Bemused by Braun

By now, you've likely heard that defending National League MVP Ryan Braun had his 50-game suspension overturned by a panel of arbitrators earlier this week.  Baseball's drug agreement states that "absent unusual circumstances . . . specimens should be sent by FedEx to the laboratory on the same day they are collected," but according to the Associated Press Braun's sample was collected on a Saturday and not sent out until Monday because the sample collector "[thought] it would be more secure at home than at a Federal Express office during the weekend."  The video below, via the Washington Post, has the rest of the basics:

For the most part, I'm happy with how this all played out.  The baseball fan in me wants to see Braun out on the field for as many of the Brewers' 162 games as possible - he's one of the sport's best players, means more to Milwaukee now than ever before with Prince Fielder leaving town this off-season, and is by most accounts a hard worker and a likeable guy.  I'm also a stickler for rules, and if the MLB's drug agreement states that samples have to be sent out to the lab on the same day that they are collected, then shame on the drug collector for not following proper protocol.  As many (including Aaron Rodgers) have pointed out, we are fortunate to live in a society where people are innocent until proven guilty, and if MLB's evidence won't hold up in court then Braun shouldn't be subject to punishment.

At the same time, everything here just seems a little too "convenient," doesn't it?  Although MLB executive vice president Rob Manfred stated that he "vehemently disagrees" with the arbitrators' decision, it doesn't take a master conspiracy theory enthusiast to raise an eyebrow over this.  Sure, other MLB players have been forced to serve 50 game suspensions for drug infractions before, but none of those guys were coming off of MVP seasons or as critical to their team's success as Braun is.  There's no doubt that having Braun in left field for the Brew Crew on opening day will be a boost to Major League Baseball; having him exonerated on what U.S. Anti-Doping Agency CEO Travis Tygart called a "technicality of all technicalities" - on the opening day of Spring Training, no less - just seems a little fishy to me.

The unfortunate thing is that we'll never know the truth, and from here on out I'll be caught in the grey zone of wanting to believe Braun's story but not being sure if I can.  Whereas casual fans will likely forget this entire ordeal before the first real pitches are thrown in April, I will forever wonder whether o nrot one of baseball's most likeable young stars is (or was, depending on how you look at these things) a cheater.  If Braun is truly innocent, he has unfortunately had his reputation damaged and has only a technicality to thank for ensuring that justice was served.  If Braun is guilty, however, a careless error by a random urine sample corrector just cost MLB the opportunity to make a big statement in its fight against PEDs.

Don't Tread on Me, Nike

Anyone who knows me will tell you that I love sneakers, and I certainly don't have anything against Nike in general.  I'm the first to admit that the Oregon-based company has added a lot of good to amateur and professional sports, from innovative product technology to creative design elements.  That being said, I think Nike often wreaks havoc on team uniforms - take a look at what they've done to the University of Oregon's football uniforms over the last half decade and you'll see what I mean.  Granted, Nike isn't the only offender in this area - more recently, Maryland-based Under Armour has arguably made University of Maryland's football duds more offensive than Oregon's.

Nike and Under Armour have ruined Oregon and Maryland's football uniforms, respectively.

While I think a number of the Nike-designed college uniforms are hideous, they don't really bother me.  Schools like Oregon are just trying to use their unique look to put themselves on the national map, and to an extent it has worked - the Ducks are known as much for their crazy uniform combinations as they are for winning two straight Pac-12 titles.  For many teams, one-of-a-kind uniforms can be a major differentiating factor, and anyone who has seen Oregon or Maryland play football recently will agree that these two schools are, for better or worse, more memorable than your average state school football squad.

Where I get frustrated with Nike, however, is when they jazz up U.S. National Team uniforms for both soccer and basketball.  Today, Nike unveiled the new Team USA basketball uniforms and they are predictably ghastly (see below).  As a Yahoo! Sports blogger put it, "Nobody says United STATES of America. And when fans chant 'USA,' they don't hit the high note on the middle letter. You wouldn't know that based on Nike's 2012 Team USA basketball jerseys."  The new duds are just another example of Nike putting flair and novelty over class and sensibility, and while that choice might make sense for Oregon or Maryland, it doesn't work for the men (and women) representing our country on the field / court. 

Nothing says "America" like USA in the shape of a chevron.

