Super League Predictions

LBlack14 How did he cheat the system?

I don't know for sure if he actually did. In my mind he did.

Observation of 49 home runs with 557 at bats and 71 walks is still quite a bit different than 70 home runs in 509 at bats with 162 walks. Basically he hit 21 more homers with 99 less at bats in which he was not walked. 9.9 at bats not walked per home run to 5.0 at bats not walked per home run. That's a huge improvement for a guy who was already one of the best.

Doesn't mean he did anything against the rules and for all I know he just improved his hitting that much. In fact, I'm pretty sure baseball still acknowledges his accomplishments as official. Just my own personal bias against what I think was likely steroid use given the evidence that Sosa and Bonds also put up. Looks like he had very low at bats in 93 and 94 and then when he came back closer to full seasons his home run efficiency almost doubled. Just looks funny to me and therefore I am suspicious. But it's happened before. George Foster suddenly got huge improvements at his home run efficiency for a couple of years in his career before the steroid era.

Sneakylong Not the question to ask imo. Irrelevant.

We just disagree, it's very relevant. If the saudi's want to waste billions on a campaign that is totally worthless, more power to them. Only the stupidest of the stupid will fall for it, and they probably already are clueless about Saudi misdeeds

Stu1961 Another great example of sportswashing that didn't work though.

Still waiting for someone to give me an example of when it DID work

JoeHatesSnow worldwide they think it's working for them.

Operative word is "THINK" it's working for them. Sneaky named Hitler trying to sportswash Nazism in the 30's. How did that work for them? I haven't heard anybody say "You know, those Nazis weren't so bad" any time in my life. How did it work for the Soviet Union or China? And it's not going to work for SA. People are stupid, but they're not THAT stupid.

johnnydoom I don't even really care about the LIV tour. I didn't make any attempt to watch it last week. However, I do not think it is an entity of evil either. It is another option. One that I think is likely to fail, but maybe not if enough of the top talent heads for the guaranteed money.

I don't care about it either. I can't imagine ever watching it, but I don't really watch PGA Golf either. I just get a kick out of the faux outrage by the moralists who in my opinion are just jealous that they can't cash in, all while doing business with some even worse regimes.
I'm sure there's a few sincere people like Sneaky who really believe what they spout, but I'm betting 95% would immediately take a job with a Saudi company if it simply doubled their salary

LBlack14 How did he cheat the system?? Guy hit 49 dingers, his 1st full year, in 1987. Andro was OTC, yes, no?

That's my question, too. Has he ever admitted to doing real steroids? He had that Andro bottle in full view in his locker. He obviously wasn't worried about anybody seeing it. Any of us could have bought the same stuff OTC. I doubt it even worked, like most supplements.

garyt1957 Bingo. Hit the nail on the head.

garyt1957 Operative word is "THINK" it's working for them. Sneaky named Hitler trying to sportswash Nazism in the 30's. How did that work for them? I haven't heard anybody say "You know, those Nazis weren't so bad" any time in my life. How did it work for the Soviet Union or China? And it's not going to work for SA. People are stupid, but they're not THAT stupid.

Maybe you're right. Hard to believe a government with the resources of the Saudis put a guy in charge of billions and he missed the whole, "no one likes the Nazis" thing. Heads are gonna roll over this deal.

Sneakylong There’s a lot people who are ignorant of world affairs and couldn’t tell you who MSB is or Saudi Arabia’s history on human rights / atrocities.

There sure is, which as I pointed out earlier, has nothing to do with sportswashing. If they don't even know who Saudi Arabia is, how can there be sportswashing?

Sneakylong The money came from NBC. He wasn’t paid by China. MSB controls the fund that pays the LIV golfers.

Plus the real issue is with the Olympic committee that chooses to hold the games in these countries.

If Costas is so moral he easily could have taken a stand and refused to go to China and work the games. Imagine what a spotlight that would have shown on China's human rights record. Even those stupid people who don't know about SA that you talk about would have been informed on China. But what did Moral Bob do? Not a damn thing, he took the money and went. But now he's got the nerve to tell other people to take a stand?

And I'm still waiting for that ONE time that sportswashing has worked? Just one.

Martee Still don't understand PGA allowing players to play in past Saudi sponsored tournamennts and now they don't, even though nothing has really changed regarding human rights

I think I read that the PGA Tour was okay with just 1 or 2 individual events, but once the word "league" was brought up they were not happy. Clearly the PGA doesn't care that it's the Saudis, they just care that it could be competition. It's business, but if stirring moral outrage helps their business then they'll get their (we've donated $3B!!) marketing guys on it.

KCee I think I read that the PGA Tour was okay with just 1 or 2 individual events, but once the word "league" was brought up they were not happy. Clearly the PGA doesn't care that it's the Saudis, they just care that it could be competition. It's business, but if stirring moral outrage helps their business then they'll get their (we've donated $3B!!) marketing guys on it.

Exactly. I don't blame the PGA Tour one bit. Their very existence could be at stake. They're going to use what Putin calls the "useful idiots" to fan the outrage so long as it's going in their favor. I don't blame them at all, it's a smart move. Looks like the Euro Tour is caving and is now considering a deal with LIV. So much for their morals

Sneakylong As for your continued concern that sportswashing doesn’t work. How do you know it’s not working?

I can't even imagine how obtaining that proof might go? "Were you at one point aware of SA's human rights atrocities, but are no longer aware based on SA hosting golf events? yes/no"

Sneakylong There’s a lot people who are ignorant of world affairs and couldn’t tell you who MSB is or Saudi Arabia’s history on human rights / atrocities.

It sure seems like a waste of money (to me, Finance 101) ... to be spending hundreds of millions to try to wash away their reputation from the minds of people who are already unaware of that reputation.