Dec. 8 | 1:05 p.m. ET
Is it only me, or is this one of the more eventful baseball off-seasons we’ve seen in a long time?
There are sea changes afoot. The Astros chose not to offer Roger Clemens arbitration, which may or may not finally signal the end of one of the greatest careers in the history of the game. I personally think he’ll be back, maybe even after May 1 in an Astros’ uniform. I also think he should come back as long as he can still pitch, and, as we saw last season, he can still pitch.
Mike Piazza is leaving the Mets. Piazza was the premier player who came to New York, led the Mets back into contention and into the first subway World Series since the Dodgers left town, and set the record for home runs by a catcher in a Mets uniform. He wasn’t the best catcher in the world; it’s almost a stretch to call him average. But he was the face of the Mets. And next year, he’ll be a DH in the American League.
The Yankees came within a whisker of saying goodbye to Bernie Williams after a 16-year career, all of it spent in pinstripes. But, while the Yankees may yet re-sign him, Williams’ reign as the every day center fielder is over, and that’s an enormous milestone in the team’s history.
The Marlins have dismantled a team that won the World Series just two years ago. They did it once before, after the 1997 season, but the diaspora of Marlins has changed a lot of teams.
Big-time closers Billy Wagner and B.J. Ryan have changed homes. Rafael Furcal has switched coasts. The Mets have been busy building a team that is going to be the favorite to win the NL East. The Red Sox are trying to move Manny. The Rangers traded Alfonso Soriano to the Nationals.
These are big names, and it seems that it’s only started. We haven’t seen this kind of activity for a long time. All I can say is keep it coming.
Dec. 7 | 2 p.m. ET
To some, the most interesting thing about the final BCS rankings was finally getting to see how all the coaches voted. In a few instances, people thought they saw great significance in the votes.
Look how Ty Willingham, fired by Notre Dame earlier this year, voted the Irish ninth. And there’s Steve Spurrier, the iconoclast supreme, voting the Irish 14th. How can Arkansas coach Houston Nutt have Auburn number three? What was Houston coach Art Briles thinking, if anything, when he ranked Tulsa number 20? Then there’s SMU coach Phil Bennett, who thinks that once-defeated Oregon is no better than the nation’s 15th-best team.
USAToday has a nifty interactive graphic that lets you see who voted for whom. Many have already seen skullduggery, favoritism and vendettas in the voting, but I tend to see a group of men who aren’t any smarter than the average sports fans when it comes to ranking teams. The fact that most of the coaches slavishly follow in the footsteps of the other polls is proof enough that they aren’t giving this a lot of thought, but rather doing what everyone else does – go with the tide.
Coaches shouldn’t be voting to start with. If your average college coach in the PAC 10 actually knows how Big East teams are doing and how good they are relative to, say, SEC teams, he’s not doing his job, which is to worry about the next team on his schedule.
Coaches don’t have time to watch everyone else. They have to worry about this week and their own conference. Asking them to rank teams across the nation is like asking the Pope to rate orthodox rabbis – same business, different league.
The coaches, some of whom are named above, whose views varied widely with their fellows are a different matter. I don’t know what their motives or their methodology was, but I congratulate them for at least putting some thought into the process and not just checking the AP poll and moving some teams up or down a notch but basically going with the program.
Sonny Lubick of Colorado State is all over the lot, agreeing with the majority on almost nothing. Good for him. It shows he – or whoever voted for him – at least gave some thought to the process and went with what he honestly thought.
What we need are more Sonny Lubicks who vote the teams they know high and the ones they don’t know low and try to shuffle the deck on everyone else. Get enough wild divergence and it will be one more nail in the coffin of the BCS.
The BCS got a championship game this year between two undefeated teams. It doesn’t mean the system works anymore than the coaches poll means that coaches actually know teams they never see or play. It just means the BCS got lucky. I’ll all but guarantee that come next year, we’ll be back to controversy when the regular season is over.
In other business:
Colorado wouldn’t fire coach Gary Barnett when his program was hit with a slew of scandals, including sexual assault accusations. But the university had no trouble firing him for losing too many football games. Tells you everything you need to know about the state of academic integrity.
