-0-

“Baseball–Won’t Be the Same”

-0-

Baseball teams head back to spring training camp on July 1st.

Who knows what the health of the US will look like in a week.  This week has not brought good news as Covid positive tests and hospitalizations have rocketed.

Baseball will surely look different starting next week, with a 60-game schedule, a rebuilt schedule, increased rosters, rule changes and more.

There will be intensive Covid testing next week, deep nasal, blood tests, temperature checks once they report to Petco Park, and then daily testing each day of spring training.  Positive tests have shown up at spring  camps in Florida and Arizona, so there are some infections out there.

What happens when you bring 30-major league players and 30-taxi squad players together, no one knows.

Everyone will be watching the Padres, Dodgers, Angels and all the other teams as baseball opens.

The NBA was the first to come up with a plan, the bubble playoff plan in Orlando, but that is in jeopardy, considering the  huge jump in positive tests in Florida as ICU’s fillup in the Sunshine State.

The NHL is about to name the 2-hub cities that will host their playoffs, possibly Las Vegas and Edmonton.  They don’t open camp in hockey till July 10th, but the numbers in Nevada are spiiking up and they just ordered everyone to wear masks in Las Vegas.

And then there is the NFL, a crisis awaiting, where more questions about how to bring 90-players and 60-employees into facilities for 5-weeks of training camps.  The NFL was so stoic in saying, we will play games and fans will attend, now has to face different realities.

Tampa Bay, Dallas, Houston are among the teams with positive tests popping up involving players and training staffs.

Now the NFL is deciding, no early rookie camps in late July, camps opening in August.  Cut backs in the number of preseason games.  And now the NFL is considering less than 100% stadium attendance, including putting tarps with advertisements up on lower bowl seats.

And who knows about college football, when you consider the positive tests that spilled out  at LSU, Clemson, Florida State, Houston, Boise State, creating havoc.  And the pandemic driven questions about how to protect 105-players in each college camp.

So when they yell ‘play ball’ at Petco Park,there will be alot of uncertainty  about baseball but everyone else in sports will be paying attention.

Nothing it seems will be the same in all these sports starting next week.

=========================.

-0-

 

“Baseball is Back-With All It’s Problems”

 

-0-

 

Here comes baseball, back effective July 1st for Spring Training Camp 2.0…and then in late July for what they hope will be a 60-game season.

 

No one knows what this summer will be like, because the horrors of the Corona Virus sit atop the baseball standings.

 

Baseball wasted 6-weeks of a potential schedule with the war between Owners and the Union.

 

So we have a 60-game schedule, the DH added to the National League, a 30-man roster, and a bunch of rule changes for extra inning games.

 

But we don’t have any control of what the virus is doing, where all time daily highs reached 23-states on Tuesday.

 

And there is no labor peace either, just a lot of ill-will, and the threat of a 1B-dollar grievance still looming out there because of the obstinance of the Union and the beliggerance of the Owners.

 

Someone will have to explain to me how the Players Association would turn down 300M in extra benefits, thru salary, playoff bonuses, increase TV playoff money, the dropping of the 16-team playoff format, that would have raised even more shared money…..this after all the offers from the hated owners and after all the weeks of animosity.

 

They also gave up something huge, the dropping of draft pick compensation next winter for the 200-free agents out there.

 

They did all that so they could retain the right to file a grievance against the owners once the season is over to seek bigger damages and paydays.

 

2-sports lawyers I spoke to do not believe the Union has a chance to win the grievance, regardless of what Union boss Tony Clark or super-agent Scott Boras believe.

 

So now we have a 60-game schedule for the Padres.  40-games against the enemy in the NL-West and 20-games against the 5-teams in the AL-West, their geographical rivals.

Nobody will have a chance if they start (1-10) this season.  No one survives if key pitching gets hurt early in the season because of the disjointed spring training.

