Bread and Circuses
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Archive for June, 2007
June 30, 2007 at 6:33 am · Filed under Uncategorized
Some things deserve our respect. The American flag, motherhood, the sales figures for the latest Harry Potter book. And one more thing. Bobble heads.
Bob Walk, former Pirate pitcher and current Pirates announcer, is being given the highest honor an athlete can aspire to tonight in Pittsburgh. His own bobblehead Granted, it has a look of surprise and disappointment on it’s face, but what the heck. A lot of Pirates pitchers through the years have had looks of surprise and disappointment. And the head way out of proportion to the rest of his body? Walk was a Pirate teammate of Barry Bonds for seven years. Just saying.
Then along comes Andy Chomos to try and ruin Walk’s big night. Chomos is a beer distributor from the Pittsburgh area, which is a very nice gig. Selling beer in Pittsburgh is like being a snow shovel distributor in Anckorage. It should make Chomos a happy man, but he isn’t. Tonight he’s going to express his disappointment with the Bucs by leading a walkout of Pirate fans in the third inning. The third inning of Bob Walk Bobblehead Night.
It’s true the Pirates have had fifteen straight losing seasons. True also the team’s payroll is something less than what Alex Rodriquez drops in strip clubs each year. And Pittsburgh taxpayers did foot the bill for PNC Park. But you don’t walk out on Bob Walk Bobblehead Night. It just isn’t done.
Mass walkouts are sometimes called for. If Chomos leads a walkout on "Scratch and Win Monday", no problem. During "Big and Rich In Concert"? Entirely appropriate, as an expression of musical good taste. "Reverseable Floppy Hat Night" if fine, or "Game Show Night", or even "Slovak Day" (although for obvious reasons I think "Polish Night" is off limits). Just not on a bobblehead night.
Lost in the discussion is the effect this will have on Bob Walk. How would you feel if 38,000 people were given tiny cermaic figurines of yourself and then walked away in disgust? You might hope it’s an expression of anger toward the Pirates, but there would always be that doubt, always that image of your 38,000 of your little heads bobbing off into the night. And what if there’s violence? What if fans begin smashing their Bob Walk bobbleheads or throwing them onto bonfires? And how would a person ever get over seeing his bobblehead’s head ripped off?
Walk will be part of the TV crew for tonight’s game. As color commentator, it should be his job to explain why thousands of little Bob Walk’s are nodding their way to the exits. But FSN, the network broadcasting the game, has announced that it will take no notice of the walkout and not show it on the air. Presumably not even if fans begin hurling their Bob Walk bobbleheads at the broadcast booth.
At the end of the day what does it matter? Chomos is kidding himself if he believes more than a few thousand fans are headed for the exits with him. Probably a third of more of the fans at any Pirate game drove at least 50 miles or more through Western Pennsylvania to get there. You don’t haul your wife and kids all the way from Dubois, and pay $68 for outfield reserve seating just to walk out in the third inning.
The Pirates know that. The Nutting family, part owners of the team, repeatedly pledged to bring a championship team to Pittsburgh (they just didn’t explain that it would be the visiting St. Louis Cardinals) and then went out and paid an estimated $100 million for a ski resort with a casino license. They also know that any town where 38,000 people show up for Bob Walk Bobblehead Night is starved for entertainment. Pirate fans aren’t going anywhere and neither is the team.
Mr. Chomos, if you’re reading this here’s some free advice. Go to the game, get yourself a nice cold Iron City. Or two. Take your Bob Walk bobblehead out of it’s box. Ask it if it’s having a good time. If it nods its head yes, settle back in your seat. Enjoy the game. The Pirates are playing the Nationals. Who knows, Pittsburgh might win. You’re a beer distributor in Pittsburgh. Life is good. Enjoy.
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June 29, 2007 at 7:37 am · Filed under Uncategorized
Corey Brewer did the Chomp, Joakim Noah bubbled over and Al Horford quietly showed he was the best of the three. Sounds like the last two NCAA championships? Wrong, it was the NBA draft.
Horford was taken third by the Atlanta Hawks, Brewer went seventh to Minnesota, and Noah followed at ninth to Chicago. The trio became the first teammates ever selected together in the top 10 of a single NBA draft. The history making Gators didn’t stop there. Senior center Chris Richard and junior point guard Taureen Green were selected in the second round, Richard by Minnesota and Green by Portland. This feat was only slightly less stunning, the 10th time five players from the same team have been taken in one draft.
