Again, LA
That was tough to watch. Any reasonable take would have been that the Niners could have beaten that team, too. Who knows though, kyle probably would have screwed that game up, too.
Gotta hand it to the Rams. They have a plan (trade all their top picks away) and it worked. They got to the top of the mountain. This is no dynasty team though, not by a long shot. They are fortunate to get one of these but my guess is that’s all it will be.
Still, winning even one Super Bowl is awesome…..
I’m getting extremely tired of watching LA win so much. Lakers in the Bubble, Dodgers got the asterisk World Series, and now the Rams take what could very easily have been ours.
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
As I pointed out to my LA fan boss after this trifecta that wa the equivalent to the Seventh Seal in Revelations being opened and next step Armageddon with Russia invading Ukraine….thanks LA…
Second half was real sloppy and was losing interest in the game. Stafford Odell and Donald getting their championship and probably only one is good by me. Bengals jack up their offense line and will be afc champ capable team. Their defense played better yday than I had expected.
re Mauricio Dubon: what are Giants gonna do with him? any future with ML club or is he throw in on trade they make?
Dubon bought into the program and played wherever they wanted him to play, I figure that is huge with the FO. IMO it looked to me like his defense in the infield became shakier once he started playing more CF and he started hitting like another Mike Benjamin on top of that. If it is between Estrada and him, I’d go with Estrada who seems to have more of an upside hitting and playing the infield.
Recent stuff I’ve read in Athletic makes me wonder about Giants IF. Luciano by all reports will outgrow SS and might not even be 3b. Will Wilson struggled mightily last year at AA ball and Keith Law dropped him all the way out of top 30 Giants prospects.
Belt and Crawford signed for next 2, Longoria for 1 more, LaStella (who sucked) also for 2.
Cincy had their shot, but those 4th and short fails did them in. Didn’t like first one on opening drive; Rams went right in and scored, where punt would have pinned them deep. Second one, after promising drive about 15 yrds away from tying game with FG, ended it. Rams hit theirs on TD to Kupp after multiple penalties put ball at 1.
I didn’t like that first 4th and 1 either, too early in the game to take such a risk. It’s amazing the Bengals even got this far with such an awful offensive line.
I stopped watching Chiefs game when it was 21-3. Still no idea how Bengals got that far either.
If Lance is what we think he could be then we will get em next year. There were some nice plays but it really didn’t look like championship ball to me. Anyway, I hope Shanny was paying attention.
Yeah, a sloppy uninteresting game but for the deep pass to Higgins to start the 3rd quarter. Cincy’s line was atrocious. Why teams don’t roll out against pressure up the middle baffles me.
Then again, running into the line on 3rd and 1 baffles me as well. If you are gonna go for it on 4th down, take a shot on 3rd down. Misdirection. Like the Rams did with Kupp on their 4th down play. I’m sure I couldn’t be an OC, but Jesus. How many times can you see teams fail on 3rd-1/4th-1 with runs up the middle? Shanny did it on 2nd-1. Jimmy G was 9-9 on sneaks. But no, let’s not do what works. Fuck me, what a winnable Super Bowl this would have been.
The coaching was pedestrian/borderline shitty on both sides I thought. Can’t believe how open Kupp got on his first TD. Hmmm. Who do we cover down here?
Woulda been fitting for the Bengals to win 20-16 tho. Thank God the refs popped up to make their presence felt on that last LA drive.
Agree Chuck
Think it would’ve been very winnable for my KC Chokes too, if they just knew how to tackle people, especially the very sack-able Burrow…
Lakers and Dodgers wins will forever be the COVID championships. Fuck ’em both.
This one sucks because all these playoff teams had varying degrees of flaws. All of them were shit. Any one of them coulda won, and it should have been us.
I like our chances going forward, though. Any kind of consistent offense and we would have rolled a lot of teams. I don’t know how Shanny is gonna run the team next season, but I am leery of anything he does at this point. And the season now is such a grind that whoever can keep the most bodies healthy will win. Attrition is the name of the game. And that’s no way to run a league.
If the NFL had any sense they would get rid of preseason games and keep the 16 game schedule.
Just like MLB should go back to 154 if they are gonna add 4 more playoff teams.
