World Cup and Hot Dogs all in the same week.  This is the crazy world we live in.  The World Cup comes every four year but the Hot Dog eating competition happens every year.  They don’t really have anything else in common but they did happen the same week this year.  The End of the Womens World Cup was pretty spectacular.  Especially if you are a fan of the U.S. team.  The NBA had some huge free agent signings and one crazy trade.  The first week of July definitely did not disappoint.  All this and more in The Week That Was.

Nathans Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest

This event is not for everyone.  Some people are upset by it and think the food should be donated to food shelters.  I get that but that would not put a dent in the food problem we have at this time.  With what gets donated to food shelters as a result of these completions getting rid of them would probably hurt more.  The Nathans Famous Hot Dog Eating competition started July 4th, 1916. Later this date was shown to be a made up event but the legend lives on.   It was started to be held continuously on July 4th, 1972.  Since that point it has grown into a Fourth of July tradition.   It is interesting to watch.  Clearly it is not for everyone.  The winner for the 12th time was Joey Chestnut.  He is the top of the mountain when it comes to competitive eating.  No competitions like this are not contributing to the hunger problem in this country.  Getting rid of them will not solve those problems.  Like anything else.  If you are not a fan of it don’t watch it.   If you are.  Take an hour once a year and watch it.  If you don’t want to do that do a search on your tube.  You won’t be disappointed..

A World Cup for the Ages

The United States Womens team on their fourth Womens World Cup Title.  The first Womens World Cup was held in 1991 and was also won by the US team.  The US Womens team has had all the success that the U.S. Mens teams has strived for. The domination that the U.S. Womens team has had is truly amazing.  They are one Championship away from having as many titles as Brazil has on the mens side.   Germany is the only other women’s team to have multiple championships with two.

The Domination the U.S. Womens team has had is just amazing.  The worst that the womens team has finished in any World Cup has been third place.  They have four wins which means they have won the tournament half the time it has been played.  One runner up and three third place finishes.  Chances are high that they will be favored to win in four years as well.  The theme of this World Cup has been equal pay for the womens team compared to the mens team.  I think that the only thing that the US Soccer federation would have control over would be what they pay the players on each team.   They would not be able to control the FIFA payments.  If the revenue from womens soccer is the same as from mens then yes I absolutely agree the pay should be the same.  One way to make the pay more representative would to to pay a percentage of the take.  If you add up the ticket sales and the revenue from broadcasting rights.   Then the percentage paid out for men and women should be the same.  Maybe I am off on the way I am thinking about this.  If I am let me know.

Baseball getting to the halfway point

Half way though the MLB season we  have four teams tha tare standing out.  The Dodgers have the best record.  Followed closely by the Yankees, Astros and the Twins.  Of these four the only on that might be a surprise is the Twins.  Most people had the Twins pegged in the middle to bottom half of the league.  Every now and then a team surprises you.  Just as their are four teams pulling away at the top.  There are four teams that are sinking like a lead balloon at the bottom.  None of these are a surprise.  The Orioles, Tigers, Royals and Jays.  At least for Toronto they had a good year in Basketball.  They better enjoy it since it will not be happening again next year.

With the mid point of the season comes the All Star Game.  We talked a bit about it last week.  Just not a fan of these things.  I guess it is cool for the host city but really it is just an opportunity for a player to get hurt.  Especially a pitcher.  If I was a manager of a team I really would not want my ace out there throwing some meaningless pitches.   This also brings the Home Run Competition.  For the first time there will be a $1 million prize.  Eh  What ever.  Nothing like a well paid baseball player needing a huge incentive to jack some soft pitches out of the the park.  The Home Run Derby is probably the most interesting part of the All Star break.   Guess you might as well toss in some cash to the winner.

This also brings us to Justin Verlander saying that he thinks that the balls are juiced to produce more home runs.  All I have to say to that is Did you figure that out your self there Justin?   Of course they are juiced what ever that actually means.  Homeruns push the needle.  Baseball has a huge concern in the amount of people that are watching their sport now.  They need something to either bring back the old fans or to bring in some new ones.  If they cannot figure this out then the massive contracts that players are getting may not stay that way.  Of course we are not talking about getting minimum wage here.  But the three and four hundred million dollar contracts will not be there.  Ok so they might have to settle for two hundred million.  OUCH.

One of the ways to try and pump up the audience is to score more runs.  Baseball “purists” will not like that but so be it.  They are wrong.  There are a lot less people that want to see a 2 -1 baseball game with no homeruns than people that want to see a 8 – 7 ball game with three or four homeruns.  Scoring is what people want to see.  So yes Justin the powers that be are trying to pump up scoring in an effort to bring in more fans.  It is unknown yet if it will work.  It could be a short term bump or there may not be a bump at all.  We really won’t know till next year.  But it certainly can’t hurt.

