What's Wrong With This Picture?

I'm starting to view Major League Baseball owners & players as little kids fighting over a toy. The REALLY need someone with authority to step in and settle this once and for all.

Both sides are right, and both sides are wrong. But there HAS to be give & take here or baseball is not only killing off this season but it's future as well. Has neither side learned anything from history?

There's a class at the University of Wisconsin that I wanted to take as a "senior guest" student. Old folks can do that -- one course per semester with the professor's approval, no cost. The beauty is, you do the readings, listen to the lectures BUT you don't do the assigned work or take the tests. (Among my friends and family, I'm sure many thought I did this all through my four years at UW-Oshkosh! My GPA begs to differ, but that's another issue.)

Tried to get into the class, Baseball & Society Since World War II, but it was not in a lecture pit, and with limited space, they prof couldn't let me in. But he did provide me with the reading list for it. One text dealt with breaking the racial barrier, starting with Jackie Robinson. Another was Ball Four, the tell-all diary by Jim Bouton from the early 1970's that changed the way a lot of us looked at professional athletes.

The third was The End Of Baseball As We Knew It: The Players Union, 1960-1981 by Charles P. Korr.

It's an eye-opening, detailed look at the nastiness that has been part of the relationship between MLB's owners the the player's union for well over 40 years. Seems like there has been bad blood forever.

Both sides have an opportunity to set some of that aside at the negotiation table and work through this.

As fans, we need to it to be sooner rather than later.

Please?

Taking the "Sport" Out Of Sportsman

Ran across the following blurb on the Washington Post the other day, and it just made me more than a little angry.

I have a lot of friends and family who hunt and fish. They are sportsman in the true sense of the word, and respect their sport. But I think they will cringe when they see this...as well they should. I just wonder what the logic of this is.

This is the blurb:

The Trump administration is making it easier for hunters to kill bear cubs and wolf pups in Alaska. 

“Hunters will soon be allowed to venture into national parks in Alaska and engage in practices that conservation groups say are reprehensible: baiting hibernating bears from their dens with doughnuts to kill them and using artificial light such as headlamps to scurry into wolf dens to slaughter mothers and their pups,” Darryl Fears reports. “In a final rule that is expected to be published Tuesday (6/9/2020) in the Federal Register, the Trump administration will end a five-year-old ban on the practices, which also include shooting swimming caribou from a boat and targeting animals from airplanes and snowmobiles. It would take effect 30 days after being published.”

 

We're All (Unfortunately) Part Of Baseball History

For baseball fans, this season is truly a historic one. We have never been through anything like this before, and we will hopefully never be through it again.

Baseball SHOULD have started a couple months ago. Instead, it looks like we're at least six or seven weeks away from a season. It all depends on the players and owners sorting out their money issues. You can bet that there are owners who don't want a season because they will lose too much money. There are players, and agents (I'm talking to you, Scott Boras) who are in the same boat.

It's history, and got me thinking about part of baseball history 14 years ago (May 28, 2006). We were spending a few days in San Francisco, and went to the Giants game with friends Mild Bill and Tina -- both both baseball fans as well. Lo and behold, we're part of history when we watched Barry Bonds launch a home run that passed Babe Ruth.

There was an announcement that fans should show up at a downtown location in a couple of  days with their tickets to receive a special commemorative something. We were slated to fly out the next day, so Tina volunteered to come back to San Francisco from their home in Sonoma to retrieve said gift. Many days later, in the mail, we got our "something special" -- it was the chintziest little tin button one could every imagine. It was something akin to a prize from a box of Cracker Jacks.

Boy, the San Francisco organization really thought a lot about the Bonds home run. True, he went on to pass Hank Aaron -- but we all know, in our hearts, that Aaron is The Home Run King.

THERE HAVE BEEN several plans put forth to have a baseball season. If MLB moves forward with a proposed mini-season that would  have regional games only, the Milwaukee Brewers would face the NL Central and the AL Central (Sox, Twins, Indians, Tigers and Royals). That's a pretty favorable grouping.

And, for this shortened season, the National League would have the Designated Hitter. This would REALLY help the Brewers. Christian Yelich, coming off an injury, could ease back onto the field. And Ryan Braun, on the tail-end of his career, would be a natural fit for the DH.

Look for teams, if and when they return, to expand rosters from 26 to 30 and have a "taxi squad" of maybe 20 or 30 players they can move up and down as necessary. This especially needed if there's no minor league season.

