SU may be wrong but it feels like the unexpected and tragic death of Kobe Bryant has overshadowed a lot of the normal hype surrounding this year’s Super Bowl.  That’s fine with me – a lot of that talk is just background noise anyway (like listening to Dick Vitale doing a college basketball game and easy to tune out).  This does set up to be one of the better games in recent years and it should be close.

SU is on record for a San Francisco win: 31 – 27.  I do like the Chiefs and Mahomes but the Niners defense will be a difference maker as well as their running game.  It’s great for the NFL to showcase Mahomes and there is a lot of sentiment to have Andy Reid get his first Super Bowl championship.  Feel free to post your predicted scores here if you’d like.

SU caught the Michigan – Rutgers basketball game at the Garden yesterday along with long-time subscribers B. Levine, S. Levine and several of their Michigan classmates.  MSG was rocking – huge Rutgers turnout as they finally have put together a competitive basketball team.  It was technically a Michigan home game but there were many more Rutgers fans.  Great atmosphere and an exciting game.  SU was grateful to see Michigan in person although this is definitely a transition year for the team as they seek to be a bubble team for the NCAAs.  Rutgers is good – very athletic – and undefeated at home this year.  All good for the Big Ten.  Now Rugers just needs to get their football team on the same footing.  The Big Ten is a slogfest with the top teams struggling to win on the road.  And the NCAAs are set up for a wide open tournament which is ideal.

SU woke up early to catch the Australian Open finals with Djokovic pulling out a 5-set win over Dominick Thiem.  Interesting match as Djokovic had an energy lapse for a set and a half but somehow rallied from behind win his 17th major.   But the younger players are clearly ready to break though and SU says it will be someone in the Thiem, Medvedev, Tsitsipas and Zverev group for 2020.  Men’s tennis is really set up well now for the next several years.

On the women’s side, it was great to see an American take the title with Sophie Kenin.  She is fierce.

Finally, pitchers and catchers (and metal trash bins in Houston) are just about ready to report.  Lots of research on the Astros’ hitting stats for 2017.  The numbers are striking for the home games vs. the road.  Someone even watched videos of every home game and charted the number of trash bangs vs. hitting/wins and losses.  Pretty striking and pretty obvious.  And, of course, those stats can’t pick up the buzzer-aided at bats.  The Astros also showed a huge drop-off in strikeouts in 2017 vs. 2016 – especially at home.  It does feel like this story will have legs well into the 2020 season.

Clearly Greg Bird is feeling unshackled now after living for several years under the Yankees’ facial hair policy.  Check out the before and after pictures below:

Lots going on.  A few thoughts this morning:

• SU has been surprised about the reaction to Kobe Bryant’s tragic death.  He was clearly in that iconic category of sports talent – along the lines of Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Ali.  SU always viewed him as one of the best NBA players ever – top 5 – but not my favorite to watch.  He was fearless, always wanted the ball in crunch time and welcomed the chance to carry the team on his back.  A great scorer – and a high volume shooter who could score from anywhere.  It’s clear from the reactions of current and former players and fans that he had a real emotional connection – especially with the younger players who he apparently coached and counseled regularly.  It’s another major loss for the NBA coming on the heels of David Stern’s death.  Just very sad.  SU was thinking what this could be compared to.  There was Roberto Clemente who’s plane crashed delivering supplies to Nicaragua.  There was Thurman Munson’s plane crash.  But both of them were still active players at the time.
• Eli Manning has officially retired.  SU will remember him as a solid quarterback who had two magical post-season runs.  His .500 career record is probably about right.  He will be a borderline Hall of Fame candidate.  SU would say no as he was never a top tier QB for most of his years with the Giants.
• I don’t know if you saw it but when Justin Verlander was awarded his Cy Young trophy over the weekend at the Baseball dinner, he thanked the Astros’ organization for their “technological and analytical” prowess.  No doubt he meant that as a compliment but given the cheating accusations, he showed he is pretty tone deaf.  The Astros are going to experience some tough road environments this year.  Probably good for their road attendance as fans will turn out to chant “Cheaters, Cheaters.”
• We are less than a week away from the Super Bowl.  The betting line is very close – 1 point – and it should be a reasonably good game although none of the national brand teams are playing.  SU believes that the Niners’ defense will rise to the occasion and will pay attention to Mahomes so that he can’t scramble out of the pocket.  Prediction here: SF 31, KC 27.  Per usual, feel free to post your predicted score and SU will be sure to give you props come Monday.  And, of course, you will be in the running to win the SU-logoed gym bag and backpack.
• Finally, we are weeks away now from pitchers and catchers.  SU has been monitoring Greg BIrd to see where he lands – no doubt many of you are doing the same.  And did you know that Jeremy Lin is averaging 25 points a game in China?  Ah, what could have been…

SU cannot verify this but just came across it on Twitter:

From Carlos Beltran’s niece:  she says that Altuve and Bregman wore devices that buzzed on the inside of their right shoulder under their uniforms from the video guy in the hallway by the dugout.  Remember how Altuve says he doesn’t like it when his teammates try and tear off his uniform shirt after hitting a walk-off home run?  Said his wife didn’t like it.  Well, says SU, maybe he didn’t want that buzzer revealed?  And his niece says she has pictures from the locker room.  Let’s get her on the Rachel Maddow Show!

