SU must come clean: I no longer even check the Sports Section in the New York Times.  For you Millennials, that is part of a newspaper.  I am also no longer reading espn.com.  No games, no need.  Although I did just see that the French Open has been canceled and will be played in September.  I assume not at the same time as the US Open!

I have been giving some thought to what sports we can play outside once the weather turns warmer in April.  My thinking:

• Tennis: as long as you don’t have a 2-handed backhand, you can wear a golf glove on your left hand and avoid having to touch the ball.  Keep the 6-foot social distance with your doubles partner (no chest bumps during the match) and no post-match handshakes.  SU says it’s certainly doable.
• Golf: I have read some articles on line about golf.  The consensus is that you don’t go into the pro shop and you don’t drive a cart.  Pay at the first tee, use a pull cart or walk and carry your bag.  Pick your own ball out of the cup.  Wear 2 golf gloves so you can remove the flag from the hole.  Again, SU says doable.
• Basketball: nope
• Soccer: nope
• Paddle Tennis: this might be harder to maintain the 6-foot social distance minimum.  Plus more likely to collide with your partner.

SU is in the middle of Babylon Berlin on Netflix.  Highly recommend.  Takes place in Berlin in 1929 before the rise of Nazism.  Dubbed from German (I think).  Worth a look says SU.

That’s it for now.  Tom Brady to the Bucs for $30 million a year?  Hard to see how that is a happy ending for him but he will in fact get paid handsomely (and he is handsome).  The NFL draft will be held with no crowd.  Baseball is targeting late May now.

SU says SNY and the YES Network should broadcast every game from last season in 2020 on the same day that it was played in 2019.  We need to get into some type of rhythm.  If you are a Yankee fan, you can try and tune in for games that Yankee players got injured.  You can either research that or just watch – pretty much every game I think.

The floor is open for other streaming suggestions or sports talk.

SU asks the question.  Does this also put a freeze on Yankee player injuries?  Or will there still be the steady drip, drip, drip of ailments?  I mean Gary Sanchez had the flu last week (or maybe it was this week) and of course, Aaron Judge has that broken rib.  SU says the players should stay at home and make sure there is no soap on the floor of the shower or bathtub to slip on.

This is a time of healing.

Btw, if anyone has found any alternative viewing sources for sports, please pass them along to the intergalactic subscriber base.  Slim pickings right now.

Move along everyone.  Nothing to see here.   All is well.

Well, sounds like the sports world is seeing things a bit differently.  First, the tennis world saw the Indian Wells Tournament canceled which is the biggest event after the Grand Slams.  It was canceled a couple of days before it was supposed to start with all of the top men’s and women’s players in Palm Springs.  Then, the Ivy League canceled its basketball tournament and now all of the NCAA basketball tournaments are being played with no fans in the stands.  SU would not be surprised if they cancel March Madness altogether but that is TBD I suspect.

Last night we learned that the NBA has “suspended” its season.  Under the best of circumstances, that may extend through the end of the regular season in mid-April but the guess has to be that this is a months long interruption.  They are still playing hockey but SU is sure the pressure will mount for them to suspend as well or at a minimum, clear out the stands.  Early April brings the Masters.  You could envision that tournament being played with no fans on the course but still go on as it’s not like the players are sweating on each other.

Which brings us to baseball that is scheduled to open 2 weeks from today.  There is talk of playing games in “neutral” sites but for SU, that doesn’t make sense.  You have to figure those sites will be on a short list if we ever get the testing process going.  Baseball is actually sitting in a better place as the season hasn’t started yet.  They can just play a reduced schedule starting in May -it’s happened before with the work stoppages.  Long-time subscriber, P. Friedman, points out that this would benefit the Yankees as half the roster is always on the injured list and it gives time for Paxton and Stanton to return along with Judge.

For the sports fan, our options are becoming very limited.  SU suggests that we use this site for recommendations on what to watch on Netflix and Amazon during our down time.  Let me start:

• Broadchurch – it’s a British made murder mystery series – 3 seasons.  If you are like SU, you may need to watch with closed captions but I thought it was very good.
• Jack Ryan –  good action.  Enjoyed season 1 more than season 2 but both were fun.
• The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
• The Crown – again British, so closed caption is helpful.  Interesting behind the scenes look at the Royal Family.
• Catastrophe – I only watched season 1 but others find it to be very good
• Fauda – I believe the new season is about to be released
• Hunters – I did not like this one with Al Pacino but some do

Anyway, feel free to share what you’ve watched and would recommend to other sports-starved fans.  And stay healthy.

Did Management at Madison Square Garden make a mistake on the date?  April 1st instead of March 1st?  Long-time SU subscriber, T. Potter, alerted SU to this article below about Carmelo Anthony:

https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/knicks-expected-to-be-interested-in-bringing-carmelo-anthony-back-to-the-big-apple-next-season-per-report/

Could this possibly be true?  The Knicks are fortunate to finally have gotten rid of Melo a few years ago and now you want to bring him back – and why?  He’s a fan favorite?  His 42% field goal percentage is attractive?  The dude still can’t play defense and he still won’t come off the bench.  Is the intention then to stifle the development of the young talent?

