American sport is devouring itself

Failing to learn the lesson of the golden goose the greed of those who run American sports is devouring the very games that sustain them. We discussed this motif in an article earlier this week about the starting times of baseball games. Those in charge of baseball are worrying about the highest possible advertising revenues today, rather than whether or not the potential fans of tomorrow will be allowed to stay up late enough to watch the game. We have railed against the ridiculous ticket prices at Yankee stadium for some of the same reasons. It is doubly disgusting to price the average fan out of the ballpark when your stadium's construction was publicly financed.

Columnist Bob Hebert makes a plea along the same lines here in the New York Times.

NBA Preview

The Clarion Content's Sports Editor is excited because it is easy to write a short and sweet NBA basketball preview this year. There are only five teams with any shot at contending for the NBA title. In the East the contenders are: the Boston Celtics, the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Orlando Magic. In the West, it is the Los Angeles Lakers or the San Antonio Spurs. It says here that the winner of the Western Finals is going to take the crown. The West is beating the East.

The Celtics are going to be dragged down by Garnett's body betraying him, even with point guard Rajan Rondo excelling. It will not be enough, Ray Allen is another year older, too. Getting 'Sheed helps Boston, but he is aging and slower as well, unless Garnett finds the fountain of youth, the Celts can't go the distance. The Cavs have the best player in the league, LeBron James. Despite King James's superlative efforts, it is simply not physically possible to win it alone in the NBA. Long Shaq supporters, the Clarion Content has been losing faith lately. How will an aging, immobile Shaq handle playing second fiddle? Our fear is that this isn't the same Shaq that D-Wade got to play with, that Shaq had a bit more left in the tank. The Orlando Magic are the wild card. We cannot believe that Vince Carter will suddenly morph into a successful, driven NBA basketball player. We have followed from him from Chapel Hill to Toronto to East Rutherford, why now? But if somehow it did happen... If the light went on and it clicked for Vince, the Magic would have to be the favorites in the East. Right now, we see them as the third fiddle.

The West is where it is at! Firstly the defending champs, the Lakers, play there. Second Tim Duncan has a lot more left on the odometer, than the other big guy with four rings on his fingers, Shaq. Ginobli's heath is a big concern for the Spurs.

We have been waiting for months to say it, but we believe that Ron Artest is a down grade from Trevor Ariza, Lakers fans! Ariza was unstoppable off the dribble, shooting lights out from 3 point line, comfortable being low on the totem pole. Artest is crazy and high maintenance. Heck, he hadn't even played a game and he had already introduced Lamar Odom and Khloe Kardashian. Excitement happens around old Ron Artest, just not the good kind. Plus his offensive game has deteriorated with his foot speed. He is also no longer the lights out defender he once was. Kobe, as dedicated and determined as he is, has played 200 plus games in the past two seasons.

Conversely, the Spurs got way better in the off-season, in addition to getting a long rest when they lost early. This year, Richard Jefferson was the NBA acquisition of the off-season, he can light it up from 3 or off the dribble. He hustles, is willing to play defense and comes with minimal ego and baggage. Jefferson is far easier going, for example, than the already bitching Andre Miller in Portland. Jefferson had to put up with prima donnas J. Kidd and Carter in the swamps of Jersey and he was a huge success. The Spurs also added the most NBA ready rookie this side of Blake Griffin, Pitt's DeJuan Blair, and they hoovered up veteran Antonio McDyess for big man depth. Look out!

The Spurs look like the pick from here. The Lakers will push them to the brink in the Western Conference Finals. A couple more quick hitting predictions: the Knicks will win no more than 35 games. The Nets are never moving to Brooklyn. The Timberwolves will be better than people think, perhaps even stealing the eight seed in the ultra-competitive West. Comeback we are most excited to see: Gilbert Arenas with le Bullet. Comeback we are least excited to see: Greg Oden with the Portland Milktoasters.

Need more? Bill Simmons done wrote a terrific in-depth NBA column in two parts. Click here. Just because we came to similar conclusions doesn't mean we copied or worked together, it may just be the thinking on a pretty obvious season that is likely ensue.

One more reason to root

Need one more reason to root for Duke football? As a team the football squad has maintained a collective 3.0+ Grade Point Average in each of the last three semesters consecutively. This is not an Auburn situation where the kids are getting inflated grades from classes they don't attend. There are no fluff Parks and Recreation Management majors offered at Duke, unlike some large state institutions.

Count the Clarion Content in as a supporter.

Ridiculous and awful

Is there any other way to classify the fools who write the Major League Baseball schedule? When what was once the national pastime has six remaining fans in 2025, the bankrupt owners will look back and rue the Bud Selig era. The litany of Selig calamities is endless from the ignore the steroids home run chase, to the tied All-Star game, to changing the rules of the game in the middle of the World Series, Selig has shown he was maxed out in his abilities back when he was selling used cars.

