After months of discussion, the pain of people who work, live, even be tourists downtown, we have finally reached the weekend of the inaugural NASCAR Chicago race. It will be different from normal NASCAR as this will wind through Grant Park like an F1 race instead of just going around an oval. The tickets are very expensive, between $200 and $300 and up. The thinking is that it will open up a new market for the sport.
With a population that is largely Black and Hispanic, this may be a stretch. Yes, there are people of color who are race car fans, but I don’t see this making much of a difference. This is preaching to the choir, a small number of Chicagoans who are fans or want to be seen at such a rare event. Many people are like me, which is that I will probably tune in to see the cars driving through the race course. I’ll watch for a few minutes and once I’ve seen it, I will get bored and either continue channel surfing or get up and do something else. There is supposed to be another race next year, but unless the race this weekend is a huge success, it may not happen again next year. One can only hope.

I haven’t writing much on the phenomenon that is Shohei Ohtani. He is a physical wonder, a great hitter and an excellent pitcher, the first player to do both since the early years of Babe Ruth. He is a wonder. In case you’ve not been paying attention: Ohtani leads the Angels in runs, hits, triples, home runs, RBI, OPS, batting average, wins, strikeouts (as a pitcher), and WAR. Unlike his previous years in the MLB, the Angels are currently good. The team is in 3rd place in the tough AL West, 43-35 but only 6 games behind division leading Texas, ad ½ games behind defending World Series Champion Houston Astros. Before, the Angels were known as the most underachieving team, possessing two of the best players in baseball. Ohtani and Mike Trout, who is having another banner season. This is important because most players and pundits see Ohtani playing for the Dodgers next year when he becomes a free agent. If they stay in the race, or even win the division, Ohtani may decide to stay in Anaheim.
This season, after winning an MVP Award and finishing second the other years, he is on a pace to eclipse the other seasons:
2021: .257 average, 46 HR, .965 OPS
2022: .273 average, 34 HR, .875 OPS
2023 pace: .300 average, 52 HR, 1.015 OPS
That’s only on the batting side. He is currently 6-3, with a 3.13 ERA, and he has struck-out 117, tied for most K’s in the majors.
I admit that I thought he was a publicity stunt when he first came to America, but he has proven to be the real deal. I don’t see many Angels games, mostly because the games that are available to me (I don’t have MLB TV) are played in the Pacific Time Zone, so I can’t stay up that late. I have now watched Ohtani and he is everything the stats show.
I only wish the White Sox could sign him.

Hockey is known as a tough sport: tough skating, tough checks, the occasional fight. Old time fans believe that the league isn’t as tough as it used to be, and they are probably right, but the faster, more telegenic game without turning into Wrestlemania at any given moment has brought more casual fans interested (although ratings were down this season, but I blame that on ESPN/ESPN+/TNT’s programs).
As a long-term fan from an Original Six city, I appreciate well rounded players, who can play offense and defense, someone who plays “a 200-foot game.” I am much more impressed by players like Jonathan Toews, or Pavel Datsyk, Matthew Tkachuk. Even the guys who score the most play defense occasionally. Nikita Kucherov, Connor McDavid, David Pasternak are more than one-dimensional. I admit that I don’t like one-dimensional players. While a scoring machine, Alex Ovechkin didn’t start playing defense until the Caps won their Cup. One season, Ovechkin posed one of his many 50+ goal seasons but he also posted a NEGATIVE 56 plus/minus. I know the drawbacks of using =/- as a statistic but this means that Ovechkin was on the ice for over 100 goals. For all of that, you do see Ovechkin on both ends of the ice.
Which brings me to players you learn to hate. There are the tough guys who beat your team up all of the time like Bob Probert; there are players who just wear your favorite team out like St. Louis’ Bernie Federko or Vladimir Tarasenko when he was with the Blues. Then, there are the pucks – players who start fights when no one is looking then get lost behind his teammates like Dino Ciccarreli and the current ass Brad Marchand. Then there’s another category: Phil Kessel.
Kessel can score, he has 413 goals and 579 assists, 8 points from having 1,000. When he was signed by Toronto, he was supposed to be the centerpiece for a ravenous fan base. The Maple Leafs never found success in the playoffs. All this time, the NHLPA player only vote regularly voted Kessel as the most overrated player in the league. He won this several years in a row, and Kessel always looks more like a guy who is sitting on a couch rather than a hockey player. He has a reputation of not training very hard and not apparently caring much.
