Category: OLD SPORT SHORTS (Page 5 of 68)
An old guy’s perspective on all sports
I just happened to tune into the MLB Network last night to watch part of Shohei Ohtani’s amazing historic performance. He went 6-6, with 10 RBIs, 2 steals, 2 doubles, 3 HRs, and 4 runs scored, becoming the first player to achieve membership in the 50/50 Club. Yes, other players have had more HRs or steals, but no one in all of baseball has done what he has done this season – and it’s not over. Although his Dodger team clinched their twelfth-straight playoff berth, he will have played 874 games without going to the postseason, once these last 9-games are in the books.
The Japanese superstar still hides behind his interpreter, although I think that he’s probably somewhat well-versed by now in English. He’d have to do too much talking to the press if it weren’t for this crutch. It’s a defense mechanism that has even protected him from gambling accusations. I also expect that he’ll be back on the mound before the playoffs are over, adding to his baseball mystique. Surgery has allowed him to focus on hitting and stealing bases that has not been a luxury in previous seasons as a two-way player.
I’m not a Dodger fan but I am intrigued with Shoei himself. I’ve been collecting his baseball cards since the 2018 Rookie season that brought him to the Angels and saw him play in Anaheim that year. If he had remained with the Angels this year, he would have missed this playoff opportunity with the rival Dodgers. Who can now blame him for the move? His collection of over 150-cards, and growing, is on display at my local baseball card shop, Blue Breaks. The limited-edition Topps Now cards chronologically summarize his MLB career. Hopefully, this 50/50 achievement adds to its investment value.
I’m moving on to the next milestone, only 500 posts from 3,000. I feel like Pete Rose, aiming for that next hit to earn another record. Shohei Ohtani is in a bit of a stall, throttled by Braves pitching in his quest for 50/50. Aaron Judge, on the other hand, moved out of his funk, and smashed home runs number 52 and 53. The Cubs will probably have to wait until next year, still 5-games out of the last Wild Card spot that now belongs to the Mets. However, the Braves are just a game back, with three head-to-head-matchups in Atlanta remaining in the 2024 regular season. Our neighboring park, Cool Today, just released the 2025 Braves Spring Training schedule. It would be good to see them at least make the Playoffs.
There’s a concert at the Park Saturday night, one of our favorite local bands, Dukes of Brinkley. Tonight, we’re out to dinner with Indy friends at Laishley’s in Punta Gorda and Friday night joining some neighbors at nearby Dockside. “Date Night” has therefore been moved to Saturday night, so we might be able to fit in a little live music.
I’m waiting for the refrigerator repair guy to call with a specific time, although there’s already been several frustrating cancellations. My wife is tired of running to the garage refrigerator during meal preparation. This has been an on-going hassle for several months. She’s substituting again today, so I had Dog Park duty. Once I finish writing, I’ll head to Chair Yoga and the fitness center.
My leg pain was especially bad first thing this morning but has since predictably gone away. Fosse did not help matters, running off to chase a rabbit, while I limped after. Hopefully, I will get some feedback on the cause of this sciatica with Friday’s MRI. It was in my lower back last night, making our evening walk miserable. The Dog Buggy (stroller) at least allows me some support, and Tally enjoys riding along with us rather than being left behind at home. The pain moves from my lower spine area to my upper left thigh, and into my calf, so it’s been difficult to determine the source of the pinched nerve or irritation. I’ll finally get some answers and eventually some relief. Maybe we’ll even have working kitchen refrigerator by then?
Nothing special to report on this milestone post. I’ll spend the day at the baseball card shop, hoping to reduce the inventory that I just added to yesterday. It’s definitely an addiction, opening packs of cards, sorting them by teams or players, and hoping for the Holy Grail. It’s just as bad as gambling, but at the end of the day after playing slots, there’s usually little to show for it. With baseball cards, I have binders that grow in size and number. Today, I’m looking for buyers and have a table to show off my stock. In fact, my sole exercise will be lugging these binders from my office shelves to my car and then to the table and back. Will they get any lighter at the end of the day?
I finally used some gift certificates that my wife gave me at a Sarasota restaurant, Michael’s on East. I’ll always remember the time my son surprised me by buying a pricy dinner there. My wife and I always claim to be celebrating an anniversary in “fancy” restaurants, and usually earn a free desert. We eat out at least once a week and there’s always something to celebrate – birthdays, wedding or first date anniversaries, pet memories, adoption, and simply days together. Our neighbors across the street are headed out for their 50th wedding anniversary. I can say the same thing, but it’s taken two marriages to get there for me.
