Good. And Bad. With A Lot Of Strong Opinions.

  This week’s installment can be summarized easily. Good and bad. That’s what we are seeing in sports. Good. And bad. 

Let’s start with some bad. Some really bad. That would be the Chicago White Sox. Holders of the American League record for most losses in a season, the Pale Hose are on a mission to overtake the laughable 1962 New York Mets, a team which went 40-120 in its inaugural season and didn’t have to make up the two games postponed. 

At least the Mets were an expansion team, loaded with rejects from other teams, playing in a resurrected, aged stadium abandoned by the New York Giants when the team fled West for richer pastures. The only things redeemable from that lot of losers was former Yankees skipper Casey Stengel entertaining the media with his almost non-sensical banter, and the trio of announcers—Lindsey Nelson, Bob Murphy and Ralph Kiner—subjected to making the misdeeds of the junior varsity likable. 

No such luck on the South Side of Chicago. Bad trades. Bad managers. Bad ownership. Plus having to play four AL Central teams which were fighting for a division title and wild card berths. One can point a finger in multiple directions and easily find fault for this travesty.  One which may not get any better next season. 

Conversely, we can say its mostly good from the rest of the teams in that division. Cleveland is assured of a bye with winning the AL Central. Kansas City has reversed a 106 loss season last year to make the playoffs. Detroit, managed by former Houston skipper A.J. Hinch, came back from the dead after trading its second best starting pitcher to the Los Angeles Dodgers and is the hottest team in baseball. And, oh yeah, the boys from the Motor City has the presumptive favorite for the AL Cy Young Award, Tarik Skrubal, to open its series. Look out! 

One more thing in the AL Central. The nosedive of the Minnesota Twins. Once comfortably in playoff position, the Twins fell apart, destroying any chance for the post-season. So bad. 

You want more good in baseball? Look no further than Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani, the locks for the M.V.P. in their respective leagues. These guys have put on some show this season. Fans go to their games expecting magic. And they do not disappoint. So entertaining. Let’s hope that their marvelous, record-setting seasons continue in the playoffs, perhaps culminating in a Yankees-Dodgers World Series? How good would that be?

What would be bad is if Chris Sale, the superb left-handed pitcher for the Atlanta Braves, does not get to play October baseball. As outstanding as Skrubal has been, Sale has been maybe a tad better. 

With Hurricane Helene having roared through the Atlanta area, MLB made a calculated guess that it might be better served to have the Mets and Braves play a doubleheader on Monday to complete the scheduled three game series and end the regular season. 

Heading into the final weekend, Atlanta sits one game behind New York and Arizona for a playoff berth; only two of the three can go on. Atlanta host KC, a team still fighting for its playoff life and positioning. 

Meanwhile, the Mets had to travel to Milwaukee, sit around for two plus days, then take on the Brewers, NL Central leader and a possible first round opponent. If the Mets cannot take care of business in Wisconsin and the Braves do their job versus the Royals, then New York must fly back to Georgia Sunday night for a traditional double header on Monday. 

` Should that be the case, the Mets aren’t going to be in the playoffs. Because MLB could have had the teams move the games, playing a doubleheader on Tuesday and then an early game on Wednesday. So unfair. Bad. Bad. Bad. 

You want more bad? The look in Oakland when the A’s played their last home game on Thursday. While over 46,000 were in the stands in a carnival-like atmosphere, it spelled the end of Oakland as a legitimate sports city. Gone are the Raiders and A’s, both headed to Las Vegas. And the Warriors became elitists, moving across the bay to San Francisco and into its own palace.  Whatever becomes of Oakland, it is a city destined now to be second-rate. Certainly not good. 

I went to the New England-New York Jets game at Met Life Stadium on Monday night. While allegedly a sellout crowd was in attendance, there were oodles of empty seats around the stadium, especially in the upper reaches. I saw the same type attendance in Pittsburgh, which was surprising given the historical connection between the fans and the team. 

Possibly this is a league-wide trend. With the exorbitant ticket prices (at least in New York) to pay outlandish salaries and to enrich the coffers of the already-rich owners, who would really be surprised? Moreover, with the advent of streaming services to the NFL lineup and the majority of viewers needing cable to access the regular “free” channels, the cost to watch one’s favorite team is not close to free. 

To me, this is a very bad trend. One which will only become worse if the owners do go forward and make the Super Bowl pay-for-view. That’s when greed and avarice are too much.

The Jets beat up on the Patriots. I don’t think NYJ is that good, no matter how mobile 40 year old Aaron Rodgers looked. For how bad are the Pats this season? The upcoming game with Denver won’t give me any more answers about the team other than winning a game that they were favored to win. 

