Riders On The Storm

This is the final blog of 2020. It’s been one heck of a year, to put it mildly. Sports certainly is no exception to that statement. 

As we near January 1st, we can look back and say that it has been the strangest of rides, driven by a monster virus that has ferociously gripped the world. What it has done to mankind is destroy any semblance of normalcy. That is true of sports, since the start of March, when everything was humming along.

Suddenly, we were in the throes of an unthinkable pandemic, with predictions of unfathomable doom and gloom ahead of us in the following months. Unfortunately, those predictions actually underestimated the death and chaos which would envelop civilization. 

While there are signs of hope and optimism from the development of two vaccines and scientific protocols to stem the tide of this monster, the battle is far from over. We believe that this vaccination campaign will return life to a more regular and acceptable way. But we are still unsure if that will happen, and if it does, how long will it take.  

These are very uncertain times we live in. Add in a dose of real political tumult for good measure, and we have seen that we are living in fragile times as the pandemic continues.  

There is no one reliable formula which will allow sports to succeed as it had been—completing regular schedules and having full stadiums and arenas. The staggering economic  hammering from the coronavirus has been felt in all sectors. including sports. 

Look at the NCAA. They had no choice but to cancel the most lucrative event on the calendar—March Madness. As men’s and women’s teams stagger through November and December, teams paused due to COVID-19 or, in the case of the Duke Women’s Basketball Team, ended their seasons prematurely. How will the NCAA get to this year’s finish line with enough healthy players and teams, and how can they determine a champion with so much of the nation remaining in the throes of the coronavirus?

The games will be played. Fans will be let into some gyms. There will be more pauses and illness. We will continue to see coaches wearing facemasks on the sidelines, only to pull them down to shout instructions to the unmasked players. Schools will try to create bubbles, but the calculus of travel in a limited schedule will be problematic. 

And the NCAA will, come hell or high water, do everything to have 2020-21 Men’s and Women’s Tournaments. It’s an economic thing—the NCAA might be doomed if there isn’t money in the coffers from the largess of its partners. The member institutions, save the Ivy and Patriot Leagues in Division I, are all for being enriched. 

Moreover, the NCAA should be worried about the players suit for compensation for their play. It has reached the U.S. Supreme Court and if the players are successful, the ramifications on all sports will be immense. 

Look, I am an unabashed Rutgers Men’s Basketball fan. My love of Scarlet Knights hoops goes back to my teens, watching the team win third place in the 1967-68 National Invitation Tournament at Madison Square Garden. Followed by the team which made the Final Four in Philadelphia in 1976. And then a period of success at the RAC which ended in 1991, except for a trip or two to the NIT. 

Last year, Steve Pikiell’s squad was finally headed to the Big Dance. Then the coronavirus took care of that dream. 

Now, last year’s team is even better. They have been ranked in the polls since the opening of the season. Ron Harper, Jr. has been among the top 5 scorers in Division I. Notwithstanding Wednesday’s loss at Ohio State, where the Knights have never won, in a game where the roof literally collapsed, and some awful officiating and even more atrocious foul shooting turned a 13 point second half lead into a rout for the Buckeyes when the only able big man on the team, Myles Johnson, fouled out with over 8 minutes remaining in the second half. 

No one should have expected that this team was going to go undefeated. They are still young and learning. They still have some deficiencies. Besides, the Big Ten is loaded with good teams. Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan State, Michigan, Ohio State and Illinois are all ranked in the AP Top 25. Purdue, Northwestern and Minnesota are to be reckoned with. Indiana, Penn State and Maryland are competitive. Nebraska is the only real weak team. 

Plus there is the Big Ten Tournament as a prelude to the NCAA’s. Nothing is a given in this year’s conference play—provided the schedule continues on course. 

Which leads me to say that Rutgers will have to heighten its game even more if they want a shot at the NCAA’s. This talk of a national championship is way premature and highly unlikely. Besides, RU fans should be very happy if the team stays intact, wins more than it loses in the Big Ten, and makes the NCAA Tournament. That’s a pretty big accomplishment for a school whose last trip there was 30 years ago. 

Kudos to Tara Vanderveer, the head coach of the Stanford Women’s Basketball Team. She has now surpassed the great Pat Summit as the winningest coach in that sport. 

Yet as good as she has been, the only coach I placed on the same level as Summitt was her arch-rival, Geno Auriemma of UConn. I regard Auriemma as the best coach ever in women’s basketball, largely due to his 1096-142 career record and the 11 titles the Huskies have acquired. He is in the Basketball Hall of Fame for good reason. 

Vanderveer deserved to be inducted into the Hall of fame, as she was in 2011. But her resume, as good as it is, does not match that of Auriemma. Period. 

College football fans have survived the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl again on the blue carpet of Boise State University. Along with a plethora of other minor and very uninteresting bowl games. 

All this is a prelude to the College Football Playoffs. With Alabama winning the SEC and Clemson the ACC, there was some question whether Ohio State, winner of the Big Ten over a tough Northwestern team, was worthy of the tournament having played a shorter six game schedule. Similarly, the beating which Clemson put on Notre Dame made the Irish vulnerable to many—especially the fans fifth-ranked Texas A&M. 

The committee decided rather easily that both the Buckeyes and the Irish should be in the playoffs. Thus, Alabama meets Notre Dame and Clemson, now with Trevor Lawrence firmly in command, plays OSU.

