Friends, I don’t see how this newfound detente between sports and gambling ends well. Check out this story from the Athletic:
Carson Barrett tore his meniscus earlier this year. The injury required surgery, but this is the last run for the Purdue senior. Though he’s never seen a whole lot of playing time in his career, he wanted to at least have a shot at getting on the court this season. So Barrett delayed the repair work, gladly taking the exchange of some pretty painful nights with a throbbing knee in favor of even a few minutes of hooping.
This season he’s played a grand total of 21 minutes and scored six points. Three of them came in the NCAA Tournament. With 37 seconds left in a game long decided, Barrett drained a baseline 3 against Grambling State, putting himself in the box score of Purdue’s first-round victory. As the ball swished through the net, the bench erupted, Barrett’s teammates knowing full well what he’d sacrificed and endured. His bucket would be the last for the Boilermakers as Purdue cruised to a 78-50 win. Back in the locker room, Barrett picked up his phone and scrolled through the congratulatory texts from friends and started to search through his DMs on social media.
He stumbled on this:
You sure are a son of a b—.
Hope you enjoy selling cars for the rest of your life.Followed by:
I hope you f-ing die.
And then the kicker:
Kill yourself for taking that 3 you f-ing worthless loser. Slit your f-ing throat you f-ing f– that was completely uncalled for. I hope you f-ing kill yourself.
The Boilermakers were 27-point favorites against Grambling. Barrett’s bucket meant they won by 28. “I had no idea what the line was,” Barrett said. “I’m just out there, making memories with my friends.”
Jeff Borden used to share an opinion about email vs. snail mail. If you wanted to unload on a journalist, or anyone for that matter, in the olden days, you had to hunt up a pen and paper, scrawl your message (or roll paper into your typewriter, or sit at your keyboard and hit Print), find an envelope, find a stamp, walk to a mailbox, drop it in. There were lots of steps along the way when you could say Nah and forget the whole thing. Email makes things so much easier. Social media, easier still. Just find the person you want to abuse, in the heat of the moment, and fire away. Imagine telling a 22-year-old kid to kill himself.
This kid was absolutely right to take his shot, and I’m pleased he made it. When gambling inevitably throws a Super Bowl, or World Series, or NCAA championship, we can say we brought this shit on ourselves.
Let’s make this an all-bloggage blog, shall we?
Elon Musk is an idiot, chapter a jillion:
Musk is now using his dominant presence on the social network, which he has renamed X, to convince people that the 2024 presidential election is rigged. His efforts dovetail with the lies of Donald Trump, who recently claimed that Democrats are “allowing” undocumented immigrants to enter the country and “signing them up to vote.”
Musk promoted a post from @EndWokeness, a popular account that promotes bigoted conspiracy theories, that claimed to have uncovered “data” showing that hundreds of thousands of “illegals” have registered to vote since the start of 2024. Musk shared @EndWokeness’ post with his 170 million followers and called it “extremely concerning.”
…To begin, “illegals” cannot get a Social Security number. Most people who have Social Security numbers are citizens. In some instances, non-citizens can receive a Social Security number — usually in connection with a work authorization — but only if they are legally present in the United States. The idea that using a Social Security number to register to vote is evidence of undocumented status makes no sense.
It’s a crying shame what that dolt has done to Twitter. The For You side of my feed is absolute garbage, especially at night, when it’s all manosphere incels, rad-trad lunatics, clips of people falling into meat grinders and other nonsense. And as decent users trickle away, the Following side isn’t much better. But here we are, enjoying our free speech.
Speaking of Twitter, Trump was in Grand Rapids the other day. One of the ceremonies of the day was the bestowal of the endorsement of the Police Officers Association of Michigan. Cop unions are the worst, keeping bad ones on the job and generally sheltering their membership from negative consequences, no matter how self-inflicted. Of course they were happy to stand behind their hero, who has pledged to pardon J6ers who beat the shit out of cops between taking dumps in the halls of Congress:
Several of these guys are self-described “constitutional sheriffs,” and I doubt you’ll be surprised to learn that.
