By LES EAST
It’s hard not to notice the irony of the New Orleans Saints playing a preseason game in Oakland this particular weekend.
The last time the Saints played a preseason game in Oakland, they didn’t make it back to the New Orleans for more than four months. They, and the city, haven’t been the same since.
It was four years ago this weekend that the Saints left early for their game against the Raiders because a hurricane named Katrina was bearing down on New Orleans. By the time the game had been played, three levees around New Orleans had failed and wind and water had severely damaged the Superdome.
Despite “a heck of a job” by FEMA, New Orleans was pretty much in ruins.
The Saints were stranded on the West Coast briefly before setting up shop in San Antonio, where they would wind up playing four of their “home games.” The first “home game” was played in the Meadowlands against the Giants. The other three were played on the LSU campus, 90 miles from the ailing Superdome.
It was possible the Saints and New Orleans’ other major professional franchise, the Hornets, who relocated to Oklahoma City, would never play another game in the Crescent City.
Well, four years later, both franchises are much healthier than they were before the storm, and have recovered much faster than the city itself.
Saints owner Tom Benson seriously flirted with the possibility of permanently relocating to San Antonio before then NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue dragged him, practically kicking and screaming, back to the city where he was born.
NBA Commissioner David Stern had to act similarly with Hornets owner George Shinn, who was only slightly less reluctant than Benson to return.
I wonder if each has thought to thank their benefactor. Probably not.
Remarkably, in their first 12 months back in New Orleans, the Saints hired Sean Payton as head coach, signed Drew Brees, drafted Reggie Bush and Marques Colston, sold out on season tickets for the first time, returned to the Superdome, which was rebuilt faster than the team, which was 3-13 a year earlier, won the NFC South, and advanced to the
NFC Championship for the first time.
The Hornets didn’t make it back to New Orleans full-time until a year later because the repopulating city wasn’t quite up to handling both franchises just yet. The basketball team’s 2007-08 season was a lot like the football team’s 2006 season.
Chris Paul, who had been a rookie No. 1 draft choice who barely got a glimpse of pre-K New Orleans before it was changed forever, blossomed into an MVP finalist, the team won a franchise-record 56 games, captured its first division title, prevailed in a best-of-seven series for the first time, and came within one victory of the Western Conference finals.
(Speaking of changes, an ancillary one is that Seattle’s NBA franchise has relocated to Oklahoma City, something that almost certainly wouldn’t have happened if the Hornets’ relocation hadn’t given OKC the opportunity to show it could support NBA basketball.)
Back to New Orleans. Since those magical runs, the Saints and Hornets have been a little less magical, but both remain playoff contenders and borderline championship contenders. Both are more firmly entrenched in New Orleans than ever before.
The Saints, who have tens of thousands of names on a list on people who want to buy season tickets, and the state of Louisiana recently agreed on a new lease that will keep the team in New Orleans for 17 more seasons. The Super Bowl returns to New Orleans in 2013, for the first time since 2001.
The Hornets, who struggled at the box office when they first returned, have easily surpassed attendance benchmarks that would have allowed them to void their lease if they had not been reached.
Unfortunately, the overall recovery is on a slower pace than that of the two franchises, but the city and the region are moving forward, and the stability and competitiveness of the two franchises make life a little more enjoyable as the rebuilding continues.
The Superdome was a symbol of New Orleans’ status as a world-class sporting community and tourist destination. In 2005, it became a symbol of the devastation to the city.
It has since become a symbol of the city’s revival, as have the Saints and Hornets. Sports franchises are major components of cities’ identities, and rarely has that been demonstrated more clearly than in New Orleans post-K.
The fourth anniversary of this epic man-made disaster (not natural disaster because nearly all of the really bad stuff happened, not because of Katrina, but because of the failure of the federal government-built and maintained levees), passes as the Gulf of Mexico is unusually calm for late August (knock on wood).
So, now is a good time for us to note the potential that sports has to unify a community and provide much-needed catharsis from much weightier issues. Thanks, Saints. Thanks, Hornets.
We’d be remiss if we didn’t recognize that it’s also a good time to acknowledge the countless good people in countless communities around the United States, and the world, really, whose generosity and caring have been indispensable in getting New Orleans back to where it is.
Most of all, thank you.
Friday, August 28, 2009
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Pete Rose belongs in the Hall of Fame
By LES EAST
It has been 20 years since Pete Rose was kicked out of Major League Baseball for betting on it.
Rose got a fair hearing on the allegations that he bet on baseball, and he was rightly found guilty of doing so. But his worthiness for induction into the Hall of Fame has not – and cannot – receive a fair hearing because his punishment for gambling – excommunication from Baseball – prohibits his consideration.
That needs to change.