The NFL Players Association is filing another suit on behalf of poor mistreated Terrell Owens. The union is fighting the Eagles’ demand that T.O. return $1.75 million of his signing bonus. If Owens had put as much energy into being a good member of the team as he has into keeping the money he’s not earning, he wouldn’t be in this situation. I doubt he’ll ever figure that out.
Dec. 5 | 2:30 a.m. ET
This is rich — or, rather, poor. The New York Daily news is reporting that George Steinbrenner’s Yankee empire could end up losing more than $80 million on the 2005 season.
I’m not sure when major league baseball has had better news. Yankee fans may disagree, but there’s nothing better for competition and the long-term health of the game than the economic brakes built into the collective bargaining agreement finally taking hold.
The villain from a Yankee standpoint is the luxury tax. Steinbrenner owes around $110 million this year because he’s exceeded the limit at which the cap sets in three years in a row. Even after drawing four million fans and pulling in more than $300 million, he’s leaking capital.
Last year, the Yankee payroll was around $208 million. After losing the salaries of Bernie Williams and Kevin Brown, among others, the Yankees are looking at a payroll of $180 million next year. That’s still a lot more than anyone else is spending, but it’s a substantial drop for the Yankees. And it helps explain why the Yankees have been so quiet on the free-agent and trade fronts during the off-season, letting the Mets take Billy Wagner, the Blue Jays B.J. Ryan and the Dodgers Rafael Furcal without so much as a pre-emptive offer.
It’s not as if King George is broke. The franchise he bought more than 30 years ago for $10 million may be worth as much as a billion dollars, especially when his new stadium goes up next to the House that Ruth Built over the next few years.
New York City bragged that Steinbrenner is paying for the new stadium himself, a move that prompted the Mets to announce that they, too, would foot the bill to build their new stadium.
It turns out that the two free stadiums will probably end up costing the city at least $800 million, according to The Village Voice. The cost is in tax breaks, city financing provided for the construction and various other infrastructure improvements.
For those who want to keep up with the latest stadium and arena boondoggles, including the public-financed park for the Washington Nationals, check in regularly at fieldofschemes.com.
Dec. 1 | 11 p.m. ET
I admit it seems small of the Red Sox to be suing their former first baseman, Doug Mientkiewicz for ownership of their own baseball. But when you win a World Series once every 86 years, simple things like the ball caught for the last out of the 2004 World Series take on extraordinary significance.
And I don’t blame the Sox for doing it. Mientkiewicz, an employee, took something of value that belongs to the club. The club wants to display it for all its fans. He won’t give it back. That’s why lawyers were invented.
It shouldn’t be any different than swiping a pen from your place of employment. Everybody does it, but technically it’s wrong. The company pays for the supplies, and the company therefore owns them. You can use one to work, but you can’t take handfuls of them home for your own use.
Mienkiewicz swiped a baseball. The club bought it, he took it. The club wants it back.
I can see arguing that clubs give baseballs away all the time and show no interest in keeping them around. The final out of an inning regularly gets flipped into the stands, and once a ball leaves the field, it belongs to whomever catches it — or rips it out of the hands of the person who caught it.
I doubt the Red Sox have ever cared about what happened to any of the millions of balls they’ve gone through over the years. It’s just this one they want.
I don’t blame them. It’s a big deal, the ball that produced the final out in the team’s first World Championship in 86 years. If they want it, they should have it. It didn’t leave the field of play, but was pocketed and taken home by an employee.
Not everyone thinks it’s that big a deal, including Ed Walsh at mainetoday.com. And these fans in a bostonherald.com chat room think Mientkiewicz should keep it.
An Australian site cites legal experts saying it’s an open-and-shut case — the ball belongs to the Red Sox. Why anyone in Australia would care about it is beyond me. Probably a slow news year Down Under.
Nov. 30 | 5 p.m. ET
To the several hundred of you who wrote to comment — or shriek — about my last entry about Notre Dame and the unfairness of the BCS, my thanks, including to those of you who called me naughty names. Also my apologies, as there is no way I’m going to be able to respond to each of you personally. (If you want a personal response, write when I pontificate about something boring, like golf; I can answer 40 E-mails but not 400.)
