“Golf’s Greatest-About to Go Away”

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They tee off tomorrow in the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines.

I spent a chunk of yesterday morning talking golf, some about the redesign of the course, some about players, some about styles, and some with the world’s #1-ranked golfer, the Aussie Jason Day.

And then it dawned on me, we are watching the end of an era.

Day is the best the globe has to offer. Rory McIlroy flashed on the seen just a couple of years ago, as the so-called heir apparent. Jordan Spieth has given us glimpses of thrills.

The baton, whether we want to admit it, has been passed.

Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods are in the twilight time of what have been glorious careers.

I don’t know if we can compare that duo to the impact that Arnie Palmer and Jack Nicklaus had on the game in the 1960s and 70s, but Phil and Tiger surely have dominated.

Woods, coming off three back surgeries, and prior to that, his sex scandal, has never really recaptured the dominance, nor regained his global popularity..

79-wins is a spectacular number. 14-Grand Slams is even greater. But that all appears in the rear-view mirror.

The last time Woods raised a major trophy was 2008, playing, limping thru, then winning the US Open right here at Torrey Pines, on a broken leg.

He hasn’t won on the tour since 2013. He is now (41) and no longer a picture of health. He has made millions, but lost alot of luster in his life.

Mickelson has had health issues, a joint disease, that has taken away some of his game. He is coming off double hernia surgery.

The “fans man” has 42-careeer wins…and has won 5-majors. And all those second place finishes (6) in the US Open.

But even he has suffered a jolt to his reputation, especially the SEC-insider trader scandal with gambling friends in Las Vegas.

Neither may ever win again on the tour. Oh there will be brilliant rounds, but there will be an inability to string together 4-good days in a row.

There shouldn’t be sadness about all this, for it is the landscape of all sports. Stars get old, and are replaced the next wave of young studs arrving on the scene.

But spending time with Jason Day made me think of his countryman from Australia, Greg Norman, the last great Aussie.

And that made me think of Arnie’s Army and the Golden Bear.

And then I looked at Tiger and Phil on the driving range, and realized it all.

Forever remembering the glare-and-stare of Woods coming down the fairway, pushing his way to the top of the leaderboard on any given Sunday.

Forever remembering the constant smile of Mickelson to the galleries and how much fun it was to see him interact with one and all.

“Team is Gone-Team is Coming”

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An interesting day in San Diego, this Monday of press conferences.

Life goes on, though life is a bit empty, two weeks removed from the Chargers decision to leave San Diego.

But the day brought hope of something different for sports fans.

A combined Soccer-Aztecs stadium at the Qualcomm sight, to replace the crumbling relic we have had since the late 1960’s.

This one has promise. This one could bring us another team to root for, an expansion team in Major League Soccer.

This one could house the Aztecs football program too, in a cozy venue that could set 30-to-40,000 fans.

This one could alleviate the financial drain on the city of San Diego over the constant expenditure for the upkeep of the Q.

FS-Investors, led by Michael Stone, is prepared to purchase all 166-acres of land at the Q-sight on Friars Road from the city.

Their game plan is to build a shiny new stadium to house an expansion MLS soccer team, house the Aztecs, and import games from Liga-MX, Mexico’s first division soccer league.

The plan also entails having English Premeir League teams train and play games here, when people like Chelsea and Manchester United make their US tours.

The stadium would also house a soccer academy for the development of young American players.

It could serve as a training sight base for the US World Cup soccer program, where the climate is mostly near perfect.

In the bigger picture, once Qualcomm is torn down, the city no longer has to pay for blood-letting upkeep.

The blueprint includes a 16-acre parcel of land that could be used for an NFL stadium. There’s a 55-acre San Diego River Park. There would be a San Diego State 800-unit dormitory development and possibly apartments for faculty.

Add in mixed business use buildings for academic research, restaurants and entertainment venues, and you might have a mini-Gaslamp district in Mission Valley.

How would this succeed, where so many idea plans for a Chargers Stadium failed?

Simple, cost. A 200M-soccer-football venue, with multiple guaranteed revenue streams to start, all privately funded by FS and SDSU.

No 1.2B financial drain, no tax money, no vote from the citizens needed, no Dean Spanos demands, no Mark Fabiani derogatory comments.

It’s a very different blueprint with a very different financing model.

San Diego needs to move quickly with meetings with the Mayor-Council and SDSU.

The FS investment group will make a 150M-application on January 31st with MLS for an expansion team. There is competition of course. The Palace Sports Group, owners of the Detroit Pistons, will file too. So will the ownership of the legendary former NASL Tampa Bay Rowdies, as well as other cities.

