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“Tennis-Tired of the Trash Talk”

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It’s been a week since the sleazy ending of the US Open Tourney in Flushing Meadow, the tourney where the Serena Williams temper tantrum overshadowed the huge victory of Japanese sensation Naomi Osaka.

Serena was slapped with 17,000-in fines, besieged with a cavalcade of boos from the fans, and created such an uproar that Osaka broke into tears at the trophy presentation.

Williams outrage at penalties imposed by the chair came as a result of ‘her’ violation of the rules, taking instruction from her coach during the finals match.

She went into full throated screeching, calling the chair judge a thief….demanding an apology for the insinuation she was cheating.

More points after she smashed her racket in anger after line calls and poor play.

And it went on and on, as Osaka piled up points in the straight set win.

Then the uproar during the Osaka trophy presentation, which triggered an overflow of boos,…followed by another tirade in the post match press conference.

It’s one thing to criticize the chair, hell that was a common sight during the Jon McEnroe-Ilie Nastase era.

But then to insinuate it was gender related, guys get away with more than women on the court…and then infer had something to with white-vs-black. Penalty points everywhere.

And to finish it off, she decided to pull out the ‘woe-is-me’ …’I am the mother of a young baby’ card as if that has anything to do with the game itself.

Credit Serena with a spectacular bounce back to form, to get to the finals of Wimbledon and the US Open, just 9-months after a tough birth-delivery.

But she’s not the first athlete to struggle to regain form after childbirth. And how many times do we have to list to the sad song of how tough it was. Mother and baby are fine.

Mother’s tennis game is still pretty good too.

But Mom’s attitude has gone into double-fault status.

And the New York Times did a research piece on Grand Slam events going back two decades, who was penalized for what in scraps with the chair judges.

Fines by Gender at Grand Slam Tournaments
All Fines, 1998-2018 Men Women
Racket Abuse 646 99
Audible Obscenity 344 140
Unsportsmanlike Conduct 287 67
Coaching 87 152
Ball Abuse 49 35
Verbal Abuse 62 16
Visible Obscenity 20 11

A bad display of sportsmanship has become a growing concern for Serena Williams. She has carried the sport as a superstar for so long. Why sully the reputation.

She’s greater that Steffi Graff, Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert and Billie Jean King.

Serena needs to get back to that style, not just on the court, but with her public image.

The only thief on the court, the only cheat on the court, was Serena, for what should have been a breathtaking moment for the young Japanese star, that instead turned into a crying session.

Serena stole the moment, and cheated her competitor out of a memory for a lifetime. That’s a double fault on Williams reputation.

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“When is Losing Acceptable?”

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In baseball terms, maybe we need to issue a ‘free-pass’ to the San Diego Padres ownership and leadership for this summer of bad last place baseball.

At least we are not the Baltimore Orioles with a (43-107) record with bad ownership and a failed farm system. San Diego is not the Reds, nor Kansas City where losing has returned after the World Series appearances.

The Padres hope to be the next Astros or Cubs, going thru summers of suffering, waiting for a truckload of minor leaguers to arrive.

It’s too early to tell if there is a Jose Altuve-Carlos Correa-George Springer group of stars in San Diego yet.

1-thing is certain, 14-rookie have made their debuts in this (60-90) learn on the job summer.

Hunter Renfroe has arrived. We are awaiting the return to health of Fernando Tatis-Luis Urias to see if that is the double play combination for a decade.

Franmill Reyes has hit his way into some type of consideration for everyday plate, at least with his bat, but not so much his glove.

We have seen Manny Margot and Austin Hedges,

The flashes of kid-catcher Francisco Mejia have been impressive with his power displays.

We now know Joey Luchessi and Eric Lauer can pitch. You only hope Dinelson Lamet and Luis Pedomo return to form from arm problems.

The hard-throwing kid releivers Castillo-Wingenter-Maton all appear tohave roles.

The next wave of pitching talent will show up in the spring with an opportunity to show they belong, most notably Logan Allen and Calvin Quantrill.

The team is sending 71-prospects, from its 8-farmclubs, to the Arizona Fall League for further play and instruction.

The truckload of Cubans they signed 2-summers ago are all expected to move up a notch or two in the farm system, though Adrian Morejon and Jorge Ona seem miles and miles away still.

This year’s draft crop, led by Owen Miller and othrs had great debut seasons, but that’s in the lower minors, not close to the National League level.

This summer has been hard to watch. High ERAs, record strikeouts, poor defensive lapses, and more trades of veteran pitching.

But for the bad spell of 23-losses in 28-games, with the terrible spring plunge, when they went from 4-games under .500 to 31-games under that mark, you always knew the blueprint was in place, and patience was going to be as important as base hits, home runs and ERAs.

So we sit here with just 1-more short homestand left after this Giants series.

