Wake me up when it’s done.
On second thought, don’t even bother.
Ever since the Yankees traded for pending free agent Juan Soto in early December of last year, media speculation began to rage about where he might play next and for how long after one season with the Yankees.
Maybe it’s because I couldn’t stand Soto’s style of play—he’s a superior hitter, but spends more time practicing his elaborate handshakes at home and is equally eager to demonstrate immodest behavior at home plate than learn to play right field – I’ve seen Soto a tough move to suffer back when he was a skiff on weak Nationals teams.
So, as Soto celebrated his accomplishments over the past season, I turned the page and the number every day when this self-contained superstar was projected to sign with any of the 15 or so teams. Soto, as explained by Manny Machado who chose not to run at first base, is “not my cup of tea.”
So the Mets are now the top contenders to sign Soto for, who knows, maybe nearly a billion dollars in Steve Cohen’s hedge fund money and gambling casino speculation. Big.
Lump change? Lest we forget in 2013, Cohen’s firm SAC paid a record $1.8 billion fine to the Securities and Exchange Commission for insider trading — crooked. Of course, the “no-wrongdoing” standard was attached to the agreement. But if what was ignored by fearless leader Rob Manfred, why should it rock our worlds?
Remember, Fay Vincent was fired as MLB commissioner for having the gall to suspend George Steinbrenner for an apparent breach of ethics and integrity after Howard Spira was sentenced to the nuthouse wing of a federal prison after had enticed Steinbrenner to pay for the alleged charges. dirt on Dave Winfield.
Vincent had already seen Steinbrenner suspended for two felony convictions for trying to buy his way into the Nixon White House.
Manfred and before him Bud “Bottom Line” Selig would offer no such barriers to team owners as long as their purchase controls were hidden.
But as the national pastime has been badly let down by the lack of basic winning fundamentals, integrity is no longer required either. Heck, a nickel-and-dimmer like Shohei Ohtani lost track of $41 million in gambling losses from his butler. Ohtani had nothing to do with it. Just ask Manfred.
And now we’re supposed to believe that the new, fiscally responsible owner of the Mets, on the precipice of signing Soto for more money in offseason work than he can earn, much less deserve, received a $1.8 billion fine for not done nothing wrong.
It can happen to any of us.
College failures breed NFL failures
Last week, a reader sent copies of recent “social” media messages sent by Michael Thomas, a former Saints wide receiver who graduated during his junior year at Ohio State. Although available to the public, they were laden with profanity, profanity and grammar that would strain the minimum standards of grammar school admission.
If the NFL, NFLPA, and NCAA put the realities of the here and now at the forefront, as opposed to end zone public relations slogans masquerading as social activism, it would take immediate action to get rid of or at least address the abhorrent grammar — until point of doubt. literacy – and the insane financial ruin – conspicuously outlandish consumption – leading to inevitable and lasting damage to the players.
And the players who are functionally illiterate and big spenders on expensive, rich junk that loses value at the time of purchase are almost all American students who didn’t waste two minutes of free time schooling.
Perhaps, because of the weight room, practice and game time, there simply wasn’t enough time for academics at their institutions for higher learning.
And with “college” football now no more than legalized, top-bid professionalism, the desire to leave college with an education has become strictly accidental, so the ability to hold down a meaningful job, pay taxes and to support a family after football has become a worsening matter of chance, as in the case of luck.
So what is the plan for the young recruits and football addicts? Keep using them, rinse them, repeat?
The inability and unwillingness among Division I colleges to educate its football and basketball recruits — mostly African-American — is egregious by institutionalized design and the pursuit of millions of money, mostly television money.
The stars of this weekend’s games become Where Are They Now? A dozen sophomores who planned to play in the NFL until a lack of skill, luck or a knee injury sent them back to the blight from which they were drafted.
As legitimate college students in their mid-20s start to hit their stride, their arrows are pointed straight up, the future of many college football and basketball recruits, at age 25, is in the past.
Roger Goodell’s final zones declare “Stop Racism” as he annually invites rappers who spout various words and degrade women to perform as headliners in front of the nation’s largest audience.
As for state attorneys general and governors having to demand affidavits from college presidents to explain why they allowed their institutions of higher learning to serve as fronts for basketball and football teams, well, many have midfield and 50-court line seats, plus access to suites if the weather turns bad or their bourbon needs ice.
Advertise vandalism? Hooray!
Why does everything have to point backwards? An ad for Total Wireless that aired on NFL telecasts last Sunday featured a young man spray-painting brick walls in an urban neighborhood, ostensibly to convey the product’s commercial message.
But who was this ad aimed at?
That’s right! Bridge for vandalism! I wonder if the executives and advertising reps of Total Wireless would enjoy coming home from work to find their houses ruined by spray paint.
Reader John Mike McCarthy notes that under Rick Pitino, St.
The starting backfield is college walk-ons, one playing for the third college, the other for the fourth.
Only three players on SJU’s roster are local.
On Tuesday, Election Day, the 12th winner at the Dayton harness track in Ohio was Trump’s Wall. Paid $5.00.
No word on whether Dayton offered grief counseling.
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