Thursday, January 18, 2018

26 DAYS TO GO

Pitchers and catchers report in less than 4 weeks (Feb 13th) with position players due 5 days later. This promises to be one of the most interesting Yankee seasons in a long time. To paraphrase Chris Berman: "They...could...go...all...the...way!" 
In the meantime --
WHO
It's Hall of Fame time again, a very frustrating time for me, since voters have turned it into the Hall of the Very Good. There are 33 names on this year's ballot and I see five that should be elected, in my humble opinion.That's a lot for the harsh taskmaster that I am. The five:
Trevor Hoffman
Mike Mussina
Jim Thome
Gary Sheffield
Curt Schilling
I know that flies in the face of many writers who say that because they can only vote for ten players, a lot of worthy candidates will be left out. There are a few that are close, but not quite.
Wait-till-next-year would include the 2 Jones boys, Chipper and Andruw,Vlad Guerrero, Jeff Kent and Edgar Martinez. And of course, the steroid boys, Bonds, Clemens, and Sosa.
Interesting note about Sammy Sosa. The owner of the Chicago Cubs, Tom Ricketts, says that Sosa isn't welcome back to Wrigley Field until he owns up to his steroid use. Of course, since Sammy "doesn't speak or understand English," he probably doesn't know what's going on.
WHAT
Poor sportswriters, they don't have anything to report. There are lots of rumors but no free agent signings or trades of any significance since the Yanks nailed Stanton. Yu Darvish, the biggest name still out there, has named the only six teams he will sign with and still no movement. This is the Scott Boras Philosophy at it's finest. Who will blink first? Will the free agents lower their asking price significantly or will some team finally panic and offer a ridiculous contract? We will see.
I DON'T KNOW
There is a lot of talk lately about the New England Patriots being the beneficiary of a number of penalty calls that have helped them win games all year. Are they in fact getting all the breaks? It's possible but then others say, good teams make their own breaks.  No one knows for sure and the officials on the field certainly aren't going to say.
What's happening in the NBA? The teams are complaining that there are a lot of Technical Fouls being called and that most of them are uncalled for. The players claim  that the officials hare exercising a vendetta against the players. Again, you'll never get the officials to admit that or even explain what they think is happening. Supposedly, the two sides will sit down at the All-Star break and iron things out.
I DON'T CARE
The networks are afraid that will be the attitude of the viewers if the Super Bowl ends up being a Minnesota - Jacksonville game. No major market team can mean low viewership and worse yet, lower commercial income. Now we can't have THAT, can we? Well, I don't care,

GOOD NEWS, BAD NEWS
The Good: Utah Jazz Rodney Hood was fined $35,000 by the league after slapping the cell phone out of the hand of a fan as he left the arena after being ejected from the game. Would have been better if it was $50,000. When are these prima donnas going to realize that those fans are the life blood of the sport and should be treated with respect?
The Bad: We have lost Keith Jackson, one of the best sports announcers ever. He understood all the sports he covered and did not try to impose his personality over the actual game. I will miss his pet phrase - "Whoa Nellie!" Goodbye, Keith.

***THEY SAID IT***
"Boston recorded a temperature of minus-30 degrees. And that was just between Bill Belichick and Tom Brady."  -- Brad Dickson 
"Word is Maria Sharapova has unleashed a record-level shriek of 119 decibels. It happened when Australian Open officials announced the withdrawal of Serena Williams."  -- RJ Currie
"The Cleveland Browns just threw in the towel on the 2017 season. To no one’s surprise, it was intercepted and returned for a touchdown."  -- Dwight Perry
"What's it like living in New York City in the 1970s.  I used to jog 5 miles a day — 2 for my health, 3 for my life."  -- Marc Sheffler
"LaVar Ball told USA Today his son Lonzo is a better player than Steph Curry. If there was a concussion tent in basketball, they’d never let LaVar out of it"  -- RJ Currie

"NBC announced that it will air over 2,400 hours of Winter Olympics coverage. Well, 2,402 hours counting the men’s events."  -- Brad Dickson
"The expansion Las Vegas Knights’  have a 17-2-1 home record. Does the policy of having the visiting team partake in the ‘two-drink minimum’ have anything to do with this?"  -- TC Chong
" Since we are now looking at a possible Minnesota-Jacksonville Super Bowl, neither with a quarterback most Americans have heard of,  I guess this might be a game where people really do watch for the commercials."  -- Janice Hough
"Jennifer Lopez publicly suggested Alex Rodriguez should be the next Yankees manager. Really? Last anyone heard, A-Rod had his hands full managing himself."  -- RJ Currie
"There’s nothing so wrong with the NFL that it couldn’t be fixed by a reasonably well-aimed nuclear warhead."  -- Phil Mushnick

CP-