Black Ball Sports

Here are some random sports thoughts I haven’t gotten much of a chance to post about.

NFL

I still think Brett Farve is a jerk for pulling this, but the Packers have handled this awfully.  The latest move is reminiscent of the Godfather movies.  Apparently they are trying to give him an offer he cannot refuse, $20 million over 10 years to stay retired.  Honestly, that is ridiculous, they basically are spitting on his legacy.  He’s been reinstated by the league, and likely to report to camp on Monday.  The Packers are going to have to eat their pride and get him on the field again.

NFL Hall of Fame

One good thing about the Hall of Fame inductions is by the time a player makes it, he’s been retired for several years.  And as such, you don’t feel guilty for being happy for a rival player.  I’m glad Art Monk finally made it to the Hall.  He’s as deserving as anyone, and unfortunately played the majority of his career in the shadow of Jerry Rice.  Never the scorer Rice was, Monk was the model of consistency.  To make it worse, I also have to give credit to Darrell Green, who for about 20 years was one of the top corners in the league.  Good guys, who for at least one day despite them being Redskins I can be happy for.

MLB

Trade deadline came through with a bang.  Manny Ramirez, Ken Griffey Jr. and Ivan Rodriguez traded within a few hours of each other.  All certain Hall of Famers, all were traded to premier markets.  All three players, should have a big impact on their new teams, but none more so than Manny.  He’s still the most feared right handed hitter in the league and while he’s been flaky at times, he can carry an offense, and the Dodgers needed a guy like him.  Hopefully, he can spark some life back into Andruw Jones.  The Red Sox took a big risk trading him, but I think they did well in getting a young player back, Jason Bay who is an established pro and can help them immediately.

Olympics

One thing we should know by now, is that despite all the hoopla over steroids in baseball, performance enhancing drugs are everywhere.  The Olympics point this out more so than anything.  Think about it, an Italian fencer was flagged.  The Olympics do stringently test, and has more doping rules than the NCAA has recruiting violations, but the mere fact that swimmers, runners, gymnasts etc are all being caught on various rules demonstrates the extent that athletes (and their trainers and supporting organizations) are willing to go to cheat.  So should we be surprised when a baseball player takes HGH to extend his multimillion dollar career?  Oh, and by the way, this is now the fifth Olympics for NBA players, and they have exactly zero disqualifications.

NCAA Football

West Virginia QB, Pat White stated he never joined the WVU baseball team because the coach, Greg Van Zandt, “wasn’t interested” and was “not too high” on having black players on his team.  He came out and apologized for his statements, saying he “overstated” his feelings on the program.  The thing that is overlooked here, is White’s statements are probably due to the perception of black athletes at WVU.  White was unfortunately likely speaking from rumors and gossip he’d heard on campus.  Whether Zandt actually wants or doesn’t want black players will never truly be known, but he should consider reaching out to black players and ensure that this perception is false.

Oddly enough, the Stanley Cup Finals are amongst my most memorable sporting events. Primarily because I worked for four years for the New Jersey Devils. In that time, they won two Stanley Cups and lost in game 7 of another finals.

Unfortunately for the NHL, the sport is struggling to capture the casual fan. Hockey has probably one of the strongest core sets of diehards. However, they also have the smallest set of fans who tune into games on TV. The NFL and Nascar have managed to turn every game or race into a major event. Baseball has had over 100 years of tradition carrying itself. The NBA has successfully marketed it’s players and done very well outside North America.

Hockey has tried everything over the past 10 years to garner the attention paid to other sports. Problem is, there just isn’t enough time for sports fans to watch. Hockey has easily the most exciting playoffs, as most games are close, and it isn’t unusual to see sudden death overtime. But, by the time playoffs rolls around, the NBA is also in playoff mode, and MLB has started it’s season.

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