keviniole - Tumblr blog

[keviniole]

Talk about a story of perseverance! This guy was shot in the league, doctors told him he wouldn’t fight again and guess what? He’s fighting on Saturday!

[keviniole]

Terence was very candid and open in this interview

[keviniole]

From rooting for a Willie Mays trade to Bob Nutting: A Pirates’ fan’s emotional journey ends

In 1969, the Pittsburgh Pirates had the rough outlines of the team that would win the National League East title in 1970, 1971 and 1972 and the World Series in 1971.

Hall of Famers on the corner in the outfield, Willie Stargell in left and Roberto Clemente in right. Manny Sanguillen was the catcher. Richie Hebner was at third, Al Oliver at first. Steve Blass, who would pitch the clincher in Game 7 of the 1971 World Series in Baltimore, led the team with 16 wins.

It was a good team that was getting better. Its farm system was loaded and bringing more talent to the majors than the Pirates could possibly use. 

The 9-year-old me -- I turned 10 in October that year during the Mets’ improbable run to the World Series championship  -- dreamed about the Pirates’ winning it all again.

I was baseball-crazy and used to think that if the Pirates could just trade with the Giants to get Willie Mays, we really might just win it all.

Of course, the Pirates won the World Series in 1971 without having to trade for Mays. The Giants didn’t want to trade him in 1969, no matter how much a 9-year-old altar boy would pray every Sunday that summer that they would.

I thought about 1969 on Monday, when the Giants and Pirates did swing a trade for a star center fielder. The Pirates continued their salary dump when they traded Andrew McCutchen to the Giants for two prospects. McCutchen was the 2013 MVP and finished in the top five in NL MVP voting in 2012, 2014 and 2015. Plus, he’s as classy as they come and never complained despite signing an under-valued contract to stay in Pittsburgh.

The McCutchen trade was difficult to swallow for a lifelong Pirates fan, for a guy who as a kid fell asleep with the transistor radio on the pillow listening to Bob Prince, Nellie King and Jim Woods.

This was a team that in 2015 won 98 games and responded by signing Ryan Vogelsong and John Jaso, trading Neil Walker for Jon Niese and Antonio Bastardo and doing next-to-nothing else.

They went from 98 wins to 78. It got worse in 2017, as the team did little again to improve itself and the win total dropped from 78 to 75.

With the trade of Gerrit Cole to the Astros on Saturday and McCutchen to the Giants on Monday, and the likely trades of Josh Harrison and Francisco Cervelli soon, the Pirates look to be a 65-win team in 2018.

I’d be OK with blowing it up if I were convinced they were all in on winning. They give voice to it, but that’s all it is. It’s talk. When I covered minor league baseball many years ago, the owner of the team told me the ideal outcome in his opinion was to get to the finals and lose in the maximum number of games.

When I asked him why, he said that guaranteed them as many home dates as possible, generating the most income, but by losing in the championship, he wouldn’t have to pay for rings.

It’s difficult not to think that Bob Nutting, the Pirates’ penny-pinching owner, thinks along the same lines.

If the Pirates’ ownership and management team were all-in, no way would they have done what they did in the offseason prior to the 2016 season. They ripped apart a 98-win 2015 team that was more than good enough to win the World Series and they turned themselves into also-rans.

I’m no expert on other teams’ minor league systems and I know McCutchen is no longer the defensive player he once was. But the “haul” they got for him is quite unremarkable. As were the players they got for Cole and likely as will the player(s) they get when they get around to trading Harrison.

I don’t expect my favorite teams to win the championship every year, or even to contend. But I expect the ownership and management of the team to making winning a priority and to put significant resources toward that end when a championship is feasible.

The Pittsburgh Steelers do that.

The Pittsburgh Penguins do that.

The Pittsburgh Pirates most assuredly do not.

And so, along with the news of the trades of Cole and McCutchen and the impending deals to come, there is also this news:

I am done with the Pirates. I’m done giving my heart to a franchise that is not committed to excellence, which builds through the Rule V draft, and which doesn’t even have the highest scouting and development budget in baseball despite all of its talk about windows of opportunities.

Somebody needs to tell Neal Huntington that 2013 is five years ago, and that the Pirates didn’t win the division that year. They didn’t win the pennant that year. They didn’t win the World Series. 

Today is my last full day as a Pirates fan. It’s going to be hard to wean myself off of it. 

I was a year old and a few days when Mazeroski hit the home run in the ninth inning of Game 7 to beat the Yankees and win the World Series in 1960.

I was 12 when they won the World Series in 1971 on the back of an amazing postseason performance by Clemente.

And as an adult in 2013, I got chills watching the crowd at PNC Park roaring so loudly during the wild card game against the Reds that it shook up a classy veteran like Johnny Cueto.

I’ve loved this team with all my heart for all my life.

No more.

I love baseball. It’s a great game and I won’t give up on it.

It’s the Pittsburgh Pirates I’m done with.

[keviniole]

iPhone X: Great for everything else, but speaking on the phone?

I was one of the crazy people who stayed up late on Oct. 29 to order the iPhone X. I ordered a black 256 GB phone that I paid for up front and it came on Nov. 14.

It’s been outstanding in most respects, except for one that I’ll get to in a moment.