NYJ faces Minnesota in London on October 6. Minnesota has opened 3-0 behind former NYJ QB Sam Darnold. If only management could have given Darnold players like he has in Minnesota, maybe the Jets wouldn’t have had to go through the misery of Zach Wilson and praying that Rodgers has fully recovered from his Achilles tendon surgery and plays younger than his age over the course of a long, arduous season and into the playoffs. Good for Darnold thus far. Not too bad for the Jets either. It’s early.

Is Kansas City still the favorite to win it all? Their 3-0 start is riddled with question marks. Biggest one is iconic tight end Travis Kelce not having a good start. Numerous voices say he is out of shape from partying with and around his pop super star girlfriend, Taylor Swift. 

Head coach Andy Reid and QB Patrick Mahomes have come to Kelce’s defense. No matter how he performs, Kelce will be under the glare of a spotlight like no other player. I hope he gets his act together—a great career does not need to be tarnished by innuendo. 

Still, KC is unbeaten. Good for the team. And in reality, good for the NFL—the amount of detractors and pro-Chiefs fans seems to be about even. They might even be America’s Team, which would really upset Dallas Cowboys’ owner Jerry Jones, a man lots of people love to hate. 

The other unbeaten teams—Seattle and Pittsburgh—are feel good stories. For now. How long they stay on top is a big question. Just aa much as why highly-touted Jacksonville and Cincinnati squads are 0-3. There are so many stories to watch as the NFL finishes its September slate and gets to the heart of the schedule. For football fans, this is good. Unless your team falls on its face. Then that’s bad. 

Finally, there are so many nice stories in college football. Surprise teams winning. The favorites chugging along. A big game is in Tuscaloosa on Saturday night when Georgia and Alabama clash. Losing might not be fatal for entry into the twelve team playoffs beginning this year. This is kinda good. 

What is bad is what happened at UNLV. The starting quarterback abruptly left the team over a dispute of how much Name-Image-Likeness money he was promised. Pay for play is bad—beginning with full scholarships underwriting the cost to staff a team, coaches salaries and other necessities. 

This where college sports is spiraling out of control. An esteemed ESPN basketball writer, Adrian Wojnarowski retired from the network to return to his alma mater. St. Bonaventure, as General Manager. That’s code for NIL operative. 

Shed no tears for Wojo. He made his money at the cable giant. He wants to make the 

Bonnies relevant again. 

Maybe that’s good for the Olean, NY area and its fan base. May Bob Lanier rest in peace. But it’s bad for the college sports scene. Really bad. 

With no end of this lunacy in sight. Just like the ongoing raiding of conferences for the insane TV money available. I still haven’t decided if Rutgers joining the Big Ten really was worth it. 

So much of sports is a love-hate relationship. The state of sports is a microcosm of  what’s happening in this country. It’s yet to be determined if it is good or it’s bad. But there are a lot of strong opinions. 

More TV Baseball...And Attending Three Football Games In A Week

  This is the life of a sports-crazed retiree. Three football games in person in New Jersey in one week. Not all turned out to be what I wanted. Yet I had a blast (otherwise why would I be tormenting myself like I did?).

Do not think that I didn’t watch other games. The Yankees took three of four from the Red Sox. I managed to see parts of all four contests. Plus I tuned into the games from Seattle, as the Yankees visit the Pacific Northwest and then head to Oakland on the final road trip of the regular season. 

I wouldn’t say that the Yankees have righted themselves as much as division rival Baltimore remains mired in an ongoing skid—at the worst possible time. The Yankees contributors are many—it appears that Aaron Judge awoke from his slumber, belting homers against Boston including an awe-inspiring shot off the restaurant glass in center field on Sunday which even caused Judge to be a bit amazed how far that baseball went. 

While the offense periodically worked right—Gleyber Torres batting leadoff has been a good thing to create a spark and catcher Austin Wells hitting in there cleanup role has bolstered his chances to win AL Rookie of the Year based on his contributions—the team needs consistency from Judge, a slumping Juan Soto and Giancarlo Stanton, the sluggers on the team. Also, youngster Jasson Dominguez needs to flash some power in his own right to make the lineup even more dangerous in the post-season. And Anthony Volpe has returned to his enigmatic ways—unable to hit like he did for torrid stretches at the beginning of the season and after the All Star Game. 

