Adios August

Just like the rest of this year August has flown by and we are about to enter the final four months of 2021.

Where I live it was hotter than blazes at times, yet there were several cool evenings where we were able to party outside on the deck with friends and family.  And those evenings did not include any MLB or NFL which is getting ready to kick off a new year.

MLB and my beloved St. Louis Cardinals continue to bore the daylights out of me and apparently thousands of others.  I've been looking at attendance at Cardinals games and like many other major league teams, it is down significantly.  The problem is no one wants to sit around on a hot night waiting for something to happen.  The game has become little more than walks, strikeouts and home runs.  Gone are the days of small ball and strategy.  Many years ago the late Earl Weaver of the Baltimore Orioles said his strategy was to sit back and wait for a three run homer.  Unfortunately, most MLB teams appear to have adopted Earl's philosophy.

The NFL continues along on its arrogant way.  I used to know what the F stood for in that league's name but now I believe it stands for fools, or felons or freaks of fu*k ups.  I haven't watched a single play of preseason play because I could care less about the games.  The owners of the league do as they please without any repercussions.  But, that could change in the coming days.  The only thing I have been following with the league is the lawsuit filed againstit by the city of St. Louis.  The NFL allowed Rams owner Stan Kroenke to move his franchise to Los Angeles for what he claimed was a lack of support and St. Louis refusing to build him a new stadium.  The fact is St. Louis fans sold out every game until the final two years the Rams played in St. Louis when they could no longer tolerate the crappy product Kroenke placed on the field to escape his contract at America's Center.

Now the St. Louis lawsuit being heard in federal court in St. Louis has reached the point where owners have been told they must open their books to the court.  My guess is Stan Kroenke and his buddies in the billion dollar boys club like Robert Kraft, Jerry Jones and David Tepper won't want to be bothered with this inconvenience and will tell NFL lackey Roger Goodell to make the litigation go away.

Some so called experts believe making it go away will include granting St. Louis an expansion franchise.  My guess is that won't happen but the city will get a windfall of money, which it will then piss away instead of repairing its crumbling infrastructure.

What will happen with the lawsuit?  Stay tuned, the NFL is due in court again in September.  And who knows, baseball may get lucky and have one or two pennant races even though most everything else is all but decided.  On the positive side, college football kicks off this weekend.  The games are way too long because of instant replays and bazillions of commercials inserted into the game so you can watch it on cable TV for "free".  But, the game itself remains exciting when the players are actually playing.

Anyway, that was my August, I hope you had a good one and your September is even better.