Beast of an East Bracket

So I guess everyone has to play along with the, "we don't care who we play" and "you have to beat good teams" cliches, but - damn - how in the world does the overall #1 seed have to play the #3 team in the Big Ten standings (and tournament runner up) in the second round and then the winner of UVA/Florida - only to then get Duke?

The committee chairman never really did answer the question about how/why Duke wasn't the top #2 seed in the tourney. Of the 8/9 games, Villanova's is the one I would least like to face, except for maybe Michigan St.

Ugh.

Primary Him

Why is Joe Manchin still a Democrat? Why do Democrats care if he stays in the party? He's at best a swing senator. His daughter is a Wall Street Big Pharma profiteer. The Tea Party helped purge RINO's from the GOP. The Dems should do the same to this DINO.

Democratic War

The NYTimes has a story about the grassroots demanding Democratic officeholders opt for "total war" on Trump and his administration. But here's a key point the article misses entirely.

The anger and confrontation being demanded by Democratic voters is partly a reaction to Trump and an all GOP Congress. But that hostility and frustration is also aimed at lackey Democratic officials who showed an in ability and, indeed a passivity, to Republican opposition and intransigence to Obama during his administration (and of Obama's passivity itself, too).

Unspoken in the Times article is any mention of Merrick Garland that was the most recent but perfect example of GOP efforts to block, delegitimize, and derail Democratic initiatives - all with barely a peep of objection by Democratic lawmakers.

Indeed, having seen their Supreme Court nomination summarily ignored in unprecedented fashion, a nationalistic bigoted buffooon in the White House, and sweeping efforts to repeal swaths of the progressive progress during the Obama years, congressional Democrats - the surrender wing of the party - were fully prepared to play ball with Trump, Ryan, and McConnell before the grassroots rose in deafening protest.

That crying need for a backbone - so conspicuously absent from the Democratic posture for the past eight years - is as as much of the story about the grassroots uprising as it is about protesting Trump.

Immigration

Interesting article by Thomas Edsall. A couple of thoughts:

1 - First time I've seen mentioned that Clinton's pro-immigration stance hurt her among African-americans.

2 - For a Democratic subset, the blurring of legal immigration and illegal immigration by the party and liberal media can be infuriating.

3 - You can't underestimate the law and order component of immigration.

4 - Just because you are uncomfortable about growing numbers of people in your local community that don't speak any English doesn't make you a bigot or a racist.

5 - Illegal immigration is the physical manifestation of free trade. I don't think many people understand or appreciate this.

Mob Men

Philadelphia in the 80s was filled with stories of hits and rackets and made men. Good riddance Little Nicky.

http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/real-time/Tyrannical-Philly-Mafia-boss-Nicodemo-Little-Nicky-Scarfo-dies-in-prison-hospital.html

3 for 3

Has there been another team before the Packers that have played thee straight teams in the playoffs that they also played in the regular season?

Hard to Believe

Hard to believe that Jason Witten and Dez Bryant scored their first career post-season TDs yesterday. Especially Witten.

Chargers

Fascinating that the media reaction to the Chargers move to LA is that it's a sign of weakness for the NFL: that San Diego voters overwhelmingly rejected a stadium referendum and that now the Chargers will be the second team in a city that has not wholeheartedly embraced the first team that just moved there. See here, and here especially.

Admittedly, I haven't been paying too close attention to all the machinations in the league office and in San Diego - only that Spanos got screwed by his fellow owners when he proposed moving to LA last year (with the Raiders), only to have his fellow billionaires award the Rams the LA franchise (and giving Spanos a year to decide if he wanted to play second fiddle in LA (and get San Diego voters to pony up for a new stadium)).

Now we have our answer. Spanos is going to LA. What I didn't realize is that the Chargers have to pay a $650 million re-location fee to the other owners. Which got me thinking. How the hell couldn't Spanos pay for his own stadium for less than $650 million?!!?? You're telling me a replacement to Jack Murphy Stadium might be a lot more than that? In other words, Spanos won't pay for his own stadium in San Diego but will pay $650 million to the NFL to be a tenant in Stan Kroenke's pleasure palace. And that doesn't even take into account the rent Spanos will have to pay Kroenke.

