Melky Cabrera- Not sure if everybody caught this story, but All-Star game MVP Melky Cabrera of the San Francisco Giants was suspended 50-games over the weekend for using banned substances. Unfortunately, the public is numb to this sort of disgraceful behavior so there isn’t really much to discuss about the suspension itself. But in further news, it was revealed Mr. Cabrera hatched an elaborate cover-up to fool Major League Baseball in an effort to be cleared of any wrongdoing. Unfortunately for this cheater, the cover-up didn’t work so well.

You see, Cabrera allegedly created a fake website to show he had ordered a supplement that had been accidentally spiked with testosterone. As part of the collective bargaining agreement, players who test positive for banned substances and face suspension are allowed to prove they accidentally took a supplement that caused the failed test. While there has always been excuses for ingesting foreign substances in the past, Cabrera’s creation of a website hocking a fake product takes the cake. What a idiot…

Not only did Cabrera cheat the game, fellow players, and fans alike, but the fact that he contributed an MVP performance at the All-Star Game, a game that determines which league has home-field advantage in the World Series, means his actions have also tarnished the upcoming Fall Classic. I hope Major League Baseball comes down on Cabrera hard – not just for the failed drug test, but having the audacity to further deceive league officials once he had already been caught. Baseball is a beautiful, albeit slow, game. There is no room for this deceitful cheater.

Arizona Cardinals/Kevin Kolb- “Ultimately Kevin was the guy that we had the highest grade on, that we felt was the best fit for what we’re trying to get accomplished as far as a fit with our offense, where he was age-wise, what he had done in the league,” Cardinals coach Ken Whisenhunt said.  That quote was from July 29, 2011 – the day the Cardinals completed the historically lopsided-trade for Kevin Kolb. While I realize hindsight is 20/20, how could the Cardinals have been so wrong? The part that is most shocking to me is the final part of the quotation, “…what he had done in the league.” Umm, Mr. Whisenhunt, what exactly had Kolb done in the league?

At the time of the trade, Kolb’s injury-plagued career stats were: 194 of 319, 60.8%, 2052 yards, 11 TD, 14 INT, 7 Fumbles. I don’t understand what it was about his past performance in the league that made the Cardinals so sure he wouldn’t continue to be an injury-prone, mediocre quarterback? Obviously they saw something the rest of the league didn’t… If they didn’t believe he was more than he had shown, then how else do you justify giving up a 2^nd-Round Pick, a solid cornerback, and $64 million contract. Only the Cardinals…

After another on-field debacle this past weekend, it seems most Cardinal fans’ optimism in Kolb has finally flown the coup. While handing the reins of the franchise over to a former 5^th Round pick from Fordam isn’t the most ideal situation, its seems the Cardinals’ miscalculation of Kolb’s mediocrity has left them with few options. As a Cardinals fan, let’s just hope the team does not compound one mistake with another. Just because Kolb is undeservingly getting paid like the starter, doesn’t mean he has to be it. For what its worth, my vote is to go with the low risk/low reward Skelton.

NY Jets- One of the great things about living in New York City is the media-firestorm that accompanies any local sports story. This past weekend, the New York Giants treated the New York Jets like the attention-seeking little sisters they are. The 26 – 3 victory by the Giants proved to fans everywhere who owned New York on the field, if not the headlines.

I know one should not look too much into a pre-season outcomes, but the media in New York is going bananas. Plain and simple, it doesn’t look like the Jets are going to be any good. In a league where offenses have become more and more explosive, the Jets’ looks like it is stuck in the mud. Even with the alleged-defensive mastermind Rex Ryan at the helm, asking one’s defense to consistently shut down opponents is a tall task to ask in this offensively-evolving NFL.

I’m not a fan of Mark Sanchez’s, but the Jets have done him no favors in recent years.  Since taking Mark Sanchez 5^th overall in the 2009 draft, the Jets have done an abysmal job of surrounding him with playmakers. Since 2009, the organization has had three opportunities in the 1^st Round  to draft additional offensive studs to help Sanchez, but instead choose to take  a cornerback and two defensive linemen. Good luck with that, Mark.

Speaking from years of experience being a Cardinals’ fan, you need playmakers to score points. Unfortunately for Jets’ fans, Tim Tebow isn’t what was needed. Instead of rattling the confidence of your alleged franchise QB, why didn’t the Jets spend their resources on actually giving Sanchez a chance to succeed? To Jets’ fans everywhere, enjoy the next 3 seasons of 5 to 7 wins.

That’s that.

Hey Friends,

My internship is in full-swing right now. I’ll be doing analytical research on college football for a website called SBNation. As a part of the internship, I will also be periodically contributing some pieces to a website called Football Study Hall. I have already written two pieces, and hopefully there will be plenty more to come throughout the college football season.

Below are the links to the site as well as my specific articles. It is very football specific, so sorry if that bores some of you. I hope to continue to post on The Battered Fan as well throughout the Fall.

http://www.footballstudyhall.com/

http://www.footballstudyhall.com/2012/8/16/3246699/west-virginia-geno-smith-heisman-box-score-manipulation

http://www.footballstudyhall.com/2012/8/8/3225911/oregon-football-offense-chip-kelly

Enjoy! That’s That.

So, my borderline perverted family friend (you know who you are!) wanted me to write about the over-the-top sex-fest that allegedly takes place among the athletes at the Olympics. But once I started to think about it, I only had two thoughts: 1) It has already been covered in depth by ESPN the Magazine and 2) What do you expect to happen when you have thousands of the most athletic/amazing/rock hard bodies in the world living in close quarters? Are they supposed to just stand there with an awkward face and breathe heavily? I imagine in the minds of two Olympic-caliber athletes, there is little holding you back when the worst-case scenario is an accidental spawning of one of the most freakishly athletic offspring the world has ever seen… But I digress…

The real story on Twitter/The Internet about the Olympics is the uproar over the delayed-programming on NBC. But to those bitching about the delay, please just be quiet. NBC is not catering to those of you us out there who are sitting on their asses in front of a television at 1:30 pm on a Tuesday. They are catering to those who have jobs. Those who purchase things. Those who have a wife and kids at home in the evening that eat up the sentimental storylines. Advertising drives everything. Why would NBC squander away hundreds of millions of dollars in advertising to please those who spend their weekday afternoons in front of their twitter feeds or televisions? Sidenote: NBC’s 3-day average viewership throughout the first weekend of competition was the best of any summer Olympics ever.

NBC – 1 Crybabies – 0

But speaking of orgies and annoying television – can someone please tell ESPN that Tim Tebow is not good… either is Mark Sanchez… and either are the Jets!! I am not quite positive, but I’m pretty sure the New York Giants won the Super Bowl last year and are in the exact same market – Where is the ESPN-led orgy about them?

Tebow and Sanchez are frauds. Both benefited in college by playing on teams that surrounded them with more talent than any opponent they ever faced. Both then got drafted by NFL teams with strong-defenses and were asked simply ‘not to lose the game’. How are they any different than Matt Leinart? They have undeservedly benefited from an absurd amount of media-driven hype, but in reality are just a couple of Trent Dilfers, without his Super Bowl ring… I am a diehard fan who can watch sports for 48 hours straight without blinking, but yesterday, even I had to turn my television off after ESPN dedicated an entire day to two shitty quarterbacks and a non-playoff team… ESPN, I don’t care how many orphanages he visits, please don’t shove endless video clips of a shirtless Tim Tebow down my throat. That’s just not my thing…

But the more I watch the Olympics, the more I thank God it’s almost football season! There are currently two dudes with mesh screens over their faces poking each other with rail-thin swords on my television. There are few things more disturbing than watching a passionate crowd cheer on two men who are playing a refined version of tummy sticks… Gross. How are some of these sports still in the Olympics?!? Equestrian? Speed walking? Ping Pong? If you’re going to have questionable ‘sports’, at least bring back something entertaining like Jousting! Only then would we really find out what kind of ‘athletes’ these people are…

August 12^th. Closing ceremonies. That’s the day. Mark it down. At that point, it’s just football and pennant races. The sports world gets placed back on its axis and all will be right. Let’s just hope the Mayans weren’t right. On second-thought, part of me genuinely hopes the Mayans were right… It’s the only way we’ll ever truly settle the ‘Tim Tebow is the Second-Coming’ debate. That’s that.

