Archive for the ‘Sports’ Category

The Real Scandal in the Brian Flores Story out of Miami

Posted: February 3, 2022 by datechguy in nfl, Sports
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The Brian Flores suit charging systematic racism against the NFL has been the subject of a lot of talk on sports radio and a lot of beating of breasts.

All of this comes from the so called “Rooney Rule” which requires a minority candidate to be interviewed for any coaching position that opens up. This of course creates tokenism and thanks to the accidental Belichick text that Flores received Flores, who is in my opinion and excellent coach, was called up to interview for the Giants job after it was already given to someone else.

This in itself is not a surprise as when you create a rule that encourages “pro-forma” interviews you are going to get them, but whatever you think of Flores charges of racism his charges include in my opinion a much larger and more significant scandal that everyone seems to be passing over.

One of Flores’ charges is that Miami after a bad start offered him a six figure bonus per game lost to improve their draft prospects. To in effect, THROW GAMES.

Flores being a disciple of Bill Belichick and as I noted, an excellent coach an apparently an honorable man didn’t bite and turned his team around so that after a bad start they finished with a winning record just shy of a playoff birth. Miami played spoiler to the Patriots and only missing the playoffs due to a loss to the #1 seed in the conference in the 2nd to last game of the season. When I and the guys who drive into work with me heard he was fired by Miami we were all shocked but if his charge concerning the bounty for lost game is true then it explains a lot.

Given the expansion of sports betting around the nation I can’t think of anything that could be more damaging to the game of football, not even the woke bullshit, then the idea that teams might be directing coaches to lose. This, and not the race angle, should be the real scandal here and I suspect Flores unwillingness to play ball in throwing games is the real reason why he hasn’t gotten a coaching position that he is eminently qualified for.

But because that scandal would be more damming and if investigated if suspect would be discovered to be more prevalent around the league then anyone wants to admit and has the potential to curb the betting that can draw a lot of extra eyes to the games, it will be downplayed or ignored.

Unexpectedly of course.

Closing thought: Why the leagues don’t see what widespread gambling is going to do to the various leagues is beyond me.

Hall of Fame Talk Who belongs in

Posted: January 27, 2022 by datechguy in baseball, Sports
Tags: ,

If you want to know why baseball, the most perfect sport there is continues to die a slow death consider this fact concerning Baseball’s Hall of Fame

Baseball’s all time leaders in

  • Games
  • Plate Appearances
  • At Bats
  • Hits
  • Home Runs
  • Walks
  • Intentional Walks

Are either by vote or by exclusion not in the Hall of Fame.

Furthermore one of the most successful pitchers in the game both in the regular season and the post season is excluded because he does not support the political party favored by baseball writers, even though he was the center of one of the most heroic moments in the history of the game.

My own HOF standard is simple there are two ways to judge it.

  1. If someone says to you “Is ‘x’ good enough for the Hall of Fame and you have to think about it, then they are not.
  2. If you are afraid if this player that you don’t want coming up against you to bat or pitch with the game on the line then he is a Hall of Famer.

All that being under rules 1 & 2 Ortiz belongs in the hall, but so does Clemens, Bonds and Schilling hands down,

As for the vets committee. Under rule 1 Minoso belongs in, Under rule 2 Oliva belongs in and I have no beef with O’Neil or Hodges who I never saw play or Kaat who while not a great pitcher was a very good pitcher for two decades so you might add a sustained quality exception in that he while never the best was quality long beyond the norm.

FYI concerning Rose. I think Pete Rose is one of the best players who ever played the game. In my 1969 league he was my #1 pick. He played harder and worked harder than anyone in the game. He’s exactly the type of guy you want in your clubhouse or to build a team around. It’s no coincidence that a loaded Phillies team didn’t win their 1st world series until he as a 38 year old 16+ year vet showed up. I loved watching him play and if you put me in room with him I could listen to him talk baseball for hours.

All that being said if this was Harold Baines or Mike Greenwell nobody would question his being banned from the game. For 30 year he walked into ballparks past signs that said in effect:

Bet on baseball and you’ll be banned

And he did it anyways. I don’t think for one moment that he ever threw a game or bet against himself but that doesn’t enter into it. He’s guilty as sin and didn’t take the outs that were offered to him because I frankly think he was too competitive to do so. He looked on it as a game to win rather than an offer of mercy. That’s one him

With sports gambling now legal if MLB wants to reverse this sometime before he dies I don’t have an issue with it but he bet on baseball and while I think the ban is sad and might even be counterproductive at this point. It is just.

My thought: last year was the 175th anniversary of the 1st professional baseball game. I think in honor of that and whatever settlement baseball reaches to avoid a lockout a general amnesty should be declared for all players at any level for offenses against the game.

That would allow us to celebrate the game we loved and enjoyed.

NFL Covid, DTG’s Plan, Pats streak ends, Brady Does Jones a favor and Baseball’s Stupidity Under the Fedora

Posted: December 23, 2021 by datechguy in baseball, nfl, Sports

The Woke NFL’s new policy on COVID whereby players aren’t constantly tested unless they are showing symptoms is a bow to reality and to the narrative.

