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Lakers–NBA…Chaos to Championship”

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That era was over, one of many to pass into history.

Jerry West-Elgin Baylor.

Magic Johnson and Showtime.

Shaq and Kobe and Phil.

The last six years have been horrible.

All franchises have to go thru rebuilding, but these were the Jerry Buss owned Los Angeles Lakers, winners of 16-NBA trophies.

It was horrible, as the legendary owner passed on, and that last of the legacy players, Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant left, as did Coach Phil Jackson.

What replaced the Lakers was dysfunction and then disaster, as the children of the late Dr. Buss fought for control of the once proud franchise.

Jim Buss and Jeanie Buss became embroiled in a horrid fight for control of the team.

The franchise fell into disarray.  The Dwight Howard experiment proved disastrous.  The future center, Andrew Bynum physically broke down and was dealt away.

They tried to deal for Houston Rockets guard Chris Paul, but were blocked by the league office, losing him to the LA Clippers across the hallway, as the Clippers began their own drive to fix a decades long losing franchise.

The once proud team could not even get marquee free agents like Carmelo Anthony and LaMarcus Aldridge to accept their ‘max’ free agent offers.

Jim Buss authorized gross contracts given to C-Tim Mozgov (64M) and ex Bull Luol Deng (72M).  It got so bad, the Lakers paid Deng 18M not to play the final year of his contract after benching him for large segments of the year prior.

The spillover stained the career of then GM-Mitch Kupchack, caught in the front office crossfire.  Young aspiring coach Luke Walton was removed.

Tyronn Lue and others turned down coaching offers to take over the troubled franchise.

A revolving door of Lakers coaches fell victim to the politics games upstairs, and lost struggles to control the egos of players along the way.

And to add insult to injury, the NBA disciplined the Lakers three times for tampering, with fines stretching from 50,000 to 500,000-dollars for making comments about other teams soon to be free agents.

Magic Johnson came out of retirement,promising better days, but did not deliver, eventually quitting on the team the final night of the season.

Jeanie Buss won a power struggle with her brother, ousting him and a second brother from operational control of the team.

Super agent Rob Pelinka, Kobe Bryant’s trusted friend, took over the team and laid the ground work as the Mamba moved to the twilight of his career..  They started to rebuild thru the draft, with Kyle Kuzma, Brandon Ingram and Josh Hart.

The convinced LeBron James to leave Cleveland, set up shop at Staples Center and begin a post-basketball career in Hollywood with a movie production company.

Then Pelinka used all of his assets to swing the blockbuster trade with New Orleans to land the best big man in the game Anthony Davis.

The year 2020 goes down not just for the Orlando bubble, the Covid-crisis, but the sad death of Kobe Bryant and the outpouring of NBA emotion over his loss.

The Lakers played well because of their 2-man superstar team.  They found bench parts. But they dominated because of the fierce pride, leadership and basketball expertise of King James and the gifts of AD.

Lakers basketball turned from dysfunction to distinction in winning the ring.  Whether this is a one-off or beginning of something akin to the next dynsasty, only next season will tell.

But from chaos to a championship, it was a special run.

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“Some do it Right–Others don’t”

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You watch CNN’s around-the-clock reports on the Virus-Crisis, and you wonder how the country is not paralyzed.

You see the sports teams playing, and you wonder how much longer this can go-before everything is shutdown.

The US map shows ‘red states’ everywhere, those being states with explosive virus outbreak numbers.

The NFL continues to add updated testing.  Not only are all players and staff members being tested  daily, now the league will go to PCR-Swab testing on the morning of game-days now.  Scared by what happened in Tennessee.

The league is now seriously considering a ‘hotel bubble’ for all teams once the playoffs start, if the league can get to the playoffs.  The Titans crisis has to scare them.

College football continues to play but now the SEC seems on the brink of a serious outbreak.  Nationally ranked Florida shutdown its football operations on Tuesday because of positive tests in its football team on Tuesday.  Vanderbilt has just cancelled its game next weekend because of the outbreak.

MLB is in the midst of their playoffs, and have now gone 48-days without a positive test, with all their teams in quarantine hotels now for the postseason.

The NBA crowned the Lakers as champions this week and the most impressive statistic, not the Lakers 17th NBA title, but the league went 96-days without a positive test in the bubble.

Same thing for the NHL, which went 9-weeks, 90-days, without a positive test in the Toronto-Edmonton hub cities they held the playoffs.

