A Blessing

    We are really in the thick of it now, MLB Postseason, NBA Finals, NFL, and college football all in full swing as we continue to navigate this pandemic. There continue to pop ups of cases, MLB had their troubles early and now the NFL and NCAA are both having issues. Games are being cancelled, questions being asked about make up dates and about availability of players. I don't have the answers and though we're still 3+ weeks from seeing the Big Ten play I have a simple request for everyone. Enjoy it while you got it.

Things were moving right along in March, we had spring training, NCAA hoops was starting conference tournaments, football teams were about to start spring practice, NFL teams were looking toward the draft, NBA and NHL were winding down towards the postseason. Then in one night it all went away, it didn't go slowly it was poof gone. There were rumblings of no fans being allowed but a few stubborn organizations stuck with the normal routine. People were flocking to Arizona and Florida for spring training while at the same time the media were told you can't come in the locker room. Then one NBA player tested positive and the sports stopped. NCAA cancelled the winter sports championships, and then spring sports. NBA, NHL, NASCAR, and MLB all delayed everything. We were left wondering what to do with our free time. Give it two weeks we all thought, that's all it takes, 2 weeks of a spike in cases then you move on. Well we never moved on. 

We were all bored, sure you watched Tiger King and other documentaries but you couldn't have a Fantasy Tiger King team, or bet the over/under on husbands killed. We missed sports, we watched old sports, we talked about old games, old players, and lived in the past. We watched old sports movies, we did anything to remind ourselves of what the void that sports was leaving in our lives.

This brings me to now, we still aren't back to "normal" but as I stated above we have more sports than almost ever. On October 24th I'll get my favorite part of the sports year back, when Iowa starts playing college football again. This year though I'm going to take in this season differently. I'm not going agonize over every single outside zone run, or every 3rd down where they only rush four and drop into zone and give up a first down. Instead I'm going to relax and enjoy the game, the game that I've waited almost 2 months longer than normal for. The game that in a usual year we get 13 of and this year we only get 9 or 10. I'm hoping this year it brings me back to that kid who would just watch the game to watch the game, not put everything into that bucket on how my favorite team performed. We've all been there, we all invest in our favorites and when they come up short, we are short, we are mad, we let little things bother us, we just give up for a few days. Don't be that guy this year instead watch the game with joy of a 10 year old watching their heroes. Watch the game and when the results are done move on with your day. Live in the moment and don't let the moments fester. I think if we've learned anything in the last 7 months is that these games can be taken away from us at any time, so being able to watch 1 or 8 will be a blessing, and you can't predict when we'll get that feeling again.

The New NASCAR Team

    There were numerous rumors over the past few weeks that there was a new NASCAR ownership group lurking and they had their driver already picked out. Last night it became official, Denny Hamlin and Michael Jordan are starting a team together and Bubba Wallace is going to drive for them. This is going to open so many doors for new fans and new money in the sport. If you find yourself intrigued by his Airness getting in the racing game, I"m going to give you a little insight into the key players of the deal, plus I'm going to ask a few questions about the future of the team and what to expect. 

If you read the blog you know I'm a Denny Hamlin fan, he's been driver since he joined the sport. Rusty Wallace had just retired and Joe Gibbs Racing had just pegged this young driver to drive for them, his first race at Daytona he won the Bud Shootout, I instantly became a Denny fan. Since then Denny has been one of the best drivers in the sport, not only in talent but also in influence. Denny is one of the most respected drivers in the garage and someone other drivers go to with ideas and NASCAR sanctioning body listens to. He doesn't have a championship yet but he's come close and we're hoping this is his year. He also was the only driver sponsored by Jordan Brand, if you see a picture of Denny's fire suit it has the Jumpman Logo on it. I'm going to assume Bubba Wallace will also be a Jordan Brand driver. Denny forged this friendship/partnership with Michael Jordan by being a season ticket holder to the Charlotte NBA franchise. They also both golf and have competitive streaks. Denny said in the announcement they had the idea for a race team while on the golf course, and they finally got their opportunity.

I don't have to introduce you to Michael Jordan, you already love him. You know everything about the guy thanks to The Last Dance. You know MJ wants to win and will do whatever it takes to win. My favorite part of MJ coming into the sport is that he's going to bring more fans. If NASCAR is good enough for Michael Jordan than maybe it's good enough for others to watch. Jordan is the most popular athlete of our lifetime, he was an influencer before influencer was a word. His brand is great, the money he can put into the sport is great, and he's got a partner who knows the sport and is ready to help him right away, and not struggle like his NBA Franchise has.

