The Changing of Times

Baseball is a hard sport. It’s the only sport, or the only thing period, that a 30% success rate will put you in the hall of fame. What’s even harder is hitting that ball 300-400 feet in the air. But as hard as this game is, there was a collective group of guys that made it seem a bit easier in 2019.

 2019 was full of records being shattered with the home run ball. In case you missed it or haven't heard what all happened, let me give you a quick list

6,776 total home runs (671 more than the previous record set in 2017)
307 home runs by 1 team ( breaks the 2018 Yankees record of 267)
2 teams hit 300 plus home runs
4 teams beat the Yankees 2018 record
24 teams with 200 home runs and 7 of those hit 250 or more
Most home runs in a month league-wide and by a team
Most players with double-digit home run totals
Most home runs in a single game
Most multi-home run games
And a Pete Alonso broke the rookie home run record

This baseball season felt more like the late 90s and early 2000s when guys like Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, and Mark McGwire (you know, the “juicy boys”) crushing home runs in that race for the most home runs in a season and career.

But the offensive record books weren't the only thing getting changed this year. We also saw a team give up more home runs than any other team in history mixed in with the most combined total strikeouts in MLB than any other year ( another trend on the rise).

See if you can’t tell, Major League Baseball is changing right before our eyes. As baseball becomes more analytical, baseball is forced to make changes to the game itself to keep it from being its own demise. As the overdramatic shifts continue to take away hits and run away from teams, the new balls that they play with continues to lend itself to more homer runs to beat the shift. So once again baseball has adjusted by using more pitchers per game and giving hitters different looks at each at-bat which has increased the number of strikeouts per game as well.

I don't know if these changes are good or bad for baseball. I don't know how much more can be done to keep games from turning into mini home run derby competitions and more of a pure baseball game. Here’s what I do know though, these trends are only getting steeper and don’t seem to be getting back to normal anytime soon.

What every sports fan wants but wont admit.

There is quite possibly a drug more popular than marijuana that almost everyone secretly wants legalized but no one is willing to admit it: steroids. I’m not talking about juicing up a high school or college athlete, but a pro athlete should be able to take advantage of something that will help him better his career. Of course, it could come at a price with some mild to severe medical problems later on. Some of you are probably thinking that I’m nuts and there’s no chance any kind of PED’s (performance enhancing drugs) will ever be legal for use, especially in sports, and for the longest time I agreed with that thought process. I would be the first to say that it’s considered cheating and there is no place in sports for it.

Then, I started to think about this after Dee Gordon of the Marlins was suspended for 80 games. Is baseball, or any sport, really better off without some guys taking this stuff just to perform better? Not really. As fans, we like to see more offense, more home runs, more grand slams. We awwed over Mark Mcgwire and Sammy Sosa  when they were hitting 60 home runs a year. And, what seemed to be more impressive is how far the home runs were. Funny enough, that’s also when baseball was drawing in more fans than ever.

And how about Tiger Woods? Some have claimed that he took something, but so what if he did?  Tiger was so much fun to watch because no one on the tour could drive the ball off the tee as far as he could. I mean seriously, the guy could drive it over 400 yards.  Although Tiger was not the most accurate driver in the world, he still had the insane strength to power the ball out of the rough right onto the green.

We followed the Tour De France for years because we wanted to see how many more times Lance Armstrong could win.

As much as we love our underdogs in American sports, we may love the dominant athlete more. Still don’t believe me? Explain why steroids is almost encouraged in bodybuilding competitions. I’ll tell you why, it draws a much bigger crowd than a natural show. We want to see how big, lean and vascular these guys can get. Look at the changes in wrestlers in the WWE from the 1980’s till now. You didn’t see a lot of huge muscular ripped guys in wrestling when it first started to become popular. Now it’s almost impossible not to get into that business without being 6’4” and almost 300lbs of solid muscle (and before the “WWE Nation” attacks me, I do realize that there are  some exceptions to that rule).

So let’s face it, steroids help make sports what they should be, more entertaining. Steroids helps put butts in the seats and eyes on the television. he more people watch, the more money is being brought in by ticket sales and advertising. And sporting events do really well with advertising. That’s why the Super Bowl, March Madness, and the World Cup are among the top in advertising sales.

The most important thing is that we are all highly entertained by watching a product that is truly at it’s highest quality.  And, for everyone who still wants to say that it’s unfair to the players that choose not to take them, don’t worry. Those players are still going to make their money just like they did in the 90’s.