You see, sports were the original reality television. Long before networks decided to tape people living together, or create made-for-TV races around the world, or give some rich playboy 15 stunning women to choose from, sports were the original ‘did you see that’ television.

Previous generations grew up idolizing star-athletes whom they spent countless hours bonding with through their radios and televisions. Young boys everywhere took their allowances to the nearest memorabilia store to buy a pack of trading cards, hoping to pull their favorite player out of the unknown. But to the younger generation, it has all changed.

When television producers realized the ‘unknown outcome’ of sports is what drew the audience and their loyalties, they asked, “How do we emulate this ‘unknown’ to a non-sports audience?” Or, “How do we imitate this appeal to those who enjoy dancing, singing, traveling, cooking?” Answer: Competition. Competition is what America loves. The successes, the failures, the trials and tribulations – America loves it all. Instead of doing a show about how to dance, producers decided to have them compete. Instead of doing a show about how to cook, producers decided to have them compete. At that point, sports were no longer the only competition in town. They had company, and lots of it.

Baseball has seemed to take the majority of the beating when compared with the other two major sports. Football benefits from its’ limited number of games and the consistency of its’ programming. Basketball is benefiting from a new wave of budding superstars. Baseball is slow. Baseball is plentiful. Baseball is no longer the only show in town.

In the past, when a young boy watched baseball in the summers, much of the reason was because there was little else on television. Now, that same young boy is just as likely to tune into Duets or Dancing with the Stars as he is a Tuesday night baseball game. Just one generation later, the young boy who grew up rattling off the stats of the entire Yankees lineup, would likely have a greater chance of rattling off the past 5 winners of American Idol. It’s not matter of right or wrong, it’s simply different.

Baseball seems to be losing the younger generation of America. A generation that thrives on multi-tasking and constant chaos has trouble sitting on their hands for 3 1/2 hours straight for 162 games a year. Instead, baseball has attempted to do everything in its’ power to make stadiums more ‘fan-friendly’. Last season, I went to a minor-league baseball game and it was if I walked into a carnival, and a baseball game just happened to be playing in the middle of it. People, it is just a freaking t-shirt! It is not like they are throwing gold nuggets into the crowd. Please relax.

Should baseball continue down this path, the television audience will soon be gone. If younger generations only identify with baseball because of its’ ‘carnival-like atmosphere’, why would they ever watch a game from home? There is no carnival at home… just a slow, drawn-out game they didn’t even pay attention to when they were at the stadium.

Now a days, no one wants to make time for 162 games that each take 3 ½ hours to watch. In that same time span, one could watch at least three television shows – all while getting instant updates about the game on their Twitter feed. Technology has changed. Competition has changed. Consumption has changed. It’s about time baseball finally got caught up to speed. That’s that.

We are in the midst of the worst two sports days in the calendar year. There is no baseball. No football. No basketball. No hockey. Not even meaningful soccer. Don’t believe me? Just go to ESPN.com’s homepage and click on the soccer scores at the top… If you can pronounce just one single team name in action, I award you ten points and a congratulatory slap on the butt. Unless you’re into the WNBA…gross…or Tennis…gross…or the Tour de France…really?!?…these two days after the Major League Baseball All-Star game give the average fan a sneak preview of what purgatory may one day look like. There is just a whole lot of nothing going on…

In the typical calendar year, sports fans would gut through the next month by watching way-too-long, semi-meaningless, often-boring regular season games of baseball. While the addition of a second Wild Card spot this season leaves more fan bases feeling they are still within reach of a coveted ‘playoff’ spot – this portion of the year is called the ‘Dog Days of Summer’ for a reason. Luckily for sports fans, 2012 presents a momentary reprieve from the inevitable monotony brought on by latter portion of Summer. 2012 has the Olympics Games.

As if sent down from heaven to quench our always-parched thirst for all things sports, the Olympics will escort sport fans across this pond of boredom and into the almighty commencement of football season. Enough already ready with NBA free agency – we get it! We’ve all accepted the Suns drafted a reserve player in the lottery, could not get their top target, settled for a guy they just traded away, and signed two other guys (assuming they nab OJ Mayo) whose old teams couldn’t part ways with fast enough… Its hurts, but we move on…

The Opening Ceremony for the Olympics is July 27^th. Only 15 more days. At that point we get to sit back and watch America flex its sporting muscle on the worldwide stage. For two weeks out of every four years, we get to pretend we actually care about sports like swimming, gymnastics, and track and field. But by the time of the opening kickoff of football season takes place, most sports fans will not even remember the games ever occurred. Oh, you don’t agree? Quickly, name five United States medalists from the 2010 Winter Olympics… Can’t do it? Can you name three? Apollo Ohno, ummmmm… like I said, it will be forgotten.

You see, the Olympics are just like American Idol in the opinion of many sports fans. Women love it. Men will tune in on occasion. Networks play up the dramatic storylines. There is all this hoopla leading up to the finale, then shortly after its over, no one really cares who just won. Just like you can’t tell me who won medals in 2010, I bet many of you couldn’t say who won American Idol Seasons 3 and 5 even though you or your loved one watched 75% of it and the television ratings were out of this world… Don’t get me wrong – I’m looking forward to certain parts of the Olympics. I’ll tune in to watch the rivalries and the marquee events. But for me, the Olympics as a whole are simply a bridge into football season. Once football has arrived, the ‘Dog Days’ will be over and the real fandom begins. That’s that.

What a week it was for the Phoenix Suns. The Suns traded away the longtime face of the franchise to their most bitter rival. They signed a shooting guard who played in just nine games last season to a maximum 4-year/$58 million offer sheet. They signed another offensive-minded tweener forward to a 3-year/$18 million dollar contract. They then finished the week up by signing a former backup point guard to a 4-year/$34 million deal. Whoa… let’s start at the top.

Suns trade Steve Nash to Los Angeles Lakers for Draft Picks and Cash

I really have no issue with this deal. Steve Nash resurrected the Suns franchise eight years ago and to repay him by helping him go to the team of his choice was a classy move by the Suns organization. For all the naysayers out there who cannot believe the Suns would actually help the Lakers, who really cares? There is no chance in hell the Suns are going to compete at an elite level over the next three seasons, so why not take a strong deal and earn some goodwill in the process? Sadly though, the four draft picks acquired in the deal will likely look much better on paper than they ever will in a Suns uniform. The two first-round picks will likely be very late in the round, and one must simply look at the Suns’ recent draft record to see where my pessimism stems from.

Suns sign SG Eric Gordon to 4-year/$58 million offer sheet

I said it the second it happened and I’ll it again… there is NO WAY the New Orleans Hornets do not match this offer sheet and retain the services of Gordon. After trading away the bloated contracts of Emeka Okafor and Trevor Ariza, the Hornets only have $22m on the books for 2012-13 (not counting their recent draft picks). In no scenario could the Hornets ever justify not resigning the centerpiece of last year’s Chris Paul deal. People who say, ‘It might happen. Gordon doesn’t want to be there.’  Yeah, okay… You’re telling me the Hornets new ownership wants to start their reign by explaining to their fan base why they let Gordon go even they are $30m under the salary cap? No chance. The NBA/Hornets could never defend the Chris Paul trade if they only got nine games worth of Eric Gordon and a draft pick in return for Paul (yes, that is actual amount of games Gordon played last season). Worst case for the Hornets – they resign Gordon, show the league he is healthy, then trade him down the road when his value and their leverage is much greater. Not-so-bold prediction: I believe the Hornets will match Gordon’s deal before the ink even dries on the Suns’ offer sheet, once again leaving the Suns without a starting-caliber shooting guard.

