Well, since this is the time of year to give to your "significant other", I thought I would go on a buying spree and offer some of my favorite (and not so favorite, I'm equal opportunity) players and teams some Valentine's Day presents.  So without further ado:

*****To the Phoenix Suns I offer a gift that will at least keep on giving in the short term, that being a healthy Shaquille O'Neal.  I think everyone is in some form of agreement that if Shaq is healthy this was one heck of a deal for the Suns which should finally allow them to get over the hump and win that elusive title.  The next thing I would offer the Suns would be an insurance policy that the new management will not take one of the more lucrative franchises in the Western Conference and ruin it (those of us who live in Arizona are still worried that when this team runs it's course we won't see another one like it for a good long while)

*****To the Dallas Mavericks, I give the gift of a clue.  While I saw this trade coming a mile off, I still can't imagine why the heck they pulled the trigger on this one.  Jason Kidd has always been and always will be one of the best point guards who will never win a title, and that reason is quite simple, at the end of the day, despite all those wonderful stats, if you look below the surface, Kidd is all about Jason Kidd, he is not about his team.  Then you add to that problem the misdiagnosis of the real problem in Dallas (it isn't the point guard position), and I figure this particular gift of a clue would be quite appropriate given the circumstances and the looming trade.

*****To the US Senate Subcommittee who wasted hours of time and millions of dollars, I would, with respect, offer the gift of a college US History course specializing in Civil Rights and the development of the legal system.  That travesty of a hearing today, in which half the senators were blasting Clemens, the other half Macnamee, was the biggest joke I have ever seen since the Clarence Thomas hearings.  It was SO obvious most of these "lawmakers" had their minds made up before the hearings, and they made no effort to conceal this whatsoever.  Now, while the court of public opinion may take the stand of Guilty until proven Innocent, in the legal system, regardless of if it is a court of law or a senate hearing room, these representatives of our judicial system should realize it's actually the other way around.  Watching that joke today made me actually embarassed for BOTH men.   And at the end of the day, not one step forward was taken in any direction, so what was the point again?  Go back the beginning, Senators, and relearn the basics (this would be a '101' class, of course).

*****To the WWE's Vince McMahon, I would give the gift of Roger Clemens and Brian Macnamee in a PPV steel cage match, winner has to give the loser a shot of steroids in the #### on live television.  Look at it this way, LOTS of people would buy that PPV, and when it was all over we would know that SOMEONE took those damn roids and we can all stop debating it!  (Though I would have Pete Rose do a run-in to cause interference because he bet on the outcome but didn't want to admit to it)

*****To the Dallas Cowboys, a team I do not particularly care for, I would nonetheless give the gift of a padlock.  Hey, SOMETHING's gotta keep Parcell's from his continual raiding of the Cowboy's cupboard!

*****To ESPN I would give the gift of imagination.  Need I say more ?

*****To the New England Patriots, I would give the gift of ensuring Randy Moss signs with another team.  Hey, you KNOW an implosion is coming sooner or later, and the Patriots are just too damn much fun to watch.  I really dont want to see them get turned into "just another team Moss wrecked".

*****To the Boston Celtics, I would give the gift of another title were it in my power to do so.  Having grown up watching the Bird/Magic battles of the 80's, to see this once proud franchise be so far down, only to climb so far up again, is heartening.  I would love to see them win another title (even though I despised them when they played the Lakers LOL)

*****Last but certainly not least, I would offer the following gifts to all the readers of these blogs:  (1) Open Mind, to see beyond loyaltiesand rhetoric.  (2) A reminder to tell that special someone just how important they really are to you.  While this is something that should be done more than just Valentine's Day, this day is nonetheless a special one, don't forget there is someone out there who does love you, don't forget to love them back, ok?

Thanks for reading, now go take your Valentine out for dinner! :)

Dal

I kind of realized the other day that while I title my Blog "Ramblings from a Desert Sun", I haven't done any rambling lately, I've been talking about specific things, so since I was overdue for a "rambling" blog, here you are...You are invited to comment or add to any of this:

***** If Greg Popovitch wants there to be a "trade committee" to handle proposed trades, shouldn't we also have an "official's committee" to handle proposed official misconduct?

***** Am I the only one who feels that it's bad enough we have to listen to these politician simper and shine us on in order to get us to vote for them (primaries) but now we have to listen to them simper and shine us on regarding steroids and baseball?  Find me a news channel where they are not talking about either the senate committee hearings or the primaries and I will gladly tune in.  Meantime I'm just changing the channel.

