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In 2006 the Harlem Globetrotters got win number 22,000. From 1971 to 1985 they won 8,829 straight games. In 1948-49 they beat the NBA champion Minneapolis Lakers two years in a row, which was a major factor in integrating the NBA. But most of their wins have come against various “stooge” teams, most owned by Red Klotz: the Boston Shamrocks, New Jersey Reds, Baltimore Rockets, the Washington Generals, and the Atlantic City Seagulls were a few.

Legends like Meadow Lark Lemon, Curly Neal, and Sweetwater Clifton are from a long ago era – already past their prime when I saw them as a kid – but amazingly, the team founded by Abe Saperstein in 1926 is still touring and entertaining the world.

Yes, the Globetrotters have steadfastly claimed that their “exhibition” games were competitive, but everyone knows better. The games have been the backdrop for one of the most enduring and entertaining comedy sketches of all time.

Competition in sports assumes two persons or parties with similar levels of ability – and fair rules.

The NBA is contending with charges that the league encouraged referees to “affect” the outcomes of certain playoff games. Anyone who watched Game 6 of the 2002 playoff series between Los Angeles and Sacramento has not problem believing that to be true, though the greatest mystery of the game was probably Shaq hitting 75% of his free throws. And anyone who watched Jeff Van Gundy, now an ESPN-ABC announcer, explain that he didn’t mean what he said when he said that very thing as Coach of the Houston Rockets, knows how awkward that topic is for those with a vested interest in protecting a league that is supposedly competitive first and entertaining second. But I digress …

Returning to the subject of my previous blog, Major League Baseball, and as response to the defenders of this spectacular of beauty, grace, intelligence, and sportsmanship, I would simply say that the numbers don’t lie. The league lacks competitive balance due to the vast gulf between what clubs can afford to pay for talent. Unlike the NFL, the singularly healthy professional sports league in the United States, there is not a revenue sharing plan. That means owners and general managers don’t have to be skilled talent evaluators and traders to build a great team, but rather they simply outbid the have-nots to amass all-star teams on a single roster.

Sure, there are exceptions to the rule and low-payroll teams have a Cinderella year and the high pay-roll clubs have an off year (cough … New … cough … York … cough … Yankees …). But a quick scan of the 2008 payroll figures is a pretty good indicator of how this season will end.

Yankees $209,081,579

Tigers $138,685,197 (a surprise spender, up from 9th in ’07)

Mets $138,293,378 $117,915,819 $20,377,559

Red Sox $133,440,037

White Sox $121,152,667

Angels $119,216,333

Cubs $118,595,833 (when you are cursed, does it matter how much you spend?)

Dodgers $118,536,038

Mariners $117,993,982

Braves $102,424,018

Cardinals $100,624,450

Blue Jays $98,641,957

Phillies $98,269,881

Astros $88,930,415

Brewers $81,004,167

Indians $78,970,067

Giants $76,904,500

Reds $74,277,695

Padres $73,677,617

Rockies $68,655,500

Rangers $68,239,551

Orioles $67,196,248

Diamondbacks $66,202,713

Twins $62,182,767

Royals $58,245,500

Nationals $54,961,000

Pirates $49,365,282

A’s $47,967,126

Rays $43,820,598

Marlins $21,836,500

Certain Major League Baseball teams have discovered the Harlem Globetrotters model for success. Stack the talent and schedule the stooges.

Deflate-Gate: What did Tom Brady know?

If it wasn’t for steroids, blood doping, and deflated footballs – plus a plethora of well-publicized misbehaviors from adultery to drug abuse to gambling – our sports heroes would still be our heroes.

In a distant past and far away galaxy, reporters would protect the reputation of a raging, self-destructive alcoholic like Yankee great, Mickey Mantle. (Those were his own words.)

The 60s and 70s brought a different brand of reporting that was a mix of a more robust and aggressive investigative journalism with a heaping dose of shock appeal. The “shock” part of that mix exploded first with the internet boom and then went from a hydrogen bomb to a nuclear bomb with the eruption of social media. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and a host of others are Barry-Bonds-level steroid injections for the TMZ-reveal-all world we live in.

The latest scandal to rock the world of sports is the revelation that the New England Patriots used under-inflated footballs in the AFC Championship game against the Indianapolis Colts, a game which they won, to reach Super Bowl XLIX in Glendale, Arizona, against the Seattle Seahawks on February 1, 2015. [Read more…]