As part of his legacy of idiocy and disaster Selig wants to insure no one watches the MLB playoffs, at least not a whole game. Can there been any other reason for starting Game 6 of the playoffs at 8.20pm on a Sunday night? Hey asswipe, do think most kids parents let them stay up past 10pm on a school night? Do you think anyone under 16 will see past the fourth inning tonight? (Most of adults have to work Monday morning, too, dumbass.) This is sad because ALCS has been a fascinating series, although defined more by its miscues than its great plays.

This too is the fault of the conceited MLB schedule makers. Taking a hint from the folks who write the college bowl schedule, baseball has insured that its playoff teams have an inordinate amount of days off that is never replicated during the regular season. (The Yanks and Angles have played 8 times in the last 20 days!) Thus when games are finally contested, mistakes abound. Games are, as Tori Hunter noted, played like exhibitions rather than like the regular season. Why not right? Baseball's moronic leadership has teams play through driving rainstorms in the playoffs that would never be consider acceptable conditions during the regular season! Integrity means nothing to these dopes!

The rationale for this schedule and playing in these absurd conditions, hotel rooms! Are you f*ing kidding? The whole country and the sport has to suffer because Selig and entourage are worried about rescheduling their hotel rooms? You have got to be joking. The League Championship Series are being played in New York, Los Angeles and Philadelphia and your excuse for this pathetic schedule is a lack of hotel rooms? Patently false and intelligence insulting, Car Salesman Selig. At the Clarion Content, we can buy that maybe at the last minute you won't be able to rebook the presidential suite at swank Manhattan hotels, but you couldn't rebook for something in Jersey or out on Long Island?!? Say you can't and you are a LIAR! Check out the Motel 6 or the Econo Lodge, jerk. Got the same problem in Philly? Hey book a room in Delaware, a-holes, the whole metro area isn't out of rooms, and we know it. So now, one is talking about sacrificing the integrity of the game so Selig and entourage don't have to commute too far to games.

What we should be talking about is the ritual sacrifice of Bud Selig to the baseball gods, it may be the only way to bring the game back from the brink.

Raiders Coach Tom Cable won't be prosecuted

The Oakland Raiders head coach Tom Cable won't be prosecuted for allegedly busting assistant coach Randy Hanson's jaw. The Napa County district attorney Gary Lieberstein said he could not prosecute the case based on the evidence he had gathered, stories and testimony had changed too many times. Raiders owner Al Davis must have gotten to the witnesses. The three other assistant coaches in the room could not corroborate Hanson's story.

There was an altercation or a near altercation. Hanson, reportedly Al Davis's spy in the coaches' meetings, definitely had his jaw broken. After months, not much more than that can be definitively said.

Read a NorCal take on the situation here in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Rent a Player

Josh Boone...............Eduardo Najera..............Brook Lopez


When we say "Rent a Player" we are not talking about the usual late season deal, where a team far out of contention sends an expensive salaried, but soon to be free agent, player to a team near the top of the standings, to "rent." Nope. We are talking about there is a New Jersey Nets season ticket package that includes renting a player! Weddings, Christmas, BBQs, bring your favorite Net along. Wow, now we might actually be enthused about a LeBron to the Nets deal.

The plan is $25k buys you four courtside tickets for 10 games, parking, access to a private lounge with free food and beverages at the game and--- a one-hour appearance by a Nets player of your choice at your home, office, school or party. That's right spice up your kids Bar Mitzvah with Josh Boone or Rafer Alston! Want to entertain those Chinese clients your company has been so assiduously courting, how about bringing chairman Yi Jianlian to the next mixer! Can't get a clown for your three year olds bash, next best thing, Brook Lopez!

Perhaps this why the Nets have been collecting players of all different ethnicities, origins and backgrounds. Its Cinco de Mayo, let's see if anyone wants to rent Eduardo Najera. And what better way to spice up your daughter's Sweet Sixteen than to invite the 22 year old, 6ft. 7in. Chris Douglas-Roberts!?! Can we imagine what Shawn Kemp or Calvin Murphy might have done for their teams popularity in this scenario? Egads.

The New Jersey Nets, brilliant!

No, no, no, no the NBA isn't about to financial implode for lack of ticket sales or anything, teams are just offering these kind of promotions to be "cool" to their fans. Really.

Bad day on the golf course

Water Hazard, indeed!

The old saw used to go, "The worst day on the golf course is better than any day in the office." There is a poor fellow who played a round of golf in Beaufort, South Carolina last week who would disagree.

At Ocean Creek Golf Course in Beaufort County, S.C., a man leaned over a water hazard to retrieve his wayward ball. Suddenly, a 10ft long alligator appeared with a mission of its own. The man lost his arm in the struggle before his golf partners were able to free him. Golf course workers killed the unsuspecting animal and retrieved the fellow's arm in hopes of reattachment. No word from the golf course or the hospital on whether or not that was successful. The man is in stable condition.

