Tradition unlike any other

Most of you folks know my affinity for the little invitational they host off Washington and Magnolia in Richmond County, about two hours East of the A-T-L.

It’s my favorite event in sports. Year-in and year-out.

Sure, if your team is making a run in any given sport, especially your favorite sport, those make lifetime memories.

If you’re a Mocs hoops fan, the 2022 SoCon tournament was magical.

If you pull for Georgia, every fall Saturday for the past 18 months have been a lot of fun.

But those are team roller coasters, built on emotion and success.

Augusta National is an elegance built on respect — from competitors and patrons alike — and regard.

Simply put. It’s the tradition — and the reverence the guardians of Green Jacket have for that tradition — that has crafted this place and this event into an unparalleled place in sports.

Sure, March Madness elicits a brotherhood of magic. Lorenzo Charles, Keith Smart and Christian Laettner likely be will called on to show San Diego State’s Lamont Butler the spring-time, breathtaking buzzer-beater handshake.

Yes, college football has its Heisman House and the smilin’ Super Bowl signal callers can all meet at Disney World every few years and reminiscence.

But they all did it with different folks in different times potentially with strikingly different rules and at different places.

That’s not the Masters. Those are fraternities of in-the-moment greatness. The Masters is the circle of tradition and the standard for excellence.

And the difference is that the star of the Masters never changes.

It’s not the all-timer players like Arnie and his Army, or Jack and his unyielding will. Or even Tiger at his apex.

It’s not the all-time moments, even if we’re talking about the shot heard around the world or the commercial chip that stood on the lip of the cup for the entire world to see the swoosh.

Heck, it’s not even the heart-pounding drama that makes the best in the game miss two-footers or celebrate like they won their first junior event.

The star of the Masters is the immaculate grounds that we all know by heart.

We know the deep bunker right of 1 fairway is trouble. We know the short par-4 third and the Heaven-sent short par-3 12th best never be disrespected. We know the par-5s must be attacked and almost everything else — especially 4 through 7 — must be respected.

We know that Mize made magic on 11, which is impossible hard, and Rory lived a nightmare on 10, which is almost as difficult.

We know Jack made Verne on 17, and the shoot on 18 looks as wide as your Aunt Edna’s backside but it’s more narrow than the political view from either extreme.

And of course we know 16. Ah 16. Which holds the magic of Jack and Tiger — the champions most synonymous with this grand palace — together as well as the hopes and nightmares of this year’s field.

And next year’s. And every year after that.

And that, friends, is the magic of the Masters.

MLB check mark

So, I have a subscription to The Athletic, and one of the main reasons is their tremendous baseball coverage.

Dave O’Brien does excellent work for that site on the Braves. And Jayson Stark has been honored by the Baseball Hall of Fame for a reason.

Stark’s interview with MLB executive extraordinaire Theo Epstein about the game’s early returns on the new rules was very well done and quite insightful. It’s here (and yes, it’s a pay site).

From that story, we learn that through Monday, average time of MLB games this season has been 2 hours and 38 minutes. Average time of games last season at this juncture was 3:03.

Just read that again.

And for the naysayers who bemoan that this is a way for less baseball, well, that’s factually in accurate.

This is not less baseball. There are still nine innings. There are still three outs per side per inning. The amount of baseball — give or take an increase or decrease in extra innings — has never changed.

The baseball has stayed the same. There simply is less standing around, fewer stare downs, decreased wasted time.

Moreover, if you have watched a game, the significant drop in average length of a game is not, at least for me, measured in getting to bed 25 minutes earlier.

The pace of play is noticeably better, and in truth, it feels like more action, right?

Epstein reminded Stark that yes the rule changes were to change the game. And yes, in a lot of ways they were efforts to fix the game. But he also added that it was as much about the game self-correcting itself from rules, strategy, trends and equipment that had dropped the league-wide average to .243 and saw multi-generational lows in doubles, triples and stolen bases in 2022.

This season: Average on balls hit in play is up eight points to .298; stolen bases and attempts are up from 40 steals on 57 tries in 2022 to 84 for 100 through Monday’s games.