But all is not well.  The Quebec Junior Hockey League is now completely shutdown.  Last week, 18-players on one team, Blainville Armada tested positive.  Now 8-players from Sherbrooke tested positive.  Then Tuesday morning came reports that players on 7-other teams in the league have tested positive since the weekend.  Shockingly, we now find the QMJHL was not testing players because of costs, letting them play till they got sick.  It is spreading.

Daily testing and quarantining teams, players, coaches seems to be the only solution.  The rich and famous teams and athletes can do this.  People, like you, me, the guy down the street, don’t have that luxury.

Tough times, likely to get tougher, before they get better.  The Covid virus seems to be winning against everyone.

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“Baseball Grieves the Loss of Heroes”

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The strangest baseball season in history, has also become the saddest.

Baseball has said goodbye to 5-of its greatest people over the last seven weeks.

JOE MORGAN…the quiet little leader of the Cincinnati Reds Big Red Machine,passed away after a battle with a nerve disorder.  The 2nd baseman started his career with the Astros, was given away in a deal to the Reds, and hit a ton of homers,hit for average, stole bases, won Gold Gloves, and was a 10-time All Star.  L’il Joe was not as popular as Johnny Bench, Tony Perez, George Foster, Davey Concepcion, but was a rock solid piece of glue.

WHITEY FORD…the quiet Yankees pitcher, nicknamed ‘Chairman of the Board’ was a spectacular pitcher for the great 1950s Yankees team.  Crafty and shifty, he 24-and-25 games in different seasons, dominated World Series games, and was a 16-year anchor in Casey Stengel’s rotation.  And he ran the streets with Mickey Mantle-Billy Martin-Hank Bauer-Roger Maris.

BOB GIBSON….he changed the game on the mound, not just for the Cardinals but for baseball.  As fierce a competitor as the game ever saw, and maybe the most dominant pitcher in the modern day game.  Can you picture anyone with a (1.12-ERA) as he had in 1984?  What about 15-wins in a row during that season?  Or 12-shutouts in that 15-win string.

LOU BROCK…he revolutionized the offense aspect of the game as a base stealer.  Lost in all his accomplishment running the bases, was his power hitting ability, his gold glove.  His quiet demeanour  offset the brashness of others in his clubhouse.  History writes the most lopsided trade in baseball history, the one that brought him to the Cards from the Cubs for journeyman pitcher Ernie Broglio.

TOM SEAVER…The anchor of the great Mets pitching staff.  A warrior of a starting pitcher.  He was a scientist on the mound, maybe the early day version of Greg Maddux.  A power arm that never lost its lightning, first for the Amazing Mets and then for the Cincinnati Reds.  The quiet respected intellectual leader of the 1969-Mets.

AL KALINE…Classy, gifted, the pro’s pro who spent his entire career wearing the “Old English D’ of the Detroit Tigers.  He never played an inning in the minor leagues in a career that stretched from the 1950s thru the 1960s, then into the Tigers broadcast booth.  Graceful and complete.

Pick any stat you want…impressive:

JOE MORGAN…(.271 BA..268HR..689 SB)
AL KALINE…(.297 BA…399HR)
TOM SEAVER..(311-205….2.86 ERA)
BOB GIBSON..(251-176…2.91 ERA….3,117K)
WHITEY FORD..(236-106…2.75 ERA)

Quite a team they have put together in Heaven isn’t it?
Baseball purists, who respect the game, mourn the loss this week.

Greatness gone.

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“NFL-vs-Pandemic”

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Walk down the hallway, in your office building, in a store, in an elevator.  You will see the sign.

“In case of emergency-break the glass”

The NFL may be about to reach that point this week, amid fears it is about to lose the fight with Covid-pandemic virus.

It’s not just the NFL, it’s America.

7.7M cases of positive tests in the US since March.  The death count is now heading to 215,000.  The latest outbreak is leading to 57,000 per day nationwide…new outbreaks a day.

The President says the country is ’rounding the corner’ in controlling things, as if you can believe anything he has said since March about this virus-crisis.

The NFL is just like everyone else.  They are now in the process of being impacted to the point, they have cancelled some games, but the number count is growing.

There have been positive tests in Tennessee, 23-including players, coaches and staff members.  New England had had 4-tests in a week.  Kansas City now has three in a week.  Chicago, the New York Jets , the Raiders among others.  Team facilities closed.  Practices banned.  Teams unable to prepare for games.

The NFL, like the NBA-NHL-MLB, have been exceptional in putting together testing protocols, implementing them, and dealing quickly with positive tests, outbreaks and violations.

Baseball has gone 40-days without a positive test.  The NBA concluded 8-straight weeks in the bubble without a crisis.  The NHL went 90-days, nearly 12-weeks in the hub cities with no positive tests.

