Weekly Sporties

-Obviously the big story in the world of sports this week was the Boston Red Sox finishing off the St. Louis Cardinals to win their fourth World Series in 10 years. At the center that story was Red Sox slugger David Ortiz, who had an amazing Series and ended up taking home World Series MVP honors. Now, I am as impressed an anyone with what Ortiz has been doing. Like a lot of other baseball fans I thought Ortiz was on the downside of his career and would spend the rest of his time in Boston slowly losing at-bats to guys with more power. Fortunately, this was more proof that when it comes to baseball I am just as rubbish at making predictions as I am trying to figure out what is going to happen in every other sport. Still, this won't stop me from making another long-term prediction: David Ortiz is never going to be a Hall of Famer. In the wake of his MVP run many pundits are saying this recent stretch has solidified his credentials and it is only a matter of time before he finds his way to Cooperstown. As much as I would like Ortiz to wind up there someday I think all this exuberance is just a case of being caught up in the moment. If you were going strictly on stats than sure, Ortiz would be in the Hall. Unfortunately his path to immortality is being blocked by the Baseball Writer's Association and they are not the kind of people who allow themselves to be swayed by emotions. In fact, they look at things almost too clinically. For example, the fact Ortiz was named as having appeared on a list of baseball players who had failed a drug test, even though no one knows what he failed for or if the substance was even banned at that time, will be enough to eliminate him in the mind of many voters. Then comes the fact he was a full-time DH. For some reason Hall of Fame voters have a real problem with the designated hitter. They are willing to accept other situational players such as closer (no one doubts Mariano Rivera will waltz into the Hall on the first day he is eligible), but they have a real bias against DHs. So, while everyone is in love with Big Papi today I don't see the good will lasting until five years after he retires. His best chance may be to simply outlast some of these voters but considering we've been waiting for many of them to retire for a while now he could be in for a long wait. Being a legend in the Bay State may have to be good enough. If it is any consolation it appeared to work for Bill Lee and he never won a World Series, let alone three. I wonder how Ortiz looks in a spaceman suit?

-This World Series will most likely go down in history for all the quirky stuff which happened - the obstruction call to the end Game 3, the runner getting picked off first to end Game 4 - but it will also be remembered throughout time for all the stuff which happen that can never happen again. Seriously, historians may look back at this game the same way we look back at leather helmets in football. First there was the long umpire debate about the dropped ball in Game 1 which we won't see going forward as replay is expanded. In the future all that talking would be condensed into a 30 second look at the monitor and we would move on. But while that part got all the attention, there was one other thing that happened in this Series which we may never see again - a collision at home plate. Baseball doesn't have the concussion issues that sports like football have to deal with and they would like to keep it that way. Admittedly, it is not the biggest issue facing the game today as the only time this becomes something they have to worry about is when a runner is coming home, the throw has beaten him there and the catcher is waiting to tag him out. In that instance the only chance the runner has to score is to hit the catcher so hard he either loses the ball or is knocked unconscious then loses the ball. While it doesn't happen that often when it does happen the results are usually pretty severe with players missing significant time, which is why baseball is thinking of eliminating home plate collisions from the game. What they would do instead is adopt the rule every other level of baseball already has which dictates players must be given a clear path the base and if the runner initiates contact with the catcher he will automatically be out (funny how the one level where the players are at their biggest and strongest that no such rule exists). This sounds fine in the theory, but I have my doubts about baseball's ability to enforce this rule going forward. How exactly can you tell professional baseball players, who really don't have any other skill set beyond their ability to score these runs, so simply give up if the play looks like it could be close? Too many players' brains are wired to go full-tilt at all times for that to ever happen. Also, the call would be too subjective as the umpires would never really be sure of a guy's intentions and if we have learned anything from baseball it is that umpires often assume way too much. So, I can understand why baseball would want to eliminate these hits, I am just not sure they will be able to do it.

