It happened again this week.

The National Football League’s Los Angeles Chargers (winners of zero Super Bowls) announced that quarterback Justin Herbert signed (at least for today) the richest deal in NFL history.  The QB has a new five year contract worth $262.5 million.

Cincinnati Bengals (and former LSU) quarterback Joe Burrow may become the next player sign a new record NFL contract soon.  At least Joe’s Bengals have played in a Super Bowl two years ago and become a top AFC top contender after his arrival.

In the National Basketball Association, the Boston Celtics announced this week that high scoring (but turnover prone) guard Jaylen Brown signed a gigantic contract extension.  Just like Justin Herbert of the NFL, Jaylen Brown’s new deal made him the NBA’s highest paid player (at least for today).  Jaylen Brown’s new five-year deal is worth a cool $304 million (yes, more than $60 million per season on average).

In the case of the Boston Celtics, Jaylen Brown isn’t even the best player on his own team!  If we are dividing up Celtics players for a pick-up basketball game, Boston forward Jason Tatum would be the first C’s player most people would select.

Why are these professional athletes being paid so much money? 

It’s because YOU, the sports fan, who will continue to pay for it in the years to come!

Today, it is my solemn duty to dust off a few old lessons from the SwampSwamiSports.com School of Professional Sports Team Ownership.

For a few moments, let’s pretend that you have just won the lottery and have come in possession of $10 billion (after taxes, of course)!  Your personal dream has been to buy one of your favorite professional sports franchises.  At least for today, $10 billion is enough money to do that.

Why would anyone want to own a professional sports franchise?  There are many reasons.

Some sports owners enjoy the limelight and glamour associated with being one of the relatively few people who own a nationally known sports franchise.   People like Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones or former New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner come to mind.

Other sports owners enjoy the civic pride associated with being in charge of a beloved local sports franchise.  The Rooney family in Pittsburgh (owners of the Pittsburgh Steelers) comes to mind.

However, the majority of owners in America’s professional sports franchises are looking for a better than average return on their investment.   Based on the past several decades, those franchise owners are doing much better than the rest of us!

Take the case of former basketball star Michael Jordan. 

In 2010 for a then-expensive price of $275 million, former basketball star Michael Jordan bought the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets.  Just 13 years later, Jordan sold the team last week for a nifty $3 billion.

According to an online calculator, Michael Jordan just earned a whopping 20.2% annual return on his investment in the Charlotte Hornets (one of the worst teams in the NBA during that period).  If Jordan had simply invested his $275 million in the stock market from 2010-2023, his investment would have grown by about 10% annually to about $1.4 billion today.

And THAT is why the billionaire class loves owning a professional sports team!

In the last couple of weeks, cable television sports giant ESPN has been handing out a lot of pink slips.

Familiar names such as NBA analyst Jeff Van Gundy (17 years), longtime SportsCenter host and NFL analyst Suzy Kolber (27 years), former NFL quarterback Steve Young (22 years), and former NBA player Jalen Rose (16 years) were among the better known talents being permanently sent to the dugout by ESPN.

This summer’s job reductions at the worldwide leader in sports have sent a number of familiar sports names to Bristol, Connecticut’s unemployment office.

Here is ESPN’s official statement from June 30:

“Given the current environment, ESPN has determined it necessary to identify some additional cost savings in the area of public-facing commentator salaries, and that process has begun,” the sports network said in a recent statement. “This exercise will include a small group of job cuts in the short-term and an ongoing focus on managing costs when we negotiate individual contract renewals in the months ahead. This is an extremely challenging process, involving individuals who have had tremendous impact on our company. These difficult decisions, based more on overall efficiency than merit, will help us meet our financial targets and ensure future growth.”

 Let’s break down that statement and take a closer look at what has been going on at ESPN.

Cost Savings:

When profits drop, a company will need to cut its overhead costs if they don’t expect a rebound anytime soon.  The personnel recently let go by ESPN were deemed as weighing down the corporate overhead and not contributing enough to help increase the company’s profitability.

For example, ESPN’s NBA announcer crew has been comprised of three people for many years.  Play-by-play man Mike Breen along with former NBA player and current analyst Mark Jackson teamed with former NBA coach Jeff Van Gundy on the telecasts.

In this recent layoff, Van Gundy was deemed expendable.  That means that the company felt that his salary didn’t translate into enough viewer loyalty to justify his pay.

