MidValleySports.Com

By Joe Torosian

Kick it!

I’m getting excited about college football, but is anyone else a bit tired of USC-San Jose State? I know they haven’t played since 2023, but it feels like they play all the time.

The Trojans playing the Spartans is like taking your girlfriend to AM-PM on the first date.

“Baby, order anything you want.”

Message:
Friend: Joe T., where do you think LeBron is going to land?
Joe T.: I like Argentina over Switzerland, and am rooting for Norway over England.

Friend: What about LeBron?
Joe T.: Since Monday, USA women’s soccer legend Carli Lloyd has refused to back off on her comments about Christian Pulisic…and Colin Cowherd has gone from declaring Pulisic as America’s soccer messiah to disowning him completely following Monday’s collapse against Belgium.

Friend: Joe, who is LeBron going to sign with?
Joe T.: Note to Colin Cowherd: Soccer is not cool…I work with young people, and soccer is not cool. It’s a sport many like, but it does not have a leg up (so to speak) on the other established sports. And stop trying to elevate this with the same language that was used forty years ago.

I have no problem with the NBA calling out and holding the Clippers accountable for whatever they did to manipulate the salary cap to retain Kawhi Leonard.

But this literally affects nobody other than the Clippers and NBA pride…take a draft pick from them and move on. It only hurts the Association if Leonard is playing in Inglewood this fall.

Example of how the world has changed. Serbian forward Nikola Kusturica has reached a multi-year agreement to play for UCLA. 

A multi-year agreement? Whatever happened to letter of intent?

I’m good with all of it. Let’s just not call them student-athletes… and let’s end any–and all–NCAA authority over these schools in football and basketball.

Friend: You going to answer me?
Joe T.: It’s not inspired reading, it’s not exciting, it’s deep stuff that (for me) needs to be read twice, but you should look into the research that counters the accounts about CTE being found in football players.

The outrageous, devastating, jaw-dropping is always highlighted (as with Climate Change narratives), while subtler truths are downplayed or dismissed by the media.

It’s not a denial that something isn’t happening, but regarding football players being diagnosed posthumously, it does hinge on the subjectivity, limitations, and views of those conducting these studies.

I read an article in The Athletic about MLB strikeouts. Mark Reynolds, then of the Arizona Diamondbacks, struck out 223 times in 2009.

Philadelphia Phillies DH Kyle Schwarber is currently at 140 strikeouts. At his current pace, Schwarber will finish the season with 252 Ks.

In comparison, over twenty seasons, the late Tony Gwynn struck out 434 times. The San Diego Padres Hall of Fame outfielder never struck out more than 40 times in a season.

Friend: Joe T.?
Joe T.: Can I ask, at any level, how did you feel when you struck out? Nothing was worse than striking out. Ground out, pop up, foul out anything was better than striking out.

Striking out is/was the epitome of failure…and the worst of the three true outcomes that have seriously wounded baseball: Home run, walk, strike out.

Then again, Schwarber is making 30-Rocks this season… I’d be willing to strike out 252 times from April to October for 30 million.

#79—May the San Francisco Giants rot and lie stinking in the earth.

Friend: Don’t you care about where LeBron goes?
Joe T.: Exactly.

The Dude abides…

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1 Thessalonians 5:16-22
jtbank1964@yahoo.com
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