And the NBA should cut 16 games due to the idiocy of how they schedule shit and the unnecessary grind that is the last 1/3 of the season.
But yeah, what we’ll get is anb 18 game NFL season with no preseason, December World Series baseball, and status quo for the NBA.
Cincy loss when they won the coin flip, that’s 8 straight years the coin flip winner has lost the SB!
Rams are one and done they mortgaged their whole future giving away all their draft picks for old vet players.Don’t see too many Owners signing off on that approach even if it worked for the Rams this year.
Reminds when the only other Owner willing to always go in Eddie D,bought an extra championship by picking up Deion Sanders, Ken Norton? and others to win the SB in 95 season..
The NFL is just too dangerous to build any kind of lasting dynasty these days. NE seems to be doing the best at keeping relevant all these seasons, but that was due in a big way to Tom Brady. Having a top-notch QB helps immensely, but what has 2 HOF QBs gotten the Packers in 30 seasons under Favre and Rodgers? 2 rings and a lot of playoff losses. More than one way to skin a cat.
What with free agency and a salary cap, and now a 17 game season, it’s hard to keep everyone on the field.
I don’t know how they can do it but an overhaul of the refs need to happen. Incompetent refs need to be replaced. NFL is pretty much a gambling game now.
OBJ torn ACL in his left knee, same knee he injured with the Browns last year.
Non contact injury. It’s way overdue for the NFL to mandatory make every club switch to grass fields only!
Over 90% of NFL players approve the move for less chance of a major injuries( not getting a cleat stuck in a bad seam etc)over this synthetic PÓS material they use which is also a landfill waste not being recyclable!
No shit. NY and LA especially have been absolutely negligent in player safety by putting that fake grass in their brand new stadiums. The NFL should make real grass mandatory. Everywhere.
Mark Davis may be the biggest twit owner in the league, and the ugliest to boot, but at least he gives his players real grass to play on. In an indoor stadium. If Green Bay can play on grass, so can Buffalo. it is absolutely ludicrous to do this in New Jersey. Cheap fucking bastards.
Where things currently are in the MLB negotiations, according to USA Today’s Bob Nightengale:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/columnist/bob-nightengale/2022/02/12/players-union-unimpressed-with-mlbs-new-proposal-lockout/6767700001/
One of my take-aways from the article is how little the players care about competitive balance in the sport. The players want the teams’ “salary cap” raised and the penalties lessened for going over the “cap.”
I totally get the idea of the players’ union being laser-focused on getting the players more pay and better benefits. That’s what a union should be doing. I just think the longterm well-being of the sport should be part of the thought-process, too.
When the three New York teams dominated MLB in the 1950s, that wasn’t really good, overall, for the sport. That was happening at the same time the NFL was being put on TV and football began to surpass MLB in popularity. The NFL probably would have surpassed MLB in popularity anyway, but MLB could have been making a better case for itself over the last six decades.
Not sure why the players would care about competitive balance. They land where they land. They just wanna get paid when they land.
Much like the current NFL players, and union, AND owners, turning a blind eye to the past players looking for help as they get CTE, end up hobbled, and die in the streets trying to wade through the fucked up compensation system for players. See Phillip Adams. And reference the people he killed as he tried for 3 years to get help for his problems.
The NFL is absolutely committed to competitive balance, to the point of tweaking the schedules each season to help balance. But, the NFL players have a lousy collective contract compared to MLB players. The NFL players’ strike in ’87 crumbled after three weeks of replacement players.
Don’t forget Joe crossed that picket line, The NFL has revenue sharing. That goes a long way toward keeping things even as well. It doesn’t solve stupid owners (see Deetroit, AZ) failing to build competitive teams, but that is a different matter.
man I COMPLETELY forgot Joe crossed the picket line. Why’d he do that?
As a favor to Eddie D? I’m just guessing.
The MLB owners have never been willing to put replacement players into regular season games. They did it with Spring Training games a little bit.
Another take-away from the Nightengale article is that Spring Training is basically delayed now. Some teams were supposed to have pitchers and catchers reporting this week, and that won’t likely be happening.
Spring training is too long anyway.
