Category: Sports

Phillies Players Among Best Paid (In World)

The Philadelphia Phillies last night, July 22, blew a lead in the top of the ninth to the San Francisco Giants when ace reliever Jonathan Papelbon gave up a home run to Buster Posey.

In the bottom of the inning, they squandered a chance for victory when clean-up slugger Ryan Howard struck out with Jimmy Rollins on third with one-out.

The Giants would go on to win 9-6 after 14 innings.

Forbes magazine, last month, published a list of the world’s top paid athletes for 2013. In fairness to Papelbon, he wasn’t on it. Howard was, however, ranking 53 with a income of $22.4 million of which but a mere $700,000 came from endorsements not unsurprisingly.

The top paid Phillie was Cliff Lee coming in at 30 with a salary of $25 million of which $200,000 came from endorsements. Lee has spent most of this season on the disabled list returning Monday to lose to the Giants 7-4.

Cole Hamels is the other Phillie on the world’s top 100 ranking 70th with a salary of $20.7 million of which $200,000 came in endorsements.

The world’s best paid athlete last year was boxer Floyd Mayweather who earned $105 million none of which came in endorsements. He was followed by Portuguese soccer star Christiano Ronaldo who earned $80 million of which $28 million was endorsements and basketball star Lebron James who earned $72.3 million of which $19.3 million came in salary and $53 million came in endorsements.

Imagine that, Howard, Hamels and Lee all have higher salaries than LeBron James.

 

Phillies Players Among Best Paid (In World)

Phillies Players Among Best Paid (In World)

Coach Sexual Relations Now Pa Felony

Gov. Tom Corbett signed Act 56, June 18, and it is now a third-degree felony for a  “sports official, volunteer or employee of a nonprofit or for-profit sports program” to engage in sexual intercourse, deviate sexual intercourse or indecent contact with a child under the 18 years of age who is participating in a sports program, according to State Rep. Jim Cox (R-129).

If the child is under the age of 16, sentencing requires a mandatory minimum of two, five or 10 years in prison depending on the specifics.

Cox says the law was necessary as sometimes officials have relations with athletes who are past the age of consent, which is 16 in Pennsylvania.

A coach who had relations with a person  16 or 17 years old would have been liable for corruption of minors, which is but a third-degree misdemeanor.

The law started as HB 112 introduced by Rep. Mike Vereb (R-150) on Jan. 15, 2013 and was inspired by a Montgomery County case in which a private volleyball coach was arrested for having unlawful sexual relations with a 15-year-old player.

It passed the House 197-0 on Nov. 13 and the Senate 45-1 on June 4. Sen. Stewart Greeleaf (R-12) was the dissenter.

Coach Sexual Relations Now Pa Felony

Coach Sexual Relations Now Pa Felony

 

 

 

Washington Fighting Honkies

Washington Fighting Honkies and Rush Limbaugh
A possible symbol for the Washington Fighting Honkies

The pompous, self-righteous types among the sports media are still on their crusade to change the name of the Washington Redskins to something else.

Hey gang, did you ever think that there might be other issues of far more immediate import to the defense of human dignity?

That’s not conceding  that the name of Washington’s NFL franchise is somehow an offense to human dignity.

It is rather frequent that a word or symbol designed as an insult becomes a point of pride. Yankee as in New York Yankees started as insult. Rebel as in UNLV Running Rebels was meant to give offense.

In politics, whigs was originally a derogatory term for the derided English cattle-driver. It became the name of a major political party here and in Britain. Their British opponents — the Tories — trace their name to the Irish word for thief.

Any of you Horace Greeleys  ever ponder why most Christian churches have a cross on the steeple?

So to help keep the peace and to illustrate the hypocrisy and ultimate intolerance practiced by the pseudo-tolerant who rule the old media, we are going to again suggest a name change for Washington — this time The Fighting Honkies.

I want to see RGIII stand in the television lights after leading his team to an heroic come-from-behind win and say “I am proud to be a Fighting Honky”

I want to see the many Washington fans in the District declare themselves to be Fighting Honky Nation. I want to see them wear the burgundy and gold colors of The Fighting Honkies, and wave giant foam fingers saying Fighting Honkies #1 and t-shirts saying Fighting Honkies Rule.