Suns sign SF Michael Beasley to 3-year/$18 million deal

Just what the Suns needed – another offensive-minded tweener forward who plays a minimal amount of defense. Don’t they already have 4 or 5 of those? Channing Frye? Hakim Warrick? Josh Childress? Markieff Morris? Jared Dudley? Those are five guys who already don’t have a true position, so why not add another? I know Beasley will add some scoring punch to the Suns, but at some point or another, don’t the Suns have to attempt to play some semblance of defense? On the night of the NBA Draft, Suns’ General Manager Lance Blanks justified the questionable pick of Kendall Marshall by saying, “He’s in perfect alignment with what we want to be about as people and as an organization. He’s just a wonderful human being.” If you’re spending lottery picks on good people for the organization, then why spend $18m on a player who was asked by his former team to enter a rehabilitation center in 2009, and then was arrested for marijuana possession this past year? It seems to send mixed messages to a fan base when one justifies a lottery pick for the exact opposite reasons their newly signed free-agent was available in the first place. Do the Suns want good people with limited abilities or good players with limited character? At this stage, it seems the Suns will inconsistently settle for either one of those options.

Suns sign PG Goran Dragic to 4-year/$34 million deal

On February 24^th, 2011, the Phoenix Suns traded Goran Dragic and a first-round pick to the Houston Rockets for Aaron Brooks. For the Suns, the result of this trade was nothing short of horrific. In return for dealing Dragic and the pick, the Suns got 25 appearances and 9.6 ppg out of Brooks. Then, as result of Brooks signing to play in China before the NBA lockout ended, the Suns endured a 2011-12 season with extremely mediocre back-up point guard play. As for Dragic, he flourished in a brief starting cameo this past season and drove up his market value well-beyond previous expectations. Had the Suns not made this trade, they would have kept a first-rounder, had a much better back-up PG situation this past season, and likely would have been able to retain Dragic at a much cheaper price. It baffles me that the Suns had to watch Dragic flourish in another uniform before they realized he was the ‘heir’ to Nash’s throne. What could they have possibly seen differently in a handful of games than they saw while watching him every single day for two and a half seasons?

Further complicating the point guard issue, by signing Dragic to a four-year deal, the Suns pretty much guaranteed they just spent a lottery pick on a player who won’t start for at least four seasons! Are you kidding me?!? You’re telling me there wasn’t one player left on the Suns’ draft board the team could envision starting over the next 4 seasons? I simply can’t believe that. Compounding one mistake with another is what happens when an organization has inconsistent goals and poor leadership. Why would fans ever believe the Suns will develop Marshall better than they did Dragic? Or will we also trade Marshall along with a first-round pick in 2 ½ years for a different backup point guard like we did Dragic? This is what happens when a team drafts for need rather than drafting the best player available. Newsflash Suns: You need upgrades at all positions! But instead of taking a high-potential guy, the Suns used a lottery pick on a back-up point guard they called ‘not very athletic’ but a ‘good person’. Great…

Summary

By July 11^th, this whirlwind of moves will have left the Suns no closer to being a contender within the next 3-5 years. While they have added two late first-round draft picks, it should be remembered the Suns have squandered such commodities time after time in recent years. They will have also added a high-risk, high-reward tweener forward whose playing-style overlaps several of the over-paid players already on the roster. Furthermore, they will be handing the reigns of the offense to a point guard they were so sure was NOT the point guard of the future just 18 months ago that they included a first-round pick just to ship him off in return for 25 games of another back-up point guard. The Suns will still have no starting-caliber shooting guard. They will still play little defense. They will still have little toughness. And worst of all, they will still have the same inept front office and ownership making questionable decisions going forward. Maybe the organization will finally realize how fed up the fan base is when only 13,000 fans are showing up for games next season. Suns owner Robert Sarver already moved away from his infamous front-row, center-court seats amid this past season’s struggles, I can only imagine where he will hide next… That’s that.

I knew the Phoenix Suns were in trouble by the fourth pick. Almost every single ‘expert’ mock draft had the Cleveland Cavaliers taking Small Forward Harrison Barnes. So of course, the Cavaliers took Shooting Guard Dion Waiters. By pick #8, I knew the Suns were screwed. With the 8th pick, the Toronto Raptors surprised everyone by taking SG Terrence Ross – a player most ‘experts’ had landing somewhere in the 15-20 range. There seemed to be a common theme emerging… shooting guards were coveted.

Such development should come at no surprise to anyone who watched the recent NBA Finals. The series matched up two of the most-freakishly athletic teams in the league, and the role of the ‘big man’ was almost negligible. Much of the games consisted of each team having 4-wing players and a token ‘big man’ down low. There was no post-presence demanding the ball 20 times a game – a la Hakeem Olajuwon or Shaquille O’Neil. It was a series where the court was spread and the athleticism flourished.

You see, the NBA game has transformed. Recent the rule changes have benefited the quicker, more athletic players, so it’s no wonder why a team featuring Russell Westbrook, Kevin Durant, and James Harden was in the Finals while a team with featuring Steve Nash, Jared Dudley, and Grant Hill was the 10^th best team in their conference. In the modern NBA game, if you don’t have elite athletes on the wing, it’s simply tough to compete.

Back to the draft… When SG Austin Rivers predictably went to the New Orleans Hornets with the 10^th pick, it left only one elite shooting guard remaining, and still two picks until the Suns drafted. After Portland took a token white guy, there was only one pick separating the Suns from a chance to draft the last elite shooting guard they desperately need – Jeremy Lamb. Then it happened. I don’t know why ever I expected it wouldn’t. I should have just looked at the track record of the Suns drafting under owner Robert Sarver – TERRIBLE. Like a scene out of a sad drama, the NBA Commissioner, David ‘Have you stopped beating your wife’ Stern, said, “With the 12^th pick of the 2012 NBA Draft, the Houston Rockets select Jeremy Lamb from the University of Connecticut”. Dammit!

Before the draft, there were five shooting guards I would have been happy for the Suns to end up with. I wasn’t being greedy. I didn’t beg for a particular one. I just wanted any one of five! By our pick, the roof had fallen in. What were the chances that five of the first twelve picks taken would be shooting guards? And what were the chances, the one year the Suns were desperately looking to add one, they happened to have the thirteenth pick. Oh, the humanity!

As I sat there shaking my head, pondering how Suns fans would again be disappointed by yet another draft day letdown, I prayed hard the Suns wouldn’t panic and draft Point Guard Kendall Marshall.  I hoped in the months of preparing for the draft, the Suns had anticipated this worst-case scenario and had some sort of contingency plan. Boy, what was I thinking?

