Man Cave Missive

I am coming to you from the Man Cave, now my bunker, where I eat, sleep, watch TV and stay away from the mid and upper levels of the house while the painters have their way. This will end this weekend, but it is only part one of a number of improvements. Next will be the new blinds, which will permit us to once more inhabit the bedroom—my wife is ensconced in the den, sleeping on a couch like me, but enveloped wby far fewer boxes than I have surrounding me. So here I am, writing while seated on a folding chair, laptop on a box labeled nightgowns and shorts. 

Once we have the carpeting in—it is scheduled for May 9, then we can begin to get rid of the boxes, and the clothes on couches and floors and start to live a more normal lifestyle. I cautiously use those terms, because what is normal anyway these days? Between woke awareness and sensitivity along with twisted stories developed to suit one’s world view, who knows what really is the truth?

Which is why I escape to sports or a book to find solace—if my teams are winning. With so much going on right now, the odds seem to be working in my favor—for now. 

I took some shots at the Yankees last week. Somebody must have communicated my feelings to the team, for all of a sudden, the Yankees are magically winning big, slugging homers and the pitching has been outstanding for the most part. 

Now let’s get some perspective. The wins have come against the Guardians and Orioles. While Cleveland came in as a first place team, they left New York pretty ripped up and went to Anaheim where they met a hot Angels team which kept the G’s in a tailspin. 

As for the Birds, they aren’t chirping like they did in Baltimore. The big boppers of the Yankees took care of that. Turning 30, free agent to-be Aaron Judge slugged a home run on his birthday, the day after his picture made social media where his hand rested inappropriately on his wife’s chest—avert your eyes, children! 

Returning D.J. LeMahieu to the top of the order wasn’t brain surgery. Of course he went on a 12 game hitting streak. That’s what he does when he is in the right place and healthy, unlike last year’s struggles due to injury.

Anthony Rizzo took three pitches deep on Tuesday, making him the early MLB leader in home runs. Fred Freeman who? Remember that later in the year when Rizzo’s bat cools and Freeman is consistently at or above a .300 average on a really good Dodgers ball club. 

Giancarlo Stanton was in a funk. He hadn’t homered in 14 straight games, sitting stuck with 349 career homers. Number 350 came on Wednesday night, making him the 7th fastest player to reach that coveted mark. If his bat has awakened, pitchers should take cover. 

Even Joey Gallo got into the act. On Tuesday and Wednesday, Gallo slammed home runs, one to left center and the other into the right field seats. Sure, he still strikes out a lot. But his ball-to-bat contact is much better than in the past, so there might actually be some hope for him to be less than moribund at the plate for an entire season. 

I remind myself that it is Cleveland and Baltimore that the Yankees are playing. Next is a road trip to Kansas City, where the Royals are having a so-so start to the season. Then an all-important trip to Toronto to take on the Blue Jays in a collision of two of the top AL East teams. When we will also find out how many Yankees remain unvaccinated and therefore unable to cross the border. 

Meanwhile, the Mets continue to win. Not without controversy. The Mets are being plunked at an alarming rate. It spilled over on Wednesday when a retaliatory pitch to the Cardinals’ Nolan Arenado precipitated a baseball brawl. Nobody was hurt, although Mets slugger Pete Alonso, hit twice this early season in the helmet, was tackled by a Cardinals coach in fear that Alonso, a very strong young man, might hurt somebody. Alonso said he rushed into the fray to protect his teammates.

The bigger issue is that the ball has been changed. Top flight pitchers like Gerrit Cole and Max Scherzer have made mention that it felt like a cue ball, difficult to grip. Mets catchers have echoed that thought. Which makes it much more difficult to control when pitching inside to Mets batters, which must be the scouting report. That leads to disgruntled hit batsmen and brawls. 

MLB says they are investigating. I hope they investigate this phenomenon fast, before it becomes an epidemic. We have been through enough of those.