Bubba Wallace was an obscure driver, he was just the "black driver" for a few years. He climbed the ranks but bounced around while climbing. Normally a manufacturer or team will groom guys from trucks to XFinity, to Cup. Bubba went from a Toyota at Kyle Busch Motorsports to a Ford at Rousch Fenway Racing, to a Chevy at Richard Petty Motorsports, not the normal trajectory of an up and coming driver. The thing is he has the talent but he didn't catch the breaks and was always looking for a full time ride instead of staying with a team. Then 2020 happened and Bubba got pushed to the forefront of the sport. His first newsworthy thing happened during iRacing when he rage quit a race and lost a sponsor over a video game. Then the racial unrest during Covid happened and Bubba asked for changes inside NASCAR, and some controversy followed and things started to change. The more certain demographics of NASCAR disliked him the more sponsors he found. He brought new sponsors to his car in the last 4 months from his racial activism, companies like Door Dash, Colombia, Cash App, and Beats all jumped on board. He brings 18 million in sponsorship money to the new team next year. That money will come in handy next year for the fledgling team, a race car costs $400K. Bubba is only 26 and he has a bright future, he's won races in the lower series and I think he's going to win next year.

After the announcement there were lots of questions. 

What will the team be named? I'm hoping for Jumpman Racing, or Jordan Hamlin Racing. 

What car manufacturer will they drive for? I'm going to guess Toyota since Denny is a Yoda driver and I doubt he can own a different brand while driving another.

Will they get technical help from Joe Gibbs Racing? That's the assumption around the NASCAR world, Denny drives for Joe Gibbs would seem he would lean on them for a technical alliance, someone to bounce ideas off of, get set up from, probably rent a pit crew. All things that happen in NASCAR, perhaps when the new car comes in 2022 it won't be as needed but in 2021 if for sure will be. The only way they don't lean on JGR is if Toyota wants them to succeed so they give them their own engineers.

Is it fair to drive for one team and own another? NASCAR does cap how many teams and owner can have at 4 cars. With Denny driving for JGR and being part owner they had to ask NASCAR for interpretation of the rule. Many NASCAR fans site that Dale Earnhardt Jr. can't start a cup team because Rick Hendrick owns 1/3 of his race team. That's right Rick Hendrick can't be part owner of more than 4 cars. Denny doesn't own squat of JGR, he isn't the principle owner of this team. He drives for one and owns the other, it might get a little hairy out there if Bubba and him have contact but that's the risk he's willing to take. I for one hope he's in 2nd when Bubba drives his car to it's first victory.

What's the car #? Denny owns 2 in cars in the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing series, they are numbered 23 and 32, the 23 is sponsored by Jordan Brand, seems logical that 23 will be the car number. There currently isn't a full time 23 car so it seems likely.

I wonder where the shop will be, they bought the Germain Racing Charter but I didn't hear if they got the shop as well. I also wonder who will be the Crew Chief, my guess is Denny's first cup Crew Chief Mike Ford who was working for Bob Leavine Racing and they sold their charter and shop a few months ago, so he's looking for a job, why not work for someone who he knows. 

Bubba is now my 2nd favorite driver, I usually root for the Gibbs guys if Denny is out of contention but now those guys are 3rd-5th on the list. I'm hoping for everyone involved this is a success and yeah they may not win championships right away but being a competitive car and being in contention for wins is the biggest thing to show in year one. Let's have some fun and hopefully a few more people hop on the NASCAR bandwagon.

B1G Decisions

   In what seems like the never ending saga, the Big Ten Conference can't seem to decide how to proceed with fall sports, most importantly football. I say most importantly because football pays for everything. The will they or won't they of the last 3 weeks of the B1G playing football is taken straight from a prime time television show. One week it's spring, then it's January 1st, then it's Thanksgiving, now this week it's October 17th and an announcement is coming. But the announcement never comes and twitter sources contradict each other, and what one person says is fact the other says is fiction. How did we come to this spot? Who is to blame? Did the B1G make the right decision? What is the right plan? I really haven't wanted to talk about this because it makes me sad and there is enough in this world right now that' sad so I don't want to be downer. That's why I've stuck to the fun stuff. These are my opinions on the subject at hand and those opinions have been fluid since mid-summer. I wish more people could have their opinions changed with new information, but we aren't conditioned that way, especially in the internet world, you have to take a stance and you aren't allowed to back off it. With college football vs Covid I've gone through many stages, and I may contradict myself even in this post, but I think each circumstance deserves a different solution.