The Beatle’s song, “Day in the Life,” comes to mind. “Got up, got out of bed, and dragged a comb across my head.” The painful part of my morning is over now that my sciatica has diminished in intensity until tomorrow, so I tend to routine maintenance – my seven morning pills (some only halves), shaving, and brushing my teeth. The dogs slept in a bit, so I was able to sit for a while with an icepack on my leg while solving another Wordle. It’s a football Sunday, but I’ll be out in the hot sun hawking baseball cards. I’m honestly still somewhat in shock, after the I.U. football drubbing of U.C.L.A. last night. I stayed up late to watch the second-half action from the famed Rose Bowl. I’m used to being on the other side of a lop-sided score, like helpless Purdue’s loss to Notre Dame in the afternoon. It’s good to wake up a big winner!
When Kyle Schwarber was a Cub and in the World Series, I wrote a poem about him, a comparison to “Mighty Casey at The Bat.” (See Post #119). I won’t go to that extreme on this post, but the former I.U. star, Cubs outfielder, Nats DH, and now lead-off DH for the Phillies, has made MLB history.
He reminds me of old newsreels on Babe Ruth, in a leadoff role that the Babe would have never accepted. The Philadelphia slugger hit his 14th lead-off home run of the season this week against the Tampa Bay Rays, eclipsing the 2003 mark by Alfonso Soriano of the Yankees. The 437-foot blast was his seventh of the month, that’s not even half over, and 35th of the season. He’s also compiled three consecutive seasons of 30+ HRs in his time with the Phillies. Plus, “Schwarbs” now holds the record for multiple seasons with 10-plus leadoff moonshots. I’ve followed his amazing career since college.
Schwarber still has a long way to go to catch Ricky Henderson’s 81-career mark, batting from the top of the order, and certainly can’t compare in terms of speed. He runs like he has a piano on his back. This was only the 45th of his career, a tie for ninth all-time with Brady Anderson but only one behind Philadelphia’s legendary Jimmy Rollins that he will certainly surpass soon. Although, he left the game with an elbow injury.
The move to Philadelphia three years ago, has given him Rocky-like superpowers. In 2022 he hit 46 dingers and in 2023 another 47, a career high, while maintaining a solid .251 batting average. Although the leadoff position is not the best slot for RBIs, he’s driven in 95 and has scored 99 times. Will the 100th time to circle the bases be another lead-off shot?
Continued from Post #2593
“Never lie. Never cheat. Never Steal. This was the way Jim Harbaugh claims he was strictly raised. Yet, the University of Michigan always seems to be in the NCAA rules violation spotlight. When you’re the National Champion, everyone wants to take a cheap, credibility shot. Anti-Wolverine fans probably outnumber the supportive alumni. However, he’s now a Charger, but has left behind a cloud of suspicion. He’s now slipped out of the grip of the Big Ten and the NCAA like Houdini and seems to be one that prospers!
Back in 2023, as head Coach of the 49ers, he was all over the performance-enhancing drug infractions of division rival Seattle Seahawks, quoted as saying “Cheating won’t be tolerated.” As we’ve already covered, there are many forms of cheating. Harbaugh also faced charges related to illegal contact with student-athletes during the Covid-19 “dead period.” Denial. Denial. Denial.
He left the 49ers in 2014 to take the job at the University of Michigan. Sherrone Moore then took over in an interim capacity in 2023 after Coach Harbaugh was suspended for 3-games by the Big Ten for “conducting an impermissible, in-person scouting operation over multiple years, resulting in an unfair competitive advantage that compromised the integrity of competition.” Isn’t that the very definition of cheating?
His replacement, now the new Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore, is one of seven members from the 2023 Championship football program accused of violating NCAA rules. Harbaugh naturally claims that he did not participate and was not aware or complicit in these allegations. “Moore could face a show-cause penalty and possibly suspension for allegedly deleting a thread of 52 text messages with former Michigan staffer Connor Stallions in October 2023 on the same day that media reports revealed Stalions was leading an effort to capture media reports revealed Stalions was leading an effort to capture the play calling signals of future opponents,” according to ESPN. It’s just another example of how history repeats itself with another sign stealing incident. Cheaters Unite!
