Time IS NOT On Their Side

Army plays Navy in football this Saturday. The college basketball landscape is a wreck due to COVID-19. The Pittsburgh Steelers are no longer invincible. The New England Patriots do not resemble the Tom Brady-Patriots, while the Brady-Buccaneers combination resembles the Patriots of the past year. 

But we start with baseball. Gary Sanchez is working hard, according to teammate Luke Voit, the reigning AL home run king. First, Sanchez went to Tampa to work out the major kinks in his swing. Now he is clocking the ball in the Dominican Republic in winter ball. Which proves that he can really hit minor league pitching. 

Nobody has mentioned Sanchez’s significant defensive flaws. An article this week touted the improvement of Kyle Higashioka with the same techniques imparted by a new catching instructor. Higgy practiced the techniques between the aborted Spring Training and the Summer Training, and it showed in his catching. So much so that he became the personal catcher for ace and childhood friend Gerrit Cole. When Sanchez’s inability to hit was hurting the Yankees in the playoffs, Higgy took over and was more than credible behind the plate and at bat. 

The most I read about Sanchez and his defense was that he has gone through many different catching coaches, which has had to mess with his mind and form. The Yankees need the powerful bat of Sanchez, even with his substandard catching abilities, to get over the hump and win the elusive World Championship. 

I also read that Aaron Judge is working out in Tampa with Clint Frazier and Voit. Their work ethic is unquestioned. But the possibility that they could be overdoing is very concerning. Losing Judge to more injuries is not acceptable. Ditto Giancarlo Stanton. These guys are superstars and their bats are the music to Yankees fans ears. 

Maybe I have become a nervous person in my old age. I worry about the health of the Yankees players in this pandemic and about the rigorous off season workouts they complete. 

I also worry about the status of D.J. LeMahieu. The still free agent is now being courted by the Dodgers. They have money to burn. The Yankees have been negotiating with LeMahieu’s camp and exchanging offers. Hal Steinbrenner does not like to give contracts for more than 4 years. LeMahieu want 5 years. The Yankees offer is 4 years for $98 million. LeMahieu’s representatives countered with 5 years, $125 million. 

The Yankees suffered losses totaling nearly $200 million in 2020. With the prospect of few fans if any in the stands, the Yankees are sure to lose more money in 2021. Thus, there is  reluctance to sign the AL batting champ. 

Conversely, what LeMahieu brings to the team in leadership on the field and in the clubhouse is so vital for a team which aspires to be the best in baseball. Voit talked about how professional and remarkable LeMahieu is in his day-to-day approach to the game. 

He also is a mentor to rising star Gleyber Torres. If Torres could harness his power and hit to all fields like LeMahieu, he would be an unbelievable hitter in a lineup full of power with Judge, Stanton, Voit and yes, Gary Sanchez.

It is not my team and it is not my money. But in the market of winning baseball, signing D.J. LeMahieu makes all the sense in the world, no matter how high the price will be. He was vastly underpaid at 2 years, $24 million given his production. This player is important to the long-term future of the team. Make it happen, Brian Cashman and Mr. Steinbrenner. 

The college basketball season is a mess. Postponement upon postponement due to COVID-19. UConn has shut down its program twice. Big East member Xavier has played 7 games. De Paul, another Big East member, has not yet played a game. NC State went into a bubble at the Mohegan Sun Casino to be able to play and left with players who caught the virus. 

Duke has shut down its non-conference schedule, although the Alabama coach has cynically questioned whether Duke’s underperforming might have had something to do with it. Coach K has wondered aloud why the games are being played, yet he still is readying his team fr tohe rigors of the ACC schedule which begins next week. 

Pitt coach Jeff Capel, a Duke alum, points out that the players are entertainers and he says they are pros if not given that title. But he also believes the wanton need to play the games loses sight of the bigger picture. 