I am not enamored with the pitching. The shift to Luke Weaver as the closer has been good, but still remains stressful. Tommy Kahnle had to come in on Sunday to induce a double play in relief of Jake Cousins, who is normally reliable. Nestor Cortes has reclaimed a rotation spot for now, with Marcus Stroman the odd man out. Reigning Cy Young Award winner Gerrit Cole was lit up by Boston on Saturday in a head scratching performance. So much to sort out with a little over a week to go. 

One goal has been reached. The Yankees clinched a playoff spot. Now the next two steps are to win the division, preferably before the penultimate series with the Orioles beginning on Tuesday. And the team needs to hold off Cleveland to secure the top seed, a bye and get ready for what they believe will be a deep run into the playoffs. 

Boston and the Mets seem to torment Cole. The other New York team, the hottest team since the ASG, is making a concerted rush for the playoffs. The problem for the Mets is that they have to face Philadelphia four times at home—a team which punished them this past weekend at Citizens’ Bank Park—and has the best record in baseball. And if that isn’t enough, the team from Queens has to travel to Atlanta to square off with its closest rival for the final NL Wild Card berth before finishing the season in Milwaukee where the Brewers, already NL Central champs, will have a direct say if they want it face the Mets in the playoffs. 

The Mets have a better overall lineup than the Yankees. When Francisco Lindor is healthy. Except that Lindor has been plagued with back issues at the worst possible time. Combined with the loss of Jeff Mc Neil for the season, NYM has its work cut out for it despite the great starting pitching which has carried the team to this point—along with Lindor’s outstanding bat. They sure do look really good. 

With football in full swing, I feel like I have a split personality—devoted to baseball and watching tons of football. Both on TV and in person. 

Let me discuss major college football. When Quinn Ewers, the starting QB at the University of Texas went down versus UTSA, heralded youngster Arch Manning, son of Cooper, nephew of Peyton and Eli and grandson of Archie came in and seamlessly led the Longhorns in a rout. 

Whichever quarterback plays—and Ewers injury is cause for concern—Texas is going to be fine. For right now, having watched Georgia struggle mightily at Kentucky, I am of the belief that two losses might easily get teams into the expanded College Football Playoffs. And when I say that, I am directly pointing at the Southeastern Conference, where premier teams like UGA, Alabama, LSU, Texas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Tennessee and Texas A&M will continue to bang heads, with a likely outcome that no school goes unbeaten in the SEC in 2024. 

A similar story might play itself out in the Big 12, where UCF, Arizona State, BYU, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, Utah and Iowa State are unbeaten thus far. It will prove to be less complicated in the Big 10, where each school is at or above .500 now and like in the SEC, conference games will break down the contenders fast, and unlike the SEC, the Big 10 team are not as good as the SEC or in some instances, the Big 12. 

Now that I covered those items, let me turn to pro football. First, my heart hurts for Tua Tagovailoa. Tua suffered another concussion in a loss to Buffalo. His future is in jeopardy—even if he desires to return to the field. One more hit to the head could be worse than problematic. 

Te NFL has been surprising in its first two weeks. Did anybody see New Orleans becoming an offensive juggernaut? Or that Kansas City would win two games at home by the barest of margins? That Baltimore is 0-2? Sam Darnold finally looks like an NFL QB after languishing for so many years after his New York Jets bad experience? Tampa Bay put a beating on a supposed Super Bowl contender in Detroit? And the Steelers are 2-0 behind Justin Fields and stingy defense?

Buffalo and Texas were expected to start fast. The Chargers are unsurprising, too. But Cincinnati and Jacksonville, two playoff teams a year ago, are now 0-2. Kinda like the hapless New York Giants, whose kicker had issues in practice and promptly hurt himself on the opening kickoff, resulting in no field goals and no extra points and an overtime loss to Washington in a winnable game?

The New York Jets started to get untracked in Nashville, coming back from a deficit to overtake the Titans. Next up would be New England. Which I will get back to in a moment. 

Friday started my football odyssey with a stop around the corner to see my high school take on the boys from Springfield. I talked about that game in my previous blog. 

Less than 18 hours later, I was in Ewing, New Jersey on a sun-baked afternoon to see my college, Franklin and Marshall, try to defeat the homestanding Lions of The College of New Jersey. F&M had won last year in Lancaster and was coming off a convincing win over Lebanon Valley in the season opener. TCNJ had downed Eastern on the road in its first game.

Euphoric from my high school’s big win, I went to Mercer County expecting another good day for the Diplomats. Except that I was to learn that TCNJ was a hungry and veteran team ready for revenge. I should have known when the GPS was giving me trouble and that we arrived just as the National Anthem was being played that this day wasn’t going to be so much fun. 