The FaceID is the big feature on this and it is simply outstanding. It works fast, easily and almost instantly. It even works in the middle of the night in pitch black. Really. On the second night I had it, I forgot to set the alarm in the house when I went to bed.

I was laying there and realized I’d forgotten it. I have the ADT app on my phone, so instead of getting out of bed, I decided to use it. It was pitch black in our bedroom, but I grabbed the phone and held it toward my face. Instantly, it unlocked and the screen brightened, and I was able to find and then set the alarm.

I’ve never had the FaceID fail, in any situation. I was at The Forum Shops in Las Vegas last night and there was a vending machine that used Apple Pay. I bought a Diet Dr. Pepper. All I had to do was push the side button twice while looking at the phone, and then tap gently on the icon. Easily, I paid for and received my drink.

The camera is the best smart phone camera I’ve ever seen. I haven’t run tests; I’ve just taken pictures, in all sorts of lights, and then compared them using my eyes. They’re richer, sharper and far better than I have seen from any phone.

The iPhone X has an OLED screen and it’s gorgeous. The colors are accurate and there are few flaws. The screen is just brighter, and better, than others I’ve seen.

Without a home button, I was worried about learning new navigation, but it comes very naturally and literally within minutes, I was navigating the phone as if I’d had it a long time.

Battery life has been incredible. Prior to the iPhone X, I was using an iPhone 6S Plus. I am a season ticket holder for the Vegas Golden Knights NHL team and I’ll use the phone throughout the game, posting to Twitter and Facebook and taking pictures, as well as checking news during breaks.

With the iPhone 6S Plus, I was down to 10 percent or less better by the third period, even though I started with the phone charged at 100 percent. At the game in Las Vegas on Sunday, I used my iPhone X the same way I’ve described above. I shot about 30 or so photos. I tweeted. I posted to Facebook. I read news. Late in the third period, I checked and my battery was 83 percent.

I’ve found the battery is very good and is probably the best of any iPhone I’ve used. Also, it uses Qi charging and I have a Qi charger in my car. That works flawlessly and the phone charges even with a case on the phone. I had been told the Qi charging was slower than using a cable, but if it is, it’s minimally slower, so it is a nice feature.

My complaint about the iPhone X is about using it as, well, a phone. I haven’t had a problem with coverage in my home and I have other phones that work well. I don’t think it’s a signal issue. But on my iPhone X, I can hear the callers perfectly, but people I’m speaking to complain they can’t hear me unless I put the phone on speaker and then they can hear.

I called AT&T, and they just told me to turn on WiFi calling, which did nothing to help the situation. I went to the AT&T store, and they reset all network settings and restarted the phone. That didn’t help.

I called AppleCare and as it turned out, that day, there was an update to iOS 11.1.2 that had come out. He said it would fix the problem. It did not, so last night, I went to the Apple Store to have it checked.

The tech ran hardware tests on the phone and it passed all of them. He then called me from his phone and we spoke and it was clear. He could hear me. Then, he gave me his phone and he took mine, and we did another call. Again, it was fine.

So that probably isolates the issue to my house, though I have a Verizon phone and AT&T phone here which work well. We have an iPhone 8 Plus in the house on the same network as my iPhone X and it has no problem in this regard.

This may be unique to me and my iPhone X, but it’s troubling as my phone is a big part of how I do my job. I can use the phone on speaker and people hear me fine, but it’s not always practical to do that. I spoke to an AT&T customer service rep on the phone and he suggested I go to the store and ask for a MicroCell. We’ll see how that goes.

Other than that issue, the phone is awesome. It more than lives up to the hype. I think it’s an outstanding phone and I have no hesitation in recommending it fully.

[keviniole]

Please, politicize the Las Vegas concert murders so action is taken to prevent reoccurrence

After 59 people died, more than 500 were injured and countless lives changed for the worse forever, Mitch McConnell, the dour and humorless Senate majority leader from Kentucky, found himself responding to calls from Democrats demanding stricter gun laws in the wake of the tragic shooting Sunday at the Route 91 Harvest Festival concert in Las Vegas. 

I’ve lived in Las Vegas for a long time and this is a wonderful city with compassionate, caring people. The folks here are also resilient and have a can-do attitude. The healing process, just more than 72 hours after the tragic events, has begun. 

Las Vegans will move forward and be stronger, because that’s what we do. Overcoming is what #VegasStrong is all about.

McConnell, though, has shown he doesn’t care a bit about the senseless sacrifice of human life that took place. When he was asked about the Democrats’ call for stricter gun laws, he accused them of “politicizing” the shootings.

Come again?

That is the most bogus answer he could possibly have given, and it was code for, ‘We’re going to do nothing, and I as the leader of the Senate will make certain of it, because the NRA will go nuts. I can’t say that publicly now, though, because it will look like I don’t care, so I’ll just redirect the conversation.’ 

Sadly, many citizens are brainwashed into using that phrase whenever a tragedy occurs. In this case, pro-gun rights advocates will accuse those seeking stricter measures of politicizing an event if there is a tragic shooting and people are looking to prevent similar ones.

I am not a gun owner nor will I ever be one. But I don’t support repealing the Second Amendment or putting draconian laws in place that will take the rights away from those who do choose to own them.

This notion of politicizing the shooting is pure misdirection. By calling for reform, we’re looking to honor the dead and make sure they didn’t die in vain by preventing another tragedy.

