Cleaning out the inbox-Passings

More passings from the time that I fell behind and these will be all from the sports world.

Goodbye to Sam Wyche at the age of  74.
Wyche, who was a backup quarterback for the Bengals and Redskins in his playing career, would be the head coach for Indiana for one season before moving to his best-known coaching spot with the Cincinnati Bengals.
Wyche took the Bengals to the Super Bowl in the 1988 season and his Bengals led the San Francisco 49ers until Joe Montana hit John Taylor with the game-winning touchdown pass with under a minute to play.
However, Wyche's Bengals only made the playoffs one other time in his eight years in Cincinnati and after being fired after a 3-13 season in 1991, moved to Tampa Bay for four losing seasons, but it was under Wyche that many of the players that Tony Dungy used to turn Tampa Bay around were drafted and developed under Wyche.
Wyche was an excellent color commentator for NBC, but that career ended when his left vocal cord was nicked during a biopsy.
Wyche also was the innovator of the no-huddle offense in that 1988 season as he would take advantage of defenses that were trying to change personnel on the fly.
Wyche's technique would either force the defense to keep players on the field that they wanted to replace or if they tried to replace them, quarterback Boomer Esiason would take the snap and draw a penalty for too many men on the field.
After the 1988 season, the NFL changed the substitution rule to its current state which allows the defense the right to match substitutions made by the offense.
Of all things that Wyche is remembered for, two stand out for me.
The first is his famous "You don't live in Cleveland" chastising of Bengals fans for throwing things on the field, which is what most likely remember, but I remember another Wyche moment.
In the NFL Films highlight films of the 1972 NFC Champion Redskins, it is Wyche that hollers at the Cowboys in the NFC title game to "Die, you dogs, die!, Die, you yellow dogs!"
The clip of Wyche is right after the twenty-minute mark.


Goodbye to Don Larsen at the age of 90.
Larsen pitched for seven teams over a career that stretched from 1953 through 1967 and never finished with more than eleven wins in any season but is remembered for one perfect day in 1956 for the Yankees as Larsen blanked the Brooklyn Dodgers in the only perfect game in World Series history.
Larsen's game five gem saw the right-hander throw only 97 pitches and only one Dodger was able to work Larsen, who often struggled with wildness, to a three-ball count.
Larsen lost 21 games for the 1954 Orioles before being obtained by the Yankees and would become a solid reliever in the 1960s with his best seasons being spent with the Giants.


Goodbye to Carlos "Sugar" DeLeon at the age of 60.
DeLeon was the top cruiserweight in the world before the reigns of Dwight Muhammad Qawi and Evander Holyfield and he would lose a 1988 unification fight to Holyfield when he was stopped in eight rounds, but DeLeon would win a cruiserweight title on four different occasions and his win over Marvin Camel in 1980 made his the second cruiserweight champion ever as Camel had defeated Mate Parlov in a fight to determine the first champion of the new weight class.
DeLeon was a smooth boxer-puncher that wasn't quite of the elite pound for pound class but had Evander Holyfield not started his career at cruiserweight, DeLeon would have clearly been the best fighter in the division for the decade of the 80s.
DeLeon was very talented but often seemed disinterested against lesser opponents which resulted in his title losses to S.T. Gordon, who shocked DeLeon in a two-round upset before DeLeon would easily win a rematch, a split decision loss to Alfonso Ratliff, and a disqualification loss in the eleventh round to Massimiliano Duran.
When DeLeon was motivated, he was an excellent fighter as he showed below as an underdog after the Gordon loss in dominating former heavyweight champion Leon Spinks, who was attempting to drop to the cruiserweight division after a knockout loss to the naturally larger Larry Holmes in a bid for the WBC heavyweight title held by Holmes.


Goodbye to Saoul Mamby at the age of 72.
Mamby, who held the WBC junior welterweight title for a three-year reign from 1980-1982, did not retire until he was 60 years old and never took a large amount of punishment due to Mamby's elite defensive skills.
Mamby traveled to South Korea to win his title with a 14th round knockout of Sang-Hyun Kim and would defend the title five times including a nationally televised in prime time title defense over Esteban DeJesus, who is most remembered for being the first man to defeat Roberto Duran (Mamby lost a ten-round decision to Duran in 1976 in a non-title bout), on a Larry Holmes undercard.
Mamby knocked out the favored DeJesus in the 13th round and would defend four more times before losing a close decision to Leroy Haley to lose his title.
The loss to Haley scuttled a scheduled title unification fight with WBA champion Aaron Pryor.
Mamby would lose the rematch to Haley via decision and would lose another decision to Haley's conqueror Bill Costello in his final title shot.
Mamby retired in 1994 but returned for four fights from 1998-2000 and a final fight at 60 years old when he lost a ten-round decision to Anthony Osborne in the Cayman Islands.