I made it to Lancaster with my wife to see the first place Franklin and Marshall Diplomats step a doubleheader against Haverford. While the day was cool and the faint smell of naturally fertilizing the fields was still around, it was great to see some fine Division III baseball.

F&M is a pretty good team. They have to win over arch rival Gettysburg at home on Friday before traveling to an all-important doubleheader at Swarthmore. The winner of those games would secure home field for the Centennial Conference playoffs—a big thing when seeking to make the NCAA Tournament. 

Rutgers had a rough weekend when Iowa came to Piscataway. The Hawkeyes went 2-1 in their trip East. RU managed to maintain first place in the Big Ten, with a trip to Columbus on tap to face Ohio State starting on Friday. Perhaps the best team in the conference travels to RU over Mother’s Day weekend when Maryland pays a visit. The Knights have been hanging tough this season; the toughest part of the season is yet to come.

In NBA action, Golden State, Miami, Boston and Milwaukee all secured first round series wins. Three other series are at 3-2 heading into action on Thursday. 

Those proclaiming that the Warriors are going to win the Western Conference playoffs should remember that Nikola Jokic didn’t have a full complement of able-bodied teammates to work with. For had he had that full team, this series would have headed to seven games. No matter how physical Golden State was with him, he was difficult to stop. For a seven footer, Jokic is imposing as to how he handles the ball. If he had the strength of a true center, like Shaquille O’Neal or Wilt Chamberlain, Denver would win every year. Say he was on the Warriors—wouldn’t they be unstoppable. That’s how scary good Jokic is. 

Speaking of scary good, Ja Morant of Memphis is just that. Last season’s Rookie of the Year was named Most Improved Player for this year. Nobody has ever been those two things in succeeding seasons. His play in the fourth quarter against Minnesota on Tuesday night included maybe the dunk of the year and a spectacular game-winning layup. 

And Miami put a clamp on Trae Young, who couldn’t repeat his heroics of last year against the Knicks. Which is why Atlanta is done for the season and Miami awaits the winner of the Toronto-Sixers matchup.

There is much drama in that series. Sixers star Joel Embiid is playing with torn ligaments in his right hand, limiting him. He is urging James Harden to play better ball, which may not happen. Harden has a history of being a non-factor in the playoffs before. For if he doesn’t, Doc Rivers will lose another series after leading 3-1. Do I hear Jay Wright being called?

As for the Nets, they are as dysfunctional as Kyrie Irving. While he and Kevin Durant are very talented, the Boston Celtics are one whale of a team. Mired in a miserable slump into early January, the C’s came alive and went 36-6. They play hard defense. They make their shots. They play defending champion Milwaukee next in what promises to be a very entertaining meeting. 

I think that Phoenix can survive a surprisingly strong effort from New Orleans. Without Devin Booker, the Suns are almost mortal. The series victor gets the winner of Utah-Dallas,  games very few follow, because they have the least star power. 

Thus we have baseball in full action, the end of the NHL regular season and the start of the playoffs next week. There is the NFL Draft where the Jets and Giants will try to get better all at once with two picks each in the Top 10. And the NBA Playoffs continue. 

What a wonderful week to be stuck in my cellar, save my trip to Pennsylvania Dutch country. So ends my Man Cave Missive. 

I Hope I Can Eat My Words

  I have detected what is wrong with the Yankees, at least in the early going. I recognize that things can change, but still, are have some serious flaws. I don’t know if they can be corrected. 

After another lackluster game, I found myself searching for answers. Why are the Yankees so moribund that I find myself increasingly unable to watch more than an inning, if that? Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is great entertainment if you haven’t seen it in a while, but still, shouldn’t I be watching ace Gerrit Cole mow down the Detroit Tigers and the supposedly power-packed lineup erupting regularly for 5-6 runs with some extra base hits? How come I am turning to see Max Scherzer manhandle the San Francisco Giants, a pretty good team, in his first Citi Field start as a Met? Why am I waiting until 10;10 to view the Dodgers beat up on the defending World Champion Atlanta Braves at Dodger Stadium?

