Is Baseball the Only Saving Grace for Sports Fans These Days?

With the economical downfall thats has taken in the USA during the last three years, it has been very difficult for businesses of any size to maintain stability.  Professional sports franchises are no different.  In fact, after the 2010-2011 sports seasons, the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the National Football League (NFL) have both become the subject of what they call a performance lockout.  A sports performance lockout means that the team's owners have taken their right, after the league's contracts have expired, to negotiate how much money they want going out to the players.  Let's face it, professional sports leagues have some of the world's highest paid people and they are not all worth the millions being paid to them.

Take for instance Drew Gooden of the Milwaukee Bucks.  This guy is worth $6 million a year but only averages 11.1 points per game according to: http://www.nba.com/playerfile/drew_gooden/

Picture courtesy of Jonathan Daniel of Getty Images.

As the NBA gets closer to the end of their 2010-2011 season, they could be faced with the same fate as the NFL players.  After several months of negotiations, the NFL players and owners begin mediation on April 14, 2011 to see if some type of conclusion can be agreed upon, in order to start the 2011-2012 season.

Video courtesy of YouTube.

As for Major League Baseball (MLB), their last lockout took place during what was supposed to be the 1994-1995 season.  During this time, the lockout had an enormous impact on the MLB fan-base, which in return lost the league a lot of dedicated followers and money.  According to www.nydailynews.com, by this time, the average salary for the MLB players had reached $1 million.  At the conclusion of it all, the lockout lead to about 930 game cancellations; as a result, this left the NBA and NFL to gain a bigger fan-base.  With the current lockout situations, the MLB seems to be the league that's winning and has  the potential to gain a bigger fan-base as did the NBA and the NFL during the NFL's time off.

March Madness: The Year of the Underdog

When referencing the term "battle of the blues" it's usually two North Carolina teams, Duke University and University of North Carolina at Hill.  This was not the case for the "March Madness" collegiate athletic competition that would send one team packing for the rest of the season.  Most recently, the #2 ranked North Carolina Tarheels took on the #4 ranked Kentucky Wildcats in the 2011 Elite 8, both teams fought for their claim at a spot in the Final Four Competition.   Carolina took the lead on once in the whole game, and that lead was in the first quarter.  During the stretch, Kentucky lead by 11 points at one point, hoping to keep that lead or extend the lead out.  With a little more than 3 minutes left to play, the score was tied at 67-67 and Carolina had one last chance to gain the lead but due to the defensive efforts of DeAndre Liggins, they were not able to pull it off.  On the offensive end, Kentucky made their final basket at 37 seconds remaining, to advance to the Final Four Competition.  

I am NOT a UNC Tarheel fan OR a Kentucky Wildcat fan but the win was well-deserved.

GO DUKE!!!

NEVER SAY NEVER...

This game was the ultimate "edge of your seat" type of entertainment as Texas A&M battled Baylor for a spot in the 2011 collegiate final four games.  The atmosphere was every bit of tense as Texas A&M, whose record during regular season was 31-5, got off to a great start as they scored 5 points within the first two minutes.  Baylor, whose record during regular season was 34-3, made a trip to the final Four last season, fought hard to claim that spot again but never gained the lead during this competition.   As a result, Sydney Carter of Texas A&M would lead in scoring with 22 points and the Huskies advanced to the Final Four for the first time ever, with a 58-46 win over Baylor.  They will challenge Stanford on April 3, 2011.

WELL DONE LADIES!!!

References:

nj.com USA Today The State iSports