Goodbye to Carl Scheer at the age of 82.
Scheer was the first general manager of the Charlotte Hornets, would serve the Los Angeles Clippers and Denver Nuggets in the same job and with the ABA Nuggets was a key part of the 1976 NBA-ABA merger.
Scheer built the Denver Nuggets into the best team in the final year of the ABA, although they lost the championship series to the New York Nets, and some have credited Scheer's signing of David Thompson and Marvin Webster before the 1975-76 season as the final tipping point in forcing the merger.
Scheer also brought Larry Brown from the Carolina Cougars to coach the Nuggets after the Cougars announced their plans to move to St.Louis as they would spend the final years of the ABA as the Spirits of St.Louis and traded for Dan Issel from Kentucky before that final season of the league.
The Nuggets would win the Midwest Division in their first season in the NBA under the guidance of Scheer from the front office and Brown from the bench.
Scheer and his staff are also credited with the idea for the first slam-dunk contest and rules for the event at the final ABA All-Star game that was held in Denver.
Scheer would also be heavily involved with the expansion Charlotte Hornets and those teal uniforms in 1988, which would become the rage for new teams in all sports of that time, were his idea.

That catches up on recent passings for now and I'm starting to see the bottom of the inbox with only a few general articles are remaining to clean up.
I'll be watching the Saints home game against the Vikings today and time allowing, I'm hoping to knock out a post on that game tonight or tomorrow.

Who gets the blame?

Sung to the tune of Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Who'll Stop the Rain?", I'll ask the question of who is to blame for the woes of the Cleveland Browns and with Freddie Kitchens and John Dorsey taking the fall, are there others to blame as well?

It wasn't all the fault of Freddie Kitchens, although, for the on-field failures, it was his decisions in play-calling and personnel that contributed most to the 6-10 record.
I want to make this clear before we start- this isn't a clear the decks' defense for Freddie Kitchens, as I believe that he did a poor job of running the team and I've written so all season, but blame, much like a good Goober Grape sandwich, can be easily spread around.
That said, let's pull the knife out and start spreading.

I've been hitting Freddie Kitchens during game recaps all season, but to briefly recap- mismanaging clock, ridiculous decisions such as committing intentional penalties, coddling Baker Mayfield to the point of a parent giving in to a petulant child, and being unable to gain the respect of many of his players.
All of those are true, but what you wonder is this- With hindsight, how did Freddie Kitchens get this job to begin with?
Yes, the limited experience with play calling in 2018 was exciting, but his only coordinator experience was during those games and his insistence on continuing to call plays even as the head coach strained a rope that was tenuous in doing his job as the head coach, let alone adding the burden of calling plays.
Why did the Browns, whether the decision-maker was Jimmy Haslam or John Dorsey, allow an inexperienced coach to carry that weight?
That alone considering the players involved might have set Kitchens up to fail before he started out of the blocks.

For this exercise, John Dorsey, who was already gambling on Kitchens to start with, gets his share of the blame for the 2019 woes when he didn't address the tackle positions and thought the Browns could get through the season with Greg Robinson and Chris Hubbard at tackle and Justin McCray as a swingman backup.
McCray is a decent enough guard, but he is way undersized at tackle and he's not an emergency tackle, he's the top backup!
I haven't seen a tackle as bad as Chris Hubbard as a regular starter going back to the revolving door that was John St.Clair in the Eric Mangini years and Robinson isn't a ton better.
I realize that you cannot get every issue fixed right away, but combining those two with the trade of the very solid Kevin Zeitler meant the Browns were going to have real issues protecting Baker Mayfield.
I didn't have a problem getting Olivier Vernon for Zeitler and few people count on trading for a player and having him injured most of the season, but above almost anything, the inability to shore up the offensive line (which seemed to basically be- wait to the trading deadline and overwhelm the Redskins for tackle Trent Williams) affected almost all of the problems on the offensive side.
Losing Vernon for most of the year and the suspension of Myles Garrett turned a top-five level pass rush into one better suited for "Five Mississippi" and struggled even getting near the passer, wasn't Dorsey's fault, but his trade with the Giants affected both lines.

