Thinking out loud…while wondering when I can buy (low) that Red Sox stock I've been hearing about?
· Heard someone say this week that Tampa is now Sports Mecca. Hard to argue. Bucs in the hometown Super Bowl. Lightning won the Stanley Cup. Rays were in the World Series. And the NBA's Raptors have temporarily taken up residence in Florida.
· Not exactly America's 'wang' any longer…as Homer Simpson might have you believe. But Titletown?
· Beat the Chiefs. And do it again in two of the next three years. Have the Rays win at least one World Series. And then provide permanent shelter for an NBA team…one that wins, preferably.
· That'll get you on the map. Yeah, you've come a long way, baby. But there's still a long way to go before bumping elbows with Boston and New England.
· I think I've figured out the TB12 'love-hate' phenomenon. Love him because he's handsome, ageless, still good at what he does and has sunshine blowing up his you-know-what. Hate him because he's like your ex-wife, ex-husband, ex-girl/boyfriend or ex-partner who broke you in two.
· Which he did. And then he shows up driving a bright, shiny new sports car with his new team/lover riding shotgun, still with that same sunshine blowing up his you-know-what.
· Yeah, I could see hating that. But also appreciating it.
· As many of us apparently do. TB12's performance rated highly, as you might imagine, with the local TV's. The Boston market was #5 with a 36 rating and 63 share.
· But PROVIDENCE was 3rd nationally, behind Milwaukee and Tampa. Yup. Ahead of Boston, even. The cows came home in Lil' Rhody with a 37.9 rating and 62 share.
· Lovers > haters in Southern New England? Maybe for TB12. But has anyone checked the Family Court dockets lately?
· Playing the Super Bowl at RayJay is a freak of NFL nature. When it was awarded and scheduled, Tampa was a lovable lug of a loser…well before Tommy Boy arrived with sunshine up his, well, you get the idea.
· Besides, the Chiefs will win it, anyway. Then, we'll have to endure the national bloviators insisting the "new" dynasty has arrived in Kansas City.
· Someone is going to have to define what a dynasty really means, so we have rules to follow.
· But I won't ever count TB12 out of it. Ever. That sunshine is still too bright.
· Matt Stafford? I'd give up the 15th pick for him. Something tells me it'll take more than that for Detroit to deal him this way, however.
· Aaron Rodgers? Rookestradamus sez he can see him moving on from Green Bay…but to New England? It would be the equivalent of a lightning bolt coming down from Mt. Olympus and striking Gillette Stadium.
· Better bet? Still like Jimmy G. to return eastward. And you're gonna hate hearing this, but I'm not (yet) convinced the Patriots have moved on from Supercam.
· That's right. Cam Newton could be back, depending on the way financing emphasis falls this off season.
· Expect Budweiser, Coke and Hyundai – all long-time and familiar companies shelling out big bucks for Super Bowl ads – to take this year off. No Bud commercials for the first time in 37 years?
· But you might see a few extra Sam Adams commercials taking up the slack. One thing is certain.
· We're not in Kansas anymore, Toto.
· You probably understand by now just why the NCAA insists upon hosting The Big Dance? Money, of course. And we learned this week just how much of it the NCAA lost last year when the tournament was cancelled.
· There was a $600 million drop in revenue. And with the fiscal year ending in August, college sports ended the year with an overall $56 million net loss after revenue.
· The pandemic has bled the NCAA of its net assets, which were down from $450 million in 2019 to $394 million in 2020. Yeah, that's less revenue in the pockets of the school down the street, in the next city, the next state and on the other coast.
· That's not so you can feel sorry for the NCAA. That's so you can feel sorry for those schools down the street, trying to decide which opportunities (and sports) to cut for their students.
· Was Wednesday a 'must win' for the Friars this week? Considering they had already lost one to Marquette, getting swept could have been a real problem for any NCAA consideration. Fortunately, David Duke helped take care of that issue against the Golden Eagles with a season-high 31 points.
· Not trying to put a hex on the kid…but can you say 'Big Time' Alyn Breed has arrived? He's not afraid to stick his nose where it might not belong. His floor presence is sound and poised for a college freshman.
· And he was robbed for Big East Rookie of the Week last week, scoring 33 points in two games against two nationally ranked teams in Creighton and Villanova. Just sayin'.
· But if the Friars are to put a string of wins together to get back into the postseason conversation (wait, haven't we done this before?) the big two (Duke, Watson) gotta be there. Every game, every night.
· The schedule is opening up. Three of the next four are at home. Opportunity is still knocking.
· The Big East Board of Directors this week gave commissioner Val Ackerman a three-year contract extension, through June of 2024. Can't argue with a thing she's done to steer the league through tough times, plus adding UConn and extending MSG through 2028.