I am happy for the 9-2 Army football team. With a fine record, bowls didn’t want them but would accept teams with losing records instead. That made no sense. 

Tennessee had to drop out of the Liberty Bowl due to COVID-19 affecting the team. Army accepted the invite. I am rooting for the Cadets to defeat West Virginia on New Year’s Eve. 

Well, I went out on a limb and thought that the New York Jets, owners of an 0-13 mark, would succumb to the 9-4 Los Angeles Rams in a second trip to the West Coast in a week. How dumb of me.

The Rams laid an egg and the Jets capitalized. The team headed back to New Jersey 1-13, no longer in control of the first pick in the upcoming NFL Draft. Amazingly, now the 1-13 Jacksonville Jaguars confront their destiny in the Trevor Lawrence sweepstakes. The Jets would either end up with the second or third pick, depending on how they do in their remaining  games—a contest against the Cleveland Browns at home, then at New England to end the season. 

Cleveland is set to make the playoffs for the first time in eons if they win on 

Sunday again at Met Life Stadium, where they vanquished the Giants last Sunday night. A win here ends the longest drought in history—going back to 2001. A win by the Browns and a loss by the fading Pittsburgh Steelers to the surging Indianapolis Colts would set up a Browns-Steelers showdown on the final Sunday for the AFC North crown. 

Kansas City downed New Orleans last week, placing them apart from their AFC brethren. Buffalo won the AFC East. That is a novelty, considering that the division was reserved for Bill Belichick and Tom Brady.

One of those two is making the playoffs. It isn’t the coach. Brady engineered another comeback win against the Atlanta Falcons (see Super Bowl LI). The ageless wonder is still playing at a high level; his team isn’t championship material. 

Turmoil surrounds the Washington Football Team. Leaders of the pathetic NFC East, young QB Dwayne Haskins, subbing for the injured Alex Smith, lost to the Seattle Seahawks and then was photographed in a strip club that night celebrating without a mask. He was fined $40,000 and lost his captaincy for his immaturity. 

Owner Dan Snyder, no stranger to controversy, settled a sexual harassment suit for over $1 million. He contends he is being harassed by minority owners, who want him out. Snyder did not have the guts to re-name the team, like the Cleveland Indians are going to do. 

I root for Smith, who has had a remarkable comeback from injury. I do not like Snyder at all. 

I have watched some NBA games in the first couple of days. Not terribly exciting. Brooklyn is very, very good. Golden State is very, very bad. The Lakers look tired, with such a short time to recuperate after winning the title just over two months ago. Phoenix won nine games in the bubble—they won game number one this season. The Suns are a team to watch, with Chris Paul now at the point. 

Steph Curry is without Klay Thompson and Draymond Green and it shows. Curry looks rusty and the team has no scoring punch. Milwaukee downed the Warriors by 39 on Christmas Day. The Bucks had a lead as large as 43 points. The only positive from what might become another disastrous season for the team by the Bay was that Curry passed Rick Barry as the second-leading scorer in Warriors history. He trails Wilt Chamberlain by less than 1,000 points to become the franchise’s all-time scoring leader; he is the top scorer for the teams tenure on the West Coast. 

James Harden is in trouble with the Rockets and the NBA for some improper behavior, not unlike that of Dwayne Haskins. Now nobody will want Harden, who is trying his damndest to get out of Houston and failing. Like he always does in the playoffs. 

For those baseball enthusiasts, I can say that there has been activity regarding D.J. LeMahieu. While Yankees GM Brian Cashman and Manager Aaron Boone have repeatedly stated that signing the AL batting champion is the team’s top priority, the team and LeMahieu still remain far apart in the negotiations. Furthermore, team owner Hal Steinbrenner has maintained that the $200 million loss suffered in 2020 is not acceptable. 

Thus, a new suitor for LeMahieu’s talents has emerged. New York Mets owner directed his management to reach out to LeMahieu’s people. Which, according to reports, they did. 

Right now we have no inkling of how deep the conversations have been. Nonetheless, LeMahieu, who loves the Yankees and evidently loves New York City, has indicated that the Mets are second to the Yankees on his list of teams for 2021. 

Maybe all the talk of the Mets, Dodgers and Blue Jays interest in the infielder will amount to nothing and permit LeMahieu to use the three teams to get what he wants out of the Yankees. Then again, if Steinbrenner suddenly turns parsimonious, the Yankees fans will be more than unhappy to see this fan favorite in another uniform. 

Many moves have to be made to complete the roster. The word is that negotiations and trades are not likely to occur until February, just before the start of training camps. That is due to the MLBPA wanting to be assured of what the season will look like and to insure that the players are duly compensated. I am sure this will be a subject of my blogs in the upcoming year.

One more item of note—Tommy Kahnle, a fine reliever for the Yankees, who had Tommy John surgery at the start of the 2020 season and then was released by New York, signed with the Dodgers. I expect Kahnle to come back to full strength and make the Los Angeles bullpen even more formidable. 

When I next write this blog, it will be 2021. Who knows what will happen in a week’s time? A car bomb was detonated in Nashville on Christmas Day. COVID-19 deaths will continue to rise disproportionately. Congress must still face a number of critical financial markers. Very serious stuff. 

Sports will continue to be caught in this cyclone. The participants will feel like what The Doors and their late lead singer Jim Morrison masterfully described in the turbulent ’60’s: Riders on the Storm.