***** Does anyone actually feel better about this whole Roger Clemens shindig?  Look, if took the 'roids, he took the 'roids, if he didn't he didn't, but someone please tell me why *I* should care what a millionaire sports figure does when millions of us blue collar people show up for work just as wired on energy drinks and caffeine tablets as these guys are in the games?   Face facts politicians, the genie is out of the bottle, and she ain't getting back in, so stop wasting our time, please.

***** Do you think the NBA will ever stop trying to "spruce up" the slam dunk contest and get back to making it what it SHOULD be in the first place, that being the guy who can most effectively and crowd pleasingly dunk the damn ball?  Though I must admit I am curious to see what kind of plot twist they have in mind this year (it's going to be better than the latest Stephen King novel that's a lock!)

***** So Bill Walton thinks the Shaq trade is a joke, eh?  Gee, I wonder if that is because his son plays for the Lakers? LOL

***** Speaking of which, WHY, after all these years, do we STILL have this whole Kobe/Shaq thing going on?  Are the sportswriters THAT lazy now that they have to dredge up this old wive's tale?  It's the sort of thing that's like Paris Hilton - she's famous for WHAT again?  Kobe/Shaq - we are talking about this again for WHAT reason?  Because no one has anything better to do, probably.

***** Things that make go BLEH!  I wonder if, when Britney Spears gets outta the psycho ward, she would take a flyer at Tony Romo for a quick one nighter.  What the heck, she could use a little popular press these days, and who better than ol stick em and lose em Romo!?  (I was going to say Tom Brady but then I realized Brady has better taste in women)

***** Speaking of Brady, back when he FIRST made the Super Bowl, the ESPN shorts about the Brady Bunch were...semi amusing.  After the FOURTH time of this particular running joke, they are...definitely butt ugly bad.  I guess the writer's strike hit ESPN too, since they drug out that whole pack of nightmares again.  (By the way, how many of you really thought he was a member of the Brady Bunch? - Can you picture him running naked through the house, yelling Marcia! Marcia! Marcia! I'm ONLY you're half brother!)

***** So the pro bowl ratings were up this year.  And the crowd goes....mild. 

***** People who like to think the worst of corporate america should, respectfully, take a good look at the NFL.  Those teams with corporate contacts, coupled with the corporate educated sons and daughters of the old guard of NFL team owners, have managed to turn what was once the most mediocre pro sport in America into a ratings juggernaut, that actualy has some parity in it, even the WORST teams in the NFL bring in better ratings than the best teams in Baseball and the NBA (with some exceptions, I grant you).  Maybe instead of trying to be like the old Feudal Lords of Europe, who wanted to horde all the power and not share a thing, MLB and the NBA should look at how effective a model the NFL has, and how much sharing the power has benefitted their league.  Nothing is perfect, I grant you, and the NFL has a LOT of problems underneath the glitz, but on the whole, the NFL is a much better pro sports league (in my opinion) than either MLB or the NBA.  And apparently a lot of America agrees with that opinion based on the ratings.

***** Another thing MLB and the NBA should look at as an issue that the NFL has addressed.  Accountability.  The NFL is the ONLY league that publicly and routinely takes their officials to task for screwing something up.  Their officials are not sacred cows, they are sacrificial lambs, and the other two leagues should take notes.

***** Last one for today:  Take a moment and look around at the Sports world of today.  Anyone notice it's becoming a lot like a political arena?  You got public figures always in this or that scandal, lies and half truths, no accountability, and everyone thinks it's all a big conspiracy. 

Makes ME wanna vote....

Thanks for reading!!

Dal

I've noticed from time to time a series of blogs from other posters that mention that their particular sport has been watered down by expansion, weakening the league overall.  It is this point that I want to address.

Expansion comes about for a pro sports league when there is more of a demand for a product than there is product.  Once that happens it is incumbent on the pro league in question to provide fans in areas without their sport with something to watch, promote it, push it, and even help the new teams become competetive in the quickest manner possible without necessarily crippling the other teams that already exist.

Where problems creep in to this expansion equation is when the standards that were used to establish the fanbase that required expansion in the first place are lowered in order to accomodate the greater need for players, thus lowering the minimum standards of a player from "very good" on up thru "great" down to "good" thru "very good".

This has happened in nearly every league that has had to expand, just look at baseball, purists to this day bemoan expansion as having taken the lifeblood out of the game, along with the rules changes that favored the offense more than they did the defense.  Basketball as well has had to embrace mediocrity in order to staff it's teams with players.

As a result of this, the quality of the game dips, and the fanbase who once was clamoring for the game in their area suddenly begin to turn away, and the thoughts turn to retraction instead, eliminating teams to bring up the quality of the game.  I submit to you that that is not the answer.