Like clockwork, with the 13^th pick of the draft, the Phoenix Suns selected PG Kendall Marshall. I mean, why wouldn’t they? After all, this was the same Kendall Marshall many draft ‘experts’ said would become a solid-back up point guard in pre-draft coverage (just what we needed from this talented draft lottery, another non-difference making reserve). The same point guard everyone said wasn’t very athletic, but compensated for it with his great passing. Do you know what helps makes a player look like a great passer in college? Great talent around him… The University of North Carolina had four draft picks in the top-20 this year. They were the second most talented team in the nation. Of course Marshall’s assist numbers look good! All Marshall had to do was get outlet passes and push the ball up to his uber-talented wing players. Sorry, Kendall, you’re not going to have that luxury in Phoenix. You’re going to counted on to create, penetrate, and make shots – you know, things a lottery picked point guard must be able to do. Great athleticism would help with that. Marshall’s athleticism will not. Don’t believe me? Just ask Suns General Manager Lance Blanks…

Blanks said, “We didn’t get Kendall for his athleticism and Kendall knows that. We got him for his brain and his ability to make people better, who he is off the court for our locker room. He’s in perfect alignment with what we want to be about as people and as an organization. He’s just a wonderful human being.”

Holy shit. Really? That’s what you have to say about the Suns most-recent lottery pick? ‘We didn’t get him for his athleticism. He’s just a wonderful human being’. Hey Mr. Blanks, you have a whole roster of nice guys with limited athleticism and look where that got the Suns lately. The Suns are grasping at the edge of mediocrity, about to fall into the dark-ages of irrelevance.

Did the Suns front office simply stop watching basketball when the regular season ended? Did they not see the levels of athleticism needed to compete for a championship in the NBA?

Obviously not. From what I can tell, the Suns just drafted a poor-man’s version of the aging Steve Nash, but one who can’t shoot the ball. Great. When can I renew my season tickets?

On top of all this, there are now whispers the Suns may be pursuing soon-to-be 37-year old shooting guard Ray Allen, who is fresh off of ankle surgery. Yes, the same Ray Allen who used to be represented by former-agent and current Suns President of Basketball Operations, Lon Babby. Just what we need, another one of Lon Babby’s former clients… because that whole 5-year/$33.50 million contract Babby handed to another one of his former clients, Josh Childress, has worked out so great! Is this really happening to Suns fan?!?

To be a Suns fans these days is to live through a dramatic performance of Murphy’s Law. “Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.” The only thing the Suns added from this draft was an ‘unathletic’ point guard who didn’t score in double-digits during college. I’m pretty sure we could have found one of those on the free-agent market… just another great use of a lottery pick by ‘Your Phoenix Suns’. Robin Lopez, Earl Clark, Markieff Morris, Kendall Marshall. Four top-15 picks, ZERO difference makers. But at least with our first pick in 2010, we took a guy out of the basketball powerhouse Georgia Institute of Technology! (Yes, look it up)… Ladies and gentlemen, we are watching the Titanic of NBA franchises. Robert Sarver is our captain asleep at the wheel. It’s going to be a very ugly 3-5 years ahead. Godspeed to all. That’s that.

*Mailbag is being moved to Monday this week because to the length of this post. Don’t forget to continue sending questions, thoughts, concerns, and/or rants to TheBatteredFan@gmail.com or The Battered Fan’s Facebook Page . Thanks!*

Last evening, a presidential oversight committee approved a four-team college football playoff system that will begin in 2014 and run until 2025. Fans everywhere rejoiced over the burial of the uber-flawed Bowl Championship Series (BCS) and seemed genuinely excited for the implementation of this new system. While the creation of such system fixes one notable problem, it only highlights another: college football players not getting their fair share of the financial pie.

In the current BCS system, ESPN reportedly pays about $165 per year for the five BCS games. Experts anticipate the price of the rights for the new four-team playoff system, as well as the four other major bowls connected to the plan, to reach as much as $400 million to $500 million per season. Despite the potential 300% increase of television rights revenue alone, do you know how much of an increase college football players will see in their share? Zero. Zilch. Nada.

Many people argue collegiate football players get a full-ride scholarship and that should be enough. Oh really? A recent ESPN the Magazine article noted the average FBS football program netted $164,000 of revenue per football player each year. The average scholarship was $27,000 a year. That’s a yearly gap of $137,000 per player! There are a lot of other students on campus who are also on full-ride scholarships that aren’t contributing to a multi-billion revenue stream… No one is paying the math students of the world $500 million a year to watch them perform their craft, but if they did, the math students would likely get a cut of such revenue. Isn’t that how things generally work in the real world? But when college football is involved, one must throw reality and logic out the window…

The NCAA and the powers that be have manipulated the system so everyone is getting rich but the workers (athletes) themselves. You say, “Well, the workers at the Apple Store don’t make more money simply because the company is!” But that’s simply a poor comparison. There are infinite amounts of people who are capable of working at an Apple Store, there are not infinite amounts of people who can play college football at a high level. There is a reason Tom Brady gets $20 million a year, it’s because his talent demands that on the open-market. No television network is going to pay a half-a-billion dollars to see ‘Joe Schmo’ throw a football around… Hypothetically speaking, because of their unique talents, athletes should have greater negotiating leverage than a worker at an Apple Store – just like other talent-rich, skilled professions do (surgeons, performers, actors).

But the NCAA hides behind this false, bullshit premise of ‘amateurism’. When asked why college football players are considered ‘amateurs’, the NCAA responses “because they don’t get paid”. Then when asked why they don’t get paid, the NCAA responses “because they are amateurs”. See the bullshit… The term ‘student-athlete’ was originally conceived by the NCAA to avoid workers compensation claims, but as the industry grew, the term became much more. You see, workers have rights. Student-athletes do not. If the NCAA could convince enough people that the laborers in this multi-billion dollar industry were nothing more than ‘student-athletes’, then the NCAA could enforce their own, self-promoting rules with little resistance. NCAA – 1. College Athletes – 0.

On top of that scheme, you now have the NCAA saying they are ‘looking into ways to create a $2,000 stipend for the football players’ – acting as if they are bending over backwards to do athletes a huge favor.  While any money would help, $2,000 out of the aforementioned $137,000 represents less than 2% – not exactly a huge piece of the pie. More like a crumb to appease the critics for a while. While conference commissioners, collegiate administrators, and collegiate coaches have all had skyrocketing salaries over the past 15 years, there is one group being cut out of the increases – the athletes.

The fallacy of the athletic scholarship is one of the greatest travesties of all. Essentially, an athletic scholarship is a year-to-year renewable contract between a university and the individual player. Only it doesn’t even cover the entire year… And coaches don’t have to renew it if a player doesn’t play well… And the student-athlete is not allowed to walk away without repercussion while a university can.

You see, most college football players get a monthly scholarship check (for housing, food, and personal expenses) from late August to early December, and then again from the end of January to early May. If you don’t make a bowl game, you go without a scholarship check to cover your expenses from early December until school resumes in late January. If a university chooses not to pay for a ‘student-athletes’ summer school, even though summer workouts/conditioning are ‘voluntarily mandatory’, a player won’t get a scholarship check in May, June, July, or August (until school starts). This full-ride scholarship can essentially be trimmed down to about 7 or 8 ‘living expense’ checks a year, all around $1000 each. Sadly, an average collegiate football player – one who is part of a multi-billion dollar industry – may only get $7,000-8000 a year to cover all his living, food, and personal expenses. That’s not right.

There is plenty of money to go around, it’s just going to the wrong people. Everyone but the talent themselves is lining their pockets off the backs of these young, defenseless individuals. No one gives a shit when a head coach makes $5 million a season… But when an athlete sells his bowl ring so he can eat over the summer, he is portrayed as ‘everything wrong with college athletics’. No. That’s not the case! The broken, exploitative nature of big-time college athletic is what is truly wrong. It is time to fix it. The long-talked about stipend is a step in the right direction, but getting a seat for the ‘student-athlete’ at the big boy’s table is the ultimate goal. Unfortunately, until college football players get a chance to represent their great value at the bargaining table, athletes will simply have to settle for being the star-powered labor force that gets everyone else rich. That’s that.

