Month: September 2015

College vs. Professional sports

On Sunday March 1, 2015, the Philadelphia Phillies lost a game to Division II school, The University of Tampa Bay 6-2. According to the university’s website, this is the first time an NCAA team defeated an MLB opponent when the University of Miami did the same to the Miami Marlins in spring 2011.

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There were a couple caveats: Sunday’s game was the first game they played which was a week after the team reported to camp, while the University of Tampa Bay had played 14 games. Second caveat is that many of the players with the Phillies who played in that game were not the ones that Phillies fans had been accustomed to seeing during their regular season.

Even with those caveats included, the topic is often brought up of whether a college team could beat a professional team in live game action.

Before the Kentucky Wildcats lost in the final four to the Wisconsin Badgers, there was talk of what would happen should the Wildcats square off vs. the New York Knicks.

Las Vegas betting experts weighed in on the debate involving Kentucky vs. the New York Knicks.

Even with the odds being against an NCAA team, that does not stop people from believing that a college team could defeat a professional team in any sport. Add to the mix: sports Twitter is a heaven for group-think and this often becomes the consensus.

Before the NCAA Basketball tournament got to the final four, former college basketball and NBA head coach Larry Brown offered his opinion of the Kentucky Wildcats coached by John Calipari and whether they would do well playing in the NBA.

Brown and Calipari have known each other for more than 30 years but while Brown has been a successful, that is a bit of an exaggeration and Brown got caught up in the moment when the Wildcats were 34-0.

When we see an NCAA team like the Wildcats aiming for an undefeated season and you look at a team like the Knicks who won just 17 games in the 2014-15 NBA season, it is easy and understandable to bring up such a scenario where those two teams would play each other. However, it is paramount to put this into perspective: college basketball teams don’t play as nearly as many games as NBA teams do, NBA teams play about twice as many games as college teams. While game action is similar between the college game and NBA game, there is an entirely different line of strategy that goes on both the NCAA and NBA game. Lets also remember that in the pro’s regardless of sport, we tend to see participants who have gone through the motions in a game whether it was a blowout game or close game in the professional level.

In the past, I have mentioned that coaches in college sports who have tried it in the professional level often do not succeed at the highest levels of sports. The big reason to account for this factor is that some individuals do not have what it takes to succeed and its often in the highest levels of sports. On the other hand it would be interesting to see a game between a college team and a professional team take place in any sport but the result of the game would be a bit disappointing to many and the result would not be real close to put it lightly.

MLB top 5?

If the baseball season were to end right now, the Chicago Cubs would finish with more wins than the division leading New York Mets and LA Dodgers but would finish in third place in the NL Central division. Furthermore, the Pittsburgh Pirates could win 100 games in 2015 but that would not guarantee a division championship considering the yellow and black are in the same division as the St. Louis Cardinals are and the red birds are likely to win 100 games before the end of next weekend.

Fortunately for the Cubs it is not 2011 because they would be fighting for their postseason lives as MLB introduced the second wild-card spot in 2012. There is a caveat with the second wild-card spot, the two teams that win the two wild-card spots match up to play essentially a game 163, the tiebreaker and one of those two teams’ seasons will come to an end after just one playoff game.

With that said, there has been discussion of eliminating divisions and seeding teams with the best records overall like the NBA will be doing in the 2015-16 season.

Yahoo Sports MLB writer Jeff Passan argues that MLB should follow the NBA’s lead and eliminate the traditional sense of division winners. Furthermore, he says, MLB should “keep the American and National Leagues intact and throw every team into a pool of 15 fighting for five spots.”

You may ask what are the benefits to such a move? The top 5 teams in both leagues would fight to avoid the presumable shorter wild-card series. Another benefit would be that the rivalries would not be based on geography and fans would see more compelling races in late September.

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“There are lot of things out of your control, which is why we play so many games to figure out who’s the best team—and then it whittles down to a one-game playoff,” said Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Gerrit Cole, who has been part of a one and done wild-card playoff game the last two seasons.