Browns QB Carousel

The Cleveland Browns announced earlier this week that they will be starting Johnny Manziel over Brian Hoyer. Hoyer was the starting QB for the Browns for the first 13 games of the season, so my only reaction to this is, why?

Hoyer has led them to their best start since 2007 and has the chance to take them to the playoffs for the first time since 2002. His numbers haven’t been the best over the past few weeks, but why bench him now and take the risk of things not going well with Johnny Manziel? The Browns would possibly be wasting a game that they desperately need to make a run for the playoffs. Benching the QB that has put them in this position just to start a guy that has only nine attempted passes in his short NFL career doesn't seem like a logical decision.

In week 13 when they brought Manziel in to try to save the game when they were down 20-3 in the fourth quarter, he didn't do that bad. He went 5 for 8, 63 yards and rushed for 13 yards and a touchdown. The next week came and they went back to Hoyer when they played the Colts. If they would have just let Manziel start last week against the Colts, I wouldn't have had such a problem with this. No offense to the Browns, but I don’t think that anyone was giving them a real chance to beat the Colts. If Manziel would have started that game, it was likely the outcome would have been the same, but playing Manziel would have given us a better understanding of what he could do in a NFL game. Now with just three weeks left to play in the season and with the Browns’ back against the wall, it seems they want to try to throw a “Hail Mary” to make their way into the playoffs.

These actions are  going to cause other distractions on and off the field. It’s happened before. At the beginning of the season, offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan tried to add Manziel into some different offensive packages. Following that come-back win against the Saints, CBS posted an article that seemed to try to exaggerate the tension between Hoyer and Manziel. Yes, Hoyer did say that he was unhappy, but he never said that he was mad at Manziel. Hoyer only stated that he didn't like the fact that he had to come off the field. You can’t blame the guy; he’s a competitor and he was saying what any competitor would say. Even head coach Mike Pettine really didn't have a problem with the way Hoyer reacted by saying in the post game interview,  "...knowing the competitor he is he probably wasn't real thrilled with having to come off the field. But that's the nature of who he is, as he should be."

Then there is the report from the Bleacher Report, leading into their game against Jacksonville, which referenced that Hoyer might not sign with the Browns after this year if Manziel is there. Hoyer himself came out and said that he never talked to the reporter and that he is more focused on the upcoming game.

This supposed tension within the Browns organization gives others the ammunition they need to drive a wedge into the team. Earlier this week, right after the Browns named Manziel the starter for their game against the Bengals, the Bengals head coach, Marvin Lewis, tried to stir up some trouble of his own by calling Manziel a “midget.” Lewis has since come out and apologized for his statements, but it still seemed to be a way to get to not only Johnny Manziel but to the Cleveland organization as a whole.

With all of this drama, there seems to be very little, if any, benefit to starting Manziel with only 3 weeks left in the season. The false reports, the backhanded comments, and the pressure of a rookie QB trying to lead a team to the playoffs will only serve to divide a team that needs to come together if they have any hope of making the playoffs.

Tiger Returns

Six years ago Tiger Woods won his third US Open and his 14th overall major championship. He seemed to be on the fast track to win many more and was quickly approaching Jack Nicklaus’s record of 18 major titles.

However, Fate would seem to have a different plan for his career.  A week after winning the US Open in 2008, Tiger had surgery to repair the ACL in his left knee, which would keep him from competing for the rest of the year. The following year, Tiger was hospitalized for a night due to driving his SVU into a tree after having a dispute with his now ex-wife. Since then Tiger has suffered a list of other knee and back injuries and still hasn’t won another major title.

Tiger Woods made his return to golf again this week at the Hero World Challenge where he had the chance to sharpen his skills for the coming season. During the Pro Am event that took place earlier this week, Tiger was looking like the old Tiger. His drives were straighter, his swing was more natural and more free than in recent years, and he seemed to have little to no pain in his swing.

There seems to be a lot of hype that Tiger is back, and people are naming him the favorite to win the next Major, but there isn’t much to support that quite yet.  We haven’t seen enough of him to tell just how well he is feeling and how well and how long he can continue to play consistently.