*Don’t forget to continue sending questions, thoughts, concerns, and/or rants to TheBatteredFan@gmail.com or The Battered Fan’s Facebook Page  for Friday’s mailbag*

Upon the verdict in the Jerry Sandusky child molestation trial this past week, I remembered a short discussion board writing I did for class this past Fall semester – please forgive the 5-paragraph essay format. We were asked to give our thoughts on how Penn State University should attempt to ‘rebuild’ after the horrific allegations came to light. (Please remember the below was written in the Fall before the trial and many facts had come out – but in my opinion, much of it still holds true about what the university should do moving forward.) I would like to share my thoughts…

Due to the popularity of sport in America, it is only natural that any sort of scandal will be covered with intense media scrutiny.  But, when the scandal itself transcends sport and begins to affect something much larger, be it our educational system or even our simplest human instinct, that media scrutiny becomes a firestorm. For Penn State University, it was their university that was the landing spot for this epic firestorm.  While it is difficult to grasp the scope of the overall damage  done to the university, going forward, one must hope Penn State can be defined by more than this horrendous scandal.  Besides seeing the perpetrator of these alleged heinous acts taken to justice, the next thing Penn State must do is worry about rebuilding their once prestigious reputation and restoring its integrity.  In order to accomplish such a daunting task, Penn State should create three new positions throughout the university: a Director of Local Partnerships, a Director of the ‘We are Blue’ Campaign, and an Independent Advisor for Compliance and Regulation within Faculty.

Being the tight knit community that State College, PA is, Penn State must make sure their standing within the local community is restored.  Creating a position designed to reach out to the strongest local partnerships is a critical step for the university.  While it seems likely there may be some hesitation for many cooperate companies to partner with the university at this time, Penn State should focus on the smaller companies of its community.  While admittedly not being under the most ideal circumstances, Penn State should view this terrible event as an opportunity to reestablish neighboring ties and thank their locals for the past and future loyalty.  Without knowing specifics of their existing partnerships with local businesses, it is probably safe to assume the university has, at times, neglected some loyal supporters in order to appease corporate partners with far deeper pockets.  The Director of Local Partnerships would be responsible for acting as an intimate liaison between the university and local businesses.  Lots of face time with candid answers about the past, as well as promotion of where the university is headed, would slowly start healing the betrayal that locals may feel due to recent events.  By restarting the partnerships at a grassroots level, Penn State could eventually use successful local relationships as a model to reel in the bigger corporations they will eventually need.  The Director of Local Partnerships would have to exhibit a versatile blend of public relations, marketing, and even sales in order to regain the local’s trust of the university.  By initially starting small and local, Penn State can first reestablish their base before attempting to take their brand rebuilding larger and more national.

As far as the national stage is concerned, the most important thing Penn State can do at this moment is to enact a nationwide Child Abuse Awareness campaign entitled the ‘We Are Blue’ campaign.  Led by the newly created position, Director of ‘We Are Blue’, the movement would promote the under-acknowledged issue of child abuse, focusing especially on abuse sexual in nature.  Spinning off the school’s battle cry of ‘We Are Penn State’, the ‘We Are Blue’ campaign is a natural fit.  The most obvious reason to use ‘Blue’ is that it is not only is the color if Penn State’s famous uniforms, but also is the color of the ribbon that symbolizes child abuse awareness.  In a move that would seem shocking to some college football purists, putting a blue ribbon decal on the back of Penn State’s helmet would be a symbolic alteration to their notoriously simple, never-changing uniforms.  This action would be a loud statement by the university that says ‘there some things in life are more important than the tradition of our school’s football program’.  As simple as the placement of a ribbon on a helmet may seem to some, others would view it as a seismic change to a program seemingly stuck in the dark ages.  Penn State would not be running from the terrifying events that took place, but instead would be acknowledging them and doing everything in their power to make sure it never happens again.  The ‘We Are Blue’ campaign would be funded in large part by the football programs strong revenues in order to prevent costs that may take away from other programs on campus.  Whether the school likes it or not, they are considered to have played a large part of the horrific events that took place.  At this time, they should be overly aggressive in creating a new image that shows Penn State as a driving force in creating awareness and prevention of the abuse of children.  The ‘We Are Blue’ campaign would hopefully accomplish that.

The third position that Penn State should create is titled: Independent Advisor of Compliance and Regulation within Faculty (IACRF).  In order to establish as much credibility for the position as possible, Penn State should ask the state government to create the IACRF position, and ask that the position not answer to the university or its trustees, but instead to the government directly.  This chain of command would allow the IACRF to work with complete impartiality and be able to do its job description without fear of stepping on superiors’ toes.  The IACRF would be responsible for the awareness and enforcement of protocol and procedures with regards to work regulations – especially potential criminal acts.  Many people attempt to defend the inaction of the Penn State employees by saying there was a ‘breakdown’ of communication throughout the chain of command.  The IACRF position would be created to ensure that no such ‘breakdown’ ever occurred again among the university faculty.  An optimist would hope the events that occurred at Penn State would serve as a sad notice as to what can happen when inaction occurs.  Just in case that does not happen, the IACRF would run faculty workshops explaining prominent social issues such as the ‘By-Stander Effect’.  Just as important as the actual work the IACRF would be doing, the position would simultaneously serve as a figurehead and ultimate overseer of the university.  There is few things people respect more than when someone admits their mistakes, then does everything in their power to make sure it never happens again.  Creating the IACRF would be a good step for Penn State to make sure the latter part of that statement comes true.

At Penn State, the actions of few have decimated the hard work and dedication of thousands.  While the university will never be able to make this ‘right’, they can ‘do good’ by the victims by using their wealth of resources to aid the prevention of any future, similar actions from occurring.  Often times, people say that one must learn from mistakes in the past or else they are doomed to repeat them in the future.  Penn State should make it their mission to become an educator that teaches the rest of the nation what can happen if a lethal blend of mixed up priorities and inexcusable inaction come together.  The proposed creation of three new positions is aimed to help Penn State rebuild itself at the campus, local, and national level.  While it is truly sad that it takes such devastating circumstances to ignite positive action, Penn State has a chance to rebuild its reputation by simply doing the right thing from this day forward.

That’s that.

*Don’t forget to continue sending questions, thoughts, concerns, and/or rants to TheBatteredFan@gmail.com or The Battered Fan’s Facebook Page  for Friday’s mailbag*

Dear Battered Fan, 

I want to know what is your take on the artistic form of the “flop.” Now I am using flop as a generalized term. Obviously the flop relates to basketball but how about the dive in soccer, a baseball player faking the hand injury when the ball clearly hits the knob of his bat, in football, defenses faking cramps to slow down the hurry up offense… I’ll even go to the extent to throw in a golfer who withdraws from a tournament because he shot a 7-over on the back nine. How about The Battered Fan gives out its version of the Oscar, the Tony – like the dunce cap of old to let these athletes know that, as battered fans, we do not appreciate it when they take zero pride in themselves and as representatives of the teams dear to our hearts.  

-Jamie R.

I’m sure most of us have heard broadcaster Jeff Van Gundy during the recent NBA Finals complain mercilessly about the ongoing epidemic of flopping. You point out many good examples throughout the sports industry where flopping/acting/being a pussy occurs and the credibility of the game is negatively affected. Below, I’ve attached a video where a NBA player was actually kicked out from the game because another player flopped. That ain’t right! My personal belief is one should play the game the right way and not try to get ahead by trick-dicking the referees.