But San Diego has population, has climate, and has a big reputation of soccer support, fueled by the fact the World Cup on TV had the second highest TV ratings in the country, here in San Diego.

For one day we were able to put aside our anger and angst over what the Chargers did to the community. For one day, we could imagine ‘what if-what would it mean’?

The next two weeks will be fast and furious. We may have had one team yanked out from beneath us, but we might get another team (MLS), and surely take care of our remaining football team (SDSU).

Thru the driving rain and the cold temperatures of a Monday, we found the sun does come up another day in San Diego. It looks different, feels different, but might be a positive.

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“Lots of Opinions-Lots of Stories”

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CHARGERS….Not much more can be said about the dislike-hatred-lack of respect being directed now at Chargers owner Dean Spanos. He is taking hits from all sides now, in this city, in LA, and around the nation. His impulsive action has buried once and for all his credibility and business acumen. Welcome to the first week of the rest of your life, which you have ruined.

NFL….League office has a black eye too, for either granting Spanos permission to have an option to move to LA, or for not trying to take the extra step forward to creatively do a ‘bridge loan’ to help out in the interim. Don’t care to hear now from Roger Goodell about post-scripts. N-F-L now stands for ‘no fan loyalty’.

ANTI-TRUST SUITS…Who knows who is going to finance an anti-trust action against Goodell and Spanos for what happened to the San Diego market? Who knows if they can get an injunction? Who knows if they could ever win, and how long would it take? Shall be an interesting couple of weeks to see what Mayor Kevin Faulconer does.

DID YOU KNOW…The day the Chargers unveiled their LA pep rally press conference, was the 22nd anniversary of the greatest day in Chargers history, the AFC championship win in Pittsburgh and the party that night at the Stadium. Shame on Spanos for forgetting what winning did to this city and what that team meant to San Diego fans.

PATRIOTS…Playing the best at the right time. You many not like Bill Belicheck, but the eye for talent and role players who fit all the things Tom Brady can do, is impressive. WR-Chris Hogan was a castoff from Buffalo. Julian Edelman bounced around. LeGarrett Blount had multiple problems elsewhere. Tom Brady brings it all together. An amazing accomplishment. Brady (17-3) in postseason at home. Belicheck now with 25-career wins.

STEELERS…Lots of disappointment in Pittsburgh, but this was a building year for a young defense, notably in the secondary. Once RB-Le’Veon Bell got hurt, Ben Roethlisberger’s offensive options were gone. Getting Matavis Bryant back off suspension, the return to health of Ladarius Green and Derrius Heyward-Bey will make a big difference.

FALCONS…They’ve been building for this for awhile, putting all the bullets in QB-Matt Ryan’s gun. WR-Mo Sanu, the discovery of two kid tight ends, the two-headed monsters at RB-Freeman-Coleman, makes Atlanta dynamic and dangerous.

PACKERS…Tough to imagine things going downhill around Aaron Rodgers, but that’s not much of an offensive line, not much of a run game, and not much of a secondary. The Packers need to rethink free agency, and become somewhat of a player. Rodgers is the flag carrier, but he deserves better than what he has now.

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APOLOGIES…Website has been down for a couple of days because of connectivity problems with server and company that runs it. . I can provide lots of content, but technology prevented fans from getting access to it.

“Big League Becomes Bush League”

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Have you ever seen anything as sad as the Chargers ownership attempts to make a ‘splash’ into the #2-market in the country, Los Angeles.

The so-called Pep Rally to welcome the Chargers to LA, was held inside the 17,000-seat Forum, the former home of the Lakers.

All of 200-showed up. 200 in a market of 8-million, and yet there was the owner of the team praising the fan support they have received in the five days or so since the move was announced.

Then there was an angry Chargers, standing up and screaming at Spanos, as the owner was attempting to address the crowd in a 3-minute typed in advance speech.

When the fan was done, he committed the ultimate insult, throwing his Chargers jersey onto the floor, where all the rich people were supposed to sit, but was filled with empty seats. He exited by giving the Chargers owner the finger, on both hands.

And that was Dean Spanos who also turned his back and walked away when approached by the San Diego media.

There was the senior son, AG Spanos, known as Mama’s boy to employees who don’t like him, being unable to link a noun and a verb when questioned by the media about season ticket plans, PSL’s and more. His claim to fame, he cut ticket prices, designed the uniforms, and saw team revenues go from 15th place to 28th place, since Dad gave him the job.

John Spanos, the President of Football Operations, was the only one with the brass to stand and hold an intelligent conversation with the media, talking about the excitement of playing in a compact stadium, and talking about the future of a pretty good young team, if they can get it all healthy.