  I scrupulously avoided the Yankees in Baltimore, where the fans are stuck with a truly moribund team with a low payroll, yet the O’s somehow have New York’s number again this season. Instead, I am checking the scores for my two favorite college baseball teams, Franklin and Marshall and Rutgers. One I played for, one I watched as a boy. Maybe because both are in first place in their conferences, with RU having had an incredible 16 game winning streak, tops in DI, before losing at home on Wednesday to a Princeton Tigers squad which had 4 wins.. 

Anything but turning to the Yankees. I like Michael Kay only so much on YES. People like newbie YES broadcaster Cameron Maybin; I feel he is trying to please the viewers too much with his insight. Give me David Cone, Paul O’Neill (even if he is unvaccinated and still checking in from Ohio) or Ken Singleton. Oh yeah, Ken is retired now. Ugh. 

I cringe when I turn to Channel 576 on Verizon. I look at my CBS Sports and ESPN apps with dread. What will the Yankees do to muck up another game? Will Aaron Judge, the one desirous of $36 million ayear, fail to come through in the clutch? How many home runs does he have—1? That’s right—1!!

Or will Anthony Rizzo be all smiles, both in the dugout and chatting at first base, the position he mans, not the place where he tends to land after a good at bat. He seems to be part of a clique on the team—always interacting with Judge—perhaps because they both entered the season unvaccinated? 

I give Giancarlo Stanton a pass as a team leader, largely because he is not that kind of rah rah guy. Make no mistake, he is underperforming too. It isn’t leadership by example when your on field performance is not peaking. 

D.J LeMahieu may be hitting for average. But with the overabundance of players manning the infield spots, he is the proverbial square peg in a round hole. Does Gleyber Torres, who seemingly is always taking giant cuts at the plate, sit more to allow LeMahieu to play? Or does Manager Aaron Boone, who famously proclaimed that he would find playing time for all, rely on those who are just not hitting or fielding? 

I look at the Angels. Tyler Wade, the first guy off the bench in 2021, who began to hit last season and has oodles of speed, was hitting well over .300 and finally getting the opportunity to play for extended periods and he is doing the job. The Yankees never gave Wade a fair shake, but relied on Torres recapturing some of his magic instead of continuing his downward slide. Even Anthony Velasquez, who gave the Yankees some solid glove work at shortstop and some timely hits, was allowed to leave. He went to Anaheim, and while he didn’t start the season with the team, when David Fletcher went down, he filled in admirably. 

The Yankees gave up more than just some spare parts this off season. Sure, Gary Sanchez was no longer right for New York. He is fitting in nicely with the Twins in the dual role of catcher and DH. 

Spirited players like Wade, Velasquez, Sanchez, Luke Voit, Gio Urshela and Brett Gardner were no longer welcome in the Bronx. While Aaron Hicks is currently leading the team in hitting, that’s not going to continue nor are his play winning games. Josh Donaldson, a wild card wherever he plays, was brought to New York with his big salary. Give me Urshela anytime over him. Isiah Kiner-Falefa is a nice young player; he will be okay overall as a placeholder until top draft choice and New Jersey native Anthony Volpe rises from Double-A Somerset to the big club sometime in the next two years.  I hope it is sooner—he is a can’t miss prospect. Like another guy a number of years ago from Kalamazoo, Michigan with NJ roots: Derek Jeter. 

Gerrit Cole is not pitching like a stud. Whether he is affected by the cold weather, lack of SpiderTack or whatever, this guy is simply no stopper. He was brought in to win games and he could not get out of the second inning in Detroit without walking five and throwing 46 pitches in an inning he didn’t even complete. 

We’re being told to be patient; that he will be reliable and dominant soon. Would we have had to worry like that about Roger Clemens, Andy Petitte or C.C. Sabbathia in their primes? That is a rhetorical question which does not warrant a response. 