Your opinions were split about 60-40, with the 60 being of the opinion that I have all of the IQ and half the personality of a bucket of curdled phlegm, and the 40 certain that Albert Einstein would have to add 100 IQ points just to be allowed to stand in my shadow.
I’ve assembled a collection of E-mails that are representative of most of the views people took. I’m adding my comments after each letter. That way you can pick out the letter that best represents your views, and the response that follows is pretty much what I would have sent you.
Anne from Blanchester, Ohio
The bottom line is Notre Dame equals viewers. I watch every game. If they do not go to a bowl game I do not watch the bowl games. All things in this world are ruled by money, why is everyone upset about that. The are not going to put a team in a bowl game that cannot get the viewers to watch.
Anne: I’m not upset about Notre Dame going to a BCS game. I spent three years in South Bend – the fourth, which was really the second, I spent in Innsbruck, Austria, but that’s a story for another E-mail. I saw Notre Dame robbed of a championship when they beat Florida State but didn’t get to play for the title – curse you, Boston College. (Just kidding, it was one of the greatest finishes ever, and I’ll never forget that kid who kicked the winning field goal, whatever his name was.) So I’m happy to see them in a big game again, especially with a chance to win. But that doesn’t make the system fair, which was the point of the blog. If the system were fair, the Irish would be in the playoffs with a shot at a championship, as would Oregon, LSU and Ohio State. Number 9 would be ticked, but if ninth is the best you can do, you don’t deserve to be in the game.
Steven from Russia, Ohio
Why is West Virgina deserving? It’s obvious that they are a worse team than the Irish.
Steven: A couple of moons ago, I wrote that after all the defections, the Big East doesn’t deserve a guaranteed BCS slot. (Please ignore all those things I said about Louisville being a lock to win the conference. And pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.)
Shamus from Glens Falls, N.Y.
You are a sore loser. Ha ha!
Shamus: Glad to have made your day. Let me know if I can ever be of further assistance in the future.
Robert from Las Vegas, Nev.
The current bowl structure/lack of playoff system isn't the only unfair advantage Notre Dame enjoys. What other college has their own TV network agreement and the revenues therefrom? Notre Dame is college football's version of the New York Yankees. No one is neutral in their feelings toward either. I do agree with you, the NCAA Div I needs a playoff system.
Robert: You are right about ND’s unique television package. But after this year, ND is taking a regular payment from the BCS and eschewing the $14.5-million payday when they make the game. They’re doing that because the other teams share with their conferences, and it seemed like the fair thing to do. All excess money from the television contract goes into the general fund. It has allowed Notre Dame to meet its goal of providing 100 percent need-based financial aid to every student who wins admission. It is true that some Irish fans are as arrogant as Yankee fans, but the administration tries to do things right.
Dave from Emporia, Kan.
Mike, I am a huge ND fan, but I couldn't agree with you more about the fairness of the BSC. In 2000 the Fiesta chose mediocre ND over K-State to play Oregon St. I believe that the only way to make it fair is to have a playoff system, and it could be done with a maximum of three extra games and teams would still have almost a month off before the championship game. D-IAA, D-II and D-III all have playoffs and it works very well.
Dave: I always knew that Notre Dame fans were folks of extraordinary intelligence and discernment.
Tim from Bethlehem, Pa.
Didn’t all of these teams that are whining about Notre Dame in the Fiesta agree to and reap millions from the current BCS agreement? I don’t remember everyone whining last year when a four-loss Pitt team made a BCS game, or a couple years ago when Fla State with three losses made it. Can’t wait till when Fla State beats Va Tech and goes to Orange this year and everyone will still be complaining about ND. Its good to be back!!! Go Irish.
Tim: I refer you to my first answer. I agree completely that teams shouldn’t be guaranteed BCS bids — or, in my ideal world, playoff slots — simply because they were the least mediocre team in a bad conference. You should have to earn these spots by winning games — and also, in ND’s case, by being a really big TV draw.
