Monday, November 16, 2015

WHO'S IN CHARGE - PART II

Vod is right. LeBron is a great player who can do it all. There isn't a team in the NBA who wouldn't want him to play for them. So I guess the message is, if you're the best in your sport, you can do whatever you want. The rules are for everybody else. Of course, this is the league where the rule against hanging on the rim is never enforced, where walking is never called, they never heard of palming the ball and offensive calls don't exist. So start playing 'shirts and skins' for all I care.
Which is why I have no interest in professional basketball.

The management of the Miami Marlins has decided that THEY are in charge of their baseball team. Scott Boras has gotten involved with the way the Marlins are handling their best pitcher, Jose Fernandez. He wants some kind of innings limit placed on him, to "protect" him. Marlins president, David Sampson, has told the media that they are in contact with the team doctor concerning the welfare of Fernandez, and he has no intention of talking to or listening to Boras' opinion on the subject. They will do what's best for the team and Fernandez. He also said if Boras is so enlightened on the care of pitchers and running a team, he should go out and buy his own team and then he will discover exactly what's involved with running a franchise. No love lost here.

Just my opinion:
There will be a discussion at the Winter Meetings in December about the use of replay. It seems that replay has spawned a use that no one thought about when it was instituted, especially when it's used to check on runners popping up after sliding into a bag and coming off the bag for a millisecond. This is when the talk runs to the so-called "spirit of the rule," which is as slippery a slope as I've ever heard. I have no particular love for Joe Torre, but he's made a good point here. 
 "I always thought baseball was such a simple game to play," Torre said with a grin. "Before replay, we accepted the imperfections of our game. And now since replay, we're impatient with a play that may be missed."
Another point: is it possible that umpires have become less careful (?) about their calls, since replay will correct any mistakes they make and no one berates them because they got it wrong? 
Also to be discussed is giving the umpires leeway to allow the proper number of bases a runner can advance after fan interference, correction of calls with replay, etc. This should have been corrected years ago. Back in the 50s & 60s, the number of bases allowed was at the discretion of the umpires. I was not aware that they had changed it. 

Individual awards for this past season: 
The Gold Glove awards were announced this week. Eric Hosmer of the Royals won it for first basemen. He's a terrific fielder, but I have to say that you could line up all 30 first basemen and I take Mark Teixeira without even looking at the other candidates every time. The man is a vacuum at first base and I hope he was overlooked because he missed over 50 games because of injury. And you're right, I'm prejudiced.
Brian McCann won the Silver Slugger award for catcher. He led AL catchers in homers and RBIs, but not in other categories, so I'm not sure exactly what determines the winners here. 

Tanking
Every year, there is talk about certain pro basketball teams "tanking" (losing on purpose) in order to get a higher position in the draft. You never hear about it in baseball, but isn't that exactly what teams do all the time when they trade off their best players for future draft picks, stripping the team and insuring a terrible season? That's what the Atlanta Braves are doing right now and what analysts think Cincinnati will start doing soon. The idea is that you stock your farm system with a lot of good young prospects and be able to produce a powerhouse team in 2 or 3 years that will be a contender for a while. Oh, and the players will be a lot cheaper too, but that's not the reason (wink-wink).

My favorite placard on College Game Day: "Couldn't think of anything"
 
Brad Dickson's Bottom Ten: 
 1. UCF (0-10): The Knights didn’t play this week. Either that, or school officials were too embarrassed to report the score.
 6. Charlotte (2-8): The 49ers’ season reaches its nadir with a loss to UTSA. Can we check to see if Charlotte’s two wins this season were over accredited programs and not intramural teams?
 7. North Texas (1-9): The Mean Green lost 24-0 to Tennessee. Desperate to not run up the score in the fourth quarter, the Vols played some people who were tailgating next to the stadium.
 10. UCF (0-10): UCF is having a season so miserable it merits a second mention in this week’s Bottom 10.

***THEY SAID IT***
"Sacramento has passed a law that will see sleeping or snoring people kicked off public transportation. So much for taking a bus from Kings games"  -- RJ Currie

"Officials called the Gonzaga-Pitt season opener in Japan at halftime due to a slippery playing surface. In other words, they scheduled two basketball teams — and a hockey game broke out." -- Dwight Perry
" A Baltimore Ravens fan mourned the team’s record earlier this season by eating six purple crayons. I’m just glad he didn’t resort to something dumb."  -- Brad Dickson
"A 12-carat Blue Moon diamond sold at auction for $48.5 million: “OK, what’d Kobe Bryant do this time?"  -- Ian Hamilton
"Former heavyweight champ Mike Tyson endorsed Donald Trump. Tyson joins Trump’s biggest group of supporters: “People Who Have Been Hit in the Head a Lot."  -- Conan O'Brien
"Bartolo Colon is so old, when he walks into the dugout he asks; ‘Now why did I come in here?"  -- Alex Kaseberg
"Danica Patrick  told USA Today she’d rather be called pretty than sexy. Fair enough; at least she doesn't have to worry about being called champion."  -- RJ Currie
"We have good outside shooters. Unfortunately, we play our games indoors."  -- Stony Brook head coach Steve Pikiell
"Cowboys coach Jason Garrett says Dez Bryant should have handled Thursday’s tirade directed at the media differently. but “I believe that 100 percent of our guys do things the right way about 98 percent of the time.” Did they legalize marijuana in Dallas and not tell us?"  -- Janice Hough

CP-




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