If you look back on this past week, you can clearly see that there is some work to be done. For starters, his short game is still suffering. Remember when it seemed like it didn’t matter where Tiger was, he would always find a way to hit a quality shot? Well that Tiger needs to come back for him to be competitive, and  he may once he gets comfortable and confident with his new swing. Tiger is also having some troubles staying consistent with his shots. But that’s not to say he hasn't improved.

We also need to see that Tiger is not only healthy but stays healthy. We have seen in the past where he will tease us with a good round of golf only to slide back into old habits and ends up in so much pain that he can’t finish a tournament. We need to see him swing the club with more ease (like he did this weekend) and generate more power with a more free swing. That swing will have to stay steady and consistent. Even though the shots aren’t as straight as he would like them to be he just needs to have a good swing that fits not only his game but his body as well so that he doesn’t end up injuring his back or knees again. If Tiger can stay healthy then he will stay in the conversation when it comes to majors and possibly one day beating Jack’s record of 18 Majors.

If Tiger truly is back, he will end up being his own biggest competition. He is going to have to be patient enough to allow the changes he made to his game to become more natural. Tiger has shown over the past few years that he can be rattled if things aren’t going the way that he had planned or hoped that they would and he is going to have to just stay calm and go out and stick to this new swing and stick with the “game plan.”

Ultimately how well he is doing will be seen in two things: his body being able to hold up week after week and his ability to keep his head in the game and stay focused through a tournament when things aren’t going as planned. If he can do these two things the consistency, accuracy, and power will slowly start to return to his game and he could maybe one day get his 15th, 16th, and possibly more majors, but make no mistake about it, it will be a long long road for Tiger to reclaim that top spot once again.  

The worst statistic in sports

I really wish that they would stop keeping track of the win/loss record for pitchers. In order for a pitcher to score a win, they must  leave the game with the lead and the team must keep that lead through the rest of the game. They also need to pitch for at least 5 innings if they are the starting pitcher, which is very doable for most starting pitchers throughout the league. If they are a relief pitcher, they just simply have to have the lead when they leave the game and when the game ends.

So it serves no purpose at all. It is, in my opinion, the most worthless statistic out there for any sport. The only reason I can see to keep track of how many wins/losses a pitcher has, is to show how good or bad of an offense they have backing them up, but there are offensive stats just for that. Just because a pitcher has 21 wins, (like Max Shcerzer did last year) doesn’t make him the best pitcher. On the flip side, just because a  pitcher only has 9 wins (like Matt Harvey did last year) doesn’t make him a bad pitcher. In fact the guy with only 9 wins last year did better with the guy with 21 wins. How is that, you ask?

Last year, Matt Harvey had an ERA of 2.27, a WHIP of 0.93, a 9-5 record through 26 starts, and 178.1 innings pitched for the Mets. Max Scherzer had an ERA of 2.90, a WHIP of 0.97, a 21-3 record through 32 starts, and 214.1 innings for Detroit. On average, both guys lasted about 6.2 innings per game. Harvey was 3rd in ERA and 2nd in WHIP throughout the league. Shcerzer was 11th in ERA and 3rd in WHIP throughout the league.

So we can clearly see that Harvey had better numbers on the mound for the Mets, but how is it that he only came up with 9 wins while Scherzer end up with 21 wins? Well it’s like I said earlier, it all comes down to the the offenses that back these pitchers up. Last year, Detroit was 2nd in the league in runs scored with 796 runs. The Mets were all the way down to 23rd in the league with 619 runs.  That is a 177 run difference. Detroit helped out Max Shcerzer with an average 5.59 runs per start. It was the 3rd best run support in all of baseball last year. The Mets only gave Matt Harvey 3.65 runs per start. It was ranked 64th in all of baseball. Clearly Max was able to benefit from the extra runs that Detroit was able to give him and that alone was what allowed Max Shcerzer to pick up the “most wins in baseball” last year.

Tyler Garceau Interview

Athletic Footnotes had the privilege to talk with Tyler Garceau, a former Abercrombie and Fitch model, a personal trainer, and an aspiring WWE wrestler. I was able to get a brief look at his journey from playing hockey to training for the WWE. Hope you enjoy reading about his journey.

If I recall you were a hockey player when you were younger but at the age of 19

you moved to New York to become a model. How drastic of a difference was it to

go from playing an active sport to modeling? For example did your workouts change?