When the B1G decided to postpone the season a few days after releasing a schedule the main question was why? This is where things took a turn for the conference and the reporting on the conference. The power structure of the B1G is much like professional sports. The Presidents/Chancellors are the equivalent of the owners, who select a commissioner. The commissioners job is to be the public voice of the conference. The B1G just hired a new commissioner last January, and he got thrown into a world that he isn't prepared for. Kevin Warren the commissioner is a lawyer, he was hired to negotiate the next TV deal for the B1G, he wasn't hired to shit in everyone's Cheerios and tell them their 12 Saturday's in the fall are ruined. Warren automatically became public enemy #1, but only because he was the messenger, and the message he was sending sucked for everyone. He is paid to be the voice of the conference, the face, so these presidents and chancellors don't have to be the ones taking the blame. Let's be clear, it was their decision, they voted 11-3 to cancel fall sports. Kevin Warren, the athletic directors, and football coaches had no say in the matter. Kevin Warren did screw up the process but it wasn't his fault. He could've tried to get the leaders to delay the start of the season, but he's new and has no equity built up, he was doing what he was told and that's the end of that. I think Kevin Warren is getting an unfair shake and hopefully he can get this thing going in the right direction soon.

This is strictly my opinion, but I think the B1G vote was strictly political. The states with democratic governors instructed their Presidents to vote against football. If you look at the 11-3 vote, with Nebraska/Iowa/Ohio State wanting to play, while everyone else said no you'll notice a trend. Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania all tend to be swing states, that switch from red to blue and vice versa. Maryland, New Jersey, Illinois, and Minnesota all blue states. Indiana not sure what happened there but perhaps since they have 2 schools they were trying to protect themselves. That is why the President got involved and why he hasn't gotten into the Pac 12. It's also why the other 3 conferences are playing. It's pretty simple when you think about it.

I'm still not sure if the B1G made the right choice to postpone. I think they had 6 months to figure out a plan and hoped things would fall their way and they didn't. I remember in March everyone thought a month without sports and we'll be back, fans will be back in the stands by the 4th of July and things will be groovy again. Well none of that happened, but we didn't know how this was going to go. The fact the virus became political only made things worse. Coming back in May became coming back in June which turned to July and so on. Then it's August and football is supposed to start in a month and nobody had a plan. The B1G says hey we can only control our schools so lets go conference only schedule, I loved the idea. B1G rolls out a schedule, brags about the flexibility in the schedule, if team A gets Covid, team B can play Team C this weekend and we'll switch their game with Team A. It looked great, then they cancel the season, which obviously the people who built the schedule weren't the one in charge of cancelling the season. The B1G being a little full of themselves think everyone will follow suit, much like the conference only schedule. But they didn't, thus making the B1G and Pac-12 looking scared, and the other 3 P5's looking strong. Now I understand not everyone feels this way, many of you think the B1G made the proper decision, the problem is, the voices on twitter were loud and proud that the B1G was making a mistake. I for one thought the decision was ok, and that the other conferences would never play, there would be outbreaks on campus and schools would cancel games. Well we're heading into week 3 of college football and things are rolling just fine* (for 95% of the time, just like MLB, most of the games are going off without a hitch).

My mind started to change once kids started to come to campus. If these schools are so worried about health that athletes can't play sports than why can they bring thousands of kids to these college towns, force them to live on top of each other just so the university can make some extra bucks by forcing you to attend one class in person. This is a contradiction in philosophy. When the athletes were on campus alone things were fine, then the students showed up and Covid cases spiked. If you actually cared about the athletes than you would've let the students stay home learn online and let the athletes stay on campus and compete. Now the optics of that look bad, BUT the optics of your greed while cancelling sports looks worse. This is why I can't support postponing the season.

My last thing is the twitterverse and the back lash towards the media and the rumor mill. Twitter is full of rumors and honestly it's why I use the website. I have Facebook for my friends and twitter is my sports hub, I use twitter for baseball, NASCAR, and college football news. The rumors though on twitter these last couple weeks were insane and especially this last weekend, up until now when we're supposed to hear the announcement the B1G is back tonight, yet still nothing. The thing I think people get lost in is, when they want a rumor to be true they fall in love with it, and the person who said it. When someone says something they don't want to hear, they again rally against the messenger and not the message. If someone writes a news article and puts an opinion in it, than that's bad. But if someone writes a tweet with their opinion, that should be fine, it's what the website is for, opinions. Just because a reporter works for someone doesn't mean they aren't entitled to their opinion and if their opinion doesn't jive with yours doesn't give you free reign to target them with abuse. If people could just be civil on the socials this entire situation would be easier to handle.

That's all for this week, stay tuned because if some huge NASCAR news happens I may have to write another post. Plus who knows how long before the B1G changes their minds again.