Especially now that SPs are fine going 4-5 innings, it buys them some more negotiating time…
man could you imagine? Dare to dream…
If the Niners got a first rounder for JG, then Lance’s acquisition cost would go down dramatically. Would “Commander” fans stand for Niners getting that pick and the steal of Trent Williams?…
During that strike in the NFL in ’87, Walsh coached up his replacement players very well, and went 3-0 with them. Meanwhile the Washington team went 0-3 with their replacement players, but still ended up winning the Super Bowl, The Niners got knocked out of the playoffs by the Vikings, who played a perfect game basically against the Niners. It was kind of a “trap game” for the Niners.
Washington went 3-0, not 0-3, with the scab players in ’87, all three wins vs. division rivals, a big reason why they made the players on the way to the Super Bowl title.
*playoffs*
After winning two games in a row, the Kings got a reality check vs. the Nets tonight. Harsh reality.
Sorry Zum, but the Nets really needed that one.
The landscape of my mind is a soggy field of mud, and sometimes memory gets stuck in the muck, but when was it that baseball had replacements? I coulda sworn it was regular season. But I don’t remember it being the strike season in ’94. Asking for a friend…
irrc, federal trial judge Sonia Sotomayor ruled in the players’ favor on their unfair labor practice charges (under the Nat’l Labor Relations Act) in 95, just before the owners were ready to field replacement-player teams. She essentially ended the strike. “No salary cap for you!” echoed across the land and the owners sighed. They’d have to make their billions in other ways. And no regular-season replacement-player games occurred. iirc.
Ok, you’re the 2nd Flapper to remember no regular season games with replacements, so that must be right. I guess it could’ve been during spring training that year. I just thought it was longer than that. I remember one player (Ron Mahay?) as a replacement who ended up sticking with the team (Red Sox?). I already warned you about my mudfield of a mind….
They got right up to the end of spring training. The guy renting the garage behind us was a replacement player for the Rangers. Chris Willsher. He got his uni and was set to fly to Texas when they settled the walkout.
Steph off to fast start. 21 in 14 minutes, 8-9 from floor. 7’30 left in first half.
26 at half.6-7 from 3.
His brother looked damn good in his Nets debut tonight.
After drinking several Mississippi Mud Pie Martinis 🍸 I ended up face muddled planting on the rocks…
I don’t remember much of that ’95 labor dispute, except for the start being delayed enough that it was a 144-game season. The only near-scab player I remember was Rick Reed, who was a decent starter for the Mets in the late 90s.
Ok, maybe my memory is only half buried in mud. From Wikipedia (which I never check before commenting on anything!):
“Mahay was drafted as an outfielder in the 18th round of the Major League Baseball Draft in 1991 by the Boston Red Sox out of South Suburban College, a junior college in South Holland, Illinois, where he both pitched and played center field. When the 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike lasted into spring training the following year, Mahay was one of the replacement players called up by the Red Sox. As a consequence, Mahay (and all other 1995 replacement players who later made the big leagues) is not eligible for membership in the Major League Baseball Players Association.[2]”
Didn’t realize this, but the guy signed contracts with 13 teams (!) from ’95 to 2013. Best years were as a reliever for Texas ’03 to ’07. I remember there was some controversy about him, being a scab, etc., but also remember saying he just wanted to play ball. Ended up having a long career afterall, though not particularly stellar.
“…. but also remember HIM saying…”…
so he kept playing all those years as a reviled scab, a non-union member? Well, maybe he qualified for a small SSA pension.
I guess indeed as a non-union member; not sure how reviled he was. Teams kept signing him but few kept him for long.
well, officially reviled. I didn’t know that the 95 scabs got banned from the union but still retained rights to play. Mahay’s salary log on BBRef is pretty impressive. Talk about a free agent.
Clips blew Warriors out last night, taking 20 point lead in 4th. They shot 56% from floor, and went 33-50 on 2s as they attacked basket and Zubac dominated inside. Curry wound up with 33 and didn’t get much help, especially once he cooled off in second half.
So last 4: L at Utah L, at home to Knicks, last second W over Lakers at home, 15 pt L at Clips. hmmnn
WillieD
Would you favor any type of rule change to the 3 point shot in either the pros or college?
The idea being to encourage a little more basketball playing as we knew it not that long ago…
mm good question though I think horse has left barn already on that one. They’ve moved it back and now guys are shooting from further out and making them.