The ban agreed to by Rose and then-Commissioner Bart Giamatti in 1989 prohibits Rose from being employed in Major League Baseball or from taking part in on-field activities, though a notable exception was made for the honoring of the All-Century Team, to which Rose was chosen, at the 1999 World Series.
Cooperstown has a rule (adopted not coincidentally 20 years ago) that says it will not consider for induction anyone who is permanently banned from the game. So Cooperstown can’t weigh in on this unless current Commissioner Bud Selig lifts the ban. Lift it, Bud.
Let’s get a few things clear:
Rose did a very bad thing by betting on baseball games.
Rose thumbed his nose at the game, its hierarchy, and its fans by stubbornly lying and denying for 15 years that he bet on baseball.
Rose made things even worse by saving his long-awaited confession for a book he wrote, making money off of his long-overdue admission.
Those are some serious blemishes on Rose’s resume, but they don’t change the facts, the most notable of which are:
The most hits ever;
The most games played;
A career .303 batting average;
An average of .300 or better in 15 seasons;
Three World Series titles;
Selection to 17 All-Star Games at a record five different positions.
But those credentials can’t receive the rubber stamp they warrant because Rose is ineligible for consideration.
Rose’s induction into the Hall of Fame would be in no way inconsistent with the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum’s mission.
Its mission statement says it exists for the “honoring, by enshrinement, those individuals who had exceptional careers.”
In that regard, Rose is a no-brainer as a first-ballot Hall of Famer. Sure, his enshrinement would require some sort of acknowledgment of his misdeeds – a scarlet letter on his bust, hanging his bust upside down, displaying his bust next to one of those “Got a gambling problem?” signs, whatever.
Fine.
This saga has drawn out for so long that Rose is no longer eligible for Hall of Fame consideration by the baseball writers. He would have to be considered by the Veterans Committee, consisting of the 65 living members of the Hall of Fame, and need to receive 75 percent of their votes to be enshrined.
Good.
The 65 living Hall of Famers understand, better than anyone else, who belongs among them in Cooperstown.
Let them sit in judgment of whether the most prolific hit-maker in the history of the game belongs in a place created to recognize the most prolific players in the history of the game.
It has been 20 years since Pete Rose was kicked out of Major League Baseball for betting on it.
Rose got a fair hearing on the allegations that he bet on baseball, and he was rightly found guilty of doing so. But his worthiness for induction into the Hall of Fame has not – and cannot – receive a fair hearing because his punishment for gambling – excommunication from Baseball – prohibits his consideration.
That needs to change.
The ban agreed to by Rose and then-Commissioner Bart Giamatti in 1989 prohibits Rose from being employed in Major League Baseball or from taking part in on-field activities, though a notable exception was made for the honoring of the All-Century Team, to which Rose was chosen, at the 1999 World Series.
Cooperstown has a rule (adopted not coincidentally 20 years ago) that says it will not consider for induction anyone who is permanently banned from the game. So Cooperstown can’t weigh in on this unless current Commissioner Bud Selig lifts the ban. Lift it, Bud.
Let’s get a few things clear:
Rose did a very bad thing by betting on baseball games.
Rose thumbed his nose at the game, its hierarchy, and its fans by stubbornly lying and denying for 15 years that he bet on baseball.
Rose made things even worse by saving his long-awaited confession for a book he wrote, making money off of his long-overdue admission.
Those are some serious blemishes on Rose’s resume, but they don’t change the facts, the most notable of which are:
The most hits ever;
The most games played;
A career .303 batting average;
An average of .300 or better in 15 seasons;
Three World Series titles;
Selection to 17 All-Star Games at a record five different positions.
But those credentials can’t receive the rubber stamp they warrant because Rose is ineligible for consideration.
Rose’s induction into the Hall of Fame would be in no way inconsistent with the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum’s mission.
Its mission statement says it exists for the “honoring, by enshrinement, those individuals who had exceptional careers.”
In that regard, Rose is a no-brainer as a first-ballot Hall of Famer. Sure, his enshrinement would require some sort of acknowledgment of his misdeeds – a scarlet letter on his bust, hanging his bust upside down, displaying his bust next to one of those “Got a gambling problem?” signs, whatever.
Fine.
This saga has drawn out for so long that Rose is no longer eligible for Hall of Fame consideration by the baseball writers. He would have to be considered by the Veterans Committee, consisting of the 65 living members of the Hall of Fame, and need to receive 75 percent of their votes to be enshrined.
Good.
The 65 living Hall of Famers understand, better than anyone else, who belongs among them in Cooperstown.
Let them sit in judgment of whether the most prolific hit-maker in the history of the game belongs in a place created to recognize the most prolific players in the history of the game.
Monday, August 24, 2009
BCS rankings hopelessly tainted already
By LES EAST
The first college football game is still more than a week away and already the BCS is off track.