By The Numbers: Extra Credit Edition

    Been a while between posts. I got deep into some books the last couple weeks so I was very interested in reading and not so much in typing. Baseball is crazy right now with the Marlins and Giants both in the playoff race, the Yankees on the verge of being out plus all the other races. I'm paying attention but not watching much, again the books have been taking up my time. If you are a reader and enjoy political thrillers, I hope you've read Vince Flynn and his character Mitch Rapp, I've just started my journey in March and have been making progress on the novels. This post will be the final in the numbers edition and I'm going to talk about some oversights, and numbers beyond the top 100.

500 Miles: There is something about 500 miles and a car race that are just special, the Daytona 500 is the crown jewel of stock car racing. The Indianapolis 500 is the crown jewel of all racing. The Southern 500 is maybe my favorite race of the year. I for one don't think all car races should be marathons and a test of endurance, I enjoy the shorter races that Nascar has rolled out this year, a shorter race means more urgency. That said, the 500 mile races at the right tracks and the right situations are incredible and must watch. Indy is so special to watch and even though I don't go nuts for the race it's still cool. Daytona is incredible and edge of your seat racing for 4 hours, you know one little mistake can ruin your day and since the entire season in front of you the only goal of the Daytona 500 is to win. The Southern 500 has become even better the last couple years as NASCAR has gone with the throwback weekend, where teams pay homage to the past and run old school paint schemes. Some are lame but most are great tributes and the spectacular ones really make the race memorable.

13 Johnny Gaudreau: I feel bad for leaving Johnny Hockey off my first round of numbers, instead opting to talk about The Program. Johnny currently plays for Calgary but in 2010-2011 he played for the Dubuque Fighting Saints in the USHL and he was awesome, leading the Saints to a championship in their first year back in the league. Johnny is on the smaller side for hockey players, but he's quick and can maneuver in tight spaces. His wrap around goals are so fun to watch and I remember watching him make those same moves when he was a teenager.

3,000 Hits: Baseball is a game of numbers, accumulating stats is part of the game. There are so many special numbers in the game, 500 home runs, 300 wins, 3,000 strikeouts, and of course 3,000 hits. To me 3,000 hits is the coolest club. If you look back you can remember a lot of guys 3,000th hits. Derek Jeter hit a home run, so did Wade Boggs and Alex Rodriguez. Robin Yount and George Brett did it within a month of each other in 1992, Wade Boggs and Tony Gwynn did it back to back nights in 1999. Ichiro hit a triple. The list is just awesome and to me 3,000 will always be special.

28 Davey Allison: Davey drew the short straw having the same number as 2 of my all time favorites. I talked about Davey a while back and how much I've grown to appreciate his career recently. I wasn't the biggest racing fan when he died, but in recent years he's been someone I've wanted to learn more about. His family was NASCAR Royalty but they had so much tragedy they aren't near the sport anymore. Read about Davey and Alan Kulwicki and their impact on the sport when you have time.

2006 Rose Bowl: The Rose Bowl is special, every Rose Bowl is special. Watching Michigan lose in 1992 and Iowa lose in 2016 are just as great as watching Michigan win in 1993 and 1998. However, the 2006 Rose Bowl is the greatest game ever played. It's easily the most memorable college football game I've ever watched. The stars were stars and Texas vs USC, #1 vs #2 lived up to the hype. Vince Young was outstanding. Reggie Bush did Reggie Bush things. It was just so incredible, go back watch the game and enjoy.

3 and 5 Joe Gibbs: Joe Gibbs has 3 Super Bowl rings with 3 different Quarterbacks (Joe Theismann, Doug Williams, and Mark Rypien). Joe Gibbs has 5 NASCAR Cup Championship with 3 different drivers (Bobby LaBonte, Tony Stewart x2, and Kyle Busch x2). Joe Gibbs is a damn legend. Joe Gibbs is so great they put him in 2 Halls of Fame. I can't talk enough about the great person Joe Gibbs is, he lead my favorite football team, and now he leads my favorite NASCAR driver. Coach Gibbs gave me my earliest sports memory and hopefully he can help me out this year and give me another.

1989 World Series: The Earthquake Series between Oakland and San Francisco was my second sports memory. Sitting down to watch the Giants and my cousin Robby Thompson play the A's when the TV started shaking. I don't remember all the details but the city of San Francisco took a lot of damage that day. The Series took a couple weeks off before the A's finished off the Giants in a 4 game sweep. The actual series itself was boring but when the world shook it became memorable.

That all I got for this one. Next week I'll get back into some regular posts about regular sports. Baseball is heating up, and college football kicks off, let's talk sports and have some fun.