· Time for the league and its membership to see if this stewardship leads to increased media rights fees from Fox, or others, in the next couple of years.
· UConn has had to pull up again, but not because they've tested positive for anything – yet. After winning at Butler, one of the game officials tested positive. As a result, the Huskies postponed games this week and weekend with Villanova and St. John's.
· FYI, the chance for any postponements to be rescheduled is growing slimmer by the passing day, as the calendar turns to February this week.
· Big time, boffo show for This Week in The Big East this week – Georgetown's Patrick Ewing, Seton Hall's Sandro Mamukelashvili and the Gov'nuh, Bill Raftery join us. Find it on your favorite podcast provider, or online at westwoodonesports.com and bigeast.com, plus early Saturday mornings locally on WPRO, and on Sirius XM at 11:00 am…Sirius 121, XM 201 and online 964.
· URI is back on the plus side of the A-10 ledger after beating Fordham and LaSalle this week. Had to figure Fatts Russell wouldn't miss a chance to pound on some Philly brethren, and he didn't disappoint against the Explorers after missing a game. Jeremy Sheppard also pounded the Explorers for a season-best 25 points.
· Wonder if anyone had the chance to pound a cheesesteak or two afterward? Tony Luke's!
· Late last week, NBC announced they'll be shuttering NBCSN by the end of 2021, and potentially moving most of the sports inventory to USA Network or perhaps the Peacock streaming service. If that's where the Atlantic-10 games land, better for the league. USA has had about 5 million more subscriber homes than did NBCSN.
· CBS Sports reported this week the A-10 will be hosting its postseason tournament in Richmond, VA and dividing games between Richmond and VCU. Ostensibly, to control the environment as best as possible with multiple teams and games involved…but limited fans have been allowed into Spiders' and VCU Rams' games this season.
· Bryant's Michael Green was named to the Lou Henson Award watch list this week, for the top mid-major player in Division I. The Bulldogs return from a 14-day layoff this weekend in first place in the NEC and play on the road at Fairleigh Dickinson.
· Brown may not be having a basketball season, but head coach Mike Martin will have his coaches' show on local radio, every Wednesday night on WPRV-AM 790 at 6:00 pm ET, through the end of March.
· Did you see where Duke's Hall of Fame Coach K lost his mind, and his touch with reality last week, chastising a college reporter for asking a perfectly good question following another Blue Devil loss?
· Mike, I know 5-5 is so un-Duke like. But taking out your frustrations over having a young team on an equally young reporter just learning the game himself?
· C'mon, man. Or have you forgotten your actual j-o-b is to teach and have patience?
· They must be spoiled in Durham, with all those McDonald's all-Americans.
· Borrowing from ex-Friar coach Pete Gillen, they also must not have enough of them on the team these days…and now their kids simply eat at McDonald's.
· PC's women's team has had a rough go of it lately, battling Covid and the subsequent protocols for nearly a month. The Friars last played Jan. 12th, and they're hoping to start again Feb. 2nd against Xavier.
· And just two days after Vermont put a hold on all sports until Feb. 4th, the Catamount women's hoop team threw in the towel on their season. They've had six games postponed over the past three weeks…and join Virginia, Vanderbilt and San Jose State on the sidelines.
· How the other half lives – Auburn athletics has turned a profit during the pandemic, with earnings of $17.9 million after expenses in 2020. It was their largest surplus in 12 years, too.
· After two draws with 8th ranked UMass last week, 17th ranked PC hockey goes home-and-home with UNH this weekend. Goaltender Jaxson Stauber was co-defensive player of the week in Hockey East, and his season Goals Against Average is 1.80.
· Boston University, however, is pausing all athletics due to a rise in positive tests with students returning to campus. BU-BC hockey this weekend is postponed. Teams may resume practices after Feb. 1.
· The Providence Bruins will face off Feb. 5th – and it will be the first AHL game to play since the pandemic hit last spring.
· Prayers remain up for North Providence and Bishop Feehan skater A.J. Quetta, who crashed head-first into the boards at a game in West Springfield this week. In just a short time, a GoFundMe page has already brought in almost 5000 donors and $300K. Patriots' owner Robert Kraft is also matching a campaign spearheaded by WEEI's Greg Hill Show.
· Ticket holders being welcomed back to Miami Heat games are also being welcomed by Covid-sniffing dogs. Yup, these dogs are trained to pick up the 'scent' if a patron has the virus. But you still gotta mask up.
· Get ready for it – but the MLS might have a work-stoppage. The collective bargaining agreement between the league and its players has run out. Like now.