All three first rounders were true to character. Horford quietly accepted his banishment to the Hawks, giving more hope to one of the worst pro franchises in all of sports. Brewer Chomped away, to the delight of Gator fans everwhere. Noah, meanwhile, basked in the fanfare. He wore a bow-tie with a king of comedy suit, and let his hair run wild. It took about five minutes to get a Bulls cap on that mane. There’s no doubt, it’s Great to be a Gator.
The record setting trio dominated the last two college basketball seasons, winning back to back NCAA championships. Head coach Billy Donavan almost went pro with them, deciding at the last minute to retain his college eligibility and godlike status. Added to the Florida slughter of Ohio State in the BCS Championship Game and Tim Tebow’s lock on the next two Heisman Trophies, this latest accomplishment leaves no doubt that Florida currently rules the NCAA.
In a related story, all future Presidents will now be invited to Gainesville for an honorary audience with Billy Donovan and Urban Meyer…..GO GATORS!!!CHOMP!!CHOMP!!
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June 27, 2007 at 7:43 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Are we ten to twenty years away from having an NBA championship team that isn’t the world champion of professional basketball? An article in the NY Times about basketball camp legend Sonny Vaccaro makes me wonder.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/24/sports/ncaabasketball/24hoops.html?ex=1340337600&en=e0fae00a5a009f06&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
Vaccaro is a marketing and basketball legend, and it’s hard to tell which order you put the two things in. For years he ran the ABCD basketball camps where prospects worked out and played under the watchful eyes of college coaches and shoe company reps. He’s retiring and Reebok (his current employer) will fold his camp into others they are affiliated with. It’s the end of an era that has changed basketball, maybe not all to the good.
The telling quote in the article is from Fran Fraschilla, ex St. John’s coach and current ESPN analyst. Franschilla is just back from attending basketball camps in Italy and returned depressed at how poorly American players compared to Europeans:
“Hopefully, those people that wield power in the summer will understand
that our game at the moment is broken at the grass-roots level,â€
Fraschilla said. “If we get more kids worried about improving and less
about where they rank, it will filter up the N.B.A. ranks.â€
Camps can make or break players in unofficial recruiting rankings. Amateur scouting reports in low tech newsletters, distributed out of the writer’s garages, have evolved into high tech and high dollar scouting operations that make or break a player aiming to play for a basketball power. Camps like Vaccaro’s feed off the need of high school players to get exposure and move up in the rankings. In turn the camps are all about the individual player and their skills, mainly on the offensive end of the court.
You can make a case the Euros are learning about basketball while their high school counterparts in this country are going to camps and learning about marketing. Call it the Vaccaro paradox.
Nike and Reebok love the American system because they can create a buzz around a young player who could turn into, in the words of LeBron James, "an international icon". In James’ case the hype has been more than justified. But for every King James there have been numerous Sebastian Telfair’s and Kwame Brown’s who never developed a complete game.
In Europe, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobelli of the Spurs grew as young players
outside of the scrutiny of recruiting rankings and camps. In order to
get on the court they had to learn the game of basketball while they
worked on their games. Today they are NBA champions. Dirk Nowitzki is MVP. If Europe is producing talent at this level, how long before the best European professional teams become legitimate challengers for the title of "world champion"?
We aren’t to a point where the best European teams can take on the best NBA teams, the way the best European players have challenged America’s best players. But if the progress of European basketball continues at the current rate, and if US players spend their time in camps working on their 360’s and trying to become "legends" at 17 and 18, can that day be far off?
If you think the NBA will always be basketball’s highest level of competition, consider that it has been taken down once already. The truth is the ABA, just before the merger, had better players than the older league and a more appealing game. The infusion of life that players like Julius Erving and George Gervin brough to the NBA kept the game moving forward into the Bird and Johnson era. That momentum is now stalled and the Euros are constantly improving.
Can history repeat itself? I think so. At some point about 10 years from now, European professional basketball may become so profitable it can afford to keep it’s best players at home. An NBA Europe of sorts may be formed by then, and once the best teams from that league capture the public’s imagination it’s not hard to imagine a challenge being issued. If US basketball doesn’t get out of the camps and back into the gyms, it may be a challenge some future NBA team loses.