Surely there is something which can be done that will respect the constitutional rights of gun owners while also lessening these mass murders that the U.S. is becoming all too well known for.

Clearly, mental health care has to be a priority in the U.S., but funding (Thanks to McConnell & Friends) has been dramatically decreased. That has to change -- we have a serious mental health crisis in this country and we need to do something to fix it. Solving the issue will not only benefit the ill individuals and their families, but also society at large.

Beyond that, however, what need does a private citizen have to have silencers on their guns, or have a bump stock to turn a semi-automatic into an automatic or armor-piercing bullets? There is no need.

As we grieve for the victims, both those who lost their lives and those who have survived, let’s try to honor them by doing something -- anything -- to make these mass murders like the Route 91 Harvest Festival concert in Las Vegas, or the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando or the awful slaughter of the precious children at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., a thing of the past.

Anything is better than nothing.

[keviniole]

Who absorbed the largest loss on Ward kovalev 2?

Roc Nation, for sure. They guaranteed Ward $6.5 million, and the PPV revenues and the paid gate didn’t even cover that, let alone all the card’s other expenses. They lost millions on the show.

[keviniole]

Reveling in someone else’s misfortune

Anyone who knows me knows I’m no fan of Tiger Woods.

But I must admit, it disturbed me a great deal to see the pleasure so many took in his DUI arrest on Monday. There were people literally celebrating on the internet over the man’s problem. It turns out he had a 0.0 blood/alcohol content and said in a statement his issue was a reaction to medication.

This is a part of human nature I’ll never get. This is not like being a Yankees’ fan and being happy the Red Sox lost. This is a much more personal, and nastier, reaction.

What is wrong with our society that we so openly celebrate things like this? 

I don’t profess to know Woods and, as I said, I’m not a fan. Still, isn’t there room for human empathy for what the man is going through?

[keviniole]

This is an interview with Dana White I shot on May 18, 2017, at the UFC Performance Institute in which he speaks about the potential Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor fight.

[keviniole]

Senate history proves the seat was stolen, but Judge Gorsuch deserves confirmation

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was interviewed by Chuck Todd on “Meet the Press” on Sunday and he said the following:

“The tradition had been not to confirm vacancies created in the middle of a presidential (election) year. You’d have to go back 80 years to find the last time that happened.”

That’s true, sort of. Prior to 2016, the last time there was a vacancy and a nomination in a presidential election year was in 1940, when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt nominated Frank Murphy on Jan. 4, 1940. The presidential election was 10 months and a day later, on Nov. 5, 1940. Murphy was confirmed and became an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 16, 1940.

On March 16, 2016, President Barack Obama nominated Merrick Garland to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia. Obama made the nomination seven months and 23 days before the election.

Sen. McConnell refused to hold a vote on Garland, and when Obama’s term expired, President Donald J. Trump nominated Judge Neil Gorsuch.

Despite complaints from Democrats, Gorsuch is expected to be confirmed this week.

There is little question that McConnell flat stole the seat. The Senate’s history shows quite the opposite of what McConnell said on “Meet the Press.”

Since the 20th century, there have been presidential elections held in 1900, 1904, 1908, 1912, 1916, 1920, 1924, 1928, 1932, 1936, 1940, 1944, 1948, 1952, 1956, 1960, 1964, 1968, 1972, 1976,  1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016.There were Supreme Court openings in 1912, 1916 (two), 1932 and 1940. In each case, a nomination was made by the President and the nominee was confirmed by the Senate despite it being a presidential election year.

That is the tradition that Sen. McConnell so smugly speaks about.

The American people, when they elect the president, understand that he/she has the power to nominate someone to the Supreme Court in case of a vacancy. That’s what President Obama did.

If Sen. McConnell was so big on tradition and not being disingenuous and playing politics, he would have allowed Judge Garland’s nomination to come to a vote.

It didn’t, and President Trump nominated Judge Gorsuch to fill that seat. The Democrats are threatening a filibuster to try to torpedo Gorsuch’s nomination.

From a political standpoint, I am vehemently opposed to Judge Gorsuch. I think he’ll be harmful to the country with many of his rulings and we will lose many rights we now have with some of the decisions he’ll make.

But in my view, he meets the qualifications to be on the U.S. Supreme Court and, barring any last-minute revelations that would disqualify him, he should be confirmed.

The problem with today’s climate, though, is that everything is politicized. If it is a Republican President’s nominee, conservatives pound their chests and argue that it’s the president choice to appoint who he/she wants to the high court. The same is true, of course, when it’s a Democratic President making the nomination and liberals come out.

We have to get away from this liberal versus conservative thing and instead focus on what is right for the country and following the rules.

Sen. McConnell stole the seat from Judge Garland, and now Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer is leading an attempt by Democrats to steal the seat from Judge Gorsuch.

Even though I despise his politics and would have far rather have seen Judge Garland on the high court, Judge Gorsuch meets the qualifications to be a Supreme Court justice and thus in my mind deserves to be confirmed.

We have to get through this partisan bickering where doing the right thing is ignored in favor of supporting our chosen team.

We should demand that our legislators do what is in OUR best interest, not in the interest of any political party or a small group of influential donors.

