptiles.”
Horn told the Herald Sun his son encountered the snake in a hallway and started playing with it. His wife saw him out of the corner of her eye, Horn told the newspaper. “It struck him on the toe and inner leg.”
Horn then saved his son but got bit himself.
Since the snake is a protected species, it was released into the wild.
Pelley said “You can die within half an hour of being bitten by one of these guys.”
—Congratulations to American Pharoah, who became a father for the first time when a horse named Kakadu gave birth to a yet-to-be-named male foal.
The colt was born at Brookdale Farm in Versailles, Ky., one of many places “where the Triple Crown winner’s proverbial oats have been sown. (According to CNN, American Pharoah’s mixed with more than 100 mares since he retired last year.)” [Marissa Payne / Washington Post]
For every healthy foal sired, the owners of Pharoah’s stud rights are said to be receiving $200,000.
But 100?! Already?! Kind of Wilt-like.
—The world’s oldest known killer whale, affectionately known as Granny, is missing and presumed dead, researchers say. “Estimated to be over 100 years old, the matriarch’s official name was J2.” [Victoria Gill / BBC]
–From the Sydney Morning Herald: “A lone WA (Western Australia) fisherman has survived six hours stranded at sea after hooking a massive marlin which dragged him off his boat.
“ABC News reported the man, believed to be in his 20s, was fishing 30 nautical miles off the coast near Exmouth on Tuesday when he hooked the big fish.
“After it pulled him into the water, his boat continued on without him, leaving him stranded and treading water.
“Another fisherman spotted the unmanned vessel travelling at speed and alerted marine rescue volunteers.”
This dude is lucky. Don’t fish that far from shore alone, sports fans!
The man was recovering from hypothermia and shock. No word on the status of the marlin.
–So over the Christmas holidays, when I had CNN on I was surprised at the heavy promotion for a documentary on the rock band Chicago, “Now More Than Ever: The History of Chicago,” which aired New Year’s Day (I didn’t watch it) and was then repeated.
My reaction though was ‘yeah, Chicago is a great act, good tunes, but why a two-hour documentary on them and not, say, the Rolling Stones?’ I mean I know others have done documentaries on the Stones, but CNN could add a serious touch.
Anyway, I just found it kind of funny.
Well, as Paul Farhi of the Washington Post informs us, there was a reason for the CNN doc on Chicago. Chicago produced it! And the only way you would know this is by staying through to conclusion, where a credit line read: “Produced by Chicago.”
Farhi: “CNN, in other words, reserved two hours (plus two more for an immediate repeat) for a film about a subject made under the editorial control of the subject itself.
“The network said it has no concerns about the film…but experts in documentary filmmaking had a few.
“At the very least, they say, the network should have disclosed upfront and more directly to viewers that the contents of the program were determined by the musical group, not by independent journalists at CNN. At the other extreme, CNN might have considered not airing the film at all, on the grounds that it could be interpreted as a promotional exercise highlighting the group’s music just as it launches a new tour.”
The division responsible for the acquisition of the documentary also acquired “Blackfish,”* the expose that killed SeaWorld; both produced by independent filmmakers.
Again, nothing wrong with a doc on Chicago, just tell the viewers this wasn’t exactly high journalism.
Said Tom Bettag, a former network news producer and visiting professor of journalism at the University of Maryland, “The cardinal rule is that you have to be honest with your viewers or readers….to have avoided a full disclosure speaks volumes.”
*Speaking of “Blackfish,” the whale at the center of that controversial documentary, Tilikum, died on Friday, as SeaWorld reported. It was estimated to be 35. Tilikum was involved in the deaths of three people, including SeaWorld trainer Dawn Brancheau in 2010.
Top 3 songs for the week 1/10/70: #1 “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head” (B.J. Thomas) #2 “Someday We’ll Be Together” (Diana Ross & The Supremes) #3 “Leaving On A Jet Plane” (Peter, Paul and Mary)…and…#4 “I Want You Back” (The Jackson 5) #5 “Whole Lotta Love” (Led Zeppelin) #6 “Venus” (The Shocking Blue) #7 “Down On The Corner” (Creedence Clearwater Revival) #8 “Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye” (Steam) #9 “La La La (If I Had You)” (Bobby Sherman) #10 “Jam Up Jelly Tight” (Tommy Roe)
NBA Quiz Answer: Through Saturday, the eight to score 50 in a game are: Jimmy Butler, Russell Westbrook, James Harden, Isaiah Thomas, DeMarcus Cousins, John Wall, Klay Thompson and Anthony Davis.
Next Bar Chat, Thursday. College Football wrap-up…enjoy the title game.