Commissioner Roger Goodell spent 3-minutes talking to the media, admitting he knows San Diego fans are hurting and angry, and admitting the NFL, as an entity is hurting too. And just like that, he was gone before any more hostile questions could be asked. More empty rhetoric from an NFL league office that cares more about profits, than product and relationships.

So much for football and family ads.

All this on the heels of the rather uncomfortable press conferences, where Philip Rivers was peppered with questions about these ‘trade rumors’, or Jason Verrett sounding uneducated about what Chargers football meant to San Diego fans, but how excited he was to be in LA..

Of course, the nationwide mocking of the Chargers, changing their logo four times in six days, and the way the exit strategy from San Diego was held by an owner, who acted like a coward.

And now all the rumblings from people within, that Spanos gave real lukewarm support to Measure C, and that this move was planned for an entire calendar year.

Off to the side was Fred Maas, the point man in San Diego, the one who mocked John Moores for all he did on behalf of the Padres, and who then left town. Maas told CW-6 how he had come to know and respect Dean Spanos, the same guy, who now is taking the money and running to the bigger market in Los Angeles.

I guess when you are rich, like the 1st family of football is, you can do anything you want, treat anybody anyway you want, because you are a Spanos, you own an NFL team.

You pick the word to describe the first week of the Los Angeles Chargers.

Sick. Shabby. Shameful. All starts with the letter “S”, just like the Spanos last name.

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“Hall of Fame-Admit Hall of Shame People?”

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They open the doors to more of baseball’s greats in Cooperstown tonight, when the Hall of Fame Class of 2017 is introduced.

Modern day stars like Jeff Bagwell, a lifetime (.297) hitter with 494-career home runs in Houston, seems like a slam dunk.

So does Montreal Expos icon Tim Raines, a (.294) hitter who had (808) stolen bases in a great career.

The Padres Trevor Hoffman is on the brink also, the first ever reliever to get to the 600-saves mark, finishing with (601).

But the discussion points all day today, and certainly tomorrow, will swirl around Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens.

Indicted and sued for illegal PED use, Bonds wound up in a perjury trial. The same for Clemens, for his lies infront of Congress.

Neither was convicted because of technicalities, but in the court of public opinion, their life time accomplishments were fueled by syringe needles.

Bonds broke the single season home run record, hitting 73, surpassing Mark McGuire. Bonds never admitted to steroid use, though every piece of evidence exists he did, and a positive drug test exists. At least McGuire admitted he did steroids to help heal injuries, early in his career.

Bonds career record of 762 homers and his (.298) batting average are held in dispute for all the did with the Giants. You think of Bonds, and you think of his Balco trainer, Greg Anderson, pinpointed as a drug dealer.

Clemens won the Cy Young award 7-times, and his (354-184) record of accomplishments, all seem tainted too. You mention Clemens, and sleazy trainer Brian McNamee, syringes and gauze pads, all come to mind.

McGuire never got into the Hall. Rafael Palmiero left baseball with all those home runs, but in disgrace for lying about postive tests. Sammy Sosa, who dueled McGuire in home run derby years, has never gotten votes.

There is much screeching today that Commissioner Bud Selig will be inducted next summer. He did many great things on behalf of the game, but the steamy collusion lawsuit and the lack of drug testing were also part of his era.

Of course, Donald Fehr and the union blocked drug testing for years upon years, so this was not all on Selig. But he could have fought a better fight, and he didn’t.

So today’s vote totals will come with drama, and there will be spillover. The Hall of Fame rules about eligibility mention the words “integrity, sportsmanship and character”. Can you mention those words in the same sentence as Bonds and Clemens names?

But if we connect the dots, you have to ask about other Hall of Famers.

Tony LaRussa got in for his accomplishments as a manger, and he obviously looked the other way during the eras of the Bash Brothers (Canseco-McGuire-Giambi) in Oakland and then with Big Mac in St. Louis.

Ty Cobb was a a scoundrel and a cheat. Cap Anson was a racist. Babe Ruth was a womanizer. Hack Wilson was a drunk.

But the social styles of those did not impact the integrity of the game, but rather how they lived and acted.

Bonds and Clemens did things that changed the game, impacted the outcomes. If they had bought steroids and PED’s on street corners, they would have been arrested. Just because they shot up in hotel rooms, locker-rooms, or in gyms, does not make it right.

Bats and balls and gloves earn players the right to enter Cooperstown. Syringes, viles, creams do not.

The basball record book is the bible of our game. Baseball history is so important to this game. Bonds and Clemens forever stained the pages of the record books.

They should never be allowed to have their names, faces, stats on a plaque in the hallowed halls of Cooperstown.

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