The Rites Of Spring

  It is a sun-splashed day in New Jersey as I write this blog. A little cool with a breeze, but I must remember that this is the last week of April, not June. 

The Yankees are beginning a three game series in Minneapolis Monday night. Where the weather is not going to be so kind. The overnight lows for Monday and Tuesday will be at or below the freezing mark. Which makes me wonder what additional injuries will New York suffer playing in such conditions? Already missing a good portion of their elite pitchers and Giancarlo Stanton, Josh Donaldson and Harrison Bader, there is plenty of worry that an already-thin team would suffer even more if another key player or two would not be properly ready for the cold  they will face. 

It almost makes one long for the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome—but it was not a pretty ballpark and the turf was unforgiving. Might I add that that was not a fitting tribute naming a mausoleum for a great American and a genuinely nice man—I met him and instantly liked him. Those in power at least acknowledged the big name in business in the Twin Cities by naming the new ballpark and the arena which houses the NBA’s Timberwolves after mega-merchandiser Target. 

In comparison, the Vikings stadium naming rights went to home town U.S. Bank for only 25 years and a measly $220 million whereas Target purchased naming rights for the Twins field for $19 million over 15 years and extended a deal for the basketball arena which has averaged $1.5 million dollars yearly over the past quarter century; the biggest baseball stadium naming rights belongs to the Mets who got Citibank to fork over $400 million—now you know in part how Steven Cohen can afford the high salaries for Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander, and the Mets also have cable station SNY to finance the team’s acquisitions. 

Some ballparks still come cheaply for naming rights like Rogers Centre and Coors Field, and there are the outliers like Yankee Stadium, Orioles Park at Camden Yards, Dodger Stadium, Wrigley Field, Lambeau Field, Solder Field and Fenway Park which have not succumbed to the use of corporate money. Which is part of the reason why the Chicago Bears want to move to suburban Arlington and reap the windfall surely due them with a new stadium, or more recently, why the Oakland Athletics are abandoning the worst stadium in the major sports for the greener pastures of the desert sands of Las Vegas, where the NFL Raiders, a former co-tenant, has found paradise in Paradise, NV.

Colleges also recognized the lure of arena and stadium sponsorship. Having been in Piscataway yesterday, I saw Jersey Mike’s large sign on the basketball arena and SHI Stadium, home of the Rutgers football team, towering over the Raritan River.  

Seemingly, the money is never enough, as I was watching the Mets and Giants play in San Francisco on Sunday night. On the left uniform sleeves, the Mets players advertise for New York-Presbyterian, a well-known hospital. The patch is large and in white and obviously very distracting. 

Is it only a matter of time before the classic Yankees pinstripes are adorned with corporate logos, while eschewing the names of the players wearing the uniforms? Or will some corporate giant influence the Steinbrenners with a ginormous amount of moolah that Yankee Stadium needs to have a slightly different name? 

Between naming rights, TV and radio money, merchandising and ticket prices, the economics are staggering. Which is bad enough in professional sports, but becomes a problem with NIL (Name-Image-Likeness) in college. Where is this revenue source and how disparate will it be for schools like Texas, Alabama and USC with huge booster bases as opposed to relatively smaller schools like Wake Forest, Boston College and, yes, Rutgers, to be able to procure talented student-athletes to attend, perform, get educated and then, in some circumstances, leave early for the pros?

Sure, many athletes give back to the communities with foundations. Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots, is highly philanthropic. Others like Adama Sanogo, the gifted UConn basketball center, wants to establish a school in his native Mali for those who never were as fortunate as him to have a talent and receive an education because of it. Yet the return gestures are never enough and the community outreach of the professional sports is paltry compared to the money they make. 

I know I sound cynical about this. Money has always played an important role in sports. Whether it be capitalist owners in my youth paying virtually nothing to their stars, forcing players like Mickey Mantle, Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale to go public with their desire to be more appropriately compensated, or someone like Saquan Barkley, the New York Giants running back, boycotting voluntary workouts while wanting his fair share of the pot after the mega deal QB Daniel James received, we will always be talking about the dollars in sports. I can only think of faux sports agent Jerry Magurie yelling “Show me the money!” How correct he was. 