And this quote from Epstein to Stark about the complaints from those against the rule changes, especially the pitch clock, and the adjustment period baseball current works through was especially on point for me.

“I’ve never heard anyone come back from an NFL game and say, ‘It was a great game, but the delay-of-game penalties ruined the whole thing,'” Epstein said. “Same with the NBA. No one comes back and says, ‘The shot clock ruined the game.'”

Spring forward

Auburn coach Hugh Freeze mentioned it late last week, and in truth, I love the idea.

Actually, if we’re being honest, I openly argued for this plan idea many moons ago.

Freeze’s idea was simple. The Power Five schools scheduling an actual spring game against an in-state foe.

Sounds too good to be true, and honestly what’s the downside?

If you say injuries, well, injuries can happen in the most casual of non-contact scenarios in the most casual of scrimmages in-house or out.

And of course, any player with anything more than a sniffle for either team would be held out for precautionary measures.

But the attraction of Auburn against JSU or Bama against Troy would be obvious — to ticket-buying fans and TV viewers and executives.

You would have to think it would be welcome to programs like Troy or UTC, too, if the Mocs could secure a date to Knoxville or the mid-state for Vandy per se.

The Power Five could offer some money for travel and time since the ticket sales would stay in house. The smaller schools would get a sizable increase in revenue and the exposure that would come from playing on TV, at least against SEC foes.

I’m having a hard time seeing a downside from anyone other than the coaches, who accept change as happily as a credit-card-only cashier with a line around the building.

Plus, when the scheduling model changes — and it will change as expansion to the college football playoff happens — this at least keeps some of the ‘money-game’ coin coming to the smaller programs.

Thoughts?

This and that

— Speaking of the Masters, we still have our free contest, Masterfully Mastering the Masters (Masters degree optional). Rules are easy: Submit five golfers; top four finishers count. Points for finish — first is 1 point, T4 is 4 points — and low score wins some stuff. Price is the same as always, as free as the speech before us. Well, more free actually.

— Oh, you want my picks? OK. I already shared that I got Rory winning this thing. I have some coins on Collin Morikawa finishing top 10, so I will take him, too. It’s hard not to have Jon Rahm in there all things considered. I’ll pass on Scottie Scheffler. And while I’d love to be offering some long-shot number or out-of-nowhere choice, this is a course that, while the field is not huge or deep, the winners come from the names you know. You know? So I will take Justin Thomas and Patrick Cantlay as my final two. (Although a couple of the longer odds out there I like are Sungjae Im and Jason Day. And of course I’ll have a nibble on Keith and Harris, too.)

— Yeah, my big mouth and fat fingers jinxed the Plays, which went bagel-and-2 Tuesday. Alas. As Vader said and as basketball journeyman Billy “The Whopper” Paultz crafted his hoops career on, pickers gotta pick.

— You know the rules. Here’s Paschall on the Georgia QBs who had been wearing back-up ball caps and who could be QB1 and put on a Stetson.

— The rocky future of the original “Yellowstone” looks even more rocky after reading this. No bueno, amigos.

Today’s questions

Which way Wednesday starts this way:

We asked this Tuesday, but which 1980s teen movie villain actor was better, James Spader or William Zbaka?

Which of Adam Sandler’s crew of cronies who appear in almost every film is the most appreciative?

Which hole at Augusta National is your favorite?

Which Masters story line intrigues you most this week?

Which word would you use to describe the MLB product since the rule changes?

Answer some which ways, leave some which ways.

As for today, April 5, let’s review.

Wow, whether you think it’s a good thing or a bad thing and regardless of the actual start date, today is the day that Fox television was born.

On this day in 1987, Fox debuted two shows — “Married with Children” and “The Tracey Ullman Show” — which would eventually be the foundation for the then-upstart network in those lean early years.

Yes, you remember the Bundys, and please know that part of the rotation on Ms. Ullman’s variety show was a cartoon short based that eventually became “The Simpsons.”

If we had a Rushmore across Fox TV, who makes it? Go, and remember the Masters contest.