Comic relief! Gary Shteyngart — a niche writer enthusiasm, I’ll grant — was among the passengers on the inaugural cruise of the Icon of the Seas, and while some of the shots are cheap, they are well-deserved.
And that’s about all I have for Thursday. Enjoy your weekend, all.
Pam H said on April 4, 2024 at 1:31 pm
That’s the ugliest cruise ship I’ve ever seen! I’ll bet it could take out a bridge without even trying very hard.
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Mark P said on April 4, 2024 at 1:47 pm
I read only the free part of Shteyngart’s piece, and now I know more about him than the ship. Also, he doesn’t know what “aft” means? So, he’s a 51-year-old writer, but has he ever read anything?
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Suzanne said on April 4, 2024 at 5:18 pm
We did a cruise once. It was to attend someone’s wedding and we couldn’t afford it so someone else paid for us to go. It was just ok. I think Shteyngart summed it up “This whole experience is part cult, part nautical pyramid scheme.” If you like to spend a week drunk, I think maybe it’s more fun.
Sports betting is going to kill sports, I imagine, especially college sports as we have known it. What is it the good book says? “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.”
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Scout said on April 4, 2024 at 5:54 pm
I finally pulled the plug on Xitter two weeks ago. Pretty much everyone I followed there is on Threads now. I’m not a Zuck fan either, but at least he isn’t a Nazi. The community that I follow there (Threads) has made a point of never engaging with MAGAts, bots and trolls, instead just blocking them with no comment. This defangs them and sends them back into the loving arms of Xitter and Truth Social where they can circle jerk amongst themselves. This also makes the platform function more to my liking – a place to go for breaking news and constructive discussion.
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Julie Robinson said on April 4, 2024 at 6:00 pm
No Atlantic subscription here, though I keep contemplating it, especially since a young woman I’ve known since birth signed on to work there. Then I look at the cost and wince.
No desire for a cruise anyway, especially since I moved to paradise. Our son and his wife are taking one to the Meditarrean for a honeymoon, Disney of course like everything else in her life. Since they already have a house, they asked for add-ons as wedding presents and received restaurant tours, wine tastings, spa days, etc. I’ve never heard our son express a desire to cruise, but he loves to travel and he loves her, so I’m sure they’ll have a great time.
Speaking of travel, I sent Dennis up to Bloomington to see the solar eclipse and visit his sister. All the storms yesterday meant a long wait at the airport for his flight, but he finally arrived. Let’s hope for sun on Monday.
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David C said on April 4, 2024 at 6:10 pm
College presidents and ADs are doing a fine job of ruining college sports while raking in shit-tons of cash all by themselves. I read they’re talking about a college football “superleague”. The players will be paid which is a good thing when they could probably make a packet throwing games for the gambling industry. I wonder if it will strip away the “student-athlete” fig leaf. I think it would probably be better to have the NFL create a minor league system and give colleges the exclusive naming rights. That way it could be handled by the marketing departments and the highest paid public employee in most states wouldn’t be a football coach.
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susan said on April 4, 2024 at 6:32 pm
David C, you forgot the modifier: “…wouldn’t be a goddamned football coach.”
Or any other modifier, beginning with ƒ
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LAMary said on April 4, 2024 at 6:42 pm
When I was expecting my first son the ex got invited to go on the maiden cruise of some boat. It would depart two days before my due date. He actually considered going. He repped some luxury hotels in Italy and France and I believe the offer of the cruise was from a sales rep from the cruise company. I told him to go ahead but don’t bother to come back.
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Sherri said on April 4, 2024 at 7:53 pm
The NCAA invented the idea of the “student-athlete” back in the 50s because they didn’t want athletes getting the idea that they were employees and schools having to pay workmen’s comp.
Coaches now want to pay the players because the players have gained some leverage in the situation, with much more relaxed transfer rules and NIL. Coaches now want to hire the players as employees with contracts, so they can gain back some of that leverage. They don’t like having to re-recruit their players constantly.
College football is effectively moving to a super league anyway, because the Big Ten and the SEC pulls in so much more money than everyone else. The reason they’d rather do a super league is that they’d prefer to shed the dead weight like Vanderbilt and Rutgers, and probably bring in teams like Clemson and Florida State. Clemson and Florida State have already sued the ACC to try and break the terms of their agreement.
