The NFL, My Second Effort and ETC

 Let's begin with ETC: Part of etc in the future is going to be about FANTABULOUS names in all sports. i'm not talking about  the players as athletes but the players' actual names. Yesterday's blog contained my first effort and a great one it was, it will reign supreme, numero uno, until I find one to surpass it. This name will not, but it is definitely Fantabulous: 49er cornerback. Drum roll, please: DEOMMODORE LENOIR. Brandon Aiyuk calls him, "his dog."  

Is Brock Purdy the answer to the 49er QB question mark. Last season was certainly a Brock Purdy coming-out party, but referring to a sport I know best, it's always the second year that tests whether a player can sustain and grow. Lot's of talk abuot Trey Lance being traded. Giving up on an athlete like that sounds dumb to me. What might he look like after a couple of seasons without an injury?  

I would have added Aiyuk to my Fantabulous names' list, but Brandon just takes the edge off Aiyuk. It's got to be first, last, and middle if possible to earn a sport on Meschery's Fantabulous Names List. 

Here's a Haiku about football

QB #1    By Tom Meschery

Watch the rabbit run,
Escaping the coyote
Mahomes evading tackles.

Beware NBA & etc

This morning I read an Athletic article about options for the Knicks looking to fill out their rosters. The title started out:  "Cheap options for the Knicks." I didn't need to read further. I've been thinking about this since reading how writers were congratulating Sun's GM, Jone for his acumen finding chepa players to surround his Big Three, assuming he doesn't consider Ayton, which would make it the Big Four. In the recent past, Teams over the cap apron(s) have been faced with the same problems as the Suns. Take the Golden State Warriors, for example, finding vets they can sing for vet minimums. In 2022 in worked out beautifully; in 2023, the Dubs were not so lucky. Just not the same caliber vets, excpet for Donte DiVincenzo. Here's my worry. As the money rises teams can offer, I can foresee the bulk of it going to the super stars and a great deal less of it distributed among the solid rotation players. I don't believe vet rotation players and their agents would deny that NBA championship teams are built around their Super Stars and those stars, like great film stars, deserve top salaries, However, if the difference between Star contracts begin to infringe upon the contracts of the rest of the team, thing couls get a bit dicey around the league. Without getting into politics, this possibility in the NBA could at some point in the future begin to look like the disaprity betwee wealth in this country where most of the wealth is concentrated in the hands of the upper 2% of the population. 

ETC

After Basketball season ends, I blog less. I watch baseball, but baseball on television is a game for people who love statistics. Not that there isn't action. Watching pitchers is very satisfying, but I can only do it for so long. as pitching takes up over half of he time of the game. Whenever there's a homerun, I hear the voice of my dearly departed friend, Bill King, one time Voice of the Athletics: "It's going, it's gone, Holy Toledo! I've had the game explained to me by Larry Colton, one time Philly pitcher and now writer of great books. Read Counting Coups, you'll love the story of a Native American girls basketball team on it's way to a state championship. Even with Larry's tutelage, I know I'm not getting half the nuance of baseball. So I don't blog about it much.  

Of course there are so many sports I can write about. Presently, we have America's women competing for the FIFA World Championships. And I'll always have my eye out for tennis.  And I try not to miss major track and field events.  I know too little about winter sports such as skiing and iceskating that there's not interesting I could say about it, unless there is a rekated human interest narrative  involved.

 This all leads upt to the following:

Why not blog about the NFL and college football? Even though i recognize the sports' violence, I still enjoy watching football, especially the NFL, I guess because I prefer seeing sports played on the highest level. The only reason I can think of why I don't blog about football is simply that there are too many players to be taken into consideration to do a credible job. Twenty-two in all and most in positions I know little about except when pointed out to me by a color-commentator. Did you see what the left guard did to open up the hole for the running back? I did not, sorry Troy.  

But I have decided this season to go against my better judgement and write more about the NFL 

Allow me to begin: Hurrah, foe Justin Herbert for earning a five year contract worth $265.2 million. Note please that I didn't round up and kept the.2, which is about the total amount a teacher earns in ten years and probably less in a state like Mississippi. Ah, well. My wife is on board with this contract as she is an Oregon Duck and so is Justin. And she points out he went the full four years and graduated with a 4 GPA degree in science with an emphais in biology. Now we're talking roll model. 