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June 27, 2007 at 8:30 am · Filed under Uncategorized
Wow, it’s been months since I’ve been around, and not much has changed. Everyone’s doing their own thing. Demonicume is rebuilding his web-site for the umpteenth time after it was raped, Lisa is BOTD, SoCal thinks the world is conspiring against Barry Bonds, Nostradamus still doesn’t know football, and Dudski is still quietly cranking out the best blogs on the planet.
For those of you who even notice me, sorry for the long absense. I tend to sit around and mope while waiting for CFB to kick off again. It’s getting close, so I though I’d dust off the keyboard and blog something. Here goes…..
MLB
Well, Clemens is back. Not only is he one of the greatest pitchers of all time, he may be the smartest. The guy "retires" until mid-season, misses all the mundane stuff like practice and spring training, then sells his arm to the highest bidder for half a season of serious work. He’s a friggin’ mercenary, how come no one else has figured out how to do this?
The Yankees are almost to .500, and A-Rod looks like a God. I predict as soon as the Yanks get in contention, he tanks again.
Another prediction: Torii Hunter will be the next great player to sell his soul to the devil. (Steinbrenner actually is Satan, for those who didn’t know.)
This is how bad it is. I hate the Yankees so much I find myself rooting for the BoSox. Obviously I need counseling.
NFL
The No Fun League continues to try to supress any individualism or joy from their product. It works for me, I haven’t watched an entire game in over three years. The powers-that-be stifle anything that might be seen as unique, then are amazed when our attention turns to PacMan Jones and Michael Vick’s dog shows. Well,duh… they’re the only things not scripted.
PGA
All of the sudden, Tiger is a dad and seems a little more human. I prefer him that way. Maybe if other golfers quit grovelling at his feet and sniffing his crotch, someone will step up and truly challenge him. The last two majors were won by someone else, but in both cases the winner was far away from the eye of the Tiger. Anyone going head up simply pee’s on himself and gets out of the way. Someone needs to get a set…
WWE
Disgusting….what price for entertainment? I actually saw people mourning for a murderer.
and finally….
CFB
The flavor of the month is that Arkansas will crash and burn in 2007. I’ve had this argument too many times to rehash the whole thing. Arkansas fans are viewed as delusional, blinded homers who are far too carried away by one lucky season that turned into a soap opera of innuendo, court battles and player defections. So be it, but let me ask you serious college fans a serious question. Close your eyes and pretend. How would you like your teams chances this fall if you could have D-Mac, Felix Jones and Marcus Monk on your team?
________________________________________
Okay, I feel better now.
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June 25, 2007 at 7:22 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
The Atlanta Hawks have a new logo. Try to contain your excitement.
Here is the old logo:
After exhaustive market research the Hawks believed a bold move was necessary to come up with a logo which reflected the new direction Atlanta was taking:
The differences are dramatic. The basketball in the old logo was the same color as a basketball. The new logo has a basketball that is a striking mix of neutral and blue. The beak coloring and talons both feature a shade of blue the team is calling "apathy".
Along with radically different logo, the Hawks marketing department announced it has narrowed the field to six possible official team slogans for the 2007-2008 season:
"Experience Joe Johnson"
"Whatever"
"Kobe Bryant? Trade for Kobe Bryant? You couldn’t handle Kobe Bryant!"
"The Hawks-America’s Proudest Producer of Big Small Forwards and Small Big Forwards"
"Bad as we wannabe"
"Jammin’ in a winter blunderland"
It can also be revealed here for the first time that negotiations are underway with the NBA to rename the team the ‘Atlanta Thunderchickens". The name would convey the awesome power of the new logo while appealing to the youth market and people who buy alot of carryout fried chicken. A new "Back the Beak" campaign is being prepared to promote season tickets.
Look out world. Here come the Thunderchickens!
Editors note-Sadly, parts of this blog are true.