In addition to being functional, uniforms are meant to represent the team wearing them.  The United States of America is the greatest and most recognized country in the world - a simple "USA" tells people more about our nation than an entire Wikipedia entry on other countries.  Between those three letters and our classic red, white and blue color scheme, people know what the USA and its national teams strive for - maximum effort and excellence.  Our national teams don't need Nike to add a bunch of bells and whistles (or, in this case, chevrons and font sizes) to make them stand out - wearing the red, white and blue and a simple "USA" on the chest is more than enough.  While I'm (sort of) comfortable with Nike using Oregon as it's funky uniform testing ground, I wish they'd leave Team USA out of it.  Save the crazy designs for Slovenia, please.

Picnic at the Park

Yesterday was another absolutely beautiful day here in Palo Alto - 60 degrees and sunny with a light breeze.  The perfect weekend weather happened to coincide precisely with the start of college baseball season - on Saturday afternoon, #2 Stanford hosted #10 Vanderbilt in the second game of a three-game set.  Whether or not you're a fan of college baseball, you'll love spending a few hours in the sun at Stanford's Klein Field.  Bring a few drinks and snacks and you're in for a relaxing day, and get to watch some top-quality college baseball in the process.

As much as I've grown to love Stanford sports, sometimes I miss the small-school feel that I had as an undergraduate.  Cardinal football games don't compare to the NFL or even the SEC, but they do feature big crowds, commercial endorsements and television coverage.  Even Stanford basketball games at Maples Pavilion are relatively big budget compared to what I had become accustomed to while following the Ivy League.  College baseball games, however, remain relatively free of the sensory overload that dominates other BCS-conference sports.

A baseball game at Stanford's Klein Field is closer to a peaceful picnic than a rowdy sporting event.  I brought snacks into the park and enjoyed a couple hours of the best baseball the NCAA has to offer from seats in between home plate and the third base dugout.  If you'd prefer to trade in your seat for a spot on the grass, you can sit down the right or left field lines next to the bullpens and watch the game from the comfort of your beach blanket.  The game is relatively free of energetic crowd noise (this is college baseball, after all) and has minimal PA announcements, so for the most part you get to sit in a peaceful setting and listen to the harmonious pings of NCAA baseball's metal bats.

Fans enjoy Stanford vs. Vanderbilt from the lawn down the right field line,

Last season I only made it to one Stanford baseball game, but this year I'll be sure to make Saturday afternoon's game one of many (or at least a few).  With the Cardinal squad projected to go deep in the College World Series this year, the school's athletic department is making a push to drive more students to baseball games - for the first time, the Red Zone student section featured at Cardinal football games has been moved over to Klein Field, so students can watch baseball games from a guaranteed great seat.  Even if you're not that interested in the game itself, anyone who likes sun, beautiful weather and a serene-yet-fun atmosphere would be smart to check out at least one Stanford baseball game this year.

Looking Back: The Gasol Family

Given that the 2012 NBA All Star Game falls on the same night as the Academy Awards, I'm not sure how much of it I'll watch this year.  As I've covered here on Caught Looking before, the NBA All Star weekend can be a ton of fun in person - there's a great energy throughout the host city that I find hard to replicate on TV.  One story I will be interested in following from this year's game, though, is how Memphis forward Marc Gasol will do in his first All Star appearance.  With older brother and Lakers forward Pau not invited to the game this season, Marc's selection to the Western Conference All Stars was undoubtedly bittersweet for the Gasol family.

How do I know this, you ask?  I attended my first NBA All Star weekend in 2009 in Phoenix, less than a year after I started working at the NBA offices in New York.  Being that I had no real reason to be at the All Star game, I was assigned a job with the Transportation team, tasked with making sure the All Stars and their families got where they needed to go throughout the weekend.  I spent a day and a half at the Phoenix airport getting escorted through TSA security, meeting players and their family members at their gates, and escorting them to baggage claim and on to cars and limos waiting for them curbside.  I met a number of NBA players including Brook Lopez, Wilson Chandler and Nate Robinson that weekend, and also helped a hopelessly lost Luis Scola - whom I recognized from afar as he wandered aimlessly through the airport corridors - find teammate Aaron Brooks at one point. The clear highlight of the Transportation group assignment, however, was getting to meet Pau and Marc Gasol's parents.

Maybe next season Pau and Marc Gasol will be All Star teammates.