And as I recall, he hit a walk-off home run off of Chapman to win the series.  Was that at bat buzzer aided?  Many, many questions to be answered…

And there it is.  Beltran has stepped down.  No truth to the rumor that the Red Sox will now hire him (just kidding).  No doubt we will soon find out if this was his decision, the Mets’ or a “mutual meeting of the minds.”

Too bad.  He’s a good guy.  A-Rod can advise him on how to rebuild his reputation.

It’s been very, very quiet in Mets Land since MLB’s announcement on Monday regarding the stealing of signs investigation.  SU has been looking for signs at Citi Field – will it be white smoke or black smoke?

SU says the key question for the Mets is what did Beltran share in his interview for the managerial position?  Did he lie about his role in the Astros’ scandal?  Or was he forthcoming?  At this point, we know that no player has been disciplined for their actions on the Astros, and we can assume the same for the Red Sox.  We know that Beltran is the only player cited by name in MLB’s report.  We know he has a long history of stealing signs “the old fashioned way” without the use of technology, and that he was very good at it.  What if it turns out Verlander was a key guy in translating the signs of opponents for his hitters?

SU has read a number of articles this week about the future treatment of Hinch and Cora.  The consensus seems to be that both will find their way back into some baseball related role once time goes by, and that could easily be a managerial role.  Interesting.  Mark McGwire has gotten jobs and certainly A-Rod is everywhere.  The reality is that people are forgiving, and especially in sports where if you are contrite, people will forgive and forget.

What is interesting is that Beltran doesn’t come with a track record of managing that would make you say, “man, we can’t let this guy get away.”  He has never managed anywhere at any level.

SU’s advice: keep Beltran, have him answer questions with the media, and show major, major contrition.  He has time before the season starts to answer a ton of questions and get this out of the way.  SU says the reality in baseball is that Barry Bonds could be named the manager of some team tomorrow or even Sammy Sosa or Mark McGwire (or even A-Rod!).  A player who used PEDs does not translate into allowing all of your players to do it.  But you have to come clean and admit that you were wrong and what you did was wrong.  This will dog Beltran for some time – no doubt.

Your thoughts?  Should Beltran be in or out?

SU has always prided itself on the sophistication of its intergalactic subscriber base.  Those of you keeping score at home may recall a couple of comments from back in November when we first started to hear about the stealing of signs using technology.

Congrats to long-time subscriber J. Berfond who was amazingly close to how MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred ultimately ruled today.  Check this out from November 16th:

I recommend the following:
1) Take away all of Houston’s draft picks for this year.
2) Suspend for one year all of Houston’s officials involved in this ( GM, Mgr. coaches etc.)
3) Fine of $5 million
4) Asterisk next to their 2017 championship

If you think this is severe, consider that Pete Rose has been banned for life for betting on his own team and that Roger Maris was punished for the audacity of breaking the Babe’s record in 162 games with an asterisk. This is a black mark on the game and anything less than this rewards cheaters. There is nothing wrong with manually stealing signs from the dugout. When you start employing technology, it is way over the line.

And from P. Friedman who had this to say back then:

Let’s see – horses are disqualified, Olympic medalists have their medals taken away and yes PED users get suspended. If it is truly proven, strip them of their titles, rings and playoff money….Never going to happen, but as as Yankee fan, would be great to see.

SU:  your first stop for all things sports related.  Keep those comments coming.

Check out this article below.  Apparently, Alex Cora was the mastermind and COO of the Astros’ sign stealing activities.  It looks like manager AJ Hinch did not approve of it but ultimately did not tell Cora or the players to cease and desist.

Then Cora goes to the Red Sox and orchestrates the same scheme in 2018.  And this was after the Red Sox had been warned about the Apple watch issue.  SU assumes the Red Sox will fire him also.