We allowed Sen. McConnell to steal a Supreme Court nominee for purely political reasons. His argument was nonsense and not supported by history, and he knows it. He was able to do it because there was little outrage among Republicans. That’s a dangerous road to travel.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) was discussing the Russian hacking of the Clinton campaigns emails when he said in a statement, “Further, I want to warn my fellow Republicans who may want to capitalize politically on these leaks: Today it is the Democrats. Tomorrow it could be us."

In politics, as in life, what goes around comes around. When a politician does something so clearly unfair, we need to be outraged, regardless of his/her political affiliation.

As much as I oppose and disagree with President Trump politically, the constitution gives him the right to nominate a person he believes is best suited to sit on the Supreme Court. Gorsuch meets those qualifications.

[keviniole]

The G.O.A.T. in the sports I like (or sort of like)

All the talk of Tom Brady being the greatest quarterback ever got me to thinking about the greatest in each of the sports I follow either religiously or casually. And so I’ve decided to do this list of my picks of the greatest of all time in those sports. In sports where there are defined offensive and defensive players, I’ll pick those. And in cases where I think it’s close, I’ll pick two (or three).

I chose them thusly: If everyone was in their primes and I were starting a franchise or in an individual sport picking the player to have the best year, who would it be? Who would most contribute to aiding the cause of winning?

Longevity is a factor, which is why I ruled out Sandy Koufax when picking a baseball pitcher.

Anywhere, these are my picks and I’d love to hear who you’d pick in the various sports. I don’t like soccer or auto racing, so no picks there.

Here goes:

BASEBALL 

Position player: Babe Ruth

Pitcher: Walter Johnson

BASKETBALL

Michael Jordan

BOXING

Sugar Ray Robinson

FOOTBALL

Offense: Tom Brady

Defense: Lawrence Taylor

GOLF

Jack Nicklaus

HOCKEY

Forwards: Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux and Gordie Howe

Defenseman: Bobby Orr

Goalie: Patrick Roy

HORSE RACING

Horse: Secretariat

Jockey: Laffit Pincay

MMA

Jon Jones

OLYMPICS

Men’s summer: Michael Phelps, Carl Lewis

Women’s summer: Simone Biles

Men’s winter: Bjorn Daehlie

Women’s winter: Sonja Henie

TENNIS

Male: Roger Federer

Female: Serena Williams

COACH (Any sport)

(Alphabetically): Red Auerbach, Bill Belichick, Scottie Bowman, Eddie Futch, John Wooden. 

[keviniole]

The XFL could have succeeded under slightly different circumstances

I watched ESPN’s 30 for 30 on the XFL on Thursday and enjoyed it, though I have to admit it wasn’t as good as I had hoped it might be.

I covered the XFL while working for a Las Vegas newspaper in 2001 and I had a great time with it. I had a good working relationship with Vince McMahon and Basil DiVito of the WWE and I really enjoyed the players and coaches of the Las Vegas Outlaws.

From the moment the league was announced and I was assigned to cover it, I treated it like football. And I’ll be honest: I think it could have worked, and would probably still be around today, if it were about football.

The 30 for 30 focused way too much, and too negatively, on the quality of play. No, it wasn’t the NFL, and it never was going to be the NFL. And the play was poor at the start, largely because of how quickly the teams were thrown together and began play.

But there was a lot of individual talent in the league. There were solid players in the league, and the quality of play would only have gone up in subsequent years had the league started differently.

In the end, it was too much football for WWE fans and too much WWE for football fans, and so it was a hit with neither.

I covered the Las Vegas Outlaws -- And yes, I got to know Rod ‘He Hate Me’ Smart -- and saw first-hand the avid crowd support the team had.

Let’s be honest here: It was a minor league and never was destined to be anything more than that, but in the season it played, with interest in football as strong as it is in this country, it would have gained traction.

It would eventually have served as a developmental league for the NFL.

There were many decent players in the league who went on to play in the NFL and a few, including Smart, played in the Super Bowl.

The ratings for the Las Vegas-New York opener were unsustainably high, and were bound to come down. But if it had been football promoted as football, the drop wouldn’t have been precipitous.

NBC’s Bob Costas was elitist toward it and acted as if he were too good to be around it. That attitude held sway with many fans, who had come to trust Costas on the broadcasts of major sporting events around the world.

Costas told the fans it was junk football and the fans believed him. 

It’s too bad, because it was a lot of fun, and the XFL pioneered innovations that are in use today.

I, for one, wish there had been a Season 2 of the XFL. Even the way the first year went after the opening weekend, it could have succeeded with the right tweaks.

[keviniole]

A lifelong NFL fan’s passion for the game died on Christmas Day 2015

Since Christmas Day 2015, watching the NFL hasn’t had the same enjoyment, the same passion and the same joy that it had for me for the previous 50 years.

I went that day to see the movie, “Concussion,” with my wife, and my interest in the NFL was forever altered.

Oh, I remained a Steelers’ fan through it all. I wanted them to win, because I’d become a fan of the team growing up in Pittsburgh. I remember going with my father to Steelers games at Pitt Stadium, long before Three Rivers Stadium opened in 1970.

i remember being at Pitt Stadium on Sept. 26, 1967, when Jim Bakken of the St. Louis Cardinals kicked seven field goals in a game to set what at that time was an NFL record for most field goals in a game.