Compare this team to the dominant teams managed by Joe Torre (an aside—the Cardinals are giving away a Torre bobblehead when the Yankees travel to St. Louis, the place where he had his success as a player). There is no Jeter on this team, as much as Judge believes he is the leader. No O’Neill, the Warrior, who also won a batting title.

Catching is such a mess. The catchers now with the Yankees can frame pitches. Period. I want a guy who is capable, like Jorge Posada. Or has the heart of a Joe Girardi. 

As good a fielder as Rizzo is, is he as good overall as was Tino Martinez? This team lacks a  Scott Brosius or Wade Boggs. Is any outfielder nearly as good as Bernie Williams?

The pitching may be the strength of this team, notwithstanding Cole’s abysmal start to the season. Luis Severino is seemingly back to being the dominant pitcher he was before his injury. Jordan Montgomery is a very serviceable left-handed starter. Jameson Taillon may be a surprise in his return from surgery. And speaking of big surprises, Nestor Cortes continues to show potential that nobody saw and which few expect to be continued. 

Yet the bullpen is filled with holes. Chad Green is superb, but, as always, he will be burnt out by June from overuse. Jonathan Loiasiga, last year’s bullpen phenom, has struggled. Luis Cessa, a mainstay, is in Cincinnati. There are a lot of names being asked to pitch a lot of early innings to keep the Yankees afloat. What will this do to them come August and September when most needed?

Just to be clear. Aroldis Chapman is an excellent closer. Not the same guy as 4 years ago. Nonetheless he is still top notch. Unfortunately, he is not Mariano Rivera. Then again, who could be?

Let me say this, Aaron Boone gets criticized and receives passes for his mistakes at the same time. I am trying not to compare him with Girardi, Joe Torre or the Mets manager, Buck Showalter, who preceded Torre in the Bronx. 

I thought about who he reminds me of, and it was clear. He is like his father, Phillies stalwart catcher Bob Boone, who accumulated a 371-444 mark as a manager in Kansas City and Cincinnati, where the talent level was markedly less than what is in New York. Boone’s managing style does not light a fire under his players. Like a Joey Cora in Boston, Dusty Baker in Houston or Dave Roberts in LA. 

Lastly, I am underwhelmed by General Manager Brian Cashman. A devotee of analytics, this team is put together based on the math, and that is simply insufficient. For math never measures the intangibles. The Steinbrenner family may be enamored with him, but the fan base apparently is very restless with no World Series win since 2009.

This is Cashman’s team. He put it together and he selected Boone to manage it. He needs to be held accountable if the team fails to win—in a year where the number of playoff participants has been increased. His contract needs to be negotiated for next year. Should he be back if the team hasn’t played to expectations? 

I know it is apples and oranges. Watching the Golden State Warriors play integrated games against Denver and seeing the enthusiasm of the team and its coach, Steve Kerr, made me wonder why the Yankees seem so dead. They are more like one of the other teams which populates YES, the Brooklyn Nets. Good players but something is missing. 

From the top to the bottom, things are missing with the Yankees. I don’t think this team will be a winner in a division as fearsome as the AL East with the likes of Toronto, Tampa Bay and Boston. Especially if the Yanks have trouble with the lowly Orioles. They look more like the 2021-22 Los Angeles Lakers. We know how that turned out. Which, to me, is disheartening. Again. 

Come October, I hope I can eat my words. 

And I Haven't Got Time For The Knicks

First, I must make note of an omission. Here at RetiredLawyerSportsOp, we take feedback seriously. And I received some sharp words after last week’s blog. 

A very loyal reader reacted to my oversight regarding the Kansas-North Carolina NCAA National Championship game. When Carolina jumped to that enormous first half lead, this reader confidently texted me that he felt Kansas would make a serious run in the second half, and that the game was far from over.

