Month: February 2020

Pro baseball’s senior moment

Since I’m a “man of a certain age,” I find myself cheering for athletes who continue to excel beyond their perceived expiration dates.

Scott Adamson’s sports column appears whenever he feels sporty. Follow him on Twitter @adamsonsl and Instagram @adamsons60

As a New York Jets fan I’m morally obligated to despise the New England Patriots, but I can’t help but admire 43 year-old Tom Brady.

Japanese soccer player Kazuyoshi Miura is 52, Atlanta Hawks guard Vince Carter is 43, Boston Bruins captain Zdeno Chara is 42 … professional sports is considered a younger person’s game but occasionally experience – and skill – eclipse trips around the sun.

Perhaps the sport that does the best job of keeping older guys in the game is golf. The Champions Tour has helped some 50-plus players make more money than they ever did on the PGA Tour.

But my favorite over-the-hill competition was the Senior Professional Baseball Association, which unfortunately had an extremely short shelf life.

Formed on May 31, 1989, it was designed to give big name stars age 35 and over a chance to keep on shining.

“This will be competitive baseball with a touch of entertainment,” SPBA founder Jim Morley told the Gannett News Service during the league’s introductory news conference.

Teams would be placed at existing spring training sites in Florida, with plans to expand to Arizona and California in the future.

The Northern Division featured the Bradenton Explorers, Orlando Juice, St. Petersburg Pelicans and Winter Haven Super Sox while the Gold Coast Suns, Fort Myers Sun Sox, St. Lucie Legends and West Palm Beach Tropics comprised the Southern Division.

The season started on Nov. 1 and consisted of 72 games with tickets running in the $5 range.

“(Fans) are going to pay $5 to see some of their idols play,” All-Star third baseman Graig Nettles said.

And there were idols aplenty, from players such as Fergie Jenkins, Rollie Fingers and Dave Kingman to managers Earl Weaver and Dick Williams. Curt Flood served as commissioner.

Considering modest fan support was all that was needed to stay afloat, the SPBA seemed like something that could become an offseason baseball staple.

“The people in Florida have a dollar to spend, and they don’t want to see Goofy all the time,” Pitcher Bill “Spaceman” Lee told Gannett.

I was excited about it but – since I didn’t live in Florida – never made it to a game and couldn’t watch it because the league’s modest TV contract didn’t extend much beyond SPBA cities.

Still, I looked forward to any highlights that occasionally popped up on ESPN and combed the newspapers for box scores every day.

For fans in the stands, however, the novelty quickly wore off.

While attendance was solid in the very early stages, it plummeted as the season wore on. By the time the Pelicans defeated the Tropics 12-4 in the one-off championship game, the SPBA was already on shaky ground.

All things considered the quality was decent – day-to-day players like Ron Washington and Mickey Rivers had a few innings left in them, and Milt Wilcox, Joaquin Andujar and Pete Falcone showed they could still throw strikes even if their heat wasn’t quite as hot.

Yet Florida-based baseball fans obviously preferred spring training ball to what they seniors were giving them.

When the SPBA regrouped for year two, only four of its original franchises remained and the league lineup fell from eight to six teams.

The circuit did, in fact, add franchises in Arizona (Phoenix) and California (San Bernardino), but after just a couple of months of play the wheels fell off.

Ownership and investor disagreements within with the Fort Myers team in December, 1990, forced the cancellation of that club’s remaining games, and the five other teams then voted to cancel the rest of season.

“Most of the time in this situation the reason is financial,” Morley told the Associated Press. “This isn’t financial. Fort Myers is far and away the wealthiest franchise. They have an internal partnership problem.”

The last day of the SPBA was officially December 26. Morley vowed that a new an improved version of the league would return in 1991, but it never happened.

Big league senior baseball was dead.

The window for a league like this was a small one, and I’m guessing it’s closed forever. With colleges starting in February and the World Series cutting into November, baseball is already practically a year-round sport anyway. I can’t imagine a real appetite for senior pro baseball.

If one ever pops up again, though, it’ll have my support.

As the late, great Satchel Paige is credited with saying, “Age is a question of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it don’t matter.”

My Funny Valentine

Ah, Valentine’s Day.

Scott Adamson’s humor column appears whenever he has a funny feeling. Follow him on Twitter @adamsonsl and Instagram @adamsons60

For some, it means giving or receiving a beautiful bouquet of roses marked up 400 percent and then spending the evening listening to love songs by that guy in “Independence Day.” (And to be clear I’m referring to Harry Connick Jr. and not Will Smith, although “Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It” does set a certain mood).