Dorsey also can be blamed for not giving Kitchens an experienced staff member that could have helped him with the head coaching items that all first-timers need to learn to do well.
Steve Wilks was the Cardinals head coach in 2018, but the Cardinals look at his year as disastrously as the Browns do this year, so he wasn't going to be much help.
Dorsey also made a major mistake with Baker Mayfield when he didn't add a veteran quarterback when Drew Stanton was placed on IR in September and only carried AAF standout and Baker buddy Garrett Gilbert at quarterback.
Mayfield didn't have anyone to lean on, to learn from when he acted poorly, other than Gilbert, which only continued the feeling that the locker room was filled with members of Baker's frat house rather than contributors or at least people that kept him grounded.

And there's Baker.
While Mayfield played very well at times as a rookie, he rarely approached that form in year two and for the "Pied Piper" and "Hee Hee" stories that John Dorsey liked to tell, he didn't seem to be loved in the locker room either.
Mayfield jabbed at Duke Johnson before he was traded to Houston, which he was chastised for from teammates, would blame the Browns medical staff in a press conference for not doing the right thing for Odell Beckham's sports hernia injury (to be fair, Mayfield didn't express it well, but I think he was trying to give Beckham cover for playing through injury), and would blame the "entire organization" for the 6-10 season after the Bengals defeat.
Combined with a propensity for interceptions and an inability to hit his receivers in stride due to a large number of his passes being high with a lower than expected completion rate, you have to at least consider that Baker Mayfield may not be the "guy" at quarterback.
Depending on the coach that is hired, Mayfield may be able to clean up mechanical issues and get better chemistry with Odell Beckham, but that will take far more dedication than he apparently put in over the last off-season.
It's not all on Baker Mayfield for the Browns lousy season, but he deserves a solid share as well.

Don't forget about Jimmy Haslam either.
Haslem, who changes coaches, front office personnel, and advisors as most people change television channels, didn't give John Dorsey a chance to recover from his poor choice of Freddie Kitchens, has decided to return power in the organization to Paul DePodesta, who was a part of the Sashi Brown disaster, doesn't even live in Cleveland, and his only selling point is not wanting Freddie Kitchens, and his choice of committee to select the new head coach and general manager is limited at best and ridiculous at worst.
The replacements for Kitchens and Dorsey will be decided by a committee of Jimmy Haslam, his wife Dee (Known best for her announcement that the awful uniforms were going to be great and popular), Haslam's son-in-law JW Johnson, DePodesta, and Chris Cooper who runs the salary cap department for the team- not a football person in the bunch.
Haslam, who listens to whoever he has talked to most recently, has created a culture that "needs to be changed" with every firing and never seems to get it right, flips back and forth between the numbers guys and the football guys and builds foundations with neither.

I'm not totally an "analytics" guy, but part of being a fan of any sport is embracing the statistics that are part of that experience and teams should be willing to look at any data that can prove to help evaluate talent, gain enlightenment in play-calling, when to go for two, when to try the long field goal and when to punt, etc.
All of those things can be helpful and putting your head underwater and pretending that they aren't a part of building a team, is way "old school" even for a guy like me!

However, using numbers as the be-all and end-all for your organizational in evaluating talent is a method doomed to fail.
Helpful?
Absolutely.
Should it be most of your consideration when you are deciding who to draft and who to sign through free agency?
Not at all.

Nothing, Allow me to repeat NOTHING should be more valued than your personnel department's evaluations of players from attending games, to breaking down film and in the case of college scouting, traveling to schools for workouts, but even more important is talking to the persons at the prospect's university.
And not only coaches, talk to the guys in the building, talk to teammates, talk to the support people that work with and see the prospect every day as well.
Talking to people that aren't always spoken to can mine huge information and give you data beyond numbers about a prospect's work habits, background, is he motivated for an outside reason, etc.

