June 25, 2020
TODAY’S COLUMNS: Scott previews our prospective congested sports calendar coming up, unless?
Dennis has some thoughts on officiating
Jon discusses sports in the state of Minnesota
Please scroll down below.
OUR THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS GO OUT TO ONE AND ALL AS WE TRY TO MAKE OUR WAY SAFELY THROUGH THE PANDEMIC. WE STAND WITH THOSE THAT ARE PEACEFULLY PROTESTING AGAINST POLICE BRUTALITY AND RACISM.
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THE WIZARDRY OF OS
Nobody knows what is going to happen this fall, but let’s play the “what if” game for a minute. Warning. Playing this game with me might set us all up for a serious let down.
What if the sports world is able to join with Korean baseball, some of the European soccer leagues, and horse racing in getting things up and running? What will be happening and when in the fall?
In September, October and November we would have college football, NFL, MLB and its postseason, along with the NBA and its postseason. Also, the biggest events in the sports outside the Big 3.
The big events would roll out one on top of the other starting with US Open tennis with its regular schedule starting at the end of August and finishing the first week of September. As the US Open ends, the Kentucky Derby will run in September.
In Golf, the US Open is scheduled for September 17-20. The very next week we will have the Ryder Cup in Wisconsin. At the same time, the French Open in tennis is scheduled from September 20-October 4.
While golf and tennis are putting on some of their biggest events, MLB and the NBA could be in their playoffs. The NBA would wrap up the first week of October. That same week, the Preakness is scheduled to run.
There is no telling what is going to happen with baseball, but the World Series could take place at the end of October and beginning of November. That would lead into the Masters from November 12-15.
As the other sports end, the middle of November is just in time for all the great rivalry games in college football and the conference championship games. The NFL would be hitting their stretch run and college basketball would be in full swing.
The delay of our many great sporting events would set up for a glorious smorgasbord of non stop sporting greatness from September through the end of 2020. Of course, all of that only happens IF these industries can figure out how to do it all in a pandemic.
The chances of all that happening with big crowds in attendance are slim. Sports like golf and tennis should be fairly easy to pull off with common sense measures. Baseball should be easy too, but nothing is easy with MLB.
Also, we should not be surprised if the outcomes of the NBA playoffs, World Series, or football season are seriously affected by an outbreak of Co-Vid19 within one team or a significant player on a team.
Even the most optimistic of us should play the “what if” game with caution. Nevertheless, “what if” it can all be pulled off? How would we get anything done with all this great live content to watch?!
HEY REF
HOLD THE PHONES! STOP THE PRESSES! The past few days have been one for the record books, so to say. I’ll be the first to admit that this writer isn’t a professional nor has he ever had any special training that would afford him the right to call myself a journalist. Nor am I a coach, reporter or an expert on solving the world’s problems.
“Hey Ref” came about as a way for high school fans to write in with any questions about rules and the differences in enforcements when compared to NCAA and NFL games. I did my best to answer those questions as quickly as possible and I really enjoyed reading the stories that led up to the confusion some fans had. I feel we did a very good job for a couple of amateurs.
After that first football season I began receiving questions about what it took to become a football official, was there a school that trained football refs, how long it was before working on the field, how much were officials paid and so on. And just like all athletes there comes a day when it’s time for all on-field officials to “hang ‘em up” and find something else to do besides running up and down a football field blowing a whistle while trying to keep a team from going outside the intent of the rules. And just like athletes the toughest call all officials must make is the one where they’re no longer part of the game.
Some of us think that day won’t come but it comes and most of the time it comes a whole lot faster than we want it to. And the next big step we all must take is the one that’ll determine what we do to fill the time we once dedicated to our chosen sports. For me I like taking fans behind all the bright lights to show them many times what goes on behind those bright lights just ain’t very pretty. And at times what goes on behind the curtain is just not right on any level.
One thing “Hey Ref” prides himself on is always telling the truth no matter who it hurts and his refusal to divulge anyone that’s spoken to him confidentially. After doing this column for almost a decade the biggest problem I have is getting coaches and officials to open up and share some details of what’s really going on behind “door number one”! I totally understand the “WHY’s” keeping both silent and hesitant to just let go and have the pieces fall where they may, I really do.
Let’s say you hired someone to run your company. Your company hasn’t been profitable for a number of years and you bring in a new manager to turn things around. But instead of your company turning around and starting to make a profit it continues its downward spiral. Good employees slowly leave your company and you find things are a lot worse then you could have ever imagined.
At the next board meeting it’s decided a change is necessary. Resumes are accepted for a new manager and interviews are conducted. The board then recommends a new applicant to replace the manager that’s running your company into the ground. He’s keeping your company from attracting the best and brightest people that can get your company back to being profitable. You hold a meeting with the board to get their input on making a change to the person they feel can “right the ship”.
As the board is about to announce they’re bringing in a new manager you decide to inform the board you’re not going with their choice to bring in some new blood. You then instruct the board you’re retaining the person responsible for the continuing decline in profits, performance of the company and ability to retain your best employees. And just when you think things can’t get worse you’re faced with the reality that many of your customers are now buying from a competitor and are very happy they made the move away from your business.
Then as questions start being asked “Why” the change wasn’t made even after the board voted for change your only answer to those still getting a pay check from your company is “he does free legal work for the company”!
Till next week… …
FINE IDEAS
Who can turn the world on with her smile?
Who can take a nothing day, and suddenly make it all seem worthwhile?