The answer is to raise the standards again.  EXPECT greatness from your players, DEMAND that management make the appropriate changes to get greatness in your area.  The Diamondbacks are a good recent example of this, having gone out and got the talent to win a World Series, paying for great pitchers and very good hitters that could compliment one another, and then putting a good/very good defense on the field.

The problem is, too many team managers and owners are more interested in counting the money rather than spending it.  An old business adage is that you have to spend money to make money, but too many people in sports are too worried about keeping that money locked up in a safe somewhere instead of using it to improve their team.  This is true in nearly every sport that has faced the "expansion" dilution problem.

With the NBA looking to expand outside the continental U.S., and baseball having talked of possibly setting up a team or two in Mexico, expansion will not go away anytime soon, there is too much money out there still to be made.   The answer for us is to, by way of how we spend on our money on these sports, vote with our dollars and our pens in an effort to force the Pro sports teams in our areas to DEMAND higher standards of play from those they hire.

So long as we are (seemingly) willing to apathetically support mediocre players instead of demanding greatness, this will not go away.  The problem is not the game, it's those who run it, and (sadly) those of us who pay to support it.  Only we can turn it around.

It's up to us.

How often do we hear that particular phrase during a game, a playoff, or a series, regardless of the sport ?

For COUNTLESS years there have been incidents, real or imagined, in which a particular team benefitted by a no-call, an odd rule interpretation, or something similar that in turn went against the team you were rooting for.  It's been going on, I would wager, since before there were newspapers to bring such issues out to the general public.

It happens in fact, so often, that we are left with the inevitable question, are the Refs/Umps on the "payroll" and therefore end up being nothing more than a secret world of "officials" that are akin to the referees in a WWE ring ? 

Football, Basketball, Baseball, Hockey, Boxing, Soccer, you name the sport in which it is either referee'd, Umpired, or Judged, and I'll find a controversy regarding that sport in which either (A) The anticipated winner did NOT win, (B) The Upstart underdog suddenly found everything going against them, (C) An obvious call should have made but was not, or (D) A dubious interpretation of the rules came in to play...there are more categories, of course, but these tend to happen the most and draw the most attention from fans.

Why does this happen so often in a profession where if the PLAYERS make a series of errors they are tossed, but officials who make errors time and time again keep their jobs for 10,20, even 30 or more years ?   For a moment, indulge me while I jump in to some fact-based hypotheticals...

Let's remember for a moment that professional sports owners and promoters are NOTORIOUS for being able to keep secrets (The old agreement to keep negro players from the majors for over 50 years leaps to mind), and also that they are unqualified masters of the "spin", to find just the right way to phrase a sentence that will deflect the maximum amount of pressure from a question, while still leaving a tiny bit of it out there dangling for the "conspiracy" nuts who will never be taken seriously by anyone but other conspiracy nuts.  This has been going on since the 1800's at LEAST...

Let's also remember that gambling on sports has been a HUGE money maker for all kinds of people for almost 200 years, and shows no signs of slowing down (in fact it is picking up momentum), and also that players, officials, promoters and owners have all, at one time or other, been suspected of consorting with gamblers to fix a game, a series, or a stat.

Next, before you jettison the WWE based analogy out of hand, I would respectfully remind everyone that the public's knowledge that Pro Wrestling is scripted is relatively new.  For over 50 years this industry was perfectly capable of presenting itself as a legitimate sport, even so far as having matches appear on ABC's Wide World of Sports at times (in the days before there was cable and PPV).  Even right up to the time in which Vince McMahon was under trial for steroids the industry clung to it's "kayfabe" veneer that everything was on the up n up, even tho most of us knew it was not, there just was no admission from anyone on the "inside".

Now, let's take those fact based tidbits and throw in some hypothetical theories for a moment..

(1) What is to stop a professional sport from using their crew of officials to ensure that a particular player or team wins, and NO ONE is to be wiser outside of the officials and the governing body of that Sport?  The answer is nothing.  The question as to why they would do this is fairly obvious - money and publicity.  There are BILLIONS of dollars every year out there for the taking in professional sports, and one of the surest ways to ensure a cash flow would be to ensure that a gambling spread is covered, or a particular player has the right kind of night, or that a particular team wins a series...All it would take is for there to be an opening of the "kayfabe" door once an official is promoted to "Senior Official" status, and then that official is told the real score, and then they give "innocent" instructions to the other members of their crew for a game, watch this player, or that team, or whatever, and in the end the fix comes thru.