Eventually, the Leafs tired of him and they shipped him to Pittsburgh. There, he wasn’t the centerpiece with Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang. He settled to a second-third liner and the team won two Stanley Cups, but not as a result of anything Kessel did to bring them the Cup. Haters like myself were disgusted to have him get his name engraved on the Cup, not once, but twice. After that, Kessel found himself on the horrendous Arizona team where he became the consecutive games played leader. It’s really easy to play every night when you don’t hit anyone and are only looking for the one-timer. Looking to him for some veteran leadership, Kessel provided none in the desert. Late in the season, the eventual Stanley Cup Champion Las Vegas Golden Knights picked him up, and he scored a little bit, but once again was a defensive liability. In the playoffs, Kessel played only in the team’s first round against Vancouver. After that, Kessel did not step on the ice for 1 minute of time, but when the Knights won, suddenly, he was on the ice, crowing about having been on three Cup winners.
Since then, Kessel has been all over social media bragging with pictures of himself and three Stanley Cups photoshopped into the picture. And he looks like he just woke up, wearing a robe, two-day beard growth. Not buff like one would expect to see from a hockey player. Players on Vegas and Florida were playing with broken bones and strains and many injuries that would sit the normal player and send any of we non-athletes to a hospital. Today, it was reported that Kessel eat hot dogs out of the Cup.
I am not a prude – the Stanley Cup has been all over the world. It was dented after Dallas won the Cup in 1990 at a party, reportedly at Ed Belfour’s house. Who knows what other shenanigans the Cup has been a part of? Babies have sat in it. Who knows was sexual positions have involved Lord Stanley. But Phil Kessel flaunts his lack of work effort, lack of defense, even the fact that just because he was I the Golden Knights but didn’t play a minute in the final three rounds of the playoffs.
Maybe it’s in part of being a worse hockey player than his sister Amanda. I don’t think she’d brag about being a Stanley Cup Champion if she wasn’t on the ice.

One of the most enjoyable things about being a sports fan is the bestowing of the title of GOAT – Greatest Of All Time. Begun in boxing when fighters were called the “best pound for pound,” which I think began with Sugar Ray Robinson, before that the heavyweight champion was assumed to be the toughest man on the planet. Then of course came Ali, whose boasts took the term GOAT and lifted it to stratospheric heights. Soon, every other sport took up the challenge. Wo’s the GOAT in Basketball? Jordan? LeBron? Kareem? Magic? In hockey? Gretzky? Orr? Gordie Howe?
In team sport, it is that much harder to call one player the all time best, but if tennis, where the spotlight is primarily on the solo player, The argument gages in the women’s side – is it obviously Serena? Graf? Navratilova? On the men’s side, there have been lots to choose from: Borg? McEnroe? Connors? Sampras? In the late 20rth and early 21st Centuries, three men have dominated tennis: Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. These three have taken turns winning all of the majors, beating each other with each one taking the lead in all time men’s singles Grand Slams. If this is the only criteria, then Djokovic is the GOAT. Winning the French Open a few weeks ago gives him 23 Slams, one more that Nadal and 3 more than Federer. Djokovic should keep this record for quite awhile: Federer is retired and Nadal has announced that this will be his last season, but he has been hobbled by injury and age.
Djokovic is by no means a warm and cuddly champion. His style of play is fairly generic, doing things in all areas tremendously well, but which can make his matches dull. Plus, he was never known as a particularly friendly personage on the Tour. The cherry on top of his reputation was his absolute refusal to take the COVID-19 vaccine, which prevented from playing in the Australian, and US Opens in 2021. He showed himself to be a petulant crybaby, alienating some fans that liked him before.
I have held out for a long time that the true GOAT is Rod Laver. Laver led everyone in Slams, and remains the only player to win the calendar Slam twice. Laver won all four majors in 1962, then turned pro which meant that he could not play the Slams, but when the Open Era began in 1968, Laver won Wimbledon, then won all four in 1969. Of course, today’s players are much bigger and stronger, and the racket technology is vastly superior. Still, I held on to Laver (I even mentioned this to him at a book signing and he said that even in his prime, he wouldn’t have been able to keep up with today’s players), but I have to admit that I was starting to lean toward Federer. I think that there’s no doubt that Nadal is the greatest ever n clay (14 French Open Titles will do that). Now, its Djokovic and he has a valid claim on the title; maybe more that anyone in many years. That’s not to say that all GOATS have to be loved: lots of people (myself included) are not big fans of Tom Brady, but he’s won more Super Bowls than anyone. Personally, I think that Bobby Orr is the GOAT of hockey: he completely changed the game and how the defenseman position has been played ever since. Gretzky was a point machine, certainly in the top 2 or 3 of all time.
