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“Baseball Bidding Wars ^ Bean Balls”

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We’re one week out from the opening of spring training,, and they’re throwing at each other.

Anger, threats, a likely brawl coming.

It’s not the Dodgers vs Giants, or Padres vs Braves, but rather MLB owners against the Union.

This will get bloody before it gets better.

At issue, more than 110-unsigned free agents, still out there on a street corner.

The agents say it is a form of collusion, owners electing not to cave in and sign over the top contracts to baseball’s biggest names.

The union saying the owners have decided to use the recently negotiated luxury tax, as a salary cap, refusing to go over the top and having to pay exorbitant tax money.

The clubs saying they are doing business differently, using baseball metrics to determine who is worth big money. Teams now also want to retain their draft picks, not have to give them up as compensation. And teams are redirecting payroll to players from abroad.

The rhetoric has rocketed in recent weeks, including from super agent Scott Boras who represents five of the most expensive unsigned free agents out there.

Depending on which rumor you believe, clubs have made 5-and-6 year offers to Boras for his players, some in value over 100M, but he has not delivered his clients there.
How can you feel sorry for guys who have been offered 9-figure packages?

The debate rages too about if it is good business sense to give pitchers, some of Boras’ clients 5-6-7 year deals, knowing he history of pitching breakdown in the game.

The war of words also involved prime examples of history, clubs going the distance to get stars, only to be on the hook for outrageous salaries, when players breakdown or head to the twilight of their career. Call it the Albert Pujols syndrome.

Baseball’s landscape is more than just saber metrics, it’s about the international venue, scouting, player affordable investments. And all that spills over to affect Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas, JD Martinez, Jake Arrieta, and a select few more.

You can blame the agents and players for asking more and more every year.

You can blame the union for losing at the negotiating table, agreeing to both an international pool cap, and then the luxury tax on payroll, with little thought to what happens down the road.

People may be unhappy, but the average salary is now at 4M per year, per player, so no one is starving.

Owners aren’t starving either, though we don’t really know their profit margins, but they have to be pretty high, considering baseball has become a 10-B a year industry, and everyone is flush in money.

Everything goes up, including ticket prices, concessions and parking for the fans. The fans are the only ones not making better money these days.

It’s pretty bitter out there right now, akin to a beanball war, and I don’t think this will be resolved soon. I doubt there will be a boycott of camps. Doubt there will be a work stoppage, since the CBA has a couple of more years to run.

But the next CBA is going to be a civil war This could be a beanball war that turns into a Civil War

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“Aztecs Football-Doing Well-Anyone Care?”

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San Diego State football is at a modern all time high in terms of success on the football field.

In the community, not so much as a whisper. The same across campus.

What a shame.

Rocky Long completed another banner recruiting drive on Wednesday, despite a changing landscape in recruiting rules, and a loss of some significant coaches on his staff.

The Aztecs signed 23-recruits, including the biggest haul of local players, 11-in-all, in decades. They had a tremendous run in early December, landing, signing, and keeping some key guys other bigger schools would have swooped in on.

In fact a most honored local high school class, headlined by OT-Will Dunkle of Chula Vista-Eastlake….St. Augustine LB-Andrew Alves….San Marcos Knights star LB-Josh Bornes….TJ Sullivan-the quality wide receiver from Mt Carmel….and Helix QB-Carson Baker, want to wear Red & Black.

State wound up with another addition from Arizona, a decommit from Boise State, Zidane Thomas, who was recruited by Power 5-schools. He brings credentials like (4,412Y) rushing and 44-TDs, and joins a program that is becoming known as ‘Running Back U’.

But there is a stigma, a cloud, that just won’t go away from the San Diego State program. Where’s the buzz, where’s the following?

At his Wednesday press conference, Long preached about the success of the program, the record, the bowl wins, the players who wind up in NFL camps, those headed to the NFL combine, and those in the Senior Bowl.

It was met with a yawn across campus, and a blah from the working media.

Aside from the 1-UT beat writer, this columnist, and the student newspaper Daily Aztec, no one else in the active media was there.

None of the 12-guys who do sports-talk radio in town were on hand.

None of the 3-newspaper columnists.

Not one of the 11-anchors-reporters to do TV sports in town.

Just a gaggle of cameramen, to roll video, and that’s all.

In a city of 3.1M, with over 110,000 alumni living here, there just is not any energy when it comes to SDSU football, and that is hard to believe, hard to buy into, hard to understand.