Not to be upstaged by Herbert, Andrew Thomas, offensive tackle for the New York Giants has signed a contract worth $217.5 million. We're talking lineman here, I know zero about offensive tackles so i felt it would be a good start mentioning him. Well, I do know the job of offensive tackles is to clear a path for rurnning backs and to protect quaterbacks from getting crushed by defensive tackles. 

I'm a 49er fan. I go back as far a YA Tittle. I used to also be a fan of the Raiders, but when the team domped Oakland, I stopped. Vegas can have them. Although, I must say, if any city might carry on the raucous tradition of the Oakland fans it's Glitter City. Back to the 49ers: Nick Bosa has not showed up for training camp as his agent is working on the details of a new extended contract. I can't wait to see the numbers. I am a fan of Bosa, not only because he is a fabulous end rusher but because my wife's grandson,Jaxon, has named his cat Bosa.  

I don't think I'll push the envelope mush frurther for my first foray into football blogging, excpet for one last shot: The Winner of the All Time Name for an Athlete in any sport - Drum foll, please - is Amon-Ra-St. Brown. Like Wilt Champerlain's 100 point game, I doubt this will ever be surpassed.

 I leave you with this interesting factoid about football: In England in the 18th century, Rugby, the grandpa of American Football, along with Cricket, was the sport of the upper classes, while Football, which in America we call soccer, was thought of as the sport for the lower classes?  

HEAPS ON HEAPS

And now both bands in close embraces met,
Now foot to foot, and breast to breast was set.
Now all impatient grapple round the ball,
And heaps on heaps in wild disorder fall.
                 Matthew Concanen

               from A Match at Football
                     (1721)

The Temp is Rising

I read this morning in The Athletic about the Sun working to establish a G League team for next season. Good for them.  Sometimes I make comments at the end of articles. I wasn't going to, until a I read a comment about this article posted by a reader. It was not about basketball, but climate change. He questioned if in the future there would be a Suns team to write about, given that with climate change, the heat in AZ would be intolerable. That made me think of all the other cities in the NBA that are going to be massively affected by climate change: San Antonio, Houston, Orlando, etc. The City of Miami is going to be flooded. The Sun's new owner Matt Ishbia might want to consider moving his team to the Northwest  and let KD finish his career where he started in cool and beautiful Seattle. 

Today's 7.25.;23 Athletic had a marvelous, touching story about how Charlie Villanueva has helped rookie Celtic draft choice Jordan Walsh deal with their mutual condition, Alopecia, a disease that keeps hair from growing and lightens ones skin. According to one of the comments following the article,  when Villanueva was playing, Kevin Garnett said to him that he looked like he had cancer, a mean and childish thing to say. I had never thought of KG as a knucklehead. To bad, he was one heck of a player. If he hasn't done it already, let me suggest that he apologize publicly to Charlie and meet Jordan Walsh who is  a Celtic draft choice and embrace Walsh, also publicly. Of course, he doesn't have to. He can continue being a childish knucklehead. But one day, God forbid, KG might get cancer and then he'll have to look in the mirror. 

Just thinking: Anybody out there just a wee bit tired of hearing: Ya Know, bottom line, at the end of the day? And as much as I admire Leborn James, I could stand to open a sport page and not see his name for a few days. 

Women's soccer players are finally going to be paid the dame as the men's team. About frigging time. 

I just watched SLAM BALL. Holy Hops! They have finaly come up with the perfect sport for people suffering from hyper active disorder. Major sponsor Red Bull? 

While the super sports are going on, the fishermen are out abong the streasm and lakes, among them, my two son-in-laws. Here's a fishing poem for all the fishermen.