Besides the Yankees freezing their tutus off in Minnesota, those Tampa Bay Rays are as hot as a firecracker on the Fourth of July. With a recent sweep of the Chicago White Sox in St, Petersburg, the home record is 13-0 for the start of a season, something which hasn’t happened since 1900. It is very early, yet the Rays remind me of the 1984 Detroit Tigers, a team which opened the season with a 35-5 record and easily won the World Series over San Diego. 

Tampa plays in the very competitive AL East. The other four clubs are all sporting records above .500. I cannot imagine the Rays continuing this blistering pace when they need to face the Yankees, Blue Jays, Orioles and Red Sox multiple times during the course of the season. What is helpful for the Rays is that the nineteen games per season against division rivals is no more, a concession to a more balanced schedule where the teams play all of the other teams, not just a few as has been the case.  

The Yankees were the pre-season favorites to win the American League. Toronto has always been solid, as they proved in New York this weekend by taking three of four from the Bombers. Baltimore is winning, an extension of last year’s surprising success. In the AL West, Texas, with its infusion of high-priced talent, is the early leader. Houston clearly misses the injured Jose Altuve and while they are playing better ball, are the Angels going have Mike Trout uninjured for the entire season and will Shohei Ohtani, obviously the best player in baseball, remain an Angel?

The biggest surprises in the National League are the Pittsburgh Pirates and Chicago Cubs winning while the St. Luis Cardinals continue to stumble out of the gate. Arizona has started well, yet one expects the Padres and Dodgers to prevail by the end of the campaign. Atlanta and the Mets are at the top of the NL East; Mets first baseman Pete Alonso has clubbed 10 homers in a remarkable start. Now if Max Scherzer can learn to pitch with less rosin on his hands, made stickier with alcohol in trying to clean it off without getting caught and subsequently suspended as happened this week, and Justin Verlander can take his aging body to the mound again, this could be the year for the boys from Queens. 

All New York area winter teams made the post-season. Brooklyn has already been eliminated by the Sixers and the Islanders head back to Raleigh behind 3-1. Despite limited help from star Julius Randle, the Knicks have emphasized defense to lead Cleveland 3-1. 

Which leaves the Rangers and Devils. New York soundly thrashed the Devils in games 1 and 2 in Newark. New Jersey, with a better record away from the Prudential Center, won on Saturday night in a tense overtime battle. Game 4 at MSG on Monday night is pivotal. A Devils win will give fans a six or seven game series, while a Rangers win will make it highly unlikely that New Jersey can prevail. 

Finally, I am glad that Steve Ballmer has broken ground on a new arena to house his Clippers. Because the inhabitants of cryto.com Arena caused havoc with the setups inside. In the span of  just over three days, the Kings, Clippers and Lakers will have hosted six games, including a hectic Friday/Saturday which required a changeover from hockey ending on Friday night to a floor for the Clippers and other decorations and necessities being laid out for a 12:30 PDT start, only to have to quickly change over for a Lakers game and different floor and surroundings at night. Then back to hockey for Sunday, which went to overtime, finally ending the quagmire with a Lakers game on Monday night. 

Maybe the Kings and Clippers, trailing in their playoff series, don’t have any more games at home. The Lakers are more likely to continue playing against Memphis and thug Dylan Brooks, who unapologetically slugged Lebron James in his groin—meriting no suspension like Draymond Green of the Warriors received for stomping on Sacramento’s Domantas Sabonis as Sabonis grabbed Green’s leg. 

As much as I pity the crew in Los Angeles laboring like they did, those crews in New York and Boston may be switching floors for longer periods if the Celtics, Bruins, Rangers and Knicks continue to win. Which seems likelier. 

What I do miss is the circus in town this time of year, At the Garden, you could always smell the elephants. Such were the rites of Spring.