SU is more and more convinced that anyone on this blog subscriber list can be an NBA GM.  Look, it’s only a rumor but if they did this, what is even the point?  No words.

Meanwhile, when is Aaron Judge going to make his debut?  This cannot be good that he is nursing a sore shoulder.  Keep an eye on Yankee prospect Florial who can play center field.  He might be the big surprise to crack the line up this year – they could certainly use him.

Greg Bird in the line up today for Texas.  0 for 10 for the spring.  It’s now a race to see if he can somehow get his first hit of the spring before the inevitable injury.  Should be close.  Mike Tauchman is also still 0 for the spring – needs to get going as he is an SU fave.  Tyler Wade at .071.  No one fails to take advantage of his chances more than Wade.  But he is a Cashman fave so he probably doesn’t have to do anything to make the roster come April.

Baseball and March Madness cannot come soon enough.

You can’t make this stuff up.  Giancarlo Stanton may not be ready for opening day – in fact, unlikely – as he strained his calf muscle doing defensive drills before yesterday’s game.  SU is off the Stanton bandwagon.  I enjoyed my 48 hours on it – there were cushioned seats and free popcorn.  But he is just another over-muscled player who has career DH written all over him.

Fine by me.  Put Tauchman out there and give Miguel Andujar a shot in the outfield.

Note to Yankees’ Strength and Conditioning Staff: remember to stretch.

So, about those Yankee world championship predictions.  You now have Severino out for the year with Tommy John surgery, Paxton out until June most likely with back surgery and German out with his suspension.  All of a sudden JA Happ is a key guy in the rotation and that is not a good thing.  And we are only in February – plenty of time for another pitcher to go down.

The good news is that the Yankees do have some youngsters with high upside who should get a shot in the rotation.  SU enjoys rooting those for those guys – makes it more interesting.  Of course, now that Cole is on the Yankees with their medical staff, who knows what awaits him?

Aaron Boone is likely running his analytical models as we speak of how to position his all right-handed line up for this year.  It does require some thought about where to put Brett Gardner and maybe Tauchman.  You want to make the most of your two left-handed batters.

We will soon find out what a $260 million payroll gets you come early April.

Is all attention actually good?  If so, then MLB will have a great year.  Commissioner Rob Manfred gave the Astro players immunity in order to get them to cooperate in his investigation.  He was able to get the facts (except the elusive buzzers) and he suspended the GM and the manager who were then fired.  But, and perhaps surprisingly, the players on opposing teams are very upset – especially on the better teams who lost to the Astros in the 2017 post-season.

It’s funny: we did not see that reaction during the PED era from opposing players – at least not so much.  Now, that may have been because everyone was doing it and the other players were just happy not to be caught.  We are now seeing the best players voice their anger and frustration, and some of the pitchers are threatening retaliation.  Even LeBron is upset.

On the one hand, attention is good.  SU predicts the Astros will set a road attendance record in 2020.  Good for business.  Fans welcome the chance to boo and see a hitter or two get beaned.  And you can already see how this is going to play out when the Yankees play the Astros.   The umpires will be instructed to protect the Astro hitters and any pitch somewhat up and in (but not really) will result in the ejection of the Yankee pitcher.  Now that CC has retired, who will carry the mantle of hitting opposing batters?  SU says watch out for Tommy Kahnle — he is a tough dude.  No way Cole is going to hit his former teammates – not even if it would endear him to his new team.  When you make $35 million a year, you call the shots.   Chapman would be my other choice although likely not on purpose as he hasn’t been able to locate his fastball for 2 seasons.

No doubt April and May will be turbulent and then things will die down a bit.  But down the stretch, if Houston is fighting for a playoff berth, it will pick up again.   It’s hard to see how Baseball can put this behind it.

SU just read in  Sports Business Journal that the NHL is nipping at the heels of MLB for popularity.  The issue seems to be that the demographic for baseball is older white guys and your Gen Z and Millennials are not patient enough to watch a whole game.  SU finds it hard to believe but time will tell and no doubt MLB is focusing on pace of play in a big way now.  Having to change catcher signs over and over again will only slow it down more.

Men’s tennis is also faced with the pace of play issue.  If you ever watch the videos of matches from back in the 1970s and 1980s, no one was toweling off in between every point, and you certainly didn’t see the ball kid running over with a towel.  SU contends that players were sweating way back when – this is nothing new.  Guys like Nadal will have to wear sleeves on their shirts so they can wipe away the sweat without a towel and my man Djokovic will not be able to do the OCD towel off in between each point.  Use the shot clock in every tournament and no longer have the ball kid run the towel over to the player.  Speed it up!