Milwaukee Brewers Remain Ever Optimistic

Got an email last week from the Milwaukee Brewers. A very optimistic email.

Seems the Brewers are all-in on getting a baseball season underway in 2020. They wanted me to be know that the Opening Day tickets (and parking pass) that I purchased for the then-scheduled March 26th game are still good.

They informed me that the tickets will be honored for the first regular season home game played at Miller Park in 2020. What if they play but don't allow fans? I wondered.

At this point, rumors fly around that the season will get on track July 1st, which would leave 78 games out of the normal 162. If baseball held off until after the All-Star break (the game was scheduled for July 14th), then that leaves a 73 game schedule.

Why the optimism? Well, the owners are losing money while the games sit idle. And the players? Oh my, they stand to lose A LOT of money if they don't get in games. Back in March, a deal between Major League Baseball and the player's union gained a key objective in bargaining: If no games played, each player would get the same amount of service time as he earned in 2019. And as part of the deal, teams advanced $170 million in salary -- but players give up clams to any more if the season is scrapped.

That leaves each player to earn a maximum $260,000, $60,000, $30,000 or $16,500 depending on his contract if there is a missed season.

Putting that in perspective -- if this was a normal season, Ryan Braun (top salary on the club) would earn $16,094,855 for the year, or $99,351 per game.

In the meantime, ESPN2 is carrying Korean baseball games. Yes, the Korean Baseball Organization -- the league that gave Milwaukee Eric Thames -- is ready to fill your baseball void for a handful of games. Sorta reminds me of the days when the Chicago White Sox came up to play at Milwaukee County Stadium, between the Braves' leaving and the Brewers' arriving. Back then, Bud Selig was angling to buy the White Sox and move them up the interstate to Milwaukee.

Don Shula's Passing & Other Notes

RIP Don Shula, legendary coach (33 years in the NFL) passed away this week at age 90.

Shula put up a 257-133-2 record in 26 years with the Miami Dolphins. He took the Dolphins to three straight Super Bowls (VI, VII, VIII), winning the last two -- including the perfect 14-0 season in 1972. He finished 2-2 in Super Bowls. His Baltimore Colts team fell to the New York Jets, 16-7, in Super Bowl III (that was the game in which the Johnny Unitas/Earl Morrall Colts were favored by 18).

As we go through this Covid-19 season, this came to mind. Many players, just entering their prime, have so far lost two months worth of season. That total will go up, I'm sure. This, in some way, compares to the baseball players went off to war in WWII or Korea. Different circumstances, for sure, and I won't begin to suggest that Covid-19 is worse than war. Just pointing out that players are losing time due to circumstances beyond their control.

You would NEVER see this about today's professional athletes. In the 1960s, NFL players had to take off-season jobs to make ends meet. In this quote from Paper Lion by George Plimpton (published in 1966) the Hall of Fame defensive tackle is described this way "Never know what Karras's going to do...One time he spent the off-season filling jelly doughnuts in an Iowa bakery for $2.75 an hour."

Karras was very much a free spirit and entertainer. After his football career, he turned successfully to acting. Still love his Mongo character from "Blazing Saddles".

ON THIS DATE notes are run in the Wisconsin State Journal as filler. Last week, it noted that, "in 1920, Joe Oeschger of the Boston Braves and Leon Cadore of the Brookly Dodgers both pitched 26 innings in a 1-1 tie, the longest game in major league history."

In this era when major league pitchers seldom get past the SIXTH inning, you have to admire the guys who were iron men back in the day.

Today On "As The Packer Logo Turns"

You would think that things around the Green Bay Packers would finally start to settle down with the draft in the rear view mirror. Yet the soap opera continues.

Along comes Brett Favre to stir the pot a bit. Well, more than a bit. On the Rich Eisen show this week, talked about the Packers disrespecting current quarterback Aaron Rodgers by qb Jordan Love in the first round.

And though he's friends with Rodgers now (not so much the first three years Rodgers was riding the bench), Favre is hardly the expert I would turn to here. Yes, he left Green Bay under a cloud. But ONLY because, every season, he sang the "gee, I'm not having fun, think I'm gonna retire" blues. Could you blame the Packers for wanting to have some insurance?

Granted, a LOT of us in Packer Nation questioned that draft pick. They should have filled needs, either on offense or defense. Yes, Rodgers is under contract for four more years. And Rodgers, who will be 37 in December, says he wants to play into his 40s (like Tom Brady, Drew Brees and Phillip Rivers). Well, A-Rodg, nothing  is guaranteed. I wanted to be feet tall. Didn't happen. I want to shoot in the mid-40s on the golf course. Doesn't happen.

