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Baseball, Football, Major Sports
Posted by Obiora, August 1, 2008 - 12:20 pm
Maintaining loyalty in the face of extreme losing
It is a cruel irony that the man most responsible for establishing the Fall Classic was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame on the same day that has for the greater part of 16 years signaled the unofficial end of baseball season here in Western PA, the start of Steelers training camp. During Barney Dreyfuss‘ 32 years as owner, the Pittsburgh Pirates finished in 2nd place or higher 13 times, won 6 pennants and claimed 2 World Series titles. He would be mortified to know that his team is now working on its 16th straight losing season, a new US sports record.
In the past week, the Pirates have almost singlehandedly managed to inject new life into the AL East race by trading OF Xavier Nady and RP Damaso Marte to the Yankees and now OF Jason Bay to the Red Sox. Two-thirds of the most productive outfield in baseball gone for young players and prospects. As the ghosts of Aramis Ramirez, Jason Schmidt and Chris Young circle around my head, I find both optimism and pessimism swirling through an endless, numbing void.
Baseball was actually my first sports love. I came to sports in the early 90’s when the Pirates and Penguins were winning and the Steelers were languishing in mediocrity. I remember when Pedro Martinez was called PJ Martinez because there was a Pedro A. Martinez in the Big Leagues; I remember when Joe Torre was the manager of a pretty mediocre St. Louis Cardinals team; and I remember when Barry Bonds was skinny, stole bases and batted lead-off. It was easy to enjoy the game.
All sports fans experience periods that test their resolve. Some fandoms, like that of the Chicago Cubs, are practically built around the (ridiculously idiotic) idea of “lovable losers”. Some emphasize the ‘experience’ of the game as a way to avoid facing losing - “Boy that park sure is purrty!”, others are simply cursed, such as the Cleveland Browns, and some just deserve to lose, such as any fandom in Philadelphia. But in most cases, a dearth of winning refers to winning championships, not winning seasons.
If your team is at least occasionally in the hunt, you can have hope. In order for Steve Bartman to have become an issue, the Cubs needed to be in contention in the first place. We have, on this site, rightly decried bandwagon jumpers, those mealy-mouthed cretins who enjoy the peaks and avoid the valleys.
But losing on the scale of the Pirates is, methinks, a different kettle o’ fish. It’s not that they haven’t reached the World Series since 1979 or that they haven’t won a Division Title since 1992. To my knowledge, the Pittsburgh Pirates have not had a .500+ overall record at any point past the All-Star break in any individual season since 1999. This hallowed .500+ post All-Star mark has been reached only twice since Barry Bonds took his big bat to the East Bay after the 1992/93 season.
I’ve picked sides in the World Series from time to time but I’m a homer and as such, I can’t truly cheer for another baseball team. But 16 years of spectacularly bad baseball have robbed me and many others of our passion for the (former) National Pastime. I don’t live and die with this team. I die and die with them yet still attend 5-6 games at PNC Park each season.
So the question is - should I be considered no better than the bandwagon jumper because I describe baseball season as the winter of my sports discontent or hang my head when the Pirates come on Sportscenter. When faced with such extreme losing, what’s a fan to do? Oh that’s right - Steelers training camp just opened. Here we go!
Photo Credit: Icon/SMI
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College Football, Major Sports
Posted by Obiora, July 30, 2008 - 12:25 pm
- With a new college football season coming, I can just hear the griping about to start - the polls are biased against this team, the voters don’t know anything, the polls favor that team, we need a playoff, we need a playoff, we need a playoff. Like most folks, I too would favor a playoff to decide the national championship. I’ve come to accept that a playoff would be the best way to decide a largely unbalanced season though mine would only feature four teams. But it ain’t gonna happen. So I’ll make a pact with you, oh my droogies. I won’t go off into any diatribes about how the BCS is responsible for the imminent downfall of western civilization as we know it if you don’t. That is until everyone’s “favorite” Big Ten whipping boy gets to the BCS title game again.
- Most of the major sports websites have been previewing the upcoming season but for me, the coup de grace is today’s ESPN.com articles on Hate. I think sports is driven more by hatred of other teams than by love of one’s own chosen squad and nowhere is this more true than in the seething cauldron of collegiate athletics. Is there an occasion where I’ll pay attention to Big East traitor Boston College - yes, when they play Notre Dame. Why do I occasionally cheer for Texas or Michigan - because I despise Oklahoma and Ohio State.
- It may surprise the unacquainted to know that I hate Ohio State since I made the apparently unpardonable sin of ranking the Frakeyes #1 a couple months ago. For the record, I despise everything to do with the state of Ohio, from the boring, flat terrain to that sorry excuse for a city called the Mistake by the Lake to the moronic dotting of the I. However, I’ll stand by the pick even as it makes me want to hurl because no other major program is a better bet to get to the big game. I’ll also be weeping tears of joy with any decent human being (Ohioans aren’t human) when OSU gets waxed by whichever opponent faces them.