Perhaps the focus of the occasion is a delicious Whitman’s Sampler box, one featuring a delectable variety of assorted chocolates that are really good except for that cherry one that sends you into a sugar coma with one bite.

Or you might go all out and have a romantic dinner at a fancy place like Red Lobster. Think how cool it would be to tell your kids about the time you proposed to mom by hiding her engagement ring in a Cheddar Bay Biscuit. (You could also put the ring in butter dipping sauce but, really, that’s just ridiculous).

I guess one of the more extreme Valentine’s Day celebrations was held in 1929 at a Lincoln Park garage in Chicago when seven members of the North Side Gang were treated to a pair of Thompson submachine guns.

Far be it from me to judge how one marks such a special day, but shit …

Point being, this is the one date above all others when Cupid breaks out his bow and arrow and takes aim at your tender regions.

So how did this whole Valentine’s Day thing get started, anyway?

It’s an interesting story.

St. Valentine was a third century Roman saint who got his start as either a priest or bishop – Wikipedia doesn’t seem to know for sure. Also, he apparently had no first name so I’m going to call him Bobby.

Now, Bobby Valentine is also the name of a former Major League Baseball manager who is currently an athletic director at Sacred Heart University, but this isn’t him. Back during St. Valentine’s Day there was no baseball. The ancient Romans basically spent their leisure time wrestling, boxing and racing. I think miniature golf was also pretty big back then, too.

So going forward, if you see the name “Bobby” or “Bobby Valentine,” know that I’m talking about the old one who played miniature golf and not the modern one who had a .523 winning percentage as an MLB skipper.

Anyway, there are a lot of legends surrounding St. Valentine but no one really knows the exact details. Some say he performed Christian weddings in defiance of Emperor Claudius, which makes him a hero among romantics and caterers.

Others say he would – for no apparent reason – cut little hearts out of parchment and give them to soldiers and persecuted Christians. (He would’ve probably also passed out Sweethearts candy as well, but the New England Confectionary Company was not in business at the time, so the best he could do was give the soldiers and persecuted Christians what amounted to construction paper).

The weird thing to me, though, is that St. Valentine had no pookie of his own. One would think that a legend of love would’ve found love himself, but if you Google “St. Valentine’s girlfriend,” “St. Valentine’s boyfriend,” or “St. Valentine’s Match.com,” you just wind up going down a bunch of rabbit holes.

Sadly, most accounts agree that not only did St. Valentine not have a significant other, but he was beheaded for defying Claudius. Adding insult to injury, his execution took place on February 14, which happens to be Valentine’s Day.

That’s a helluva coincidence if you ask me.

Thankfully, Bobby’s sacrifice did not go unnoticed and ultimately served as the catalyst for modern Valentine’s Day celebrations.

I assume at a marketing meeting held to monetize it the pitch went something like this:

“OK, let’s brainstorm gang – we need a holiday designed around romance that makes people want to spend money. Go.”

“How about Romance Day?”

“Nah, that’s a little too on the nose. Good try though, Karen.”

“I’m thinking Bomp-Chica-Pow-Wow Day where everybody gets naked and throws money at each other.”

“Yeah, clever Stan, but not too family-friendly.”

“Karen, I see you have your hand raised again. Do you have another idea?”

“I do – Valentine’s Day! That was the day that priest and/or bishop got his head cut off for marrying people and passing out construction paper. We could convince stores to sell big, red hearts, or red flowers – roses, maybe – and tell consumers it’s the day when they should spend money on their significant others. I guess we could also push the sale of guillotines, but I’m not sure we want to deal with the liability issues there.”

“I love it, Karen! Let’s make it happen.”

The next thing you knew a beautiful, romantic tradition was born and the rest is lipstick-covered history.

Obviously, there are many different ways to mark February 14. Mary and I plan a cozy evening at home watching a rom-com (either “Pet Sematary” or “They Live”) while dining on the finest peanut butter and Ritz crackers.

But if you should find yourself snarfing up a Cheddar Bay Biscuit and happen to bite down on something hard, don’t worry … It could be an engagement ring.

Of course it could also be the tip of Cupid’s arrow, so be careful.

You might chip a tooth.

XFL leaves good second impression

Houston Roughnecks quarterback PJ Walker had a big day in a win over L.A. (XFL.com photo)

On February 4, 2001, I covered an XFL game between the Birmingham Thunderbolts and Memphis Maniax – played on the second day of the league’s first weekend. When it was over, I left Legion Field with a negative opinion of the fledgling spring circuit.

