caulfield12

https://sports.yahoo.com/ioc-getting-deserves-not-holding-112500008.html

Just broke the all-time best figure skating score by roughly two points over defending double gold medalist Yuzuru Hanyu. https://www.espn.com/olympics/story/_/id/33256776/olympics-2022-know-russian-figure-skater-kamila-valieva-alleged-positive-drug-test “What happens next? Several factors make this an extremely difficult case, according to Greene. "This is one of the most complicated situations I've seen and I've done these cases for a long time," he said. Valieva and the IOC could come to an agreement in which she willingly accepts a sanction, including a warning, Greene said. If not, the case will go to a panel of the Anti-Doping Division of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which hears urgent cases on-site in Beijing. CAS will likely rule on two questions in Beijing: Whether to strip the Russians of the team medal and whether Valieva can compete in the singles event. But the case is further complicated by Valieva's age. Because she is under 16, she is considered a "protected person." This means that her case does not have to be reported. "If she were a normal minor in a case not involving the Olympics and not the greatest in the world at her sport, it probably would never get announced," Greene said. It also means that she could get a lower sanction. Instead of a four-year ban, Valieva could receive anything from a warning to two years, according to both Jacobs and Greene. What does this mean for the team competition? Here's where it gets even trickier. If the Russians were stripped of their gold medal, Team USA would move up to gold, Japan would receive silver and Canada would win bronze. But, according to Greene, there is a possibility that Valieva could lose her medal, but the other five Russian skaters could keep theirs. ISU rules say that a doping violation committed by a member of a team "in connection with an in-competition test automatically leads to disqualification of the result obtained by the team." However, it is not clear whether Valieva's test was in-competition or not. How does this affect the women's competition? If Valieva were disqualified, Russia would lose its chance to become the first country to sweep the women's figure skating podium. Her teammates Anna Shcherbakova and Alexandra Trusova would become the new medal favorites, while Japan's Kaori Sakamoto and Team USA's Alysa Liu could also be contenders. When will we know? It's hard to say, but Jacobs expects it to be soon. "I would anticipate that this whole thing will move very quickly," he told ESPN. "If it is actually a positive test that impacts medals, which it seems like it is, I would expect CAS will have a result within 24 hours." Both WADA and Valieva can appeal CAS decisions. Valieva could be allowed to compete at the Olympics and receive a sanction later on appeal. "Anything that happens at the Olympics won't necessarily be a final decision," said Greene.” "Miracles can be simply right in front of us, and what Kamila Valieva did is a true miracle. I can explain why this is a miracle. It is a miracle because after she completed her program she won hearts of the whole world," Maria Zakharova said. "This is phenomenal. We see again, in front of our eyes this clash of good and evil and the desire of evil to make the amount of good as little as possible, so that good would lose its power." Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Need fans/truckers to blockade all the MLB owners’ homes, lol…only 25% serious.

Have seen all the Best Pic nominations but Belfast and Coda. Still can’t believe Don’t Look Up! made it, unless they simply wanted star power for possible awards ceremony in person. Also watching: Moonfall….surprisingly not terrible in a way only Emmerich can pull off The Worst Person in the World 3.5/4 (Foreign language nominee) A Hero 3.5/4 Should have been nominated, but Iranian director already has two Oscars Anyone seen Jackass Forever? Have to watch that, reviews nearly all positive…you know what you’re getting, like a trip to McDonald’s or Subway (well, except for Greg775 in Lawrence.)

Irrational exuberance from GreenSox! Next he’ll be recommending crypto and NFT plays.

The WADA code treats Protected Persons “differently than other Athletes in certain circumstances based on the understanding that, below a certain age or intellectual capacity [they] may not possess the mental capacity to understand and appreciate the prohibitions against conduct contained in the Code.” In other words, the code protects young athletes who may have been too naive or unaware that they took a banned substance. As such, the penalty could be lower than disqualification. There is much that is subjective about that decision — hence the legal battle — but it is possible that even if Valieva tested positive for a banned substance she could maintain her eligibility and just be reprimanded. That would mean that not only would the Russians keep the gold medal won in the team event (the United States took silver) but Valieva could even remain eligible to compete next week in the individual competition. We'll see. A ruling should come soon. However, anything that merely reprimands any Russian would be an insult to logic. Any country throwing PED-charges around is doing it from a glass house, but Russia has taken things to entirely different levels. https://sports.yahoo.com/russia-at-center-of-another-olympic-doping-controversy-165809029.html Dan Wetzel with the best writing on this so far…with China, Russia and the IOC in the middle of yet another huge controversy. Talk about an ethical quandary here.