Good comment by long-time subscriber S. Goldman that should we assume these were the only 2 teams doing this?  And subscriber E. Mass of generational player fame says check out the video in the article here where you can hear the banging  of the trash cans in Houston.  SU says you have to assume many teams were aware this was going on with the Astros but apparently looked the other way for whatever reason so as not to rat them out.  Don’t forget that Aaron Boone met with Hinch before one of the ALCS games in this year’s series to ask him if they were stealing signs.

And Hinch is regarded as the best manager in baseball.  And as long-time subscriber J. Levine points out, Carlos Beltran gets a pass as he was only a player then and can now manage a team.  Let’s Go Mets!

Finally, SU says in game 5 of the Divisional Round vs. Tampa Bay, the first five Astro hitters hit rockets off of the Tampa Bay starter.  You know they were cheating there in the deciding game of the series.

Like PEDs, one has to wonder how far reaching this is in baseball.

Video: Astros relay signs to hitters by banging on a trash can in 2017

Check out the discipline just handed down by MLB to the Astros.  And Alex Cora is now officially on the clock!  From http://www.espn.com:

SU has been quiet of late but that doesn’t mean we are not thinking.  A few random thoughts for you:

• The Hot Stove must start to heat up now.  The biggest names are off the board but surely others are going to fall shortly.  SU saw that the signing of Brett Gardner triggered the “Designated for Assignment” of the rookie pitcher Tarpeley.  That was too bad as he showed some promise.  Todd Frazier signed with the Texas Rangers (good for him – an d Yankee fans).  SU says watch what happens with Lindor as that will trigger some moves in Yankeeland.
• SU has been following the signs cheating scandal of the 2017 Astros and the 2018 Red Sox.  The common denominator there?  Boston manager Alex Cora.  He was a coach with the Astros in 2017.  SU says look for him to get a hefty fine and suspension for 2020.  I must admit that in the beginning, I didn’t really care about this as teams have always tried to steal signs.  But the use now of special cameras focused on the catchers’ signs that are then fed to a special monitor next to the dugout is not a good look.  Clearly, the Red Sox have seen how the Patriots cheat in various ways over the years and wanted to get their share of that up in Boston.  On the other hand, if you use binoculars in center field and then relay the sign via walkie-talkie to someone in the dugout is that any different?  For SU, the paranoia of sign stealing just slows down the game and MLB needs to find a way to use technology to relay catcher signs to the pitcher going forward.  Pace of play is key.
• SU was listening to a Big Ten basketball broadcast over the weekend and the announcers made the comment that in the Big Ten, it’s so hard to win a road game.  They said you have to be 10 points better than the other team and expect that you won’t get any calls.  SU watched the Michigan – Minnesota game yesterday in Minneapolis and you can see the fouls disparity.   19 fouls for Michigan to 7 for Minnesota.  27 fouls shot to 6.   It’s true that Minnesota pounds the ball down low while Michigan takes more 3-pointers but when you have two 7-footers banging on each other down low, it’s not always a foul.  And when Teske on Michigan looked to shoot, he didn’t get any calls.  This ultimately likely did not influence the final result but surely the Big Ten, which has the worst referees for both football and basketball, can look at the foul call disparity (using analytics) and figure this out?  At some point, it’s just stupid and obvious.
• It was funny that in the Kansas City – Houston game yesterday, a college football game broke out.  I mean, in the NFL, you never see a team rally from 24 points down – in one quarter!  True, trying a fake punt in your own territory is not the best move but this was wild.  SU says it’s actually a good thing for the NFL.
• SU, along with 7 other people, was watching the ATP Cup on the Tennis Channel for the last 10 days.  It was a mini- Davis Cup event – 2 singles matches and one doubles, 2 out of 3 sets.  SU enjoyed watching my man, Djokovic, as his Serbia team ended up winning with him beating Nadal in the finals.  What was interesting for Djokovic is that apparently there are a lot of Serbs living in Australia and they really turned out.  He had so much crowd support which he never, ever gets.  Playing in the era of Federer and Nadal, he is always up against the home field advantage for the opponent.  What was obvious is that the Next Gen players – Shapovalev, Medvedev, Tsitsipas – are on the cusp of winning a grand slam and SU expects we will see that happen in 2020.  Men’s tennis is in good shape for the foreseeable future.  Unfortunately, no American men in the mix.
• Finally, we get to see the college football championship game tonight.  SU says they made a mistake delaying this game an extra week.  It’s a great match up and on a Monday night, they should get a big TV audience but a 2-week break did not make sense.

SU was remiss on not asking for Super Bowl predictions.  Based on the results of the first 2 rounds, at least I avoided being wrong again for this year.  A San Francisco – KC game would be fun and feels fairly even.  You have to give the Chiefs credit for finding a way to replace Karim Hunt quickly and get back to the AFC championship game again.