Category: Sports

* The only way the Buccaneers could screw this season up any more is to–win a game. Last Sunday’s 34-17 loss to Detroit, left them with a 2-11 record. No team is worse. As of now, the Bucs head into the final three games with the overall No.1 pick in the 2015 draft. Win a game–and that scenario will likely change.

* Among the four major professional sports leagues, the National Hockey League is the least flush. While in better financial shape since the 2004-05 lockout and subsequent salary cap imposition, it still has issues. It would like fatter TV contracts, and with seven (of 30) Canadian franchises, it counts on a stable Canadian dollar.

The loonie now trades at just over 88 cents–and the impact matters.

It affects the salary cap when the portion of league revenues generated by the seven Canadian teams decreases. And it impacts TV money, a major portion of which comes from Canada–from Rogers Communications. But the Canadian dollar is not expected to head south as it did in 2002, finally bottoming out as a 62-cent loonie.

* New Rays manager Kevin Cash, a Gaither High product, is the sixth Tampa native to become a MLB manager. The three most famous: Al Lopez, Tony La Russa and Lou Piniella.

* It’s that time of the year again in college football: the announcement of bowl-game matchups. Statewide, UCF plays North Carolina St. in St. Pete’s Bitcoin Bowl; Miami plays South Carolina in the Independence Bowl; Florida plays East Carolina in the Birmingham Bowl; and Florida State plays Oregon in the Rose Bowl, the only one that truly matters.

There are now 38 bowl games, including the Outback, where Auburn and Wisconsin will meet on Jan. 1. Arguably, no more than a dozen really matter to anyone but the participating teams, traveling boosters, network sponsors and chambers of commerce. Some don’t even sound like bowls–GoDaddy, TaxSlayer, Boca Raton, Foster Farms and Belk among them. BTW, Belk used to be the Meineke Car Care Bowl.

This is no longer a merit-based ritual. The Outback participants, for example, have seven losses between them. Thirteen of the participating teams don’t even have winning records. It will be 14 if Navy loses to Army on Saturday. But at least they’re in. We know, alas, schools that didn’t come close to bowl eligibility–and just fired three assistant coaches.

Thanks to Forbes magazine,we once again know specifically what we always knew generally about the National Football League. It gushes money and enables franchises, including the lousy ones, to become obscenely overvalued.

Exhibit A for locals: The Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The Bucs, who have been putting out a certifiably substandard product for the last four years, are currently valued, according to Forbes, at more than $1.2 billion. And that’s a 15 percent increase from last year’s substandard product. Nineteen years ago the Glazer family bought the Bucs franchise for $192 million.

The reason the NFL (where the average team worth is $1.43 billion) also stands for “Nobody Financially Loses” is readily apparent. The league kicks back more than 60 percent of total revenues to its 32 franchises. TV rights alone are worth nearly $5 billion this season. Plus brand-name marketing that includes stadium sponsorships, corporate suites and countless variations on a logoed, paraphernalia theme. Cachet also means cash.

But that overlooks a fundamental, economically ironic underpinning of the NFL. At its core, it’s hardly a paragon of free enterprise.

Imagine getting somebody else (colleges) to train your prospective employees (players). Somebody else (governments) to help build your new or renovated plant (stadium). Somebody else (the media) to promote your business (football). And, then, of course, somebody else (network television) to ensure that you make money even if you put out an inferior (losing) product.

The NFL takes it from there by relying on what it does superbly: promote, market and create mystique. Watch ESPN anytime of the year and its stable of household-name shills are talking pro football. It’s embedded into the culture. The NFL is as much about show biz as football. And it continues to work wonderfully well in a sports-celebrity, vicarious-life culture.

Is this a great country or what?

Dotcoms have been known to bubble over, and the appreciation-forever housing market has been outed. But the NFL continues apace as this capitalist hybrid that took off with television in the 1960s and continues to soar.

Ray Rice, Adrian Peterson, Aaron Hernandez–hell, Ray Lewis. Mere blips and speed bumps. Ratings and sponsor dollars trend ever higher.

Back to the Buccaneers. Multi-millionaire, free-agent busts?  A penalty-driven, discipline meltdown?  Twelve men on the field? No matter. Chances are that Forbes will bump the Bucs up another 15 percent in valuation next year.

Is this a great gig or what?

* My wife and I took a chance (more on that in a bit) and celebrated my birthday by going to the Tampa Bay Lightning-New York Rangers-Marty St. Louis-returns game last week. I say chance because–as opposed to dinner out or a show–a game has a home team that I care about that could lose. With a resultant impact on my mood. But we rolled the dice and came up winners, along with the Bolts.