This addition to the game in 2012 was done largely with intent. “When we added the two additional playoff teams for the wild card,” said an MLB spokesman, “we wanted to make sure to preserve the extra incentive for winning the division.”

Several players on the Pirates including Neil Walker suggested that MLB tweak the one game wild-card playoff elimination game by making the series a best out of three games, which is not really a new idea because legendary broadcaster Bob Costas has presented that idea in the past. There is one downfall to that idea and making the wild-card elimination game a best of three would make the postseason drag on, right to the end of October possibly into November.

However, Walker believes the wild-card best of three games idea should be but on the back burner. “I think when you really look at it, black and white, you say, ‘Why not let the best five teams go at it, regardless of division?’” Walker said.

There is no perfect solution and no matter what MLB does, there will be imperfections with MLB’s playoff system. Winning the division doesn’t carry the weight it once did. For example, the Cubs won the NL Central in 2007 and 2008 but were a quick exit from the playoffs those two seasons as the Cubs were swept by the Arizona Diamondbacks and LA Dodgers in that order. Passan argues that baseball without divisions or the emphasis of divisions is a better game and concludes his column in August by saying that the simplest solutions are the best ones.

I am inclined to support the idea of having the top 5 teams from both leagues be the representatives in MLB’s postseason. If a team like the Pirates finish with the second best record in the NL but are in the 4th seed in the playoffs, the message to the players and fans of the Pirates and the city of Pittsburgh that all of the hard work could be for nothing if the current playoff system prevails. This is a big reason why the Pirates are going all out to win the NL Central. In the interim, I don’t see MLB dropping divisions but if there is enough public pressure from not just fans but the players, we could see some movement. I completely agree with the discrepancy that prevails in the NL Central but lets see how the 2015 postseason goes and if what we fear plays out, then we should have a much more urgent discussion in the winter. For the meantime, as a Cubs fan, I am excited for what October baseball will bring to baseball fans and the sports universe.

Women success stories in sports

From coaching breakthroughs to great athletic accomplishments, July 2015 was a month for women to take stage in the world of sports. The main event in July 2015 was when the U.S. Women’s Soccer team, in which the team not only won the world cup but did so in front of more than 25 million Americans in the championship. Furthermore, the ratings were the best for a soccer game in the U.S. Men’s or Women’s. A couple days after the team won 5-2 vs. Japan in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, there was a rally held in Los Angeles.

Players on the team did not expect as many to turn out as they did and Alex Morgan said after 10,000 fans assembled at Microsoft square at L.A. live, “They were packed in there and they were so loud,” Morgan said. “The energy was amazing. I had never seen anything like it.”

The successes that the U.S. Women’s Soccer team accomplished in July are not the only successes women have accomplished in sports. Before the 2014-15 NBA season got underway, former WNBA star Becky Hammon was hired as an assistant head coach with the San Antonio Spurs.

“Nothing in my life has really ever been easy. I’ve always been someone who did it uphill,” Hammon said at the time. “I’m up for challenges. I’m up for being outside the box, making tough decisions and challenges.”

Hammon became the first female head coach in the NBA summer league recently and won a summer league title when the Spurs won the annual tournament in sin city.

It’s important to look at women athletes who have excelled and are still excelling in primarily male dominated sports. No need to look further than Chicago Sky forward/guard Elena Delle Donne. She was drafted in 2013 out of the University of Delaware and won WNBA rookie of the year that year among a few of her accomplishments in her early career.

In July, Ronda Rousey became the first women and MMA athlete to win the best fighter at the ESPY’s. Furthermore, it was one of three ESPY’s won by a female in categories open to both men and women.

After she won the ESPY, she delivered a powerful message to Floyd Mayweather, who had won the award in the previous three years.

I honestly believe that people have underestimated the ability of women in any sport, male or female dominated to excel. The success stories mentioned above do not end there, there are plenty more that need to be discussed that are not in my opinion garnering as much attention as they should. In previous years, we have seen many famous women excel in their respective sport and one of the more notable ones is Billie Jean King, who won 39 Grand Slam titles, including 12 singles, 16 women’s doubles and 11 mixed double titles.

