The world according to Jim:
This may be a hint of what’s really at stake as baseball’s owners and its Players Association prepare to battle over a new collective bargaining agreement.
Remember the immediate aftermath of the classic Dodgers-Toronto Blue Jays World Series last month? Large numbers of people posting social media messages about baseball, and about that Series, many of which seemed to be people who either had rekindled their interest in the sport or had been drawn in by the drama of the postseason.
Flash forward, a month later, to what I posted Tuesday evening on Threads: “Nine days before Christmas, and people are still talking about how they miss baseball. You are my people, regardless of which team you root for.” As of Friday morning that post had more than 8,200 views, 880 likes, 36 comments and 18 reposts. …
• The point isn’t to brag but to marvel at the idea: Baseball, the game that is seen as too casual, too slow, too old, still touches a lot of people’s lives. It is missed – a lot – when it is on winter hiatus, even by fans whose teams didn’t make it to October. …
• And whether these are new fans or those who have been loyal to the sport all their lives, the peril is that they’re a little less than 12 months away from possibly being disenfranchised as players and owners squabble about the economics of the game.
Barring a miracle – in this case, both sides paying attention to the fans – management will lock out labor in early December 2026, and labor pains will not only clutter up the next offseason (and stall player movement) but will risk whatever gains the game has made in market share – especially if a lockout lasts into the spring.
I’m not confident. …
• Artificial intelligence platform Gemini gave us its version of a summary of recent World Series champions this past week, and it’s a hoot. It lists – seriously – the “Logeeles Dodgers,” “Minneota Twins,” “Cincitaati Athletics,” “Toronto Blue’uns,” “New Yerk Yankees,” “Anahem Angels” (and, alternately, “Anahem Angelos”), “St. Louis-Red,” “San Francisco rdinus,” “San Nerk Yankees,” “St Francisco Ardinals,” “Chicago City,” “Washington Dodgers” (?), and “Houston Rangers.”
You sure you want to trust the information that AI platforms spew? …
• But give Gemini credit for this: There’s no champion listed for 2017. …
• Well, we learned this much Thursday night: Puka Nacua hasn’t exactly made the smartest decisions off the field – including an ill-advised, passive/aggressive social media post aimed at officiating following the Rams’ 38-37 overtime loss in Seattle – but he certainly didn’t seem distracted on the field (12 catches, 225 yards, two scores). …
• This week’s quiz: USC and UCLA have had nine Heisman Trophy winners combined in the award’s 91 years. Which of those winners weren’t seniors? Answer below.
• This is a reminder of where college sports, and particularly college football, are today: When Jaiden Maiava let it be known he’d be returning to USC for his senior season in 2026, the first thing that popped into my mind was, “So where’s Husan Longstreet going?” …
Once – and not that long ago, either – a quarterback entering his sophomore year, as Longstreet is, would be willing to patiently wait his turn, perfect his grasp of the offense and prepare himself to eventually be QB1. That seems to be what USC coach Lincoln Riley refers to when he discusses his previous quarterbacks – including Heisman Trophy winners Baker Mayfield, Kyler Murray and Caleb Williams and runner-up Jalen Hurts.
He talked earlier this season about how “all the guys that did all the things” served that apprenticeship, “and it made a big difference. Because when it (came) their time, they were ready.”
Hold that thought, because we’re coming back to it. …
• But it’s different now because of three powerful letters: NIL. Longstreet was a five-star recruit out of Corona Centennial High, and if he were to enter the portal there likely would be spirited competition for his talents, expressed in dollars. Under those circumstances, extended apprenticeships aren’t terribly appealing. …
• Quiz answer: The schools’ last three Heisman winners, all from USC, weren’t seniors: Matt Leinart (sophomore) in 2004, Reggie Bush (junior) in ’05 and Williams (sophomore) in ’22. The others were all seniors and all but one from USC: Mike Garrett in ’65, Gary Beban (the only Bruin) in ’67, O.J. Simpson in ’68, Charles White in ’79, Marcus Allen in ’81 and Carson Palmer in ’02. …
• Back to Riley’s statement from earlier this season: Two of those apprenticeships were mandated by the NCAA’s redshirt rule at the time. Mayfield threw for 2,315 yards as a freshman at Texas Tech in 2013, transferred to Oklahoma and sat out a year, started the next three and won the Heisman as a senior in 2017. Murray transferred from Texas A&M after his freshman season in 2015, sat out a year, was a backup at Oklahoma in 2017 and won the Heisman as a junior in ’18. (The NCAA began waiving the transfer-redshirt rule in recent years and voluntarily eliminated it in 2023).
Hurts played his first three seasons at Alabama before transferring to Oklahoma for his senior season in 2019, in which he was the runner-up to LSU’s Joe Burrow. And Williams became Oklahoma’s QB1 midway through Game 6 against Texas in 2021, came to USC with Riley the next fall and won the Heisman as a sophomore. …
• There is hope for those soccer fans victimized by the terminally greedy, also known as FIFA. That organization, which was unusually (for them) affected by outrage over ticket prices for next summer’s World Cup, recently announced it was creating a tier of $60 tickets per game for next year’s tournament. The catch is that those will be available only to 500 supporters per team, meaning the true die-hards.
So if you’re part of the American Outlaws, you might have a slim shot at those reasonably priced seats, better than the odds of winning Saturday’s $1.5 billion Powerball jackpot but not by much.
• If you’re not one of the lucky 500 per team, and you want to see a World Cup game or games in person, you’d better be wealthy. With five million requests in just the most recent phase of ticket availability, prices are said to be five times as high as those in Qatar in 2022. Tickets for the final in East Rutherford, N.J. begin at $4,000 – and seats for most games, including those at SoFi Stadium, will sell on a dynamic pricing model.
Good luck.
jalexander@scng.com