As to that other subplot, I’d say Marty got what he deserved.

He received a standing ovation at the end of a classy, first-period video–set to Bastille’s “Pompeii”–in his honor. That was appropriate. This was about what he did here–and he did a lot here. He was also the face and the spirit of the franchise.

But as the game wore on, the sentiment changed. Every time St. Louis touched the puck on Ranger power plays, there was a chorus of boos. Forget sentiment, this was the opponent.

On balance, St. Louis got off easy for a guy who quit on his team and demanded a morale-threatening trade during the playoff homestretch last year. That was selfish and classless. Still is.

* Here’s another reminder that the Joe Maddon saga is more than a big Tampa Bay-Chicago deal. Maddon’s debut as Chicago Cubs manager–Sunday, April 5, 8 p.m. against the St. Louis Cardinals–will be televised nationally by ESPN.

BTW, a sneak peak at Ava, the South Tampa restaurant that is partly owned by Maddon, was worth it, even though that signature, Italian pizza oven wasn’t quite ready for test-kitchen diners. As for ambience, “casual sophistication” has been bandied about and seems appropriate. It’s cool black brick on the South Howard outside–and a welcoming mix of brick, wood, tile and plaster inside, featuring variations on a tan-green-blue theme. It seats approximately 200, including a private dining room.

While pizza will anchor the menu, you can’t go wrong with the snapper–unless, that is, you prefer your fish sans head and tail.

* Willie Taggert has now gone 6-18 in his first two seasons at USF. Skip Holtz’s last two were 8-16. Jim Leavitt never got the Bulls to the next level, to be sure, but he never regressed to this.

*UCF has won 30 games the last three years; USF has won nine. Remember when USF didn’t deign to play UCF because it was a step down in stature?

* It’s a familiar refrain: Kudos again to Rob Higgins, the executive director of the Tampa Bay Sports Commission. The Women’s basketball Final Four will be coming here in 2019, and the bid presentation was again largely the work of the Higgins-led TBSC. It will be this city’s third such Final Four, after 2008 and 2015. Moreover, Tampa will be the sports stage for hockey’s Frozen Four–for the second time–in 2016 and the college football national championship game in 2017.

More than bragging rights and heightened profile are involved. “You’re talking heads in beds and the dollars that are spent at restaurants and bars and hotels,” reminded Hillsborough County Commissioner Ken Hagan.

* Nice to see the return of Farrukh Quraishi, who will take over as Tampa Bay Rowdies president and general manager. The personal Quraishi was a member of the original Rowdies from 1975-80. He was the first overall pick in the 1975 North American Soccer League college draft and a NASL All-Star his first year.

Quraishi is a native of Tehran, Iran, who grew up in England and played his collegiate soccer at Oneonta State (N.Y.). I still recall his answer to the question of how he handled inquiries about where he was from–in the context of the Iranian (Nov. 1979-Jan. 1981) hostage-taking.

“I just tell people I’m from Persia,” he said. “And they just nod.”

* The newly enlightened NFL has announced that it will begin reaching out to LGBT–owned businesses as part of its Business Connect program. For the record, the LGBT community represents nearly $839 billion in buying power.

* This weekend is the full-menu, regular-service debut of Ava, the SoHo restaurant owned by Joe Maddon and Michael Stewart. The notable feature is the Italian-made pizza oven. But, no, “Chicago-style” pizza won’t be featured.

* Would have thought long-time Rays’ bench coach Davey Martinez would have been at least accorded a finalist interview. It would have been the classy gesture.

* Compared to Joe Maddon leaving and Davey Martinez being passed over, the loss of Triple-A pitching coach Neil Allen hasn’t received much attention. But given that the Rays are pitching driven and a lot of it is developed at the minor league level, the departure of Allen–for the Minnesota Twins–could matter. He had been with the Rays for eight years, the last four at Triple-A affiliate Durham.

Fans of high school football,let alone major college scouts, are well aware of the exploits of Sickles High’s Ray Ray McCloud. He recently became the all-time career rushing leader for Hillsborough County. And in a football hotbed like this, that’s saying a lot.

What says even more than those nearly 6,000 yards, however, is that McCloud is also a high-performance student. The Sickles senior owns a 3.9 grade-point average.

Some day another Hillsborough County running back will break his record. It’s inevitable. What’s hardly inevitable, however, is that somebody will do it while also starring in the classroom.

* This has been a lousy season so far for the Washington Redskins, and their careless 27-7 loss to the underachieving Bucs underscored that reality. Also there’s that team name. That and Chief Wahoo, the Cleveland Indians’ cartoony mascot, have to go.