A football program that sells just a shade over 25,000-tickets for home games, tried to package itself 1-City-1 Team, that fell on deaf ears, after the Chargers left town.

It’s not USC, UCLA. It’s not the Pac 12-Conference. It’s not fans wearing their colors and gear walking across the campus on a sunny warm afternoon.

I wouldn’t expect them to sell 60,000 tickets the first day for the spring football game, like they did at Nebraska. But I’d sure expect a lot more in a so-called major league sports city.

But you’d want more for this coach, considering Long has gone (64-29)…has taken the school to 7-bowl games in a row…3-postseason wins….and has had the leading rusher in the nation two years in a row, thanks to DJ Humphrey and Rashaad Penny.

Sadly, despite the great leadership, his personality, and the record, no one seems to care.

Somebody has to explain that to me, for that coach, this program, those kids, deserve a lot better than they get in this town, from fans, friends, alums, and even the media.

Does anybody care? Why not?

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“Do You Like Your Newspapers Sports Section?”

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“What Makes a Good Newspaper?”

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This has been a hard year for everyone, 2017 just completed in San Diego.

The loss of the Chargers franchise has been devastating to the psyche of our city. The anger, the remorse, the blame, has never gone away.

The longtime Chargers fans can never forgive the Spanos family for what they did.

The Padres are in the midst of a rebuild, but there may light at the end of the tunnel, after this two year spending spree, to reinvest in the farm system.

The results may be 18-to-24 months down the road, but at least there is a blueprint in place, the ones designed by the Cubs and Astros.

San Diego State continues to be an enigma, despite the fabulous growth of the football program and the great run basketball had under Steve Fisher. But the community, especially the 100,000-plus alumni, have never wrapped their arms around everything Red & Black, despite the athletic successes.

The Union Tribune newspaper is struggling to determine, whom they should be, what they should cover, how to align their resources.

The 3-veteran columnists, bring different things to the table.

Bryce Miller came from Iowa, and saw the NFL team leave, leaving him with one less things to write strong columns about. He has done some great off topic columns.

Nick Canepa writes history as he has experienced it with San Diego franchises, is well read, but does not seem interested in picking fights, which columnists do in other big city out of town papers.

Kevin Acee excelled in covering the Charges, but they are Los Angeles’ team, and covering them, and the history of anger over the move, seems like a worn out topic. Away from football, he seems lost on content and knowledge.

Mark Zeigler has forged a following, on the Aztecs and the Olympic sports, is a gifted writer, and maybe deserves elevation to the lead columnist role. There is an edge there that should be explored.

The baseball writers cover the team day to day, but the paper, is missing a true baseball voice, like an experienced Bill Center used to bring. Dennis Lin and Jeff Sanders cover their beats, but that is all, and are game stories as important, considering game story information is available most anywhere?

Golf writer Todd Leonard has done great in depth pieces on the tour.

It’s interesting to watch how the UT hands out coverage. Bunches of column inches on a team that’s not eve here, Tijuana XOLOs soccer. They completely ignore the San Diego Sockers. .

The ignore virtually all hockey coverage on the AHL-San Diego Gulls, despite huge fan turnout, and a quality product on the ice for a 3rd year in a row.

Some coverage of USD, but that program has virtual no following. doesn’t draw and has limited interest. .

The paper has a real crisis on its hands, with an early deadline, maybe 8:45pm. Few know the paper is published in LA, by the parent LA Times,not here in Mission Valley.

High school coverage is really negligible, because of those deadlines.

Yes the website is there, but your newspaper is still delivered to lots of driveways and mailboxes each morning, and a different set of coverage needs to be established.

I come from a journalism-newspapeer family. I have opinions, and I think I know what makes print media readable.

If I were king, and admit this is hard, because of the loss of the NFL team, I’d rethink every page of that sports section.

Acee becomes my NFL columnist, covering all types of NFL storylines, involving all the teams.

Find a national baseball columnist, and let him roam, create and write.

Assign one guy to do columns, write all things college football, not just the Aztecs-USD, but UCLA-USC, Mountain West and Pac 12.

Put Ziegler into a critical lead columnist role, for he is fearless and a great writer.

Ditto for Leonard, make him all things, golf, horse racing and tennis.

Do a high school notes column, involving John Maffei and Steve Brand and others, and let them cover all the schools in the county, where there is probably lots of info out there, even if you cannot get game stories in.