Allow me to offer an example of this from my personal perspective.
In the 2014 draft that saw Ray Farmer botch two number one picks, one of those picks was Justin Gilbert a cornerback from Oklahoma State, who the Browns traded up to obtain (after initially trading down from the 4th spot in a trade with Buffalo).
Going into that draft, Gilbert was my favorite cornerback in the draft and I watched that draft with my oldest friend, Greg, who always asks me for my evaluations before the draft.
I put a lot of work into my draft analysis (although not nearly as much as the guys that write books)
and Greg's always respected that through the years.
When the Browns picked Gilbert, I was ecstatic because I loved what I watched on video and I liked his size and speed.
Gilbert seemed to have everything that it would take to be a top-notch cornerback for a long time, but Gilbert was a flop and after two bad seasons with the Browns, Cleveland shuffled him off to the Steelers (Imagine trading with the Steelers, if they thought he had a chance to turn his career around) for a sixth-rounder.
Gilbert would play that season in Pittsburgh and then was out of football.

Greg always likes to remind me about Justin Gilbert and he's right that I liked his tape, but what doomed Gilbert were things that I couldn't have known and the Browns should have,
What did the Browns know that I didn't or what should they have known that I did not?
They should have done their diligence and asked those questions with the access that they have and most draft writers do not.
I didn't know Justin Gilbert didn't like to get out of bed or show up on time for meetings and had difficulties learning systems that depended on more than athletic ability- but the Browns should have and yet when Gilbert was drafted, he stated that he never even talked to the Browns.

And that is what worries me most about the numbers crunchers- that they are so reliant on their portion of evaluating and building a winning roster that other departments that are equally important will be either ignored or taken with less value than they deserve.
When you look at the two drafts that Sashi Brown and Paul DePodesta were in charge of the draft board, it appears to be clearly numbers-driven and lacks results.

The 2016 draft was filled with busts like wide receiver Corey Coleman in the first round (Taken over Ohio State's Michael Thomas, who ranks with the best receivers in the league), a few unspectacular seasons from Emmanuel Ogbah, before Ogbah was traded to Kansas City in 2019, three third-rounders, two of which are out of football (Cody Kessler and Shon Coleman) and the other was cut and has played well for Tampa (Carl Nassib).
Only two players from that draft are with the Browns- 4th rounder Joe Schobert and 5th rounder Rashard Higgins, neither of whom is a guarantee to remain with the Browns next season with both becoming free agents.

The 2017 draft hit with Myles Garrett at the top of the draft, but their other two first-rounders were disappointing in safety Jabrill Peppers, who was included in the Odell Beckham trade with the Giants, and tight end David Njoku, who by the season's end wasn't even being activated for games.
Of the other seven draftees from the 17 draft, only third-rounder Larry Ogunjobi remains with the Browns and is a solid starter.

I started this by saying the blame could be spread around to many people and all of that rings true.
However, it starts at the top and the Haslam family has not listened to the right people, has not hired many of the right people, and they haven't listened to them when they have hired good employees.
There is blame to be assigned to John Dorsey, Freddie Kitchens, Paul DePodesta, Sashi Brown, Baker Mayfield, and others.
However, no one deserves more blame than James Arthur Haslam III and his wife Dee.
Their questionable decisions, a lack of a solid organizational chart, their impatience, and a desire to listen to too many people has led to this.
The Haslams deserve most of the blame.

PPM

The PPM has the college bowl season almost completed other than the championship game, but we still have the first week of the NFL playoffs in the PPM for the weekend.

Last Week: 13-10
Overall: 165-75

College
Armed Forces Bowl
Tulane 31 Southern Mississippi 21

Lending Tree Bowl
Louisiana-Lafayette 37 Miami Ohio 30

NFL
Patriots over Titans 34-17
Texans over Bills 27-17
Saints over Vikings 35-21
Seahawks over Eagles 24-16

Cleaning out the inbox- Non-Sports Passings

The passings list in the inbox continues to grow and in this edition, we will be (mostly) sticking to the recent non-sports passings of note.
I'll have a sports version coming soon.

Goodbye to Rene'Auberjonois at the age of 79.
The veteran actor was a regular on three television series and film for decades but is best remembered for his role as the prissy "Clayton" on the sitcom "Benson" and for his performance at the shapeshifting
" Odo" on the Star Trek series- Deep Space Nine.
The roles were so opposite that I wondered if Auberjonois could convincingly pull off the role of a security officer, but he was masterful in the role of a key cast member for the entire run.
Auberjonois also played "Father Mulcahy" in the "MASH" film in 1970 was the inspiration for the series.