Well, that reader was correct. The Jayhawks dominated the Tar Heels in a record-setting comeback for a title game. It was the frenetic play and shot-making of Bill Self’s team which made UNC wilt as the game progressed (as opposed to what happened to KU in 3 OT in 1957 when Carolina took down Wilt Chamberlain and his Kansas teammates in the only other NCAA final between the two schools). 

With Passover upon us, I may have to have another slice of Horowitz & Margareten matzoh on the reader’s behalf. Along with some gefilte fish and horseradish. It is the only way I can think of atoning for that oversight. 

The NBA has begun its post-season. The play-in tournament has started. The Nets did not overwhelm the Cavaliers to secure the second spot in the East and a meeting with the Boston Celtics in the first round. Minnesota came from behind a couple of times to overtake the Clippers to send them into the playoffs for a series with the tough Memphis Grizzlies and Ja Morant. 

Fear not for Cleveland and Los Angeles. Even with losing, they have a second chance for redemption and to secure the eighth seeds in their selective conferences with home games on Friday versus Atlanta and New Orleans. Neither game is a given as the Hawks have Trey Young, the mercurial guard and leader of the Atlanta offense, and resurgent New Orleans has C.J. Mc Collum, who is playing like the All-Star he was with Portland. 

The winner of Atlanta-Cleveland draws Miami. The survivor of the New Orleans-Clippers match gets Phoenix, the team which had the most wins this season. 

With that, the real playoffs begin on Saturday. Steph Curry practiced with his Warriors teammates for the first time on Wednesday as he recovers from a foot injury. Denver will be in the Chase Center to face him, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green in a 3/6 series. The other Western Conference series not mentioned is the 4/5 match up between Dallas and Utah. That is now a toss up because Mavs’ star Luka Doncic suffered a calf strain in the regular season finale, and his availability is questionable. 

Over in the East, no one is recalling that the Milwaukee Bucks won the title last year and are a serious contender to repeat. Giannis and crew play a weak Chicago team which they should easily dispatch. Philadelphia, led by scoring champ Joel Embiid and James Harden, who endears himself to nobody but himself, draw the gritty and formidable Toronto Raptors, a team capable of defeating the Sixers. 

Do I see a Nets run deep into the playoffs? Not really. Even a depleted Boston team can bounce Kevin Durant and Kyrie Driving out of the playoffs that quickly. Getting beyond that series will mean Miami, Milwaukee and the survivor of the Philly-Raptors series. 

Phoenix is the team to beat. Everyone else in the West is just not as good as the Suns. Maybe Memphis. And the Warriors cannot really provide enough firepower to overtake either of those two teams. 

Meanwhile, the Lakers made Frank Vogel a scapegoat for their woes. The Lakers suffered from injuries to key players Lebron James and Anthony Davis. Russell Westbrook was an abysmal failure in LA, and he clashed repeatedly with Vogel, who is a very fine coach and should find employment in the NBA rather than later. 

The Lakers are an aged team with James, who is not going lead any team to a championship anymore despite his almost winning the scoring crown this season, nor with Davis, who finds injuries like tornadoes sense churches and mobile homes. 

So I looked up the Lakers head man, Rob Pelinka, the architect of this implosion. And I found out some interesting tidbits about him. 

Pelinka was a 6’6” high school star in the Chicago area who did not attract much attention even with his teams winning state titles. Only when he ran a streak of 40+ free throws in a high-end tournament to garner the M.V.P. award did he begin to get recruited heavily by schools. 

Pelinka was recruited by the University of Michigan, where he played as a reserve and some times starter. He is the only person in school history to have been a member of there NCAA Final Four teams—one championship team and two runners-up, which were the Fab Five teams. 

No slouch academically, Pelinka was the 1993 NCAA Walter Byers Scholar Athlete of the Year. He parlayed his intelligence into graduating from the UM Ross School of Business Administration and cum laude from the prestigious UM Law School. 

