Trading Deadline

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Damned if you do-Damned if you don’t.

That is what baseball and baseball contracts have become in the 2000s. Players do well, they get huge salaries. Those salaries pull up the pay scale of the good player, and drags up what you have to pay mediocre talent too.

And now with the trading deadline sitting right in front of us, we see the end result. Teams out of the race, want to start to rebuild, and cannot move veterans to pennant contenders.

Why, the big city markets payrolls are bloated already, and no-one wants to take on massive salaries and give up tons of young talent.

Philadelphia needs to rebuild, but are choking on the 100M still owed to Cole Hamels, or the 60M due Cliff Lee and his ailing elbow. And they cannot give away Ryan Howard and his 25M a year deal that goes on and on. The Phillies handed out 5-massive contracts to those guys plus Chase Utley and Jimmy Rollins when they were a World Series team. Now the team is older, somewhat injured, and definitely tied to the cross with big money deals.

Small market Tampa Bay ace David Price costs his club 14M this year; next year he will get 20M, just based on the arbitration numbers he would be due. Way too rich for the Rays budget, and pretty steep for other teams to take on. He might not get dealt today because they’re in the pennant race, but he will be dealt before next year.

Even mid-level players cost too much to deal. No one really wanted Chase Headley’s .220 batting average, his 10.5M contract, and the 14M he might get next year.

For every Angel franchise with a 120M payroll, there is a Cleveland forced to deal its ace Justin Masterson yesterday with free agency looming.

For every good season an established player gets, the price tag on somebody down the line goes higher.

It’s the system for sure, a system that now guarantees players 4.1M per year average salary. Think of that. Mediocre Mendoza line guys earn 4.1M, because the stars get 25M.

Damned with the amount of money you have to pay, damned if you can’t pay it too.

So when the rest of the trades happen today, remember it is as much about the contract, as it is the player in many of these deals.

Clippers Owner

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He got what he deserved. Yes he got a lot of money. But he lives out his sorry life filled with scorn.

Donald Sterling, welcome to the despair you have created for yourself. The Clippers owner has lost his NBA franchise.

An LA judge ruled against all 3-of his lawsuits, in a bitter fight to retain ownership, months after his racial slurs put an end to his forever stained life.

Shelly Sterling, no crown jewel of a person, was right in removing her husband from the family trust. The doctors, who declared the 80-year old real estate tycoon, mentally incompetent, had their medical exams validated. And the 2B sale to Steve Ballmer is allowed to go thru.

Sterling gets half of the 2B sale; but he loses half of what he gets in taxes; and he pays all the legal fees due after this ugly lawsuit. And who knows the cost of all the other litigation he has committed going forward.

Banned for life from the NBA, a 2.5M-fine from the commissioner’s office, and the loss of the only credible thing he valued, a pro franchise.

Such a fitting penalty for a man who lived a life of lawsuits, maltreatment of minorities, a world full of bigotry and questions of ethics.

In the end, Sterling lost the lawsuit when he took the stand. The prosecution allowed him to meander from topic to topic, make questionable statements, contradict earlier testimony and depositions.

In closing one minute he talked about his wife,, their partnership,her business acumen, and minutes later he was calling her a ‘pig’.

The man who owned an NBA franchise known forever for faulty leadership and for losing, now wakes up with no team, less money, a forever tainted reputation.

This has to be the worst defeat ever in Donald Sterling’s life.

Hall of Fame Day

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Speaking from the heart…speeches that went on-and-on, meant allot and forgot some things too.

It was a special Hall of Fame Sunday in tiny Cooperstown, New York, as baseball honored glory guys from the past.

A legendary class admitted before a record crowd of more than 48,000 fans, where baseball was first played, just outside history Doubleday Field.

Joe Torre strolled down memory lane of great players and teams he managed, from longtime coach George Kessell, to the stars in New York he won rings with. His 28-minute ad-lib speed was from the heart. Unfortunately he forgot to give praise to the man who brought him to Yankees Stadium, and spent the money to get his players so they could go get 4-rings.

Hard to believe, he could not remember to sing the praises of George Steinbrenner, even though the relationship ended so badly. He has spent the past 24-hours apologizing for it.

Tony LaRussa, dashing, daring, creative, passionate, independent thinker, talked about all the places he had been, once his .199-hitting career as a player was over. He too forgot to mention White Sox exec Roland Hemond, who gave him his first break.

Bobby Cox was nuts and bolts old school baseball, in his speech, just like he managed. He did salute the 3-great pitchers he had, Maddux-Glavine and Smoltz for the reason he got to Cooperstown.

Greg Maddux was typical, insightful, unexcited, methodical, in his speech, just like he pitched. Part scientist-part artist.

Tom Glavine could have been a hockey player, but became a pitcher, learning his craft throwing snowballs and ice balls as a kid growing up.