For those of us old enough to remember Monday Night Football, the opinionated journalist named Howard Cosell became a discussion item around the coffee pot every Tuesday morning following the Monday night games.

His weekly jousts with former NFL quarterback Don Meredith became a must-see part of the show.  Their generally-friendly battles helped to attract millions of non-conventional football viewers.

In the case of basketball analyst Jeff Van Gundy, ESPN apparently felt that its NBA basketball ratings would not be hurt by the loss of his commentary on the broadcasts beginning this fall.

During my business career, I noticed that many companies used the cover of a corporate layoff to rid themselves of certain individual employees.  Some casualties may include a few corporate “troublemakers”.  Other cuts usually involved senior staff near the top of their pay grades that could be replaced in the future with a lower paid newer employee.

General layoffs (like those at ESPN) can be used very creatively to sweep aside certain individual employees who may have fallen out of favor within the company’s current culture.

Individual Contract Renewals and “Overall Efficiency”

In reviewing the talent recently released by ESPN, there is a similarity to Jeff Van Gundy’s situation which applies to most of the other ex-employees.  Corporate management believed that the cost of their salaries did not translate into producing enough viewer loyalty to justify their cost.

If any current ESPN on-air talent doesn’t generate enough “buzz” and ratings to justify his or her salary,

According to a 1970’s Steely Dan classic song, the gentleman in the song laments about the depth of his sadness.  Feeling like a long-time loser, he uses a sports analogy.  “They call Alabama the Crimson Tide, call me Deacon Blues”.

Sadly, Wake Forest University was extremely bad at college football for nearly two decades.  From 1960-1978, Wake Forest had just two winning seasons.  While Alabama was successful at winning in football during that time, the Demon Deacons were just as proficient at losing.

That song reminds me of how it must feel today to compete in one of college football’s mid-major conferences.

There are five football conferences called mid-majors or, more recently, the “Group of Five”.  They are the American Athletic Conference, Conference USA, Mid-American, Mountain West, and Sunbelt.

In 2022, the “Group of Five” had 60 football-playing colleges.  They compete in the same top division (called the FBS) as the SEC, Big Ten, ACC, Big 12, and Pac 12.  Those conferences are referred to as the “Power Five” for obvious reasons.

Within the current ten conference FBS grouping, the “Power Five” has dominated match-ups with the “Group of Five” much like the Harlem Globetrotters playing against the Washington Generals in basketball.  The Generals might win a few games, but it rarely happens.

The mid-major “Group of Five” teams have virtually no chance to win a national championship in the top football division.  The FBS champion has been a member of one of the “Power Five” football conferences in every season since the modern day playoffs began in 1989.

Only one team (13-0 Cincinnati of the AAC – ranked #4 in 2021) has been invited to participate in the College Football Playoffs since 1989.

There have now been 86 teams (1989-2022) which have competed in a college football playoff game.  Cincinnati’s 2021 team represents a 1.2% (1 of 86) representation rate from the Group of Five mid-major schools in the FBS playoffs.

This System does not work for the Mid-Major Conferences.  Why Should they Remain?

The SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, ACC, and the Pac-12 Conferences have the largest television contracts and the largest football stadiums in the country.  They have significantly more financial resources available than the mid-major conference teams.

With college football teams now playing a 12-game regular season schedule, many teams have up to four games to fill.  The “Power Five” teams will write large checks to smaller football programs (such as the “Group of Five” schools) to play a game at their larger home stadium.  Home games for most “Power Five” programs generate several million dollars in revenue.

The visiting “Group of Five” football teams will pocket $1 million or more for making the visit in an early season tune-up game or as the designated homecoming victim.

There is a good reason why “Group of Five” teams do this.  Money.

In nearly all cases, a “Group of Five” team will earn significantly more money by going on the road for one of these games than earned by playing a home game with lower net revenue.

The smaller schools utilize the profits earned from these “jackpot” road games to fund the other athletic programs at the university.  Most other college sports programs (including basketball or baseball) will operate at a loss.

Most mid-major conference schools know that the odds are quite low that they will have an unbeaten season.  That’s about the only way they have a chance to get into the FBS playoffs.

Once a “Group of Five” team loses one or more non-conference road games, they are effectively eliminated from consideration from the lucrative College Football Playoffs.

If that’s not depressing enough, consider this recent change which negatively affects these teams.

The addition of the NCAA’s new transfer portal and legalized payments being made under the ...

