Sports this 'n' that

Slowly, but surely, baseball free agents are finally landing deals. Some, like Mike Moustakas (Kansas City) and Carlos Gonzalez (Colorado) are staying put, but settling for 1 year deals with team options for next year. Others, like Jake Arietta, are getting bigger deals, but it still reeks of a con game.

The common thread? All three above named players are represented by the biggest weasel in the barn, Scott Boras, who fleeced Philadelphia into signing Arietta, who won a World Series with the Cubs two years ago, into a 5 year deal with an opt-out option after the 2nd year (2019), which is a typical Boras money-grab stunt.

The problem is, the market is changing, and Boras and his clients don't see it. Boras has conditioned his clients to believe that he can still get them the best deal regardless, but owners are wising up to his long running shell game. Gonzalez & Moustakas were coming off down years in 2017, but Boras tried to pull his con game based on prior performance. Owners are looking solely at "what have you done lately", meaning last season, not the entire body of work. As long as Boras continues to brainwash clients coming out of high school or college, he's going to remain a player and an annoyance to owners.

The solution? Maybe the Better Business Bureau and Securities & Exchange Commission should look into this failed minor league catcher-turned-lawyer-turned agent/scam artist.
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When state basketball tournament play began last week, Section II had 10 teams entered. The total is now down to 4 after a disastrous Saturday at SUNY-Canton and Hudson Valley Community College. On the women's side, only Class C champ Cambridge remains. For the men, it's Mohonasen (A), Lake George (C), and Mekeel Christian Academy (B). Bigger Suburban Council powers such as Shenendehowa (Boys' AA), Colonie (Girls' AA), and Averill Park (Girls' A) were eliminated on Saturday. In the case of Averill Park, in what amounted to a de facto home game at HVCC, they couldn't get the monkey off their collective back in losing to Jamesville-DeWitt, out of the Syracuse area, making it six straight losses in state play.

The semi-final & final rounds will be contested further downstate, so local fans can wait until baseball season starts next month to root for their teams, unless they're willing to spend the extra money on gas and the $10 tickets for the games.
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Riddle me this. What is the point of conference tournaments in college basketball when some of those same teams will join the league champions in the NCAA tournament anyway?

The field has bloated to more than 64 teams over the last 30-odd years, mostly for television's benefit (CBS/Turner Networks), and, as we've discussed, mid-majors such as the America East and the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) get just 1 entry in the big dance when runner-ups are just as deserving.

That being said, it was news the other day when UAlbany decided not to accept an invitation to the smaller tournaments after the men's team was eliminated in the first round of the America East tournament. The women's team's run of six straight league titles was snapped, and they won't be playing further, either. Events like the College Insiders tournament don't get the attention that the NCAA's or NIT's do, and only exist to give schools that were given the el snubbino by the bigger tourneys a chance to line their coffers. UAlbany men's coach Will Brown pointed out that home teams in these tournaments have to pony up a fee to host games, which is really a scam if you think about it.

I'd overheard a conversation at work the other day where it was thought that as many as 9 teams from the Atlantic Coast Conference, which had their tournament in Brooklyn (!) last week (to accomodate Northeast-based member schools Boston College and Syracuse), would go to the NCAA's. Please. If you limit the field to conference champions only, then you treat the mid-majors with more respect and dignity. Screw the television money and level the playing field!