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June 23, 2007 at 3:12 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
SoCalSportsfan is the dean of FOX Sports blogs. He’s the one guy it seems everyone has read, and is well respected in the blogging community. He’s also a defender, maybe THE defender of Barry Bonds. Quick to point out the hypocrisy and virulence of some of the attacks on Bonds, he usually makes a strong case for the greatness of Bonds the hitter, and a reasoned defense of Bonds the man. However, his latest brief in behalf of the Giants slugger is his least convincing one.
http://community.foxsports.com/blogs/socalsportsfan/2007/06/22/The_X_Files_Hank_Aaron
In his post, SoCal defends Bonds by suggesting Aaron may also have used performance enhancing drugs based on quotes by Tom House, a reliever who played with Aaron. House doesn’t say Aaron used drugs, but admits he himself did and implicates unnamed teammates. This is a weak argument at best, like saying that because Aaron visited San Francisco with the Braves in the 60’s that there is some chance he took LSD with Timothy Leary and partied with the Merry Pranksters.
SoCal takes House’s admissions and ups the ante by saying, "…when you look at the rate he hit his homeruns, and at what age he hit them, they suddenly became very dubious. At age 40 in his 23rd season, Aaron had his highest HR percentage of his entire career. He also led the majors in HR percentage for three years straight as a 38, 39, and 40 year old. This is quite an accomplishment for someone who should be declining in power rather than increasing in performance as they age."
Fair enough. I suspect SoCal doesn’t believe Aaron used steroids, but is setting up a trojan horse defense of Bonds. Look inside and you see that if you can make a linkage between Aaron and steroids through House and a few seasons HR totals, no matter how tenuous, then you can’t accept the connection between Bonds’ unusual HR stats and dubious off field associations either. In reality, a look at the stats draws a clear line between how Aaron’s and Bonds’ careers have progresssed.
Since grand jury testimony first links Bonds to the BALCO steroid story in the year 2000 at age 35, and SoCal makes his point based on home run totals toward the end of Aaron’s career, let’s compare the two players at the same ages.
Through their 34 year old season Bonds had hit home runs in 6.38% of his at bats and Aaron 5.74%. This shows that Bonds achievements pre-BALCO mark him as a legitimate home run threat and reveal what an unusual power hitter Aaron was. Hammerin’ Hank had 10 years with 600 or more at bats and never walked or struck out as many as 100 times in any season. Aaron was never a pure power hitter in the mold of his contemporaries such as Killebrew, Howard, or McCovey.
Here is each player’s HR percentage through age 34 and each season afterward:
Thru 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42
Aaron 5.74% 8.04% 7.36% 9.49% 7.57% 10.20% 5.88% 2.58% 3.69%
Bonds 6.38% 10.21% 15.34% 11.41% 11.54% 12.06% 11.90% 7.08% 8.52%
Aaron and Bonds HR %’s both went up through age 40, but Bonds much more so. In fact, he is much more of a power hitter now than he was through age 34, even at age 42. The bounce in Aaron’s stats settles back to his thru 34 average by the time he hit 40 and dropped dramatically after that.
The aspect of Bonds’ home run hitting that leaves many suspicious, and some openly hostile, is the dramatic change that exactly coincides with his association with BALCO.
Even if prosecutors didn’t have documents seized from BALCO that show payments for HGH and steroids for Bonds, even if we had never heard the words "the cream" and "the clear", even if Bonds girlfriend hadn’t testified about conversations with him concerning steroid use, even if one witness refused to comment on what appears to be a doping calendar set up for Bonds, even if Gary Sheffield testified that Bonds told him "not to ask questions", this stat line is highly suggestive that something radically changed Bonds performance about the year 2000.
If not performance enhancing drugs, then what?
You can believe, and I do, that Bonds is the greatest hitter since Ted Williams. You can make the case that any benefit he has received from whatever training regimen he has used is mnor compared to his natural abilities and intelligence. It’s obvious that baseball’s problems with performance enhancing drugs didn’t start, and won’t end, with Barry Bonds. But don’t drag Hank Aaron into the debate over Bonds behavior.
The biggest difference between Aaron and Bonds is that 755, Hank Aaron’s home run total, stands today unquestioned as the greatest career achievement in baseball history. 756, whenever Barry Bonds hits that mark, won’t.
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June 22, 2007 at 7:58 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Thirty-three and thirty-nine is a mighty fine line for the Chicago Cubs. Keeps them just this side of lovable loser while still in haling distance of "Miracle Cubs". And to think they did it all while being menaced by an evil presence the likes of which have been unknown since Rasputin cavorted with the Czar’s women.
