I read a Rick Reilly article today that posed the question why do players with association to PEDs get disregarded by the hall of fame, but managers who used those players to succeed are given a pass? This comes up with the soon to be inductions of Tony La Russa, Bobby Cox, and Joe Torre. Great question to ponder. Some other things to think about:
Tanking:
With all this talk about NBA teams tanking, ESPN is even ranking teams by their level of tanking, I wanted to give my thoughts on it. First off in the NBA you have to know how the draft works, they have a weighted lottery system where the teams that don't make the playoffs have a chance to win a top three pick. The worse the record the higher percentage you have of being selected through the lottery. If you end the season with the worst record you have a 25% chance of winning the first overall pick, which for those non-math people out there, means there is a 75% chance you won't win the first pick. The last team to win the first overall pick after having the worst season was nearly a decade ago in the 2004 draft where the Magic ended up picking Dwight Howard. So in normal years where there are only one, two, or even no franchise players in the draft tanking doesn't make a lot of sense. I think that is why the lottery system was implemented.
This year the media and scouts are saying this draft class has several franchise altering players, so if you do end up with the worst record and worst case scenario you get the 4th pick; you will still get a star. As an organization I guess that makes sense, but as a fan I hate it. You never want to associate yourself with quitting, but teams are being obvious with their attempts to tank: Celtics trading away everyone including their coach, Bucks last year drafting a European kid that has upside but isn't ready to contribute right away, Suns giving away Gortat, Jazz not re-signing any veterans and taking on salary dump trades. Now some of those teams have surprised; but I bet you Boston and Phoenix didn't think their coaches were going to be THAT good. But tanking is apart of the NFL as well, do you think the Texans had the ulterior motive of tanking in mind when they fired Kubiak mid-season? Well I do. I guess I can just be happy that none of the teams I cheer for are no-good tankers. Even if the reason is because the coach is fighting for his job.
*Vikings* cough.
So the question is losing fans and revenue for one season worth the chance to get a star that can change the fortunes of your franchise for more than a decade?
MLB Collisions:
This decision seems to be opposed, on ESPN their poll had that over 60% of people didn't like it. However I am for it. Talk about a defenseless receiver! The catcher is stationary while a base runner gets a thirty yard head start to pummel him. In a game like baseball where success is determined by concentration, skill, intelligence, and little luck; removing this aspect of unnecessary physicality makes sense. The catcher doesn't need to block the plate and the runner doesn't need to tackle him. Sure, it was fun as a base runner to lay out the catcher, but I bet every catcher is happy to see this go into effect. The penalties for this should the same as interference calls anywhere else on the base paths. Wonder if they will attempt to change breaking up a double play? That change doesn't seem as obvious to me.
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