Category: Sports

Just askin’. Why are there official point spreads for NFL preseason games? Do people actually bet on events that will largely be determined by those who won’t even be around when the regular season starts?

* Last week Rays’ All Star pitcher Chris Archer tossed a one-hit masterpiece against the Houston Astros. And it was a COMPLETE GAME. It was the first such–for the team–this season. They’ve become nearly as rare as no-hitters.

And it got me to recalling an interview with Robin Roberts, the Hall of Fame, former Phillies pitcher–and USF baseball coach (1977-85). His heyday was the 1950s. In his career, Roberts started 609 games–and finished 305 of them. No, that’s not a typo. He once had 28 CGs in a row. One time he threw all 17 innings of an extra-inning game against the St. Louis Cardinals.

That was then–and this is not. Not even close.

* Time was when USF, a member of the Big East Conference, was in the catbird seat when it came to its relationship with UCF. It was USF’s call whether to continue the relationship. Unfortunately, it chose to discontinue it. The rationale: Why bother keeping UCF, then a member of the relatively nondescript Conference USA, on the schedule? Nothing to gain by winning and it always hurts to lose to a lesser opponent. That USF-UCF would be a real geographic rivalry game and gin up campus interest and crowd turnout wasn’t, alas, incentive enough.

Now, in the ever-morphing era of conference-hopping, both USF and UCF are in the American Athletic Conference. As a result, they HAVE to play each other. And UCF, which has ratcheted in national reputation, has now won two in a row over USF. The Knights are now the big kid on the I-4 corridor block, while USF hasn’t had a winning season since 2010.

But this season the two will meet–at UCF’s on-campus, Bright House Networks Stadium in Orlando–on Thanksgiving night in a nationally telecast ESPN game. To ESPN, UCF was the bigger “get.” And UCF, especially head coach George O’Leary, is on board to keep it on Thanksgiving night against USF and build it into a major rivalry game getting national exposure.

However it happened, it’s a win-win rivalry game that USF ironically now needs even more than UCF.

* Speaking of USF–and natural rivals–the Bulls’ soccer team beat the University of Tampa, 2-1, last week to reclaim the Rowdies Cup. Too bad–and we know the dropping-down-to-Division II arguments–that USF and UT don’t also square off regularly in baseball and basketball.

* We all know how formidable the Southeastern Conference is in football. Top-to-bottom, nobody’s better. But this just in: No conference is more notorious than the SEC when it comes to football player arrests. According to arrestnation.com, more than half of the Top Ten are from the SEC; Florida (2), Georgia (3), Texas A&M (4), Missouri (6), Mississippi (6) and Tennessee (10). For the record, FSU tied Tennessee for 10th. No. 1 was Washington State.

* If Scott Walker stays in the top tier of GOP presidential candidates for the next several debates, it’s likely some opponent will bring up the sports-related bill he recently signed off on. It has big-government overreach all over it. The bill that the Wisconsin governor signed allows government to subsidize a new basketball arena for the Milwaukee Bucks of the NBA. Say what you want about economic synergies and a jumpstart for downtown renaissance, another arena-shakedown (without it, the Bucks will seriously consider moving to Seattle or Las Vegas) scenario is nothing a Republican candidate would want to defend during primary season.

* While we all wish his departure had happened in a classier fashion, who among us would begrudge Joe Maddon early success in his first season as manager of the Chicago Cubs? And he’s been having it. Look for the Cubs to make the playoffs and then, who knows, maybe that 106-year-old, World Series drought will end on his watch. In the meantime, T-shirts with a halo of white hair, black glasses and the words: “A Shot & A Beer” are big sellers outside Wrigley Field.

In a brief interview with the Tampa Bay Times, Maddon, who still has his offseason home in South Tampa, was, well, Maddon. “I really enjoy living there,” he said. “I miss the people that we worked with a lot. …To be very honest, I don’t miss the Trop at all. I just hope they get a new ballpark.”

Here’s a recent New York Times take on Maddon: “He is 61, with a shock of white hair and gristle, and black-frame glasses that could pass for hipster if not for the thickness. He loves to bike around town and chat up fans. He is a beatnik bear comfortable in his own fur.”

* For Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker James Harrison, it was a teachable moment. The All-Pro with two Super Bowl rings has gone public in his criticism of trophies awarded his two young, elementary-school-age sons for their participation in an athletics event run by a former teammate. He said just “showing up” didn’t “entitle” them to trophies–and he is returning them. Here’s hoping others will notice. (Here’s also hoping he made a convincing case to his kids.) Perhaps it will help make the case against the standards-diluting, self-esteem-curriculum movement that too typically rewards participation as much as accomplishment.