A Knicks flop

In the immortal words of Nancy Kerrigan, "Why? Why?" Why couldn't the Knicks braintrust see that Danilo Gallinari was a flop waiting to happen? A soft, nineteen year-old, Italian jeans model was going to play in the NBA? This is the franchise that brought us Frederic Weis! They couldn't see this coming?!? After an awful rookie season that ended with back pain, a six point per game average and a mere 28 games played, Gallinari has been stinking it up this pre-season again. He is shooting a scintillating 21% from the field.

Gallinari is one more reason why we doubt Knicks Coach Mike D’Antoni. He was the primary endorser of this pick. The Knicks could have had the electric point guard D.J. Augustin, the guy we at the Clarion Content wanted, or the goofy, but hugely effective center the Nets found, Brook Lopez. At least Lopez has height, and had played competitive college basketball. Modeling Italian jeans and being a heartthrob were Gallinari's primary qualifications.

We were very glad that the Knicks re-signed David Lee and Nate Robinson. We think Coach Mike D'Antoni road Steve Nash's coattails for years in Phoenix. D'Antoni found ways to lose in the playoffs. This year, he and the Knicks will miss the playoffs even in the pathetic Eastern Conference.

King Felix

The Clarion Content is annoyed that the baseball playoffs suddenly have to take two days off before starting the League Championship Series in the middle of what has already been an exciting October. But we will concede the reality of modern stadium scheduling, note that the NFL has already moved the start times of some games to avoid conflicts with the MLB playoffs, and accept this interlude to write about one of the other baseball stories of the season that we never quite had the chance to get to, the American League Cy Young award.

Incidentally, despite the terrific season turned in by Derek Jeter, the incomparable Joe Mauer clearly deserves to win the A.L. MVP. The A.L. Cy Young is a much more complicated debate. The Yankees C.C. Sabathia led the league in wins with 19. He lost eight and compares poorly with the other contenders in ERA at 3.37. But what also hurt Sabathia's candidacy was that he played for the spectacular 100 win Yankees. How hard was it to win? His team led the league in offense. Sabathia's out, he need to win 22 or 23 to have a case.

And that brings us to the next candidate, the Royals Zack Greinke. Greinke, by way of comparison, pitched for a 65 win Kansas City team that tied for the A.L.'s worst record. Greinke also led the A.L. in ERA. Greinke won only 16 games, but the next most wins that anyone had on the Royals was Brian Bannister's seven. Eeeeew.

We can't rule Greinke out, but how does he compare to last year's winner Toronto's Roy 'Doc' Halladay? This year Halladay won 17 games, one more than Greinke with a 2.79 ERA to Greinke's 2.16. They both pitched around 230 innings. Hallday threw four shutouts to Greinke three. Halladay's team was barely better than Greinke's, finishing a modest 5 games ahead of the Royals in the league standings. Last year when Halladay won the Cy Young he had 20 wins. Although a bad precedent was set by giving the 2006 N.L. Cy Young to Brandon Webb, the Clarion Content is loathe to give the award to someone with only 16 wins.

If we had a vote, we believe we would cast it for the Seattle Mariners 'King' Felix Hernandez. He finished second in the league with a 2.49 ERA. He led the league with 19 wins. He didn't play for a super team. The Mariners without Felix's brilliant 19 up and 5 down would have been six games under .500. Nobody else won more than seven games on the Mariners. Hernandez's .792 winning percentage was the A.L.'s best. The thing that really sealed it for the Clarion Content was his sterling finish. Greinke was 4-0 out of the gate with a 0.84 ERA, but 12-8 the rest of the way. King Felix was Hernandez went 15-2 with a 1.98 ERA after mid-May.

A close race, but our vote goes to Hernandez, with Greinke second, and Halladay third. Sabathia can luxuriate in the fact that he is the only one of the four still pitching this season.

Rush Limbaugh and the Rams

The Rams new principal owners? In the name of Georgia Frontiere, what?!?

The Clarion Content is not unilaterally declaring that Rush Limbaugh should not be allowed to own the the NFL's St. Louis Rams. We would only suggest that the NFL think long and hard about the wisdom of including a person like Limbaugh in their exclusive group. How long ago did baseball exclude Marge Schott for her bigotry?

Limbaugh does not deny saying, "I mean, let's face it, we didn't have slavery in this country for over 100 years because it was a bad thing. Quite the opposite: Slavery built the South. I'm not saying we should bring it back. I'm just saying it had its merits. For one thing, the streets were safer after dark."

Nor does he deny saying, "Look, let me put it to you this way: the NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips without any weapons. There, I said it."