NASCAR at Night

Once again I forgot that NASCAR had a night race this weekend.  I went to check the results and it appears that Justin Haley won the race.  I had actually never even heard of him.  By him winning this race it is a good thing and a bad thing for NASCAR.  The good is that they need good young talent coming up.  The bad is and this out weighs the good.  Justin Haley is a full time Xfinity driver and only a part time driver in the Monster Energy series.  This means that even though he won a race he can not qualify for the playoffs.  That is just adding to the confusion and the mess that is now the way that NASCAR crowns a champion.  They have been putting such a premium on winning.  Just pounding it into our heads how important it is.  Now we have a winner of the July race in Daytona that can not qualify for the post season.

There are still eight races to go before the playoffs start.  Too late and still the wrong time of the year.  They should be about to start their playoffs now.   On another note.  I hate the NASCAR web site.  It is difficult to navigate and there are way too many ads on it.   I get it NASCAR is a huge advertiser friendly league.  That is not the problem I have.  Every time I go to click on something it seems to move right before I click and I click on something else.  If that is an on purpose to increase the click through rate then NASCAR get it together man.  If it is an accident because your web site just sucks.  Then NASCAR get it together man.  Really just fix it.  It is really annoying.

NBA Learning from the NFL

The NFL has been great at making their league a year round event.  There is something going on every month that keeps the NFL in the news cycle.  This keep everything fresh and people are always thinking about it.  The NBA has taken notice.  They are working toward getting the same type of exposure.  The thing with the NFL is that they are able to keep the focus on the season even when they are pushing other things like the draft of free agency.  The NBA season is still bigger than the NBA draft.  I am not so sure the same can be said of NBA free agency.  It is really interesting what goes on but at times it appears that players changing teams has become bigger than the season.  I heard someone today say that they could not wait to see how all the moves play out during the season.  That is nice to say now but really it will be interesting to see of the ratings go up because of this.  My guess is that they will not.  I still maintain that the West is a problem the way it is.  The games out there will be good.  People from the central time zone going east will not be watching those games.  For many people games starting at 9 or 10 pm are just too late.  That is a problem.  I do not blame the West teams for this.  The East just has to do better in attracting the players.  The way the league is right now I am not sure they can do that.

Summer leagues and Kawhai did the NBA a huge favor

The summer league is getting a lot of attention.  It is pretty interesting to see the amount of attention.  Tickets for the games were being scalped.  Some of them for some huge amounts of money.  As good as this sounds.  It may actually be a red flag for the NBA.   During the first day one of their new stars was hurt.  Zion Williamson had a knee to knee hit that bruised his knee.  He will not participate in the rest of the summer league games.  That is not the problem then I am referring too.  Injuries happen.  They can happen at any time in any sport.  It makes sense to keep him out of playing meaningless games that are really just glorified practices.  It is interesting that right after players are drafted they are thrown into game situations before they have really done much else with their new team.

That is fine I am sure if the NFL could find a way to do that they would.  It is probably a really good thing that they can’t.   The other thing is what Kawhai did to the league. I think that he is a master manipulator.  The NBA got played by him.  I think if it funny because the Lakers ended up standing there with their arms open.  Not only did he reject them but he went to the Clippers and will play his home games in the same arena.  Well played Kawhai well played.  I am not for sure that over all this is a good thing.  What this does is complete the transformation of the NBA to the major leagues of the AAU.  The teams are losing control.  The fans have switched from rooting for teams to rooting for players.  This could be a good thing but it could also be a really bad thing.  The thing with following teams is that it is a forever thing.  If someone is a Lakers fan they will be a Lakers fan forever.  Players retire.  They can’t play for ever.  Sure they will find a new player to follow but this take the team concept even farther away than it is now.  This is another one of those things that falls into the be careful what you wish for.  You just might get it.  What happens then?  Guess we will find out.

On the Tube – Tv not You

We are having a strange problem on the Tube right now.  Seems like there is less stuff on yet we can’t keep up with the shows we want to watch.  If you have Netflix I would highly recommend  that you watch Season 5 of Black Mirror.  They made us wait a long time for it.  The first episode while still worth watching was not the greatest.  Episodes two and three made up for it.  They were very worth watching and Miley Cyrus di a fantastic acting job in it. The other thing on Netflix they made us wait a long time for is season three of Stranger Things.  It was worth the wait.  We are only four episodes in but so far they have done a great job with it.  Other than the we are of course watching Big Brother.  It is pretty interesting that every season there seems to be some kind of controversy.  I get it they have to get that free advertising that goes along with it.

You can find last weeks post for The Week That Was here.