MidValleySports.Com

Joe T., always working hard…

By Joe Torosian

Kick it!

The NCAA is weighing changes to eligibility to allow five seasons and eliminate redshirt and injury years. I like the honesty of acknowledging what we know, the players already are. 

Scholarships should be replaced with contracts.

My only question is, after Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, Senior, what will the fifth season be called? 

Fifth Year? Super Senior? Senior Citizen?

I only get emotional about God, family, and country…But I do embrace special memories. One of them was the first time I entered Chavez Ravine.

On August 4, 1975, the Dodgers beat the Atlanta Braves 9-1. Willie Crawford homered, and so did Davey Lopes. He pulled the pitch into the Dodgers’ bullpen in left field.

Lopes was never my favorite Dodger, and I couldn’t wait for Steve Sax to replace him, but maturity and time proved to me he was the glue-guy for the team’s legendary infield.

What I find unacceptable is that so-called Dodger fans have no clue who Lopes was. I never saw Wes Parker, Duke Snider, Carl Erskine, or Zach Wheat play…But I knew they were Dodgers.

Most teams these days—definitely those in Los Angeles—don’t have fanbases. Instead, they have a collection of experience seekers who will invest only as long as the experience has popular standing.

It’s not going to happen for a long time, but if the Dodgers were to take a tumble into extended mediocrity, these fans would abandon them.

History is critical… and, yes, history is the first thing Marxists remove. Always, always be leery of someone who disregards history and/or is eager to ignore it, and refuses to teach it.

We should not live in the past, but we cannot forget it.

How meaningless has the NBA Draft become? Did you know the Los Angeles Lakers have 11 former first-round draft picks on their roster?

(Deandre Ayton, Kobe Bufkin, Luka Doncic, Rui Hachimura, Jaxson Hayes, LeBron James, Luke Kennard, Dalton Knecht, Jake Laravia, Marcus Smart, Nick Smith Jr.)

With 65 games played, the benchmark for earning NBA honors, it would be good to look back at how some of the legends fared in an 82-game season.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, in 20 seasons, played fewer than 74 games twice. In 1974-75, he played in 65 games after an injury. In 1977-78, he only played in 62 after breaking his hand on Kent Benson’s face in the opener.

Magic Johnson: Not counting an injury in his second season and comeback…The lowest season total was 67 in 1983-84, due to a broken finger.

Michael Jordan: Excluding his injury in his second year, comeback from baseball, and first season in Washington…never played less than 78 games.

Larry Bird, in his first nine seasons, never played fewer than 74 games. Injured in his tenth season and appearing in just six games, he came back the following year and played 75. In his last two seasons, he played 60 and 45 games, respectively, due to age and injury.

LeBron James played 65 games or more in 13 of his first 15 seasons.

#21—May the San Francisco Giants rot and lie stinking in the earth…

Last Add Dodgers: Breaking News! The Dodgers lost yesterday. I didn’t know such a thing was possible.

The Dude abides…
1,267
Ephesians 1:18-21
jtbank1964@yahoo.com
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