Sports keep enabling the lowest common denominator

Wait a second, Skippy, why would anyone assume that Hal Steinbrenner knows bad from worse?
Welcome, friends, to another episode of “Good Question, No Good Answer.” Remember, all answers given in some form of “I don’t know,” “Ya got me” or “No clue” are correct.
Ready? Let’s get started.
Today is Oct. 28, scheduled to be Game 1 of the World Series. Why did MLB, Rob Manfred at the helm, wait five days from the end of the playoffs to begin the “Fallen Classic”?
Any buzz for this World Series that would’ve been sustained outside of Houston and Philadelphia was minimized by this five-day delay.
Late weeknight November World Series in Philly? Great idea. Who’s on third? No one, Costello, he swings directly into the shift!
Then there’s Frank Clark, 29 years old. He played four years of football for academically demanding Michigan before he was kicked off the team his senior year after his arrest for domestic violence. He plea-bargained to a lesser charge. Before that he was convicted of felony home invasion, for which Michigan suspended him for one game.
He now plays DE for the NFL Chiefs, recently signing a two-year extension for over $30 million. He is 6-foot-3 and weighs 272 pounds.
This week the NFL suspended Clark for two games after two arrests in four months for the transport of loaded guns — a handgun, a rifle and a machine gun, an Uzi.
Frank Clark and James Bouknight Getty Images; AP
That Clark violated the NFL’s “Personal Conduct” rules doesn’t quite answer any good questions, including why NFL players, often the most physically imposing figures in any room, are now so often busted for toting ready-to-go weapons?
If they find it essential to their good and welfare to pack heat, where do they go, with whom and why? And to encounter whom and why? Are such don’t-leave-home-without-them firearms for protection or intimidation?
Sunday, the Charlotte Hornets’ James Bouknight, 22, was arrested. He was passed out, allegedly drunk, in his Mercedes at 2 a.m., a Glock handgun and a bag of Doritos in his lap. Even at nearly $5 million per I guess he had no intention of sharing.
Court documents claim Bouknight — whom the Hornets exercised its team option for 2023-24 on Thursday — was blocking traffic when found unconscious. When awakened, he crashed into two patrol cars, gun in view.
Bouknight, 6-foot-4, was a problem child during his two years with UConn after a transient private high school basketball career. In 2019, he was suspended for three games by UConn for an alleged hit and run. He was charged with interfering with police, speeding and driving without a license.
After his arrest, this past Sunday, he played in the Hornets’ next game.
While such stories have become a nickel a dozen — mere filler back near the box scores and Over/Under lines and at the end of TV and radio sports updates, if there’s room — the question remains why? Why did Bouknight need a gun within his immediate reach?
While our shameless, greed-stricken sports partner with gambling operations for their cuts of sucker money lost by mostly young adult male targets, here’s a question for Manfred, Gary Bettman, Adam Silver and Roger Goodell:
If the fans of your sports do as they’re commercially encouraged — bet often and even while the games are in progress — do they suspect that more fans will become rich or go broke?
They know the answer. They know sportsbooks aren’t in business to lose money. Yet, the commissioners whistle past the pawn shops, no public pressure applied, no good questions asked, thus no answers needed.
So it’s with impunity that they sell the leagues’ “official” status and logos to bookmakers whose best customers are those most likely to go broke. None had the courage to say, “Not on my watch! I refuse to be party to a bad-odds money-chase that would impoverish our fans, especially the gullible.”
It is now a given to anticipate that any game one watches on TV will be loaded with insults, challenges to your intellects and empirical knowledge.
Most astute baseball fans know that Manny Machado, now with the Padres on a $300 million contract, is a tough guy to suffer. By his own admission, he prefers to not run to first base as, “That’s not my cup of tea.”
Manny Machado Getty Images
Sunday on FS1, the final game of Padres-Phils, Machado was at bat, about to go 0-for-4, when Fox’s new lead MLB play-by-play man, Joe Davis, noted Machado’s contract, adding, “Worth every bit of it.”
In the throes of sweat-rent inflation and financial peril, Davis told the nation that $300 million to play baseball — when he’s in the mood — meets with everyone’s approval!
HBO’s “Real Sports,” this week, included a piece on the epidemic of kids’ leagues losing umpires and referees to vulgar, threatening and even physically abusive friends and families.
Yet, Rob Manfred and MLB Network continue to promote bat-flipping and all images of in-yer-face, rub-it-in immodesty as an approved marketing method of attracting kids to baseball.
Then there’s Marshawn Lynch. No matter how often he’s arrested as a menace behind the wheel, no matter how vulgar he is in all public appearances and no matter that he inspired players to grab their crotches when scoring, Lynch remains a must-hire among sports TV execs and advertisers.
Why? Let me know if you come up with a good answer.
See you next time on “Good Question, No Good Answer.”
What’s that? Sideline reporters need to be heard
TV continues to present mostly useless sideline reporters, even when we can’t hear them. Does anyone perform sound checks or anticipate music and crowd noise before going on the air?
Saturday on TBS, Lauren Shehadi’s report on the Astros’ Chas McCormick went mostly unheard.
Also, Saturday, in the open to Syracuse-Clemson, ABC/ESPN “threw it down” to Molly McGrath. Couldn’t hear a word she said.
Mollie McGrath USA TODAY Sports
Ray Ferraro, analyst on ESPN’s Avs-Rangers, Tuesday, remains a foresighted, concise, no-gimmicks interesting listen. And he looks a lot like Doc Emrick.
SNY may claim to be “The Home of New York Sports,” but its deals with UConn prove otherwise. SNY’s reports on Big East basketball media day included interviews with UConn coaches Danny Hurley and Geno Auriemma, but no one from St. John’s or Seton Hall.
Love those mindless expressions such as the one heard Saturday from Todd Blackledge. Syracuse QB, Garrett Shrader, he said, because he transferred from Mississippi St., “Plays with a chip on his shoulder.” That chip was perhaps dislodged on the next play, when Shrader was sacked.
There’s no fooling reader David Oniffrey; he recognizes clutch stats when he sees them. Yep, what would the Phils have done if not for the “hold” credited to David Robertson in Game 5 vs. San Diego: one-third of an inning, two walks.
David Robertson Getty Images
Take it as you will NFL message on Fox, during Sunday’s Giants-Jags: As Jacksonville was being flagged for too many men on the field, the message on the back of a Jag’s helmet appeared. It read, “Inspire Change.” Too late.
By the way, if you can find action on the number of crowd shots Fox presents during every World Series telecast, take the Over. Greedy? Parlay it with sleep before the eighth inning.