* Here’s the good news. Tampa Bay Rays president Brian Auld made an appearance last week in front of the Hillsborough County Commission. The bad news: It had nothing to do with a stadium pitch.

But the good news was worth Auld’s cross-bay trek. It had to do with a new initiative for  veterans and active military. It’s called “Honor Pass,” and it allows vets and active service personnel to get two free tickets to Rays home games.

* Much has been made of the Tampa Bay Bucs new “RED” program that targets female fans. It runs the gamut from “gameday style tips” to a primer on gridiron basics. Some think it’s demeaning and sexist. Others think it can help women have more fun watching a game in a social environment.

My take: This is marketing 101. And it underscores a pro sports reality. If you’re still relying on the traditional, hard-core fan base (guys), you can’t make it. You need couples and kids and a lot more than the old testosterone crowd. It’s why there are “Moms clinics” before the season begins and why there are bobble-head giveaways and kiss cams at the event itself. It’s more than a game.

This is about casting a wider demographic net to grow an audience. And, seemingly, it has been paying off. The NFL now reports that more than 40 percent of its fans are female–and, yes, they know what the “red zone,” “two-minute” warning and the “hurry-up” offense are.

* Let’s hear it for the Tampa Bay/Interbay Palma Ceia softball team that just won the Junior League Softball World Series championship in Kirkland, Wa. The locals, representing the Southeast U.S. region, defeated the team from Bulacan, Phillipines, 9-2, last Saturday in the ESPN-televised final. It was the second time in three years that the team from South Tampa won the championship.

* “Deflategate” really should be “Bradygate.”

Had it not been for the arrogant culture of the New England Patriot franchise (see “Spygate”) and its leading-man, mega-star Tom Brady, this whole football-deflating issue would be old “gamesmanship” news by now. And it surely wouldn’t be the subject of another ugly lawsuit for a business currently mired in “protect the shield” PR over domestic violence and concussions.

Now it’s something else to add to Tod Leiweke’s oversized, damage-control plate.

* Speculation is rife in St. Petersburg about the implications for the Rays as a result of a St. Pete city council primary election later this month. In short: Rays negotiations (to look beyond Pinellas County for a new home) may hinge on the District 7 race. Too bad Rays negotiations aren’t simply seen as hinging on common pragmatic sense and enlightened regional self-interest.

* Last week Florida State football coach Jimbo Fisher was interviewed on ESPN’s SportsCenter about the coming season and the transition for college players to the pro level. Along the way, he dropped in this statistic: the graduation rate of FSU football players was “80 percent.” Alas, there was no follow-up, because the pre-scripted interview had its time-sensitive agenda.

But I’ll ask it. How exactly does that 80 percent, far higher than the overall student-body percentage, play out? Are there breakouts for “walk-ons,” who are more likely to actually be “student athletes?” Are there breakouts by, say, position, race and playing time? Is there, for example, a notable incidence of bench warmers with respectable GPAs, legitimate majors and high graduation rates? Just askin’.

* The Bucs-owning Glazer family just received some very favorable news on that other sports franchise of theirs: Manchester United of the English Premier League. Man U just signed a 10-year apparel deal with Adidas for $1.2 billion.

* It was one of those newspaper (Tribune Metro) filler items typically prompted by somebody’s PR release. In this case, a photo and cutline of a Tampa Bay Rays player who was aboard a Carnival Paradise cruise ship last Thursday in Tampa reading that new Dr. Seuss book (“What Pet Should I Get?”) to a bunch of kids. The kids, mostly minority, were from a local SPCA Camp and a Boys & Girls Club. The Rays player, who was available because it was an off-day between the Detroit and Boston series, wore one of those big, goofy, red and white-striped hats.

The Rays player was Evan Longoria.

He’s their best known player. He’s the face of the franchise. And he’s not too big to do something nice for little kids.

* Imagine, half of golf’s top-12 World Ranking is comprised of Americans. And not one of the six is Tiger Woods.

* President Barack Obama and Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred have been in touch about a role for MLB in the normalizing of U.S.-Cuba relations. It could include some exhibition games in Cuba next spring. If so, the Tampa Bay Rays would be a natural participant. And you know one local mayor would be part of it: St. Petersburg’s Rick Kriseman.

* FSU, very much in crisis management mode over awful publicity about outrageous “student-athlete” behavior, has now instituted a formal program to build character. It will, according to football coach Jimbo Fisher, take nothing for granted. To underscore the point, Fisher said: “You wouldn’t think you would have to say (don’t hit a woman), but you do. …”

You do? Coach, who the hell are you recruiting that you actually have to say this?