Michael Barrett-catcher and pugilist, orator and debater of pitchers, has been traded to San Diego. Gone is the malevolent clubhouse presence that cut through Chicago like the winds off Lake Michigan in January or a bad kielbasa through a man’s insides.
It wasn’t, said the Cubs, because Barrett had fought with Carlos Zambrano or argued with Rich Hill. It was just that the team was "…trying to shore up the position in a little different fashion, a little bit more defensively."
In the interest of full disclosure, I admit to believing that the chief defensive purpose of a catcher is to stop the ball rolling to the backstop. I believe there are two basic types of catcher. Johnny Bench and "all other".
Calling Bruce Bowen, who Barrett was traded for, an upgrade defensively is like trying to decide whether Paris Hilton or Nichole Ritchie is more chaste. Logically speaking one must, to some slight degree exceed the other in that regard, but neither appears poised to run off to the local convent. Likewise the choice between Barrett (who has thrown out 8 of 43 runners attempting to steal) and Bowen (who has nailed 3 of 26) is barren of good alternatives.
Given a choice between a catcher who can hit but doesn’t throw runners out and one who doesn’t hit and can’t throw runners out, most elementary school students would make the logical choice and keep Barrett around. Unfortunately, the Cubs aren’t run by grade school kids, just Lou Pinella who occasionally behaves like one around umpires.
Pinella, rumor has it, didn’t think Barrett (in common with alot of Cubs fans) was paying attention during games. Like most thoroughly modern managers, he believes catchers must be defensive specialists who are good handlers of pitchers. There is no scientific method of proving that such an animal exists, so most field generals quantify those qualities by looking for a catcher who is allergic to any form of wood used to strike a spherical object.
To their credit, the Cubs front office did not speak ill of Barrett. Cubs GM Jim Hendry said the catcher was on his way to being a great player. Chicago also paid $1 million to San Diego just to make sure San Diego felt good about the wonderful catcher and fine human being who would be joining their team. What a great bunch of guys.
I believe the Cubs had a better chance of getting to the playoffs with Barrett than without. The only time I would trade a catcher who could hit based on clubhouse chemistry, would be if that catcher’s meth lab exploded and blew up the clubhouse attendant. Short of that, I’d read one of the many fine books on dealing with difficult people and go happily on my way. If the pitchers didn’t like Barrett they could always take him into the club house and beat him up. It worked for Zambrano, although granted a Barrett-Carlos Marmol slugfest could get ugly fast.
And so we bid a fond farewell to Michael Barrett and any chance of seeing the Cubs in the World Series. It was a small chance which will be mourned for an appropriately short period.
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June 20, 2007 at 8:27 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Muhammad Ali fought the United States government in court during the Vietnam War.
Runner Steve Prefontaine spoke out against the Amateur Athletic Union getting rich off track stars while insisting they receive no sponsorship money or support for their efforts.
Track stars Tommie Smith and John Carlos made history, and one of the most famous sports photos of all time, giving the black power salute from the winner’s podium at the 1968 Olympics.
Bill Walton was a free spirit on and off the basketball court and sat out a season in protest of what he regarded as medical malpractice by the Portland Trail Blazers medical staff.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar spent a career as both a star NBA player and an articulate critic of social injustice.
Bill Lee of the Boston RedSox was equal parts pitcher, flake, and advocate of political and social causes.
Jim Brown flaunted most every convention still around in the 60’s, with as much disdain as he showed for NFL tacklers.
In 2007 who are the athletes who make bold statements, who run a risk of alienating fans and sponsors, who are engaged with sports and society?
What NBA star is going to speak out against Nike and the exploitation of Third World labor when they receive more money for endorsing shoes than playing the game?
Who is going to step up and speak up against mandatory drug testing when the MLB Player’s Association has signed off on what is essentially a blank check for warrantless searches designed to detect illegal drug use? With sub .500 pitchers making five million a year and up, why rock the boat?
With limited entrance from college to the professional sports, what college player is going to stand up against abusive behavior by coaches? Who do you see going to court to challenge the NBA’s collusion with the NCAA to restrain trade with the 19 year old age minimum?
Where are the voices in the NFL speaking out against contracts that don’t guarantee the term or amount the player signs for? A free agent system that works to prohibit player movement? Medical malpractice by team doctors?