This is an expanding hockey market, so the Gulls and the AHL, and the NHL deserves better coverage than the non-existent coverage that currently exists.

Re-establish your Media column and let the writer have at it.

Find me someone who can write auto racing while you are at it, for there are stories, controversies, personalities and storylines that come out of NASCAR-Indy-and Formula 1.

Expand your letters to the editor page, and do more than just print the same 6-people who write in every other week. Make it meaningful.

Limit the cut-and-paste stories from your parent LA Times edition. I can read that in my Times edition, also delivered to my front door.

Are you sending somebody to the Winter Olympics? Why not? Big two weeks isn’t it?
Package the content.

Rugby, lacrosse, women’s sports, are they really something that drives readership? Didn’t think so.

Original-Creative content, compliments the game stories and the stats page.

If I were king, I’d try something different, with the resources you have. And yes I know about the streamlining of staffs in the Southern California Newspaper groups, there may be some quality people available.j

The publisher, the editor in chief, the sports editor, need to do something, because I don’t think they are doing enough to make the UT a better paper.

We’ll never revisit the days when the Union competed with the Tribune, morning vs afternoon. Gone forever are the days of the Oceanside Blade Citizen, Escondido Times Advocate, the Daily Californian in East County.

But you can do something different, a complete makeover of the content.

Give your readers a reason to ‘want to’ read the paper each morning. Columns and deeper content, are what draw daily readers, not what we have now.

What makes a good newspaper? I just told you.

Just 1-Man’s Opinion, but probably the right one.

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“Questions Worth Asking-NFL”

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PATRIOTS….the Patriot Nation in the State of New England sure isn’t happy about the loss to the Eagles, and the decision by Bill Belicheck not to play starting CB-Malcom Butler at all in the Super Bowl loss. Butler played in 97.8% of all defensive snaps this year.

BELICHECK BOREDOM….The Patriots coach would not give specifics on his Monday conference call insciting even more rage from the fans and the media. Butler had been sick, maybe he didn’t practice well, but he had been an anchor thru the (3-13) season.

MATT PATRICIA COMMENTS…The outgoing defensive coordinator would only say that Butler didn’t fit some of the sub packages the Pats needed to run against the Eagles run-option-pass package.

VIDEO GAMES..Philadelphia went back to video of the early season Pats loss to Carolina, and scoped out New England’s problems with blown overages vs bunch formations and they forced the Pats into that coverage, and the breakdowns occurred, especially in the first three quarters.

BUTLER BREAKDOWNS….Eric Rowe, who replaced Butler fell apart in the first half, especially in matches against the Eagles top pass catcher Alshon Jeffrey. It got so bad, Belicheck had to put Stephon Gilmour on him, allowing tight end Zach Ertz to get open looks.

DOMINOE EFFECT….NFL scouts say the benching of Butler, the failure of Rowe, the forced change of Gilmour meant Patrick Chung had to move inside to cover slot receivers and he couldn’t handle that either. Four things happened because Butler never got on the field. You blame who?

SUM TOTAL…By benching Butler , three other changes happened and none of them worked out well for the Patriots defense. Belicheck’s bullheadedness on the change with Butler killed the team. They gave up nearly 470-yards and a ton of big plays, reverting back to the poor play the first five weeks of the season.

BUTLER END RESULT….He is an unrestricted free agent and likely exits. He is viewed as a value player, there will br an offer out there from someone else.

TAINTED TOUCHDOWN….Now questions arise over the wild Nick Foles TD catch, where they re-set the formation, for a Wildcat snap, with Foles lining up as a tight end…or was it as a wingback…a half step off the line of scrimmage…..if off the line of scrimmage, it meant the tight end was uncovered, an illegal formation penalty should have been called….was Foles acting as a tight end or a wingback? Could have changed things for sure if that score came of the board.

BRAIN DRAIN….And now that the Super Bowl is over, Belicheck’s staff will be changed. Goodbye Josh McDaniels, off to Indianapolis, and Patricia, gone to Detroit, and OL coach Dante Scarnecchia to retirement, changes are coming in Boston.

WASTED OPPORTUNITY….Tom Brady could not have done more in the game, the (505Y)-3TD performance. The last turnover wasn’t his fault, the Eagles pressured up inside, beating Marcus Cannon for the strip-sack-fumble.

ADJUSTMENTS….Brady took 8-hits in the first half from the Eagles rush. That pressure went away when New England ran the ball so well in the second half, up till the final series that triggered the hit and the turnover.

