DOME!!!!!!!!

BY MARK HALPERN

     Baseball returns today and most of America is happy that their teams will be kicking off the season today. However, for the New York Mets had to postpone their day to Friday March 28th due to inclement weather. Mets fans and fans in the Northeast have become accustomed to this problem and the chant for a Retractable Dome to be put over Citi Field and potentially every other ballpark.

    In 2021 the Mets fans endured over 10 rainouts and over a dozen rain delays, in 2022 the number increased on both rain developments. When you have games that are rained out the fans have the advantage for getting a rain event ticket for when the game is made up (that’s if they can go) or you just have to eat the final cost. For a team like the Mets who are owned by Billionaire and brilliant businessman Steve Cohen you have to wonder why it hasn’t even been mentioned or even considered.

   Obviously, a Retractable Dome would cost in the hundreds of Millions of Dollars and no matter how much money you have that’s still a swift kick to the gonads. That being said Steve Cohen is in the current process of the complete re-beatification of Flushing Park in Queens New York. He is investing over $2billion dollars to make it a real destination for tourists and athletic attraction. This is all great of course but, the one thing he needs to add is a Retractable roof over Citi Field. It would be an advantageous move for him on a lot of fronts. First with no rainouts the Mets play as predicted and don’t have to make up games from a home standpoint. Obviously if games get rained out when they are on the road there is nothing we can do. Second the fewer double headers that they will have to to play (again on a home field basis) and again taking more stress off players and finally, the Fans won’t have to worry about having to reschedule any of their plans and possibly be put a lot of money because they can’t come back on the rain date. 

   I know this whole idea makes sense and probably would make sense to Steve Cohen as well but when it comes down to Brass Tax the all-mighty Dollar wins all and if the cost is too cost perspective we will have to just endure. This isn’t just a Mets problem, but a problem across Baseball.

Potential Dak Prescott Landing Spots

By Mike Rifkin

Being the Quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys has to be a difficult job. They are always under a certain microscope and compared to legends such as Troy Aikman and Roger Staubach. 

Current Cowboys Quarterback Dak Prescott is entering the final year of his contract, and was carrying almost a 60 million dollar cap hit (the team did restructure part of the deal). But most people believed that Prescott would land a contract extension, after his sensational season where he led the league in touchdowns and was third in yards and leading the Cowboys to the NFC East Division title. But our lasting image of Dak and the Cowboys last year was getting run out of their own building by the Green Bay Packers and Dak was a major reason why despite the numbers the game was over by halftime. Dak’s lack of postseason success puts him under the microscope and with no extension coming the 2024 season for Dak and the Cowboys is Super Bowl or bust. And if it’s bust Dak and head coach Mike McCarthy will be elsewhere. So let’s say the Cowboys bust where will Dak Prescott play football in 2025, well here are some options. 

NEW YORK GIANTS : Let’s start with a bang. If Dak Prescott is under the microscope in 2024, Daniel Jones is under the New Year’s Eve ball. The Giants Quarterback regressed in 2023 prior to injury, but another down year and the Giants will have to make a change. 

MINNESOTA VIKINGS : Now this one might change just based on what the Vikings could potentially do in the draft, but Dak Prescott would certainly be an upgrade over Sam Darnold, who ironically enough was not Sam I am from Green Eggs and Ham. 

DENVER BRONCOS : The Russell Wilson experiment failed pretty quickly. Could the Broncos start Jarrett Stidham for a year and maybe go all in on Dak next offseason? Can Dak and Sean Payton build a similar chemistry to Sean and Drew Brees. 

LAS VEGAS RAIDERS : The Raiders missed out on Kirk Cousins and Russell Wilson and might miss out on one of the top quarterbacks in the draft. Dak Prescott to Davante Adams might have a nice ring to it. 

LOS ANGELES RAMS : This is probably the longest shot of them all, but if Matthew Stafford retires the Rams will have more money off their books. Dak going to a team with Sean Mcvay, Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua could keep the Rams a threat in the NFC. 

NEW ORLEANS SAINTS : While Dak and McCarthy are under pressure in Dallas, so are Derek Carr and Dennis Allen in New Orleans. Would the Saints dump Carr for Dak? Neither one has had playoff success, but if the Saints miss the playoffs again they might just start from scratch instead of going all in on a quarterback again. 