Scott Adamson writes about alternative pro football leagues because it makes him happy. Follow him on Twitter @adamsonsl

Nineteen years later (from the comfort of my futon), I watched the league rise from the dead – and rise to the occasion.

Over two days and four games, the new XFL has already surpassed the old XFL in my eyes. The organization is better, the football is better, and the prognosis is better.

No domestic spring football league has ever experienced long term survival, of course, but there’s nothing wrong with having a positive attitude after such a positive start.

XFL commissioner Oliver Luck talked with NPR’s Michel Martin last week and described how things will be different this time around.

“I think there are three things,” he said. “One is our founder, Vince (McMahon). He’s got the resources and has given us because of those resources a long time to plan. The second one is all of our games are going to be either on Fox or ESPN or ABC. So no other league has ever started with the visibility that these two media companies will give us. And the third thing is the game has really been elevated, and as a result, the players that are available to us – sort of the 500 best players in the country not under contract to another professional football league – these guys are good.

“Now, having said that, we know it’s a challenge, and we’re going into this eyes wide open. But we think we’ve got a pretty good shot at establishing a league that people want to watch.”

As someone who has spent more than 30 years spreading the gospel of alternative football leagues, I was pumped when McMahon announced XFL 1.0. But my enthusiasm waned once I saw all the World Wrestling Entertainment influences, and it was almost all gone after just one weekend.

So much time was spent on gimmicks the game was overshadowed, and by the time it limped to the end of its only campaign the league was little more than a punch line.

McMahon obviously learned his lesson.

Although I’m still not sure why he wanted to revive a brand that flopped in its original incarnation, this XFL is most definitely new and improved.

For starters, these are good football players who had plenty of training camp time and scrimmages to get better. The 2001 version was rather rushed, and it wasn’t until late in the season when most of the teams started looking cohesive.

I was impressed with the quality of play and quality of players last Saturday and Sunday.

The rap, of course, is that the XFL “isn’t the NFL.”

No, it isn’t.

And high school football isn’t college football and college football isn’t pro football, but any level and every level can be entertaining.

If you insist on comparing a spring league to the sport’s strongest league, you’ll always be disappointed.

That being the case, I’m taking it for what it is, which is – to date – a solid, professional product.

From a casual fan standpoint (me being the casual fan) I thought the DC Defenders’ 31-19 victory over the Seattle Dragons was the most fun game to watch. Winning quarterback Cardale Jones (235 passing yards and two touchdowns) played like he was having a good time, and his enthusiasm rubbed off on his teammates.

The Houston Roughnecks and quarterback PJ Walker really wowed me with their 37-17 takedown of the L.A. Wildcats. Walker finished with 272 yards and four TDs through the air and made his case as the XFL’s top QB to watch in 2020.

The New York Guardians’ 23-3 rout of the Tampa Bay Vipers was one-sided and never really in doubt, while the St. Louis BattleHawks’ 15-9 decision over the Dallas Renegades was a bit sluggish.

Yet a mixed bag of the good and the bad is to be expected. Obviously there were mistakes and miscues across the league, but anyone dwelling on that is simply looking for something to complain about.

This year’s Super Bowl had four interceptions, three fumbles (though none lost) and 69 yards in penalties. Point being, turnovers and infractions are part of the game.

From the standpoint of rules innovations, I like the non-collision kickoffs the best. The lords of football have been slow to deal with the CTE risk, and this is a step in the right direction.

It looks odd for the kicker to line up at his own 30 while the kicking team sets up at the opponents’ 35-yard line – five yards across from the receiving team – but it grew on me quickly.

Not allowing players on the line of scrimmage to be released until the ball is punted is also a positive change.

The tiered conversions, on the other hand, didn’t quite have the drama I’d hoped for.

Teams can go for a single point from the 2, two points from the 5 and three points from the 10, and I guess I was expecting far too much gambling.

I think it’s apparent the three-point conversion will be confined mostly to desperation situations, and I’m not convinced the two-point conversion will be utilized as much as I thought.

But I’m just quibbling; I like running and passing for points much better than the PAT.

TV ratings for opening weekend were quite good and ticket sales are reportedly brisk for this week’s slate, so XFL officials have a right to feel good about things.

Sure, the novelty might wear off and XFL 2020 – much like its 2001 namesake – could flame out by the time the season ends in late April.

Yet for now all is well, because this is football done well.

Heading into week two, that’s all you can ask for.

For more information on the league go to XFL.com.