America is celebrating the Fourth of July today!  Around the USA, families and friends are getting together to enjoy a little food and fun as we (hopefully) remember the founding of this great nation 247 years ago.

Here in the hot and steamy US Southern states, most families will roll out their Fourth of July fun as the sun starts to set.  Grilling hot dogs and hamburgers on the 4th and enjoying an evening of fireworks remains a tradition for many.

An equally excited mosquito population is planning to be a vital part of tonight’s festivities, too.

On the East Coast in New York City, today marks the annual Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest which is held at Coney Island in Brooklyn.

According to one source, the first Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest was held on July 4, 1916 – the same year which Nathan’s opened its first location in New York City.  An Irish immigrant named Jim Mullen won the first event with an impressive total of 13 hot dogs and buns consumed in ten minutes.

Every July 4, contestants vie for significant monetary prizes and the coveted Mustard Belt in both the men’s and women’s categories.  These brave souls have ten minutes to consume as many Nathan’s Hot Dogs and buns as possible.

Winning for his 16th men’s hot dog title today was American eating legend, Joey “Jaws” Chestnut.  He devoured 62 hot dogs and buns this year to retain his title.  Chestnut’s world record of 76 hot dogs and buns consumed in 2021 will remain hard to eat.

Oops! I meant “beat”.

The women’s champion retained her title today as well.  Miki Sudo downed 39.5 hot dogs in ten minutes on the Fourth of July today to claim her ninth Nathan’s championship.

In case you were wondering, each Nathan’s Hot Dog and bun is nearly 300 calories.  Most Americans should consume about 2,000 calories per day (depending on your size and age).  Today’s contestants surpassed that number after downing their seventh hot dog of the day!

During his record-setting year in 2021, Joey Chestnut (then 37 years of age) consumed 22,800 calories in only ten minutes.  He ate the equivalent of 11 days of food in just ten minutes.

Now, where did I put that Alka-Seltzer?

The two winners of today’s Hot Dog Eating contest received $10,000 for first place.  The runner-ups pocketed $5,000 for second place.  All contestants get my sympathy!

How do you prepare for such an event?

Joey Chestnut says that he trains by fasting and stretching his stomach with milk, water, and protein supplements.  He takes his preparation very seriously.

He said, “This sport isn’t about eating. It’s about drive and dedication, and at the end of the day, hot dog eating challenges both my body and my mind.”

The women’s champ, Miki Sudo, won her first Nathan’s Hot Dog eating event at age 20.  She holds the current women’s record of 48.5 hot dogs in ten minutes.

She and her husband, Nick Wehry, entered again this year.   The couple prepares together a few weeks before the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest by trying to devour 90 hot dogs in ten minutes as a team.

Calling themselves “The Hungry Couple”, Miki and husband Nick have amassed nearly 50,000 subscribers to their You Tube channel.  When not competing, the couple eats a healthy diet on most days.  Both are dedicated gym rats to stay in shape.

What you may not know is that Joey “Jaws” Chestnut and female champ Miki Sudo hold several other eating records as part of an organization known as Major League Eating.

In 1997, two enterprising brothers named George and Richard Shea decided to found the International Federation of Competitive Eating, Inc.

The PGA Champions Tour is only for professional golfers ages 50 and older.  Many events are usually dominated by the “young bucks” from ages 50 to 55.  Those senior rookies are still capable of hitting some very long drives off the tee.

By age 60, most golfers on the senior golf tour have faded off the leader board.

Aging tends to bring shorter drives, increasingly unsteady putting, and more of the traditional aches and pains experienced with advancing age.  This older age group on the senior circuit is generally happy with having the chance to compete on a regular basis with their former PGA Tour buddies.

There is one exception.  He is quite stubborn and simply refuses to give up and fade away like most of his peers.

This 65-year old ageless wonder is Bernhard Langer.  He just established a new record for wins on the PGA Champions Tour on Sunday.  He snagged the US Senior Open trophy at the challenging SentryWorld golf course in Stevens Point, Wisconsin.

If Langer wasn’t still a German citizen, he would have just become the first PGA Champions Tour winner on Medicare!  He remains the only golfer age 65 or older to win a golf tournament on the senior tour.

Though Bernhard Langer hits the golf ball about 20 yards shorter than most of his fellow playing competitors, the Bavarian golfing machine finished last weekend’s US Senior Open ranked #1 in accuracy off the tee (49 out of 56 fairways for a nifty 87.5%) and #1 in greens hit in regulation.

