Tag Archives: sports illustrated

Bay of Cigs: Crime & Punishment

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jhonnyWhen Ryan Braun accepted a sixty-five-game suspension for his violation of MLB’s drug policy, I lit into the Milwaukee Brewers star, or at least did whatever constitutes lighting into someone around here. Now that (likely former) Tigers shortstop Jhonny Peralta has accepted a fifty-game suspension for his connection to the Biogenesis clinic, it seemed only fair that I respond to a part of this expanded story that hits close to my fandom as well.

Peralta represents the nearest the PED scourge has come to my fan doorstep– right on the front stoop, as it were– and even though I acknowledged the likely cognitive bias in the abstract, I did not really appreciate how differently one approaches stories like this when they directly involve a favorite team or player until the Peralta suspension was announced Monday. Lance Armstrong was fun, but I wasn’t a real cycling fan and I never wore a Livestrong bracelet. I wasn’t a fan of Barry Bonds or Roger Clemens either. I did have plenty of pictures of Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa on my bedroom walls as a kid, but the revelations didn’t come as quickly then as they do now. By the time they came for those two, I’d moved on.

When the PED dragnet picked up an active Detroit Tiger, a starter, an all-star, and an important component of a team with World Series aspirations, though, I found myself scrutinizing every word of the official public statements in the matter, demanding concrete proof of wrongdoing, and generally establishing a defensive posture. Peralta was reported to have a weaker connection to the Biogenesis clinic than other accused players, after all, and didn’t MLB strongarm Biogenesis founder Anthony Bosch into “cooperating” with the league’s investigation by filing a probably frivolous lawsuit against him (yes), and have there been any positive drug test results for any of these players (no), and aren’t they kind of being railroaded into accepting these no-contest suspensions (I mean, at least kind of), and isn’t there something to be said for due process in all of this (of course), and what did the league and the players say, exactly, anyway?

Here’s Peralta’s statement:

In spring of 2012, I made a terrible mistake that I deeply regret. I apologize to everyone that I have hurt as a result of my mistake, including my teammates, the Tigers’ organization, the great fans in Detroit, Major League Baseball, and my family. I take full responsibility for my actions, have no excuses for my lapse in judgment, and I accept my suspension.

I love the fans, my teammates and this organization, and my greatest punishment is knowing that I have let so many good people down. I promise to do everything possible to try and earn back the respect that I have lost.

(Before spring training this year, Peralta issued a statement: “I have never used performance-enhancing drugs. Period. Anybody who says otherwise is lying.”)

Here’s MLB Commissioner Bud Selig’s statement:

Continue reading →

Searching for Sports Illustrated

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siAs noted here, the cover of last week’s Sports Illustrated magazine featured Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder, and while I contended then that SI was engaging in a bit of revisionist history with that cover, I still wanted to read that story. I also was interested in the other story advertised on that cover, an update on the Nevin Shapiro case. Both because I wanted to hang onto that cover and because I’d planned a lazy weekend, I wanted to buy an actual copy of the magazine. I’m not a subscriber, and I don’t want to be. I don’t generally have the time, lifestyle, or resources that support buying a subscription to a weekly sports periodical, even though I’ve always enjoyed reading SI (and SI for Kids before that).

I was on the hunt for an individual copy for sale. I live and work in the middle of a major American city. Sports Illustrated is one of the country’s most popular magazines. This should’ve been easy. It was not easy. In fact, I failed in my mission. I tried a grocery store (Publix), a drug store (CVS), and multiple convenience stores/newsstands. I saw a variety of sports periodicals and publications, but not even a whiff of SI. (Possibly interestingly, I recall seeing ESPN The Magazine just once.) I now think the airport or a large chain bookstore would be my best bets, but the above choices weren’t unreasonable options. It shouldn’t be this difficult, right?

