Sports Summer – not sure what else to call it.  No term comes to mind for what is going on in sports right now.  Sports Summer works since this is the first full week of Summer.  Another great week in hand.  NBA and NHL free agency is off to a fantastic start.  Players changing teams and the landscape of teams are changing dramatically.   It would be nice to have the NBA start one week and the NHL start another week.  This is the way it falls so it is just a super busy and exciting week.  The money getting tossed around is phenomenal.  Of course that brought out the NFL player getting paid $12 million a year to complain that NFL players should get NBA money.   Maybe though should but the reality is that there are more players on an NFL team so the money gets spread around more.  In the end they all make way to much money.  The Womens World Cup it moving along.  We are almost the the Fourth of July and that means that Summer is almost over, Right?  It just seems that way we still have a ways to go.  All that and more in the Week That Was.

Yankee Home Run Madness at the Halfway Point

The Yankees are hitting homeruns at an amazing rate.  We really should not be surprised about the number.  This team was built for that reason.  The streak is at 31 games and counting.  That is what people want.  Homeruns.  That is fine they are pretty exciting.   It has clearly worked for the Yankees.  They are 7 games up on the second place Rays.   For the American League they are 1.5 games up on the Twins and 2.5 games up on the Astros.  The interesting part in this is when they get to the playoffs and the pitching tightens up will they still be able to hit a crazy amount of home runs.  It could happen but it could also come to an end.  If it does this would not be the first team that was built for a regular season only to crash and burn in the post season.  There is still a long way to go so we will have to wait to see what happens.

The London Run Games

Baseball has followed the NFL lead and taken some games to London.  It was a good choice to have the two game series be between Boston and New York.  They are a great rivalry.  They both score a lot of runs.  That is what you need to promote your game in another country.  Scoring and excitement.  They got both of those in these games.  I am on the fence on Baseball playing these games.  I get the expanding the fan base but not sure that Baseball will ever be a huge thing in London.  But can’t blame them for trying.

Lakers Trying to fix The Mistakes made in the Anthony Davis trade NBA Fun Season is at Hand

The Lakers were abel to fix the mistakes they made in the trade for Anthony Davis. In order to fix it though they had to get rid of every one on the team except for Anthony Davis, LeBron James, Kyle Kuzma and adde Troy Daniels the first day of free agency.  That gives them four players.  That is not a huge problem but it is funny that they are the favorite to win the championship but do not have enough players to field at team at this point.  They are still in the running for Kawhi Leonard that would give them five.  If they do add Kawhi then it really does not matter who else is on the team. They would for sure be a contender.  

With the Warriors losing Durant to the Brooklyn Nets it will and Klay Thompson going to miss most if not all of the season to injury.  It will be interesting to see what happens there.  With the trade for D’Angelo Russell they gave themselves some options.  They could keep him and see how he play with what it there or they could trade him and have other players to work with.  Even with the loss of Durant they would not have had him next year anyway.   There is no doubt that Durant made them a better team but if they had not lost Thompson in the finals series it is very possible that the Warriors could have pulled that off.  

There was a rumore that the Lakers were the lead candidate to sign Carmelo Anthony.  Just ask the Oklahoma Thunder and the Houston Rockets about how that went.  Anthony was a good player who’s time is past.  I would see no reason for the Lakers to sign him unless there are absolutely no other options.  But then if you are not a fan of the Lakers you are all about them signing him.

The signings came fast on the first day of free agency.  There were some surprises.  There was a lot that happened that was expected.  It will be intersting to see how the rest of the week works out.  Knickes fans were crying saying it was the worst day in team history.   Not sure about that.  James Dolan being the stand up guy he is.  Has provided a lot or worst days in Knickes history.  Who knows on this one he may accidentally be correct.  It is possible that Durant never makes it fully back from his Achilles injury.  With no Bat Man for the Kyrie Robin it is possible he completely implodes this year.  Can’t really know for sure till the season gets underway.

Everything will still hing on where Kawhi goes.  If he stays with the Raptors then the Raptors and the Bucks will probably play again in the East Championship game.  If he goes to the Lakers then they really will be the favorite to win it all.   I really hope he stays with the Raptors.  I want there to be good teams in both the East and the West.

