Archive for the ‘Sports’ Category

Jerod Mayo vs Bill or What a Difference 18 Weeks Makes

Posted: January 5, 2025 by datechguy in media, nfl, Sports
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  • Randolph Duke: Good, William! Now, some of our clients are speculating that the price of gold will rise in the future. And we have other clients who are speculating that the price of gold will fall. They place their orders with us, and we buy or sell their gold for them.
  • Mortimer Duke: Tell him the good part.
  • Randolph Duke: The good part, William, is that, no matter whether our clients make money or lose money, Duke & Duke get the commissions.
  • Mortimer Duke: Well? What do you think, Valentine?
  • Billy Ray: Sounds to me like you guys a couple of bookies.
  • Randolph Duke: I told you he’d understand.
Trading Places 1983

Today will be the final game of the season for the New England Patriots as they will either finish 3-14 and hold the #1 draft pick next season or they will somehow manage to beat the Buffalo Bills who are resting their key starters to get ready for the playoffs (although Josh Allen will start and play at least a few series to preserve his consecutive start record) finish 4-13 and have to settle for something in the top 8. (A tie will put them somewhere between the 2nd & 4th pick).

If you listen to sports talk radio in Massachusetts there is a lot of debate on the Patriots keep the #1 pick or trade down for multiple picks as they clearly have their QB with Drake Maye and there is some mild debate on if you sit Maye who took a nasty hit last week and start your #3 guy to see if he can do the job (and assure the pick) or play him because in theory you are trying to win a game.

But there is apparently NO debate on one thing. Every single sports station is INSISTING that Jerod Mayo must go due to the Patriots pathetic 3-14 season, in fact if he wins this game they would really call for his head for blowing the #1 pick in the draft.

While he is a rookie coach who has in fact made some rookie mistakes I want to point out two factors that the real drivers for the Dump Mayo movement can be explained by this quote from Baseball Owner Bill Veeck who famously said:

“You can draw more people with a losing team plus bread and circuses than with a losing team and a long, still silence.”

People often forget that primary job is not for a sports talk radio station to help the team win or to keep you informed. The primary job of a sports radio station is to get you to listen. So being consistent or making a proper case or not being an ass isn’t what counts, what counts is how many people can you get interested enough in what your talking about and who you’re talking with to turn the dial to your station or livestream.

So when you have an audience who got used to championship parades over the last 20 years and now have a 3-4 win team, you have a better chance of getting people to listen by creating a controversy and finding scapegoats for the mob to be set upon then you know, just talking about how much your players suck.

This is what this entire controversy is, simply talk radio trying to gin up interest and the primary evidence of this assertion I’m making was broadcast live by these very same stations a mere 18 weeks ago.

Eighteen weeks ago before the season started there was some debate on if the team should

  • start the rookie QB Drake Maye right at the start (Baptism by fire)
  • Sit Maye for the season (Watch and learn)
  • Bring him in mid way (learn a bit then see what you have)

It was a good topic with valid points for all three of these opinions and made for not only good radio but a lot of varied opinions and arguments among hosts, guests and listeners.

There was however one topic that everybody, hosts, guests and fans seemed to agree on from day 1.

The Patriots were a 4 win team.

There was the odd guy who thought they might squeak out a fifth and there was one who said if they got all the breaks they may even manage 7 wins but 4 was the number that was constantly repeated. People looked at the schedule and saw this disaster coming.

By an odd coincidence these same Patriots coached by Bill Belichick the previous season finished with a 4-13 record. This was the same Bill Belichick that all of these same hosts insisted on air:

  1. Was the greatest NFL coach of all time
  2. Had to go
  3. Should have been hired by the Cowboys or the Falcons this year.

Now maybe it’s just me but if you have the greatest coach of all time or at least a contender for the title and one who developed the greatest quarterback of all time it just might have been a good idea to keep him around to develop this new one but that’s a whole different argument. The real point I want to make is this:

If you take a team that was 4-13 the previous season under the greatest coach of all time, a team that you projected to win 4 games in the new season with the rookie coach and staff that you have, how is it credible to call for said rookie coach’s head because he finishes one game worse than the greatest coach of all time did with a similar or worse roster?