A golfer on any professional tour who leads the field in those two important statistics will usually win the golf tournament.

In Sunday’s final round, Langer shot 4-under par in his first ten holes to open-up a 6-shot cushion on the back nine.  The normally unflappable German then bogeyed his final three holes but still won by two strokes over Wisconsin’s home favorite Steve Stricker.  Langer closed with a one-under par 70 in the final round and a 7-under par total as he took another trophy and $750,000 for his week.

This was Bernhard Langer’s 46th win on the senior circuit.  The victory broke a tie with fellow World Golf Hall-of-Famer Hale Irwin at 45 wins apiece.  Irwin’s final senior triumph came at the age of 61 back in 2007.   The man in third place for most wins on the PGA Champions Tour is Lee Trevino.  The man nicknamed “The Merry Mex” posted 29 more wins after reaching the age of 50.

Bernhard Langer now holds positions #1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 for being the oldest golfer to win on the PGA Champions Tour.  The man in the #6 position is Fred Couples.  Freddy had just turned 63 years of age as he captured the 2022 SAS Championship.

Sunday’s win at the US Senior Open also increased Bernhard Langer’s record for most major championship victories on the PGA Champions Tour.  It was his twelfth.

Langer is also the only senior golfer to have won each of the tour’s five majors.  He is three senior major championship wins ahead of second place Gary Player (nine) and four clear of Jack Nicklaus (who won eight),

If you think Bernhard Langer has been around golf for a long time, you are correct!  Incredibly, this legend is now in his 50th year of playing professional golf.

Born in West Germany, Bernhard Langer learned the game at age 8 after finding a few used golf clubs.  He found part-time work as a caddy at a local golf course and had the opportunity to practice there, too.  By his early teens, he was quickly becoming a premier golfer in his native Germany.

Langer turned professional at age 15.  He won the German National Open Championship at age 17.   He would eventually win his home country’s national open an incredible 13 times.

After turning 18,

UPDATE – The USFL Championship game on NBC drew an estimated television audience of just 1.04 million viewers on Saturday night, July 1, 2023.  The Birmingham Stallions (10-2) defeated the 5-7 Pittsburgh Maulers 28-12 in Canton, Ohio.

Did you know that the USFL is still playing spring football in early summer?

This Saturday night at 7PM CDT on NBC, the second season of the USFL will come to a quiet conclusion.  The defending league champion Birmingham Stallions (9-2) will play the North Division champion Pittsburgh Maulers (5-6) for the 2023 USFL title.

For the second straight year, the USFL finale will be played at Tom Benson Hall-of-Fame Stadium in Canton, Ohio.   The league likes playing their championship game at this neutral site stadium located a stone’s throw from the highly-visited NFL Hall-of-Fame.  The folks in Canton did a good job supporting last year’s championship game.

If you were unaware that the USFL’s finale was being played this Saturday night, join the club.  I have struggled to maintain my interest in watching the USFL during their second season.   The novelty of spring professional football has clearly worn off.

The vast majority of American sports fans have failed to be captivated by the second season of USFL spring football games.   Television ratings for the USFL have generally averaged between 500,000 and 1 million viewers each week.  The ratings needle for Year #2 of the USFL has not shown an upswing.

After two years of the latest experiments in spring professional football, the proverbial handwriting is on the wall for everyone to see.

After working out the kinks last year in 2022, the USFL had expected Season 2 to bring greater fan engagement (whether television viewers or paying customers in the stadiums).  By most every measure, the USFL has failed.  The league is owned (100%) by Fox Sports, so we probably won’t learn the extent of this year’s financial losses anytime soon.

On the other hand, the XFL (the other spring football league) lost a reported $60 million in 2023.  Though the owners of the XFL want to spin a positive story, losing big money was not something which the XFL owners were happy to report.

XFL co-owner Dany Garcia recently said, “We’re extremely well-capitalized for the long-term.  This is our new WWE.  The next massive live property.”

Let me translate.  “We lost a ton of money!  In fact, more than we expected.  We hate losing money and need to determine how much more money we can afford to lose next season.   Our goal is to be the only spring football league which survives.”

Regardless of the spin, I think there is a greater than 50% chance that we just saw the first and last season of the XFL in 2023.  The same goes for the USFL, too.  Only time will tell.

