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“HALL OF FAME…GOT IT RIGHT”
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It is a special place, Cooperstown, and it honors a special game, America’s Pastime, and the Hall of Fame got in right with its 2025-Class.

There is an age old argument, should the shrine be for the greatest or also include the very good?

No argument this year with the top vote getter, because he did it here, with the Seattle Mariners and Yankees, and he did it there, back in Japan.

Ichuro Suzuki, the spray hitting, base stealing, Gold Glove, Silver Slugger star became the second highest vote getter ever.  There are (394) who vote for the Hall enshrinement.  He hit a record (393).  Only Yankees icon reliever Mariano Rivera stands as a team of one, who got a unanimous vote.

Ichuro’s numbers are staggering, and this from a player who already put in a tenure of greatness back in Japan.  A lifetime (.311) hitter here, he had (1,278) hits there in 8-years in Japan before showing up in the Mariners lineup as a 27-year old rookie.

He spent 19-years here…had (3,098-hits)…stole (509-bases)..piled up 10-Gold Gloves, had 3-Silver slugger bats, won 2-titles and was a near annual All Star.

He was different from Mickey Mantle, Henry Aaron, Willy Mays or back in the day Babe Ruth.

He was more Tony Gwynn with flair.  Oddly he never went to a World Series, even the year he led the Mariners to 116-wins.

He is the head of a 3-man class.

19-year veteran P-CC Sabathia, the ex Indian-Expos-Yankees workhorse got it with (251) career wins, though it begs the question, if you are not close to 300-wins, once the standard, are you just very good, or still great?

Billy Wagner is the latest relief ace to break thru the glass, following the likes of Rivera and the Padres Trevor Hoffman, as an elite closer.  His 422-saves do not match the magic 500-plus total of others, but he threw gas for 9-years and his 33%-strikeout rate is phenomenal.

And since we cover all the stories of the Hall of Fame ballot, Alex Rodriguez, home run hitter, got only 34% of the votes again, and Manny Ramirez garnered just 32%.  Their reputations sullied by steroid suspensions, staining their accomplishments and reputations.

But last night, the voters got it right.  The firebrand that was Ichuro became the first great one, with more to come, going from Japan to Cooperstown, capping off brilliant careers.

History will write about Sadaharu Oh…and why not.  It will write in the future about all things Shohei Ohtani.  Right now they are writing about their Hall of Famer, and rightfully so.  He was so complete a player.

Well done voters.  Well done, Japan’s favorite son.
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“BUCKEYES BOMB IRISH”
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For a National Championship Game…it wasn’t much.  It was almost anti-climatic.

Notre Dame flexed its muscle to start the game, an amazing 18-play, nearly 10-minutes TD drive.

Ohio State then flashed its array of athletes, and the game was effectively over as the Buckeyes reeled off 31-straight points after that.

No doubt the Scarlet & Gray have stars lots of places.
The Blue & Gold showed enormous heart with their second half comeback.

Marcus Freeman, who has built a cross section of toughness on offense, defense, special teams, has won the hearts of American fans with who they are, what they represent.

Ohio State historically has overwhelmed people with a roster full of potential NFL draft picks, but they had stretches in games, whether it was the Michigan loss, or even during the playoffs where segments of their games went away and opponents got back into the game.  Such was the case Monday Night.

But in the end, Notre Dame had 2-transfers and not alot of NIL money.  Ohio State was loaded with transfers and spends 20M a year from its NIL account to get all types of talent.

Irish QB Riley Leonard showed so much grit to stay in there, but his team did not have enough firepower.

The Buckeyes had too much speed, too much skill, and too much Will Howard, Jeremiah Smith and guys like Egbuka, Middleton, Judkins, Flaherty, Simon, Stiles etc .

Freeman is so likeable.  Ryan Day-Chip Kelly leave alot to be desired in terms of their interpersonal relationships, aside from their football acumen.

Notre Dame scared them.  OSU earned the win, but it was not easy for either side.