It is a free country and we are big believers in free speech. But the NFL, as a private entity, has the right to impose its own standards and limits on appropriate conduct. They certainly impose their standards on their largely black player base. Limbaugh seems like the kind of character we might not include (were it up to us).

Then again, the NBA is about to let a Russian billionaire, who built his nickel under the Kremlin's shady watch after dubiously acquiring a monopoly, buy into the Nets. Standards everywhere are green first, everything else second.

If we were Rams fans, we might be worried about the deleterious effects of allowing Dave Checketts near our franchise, too.

Duke Football

Duke football went on the road yesterday to North Carolina State's Carter-Finely Stadium. The boys in blue out executed the Wolfpack in all phases of the game. The result was a 49-28 Duke victory. Duke was led by senior quarterback Thad Lewis who was a remarkable 40 of 50 for 459 yards and 5 touchdown passes. He even added one more TD on foot.

Duke Coach David Cutcliffe said it was the best performance he had ever seen by one of his quarterbacks. As the Greensboro News-Record noted, that is quite a list, "Peyton Manning, Eli Manning, Erik Ainge, Heath Shuler and Colorado Rockies first baseman Todd Helton." Duke shut its offense down in the fourth quarter, going conservative or Lewis might have thrown for 600 yards! Following a close game at home versus national powerhouse and championship contender Virginia Tech, Duke said all week there were no moral victories. They wanted this one.

And they got it. They snapped all sorts of streaks in the process including; 8 straight ACC losses, 16 years since they had beat NC State, their first ACC road win in 6 years and their first win at NC State since 1984! QB Thad Lewis is now the all-time touchdown pass leader in Blue Devil history and is tied for 6th all-time in ACC history. The Sporting News led its coverage of the best in college football this week with the Duke quarterback. Wow!

Let's go Duke!

The Proof is in the pudding

Alex Rodriguez closed out his regular season with a bang today, setting an American League record with seven RBIs in a single inning. Rodriguez homered in his first at-bat of the regular season and as it turned out, he homered in last at-bat of the regular season, too. Rodriguez has always been a tremendous regular season player.

But, alas, A-Fraud, the proof is in the pudding. No matter how many homers he hits and runs he drives in, his legacy will come down to his post-season performance. Career-to-date he has been a choking loser. The playoffs start this week, and if there ever was a season where all the pressure wasn't on Rodriguez, it is this one. Teammate Mark Teixera tied for the A.L. lead in homers and led the league in RBIs. Can A-Rodriguez finally succeed now that he is in a supporting role?

We doubt it. Rather we see A-Fraud likely to play as tight as ever, and if the Yankees somehow lose a Game One his nerves infecting the rest of the team. The Yankees will need timely hitting and some good starting pitching to succeed in the post-season. They are heavy favorites, but without much cause other than the best record in the regular season. The Yankees specialize in beating up weaklings, but struggle against quality opponents. The Yanks were 14 up and 14 down against their playoff rivals the Red Sox and Angels, and a gaudy .665 and 44 games over .500 against everybody else. Ace starter C.C. Sabathia has a history of coming up small in the playoffs. #2 start A.J. Burnett couldn't be more maddeningly inconsistent. #3 starter Andy Pettitt and closer Mariano Rivera, greats that they are, are no longer the players they were a decade ago, which was the last time the Yankees won a World Series.

Orioles retain Trembley

We have to admit it, there was audible laughter at the Clarion Content's Sports Desk when we read that the Baltimore Orioles elected to retain Dave Trembley as manager. Fresh off of a thirteen game losing streak, in a year where they may just barely avoid losing 100 games, they brought the manager back? This was coming back from a 2008 season where they won a meager 68 and dropped 93, closing that season a scintillating 1 and 9.

This is what Orioles owner Peter Angelos is selling his dedicated fan base? Orioles fans may not be responding. In the fourteen games prior to the losing streak the O's averaged a bare 19,000 fans in paid attendance. Paid (and announced) attendance for crummy teams is alway higher than the actual number of fannies in the seats, as many tickets are pre-sold as part of season long packages and counted as attendance. Camden Yards is only sixteen years old, it is not like they can start clamoring for a new stadium to bring the fans back. The O's may be in for a long dark turn, can we say (shudder) Pittsburgh Pirates, anyone?

The Mets get it

The New York Mets get it. They have lowered ticket prices going into next season on almost every seat in the building. The Clarion Content is very excited to see somebody in the New York Metro area responding to the reality of the economic situation. We spent last off-season and much of this year excoriating the Yankees for their ridiculous gilded ticket prices. The Mets lost over 90 games this season and they have played to near empty houses in their brand spanking new stadium down the stretch. The Mets ownership, who took a double whammy, between the economy and Bernie Madoff, answered in the best way possible, taking care of the consumer, the fan, the little guy.

Let's go Mets!