TCNJ has a fifth year senior QB out of Paramus who was second team NJAC last year in a season when he set numerous TCNJ and conference records. Watching him continually shred the F&M defense, connecting with a corps of sure-handed receivers and complimented by a quick running game and a hard-hitting defense, I marveled that F&M stayed with the Lions and actually took a lead in the second half. Dominating the final eight plus minutes of the game and holding the F&M offense in check, TCNJ earned a 17-12 victory. 

It was a good Division III game between two fairly good teams. F&M gets Montclair State at home this weekend while TCNJ travels to Allentown to face #18 Muhlenberg in a very interesting contest. 

I was happy to see how seriously TCNJ takes football. The home stands were filled. There was tailgating. They had a pep band. And the dance team and cheerleaders were as good as I have seen at that level. At least my wife had comfort food when we got home. The Corleone Style Tomato Pie from Marcello’s Pizza Grill in Hamilton Square was excellent.

So my next in person football game was New England at the Jets. Time to see Aaron Rodgers at home for my first time. Hoping he would continue to stay upright and give long-standing Jets fans some hope this season. 

Rodgers and the Jets gave the fans in the stands serenaded by a brilliant full moon over the Meadowlands (Met Life Stadium was far from filled) and a Thursday Night Football audience streaming the game on Amazon or, if your provider permitted, on FOX in the NY Metro Area. He was in complete control of the offense, which gained major yardage on a New England team that either had a very off night or isn’t very good. 

As a Jets fan, the karma was nice. The team had rebounded from its struggles in the opener versus the 49’ers. While the sample size of three games may not prove anything and with an underwhelming Denver team next up at home, for now the Aaron Rodgers Era is moving in the right direction, like it was expected last year until derailed five plays into the Monday Night Football opener against Buffalo. 

I just want, like I was thinking a lot when Rodgers rolled out, scrambled or was sacked, that he gets up and plays the next down. I have the suspicion that feeling will be pervasive for the remaining games. 

Two final notes from this week. Caitlin Clark and company clinched the sixth seed in the upcoming WNBA playoffs. I hope her on the court performance merits a first team selection.

Then there is Shohei Ohtani. Likely the best player in baseball. He has accomplished a feat like no other—50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in a season. While going 6 for 6 on Thursday on the road in Miami, slugging 3 homers, swatting 2 doubles, stealing 2 bases and driving in 10 runs. An incredible coda to an amazing year. 

The naysayers will point to his only being a designated hitter. That’s because they are searching for reasons to deny Ohtani his due. I merely point out the no player—whether one who also plays the field or is a DH—ever came close to these numbers. Wait until he resumes pitching next season.

There you have it. More TV Baseball… while attending three football games in a week. 

Just Another Blasé Week, I Guess

  This is somewhat of a rivalry week. The Yankees and Red Sox are engaged in four game series in New York. And a number of former conference and in-state battles are on tap. 

Which is ironic about the fact that Oregon State and Washington State, the former Pac-12 survivors (the Pac-2 as they are sarcastically called even if it is numerically correct), have raided the Mountain West Conference with the war chest that they have with the release of the other members from the once-glorious Power 5 conference. All in the name of again becoming relevant and rejoining the big boys already at the table—the ACC, SEC, Big Ten and Big 12. With a deadline of 2026 to get it done.

When the one-time scheduling agreement with the Mountain West dovetailed, I kind of had a feeling that something else was going on. Whether it was the arrogance of OSU and WSU or the attempted circling of the wagons by the Mountain West, the defection of four schools may be a preliminary shot to more activity.

To be allowed in the now-expanded College Football playoffs, a conference must have a minimum of eight members schools. Adding Boise State, San Diego State, Colorado State and Fresno State isn’t exactly glamorous as big time programs go. But it works fine regionally. 

What will be more problematic is getting a good network package for the games, which will begin in 2025-26. And finding those two more schools willing to abandon their present location. 

There are rumblings that California-Berkeley and Stanford might have second thoughts about their insane merger with the ACC given how it will impact their teams going across the country and the costs involved. That might make sense and could peak the interest of the TV moguls. Yet they signed the ACC grant of rights, which binds them to their new home. Until 2036. Unless Florida State and Clemson somehow escape the ACC as they would like and find a home elsewhere (SEC?) It was the hope of the Beavers and Cougars that the ACC could form a Western division with them if the unhappy duo exited. No interest whatsoever from the ACC. 

