Is It OK for the White Sox to Get Extra Help…From the Pope? They Do Need It…..

Sports have always been part of my life.  I remember listening to baseball games on the portable radio with my grandpa; watching the games on the TV with both grandpa and Memaw; going to football games with my dad; and watching grandpa play softball after work at the Air Force Base with Memaw.  I grew up with sports but only as a spectator.  I never was good enough to play beyond t-ball as a young girl and volleyball in middle school.  But I love sports and watch a lot of games and matches.  I am at a disadvantage of not being a participant but I have good observation skills for being a spectator.  And, as you know, I have an opinion about everything and am not afraid to tell the world what I think:)

This time, I will have my opinion about football, basketball, and baseball only.  

First, football…I have two observations that I am having some issues with.  Both of these are about college football.  

Bowl Games

Now that we have “playoffs” and “championship games”, why are the games in the postseason still called “bowl games”?  For those that need a refresher…colleges are asked to participate in corporate sponsored bowl games.  In the past, it was based on the conference the college was in and their record.  For example, Big Ten teams played in Pasadena, California in the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day.  Other teams would play in the Sugar Bowl, the Cotton Bowl, the Fiesta Bowl, ect.  Now these bowl games are named after corporate sponsors–Rose Bowl Game Presented by Prudential; VRBO Fiesta Bowl, Allstate Sugar Bowl, and Goodyear Cotton Bowl to name a few.  I’m fine with corporate sponsored names for the bowl games–everyone needs to make money somewhere and the sponsors of the bowl games actually give colleges money for playing in their games—win-win for everyone.  These bowl games were always the last game of the season and basically meant nothing--they were not playoffs to go to the "Big Game". So now that we do have playoffs and championship games, why are we still calling them bowl games? This is confusing for the general public.  If my college team plays in the VRBO Fiesta Bowl, then win, lose, or draw, that is the last football game of the season.  But if my college team plays in the Rose Bowl Game Presented by Prudential or the Allstate Sugar Bowl, then my team is in the playoffs and the winner plays another game–College Football Playoff National Championship Presented by AT&T (even the championship game has a corporate sponsor:).  So WHY call these playoff games as bowl games?  The championship game is not called a bowl game.  Instead of the Rose Bowl, say College Football Playoff Game Presented by Prudential?  Or instead of Allstate Sugar Bowl, say College Football Playoff Game Presented by Allstate?  Less confusing and more truthful.  Easy fix.

College Transfer

My other issue is with college transfer.  I will say I am the first person to tell students “Hey, if you don’t like your college, then transfer to another one.”  It is hard and stressful to think you have to make a choice and stick with it for 4-5 years while you are getting your degree.  Sometimes, it just isn’t a good fit.  But when you play collegiate sports, there is now another element to your choice.  College athletes, especially those on athletic scholarship, pick a college for their degree but also to play that sport.  This has a domino effect…Coaches pick which school to coach partly based on the athletes they have to play that sport.  Other potential athletes in high school pick a college based on the school, the scholarship money, but also based on the chances of them actually playing on the field or court.  However, there has been a growing trend since the pandemic–athletes switching schools because of a different coach at the other school, more money, or more opportunity for them to play.  Sometimes they switch mid year!  Because of this switch, a coach may think he has a full line up, but now is missing some key players.  Or the second string quarterback thinks he will play this year because the first string QB graduated last year, just to find out that the star QB at another college is transferring to his college and now he will not be first string.  Athletes are also transferring so they are “redshirted” their first year (they don’t play that year but can play another year).  We are starting to have 24 and 25 year olds on college teams instead of 20 or 21 year olds.  There is so much transferring, rotations, in and out of lineups, that it is confusing and nauseating!  

Again, I am all for transferring but we need to have some guidelines on it because it is affecting other people’s lives.  For example, if you are a scholarship athlete and want to transfer, then you have to sit out the year you transfer but cannot make up that year.  In other words, if you transfer, that year you sit out counts as one of the four years you are eligible to play.  I bet just that one rule will cut down transfers to single digits.  By the way, this will NEVER happen.  Coaches do NOT want star athletes not playing, so no one can ever make this rule—they will get too much flak.  

Basketball

In the past few years, they have added a shot clock to the game of basketball–24 seconds for NBA and 30 seconds for college.  What that means is each offensive team has that many seconds from the time they get the ball to shoot it at the basket or they have to turn over the ball to the opposing team.  This is to make the game go by faster.  Before the shot clock, teams could dribble and take their time before they shot the ball to the basket.  This slowed down the game considerably.  This was a good rule change.

Before this shot clock rule, there was another rule that was established to speed up the game.  This rule stated that each team that had possession of the ball had so many seconds to get to mid court.  Right now, for the NBA it is 8 seconds and for college it is 10 seconds.  You can see the ref literally counting with his arm swing each second until the offensive team has dribbled the ball past mid court.  This rule was established in 1933.  Ok, call me stupid, but do we need this rule anymore?  Doesn’t the rule of the shot clock make the half court rule redundant?  If a team has 30 seconds from the time they have possession of the ball to the time they shoot the ball, don’t they want to get across the court as soon as possible?  Or, if they don’t, isn’t that on them?  Rules are fine but they are better if there is a reason behind them.  They are even GREAT if they replace existing rules and the old rules are deleted.  Just saying…

The Rich Get Richer

Professional teams make their owners a lot of money.  That’s fair.  The owners, in turn, are providing us entertainment and hopefully, paying their players and their staff a fair wage–especially the hot dog vendors:)  What I don’t like is greedy owners.  Here are a couple of examples…

It seems that professional players are wearing a different, new design jersey for every game!  Why?  Well, sometimes there is a good reason–maybe they are wearing pink for Breast Cancer Awareness or military for Veterans/Memorial Days.  But the reason for it every game?  Because they want people to buy the new jerseys as much as possible.  You no longer have a Walter Payton jersey.  You now have a Caleb Williams jersey in all the different colors.  The same with the Cubs, White Sox, and Bulls–these are all Chicago teams but all cities are doing this.  Another example of greediness---they decided to create a “City Connect” jersey that features the White Sox and the Bulls on the same jersey–two Chicago teams with the White Sox being baseball and the Bulls being basketball.  Their rationale was to connect the city with two different teams.  But, guess what?  The two “different teams” are owned by the same person–Jerry Reinsdorf!  He says it is two different teams, but guess who gets all the money from the jersey?  Just one person….

Don’t even get me started on having taxpayers pay for the building of new stadiums for these professional teams.  Are you kidding me???

Don’t worry–I won’t leave the Chicago Cubs (another Chicago baseball team) out of this rant.  The Cubs are owned by the Ricketts family.  They have a little money and bought the team for $900 million 16 years ago.  They have a few pennies.  But that is not enough.  They want MORE.  So, they created their own cable network.  Ok, that’s fine.  Good for them.  But if you want to watch the Chicago Cubs, you have to pay a subscription for this cable network.  The network is called Marquee and it costs about $20 a month for the privilege to watch the Cubs.  $20 may not sound like a lot, but it is the principle of the thing.  Really?  They really need the money to charge us to watch their team at home because we didn’t buy a ticket to watch live?  I can’t even….

So, yes, I love sports and will continue to watch them. I even have attended a Bulls game, a Chicago Hounds rugby game, and a Cubs game since January. Sometimes, though, like every where else, common sense takes a back burner. The other teams are just as guilty of this like the teams I have mentioned.

I'll save those for next time.