I’m just sad that the best conference in women’s basketball got destroyed because of college football.
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David C said on April 4, 2024 at 8:48 pm
Yeah, probably every “minor” college sport has been messed up by football.
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Dexter Friend said on April 5, 2024 at 2:15 am
I used to watch Imus in the Morning. One recurring joke was how in blowouts , back when the Knicks were just fodder, the gamblers stayed to the buzzer screaming at the players as if MSG was the trading floor a few subway stops south. This was years before legal sports gambling, but gambling was rampant.
I hate the idea of sports gambling…even when people at work collected for squares boards for big games, when I chipped in for a square it ruined the game for me, hoping for matching numbers to intersect. I have witnessed men and women coming into a local lodge to cash their factory checks and lose the whole thing.
All these fantasy leagues and sports gambling bore me. I still watch sports for excellence in competition. So how about those Detroit Tigers? Best team there in many years.
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David C said on April 5, 2024 at 6:07 am
I’ll tell you when they’ve played someone other than the White Sox, Mets, and starting today the A’s, Dexter. But playoff teams are made of teams who beat up on the teams they’re supposed to beat and staying close to the rest. It could well be an interesting year. They also picked a gem in getting Jason Benetti as their play-by-play guy. I’ve watched six games with him in the booth, so far. He has a great off-kilter sense of humor and a knowledge of the game that comes from not being physically able to play, so he studied it deeply.
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alex said on April 5, 2024 at 7:38 am
Julie, the local weather people are predicting only 35 percent cloud cover over Fort Wayne.
The path through Indiana in general looks pretty sunny, especially over Bloomington, per the Washington Post (gifted article with graphics): https://wapo.st/4aDouH2
The article contains a search function for any city. Bloomington looks like it’s going to have 31 percent cloud cover and Fort Wayne, once again, 35 percent.
We’re hosting some friends from Chicago and driving to Grand Lake St. Mary’s, an hour to the southeast and right in the center of the path. The park there is likely to be packed, so we hope to get there early with our grill, cooler, lounge chairs and eclipse glasses. Cloud cover there is also 35 percent.
I’m excited, mostly about the chance to party with friends whom I seldom get to see. They’ll be here for several days and the weather’s supposed to be splendid.
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diane said on April 5, 2024 at 8:04 am
Dexter, speaking of teams that haven’t been good for many years, how about the Orioles, last year and hopefully this year?! Before last year it had been decades.
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Jeff Gill said on April 5, 2024 at 8:14 am
Without rancor, I would suggest that it’s almost impossible that Shteyngart doesn’t know what’s “aft.” I might have written that in the fugue state of overwhelming scale and excessive champagne, the helpful attendant’s encouragement to ‘go aft’ didn’t register with me until I mentally simplified aft for ass, but that’s a stylistic choice.
Gary knows what aft is, is all I’m saying.
And online + compulsive gambling is already great for our emergency shelter population, if by great you mean steadily increasing. Which I would not.
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nancy said on April 5, 2024 at 8:42 am
Gary is also a native Russian, immigrated from St. Petersburg as a child and grew up in working-class circumstances, so it’s possible. Unlikely, but possible.
Anyway, “aft” is a ridiculous concept in a floating hotel where the ocean out the window might as well be a painting on the wall. I think the staff says that to remind everyone HEY WE’RE ON A CRUISE, WOOOOO.
I’d love to see how the Icon does in a serious storm. I wonder how they handle hurricane-season bookings.
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Jeff Gill said on April 5, 2024 at 9:46 am
For those missing the rest of the Icon of the Seas piece, here’s a great summary:
“I visit the Royal Bling to see up close the $100,000 golden chalice that entitles you to free drinks on Royal Caribbean forever. The pleasant Serbian saleslady explains that the chalice is actually gold-plated and covered in white zirconia instead of diamonds, as it would otherwise cost $1 million. “If you already have everything,” she explains, “this is one more thing you can get.”