- Last weekend’s Outside the Lines delivered a scathing indictment of Joe Paterno Univ, I mean Penn State University’s football program. I’m not going to crucify PSU for its problems given that many Universities seem to be having troubles these days. However, I was a little disturbed at JoePa’s reaction. Whereas University President Graham Spanier called the numbers (72 charges in 2007 alone, resulting in 9 convictions) staggering, Mr Penn State brushed it aside as a witch hunt. Maybe boys are just as naughty now as they have ever been. Maybe not. But with bigger dollar signs in college football, comes bigger scrutiny and more incentive for programs to walk the tight line. PSU needs to get it in gear - and hire Greg Schiano away from Rutgers next year.
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Baseball, Football, Hockey, Major Sports, Soccer
Posted by Obiora, July 27, 2008 - 6:38 pm
As we wade through this summer’s transfer market, I am reminded that financial structure is one of the most glaring contrasts between the sports leagues of the USA and the domestic soccer leagues of the ‘rest of the world’. By and large, the big American sports franchises (with some exceptions like the NY Yankees) try to stay within their operating budgets whereas the big European futbol clubs, notably in England, spend outside their operating means by going into the red and taking out huge loans or relying on deep-pocketed owners such as Roman Abramovich, Eggert Magnússon or Thaksin Shinawatra. Obviously this creates a huge disparity between the have’s and have-not’s in world futbol.
The willingness of major clubs to take on added mountains of debt in order to buy new players, which results in restructuring loans of sometimes hundreds of millions of dollars, or simply not to operate in the black blows my mind. According to Forbes.com, Manchester United’s debt load stands at 60% of the team’s estimated value of US$1.8 billion. Yet the club recently restructured their loans (again) so as to free up the resources for boss Sir Alex Ferguson to make additions in the summer transfer market.
Chelsea FC, which have no debt but have posted a profit only once in owner Roman Abramovich’s tenure, will be dipping into the Russian oligarch’s personal fortune once again to fund acquisitions. Chelsea don’t even forecast moving into the black consistently until after the 2009 season, an estimate regarded as optimistic at best.
Liverpool FC boss Rafa Benitez has been told by the club’s American owners that there is no money forthcoming and he will have to finance player acquisitions mostly by selling. The Reds do have a debt load of 65% of team value, mostly from loans incurred by Tom Hicks’ & George Gillett’s purchase of the team, but recent loan re-financing did not free up monies for a big transfer fund. Needless to say that this lack of cash has LFC supporters dreaming of a Dubai International Capital takeover on Merseyside. Arsene Wenger at Arsenal will also have to finance any transfer deals by selling players due to the team’s debt load from the building of Emirates Stadium.
In the NFL, the three highest debt loads (NY Giants & Jets at 67% and Dallas Cowboys at 42% of team value) are almost entirely due to the construction of new stadia. The debt loads of American teams are rarely built up and/or restructured simply to pay for new players and teams with such debt loads sometimes operate on the cheap while paying it off. After Mario Lemieux led an investment group to buy the Pittsburgh Penguins, he kept the organization on tight purse strings (resulting in many years of horrible showings) until it had paid off all its debt. Now that the Penguins play in a newly salary-capped NHL with comprehensive revenue sharing and have a new arena deal, the team can stay in the black (or close to it) and be competitive on the ice as well.
Lord knows, I wish LFC had a big transfer fund to go after the likes of Robbie Keane with impunity but all these loans make me wonder about the long-term financial stability of major world futbol club play. The case of Leeds United, in particular, must give us pause. This is a club which finished in the top 5 of the First Division/Premiership nine times from 1990-2004, won a domestic title in 1991-1992 and reached the semi-finals of the Champions League as recently as 2001. This is now a club languishing in League 2, the third tier of English futbol.
One word best describes such a precipitous fall - loans.
In anticipation of further Champions League windfalls, Leeds took out major loans which they were unable to pay when they did not, in fact, re-qualify for the UCL. The Whites fell on dire financial straits, which eventually led to the sale of the club’s assets as well as prospects and major players, such as Rio Ferdinand to Manchester United. This was followed by relegation to the Championship (2nd tier) in 2004 and the sale of the club for £10 million followed by entry into Administration in 2007 and further relegation down to League 2 in the same year.
Manchester United and Chelsea FC partisans have come to expect that their clubs will go after the best players available, virtually regardless of cost. Though I would not anticipate a Leeds-style fall from grace for either squad, fans may have to prepare for a day when the clubs’ owners will have to go frugal in order to pay down debt and/or start operating in the black. Futbol fans often view their clubs as community trusts wherein winning is the sole goal. If a team must take on debt to win or an owner must spend of his personal fortune, then so be it. Even at the expense of going into the Red.
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