When I made switched from hockey to modeling it was definitely a huge change. I had just torn my ACL and meniscus. The 1st surgery did not go well, so I had to do it again. I had a TON of downtime, out of the blue I told my dad I'm going to NYC to become a fashion model. He was like who what why when where and then some - haha! He knows when I say I am going to do something I get it done (which I've picked up from him) so he trusted me and I moved to NYC.    

Like anything it takes time to learn how to become great at something. We all had to crawl before we walk. I had some great help in my life that helped me with the modeling to make it successful. A funny part in my modeling career is my agent actually banned me from working out. I had to do daily check ins with him to see if i was getting bigger or smaller haha. I told him i had stopped going to the gym and he kept asking me why do i look bigger  which i would tell him i was losing weight - I never stopped going  (sorry Jason lol!)

Most people don't suddenly decide that they want to be a model. When did you first

start thinking about becoming a model and what pushed you towards wanting to pursue

modeling?

I think i answered some of this above! :P

What made me pursue it most was just that feeling inside we all have about something. I just wanted to go do it. I wasn't positive i could but i was willing to take the risk. As a kid I always wanted to be an abercrombie model. In just a few months that dream came true :).

Once you became a model, was there anything about modeling that took you by surprise?

Yes i was very surprised of the number of competition there was. There are soooooo many models showing up for the same exact job you are trying to get. Everyone who steps in the casting door was very good looking, we all had to learn quickly how to make yourself stand out! Usually its being funny or making a fool of yourself haha.

In August of 2010 you started to train to become a WWE wrestler.

What is it that drove you back to competing in a physical sport such as wrestling?

I have always loved professional wrestling since I was a kid. Modeling was great, fun, and opened many doors. I mean this in the most humble way -  I believe I have a God given gift of above average strength and athleticism and I love to use it every chance I get. What better place than Professional wrestling.

Since you are in wrestling training now, have you got to meet any of your child

hood favorites and if so what was that experience like?

YES!! My childhood favorite was John Cena. We have a very close lifelong mutual friend. John and I met backstage at a monday night raw which our friend ED had set up for us in Milwaukee while WWE was checking me out.  John was very helpful and polite. I am lucky enough to have his personal number where I can stay in touch with him! Thinking back its funny. I would of never thought that would happen, then again who would! Life can get crazy when you step out and go after something.

With you being a model for Abercrombi and wanting to join a business like the WWE,

What roles does your religion play in deciding what you are willing and not willing

to do when it comes to your professional career?

When you are open about your belief you tend to become put under a microscope and people will point out your flaws and mistakes. I am far from perfect. I do make mistakes. I am only a man.  I don't call it a religion I call it a relationship. Just knowing and believing what Jesus did for us all. If I ever have any doubts or bad feelings about what I am going to do, I just pray about it and the signs come and then I better know what I should do.

To know more about Tyler Garceau go to:

http://tyler-garceau.com/

https://www.facebook.com/tyler.garceau

Unsportsmanlike Conduct

What happened to sportsmanship? You know, that thing your parents and little league coach told you about growing up. How you’re suppose to congratulate one another on a good game and take your loss and victories like grown men and women. How it’s ok to cheer for your favorite team but not wish harm on others to give your team the advantage. I mean seriously, we should know better, right?

The loyal fans of the Jim Rome show, which Rome calls his “clones,” started using the hashtag #bumsmack on Twitter. I don’t know where it came from, but these people  thought it would be funny to make fun of people who are homeless and can’t provide for themselves. n no way is it funny, entertaining, or appropriate to make fun of people in these situations. What’s even worse is the fact that they actually got it to trend for a brief moment on Twitter.

Now hats off to Rome, who said that it was inappropriate as well and was very vocal about how ashamed he was of his listeners, but all it did was fuel these people to make more posts and come up with new ways of using that ridiculous hashtag. Just last week we were talking about how horrible Mexico fans were for chanting a gay slur in a soccer match, but it seems to be ok to make fun of homeless people. Or, maybe the people using this hashtag were ok with the gay slur as well.

It’s things like this that give U.S. sports fans and athletes a bad reputation. If we  to claim to be number one in everything, then we need to start acting like we’re more appropriately. That means no more beating people up for rooting for a different team, and no more cheering for a player when he gets hurt just because he didn’t play as well as you would have hoped he would or plays for another team. Stop with the slurs toward fans and players and stop thinking it’s funny to make fun of people who can’t defend themselves.

Once we achieve this standard, we can truly call ourselves number one in the world, no matter if we win or lose...because it is all in how you play the game.