So, maybe they were looking for a diversion from inept play and awful public relations.

What else explains why you bring in a high-profile, motivational speaker before the Bucs game–and it’s former Navy SEAL Robert O’Neill? Yeah, THAT SEAL. The one who says he fired the fatal shot at Osama Bin Laden. The one who had formally vowed never to go public. The one who joined an organization that epitomized team and minimized individual recognition. The one who now looks like the consummate mercenary.

And we thought the Bucs had been looking desperate and unhinged.

*As we know, Bucs’ receiver Mike Evans had a monster game against Washington. But afterward, the journalistic focus wasn’t solely on his 200-yard, 2-TD game, but on his evolving post-TD celebrations. Said Evans: “I don’t know what to do when I get in (the end zone).”

To address that, he has begun patterning himself after former NFL great Randy Moss and checking old video highlights to see how he celebrated. He’s incorporating as he goes.

Apparently, a viable answer to the question of what Evans should do after a TD is not: “Nominally pump your fist, toss the ball to the ref and head back to the huddle to congratulate the quarterback for his accurate pass and the line for protecting him long enough to throw it. And maybe a shout-out to the coach who called the play. In short, show some class. It’s not all about you.”

A boorish, grandstanding culture obviously doesn’t rank up there with concussions, assaultive societal behaviors and prescription drug abuse, but it is part of what’s wrong with the NFL. Even if you don’t use a football as a “prop.”

* If there’s one American Athletic Conference game that actually gets USF fans pumped, it would be I-4 opponent UCF. The Knights are the Bulls’ only true rival. The kind of rivalry that can actually energize a campus.

It’s also the one game you don’t want to have to play at noon on the day after Thanksgiving. But that’s when USF, still entertaining hopes of bowl eligibility, hosts UCF at the Ray-Jay. The reason: TV calls the shots. USF wanted prime time, ESPN2 dictated noon.

* Ironic that Will Muschamp’s post-firing press conference showcased a “no hard feelings,” personable side, a personality trait not typically on display in front of the media. There was even a sense of humor in response to the inevitable “Would-you-do-things-differently?” question. Indeed, he would, he acknowledged. Otherwise, “I’d get fired again.”

Muschamp also leaves with a serious consolation prize: a $6 million buy-out. That’s enough to offset the bummer of a firing.

* Not that it was a shock, but it had to be uber satisfying for Lightning management to have NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman in town for a recent first-hand look at the Bolts’ operation. Bettman, obviously impressed, publicly declared that “the vital signs here are great.” Bettman was referring to the facility, the crowd, the winning ways and the owner’s community involvement.

But he was also talking about the enthusiasm he had heard directly from sponsors, suite holders and season-ticket holders. That’s a lot of vital signs.

* Breaking news: Washington Redskins drop “Washington” from their name because it’s embarrassing.

* Who knows how the Rays’ allegations of tampering involving the Cubs and Joe Maddon will ultimately shake out. Assume, however, at least some ill will. And it’s not going unnoted that Maddon’s agent Alan Nero, the guy who actually orchestrated Maddon’s opt-out departure, also represents Rays coach Dave Martinez, a leading candidate to succeed Maddon. That can’t be helping the cause of Martinez, who’s popular among the players.

* Evan Longoria was candid in a weekend interview with MLB Network. Maddon’s exit, said Longoria, was “a tough pill to swallow” but that Martinez was “kind of the obvious pick for the job.”

*”We trail, 13-10.” With that, I was not only informed that the Atlanta Falcons led the Bucs, but I was reminded that I was listening to Gene Deckerhoff. The radio play-by-play voice of the Bucs since 1989 is a nice guy and calls a good game–except that first-person plural identification with the team sounds so bush league.

Yes, we’re rooting for the same team, and, yes, Bucs’ ownership signs off on your affiliation–but Gene–you’re not suiting up or sending in plays. Call it like a pro, not like a fan. It’s not done that way anymore.

It was a Mad, Mad Maddon World while it lasted. Say it ain’t SoHo, Joe.

OK, the shock of Joe Maddon, FORMER manager of the Rays, has worn off. His less-than-seamless–less-than-Maddonesque, to be honest–departure is now well behind us, even if “tampering” rumors continue and accounts of Rick Renteria’s back-stabbing persist. And Maddon’s charm-offensive press conference in Chicago at the Cubby Bear bar (“The first round’s on me”) across from the Wrigley Field “cathedral” is now part of Windy City lore. The Chicago Sun Times has already debuted the “Madhouse” headline.

Here’s what’s worth remembering.

