Finally, some good news: Following his second bust for co-starring with a gun in America’s Dumbest Home Videos, Ja Morant said, “I take full accountability for my actions.”
Whew! That lets a lot of folks off the hook, including reader Mike Caputo who writes that he was prepared to at least share some of the accountability with Morant.
Even better, given the vile, vulgar, violent, N-worded NBA YoungBoy rap Morant was enjoying at the time, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, who avoids taking any accountability, has a lead for the next Super Bowl halftime show.
Artificial Intelligence is about to devour us? Heck, sports fans have been surrounded by it for years!
What once would have been impossible due to a shame factor, especially shame administered by a sports media that represented the public trust, is kaput.
Now, we just grin, nod our heads and move along, lemmings led to the ledge.
In recent days, MLB customers were forced to endure a four-hour rain delay in Washington, while the NFL determined that for the first time, a playoff game will appear exclusively on pay TV, on NBC’s Peacock streaming service.
Short-term money in exchange for long-term risk and likely regret. And to that we, the media, respond with a collective duh.
And if you don’t have a sucker bet or two or five, you can get lost right now, as opposed to later, after your credit cards hit 20 percent interest. Our counting-house commissioners — guardians of our sports — couldn’t care less as long as their bosses, team owners, get their cut.
And the sprint backwards continues.
Now, Anthony Rizzo, once so easy to root for, has become a home plate-poser. In 14 MLB seasons he hasn’t seen enough examples of counterproductive self-smitten behavior to know better? He doesn’t see that there is zero upside, hasn’t learned from Giancarlo Stanton what Stanton has refused to learn?
On Wednesday, Francisco Lindor hit a bloop single, then stood on first base doing his check-me-out thing: broad smile, flamboyant arm gestures toward the Mets’ dugout. A bloop single, for crying out loud!
At game’s end, Pete Alonso reminded all that he still has no sense of genuine class by shouting “Let’s F–king Go Mets!” to the crowd and into the SNY microphone, no doubt to please the reprobates in both audiences.
While Gary Cohen and Keith Hernandez then played stupid, Alonso had just spoken about the high level of “professionalism” among the Mets’ younger players. Ya don’t say, Pete?
Alonso still chooses a gutter vulgarity as his public calling card? Does no one at or near the top — Steve Cohen, perhaps — see fit to straighten him out as per the best common decency interests of all, including Alonso? Alonso would choose that word for the kids in his life?
Yankees telecasts on YES remain a strain on the good senses. During two home wins over the Rays last week, Michael Kay several times became hysterical, carrying on like a wild man trying to scream over what could plainly be seen. Kay again played his audience for a pack of nursery schoolers.
Then, there was that suspicious Aaron Judge sign-peeking suggestion from the Blue Jays’ veteran TV announcers (and that’s all it was, a reasonable suggestion based on video evidence, more gamesmanship than a crime) that Kay, on Tuesday, helped pump into an unjust defamation of Judge.
How dare anyone suspect any Yankee of malfeasance — especially the night before Yankees starter Domingo German was tossed for cheating.
If YES had similar video as the Blue Jays’ telecast — say, of Vlad Guerrero glancing at his first-base coach while at bat — YES wouldn’t have shown it? And Kay wouldn’t have made his suspicions known?
Yet after the Yankees’ win Tuesday at Toronto, Kay led a full-bore, insulting, shouting and maudlin loyalty oath: “What a win for the Yankees, 6-3! Facing adversity! Their starting pitcher getting thrown out of the game! Judge under suspicion that he didn’t deserve!” Ugh.
Artificial intelligence? Our sports have long been predicated on it.
Francesa never let ignorance stop him
The Preakness Stakes, Saturday on NBC, brings to mind one of the scores of Mike “Let’s Be Honest” Francesa stories.
Just before the 2015 Preakness, Francesa went bananas on the air calling for the sanctioning of trainer Bob Baffert because Baffert was going to saddle two horses in the race — a commonality in big stakes horse racing that apparently escaped horse racing maven Francesa, who hollered that Baffert “Should be fired!” for divided interests. Well, both Baffert entries, Dortmund and eventual Triple Crown Winner American Pharoah, ran.
Soon after, Francesa’s 25-minute on-air guest was Baffert. Francesa never found the time to even hint to Baffert that he’d recently demanded his firing. He did have time, however, to tell Baffert that during the Belmont he was seated in his usual seats — “on the finish line.”
More reasons why we listen to the radio, but watch TV:
Last season, YES presented astonishing high-definition super slo-mo of Reds batter Jonathan India twice hitting the same pitch, impossible to have seen live.
Well, that — and more — happened again on Monday in the Yankees-Blue Jays game on YES.
A swing by Vlad Guerrero caused the ball to break the bat, bending it into position to hit it twice.
But the capper came when YES found a tiny splinter flying from the end of Kyle Higashioka’s bat on a foul ball. The splinter was so tiny, no one knew, including Higashioka.
Great — and I mean great — heads-up TV.
Analysis of the Week courtesy of reliable reader Chris Dellecese: MLBN’s Yonder Alonso on a bunt by Boston’s Pablo Reyes: “It’s either gonna be fair or foul.”
Drafting low and locating profound talent
The most impressive players throughout the Knicks-Heat series were Miami’s Jimmy Butler, the 30th pick in the 2011 draft, and the Knicks’ Jalen Brunson, the 33rd pick in 2018. Maybe that’s why they call them mock drafts.
Reader Joe Barbato wonders why Aaron Boone doesn’t have an interpreter. After the Yankees’ win Saturday over the Rays, Boone praised reliever Wendy Perlata for having “gained count leverage.”
Hey, the other night the Celtics wore green uniforms! Since when?
Is there no one to save non-stop cliché machine and reach-too-far artist Ryan Ruocco from himself? Throughout ESPN’s telecast of Game 6 of Knicks-Heat, Miami didn’t move closer to advancing, but closer to “punching their ticket” to the next round.
Reader Pete Covino wonders how Byron Nelson would feel if he knew that the PGA event that carries his name has copied the Phoenix Open by including an entire Par 3 surrounded by and designed for raucous drunks and maximized booze sales.
Bad baseball played a bit faster: Sunday, against three Pirates pitchers, the Orioles struck out 17 times — 63 percent of their outs. Against six Astros pitchers on Monday, the Cubs struck out 16 times. Ya’ll come back now, hear?
Last weekend featured MLB’s salute to Curtis Sliwa, the Guardians-Angels series.
Gerry Hart, an original Islander and all-in defenseman who died last week at 75, was, at 5-foot-8 (maybe), among the most determined, tough sons-of-guns I’ve seen in any sport.