I lived and died with the Steelers for as long as I can remember. When the Steelers played the Oakland Raiders in 1972 in a playoff game which came to be known as “The Immaculate Reception,” my father and I listened to it together on a transistor radio at home.

NFL teams did not broadcast home games in those days, and since we didn’t go to the game, the only way for us to follow it was to listen to Jack Fleming broadcast it on WTAE. With the score 7-6 Oakland in the waning seconds, Franco Harris caught a deflected pass on the Steelers’ final play and ran in for the game-winning touchdown.

As Fleming roared, my Dad and I embraced and jumped up and down in celebration. Our china cabinet behind us was rocking and we were lucky it didn’t fall over. My Mom sure wasn’t happy, but but Dad and I were ecstatic that the Steelers won.

I’ve had a great passion for the Steelers throughout my life.

And while I still root for them, it’s hard for me to get too fired up about pro football any more. And that brings me back to Concussion.

I knew most of the facts that were in the movie, but to see the NFL keep information about the dangers of head blows and concussions from the players blew me away. Seeing the dramatization brought it all home for me.

I canceled my NFL Sunday Ticket package for the 2016 season (and I still haven’t renewed it), and I didn’t watch any games at all in the first 12 weeks or so of the season.

I gradually got back into it and over the last part of the season, I watched the Steelers games that were national and that I could see without paying extra for. I’d had the NFL Sunday Ticket package from the day it was made available and now here I was, either not watching at all or only watching when it was free to me.

Some of you may be thinking that I’m a hypocrite since I cover fighting and that fighters get blows to the head all the time. And if you feel that way, I accept it and I’m not going to attempt to change your mind.

The distinction to me is, fighters have always known of the risks, and information was put forward about the dangers often. That’s why there has been so much debate about head gear and different types of gloves and the brain tests and what not that a fighter must go through.

Fighting is dangerous, and I have been at ringside for seven fighter deaths (all in boxing). No one went blindly into it.

One fighter death that sticks with me more than the rest is the 2005 death of Martin Sanchez. Martin died as a result of head injuries he suffered in a July 1, 2005, fight with Rustam Nugaev at The Orleans Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.

I was seated against the ring apron, in Sanchez’s corner, next to my good friend, Las Vegas radio legend Dave Cokin. I was covering the bout for the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Nugaev was winning a hard-fought bout, but there was nothing about it that suggested a tragedy would unfold.

In the ninth round, they were in the corner fighting across the ring from Dave and I. Nugaev landed a right hand and Sanchez staggered back for a couple of steps, before going down. He rolled under the bottom rope, and Dave and I caught him and kept him from crashing to the floor.

Sanchez rolled back under the ropes, then got to one knee as referee Kenny Bayless tolled the 10-count. It was clear Sanchez had had enough and he was looking directly at Bayless as the referee counted. When he said 10, Sanchez immediately got to his feet.

As Sanchez was leaving the ring, he turned and pointed at Dave and I to thank us for catching him and preventing him from hitting the floor. As he was on the steps on the way down from the ring, ring announcer Joe Martinez urged the crowd to give Sanchez a hand. Martin blew kisses to the crowd as he walked to the dressing room under his own power.

I wrote my story and left but, unbeknownst to me, Sanchez suffered a subdural hematoma in the locker room. He was rushed to a local hospital for emergency surgery, but didn’t make it.

I learned about it the next morning, when I was out to a local restaurant for breakfast with my wife, Betsy. Publicist John Beyrooty called to tell me that Sanchez had died and, naturally, I was in complete shock.

That was the first of two boxing deaths in Nevada in three months. In September, I was ringside at the MGM Grand when Leavander Johnson suffered injuries in a fight with Jesus Chavez that he would die from a few days later. I was at the hospital on Sunday morning as Johnson’s father, Bill, was waiting helplessly, and I witnessed Jesus Chavez show up to check on Leavander. Seeing Jesus and Bill embrace was one of the most emotional moments of my life.

I wrote a series of articles about making boxing safer and the Nevada Athletic Commission, in moves designed to improve boxer safety, adopted many of my suggestions.

So I know -- and the fighters know -- the bad things that could happen in the ring.

Until the concussion research started to become public, though, football players didn’t know the danger they faced. Oh, they were well aware of the joint pain that they’d face, but they had no clue about brain injuries. And when the NFL learned about it, they hid it from the players for a long time.

It was despicable. And it made me hate the NFL at the time.

And as Super Bowl 51 approaches, I’m not even sure I’ll watch the game. If it’s nice out, I’ll probably play golf on Sunday afternoon. If it is not, I’ll watch, but certainly without much passion (and not just because the Patriots trounced my Steelers in the AFC Championship).

I haven’t had the same passion for football that I once had ever since seeing that movie.

I hope and pray that a solution can be found so that players can play a game they love, and which has done so much good for so many for so long, without feeling like they’re risking their brains to do it.

If that time comes, I’m sure I’ll regain my passion for the game.

The NFL, at least under this administration, will never have my respect. To hide the information their doctors found from the players is unfathomable.

But until such time as players are able to compete safely, I’m never going to buy the NFL Sunday Ticket again. And while I’ll remain a Steelers’ fan, I certainly won’t watch with any intense interest or great passion.

That was taken from me in two hours on Christmas Day in 2015.