INTANGIBLE….As wild as the game was, big plays everywhere, the key drive was the Nick Foles 75-yard drive late in the 4th quarter, a drive that went (7:01) but consumed nearly 10-minutes of rest time for a beleaguered Philly defense. That blow gave them a second win and the push they needed to rally lat win the game to pressure Brady into the turnover.

REPLAY RERUN….Instant replay couldn’t screw up this game, with the long review of the Zach Ertz TD. It will fuel the offseason debate ‘What is a Catch’. The key, Ertz caught the ball, made a football move, became a runner, dove to the end zone, crossed the plane of the goalline, like a running back, for the TD. End of debate, even if the ball was moving in his hands. The off season will be fun to watch.

JUST ASKING…the hottest question that should have been asked on Belicheck’s conference call on Monday, “Do you regret benching Butler?”. “Is this loss on you for that decision?” Doubt he could have talked his way out of that one.

JUST ASKING….Have they stopped partying in Philadelphia? How creative and aggressive is Doug Pederson? How good were the acquisitions of Alshon Jeffrey, LeGarrete Blount, Tim Jernigan, Chris Long, Torrey Smith, and the MVP Foles?

TV RATINGS…This is hard to believe, the Super Bowl ratings dropped 7-percent from last year, despite the heroics and the game going to the final play…in fact the lowest TV ratings since 2009….(47.4) rating nationwide. In Philadelphia it has a (56.2) rating….in Boston (55.9)….and in hometown hosting Minneapolis (54.9)….Buffalo had highest rating market (56.6) this year.

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“Super Game-Super Bowl Sunday”

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The Eagle has landed….to pick up the Vince Lombardi Trophy. Philadelphia won the Super Bowl, making two big plays on the New England Patriots final 2-possessions, positing the (41-33) come from behind win.

And what would you expect from the two best teams in the NFL, this going down to the final play of the final game of the season, in the wildest game ever played in all the Super Bowls.

The Eagles, with its aggressive play-calling coach Doug Pederson. Philadelphia led by a spectacular series of games by backup quarterback Nick Foles. And the guys wearing green, it’s defense making two huge plays at the end, after being pushed to the point of exhaustion by the brilliance of Tom Brady.

Pick any big play and it could have changed everything.

Derrick Grahame’s strip sack of Brady late in the 4th quarter that led to the game winning field goal.

The Eagles secondary, collapsing to deny Brady’s Hail Mary pass to Rob Gronkowski on the final play of the game.

The outcome of the game very much in doubt with the two teams combining for an all time record (1,151) yards of offense.

The Eagles attacked early on the edge and built a big lead. They hit New England with a ton of big plays, and scored on all 4-possesions in the second half, blunting that comeback.

The Patriots kept making its own big plays, 13-plays of plus 20-yards or more, and stormed back scoring on 5-straight possessions against one of the best defenses in the NFL.

Both coaches pulled out all stops. Who would have thought a Bill Belicheck team would try a wildcat-reverse option pass to Tom Brady, only to have it fall off his hands.

And Pederson countered with his own gadget play , a wildcat formation TD pass to Foles for a score.

Even instant replay couldn’t screw this game up, allowing Zach Ertz catch-run-dive for a TD reception to stand for a huge TD. The receiver became a runner, took his 3-steps to the end zone, cracked the goal line before the ball was bobbled.

Of course there were mistakes, the Patriots missing a field goal, missing a PAT, and failing on a 4th down. The Eagles missed 3-PATs in the game.

When they were done, the Patriots had (613Y) to (538) for the Eagles. Brady threw for (505) and 3-scoxres. Folks went for (374) and 3-TDs almost matching him on the stat sheet..

It was edge of your seat offense, with the two teams hitting plays that covered 30-43-47-50 when the Pats had the ball. The Eagles countered with big plays of 34-36-55.

Just when it appeared the Eagles were about to succumb to another Brady comeback, win Foles led his offense on a critical 7-minute drive for a score…that gave their defense a good 15-minute blow on the sideline. That gave Derrick Grahame and that side of the ball a chance to rally back on the final Pats drives for the strip-sack fumble, and the final play of the game too.

All week long it seemed it would be New England against everyone else.

And nationwide now, everyone is saluting the Eagles, not because everyone was tired of Brady and the dour Belicheck, but because Philadelphia earned this one., from start to the finish.

A spectacular season ending game. A Super Game on a Super Bowl Sunday. Paint it green. Paint it Eagles victory.

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