* The whole issue of student-athlete compensation and unionization is as tricky as it is controversial. But we all should be able to agree on this much.
First, those who have their names and images marketed–from jerseys to network hype–should be paid. Think Texas A&M’s Johnny Manziel didn’t sell tickets and sponsorships?
Second, a university is no place for sham student-mercenaries. For legitimate STUDENT-athletes, most of whom will never make a living at their sport, compensation typically suffices in the form of free tuition, books and board plus priceless networking for post-campus opportunities. Modest “stipends,” however, are in the mix.
Third, is it really necessary to put THAT much time into a sport?
Fourth, contact-sport participants could use help getting, say, long-term disability insurance.
* The Lightning’s season ended in disappointing fashion–and not just because my wife and I were primed for a big Game 5 date. But the disappointment of a 4-game sweep has already been replaced by optimistic perspective. Nobody thought a team so young and inexperienced, so unproven in goal and so blindsided by critical injuries and a key defection, would even qualify for the playoffs.
That they did and the next season can’t come soon enough–when those 10 rookies will be rookies no more. Marty who?
* This much is evident with the Rays. They’ve gone from the best 5-man starting rotation in MLB to one where 3/5 is comprised of guys named Odorizzi, Bedard and Ramos. Long season looming. Stuff happens.
But there’s another kind of stuff. Closer Grant Balfour (“Ball four?”) has had some control problems. Too many walks and too many rants. His personality, odd among ice-water-in-the-veins closer types, is beyond animated. It’s annoying, unprofessional and, well, totally un-Ray like. Last Friday against the White Sox, he lost the game in a 9th-inning meltdown before departing with a string of loud F-bombs. Hard to make an excruciating loss worse, but he did.
Manager Joe Maddon is known for running a relatively loose ship, but Balfour could steer it into late-inning shoals if he doesn’t improve his command and, more notably, his composure.
* Can you believe Los Angeles Clippers’ owner Donald Sterling actually urged his mistress not to bring black people to his team’s games? While this racist audio recording may have been a one-time public outing on TMZ, there have been previous incidents and allegations of racial and gender discrimination against the billionaire bigot. Such that the NBA has fined and banned him for life.
But here’s what’s no less inexplicable. In a couple of weeks Sterling, the longest-tenured team owner in the NBA, was to receive a life-time achievement award from the Los Angeles chapter of the NAACP. Say what? Maybe employing lots of black basketball players over three decades qualified him, but the NAACP, which has now rescinded the award, has some explaining to do.