By DERON SNYDER (as published in The Washington Times)
A
baseball team has “only” 162 regular opportunities to claim victory each year, from
opening day to the season finale. In the roughly 20 percent of contests typically
started by Cy Young winners like Max Scherzer or Jacob deGrom, the odds of
being triumphant improve significantly.
Fortunately
for opponents, they aren’t forced to face such elite pitchers on a regular
basis. Batters usually get to do some damage against lesser hurlers who might
be merely good, at best. On those occasions, the hits and runs can pile up to
keep the scoreboard operator busy.
But
that wasn’t the case Thursday at Nationals Park – unless you’re referring to workers
constantly updating the strikeout totals.
The
Nationals’ Scherzer finished second to the New York Mets’ deGrom in the Cy
Young voting last season, and Scherzer was on the short end of a 2-0 score in
Washington’s season-opener. His final line was award-worthy – two hits and two
earned runs with a dozen strikeouts in 7-2/3 innings – but his counterpart matched
that with a masterpiece of his own.
The
Nats figure to have plenty of scoring chances before the season ends. Presumably,
they’ll even have a few more against deGrom, who scattered five hits and struck
out 10 batters in six innings.
But
they failed to break through the few times when deGrom allowed a crack.
“You
see what happens when two Cy Young winners go head-to head,” Nats right fielder
Adam Eaton said. “That’s a heckuva battle.”
By DERON SNYDER (as published in The Washington Times)
Bryce
Harper is gone and the Nationals’ streak of fruitless postseasons remains.
Nothing
is going to change the first fact, but obliterating the latter is well within
the realm of possibilities.
When
John Wall has endured extended absences from the Washington Wizards, some
observers have posited that the team is better without him. From a long-term point-of-view, that might
true where Harper and the Nationals are concerned, provided that outfielders
Juan Soto and Victor Robles produce as imagined.
Manager
Davey Martinez’s lineup card for Thursday’s opener, against the New York Mets, will
feature a void impossible to ignore, the spot that No. 34 filled. A
middle-of-the-order featuring Harper, Anthony Rendon and Soto, is much more
imposing than Rendon-Soto-Ryan Zimmerman.
So it’s clear that Harper will be missed as the Nats cross their fingers that: new second baseman Brian Dozier returns to his 2015-2017 form when he averaged 35 homers and 90 RBI; right fielder Adam Eaton plays more than 118 games, his mere total for the last two season; and Soto avoids a sophomore slump after a dazzling inaugural campaign that nearly netted Rookie-of-the-Year honors.
But
if all of that happens – and the back of the rotation and middle of the bullpen
hold up – we like the Nats’ chances, even though Sports Illustrated picked them
to miss the playoffs.
Oh
well. Considering that the magazine predicted Washington would win the World
Series last season, maybe it’s for the better.
By DERON SNYDER (as published in The Washington Times)
Once
again, it’s time to check off some items on my “TIDU List” – Things I Don’t
Understand:
*I don’t understand how New England can replace Rob Gronkowski.
The
future Hall of Famer has elevated the Patriots’ offense since catching 10
touchdown passes as a rookie in 2010. Injuries stunted his all-time numbers,
but Gronk he still ranks among the best tight ends in history. He’s arguably
No. 1 if equal weight is given to receiving and blocking. Tom Brady said the
Pats were “almost unbeatable” with Gronk on the field.
They’ll
figure something out, but it won’t be the same.
*I don’t understand why the
Nationals would let Anthony Rendon walk.
Prominent
homegrown players like Bryce Harper, Ian Desmond and Jordan Zimmermann already
departed via free agency. The Nats apparently made the right decision with the
latter two, and it’s too early to tell on Harper. But Washington needs to
extend Rendon – like it extended Ryan
Zimmerman and Stephen Strasburg – to bridge the past with the future and avoid a hole at third.
Drafting
and developing without retaining gets old after a while.
*I don’t understand how teams can
defend Duke’s Zion Williamson.
Players
who stand 6-7 and weigh 285 pounds aren’t supposed to have 40-inch verticals
and moves that are equally deft and explosive.
“It’s hard to match that level of special athlete,” Florida State coach
Leonard Hamilton told reporters. “You can put him down as one of the greatest
athletes that has ever come through the ACC, and there have been quite a few.”
But
none like Williamson, which Virginia Tech is about to learn.
By DERON SNYDER (as published in The Washington Times)
In
a classic hit, “For the Love of Money,” the O’Jays outline a few things some people
do to obtain “that mean green.”
They
lie, rob and cheat. They don’t care who they hurt or beat. They steal from
their mother and their own brother. They’ll let money drive them out of their
minds.
However,
most reasonable people agree that cash isn’t everything. The same remains true when
the pile approaches a half-billion dollars, like, the $430 million contract reportedly
being discussed by outfielder Mike Trout and the Los Angeles Angels.
Undoubtedly,
that’s a whole lot of money, money, mon-ey.
But
here’s what I don’t understand: Some folks use baseball contracts to mock
Oklahoma quarterback Kyler Murray for choosing football with its non-guaranteed
deals. And then those same folks criticize athletes like Bryce Harper and Antonio
Brown for chasing the last dollar.
By DERON SNYDER (as published in The Washington Times)
The Division I men’s basketball tournament is upon us once again, bringing together 68 schools of varying hoops pedigree to create arguably the most precious event on our sports calendar.
We
don’t have to wonder about the bonafides of superstars like Duke’s Zion Williamson,
Murray State’s Ja Morant, or North Carolina’s Coby White. They clearly were admitted
based on their merit as ballers, if not bookworms.