Goodbye to Caroll Spinney at the age of 85.
Spinney was the voice and hands behind Big Bird and TRS favorite Oscar the Grouch for Sesame Street from the program's 1969 beginnings through 2018, although Spunney's 2018 performances were not televised until last season for Sesame Street's 50th anniversary.
Spinney almost left the show after the first season because he wasn't satisfied with the less than strong pay for working with a show involved with PBS in its infancy.
That was, of course, the first and only season that saw Oscar the Grouch as orange rather than his green fur that started in the second season and continues today.


Goodbye to Michael J. Pollard at the age of 80.
Pollard, a talented character actor, is most remembered for his role as C.W. Moss in the 1967 film "Bonnie and Clyde", being the leader of a gang of children on a planet where people die in their teenage years from a plague in an episode of "Star Trek", and as the homeless fellow that freezes to death in "Scrooged".
Pollard also played an inventor in another TRS favorite action film "Tango and Cash" and as "Bug Bailey" in the 90s flop "Dick Tracy".
Pollard was also credited by Michael J. Fox as the inspiration for Fox adding the "J" to his name for professional reasons.

Goodbye to D.C. Fontana at the age of 80.
Fontana was a key person in the original "Star Trek" as a writer and editor on many episodes with writing credits on ten episodes.
Fontana would adopt the name "D.C" as a manner of being gender-neutral in a time where the female writer had a far more difficult time having their works judged fairly and therefore being able to spell scripts.
Leonard Nimoy credited Fontana for coming up with much of the Vulcan culture that was the foundation for the Spock character during the original series network run.
Fontana would later serve as the associate producer on the early 70s Saturday morning "Star Trek The Animated Series, write episodes for "Next Generation" and "Deep Space Nine", and novels for the genre' as well.

Goodbye to William Ruckelshaus at the age of 87.
Ruckelshaus was the initial administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, which was started by the Nixon administration in 1970, before being moved to the FBI as acting director and then to the justice department as the deputy attorney general to Eliot Richardson.
It was in that role that saw Richardson and Ruckelshaus resign in the "Saturday Night Massacre" as the duo refused to fire Archibald Cox, who was the special prosecutor in the Watergate investigation.
Ruckelshaus led the charge at the EPA to ban the pesticide "DDT", implemented the Clean Air Act. and sued the Jones and Clark Steel Corporation for their companies dumping vast amounts of chemicals into the Cuyahoga River, which caused the Cuyahoga's toxic damage and included the famous river fire.
Ruckelshaus would return to head the EPA in the Reagan administration and would receive the Medal of Freedom in 2015 by then-President Obama.

Goodbye to Randy Colley at the age of 69.
Colley wrestled as several characters throughout his career but is remembered by most as "Moondog Rex" in the then-territorial WWF.
Colley held the WWF tag teams titles with two partners "King' ( Sailor White) and "Spot" (Larry Latham) for four months in 1981 as the Moondogs under manager Lou Albano won the titles from Tony Garea and Rick Martel in March and dropped them back to the same team in July.
Latham replaced White in the middle of the title reign, which may have been shorter than planned due to the switch, due to White being unable to enter the United States for reasons that have had several rumors, yet nothing established as certain.

Colley would have two other interesting times in the wrestling business with the first being as "The Nightmare" as a masked wrestler managed briefly by Sir Oliver Humperdink and then "Hot Stuff" Eddie Gilbert, held the top title in Mid-South Wrestling, the North American title.
The Nightmare held the North American title for just under four months, defeating Terry Taylor to win the title and losing it on a Louisiana Superdome show to Dick Murdoch.
Colley would return to the WWF as part of a new face-painted team called Demolition and Colley has been credited with the idea of the team in which he partnered with Bill Eadie, who is remembered as the Masked Superstar as well as Demolition.
The story goes that at the first television taping for the new team and the second event as a team, despite the paint, dyed hair and trimmed haircut, fans immediately recognized Colley and began to chant "Moondog"!
The fans recognized Colley again at the next television taping and the decision was made to remove Colley from the team and replaced him with Barry Darsow, who had been wrestling for the NWA as "Krusher Khruschev".
Through the years of shoot interviews and podcasts, I've heard several people that were employed in the WWF front office claim that many of their fans didn't know of the wrestlers in other companies, which I guess is why they figured they could get away from Demolition as a similar-looking team to the NWA's Road Warriors to start with, but I never bought that reasoning for the most part.
However, the one thing that made me think they might have had a point is the Demolition issue.
Fans recognized Colley because he had wrestled for the WWF before, yet they didn't seem to figure out that Darsow was formerly "Khrushchev", despite being on a national television program on WTBS for a few years.