I read an article in The Undefeated which questioned the legitimacy of playing college basketball in the midst of this pandemic. The writer said that the “Ivy League eggheads” may have gotten it right (On Friday, the Centennial Conference followed the Ivy League and Patriot League plus the NESCAC and suspended all winter sports, plus Franklin and Marshall will not compete in squash or Division I wrestling). He also puts the blame with the NCAA, who, after losing huge money last year when March Madness didn’t happen, are hell-bent to have a tournament this year. 

With the hospitalizations rising fast and the deaths even more so, doesn’t it make sense to pause the schedule for a while and pare it down to a 10 game run into March? Teams aren’t generating revenue from ticket sales, so that cannot be the reason to play. 

It is the health and safety of the players as they travel to new environments and how  vigilant they are at home which counts. Remember, these are young men in their teens and early 20’s, away from home, trying to focus on remote schoolwork and playing basketball while staying safe from the coronavirus.

It is not like that with football, and even with that statement, look at the Michigan football team which supposedly had 45 players infected by COVID-19, necessitating the cancellation of their rivalry game versus Ohio State and throwing the national championship hopes of the Buckeyes into doubt for a moment. That sport, with its limited schedules, is limping to the finish line. 

The NBA is enacting very strict guidelines and rules for its upcoming season, which kicks off on Friday with a slew of exhibition games. It is interesting to note that teams are playing two games in three days in one site, to keep travel down and to protect the players and thereby protect the season. 

College cannot do that—it is financially impossible. The NBA has subsidized each franchise with $30 million for the 2020-21 season to help make it through to the NBA Finals with a limited schedule. 

Believe me, selfishly I would like to see the college basketball schedule proceed. Rutgers has a really good team and they would more than likely make the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1991. 

How the schools are going to accomplish this with the way things are in the world is questionable. These are supposedly fine academic institutions, full of smart people. Yet they capitulate to the NCAA and ESPN and whomever else enriches their coffers, player safety be damned. There is no universal requirements in the sport, just like the mandates differ from California to the Dakotas. 

College hoops is going to be hard to complete this season. Whatever happens, too many lives are at stake. I feel queasy about this.

In the NFL, I was so wrong about the Giants. They went into Seattle and beat the Seahawks. No question which was the better team that day. New York is the top team in the NFC East, although on the basis of its unexpected win at Pittsburgh, the Washington Football Team is tied with the Giants at 5-7. Because the Giants are suddenly now a “good” team, they were flexed into the Sunday night game next week when they host the 9-3 Cleveland Browns with Baker Mayfield at QB. I said it before and I hold to it—the NFC East will be decided on the last weekend of the season when the Giants welcome Dallas and The Eagles and Washington renew their rivalry. 

Speaking of the Philadelphia Eagles, Carson Wentz has been benched in favor of high draftee Jalen Hurts. Doug Peterson’s job is on the line—if Hurts can rally the troops, then Peterson can continue coaching in the City of Brotherly Love for another season. He is so lucky that fans aren’t in attendance; imagine the booing…

Kansas City looked sluggish Sunday night when Denver came to Arrowhead Stadium. The Chiefs still managed to win, but I was less impressed with them than I had been. Maybe a little let down after the emotional win in Tampa? KC is on the road for two games—at Miami then at New Orleans. Both seem to be playoff-bound, and the Saints will have Drew Brees back from his broken ribs and punctured lung in what could be a preview of the Super Bowl. 

If the Chiefs emerge 1-1, that is pretty good. 2-0, then they are the unquestioned best team in the NFL. 0-2 would mean that there is no outstanding team in the league, which I still kind of believe.

By the way, the Jets travel to Seattle this weekend. Think the Seahawks aren’t going to be very hospitable after losing to the Giants? Then the Jets play the Rams in Inglewood the next Sunday. LAR just demolished the Patriots on Thursday night. Two hard road games, two bad losses forthcoming. 

I felt badly for Dez Bryant, who probably received a false positive test (2 inconclusive tests) which sidelined him for the Dallas-Baltimore Ravens contest on Tuesday—Bryant’s first since he returned to football and ironically against his old team. He is now on the COVID/IR. At first he was ready to quit. Now he has refocused. It still stinks that he may not have COVID-19 and is being kept out of games. 