[keviniole]

People are afraid, so let’s talk, and, most importantly, listen

I used to tease my father when I was a kid about conversations I overheard him having with one of his close friends. My Dad’s buddy would go on and on telling him about his kids’ exploits. If I quizzed my Dad on what his pal said about his children, I’m fairly certain he would get a failing grade.

Instead of listening, my Dad was thinking of what he would say to brag about me and my younger brother, Keith. And then, while my father was talking, his friend would do the same thing and think of what his next line would be.

They talked a lot to each other, but they never really listened.

In a way, I think that’s what is going on in this most divided United States these days.

The 2016 presidential election has divided us in ways that no election in my memory ever came close to doing. Social media, which is a cesspool of hate and anger in even the best of times, is causing people to come unglued.

Conservatives are taunting liberals, while the liberals demean the conservatives.

When they actually listen to each other, there are always points to be made at finding common ground. But the political climate in this country is so charged that people aren’t interested in compromising and finding the best answer to a problem.

Rather, they have chosen a side and they simply parrot the talking points that support their point of view.

In 2012, NPR did a piece on this phenomenon. The lead is interesting:

When pollsters ask Republicans and Democrats whether the president can do anything about high gas prices, the answers reflect the usual partisan divisions in the country. About two-thirds of Republicans say the president can do something about high gas prices, and about two-thirds of Democrats say he can’t.

But six years ago, with a Republican president in the White House, the numbers were reversed: Three-fourths of Democrats said President Bush could do something about high gas prices, while the majority of Republicans said gas prices were clearly outside the president’s control.

It included an interesting observation from Dartmouth College political scientist Brendan Nyhan, who noted that a Republican from Massachusetts ran against incumbent Democratic President Barack Obama in 2012 while a Democrat from Massachusetts ran against incumbent Republican President George W. Bush in 2004.

And that fact, shaped the way we viewed those candidates from Massachusetts (Democrat John Kerry in 2004 and Republican Mitt Romney in 2012), Nyhan said.

“Last time it was Republicans who were against a flip-flopping, out-of-touch elitist from Massachusetts, and now it’s Democrats,” Nyhan said.

The issue, of course, is that we’re not really concerned with the policy or what the politicians are doing. The politicians have successfully divided us into teams, and we now blindly follow whatever team we’re on.

It’s certainly not productive and it’s why the four most recent polls rating voters’ approval ratings of Congress show our dislike of our Congressional leaders is one of the few areas all of us – Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians and Independents – have common bond.

Fox’s Congressional job approval poll found that 74 percent of us disapprove and 20 percent of us approve. CNN had 77 percent of us disapproving and 20 percent approving. Public Policy Polling had it 65-15 disapproval/approval and Gallup has it 76-19. 

The average of all polls (including more than just these four) from Real Clear Politics covering polling done Jan. 4 through Jan. 25 is 69.4 percent disapprove and 18.5 percent approve.

The only thing we’re united in is that we aren’t happy with our political leaders.

The key to this, though, is listening to each other. Because if we when go to Facebook, the first thing we do is post a snide comment on a thread in which we disagree, we’re never going to end the fear and eliminate the partisan divide.

Listen to your friends, most importantly those who are your friends in real life but also those with whom you are digital friends.

If someone is a friend in real life – a true friend you can count on when times are tough – then your differences in politics shouldn’t matter. It would be a tragedy to allow political views to cost you a friendship.

If a friend, or an acquaintance, makes a political point that you disagree with, ask why they believe that way. Engage him/her in conversation. Try to understand their point of view.

Celeste Headlee has a great piece on this at ideas.ted.com that is well worth reading. I think the excerpt below is particularly helpful. 

That’s what is often ending conversations now. We have stopped talking to people that we disagree with. We basically want to be able to curate and edit our conversations the same way that we curate and edit our social media. If we’re talking to somebody that we don’t want to hear from, we want to unfollow them like we do on Twitter.

The problem with that is that everybody knows something that you don’t. And so if you are stopping all of those conversations and only speaking with people who have similar experiences and opinions, you’re not going to grow, ever, and you won’t change your mind or your opinion.

They used to tell us, don’t talk about religion and politics. The problem today is that everything is religion and politics.

If we can listen to and learn from each other, we can them do a better job of picking our political leaders, so that in 2027 or 2037, the Congressional approval ratings aren’t so united against the candidates. Imagine that: A day when we elect candidates who do what we want and who we think are doing a good job.

When you encounter someone who disagrees with you, don’t arbitrarily blow them off. Make your points, but listen to theirs.

It just might make this a better world to live in.

[keviniole]

Some funny stories from years of covering boxing with my friend Jack

For some reason last night, I began thinking of my old friend, Jack Welsh, who died in 2005 at 80 years old. And as usually happens when I think of Jack, who was a sports writer until the end, I smiled broadly.

Jack was perhaps the most unique character I’ve met in 38 years of being a full-time journalist.

I wanted to share four quick stories about him that may make you smile, too:

• Jack was absolutely stone cold deaf. He’d yell at us to quit mumbling and to speak up, but just would never get a hearing aid. One time, he sat next to me at a Nevada Athletic Commission disciplinary hearing for Mike Tyson. On this particular day, world champion Fernando Vargas testified on Mike’s behalf as he sought a license.

