Tuesday, April 2, 2019

Sports this 'n' that

Last year, in his first season as a major league manager, Philadelphia's Gabe Kapler made some questionable decisions, but eventually adjusted, although the Phillies came up short of the playoffs.

A year later, Baltimore's first year skipper, Brandon (Jekyll &) Hyde, is already under the microscope.

Monday, Hyde pulled starter David Hess, a rookie himself, after 6 1/3 innings vs. Toronto and 82 pitches.

The problem? Hess was working on a no-hitter.

If the struggles of ex-Met Johan Santana following his 2012 no-no vs. St. Louis told us anything, it's that in its wake, team owners are now increasingly gun-shy about letting starters finish no-hit bids, putting future player health ahead of the best interests of the team at that moment.

Is preserving player health in the best interest of the team? Yes, in the long term. Too much money is invested too early in young players by today's standards (blame greedy player agents for that, and, yep, we're looking at Scott Boras as the root cause), and today's pitchers aren't conditioned to go the distance. The average starter, at this point in the season, goes 5-6 innings per start, regardless of pitch count, for fear that overuse will lead to arm or shoulder problems and the dreaded Tommy John surgery.

Oh, by the way, Baltimore continued its hot start, beating Toronto, 6-5.
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Yesterday, we reported that Alliance of American Football chairman Ron Dundon admitted publicly he was seeking help from the NFL and its Players Association.

Today, the league, per Dundon, over the objections of founders Bill Polian & Charlie Ebersol, is suspending operations, pending a meeting later today.

Gee, there's a shocker. Not.

The league's problems have been apparent from the get-go.

1. There are no northeast teams, out of respect to Vince McMahon's plans to revive the XFL next year, and they will again have a team at the Meadowlands, as they did in 2001.

2. After the opening week saw one primetime game on CBS, the network opted to farm out most of the schedule to CBS Sports Network, though there were reports that 2 games would eventually move to CBS. However, with CBS busy at present with the NCAA men's basketball tournament, well, that would explain some of the declining ratings, wouldn't it?

3. Not every cable or satellite provider has CBSSN, Bleacher Report's channel, or NFL Network, which are carrying the bulk of the games. Never mind the quality of play, if not enough eyeballs are tuned in, the league is destined to fail anyway.

4. If Dundon, Ebersol, and/or Polian wanted the NFL's help, they should've made arrangements before the season started.

5. It just might be that while San Antonio is averaging 30,000 fans in the Alamodome (also home to the NBA's Spurs), AAF teams in NFL cities such as Atlanta are struggling, and this could be because fans in those cities are, well, burned out until NFL pre-season begins in July.

Funeral services for the AAF are likely at the end of the month, if not before Easter. It was fun while it lasted.
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While the Mets are off to a 3-1 start, the Seattle Mariners are equally hot, with no signs of slowing down at this early stage.

Seattle, now 6-1 after beating the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim Monday night, have benefited just as much from the off-season trade that sent Robinson Cano and Edwin Diaz to New York for Jay Bruce, who homered off fellow ex-Met Hansel Robles in Monday's game. Diaz earned his 3rd save in as many chances as the Mets downed Miami, 7-3.
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The women's final four is now set.

It'll be Notre Dame vs. Connecticut, and Baylor vs. Oregon in the semi-finals in Tampa. In the UConn-Notre Dame game, it's a rematch of last year's semi-final, won by the Irish en route to the national title. Are we seeing a repeat, or does UConn have enough left for another upset? Stay tuned.

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