Every parent loves to watch his or her children play sports.  I always assumed, however, that the novelty of seeing your kid succeed on the basketball court wears off at some point, and the pride you have for their accomplishments diminishes over time.  Not for the Gasol family - when I met the middle-aged parents of Pau and Marc, they were so proud to have both of their basketball-playing sons participating in All Star weekend (Pau as a Western Conference All Star, Marc as a participant in the Rookie Challenge game) that they literally couldn't stop talking about it.  The Gasols told me all about how much the weekend meant to them, and how they still couldn't get over how much their lives had changes over the past decade.  It wasn't long before that the Gasols were living in Spain - now, they had moved permanently to Memphis, where Marc played and where Pau started his career (the two were actually traded for each other when the Lakers acquired the older brother).

Most of All Star weekend is about glitz, glamour and hype.  Meeting the Gasol family in 2009, however, reminded me that most NBA players, and most athletes in general, were at one time normal kids growing up in average families.  Many parents make tremendous sacrifices for their children, and the Gasols are no different.  Fortunately for them, their journey from Spain to Memphis has turned out extremely well - as they told me, the Gasols are very happy with their new life in the Southeast U.S., and spend as much of their time as possible watching both of their sons (hometown Marc in particular) play the sport that they love.  More than anything else I've ever experienced at an NBA All Star weekend (I've been to three - Phoenix, Dallas and Los Angeles - and counting), my chat with Pau and Marc Gasol's parents will be the thing I hope to always remember.   

Start the Linsanity

In tonight's 107-93 victory over the Washington Wizards, New York Knicks point guard Jeremy Lin became the first player since 2003 to have 20+ points and 8+ assists in each of his first two career starts.  With the Harvard-educated Lin leading the way the Knicks have won three straight (albeit against New Jersey, Utah and now Washington) and, despite not having Carmelo Anthony or Amar'e Stoudemire in the lineup, finally look like the team Mike D'Antoni intended.  While we now know what Lin means to the Knicks - with a true point guard, New York seems to have finally found some sort of functional offense - what does the Asian American rising star mean to the NBA as a whole?

First, I'll go on the record in stating that I don't think Lin is a real solution to the Knicks' problems.  While Lin is a solid player and may have been severely underestimated by his previous teams (the Warriors and the Rockets), in time I believe that teams will figure him out, he'll slow down and the Knicks will need to adjust; keep in mind that earlier this year Knicks fans wanted to name Iman Shumpert the savior of Knicks basketball, and last year Landry Fields was the king of New York.  If Lin can at least continue to be a productive player for the Knicks, though, he may have a profound impact on the league's ability to continue to connect with its increasingly large, highly-educated Asian American fan base.

The NBA is very focused on the globalization of basketball, and as a result has worked hard to market international players such as Germany's Dirk Nowitzki, Spain's Pau Gasol and even Israel's Omri Casspi.  What the league hasn't done as effectively, though, is promote American players who aren't of either African American or Caucasian heritage.  At the same time, Asian Americans across the country have become increasingly interested in the game of basketball and Lin may the league's ticket to resonating with this growing fan base.  Though growth in China post-Yao Ming has been a lot slower than NBA officials anticipated and hoped for, Lin's success as an NBA player may play a large role in the league's success with Asian fans from the United States.   

Will Jeremy Lin have more than fifteen minutes of fame?

No one knows how long Lin's run will last, but it's safe to say he won't be averaging 20+ points and 8+ assists per game for the rest of the season.  That being said, it won't take an All Star-caliber season to turn Lin into a hero for American-born Asian fans.  As long as Lin can carve out a regular role for the Knicks - and there's no reason that he can't - the latest most-popular Knick can be a huge marketing vehicle for the NBA's campaign to attract Asian American viewers.  Lin's atypical ethnic background and Ivy League education make him destined to be a New York fan favorite.  Let's start the Linsanity.

Good for Goodell

When people talk about the current commissioners of professional sports leagues, most of the attention is usually focused around either Bug Selig or David Stern.  After all, the commissioners of MLB and the NBA have brought the most significant changes to their sports during their reigns - Selig has helped develop the Wild Card, the link between the All Star Game and home field advantage in the World Series, and the World Baseball Classic, while Stern has brought the NBA to China, commercialized All Star Saturday Night, and most recently navigated the league through yet another lockout.  People don't talk much about the NFL's Roger Goodell, though.  Other than occassionally causing a stir by fining or suspending someone, Goodell for the most part lets the NFL do what it does best - attract fans and make money - and I think he deserves more credit than he typically gets.

