Andrew Luck is not Sandy Koufax, but.....

 
Photos from Wikipedia

Andrew Luck is not Sandy Koufax. To compare the early retirements of the two is not fair....to Sandy Koufax, or Andrew Luck. Sandy Koufax had a longer, more impressive, stay in the Major Leagues (12 seasons, 3 Cy Youngs, 4 no hitters, and an MVP) than Andrew Luck (7 seasons. and 4 Pro Bowls) did in the National Football League. But it is fair to compare the two retirements, and our reaction to them.

With apologies to the rest of the globe, Lionel Messi, and soccer, Andrew Luck, like Sandy Koufax, is a generational talent at the preeminent position of the most popular sport. Like Sandy Koufax, Andrew Luck decided to retire in the prime of his career. In 2018 he was named to his 4th Pro Bowl, and also named comeback player of the year in 2018 after missing a season due to .surgery on his throwing shoulder, and subsequent rehab. The Colts were preseason darlings of the NFL writers, Many predicted that the 9-1 finish, and wildcard berth, of the 2018 season would carry over to 2019. By comparison, Koufax retired after the 1966 season in which he went 27-- with a 1.79 ERA. After the World Series he retired due to the arthritic condition of his throwing elbow. Koufax cited living with near constant pain during his press conference as the reason for his early retirement. Likewise, Andrew Luck did the same.

Surprisingly, no shockingly, he was booed by the Indianapolis fans. Fuck Indiana. In fact, fuck everything Indiana except for Larry Bird.. Earlier in his career he missed a 9 games of the 2015 season due to a sore throwing shoulder, and later in 2015, a lacerated kidney. That was before the shoulder injury, surgery, and rehab that sidelined him for the 2017 season. The dude put it all on the field for those fans. It reminds me a little of the Packer fans booing Brett Favre, but it took Brett Favre to put on a Vikings uniform and returning to play for that. He wasn't booed for unretireing and playing for the Jets. I can't think of a parallel where fans booed a player who retired early after 4 years of pain as Luck cited "...the cycle of injury, pain rehab..."

Maybe, just maybe, we sports fans can take sports a little less seriously, and more like they're intended; as a distraction, and something to enjoy for their simple beauty. The competition, and the beauty of the athleticism that they entail, make them unique as human endeavors. The identity we transfer upon them as fans of them, really should be minimized. Taking Sandy Koufax's words of wanting to grow old with the use of both arms into context, it's really all there is to sport. We should lighten up.

But still, fuck Indiana. Bobby Knight, Mike Pence, Notre Dame, and now booing Andrew Luck, yeah fuck Indiana.

More replay........why? Just.......why?

photo; ESPN.com

Big news out of the NFL Owners' Meeting yesterday. Replay is expanding! Yay!! (not really yay). Just another step down a dumb road.

I remember being young, and playing sports. I remember being upset when a called penalty, or missed call, or bad call from a referee/umpire. What I remember mostly is Dad saying "A bad call is part of the game." Now, Dad was also a referee and umpire in my youth league games, so maybe it's a little self protection on his part for when he rung me up on strikes freshman year on a curve ball, that was plainly outside. that he, to this day, says caught the outside corner. Yeah, of the OTHER BATTERS BOX!!! But I digress......

A bad call is part of the game. It happens, and what we've heard time and again before replay was that they get the vast majority of calls right. But, hey we still got instant replay anyway. We have the technology to get it right all the time. Sure, it slows the game a little, but they can get the calls right. The only problem is, they don't, They have always gotten the vast majority of non reviewed calls correct. Let's call it 98%. I'm aware of no studies, but as an avid watcher of sports, my anecdotal number is 98% correct without replay. Now with replay. they STILL BLOW CALLS! It's not 100%. They're still caught up in language, and what constitutes "clear visual evidence" that a call must be reversed. Yet, we watch games, see a call - say a fumble - and on replay we see what should not be called a fumble. Yet the call is not reversed. Time and again, they get it wrong. Let's say they now get it right 99% of the time with replay.

I'm a Packer fan. Packer fans who support replay love to point to the 98 playoffs as a supporting point for instant replay. Jerry Rice fumbled, but the call was incomplete pass, and no fumble. It was plainly a fumble. Packer fans argue that with replay the Packers would have taken over there, and run out the clock to win. There would have been no final play TD pass to Terrell Owens. I say no. I've seen enough bad replay non-corrections. or erroneous upheld calls. to convince me that the officials would have blown that replay too.

Now like I said, a bad call is part of the game. I'm over the 98 playoffs, My point here is to offer the judgment that a 1% marginal improvement is not enough to justify replay review, but now the NFL is going to expand the scope of replay challenge to include judgment calls of pass interference, and coaches can challenge non calls that they think should have been called. This is a terrible idea. We excuse player mistakes on being human; bad pass - no one is perfect; fooled on a pitch and strike out swinging - game of failure. But for officials and umpires it's different. Collectively we call for more, and more replay, and computers calling balls and strikes. Sorry, I disagree. It's not improving the game. It's slowing the pace of play, and the marginal improvement in accuracy isn't enough to justify it. Non fumble calls are made, seen as fumbles on the replay at home, yet still not corrected. Now they're gonna ruin the game even more by throwing pass interference into the mix. Terrible idea. They should be going the other way.

I very rarely bring up freshman year baseball. A bad call is part of the game, and replay hasn't fixed it. It can't