But the NFL is a different set of circumstances.  It’s 69-players.  It’s 30-football related staff members.  It’s huge coaching staffs.  It’s upwards of 200-employees inside the building. on the business side.

The Union is concerned what is next, based on what happened in Tennessee.  The owners are terrified this could grow.  Their TV contracts are at risk if games are cancelled, if the season is paused, if the playoffs cannot take place.

They test daily.  They do contact testing at the first signs of a positive test.

Next up could be a costly decision to go team quarantines.  ordering all teams into hotels for the next 13-weeks of the regular season..  It might be a similar design to how hockey and basketball got thru this crisis.  But the players are upset at the prospect of being away from their families for the next 13-weeks.

There is no vaccine.  Testing is constant.  Masks are everywhere.  You cannot have social distancing on the field.

This might be last option available to prevent outbreaks.

Wake up in a hotel…go to meetings…go to workouts…go to film sessions…go to team meals….go back to the hotel and go to sleep.  Interacting with the family, via Zoom, Skype, phone calls.

Nothing is ideal in society right now

The NFL knows this is not going away despite what the White House says.

The biggest fear, this gets worse on teams and impacts more and more games.

IT may be time for the NFL to walk down the hallway and look for the sign
‘In case of emergency-break the glass’.

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“Padres—End of an Exciting Road”

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The expectations were high.
The accomplishments were many.
The disappointment  was reality.

The Padres were swept out of the National League playoffs, getting battered all night long by the Dodgers, as the best team in the National League ran the second best team, San Diego, out of the postseason, sweeping them 3-straight.

The Friars are good, maybe a top five team in baseball, not bad for a franchise that lost 92-games last year, and 90-plus three years in a row.  But they are no match for all the things the Dodgers are.

LA went (9-4) this year against the Friars.
Over the last 8-years of Dodges dominance in the NL West, they are (95-49) against San Diego.

A tough way to finish the playoff season for Fernando Tatis, who had a bad start  to the night that got worse because of what he was involved in.

Tatis was thrown out trying to steal.  He struck out with the bases loaded.  El Nino also had a throwing error that helped trigger a 5-run Dodges outburst early in the game.

The hole got deeper as the night went longer, when the Padres had to make the game a bullpen day.

Adrian Morejon went 1-2-3 on the mound to start the game, then got banged around.  Craig Stammen couldn’t get thru his inning out of the bullpen.  And the damage mounted after that.

Not having either Mike Clevinger and Dinelson Lamet at the front of the rotation made it impossible to face and beat a team that has been to the World Series.  Not trusting a struggling Chris Paddack complicated the best of five series.

Facing the best the National League had, the Padres lineup disappeared.  It has been a good season for that batting order, up till they had to ‘beat LA’.

Fernando Tatis..(3-14)
Manny Machado..(3-16)
Eric Hosmer..(3-16)
Wil Myers..(1-12)
Jake Cronenworth..(2-12)

They hit just (.183) in the three losses.  When they got guys on base, they didn’t drive them home, going (3-23) with runners in scoring position.

LA had too much veteran hitting and the better pitching.  If the Dodgers had to play the series without Clayton Kershaw-Walker Beuhler in the rotation, it probably would have been different.

Yes San Diego went (37-23) to storm into the playoffs, but there is a stat I want you to know about.

The Padres much improved batting order, put up those numbers against some atrocious pitching staffs, some of the worst in baseball, all out here in the West. So while we enjoyed the brief summer of Padres ball, understand who they beat up, six of the worst ERA staffs in all of the 30-teams in baseball:

(5.59)..Colorado
(5.09)..Angels
(5.02)..Texas
(4.98)..Mariners
(4.84)..Arizona
(4.64)..Giants

But the cruel reality is, the Friars could have matched pitching and hitting against LA, if they had their full starting rotation in place.

Didn’t happen, didn’t really have a chance.

Cody Bellinger’s home run and home run robbing catch in Game 2-of the series changed everything.  Of course Mookie Betts had 7-hits and did damage too.  The Padres could just never match them.

So the Padres come home.  There won’t be a standing ovation from the fans, because there were no fans in the stands.  It’s too bad, because if they had played a full 162-game schedule, the team would have drawn 3M in this melting pot of a marketplace.

The Padres were damn good most nights they played, but not good enough the last three nights when the other team was the Dodgers.

Bring back the Brown was fun.  Dodges Blue was better.

Looking forward to next year when the umpires yell ‘Play Ball’.

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