John from Tucson, Ariz.
The only people that want a playoff is you sportswriters. The coaches don't, the schools don't, and the season is already too long. Grow up, already. This is not a perfect world. These guys are students, or did you forget?
John: My mail would indicate that you could add a few fans to the number who want a playoff, but no more than 90 percent of them. So I reckon you also want to cut the college baseball season down from 60 games and the basketball season down from five-plus months. Or is that different because they play during the week when they can miss classes instead of on the weekends, like football teams?
Sheila from Indianapolis, Ind.
Notre Dame's strength of schedule rating, per Sagarin, is 20th in the country. Only two teams ahead of them in the BCS rankings have stronger schedule ranks. Oregon is rated at 31 and Auburn at 66. I agree that Oregon should get to go to a BCS game, but not over the Irish. If the Ducks had shown up against USC, they'd be in. The problem is West Virginia - not Notre Dame.
Sheila: I agree about Notre Dame, as noted above. I threw the strength of schedule notes in there because ND’s schedule did turn out to be softer than expected. I’m not blaming Notre Dame, which rarely schedules patsies — we’ll forget those two games a few years back against Rutgers — and seeks to play a national schedule with premier programs from all parts of the country. Schedules are made years in advance. I should have emphasized more the won-lost records, which goes to the heart of the unfairness of the system. Being undefeated should not be the only criteria for making the big game, but too often it is.
O'Billman from Auburn, Calif.
Dear Mike, You have no idea what you are talking about. It is said that you are given a forum in which to speak. The only reason you are saying this ridiculous garbage, is so someone will get tricked into reading it. I did. When the Irish destroy Ohio State, or Penn State or Va. Tech, I will be waiting for an apology, and a confession that you don't know what the hell you are talking about.
Dear O’Billman: I’m not talking, I’m writing. What’s more, I know for a fact I’m writing about 800 words four or five times a week, not including this blog, so there! Since I never voiced the opinion that Notre Dame would lose to whomever they play – I only said the system is unfair and we need a playoff – I have nothing to apologize for other than being civil to people who hail and abuse strangers.
Denise from Columbus
It seems we have a lot of Notre Dame haters. When Notre Dame doesn't have a good season, everyone seems to be happy about that. When they have a great season everyone seems to be upset about it. How about we give my boys some credit, they are one of the most improved teams in college football this year and Brady Quinn is one of the most improved quarterbacks this year. I'm not going to sit here and say my team is better then your team, but please stop hating on Notre Dame!
Denise: My team is Notre Dame, and if you were a regular reader you would know that I have already written that life is better when Notre Dame is relevant in college football. All I said was that the system is unfair, as Oregon and LSU are saying right now but West Virginia sure isn’t. If we had a playoff, Notre Dame would be in it, fighting for a championship. Wouldn’t that be better?
David from Winter Haven, Fla.
If Notre Dame wants a BCS bid they can join a BCS Conference. The Big East needs some "power" to help gain respect. Are they chicken to play in a conference that will eventually get used to playing them and know their strength and weaknesses.
David: I’m sure Notre Dame is terrified at the thought of having to play Rutgers, Syracuse and UConn every year. (Don’t get on my case, Knights and Husky fans. I know you’re a lot better than you used to be, but I’m making a point. At least I think I am.) Notre Dame plays a national schedule because it has a national fan base. Also, years ago, Michigan led a move to blackball them from the Big Ten, forcing an obscure team to travel to West Point in 1913, where an end named Rockne and a quarterback names Gus Dorais started a legend that goes on to this day. Notre Dame pretty much plays everybody sooner or later – if they want to play. No one is more catholic – look it up, it’s not what you think - than the Irish.
Sam from Kenosha, Wisc.
Why do you spout all this stupid stuff? It makes you really sound more retarded than you probably are. I'm no ND fan but I would rather watch a BCS game with them and see the Charlie Weis continuing story than watch Auburn or Oregon. Besides, Auburn is notorious for weak schedules. Remember all the whining they did on why they were left out of the championship game? It was because of their weak schedule. Again, I'm no ND fan (BOOMER SOONER) but I like seeing them back at the top of the heap.