That would actually be a rather great day for race relations.

 

Slovakian Soccer Smack Down

It’s almost something you’d think Ed Rendell had been involved with in some way.  After Slovan Bratislava beat Kosice 2-1 in a Slovakian soccer match, a Kosice fan went onto the field, took off his shirt and ran around. A Slovan Bratislava fan reacted as seen below.

Slovakia, by the way, has excellent beer.

 

 

Slovakian Soccer Smack Down

 

Slovakian Soccer Smack Down

NBA Hypocrisy Reprised

By Chris Freind

He lunged, grabbed his boss and violently choked him. After being restrained and told to leave, the man returned, attacked his victim yet again by punching him in the face, and threatened to kill him. It was just the latest in a string of serious incidents involving the employee.

How much jail time did this violent offender receive? None.

Incomprehensibly, he wasn’t even fired, and for good reason: He played in that bastion of hypocrisy, the NBA.

Let’s get this straight. Latrell Sprewell, who played for the Golden State Warriors at the time of his assault, received a suspension and fine, with the NBA sending the message that a player physically attacking his coach will merely get slapped on the fingers. Compare that with the punishment handed out to Donald Sterling, the race-mongering owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, who gets banned from the NBA for life, fined millions, and may be forced to sell the team — for making incredibly racist comments during a private conversation, which, if Sterling didn’t give his consent to have recorded, may have been illegally obtained.

In handing down Sterling’s harsh sentence, the league has shown its immense hypocrisy, allowing criminal acts, but banning legal — no matter how repugnant — activity. Welcome to Amerika.

The biggest irony is that race relations, not to mention freedom, will take a hit because of the NBA’s actions. Consider:

1. First, let’s state the obvious: In the most elegant parlance, Donald Sterling is a scumbag. He has an unsavory past, possessing what clearly seems to be a discriminatory mindset. As a real estate mogul, he received a record $2.75 million fine for racial discrimination in renting. Sterling could even have faced criminal charges. But harboring racist tendencies, especially in private, isn’t a crime.

2. With such a checkered history, why didn’t the NBA address these issues over the years? It would be one thing if Sterling had been censored repeatedly, and this latest incident was the final straw, but clearly that wasn’t the case. Unfathomably, the NBA claimed it had no real knowledge of Sterling’s past.

3. The spectre of people willfully accepting their privacy rights being violated is terrifying. When commentators and politicians use phrases like, “There is no more privacy,” we might as well hang it up, for if that’s the case, America’s uniqueness is gone. Respect for freedom of speech and privacy rights — even for the most reviled — has set America apart from every other nation in history. If those things dissipate, the world’s last beacon of light will be extinguished. And at that point, we actually become worse than countries like Saudi Arabia and Russia, because we had greatness, but voluntarily gave it away, whereas those places have always been disdainful of individual rights.

4. Or — and this is by far the biggest issue — does an “offending” player or owner, who happens to be a particular ethnicity, get a free pass? If so, the NBA, and those cheering Sterling’s ban, should at least have the guts to state that such a double standard is acceptable.

It’s great for leaders and the media to publicly chastise Sterling — as they should — stating that bigotry and ignorance won’t be tolerated. But how many of these folks are consistent? How many cut off all ties to Jesse Jackson when he disparaged Jews by calling them “Hymies” and referring to New York City as “Hymietown,” or the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the president’s pastor, after his virulent racist and anti-American outbursts? Not many. Both still operate free of protest and condemnation.

Incredibly, one “sports expert” told CBS that even though the “N” word is often used during NBA games (virtually always by black players) the league shouldn’t try to stop such language or levy penalties. “The ‘N’ word is always going to have a negative image associated with it, but it doesn’t compare to the racist remarks by Sterling,” stated Ronald Oswalt, CEO of Sports Marketing Experts, which operates one of the nation’s largest NBA blogs. “Being around NBA players, the ‘N’ word is just second nature and habit for some of them.“

What they’re actually saying is that certain language (the N-word) should be tolerated for a particular group of people.