Name me a NASCAR driver who has an opinion about anything that isn’t cleared by his team and sponsors?
Critics howled when Gary Sheffield made comments about race and baseball. I thought he missed the mark with his premise that Latin American players were signed more often because they are (to Sheffield’s eye) more submissive than African-American players. But at least Sheffield has an opinion. At least he cares.
Maybe the reason we won’t see sports rebels in the future is simply because there is little left to rebel against. There are few cultural norms these days, and the only sanctioned form of disapproval is of disapproval itself (or "intolerance" as it is now called).
But perhaps the truth is that access to enormous wealth has left players more inclined to guard their images and accept the status quo. You can’t very well fight power if you are in power, and the modern athlete is certainly in that position economically.
Most of the athletes named took positions about one hundred and eighty degrees opposite my own political views. The odds are I wouldn’t agree with today’s athletes if they did get around to speaking out. But there’s something vaguely wrong about where we’ve come to if athletes feel constrained to march in lock step and speak only when the light comes on the camera for their latest commercial.
We’re not going to see another Ali anytime soon, but I’d settle for a few more Gary Sheffields, right or wrong. Maybe a NASCAR driver who says what comes to his mind when it comes to his mind. I’d even take a NFL player who dares question Roger Goodell’s conduct standards. Not because I’d agree with him, but because there ought to be at least one Jim Brown in the NFL at all times to keep the powers that be honest.
In 2007 is that too much to ask?
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June 19, 2007 at 5:26 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Quoted from anonymous sources within Peter Angelo’s command bunker deep under Camden Yards.
When you hired Sam Perlazzo you said "Rough seas make a great sea captain." What did you mean by that?
We expected Sam to follow the tradition of great captains such as Edward John Smith of the Titanic, who went down with his ship and became a convenient excuse for the malfeasance of the White Star Line.
So the Orioles record is Perlazzo’s fault?
Look at the lineup we assembled for him. Kevin Millar, Corey Patterson, Jay Gibbons, Paul Bako. Should I go on?
No, please don’t. Didn’t you tell Perlazzo help would be coming from AAA?
No, and I’m glad you’ve given me the opportunity to clear that up. We told Sam that he could call AAA up if his rental car broke down on the way out of Baltimore. Or, at least the first fifty miles. After that our discount coupon expires and he’s on his own.
Your off season priority seemed to be signing as many free agent middle relievers as possible. Why was that?
We had seen our starting pitching the previous year and felt it was a prudent thing to do. If you’ve employed a staff of chain smokers to work in a fire works factory, it seems only prudent to keep extinguishers around.
How did that work out?
We feel confident that when Danys Baez returns from the disabled list he will be able to get his ERA down below 6.00, maybe even to the mid 5’s by the end of the season. We’re looking for at least 50 innings from him this season so we can get our return on investment down into the $100,000 per inning range.
Before the O’s June slump the team was at .500 and in second place in the AL East. At that time, did you believe the team was playing up to it’s potential?
No, but it has been lately.
So…you fired the manager because?
The team has been playing to it’s potential. Weren’t you paying attention?
Well, yes, but…
Let me explain it. As long as the team was playing above it’s potential people thought we knew what we were doing. But when the Orioles began playing at their potential the fans and media started to notice and somebody had to go. It wasn’t going to be ownership or management and nobody in their right mind would trade for our players. That left Sam.
As the fall guy?
We like to think of him as a retrograde performance justification asset. Sam served us well in that capacity.
And now you’re talking to Joe Girardi?
Yes. Joe will be the perfect manager for this club. He finished six games under .500 in his one season managing the Marlins and the press and fans practically threw roses at his feet. To be able to take mediocrity and recast it as genius, that’s something we’ve needed here for a long time.
But Girardi has a reputation for having a gigantic ego, only listening to himself, not extending himself toward the fans, and often making decisions that seem illogical?
Exactly, Mr. Angelos sees so much of himself in Joe. It’s like the son he never had but wanted to take the place of the ones he did.
Perlazzo lasted just over one season as manager. How long do you think Girardi will take to make the team successful?
Oh, I wouldn’t expect that. But he should be able to get us at least through the next ticket price increase.
One final question. What has this organization done to the great Oriole tradition?
You can buy a bobble head of Cal Ripken in the team store.
But that’s cheap and plastic and doesn’t connect to the team’s past.