-As it turns out St. Louis was in the spotlight twice this week because while the Cardinals and Sox were playing Game 6, the Rams and Seahawks were across town playing on Monday Night Football. By and large the game was a snoozer (Which has been a common problem this year. Seriously, ESPN paid a lot of money for that contract and they get the worst slate of games) but there was still one play which got people talking. Seahawks wide receiver Golden Tate caught a long pass from Russell Wilson and found himself with a clear path to the end zone. He was so confident he would score that with about 40 yards still to go he turned and started taunting the Rams' defensive backs. (He was so caught up in the chatter he was nearly tackled at the 5, but he managed to finish the play off.) He was hit with a 15-yard taunting penalty which was enforced on the kickoff, but that didn't end up really hurting Seattle. His actions got the sports analysts who like to get up in arms about this kind of thing up in arms and they began demanding that the NFL needs to implement stiffer penalties for this kind of situation. It didn't take long for that idea to take off as within a couple hours there was a report which said the NFL could consider adopting the NCAA's policy on this matter. If there is taunting in college the refs have the power to take points off the board and place the ball at the spot of the foul. First of all, I am not sure the NFL should ever follow the NCAA's lead in anything. (This is where I would also point out that I can only recall one instance of this rule being enforced, it was on LSU's punter and it was one of the worst calls in college football all season.) But my larger issue is that there really is no such thing as 'taunting' in pro football. I am all for making sure people are respectful when they are playing sports, but at some point you need to treat these guys like the adult men that they are. If these St. Louis players were really offended by what Tate was saying they had multiple opportunities in the rest of the game to do something about it. Besides, last week Carolina receiver Steve Smith wanted to fight this same secondary, so I refuse to believe they were choir boys in this situation. Just like there is no such thing as running up a score when professionals are involved players have the right to say whatever the want to each other between the lines. What the league really should do is remind these talkative players that eventually they will be the ones who have to deal with the consequences and that threat alone should be enough to keep more than a few mouths shut.

-Lately it seems like the sports world has been full of oddly-timed resignations and firings. First there was Peter Laviolette in Philadelphia getting booted after only 3 games and then Dusty Baker was out in Cincinnati 24 hours after a playoff loss. Well, apparently the NBA was feeling left out of the fun, because early this week and about 24 hours before his team was to take the court for the first time this season Dallas Mavericks GM Gersson Rosas resigned from his position. As if that wasn't odd enough, Rosas had only been on the job for about 3 months, having recently come over from the Houston Rockets. Now, the only reason this story is even noteworthy is because of all the hoopla which surrounded Rosas's move. When he was with the Rockets Rosas was seen as one of the new generation of basketball minds, the kind who look beyond the basic stats and use advanced analytics to find the new great player every other team stupidly overlooked. Honestly, given how tech-centric the Mavericks are thanks to owner Mark Cuban I expected this deal to work out extremely well for all involved. The fact Rosas quit before the season even started makes me wonder just who was really in charge over there. You see, for every forward-thinking and stat-obsessed mind in a sports organization there will be at least one guy who thinks the best way to tell if a guy can play the game is to watch him order a sandwich because it will reveal some deeper psychological meaning about how much he loves the game. Even without being in that building I can make a pretty safe assumption that those two camps were not working well together. In some ways, Rosas should be commended for realizing this as quickly as he did and getting out before his reputation was destroyed. You can only get so many cracks at being an NBA GM and if the Mavericks went down in flames Rosas was going to get the blame even if he didn't have final say in the decisions. But, the fact that he wouldn't have final decision-making ability says more about the state of the Mavericks than anything else. I mean, if you don't trust your general manager that much than maybe he shouldn't be GM in the first place. All I know is this - I was expecting a bounce-back year from Dallas but now I would not be surprised to see them bottom out. Oh, and some NFL coaches may want to update their resumes, since I can only assume one of them will be next.

-But while we're on the subject of coaches getting fired, for a small school without much history or tradition to fall back on (they've been at the Division 1 level for less than a decade) it does seem like Florida Atlantic University has an unusual talent for attracting coaches who should be able to get jobs with higher profiles. They certainly aren't a bad school and the fertile recruiting grounds of Florida probably help bring in some talent, but they are not exactly Florida State. The last guy they coerced out of a gushy gig was Carl Pelini, who at the time was the defensive coordinator at Nebraska. It was a pretty good spot to be in, especially when you considered Carl's brother Bo is the head coach there, which meant he had better job security than most college coaches can expect. Carl is probably wishing he was back in Nebraska right about now because he could use some job security as he was asked to resign in the middle of this week after he and his defensive coordinator were caught using "illegal drugs" at a party. Apparently Pelini and the other coach were at a social gathering and they smoked some pot. There were reports of other, heavier drugs being used but that report has since been denied. Normally I don't take delight in someone losing their job but I have to admit I am taking a small measure of glee in how this is going down, simply because of all the high-and-mighty sports writers who constantly complain about the lack of player discipline and call them thugs, completely forgetting how they acted when they were 19 or 20 years old. Seeing a coach go down (don't cry for Pelini - he will find another job somewhere, coaches always do. I just hope he wasn't planning on going back to Nebraska to coach with his brother because Bo's on thin ice as well) over something which would get one of his kid kicked off the team, cause that kid to lose his scholarship and mess up his life feels like a bit of poetic justice as it proves it is not the athletic system which is corrupt, only that there are corrupt people in that system. Making this story even more incestuous is that the coaches were turned in by a third coach - the special teams coordinator. I find this very ironic because it is usually the coaches who preach loyalty and watching each other's back when it comes to their players and yet here they are, ratting each other out to the cops. It's the ultimate do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do move. No wonder the team wasn't winning. (Sadly, if the Owls were something like 5-2, Pelini would only have been suspended not fired.) The only good news to come out of this story is drama like this means FAU is well on its way to measuring up to all the other big-time programs in Florida.