Sorry. Wrong, wrong, wrong. That apologist mentality is just warped. Sure, there are varying degrees of racism, but ultimately, racism is racism. You can’t excuse and justify it in some cases, but not others. Doing so will never move society ahead. Never.

The quickest way to widen the gulf between races is for leaders on both sides to espouse blatant hypocrisy, picking and choosing which racist comments — and by whom they are said — to criticize. In the same way the “average” American increasingly believes politicians favor the well-connected, resulting in an all-time high mistrust of government, selectively meting out condemnation for racial incidents only builds a powder keg of resentment. People may not agree with how something is done, but if they feel it is done equally and without favoritism, they can live with it. That’s the whole point of the Equal Protection Clause — the law is applied equally. When that concept falters, so do people’s inclination to work together.

5. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver is attempting to gain the support of three-quarters of NBA owners to force Sterling to sell the Clippers. Two points:

If the NBA has any guts, every owner voting against Sterling should personally put up a share of the team’s $575 million value, and, upon buying it, donate all the proceeds to nonprofit organizations fighting racism (in all its forms) and advocating fairness in housing, and establish scholarship funds for minority children. Following that, they should sell the team to the highest bidder, with the proceeds again going to charity. Of course, they won’t do that.

» Assuming the NBA gets the votes, and that Sterling fights the decision in court, the NBA will almost certainly settle, for good reason. Sterling’s lawyers will, during the discovery phase of the case, uncover many skeletons in the closets of hypocritical owners. They should be mindful of the proverb, “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.”

This issue is infinitely bigger than Donald Sterling and the NBA. It is about how we view each other as Americans, and more important, as people. It is about how we tackle difficult issues, and how solutions can only be realized if all are treated equally, with special privilege for none. It’s time, once and for all, to stop seeing things in black and white, and start living in a colorblind society, since we are all members of the only “race” that matters — the human race.

 

NBA Hypocrisy Reprised

Things For Which The NBA Won’t Ban You

The always brilliant Ben Shapiro at Brietbart.com has written a great piece concerning things for which you can do without being subject to a lifetime ban by the NBA.

Check it out.

Things For Which The NBA Won't Ban You

Things For Which The NBA Won’t Ban You

 

 

 

Unionize College Sports? Strike That!

By Chris Freind

Footballs are leather. Teams play on grass. Pads are made of nonmetallic materials. So why is the United Steelworkers union bankrolling the efforts of the Northwestern University football team to unionize?

Maybe it’s because they play on a grid-iron. But if so, the Ironworkers union must be molten-mad at what would seem a hostile takeover of its natural constituency.

Or maybe it’s because organized labor is desperate in its quest to stay relevant, given that private sector union density is a paltry 7 percent, a level not seen since 1932.

But using a trick play, the Steelworkers and the football team, led by quarterback Kain Colter, are ahead in the first quarter, thanks to a controversial call by the ref — National Labor Relations Board Regional Director Peter Sung Ohr. In his ruling, Ohr decided that Northwestern scholarship players are “employees” of the university, and can therefore unionize. On its face, the argument would seem likely to get sacked. But with the courts, you never know.

But the union issue is a red herring, with the big picture being entirely missed. Instead of discussing whether players should be paid or if they are “student-athletes” or just “athletes,” the situation can never truly improve until the NCAA is either abolished, or at the least, massively reformed.

Let’s review:

The NCAA — officially a nonprofit, which sounds like an April Fool’s joke — has become an authoritarian religion demanding that all who want to play, or administer, college sports must bow to it, strictly adhering to its creed — or risk swift excommunication. It rakes in billions off the backs of football players and their universities while rewarding both with mind-boggling restrictions. No one pays to watch sanctimonious, fat cat hypocrites masquerading as caring NCAA executives. The athletes are the star attraction, yet they get precious little for their efforts, compared to the revenue they generate.