I believe that anyone who works for Royal Caribbean should be entitled to immediate American citizenship. They already speak English better than most of the passengers and, per the Serbian lady’s sales pitch above, better understand what America is as well. Crew members like my Panamanian cabin attendant seem to work 24 hours a day. A waiter from New Delhi tells me that his contract is six months and three weeks long. After a cruise ends, he says, “in a few hours, we start again for the next cruise.” At the end of the half a year at sea, he is allowed a two-to-three-month stay at home with his family. As of 2019, the median income for crew members was somewhere in the vicinity of $20,000, according to a major business publication. Royal Caribbean would not share the current median salary for its crew members, but I am certain that it amounts to a fraction of the cost of a Royal Bling gold-plated, zirconia-studded chalice.”
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Mark P said on April 5, 2024 at 10:08 am
The thing about writing, especially the kind Gary apparently does, is that you are constantly on the verge of displaying your ignorance, and I guarantee someone out there knows intimately the subject you’re talking about. It’s hard to believe he didn’t know what aft meant, or he did and he thought his readers didn’t. It reminds me of something the movie critic for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution wrote, back when papers had movie critics. She was reviewing the Michael Douglas movie The Star Chamber, which was about some vigilante judges who took care of criminals that the judicial system couldn’t. She liked the movie but thought the name was too science-fictiony. It was clear she had never heard of the original Star Chamber, which was an English royal court that tried influential people who might otherwise escape justice. I knew the reference, and I’m not a scholar of English history. Of course there was no internet back in those days, but I somehow ran across it. That’s the risk of writing for the public. You can’t know everything and sometimes you don’t even know you don’t know. But “aft”?
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FDChief said on April 5, 2024 at 10:18 am
I think I’ve talked about the whole sports-and-gambling problem before, but the bottom line is that we’ve been there done that and know what happens.
Baseball in the Nineteen-Oughts and Teens was soaked in gambling. Hal Chase was known to be throwing games ten years before the Black Sox. Even the stars, people the Cobb and Christy Mathewson, were implicated.
The gamblers’ interests – knowing the results – drove out the sporting ones. Period. That’s why the owners – otherwise as greedy and self-interested as any other plutocrats – were willing to hand the game to a commissioner; to reassure the public that the games were on the square.
This time? I don’t see that happening until (unless) a similar level of scandal occurs AND is reported, which is kind of a problem given the wretched state of sports (like all) journalism.
Meanwhile spare some pity for the poor devils in the small sports. It’s no big deal for the University of Oregon football team to charter a plane to play in Georgia or Ohio. But the Oregon fencers, or the badminton players, or rowers? It’s cheap motels and the redeye and trying to study for their chem midterms sitting in the departure lounge at O’Hare during a four-hour layover, because THEIR grades aren’t fungible.
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Bitter Scribe said on April 5, 2024 at 11:51 am
Hey internet rando: That so-called “loser” isn’t the guy who just lost a shit-ton of money on a sucker bet. If he does end up selling cars, one of them will no doubt be yours, repossessed after you bet the car payment on an over/under once too often.
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Sherri said on April 5, 2024 at 12:00 pm
We made plans a year ago to travel to Dallas to see the eclipse, and now it’s looking iffy that we’ll actually see it because of cloud cover. Oh, well.
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Sherri said on April 5, 2024 at 12:51 pm
Looking at the current group proposing a college football super league, I doubt they will succeed. It’s been driven by also-fans. The faces of the group are West Virginia and Syracuse, and they’re proposing a system that brings in too many teams: 70 permanent members, and 50ish teams that could compete for 10 more spots each year. I don’t think the top teams are interested in sharing the money that widely. They do have private equity money behind them.
If a super league happens, and I do think it’s possible, it won’t be nearly that big, and it’s more likely to have Saudi sovereign wealth fund money behind it. They’re moving into sports in a big way. I think a super league would be more like 30-40 teams.
It may be wishful thinking, but I do think it’s possible that football will separate from the rest of the sports.