Finally, James Paxton is out and now Severino has a sore arm.  We have been down this road before with the Yankees.  They should have enough offense to win their share of games – although it’s all right-handed.  If Gardner gets hurt, you only have Mike Tauchmann as Hicks is out until mid-year.  Will we see a big year for Giancarlo Stanton?  SU says yes!  He’s had 2 years to get comfortable in New York and this will be his year.  I know, hard to believe I am saying that but it’s time for him.  I will save you a seat on the bandwagon.

Or he’ll get injured in spring training…

Finally, finally, finally.  Pitchers and catchers are reporting to spring training facilities down south.  Aaron Boone met with the media and is still upset about the Astros’ stealing of signs in 2017 and 2019.  Long-time subscriber, E. Alper, sent SU this article in the Washington Post which is a good read about just how rampant the cheating was with the Astros:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/mlb/astros-cheating-open-secret/2020/02/11/1830154c-4c41-11ea-9b5c-eac5b16dafaa_story.html

There was another article in The Athletic that really killed Carlos Beltran.  He was clearly a leader in all of this.  SU says it’s likely this will keep him out of the Hall of Fame when his name comes up unless William Barr somehow becomes the next MLB Commissioner.  The Mets were smart to move on from Beltran.  SU must admit that my thinking on the cheating scandal has evolved.  In the beginning, I didn’t think it was such a big deal as teams have been trying to steal signs for decades.  But the use of technology – and especially after the Commissioner warned teams to knock it off – took it to another level.  SU saw an article yesterday where Yankee reliever, David Robertson, looked back to game 6 in the 2017 playoff series and thought about how he was lit up that night.  He said he was throwing the ball as well as he had all year that game and was surprised at how the Astros laid off certain pitches and were on others.

The Astros hurt other players in their careers.  Baseball has a stupid credo where you don’t rat out other players – it goes all the way back to Jim Bouton in Ball Four in the 1960s and of course many years before that.  It’s why the PED era lasted so long (and who knows what they are taking today that’s undetected?).  You almost feel like the Astros should be punished more and perhaps their 2017 title should be taken away.

The Yankees are already down James Paxton now – another casualty of the Yankees’ medical/strength and conditioning staff from last year who recommended that he not have back surgery after the season.  All of a sudden JA Happ is back in the rotation and Yankee fans are already buying up tickets in the right field stands for his games to catch those home run balls.  It opens the door for some young players to get into the rotation until German and Paxton return around June.

SU just read that NBA ratings are down 10-12% this year.  It’s interesting.  SU has the same experience – just not as interested.  I watch games to see certain players, e.g., Duncan Robinson on the Heat, vs. any team.  The reality is that there are some young, exciting teams out there now – Memphis, New Orleans – and the Miami Heat play the right way.  The downfall of the Golden State Warriors is certainly a factor and having no Kevin Durant, Curry or Thompson playing this year is also  not helping.  But SU feels there are a lot of great young players and in time, interest will rise again.  It just may not be this year.

What do you think about the proposed MLB playoff changes being discussed for 2022?  Another 3 teams in each League qualifying for the playoffs, best record gets a bye and the best team would get to pick who it wants to play in the first round.  Pretty wild.  I guess baseball wants to be more like the NHL where everyone makes the playoffs.  SU is not a fan at the moment but is open to learning more.

First off, we give props to long-time subscriber, T. Potter, who had the closest prediction for the final score of the game at 34 – 24 for Kansas City.  Very impressive.

SU says that there were two major points in this game where the Niners had some curious play calling:

• First, at the end of the first half, they allowed KC to run the clock down before punting with 1:35 on the clock and 3 timeouts.  That was a lost opportunity to try and score again before half time.
• Second, with 5 minutes left and up 20-17, SF ran on first down for 5 yards.  But then, passed on 2nd and 3rd down and had to kick.  They are a good running team.  That was the time to run the ball.

Yes, the Niners are young and they may be back.  But in football, being back means staying healthy and that is not always easy.  Time will tell.

Greg Bird signs a minor league deal with Texas.  SU will be watching.  The over/under for his first injury is March 3rd.

Mookie Betts to LA as the Red Sox look to cut payroll.  They are in transition but will no doubt look to regroup in 2021 with some new technology for stealing signs.  The Dodgers are all in to win it all in 2020.  They continue to come close but their time is now.

Finally, SU watched the Michigan – Ohio State game last night.  I must agree with ESPN commentator Jay Bilas who says that officiating is ruining college basketball this season.  There is so much grabbing and holding going on that players can’t cut and get open.  It’s like watching the Rye High School basketball team over and over again.  And in the Big Ten, it’s always bad officiating on steroids.  Michigan did not deserve to win shooting 30% for the game but SU saw a first at the end of the game.  Zavier Simpson drives to the basket, is fouled and then as he is falling to the ground happens to grab on to the jersey of the Ohio State player which rips.  Simpson is assessed a flagrant foul.  2 fouls shots and the ball with 35 seconds left.  Never seen anything like that at any level – high school, college, NBA.  To SU, it’s incidental contact and he was heading to the floor and just reached out.  But the officials got together and disregarded what happened but rather just looked at a ripped jersey.  Someone had to pay.  Is that the rule?

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.