Women have made phenomenal strides in recent years, 2015 may prove to be a turning point that only accelerates the progress of women succeeding in their respective sport. Wouldn’t it be great if in the future that a person like Hammon becomes an NBA coach? I know some women who either currently play a sport or did at one time and while these people do not get the name recognition as Alex Morgan does, we as a society must take some time to realize that even the people who are not mentioned on ESPN should be given our utmost respect. Being an athlete takes dedication regardless of sport and there are days in which some have contemplated giving it up because the challenge of succeeding is not worth it for a person. This is a movement that everyone needs to be celebrating that will not slow down in the future and I am looking forward to what 2016 has to offer for women success stories in sports.

The NFL disciplinarian

After Tom Brady’s 4 game suspension was nullified by Manhattan Federal Judge Richard Berman on September 3, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said that he is ‘very open’ to changing his role in player discipline. He recently spoke to Mike and Mike on ESPN Radio.

Berman did not address whether the NFL was non-partisan in his decision to uphold Brady’s suspension directly but said in part, “Because there was no notice of a four-game suspension in the circumstances presented here, Commissioner Goodell may be said to have ‘dispense[d] his own brand of industrial justice,’” Berman writes in his decision.”

The league’s next scheduled meeting is set for October and the current NFL CBA runs through 2020.

Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank told D. Orlando Ledbetter of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that “change may be appropriate” to repair the process. Furthermore, he believes that working with the NFLPA is the right way to go.

“It’s not healthy for the NFL to be in the kind of litigious position that it’s been for last several years,” Blank said. “I think that the commissioner is working hard to hold up the respect and integrity of the game, the competitive balance of the game and the shield. Having said that, I think we have to find ways to get to a better place sooner with the NFLPA than the process that we’ve gone through.”

One factor that has not been discussed as much is the relationship between Goodell and Patriots owner Robert Kraft. However, Goodell downplayed the possibility of the relationship being torn.

Mike Chiari of Bleacher Report says that the deflategate controversy/scandal has not reached its true conclusion and despite the want to put it behind him, this debate will likely be talked about for some time.

Goodell recently spoke to union chief DeMaurice Smith before the decision came down about possible changes to the college bargaining agreement.

“We want to get to a better discipline system,” Goodell said. “We’ve had several discussions with the union about how to do that. We have done that on the field over the last several years and I think we’ve got a better system. We’ve done that in our drug and steroid program and I think we have a better system than we did before those changes.”

MMQB‘s Jenny Vrentas says that the big picture could be that there could be leverage but not until the next CBA is up for renewal in 5 years from now. The changes that will be made are unknown but some believe there will be changes of the organizational structure with the possibility of the commissioner being included.

I have said in the past that Goodell’s image has been tarnished because of a player on the field being the referee at the same time. I honestly believe that we will need a third-party arbitration but if that were to happen, it would be paramount that the individual(s) have a deep knowledge of the game and its rules.

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The NFL needs to focus more on more serious issues facing the game. I understand that a controversy like this will generate ratings on ESPN and sports talk radio but the game has been ill served by the fact that NFL fans continue to see players who are showing to be bad examples to the game and those who want to play in the NFL someday. For example, the San Francisco 49ers released defensive end Aldon Smith after being arrested on driving under the influence, hit and run and vandalism in early August. Just today, it was announced that Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Dez Bryant could be out of action for more than originally thought when he suffered a broken bone in his foot in week 1 vs. the New York Giants.

Whether it is the commissioner himself or a team, I feel as if the NFL is not always shooting right when they focus on someone who didn’t commit a crime like Brady. Goodell has backed himself into a corner that will take some time to get out of and I feel as if he could have avoided it. You can blame the media for talking about the deflategate scandal but if it involves a player like Brady, there are valid reasons for this story to continue to be discussed on shows such as ESPN’s First Take. Conversely when a player that doesn’t have the name recognition like Brady does is arrested, stories like that can be overblown but how did Goodell not realize that trying to overpower the sports media by suspending Brady was not going to go over well?