DALLAS COWBOYS : As I said earlier I believe it’s Super Bowl or bust for the Cowboys, but I feel that way most years. But isn’t the devil you know better than the one you don’t know? Yes, Jerry Jones will have to pay Cee Dee Lamb and Micah Parsons, but who is throwing Lamb the ball if Dak’s not there? What options will Jerry Jones have?

Beware Of Gonzaga

By Mike Rifkin

On Saturday the Gonzaga Bulldogs outscored the Kansas Jayhawks 46-24 in the Second half on their way to an 89-68 victory. For Gonzaga this win propels them into the Sweet 16 for the ninth straight season, which is the longest in the country. 

Friday night Gonzaga will play the top seed in the Midwest Region the Purdue Boilermakers. This will be the second meeting of the year between the Boilermakers and Bulldogs. The two teams played in November during the Maui Invitational, Purdue outscored Gonzaga 43-28 on their way to a 10 point victory. 

One of the things people should admire about Gonzaga is that they aren’t in a Power Five conference, yet every year they find themselves competing for a National Championship. Despite not winning a National Championship, Coach Mark Few always has his team battle tested by the time the tournament starts. This season alone Gonzaga’s out of conference schedule included games against San Diego St., UCONN, Kentucky, Washington, and a trip to the Maui Invitational where they played Purdue, Syracuse, and UCLA. Now, while not all these games resulted in wins for the Bulldogs they got them prepared for the tournament run. 

While they haven’t won a Championship everyone should respect the power Gonzaga has turned into. It’s tremendous that a non power five school is as consistent as Gonzaga. In 2020-21 Gonzaga was one game away from having a perfect 32-0 record, but what everyone remembers is that they lost the National Championship to Baylor. 

Gonzaga is one of the best programs in the country, so don’t be surprised if they’re able to defeat Purdue and advance to the Elite Eight. Win or lose everyone should respect the power Gonzaga has become and we need to appreciate the greatness because it is not something we witness all the time. 

Rock Bottom

By Mike Rifkin

On Sunday, the Pittsburgh Penguins blew a 4-0 lead over the Colorado Avalanche and lost 5-4 in overtime. The loss makes the Penguins 2-6-2 over their last ten games, and they sit nine points out of the second wild card spot in the Eastern Conference and 11 points out of third place in the Metropolitan division with 12 games left in the season. 

Last season was the first time the Penguins missed the playoffs for the first time since 2006-07. The organization fired President of Hockey Ops Brian Burke and GM Ron Hextall. Former Leafs GM Kyle Dubas replaced them. Dubas has made two significant moves as the GM. The first was acquiring former Norris Trophy winner Erik Karlsson from the Sharks in the offseason. Karlsson has 46 points in 70 games played and has not helped a power play that has been abysmal this season. The other at the trade deadline was trading away Jake Guentzel to the Carolina Hurricanes. The reaction across social media was underwhelming for Guentzel. I felt the trade deadline was a crossroads for the organization. 

Sidney Crosby, who would be a Hart Trophy candidate if the Penguins were in contention, is having another great season. The organization has promised Crosby to be a Stanley Cup contender as long as he’s around. But something has to change because this team is getting older, and they haven’t won a playoff series since they won the Cup in 2017. 

Here is where things are arduous for Kyle Dubas. 13 players on the roster have at least a modified no-trade clause, and as of now, the Penguins don’t have a first-round pick. ( If the pick is outside the top ten, it belongs to the Sharks) unless the Hurricanes get to the Stanley Cup Final. Having an aging roster and no real big prospects coming will make Dubas’ job very difficult. The most interesting question will be what he does with Head Coach Mike Sullivan? Dubas is going to have some tough decisions to make, but on Sunday the Penguins may have hit rock bottom. 

WHAT IS MONTGOMERY WAITING FOR?

BY MARK HALPERN

    With the MLB season already begun the question is what is the best free agent pitcher Montgomery waiting for? Montgomery could pretty much pick any team that has interest in him but after seeing what clubs spent on pitchers at the beginning of the free agency period could have something to do with it. When you have Aaron Nola getting 7 years 172 million and Sonny Gray 3 year $75million contracts Montgomery was licking his lips. However, like always the ones who wait the longest are going to be the last ones to sign. The market is dropping fast as we have seen players like Blake Snell who was holding out for a big time payday after his Cy Young season but it never arrived. Instead he chose to accept a 2 year deal with SF to just keep pace salary wise. 