Bizarre.

Doubtful

This story in the Sun this week says the Ravens are possibly raising ticket prices. 

Tthis quote from the team president caught my eye.

"Also since we last raised prices, we've spent about $45 million improving the stadium and over the next 2½ years, we're going to spend an additional $120 million, and that will include putting in some escalators and elevators to the top level, which will make a lot of our PSL holders up there happy," he said during the franchise's annual season review at its training facility in Owings Mills. "So we're seriously considering a price increase."

I do NOT think for a second that the Ravens actually spent $45 million in stadium improvements since 2013 (the last time they won the super bowl). Nor do I think they will be spending $120 million over the next two years in further stadium improvements. $60 million per year?!? Maybe by "they" they mean "the city of Baltimore" but the assertion is so absurd and the numbers so outlandish and obviously false that I hope somebody calls them on it.

Baseball HOF

I've been complaining about this for a while. How can Tony LaRussa and Joe Torre be inducted into the Hall of Fame but not the players who helped LaRussa and Torre accumulate all those wins that got them elected in the first place.

The list of tainted players is impressive: McGwire, Clemens, A-Rod, Giambi, Pettite.

Forget about the hapless Bud Selig getting into the Hall all the while looking the other day while McGwire grew biceps the size of watermelons and Clemens exhibited roid rage in the 2001 World Series while confronting Mike Piazza.

Joe Torre is a MLB exectuive for gosh sakes. He, LaRussa, and Davey Johnson for that matter should have to come clean about what they knew and when they knew it with respect to PEDs in their clubhouses and on their rosters.

Deja Vu

Oh, man.

This article about Doug Pederson's desire to run the ball more...only to call more pass plays is an uncomfortable replay of the Andy Reid years.

As the article notes about the unprecedented number of passes Wentz is attempting:

 Wentz averaged 30.8 passes the first six games, when the Eagles were 4-2.
The last seven games, he's averaged an astonishing 44.7 passes per game – the most in NFL history over any seven-game stretch by a rookie, according to figures from Pro Football Reference and the most in any seven-game stretch by any Eagle quarterback...
So Wentz has thrown more passes the last seven weeks than Donovan McNabb ever threw in any seven-game stretch in his career.
In fact, only nine quarterbacks in NFL history have thrown more passes in any seven-game stretch than Wentz since the Dallas game – Matt Stafford, Drew Bledsoe, Warren Moon, Philip Rivers, Erik Kramer, Peyton Manning, Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees and Rich Gannon.
So Pederson has called more pass plays the last seven weeks than Andy Reid - owner of the highest pass-run ratio by any NFL head coach in history -- ever called in any seven-week span in his 18 seasons as an NFL head coach.

The Eagles pass/run ratio is 61/39 - which is better than Andy Reid's ungodly 65/35 - but not by much. And at least Reid had a pro bowl QB that was often in conversations about MVP when he did it.

But most disconcerting is Frank Reich's explanation of the unbalanced play calling.

"I know when (Pederson) and I are sitting up there talking about the plan, and the plan of attack in the game, you go in with the idea that we're going to run it 30 to 35 times a game," Reich said Tuesday. "That's what you want to do. But you have to make the calls at the time that you think are necessary to win the game. 

That is scarily similar to Andy Reid's lame weekly explanations as to why, despite expressing a desire for a more balanced pass/run ratio, his team wound up with a 65/35 or - at times a 70/30 (un)balance. Reid would say something nearly exactly like Reich - that they had intended to run the ball more, but gosh darn it, the game situations just forced them to call more pass plays. What's most amazing is that those very same game situations occurred week after endless week.

Like Reid, so like Pederson and Reich. Hello again 65/35

Ugh.

Eagles Town

Really? 

Philadelphia really is a football town. And by football, I mean Eagles.

How else to explain the list of biggest sports stories in Philadelphia this year that has the encouraging but 6-9 play of QB Carson Wentz ranked above Villanova winning the national championship with the only buzzer beater in championship game history. Imagine where Wentz will be ranked next year if he gets a decent receiving corps!