-I'm always saying that the most useless sports tradition are the interviews with boxers which happen immediately after the fight has taken place. Really, these men have just been punched repeatedly in the head and suddenly we are expecting them to answer multi-part questions coherently? You wouldn't talk to your average bar brawler after he got knocked out, so why are we expecting brilliant post-fight analysis from the guy with the undiagnosed concussion? Nothing good has ever come out of this scenario and yet we insist on continuing with it. Quickly moving up the list of useless interviews are the post-race interviews with racecar drivers. These guys just spent two hours driving at 200 mph (or faster), 3 inches away from another car travelling at the same speed while getting bumped from behind. I'm tired after a day of leisurely running errands in my car, so how can these guys be expected to keep their answers politically correct with that much testosterone pumping through their veins? Last weekend we got another glimpse at this side of the sport when Kevin Harvick was interviewed following a truck race in which he was spun out by Ty Dillon. Rather than take a moment to compose his thoughts Harvick launched into a tirade about Ty and his brother Austin, pointing out they probably only have jobs because their grandfather is Richard Childress, who owns several teams at the various levels of NASCAR. This is not the first time the concept of nepotism has been brought up concerning the Dillons, but what makes this particular rant interesting is that Harvick is currently an employee of... Richard Childress. Now, Harvick has already announced he will be leaving Childress at the end of this season but most people assumed that was his choice. But to hear him tell it, he was being forced out to give his ride to Dillon. While such obvious nepotism clearly sucks, I do think there is a giant hole in Harvick's logic which is when he says the Dillons are only in NASCAR because they come from money. Doesn't pretty much everyone in NASCAR come from money at this point? Seriously the days of the one-car, one-sponsor team who can barely make ends meet if they don't race well are over. Drivers go from race to race on private jets, so Harvick can't tell me he pulled himself up by his bootstraps when he also owns a racing team. He can complain about how the Dillons drive but he certainly can't complain about how they got where they are considering his own parents couldn't have funded his early racing days with some money because even a go-cart costs more than your average pair of skates. Either way, it should make for an interesting couple of weeks at the shop.

-As I have stated many times in the past, too often I feel like golf is beholden to silly rules simply because they have been around so long. I get that some of these rules are as old as the game itself, but that doesn't mean they should stay as a rule based solely on age. Stupidity + time does not automatically equal wisdom, which is why the game could stand to have a few rules looked at. One such rule is the fact you are not allowed to repair a spike mark in your putting line. A spike mark is what happens when someone wearing spikes does not take the time to fix the divot they just made on the green and they can really mess up a player's putt. For some reason you are not allowed to fix them, even if you weren't the one to make it. Still, for as stupid a rule as that one may be, everyone knows it exists, including pro golfer Simon Dyson. Well, playing last week Dyson decided to ignore this well-known rule and tap down a spike mark on his line. He was caught on camera and someone called a rules official, who informed Dyson of the penalty after his round. Because he didn't record the penalty, Dyson was disqualified for signing an incorrect scorecard. He was near the top of the leaderboard at the time, so the DQ cost him a lot of money as well as the chance to play in the Tour Championship. That should have been the end of it, but reports are that players on the European Tour are furious that Dyson was so blatant and want further action taken. Dyson will now meet with the European Tour Player's Committee and could face additional fines, suspension or even expulsion from the Tour. That last one seems a bit extreme to me. As I said last week when talking about Tiger Woods and Brandel Chamblee, there is nothing you can do to a golfer that is worse than calling him a cheater. I don't know if Dyson was trying to cheat or just had a brain fart (if you watch the tape Dyson does appear to be tapping the spike mark down very quickly with the classic "I know this is wrong, I'm just hoping no one is looking" pace) but banning a guy from the tour for one mistake does seem like overkill. Besides, I feel like history may eventually end up on Dyson's side on this one. Plenty of players had to add strokes to their total because wind moved the ball before the rules committee finally wised up and changed that long-standing policy. Dyson could eventually be seen as the guy who started a movement to right a wrong. Of course, if he's stuck at home and unable to play that probably won't be much of a consolation to him.