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Fun & Games for Thursday, May 22, 2008 |
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May 22, 2008 |
≡ Fun & Games ≡
 USC's Sergeant Schultz defense may not be enough! |
= To Our Readers =
You can now find us in two different places on the Web: in addition to The Sports Examiner, we now write three times a week on Olympic sports for the World Championship Sports Network site, WCSN.com in a column called “Inside the Rings.”
Here at The Sports Examiner, we have changed our format to include a weekly intelligence briefing, with commentary, for the astute sports fan called “7 Days” on Mondays and a bonus posting called “Fun & Games” during the week. We’re delighted that Al Brooks Tickets is continuing as a sponsor; their support and that of others will help keep this site alive. Thanks again for your continued support; please ask your friends to sign up for the Tip Sheet and the free newsletter.
= The Top Story =
>> Los Angeles, Ca.: The lines of defense into a just-beginning NCAA investigation of whether O.J. Mayo received beyond-the-rules benefits while at USC are taking shape.
USC has issued a statement that Mayo’s eligibility had been investigated prior to last season by the Pac-10 and the NCAA and did not know about any of the allegations made by former Mayo confidant Louis Johnson that Mayo received cash and gifts during his high school and college careers.
The Los Angeles Daily News reported that Johnson “did not think USC officials were aware of the cash and gifts Mayo received.”
Unfortunately for USC, that’s not the NCAA’s judgement standard. A Sgt. Schultz-style defense of “I know nothing” isn’t enough for the NCAA, which further asks the question of “should” the university have known about the alleged payments and benefits provided to Mayo?
In that regard, USC’s relationship with Rodney Guillory, alleged to be the middleman in a scheme to funnel money to Mayo so that he would sign with Bill Duffy Associates when he turned pro (as he did), will come under scrutiny. According to the Daily News report, Guillory was “an omnipresent figure around USC since Mayo enrolled last summer” and “Guillory and Johnson were present in the locker room at USC games the year before Mayo arrived, and Guillory frequently visited the basketball offices.”
And reporter Scott Wolf wrote that “Sources said USC was wary of Guillory’s involvement but realized any attempts to completely ban him might jeopardize Mayo’s commitment.” This is a mess which isn’t going away soon.
= The National Pastime =
>> New York, N.Y.: Tom Verducci of SI.com nailed the sea changes going on in baseball today in a column which appeared on Tuesday:
Fourteen years after owners canceled the World Series because the players didn't buy their need for a salary cap and seven years after the owners threatened to eliminate the Minnesota Twins and the Montreal Expos because they believed too many teams had no chance to contend, baseball is enjoying an egalitarianism not seen since the 1980s. The morning standings last Saturday, more than a quarter of the way through the season, went down for most owners as sweetly as their mimosas. The difference between the fourth-winningest team (the Los Angeles Angels) and the 23rd (the Pittsburgh Pirates) was only four games. None of the teams with the five highest payrolls held first place. Instead, four of the six first-place teams -- Cleveland (No. 16 on the money list), Arizona (23rd), Tampa Bay (29th) and Florida (30th) -- were spending about as much money combined as the Yankees are for a last-place team ($209 million). “This is one time I can say," Selig boasts of the parity, "that this is exactly what we tried to do. I think we have more parity than any [sport].”
. . .
Teams have embraced a new paradigm: The young player is more important than ever before. The success of every-day players from the 2005 draft (Justin Upton, Ryan Braun, Troy Tulowitzki, Jacoby Ellsbury, for example) and pitchers from the '06 draft (Tim Lincecum, Max Scherzer, Joba Chamberlain, Luke Hochevar) has persuaded front offices to give opportunities to their youngsters. And teams now love to dole out multiyear contracts -- as long as they go to young players who tend to stay off the disabled list and have their best years ahead of them. Small- and mid-market teams are gleefully signing their young stars to long-term deals that preempt salary arbitration and free agency, a trend that will continue to render the ever-thinning free-agent market even more inefficient. That market increasingly is left with fewer - and older - players who are given exorbitant salaries just as many of them are entering their thirtysomething decline phase. Of the 42 players at week's end with at least eight home runs, only seven were older than 31.