Ohio State wins, and they should, though the boasting and the antics were not very likeable.  Notre Dame lost, as I expected, but delivered a message about how to play the game and represent other things.

It wasn’t the ‘Catholics-vs-Convicts’ in the Notre Dame-Miami Hurricanes days, but there were parts that made it feel that way.

Ohio State won.  Notre Dame won alot of respect too.

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“DODGERS WIN–PADRES LOSE”
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The Baseball Season is not over…it has not even begun…but it feels it is.

The Dodgers have completed their spending spree, and it feels like they have beaten the San Diego Padres…again…and we haven’t even gotten to opening day.

Checking the out of town scoreboard:

Dodgers…Win the bidding war for Japanese pitching star Roki Sasaki…Sign FA-starter Blake Snell…sign setup reliever Tanner Scott..sign LF-Mike Conforto…sign 2B-Hyseong Kim.

Dodgers…Re-sign slugger Teoscar Hernandez and OF-Tommy Edman

Dodgers…Unsigned Clayton Kershaw-Kike Hernandez

Dodgers…Luxury Tax payroll is now (375M)

Padres…Have signed backup C-Martin Maldonado (.119)-ex White Sox…OF-Nico Goodrum-ex Tigers (.103)

Padres..Holes in leftfield-starting pitching-catcher-bench

Padres..Unsigned Michael King..Jurickson Profar

Padres..Luxury Tax Payroll at (210M) with mandate to get it down to under (200M)

Fans…Pouring out their emotions in ‘Letters to Editor’ section of the ‘Athletic’ sports website-who broke the Sasaki story.  A cross section of what the fans-season ticket holder-and Dodgers fans think:

 

DODGERS = EVIL EMPIRE
ANOTHER REASON TO HATE THE DODGERS
QUIT WHINING-DODGERS PLAY WITHIN RULES
GAME NOT HEALTHY IN TOO MANY CITIES
BASEBALL-CORRECT THE IMBALANCE

DODGERS BUY A LOCKER ROOM OF STARS
DODGERS BOUGHT THE WORLD SERIES
TEAMS MAXIMIZE ABILITY TO WIN
LA PRINTS ITS OWN CURRENCY

MLB NEEDS AN INTERNATIONAL DRAFT
PLAYERS UNION TO BLAME-OPPOSED COMPETITIVE BALANCE
DECISION NOT ABOUT DOLLARS-ABOUT THE ORGANIZATION
THE SYSTEM IS BROKEN-BRING IN A HARD CAP AND A FLOOR

PADRES FRANCHISE IN FLUX
DODGERS HAD 3-HEALTHY STARTERS IN SERIES..NOW HAVE 10
YOU ARE KILLING INTEREST IN SMALL MARKETS
FEAR PADRES OWNERSHIP WILL BECOME CARPETBAGGERS

NFL SYSTEM WORKS…MLB DOES NOT
SAN DIEGO-NOT SINGLE HOME GROWN PITCHER
DODGERS DEVELOP PITCHERS..AJ PRELLER TRADES THEM
PADRES INFIGHTING-LAWSUIT COST THEM
BLAME SHEEL SEIDLER

TRYOUTS COMING AT PETCO PARK
CHOSE BETTER ORGANIZATION
WE ARE STILL LITTLE BROTHER TO LA
PADRES A MAJOR FORCE PACIFIC RIM…NOT.

Are you ready for Opening Day?
The Dodgers are.
The Padres are not.
The fans now have real reservations
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Hacksaw’s Great Sports Weekend Podcast
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“NFL WEEKEND PREVIEW”
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Now the big boys play.
Last weekend was about blowouts.
This weekend the stars come out against each other
A quick look see
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BILLS-RAVENS
..MVP Bowl…What’s the difference today between Josh Allen-Lamar Jackson than a year ago?  They no longer turn the ball over, because they have great offensive talent around them.  Jackson’s stats (49TD-4 Tovers) are beyond belief, so is the 5,000 plus all purpose yard number.  Allen is almost equal to him.  They both put their team in the endzones too.  Can anybody stop anyone?  Anyone for a (49-42) game?