More likely names floated are Air Force, UTSA, Rice, Memphis, Tulane, North Texas and even South Florida. Except that the American Athletic Conference Commissioner Tim Pernetti, a former Rutgers Athletic Director and a savvy media man, has gotten Army and Navy into his league and would be open to Air Force joining its service academy brethren. 

The Mountain West could also lose Nevada and UNLV if they could leave in tandem to the Pac-12. But there are replacements for them in FCS schools in Montana, South Dakota and North Dakota—even the entry fee to move from FCS to FBS is $5 million.

Also, basketball schools like Gonzaga and St. Mary’s might be interested in becoming part of a bigger and better West Coast conference the the WCC. Exposure and money have a way of enticing. 

All this wheeling and dealing isn’t over. UConn made a serious effort to become part of the Big 12, but found little interest. The same thing happened to the Huskies with the ACC when it expanded. As much as basketball is king in the Nutmeg State, its football program is in purgatory. 

Would regionalization make sense? Of course. How to go about making it happen is too complicated with the money, bowl games, playoffs and storied alliances. 

In my lifetime, I have seen much evolve by way of conference adding and subtracting schools. Heck, Denver, Detroit, George Washington, Hofstra, Marquette, Vermont and Boston University are among a list of 59 schools that used to play football. The ACC was formed as an outgrowth of the Southern Conference. 

Which it is why I am sad when I don’t see Maryland and Virginia play regularly like they are this weekend. Or Oregon and Oregon State meeting in the third week instead of at the end of the season. Ditto Washington and Washington State. Oklahoma State plays at Tulsa—the only school left to face in-state now that Oklahoma is in the SEC. 

Forgive me. I am a lonely purist longing for memories that are long forgotten. Such is the nature of the beast known as the FBS. 

To temper my sadness, I was fortunate to be able to walk less than ten minutes from my house to see our local high school, Jonathan Dayton, host my alma mater, Highland Park. Two small schools that nearly ended football forever but found ways to have it survive. Dayton, my children’s school, doesn’t have the storied past that the HPHS Owls have. 

My exposure to high school football came in the late 1950’s when I hung around the team practices on the dusty field by the school which doubled as a softball and Midget League field where I would later play and practice. A new and loud coach named Jay Dakelman was molding some pretty good player into stars. 

I followed his teams from the temporary stands put up in Johnson Park alongside the Raritan River, to the new field born out of the woods nearer to the school, adjacent to the baseball field where I toiled in summer Junior League action. 

Look, I had no business being on a football field. Yet I practiced freshman year, repeatedly getting whomped by bigger players (I know I suffered one concussion from a hit by a friend’s brother who was 60 pounds heavier than me because my head hurt for days afterwards) and was part of the kickoff return team on our freshman squad. Ironically, the small squad HPHS fielded had a few kids definitely my size in uniform. I worry for their safety. 

Mercifully, Jay moved me over to statistics. Which I excelled at and which led me to a seat at my desk at home on Saturdays after games, compiling in minute detail what had transpired. That led me to Sunday morning doughnuts with the coaches after I delivered my neatly handwritten data, and being a part of the next week’s game plan. 

It was pure fun for me, and it made me a part of the team. And my senior year, that team went undefeated. They were that good, although the Owls trailed Carteret at home 20-7 at the half before storming back to win 21-20 after a halftime tongue-lashing by Jay that was motivational if not fearful.

Well, Owls faithful, we crushed the Bulldogs. It wasn’t the Bulldogs we hated—that would be Metuchen. This is a new rivalry based on school size and scheduling cooperation among Union, Middlesex, Somerset and some West Jersey schools. So I may get to see this game another time in the near future. 

I enjoyed being on the small bleachers which were for the visiting team’s fans. As halftime wound down, I also chatted with a HPHS legend, Joe Policastro, who was the star quarterback in the late 1950’s and remains active on the sidelines after he retired as Dakelman’s successor. I knew him as Jo Jo in his days on the gridiron. He was my freshman baseball coach and Driver’s Ed teacher. And as an umpire, he threw me out of a Junior League game for flinging my bat at the pitcher who purposely threw at my head and then laughed (I was deservedly suspended for a game). 

I can identify with fan bases who want to preserve the old rivalries. Still, maybe this lopsided high school contest augers in a new era of playing similar schools which might last for a very long time. Just like the craziness going on at the collegiate level. Who knows?

Oh, and by the way, Aaron Judge broke his 16 game home run drought with a grand slam, propelling the Yankees to a come-from-behind victory over the hated Red Sox. Which was the cherry on my nostalgia. 

Just another blasé week, I guess.