Frank Thomas, slugger supreme, named everybody in the Chicago phone directory in his speech of salutes. History should write he played the game the right way, played it hard, played it clean.

In the era just passed, of syringes and sluggers who stained the game, it was refreshing to see honest-good people and players, have their day in the sun. For 1-day the clouds over baseball were pushed away by the specialness of this Hall of Fame class.

Change of Address….Better Results.

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No one knows why these things happen. Why a baseball trade will rejuvenate a player. Why the same deal will help a team. Why sometime later, the young player in a deal develops into a star.

The Padres-Yankees…Padres-Angels deal within the last week have started to pay dividends.

San Diego has had a pleasant surprise, in 3rd baseman Yangervis Solarte, who had been demoted by the Yankees. The Dominican journeyman, started like a house-afire in April and May in New York, then cooled off, then was optioned to the minors.

By the time New York decided to include him in the Chase Headley trade, he had been hitting (.153). Not so now. Since putting on Padres colors, he is (7-16) showing power and hitting at a (.350-clip), and has a bunch of extra base hits..

Pretty impressive, so we will wait to see if it continues.

Headley by the way, has a 6-game hitting streak, and is hitting an amazing (.348). This is the same guy who spent months hitting in the (.180s) in San Diego, after last year’s disappointing campaign. Surrounded by better players, less pressure in the batting order, or maybe just health, he is hot for sure..

The Padres-Angels trade netted San Diego three young lower minor league players, and a Triple A player. It has not been a good start for Taylor Lindsay, the supposed 2nd baseman of the future. A (2-21) start in El Paso. If you cannot hit in the Pacific Coast League, that’s not very good.

Huston Street moved to the 949-Angels bullpen area code, and has 3-saves in his lst week, pitching in a pennant race.

Sometimes you never know about deals.

Back in the day, the Tigers, desperate for a starting pitcher, shipped a lower minor league pitcher for a veteran. Doyle Alexander-a long in the tooth right-hander, helped get them to the postseason. John Smoltz went to the Braves and won 300-games.

The Red Sox needed a reliever and went after Larry Anderson, then of Houston. They traded a minor leaguer for him. Anderson pitched 2-months then left Boston. The minor leaguer became slugger Jeff Bagwell, an Astro likely headed to the Hall of Fame.

Waiting to see what the Padres deals turn out to be, maybe a year from now, 3-years from now.

Change of Address for Headly-Street..good. Will see what the young phenoms are like when and if they arrive in San Diego.

NFL Discipline

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Who has lost the most credibility in this ugly exchange?  You tell me.
 
The NFL Police Force is out in full effect this week. 
 
Like a Dragnet raid, armed and ready, the NFL Discipline Cops dropped in and unloaded on NFL players the last 48-hours..
 
Baltimore’s once feared running back, Ray Rice, now a convicted wife-beater, got a two game suspension for knocking out his then-fiancée and dragging her unconscious by the hair, out of an elevator.  Right there on Video in a hotel.  Right there on You Tube.2-games for a violent act like that against a woman.
 
It was something to see the sweep of discipline virtually everywhere.. 
 
Cleveland’s talented but troubled receiver Josh Gordon, multiple time alcohol and drug user, is headed towards a 1-year suspension and ordered to a hearing.
 
Carolina’s premiere pass rusher Greg Hardy was convicted for beating his girlfriend.  Waiting for him to get taken to the woodshed.
 
Aldon Smith of the 49ers is ordered to an NFL hearing, after 3-different arrests, bomb threat at LAX, alcohol, and a gun incident.  A suspension likely coming.
 
And then there were the PED guys including the Eagles lst round pick last year, tackle Lane Johnson, 4-games for Adderall violations.
 
Jacksonville’s top two receivers got popped.  Justin Blackman-facing a 1-year suspension, got busted again for marijuana, a day after running mate receiver Ace Sanders got taken out 4-games for PED’s. .
 
Buffalo’s tackle Marcel Dareus is awaiting some type of sanction, because of alcohol, assault, and a drag racing incident.
 
Broncos Player Personnel Chief Matt Russell just started 6-months in jail for acute DUI.
 
And months and months after his arrest, we are still awaiting NFL sanctions against Colts owner Jim Irsay, caught passed out in his car, motor running, in gear, with tons of illegal painkillers and 29,000-in cash just sitting there next to him on the seat.
 
Thank goodness, NFL camps are open.  Players are in facilities from 6am to 10pm, between practices and meetings, they’ll be too tired to run the streets.  The streets of America are now likely safe.
 
You just wonder who has the major problem now?  The players, who obviously don’t get the message about civic responsibility, and right from wrong, or the NFL, who cannot control their players and-or-front office execs.
 
Anyone care about credibility, or just caring about whether you win or lose on Sundays?