Before throwing out the trash in another week in sports, Wai Sallas pays homage, for the love of sport.
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Every day there’s greatness in sports.
Sometimes it’s broadcasted for the world to see.
Other times it can be just a fleeting moment between two people alone on a baseball diamond.
The sports world lost one of its greats last weekend, and while you’ve heard all the great stories about Stuart Scott’s life and the lives he touched, the one that will stick out with me is deep down at the heart, he was a sports fan like you and I. No matter negativity was finding its way into sports, Scott always felt the need to share his love of sport with us. In honor of Scott, let’s dump the bad and pump the good with this week’s edition of The Sports Dump.
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Sports Dump #1: The College Football Playoff National Championship
In case you have been living under a rock, ESPN is doing its best to promote the first College Football Playoff National Championship.
After paying over $7 billion dollars over 12 years to air seven bowl games, can you blame them? That’s right, ESPN forked over 10 digits to air amateur athletics. How much money do the athletes get? Zilch.
In the buzz leading up the big game, ESPN’s Darren Rovell reports the University of Oregon is currently selling 21 different Marcus Mariotta jerseys. The Heisman Trophy winning quarterback will be getting a hefty paycheck of…
While we’ll have to wait until Sunday to see if Mariotta will indeed lose, what’s clear is that the College Football Playoffs are a boon for everyone.
ESPN had a 15.2 rating and averaged 28,271,000 viewers for its Allstate Sugar Bowl broadcast Thursday night after drawing a 14.8 rating and averaging 28,164,000 viewers for the Rose Bowl Game presented by Northwestern Mutual, Nielsen said Friday.
The suits are obviously happy, and so are the fans. The Oregon-Ohio State match up would have been the Rose Bowl game had the BCS still been in control. Luckily for us, Alabama vs. Florida State would have been the BCS National Champoinship. Denying us what we’ve wanted all along, the players to decide the championship on the field.
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Sports Dump #2: The MLB Hall of Fame
On Tuesday, The Baseball Writers’ Association of America once again proved they are an archaic group who care more about respecting the moral and ethical code of their egos than making decisions that honor the game that most Americans grew up on.
It’s one thing to deny players unanimous entry because of tradition, it’s another thing to continue to exclude players based on unfounded moral high ground. The BBWAA continue to blackball Barry Bonds, Mike Piazza and Roger Clemens, despite resumes that demand entry into immortality.
The voters will continue to bring up the steroid era, but no one made a peep when the Veterans Committee inducted Tony LaRussa into the Hall last year. LaRussa won 41% of his 2,728 wins with Mark McGwire, the same steroid-laced Mark McGwire who has tainted the game, according to the voters.
It’s time for the writers realize that the only people who still care about the Steroid era are the writers themselves.
Notorious spitballer, Gaylord Perry is in the Hall of Fame, as is infamous racist Ty Cobb. So the question is, how long will the BBWAA keep this up before people, due the hypocrisy, stop caring about the Baseball Hall of Fame all together.
On the bright side, four deserving names made entry into immortality. On Tuesday, the BBWAA inducted Pedro Martinez, Randy Johnson, Craig Biggio and John Smoltz. All four were icons when they played and all four were…”as cool as the other side of the pillow.”
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Photo Credit: Flickr/Matthew D. Britt
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