Rather than settle into private practice, Pelinka became a sports agent, representing a number of high profile clients, most notably, Kobe Bryant, Andre Iguodala and James Harden. He was the godfather to Gianna Bryant. 

Controversy dogged Pelinka in his representation of clients. No matter how good he was at doing his job, there was something hard and harsh about him.

Pelinka becoming the head honcho in a dysfunctional Lakers front office was a choice outside of the box, despite having married a Jewish pediatrician trained at UCLA Medical School, which tied him to the Los Angeles community.  While Pelinka was super smart and  had plenty of experience in playing the game at the collegiate level, representing many NBA players, it didn’t mean that he was suited to be the lead man at the storied Lakers franchise. 

It was Pelinka who thought that bringing in Westbrook would lead to another championship. Rebuilding this team will be challenging—even if James and Davis are healthy next season, since the trade for Davis gave the team no chance to rebuild through the draft. 

I find it almost comical that the list of possible head coaches for this storied franchise includes the best in the NBA—Nick Nurse in Toronto, Doc Rivers, presently in Philadelphia, and Juwan Howard, the Head Coach and teammate of Pelinka at his alma mater, Michigan. Why, outside of money and maybe a lucky but highly unlikely turnaround would get a name coach to work miracles at the Crypto.com Arena—I still cringe at that name and what it represents—is beyond me. That would be an awfully myopic view of the world, fueled by a rather large ego. Which, there are plenty of them in the NBA—including in the Lakers hierarchy. 

No matter what coach is brought in—Phil Jackson couldn’t right this ship, nor Red Auerbach if he was alive. Not Monty Williams, the two-time NBA Coach of the Year in Phoenix. Or F&M grad Chris Finch, who rose from the ranks of obscure NBA assistant coaches to lead the Timberwolves to the playoffs, for the first time since 2018, and where the team hasn’t won a series since 2004. 

Was Pelinka a wise choice to lead the Lakers? We’ll find out soon enough with his selection of the next head coach. And how he does in free agency as he strives to rebuild a moribund team only two years removed from its championship run inside of the COVID Disney World bubble. 

Such is the state of the NBA as their tournament commences. And I haven’t got time for the Knicks’ sorry state of affairs. 

Too Much To Digest With Breakfast

Before I get to the pressing sports stories of the week (at least in my mind), I want to vent about the demise of the local paper. It is such a shame to those of us who grew up with the print media and what it provided to us Baby Boomers, not just in sports coverage. 

Since I moved to North Jersey in the late 1970’s, my paper of choice has been The Star-Ledger. It has also been known as The Newark Star-Ledger. It was the preeminent source for news about New Jersey, including sports. 

I was fortunate to be living in West Orange. Because I received the Essex edition of the paper. That gave me the latest news and sports scores. The coverage of the state and the local team was comprehensive. 

When we moved to Union County in the late 1980’s, the coverage was still full and complete. There were multiple columnists, complete coverage of all of the local teams with assigned staff writers traveling with the Devils, Yankees, Mets, Nets and Knicks. Box scores for every imaginable game graced those pages. The racing card for the Meadowlands or Monmouth Park was there. There were segments on horse racing and fishing. HIgh school sports coverage was outstanding. 

Fast forward to today. The sports coverage is meager. Four pages tops. There are few columnists. No writers travel with the teams. There is no Devils beat reporter, as the paper prints Associated Press accounts of games. Local schools other than Rutgers and Seton Hall barely get a mention—only because St. Peter’s authored its great NCAA Tournament run did the paper start to provide in depth stories. Because it had to, lest those who remain as loyal readers might flee. HS sports scores are non-existent and the stories offered are dull and mostly impertinent. 

NJ.com comes with the subscription. It proves to be the source for everything New Jersey, including sports. But unlike the paper, which is easily accessible, you have to go through a meandering search to obtain news about the Yankees after three or four clicks on one’s cell phone. Classify that as annoying as hell. 