Cheaters become repeaters. In the previous installment, I’ve already pointed out where history repeats itself (See Post #2591). It’s also worth pointing out that “cheating is not an accident. It’s a choice.” Gamblers often see cheating as a way to beat the system, so it’s an encouraged practice. If you can get away with doing it, it’s considered fair game. This is why states like Hawaii and Utah have completely banned all forms of gambling. Critics argue that it “leads to increased political corruption, compulsive gambling, and higher crime rates.” Others feel that there is a Mafia or organized crime influence. Dating back to Roman times, gambling was periodically outlawed, but exceptions were made for holidays. Even today’s laws waver with the wind.
Gambling in the States dates back to 1612 when King James (not LeBron) established the first lottery in Britian, an event that would play a key role in the funding of the Jamestown Colony. Similar public and private lotteries played a vital role in U.S. development, leading to our country’s first public buildings, colleges, roads, canals, and religious structures. In 1776, the First Continental Congress approved a lottery to kickstart the Revolutionary War.
British settlers brought their passion for horse racing to the New World that soon led to 1665 construction of the first racetrack on Long Island, New York. Then, it was Westward Ho! as expansion spurred a rise in poker and other card games. San Francisco took advantage by licensing limited forms of gambling while many other gambling establishments were frequently ignored by authorities. Beginning in 1787, gambling was largely outlawed but was permitted to raise revenue via lotteries or raffles. Naturally, scandals began to surface. By the end of the 1830s, there was a state-to-state push to ban gambling activities. Oddly, even today, lotteries remain banned in Nevada. The invention of the steamboat blurred the state gambling regulations and quickly gained a reputation for dishonest gaming through the emergence of crafty “riverboat gamblers.”
Following the Civil War, legal lotteries reemerged to fund Reconstruction in the American South. Ironically, whenever there’s a need for money, gambling all of a sudden becomes tolerable, and cheaters once again prosper. State constitutions were rewritten, and bans lifted, or the rules simply ignored. Casino-style games became popular but fell out of favor since the odds were rigged in favor of the operator. Poker games were more difficult to fix. Lottery scandals created more gambling suspicion, especially when word spread that Louisiana Lottery officials tried to pay off the state legislature.
Lottery fraud has become commonplace. Several common techniques include using a forged, altered or stolen ticket. There are also many examples of insider fraud, involving employees or agents who exploit their positions. Unsurprisingly, scammers take advantage after informing their victims of falsified prize winnings. Scam, cheat, repeat!
The Twentieth Century marked the expansion of legalized gambling. Changes in the law allowed Nevada to emerge as a gambling destination, while Indiana reversed course. The popular French Lick sight, where the mob hung out in May each year to bet on the Indy 500 and Kentucky Derby, became a ghost resort. Instead, the desert began to draw the crowds. In 1964, state lotteries also began to get popular again. Atlantic City New Jersey also capitalized on becoming a legal gambling destination. Slowly, casinos began to pop-up around the country as other states followed suit, as did the Indigenous Nations where U.S regulations did not apply. As of 2022, only the states of Hawaii and Utah did not agree that the revenue benefits outweighed the potential harm. Anymore, however, you can gamble on your phone or computer, visit a nearby betting parlor, or work with a licensed broker. This same individual, not too long ago, was referred to in a derogatory sense as a “bookie.” By the way, I need to call my guy.
Next, we’ll look at University of Michigan football, with repeated allegations of cheating, even in transition between coaches.
To be continued….
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Thanks
The Fever have become the new darlings of Indiana basketball, supplanting I.U., Purdue and the Pacers in the hearts of fans. Their playoff drought officially ended after seven seasons, after just clinching a treasured spot in the postseason, the first since 2016. Number One draft pick, Caitlin Clark, ironically from the college-rival Iowa Hawkeyes, takes over for the long-retired Tamika Catchings. There were grave doubts, as the Fever started the season 2-9, but since then they’ve gone 15-7, including impressive wins over 10 of their 11 league opponents.
Clark has been putting up unprecedented numbers in her inaugural season. She tallied the first rookie triple-double in WNBA history, led the league in assists per game, broke the rookie assist record, and had the most single-season double-doubles by a guard in WNBA history. Guard Kelsey Mitchell, a seven-year veteran, responded with some of the best basketball of her career, making her and Clark a nearly unstoppable backcourt duo.
As far as creating lofty 20-24-25 I.U. Basketball expectations, Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook was the first major publication to pick the Hoosiers to win the BIG Conference. They also gave several preseason honors to incoming transfer Oumar Ballo. In addition, Mackenzie Mgbako was featured on the regional cover of Lindy’s Sports.