· Stunned that the Red Sox and Yankees would consummate a trade with each other this week for reliever Adam Ottovino. I mean, the Yankees couldn't have dumped him elsewhere? Since when do you actually assist your archrival?
· Should say something about how the Yanks feel about the Sox, no? As in – it takes two teams beating each other for a rivalry to exist.
· And lately, NY has been the hammer, Boston the nail. It's just the second trade between the two teams in the past 24 years.
· Speaking of hammer and nails, baseball might have had one put in its coffin this week when the players said NO to the DH, and NO to any expanded playoffs.
· Yeah, so things are good as they presently stand? Sure, I'm a purist and like the DH in the AL, not in the NL. But, times change.
· If you don't change with them, you fall behind. Way behind. NASCAR and soccer await.
· No one got into baseball's Hall of Fame this year. No one. I get the rules, but if you put the pettiness aside and look at the stats, that should not have happened.
· The trouble is, we (or rather they…as in many of the voters) don't see it that way. Curt Schilling missed by a mere 16 votes. Some like me feel he's been gypped.
· Others – especially in Rhode Island and tied to the 38 Studios fiasco – surely feel differently.
· Which is precisely why HOF-worthiness should be decided on baseball merit alone. Don't delude yourself into believing everyone in that Hall is (or was) a fine, upstanding citizen of Planet Earth. Many were, of course.
· But many others were not. Which is why…a subjective 'character' clause for any Hall eligibility is…stupid is as stupid does.
· That Hall is gonna be a lonely place in a few years. If the vaunted voting members of the BBWAA are bound to some rule book, outside of using common sense, the Hall's cobwebs will grow much thicker through the years of inactivity and ineligibility.
· And fans will care less and less. Wanna kill baseball, or bring it back to life? We don't live in the 'Golden Era,' or whatever that is, any longer. Time for an update and an upgrade in thought. And an upgrade to the rule book.
· Tweet of the Week, from @RealAlexBarth: "Roger Clemens won 7 Cy Young awards, with the first (1986) and last (2004) coming 18 years apart. He's one of just four pitchers to record over 4,000 strikeouts. But he's not one of the all-time greats, apparently."
· All-time greats? Larry King belongs in that conversation. King passed away last weekend at age 87 after retiring from a storied broadcast career at CNN in 2010 and prior to that in nationally syndicated radio. He was still hosting two digital talk shows up until last year.
· King was married eight times. Eight. Lived a full life, didn't he? I always thought, while watching Larry King Live on CNN for all those years, that getting to meet and interview the incredible list of personalities appearing on his show must have been a real life lesson.
· And for those lucky people, it must have been a privilege to be interviewed in that forum, by him.
· Actress Cloris Leachman died this week at 94. One of my favorite comedic actresses, she could captivate an audience with her energy and her silliness all at once. She appeared on a TV or movie screen every year from 1947 to 2020. Incredible.
· Here's a trivia nugget – Leachman played a character named "Ruth" 13 times in her career. See a picture of "Ruth" on the 'net, she's liable to be in there. But she might be most memorable for her character in the Mary Tyler Moore TV show, Phyllis. Or, maybe Young Frankenstein's Frau Blucher (cue the horse whinny!)
· The news of former PawSox manager and Red Sox coach Ron Johnson's passing this week was a shocker. He spent 10 seasons in the Sox system, managing in Pawtucket from 2005-09 and then as Boston's 1st base coach in 2010-11, before ending his career in Norfolk managing the Tides and working for the Orioles.
· He was one personable, funny guy, and won International League Manager of the Year in 2015.
· We complain about the Red Sox still having money and not spending it, amiright? Well, maybe not. The Fenway Sports Group – the ownership of the Red Sox – has decided not to sell a minority stake to RedBall Acquisition at an approximately $8 billion valuation.
· What does this mean, exactly? RedBall is the group headed by Billy Beane and hoping to branch out into European soccer holdings as well as a stake in the Red Sox. But they can't raise the capital for the purchase, at least not at the present time.
· Which also means negotiations for Red Sox stock to go public are also tabled…for the time being. Now there goes a real investment opportunity…you know, buy low and sell high?
· Wait, hold on – being told that's still the plan. The Sox might need to sink a little lower, however, before we see that cash infusion. So…they're already ruinin' our summah.
· Interested in having your questions on local Rhode Island sports (and yes, that includes the Patriots, Red Sox, Bruins and Celtics) answered in a somewhat timely fashion? It's your chance to "think out loud," so send your questions, comments and local stories to jrooke@weei.com. We'll share mailbag comments/Facebook posts/Tweets right here! Would appreciate the follow on Twitter, @JRbroadcaster…and join in on Facebook, www.facebook.com/john.rooke ...
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