They’re going to have no way out this, as it wasn’t declared she was taking it for a heart condition or anything related to Covid. “Only a med student but this is a very odd drug for a 15 year old to be taking for actual legitimate health reasons. The drug treats angina which essentially only occurs when your oxygen delivery can’t keep up with demand which will almost always occur in patients with a history of coronary artery disease. Someone at her age and physical ability definitely does not have angina or coronary disease. The only thing I could think of this drug potentially doing is increasing coronary artery blood flow which may potentially improve her overall cardiovascular endurance and help her get through a program. However, there aren’t any studies that demonstrate this being true and honestly am not sure why the Russians would even risk it. The drug may at best have marginal benefits but maybe the Russians know something everyone else doesn’t.” “Minors under 16 are treated differently by WADA. Hopefully she doesn't get banned but the adults surrounding her do.“ reddit boards Also, if Nathan Chen holds on for gold against the Japanese, the US would pretty much be in a dead heat with Norway and Germany for points if you count golds as 3, silvers as 2 and bronze at 3. Pretty decent considering the perception is a disappointing performance because of Schiffrin (mostly). That’s also assuming the US gets the gold medal for team figure skating. Of course, it’s also going to open up the ladies’ figure skating singles to anyone winning next week.

We shall see. They’re taking days and days to decide what to do. We’re talking a 15 year old getting glowing accolades from American sports writers as already the GOAT in her sport. To Russians, this and ice hockey are the sacred sports, along with gymnastics. Nothing will shock. looks like Chloe Kim is restoring a sense of normalcy to these games unless someone really steps up the next couple of minutes…almost landed a 1260 just for the challenge of it, couldn’t quite hold the landing

https://www.espn.com/olympics/story/_/id/33254263/russian-figure-skater-kamila-valieva-tested-positive-banned-drug-according-reports The Olympics just got even more political. If they disqualify her, Putin just might be crazy enough to threaten war with Ukraine and his new buddy buddy relationship with Xi Jinping will quickly be tested. If they let it slide due to her age and no clear performance-enhancing effect (from a sample taken two months) ago…no matter what, the Americans or Russians will be complaining big-time, especially someone like Vincent Zhou knocked out of performing due to those inconsistent/supposedly stricter Covid tests here in China.

Wil Cordero comes to mind here as well.

Including a teenage girl online…pretty sure she was under 18, would have to check it. That wasn’t sexually related if I recall correctly, but more based on Bauer’s internet persona.

It’s a disaster for Russia if it’s Valieva at only age 15. But then one has to wonder about all these quads when someone like Karen Chen seems like she’s skating a decade ago in comparison. That said, they’re eight to ten deep behind her. The Gold medalist in Alina Galitova from 2018 that did like seven triples the last two minutes of her routine is still only 19. I guess things would even be worse in Kazahkstan with a coup almost taking place. Many are now suggesting a permanent Greek/European home that’s got different countries or regions for different sports … more decentralized and neutral. Then again, almost every winter host site going back decades will be unable to sustain natural snow by the year 2050 or something like that. Also glad psychological issues getting more attention with Biles, Schiffrin, Vincent Zhou, etc.

With limited fans, and partisans of one country…just not the same feeling at all.

Here in China, it's simply Eileen Gu 24/7. She has 26 and counting sponsorship deals, climbing into the mid $30 million range and counting before starting freshman year at Stanford. Then you have Kamila Valieva, arguably the greatest skater of all time for women at age 15, out doing the program of the 2010 US men's gold medal program in difficulty. Like Serena Williams beating Federer at Wimbledon, crazy. The days of Hamill, Fleming, Lipinski, Yamaguchi, Kerrigan and Witt are long gone...quads are in. The Russians are simply running laps around the field, like South Korean female golfers. Nathan Chen and Chloe Kim are off to promising starts, but Mikaela Schiffrin just wiped out a second time and Red Gerrard and Jamie Anderson failed to medal, and the US women's Hockey team lost to Canada while out shooting them 2-1. Is this the nadir of American Olympic sports, or just an anomaly...that will be sorted out in France, Italy and LA the next three Olympics?