That completes the non-sports passings (plus one) for now.
No boxing this weekend, but we do have four playoff football games with the PPM and although I don't provide regular coverage of the New Orleans Saints, I have written playoff coverage in the past and I may do so this year as well.
I also have a sports passing post and yet another regular cleaning of the inbox, so hopefully, I can get caught up some time this week.

TRS Boxing Ratings: Part Two

The second half of the TRS ratings will rank the top fighters from the lightweight division and down to the lightest weight classes in the sport.

Please keep in mind that the votes were sent after the fights of December 14th, so results after that time may not be considered on some voters ballots.

Notes;
Leo Santa Cruz is rated in two divisions because he holds the WBA titles in two divisions and hasn't vacated either as of this writing.
Charlie Edwards will be moving up from flyweight to junior bantamweight and will be ineligible at flyweight for the next rating period.

Lightweights
1: Vasyl Lomachenko WBA/WBO Champ 20 Pts
2: Teofimo Lopez IBF Champ 15 Pts (Up Two)
3: Devin Haney WBC Champ 14 Pts (Up One)
4: Luke Campbell 4 Pts (Unranked)
    Richard Commey  (Down One)
Also Received Votes:, Gervonta Davis, Emmanuel Tagoe, Rances Barthelemy

Junior Lightweights
1: Miguel Berchelt WBC Champ 19 Pts (Up One)
2: Tevin Farmer IBF Champ 15 Pts (Up One)
3: Jamel Herring WBO Champ 11 Pts (Up Two)
4: Leo Santa Cruz WBA Champ 8 Pts (Unranked)
5: Andrew Cancio 3 Pts (Down One)
Also Received Votes: Rene Alvarado, Masayuki Ito, Oscar Valdez

Featherweights
1: Leo Santa Cruz WBA Champ 17 Pts
2: Josh Warrington IBF Champ 15 Pts
3: Gary Russell WBC Champ 14 Pts (Down One)
4: Shakur Stevenson WBO Champ 10 Pts (Up One)
5: Xu Can (Unranked)
    Michael Conlan 1 pt (Unranked)
    Tug Nyambayar (Unranked)

Junior Featherweights
1: Emmanuel Navarrete WBO Champ 18 Pts
2: Guillermo Rigondeaux 17 Pts
3: Rey Vargas WBC Champ 11 Pts
4: Danny Roman WBA/IBF Champ 8 Pts (Down One)
5: Brandon Figueroa 5 Pts
Also Received Votes: Ryosuke Iwasa

Bantamweights
1: Naoya Inoue WBA/IBF Champ 20 Pts
2: Luis Nery 17 Pts
3: Nonito Donaire 15 Pts
4: Nordine Ouabaali WBC Champ 9 Pts
5: John Riel Casimero WBO Champ 7 Pts  (Unranked)
Also Received Votes: Zolani Tete, Jason Moloney

Junior Bantamweights
1: Juan Francisco Estrada WBC Champ 20 Pts
2: Srisaket Sor Rungvisai 14 Pts
3: Jerwin Ancajas IBF Champ 11 Pts (Up One)
    Kal Yafai WBA Champ
5: Kazuto Ioka WBO Champ 3 Pts (Unranked)
Also Received Votes; Roman Gonzalez

Flyweights
1: Kosei Tanaka WBO Champ 20 Pts
2: Artem Dalakian WBA Champ 14 Pts
3: Julio Cesar Martinez WBC Champ 13 Pts (Up One)
4: Moruti Mthalane IBF Champ 8 Pts
5: Charlie Edwards 5 Pts (Down Two)

Junior Flyweight and Under
1: Ken Shiro 17 Pts
2: Hiroto Kyoguchi 15 Pts
3: Felix Alvarado 9 Pts (Up Two)
    Wanheng Menayothin (Up Two)
5: C.P. Freshmart 4 Pts (Down One)
    Elwin Soto (Down Two)
Also Received Votes: Angel Acosta, Carlos Canizales