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Julie Robinson said on April 5, 2024 at 6:06 pm
The lad just sent a map of fully booked AirBnB’s across the country, and it looks exactly like the path of the eclipse. D is having a great time walking around campus and indulging in nostalgia, but he’s complaining about the cold. It’s sunny and 77° here.
BTW, there is an event at the IU football stadium featuring William Shatner and Janelle Monae. Unusual pairing, no?
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Deborah said on April 5, 2024 at 7:51 pm
while I think the eclipse is interesting I’m not that into the first hand experience of it. I’ve seen eclipses in my life and it’s obviously something worth watching (with protection obviously) it’s not that big of a deal to me that I’d travel to see it etc. Seems like it’s being made into a bigger deal for clicks etc. Is it just me?
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Suzanne said on April 5, 2024 at 8:00 pm
I will travel to see the eclipse…across the street and about a quarter mile farther on a sidewalk. We are that close to the zone of totality. If we hadn’t moved last year, we wouldn’t have had to leave our yard!
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David C said on April 5, 2024 at 8:29 pm
Total solar eclipses are a pretty big deal. They happen on any particular spot on the Earth, on average, every 375 years. The next one visible from where I live is in 2099. I would have liked to travel to where the totality will be, but I don’t want to go alone and Mary doesn’t travel well. So I’ll get out my telescope and put the solar filter on and watch the partial. The edge of the moon looks pretty cool against the sun.
The astronomical thing that is just for clicks and irritates the hell out of me is all the “super” moons. A full moon that is a few percent larger than average suddenly gets named and is supposed to be a big deal. The headline “How to see the double-dip chocolate with sprinkles super moon” and in the article, it says “It’ll be 12% larger than average. You must see this once in a lifetime astronomical event”. Maybe if your lifetime is a year or thereabouts. Nobody can tell if the moon looks 12% larger than normal. When you ask people how large an object it takes to block out the moon when held at arm’s length is, most people say it can be blocked out with a baseball. In reality, you can block it out with an aspirin tablet. The moon is really small in the sky and even if it looked 25% larger, most couldn’t tell.
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Dexter Friend said on April 6, 2024 at 7:58 am
Christy Mathewson was the most competitive player in all sports. He won at checkers, dominoes, bridge, everything. He never pitched on Sundays, he carried a Bible on road trips, he never drank and no one ever heard him swear. If he bet on baseball games, or these allegations were in print somewhere, it likely was sour grapes reporting and false.
And the Orioles with new owners and a great team are definitely back, right on top.
And Hal Chase was a rotten evil crooked bastard.
Cobb has detractors, he was a Georgia racist, he treated women badly, he had had “black boy go-fers” he’d boss around . But on the field, he was nonpareil. I used to be fascinated by his stories and his skills I would read about. My admiration was tempered severely when I later found out he was not a good human example of dignity, by a long shot.
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Icarus said on April 6, 2024 at 10:26 am
we are heading to Little Rock, Arkansas this afternoon for the eclipse and a mini-vacation. The weather is forecast to be rainy but what can you do? We are part of a package that includes some fun activities like archery, fishing, and canoeing that should make up for it.
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Julie Robinson said on April 6, 2024 at 10:51 am
Well, if you press me, I’d have to admit I’m not all that interested in the eclipse either, but whatever floats your boat. D’s sister had been wanting him to visit, and the eclipse is also bringing two of the other three surviving siblings, as well as a great-nephew to town.
I’ve been more interested in following the University of Iowa’s basketball team, basketball being one of the two sports I like. I have a lot of family in Iowa and was born there, but yesterday I also learned their player Kylie Feuerbach is from Sycamore, Illinois, my true hometown. She doesn’t get a lot of playing time, but I did see her make a couple of good plays last night.
Iowa stunk up the first half and I bailed on them in favor of sleep. What a surprise to see they won, albeit on a questionable call. Now they play for the championship.
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Dexter Friend said on April 6, 2024 at 12:42 pm
Never give up on Caitlin and last night especially Stuelke. That forward/center is tough as iron. Damn she was good.
Caitlin finally sank a few 3s, but she is Bob Cousy reincarnate with her assists. If you don’t know who Bob Cousy was (is), think Magic Johnson with the no-look passes. Don’t know of Magic Earvin Johnson? Then excuse this old great grandpa who has seen a lot.
