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May Day I tried to watch the NASCAR All-Star event, and it turned into another giant yawn. This event is as tired and predictable as watching the hype for the next Triple Crown winner in horse racing (more about that later). Of course there were three absolute guarantees about NASCAR's big night:
I've been thinking about what the sport should do to fix NASCAR's All-Star race. I used to believe it was the best all-star event in sports, but not anymore. The lure of a million bucks to the millionaire driver has lost its "wow factor". The multiple segments offer no suspense or intrigue except for the last few laps. Judging by all the empty seats around the track at Charlotte Motor Speedway, I wonder just how many people really care about watching this winner-take-all race? If NASCAR is going to rig the fan vote just so they can find a way to include Danica, then they should really showcase her talents. Here's what NASCAR should do next year. Take the Top 10 drivers in the standings leading into the Charlotte festivities. Give Danica Patrick a half-lap lead over each driver. One by one, the driver has to catch and pass Danica....and the one that passes her the quickest wins the million bucks. I'm assuming with only two cars on the track, she will be less likely to wreck into somebody and it is inevitable that she will be lapped. Using my "All-Star" system, everybody wins....Danica & NASCAR get their exposure, the best drivers of the year to date get to race without going 90 laps in 3 hours....and Jimmie Johnson can pick up another 7-figure check. Plus, Danica can get out of the car afterwards while being booed by the fans and tell us that she was real close to winning a NASCAR race. I guess we can put away "The last Triple Crown winner was Affirmed in 1978" line for another year. After watching Orb win the Kentucky Derby, the last two weeks every horse racing insider has been touting that this is the year that we can finally land another Triple Crown winner. Even the talking heads on NBC were all in agreement that the Preakness was a forgone conclusion for Orb and the buildup to the Belmont would be tremendous. I watched the race. Orb had as much of a chance to win the Preakness as Danica had to capture the million bucks at the All-Star race in Charlotte. Instead of Orb, it was Oxbow. The huge sigh you heard were the TV executives and horse racing enthusiasts that realized that the Belmont Stakes would have ratings as high as the new NBC Sports Network....or maybe even the women's softball tournament on ESPN. I would say the horsepower weekend in Charlotte and Baltimore left me a little disappointed. Speaking of disappointed, what has happened to my San Francisco Giants? A week ago, my guys headed cross country for a two game series against last place Toronto. The Blue Jays destroyed my guys, scoring at will...they reached double digits easily in both games. Then the champs headed back west to Denver to play the Rockies.....our pitching was sinful....more double-digit outings by the bad guys. I've seen some bad Giants baseball from a long, long time ago....but this past week was brutal. No pitching, tons of errors and a lost lead in the NL West. It was so ugly for my favorite team in sports, that they would have had a hard time beating the Dodgers with those performances.....and that's saying something. The only thing in baseball that brought a smile to my face this weekend was watching the Dodgers continue to fall apart. As of Monday, there are 100 days until the start of the college football season. It will be here before you know it.....Thank Goodness! I read this week where the King of College Football, Nick Saban, was being inducted into the Alabama Hall of Fame. It is a distinguished honor and well deserved for the man that has led the Crimson Tide to three BCS national titles. Apparently, it is up to the inductee to supply some items to the Hall of Fame that will be showcased with the person's enshrinement. I thought it was hilarious what Saban brought to the party:
I know Nick and his wife are selling their lake-house in Georgia, and by the way you can get your hands on it for a mere 11 million bucks.....but I'm sensing that Saban's wife told him to clean out the garage and take that stuff to the dump.....instead it landed in the Alabama Hall of Fame. There's only one thing that should be in Nick Saban's Alabama Hall of Fame showcase.......crystal. Speaking of Hall of Fame coaches, Mike Krzyzewski was in the news recently. Coach K is making some serious coin in Durham. Records indicated that he generated $9.7 M in 2011.....not bad, considering the next highest paid employee at esteemed Duke University made 3 mil. Of course, Krzyzewski probably had a better year. I kidded around on my SiriusXM show that of K's $9.7 million, only $1.9 million of that total was his base salary....evidently the suits at SiriusXM are paying the Duke coach some serious coin. I need to contact my agent ASAP. K is also having second thoughts about coaching Team USA in 2016. Go for it! Plus it's an all-expense paid trip to Brazil....what's not to like? Since I'm on the NBA, two things come to mind this week: The Conference Finals get underway with Miami & Indiana meeting in the East, as San Antonio and Memphis play in the West. Can you imagine a Memphis-Indiana NBA Finals? I've got to tell you, that would be hilarious....so much for small market teams not being able to compete. And it looks like the Charlotte Bobcats want to be Hornets. Let's pray that this becomes a reality.....that way, Charlotte can get over this "name image issue". Once the team becomes the Hornets again, we can get back to the real problem....the one that involves a lack of basketball talent wearing that particular jersey. |
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