When the hearing ended, Tyson left the room and a horde of TV cameras followed. I knew it would be a while before I could get to speak with him. I saw Vargas leave and go the other way, so I decided to follow him to get a few comments from him about his reasons for coming out to support Mike. Jack, naturally, followed me.

A Spanish language TV network got Vargas first, and they asked me if I minded if they did their brief interview before I asked questions. I said fine. And they did their interview entirely in Spanish.

I’m standing behind the anchor, so I’m out of camera range, listening. And I hear something. I look to my right and there is Jack, who spoke ZERO Spanish, furiously scribbling notes. His notes were in English even though Vargas was speaking Spanish. 

When I tell him that later, he says, That’s one of the many things you didn’t know about me, that I’m bilingual.”

* Jack wore a toupee that he once told me “was a small piece, like the Hollywood stars wear.”

One day, we were talking with Fred Sternburg, a boxing pr person who has a full head of his own hair. Fred was busy and Jack liked to talk (and talk and talk and talk). So Fred that day let us know he didn’t have time to talk.

As we walked away, Jack said to me, “What the hell is wrong with Freddie.” And so I kidded him by saying, “He’s upset that everyone tells you your toupee is like the one the Hollywood stars wear, and nobody compliments him on his toupee.”

Jack then goes up to Fred and says, “Hey Fred, your piece doesn’t look too bad. It looks pretty good. But I’ll give you my guy’s number and he’ll make it look better for you.”

* Jack was a prodigious eater. One night after a fight, a bunch of us went out to eat. We ordered a seafood platter, that included crab legs and all sorts of things. There were I think like six or eight of us there, and the appetizer was around $100.

When it arrived, the waiter put it down in front of Jack. I looked at my pal, Dave Cokin, and said, “Uh oh,” because we both knew what was coming. Jack had done this before.

He was always short on money and one of us would always cover him when we went out, but that never stopped him from ordering the most expensive thing on the menu plus appetizers, soup and desserts.

And just like Dave and I thought, Jack dug in and began eating. And he plowed right through the entire tray. Toward the end, as we’re awaiting our entrees, he said, ‘You guys didn’t order anything?” We all laughed and said, “Yeah, Jack, that was an appetizer for the table, but you ate the entire thing yourself.”

* Jack was notoriously bad on using computers. He would have trouble printing something and I’d go to do tech support and find a used cigar in the printer. Anyway, one day Jack called me screaming and said his printer was going nuts and spewing out paper nonstop.

So I went over and when I got there, sure enough, it was. Jack had started to write a story and it was like 2 or 3 pages. But apparently he fell asleep at the keyboard and his head landed on the space bar. So he literally put in like 60 pages of spaces. When he woke up,he hits print.

The document is taking time to print, because the computer has to read all those pages with spaces. So Jack hits print like 7-8 times.

I figured it out when I was looking at the paper and every 50-60 pages I’d notice the words he’d typed.

He was quite the character and I’ve never met anyone quite like him.

[keviniole]

It’s not easy being a Pirates fan

Being a Pirates fan isn’t easy. They don’t win much. They trade their good players. They keep a payroll that wouldn’t satisfy Bryce Harper for more than a year-and-a-half or so. Worst of all, the management team acts as if it is committed to winning.

They’re likely to trade Andrew McCutchen before the start of the 2017 season. There’s a good chance McCutchen will be an ex-Pirate by the end of the week. 

Some people tell me that’s good, that I should be happy as a Pirates fan who wants to see the team win that they’ll get something for him now rather than lose him for nothing after 2018.

If we accept the premise that they can never keep a talented player, it makes sense at least on the surface. But I think those who advocate such moves aren’t thinking it through fully.

Rob Biertempfel of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported that the Washington Nationals declined to give the Pirates young outfielder Victor Robles and pitching prospect Lucas Giolito in return for McCutchen.

If that trade actually happened, I’d be pleased with it as a baseball trade (not as a salary dump). Giolito is a tremendous prospect who was No. 3 on MLB’s Top 100 prospects in 2016. He’s ready to make the jump to the majors. Robles is still only 19, but he’s No. 10 on the MLB Top 100 and could become an impact player.

Given the Pirates have Austin Meadows ready to play perhaps by mid-season, I’d take that deal from a baseball standpoint. Giolito would give the Pirates another power arm to go with Gerrit Cole, Jameson Tailon and Tyler Glasnow. That would be a Top 4 of quality young arms. It’s no sure thing, but I’d like the Pirates’ chances of winning with those four and a veteran signed to bring stability.

Of course, the Pirates would be giving up a substantial player, one of the best in the game. From 2012 through 2015, McCutchen finished third, first, third and fifth in National League MVP voting. And as gifted as Robles may be, I’d say it’s a better bet McCutchen returns to form in 2017 after a disappointing 2016 season than it is a 19-year-old who has yet to play a full season in high Class A pans out as an above average major leaguer.

The problem with moving McCutchen because his salary is too high is simple: The gap between the haves and have nots in baseball is growing substantially. It’s fairly obvious now that if the Pirates have a player who has completed four full seasons, with two seasons of arbitration remaining, they’ll be looking to trade him because they can’t afford what he might make in free agency.

As a result, that means that any prospects the Pirates acquire have to succeed as rookies. They have to be positive WAR players from their first year on. If they take a year or two to succeed, as young players often do, it means in essence that the Pirates would only get two years of top production.