Hockey Free Agency ready to Go And Go it is

Players are changing teams at a fantastic rate.  I hope that one of the local radio guys was being sarcastic when he marveled at how they were able to get that many deals done this morning.   I am not so sure he did not understand that they are working on these deals well before they can be signed.  Yes in all the leagues teams are working on things before they are truly allowed to.  I do not see anything wrong with that.  It takes time to get these things done.

The big loser in the NHL free agency was the Columbus Blue Jackets.  It happens.  From time to time players just don’t want to play for a certain team.  Who knows something good might come from this.  Free Agency does not change the team as much as it does in the NBA.  While still very interesting it is kind of like the difference between the NHL and NBA draft.  Not quite as exciting and the results are not immediate.  But down the road they could be significant.

More on Awards – All Star Games

People get all crazy about awards and All Star Games.  Not sure I understand why.  Both are extremely subjective.  Maybe that is why people get so crazy about it.  How dare you think differently then me.  It is funny to me that people have difficulty understanding the difference between season awards and post season awards.  Now you have people upset about the MBL All Star game and how the players were being selected.  On this my thought it.  Eh it is an All Star Game.  I have never been fan of the All Star Games and really would not be disappointed if they went away.  I know some players have bonuses tied to these types of games.  That is an odd thing to tie a bonus to since it is a subjective thing.

People were confused about how the players were selected for this years MBL All Star Game.  It was a bit odd but no more odd than the way it has been done for games in the past.  Not sure why people could not get it.  It was split into two sections.  A primary where the candidates were narrowed down to three.  Then the Starter selection where one of those players would be voted as a starter for each position.  If you really wanted to participate you could vote at the games.  On the web site of all 30 teams and on the MLB web site.  There were a few other ways to vote as well.  So if you wanted to you could.  If you did not know about it that is your fault not baseball.  Not knowing about it really just shows that these games are just not that important to people.

NFL Best Fans

A recent study was released by Dr. Michael Lewis of Emory’s Goizueta Business School.  It has some interesting results.  It is no surprise that Dallas came out on top.  When Dallas first started to market themselves as Americas Team back in the 60’s it was a genius move.  The Chiefs coming in as 30th is a bit of a surprise.  Chiefs fans have always been considered to be very passionate and supportive fans.    With the Cowboys and the Patriots at the top those seem correct.  But then when you look at the bottom things get a little strange.  The Browns fans are in the bottom.  A team who’s fans have supported them through season after season of being bad.  They have bought the gear.  Followed their team and defied the odds to stay loyal to their team.  For that blind faith they may finally get rewarded.

What a study like this really shows it that the numbers do not show the truth.  They always want to say that the numbers don’t lie.  And in shear raw numbers that may be true.  Numbers can not measure passion though.  Even stranger than the Browns is how the Packers are not in the top five and how are the Chargers not in the bottom five.   Green Bay has a 30 year wait for season tickets.  The team travels well.  Green Bay fans almost always grab all the unsold tickets when ever they are on the road.  On the other side of this you have the Chargers.  The Chargers can’t sell out a 35,000 seat arena.  They do not even really have a home town anymore.  Los Angeles really does not seem to want to claim them.  The Chargers are close to the bottom at 27th but still rank in this list above the Browns, Jaguars, Chiefs, Titans and Rams.   I do not see how the Chargers have a better fan base than the Rams.

This is another one of those lists that is about attention rather than results.  It is an interesting study.  it also shows how the results do not always tell the truth.  It is a fun read and achieved its objective.  Grabbing attention.

On the Tube Tv Not You

Big Brother is back.  I know this is not a show for everyone.  Big Brother really shows how petty and vindictive people can be.  It is a show that we have been watching since its start.  I find it very interesting to see how the groups form.  The way that people interact with each other.  It really is a subset of what society is.  I am sure that there are parts of the show that are scripted.  Some of the controversy is contrived.  I am good with that.  I have no illusions that reality shows are actually completely real.  I do think that they set situations and then the show evolves inside of those.  It is on three times a week so you get your Big Brother fix in every week and it goes for three months.

You can find last weeks post here

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