Wanting something is different from it happening.

I look at the Love pick as insurance. Rodgers has been beaten up more than a little the last few seasons. You need a solid backup at this position or you're screwed. Where would the New Orleans Saints have been last year if backup Teddy Bridgewater doesn't go unbeaten off the bench for an injured Brees. And the Saints have replaced the departed Bridgewater  with free agent Jamis Winston.

I believe Rodgers will be the Packer qb for at least the next three seasons. Will he finish his career in Green & Gold? Favre doesn't think so. Me? I'm not so sure. Much depends on how healthy Rodgers stays.

Random Thoughts While "Safer-At-Home"

The mind is wandering down various paths lately. Might be a little of cabin fever stemming from this whole weird world we're in now.

• For example, IF the upcoming college football season is cancelled by Covid-19, will there be a push from our friends in the south to just hand the national title to either Alabama or Clemson, since those programs seem to feel entitled enough to claim the right?
• Green Bay shocks most of Packer Nation by trading up (four whole spots mind you) to take quarterback Jordan Love. While the Pack has other more pressing needs (wide receiver, defense come to mind), I get the move. While Aaron Rodgers is under contract for a couple more seasons, and wants to play into his 40s, having a project on deck to develop isn't a bad move. Think back, Packer Nation, to the names Brunnell, Detmer and Brooks -- clipboard-carrying QBs that studied under Brett Favre, and were then traded for draft picks. Seems to have worked out for all involved.
• Wondering if the Packers were hacked? That might be the only way to explain picks on Day 2, although I do understand the logic with A.J. Dillon, since running backs Jamal Williams and Aaron Jones are entering the last year of their contracts.
• Have to give the Packers a barely-passing grade in this draft, a "C-/D+". Granted, you need to wait two or three years in to really know if a draft was successful or not. But, there doesn't seem to be a lot of right now help coming after this draft. Most draftniks that I looked over had them dead-last in the NFL for this draft.
• Area golf courses finally opened this past week, and I managed to get out and play nine at a local course. They had those pool toys known as "noodles" in each hole -- so you didn't have to remove the pin. Actually kinda liked that, since anything hitting the noodle was considered down.
• Speaking of golf, looks like the oldest league in Madison, the Gisholt Golf League which plays at Odana Hills Golf Course, is going to gear up mid-May. May 14th year in the league (all with big ol' Gary as my partner). Still waiting to hear of some of our members will be allowed cart use or not -- many members are well north of age 65, a few are in the 80s and still going strong.
• Will there be a baseball season? If there is, it will be unlike any season ever. It might just come down to a tournament.
• The NFL is preparing for several scenarios due to Covid-19. We may see a shorter season that doesn't even start until October, doesn't have bye weeks and wraps up the end of February with the Super Bowl. 

We're all in the same boat here, friends, playing the wait-and-see game. Stay positive, stay safe and keep that social distancing going!

Amid "House Arrest", It's Come To This

Week 6 of life after sports. It's not a pretty sight!

Down to a four-page sports section (most days), the Wisconsin State Journal manages to fill two, and sometimes three, of those pages. Mostly features, analysis (thankfully the National Football League draft is still going) and a catch-all piece under the heading "The Wide World Of No Sports" which is pretty clever. It brings readers an on-this-date-in-sports-history piece, notes on a couple of high-profile events we're missing, a trivia question, birthdays and a nice book & movie review. Have gotten more than a few ideas from here.

As for television, both network and cable stations have taken to running "classic" games and the like. Although, the NFL draft is tonight and ABC, ESPN and the NFL Network are all carrying the first round. Gotta feed the sports-starved masses, right?

Me? I'm missing the library and my usual source of books and movies (and the golf course, but that's a story for another time!).  I have run out of new reads after finishing the reading list for the University of Wisconsin class "Baseball & Society Since World War II". This class, co-taught by former baseball commissioner (and Milwaukee Brewers owner) Bud Selig, was fascinating. Would be happy to pass along the required reading list to anyone interested.

One of these titles was Jim Bouton's Ball Four, the tell-all one-season diary that follows Bouton's 1969 season with the expansion Seattle Pilots. The Pilots, of course, ran into financial issues and were purchased by Selig and moved to Milwaukee for the 1970 season. Bouton's insightful, humorous title holds up pretty well. I had read this back in high school, and went to listen to Bouton speak while a freshman at UW-Oshkosh.