Exactly. It’s the embodiment of everything we stand for as an organization.
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June 18, 2007 at 5:07 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
The marriage between the Los Angeles Lakers and Kobe Bryant will not end in divorce, according to sports talk radio and various on-line experts. Bryant is a piece of art that no buyer can afford, they say, because of his salary and league rules that mandate roughly equal salary value in two team trades.
To which I say, "shoot". That’s what we say here in the South as a substitute for another more descriptive exclamation. "Shoot", say I, "send that old boy down here. We’ll take right good care of him." In Charlotte or Atlanta.
The two or three experts who think Bryant will leave LA have him headed for Chicago, New York, or Philadelphia. The problem is the Bulls have alot of young talent and not enough high priced contracts to match up in a two team trade. New York? There are legitimate questions as to whether the Knicks are still in the NBA. Some say they are basketball team, others a reality TV show gone horribly wrong. The 76ers? That’s like trading with Fred Sanford. Not much down at the junk yard, unless you believe Andre Iguodala will make LA fans forget Kobe. (Which is about as likely as Laker owner Jerry Buss swearing off younger women.)
No, the answer lies South. And North.
Here’s the deal. Both Atlanta and Charlotte have good young talent. The Minneapolis Timberwolves have Kevin Garnett and a confused look on their faces. The Lakers have Kobe and need a replacement star. That would be Garnett, who goes to LA for Bryant, who goes to Atlanta or Charlotte for a combination of young players and/or a draft pick, which are sent to Minnesota. As an added bonus, there are all kinds of exceptions to the equal salary rule when multiple teams are involved in a trade.
Charlotte makes sense for two reasons. Attendance and Michael Jordan. The Bobcats have failed to capture the imagination of old Hornets fans, despite a new owner in Robert Johnson of BET and a new arena downtown. If you want people to come to the circus, you’d better bring an elephant. Kobe is the biggest elephant in NBA captivity.
The brightest star in the West coming to play for Jordan is intriguing. There is probably no other person in the sports world with a better understanding of what it takes to build a team around a singular talent like Bryant than Michael Jordan. Bryant gives Jordan the chance to win, not years from now, but from Day One.
Bryant is quoted as wanting to go to a contender. But who is to say the Bobcats won’t be, especially if they can obtain Kobe for some combination of their first round pick, last year’s top pick Adam Morrison, and one other young player (perhaps Sean May)? Emeka Okafor would also give Bryant the low post scoring partner he has lacked since Shaq took up residence on the Gold Coast.
If not Charlotte, why not Atlanta? Some people in the NBA believe that since Sherman burned Atlanta things have only gotten progressively worse. But Atlanta has alot going for it, especially the fact that it literally is the capital city of the New South. It’s no LA or New York in terms of media attention, but that cuts in two directions. Under a less intense media gaze, and far removed from the recriminations over Shaq’s departure, Bryant can have something he often lacked in Los Angeles. Adulation.
Bryant would be the face of the Hawks and, Michael Vick and Chipper Jones aside, probably the biggest sports celebrity in the South. A trade to Atlanta would be a fresh start, albeit one with risks. The Hawks have proven to be almost uniquely inept when it comes to building a playoff contender.
To position Bryant in a situation similar to that of LeBron James, Atlanta would have to build any deal with LA or Minnesota around the #3 pick in the draft plus a couple of young players. That pick will likely turn into China’s Yi Jianlian (still a 7′0" question mark), Ohio State’s Mike Conley, or Florida’s Al Horford.
A deal for Bryant would likely also cost Atlanta Marvin Williams or Josh Smith, two very talented young players. Whatever is lost, though, would be more than made up for in fan interest and credibility. Both are sorely lacking in ATL.
There are still alot of questions. Would LA be any better off with Garnett and perhaps a draft pick or prospect than with Bryant? Would Bryant accept a trade outside of his current list of chosen teams? Does Charlotte have the finances to bring home the player the Hornets traded to LA on draft day in 1986?
At the end of the day it’s about the hard choices Jerry Buss and Kobe Bryant must be willing to make. A trade gets a fresh deck of cards for Phil Jackson and the Lakers. For Bryant, a trip to a young talented Eastern team puts him in a conference where a star player and even a little bit of support gets you to the NBA finals.
Just ask LeBron James.
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