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On the integration of the pulp paper and textile industries: Sports Illustrated as a case study

Bay of Cigs: History and Revision

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Earlier today, the Detroit Free Press tipped the new Sports Illustrated cover, pictured above, reporting that “it’s . . . thought to be the first time a pair of Tigers have been on the cover of SI since Al Kaline and Denny McLain made it in September 1968.” (Such thorough and confident reporting by the Freep is in line with their recent work on even more important issues.) For anyone who collected baseball cards in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the headline is immediately evocative of an earlier pair of mashers. The caption dubs Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder “Baseball’s 21st-Century Version of Mantle and Maris,” explaining to the Free Press in greater detail:

Ruth and Gehrig. Mays and McCovey. Ortiz and Ramirez. To the list of great hitting duos in baseball history we can now add one more: Prince Fielder and Miguel Cabrera of the Tigers. Both were established stars long before coming to Detroit but since joining forces prior to last season, Fielder and Cabrera have become baseball’s best 1-2 punch, which makes it only fitting that the sluggers appear together on the cover of this week’s Sports Illustrated.

Wait, what? I thought…. Hang on. Continue reading →

Introducing ALDLAND’s special Masters coverage

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As I’ve written many times, our golf coverage is limited to ancillary matters like hovercrafts, mustaches, Jungle Bird, and the Dukes of Hazzard. With one of the most anticipated iterations of the Masters starting today, though, we thought it would be appropriate to bring in a guest blogger to cover the tournament in earnest.

Starting later this morning, Luke Watson of Hotdogs and Golf will share, from his experienced perspective, his insight on the 2013 Masters. Stay tuned.

On the integration of the pulp paper and textile industries: Sports Illustrated as a case study

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After years of promotional textile tie-ins, one could be forgiven for thinking that Sports Illustrated had the whole horizontal integration thing down by now. You’d require that forgiveness, though, because your thought would be incorrect, as shown by the erstwhile magazine’s latest offer:

sports illustrated promotion - click to enlargeI’m not even upset that the jacket is the wrong shade of blue. In case your fingers are tired from turning the pages of actual books and newspapers and you can’t muster the energy to click on that photograph to see a larger version, it reads, in part, “T-Shirt available in one-size-fits-all XL.” It’s a t-shirt, not an adjustable baseball cap, though, which heretofore had been the only viable venue for application of the “one-size-fits-all” label, and even the hat folks have backpedaled that to “one-size-fits-most,” probably at the admonition of fitted-cap-wearing lawyers. The photo isn’t the greatest, but there’s no indication the shirt is equipped with some sort of built-in cinch or otherwise is subject to a controlled shrink with strategic usage of heated water and air. Either SI is putting a smile on a budget cut, or the sentence is a confident expression of knowledge of their customers.

But really, it’s Honolulu blue for which you’re looking.

Uncovering John Calipari’s true motivations and machinations

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This week’s issue of Sports Illustrated includes a transcript of Dan Patrick’s interview with former Kentucky Wildcat and presumptive New Orleans Hornet Anthony Davis. Included was this exchange, initiated by DP’s curiously worded question:

Patrick: Did you tell Kentucky Coach John Calipari you were going to go pro or did he tell you?

Davis: He told me. He told me to [come into his office]. When I walked in, first thing he said: “Look, Ant, you have to leave. You did too many great things this year. Won a national championship, got every award. There’s no point in you coming back.” I started laughing. But he had no smile on his face. He was dead serious.

Patrick: Did you want to stay at Kentucky?

Davis: I wanted to stay. Great team, great coach. But the way life is, you have to move on.

It’s tough to know how much to make of this out-of-context exchange. When Coach Cal called Davis into his office, was that the first time they talked about the star freshman’s departure? When Davis laughed, was it because he found the suggestion outlandish and wanted to stay, or was he just being sheepish? When Davis told DP he wanted to stay, was he being serious?

Still, there’s a persistent feeling that Cal really was kicking the kid on down the line to make room for the next crop of high-profile players. In a program operated on a one-and-done model, having a player of Davis’ talent stick around for another season could mean that UK would lose at least one of its top recruits, who commit to Kentucky because they want to shine for a single season and move along to the league where players get paid above the table.

The promise of Prince Fielder

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I largely agree with Bpbrady and Dave Cameron’s assessment of the deal that made Prince Fielder a member of the team where his (estranged) father was a star. In short, the Tigers had better win a World Series by 2015. Fielder probably is close to his athletic peak right now, but, like Albert Pujols’ new contract with the Angels, compensation doesn’t really ramp up until later.
 