 

The Padres would have had a great shot at a wildcard playoff slot if there were 16-teams in the postseason, but playing in a West Division that involves the Dodgers, Astros, A’s, Angels might make it hard for San Diego to be a top five team in a 10-team division…much less at top 10-team in the 30-team league..

 

This will be a strange year in baseball.  You won’t even have to put an *asterisk next to the standings.  Just mention the year ‘2020’ and people will never forget the summer of hell.

 

A troubled baseball season is ahead, in a country with troubles everywhere off the field.

===========================

-0-

‘NASCAR–Gold Ole Boys Come Together’

-0-

It was something we seldom see happen in sports, unless there is a tragedy.

Not since baseball’s return in the aftermath of 9/11 and the Twin Towers tragedy, have I seen anything like this.

The Good Ole Boys, what they call the gang of NASCAR drivers, came together in a show of support for African American driver Bubba Wallace, hours after a ‘noose’ was found hanging in his garage on Sunday night at Talladega Speedway in Alabama.

An emotionally overwhelmed Wallace wept as he stood by his car with owner Richard Petty before the race.

Wallace was asked in a drivers meeting to pull his car out of line and drive to the front of pit row.

He did, as they unveiled a painted ‘Black Lives Matter’ logo on the infield…”I Stand With Bubba” sign was painted..

Then the 40-drivers on the starting grid walked behind Wallace’s car to the front of pit row.  And then every crew member of all 40-NASCAR teams lined up and followed the drivers to the front of the row standing with Wallace.

The young black driver, who hails from Alabama, just 2-weeks ago sounded off that NASCAR should ban the Confederate flags that fans would bring into the stands.  They did.

Some drivers spoke out, most said nothing.

But this was different, as Wallace became the face of the sports protest, only to have the incident in the garage take place after Sunday’s race was rained out.

The outpouring of emotion was everywhere.  Drivers hugged Wallace before he climbed into the car.  The scene on pit row will be a sports picture of a lifetime.

The unity in that sport, its roots dating back to the ole South of the 1940s will carry on now.

The story will not go away.  FBI officials, Department of Justice officials and the ACLU lawyers arrived at the track early Monday morning to take part in the probe.  It will be treated as a ‘hate crime’

The garage area, always heavily manned by security, has cameras everywhere, so whomever hung the noose in the garage of car #43 will be found.

Traditions die hard in Dixie.  Discrimination, beatings, fire hoses, bombs, lynchings, KuKluxKlan meetings may have been snuffed out but the inbred culture of racism still exists.  Sunday night showed that.

Monday at noon told a different story.

White America, on the NASCAR circuit, is joined at one to not only support Bubba Wallace, but to help change culture.

The Good Ole Boys made a straight from the heart statement on pit row just before the race.

Society needs to take a closeup look at what happened.

========================

Father’s Day….What it means to me.Column from my archives:
——————–

“Ode to a Father-Gone”

A weekend upon us. For some, time off. For some, time to work. For many, a time to remember. For a few, a time to forget.

A weekend of hustle and bustle. Padres games. U.S. Open golf. NASCAR race. Yard work and picnics and phone calls.

Will you take time to think of days gone by? Your heritage? Your background? Your family? Your dad?

Father’s Day has many meanings to many men.

I wonder what it was like for him to grow up in the depression.

I wonder what it was like to lose his father at the age of 15. Become the man of the house as a mid-teen.

I wonder what it was like to be a minor league pitcher in the 1930s, him wanting to be a St. Louis Cardinal, the disappointment of never getting to the show.

I wonder what it was like to be a 24-year-old in combat in World War II, a scared Seabee, building runways, avoiding snipers, seeing planes burn and men die in places like New Caledonia and Wake Island.

I wonder how hard it was to hold a job and go to night school for six years to get a degree.

I wonder what it was like to see his four children graduate from college, the private joy he must have felt.

I wonder if he ached the year we had only one Christmas present per child because there was no money.