Today, for example, ESPN.com reported that Goodell has been dissatisfied with recent iterations of the NFL Pro Bowl, and was quoted as saying "We're either going to have to improve the quality of what we're doing in the Pro Bowl or consider other changes or even considering eliminating the game if that's the kind of quality game we're going to provide."  While both Selig and Stern have made countless tweaks to their All Star Games over the years, virtually all of then have been made with a "bigger is always better" mindset.  Both the MLB and NBA All Star breaks have swelled to the point where they actively distract fans from their regular seasons, and the quality of play in those games seems to diminish every year.  The NBA All Star Game is an excuse for Derrick Rose to throw LeBron James a dozen alley-oops, while the MLB game usually comes down to Aramis Ramirez facing Joakim Soria in the late innings.

In the midst of all this All Star growth, we have Goodell suggesting that the NFL's Pro Bowl potentially be eliminated.  And why not?  After all, there's absolutely no need for the Pro Bowl: no one watches it, very few players want to be a part of it, and the NFL schedule doesn't make it easy to organize it.  There's no reason the league couldn't just name its All Pros at the end of the season without actually holding a Pro Bowl game - let's give Goodell credit for recognizing and acknowledging this fact and (potentially) doing something about it.  Goodell seems secure enough with the NFL's incredible success and domination of the American sports scene that he's comfortable admitting when something isn't working.  To me, it's another example of the NFL and Goodell's power over American sports.

While Bud Selig seeks additional playoff expansion to spice up the MLB postseason and David Stern continues to explore international franchises to further globalize the NBA, Roger Goodell and the NFL have minimized the changes to professional football.  There are many reasons why millions of people will be watching the Superbowl this afternoon while baseball and basketball struggle to build viewership for the World Series and NBA Finals, respectively.  Let's give Goodell some credit here and acknowledge that he's done a lot of good since he took the NFL's head position in 2006.  While Selig and Stern may grab more headlines, Goodell is usually the one grabbing the dollars and the fans.

Saluting the Sharks

It's Tuesday evening at 7:30 PM - do you know where your friends are?  If you live in San Jose, California, they're probably at HP Pavilion watching the Sharks - last night, I went to my second-ever San Jose Sharks game and saw the home team pound the visiting Columbus Blue Jackets 6-0.  If you told a hockey fan from the 1980's that, in 30 years, an NHL team from San Jose would be hosting a regular season game against a club from Columbus, Ohio in front of a near-capacity crowd, they probably would think you were insane.  But despite the NHL's penchant for overexpansion and terrible markets, San Jose is incredibly a very bright spot for professional hockey in the United States.

I don't know what I "expect" a hockey fan to look like, but it probably involves some combination of pale skin, mullets and Labatt beer.  At a Sharks game, though, the seats are packed with people who represent the population of Northern California - Latinos, Asians, Caucasians and even some African Americans.  The fan base is impressively diverse, suggesting that the Sharks have somehow managed to succeed where virtually every other NHL club has failed - marketing to minorities.  Perhaps more importantly, many of the people at the Sharks game were young (under 25), suggesting that the Sharks will have a steady stream of loyal fans for years to come.

I think the reason people consistently come out for Sharks games is because the team is truly running the best show in town.  Admittedly, part of the reason why this is true is because San Jose is a relatively sleepy city with comparatively limited competition for fans - eventually, this might change as the 49ers, Raiders and/or Athletics move down from San Francisco and Oakland to Silicon Valley.  But it's not just the Sharks' lack of competition that generates their popularity with local fans; the word I'd use to describe a Sharks game is professional.  The pre-game introductions, complete with a giant shark's head / mouth for the players to skate through, is fun and uniquely San Jose.  The arena looks brand new despite opening almost 20 years ago, and the concourses are filled with a good mix of concessions.  The team takes care of its fans with plenty of promotions, in-game entertainment and fan recognition - for example, I led a group of a dozen students from the Stanford Graduate School of Business to the game, and we got our group name on the Jumbotron (see below).

The San Jose Sharks make their fans feel extremely welcome.

Professional hockey teams in cities like San Jose and Raleigh face an uphill battle.  They're stuck in markets where their sport isn't very popular, and have to be a little more creative when it comes to drawing fans.  From what I've seen at both Sharks and Hurricanes games, though, teams in non-traditional hockey markets have been able to rise to the occassion and make the most out of their difficult situations.  Perhaps hockey's core markets (cough - Long Island - cough) should take a few pages out of San Jose's playbook and try to offer a better value proposition to their fans.  If more teams start to offer the game experience that the San Jose Sharks do, perhaps hockey can one day regain its position as one of the country's major sports.