CATCH   

I imagine us dancing, a Mexican ballroom somewhere
(anything instead of fishing)
In faded, pre-war elegance, tropically flowered wallpaper
(jigs, flies, speckled lures and mr. twisters)
Drooping lushly like the evening sea-breeze
(damn the wind, they won’t bite now)
And you in sailor whites – tuxedo, if I blur my eyes
(black, shiny, slimy leeches, grubs, chubs, fathead. . . )
The band plays 40’s swing, a dark man croons “Darling”
(I’m a rapid oxidizer,” you announce, sweat streaming down your nose)
“Darling, Take My Heart. . . “
(walleye, pike, sunstroke, crappies)
And my red dress spins faster as you lift me off he floor
9jesus Christ, a four pounder!)
Its ruffled hem streaming round my knees
(landed)
Like a school of tiny iridescent fish
(darling, take my heart)
You sing at last.
 
             Ethna McKiernan

This & That July 19th

 I was struck this morning with Sam Amick's article in The Athletic about Joel Embid in which he sude the term RINGZ CULTURE. What a shame it has come to that. Historically it minimizes so many great NBA teams that reached the Finals and lost. I'm thinking of th great Utah Jazz teams of Stockton and Malone, and Charles Barkley's and Kevin Johnson's fabulous Suns' teams. To them I add my marvelous 1967 San Francisco Warriors team with Nate "The Great" Thurmond and Rick Barry. We lost to Wilt's 76ers, which was a great team even when with Moses Malone at center they later lost to Walton's Trailblazers. I never wore diamonds on my finger, but what shines most is in my heart. Ringz are finally  just glitter. 

Let's hear it for Sabrina Ionescu, the WNBA player who shot lights out 37 pts in the recent 3 pts shooting contest at the WNBA All-Star Game. There's a lot of talk already about a NBA vs WNBA shoot out between Steph Curry and Sabrina. Advertisers are lining up. So are Vegas odds makers. Aside from her miraculaous performance, there is a point to be made here. When you see shooting like this and watch the recent WNBA games, I don't think it is too farfetched to believe that someday there will be a female who can make it on to an NBA team. Okay, not in any of the power positions, but how about as a point guard who can shoot like Ianescu? Of course, she'd have to have the body and strength of Serena Williams, but is that so hard to visualize? I wrote a novel called She's Got Game about a female college All-Star who forgoes the WNBA to try out for the NBA. It's in manuscript and waiting for an agent. Any agents out there, I'm listening. 

Hurrah for Carlos Alcaraz for defeating Novak Djokovic for the singles mens' championship at Wimbledon.  A worthy young champion. Spain should be proud. One takeaway from the presentation at the end of the match. Ever since COVID, I stopped cheering for Djokovic when he refused to be inoculated. I don't do selfish well. So, I was thrilled the young Spaniard defeated him. But Novak's concession speech made me change my mind about him. It was so honest, I couldn't help to believe he's a much better person that I thought. Yes, he's still wrong about COVID, but he understand what it takes to be an athlete, to be gracious in a loss. I still won't cheer for him, but I will not bad-mouth him either. 

Here's a poem I wrote after watching the Wimbledon. 

RACKET   by Tom Meschery

To his astonishment,
his shot goes wide
its fault he seems
to be assigning
to the racket
staring up at him
out of his hand,
not to any misjudgment
on his part.
Fingering the stings
he speaks to it
as he might speak
to an enemy
Perhaps  a change
of rackets
will be all it takes.
He threatens or cajoles
while in the stands
we wait for service,
his rage to end
and the match to continue,
down 40 love.   

Was Blazer GM Telling Dame Lillard the Truth?

 It is my belief that the Portland Trailblazer's General Mgr. Joe Cronin was lying to Damian Lillard. He had no intention of building around Lillard, That was made very clear to me when after drafting Scoot Henderson, he didn't instantly try to trade him for veteran players to help Damian achieve his goal to legitimately compete for a ring. (There are plenty of teams in desperate need of a poing guard od Scoots caliber/potential. Scoot was the only asset for which Cronin had a chance to find the value he needed to convince Damian he spoke the truth instead of speaking out of the wrong side of his mouth and waiting for Damian to realize that he was stalling. Frightened, probably to take responsibility for initiating the trade  of  one of Portland's beloved sports figures.  Lillard deserved better. Let's see if Cronin can do the right thing now and find a place for Damian on a contender. It can be done, if Cronin really cares. 