As the USFL’s second season quietly ends Saturday night, the harsh reality is that America’s spring football leagues have not developed enough return customers to grow their product.

It is the same reason why so many local restaurants arrive with much fanfare but then quietly close after just a few years.  Over time, many people visit to sample their wares but not enough customers keep returning on a regular basis to sustain the business.

Before the USFL returned in 2022 and the XFL (version 3.0) joined the party in 2023, the Alliance of American Football (AAF) hit the field in 2019.

In a College World Series filled with exciting one-run games and extra inning thrillers, the LSU Tigers and Florida Gators reversed the script in Games 2 and 3 of the championship series.

LSU took Game 1 in Omaha with a nerve-wracking 11 inning 4-3 victory over Florida.  For LSU, it was their second straight 11 inning win after taking down #1 national seed Wake Forest 2-0 two days earlier to move into the best-of-three championship series against SEC rival Florida.

The tight game script was then summarily tossed out the window for the final two games in this year’s College World Series.  The first 14 games played in Omaha had seen the winning team score no more than six runs.  That streak came to an end during the final two games of the 2023 college baseball season.

The two SEC teams unleashed their offensive fury on one another during Games 2 and 3.  On Sunday, Florida tied the series at one game apiece with a dominating 24-4 thrashing of the Tigers.  The Gators racked-up 23 hits and six home runs, while LSU gifted a season-high five fielding errors in the rout.

LSU and its purple and gold-clad fans were shocked and silenced on Sunday afternoon at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha.  Fortunately for the Tigers, there was still a third and final game to be played in the College World Series on Monday night.

In the first inning of Game 3, Florida looked like they were going to keep the rout going for a second straight game.  In the bottom of the first in this series finale Monday night, Gators centerfielder Will Langford blasted a 2-run homer to spot the Gators to a 2-0 lead.  The LSU faithful had to wonder if their pitchers were going to get blasted for a second straight game.

Tigers starting pitcher Thatcher Hurd (8-3 on the season) regrouped and kept the Gators in check for six innings on Monday.  In the top of the second inning, LSU’s bats finally arrived at the stadium in Omaha as the Tigers responded with six runs of their own.  Thousands of LSU fans erupted in glee as their team finally broke out of their Omaha hitting slump.   The Tigers then added four more runs in the fourth inning to make the game 10-2 at the halfway point.

From there, LSU added another eight runs over the final three innings to tally 18 runs for the game.  The final score was LSU 18, Florida 4.  It had taken the Bayou Bengals five games to tally that many runs prior to Monday night’s championship game.

In winning, LSU claimed its seventh college baseball championship and now only trails USC (12) for the top spot.  It was the first College Baseball title for LSU since 2009.  LSU’s baseball stadium will now get a much desired update to their right field scoreboard (affectionately called “The Intimidator”) in Baton Rouge.  The scoreboard boldly highlights every LSU national championship team.

The Tigers’ 24 hits in Game 3 also established a new College World Series mark by breaking the former record (23) set by Florida the day before.  The Tigers turned the tables turned on the Gators in Game 3 Monday night.  Ironically, both teams finished the season with an identical record of 54-17.

LSU loves Home-aha!

As we stated in a recent story, the LSU baseball fans really love their Tigers.  The team routinely leads the nation in home attendance.  In fact, LSU’s average home attendance (about 11,000 per game) easily leads every minor league baseball ...

Welcome to the summer of 2023.  Happily, the Southeastern Conference slate of football games for this fall will begin in a little more than two months.

This year will be the final season for the SEC’s current West and East divisions.  The 14-team league will expand to 16 beginning in 2024 with the addition of two Big 12 Conference teams.  The University of Oklahoma (referred to as “OU” by fans) and the University of Texas (referred to as “Texas University” by former students of a school located in College Station) will jump into the SEC football pool in 2024.

The SEC recently released the new conference schedule for their 16-team league beginning in 2024.  Without an East or West division anymore, the conference scheduling brainiacs were put to the test.

The SEC officials met in Destin, Florida in late May to discuss how many conference football games to play.   Should the league increase the conference football schedule from eight to nine with the addition of these two new schools?

A wise gentleman by the name of Nick Saban recently gave his opinion on the issue, and (gasp!) the SEC decision makers listened to him.  The SEC expansion would have justified going from the current eight game conference schedule to nine beginning in 2024.