NCAA football playoff system

In February, NCAA football playoff director Bill Hancock told AL.com that there were no plans to expand the new playoff system that took effect in 2014 from 4 to 8.

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“I’m not hearing the drum within our business,” said Hancock. “I’m hearing it from journalists. I think we need to give this a chance. It’s such a remarkable new innovation for the game. There is no talk in our group of expanding.”

Coaches in the SEC are demanding that college football expand the playoff system from 4 games to 8.

Malzahn is not alone. Arkansas head coach Bret Bielema told ESPN’s Alex Scarborough, “Expanding the playoffs to more than four teams is paramount,” and went on to tell Scarborough, “You’re not getting the best possible pool.”

Malzahn believes that the SEC is at a disadvantage because of conferences like the Big 12, which does not have a conference championship game.

There are a number of reasons why some believe the college football playoff system should be expanded from 4 to at least 8.

Greg Wallace of Bleacher Report says that running a college athletic department continues to be more expensive these days. Coaching salaries especially at the highest levels are increasing drastically and programs across the nation continue to upgrade their facilities with a huge price tag attached. According to Rachel Bachman of the Wall Street Journal, ESPN’s college football playoff contract is worth over $5.5 billion over 12 years.

Probably the strongest argument for expanding the playoff is ratings. The national semifinals game brought ESPN the largest overnight ratings ever and 12 days later, the Oregon-Ohio State match up drew an average of over 33 million viewers.

Michael Bird of SB Nation argues that the 2015 NCAA Final Four is a reason why college football should not expand their new playoff system. Some of the teams in the NCAA basketball tournament included: Butler and George Mason but Bird argues that most of the viewing public tuned it out because it was viewed by the audience that these teams were not the best in the nation. Continuing on that point, fans like dynasties. For example, ESPN would dream of having the Red Sox and Yankees playing every season in the American League Championship series. This year before losing to Wisconsin in the final four, Kentucky went undefeated and that was one of the top stories in collegiate sports last year. He sums up his argument by saying in part: “If a team can finish ninth in its conference and be national champion, your playoff is too big.”

I have mentioned how dangerous the sport is and as of now, I am hesitant to support the idea to expand from 4 teams to 8 until college football fans are exposed to the system with 4 teams for at least a couple seasons. While its encouraging that coaches from the SEC come out and support the idea of expanding the playoff system, I would like to see more coaches from other conferences come out and voice their opinion and if it is a warm reception, I would then say, lets look at taking the next step. However before that I would like to see the players come out and voice their opinions because they would be affected the most if college football takes the next step. College football will always have some debate and controversy attached to it and there is no perfect way to determine a national champion especially with powerful voices having much influence.

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J.A. Adande said on ESPN’s Around the Horn in January when Texas Christian University was left out in the dark despite being ranked NO. 3 in the College Football Playoff Selection Committee the week earlier, “Is Ohio State a bigger brand? Is it a better TV product? Yes,” Adande said. “Let’s not forget this is a television show.” Some will argue that ESPN has too much of an influence in the decision making and to Adande’s point, while it is partly a television show, when will a college football championship game actually be a game of who are the best teams from an objective point not from just ESPN’s point of view. I don’t dislike ESPN but we’ve seen schools like Ohio State who do exceptionally well in the regular season but in a season such as 2006, the Buckeyes win 12 of 13 regular season games only to get blown out in the BCS Championship by the Florida Gators 41-14 in January 2007. ESPN knows that when a school such as Ohio State are in the championship game, ratings will be there but wouldn’t it have been better for all of these years to see games that are decided by a touchdown or field goal in the final minute?

Baseball computerized strike zone

In July an Independent baseball team in Northern California used Pitch f/X video system for two games to call balls and strikes. The San Rafael Pacifics, who are part of the Pacific Association employed Pitch f/X system on July 28 and 29.