We see some progress, but of course there are still lots of questions.

Losing wears you out. Attendance may just sneak across the 2-million threshold, where once upon a time, the team, in the new ballpark, drew 3M.

I will issue a ‘free pass’ to the Fowler-Seidler ownership group and the Preller-led front office, this one time only..

The Padres may lose 95-again this year, but they are ahead of the curve in terms of talent arriving, and more to be delivered. I’d rather be in San Diego rather than Baltimore-Cincinnati-Kansas City, and I’m not just talking about the wether.

This is the 1-summer where losing has to be acceptable. Next year, better be a .500-team. A playoff team in two years.

That’s what my blueprint reads. Their’s better too.

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“Aztecs Football-Great Things-Unnoticed”

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In a city that no longer has an NFL franchises….with a baseball team in what appears to be a lifetime of rebuilding…there’s only 1-winner in town.

Rocky Long-leader of the San Diego State football program.

It’s not just about winning seasons, or victories in second level bowl games.

it’s about beating big time teams, scoring victories over rivals who once dominated them.

It’s about preparation in games…adjustments in games….demands of attention to detail…and recruiting good kids and good student athletes, developing them as players and people.

It may be old school, but it works, witness Saturday nights win over Arizona State.

The Aztecs, without their quarterback Christian Chapman, used the next man up, Ryan Agnew to manage the game.

They went back to old reliable, a sledgehammer running game, with Juwan Washington and Chase Jasmin to pile up (311Y) against a Pac 12-school.

And then it was vintage Rocky-ball defense..that choked off Sun Devils QB-Manny Wilken. Go ahead and complete 31-passes…throw for nearly 400-yards…but good luck getting it into the end zone. They gave up just 2-touchdowns to one of the Pac 12’s big time throwers.

It was remnants of a huge upset win over Cal, at that time led by NFL quarterback Davis Webb, who threw for a ton except into the end zone.

Long may be the best we have ever seen at making adjustments during the heat of battle, and he’s doing it with roster much less talented than say Alabama’s Nick Saban.

Flashback and remember them beating Stanford and ASU last year; Cal the year before that; the conference playoff wins in Wyoming; winning at Boise State; the come from behind bowl battering they gave the Houston Cougars.

Add in long distance field goal kicker John Baron, a definite NFL prospect, and you have a mix of talent that has led this program to a (66-30) record since taking over the Red & Black.

They are going to run the ball downhill. They are going to beat you up on defense. The coaching staff will move the Xs and Os around till you cannot score anymore.

Pick a nickname, “Running Back U”…..”Linebackers Are Us”…..”1-City-1 Team”….and it all fits.

In a city that has lost so much, Aztecs football is winning. Time for football fans to notice that, and fill the stadium every home game.

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“Kid Quarterbacks-Growing Up on the Job”

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We’re headed to the second weekend of the NFL season, and so much is expected of all these new quarterbacks in the league, and so little ready to show it.

Much was made of last weekends new head coaches, who debuted. None of them won, not Jon Gruden in Oakland, or Matt Patricia in Detroit, the two biggest names hired in the off season.

In fact, the new coaches went a combined (0-7) in their debut games.

And the failure rate of the quarterbacks was fairly high also.

Baker Mayfield, the 1st pick in the draft, never got off the bench in the Cleveland Browns tie with the Steelers. Maybe he was lucky, because starter Tyrod Taylor took a fierce beating.

Lamar Jackson may be the future of the Baltimore Ravens, but he’s not the starter yet, and playing in certain packages on offense when both he and Joe Flacco are in the formation at the same time.

The best start came from Sam Darnold, who threw a pick-six on his first NFL pass, but did not make a mistake the rest of the way on a 194-yard passing day for the Jets.

Arizona lost badly in its debut game with veteran QB-Sam Bradford getting shutout out of the end zone. Rookie QB-Josh Rosen did not get off the bench because of a thumb injury suffered two weeks ago.

In Buffalo, it was as unprofessional a start to a season as you could imagine, the frightful 47-3 beating the Bills suffered in Baltimore. Their high first round pick Josh Allen did not start, but did play, after the benching starter of Nathan Perryman. It wasn’t pretty, a 17-quarterback rating, 6-sacks, 0-TDs. And now Allen is being pushed into the starting job this weekend against the Chargers.

Not pretty at all, but then again, that’s what happens. Quarterbacks go at the top of the draft board, and usually to just terrible teams.

Of course thee are exceptions to the rules, the years Cam Newton and Robert Griffin III arrived, or even last year’s dynamic performance of DeShaun Watson in Houston before he got hurt.

Don’t expect much more positive news this weekend. Those kid quarterbacks will be under siege, and that means good stats and wins will hardly follow..