But
what about some of those players at the end of each bench, the guys who rarely
take off their sweats and check in prior to garbage time? Someone needs to check and make sure those acceptance
letters weren’t bought and paid for by the players’ parents.
This
is too rich.
In
revenue sports like men’s basketball and football, the universities and sneaker
companies hand out bags of money in hopes of landing blue-chip recruits. But in
Olympic sports, like soccer and water polo, devious parents write checks in
hopes of getting their nondescript kids enrolled.
By DERON SNYDER (as published in The Washington Times)
Like
Eliza Doolittle in “My Fair Lady,” Cleveland was a gutter snipe, one of the
league’s most raggedy franchises for nearly a quarter-century before John
Dorsey showed up as Professor Henry Huggins.
The
Browns didn’t know how to speak or act properly. They didn’t know how to be elite,
or at even look the part. They were straight-up laughingstocks, national objects
of scorn and ridicule.
Kind
of reminds me of another NFL team, one that plays nearby but not in Baltimore.
Dorsey
began transforming the Browns as soon as he was hired in December 2017, cutting
wideout Kenny Britt within the first 24 hours. Cleveland won more games (seven)
in Dorsey’s first year at the helm than it won in the three previous seasons combined
(four).
First
Dorsey had to clean up after the previous regime. He traded three players
during the 2018 draft and traded three more before Week 1 kicked off. Then he
began applying lipstick to his new project, using the No.1 overall pick on quarterback Baker Mayfield and
acquiring wideout Jarvis Landry via trade. The first draft class also included cornerback
Denzel Ward and halfback Nick Chubb, who along with Mayfield all won Rookie-of-the-Week
awards at least once.
Don’t
look now, but Eliza Doolittle suddenly is smoking hot.
By DERON SNYDER (as published in The Washington Times)
“AB just disrupted a system that’s
designed for us to contractually lose in. If you hate it, then hate what the
other side does every day.” – Kansas City Chiefs lineman Jeff
Allen via Twitter.
One
of life’s great mysteries is why the masses sometimes root for the billionaires.
The 90 percent outnumber the 10 percent by … let me do some quick math … 9-1.
Yet, more often than it should (which is never), the majority fights amongst itself
for scraps and cheers when the minority resists calls for upward mobility and more-equitable
dispersal.
Antonio
Brown is an employee, a worker hired to help a business make money. Laborers in
his field earn more than the typical salary, but they also face more
limitations in their freedom of choice, their ability to work where and for
whom they please.
They
rarely emerge victorious in contract disputes and almost never dictate the
terms of their release.
But Brown accomplished both feats in an amazing slam dunk, posterizing the Pittsburgh Steelers and laughing on the way out.
One
moment, Brown had zero dollars in guaranteed money over the next three years,
plus a dysfunctional relationship with quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. The next
moment, Brown was headed to the Raiders with $30 million in his pocket and a
coach who gushes over him.
By DERON SNYDER (as published in The Washington Times)
The
District’s yet-to-be named XFL franchise should call itself the Washington
Feds. If it takes after prosecutors in United States Attorneys’ offices (better
than 90 percent conviction/plea bargain rate), the team would rarely lose.
I’m
no legal expert. But if you can win a case that paints universities as fraud victims,
when a sneaker company pays recruits to play at said universities, you obviously
wear Teflon suits in the courtroom.
We
still have a long way to go in what’s essentially United States v. College Basketball as We Know It. Tuesday’s
development – in which two former Adidas executives and an aspiring NBA agent
received jail time – was nothing compared to what might lie ahead in upcoming trials.
“It’s
going to be a street fight,” defense attorney Steve Haney told Yahoo Sports. “I
have very strong feelings about the case.”
The
feeling was mutual on the other side of the aisle, where Assistant U.S. Attorney
Ted Diskant argued that Jim Gatto, Merl Code, and Christian Dawkins deserved
lengthy sentences for their October convictions. Kudos to Judge Lewis A. Kaplan
for not being as gullible as the jury. He gave Gatto nine months instead of the
recommended 46 to 57 months; Code and Dawkins, facing a recommended 30 to 37
months, got six months apiece.
But
Khuzhami couldn’t just take the ‘L’ and leave it at that. He tried to spin the minimum-security
wrist slaps as big wins, when clearly Kaplan wasn’t impressed with universities’
victimhood.
By DERON SNYDER (as published in The Washington Times)
Antonio Brown has become
arguably the NFL’s best receiver. His entire career has been with the
Pittsburgh Steelers, one of the most successful franchises, with the majority
of catches courtesy of Ben Roethlisberger, one of the top quarterbacks.
From all appearances,
Roethlisberger can be a bit of a jerk and we now know the duo didn’t get along
off the field. Turns out that their on-field relationship wasn’t much better, just
masked by the prodigious statistics they produced.
But the mask is off and
so are the gloves, with Brown stating loudly and repeatedly that he wants out.
Washington reportedly is
among the teams expressing serious interested in acquiring the contentious superstar.
From a pure talent standpoint, the attraction is understandable. The team has a
dearth of playmakers and Brown makes extraordinary plays on a regular basis. He
would fill a gap like few others could.
However, I would not
bring Brown to Ashburn.
If he’s acting up with Pittsburgh
– where he has reached the playoffs in six of nine seasons and never experienced
a losing record – he’s liable to go completely bonkers with Washington. If he’s
being disrespectful toward an organization that’s among the league’s’ strongest
and most stable in terms of leadership, there’s no reason to expect compliance
under D.C.’s three-ring circus.
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