STACKHOUSE’S 10 THOUGHTS

1 – RUSH WIN AGAIN – The fat lady isn’t singing so the Rush, technically, still had something to play for on Saturday night against Colorado and they came through with a 9-8 win in what was, perhaps, the best game of the season for Mark Matthews as he finished with six points. Goaltender Adam Shute made a surprise start in goal with Eric Penney becoming unavailable and he finished with 23-saves on 31-shots, which doesn’t look good on the stat sheet but Shute made quality saves at key points in the game to help preserve the victory. They still need four teams ahead of them in the standings to lose just about all of their remaining games but if they defeat San Diego this weekend, it does set up the possibility of a ‘win and you are in’ final regular season game at Panther City on April 30th.

2 – USFL – I watched Saturday night but was busy on Sunday so I missed the triple header, but what I saw on Saturday was enough to keep me interested for another week. The tough part is not having a rooting interest.  I find as I get older that if I don’t have a favorite team to follow, I don’t really care about anything else. One thing that was further cemented in my line of thinking when it comes to professional sports is just how incredibly difficult it is to play quarterback. None of the eight starting QBs had eye popping numbers in week one and the four players who played in Saturday night’s Birmingham-New Jersey game were pedestrian, at best, although J’Mar Smith (Stallions) did impress in the latter stages after appearing atrocious in the first half. Philadelphia’s Bryan Scott led all passers with 202 yards, which isn’t an impressive number.

3 – SATTERFIELD – New Jersey’s Randy Satterfield had five receptions for 100 yards and he caught the league’s first TD in the first quarter. Statistically, he’s the top wideout after week one. Satterfield was also signed by the Saskatchewan Roughriders in January 2020 but never suited up or even showed up because of the pandemic and the canceled season. I don’t think we have any way of knowing how these players stack up against CFLers until the USFL completes a full season. There are plenty of skeptics who feel this league won’t make a full season but I believe Fox and NBC are committed to losing their shirts for one year and then re-evaluate.  

4 – USFL CROWD – The crowd was decent on Saturday night at 17,500 and league officials say that actually exceeded expectations. Sunday, however, the place was empty. Which can’t be a surprise based on a number of factors – Easter Sunday, none of the six teams were a ‘home’ team, really bad weather, and a delay of over an hour because of said weather. Nevertheless, the TV ratings indicate over 3.5-million people watched at home, which is considered to be a success.

5 – USFL REVIEWS – The mainstream media, which is notoriously snobby, didn’t give the league two thumbs down although it ridiculed the caliber of play to be that of low level college. My guess is that many ‘Little Man Syndrome’ CFL fans will agree with that assessment but there is no way to make any determination after one week. Personally, the game I watched was exciting and I will watch again. I even liked the hot mics on the coaches during play and the announcers staying quiet during long stretches. It wasn’t as though I was getting more information but I was attracted to the ‘natural sound’. Some of the camera angles I despised and a couple I would say give me another week.

6 – BABY PITCHERS – Los Angeles Dodger Clayton Kershaw was removed from the game last week after throwing 7 perfect innings, robbing him of the opportunity to complete perfection and join a group only 23 other pitchers are a part of. I listened to MLB Network’s Front Office show on Sunday and Jim Bowden, who is a former GM, was a strong proponent of yanking Kershaw because he feels Kershaw is at a high risk of injury if he goes the full 9 and it’s crucial for him to be available in October and therefore he needs to save his bullets.  

7 – BABY PITCHERS II – I, simply, don’t understand this rationale that leaving a pitcher in for a full game guarantees injury. Bowden cited Johan Santana who threw a 134-pitch no hitter in June 2012. He went on to post a horrifying 8.27 ERA over his next ten starts and then never started an MLB game ever again. Fine, but for every Johan Santana I will show you a whole bunch of players like Shane Baz, Casey Mize, John Means, and Tyler Glasnow. All those pitchers were babied and it didn’t save them from hitting the Injured List one bit. In fact, I’ll use the example of Mize who threw less than 70 pitches in every one of his five starts last September and less than 90 in every one of his last fifteen starts dating back to last July. Yet, he’s on the IL with a strained elbow.  

8 – TOMMY JOHN HISTORY – Tommy John Surgery is a type of arm surgery named after the former MLB hurler who was the first to undergo this type of operation back in September 1974. Here’s what a lot of people don’t know about John–he missed the 1975 season and then returned in 1976 at the age of 33 and proceeded to throw 200+ innings a season for the next five years and he pitched until age 46 (1989).  It’s possible not a single pitcher will eclipse 200 innings in 2022. I’m no doctor, obviously, but I wonder if the issue with these pitchers getting hurt isn’t more about the type of pitch thrown and the effort with which it’s thrown coupled with the fact they are babied and never build up enough strength.  Former Expo Steve Rogers once told me he took the mound for every start and assumed he was his own bullpen. He made 393 career starts and went the distance in 129 of them.  He said he made sure to pace himself by using location and mixing speeds so that he could rear back and throw maximum effort in the eighth inning.  Pitchers, today, don’t do that. 

9 – BOWDEN UNAWARE – Bowden completely missed the boat when he fielded a call on Sunday morning from a listener who took him to task for not wanting to promote the game more by encouraging these heroic performances and generating further interest in the sport. Bowden said fans should be interested in the Dodger line-up as a team and scoffed at the notion a perfect game from Kershaw generates further interest.  Bowden claims nobody is going to rush to their television set for the final two innings to see if he can complete the task and while he may be right on that (I don’t think he is) I can tell you that when Orel Hershiser went 59 consecutive innings without allowing an earned run, it generated a ton of interest and people tuned in. So, maybe Kershaw’s next start has a few more eyeballs on the game and even if it’s not Kershaw that keeps them coming back, perhaps something else will. When Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, and Ken Griffey were hitting homers every night launching an assault on Roger Maris’ single season home run record, people were tuning in.  Fans want to see individual heroic performances.

10 – OHTANI – Baseball has Babe Ruth playing in 2022 but his name is Shohei Ohtani. He may be the best power hitter in MLB and, at the same time, the best pitcher. Ohtani is must-watch TV for me and I certainly won’t miss a game in which he pitches and I seldom miss Angels games now at all. He’s a special kind of greatness. Of course, his goofy manager likes to pull him early in games that he throws but I give him credit on offense as he cuts Ohtani loose to steal bases and play the game as hard as he wants. Hopefully as the season progresses we see some more 6-7 inning starts. Offensively, he hit a couple of moonshot home runs on the weekend and has 3 homers in his first eleven games. He takes the mound for the third time on Wednesday at Houston if you want to check him out.

(Mike Stackhouse is a freelance writer/broadcaster. Follow him on Twitter at @Stack1975)