(2) This country has a history of comspiracies going back to it's basic founding over 200 years ago (you think the Founding Fathers met up at the town hall to discuss a revolution?  No, they met in noisy bars and back alleys so no one would overhear them plotting or think anything was up that would be reported back to the British hierarchy).  From something as innocent as the old Wrestling conspiracies to something as deadly as the mafia, conspiracies and their codes of silence are as old as the crucifixion, the more money and power there is to be made the more people want in on it, and the more likely of there being some form of mutual understandings to ensure that money and power is gained no matter what happens.

(3) There has been, ever since the advent of mass media, a curious lack of desire for ANY sport to properly organize and make responsible their crew of officials.  Think of an official and you will find SOMEWHERE along the line that the official blew a game or a series of calls or swallowed their whistle somewhere, and nothing happens to them, at least nothing that is reported anywhere.  It only seems to happen when something that just cannot be hushed up occurs, or when an official just loses it, that a league will do anything to an official.  But for every official they suspend or terminate, there are 10-12 others who are just as bad or worse, and we all know it.  How many of us have wondered "Why don't they police the officials as hard as they do the players?"

Ok,so where is all this leading?  Do I think that the "fix" is in for sports in general, and they just have not come 'out of the closet' like Pro Wrestling finally did ?  Actually I do not think this is true, but you have to admit, there is a LOT of smoke there for this particular concept, and you know what they say about smoke...

From Don King to David Stern, from Bud Selig to Kenesaw Mountain Landis, there have always been controversies regarding officials, leagues, and referees and their seeming inability to play consistently with the rules and interpretations.  One team can get in to a fight with another team, no suspensions, next week another plays pushes another to the turf and suspended for 2 games.  It's happened in every sport at one time or another, yet no one questions why or puts enough pressure on the powers that be of any sport to make itself more accountable and more legitimate to their fans...I wonder why this is...

Another code of silence perhaps?

I've talked about this several times in my various blogs, mostly about the NBA game, but this time I'm going to expand things out a little bit and include the NHL, MLB, NFL as well as the NBA.

There has always been a long standing issue between the die hard fan and the casual fan of any sport, that goes without saying.  What I choose to address here is the attempts that I see some folks make in dismissing the casual fan of their sport.

It is SO easy to say "Well, if they don't like defensive basketball then they don't like the game", or "Well, if they don't like watching a 3-0 win by the Chicago Bears then don't watch football", and so on.  Those statements, and any other's of their type, are exactly the kind of problems that any sports league cannot afford to have in anything but tiny amounts.

Let me quanitfy things a little bit using Baseball.  In it's infancy, baseball was a base-to-base game, home runs came VERY rarely, and the game was 70% defense, 30% offense.  What eventually happened?  Attendance figures for all but the most dominant teams of the "dead ball" era dropped off to the point where Ban Johnson could come in and buy out or replace several teams, set up his own league and compete directly against the establishment.  Once the ball was made livelier, several pitches were made illegal, and the replacement of a ball once it became dirty was rigidly enforced, the game suddenly became more exciting, there were more opportunities for offense, scores rose, and attendance rose with it, because there was something to see.

Another Baseball example - The commissioner overreacts to the 1961 "big hitting" season, and has the strike zone widened, bringing in a new age of dominating pitchers, basically leading to the careers of Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale and Bob Gibson.  What happened as a result?  In less than 5 years attendance figures for all but 6 teams dropped by 54%, no offense, no excitement, no thrills.  It took an exciting world series to bring back attention to the game once again in the 70's.

The NBA, NHL and NFL all have their own examples of this, on how the casual fans were not coming out to see their games because of a lack of excitement and thrills, it was the same ol, same ol (humdrum used to be the word).  Every team has it's die hard and home town fans, but unless they ALL come out to the arena EVERY game, you only have enough attendance to barely fill up a local college arena.  Changes to the rules, adjustments to liven up their game, and marketing campaigns were about all that saved each of these beasts, because the casual fan MUST be marketted to, otherwise you have no profitability.

There is nothing wrong with having a healthy respect for your particular sport, and a love of your particular team.  Im a HUGE Phoenix Suns fan, a Bears fan, a Red Sox/Dbacks fan, and an Islanders/Ducks fan.  We all have our teams.  But we have to accept that our leagues already have our money and viewership counted every single day of the year, and the difference between profit and loss comes down to how well Mr and Mrs John Q Public can be enticed to watch or come out to see their team, along with the kiddies.

But you cannot simply ignore their impact, because if they go away in droves, our particular leagues and teams are the ones that suffer, and taken to the extreme, this would mean we would have nothing to be die hard and home town fans OF.  So give the casual fan their dues, try not to look down on them, and see if you can help turn them in to more learned fans of your particular sport. 

