OPENING “DAY” ?

OPENING “DAY” ?
March 24, 2010

The Red Sox opening “day” game currently has 6000 + unsold tickets. That’s a lot of tickets. Now, I’m not naïve enough to think that they won’t sell. The scalpers (I mean brokers) will see to that.

I’m actually kind of glad about this. For the past 5 years Red Sox management has looked at “Red Sox” nation as a giant ATM. They act as if they can basically take a crap on our chest, and as long as their singing “Sweet Caroline” we will say thank you, and ask for another.

Putting the Yankees on opening day and moving it to Sunday night is a perfect example of what I’m saying. [Aside: Why oh why are they putting the Yankees on opening day. It makes no sense. Opening day is good enough as it is. You don’t put chocolate on pizza do you? ]

Opening day is supposed to be a sunny afternoon game where you sneak out of work early to and have a couple of midweek/mid day beers, or you sneak your son out of school and have one of those father/son Normam Rockwell moments. It’s supposed to be what’s good about baseball. The game is never very good, so it’s the experience that you’re going for.

Instead, the geniuses on Yawkey (and to be fair in Bristol, CT and wherever the hell Bud Selig works) have figured out a way to screw even this up. Let me see if I can do the math.

Big recession + night game in early April + work the next morning + ESPN + Yankees + Easter = opening day?

Let’s say you want to take your son to the game. Here's what you need to do

(1) Acquire tickets. Say 200 bucks for average seats.

(2) Leave your family. So what if they are all there for Easter dinner. Gotta go!

(3) Get into the city. 20 bucks on the train for two. Or you can pay 40+ to park (the Special “Yankee Game Surcharge)

(4) Sit through a 4 ½ hour game. ESPN = extra commercials and both the sox and Yankees work pitchers mercilessly.

(5) Bring a winter park - Average night time temperature in Boston on April 4th is in the mid 40’s

(6) Hit the ATM – two hot dogs, two sodas, a program and two hot chocolates will cost you just this side of healthcare reform. Actually probably around 35 bucks. Beers are $7 each.

(7) Get home around 1:00 AM. That is assuming you stay the whole game.Oh, and the commuter rail doesn’t run that late so you may need to get a cab.

There’s not a lot of people who can do all that. In fact, there are very few.

And it’s sad because the only reason this is being done is so that ESPN/MLB can sell their advertising inventory for the first “Sunday Night Baseball” game of the year.

So when you’re sitting in your office on Monday morning - sleep deprived and sick from sitting out in the cold for 5 hours, $350+ poorer, and with a wife who wont speak to you anymore - remember to hum “Sweet Caroline” and thank Larry Lucchino and MLB for such a great Opening “Day” experience.

HGH Testing in Sports? Lebron to take up Baseball? The End of the MMA glory days?

Earlier in the week, a story squeaked across the wire all about a British Rugby player being suspended for HGH. This shouldn’t shock anyone who’s seen a match. Those dudes are huge. But that’s not the scary part. The fact that there is now a viable test for HGH has the potential to rock the sports world as we know it. Following the recent steriod crack down. HGH has become the go-to PED of choice for many pro athletes. Need examples?

Baseball: World Champion NY Yankees had 6 key players over 35 (petitte, Jeter, Damon, Matsui, Riveria, Posada (Arod's 34)) who all "suddenly" had career years and two who have already admitted to using PEDs (Arod and Petite)



Basketball: 18 year old kids coming right out of high school competing with grown men? Suddenly they put on 30 lbs of muscle onto an already chislded frame? Lebron will be taking up baseball as a hobby ala MJ if this goes mainstream

MMA: Brock Lesner anybody? Ok, forget him, he’s an anomaly from the WWE days. What about Randy “THE NATURAL” Coture. 43 and Still ripping guys up – Now I don’t doubt that he’s a skilled athlete, but just use the “head test” He make Barry Bonds look like Beatle Juice.

The reaction to this teting could just mean that people will move onto other substances, but what if this becomes the next big scandal? Will the NBA go back into a funk when some of its biggest stars are discovered using? What about baseball, its seemed to have successfully moved on from the steriod era, how would this affecct them.

Those two entities are well protected by unions who will invoke 'player privacy' issues to postpone testing as long as they can.


But what about MMA? Theres really no one to protect them (no big network contract, no "fighters" union) All they have is a single entity (the UFC) who's commissioner could likely fall under similar scrutiny as its athletes.


WWE got away with it the same way hollywood did..."Its Entertainment" ...But how does a sport that's desprerately struggling to find legitamacy move forward when something like this hits them? Will this pasts few years explosion be looked at with the same jaundiced eye as the home run chase of the 1990's?

Or, has the public become so jaded, so sick of this story that it just shrugs its shoulders and moves on.

Personally, I don’t really care if pro athletes want to do performance enhancing drugs. I have an accountant who uses Adderol to get through the day and lawyer who takes Ambien to get through the night. Do these help them perform their jobs better? Damn right they do. But as long as there going to be a concern about the use of drugs in sports (athletes have to be role models after all) this is going to be an issue…

And perhaps thats going to be a big part of what keeps mma out of the spotlight. The people who watch it - and more importantly, the people who cover it from a media perspective - "get it." We grew up with steriods in sports, we grew up with ritalin in schools. We're not the 50+ year old sports writers and broadcasters who continue to whine about the heroes of their youth being over shadowed like they have in baseball and football.

I have a hard time envisioning someone saying "remember the good old days before all these punk kids ruined the sport." No one is pining away for the days when Royce Gracie would fight a 400lb sumo wrestler, an aging boxer, and then pull on a guys ponytail for 20 minute to win a tournament.

These are the glory days for MMA, I just hope they realize it and take care not to lose them.