Sam: I do it because, believe it or not, that’s how I pay the mortgage and keep the kiddies in hand-helds and college tuition. And I ain’t not nearly as ignurint as you thinks I is. At least I don’t go to games with a hunk of cheddar on my head.
M J from Chico, Calif.
Fortunately it does not matter what writers feel should happen. You, sir, try your damndest to make the news rather than report the news. Get smart, try to report.
M J: Alas, sir, I am paid to be a veritable Vesuvius of opinion, not to report. That’s why the editors so perspicaciously place the word “Commentary” on my columns, so readers will know it’s just another fedora-festooned fogey fulminating about life. I have no idea what that means, but I like the way it rolls trippingly off the tongue.
Nov. 28 | 2:40 a.m.
Notre Dame is probably going to the Fiesta Bowl, and this Domer will be the first to agree that’s not fair.
Yes, Charlie Weis’ team was 9-2, is ranked sixth in the country and woke up the echoes of past glory from sea to shining sea. They came within a whisker of beating USC, produced a quarterback, Brady Quinn, who will probably finish no lower than fourth in the Heisman race, set school records for passing offense, and showed a lot of grit when games were on the line.
But the Irish schedule that was supposed to be one of the toughest in the country when the season began turned out to be as soft as a spring breeze. Pitt wasn’t even ordinary, Michigan State, which beat Notre Dame, couldn’t beat anyone else, Michigan, a pre-season Top 10 pick, lost four games, Tennessee, another alleged Top 10 team, didn’t even qualify for a bowl game, Syracuse would have had to play Buffalo 10 times to have a hope of winning five games, Stanford finished 5-6 — you get the idea; other than USC, the Irish didn’t play anyone who ended up being any good.
As Tom Dienhart of the Sporting News points out, only three of Notre Dame’s victims are going to bowl games.
No matter. Notre Dame is going to the Fiesta Bowl and, unless you’re Ohio State or maybe Penn State, you’re not.
Philip Marshall of autigers.com makes a very good case for why his team, 9-2 Auburn, should get the Fiesta Bowl bid instead. And Pac-10 fans are saying that Oregon deserves the bid, seeing as how the Ducks are ranked ahead of Notre Dame in the BCS and have one fewer loss.
Once again, it may not be fair, but fair has nothing to do with it.
The reality is that the BCS itself is not fair. If you’re going to accept that you can choose a champion by letting voters and computers pick the two best teams in the nation and let everyone else play for third place, you have to accept that Notre Dame is always going to get the best and richest game it qualifies for according to the unfair rules.
The rules say Notre Dame can pass Go, advance to the Fiesta Bowl and collect $14.5 million. So that’s what’s going to happen.
It will happen because no team will bring bigger television ratings (which equal dollars), and fan interest, than Notre Dame. Put the Irish in with Ohio State, another legendary program, or Penn State and the renascent Joe Paterno, and you have a game that will be outdrawn only by USC-Texas.
Until there’s a playoff, it’s always going to be this way. The BCS says Notre Dame can go to one of the big four bowls as long as it’s no lower than 12th in the BCS rankings. Notre Dame meets that criteria. Oregon and Auburn can scream all they want about the injustice, but they’d be better off screaming for a playoff system.
Nov. 25 |6:52 p.m. ET
This one is for reader mail, but first two corrections are in order.
In a column about the Lions’ perennial lack of success, I wrote that Detroit had been in the playoffs only once since 1957. It may seem that way, but that’s egregiously wrong and breach of the cardinal rule of writing — always double check; when you think you know something, you’re almost always wrong.
The Lions have, in fact, been in the playoffs 14 times since 1957, the latest in 1999. In 1991, they made their only appearance in the Super Bowl era in the NFC Championship game, which they lost. They have never been to the Super Bowl.
I also erred in saying that the voters of Kansas City, Mo. turned down a referendum to raise their taxes to build a downtown stadium for the Royals. They did turn down a referendum, but it was to pay for repairs and renovations to the existing football and baseball stadiums.