Milwaukee general manager Doug Melvin told Verducci, “I think it’s a change in the industry mind-set more than anything,” pointing to deals like Minnesota’s long-term agreement with Justin Morneau: “Now he has security and can concentrate on what he does best: Just go out and play ball.”
>> Chicago, Il.: As the White Sox have improved to 24-20 thanks to a six-game win streak, general manager Ken Williams says he is looking for “tweaks” with the acquisition of Angels infielder Chone Figgins at the top of his list.
With everyone healthy, Los Angeles has Casey Kotchman (25) at first, Howie Kendrick (24) at second, Erick Aybar (24) at short and Figgins (30) at third, but if the Halos are looking at free-agent-to-be Joe Crede (also 30) from the ChiSox as their third baseman of the future, maybe a trade for Figgins could be in the offing?
>> Boston, Ma.: Just an oddity: last night's schedule included a pitching matchup which would have been played in Southern California last year: former Dodger Brett Tomko (2-4, 5.32 ERA) starting for 21-24 Kansas City against ex-Angel Bartolo Colon (0-0), making his first start of the season for the 29-19 Red Sox.
The result? As expected, former Cy Young winner Colon held the Royals to two runs in five innings and got the win while Tomko (2-5) got the loss, giving up five runs in 4 1/3 innings.
= The NBA =
>> Los Angeles, Ca.: If history means anything, then TNT came up with the stat of the series last night as the Lakers came from 20 points down to defeat San Antonio, 89-85, in the game one of the Western Conference finals.
The stat? Lakers coach Phil Jackson has a career playoff series coaching record of 40-0 when his team wins the first game. Series over.
>> Atlanta, Ga.: Charles Barkley spends a lot of his time these days in an Atlanta studio on TNT’s “Inside the NBA” studio show. But after his $400,000 casino debt (since repaid) became public this week, Bodoglife.com has posted odds on whether he will be spotted on a casino gambling floor before the end of the 2008 NBA playoffs!
If you think he can’t stay away, you have to put up $100 to try to win $500, but it takes $1,000 to try to win $100 if you think he’s learned his lesson . . . for now.
= College Basketball =
>> Gainesville, Fl.: “There’s no rules on agents,” said Florida coach Billy Donovan, who did try to recruit O.J. Mayo early in the process and nearly signed his high school teammate, Patrick Patterson.
“I think there needs to be a situation,” he told David Jones of Florida Today, “where the [NBA] Players Association is looking to put some type of rules and regulations on when they can be contacted, how often they can be contacted to let these kids at least do what they need to do in getting better in school and in getting better as basketball players.
“‘There have been players here that have come to me and said, ‘Coach, this guy will not stop calling me and this guy will not leave me alone, will you make a phone call?,’‘ Donovan said. ‘When they tell me to do that, that’s generally when I pick up the phone and say, ‘Listen, OK, you need to stop. The kid’s coming to me . . . and I’d appreciate you stopping it.’”
= The NFL =
>> Atlanta, Ga.: The NFL’s owners opted out of their agreement with the Players Association yesterday, a fully-understandable reaction to the increase of the salary cap from about $35 million when the cap was implemented in 1994 to $116.7 million today, an average increase of almost 24% per year! And this increase has taken place while owners are still saddled with the debt service for new stadiums, on their 40% share of team revenue.
Comment: Since no one wants a strike – it stops the money coming in – and no one wants to play in exhibition games any more for fear of injury, why not just take one or two of the four-game exhibition schedule and turn them into real games? Look for that as one of the outcomes of a new collective bargaining agreement with the NFLPA before the terms of the current agreement run out. As Tim Sullivan of the San Diego Union-Tribune pointed out, the owners “should be able to offer the players significant raises while at the same time gradually slicing their piece of the overall pie.”