TEXANS-CHIEFS
..Patrick Mahomes time of the year (15-3) post season record.  KC rested all its starters so now the discussion is ‘Rest-vs-Rust’.  Houston shot all its bullets against the Chargers in a gritty comeback win.  Storyline, how does KC’s only deficiency, their starting OTs, hold up against a Texans edge rush that gets to QBs (53-sacks-33-takeaways?

WASHINGTON-DETROIT
..Jayden Daniels continues his magic work, but now it ends.  They play the Lions explosive offense, destructive defense, infront of a wild Ford Field crowd.  And how does Washington’s defense ‘Pick your poison’ make a decision?  Go after Jared Goff? Stop Amon St.Brown? Defend the heavy duty RBs?

RAMS-EAGLES
..Every dimension comes into play here.  Matthew Stafford vs the Eagles front seven.  Cooper Kupp-Puka Nacua vs an athletic Eagle secondary.  The Rams lightning fast defense against the slug it out style of RB-Saquon Barkley. Jalen Hurts vs the Rams pass rush.  Got to see this one, even if it a road game for the Rams.
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“NFL ON TV-WHERE ARE THE VIEWERS?
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A year of monster TV ratings for big games involving the best teams.
But in the big picture of things, TV viewership dipped 2%-in regular season.

The excitement of Wildcard weekend was expected to flood fans back to the matchups.
Instead, there were blowouts, when the Haves-battered-Have Nots.
The Ratings dropped virtually across the board…Dropped 9% in all from (31.3M) regular season to (28M) per game on the weekend.

Guess you can now expect a bump in that the Big Boys are playing Saturday-Sunday.
The wanna-be’s gone.  Remaining great games and quarterbacks

A closeup look at the Ratings scoreboard stories, courtesy of Front Office Sports
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The NFL took another viewership hit over the wild-card playoff weekend, showing more ratings erosion compared to last year—even as the league continues to outstrip everything else in U.S. television.

The six games played over the three-day weekend collectively showed attrition from a year ago, following the 2% audience decline during the regular season. Among the individual viewership results from the initial playoff round:

Chargers-Texans (Jan. 11): As the Texans played yet again in the early Saturday wild-card slot, the game averaged 31.1 million on CBS and Nickelodeon, up 7% from a comparable Cleveland-Houston game last year.
Steelers-Ravens (Jan. 11): Amazon’s first livestream of an NFL playoff game made company history, averaging 22.1 million. The figure is by far the best individual NFL result in the company’s three years of streaming the league but is down 3% from the 23 million average for Peacock’s exclusive stream of a comparable Dolphins-Chiefs game. The Amazon figure, likely impaired by Baltimore’s racing to a 21–0 halftime lead, also failed to match the average of more than 24 million for Netflix’s streaming doubleheader on Christmas Day.
Broncos-Bills (Jan. 12): This CBS game also averaged 31.1 million, essentially flat from a comparable Steelers-Bills game last year that was shifted to a Monday afternoon due to heavy snow in the Buffalo area.
Packers-Eagles (Jan. 12): This game averaged 35.6 million viewers on Fox, the largest figure of any of the six games last weekend. The total, however, trailed a comparable late Sunday afternoon game last year between the Packers and Cowboys by 11%, again showing the impact of a down Dallas season on overall NFL viewership.
Commanders-Buccaneers (Jan. 12): The primetime matchup on NBC averaged a total audience delivery of 29 million, down 19% from a comparable Rams-Lions game last year, and the worst-performing Sunday night wild-card game in four years.
Vikings-Rams (Jan. 13): This game, relocated from Los Angeles due to the ongoing and devastating wildfires there, averaged 25.4 million, down 13% from the comparable Eagles-Buccaneers game in 2024. The Monday night contest also saw viewer attrition in the second half as the Rams built a three-touchdown lead in the first half en route to a 27–9 victory, with the audience peaking before halftime at more than 30 million viewers.