There was hidden danger lurking.  What happened if one of the top-ranked SEC teams lost an extra game during the 9-game conference schedule?   By playing an additional conference game, the SEC would risk losing one or more spots in the upcoming expanded 12-team College Football Playoffs.  Most top teams in the other major conferences will (generally) play a softer conference schedule.

More playoff spots going to SEC universities means greater revenue for all of the conference schools.  Money talks.  So, the newly expanded SEC will continue playing just eight conference games when OU and Texas come aboard in 2024.

If any SEC school sweeps through its four game non-conference schedule and happens to go 5-3 within the conference, that team could display a 9-3 resume for post-season playoff consideration.

The key to a good season will be to schedule as many lightweight opponents as possible during your team’s four game SEC non-conference schedule.  A 4-0 start is almost mandatory due having such a difficult conference schedule.

This newly expanded SEC Bakery will be searching far and wide for additional cupcakes to schedule beginning in 2024!

With large stadiums and a huge network television contract, the SEC’s Bakery will be paying top dollar for future cupcake purchases.  Louisiana public school universities such as UL-Monroe and Louisiana Tech will rake in more cash for their athletic programs.  A half-day bus trip to Baton Rouge, College Station, or Austin, Texas may pocket a net profit of $1 million or more.

No one disputes that the eight game SEC conference schedule in 2024 will be tougher for every team with the addition of OU and Texas.  Any participant which emerges with a conference record of 8-0 or 7-1 is a lock to be a part of the expanded College Football Playoffs. Teams which go 6-2 in the SEC will still have a shot at making the field, too.

The SEC has been devouring increasingly weaker non-conference cupcakes for several years.

In 2022, the SEC Cupcake menu included these smaller division football treats:

Abilene Christian, Austin Peay, Central Arkansas, Eastern Washington, East Tennessee State, Elon, Mercer, Samford, South Carolina State, Southern University, Tennessee-Martin, and Youngstown State all cashed big paychecks by traveling to play an SEC football opponent during 2022.

Welcome to the SEC Bakery, Texas and OU! 

Last year, Oklahoma and Texas played only three non-conference games as the Big 12 (just ten te...

The purple and gold convoy is rolling northward toward one of America’s best cities.  Omaha, Nebraska is home to the College World Series beginning today.  LSU will play the final game of the four opening round games on Saturday night at 6PM Central against SEC foe, Tennessee.

For nearly forty years, the city of Omaha has come to love the LSU baseball team just as much as LSU fans love to make the 1,000 mile trek from the bayous to corn country in early June.

Omaha is home to nearly 500,000 residents and sits in the middle of America’s farming heartland.  It is also one of the best cities in America to get a great steak, too!

LSU fans have made fast friends in Omaha over the years by bringing their entertaining tailgating talents and seafood gumbo to Mid-America.  Tiger fans love to party and eagerly welcomed the Omaha locals to become temporary LSU supporters.  Visitors to the Tigers’ tailgates love to sample a little unique Cajun cuisine and share a brew with the friendly bunch from Baton Rouge.

Omaha has grown to love the large contingent of Bayou Bengal fans beginning with LSU teams making frequent appearances at the CWS beginning in the 1980’s.  Under legendary baseball coach Skip Bertman, LSU won five national championships in Omaha during a ten year span from 1991 through 2000.

The Tigers always turn turned Omaha into a more festive place in years when LSU makes the eight-team field.  When I visited Omaha in February (brr!) about twenty years ago, I was surprised how many people asked this Louisiana native about LSU sports.  Many of the Omaha locals have been converted into LSU Tiger fans!

This Saturday night at 6PM, expect the majority of Omaha residents in attendance to be pulling for the Tigers.  LSU fans have nurtured this relationship with Big Red Nebraska fans over the years.  If Nebraska isn’t in the field, many locals will adopt the purple and gold of LSU.

For the longest time, the College World Series was played in venerable Rosenblatt Stadium located just outside of downtown Omaha.  The old ball park was loved by fans and players alike.  Spectators sat close to the action and added to the noise and excitement factor of the games.  After being expanded several times, the NCAA finally let Omaha know that larger stadium venues in other cities were quite willing to host this annual baseball event.

Omaha responded with the construction of a 24,000 seat downtown baseball stadium about a decade ago.  The new stadium just had a name change, too.  The former TD Ameritrade Park is now called Charles Schwab Field.  TD Ameritrade was purchased by Schwab.  Locals are now calling the stadium “The Chuck”!