Add into the mix delivery problems. Once a reliable staple arriving before I went to work, enabling me to devour the paper and be fully conversant on sports and the news of the day, the thin Union edition now appears in my driveway at any hour, no matter the weather—and if there is bad weather, forget about it. 

Sunday and Thursday papers carried circulars for supermarkets, plus coupons for various items which would amount to some serious savings at the register. It allowed for planning the week’s meals and a way to get to the store early before the crowds grow. Except that the papers come later and later, if at all. I’ve grown more attached to Coupon Mom for discounts than the insert in Sunday’s paper. 

I recognize that the newspaper era is coming to an end. Mounting costs of production have reduced the once mighty titans to the level of local rags. And with the pandemic, fewer people are available to deliver the news to one’s doorstep. 

Call me spoiled by the papers of yesteryear. For everything that ESPN, CBS Sports and  Fox Sports offer on air and on their web sites, the coverage is national, which I liken to a greater USA Today. I am still a kid in the candy store, except that candy stores are also outdated. Can I be faulted for my thirst for sports and other news first thing in the morning, reading while eating my bowl of cereal, instead of sitting in front of a screen?

I protest too much. My lament about the Star-Ledger may lead to the end of our subscription. Am I sad about it? Yes. Am I angry about it? Yes. Will I adapt? Of course. Maybe I am a dinosaur, like so many others of my age. 

In the past, the Star-Ledger would have had complete coverage of the NCAA Tournament, even with the cartoon character “Bracket Boy” offering humorous reflections on the picks in the busted brackets of so many. Instead, the games so noteworthy in this Final Four were simply AP articles hidden on the second page of the sports section. 

And the Duke-UNC game, because it went later than 11:00 on Saturday night, stood absolutely zero chance of reaching the readers on Sunday morning, as the paper is put to bed around 5:30 p.m. on Saturday. Ditto the final between Carolina and Kansas, a thrilling final act to Coach K’s farewell, which wasn’t seen until Tuesday’s paper, which still hasn’t arrived. 

Plus the Star-Ledger would have had in depth reporting from Augusta for this year’s Masters. A Masters which has the compelling storyline of Tiger Woods’ sudden decision to play and the back story on Phil Mickelson not playing. At least three writers would have been present, some beginning to report on Monday, with the others departing from New Orleans late on Monday night after putting a final coda on the NCAA’s. Not happening. 

Baseball’s Opening Day, pushed back by the rancid labor negotiations, is here. So many angles would have been dissected by the stable of journalists the Star-Ledger had assembled. There might have been multiple articles or columns provided by those ensconced in Georgia for the week on both topics. A full section might have been devoted to each.

Also, whatever clubhouse news on the Yankees, including the story within the story about Aaron Judge’s contract extension talks deadline for Opening Day, would have been looked at from a number of perspectives. There would have been articles about Jacob DeGrom’s future, with the Mets ace sidelined for another month with another arm woe. Or introducing more information about future hall of Fame pitcher Max Scherzer and his arrival in Queens. 

Instead, there will be virtually nothing like that available to those who cherish intimacy with their team—unless fans go to the on line sources of team news. Each team, school, sport has a plethora of them, accessible for a modest fee.

Was the Final Four everything I anticipated? Yes. Kansas put on a clinic in taking down an injury-depleted Villanova squad in the first game on Saturday. 

The compelling nightcap was everything dramatic a fan could have hoped for. The number of lead changes. The missed free throws. The made buckets. The intensity. All there. Either team could have won. Duke should not hang their heads in defeat. 

Monday night’s championship game featured a record comeback by a Kansas team which will celebrate now but its fans will agonize for years to come when the sanctions for serious recruiting violations are levied. Just like its arch rival, the Tar Heels should walk away proud of their accomplishment on the court. 

How much of these kinds of stories will be told to those who seek information? They are there, but not in the local papers. 

No—blogs like mine, podcasts, and on line services—they are the future. Too many to choose from, too much to digest with breakfast, I guess.