The Dodgers have the biggest payroll and best farm system. They can send a financial subsidy and talent to get rid of him if they really want to.

Doesn't speak well about health of game for fans when this is all there is to discuss 1/3rd of way into February.

https://fansided.com/2022/02/08/trevor-bauer-news-dodgers-future/ Seems more a case where her credibility has been seriously wounded...but normally civil follows criminal, yes? That said, feels like more a case of settling outside of court, although knowing Bauer he might refuse in an effort to be "somewhat vindicated" but who knows in the end. Ofc the Dodgers still have decisions to make on Kershaw and others...pretty hard to imagine Bauer returning there.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/33246056/source-los-angeles-dodgers-trevor-bauer-face-criminal-charges-stemming-allegations-sexual-assault Seems he is still likely to face civil court as well as the delayed MLB investigation…but hard to imagine this will keep him out of MLB forever, despite some early conclusion reaching on social media that he would be put away in jail for at least 5-7 years.

Bill Veeck, one supposes…

Things would look quite a bit different had Rodon stayed…which I guess is not still completely out of the realm of possibility. But Rodon and Madrigal are two Top 5 picks without much of anything to show for right now. That would hurt any organization, but especially one as thin as we are depth-wise (except at 1B/DH, of course.)

The White Sox right now are in the Top 6-8 for broadcast revenue per game...despite the tepid ratings over most of the last deca de. Plus they can renegotiate again after 2023 or 24 (current/newest deal is just five years), which should be only helped by another two years in the postseason. And that just goes to show how dominant the NFL is with their t.v. revenues, with the Chiefs and Browns doing very well for themselves, and the Vikings as well. Detroit is the only metro area that's struggling relatively, and the Lions have been about the equivalent of the Bengals the last thirty years.

This sounds familiar. The Sox and Bears have about the same amount of postseason success, slight advantage to the Bears the last 40 years or so.

Sinclair, by the way, has 21 of these RSN’s/RUNs now… FBally Sports Arizona; Bally Sports Detroit; Bally Sports Florida; Bally Sports Great Lakes; Bally Sports Kansas City; Bally Sports Indiana; Bally Sports Midwest; Bally Sports New Orleans; Bally Sports North; Bally Sports Ohio; Bally Sports Oklahoma; Bally Sports San Diego; Bally Sports SoCal; Bally Sports South; Bally Sports Southeast; Bally Sports Southwest; Bally Sports Sun; Bally Sports West; and, Bally Sports Wisconsin; Marquee and YES. The Bally RSNs serve as the TV home to more than half of all MLB, NHL and NBA teams based in the United States. The Bally RSNs also produce over 4,600 live local professional telecasts each year in addition to a wide variety of locally produced sports events and programs.

The failure of Sinclair to reach an agreement with YouTube TV on carriage fees illustrates that time is running out for RSNs under the current model. Unless, of course, consumers are willing to shell out $26+ a month for an RSN direct-to-consumer service. Operators are dropping Sinclair RSNs “YouTube TV’s decision to drop Sinclair’s RSNs is just the latest in a string of fights between sports rights owners and service providers. Last August, Altitude Sports was dropped by DirecTV, Comcast, and Dish, and only DirecTV restored the channels. fuboTV dropped Sinclair’s RSNs at the beginning of the year, and Comcast says it likely won’t renew them when the license expires in September. Sinclair’s Fox Regional Sports Networks and the YES Network all vanished from YouTube TV on February 29th. The loss of fuboTV and possibly Comcast customers deals a severe blow to Sinclair. The company paid Disney $9.6 billion for the Fox RSN’s last August, and with operators dropping the channels left and right, the investment is looking ever riskier. Rich Greenfield, a Lightshed analyst, thinks the way forward for the RSNs is in an a la carte model, where customers pay individually for only the RSNs they want. So, if the future of RSNs is a direct subscription – either through pay TV operators or direct-to-consumer online – how much will Sinclair and other RSN owners need to charge to keep the same amount of revenue?” https://nscreenmedia.com/rsn-direct-to-consumer-service/ Basically amounts to $26/month, on average. 29% would definitely or probably change, 34% undecided and 37% definitely or probably not. Guess that would be almost dead even as your favorite team’s season was starting and those against in polls tend to waver.

You forgot Cuban signings….and until about 3-4 years ago, the overall health of the major league roster.