I am reviled as I don’t give a fuck about Mars, the goddam moon, or eclipse fever. Have fun with it, younguns. Have your fun. I ain’t buying no fucking eclipse glasses. I stare right at the damn event. I am also made of iron. Jesskiddin.
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Sherri said on April 6, 2024 at 12:43 pm
Iowa didn’t stink up the first half. UConn had a very good defensive game plan well executed, that made it tough for Caitlin Clark to do much. In the second half she began to adapt to it better, as great players will. And I didn’t think the foul call was all that questionable; the screening player leaned over to screen the defender, and that’s an offensive foul. Even if your feet are set, you can’t move your whole upper body over to make the screen.
It was a great, gritty game. Both teams are very well coached and play great team defense and offense, even with Caitlin Clark scoring 30 per game. Her assists are breathtaking. Without Clark, Iowa would still be a very good team, just not a Final Four team.
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FDChief said on April 6, 2024 at 1:00 pm
Dexter: that’s kind of the point, tho, isn’t it? Mathewson was one of the most visibly straight-arrow players in early 20th Century baseball…but the gambling corruption was so endemic that NObody was considered immune.
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Julie Robinson said on April 6, 2024 at 2:47 pm
In the first half I watched, Iowa committed 12 turnovers, looked discombobulated, and were cold shooters. I did see some UConn weaknesses, such as total lack of offensive rebounding, and frequent use of moving pics. They were called on it at least once while I was watching. Clearly the Iowa coaching staff figured it out by the second half.
The refs were allowing a lot of latitude with fouls, and not falling for the acting job of flopping to the floor in an attempt to draw falls. That got out of control this year.
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brian stouder said on April 6, 2024 at 3:08 pm
Back in the ‘70s, before I got my first job, I got hooked by the ‘Big Red Machine’. Marty & Joe on on the radio – WLW came in pretty clear, and if the game was on TV (which was somewhat rare) I’d turn the TV down and still listen to Marty & Joe while watching…..Good Stuff!! Had to love Pete Rose and Johnny Bench and Dave Concepcion and Joe Morgan and Tony Perez….not even to mention George Foster and Cesar Geronimo, and whoever I’m forgetting in right field…..by way of saying, the gambling thing is unacceptable, and also must be incorporated into how the Big Red Machine is remembered
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Sherri said on April 6, 2024 at 7:31 pm
Ken Griffey, Sr., Brian.
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Sherri said on April 6, 2024 at 7:48 pm
Outkick, a sports media site owned by Fox that exists purely to revel in its misogyny and racism and non-PC stances, showed up at South Carolina coach Dawn Staley’s press conference today not to ask her about her team or about tomorrow’s game, but about transgender women in sports, just to try and stir up trouble.
That’s okay, Dawn sent that weak shit right back out of there.
https://sports.yahoo.com/south-carolina-coach-dawn-staley-161241569.html
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David C said on April 6, 2024 at 8:02 pm
They’re not real subtle with their naming, are they?
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Sherri said on April 6, 2024 at 10:37 pm
Outkick is named from a football term, outkick the coverage, whereby a punter kicks the ball so far that his other teammates can’t get down to tackle the ball returner soon enough, allowing the ball returning to get a good running start. It also has a slang meaning of dating someone out of your league.
Outkick is a Barstool ripoff, and nothing about either is subtle. Both are trash sites founded by trash men, if you want my real opinion. (Clay Travis for Outkick, Dave Portnoy for Barstool.) They’re both “what if we took all the worst parts of early Deadspin, and threw away any of the good.”
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alex said on April 7, 2024 at 7:43 am
Looks like we’re scuttling plans to go to Grand Lake St. Mary’s for the eclipse. It’s going to be just too overrun with tourists. We figure Ouabache will have the same problem, and if we get turned away from there we’ll go search the countryside for a place to hang out, perhaps a rural cemetery or roadside point of interest.
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brian stouder said on April 7, 2024 at 2:04 pm
Sherri – of course! …. And thanks!
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