Lastly, I will address the last “regular” season of the college football schedule. In the Big Ten, along with Army and Navy, tradition rules. The teams which normally end the seasons against each other are doing exactly that in the Big Ten. Army and Air Force meet next week only because of COVID hitting the Falcons earlier. 

In the Pac-12, Cal and Stanford have already met, as have Washington and Washington State and Oregon and Oregon State. Although Arizona meets Arizona, Colorado and Utah play each other and UCLA and USC settle Southern California college football supremacy, it felt odd that the normal rivalries aren’t in place. Compared to the Big Ten, which would have had Ohio State-Michigan, there still is Purdue-Indiana, Illinois-Northwestern, Penn State-Michigan State, Nebraska-Minnesota, Iowa-Wisconsin and Rutgers tried again for win number 3 at Maryland (they won in OT). 

I could find one true rivalry game in the SEC or Big 12. That is Vanderbilt heading to Knoxville to play Tennessee. South Carolina and Kentucky met last week, concluding their seasons. Alabama and Auburn have played. Mississippi and Mississippi State tangled on Thanksgiving. Border rivals Arkansas and LSU don’t meet. Instead, Arkansas gets #1 Alabama at home. Sooey pig!!

In the ACC, all I could find was the Commonwealth rivalry between Virginia and Virginia Tech. No North Carolina-Duke to end the season, nor does Wake play N.C. State. 

Plus forget about the crossover rivalries between schools from different conferences. Georgia is in Missouri instead of meeting with Georgia Tech. Florida gets LSU to end the season, not Florida State. 

The easy question is how the Big Ten could manage to schedule all of its rivalry games, the Pac-12 some. Of the games and the ACC but one? It is too complicated but nonetheless sad. I am used to traditional foes meeting to end the season. I guess that in this new world of COVID-19, college football had enough trouble to arrange schedules let alone keep traditions.

Which is why Army-Navy to end the year is always very important. Usually the last or one of the last regular season games, it seemingly is always held in December. This year a week or two later than normal. Yet it is not the final game of the season for Army; as noted, they host the Air Force Academy next Saturday.

True to form, the game is not going to be at a neutral site. For the first time since 1943, when the game was held at West Point, the two service academies will collide again along the banks of the Hudson River, rather than in Philadelphia, New York or Baltimore, where they have met more recently. 

Navy is 3-6, Army is 7-2. Navy had its biggest comeback in history when they trailed Tulane 24-0 to win 27-24. Army also met the Green Wave, who overwhelmed the Cadets 38-12. Army has won 3 of the past 4 meetings, with Navy winning last season and accumulating a record-setting 11 wins. The Navy offense is young and suspect. The Cadets rushing average is a whopping 296.7 yards/game, third best in the college ranks.

Only admirals and generals plus their staffs will be at the game. It is possible that President Trump could attend. All will be in self-contained suites. Army needs to defeat both Navy and Air Force to win the Commander-in-Chief Trophy. Navy wins and they get the trophy. If Air Force wins next week, the Falcons bring the trophy back to Colorado Springs. No matter what, Army is scheduled to play in the Independence Bowl in Shreveport, LA on December 26.

Army is a seven point favorite. Condoleezza Rice is the celebrity picker on College GameDay. I pick the Cadets to win. She should, too. In this COVID year, who knows how right it is to be right?

There you have it. College football’s regular season is coming to its end. With the exception of five conference championships, Big Ten crossover games, whatever bowl games that are to be played (This week Boston College indicated that it would not participate in a bowl game out of an abundance of safety for its student-athletes) and, of course, the College Football playoffs. If the pandemic allows for all of this to occur. It has, after all, been quite uncooperative and is even nastier than before.

I don’t know how the NBA will fare. I cannot guess how the NFL will conclude its season then navigate the playoffs en route to the Super Bowl. I am very uneasy with the college basketball season as it meanders through December. And, most of all, LeMahieu remains unsigned by the Yankees. 

Sports cannot be more wary of a fundamental principle divulged by the Rolling Stones: time IS NOT on their side. No it isn’t.