(Neil Miller/Sportsday Wire)
Accountants use the term “depreciation” to describe the estimated wear and tear that an asset incurs in a given year. Any CPA will tell you that it is an art for more than it is a science. One method of depreciation, called the units of production method, requires an estimation of how long an asset will last such as the number of hours a light bulb can burn or how many miles a car will be driven in its lifetime. Of course if a car is expected to last 100,000 miles that doesn’t mean that it stops running the moment that mark is reached particularly if there has been proper maintenance.
Estimated innings pitched for a season is a form of depreciation measurement in baseball. While it’s far from foolproof it shouldn’t be completely ignored either.
The first reaction from Mets fans upon hearing about Scott Boras’s demand that Matt Harvey be shut down as soon as he hits the 180-inning mark for the 2015 season was to think of that as pure chutzpah on his part. When Harvey seemed to back his agent’s statement, Mets fans immediately screamed for his head. After all, the Mets were in a pennant race and where was his loyalty to his teammates and to Mets fans?
On the other hand, would Mets fans have been sq quick to condemn Harvey if this were a typical Mets September where the team was long out of the post-season hunt? If anything, they would have complimented Harvey and Boras for seeing the big picture. Mets management would have insisted on shutting Harvey down as well.
I have always found Scott Boras to be a good guy (despite his unpopular image with fans and many in the press corps) who has never big-leagued me when I have wanted to talk with him. That’s more than I can say for Matt Harvey who seems to create an electric fence around his locker when it comes to media, particularly those of us from smaller outlets.
While Matt Harvey may be one of the least favorite professional athletes that I have encountered in all of my years of covering sports, I can’t blame him for being cautious when it comes to his career. Mets pitcher Jeremy Hefner (remember him?) had to undergo a second Tommy John procedure last fall.
It’s easy for fans to bitterly complain about Harvey’s me-first attitude but they are not going to compensate him in case his arm gets damaged.
Yes, I can understand the frustration of Harvey’s employer, the New York Mets, on this matter. Not only are they are signing his paychecks but they have shown prudence in managing both his starts and pitch counts this season.
Harvey has said that he would pitch in the post-season. That is, if there is a post-season for our Flushing heroes.
Mets outfielder Curtis Granderson raised some eyebrows when he told a reporter that he wasn’t sure if men really landed on the moon and brought up the possibility that July 20, 2969 might have been staged.
“How come we haven’t been back there in over 40 years?” he said to me. I told him that it is very expensive to go up there just to pick up more lunar rocks and that NASA’s attention seems to have shifted to discovering Mars. He did laugh when I said that his comments might be helpful in NASA procuring more funding in future federal budgets.
I have a feeling that Curtis was pulling a few people’s legs with his skepticism. When I asked him if he really doubted that Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, he quickly replied with a wink, “It’s 50-50!”
No one can accuse St. John’s Red Storm head coach NBA Hall of Fame inductee Chris Mullin of playing favorites when it comes to New York’s two baseball teams. In June, Mullin threw out the first pitch before a Yankees game. On September 2 he did the same at Citi Field before the Mets beat the Phillies.
Delightfully folksy Phillies radio voice Larry Anderson took a lot of heat from some Mets fans when he said on Philly’s 50,000 watt WPHT that Mets fans who were visiting Citizens Bank Park were obnoxious.
Anderson told me a week later when the Phillies came to Citi Field that he was just having fun with the Mets fans and that no one should take him too seriously. “Hey, I never said that our fans weren’t obnoxious. It’s an East Coast thing.” He then added that both he and the Phillies accounting department were hoping that those very same Mets fans would be returning to Philadelphia the last week of September when the Amazins return there.
I asked Rafael Nadal if any of his fellow tennis players were giving him the business in the locker room about his playful commercial for his eponymous underwear joint venture with Tommy Hilfiger. “Not really. By the way what did you think of the ads?” he retorted to me with a grin. I told him in Spanish that it showed that he had a good sense of humor about himself. Of course after getting bounced in the third round of the US Open he might want to start thinking about wearing Jockey or Hanes.
Venus Williams just received her bachelor’s degree in business administration from Indiana University thanks to completing numerous online classes. When asked about how she did in accounting she replied, “Oh man! I nearly went blind studying for those classes. The good thing is that I have used what I learned.”
Athletes are not immune from losing lucrative corporate endorsement deals. I asked Sloane Stephens if she was still with AmEx since I did not see her likeness on the advertising billboards that lined the boardwalk connecting the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center to the 7-train Willets Point station. “No. They decided to go in a different direction.” When I jokingly told her that I would only use my Visa card for the rest of the year, she quickly replied with a smile, “Good. I like that!”
I have a feeling that Coco Vandeweghe and her uncle, former Knicks player and Nets head coach Kiki Vandeweghe, don’t spend holiday dinners together. When I asked her after she beat Sloane Stephens if Uncle Kiki would be coming out to Queens to watch her she brusquely answered, “He does his thing and I do mine.”
21 year-old Jessica Pegula, who made it into the second round of the US Open before losing, is the daughter of Buffalo Bills owner, Terry Pegula. I asked her if any Jets fans in the stands tried to give her a hard time during her matches. “No, they were fine. I was really gratified however to see the number of spectators who were wearing Buffalo Bills jerseys.”
The intense hot humid weather of August has lasted into early September. Staying hydrated is crucial for good health. Juice Press which sells organic juices sure picked the right year to sell their products at the US Open for the first time. Another good non-carbonated choices for parching your thirst are Coco Libre Organic Coconut Water and WTR MLN WTR (watermelon water) which both refresh and provide needed electrolytes to your body. If you like preparing your own fun beverages at home try Vega Protein Smoothies or Nutritional Shakes. Vega is the Canadian company that makes a variety of plant-based snacks and supplements.
When colder weather comes we all have a tendency to pack on more pounds. One way to keep your weight down and still enjoy your favorite foods is portion control. A company called Tiny Bites has designed a scissor that can cut any vegetable, snack bar, pasta, or cooked meat into very small portions. Smaller servings not only help in keeping weight down but also improve digestion.