I like your idea of the dunce hat, but I’m thinking more along the lines of a scarlet letter – aka the Letter of Shame. Going along with Van Gundy’s idea of creating a ‘Flop Committee’ to review potential over-embellishments, I feel the punishment for anyone found guilt of being a fraud should be a stiff fine and a large Letter of Shame on one’s uniform for a minimum of one week. Multiple infractions would garner greater fines and longer lengths for the Letter of Shame. If there is two things athletes hate, it is 1) someone taking their money, and 2) being embarrassed publicly. If players are going to tarnish the credibility of the game by flopping, then actions must be taken to hit them where it hurts most – their bank accounts and their egos.

Dear Battered Fan,

I am interested in your opinions about fans at Pro Golf events. Watching the US Open where guys scream ‘get in the hole’ when Tiger Woods tees off on a 630 yard par 5, or when he’s putting from 37 feet with 4 opposing breaks, or when Phil Mickelson is chipping out of the woods to get centered on the fairway, simply drives me crazy. Why do they do this? When did this start?

-Dave T.

While I have no idea when this trend officially started, I have two opinions about why it seems to be more prominent today than ever before.

1) Tiger Woods – The success of Woods was transformational to golf and made the sport a cool event to be around. Woods was the first golfer who genuinely appealled to a younger, more diverse demographic on a grand scale. One only needs to look at the attendance figures of event to see the impact Woods has had on the tour and the sport as a whole. Like any type of event, the younger the attending demographic skews, the more likelihood there is for shenanigans to take place. What likely started with one jackass yelling ‘Get in the Hole’ on a par 3 was likely seen by millions of viewers on television and gained a cheap-chuckle. Next thing you know, every tournament had its version of ‘That Guy’ who acted as if he were the first person to yell it out in a failed attempt to be original and/or funny.

2) Happy Gilmore – As a generation of Happy Gilmore (our generations Caddy Shack) lovers grows older, golf is no longer viewed as the rich, white man-only sport it may have been viewed as in previous generations. Remember Gilmore’s nemesis, Shooter McGavin, and his  infamous quote to the newly-diversified group of spectators? “Damn you people. This is golf. Not a rock concert.” (See clip below.) Well, this is how much of the younger generation views golf today. If you don’t believe me, just spend one day at next year’s Waste Management Open in Scottsdale, AZ. – an event that is more like a 130,000 person kegger where golf just happens to be taking place.

Yes, there will always be the traditional golf courses that stringently enforce their long-held standards of etiquette. But as golfing crowds become more diverse, it may be difficult for the casual sports fan to empathize with an athlete who has to hit a stationary ball surrounded by dead silence. Try hitting a 95 miles per hour fastball with a round bat and 45,000 spectators screaming at the top of their lungs. When casual sports fan see golfers bitch and moan about something as inconsequential as a camera lens clicking in their back swing, the number of ‘That Guy’ imitators at each event will only continue to increase.

Dear Battered Fan,

We deem many other PEDs in our life as acceptable like coffee, Viagra, Rogaine, and 5-hour energy. Is it wrong for the public and the professional sports administrators to outlaw PED use in professional sports? And suspend players without out pay if found guilty?

If Barry bonds is going to have an asterisk next to his name in the record books, then so should Lexington steel for his Viagra use in the porn industry which led to many porn awards, as well my sales associate Alex for drinking an excessive amount of coffee and red bull to the point where he forces himself to work 16 hours a day just to win the award of salesmen of the month for the last 5 months.

I feel strongly about this topic for many reasons, I love home runs, I watch WWE, I’d much rather see a juiced up Brian Cushing than a flabby one, I miss the Bird Man and [Todd] Marinovich for both the same reasons as you probably know. Bottom-line – let the players use PEDs if they want to.

-Gronkfan05 (Taken from the comments section of “Follow-Up to The Era of Drug Testing”)

I think the biggest difference between the PEDs you discuss and those PEDs used during The Steroid Era is the legality of the substances in question. The reason we accept coffee, Viagra, Rogaine, and 5-hour energy as legal PEDs is because the government deems them usable for the general public (although sometimes with specific restrictions). Without turning this into a political science debate about the role of government, the main reason Steroids, HGH, Ephedra, etc are now banned in sports is simply because the league’s are following the laws laid out by the powers that be.

To your point about your friend Alex, as long as he is using legal substances, I personally don’t see the issue with him using every advantage at his disposal. What’s the difference between one person using coffee and another using a college education? Couldn’t they both be construed as performance enhancing? Once again, for me, it comes down to a question of legality. If the laws/rules makes the substance okay to use, then it is fair game for all parties involved. If it is deemed illegal, then I have an issue with its usage.

Back to sports, there will always be loopholes and athletes trying to take advantage of such opportunities. In recent years in baseball, upon the ban of Ephedra/Greenies, there has reportedly been a huge increase in players claiming to have Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). Obviously, the main reason for such a claim is to get one’s hands on Adderall – the modern-day substitute for Ephedra/Greenies. Being a former-athlete who didn’t use illegal PEDs, it is hard for me to rectify the usage of illegal PEDs. BUT, I also will not judge another’s morality for doing something they may feel is in the best interest of his family’s long-term well being. With millions upon millions of dollars at stake, I understand why some athletes choose to use PEDs – but that doesn’t mean that I agree with or condone their decision.

Gronkfan05 – I figured you’d appreciate the picture below of Brian Cushing.

That’s that.

*Thank you to those who submitted questions! Don’t forget to continue sending questions, thoughts, concerns, and/or rants to TheBatteredFan@gmail.com or The Battered Fan’s Facebook Page for next Friday’s mailbag*

What started as this:

And led to this:

May soon result in one of these:

It seems the Miami Heat may have gotten it right after all. Despite the frightful public relations campaigns known as The Decision and the Welcome Party, the fact is, the experiment seems to be working. After last season’s NBA Finals collapse, many critics crushed the Heat for attempting to build a championship squad with a ‘stars and scrubs’ mentality – often commenting ‘that’s not how you build a team’. Last year’s Game 6 loss to the Dallas Mavericks served as vindication for such critics who felt like the Heat were attempting to rewrite the rules of how championships were supposed to be built. Well, fast forward twelve months. Maybe Miami has rewritten them after all.

Or maybe Miami just took a page out of Boston’s recently published book. Boston proved quick-fix titles were possible when they brought their own Big Three together and immediately won a championship in 2008. Boston though, had the fortune of bringing three aging players with complimenting skill sets together who knew their only chance at a ring was through this partnership – they were willing to sacrifice ego and shots for a chance at glory. Miami’s situation was a bit different.

Miami had arguably two of the NBA’s top-5 players league coming together in the prime’s of their careers (and had very similar styles and skill-sets). One of the two (Dwyane Wade) had already won a championship, and the other had already led his team to a NBA Finals appearances by age 22 (LeBron James). The desperation that seemed to drive Boston may not have been present from the start in Miami. After essentially cruising to the NBA Finals in just their first season together, the Heat got a rude awaking when pundits spewed piles and piles of ‘hate’ their direction after coming up short against the Mavericks. But I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – Boston immediate success should not be looked upon as the rule, but the exception.

Had Miami’s Big Three conducted their free-agent signings privately, or even held a more low-key arrival, just getting to the NBA Finals in their first season together would have been deemed a success. Instead, they had rubbed their signings in everyone’s faces and threw a ridiculous welcoming bonanza that made the sports world cringe. They set themselves up for failure, and critics couldn’t wait for the first chance to throw it back in their faces. Well, here we are now…

If the Heat win tonight, what will the critics say then? Regardless of what negatively may still be thrown their direction, the Heat will be able to simply point up in the sky and say, “Scoreboard.” Two seasons together – two NBA Finals appearances, one championship. I’d say the plan is working. How many other teams in the NBA would die for back-to-back NBA Finals appearances?  All 29? Shoot, Phoenix Suns fans still reminisce about their 1993 NBA Finals appearance back like it was yesterday!  The Heat have been to three of the past seven NBA Finals, potentially winning two of them. Slow clap for Pat Reilly.