 
ESPN Insider’s Dan Szymborski ran a ZiPS projection for Fielder over the next nine years. Here’s what he got:

 

Those early-contract numbers might look a tad pessimistic, given that Fielder’s coming off a season in which he hit .299/.415/.566 and racked up 5.5 wins above replacement, and he’s just 27 years old, smack in the middle of the age range in which the average major leaguer peaks. But for all of his power potential, Fielder is a lousy defender who’ll play either first base (poorly) or DH. That means he needs to hit a metric ton to yield as much value as a player manning a premium defensive position, like Matt Kemp or even Dustin Pedroia.

The national media reaction to this deal has been pretty tepid: it just seems to be too rich for their liking, and Fielder won’t earn the money over the full length of the nine-year contract. My buddy in Detroit called me a couple hours after the announcement to discuss, and he said that the reaction over there largely remained in the surprised shock stages. The general consensus that’s filtering through there and nationally, though, is that the Tigers over-leveraged their future in an attempt to win now, making this a bad deal for the Tigers. In other words, this 275 lb (and growing), $214 million (and escalating) albatross will be such a drag on the team that it will clearly outweigh any short-term benefits.

This, of course, is hardly the case. The theory underlying the criticism of the Fielder deal is that teams should be trying to build perennial contenders, and that this contract will prevent Detroit from becoming a perennial contender once Fielder’s decline sets in. The second clause in the preceding sentence may be true and probably will be, but the first contains a cliché assumption that is bogus. Maybe it isn’t totally bogus. If some success is good, more success is better, and once having found success, it’s nice to sustain that success. The problem is that very few teams have been able to maintain top-level success. (Moreover, there was no indication that the 2011 Tigers were calibrated such that they were on the cusp of a decade of dominance or anything like that.) Detroit hasn’t won the World Series since 1984, and the years since then have been pretty thin. If presented with the option of winning the division in each of the next three seasons, winning one championship during that period, and then sinking back into mediocrity for the next six years, I can’t imagine a single Tiger fan saying no. Our willingness to forego future stability for an increased chance of present gains has put our economy in the stink pot, but when it comes to baseball, and a team that hasn’t won it all in 28 years, the strategy makes perfect sense.

Keep reading…

The de facto national championship preview: The players

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Yesterday’s de facto national championship preview focused on the coaches. Today’s looks at the players.

Alabama and LSU players were in the news before the season even started, which, given each team’s potential for success isn’t surprising by itself. That both teams’ players were in the preseason news for off-field reasons is notable, though. It may seem like an age ago, but Alabama was one of the places hit very hard by the tornadoes that devastated parts of the lower Midwest and Southeast earlier this year. Tuscaloosa was a direct hit. A month later, Sports Illustrated ran a cover story by Lars Anderson that is one of the most powerful sports pieces I’ve read. Facing personal losses themselves, the Tide football players nevertheless had to stand tall in a community and a state that looked to them– as they always had in good times– for support in bad times. Terror, Tragedy And Hope in Tuscaloosa.

LSU players made their way into the preseason, non-sports news in a manner less worthy of an emotional SI cover and an earnest letter home. Keep reading…

Ultimate Underdog (via Sports Illustrated)

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For Vanderbilt, playing in the nation’s toughest conference is a losing proposition. But the only team in the SEC that everyone can love is 2–0, thanks to a new coach who has turned a blind eye to the past.

For fans, Saban is like a fiftysomething Justin Bieber. It does not seem to bother anybody that he is a reluctant guest of honor. “I think you all know that this is one of my favorite days of the year,” Saban tells reporters sarcastically.

Appearing before the media alongside Saban and the three Tide players, almost for bookkeeping purposes, are the representatives for the Vanderbilt Commodores. They have a new coach, 39-year-old James Franklin, but the same old story. They have finished with a losing record in 27 of the last 28 years. They have not had a winning conference mark since 1982.

Even at a gathering of its conference brothers, Vanderbilt football is an orphan. Forget luring fans to Media Days. Vanderbilt barely draws any media to Media Days. Of the 1,050 credentialed reporters, fewer than 10 are there to cover Vanderbilt.

And yet: This appears to be Franklin’s favorite day of the year. He says, “I believe whoever I meet, they’re a Vanderbilt fan. And if they’re not, by the time we get done talking, they are.” He looks out at a ballroom of skeptical media members and sees opportunity in every seat. … Read More

(via Sports Illustrated)

(HT: @rmccost)