>> Indianapolis, In.: In addition to opting out of their labor agreement with the Players Association, the NFL owners also handed cold-weather Indianapolis the 2012 Super Bowl, to be played at yet-to-be-opened Lucas Oil Stadium.
Comment: The economic impact of the event on Indianapolis and nearby cities with hotel rooms will be substantial, especially since there will be little displacement of existing events going elsewhere while the Super Bowl is being held. In Indianapolis in the winter, there aren’t a lot of other things to compete with.
But the hidden winner in the 2012 game will be Chicago, since there simply aren’t enough limousines, private airplanes and other amenities in Indianapolis to handle the NFL and the corporate entourages that show up for the Super Bowl. Most of those things will come from Chicago.
= Kicker =
>> Moscow, Russia: In a match which started at 10:45 p.m. local time so it could be shown in evening prime time in Western Europe and especially Britain, no riots were reported prior or during the Champions League final between Manchester United and Chelsea.
The conditions at Luzhniki Stadium were considered poor as the turf was only recently replaced and had not had a chance to attach strongly to the ground. The teams played to a 1-1 draw after regulation and two overtime periods, but United won the match – and the title – on penalty kicks, 6-5.
= Keeping Track =
>> San Francisco, Ca.: The details in the latest doping trial in track & field are unfolding in the U.S. District Court, as a former shot putter and discus thrower named Angel Heredia told a jury that he supplied steroids, human growth hormone and other performance-enhancing drugs to coach Trevor Graham, who passed them on to Marion Jones, Tim Montgomery and others.
According to Lance Williams’ account in the San Francisco Chronicle, “Graham phoned in drug orders as often as four times per week, Heredia said, speaking rapidly. The confessed dealers said he bought the drugs in Mexican pharmacies and express-mailed them to Graham in North Carolina, receiving payment by Western Union money or express-mail cash.”
Graham has maintained his innocence and his attorney accused Heredia “of lying about the coach to avoid being prosecuted as a drug dealer and deported.”
= The Five-Ring Circus =
>> Washington, D.C.: Even without Title IX to help, the U.S.-based Institute for Gulf Affairs has started campaigning to ban countries from participation in the Olympic Games because of their policies against women in sport.
In Monday’s edition of the International Herald-Tribune, Institute director Ali Al-Ahmed wrote:
The International Olympic Committee charter states that "any form of discrimination with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race, religion, politics, sex or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic Movement."
But the Olympic Committee is failing to adhere to its own standards. While the hypothetical example of participating countries barring black athletes from the Olympic Games would have rightly caused international outrage, the committee continues to allow the participation of countries that do not allow women on their Olympic teams.
Although the number of all-male teams has been shrinking steadily - from 35 in Barcelona in 1992 to 26 in Atlanta in 1996 to only 10 in Sydney in 2000 and four or five at the last Olympics in Athens, the IOC should do more to eliminate the discriminatory policies practiced by its members in direct violation of the Olympic charter. The IOC should take the position that countries precluding women from participation in the Olympic Games should be suspended from the Olympic community until they allow women equal opportunity to participate. The Olympic committees in the Americas, the European Union, and other democratic nations should take the lead to develop a zero-tolerance policy toward countries that bar women from the Games. Olympic athletes, especially those who are world famous, should also express their support for the full participation of women.
Countries with men-only Olympic teams include Brunei, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. According to their respective governments, women are barred from Olympic participation for "cultural and religious reasons."
For some countries, women's clothing mandated by the conservative interpretation of religion precludes their participation in most sports - for instance, Iran's female Olympians were limited to pistol- and rifle-shooting at the Barcelona, Sydney and Athens Olympics. Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world that completely bars women from any sports activity.
Al-Ahmed points out that there are plenty of Muslim countries whose teams include women such as Algeria and Indonesia.
On the bright side, however, the writer had nothing bad to say about China as host of this summer’s Games!
~ Rich Perelman
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