    Montgomery needs to see this and see it soon as the league started in Korea this past week and the rest of the MLB begins at the end of next week. Even if he signs now there would be the thinking, he will not even be MLB ready and will need time to ramp up his activities that his price could drop even farther. Montgomery has plenty of teams in contact with him but is rumored to want to go to less than a handful of teams and just because he doesn’t sign by this week doesn’t mean he can’t sign in 2 weeks or wait longer (which makes no sense.)

A TRUE DH

BY MARK HALPERN 

For the better part of the off season and spring training the Mets were really only focused on one player and that was Yamamoto. The Mets organization had come out and said we will not be signing players (that includes extension for the Polar Bear) more than what we need. Well one spot that lacked was the Designated hitter role and with last year’s embarrassment of Daniel Vogelbach the Mets opened the purse a little to welcome a true Designated hitter that fits this team in J.D. Martinez. Martinez had played for the Astros, Tigers, Red Sox (where he spent most of his time and last year with the Dodgers. 

   This is a home run for the organization cause over his life time J.D Martinez has hit for a career .287 with 315 home runs and 1,639 hits and is a feared bat in any line up. This will also help protect Alonso in the lineup a little. 

   The Mets in my opinion now have a solid lineup with speed, power and experience. The Defense around the diamond is good but there is some risk at 3B with Baty/Vientos sharing the time for now. The rotation that’s another whole bag of cats and let’s just celebrate the new Designated Hitter for the Mets.

HART-EMI PANARIN

BY MIKE RIFKIN

In the Rangers 5-2 win over the Boston Bruins, Artemi Panarin recorded a Hat Trick giving him a career high 41 goals and 97 points. Both put Panarin in the top 10 in the NHL. After the 2019-20 season Panarin was named as a Hart Trophy finalist, but ultimately finished third behind Leon Draisaitl and Nathan Mackinnon. But, what about this year for the breadman? Panarin is 31 points ahead of Vincent Trocheck for the team lead, and eight goals ahead of Chris Kreider. 

Now there are certainly other candidates for the Hart. Nathan Mackinnon, Nikita Kucherov, Connor McDavid, Auston Matthews all are in the conversation for the Hart, but only three nominees are chosen. Mackinnon and Kucherov have won a Stanley Cup something Panarin wants. Panarin has 20 points in 30 career playoff games for the Rangers. Last year in a first round exit against the Devils he was limited to two assists, and Panarin took that personally and has played on a mission this season. 

Can the Rangers win a cup? Yes, especially if the this Artemi Panarin shows up in the playoffs, but even with about 15 games left in the season Artemi Panarin should be a Hart Trophy finalist. 

Don’t Poke The Bear

By Mike Rifkin

One of the big headlines entering the 2024 Mets season is the impending free agency of first baseman Pete Alonso. The 29 year old Alonso had 46 home runs and 118 RBI last season. Outside of 2020 Alonso has hit over 30 home runs and drove in more than 90 runs.

Over the weekend Mets owner Steve Cohen spoke to the media and said the team and the star first baseman have yet to engage in extension talks and expects Alonso to hit free agency after the season.  Cohen said “ I think at this point for Pete it’s best for him to go have a great year and not be distracted. I think that’s best for the ballclub. We know how to do this. We did it with Edwin Diaz, we did it with Brandon Nimmo after the season.  We’ll figure it out when we get there.” This goes hand in hand with what new President of Baseball Ops David Stearns has said when it comes to extension talks. Now the fan part of me believes that there have been some behind the scenes discussions about an extension, especially when Alonso arrived at Spring Training and didn’t put a deadline on a possible extension. But then there’s the major question of what if the Mets are nine games out of the last wildcard spot at the trade deadline. Would they move Alonso at that point and hope they’d still have a shot at re-signing him during free agency (thin Aroldis Chapman to Yanks). Or would Alonso not give the Mets the time of day? One thing fans love is when teams are able to keep their homegrown talent, in 2012 the Mets (under different ownership) had a decision whether to keep David Wright or Jose Reyes. Both were fan favorites and as homegrown talent the fans felt differently about them. 