A few comments about free agency. There are a lot of new multi-millionaires today. Good for them. It's going to be interesting to see what the Rockets do now that they have VanVleet as their point guard. I was happy to see Draymond did not depart and the Warriors resigned him. He got stability with a 4 year contract, and the Warriors got a financial savings to help them avoid the punitive new CBA rules. Some folks I know who hated Draymond's "Punch" asked me why not trade him? My answer to that is it would be like a wheel trying to turn without a hub. All in all bringing in Chris Paul and moving Jordan Poole to the Wiz where he can start over is best for Jordan while Paul will be best for the Warriors. People are asking how does a pick and roll expert like Paul fit into the motion offense that the Warriors run. Don't worry. Coach Kerr is smart. Paul has a high basketball IQ. They'll figure it out much to the amazement and regret of the rest of the league. I'm also getting my head around the Warriors' two draft choices and liking the choices much better. My old team has not finished filling out their roster, so more on the Warriors to come.  

I think the Boston Celtics will regret trading Marcus Smart. I think the Grizzlies improved their team greatly by acquiring Smart. Brooks is gone and Steven Adams will be back, so now the Griz will have two adults in the room to tone down the Ja Morant weirdness when he returns. Smart is the kind of tough and honest dude who I believe might be able to influence Ja, show the kid (for truly Ja is still a kid)  how to be a real pro.

Are the Celtics a better team with Porzingis? Only if he can stay healthy and have the same year he had last year with the Wizards. If so, it's not going to be easy beating Boston in the paint.   

The Lakers helped themselves by obtaining Gabe Vincent. They better hustle and sign Reeves. There is still an AD problem to figure out, or a problem with energy and toughness AD himself needs to figure out. He's like a part of his core game is missing, but it is essential. 

What's happening with Hardin? Only the Gods know. No loyalty on his part and not on GM Morey's part either. Hardin took less money last year with the expectation he'd be rewarded this season. Not happening. Perhaps here's the opportunity for a three way trade of some kind to bring Damian Lillard to the 76ers. Just thinking. 

Does the Beale trade make sense for the Suns? Absolutely. They gave up nothing and got one heck of a basketball player with a high IQ in return. I don't like their bench, but they have the rest of the summer to figure out how to find solid vets to fill in around the core of Booker, Beale, KD and Ayton. I've heard a lot of grumbling about Ayton, but he's still young and still 7 feet and can still rim run and block shots. Does he really have to do more with the other three around? Let's all cross our fingers KD stays healthy. 

Do I really care about Kyrie? Not a wink of sleep will I lose over the fate of that Knucklehead. And as the old cliche goes, Leopards don't change their spots, I predict that Kyrie will do something stupid this coming season. I do believe that the Mavericks may have finally found their center. And I applaud them for bringing back Seth Curry. The more space they can create for Doncic the better. Seth can shoot the three.  

Denver lost Brown. They'll miss him. The Pacers will love him. Brown is a hooper. I wouldn't be surprised if Donte DiVincenzo winds up back with the Bucks. They resigned Middleton and now must,  MUST, sign  Lopez. And Giannis MUST spend all summer perfecting his mid-range jumper. 

That's all dear readers, for the moment. Lot's of trades and deals to come I'm sure. Congrats to the Warriors' nee GM, Donleavy. He's stepping into some big shoes. So with Myers on my mind, I offer a poem I wrote for him after he departed.

THE GROUT IN THE WARRIORS’ MOSAIC

              for Bob Myers, GM of the Golden State Warriors

 

It's impossible when reading this 

Not to see the function of the man as glue.
Or see that, were it not for him,
Each tile would find it’s way to waywardness.
 
I’ve been a Warrior and a Warrior fan
And know the function of each player
On a team, to a man, must stick together.
It’s how a team succeeds, how teams win.
 
It’s like the writer says, mosaic,
On their own, as a wall, or ceiling
Beaufiful as they are, can not survive
a season. They need grout applied
 
by a steady hand. The craftsman
but much more, an artisan who sees
an angle butts well against the square,
the square against the trapezoid.
 
And when fit together into a portrait
Or a landscape or in the case, less anyone,
Not recognize the subject of this poem,
Bob Myers, stands back and observes
With satisfaction of a job well done.