The NFL embraced the whole Biden Admin you MUST get the vac business but the sight of games cancelled because of fully vaxed players still coming down with COVID is not only a danger to the bottom line and to player relations but it looks really bad for the Vax Nazis when fully vaxed players with little or no symptoms are missing games while at the same time trying to push said vax on the working public.

Of course the players who will not be tested can still catch the virus, carry the virus and even pass it on, but as long as they do so without causing a game to be delayed or cancelled it’s OK with the league.

The obvious question is: Do I have a better plan? Given what we’ve seen and know, yes.

Drop all testing. If a player is sick he doesn’t play. If he is not he does.

No charge

The Patriots winning streak ended in Indy as all winning streaks eventually do. the QB Mac Jones was rather subdued about it as several rookie mistakes on his part (combined with some horrible undisciplined penalties) cost them what was a very winnible game.

How he comes back from this next week vs Buffalo will say a lot about his future but with three weak opponents out of the final four games it’s pretty safe to say that Jones will be starting at least one playoff game as a rookie.

The other question is will the people who’ve been lionizing him for a month now jump off the bandwagon? I suspect that will depend on Buffalo.

Ironically one of the best things to give Jones perspective was Tom Brady’s and the Tampa Bay Bucs humiliating 9-0 shutout by the Saints.

“Just a tough night,” Brady said after the first home shutout of his 23-year career and first anywhere since a 21-0 loss at Miami on December 10, 2006, when Nick Saban was still coaching the Dolphins.

No current member of the Saints was in the NFL at the time. Defensive end Cam Jordan, who had two of the four sacks of Brady, was in high school in Chandler, Arizona.

Brady was clearly losing his temper on the sidelines but to me that’s a good thing. Great players expect a lot from themselves and if they fail to deliver as spectacularly as Tom did last week they should be angry.

But Mac Jones can get perspective here. If the best of all time can have a game like this during an MVP caliber season then he sure can have a bad game took.

BTW Watch for the media to go full on “Brady is finished” narrative to start up again.

The Baseball lockout is a great example of insanity.

You have a sport whose fanbase like me is aging and is in declining popularity. A sport that needs a spark and what do you get? Players making 6-10 figures arguing with owners making even more. This type of incompetence give the Biden Administration a run for its money.

The proof that baseball is the worlds most perfect sport is that it manages to survive time and again the regular idiocy of those in charge of it.

Kyrie gets the last Laugh

Posted: December 18, 2021 by datechguy in covid, nba, Sports, vaccine mandates
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I really cracked up when I read this story:

It’s kind of hard to argue that the unvaccinated Kyrie is a danger to the team when all over the NBA, NHL & NFL games are being delayed and postponed by COVID breakouts among fully vaccinated players but I give yahoo sports credit they give it their best shot:

Players of all levels are testing positive, so what’s the harm in bringing in a healthy body for road games, to help out the overworked Kevin Durant even in a pinch?

The harm, aside from common sense, science and everything believed to be true about teams with championship aspirations, consistent standards and chemistry concerns, seems to open a sliding door that may never be closed again, as Irving will be allowed to play in road games — except for Toronto.

Alas both common sense and science suggests that it’s Kyrie and not those who banned him that were right.

Now this doesn’t change the fact that Kyrie brings the same non-covid baggage that he always carried before there was such a thing as a pandemic and the fact that he almost immediately ended up in the COVID protocols means a delay in the Nets getting him on the floor.

But the bottom line is that Kyrie’s return is a blow to the narrative that has been pushed by the various sports teams in solidarity with the Biden Administration on the vaccine but reality doesn’t care about the narrative and the reality of the cost of cancelled games in cash is starting to have an effect to the point where leagues are reconsidering rewriting the rules concerning COVID protocols.

The NFL and the NFL Players Association continue to discuss changes to their COVID-19 protocols that could ease the burden on vaccinated individuals, according to sources familiar with the discussions.

The two sides are working to test vaccinated players less frequently and address player concerns about the number of vaccinated, asymptomatic players who are being forced to miss games because of positive tests.

The real losers in all of this are the players who took the jab and feel like chumps who’ve been played:

The NFLPA has been under pressure in recent weeks from players who are upset because they feel they were effectively forced to get vaccinated (because of the far stricter rules that apply this year to unvaccinated individuals) and as a result of the proliferation of COVID-19 variants are now testing positive and missing games anyway. This has led to player dissatisfaction with other of the league’s COVID-19 mitigation strategies, such as mask wearing and physical distancing in team facilities. 

Now as I’ve said repeatedly I have no problem with people getting the vaccine if they feel the cost benefit analysis works for them and I’m sure there are plenty of players in the all the major sports who took the vaccine and thought it was the right move for them.

Kyrie didn’t think so and in the long run it’s worked out for him, and if nothing else he will always be one up on those who took the vaccine unwillingly to play and now feel like chumps.

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