While I count the days until Hoosier Hysteria and the first exhibition basketball game against Tennessee, Fever playoff action and the rejuvenated I.U. football program under new coach, Curt Cignetti, had me mixing another pitcher of Kool-Aid. On the gridiron, Hoosier football reached 60 before their Western Illinois opponent, and went on to win 77-3, breaking a scoring record that stood since 1901 when they defeated Franklin College 76-0. Earlier in this book, we already accounted for the other handful of instances where the “Magic of 60” applied to I.U. football routs.
Western Illinois came into the game with a 25-game losing streak, so it was no surprise that the Hoosiers prevailed, but no one expected that large of margin. The team improved to 2-0, with the previous week’s win over the Florida International Pitbulls 31-7 and set another program record with 701 total yards against the Leathernecks. Reality will probably set in next week when they travel to U.C.L.A. for the first Conference game. Starting QB Kurtis Rourke, a veteran transfer from Ohio University, completed 15-of-17 attempts for 268 yards and 2 touchdowns before being replaced by back-up Tayven Jackson, brother of former I.U. basketball star Trayce Jackson-Davis, now a Golden State Warrior.
The Bears won their opener against the Titans thanks to the defense, while the Colts fell short to the Texans. My son’s fantasy team is also poised for a victory and the Oregon Ducks eked out a victory against Boise State. Purdue did not play. The biggest upset of the weekend, perhaps the century, was Northern Illinois over the highly favored Fighting Irish. Reportedly, Notre Dame paid $1.4 million for the loss. There was certainly no magic in South Bend.
Continued from Post #2588
Cheating, in all its myriad forms, has from the beginning of time been an unavoidable part of sports. As far back as 4000 BC, ancient Egyptians bet on dice, board games, and feats of skill such as chariot racing and fencing. There were probably challenges on who could kill the biggest dinosaur or the fiercest lion. It seems to be part of man’s nature. Betting on sports took place during the ancient Olympic Games, according to “Sports Betting History.” For hundreds of years, it has been at the center of some of the most dramatic athletic scandals and controversial moments, raising questions of integrity and, in many cases, spurring significant changes to the rules themselves.
I’m sure we all remember, back in the days of Plato and Sparta, 388 BC to be exact, when there was evidence of cheating in Ancient Greece. A 1952 article titled “Crime and Punishment in Greek Athletic” details a boxing bribery incident at the 98th Olympics. According to Ohio State professor Clarence Forbes, Eupolus of Thessaly “bribed all three of his opponents to let him win, prompting games organizers to impose ‘heavy fines’ on all four men, with the money used to erect six bronze statues near the entrance to the stadium in Olympia.” Their inscriptions warn of future cheating.
The apparent winner of the 1904 Summer Games in St. Louis, American Fred Lorz, rode 11 miles in a car before being called out and admitting to cheating. A similar thing happened 76-years later in Boston, when Rosie Ruiz was stripped of her medal when it was discovered that she had not run the entire race.
We’ve already detailed the 1919 Black Sox Scandal in a previous installment (See Post #2484), but thirty-two years later in 1951, a group of college basketball players, starting at City College of New York, took money from bookmakers in exchange for manipulating the scores of games. History continues to repeat itself. 32 players from seven colleges eventually admitted to accepting bribes in the point-shaving scheme. Two of those players and at least 10 other fixers, agents or bookies went on to serve jail time, according to ESPN.
Controversy and cheating prevail in all types of sports including international football. In 1986, an infamous goal known as “hand of God” by Diego Maradona led Argentina to a 2-1 win over England in the quarterfinals of the 1986 World Cup, eventually leading them to the finals that they would also win. He initially said it was the “hand of God” that knocked the ball into the net, rather than his own. But in his autobiography 14 years later, Maradona fessed up. “What hand of God?” he wrote. “It was the hand of Diego! And it was like stealing the wallet of the English, too.” Justified theft in his eyes!
Cheating incidents in sports rarely involve acts of violence, but this one did in 1994. In a brazen assault, a man named Shane Stant attacked top U.S. figure skater Nancy Kerrigan with a baton after practice. It was later revealed that Stant had been hired to attack Kerrigan by the ex-husband of her main rival, Tonya Harding, in hopes that the injury would prevent Kerrigan from competing in the national championships and 1994 Winter Olympics.