Pound for Pound
1: Vasyl Lomachenko 39 Pts
2: Terence Crawford 37 Pts (Up One)
3: Naoya Inoue 31 Pts (Up One)
4: Canelo Alvarez 26 Pts (Up One)
    Errol Spence (Down Two)
6: Artur Beterbiev 14 Pts (Unranked)
7: Oleksandr Usyk 10 Pts
8: Gennady Golovkin 9 Pts (Down Two)
9: Manny Pacquiao 7 Pts (Up One)
10: Luis Nery 6 Pts (Down Two)

Also Received Votes:
Wanheng Menayothin
Juan Francisco Estrada
Deontay Wilder
Miguel Berchelt
Jose Ramirez
Tyson Fury
Julian Williams

TRS Boxing Ratings-Part One

Time for the quarterly TRS boxing ratings.
The ratings for the period are based on boxing up through December 14th, as I am a little behind due to my personal issues.

I'd also like to welcome John Herndon to the committee joining Ramon Malpica, Vince Samano and myself in composing the ratings.
John's a good boxing man and I think he'll add to the ratings with his involvement.

Also, these ratings were delayed when I fell behind so the ratings do not reflect results after Dec 14th.
Since these ratings were turned in, Canelo Alvarez vacated the WBO light heavyweight title that he won from Sergey Kovalev.
Under the circumstances, I kept the points for this period, but Canelo will not be rated at 175 in the next ratings.
Jaime Munguia vacated his WBO junior middleweight title and will fight in two weeks at middle.
Since that title is now filled by Patrick Teixeira, I removed Munguia's votes and adjusted points on a curve.
Maurice Hooker fought his last fight at welterweight but announced his intention to return to junior welterweight, so I'm allowing him to stay in the 140-pound ratings


Heavyweight
1: Tyson Fury 18 Pts
    Deontay Wilder WBC Champ (Up One)
3: Anthony Joshua WBA/IBF/WBO Champ 12 pts (Up One)
4: Luis Ortiz 6 Pts (Up One)
5: Andy Ruiz 2 Pts (Down Two)
    Oleksandr Usyk (Unranked)
    Dillian Whyte (Unranked)

Cruiserweight
1: Mairis Breidis 20 Pts
2: Yunier Dorticos IBF Champ 16 Pts
3: Krzysztof Glowacki 11 Pts (Up One)
4: Arsen Goulamirian WBA Champ 5 Pts (Unranked)
5: Andrew Tabiti 4 Pts (Down One)
Also Received Votes: Ilunga Makabu, Michal Cieslak

Light Heavyweight
1:  Artur Beterbiev WBC/IBF Champ 20 Pts (Up Three)
2:  Dmitri Bivol WBA Champ 15 Pts
3:  Oleksandr Gvoszdyk 10 Pts (Down Two)
4:  Canelo Alvarez 4 Pts (Unranked)
     Eleider Alvarez (Unranked)
Also Received Votes: Gilberto Ramirez, Sergey Kovalev, Jean Pascal

Super Middleweights
1: Callum Smith WBA Champ 20 Pts
2: David Benavidez WBC Champ 15 Pts (Up One)
3: Caleb Plant IBF Champ 10 Pts (Down One)
4: Billy Joe Saunders WBO Champ 9 Pts (Unranked)
5: John Ryder 3 Pts (Unranked)
Also Received Votes: Anthony Dirrell, Jose Uzcategui

Middleweights
1: Canelo Alvarez WBA Champ 20 Pts
2: Gennady Golovkin IBF Champ 15 Pts
3: Demetrius Andrade WBO Champ 12 Pts
4: Jermall Charlo WBC Champ 10 Pts
5: Sergey Dereyvanchenko 3 Pts (Unranked)
Also Received Votes: Ryota Murata

Junior Middleweights
1: Julian Williams WBA/IBF Champ 20 Pts
2: Jermell Charlo WBC Champ 13 Pts (Unranked)
    Jarrett Hurd
4: Tony Harrison 8 Pts (Up One)
5: Erislandy Lara 6 Pts (Down One)

Welterweights
1: Terence Crawford WBO Champ 18 Pts (Up One)
2: Errol Spence WBC/IBF Champ 17 Pts (Down One)
3: Manny Pacquiao WBA Champ 12 Pts
4: Shawn Porter 8 Pts (Up One)
5: Keith Thurman 5 Pts (Down One)

Junior Welterweights
1: Jose Ramirez WBC/WBO Champ 20 Pts
2: Josh Taylor WBA/IBF Champ 16 Pts (Up One)
3: Regis Prograis 12 Pts (Down One)
4: Maurice Hooker 6 Pts
5: Jose Zepeda 4 Pts (Unranked)
Also Received Votes; Subriel Matias, Viktor Postol



 

Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone!