Surprisingly, it was Djokovic himself that said something profound. He said that he thinks there are different GOATS for different time periods. Laver was GOAT in the 1960s, someone else in the 1970s and 80’s (Connors, Borg, McEnroe). He holds the title now. That is a very good concept, but that won’t answer the all-time GOAT question in every bar in the world.

Continuing the discussion from the former post, many, myself included, believe that Michael Jordan is the GOAT of basketball. Not LeBron, slightly eclipsing Kareem, or Magic or Bird. He definitely used his charisma, talent and business acumen to remain one of the most recognizable people on Earth. Naturally, he wanted to take his wealth and succeed on the other side of basketball – ownership. He tool a role with the Wizards including playing at the end of his career, but his managerial decisions did not pan out. He left the Wizards but soon, the ownership group in Charlotte decided to sell, and Jordan, basketball legend in North Carolina, bought the team becoming the onle Black majority owner in the NBA.
Jordan’s magic did not translate to his own team. The Hornet have posted a 423-600 record during Jordan’s tenure, making the playoffs only twice in his 13-years of ownership, losing in the first round both times. It announced that Jordan would be selling his majority ownership stake in the team, but he would remain a limited shareholder. The sale is estimated to be worth $2 billion. I have always said that it is difficult for superstars to be owners or coaches. The thing that makes superstars more than even talent, is the hunger to win every game, every championship. I believe that in evaluating and motivating players, they aren’t good at it because they have that that killer instinct naturally and can’t understand people who don’t have that drive.
I am certain that it hits Jordan hard that he dd not succeed at ownership . After watching “The Last Dance,” I felt sorry for Jordan, looking like Charles Foster Kane, alone, with no real friends that can be guaranteed to be more than hired sycophants. Yes, some people would say that being lonely with several billion dollars is not a hardship, but money can’t bring you happiness. Jordan’s older kids are grown and from what we know, their relationships to their father are.. complicated. Jordan and his current wife have, I believe, twins, and one hopes that Jordan has a better relationship with his wife and kids.
And a few billion dollars don’t hurt…

First, let me say that I have no interest in golf. I agree with the old Mark Twain saying “golf is a good walk spoiled.” However, even a non-golf fan like myself couldn’t ignore the battle between the Saudi Arabian LIV, DP World Tour and the PGA Tour. The PGA Tour, DP World Tour and LIV Golf League, which have been embroiled in a bitter legal battle for more than a year, which has included players jumping leagues and being banished from the PGA Tour. Players loyal to the PGA have foregone millions of dollars in guaranteed money (LIV players get substantial salaries as compared to the PGA Tour who only get winnings and appearance fees.)
It has been a nasty fight: Phil Mickelson and Greg Norman among many others were banished from the PGA; then lawsuits and money permitted the LIV players to compete in the majors. Meanwhile, the LIV and it’s financial backers, the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund (PIF), was rightfully criticized for the monarchy’s abuse of women, ethnic groups, the death of journalists among other accusations. The PGA Tour has even brought 9/11 victims’ family members to tie LIV to terrorism
Today’s it was announced that the three tours would be merging. What was interesting is that none of the players of any league knew what was going on. Everyone was shocked when the announcement was made this afternoon. Having seen the merger of the NFL and AFL, and the NBA and ABA, I had no doubt that this would happen eventually. Just not this fast. All of these mergers were about money, despite genuine antipathy between the leagues beforehand.
The sides have agreed to unify and move forward in a larger commercial business, the circuits announced Tuesday. The stunning development was called “a landmark agreement … on a global basis.”
ESPN.com reported “(t)here’s been a lot of tension in our sport over the last couple years,” PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan told CNBC on Tuesday. “What we’re talking about today is coming together to unify the game of golf, and to do so under one umbrella. We’ve recognized that together, we can have a far greater impact on this game than we can working apart. … The game of golf is better for what we’ve done here today.”
In a memo to PGA Tour players, Monahan wrote that in addition to making a financial investment in the new entity, PIF would become a premier corporate sponsor of the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and other international tours. Monahan wrote that PIF will make investments to “build an even stronger and more robust commercial business, together” and was committed to “significant financial support toward causes that positively impact the game on a global basis.” Monahan wrote that the PGA Tour would evaluate how “best to integrate team golf into the professional game.” He said LIV Golf would complete its 2023 schedule, which resumes later this month in Spain.