I’m sorry if Bill couldn’t take this batch of misfit toys beyond four wins you certainly can’t be screaming bloody murder if Jerod only manages three in his first year coaching them. Was it really realistic to expect him to so any better when you yourselves didn’t expect him to do so.

And given that your last first round quarterback development was hindered by three difference offensive coordinators in three years is it a really smart thing to play the same game with this QB?

Now if your goal is to create a winning team, then these points are relevant and should be made, but if instead your goal is to get people’s attention to your show when the team is a disaster area, then these point of logic go out the window, you want those fans in the stands with pitchforks and torches ready to storm the castle.

Rest assured if Mayo & company flub the upcoming draft and fail to manage to pick up and develop the offensive linemen Maye needs and do not acquire a solid 1 to 2 target for Maye to throw to and thus blow a season when you will have the easiest schedule in the league, then I might consider joining the mob storming the castle (or would if it was something important like baseball) but until then I see this coaching staff prove they can’t win with a better roster and a good young QB with a year under their belt I’ll stand pat.

5 Fun Sports Thoughts Under the Fedora RedSox Move Big, 2 players away from Judging Mayo, It’s the 80’s Celtics Again, An Icy Reality for the Bruins and Pete Rose Colored Glasses

Posted: December 15, 2024 by datechguy in baseball, dynasty baseball, gaming, nba, nfl, nhl, online gaming, Sports
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The Redsox have since the Chiam Bloom Era have hoarded prospects the way Scrooge hoarded cash. This week they spent four of them including two very high ranking ones for a legit ace Garrett Crochet. The White Sox need everything and the Redsox got exactly what they needed the most.

This automatically makes the rest of the rotation better as they move down a slot and is a strong signal that will all the young talent that broke through last year they are ready to roll. It’s going to be a great three years for Boston fans. The front office was wise to ignore the press and wait till now to strike.

It will be fun

I do not understand all the calls for the head of 1st year coach Jerad Mayo over the Patriots 3-10 start. Does anyone really think a different coach with this team was going to do better?

Their biggest problem is that with so many bad teams (8 teams are 3-10 or worse coming into this week) the best they will manage is a top 10 rather than a top 5 draft pick.

If they can draft a solid lineman or two and pick up a #2 or better wide receiver either via the draft or as they have a ton of cap space through free agency this team will be a playoff team in less than a season.

If he can’t get it done with those additions, THEN we can talk about the coaching

It will be fun

If you’re a Celtics fan if this isn’t the 2nd Bird/McHale/Parish golden age it’s pretty damn close.

While they don’t have the best record in the NBA the C’s are a devastating team with at least 2 to 3 players coming off the bench who would be starting on any other team and starters who despite last year’s championship still have a Tom Brady class chip on their shoulder.

I strongly suggest the Bucks enjoy their NBA cup final as barring massive injuries that’s the closest their team will get to the final this year.

To be sure Cleveland will be no pushover in the east and Dallas, Houston, Memphis and OKC are going to be tough but in a seven game series depth and experience will be hard to match.

It will be fun

Alone among the Boston sports teams the future doesn’t seem bright for the Bruins.

Despite yesterday’s win they are still 1-2 on their latest road trip and seem to have settled down as an average team that if lucky might win a playoff series and frankly there is no reason to believe that the ceiling will get any higher over the next few years.

Their off season signings just don’t seem to have panned out and frankly I see no sign that it will get better.

Finally we are deep into my 1973 league draft and it’s getting interesting. My own team looks pretty good but I see myself with a B+ ace instead of an A+ Ace but I’ve also added Billy Williams to support Pete Rose and Darryl Porter is now of age to make a different.

I mention Pete Rose because I’ve been watching the HBO special on him made just before he died and there is one conclusion I’ve come to.

There is a legit debate on the HOF, Rose’s numbers clearly warrant it & his gambling on Baseball as a manager clearly warrants his banning and there is was also the mercy after 30 years argument.