I'm sure you are wondering why a Blue Crayfish and I'm not sure why either.
I was scanning through for pictures and it caught my eye, so it works for me.

I'm not sure what 2020 has in store for me.
On a personal level, it'll be a year of firsts and not the type of firsts that I was looking for either as, until Christmas, everything that I'll be marking on the calendar will be the first time without my mom.
Almost all of those holidays are ones that I didn't spend on an actual day with my parents in the past.
They usually had plans of some type with another family member in recent years when mom became infirm, but before that, I would receive invites and more often than that, I'd pass for various reasons throughout the years.
Most of the time, it wasn't a problem between my parents and me, although there was an occasional one through the years, but more often than not, I just didn't want to hang around a bunch of people.
That's not me then and it's not really me now.
I prefer smaller events with family and friends and I'm not huge on a lot of noise, so while it would be easy to say that I regret those decisions now, it would be disingenuous on my part.
Still, I almost always talked to my parents on holidays, especially in recent years and she knew I cared enough to call.
I'll have more to write on mom soon, but I have one more family event to get through to finally be able to allow everything to sink in and I'm sure there will be some healing and dealing to be done when everything is completed.

On a lighter note, could this be the last season for local minor league baseball?
Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred seems pretty determined to bully his way into what he wants and what he wants is more than the elimination of 42 teams that he desires in this agreement with the minors.
It's the next one to watch as well as if Manfred gets his way this time, his final goal is to shrink the minors down to three minor league affiliates for each major league team.
If I lived near a team that wasn't on the elimination list this time, I still wouldn't feel safe.
Both of the local teams are on the hit list and while I certainly can understand why the Hagerstown Suns with the crumbling Muni and woeful attendance would be high on the list, I don't understand why the Frederick Keys, who lead their league in attendance, are on it.
MLB says it's all about player comfort and facilities, but Harry Grove Stadium's needs could be easily addressed by local contractors with an upgraded clubhouse and weather-friendly additions could be added for a batting cage and a pitchers mound or two.
I think Frederick will dodge a bullet, assuming that they are willing to do those upgrades, but I cannot say that I know that for sure.

Personally, should Manfred get away with this, I'd bet my baseball interest drops a bit.
How could I support MLB in good conscience should their heartless plan take effect?
I'm not saying I'll hate baseball or anything like that, but only time will tell how much I resent them.
One thing is for sure, I'm going to appreciate things a lot more this season in the minors and take many of these times as if they could be the last.

I'll be picking up a new hobby this year too, which might be just in time with the situation with the Suns and Keys,
Cherie and Rachel bought me a metal detector for Christmas and I'm pretty excited about it.
I watch two or three people's videos on YouTube that "treasure hunt" on land and water and I've enjoyed watching them, which is likely why my ladies thought this would be a good gift and it was a surprise that I didn't see coming.
I'm looking forward to taking it out to a few of my childhood haunts and seeing what turns up and just being out and about is good for me physically.


I'm also looking forward to another small project, getting some of my collections in order and maybe even moving some things along that might be better appreciated by others.
It's not as much downsizing as it is changing what I wish to collect and keep at this stage of my life.
Ryan says he'll help me, so that would be a large assist in moving things around.

I'll still be doing my baseball trips with my friends of course, but finances permitting I also want to take more trips with the family too.
I have a few ideas for those if I can afford them or even if they would be interested.

All and all, 2020 is going to be a very interesting year with items that don't involve me with the craziness that almost is certain to come with the Presidential election and the various other problems in our country and world, but I'm thinking that things might be better than we think they'll be.
Maybe this is a rare "Half-Full" glass statement for me, but I'm trying for a change!

I'll be back later tonight with either the first boxing ratings of the year, which were postponed since I've been so busy or more from the inbox.