We got Maddon, then 50, in 2005–at a critical point in his career. Right before he would be typecast forever as a Los Angeles Angels assistant. Keep in mind that he had unsuccessfully interviewed in, among other places, Boston. That’s where Red Sox General Manager Theo Epstein chose Terry Francona over Maddon.

And Epstein, it so happens, is now the guy who just hired Maddon for the Cubs. Ironic, if not karmic. Timing–in the form of an opt-out clause and an overachiever’s track record–was everything.

But as much as Maddon loved living here and meeting the challenge of succeeding against the odds, he was always about “capturing the moment” and seizing the day. “Sixty is the new 40,” he has been saying. So, we really can’t be totally shocked that Madden, 60, relished the catbird-seat moment when “opt-out” met the “new 40.”

As it turned out, Chicago–as in the World Series-starved Cubs–was the one place that made perfect sense for this uniquely successful, brass-ring coveting baseball romantic. The pieces were in place: a great, vibrant city, an iconic field, a lot of money, a trove of young talent and a century-old, lovable loser forever awaiting the ultimate turnaround artist. For Maddon, winning a World Series with the Cubs would top everything else–including well-noted success in a small-market with a problematic payroll and an obsolete facility.

If you saw his pitch-perfect press conference last week, you know that Maddon is already undefeated. The Chicago media practically genuflected.

Smart, personable, community-loving, cool hipster Joe Gnome was a perfect fit for Tampa Bay, this most imperfect of markets. Now this Sabremetics-meets-old-school-values hybrid is on the ultimate baseball stage, and a lot wealthier for it.

It was an improbable, circuitous route for this son of plumber Joe Maddonini and waitress Albina Klocek–from Easton, Pa. to Chicago by way of Southern California and Tampa Bay–but he is, quite arguably, where he now belongs.

But he’d better win a World Series.

Joe Maddon’s abrupt departure still doesn’t feel right. But that’s largely on us. Was he to stay a marketplace anomaly forever?

Yes, he legally exercised his contract opt-out rights to assess his value. And as he said at his Monday press conference, he was even ready to sit out a year (from managing) if that’s what it took. So when Cubs’ management came calling–literally meeting him in his Winebago up in the Florida Panhandle a fortnight ago–with a fat-contract offer, he took it.

Who could blame him?

It’s just that we were spoiled. His Rays contract talks had always been low key, under the radar and seemingly routine. Players, not a manager, made the headlines where money was concerned. Arguably, however, he was underpaid. His agent, Alan Nero, phrased it this way: “Joe would have stayed had they stepped up, but we were so far apart.”

What made Maddon so popular here, in addition to winning against all odds, was that he didn’t just love this area–no gated community for him–but he seemed to revel in its inherent, small-market challenges. The Rays were financial Davids among the mega-market Goliaths–and that absolutely suited Maddon. It’s almost as if he perversely preferred it that way.

We were comfortable seeing Maddon in that context. Going after bigger bucks just didn’t seem the idealized Maddon MO. Neither did stepping over the body of the ousted Cubs manager, Rick Renteria, in order to get that five-year, $25-million, big-market contract.

But who knew he was still harboring serious desires of “moving forward,” as he put it, in his career? That even though “60 was the new 40,” he couldn’t pass up a unique, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that wouldn’t include frustratingly ominous stadium-and-attendance scenarios in addition to payroll roulette.

And let’s not underplay a singularly key factor: We’re talking Chicago here. Wrigley Field, world class skyline, Lakeshore Drive, Michigan Avenue, fine dining, vintage neighborhoods–but the image of ultimate, lovable loser when it comes to the Cubs. If Maddon can succeed here and exorcise the curse–he will have topped his Tampa Bay legacy.

Should he ultimately succeed where Leo Durocher, Don Zimmer, Lou Piniella and 51 others have failed and win a World Series for the first time in more than a Chi-Cub century, nobody will recall his less-than-seamless exit from Tampa Bay.

In fact, it will seem like a natural progression. Joe Gnome to Windy City Icon. All he has to do is win a World Series.

Good luck, Joe. It was a great run.

* It was understandable that the affably voluble Joe Maddon wasn’t about to say much, however nuanced or parsed, about his Rays-to-Cubs morph until his Cubby Bear bar press conference on Monday. Some sensitive issues–possible tampering and the Cubs paving the way with a firing–warranted no less. Still, it was weird to see his incommunicado interval include that twitter handle change: @RaysJoeMaddon became @Maddonini with a generic photo as avatar. That was the family name that Maddon’s father, plumber Joe Maddonini, Americanized years ago.