With the State of the Union, impeachment, and every other thing going 24/7 on all the major new channels and Internet sites, we’ve decided to stick to sports here at Casa Cabeza. Not because we don’t have opinions -- we definitely do have opinions -- but rather, because it feels very much like the best thing we can do collectively as a society is to just suck some of the air out of the room.
EVERYTHING is politics, all the time. It doesn’t feel like that’s helping.
For all the outrage, the actual Will of the People has become a forgotten concept. No one cares what people actually think. The only thing that matters is that we stay mad -- about anything. It doesn’t matter what you’re angry about, just that you’re angry. There are a million places to post an opinion, but just so we’re clear: NO ONE IS LISTENING. We’re relevant only to the extent that we can be commoditized, and not one inch further than that.
The lawyers say that Rose's lifetime ban is "vastly disproportionate" when compared with MLB's punishments of players who took performance-enhancing drugs and the players involved in the sign-stealing schemes by the 2017 Houston Astros.
"There cannot be one set of rules for Mr. Rose and another for everyone else," Rose's 20-page petition for reinstatement says. "No objective standard or categorization of the rules violations committed by Mr. Rose can distinguish his violations from those that have incurred substantially less severe penalties from Major League Baseball."
Sorry Pete, but I think there can totally be two separate standards. I agree that there shouldn’t be, but the easiest path forward is to do nothing, which is exactly what’s going to happen.
The best get better
The nation's top classes, according to 247Sports.com, belonged to Georgia, Alabama, Clemson, LSU and Ohio State. The group combined to pull in 19 of the cycle's 30 five-star recruits, including nine of the top 11 recruits regardless of position. As next-tier teams angle for a path into the College Football Playoff, these five programs took another step toward securing their place at the front of the line. In recruiting, the top crust of the FBS continues to separate from the pack.
There’s a litany of the usual suspects here, as you might expect, but there are also notes about SMU, Cincinnati, and Boise State. On balance, I’ll call that an improvement. Notably, Tennessee is still pulling its -- disproportionate -- share of recruits despite underperforming over the course of the last decade-plus, and Georgia once again signed the nation’s best class. However, the fact that we’re actually talking about Cincinnati right now is actually kind of amazing.
If you’re wondering, Rivals has the Army Black Knights ranked with the nation’s 76th best recruiting class. That’s good to the point that it’s actually amazing, especially since Rivals is tracking just 54 recruits headed to West Point versus 80+ headed to Annapolis (ranked 78th). 24/7 Sports has Army 109th, behind Air Force’s 105th but ahead of Navy’s 125th. For what it’s worth, they’re tracking way fewer recruits overall.
Regular readers will know that I put almost ZERO stock in recruiting rankings. They really don’t mean much. At this point, they’re basically just gossip.
The Red Sox, in search of salary relief after carrying baseball’s highest payroll for the past two seasons, dealt the star right fielder and veteran left-hander to the Dodgers, who sent second-year outfielder Alex Verdugo to the Red Sox and right-handed pitcher Kenta Maeda to the Minnesota Twins. The Twins reportedly shipped minor league pitcher Brusdar Graterol to the Red Sox.
In a separate deal, the Dodgers reportedly traded outfielder Joc Pederson to the Angels for middle infielder Luis Rengifo, who batted .238 with seven home runs in 357 at-bats as a rookie last season, a move that will bring some payroll relief to the Dodgers. Pederson hit a career-high 36 home runs last season and will make either $9.5 million or $7.75 million in his last year of arbitration, depending on an arbitrator’s decision.
Red Sox fans are ticked about losing Betts, and that’s justified, but I actually like the rest of these moves for them. Meanwhile, the Dodgers are clearly in win-now mode, setting up a presumed end-of-season clash with the Yankees if both clubs can stay reasonably healthy.
Personally, I’d quite like to see that match-up.
In not entirely unrelated news, Yankees LHP James Paxton “underwent a microscopic lumbar discectomy with removal of a peridiscal cyst.” He’ll miss three or maybe four months.
Ugh.
4. XFL: Week 1
I was an unabashed fan of the original XFL, and for what it’s worth, I’ll miss the player nicknames. He Hate Me was arguably the best part of the entire league.“Aside from the name, there is nothing in common that we will have with the league in 2001.”— XFL (@xfl2020) February 6, 2020
(via @nytimes) https://t.co/zpg3E14c3a
As for the rest, I guess we’ll see.
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| Week 1 Schedule, via XFL.com. |
New York plays Tampa in the 2:00 pm ET spot on Sunday. The game is on Fox, but I’ll be listening in the car on the way home from Mount Snow.
5. NYC Pic of the Week
I took just one picture this week. Can’t decide if it’s art.
That’s all we’ve got. Enjoy the weekend, and happy 50th birthday in advance to Fran!
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| Upper West Side around 70th |
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