I watch Stanford women, who have local kid Hannah Jump who can fire from few steps beyond 3 pt line too with beautiful quick release. It’s a pretty shot and I saw her make 5 of them in game last week. It’s a weapon and forces D to honor it, opening up driving lanes and passing lanes to posts.
This has always been a teaching point for me as a coach of younger players—how are you gonna score out there? If you can’t shoot beyond certain distance, guys are gonna sag off on drive. If you can shoot, that forces them to guard you and sets up drive as counter if you have handle and develop off hand/change of direction or stop/go change of speed.
I would like to see end of Defensive 3 seconds in NBA rule so teams could zone up with all 5 guys on court and keep defenders in paint if they chose.
That, I think, might discourage so much high screen and roll which imo has also dumbed down the game and made it more boring. To beat any zone you have to have ball and player movement, often lacking in today’s game of 2 guys standing in a corner and 1-2 involved in a play.
Love to hear any suggestions you have yourself. Watching teams cast off 40+ times in NBA game isn’t as enjoyable to me either and trickle down affect to college and HS is everywhere.
PaulinAsia’s note about non-union player Ron Mahay revived some memories about the last strike. Turns out Mahay’s story says a lot about that huge battle. This WP piece summarizes it fairly well.
https://tinyurl.com/mm2nxfdz
Thanks for finding that, nice little read.
reading the old news, I also learned that Matt Herges was a 95 replacement scab.
Thanks for the correction on the ’87 Washington team, Mac. Sorry to be so wrong on that. Memory plays funny tricks sometimes.
Ha, yeah, that still rankles me, Washington riding 3 bogus wins to the division title that launched them to the Super Bowl. Crazy how those shameless owners allowed those games to happen.
H Flappers. On to baseball…
\
It’s hard not to be mad at stupid owners when you read this from Jeff Passan..Read till the end. Idiots!
According to ESPN’s Jeff Passan, MLB’s economic proposal to the union on Saturday included a provision that would have allowed the league to eliminate up to 900 minor-league roster spots over the course of the next Collective Bargaining Agreement. As part of the minor-league restructuring in late 2020, MLB established the Domestic Reserve List, which allows each organization to roster 180 minor leaguers. On Saturday, MLB proposed allowing the commissioner to lower that number to 150 before the end of the next CBA, thereby eliminating 30 spots per team, or 900 leaguewide. The players are expected to reject that proposal outright, as they have done to similar offers in the past.
This news comes on the heels of one of MLB’s lawyers arguing in federal court over the weekend that minor leaguers should not be paid for Spring Training because they incur a greater benefit from their training than the teams do. It is also a direct extension of the elimination of 42 minor-league teams—and thus roughly another thousand roster spots—as part of that late-2020 restructuring of the minors. According to Passan, one collective bargaining issue the league and players agreed upon last summer was limiting the Rule 4 amateur draft to 20 rounds, half the size of the pre-pandemic draft. In 2020, the league slashed the draft to just five rounds.
Beyond petty penny pinching, I cannot fathom why MLB is so determined to slash the minor leagues in this fashion. Given the unpredictable nature of player development and the long gestation periods required by most major-league-quality players, these moves run counter to team-building efforts. Yes, player development and coaching have made big strides of late, but that only makes it more likely that the 170th player in a team’s minor-league system might have a major-league future that it couldn’t have predicted when they were drafted or signed. If you want to increase your chances of winning a raffle, you buy more tickets, not fewer. Based on the minor-league minimum salaries, a team can roster 180 minor leaguers for roughly $3 million, which amounts to a rounding error on the contracts the best of those players will earn in their major-league primes. Slashing 30 of those jobs would save a major-league organization less than a half a million dollars. What on earth is the point, when one of those 30 players could be the diamond in the rough that puts them over the top in their next championship season.
Then there is the message that even proposing such cuts sends to minor leaguers as a group. Baseball America’s Emily Waldon shared some comments from anonymous minor leaguers on Twitter this morning. The word “disheartening” appeared more than once. Baseball should be throwing the door open wider to attract more talent in an increasingly competitive environment for athletes, not to mention future coaches and executives. By choking off that point of entry, MLB will only deprive itself of oxygen.
Wow. This is worse than I imagined. They are actively trying to kill off the game.