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“NFL Notes-Talents & Troubles”

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Here-There-Everywhere….Observations about the NFL

CHARGERS….18M people live in the 5-county area around Los Angeles, and the Chargers still cannot sellout the Stub-Hub Center, with what is supposed to be a good football team. Empty seats, lots of Chiefs red in the stands last Sunday, as well tarps over the stadium’s upper deck. The embarrassment of the Spanos family operation never ceases. Wonder if NFL-Park Avenue notices?

RAIDERS….They played on boil over emotion for the first half and then the Rams talent level took over and the second half was a ghastly setback for Jon Gruen’s team. They seem in scramble mode for talent, and the tidal wave of criticism over the Khalil Mack trade is not going to go away. And neither is the city of Oakland threat of an anti-trust lawsuit against Mark Davis.

CHIEFS….Andy Reid’s defense gave up 550-yards plus to Philip Rivers, and yet they won. But Kansas City needs to be worried about the overhaul of that defense, and who they’ve replaced them with. This Eric Berry injury issue is not resolved, and if he’s gone for an extended time, they might not have enough defense to hold up.

BRONCOS….Pretty good coming out party for new QB-Case Keenum (339Y), but the real story might be the arrival of the rookie running back combo of Royce Freeman-Phil Lindsey (129Y) rushing on the ground. And what a day for Von Miller. Did you see the stats, 3-sacks, 4-QB hits, 3-tackle for losses, 2-forced fumbles, 1-recovered fumble. Wow !

JETS…It only counts as one game, but that was quite a start for Sam Darnold. He did not look like some star-struck rookie quarterback, of course it’s just one game, and the Jets don’t have a juggernaut around him.

LIONS….Lots of coaches have come off the Bill Belicheck tree, and yes, most of them have done poorly. Nasty gash of a start for Matt Patricia, his quarterback throwing four picks, and the gobs of big plays his team gave up all night long.

MINNESOTA….So that’s what a team looks like with a great defense augmented by a dynamic quarterback throwing down the field. Kirk Cousins and Vikings defense looks like a great combo.

STEELERS…..Is Pittsburgh a fractured team? Sure looks that way as the L’Veon Bell holdout continues and players are sounding off. When teammates start using words like ‘selfish’…..’F’d us” and more you have a problem within that lockeroom And then Ben Roethlisberger throws interceptions in the rain, and they wind up in a tie with lowly Cleveland.

COLTS….Didn’t win their opener, but got their quarterback thru the game. Still think Andrew Luck runs too much, and took too many hits-sacks in their opening loss vs the Bengals.

BUFFALO….So much for last year’s exciting turnaround season. So they trade away Tyrod Taylor, trade for, then deal away quarterback AJ Mccarran before the season starts. Then the awful (11-33) performance of Nathan Peterman-Josh Allen. Ever see an NFL team have a quarterback rating of (17). That’s what Bills fans got this past weekend. What a mess, and just 15-weeks left in their season.

BROWNS….They really played hard, though Tyrod Taylor had to carry the load and took a lot of hits, but they could get better on offense. The defense looks loaded, and Myles Garrett seems like th real deal.

COWBOYS…..It’s been awhile since the Cowboys were real good, and based on this past weekend, they don’t look very good on offense. It is amazing no one in Dallas, fans nor media, ever wants to hold Jerry Jones accountable for what this team has become.

SEATTLE….Pete Carroll is trying to circle the wagons. The very unflattering Sports Illustrated story about the coach ripping up his roster, after his roster criticized the coach for his handling of QB-Russell Wilson. Carroll doesn’t have a good team on he field right now, and he’s got a lot of credibility issues spilling over as the Legion of Boom era ends.

NEW ENGLAND….Guess as long as hey keep winning, and Tom Brady is still standing, the Patriots will win, bu tif you look at the amazing weekly roster turnover with Bill Belicheck’s team, you wonder if he has lost his touch on analyzing player talent. Running back and wide receiver has been a turnstile on a weekly basis.

SAN FRANCISCO….Yes Jimmy Garoppolo was unbeaten at the tail end of last season after coming over from the Pats in that trade, but he had an erratic preseason, going (8-18) and (9-19) in August, and then started the season poorly in their opening loss. Has the league caught up to him?

GREEN BAY….Did Aaron Rodgers give us a Brett Favre type performance, hurt and a helluva passing display? Sure looks that way. Will have to see how long his injury factor with this knee lingers on.

TAMPA BAY….No Jameis Winston, with that suspension from the issue with an Uber driver, but no problem with his backup, Ryan Fitzpatrick, who threw for over 400 and 4-TDs in the Bucs opening win. We’ll see if Fitzpatrick can continue this type of output the next 3-Sundays.

NEW ORLEANS….They played defense last year at the Superdome, and had a good season. They didn’t do it on opening day Sunday, allowing 48-pints, so now it appears that Drew Brees may have to throw for 5,000-yards this year for the Saints to win a bunch of games..

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