Well it's you girl, and you should know it
With each glance and every little movement you show it
Love is all around, no need to waste it
You can have the town, why don't you take it
You're gonna make it after all Your’e gonna make it after all
I’m not sure why—perhaps the George Floyd tragedy--but last night, as I was attempting to fall asleep, I started thinking about the state of Minnesota. The aforementioned theme song was from the Mary Tyler Moore show (MTM), a popular sitcom in the 1970s, which was staged in a Minnesota television news room. I can’t remember what I had for lunch yesterday, but I could name you most of MTM’s lilly-white characters and actors’ names. This would include Mary Richards’ curmudgeon of a boss in Ed Asner’s portrayal of Lou Grant.
Wondering if it was just a coincidence, but at the time MTM was in its early stages, it was Bud Grant who was the head coach of the Minnesota Vikings. Grant’s teams made 3 Super Bowls—the seasons of 1973, 1974 and 1976—but lost all of them. Technically, Grant’s 1969 team was NFL champions. Yet, they lost to the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl IV. At the time, the NFL had not merged with the AFL. So, the Chiefs were considered AFL champions, Super Bowl champions and World champions. But the NFL champion was the Minnesota Vikings. The Vikings have not won an NFL championship since, and have not played for one since the 1976 season.
Gary Larson and Doug Southerland. Credit yourself if you knew the 4th member of the Minnesota Vikings 70’s Purple People Eaters Defensive Line. Larson started on the 1973 team, while Southerland was in Bud Grant’s lineup in 1974 and 1976. The 3 other more highly heralded DLine starters were Carl Eller, Alan Page and Jim Marshall.
Maybe the most unique names to form a double-play combination was the Minnesota Twins 2B Cesar Tovar and SS Zoilo Versalles in the mid-60s. Yet, this is a little bit deceptive as Tovar played a lot of positions. There are many more well-known Twins star players in this era than Tovar and Versalles, including Harmon Killebrew, Rod Carew and Tony Oliva. Yet these 2 each have a noteworthy distinction. Tovar was the second player to play all 9 positions in one game, following Bert “Campy” Campaneris of the Kansas City Athletics. Ironically enough, when Tovar accomplished this feat in 1968, he started the game as the pitcher against the Oakland A’s, with the first batter he faced being Campy Campaneris. Versalles was the 1965 American League MVP for the pennant winning Twins.
Add an R to Tovar’s first name and you have the Goalie of the NHL’s Minnesota North Stars in the early 70s. That would be Cesare Maniago.
Led by Minnesota native and University of Minnesota star Paul Molitor, the 1987 Twins were World Champions. The Twins would win it again in 1991. Yet the Twins of the mid-60s – 1970—who never won a World Series championship-- were a better, more consistent teams.
Another great player from UM is Minnesota native Dave Winfield, perhaps the best athlete in the history of the state of Minnesota, if not the entire country. At Minnesota, Winfield starred in Baseball and Basketball. He was drafted by teams in major league baseball, the NFL, NBA and ABA.
And, then, there is University of Minnesota’s Kevin McHale--The Black Hole—a native of Hibbing Minnesota.
Other star athletes who excelled in the Twin Cities include Kirby Puckett, Cris Carter, Kevin Garnett, Joe Mauer and Adrian Peterson.
Besides the 87 and 91 Twins, one is hard pressed to come up with a relevant recent champion from The Land of 10 Thousand Lakes. The North Stars (who moved to Dallas in 1993), Twins, Timberwolves of the NBA, University of Minnesota Football or Basketball? A collective NADA.
University of Minnesota Football has won 7 national championships, but its last one was in 1960, with the prior one in 1941. UM Hockey has won 5 NCAA championships, but college hockey’s following is largely regional in scope. George Miken’s Minneapolis Lakers won 6 championships (1 in the NBL, 1 in the BAA and 4 in the NBA). Yet, its last title was in 1954.
The Mayo Clinic—whose primary location is Minnesota--provides world-class medical care. OJ Mayo (from West Virginia) put on a clinic in high school and one year at USC, before embarking on a disappointing pro career. Jared Mayo (from Virginia) was a stud LB at the University of Tennessee, before becoming an integral part of Bill Belichick’s defenses with the New England Patriots. Not that these facts about OJ and Jared are pertinent to the matter at hand.
My attempt to fall asleep was futile. Thinking about the state of Minnesota, with much of the aforementioned coming to mind, kept me from being a sleeping beauty. Or at least sleeping. The beauty part is a 24-7-365 issue as it is still a work in progress.
Other matters that have been occupying many people’s minds recently have been police brutality/racism/rioting and the fate of sports in 2019. Will all of this be resolved in positive fashion and like MTM are we going to make it after all? I’ll leave that for Minnesota native, and another Hibbing product in Bob Dylan
The answer my friend is blowing in the wind. The answer is blowing in the wind.
8:46.
LSU will rename its Library. The name of Troy H Middleton will be removed. This has been a big story throughout Louisiana. People have opinions on it both ways. Except, perhaps, LSU Football players, where one wonders if they even know there is a library on campus?
Bubba Wallace found a noose in his stall this weekend. Despicable. What is gratifying about this incident is that all of NASCAR stood behind him in support. NASCAR, after waging a thorough investigation which involved 15 FBI agents, says that the noose had been there all along. Count me among the skeptics of this explanation. You mean to tell me that the noose just happened to be in Stall 4 and Wallace just happened to be assigned to this stall on his first race after decrying NASCAR’S association with the Confederate flag—which prompted NASCAR’s repudiation of the Rebel flag? I’m not a conspiracy theorist kind of guy. But, here, Conspiracy Theory--Game On. I have a hard time—make that an impossible time--of believing NASCAR. This has Cover-up written all over it.
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