Automated Strike Zone Baseball

The system consists of three cameras forming a triangular effect that judges a pitch’s trajectory and speed as it crosses home plate. Furthermore, the system is used on TV broadcasts to determine the location of a pitch and for umpires to self evaluate. Former major league outfielder Eric Byrnes oversaw the pitch f/X, which was developed by Sportsvision Inc. of Fremont, California. “This is something down the road that will change the game of baseball forever,” Byrnes said.

According to the LA Times, pitch f/X is not new to professional baseball. It has been around since 2008 and since that year it has tracked every single pitch thrown at the Major League level. Front office personnel and scouts use the data it generates on a regular basis. The games have progressed smoothly and the technology was well received even from the umpires point of view.

“Since we found out more about it — how it’s going to work, where it’s going to work — I’ve had more positive feedback than I have negative,” Dean Poteet, who worked behind home plate in one of the games, told the Associated Press.

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Los Angeles Angels manager Mike Scioscia is a little pessimistic about the idea and predicts that this will not be coming to a MLB park near you. “I think Major League Baseball over the course of the last 15 years has done a much better job of uniforming the strike zone, the parameters that are dictated in the rule book,” Scioscia said. “[With] the sensitivity of the strike zone and a lot of the data coming back, you’re going to have that occasional pitch that an umpire is going to miss. I don’t know if that warrants the need to pursue an electronic strike zone.”

During the MLB All-Star game festivities in Cincinnati, commissioner Rob Manfred, he was against it saying that there would be doubts of how much of a system would adjust to different hitters heights and stances.

Former ESPN commentator Keith Olbermann had an interesting perspective on the topic.

Rob Neyer of Fox Sports believes that the umpires have improved and become more consistent with the definition of the strike zone but adds that they are missing two strike strikes, which tends to be psychological and they are not close to being perfect.

Recently Joe Sheehan of Sports Illustrated wrote in his newsletter in part, “Until recently, there wasn’t much that could be done. Now, with PitchF/X in place, indicting umpires every single day, we have both the data to make the case and the technology to do something better. An automated strike zone will be more fair to all the players, while putting an end to a condition in which virtually invisible movements are as valuable as the acrobatics of a Gold Glove shortstop.”

I can see the argument for an automated strike zone but the human element of baseball is something that in part makes baseball “Americas pastime” at least to some folks. If MLB were to take the next step to implement this, the drama that is created with the human element of the game might as well not exist anymore and the game would likely become more difficult to watch. I don’t believe the tipping point has passed for a change to be in order. Some believe that the commissioner should do everything he can to do what the San Rafael Pacifics did for two games in late July next season but I think making a change that fast is unrealistic and needs to be tested more often in independent league baseball games or even minor league games. I agree with Oblermann that it is not realistic that the game eliminate umpires, the technology is there to assist umpires. Until something drastic changes the makeup of calling balls and strikes, I don’t see a pitch f/X system being employed much further beyond independent league baseball. There are certain traditions of any sport that are hard to change and while many baseball fans like to see the game improved, this could be a situation in which we are trying to fix something that does not need to be fixed.

2015 Chicago Bears season preview

In the 2014 season, the Chicago Bears went 5-11 and since the end of last season, many changes have been made. John Fox was hired as the team’s new coach in January after coaching the Denver Broncos, while Phil Emery was fired as the teams general manager and was replaced by Ryan Pace, who spent many years in the New Orleans Saints organization. Vic Fangio was hired as the team’s new defensive coordinator replacing Mel Tucker.

Chicago Bears season

Over the long history of the Bears, they have been known as a franchise who didn’t give up many points but in 2014, they gave up 442 points second worst in the NFL only the Oakland Raiders gave up more. Believe it or not the Bears had a better record in 2013 despite giving up more points (478) than in 2014. The problems that the Bears had on defense was not the full fault of Tucker but his lack of vision became more clear as every game went by. In a matter of two straight road games, the Bears defense allowed over 50 points vs. the New England Patriots and the Green Bay Packers. To me that was the moment of the season that clinched the assurance that changes were forthcoming in the off season.