The NCAA monopoly needs to be broken, and reformed from top to bottom. Only government can do it under the auspices of anti-trust violations, but given its complexity, we’ll deal with that in a separate column.

Now let’s look at the lawsuit itself:

1. On a political note, this case illustrates an often-overlooked but extremely important aspect of presidential power. While high-profile nominees generate headlines, those appointed to the obscure National Labor Relations Board make decisions that affect millions of Americans. From its case against Boeing — because that company moved some production facilities to another state — to the Northwestern case, the NLRB, reflecting the philosophy of the president, has made many far-reaching decisions.

2. Are scholarship players employees of the university? Maybe.

There are numerous statutes defining what constitutes an employee, but a general description is one who reports to a boss (in this case, the coach), at a particular place and time (a set schedule), and fulfills agreed upon duties (practice, games and all team-related activities) in exchange for economic compensation (scholarships). From that perspective, it becomes difficult to argue that they are not employees — especially given the benefit received by the employer (millions in revenue).

3. On the other hand, one of the “employee” arguments is that players are sought solely for their playing abilities. Therefore, they are not student-athletes, but just athletes. But if that were the case, the athletes wouldn’t be required to attend class, since the “student” part would no longer be relevant. But they are mandated to go to class and required to maintain certain grades to remain eligible. Tutors travel with the teams, and academics, depending on the school, play an important role in college athletes’ lives. If team members didn’t go to class, they wouldn’t remain on the team.

4. Ohr ruled that Northwestern prioritizes football over academics, since players aren’t permitted to take classes that conflict with practice or leave practice early to make a class. This clearly demonstrates that the director is a Monday morning quarterback who knows nothing about the real world.

My God — the horror that one has to schedule classes around practice! Guess what? So does the band, many of whom are also on scholarship. And other athletes. And the student body president. And all those who have jobs on or off campus. Kind of like how people have to schedule their privates lives — from picking up the kids to dropping off the dry cleaning — around their jobs. To claim that players are employees because the team has a dedicated schedule is downright insulting. Maybe if Ohr had a private sector job, he’d understand the concept.

5. Regardless of whether players are employees, where does it end? Can academic scholarship recipients form a union? Surely they would be employees too, since they are being “paid” via their scholarship, and they bring in revenue, even if indirectly, when their high marks and excellent records make the university a more desirable institution — allowing it to charge higher tuition. What about poor, affirmative action students? They add diversity to the school, further enhancing its appeal, which can be a financial windfall, as many state and federal grant programs exist solely for minority and low-income students — money that ends up in university coffers.

So if the criteria for “employees” to unionize are based on revenue generated for the school, it clearly can’t, and won’t, just be for football.

6. The elephant in the room is whether athletes should be paid, receiving some stipend to offset expenses. Sure, a full ride at 50, 60 and even 70 grand per year is fantastic, but to lose it all because a dirt-poor student signs a jersey for pizza money or accepts a bus ticket home to see mom and dad at Thanksgiving is insane.

Paying athletes shouldn’t be for the NLRB to decide. Instead, it should be a decision made at the university or conference level, using the free market as a guide. But the NCAA doesn’t allow it, and things won’t change until the justice department breaks the NCAA’s monopoly on deciding such issues.

Undoubtedly, college football players deserve some level of protection and compensation. But permitting them to unionize isn’t the way to go. Instead, it’s time to strike at the heart of the matter, demanding that the NCAA reform itself, or be locked out. And that would be a touchdown — for everyone.

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Lose Sixers, Lose!

The Philadelphia 76ers, last night, March 27, fell 120-98 to the Houston Rockets and tied a record for the NBA’s longest losing streak.

Philadelphia now holds or shares the losing-streak record in two of the four major sports as the 23 in a row lost by the Phillies in 1961 continues to stand as the benchmark for modern major league baseball.

All that’s needed are some really bad season from the Flyers and Eagles and the city will sweep the category.

The funny thing is that the two greatest teams in history of baseball and basketball are often argued to be the 1929 Philadelphia A’s and the the 1967 Philadelphia 76ers.

 

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