Alonso is tied for fourth in franchise history in home runs with Howard Johnson, only trailing Wright, Mike Piazza and Darryl Strawberry. What’s something those three guys have in common they’ll all have their numbers retired by the organization at some point. Now as fans it’s ok to be afraid that Alonso can leave as a free agent, we have to have faith in an owner that has never allowed us to doubt him before. But for the sake of Steve Cohen and David Stearns I wouldn’t poke the bear or the fan base for that matter.

IS IT TIME FOR A SALARY CAP IN THE MLB?

By Mark Halpern

For years and years many different sports teams are controlled by the use of a salary cap. A salary cap is a total amount a team is allowed to spend on their professional roster. The NFL, NBA and NHL all have salary caps but, the one that doesn’t is Baseball.

   Now you are probably thinking that I am a fan of a lower scale ball club that can’t even win 60 games and doesn’t spend a wooden Nickel on a player. No, I am a die-hard New York Mets fan so my team would be greatly affected but not as affected as some teams like the Dodgers, Yankees and Padres just to name a few. The question becomes how to create a salary cap on a game that has 162 regular season games and then playoffs added on. That’s a lot of time on and off the field playing and whatnot. Its hard to compare and contrast all the leagues that have salary caps and how they managed to keep the needle balanced.  The big difference in Baseball compared to the other sports is that they play 5 out of every 7 days where as the NFL each team is 1 game a week, NBA 2-3 games a week, NHL 2-3 games a week so it’s kind of hard to put a monetary number right now.

  The reason for this article is that we just saw the Los Angeles Dodgers spend $1 billion dollars on just two players. Where do we draw a line in the sand where there are teams not just the dodgers that have spent like this (not eclipsing the billion mark) but coming close. There are top financial teams and then there are teams that are looking to get away from their fan base to start a new era. When I see that teams are able to afford this money (and with no issue) and then the fans that are able to attend are the Rich because to take a family of 4 to a game these days with food travel its over a $500 day and for better than 70% of families in this country can’t afford to attend because of they way tickets have to be priced so that the “Business” end of baseball is never in the red ink because if they were there would be no team.

   I see the need for a salary cap not to control teams spending but finding a way that every demographic can take their family and enjoy a game at the stadium that they are playing. As teams spend more the cost for fans goes through the roof where most people say these days “I’ll watch them on TV.” And that is the trend we are leading up to. IN my humble opinion no fans at the stadium then there will be no team to play there. The number of huge contracts of Guaranteed money is horrendous in the league. However, its not against the rules so you have players who have 8-10 deals over 300 million fully guaranteed and yes, the clubs pay them but, in the end it’s fans $$$$ coming in that keeps them. If a salary cap were to be implemented or even discussed it wouldn’t happen until the next CBA is do and we might not here about it then. You have to begin to think when is enough, enough.

WHY IS DALLAS SO QUIET

BY MARK HALPERN

    During the Jerry Jones era as owner of the Dallas Cowboys keep on trucking, his mouth does more work than his actions. The Cowboys have been rumored and linked to a ton of players and on the biggest day of free agent signings the Cowboys let more players leave then they signed. 

   This offseason the Cowboys have said goodbye to Running Back Tony Pollard and Center Tyler Biadasz and Defensive Lineman Dorrance Armstrong but welcomed Linebacker Eric Kendricks, who backed out of a deal with the 49ers. Jerry Jones time and time again has promised big names to the Cowboys family but, hasn’t really produced it yet. With the biggest rush of Free Agents to be signed one name was not on the list and that was star running back Derrick Henry. Henry was the running back for the Tennessee Titans and has had a great career with 9,502 yards and 97 total touchdowns (90 rush, three rec, four pass)and would vault the Cowboys right up there next to Philly at the top of the NFC East.

  As great as that sounds there is no joy in the Cowboys organization as I am sure they are working out every cap move that has to be made especially with Lamb on his final year and next year Parsons. Right now, the Cowboys are restructuring Dak Prescott’s contract to make room for the two corresponding moves. The Cowboys have invested so much in Prescott that letting him leave would be just bad Business and if one thing Jones is great at is a businessman and needs to find the room to add the power house running back (if that is what they plan to do) and put them in real contention for a shot at the Super Bowl. But knowing what free agents that were out there this begs one question for Jerry, why did you wait so long to do anything?