So let’s say that they acquire Giolito and he goes into their rotation in 2017. It’s his first full year in the majors, and he’s likely to have ups and downs. Odds are good he’ll be around or perhaps slightly below replacement player quality. If he moves up to average in 2018, that means that the Pirates would benefit from him in 2019 and 2020 if he turns into the player the scouts say he can be.

But after 2020, he’ll have two years to go before free agency, and they’ll be back at it again, trying to trade him for other young players who are cheaper.

So it seems to me the decision for the Pirates would be this: Two years of McCutchen at far-below-average salaries in 2017 and 2018 and watching him walk. Or trading McCutchen for two players we don’t know who will make it and if they do, we could only reasonably assume two quality years from each.

In that scenario, I’d rather go with the known commodity, both for competitive reasons and for fan loyalty issues.

Willie Stargell was my favorite player in the 1960s as he was on his way up. He was still my favorite player in the 1970s when he was one of the  most feared sluggers in baseball. And he was still my favorite in the 1980s when he was clearly at the end of the line.

How do the Pirates expect to expand their fan base if they’re constantly trading their best players, especially iconic ones like McCutchen. Hey, if they’d have traded him for an elite pitcher who would help us win the World Series in 2017, I’d be all in favor. I am a fan of the franchise first, and then the players.

The message you’re sending to your fans by trading all of your good players like the Pirates always do is that you’re not willing, or able, or both to spend what it takes to win.

And that does no one any good.

McCutchen is likely gone. And it wouldn’t be a shock if Tony Watson and Josh Harrison are gone, too.

It’s not easy being a Pirates fan, and a McCutchen trade will make it that much harder.

[keviniole]

I saw this protest on Nov. 12, 2016, at 43rd & 5th in NYC at about 1:45 p.m. ET

[keviniole]

The media is not your enemy

This John Oliver piece from August is worthwhile, because at a time when hatred for and distrust of the media is higher than it’s ever been, it’s important to remember the critical role the media plays in this country.

The rise of the internet, which gave everyone a voice and a way to make themselves heard, has surprisingly done great damage to mainstream media. Partisan news sites have sprung up, no matter the topic, and people often turn to those instead of what we might think of as traditional sources of information.

In our politics, there are sites that cater to every political point of view. There are two problems with those. First, is that if you only consider one point of view, you never have a chance to develop a full understanding of any topic. Second, the veracity of many of the partisan blogs is questionable.

As the great former Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan once said, “You’re entitled to your own opinion, but you’re not entitled to your own facts.”

Let’s get the elephant out of the room, here: Mainstream media makes mistakes, and occasionally egregiously so. But it is far less often than you’d think, and newspapers and other mainstream journalists are accountable for their mistakes.

Many large newspapers have an ombudsman, who is essentially the readers’ representative at the paper. It is the job of the ombudsman, sometimes called the public editor, to explain the newspaper’s coverage, to address reader concerns and discuss issues of journalistic significance.

I have been a professional journalist for more than 35 years, and I can tell you from first-hand experience how dedicated reporters are to getting the story right and presenting it in a fair, complete and unbiased way. I have seen the great angst from many of my colleagues when they’ve made a mistake, or they’re not sure they’ve got the entire story.

Reporters are the ones who go to your local city hall and county commission meetings that are so boring that nobody wants to go over than the crazy lady down the street who styles herself as a community activist.

They ask questions of the government officials to find how your tax money is being spent, what is planned to address critical issues like infrastructure and why the Mayor’s pal suddenly landed a lucrative contract with the city.

Do they make mistakes? Yes, they do. But so does the person in the steel mill and the person on the assembly line and the guy writing the code in the computer you’re working on and the quarterback of your favorite football team.

I encourage everyone to become as well read as possible. I pay to subscribe daily to five newspapers (all digital editions): The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Los Angeles Times. I also read my local paper, the Las Vegas Review-Journal, online, and I read the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review for its sports coverage.

I try to read the New Yorker and Atlantic Monthly, as well. I also subscribe to several technology and golf magazines.

I watch the news, won’t miss “60 Minutes” on Sunday and read a wide variety of websites.

That’s a bit much, honestly, but it makes me feel I’m engaged in what is going on in my city, my state, my country and my world.

Journalism is under siege, and if we don’t stop that and begin to support it, we’re all in trouble. Imagine what the government would do if there were no watchdog to call it on its mistakes.

I’m a sports writer, and so I’m kind of like the toy store in most cases. People read my stuff to get away from the problems of the real world. But when there are issues of concern in regard to regulating the sports I cover, I try to play that same watchdog role.

In 2005, there were two fighters who died in boxing matches a few weeks apart. I was at both cards and witnessed the death of both men. I was writing for a Las Vegas newspaper at the time and I wrote a series of articles demanding that the state athletic commission strengthen its fighter safety laws. I’m proud to say that many of the safety issues I raised were noted by the commission and fixes were enacted that are in use today.

This is hardly a forum for me to pat myself on the back, though. Rather, it’s to point out how critical journalists are in our everyday lives.

Journalists are not your enemy, even if they occasionally make a mistake or write and/or say something you disagree with.

Without hard-nosed, fearless journalists who are willing to speak truth to power, this world would be a very scary place.