The circuits said the parties have signed an agreement that “combines PIF’s golf-related commercial businesses and rights (including LIV Golf) with the commercial businesses and rights of the PGA Tour and DP World Tour into a new, collectively owned, for-profit entity to ensure that all stakeholders benefit from a model that delivers maximum excitement and competition among the game’s best players.” The circuits said the agreement ends all pending litigation between the parties.
I have seen reports for years that interest and participation in golf has been falling for years, to the point of increasing the size of holes and other changes designed to capture young people. While I cannot see that this will help with that issue, but it doesn’t hurt to have billions in oil money supporting the sport. The people behind the game are wallowing in baskets of money while Saudi Arabia attempts to cover it’s deeds in money. Just as Russia and China have spent billions to buy Olympic Games and build fabulous structures to try and use it as propaganda.
The people who aren’t happy are the PGA players who declined the guaranteed millions of dollars by staying loyal to the PGA. The ones who were the highest supporters for the PGA have been Tiger Woods and especially Rory McIllroy. Other players have been quoted as being shocked and stunned and angry at PGA Commissioner Jay Monahan. I would think that a lot of players are going to demand lost earnings that had been promised by LIV but stayed with the PGA. In the case of Woods and McIllroy, that could be millions, not to mention the betrayal he feels for being a very public supporter of the PGA tour.
Again, I don’t much care about golf. To me, it’s boring, but there’s a lot of money and where there’s money, there’s going to be people jumping in the pile of dough. While a lot of the litigation and ill will may be over between the three tours, I have a feeling there is going to be more litigation and there may be some anger between players that will take some time to heal, if it does at all.

Since October, 2022, Arizona, San Jose, Anaheim, Columbus and the Blackhawks all tanked like they were in the film “The Hunt for Red October.” There was some awful hockey played by these teams. Why? The chance to draft Connor Bedard, a s17-year-old scoring machine who has been the number one prospect for a couple of years now. The term “generational talent” isn’t tossed around lightly. He’s been compared to Sidney Crosby and others. He’s the most hyped player since another Connor, McDavid came into the league.
From the start of the season, it was a not-secret surreptitious story that the Blackhawks were going after Bedard. They played horribly in long streaks then had sudden bouts of solid play, even beating Boston and Toronto late in the season. While happy to beat those powerhouses, fans were asking themselves if they couldn’t even tank well. Every win was with a grimace; reverse scoreboard watching for what did Anaheim and Columbus do that day. The Hawks finished with the third position, with an 11.6% chance of winning the number 1 pick.
Last night’s broadcast of the Draft Lottery was unusual. In the past, sports lotteries showed a drum full of ping pong balls, and the machine kicks out the ball with that team’s logo on it to determine who would draft and when. Last night, Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly came out with a stack of signs with a number on one side and the team result on the other. For 20 minutes, teams were announced, and there was very little change from the positions coming into the lottery. Then, ESPN and Daly was going to a commercial break with the remaining three teams left: Anaheim, Columbus and Chicago. However, ESPN hockey analyst Kevin Weeks, known for announcing trades before officially made said before the That’s when the conspiracy theorists among hockey fans will be discussing for years. Before Daly could fully turn over announcer Kevin Weekes announced that Columbus had fallen to number 3. Columbus has been snakebit in the Draft lottery in the past, never getting the number 1 overall pick in the franchise’s history.
Again, in broadcast history, the team with the number 2 pick would be announced allowing the number 1 pick obvious. Instead Daly turned over the number 1 sign and the Blackhawks had jumped Anaheim, which had a 16% chance to get number 1. Back in the Chicago Bulls’ championship years, we fans in Chicago believed that referee calls would go against e Bulls to extend a series; opponent fans felt that the Bulls got all of the calls. While fire has never been proven, there was lots of smoke. It would be better for the NHL and its broadcast partners and sponsors to have Bedard come here. Columbus is a small market with a limited fan base; Anaheim of course is the land of Disneyland, but the powers that be would probably be happier if the next great player wasn’t in the west. McDavid already plays in Edmonton and late games do not generate the same ratings as East/Midwest games. History from 2010-2015 Stanley Cup years were dominated by the Hawks and big ratings followed. The league is more prosperous when Original Six teams are good.
Honestly, I don’t believe anything happened just because there are too many eyes on the lottery (and I don’t think most sports’ corporate offices could walk and chew gum at the same time). So, I was very happy, leaping off my easy chair yelling when the pick was announced. Reportedly, the Blackhawks sold approximately $4 million in season ticket orders last night. (I renewed this morning.) Are the Blackhawks contenders? Not yet, but they have lots more draft picks this year and next. More important in the short term, the Hawks will be relevant and interesting to watch for the first time in years.