While longtime defensive stalwarts like Lance Briggs and Charles ‘Peanut’ Tillman showed up and played well at times, they simply suffered from a lack of depth from all sides of the defense especially against teams with Quarterbacks such as Aaron Rodgers and Matthew Stafford. The afore mentioned Fangio was the defensive coordinator for the San Francisco 49ers last season when now Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh. Fangio will bring something relatively new to the Bears defense in that he typically runs a 3-4 defense, which is different from Lovie Smith’s “Tampa 2” 4-3 defense. Some say that this adjustment will take some time but note that some of the players on the defensive side of the ball are accustomed to this system of defense.

While its only the preseason, the Bears won 3 out of the 4 games and in those games allowed just 42 points total in those games. Having said that, they have a tough schedule right out of the gate as they host the Packers in week 1, host the Arizona Cardinals in week 2 and play the defending NFC Champion, Seattle Seahawks in week 3 in Seattle. Add to that, a couple key players on the defense are out. First  Safety Ryan Mundy is on injured reserve after injuring his hip and in many games last year, the middle of the defense was often exposed to big running plays and long pass plays, that will be important to watch for Bears fans in 2015. Second, Nose Tackle Jeremiah Ratliff was suspended for the first 3 games of the season for violating the league’s substance abuse policy.

Another big reason the Bears believe they haven’t really been able to get to the next level is #6 Quarterback Jay Cutler. Fans have had the discussion at the end of every season of whether the Bears would ever win with Cutler. In the off season, Cutler’s teammate wide receiver Brandon Marshall, who he was teamed up with in Denver was traded to the New York Jets. However, the Bears made a smart move at least that is what some are claiming when they signed Eddie Royal while some believe it will not be enough to make up for the loss of Kevin White, who sustained a stress fracture in his shin during OTA’s. White was the 7th overall pick in the draft from West Virginia.

Going back to Royal, he is not a big man, thus the loss of White may not bring Cutler’s interception percentage down and will require that the Bears use up more clock to score. What does that do with Cutler on the field? That makes it a good bet that Cutler throws an interception while the Bears are driving inside the 20-yard line. Since joining the Bears in 2009, Cutler hasn’t had an interception percentage below 3.2% and that is despite having an interception percentage of under 3% in 2008 while he was still in Denver.

Before suffering a season ending injury, White was supposed to be the deep threat and keep the safeties honest which can provide room for the underneath guys to do their damage.

Another key person on the offensive side of the ball to watch is Running Back Matt Forte partially because he turns 30 before the end of the season and last season was one to forget for him. In 2014, he averaged 3.6 yards per carry which is below his average of closer to 5 yards per carry. The key for me on the offensive side of the ball is the offensive line. Cutler needs time in the pocket to reach his receivers and tight ends but in previous seasons, he has not had an offensive line that has been able to protect him from being sacked. Two players to watch in particular on the offensive line are Kyle Long and Jermon Bushrod because no one else besides the two are real standouts.

Coach Fox has not been specific when pressed about when Wide Receiver Alshon Jeffrey will return, he has not practiced in close to a month after recovering from a calf injury.

It is not expected that the Bears will finish better than 4th place in the NFC North in 2015 but even one or two more victories than 2014 would be considered a winning season in the Bears fans minds. I’ve always said this but will at least one more time and that is the Bears can not expect to win games that are a slug fest using a baseball term. I don’t expect the Bears defense to improve drastically in 2015 but at the very least, I would like to see the Bears give the impression they care to the fans. I remember quite a few moments last season in which it wasn’t worth it to tune into whether it was Fox Sports, CBS Sports, NBC Sports or ESPN. If there was one goal for this upcoming season, it is to make the games interesting even if they lose or the game is close and gets out of hand in the final 5 minutes of regulation.