With baseball and all other sports on hold, we discuss a variety of baseball topics including possible restarts to the season, which teams would benefit from a shortened season, not-too-longshots to win league pennants, favorite games of all-time, and most painful games

We debate the sense or nonsense of the Mookie Betts trade from the Red Sox to the Dodgers, reasons behind the growing number of upsets and struggles of big teams in college basketball, and the accuracy of media estimates of pro sports profits

We discuss the cheating scandal involving the Houston Astros and likely other teams along with the obstacles to paying college players and the MLB free agent signings.

We discuss the reasons for sports sponsorships, trends in television viewership and what they mean for leagues, and the blindspots in the application of sports analytics

We discuss the NBA-China blowup and widen out to the broader topic of tradeoffs between making money and upholding various ethical principles whether for the NBA, MLB in the Astros-Osuna situation, or various NFL cases. We also take a brief look at the Rugby World Cup and why big money college athletics programs can't seem to make money.

We examine the setup of the MLB Wild Card playoffs with suggestions for improvement, make projections for the playoffs, and discuss the implications and broader context of the California legislation permitting NCAA athletes to generate income.

A discussion of the decline in college football attendance, causes, and remedies. The new NFL season, viewership trends, Andrew Luck's retirement, and Cowboys big contract to Ezekiel Elliott. Why the Astros hit homers but don't strike out much.

Who are our most liked and disliked sports figures? What are the limits of the use of analytics for managerial decisions in sports? Are extreme shifts for defensive purposes bad for baseball and should they be limited?

We examine the forces behind the moves in the recent big moves in the NBA free agency and trade market. Then we discuss whether MLB has a crisis on its hands with the explosion of home runs and what they might do about it. Last, we look at the issue of whether the difference in pay for the US National Women's and Men's soccer teams is about discrimination or economic fundamentals

We discuss the ongoing pace of play and length of game problems for MLB, automation of calling balls and strikes, Rougned Odor, Dallas Keuchel, Craig Kimbrel, and player pay