Now, I'm taking on George Plimpton's Paper Lion. A respected writer, Plimpton found a niche for doing pieces of "everyman-takes-on-pro-sports". In Paper Lion, Plimpton headed to pre-season camp with the Detroit Lions of the NFL in 1963. This later got film treatment with Alan Alda in the feature role.

Would never get this book done today -- not with social media. Plimpton could go to the Lions as an unknown quarterback prospect then and players wouldn't think twice. Today, there really are no unknowns.

On deck (unless the library starts doing curbside service) will be Instant Replay by Jerry Kramer, the 1967 season diary with the Green Bay Packers.

Pickers Add Funchess, Prepare For Draft

All in all, it's been a rather quiet free agent period for the Green Bay Packers when it comes to adding pieces.

Several players departed, and rightfully so. But GM Brian Gutekunst, a little hamstrung dollar-wise, has been careful. Perhaps the most impactful signing was wide receiver Devin Funchess. He's a big target (6-4) who was a second-round pick by Carolina in 2015. In three seasons there, he hauled in 164 passes for 2,265 yards (13.81 yards per catch) and 21 touchdowns. Signed by Indianapolis last season, he broke his clavicle in Week 1 and missed the rest of the season.

It's a reasonable one year deal for Funchess, who gives the Packers experienced depth to go along with Davante Adams.

Wide receiver is one of the deepest pools of talent we've seen we've ever seen, so look for a quality pick to be available anywhere from the second to the fourth round. This means Green Bay can still shore up other areas (inside linebacker, offensive line, tightend) at the end of the month in the annual NFL draft.

Speaking of the draft, Covid-19 has altered that as well. The NFL says teams can meet at their facilities as a group, if that is safe, or all parties will video conference. Either way, the draft will be online for the 32 teams, which will eliminate bringing in players to sit for uncomfortable hours in the green room, waiting to be called (that was the case for Aaron Rodgers in 2005, who dropped from first to 24th and has made teams pay for it since!)

R.I.P Tom Dempsey, the professional place-kicker born without one fingers on his right hand and toes on his right foot. Dempsey, born in Milwaukee, set a then-NFL record with a 63-yard field goal while a member of the New Orleans Saints. His 63-yarder game as time expired at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans, beating the Detroit Lions 19-17. This was when the goal posts were on the goal line, and not at the back of the endzone.

I recall reading how Alex Karras, star defensive tackle with the Lions, said he and his teammates were laughing when the Saints lined up to attempt such a long field goal. Dempsey's record stood for 43 years, until Matt Prater topped it with a 64-yarder in 2013 (but that came at Denver, were thin air has helped kickers for years!)

Dempsey, 73, had battled Alzheimer's and dementia since 2012. He was living in a care facility and was diagnosed with Covid-19 on March 25th and died on Saturday.

Jordan Over Jabbar? No Way!

Without any real sports going on, the sports-only media have taken to tossing out questions and polls to create views.

It's a massive hot-stove league. Pick a topic, form a question and toss it out to the masses to debate. Hell, we're all stuck at home anyway, so this is taking the place of the more traditional "tavern talk".

ESPN recently fueled one on it's twitter account (I am not a tweeter, by the way) when it put together a 64-player field to determine who was the "Greatest College Basketball Player Of All-Time".

The age of the voters seems to have skewed this, as Michael Jordan was the pick. Truly one of the greatest professional basketball players of all-time, no doubt. But college? Hardly.

That honor goes to Lew Alcindor (later Kareem Abdul-Jabbar), the 7-foot center who dominated at UCLA. Hell, even before he took to the hardwood, he had changed the face of basketball when the NCAA banned the dunk shot.

This was a time when college freshmen were NOT eligible for varsity competition. As a frosh, Alcindor's games (played before the varsity contest) had bigger crowds. And when he did hit the varsity? Boy, howdy, that set the bar.

Alcindor's teams went 88-2 in his three seasons (he lost both games by less than four points). They won three national championships, with Alcindor being named player of the year,  along with the Final Four's most outstanding player, all three seasons.

Seeing his signature skyhook shot? An unstoppable thing of beauty. I confess I copied that shot, as a height-challenged guy -- and it was pretty darn successful for me.

So Alcindor is, and should forever be, the Greatest College Basketball Player Of All-Time.

I welcome & encourage your thoughts on this!