Who knows, you might end up having another die hard fan on your hands to join our ranks!

First off, I hope you all have a good Memorial Day weekend.  I started mine off by going to see Pirates of the Carribean and Spider-Man 3.  If you are a HUGE fan of the first film in each franchise, then I recommend you stay away from these.  If you are a fan of the entire franchise, then you will enjoy them (I STRONGLY urge you to re-watch Pirates 2 before going to see 3, unless you have #2 memorized, #3 might leave you in the dust a bit)

Pirates had amazing special effects, but not quite as amazing a story, while Spider-Man, when he was kicking butt, the movie was good, otherwise he was mopey, dopey and the movie slogged thru the frames, and there was not quite enough butt-kicking in comparison to the mopey-dopey's.  Good action tho, in both films, I will say that.

Now, on to some other quickie topics:  (This Blog is a bit long in the tooth, fair warning, I won't be posting again til next week)

Cleveland Fans - I urge you not to give up hope until or unless your team goes down 3-0.  With them coming home now for 2 games, I think the Cavs will find new energy in their game, and unless the Pistons bring their A+ game, this series can very easily end up being tied and eventually go the entire 7 games.  If the Pistons win game 3 however, it's over, you're not going to beat the Pistons 4 straight, they are just too good.

Piston Fans - Enjoy this while it lasts, altho I think the Pistons are extremely lucky to be up 2-0, one or two baskets going in the other way and this would be an 0-2 series.  Neither team has played well, tho the Pistons have had just enough individual star performances to hold on and win 2 games, for which I toss a salute to the Pistons, who would be a very worthy representative for the Eastern Conference in the NBA Finals.

Jazz Fans - The hardest thing that Jerry Sloan will have to admit to is that his team's only real chance over a 48 minute game is to run, run, and then start running some more.  The Jazz are younger, quicker, and best of all cocky enough to not really have it sink in that they are basically playing for a shot at the NBA title now.  Sloan's teams however, have rarely been willing to be totally driven by their offense, while also playing solid half court defense.   You can say that the Jazz have played them even for a half in each of the first 2 games, but I still see a "deer in the headlights" look about them, and unless they start running hard, fouling hard, and playing hard for 50 minutes a night, the Spurs are gonna sweep this series.  I remain hopeful tho.

Spurs Fans - Ok, ok, you're up 2-0 against a team that, admittedly, you should be up 2-0 against.  The Jazz have no answer for Duncan (who does), and the way they keep leaving the Spurs outside shooters wide open is almost criminal.  Yes, the Spurs are playing their exact same game, with no changes at all from the norm.  But if the Spurs come out of the West (I think this is very likely), They will face their first real test, when they have to handle the Pistons, whom I think will eventually come out of the East.  While the Pistons have no real answer for Duncan, neither do the Spurs have an answer for Rasheed Wallace, if Wallace can control his temper.  As for the here and now, if the Jazz get their normal 2nd wind going home, be ready for a barn-burner o####ame 3 and 4....

Some non-basketball related notes:

Who REALLY cares if Bonds breaks Aaron's home run record ?   I will applaud him for doing it when it happens (reservedly because of the possible steroid issues), but until then, it's not that big a deal really.  (Now let someone get even CLOSE to DiMaggio's hitting streak record and Ill sit up and take notice)

At the rate the NFL is suspending players this off-season, we're going to need a 2nd NFL draft just so all the teams can put out a full roster of players come opening day.  And whatever happened to NFL teams policing their own players?  I guess when a corporate mentality is running a team, the pecadillo's of the players is just not that important anymore.

Did anyone watch that Jermaine Taylor/Cory Spinks fight the other night on HBO ?  Good lord what a joke that was, especially Spinks running around like he won the thing.  I do find it interesting tho that the same things Spinks did that LOST him this fight were almost the very same things that won Mayweather his fight with DeLahoya.  The undercard fight with Pavlik however, now THAT was a good brawl!

Lastly, and this is just my own damned opinion - ANY player who tests positive for any banned substance or drug should be gone for 1 year, first offense, and banned for life on the 2nd.   I just find it amazing how much we coddle drug abuse in the major sports instead of taking a firm hand and saying you are free to do what you want, but there is a price for that freedom.   Hell most jobs in the real world, you got ONE shot, and if you fail, you are fired.  Why is there such a double standard regarding drugs between a Sports employee, and a Real World employee ?  It just makes no sense to me.

Ok, Im out - have a good holiday, see you all next week!