I wonder if he knew that the richness of love and guidance he gave us was valued more than any material gift we got.

I wonder what he thought, or even if he knew he was dying so quickly, of his belief in God, family, friends and his courage.

I wonder if he knows how my career turned out and if he sees his two grandsons and all they are accomplishing.

I wonder when I see him again, what it will be like, and how much fun it will be to ask all the questions I have. I feel I hardly knew him.

We all have memories of a father.

Some who carried briefcases, some who had lunch buckets.

Some who wore three-piece suits, others who wore coveralls.

Some wore work boots, others wore wingtips.

Some had 9-to-5 jobs, others who had two jobs, some had no jobs.

Some loved us, others left us.

Some pushed us, others punished us.

Some drank to excess, others drove us to excellence.

There are good memories and bad, happy times and sad, with the man you called your dad.

As we think about this weekend, let us never forget the one valuable thing our fathers gave us: “This life to live.”

======================

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

-0-

“This-That-The Other”

-0-

BASEBALL….This wears you out…the negotiations…the bickering…the name calling…the on-going tit-for-tat between a besieged Rob Manfred and a lack of trustworthy Tony Clark.  The Union continues on a track to squeeze blood out of the rock, trying to take every penny they can.  The latest now is trying to jam 70-games into a 72-day calendar, a schedule that would encompass alot of doubleheaders on Sunday, just for more pay-days.  When it appeared they had the framework of a deal for 60-games, with full pay for the players, Clark keeps coming back for more.  By the way, is he not putting players at health risk with so many games in such a short time?

PHRASES….My reactions to what I hear-read-see…my questions?

..Union-trying to play ball or just win the negotiations?

..Season of gimmicks or money-grabs?

..Owners-trying to save money or save the season?

..Union-trying to save face by not giving up anything?

..Players greed while trying be on moral high ground-society in gutter?

..Deal good for management-but bad for players?

..Union-Owners tearing each other down-like rioters burning down businesses?

————

NFL…HBO announces Chargers-Rams will co-share Hard Knocks feature this training camp….Cannot wait to see if they feature Bolts owner Dean Spanos and his CEO-son AG to talk about how they are winning the fight for LA or how they screwed San Diego.  Here come the Rams with Sean McVay, Jared Goff, Aaron Donald and more.  The pictures of the Rams So-Fi Stadium will be fun to see.  Wonder if they will mention the miserable failure of Team Spanos to sell PSLs in the new yard?  The Bolts have Tyrod Taylor-Joey Bosa to offer in interviews.  Bet all football-all the time guys like Tom Telesco and Anthony Lynn are happy about this intrusion.  Rams will sell tickets.  Chargers will look like losers again.

NFL CRISIS….So who are you going to believe about teams opening NFL training camps in 4-weeks, Roger Goodell or Dr. Anthony Fauci?  Keeping score at home, The Texas Longhorns have 27-players test positive, go to quarantine or show anti-bodies after two weeks of conditioning drills.  There will be 4,500 players, coaches and staffs, to be tested daily when the NFL opens camps. I don’t like the optics of this return to football formula.

——————–

LAKERS…For someone who has made so much money and done so little with his career, do not understand why Dwight Howard carries so much weight in the conversation about whether the NBA is right or wrong in starting up the playoffs in the midst of so much civic unrest.  If Howard wants to sit out and protest-fine.  Too many people have worked too hard to put this plan back into place.

—————–

AZTECS…What should be a shining moment in San Diego State history, the purchase of the SDCCU land and the plans to go ahead to build a new football stadium, forever lost by the pandemic-civil unrest-unemployment crisis.

——————

NASCAR….Lost in the crush of all these Cup races on Wednesday and Sundays, is the strong final season of Jimmie Johnson, running upfront in a bunch of races, and finishing inside the top 10-multiple times.  In his farewell season, he likely will break this 110-race win drought before we get to the end of the season.

—————————