* Former pitcher John Smoltz used his recent election into Major League Baseball’s Hall of Fame as a forum for, among other things, some sound advice for parents. In his acceptance speech he said, in effect, don’t push your kids too hard. Baseball’s a game; not a parental obsession.

“Baseball is not a year-round sport,” said Smoltz. Children should play other sports, he advised , rather than risk their arms and elbow ligaments before they are fully developed.

In contrast is the proscription put upon the family of Junior Seau, the deceased former linebacker who will be posthumously inducted into the NFL’s Hall of Fame next week. A family member wanted to say something, for which there’s precedent, at the induction. It would have accompanied a video tribute. It was denied. Everyone knows it would have referenced the elephant in the (locker) room.

An autopsy revealed that Seau suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative brain disease linked to repeated head hits. There’s a (wrongful-death) lawsuit involved.

A new football season, a new promotional pitch at USF. “Bulls Unite” is the tag line on billboards, print ads and TV and radio spots that are showing up this month. Marketing is important to a university that has seen average attendance decline by 10,000 a game from 2010 to 2014.

“Last year was all about getting to know USF,” says Tom Hoof, the chief marketing officer. “Now it’s about creating a brand that really defines who we are.”

Unfortunately, what has been happening on the field is what has been defining USF football these last few years. From 2011-14, the Bulls are a brand-challenging 14-34.

USF has nearly 300,000 alumni, with more than half living in the eight counties surrounding the school. The aim, says, Hoof, is to engage alums and donors and “rebuilding from there.”

But it starts with the product on the field, as Willie Taggert (6-18), now in his critical third year, well knows. For the record, USF opens at home Sept. 5 against FAMU. It better be 1-0 after that game. The next two are on the road at FSU and Maryland.

The money that some high-profile, football-and-basketball-playing universities get from network TV and apparel-and-equipment deals–well into nine figures for multi-year partnerships–is obscene. Then there are the multi-millions routinely doled out to head coaches to deliver enough wins to meet market demands.

Any wonder that schools, and North Carolina and Florida State are merely the most recent examples, are pressured like never before to win–not just “compete.” Any wonder that academic fraud (UNC) and police-blotter behavior (FSU) are increasingly in the news. Any wonder that embarrassed university presidents are bringing in guest-speaker “role models” and mandating “social responsibility” classes for “student-athletes.”

In short, when you have to put quotation marks around “student-athletes,” you know you have an inherent problem. When you have to go out of your way to tell prized recruits that they can’t punch women, you know you have been enabling a societal malignancy.

* It doesn’t have the glamour or publicity that goes with a Super Bowl bid, but Tampa is making a play for the 2018 World Junior Hockey Championships. Among the reported competitors: Detroit, Buffalo and Pittsburgh. About 350,000 attended this year’s tournament in Toronto and Montreal. The host city–if Tampa wins, the Germain Arena in Estero would be the second rink–will be named later this year. Tampa will host its second NCAA Frozen Four next year.

* You would have thought the onslaught of outrage and awful PR over the Jameis Winston case–and the legal battle is ongoing–would have been enough to keep Florida State football and its “student-athletes” out of the press for all the wrong reasons these days. You would have thought.

Two more incidents–players accused of hitting women–has prompted an embarrassed President John Thrasher to demand an action plan from coach Jimbo Fisher. In addition, Thrasher and State Attorney Willie Meggs will also meet with the team.

Left unsaid in any of the formal statements is who FSU recruits and how oxymoronic “student-athlete” is at high-powered programs of this caliber.

The announcement that Marty St. Louis has retired prompted a predictable media response, especially in this market. The consensus: Marty was a great player and a special person and without him there is no Stanley Cup in the Tampa Bay Lightning’s 23-year history. The little guy who played big. The eponymous “Louie, Louie” catalyst at so many home games. Absolutely.

And yet.

I stop short of those–and Tom Jones of the Tampa Bay Times is most prominent–who want to retire his number and even erect a statue in his honor outside Amalie Arena.

If he had retired two years ago, no problem. Frankly, he would deserve a statue even more than Dave Andrychuk. But you don’t totally dismiss how he left the Lightning. He petulantly and selfishly orchestrated his own departure, disingenuously scapegoated general manager Steve Yzerman and walked out on everybody. There’s leaving–as at the end of a contract–and there’s walking out on your teammates, fans and franchise with the playoffs looming.

Thanks for the great efforts and being the heart and soul of the Lightning for more than a decade, Marty. But you should have retired when you were at the top of your game–and character. You were recognized and honored with an appropriate tribute video last November. You’re a unique, special part of Lightning history. But no statue. Not even close.