The BCS, of course, is a formula that is supposed to bring together the two most deserving teams to play for the college football national championship at the end of the season.
The BCS-vs.-playoff debate continues to smolder, but there’s no point in rehashing it here because the BCS isn’t going anywhere as long as the current contracts with the bowls and networks are in place (through 2014).
But we can look at a way to improve the system we’re stuck with for the foreseeable future.
A major component (one-third) of the BCS rankings consists of the coaches poll. Subjectivity really should have no role to play in which teams get to play for a championship, but since it does, let’s try and deal with it as fairly as we can.
The BCS rankings for the 2009 season, which won’t start being formulated until a month or so into the season, are already irretrievably tainted, thanks to the preseason coaches poll.
Every team in the country already has an inherent advantage or disadvantage based on what some guys, and perhaps gals, think they will do this season.
Go ahead and run the table and see if that’s good enough to overcome preseason thoughts. Ask last year’s Utah team if winning every game you play is sufficient to get you a shot at the title, or the 2004 Auburn team.
Could the Utes, who blasted Alabama, the No. 1 team in the country until the final poll before the bowls, in the Sugar Bowl, have beaten Florida in the BCS championship? I don’t know, and no one will ever know because that game wasn’t played.
The modest preseason expectations that pollsters had for Utah essentially eliminated the Utes from the BCS race while they were conducting preseason practice.
Five years ago, Auburn had the unfortunate circumstance of being one of three undefeated teams from BCS conferences. Were the Tigers (No. 18 in the preseason poll) more deserving of a shot at the title than USC or Oklahoma (Nos. 1 and 2)?
I don’t know. But I do know that they were the odd team out, based at least in part, on the fact that pollsters thought they would be the weaker of those three teams. It turns out their fate was determined in August, not September-December.
Preseason polls are the single biggest flaw in the flawed BCS system. I’ve accepted the fact that we’re stuck with the BCS system and a subjective way of choosing who gets to play for the national championship.
But let’s at least make the best of the flawed system. The BCS rankings don’t start coming out enough games have been played so each team has a body of work of some depth.
But the coaches poll – one-third of those rankings – starting being formulated before anybody played a game. Let’s ditch the preseason polls and not allow anyone to vote on any poll in the BCS until the first set of BCS rankings.
It’ll make a screwed-up system a little less screwed up.
The first college football game is still more than a week away and already the BCS is off track.
The BCS, of course, is a formula that is supposed to bring together the two most deserving teams to play for the college football national championship at the end of the season.
The BCS-vs.-playoff debate continues to smolder, but there’s no point in rehashing it here because the BCS isn’t going anywhere as long as the current contracts with the bowls and networks are in place (through 2014).
But we can look at a way to improve the system we’re stuck with for the foreseeable future.
A major component (one-third) of the BCS rankings consists of the coaches poll. Subjectivity really should have no role to play in which teams get to play for a championship, but since it does, let’s try and deal with it as fairly as we can.
The BCS rankings for the 2009 season, which won’t start being formulated until a month or so into the season, are already irretrievably tainted, thanks to the preseason coaches poll.
Every team in the country already has an inherent advantage or disadvantage based on what some guys, and perhaps gals, think they will do this season.
Go ahead and run the table and see if that’s good enough to overcome preseason thoughts. Ask last year’s Utah team if winning every game you play is sufficient to get you a shot at the title, or the 2004 Auburn team.
Could the Utes, who blasted Alabama, the No. 1 team in the country until the final poll before the bowls, in the Sugar Bowl, have beaten Florida in the BCS championship? I don’t know, and no one will ever know because that game wasn’t played.
The modest preseason expectations that pollsters had for Utah essentially eliminated the Utes from the BCS race while they were conducting preseason practice.
Five years ago, Auburn had the unfortunate circumstance of being one of three undefeated teams from BCS conferences. Were the Tigers (No. 18 in the preseason poll) more deserving of a shot at the title than USC or Oklahoma (Nos. 1 and 2)?
I don’t know. But I do know that they were the odd team out, based at least in part, on the fact that pollsters thought they would be the weaker of those three teams. It turns out their fate was determined in August, not September-December.
Preseason polls are the single biggest flaw in the flawed BCS system. I’ve accepted the fact that we’re stuck with the BCS system and a subjective way of choosing who gets to play for the national championship.
But let’s at least make the best of the flawed system. The BCS rankings don’t start coming out enough games have been played so each team has a body of work of some depth.
But the coaches poll – one-third of those rankings – starting being formulated before anybody played a game. Let’s ditch the preseason polls and not allow anyone to vote on any poll in the BCS until the first set of BCS rankings.
It’ll make a screwed-up system a little less screwed up.
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