You agreed overwhelmingly with my little screed about public financing for private ballparks. A sampling:
William from Windyville, Mo.
The biggest welfare problem our country has is big business or private billionaires getting money for projects that make them richer. I bought tickets to Chiefs games and I will continue too without improvements to the sports complex in Kansas City. The stadiums are fine just the way they are, and I would rather see ticket prices increase than our taxes. It is not right to take tax dollars from someone who does not care about games people play for entertainment. If you like sports then you put your money where your mouth is. I am willing to pay my share by purchasing tickets when I can afford to. I will watch the games on television and read about my favorite teams but do not make my father pay when he could care less what goes on in sports.
Jeff from Mickleton, N.J.
You are right on target with this. I am amazed how the public allows and supports this coercion. I live in NJ near Philly and have season tickets for the Eagles. I enjoy the stadium, of course. However, tax dollars were spent for not one but two stadiums in a city where the schools are a disgrace and the vital services such as police and fire department are being cut, and the illustrious mayor Street, who pushed for the stadiums, blames the Bush policies for his city’s woes! Give me a break! When will people see the light and start voting these "owners subsides" down?
Robert from Lansing, Kansas
You are absolutely on track with this! Why should the taxpayers invest in the roof to get a Super Bowl that in all likelihood they could never have a chance in hell to attend? I have been a season ticket holder for about 20 years and have spent more than I choose to calculate -- I would have to enter a lottery to get a chance at a Super Bowl ticket.
Rich and Cheryl from Winston-Salem
You got it. As a former KC resident for 25 years and still avid Chiefs fan, I couldn't agree more. Take the Super Bowl elsewhere. Anyways, isn't football an outside, fall-winter sport?
Steven from Rhinelander, Wisc.
This is the problem plain and simple in our society; give to the rich, and not the poor. This is why, being an avid football, basketball, and baseball fan, I am now lukewarm at best to sports. I do hope a national boycott takes place for all professional sports to bring the spiraling cost of the players under control, and no more tax funded stadiums please!!
Jonathan from Alton, Ill.
HOOOOOOLY COW. That is brilliant. I only wish more people would believe and do something about what you just wrote. . . My play money already goes to these people, and I don’t feel right by asking others, some that don’t even follow sports, to cough up their hard earned dollars or their contributions to the tax collectors for this.
Bigdk32 from Kansas City
Growing up going in Kansas City, I disagree with you. The NFL owes Kansas City nothing, let alone a Super Bowl. When they built the stadium in '73, the original plans had this dome to cover both stadiums. Because of the lack of action by politicians, it is a kick-start method, incentive if you call it to take care of an organization that has given so much to the fans and citizens of Kansas City. Grow up or hang around Kansas City and realize how much the Chiefs mean to the city. It is not holding any city hostage to ask them to improve their stadium in order to bring in millions of dollars in future events other than the Super Bowl. Look at the big pictures, Big 12 events, Final 4's, which Kanasas City has hosted more than any other city, etc. Don't look at this as a one event deal, but the over all economic impact of the dome.
Brian from St. Joseph, Mo.
Just thought I would let you know a new baseball stadium downtown in K.C. has never been on a ballot in K.C., what was on the ballot was a bi-state tax for improvements to the sports complex.
Craig from Houston
Thanks for the article! I live in Houston and we've built three stadiums for all our professional sports teams, and most residents can't afford to attend the games. Wake up people! The money raised could be put to much better use.
Paul from Howell, Mich.
At last, someone in the sports world with some economic sense. Considering the tough time ahead for cities with schools, cops, and firefighters, as you mentioned - and not to mention the people on whose backs the burden will be borne - I agree that NO taxpayer monies should be spent on this "little" project for K.C. I live in the Detroit area and am seeing first hand what is happening in Detroit as it prepares to host the 2006 Super Bowl. Somebody should take a look at the city six months after the game and see if it brought any economic changes to the city. Good thing we already have a stadium (We won’t go into how it was acquired here), but I wonder what would have been the result if we had to spend $100 - 200 million to get the Super Bowl. My guess? It wouldn’t be happening.
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