So can everyone just get over The Decision already? Who cares if Lebron didn’t tell the Cleveland Cavaliers before he left? Lebron was a free agent – he owed them nothing. Do you know how many players the Cavaliers have traded without giving them previous notice? How is this any different? James gave the organization the best seven-year run they’ll likely ever see…they should have been writing him thank you/miss you cards by the dozen. Instead, their crybaby, delusional owner publicly and bitterly vowed the Cavaliers would win a title before ‘The Self-Proclaimed King’ ever did. Yeah, how’s that working out for you…

And who cares if the Big Three had an outrageously excessive Welcome Party, basketball is meant to be entertainment, right? Miami had just won the sweepstakes for the best basketball player on earth, why wouldn’t they want to celebrate? It’s not like the Heat fans weren’t having fun, they were going bat-shit crazy at the event! The organization held the event for its fans, its fans loved it, get over it… You can’t tell me every other arena in the nation wouldn’t have been just as crazy if the same thing had happened to their team.

So the Heat now have three chances to win the championship while much of the nation roots against them. Critics everywhere are hoping for an epic collapse so they will be vindicated once again. But I think we should just step back and appreciate this Heat team for what it is. Disregard The Decision and the Welcome Home Party… appreciate the fact three superstars sacrificed their egos, shots, and money to be part of something greater – a championship team. LeBron’s run in this year’s playoffs has to be one of the top-five playoff performances of all time. Appreciate that. Appreciate his greatness. On the court, LeBron is an unselfish superstar who plays his ass off every single game. At the very minimum, how can you not at least respect that? For the sake of sports media, lets just hope Lebron gets his ring this season so we can finally move on to a new storyline. After all, it is almost Tebow-Time in New York! That’s that.

*Don’t forget to send questions, thoughts, concerns, and/or rants to TheBatteredFan@gmail.com for this Friday’s weekly mailbag*

While yesterday’s baseball post was supposed to be about the perfect game and multiple one-hitters that occurred this past week, it quickly morphed into one about steroids. Little did I know at the time, but Roger Clemens’ perjury trial would conclude just hours later with Clemens’ being acquitted on all charges that he obstructed justice and lied to Congress about using Performance Enhancing Drugs (PEDs). Speaking big picture, this outcome only proved the prosecutors could not prove Clemens’ guilt of perjury, not necessarily that he did or did not do steroids – two completely different issues. After posting yesterday’s piece, there were several comments that noted I overlooked the fact batters were not the only ones who used PEDs, but pitchers did as well. I assume those who commented were implying that since pitchers also used PEDs, it created a ‘more-level playing field’. While I acknowledge yesterday’s omission about pitchers also using PEDs, the omission wasn’t because I believe pitchers never used them. I simply believe PEDs had a greater impact on hitting than it ever did pitching.

My first belief is any strength gains attributed to the use of PEDs were more beneficial to a hitter than they were a pitcher. If a hitter is stronger and is therefore able to hit the ball further, that is an important consequence in baseball. What may have once been a long-fly ball or a double in the gap could now become a homerun. On the flip side, if a pitcher becomes stronger and is able to throw harder, that is not always a good thing. I was recently listening to a Yankees game and the announcer was talking about a conversation he had with Derek Jeter. Jeter had said something to the effect of, “Ten years ago, it was easier. Everyone threw harder but it was straight. Now, nothing is straight.” His point being, back when many pitchers were on steroids, they simply tried to overpower hitters. But the harder pitchers threw, the less movement their pitches generally had. Also, ‘the harder one throws, the further it goes’. Simple physics. While the benefits of PEDs likely had an impact on pitcher’s ability to rebound quicker from start to start, once a pitcher was on the mound, the benefits were not as dramatic as they were for hitters. Simply throwing harder does not necessarily equate to success. Simply hitting the ball further does.

My second belief is the newfound power of the Steroid Era made many pitchers afraid to throw strikes. Even if pitchers were on steroids, if they dared throw it down the middle, many juiced up hitters were going to launch it into the cheap seats. This caused pitchers to nibble around the strike zone, walk more batters, and in consequence create more run-scoring opportunities. You want to know what the REAL Moneyball philosophy was – Steroids. How many of the Moneyball Oakland A’s players ended up being connected to steroids? Jason Giambi and Miguel Tejada both won MVP’s for the A’s – both have been linked to steroids. Simply look at this link to see how many other prominent A’s were linked to PEDs – never mind the amount that likely got away with it. Hey Billy Beane, of course your team drew a lot of walks and created run-scoring opportunities, much of your team was (allegedly) using PEDs! (Yes, yes. I realize every other team had PED users as well, and much of the A’s success was due to cheap, elite, young pitching and not necessarily hitting. But I was just trying to make a point… just as the book was). Now a days, pitchers can be much more aggressive and throw the ball over the plate knowing that only a select amount of hitters are going to knock it out of the park on a consistent basis. Ten years ago, even the once light-hitting 2^nd basemen could hit the ball 400+ feet on a regular basis. Times have changed.

Again, I fully acknowledge pitchers were using PEDs as well as hitters – I simply believe hitters saw greater benefits between the lines because of them. It is much more difficult to recover on a day to day basis while maintaining your strength and energy when you are playing 160 games a year as compared to making 30 starts with a minimum of four days of rest in between. Barry Bonds’ alleged PED usage allowed him to feverously work out during the season, maintain the 40 pounds of muscle he put on after the age of 35, and perform at the highest level in the history of baseball – all during a period of his career in which he should have been in a sharp decline. I realize the same argument could be made about the latter part of Clemens’ career. The only difference is, Clemons didn’t pitch better than anyone ever had in the history of baseball – as Bonds did at the plate – further providing support for my belief PEDs enhanced batters at a greater rate than it did pitchers. That’s that.

*Don’t forget to send questions, thoughts, concerns, and/or rants to TheBatteredFan@gmail.com for this Friday’s weekly mailbag*

So it’s finally working! After years and years of dancing around the issue, it seems Major League Baseball (MLB) and the Player’s Association (MLBPA) have finally put together a drug policy that works. The recent five-day run of out-of-this-world pitching that included a perfect game and three one-hitters - a feat considered unfathomable just ten years ago - got me wondering. After a 15 years period that will always be remembered as the Steroid Era, I wondered if we were now entering the Pitching Era. Unfortunately, after giving it a great deal of thought, I truly believe this recent trend has much more to do with the lack of steroids than it does the greatness of modern-day pitching. Please hear me out…

Anyone who genuinely believes steroids made no difference in baseball in simply naïve. They may say, “Well, steroids can’t teach you how to hit.” Well yes, I’ll give you that point. But what steroids can do it makes the average player good, the good player great, and the great player elite. Steroids can make you bigger, stronger, faster, and able to recover more quickly. One of the biggest factors in being a successful baseball player is one’s ability to recover on a day to day basis. The baseball season is a war of attrition. If one’s body is able to unnaturally recover at a greater rate than his opponent, then he has an advantage. If one’s strength increases so his 40 doubles last season becomes 20 homeruns and 20 doubles the next, then he also has an advantage over his oppenent. Steroids make a difference, that’s why people use them.

In the early 2000’s, when baseball pretended to police the ever-growing issue of steroid-usage, it first did so by implementing drug testing in the minor leagues. God forbid they begin at the top of the food chain – where big leaguers were making millions of dollars and had plenty of disposable income! MLB instead chose to test rookie-ball players who were making $850 a month in an effort to prove to the public they were taking steps in the right direction. Nevertheless, as the public outcry for drug testing grew louder, MLB did a ‘survey’ to find out how many of its major league players were using steroids. This ‘survey’ was meant only to gauge to see if a problem even existed, not punish those whom tested positive. I should also remind you, this test did not ‘survey’ for Human Growth Hormone (HGH), but only for the most simple, cheapest forms of Performance Enhancing Drugs (PEDs). Even with this large HGH loophole, MLB announced between 5-7% of the tests came back positive. There was a huge problem on MLB’s hands.

