boomboomsroom

It’s always a good day to gather around the virtual campfire and roast some tasty nuggets.  In the crisp Spring air it’s even better.  After you digest your nuggets if you are good boys and girls we’ll fire up some S’mores.  But eat your dinner first.  It’s served one at a time below.

1.  The NFL’s 100th season will open with the 199th meeting between the Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers.  The league announced Monday that it would forgo the traditional opening-night matchup in which the Super Bowl winner hosts the first game of the season on the Thursday of Week 1.  On the surface it sounds like a good story.  Two of the original and traditional powerhouses clash on the not yet frozen tundra to celebrate the league’s now one hundred years of history.
2. New England, defending Super Bowl Champs, will play in the Sunday night game.  So after the Thursday season opener, and after the dozen Sunday day games, NE is sandwiched in just prior to the next night’s Monday Night doubleheader.  One wonders if this is burying the lead story by the powers that be in the NFL? News cycles being what they are, the Patriots and their owner can only get so much air time and attention paid to them given the window they are placed in.  In other words, did the league not want the Patriots owner’s happy ending story to hover like a pesky cloud over the season’s opening game?
3. NFL free agency open season signings reminds one of the early Black Friday sales game.  You just got to have this guy at this price and now.  It’s like a doorbuster flat screen TV sale at Best Buy.  Then reality sets in relative to your salary cap and your remaining needs, not wants.  If you are still on the sidelines you might not get scooped up till late summer.  It’s just like the day after Christmas.  Markdowns.
4. UFC star Conor McGregor announced his retirement from mixed martial arts in a Twitter post in these early AM hours .  The announcement came just hours after McGregor, 30, told “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” that he and the UFC were negotiating a potential return to the octagon as early as July.  It wasn’t that long ago that there was no mixed martial arts made for TV viewing.  It wasn’t that long ago that there was no Twitter either.  McGregor has retired before.  It’s part of fight game lore.  Then, you are lured out of retirement for one more championship bout.  It makes for a better fight story.  Sugar Ray Leonard is holding on line two.
5. Did you ever watch “Undeniable with Joe Buck?”  It lasted 5 seasons and produced 50 episodes.  It’s a live audience AT&T Universe production.  Each episode showcases never-before-told stories about not only the athletes’ careers, but also their lives off the playing field.   It was, in our opinion, only as good as the interviewees and interviewer meshed.  Joe Buck can/could come across as a smug know it all at times.  After a pretty good five-year run, he has stepped aside.
6. Enter “Undeniable with Dan Patrick” which is the same show of course with a different host.  We caught our first last evening with Jim Palmer, Baltimore Orioles Hall of Fame pitcher, answering Patrick’s question tour of Jim’s career and life.  Jim Palmer still comes across as a smug know it all.  Few are better than Dan Patrick at interviewing in our not so humble opinion.  He has a way of putting the interviewees at ease and weaving through the questions so as to tell a story over time.  Palmer was anything but at ease.  No wonder he never got along with Earl Weaver.  Earl was raw and real. What you see is what you got.  Palmer isn’t.
7. Palmer’s 268 wins over 19 years in MLB were due in large part to an outstanding career ERA of 2.68.  He only mentioned his 268 career wins five times by our count last evening.   Cy Young’s, World series wins, All Star appearances, and 558 career starts put his value in the marketplace at a one year highest salary of 275k in 1982.  It was good money back then if you could get it.
8. But today’s MLB world is a bit different.  Of the 872 players on MLB rosters and injured lists as of Monday evening they averaged $4.36 million per annum.  Averaged is the key word.
9. That average is down from $4.41 million at the start of last season and $4.45 million on Opening Day in 2017, according to AP studies.  Austerity has hit MLB.  Well, not really.  But it is interesting to note that when Mike Trout signs for 23k an inning, salaries in total are actually flat at best.  Yes, it’s 23k an inning as that is what 12 years at 430 million over 162 games each at 9 innings comes to.  Trout will make more after his first 12 innings than Palmer made in his best year.  It’s good money if you can get it.
10.  The LA Lakers and LeBron were eliminated from playoff contention a few days back.  This isn’t news but ESPN continues to make it news.  Next thing you know they’ll be talking about Lonzo Ball losing 1.5 million as his father and another partner in Big Baller Shoes continue to act like they don’t know what they are doing.  Wait.  They just did.

Get the marshmallows, chocolate, and graham crackers.  Time for some more S’mores.