But it also appears to me at a time when interest in baseball is down Rose’s situation made sure he was news for thirty years and made him the single most discussed great player in the game. More people know just how incredible a player Rose was BECAUSE of his banning and the scandals are the reason why 30+ years after the fact HBO is did a special, not on Bench, not on Joe Morgan, Not on Reggie Jackson or the Beloved Brooks Robinson, or Big Papi or A-Rod or Clemens and Bonds, but on Pete Rose.

While it must have torn his guts out to be left out of the HOF the one thing all of this has established is that while you might not like him, or what he did or trust him at his word, the one thing firmly established in any person’s mind is that if you wanted to build a team to win, Pete Rose is the guy you start with, Period!

That’s a hell of a legacy!

Bad News Present, Good News Future

Posted: December 1, 2024 by datechguy in baseball, Sports
Tags: ,

This was supposed to be the 3rd straight 10 hour day at work but alas things were quiet enough that I ended up going home at 1 pm, which costs me overtime and bodes ill for hour for the rest of the year.

I was able to get home in time to watch the New England Patriots. As of this moment the Colts are up and while as of this writing the game is up in the air thanks to 4 holding penalties a missed kick and an almost impossible interception there is no question that the Patriots will finish with one of the worst if not THE worst record in the NFL.

Those are the bits of bad news.

The good is that this is the last year of the Biden administration and I suspect next year the economy will be rolling at such a pace that I won’t have a lot of time for Sunday football or anything else once Thanksgiving rolls around.

Furthermore while this will be a bad year for the Patriots there is absolutely no question that Drake Maye is the real thing and once they give him some tools on offense and a better offensive line (and with a high draft pick and no need to get a QB next season it’s very possible they can fill both needs via trade in one season) the Patriots will be producing quality football perhaps all the way to my retirement and beyond.

With the good young talent on the Redsox and a Celtics Championship team that has dynasty written all over it I suspect I might be watching championship level talent year round for the rest of my life.

Not bad indeed.

Drake May, Robert Kraft and the Lack of the Connie Mack Option

Posted: October 21, 2024 by datechguy in business, nfl, Sports
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Riddle: What’s the best way to make a small fortune?

Answer: Start with a large one.

One of the things that a lot of people forget about pro-team owners is that many of them begin as businessmen who have been successful in an industry, Robert Kraft is no exception having done very well in his Kraft Group of business holdings and even better with the Patriots with a lot of help from Tom Brady and Bill Belichick.

Right now however that investment in the New England Patriots does not seem all that grand as he has a team that is 1-6 and likely to finish so bad as to end up with, at worst a top 5 draft pick for the 2nd consecutive year which will be the first time since before he owned the team.

Given that eventuality there have been those who have questioned putting Rookie Quarterback Drake May on the field with an offensive line that is below average at best and a receiving corps that is almost as bad if not worse. After all while the playing time may be of use you are risking a prime asset without the prospect of a return in wins.

The problem of course is that with a team that has managed only a single win he doesn’t have the luxury that Connie Mack the owner/manager of the Philadelphia A’s for 50 years did.

The A’s were Mack’s business and his goal was to make a profit. On that subject he would say that in terms of business the best result for him would be a team that started strong but finished 4th (in a 8 team league with no wild cards). He explained why saying:

A team like that will draw well enough during the first part of the season to show a profit for the year, and you don’t have to give the players raises when they don’t win.

Alas for Mr. Kraft his team has started so badly that the danger of fans deciding it was not worth the price of tickets or the price of the parking. And with no stars of any note, that also meant no shirt sales and all the other gear with the Pats logo that they get a cut out of.

So what do you to keep the butts in the seats and the eyes on the screen. You give them a reason to watch and right now the only reason to do so is a young Quarterback by the name of Drake May.

No he’s going to win you many games with this team and yes you are going to have to risk your valuable 3rd round pick getting himself pummeled.

In the end however this is a business and the only way you’re going to hold the public’s interest long enough so they will still be there when there is a product worth paying for on the field is to give them hope and right now Drake Maye who has proved that he can produce some offense for a team that can’t win, is that hope.

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