The Rich Just Keep Getting Richer...And Richer...And Richer

 I just signed a contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers, a long-term multi-million dollar deal that ties me to Chavez Ravine for years and years.

Why not? Seems like everyone else has...Shohei Otani signed for $700 million over 10 years. Now the Dodgers add a 25-year-old Japanese pitcher, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, for $325 million over 12 years.

Very few teams can make moves like this. The Dodgers, New York Yankees, New York Mets, San Diego Padres, Boston Red Sox are among them. Maybe the Chicago Cubs, Atlanta Braves and the Philadelphia Phillies as well.

For the rest of baseball, investing north of $200 in salary each season just isn't practical. Or affordable.

Major League Baseball is headed to a Major League Problem, and had better figure out a way to navigate those waters before striking the iceberg. The small market teams are just as important on the field as those big bucks squads.

Am all for athletes making as much as they can during their rather brief playing careers, But it's high time MLB took a page from the playbook of the NFL and NBA and established a salary cap. The current system, with teams paying a "luxury tax" for spending north of a certain total, just isn't working. How can it? The Mets finished fourth in their division with the HIGHEST team salary in all of baseball -- over $353 million. The New Yorkers now owe $101 million in luxury tax.

 Eight of the 30 teams had payrolls north of $203 million. And where were our Milwaukee Brewers? Listed at 20th overall, just under $119 million. The woeful, and soon to be in Las Vegas, Oakland A's were dead last at not quite $56 million -- probably what three or four Dodgers make combined.

Pete Rozelle had a vision for the NFL when he was commissioner in the 1960s and 1970s. He helped guide the league to balance with salary caps and revenue sharing. And brought in TV deals that made clubs solvent.

Rozelle would be thrilled with the 2023 NFL. As I write this, there are 19 of the 32 teams with a .500 or better record, plus another four (including the Packers) just a couple games off. That means 71.88% of the league is competitive.

Rozelle was fond of stating "on any given Sunday..." to indicate that each and every team had a shot at winning. After last week's Carolina win, the team's second in 16 games, I just might believe him.

A Happy Christmas & Merry New Year to All! And all the best to everyone in 2024!

Flushed Down The Bowl -- College Football Style

 The college football bowl season is WAY over-crowded. Too many piss-poor, sub-.500 teams competing. That's for sure.

Add to that the growing number of players who either sit out because they are A) turning pro or B) entering the transfer portal.

It's damn frustrating. Especially when you're part of the Capitol One Bowl Mania pick 'em contest. But I digress.

I certainly understand college players skipping the game to concentrate on turning pro or switching campuses. Why risk injury? But it sure takes the luster off of the bowl games.

That's why the Wisconsin Badgers won't be facing LSU's Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback, Jayden Daniels, on New Year's Day. And why there will be at least 6 Wisconsin starters missing from the lineup.

No surprise that the Milwaukee took away some of the outfield logjam this week by sending Tyrone Taylor, and pitcher Adrian Houser (both in their early 30s), to the New York Mets for a young pitching prospect, Coleman Crow, who is coming off Tommy John surgery.

The Milwaukee outfield is pretty crowded with Christian Yelich (who, I think, will see more and more DH time), Garrett Mitchell (coming off injury), Sal Frelich and Joey Wiemer. Toss in Jackson Chourio, whom the team signed to an 8-year contract worth $82 million. This for a 19-year-old guy who has only played SIX games at the Triple A level of baseball. Risky, but in the long term might be a blessing. He's a talent that comes along once in a while. Might as well invest and watch him grow.

Next up on the Brewer checklist -- what to do with pitcher Corbin Burns. Keep him until his contract runs out at the end of the 2024 season, trade him now during the "Hot Stove" part of baseball's offseason or hang onto him, see how competitive the team is and then trade him at the deadline. It would, after all, be better to part with Burnsie and get something for him rather than have him walk and the club get bupkis.

No matter what the decision, I doubt we will see Burns in Brewer blue after the 2024 season ends.

Saw that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar recently fell and broke a hip. Loved that guy while he was a Milwaukee Buck, respected him as a Laker and didn't begrudge him wanting to leave the Midwest for the West Coast. That skyhook of his was unstoppable. And it seems that Giannis has taken over as the franchise leader in points and rebounds (passing Kareem) and in assists. If they stay healthy, I think the Bucks are headed for another championship.

Green Bay Packer defensive coordinator Joe Barry continues to be under fire due to the squad's failures this season. Perhaps we need to look behind Barry and head coach Matt Lafleuer, and lay the blame more at the feet of team president & chief operating officer Mark Murphy. It was Murphy, after all, who restructured things at 1265 Lombardi Avenue to include his office more in the football operations.

Perhaps it is Murphy, not Lafleur, calling the shots on keeping Barry around.

Still, with all the internal sniping that has come out this week (De'Vondre Campbell's cryptic text message, then refusal to explain), the continued absence of Jaire Alexander, one of the highest paid cornerbacks in the league, etc,, all seem to point to a cancer festering in the offices and lockerroom. Granted, I don't have insight here other than looking in and formulating a theory. But if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, well it must be a duck.

Farewell To A Mentor, Friend

One of my contacts in the Fox Valley, Stevie Wonder, emailed this week with sad news for me. The passing of Dave Grey in Oshkosh at the age of 78.

Dave was the sports editor at the Oshkosh Daily Northwestern who hired a high school sophomore in the summer of 1969 to be a sports stringer, covering Wautoma High School sports and sending the stories in by teletype.

Dave was my mentor, my friend and absolutely the best sports editor I worked with -- and I worked with five while at the ODN. He went from the sports desk to City Editor, Business Editor and other positions in his long career with the Northwestern, joining the paper out of college at was then Wisconsin State University-Oshkosh.

As a mentor, he took the time to go over stories I would write for the experience, providing notes and edits. I would, from time to time, get up at 5 a.m. to make the 45-minute drive to get to the ODN sports desk by 6:30 on a Saturday morning to work and learn from him, Stew Reickman and Bob Knaak. He offered me a chance to stay as a stringer when I went to college in Oshkosh. Many Friday nights during the high school football and basketball seasons, we would work late getting a start on the Saturday paper, then hustle over to the dive bar across the street to have a beer or two before closing time.

Great newspaper man, great friend. I'm sure he'll be missed by many. RIP Dave.

As a stockholder in the Green Bay Packers, I know my voice carries no more power than many others when it comes to the team.

But I'm sure a vast majority in PackerNation will agree with me. Joe Barry has got to go!

His defensive schemes and play calling are just awful. Green Bay is 6-8 after getting torched by Tampa Bay's Baker Mayfield, 34-20. This on the heels of a late-game collapse against the New York Giants on Monday. Hell, go over the schedule and it's easy to think the Pack could be (should be) 11-3 or at least 9-5.

Have to let Barry finish out the season, though. Doesn't look like there's anybody on the staff that could step in.

Hope the team has Jimmy Leonard on speed-dial in Green Bay!

Kevin Rhode, who was a three-sport star at Neenah High School, is cheering for Virginia these days. His son, Andrew, is a sophomore  6-foot 6-inch starting guard for Tony Bennett's basketball team, averaging 6 points a game. The younger Rhode played his high school ball at Brookfield and was a starter for St. Thomas-Minnesota last season.