This circular stadium allows fans to walk around the perimeter of the field.  It definitely features more services than Rosenblatt Stadium, but it lacks the character of the old field.  The outfield fences are further away from home plate, and there is more room for defensive plays to be made along the fringes of this larger stadium.

Translated – the new baseball stadium is a pitcher-friendly ball park.  Traditionally, LSU is known for hitting a lot of home runs and scoring runs in bunches.  LSU’s “Gorilla Ball” helped the Tigers dominate the College World Series at the former ball park back in the 1990’s.  LSU’s most recent national championship came in 2009 – two years before this new ball park opened.

This weekend, LSU fans are coming back to what they call “Alex Box – North” as the Tigers pursue their seventh national title and first in this new ball park.  You can count on natives of Omaha to be tailgating with Tiger fans once again, too.

Though advance ticket prices in Omaha for the CWS are fairly reasonably priced, word is that $100 won’t be able to fetch a decent bleacher seat ticket for a few of this weekend’s opening round of games.

All of the College World Series games will be televised by ESPN...

The Denver Nuggets just kept chipping away on Monday night.  They defeated a plucky Miami Heat squad four games to one to win the NBA title and the city’s first pro basketball championship.

Hundreds of thousands of fans will jam into downtown Denver at 10 AM (Mountain Time) Thursday morning to celebrate the Nuggets’ first NBA title during a parade which concludes with a victory celebration rally at the Civic Center.

Enjoy it, Denver!  You have been waiting for this moment for a very long time.

Denver’s professional basketball era started in 1967 as one of the founding franchises of the American Basketball Association (ABA).

Nine years and zero titles later, the Denver Nuggets were then merged into the NBA in 1976.   Monday night’s Game 5 close-out win over Miami ended Denver’s lengthy 47 (or 56?) year professional basketball title drought.

The Nuggets’ 94-89 victory at home in Game 5 was a very ugly game.  The inconsistent officiating crew certainly didn’t help matters.  The refs allowed both teams to push and shove each other like a pro wrestling match.  At other times, some of the players’ Academy Award-worthy flops and fakery drew a number of phantom fouls whistled by this incredibly inept officiating crew.

In Game 5, the players were bad.  The refs were worse.  Denver’s home crowd remained on pins and needles throughout.

Denver converted just 5 of 28 3-point shots (18%) in Monday night’s season finale.  The Nuggets made just 13 of 23 free throw attempts – which came without any Miami Heat players around to affect their shots.

Miami wasn’t much better in Game 5.  Miami clanked 26 3-point attempts to go with just nine successful threes for a woeful 25.7% on its long distance shooting.  After being outrebounded 57-44 by Denver, Miami was somehow hanging on by a thread until the final minutes of Game 5.

The NBA refs gifted the Heat a late chance to pull within one point with three minutes left on a highly questionable call.

During a three point attempt by Jimmy Butler, the forward kicked a Denver’s Aaron Gordon in the – ouch – “nuggets” as Butler released his shot.  The referees surprised 20,000 fans and a national TV audience by whistling a foul – against Denver???

After Denver challenged the call, television replays clearly showed that Butler was the only one who made contact with another player.   Yet, the NBA referees steadfastly refused to overturn this obvious blunder.

In the end, it didn’t matter.  Denver was clearly the better team.

The Miami Heat came into the NBA Finals as the Eastern Conference #8 seed.  Miami’s disciplined team effort and better-than-average three point shooting (in most playoff games) powered the Heat past three consecutive favored teams.  Milwaukee, the New York Knicks, and the Boston Celtics were outcoached by Miami’s Eric Spoelstra as his team exploited the weaknesses of his opponents.

The Denver Nuggets were easily the best team in the NBA Western Conference.  They were the West #1 playoff seed.  The Nuggets were just better than Miami in every facet of the game during this series.  Miami was fortunate to grab even one win in this series.  Denver finished 16-4 in the NBA playoffs in winning both high and low scoring games.

Denver’s dynamic duo of center Nikola Jokic and guard Jamal Murray led a team effort throughout the playoffs.  The Nuggets other starters and bench contributed key points, rebounds, and hustle plays in every playoff game.  Coach Michael Malone kept the team focused on the mission.

In a nutshell, the Denver Nuggets have all the makings of a dynasty.

The team is comprised of under-30 players in their prime.