MLB quickly implemented a new policy to cure baseball of this epidemic. MLB was so adamant about correcting this outbreak that they issued a 10-game suspension any player testing positive for PEDs. Reminder: 10 games in baseball about 6% of the season. For comparisons sake, the NFL suspends a drug policy violator for four games, or 25% of their season. Baseball obviously didn’t care that much… But nevertheless, baseball believed it was making a difference. In 2005, Commissioner Selig announced only 1-2% of players failed the second set of testing. Nice work MLB, right? Not so much.

You see, MLB players are wealthy. They can afford nice things. So if MLB was only going to test for the cheap stuff, then the players would simply use the expensive drugs. After all, what was a couple thousands of dollars to them if using PEDs was going to help make them millions? An investment well worth it in their minds… But by the mid-2000’s, even though very few players were failing MLB’s new drug testing policy, several players were busted by Federal Investigators for illegally obtaining HGH. Players would test clean for MLB one day, yet have the Feds knocking on their doors the next. You must remember, even the most-prominent players who have since admitted to using PEDs – Mark McGwire, Andy Pettite, Miguel Tajeda – never once tested positive in MLB’s testing. Nice job, baseball.

So how did we finally get to a point where the drug testing policy is effective? In 2008, MLB and MLBPA finally agreed to a new, more-stringent drug policy – one that includes the testing of insulin-like growth factor, gonadotropins, aromatase inhibitors, selective estrogen receptor modulators and antiestrogens, including clomid. Players can no longer use their excessive income to get around an incapable system. The system has finally caught up to these cheats and the game has changed – dramatically.

Even the most elementary of stats can tell this damning story. In 2000, the average MLB team scored 5.14 per game. In 2006, 4.86 runs per game. In 2012, 4.29 runs per game. In just 12 seasons, each team is now averaging .85 less runs per game. In totality, that’s over 4100 less runs per season in the MLB now when compared to the year 2000. You still believe steroids don’t make a difference? It’s not that hitters have forgotten how to hit, it’s just offensive stats have digressed back to the norm. Baseball is once again the war of attrition it was meant to be – free of drugs and the cheats who tainted it. This is not the Era of the Pitcher, this is the Era of Drug Testing. That’s that.

*Don’t forget to send questions, thoughts, concerns, and/or rants to TheBatteredFan@gmail.com for this Friday’s weekly mailbag*

Happy Friday, Battered Fans!

I’m hoping to do a weekly mailbag every Friday but need your help! Please send any questions, concerns, thoughts, opinions, or rants to TheBatteredFan@gmail.com – I will sift through your responses and create an entertaining post (hopefully)! Thank you so much for you readership and support thus far! I look forward to hearing from all of you! Have a great weekend, and don’t forget Sunday is Father’s Day! That’s that.

Cheers,

The Battered Fan

David Stern’s Comments – Phoenix Suns’ fan know the type of person NBA Commissioner David Stern can be. After all, he’s the guy who suspended Suns’ Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw for Game 5 of the 2007 NBA Playoffs for being human beings and simply stepping onto the court when their teammate was shoved into the scorer’s table by an opponent. At the time of the suspensions, Suns’ Coach Mike D’Antoni commented, “We have the most powerful microscopes and telescopes in the world in Arizona, you could use those instruments and not find a shred of fairness or common sense in that decision. That’s kind of how it feels. It really benefits no one. It doesn’t benefit us, obviously. It doesn’t benefit the Spurs. It doesn’t benefit the fans. It doesn’t benefit the NBA.” Yes, that David Stern.

Yesterday, Stern was at it again. On the Jim Rome talk-radio show, Rome asked a question that has been on everybody’s mind for weeks, “Was the fix in for the lottery?” Now remember, this is a state of affairs the NBA created for itself. In a rare situation in which the league owned the New Orleans Hornets for over a year now, the NBA has had plenty of time to sell the Hornets and avoid such potential line of questioning. Only the league didn’t sell the team prior to the lottery selection and the Hornets happened to win it – so Rome asked Stern the obvious question. Initially, Stern handled it calmly and professionally – responding, “Uh, you know, I have two answers for that. I’ll give you the easy one – no – and a statement: Shame on you for asking.” Stern should have left it at that… but of course he didn’t.  After bickering with Rome over whether or not the question was a fair one to even ask, Stern fired at Rome, “Have you stopped beating your wife yet?” Excuse me…rewind!

While Stern was simply trying to throw a loaded question back at Rome for what he felt was a loaded question thrown his direction, one can only imagine how far the NBA’s public relations director spit his/her coffee upon hearing the comments. First of all, Rome’s question wasn’t necessarily loaded. Rome did not ask, “So how long have you been fixing the lottery?” That would have been loaded. Second of all, for all of the rhetorical questions Stern could have thrown one back at Rome, he uses one involving the sensitive issue of domestic violence? Really?

For a commissioner who has gone great lengths to clean up his league’s ‘gangster’ image, are there any more damning words Stern could have spoken to hurt his image? If Stern really cared about the image of the NBA, he should worry less about how his players dress and more about the own venom coming out of his mouth. Such irrational and unnecessary comments about ‘beating one’s wife’ make Commissioner Stern look like the biggest thug of all.

Floyd Mayweather – Not sure if you heard yesterday, but World-Champion boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr requested that he be released from jail because the low-quality of food and water is threatening his health. Thankfully, the judge denied his request and ordered him to fulfill his 90-day sentence. Mayweather, known for his defensive style of boxing, couldn’t dodge the long dick of the law on this one.

Mayweather’s request reminds me of the Saturday Night Live skit where Will Farrell plays Dale Sturtevant in a skit called Dissing Your Dog. In the skit, Farrell’s spoiled dog is unhappy with his food choices and refuses to eat his dinner. Farrell sarcastically apologizes to the dog for not serving him ‘prime rib’, and then says – “But keep in mind, you’re a f*cking dog!” I’m not sure if Mayweather knows it, but newsflash – he’s a f*cking criminal! Floyd, if you don’t want shitty food and limited space for 90 days, how about you don’t plead guilty in connection with domestic violence? Jail is meant to be a deterrent for tough guys like you who plead guilty to striking females in front of their children. When you admit to doing such a ghastly thing, you don’t get to live the lavished lifestyle you’re used to. Time to serve your sentence. Money can’t buy you out of this one.

Boston Celtics – Was there anything more undeserving than the amount of credit the aging Boston Celtics received for almost making the NBA Finals. After all, this is the same Celtics team that got to face the Dwight Howard-less Orlando Magic in the first round, the mediocre 8^th seed Philadelphia 76ers in the second round (who were only there because Derrick Rose got injured), and then got to face the Chris Bosh-less Miami Heat for most of the Eastern Conference Finals. The Celtics did not play against a complete, solid team the entire playoffs until games 6 and 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals – they lost both.

Hopefully for Celtics’ fans, this fortunate run deep into the playoffs does not give the front office any illusions of grandeur. This is an aging roster that needs to be broken up. Letting Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett leave for cap space and trading Paul Pierce for a young core player to partner with Rajon Rando and Jeff Green would be best thing going forward. The last thing you want as a Celtics’ fan is to bring back the same team, and for your aging roster to hobble into the playoffs and get smacked in the first round next year. At least after this year’s deep (lucky) playoff run, Celtics’ fans can say goodbye to their stars on a high note.

That’s that.