Faking a disability was a shocking factor in the 2000 Paralympics. Spain’s intellectual disability basketball team won gold in Sydney. Later it was revealed that 10 of the 12 players were not disabled after all. At the same time, the stronger got stronger as baseball’s steroid era made Lance Armstrong and Russia’s state-sponsored scheme look trivial by comparison. Dozens of players were implicated, including Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro and several other big-name stars. Congress got involved. Major League Baseball was forced to overhaul its drug-testing policies. And while the time period listed here covered the “peak” of the era, including the 1998 home run record chase between McGwire and Sammy Sosa, its effects stretched well beyond this window − from the Mitchell Report to Barry Bonds’ trial for perjury.
American football showed its ugly side in 2015 when Superstar Tom Brady, then of the New England Patriots, was accused of cheating. This did not involve steroids, fake disabilities, or even gambling. He simply asked team equipment staffers to deliberately underinflate footballs in the AFC championship game against the Indianapolis Colts. It’s reminiscent of doctoring the baseball and bats that we already covered. Same cheating techniques – different sport. Brady was suspended four games and appealed in this memorable cheating scandal known as “deflategate.”
While there were wide gaps of time between scandals of years past, they seem to occur frequently these days. In 2019, the Houston Astros were in the spotlight. As I wrote in Parts 4 & 5 of this series (See Post #2486), they utilized both a centerfield camera and banging on a trash can to relay stealing signals. The incident soured their World Series title and led to several suspensions, firings and fines. Years later it inspired the technological introduction of “PitchCom”, allowing catchers and pitchers to communicate their signs wirelessly.
Many people might view what happed in the 2024 Paris Olympics as just another form of cheating, changing your sex to gain an advantage. Hungarian boxer Anna Luca Hamori said she didn’t “think it’s fair” that her opponent, Algerian Imane Khelif is taking part in the women’s category at the Olympics. Khelif is one of two athletes, along with Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting , who have been cleared to compete despite being disqualified from last year’s Women’s World Championships after they were said to have failed gender eligibility tests. Both identify and compete as women but have XY chromosomes in their DNA. They were defended and allowed to compete by International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach. However, this could be considered similar to steroid use, altering the body to gain a competitive advantage.
Cheating has come a long way from the childhood playground. No one is above suspicion, so scrutiny and rule modifications will continue to increase in all sports, extending to the business world. Everyone wants to find a way to get an edge over their competitor and there continues to be a fine line between fair and unfair.
Like a kid in a candy store, I’ve been sorting baseball cards for the last few days. My son brought over his collection of sports cards, many of which were mine many years ago. I simply put them all in order, removed all the duplicates, and added some of those to my binders. The triplicates I’ll take to Blue Breaks, my local store and put them in the kid’s box – free cards to perhaps motivate a youngster to adopt the hobby.
Since I’ve been nursing a sore leg, sitting and sorting seems like a good idea. However, then it stiffens even more and makes walking miserable. It seems to be getting worse rather than better and a call to the doctor’s office yesterday didn’t seem to speed up the process of getting an MRI. No one knows what to do for me until I get these results, so progress is at a standstill. I’ll work out the pain in the morning and then am able to do my workouts at the gym or the pool. However, sedate evenings of watching TV or distractions like baseball cards, lead to hours on a soft couch. This seems to aggravate the nerve. It’s like a hamstring injury, with stabbing pain running down my left leg into my calf. Ice provides temporary relief, but a heating pad last night didn’t seem to help. I’m lost for a solution.
The baseball world that I live in this time of year keeps me sane. Kyle Schwarber hit 3-homers in a single game this week, the first, a lead-off shot, tied him with Alfonso Soriano for the season record. Japanese phenom Shota Imanaga hurled 7-innings of no-hit ball for the Cubs, and two relievers combined to finish off the game, holding the Pirates hitless. Aaron Judge pursues the 60-mark and Shohei Ohtani inches closer to the 50/50 Club. However, the White Sox continue to lose at a record pace. I still check the box scores in the middle of the night and go to the Topps Baseball site every afternoon to purchase cards that capture those moments of actions. History is made almost every day on the diamond. In another month or so, my entire focus will shift to I.U. basketball. Too much idle time, like this, is driving me crazy. I need to find something constructive to do with my days.
My wife spent another day teaching school, while I took the dogs to the park. She almost didn’t get home, considering the fact that her Lexus key fob fell apart, and she couldn’t get the car started. Fortunately, she was able to improvise and drove to Sarasota to pick up a pricy replacement. The nearly 20-year-old sports car, her baby, needs an oil change, tune-up, and struts, so hopefully the rest of it won’t fail in the near future. She has errands tomorrow and I’ll need it Saturday, but school is on hold until Monday. I need this leg to heel, so I can go back to work.