What we know:   Pretty much nothing.  We did not agree on anything.  The betting lines have Mike Trout as a 1:1 favorite to take home the AL Most Valuable Player hardware, but it is interesting that none of the Jockeys see the Angels in the World Series despite the potential output of Trout, Pujols and Calhoun.  As a group, we see Felix Hernandez dominating the AL.  (Spound is still waiting for Tanaka to produce for his 2014 fantasy team, and we are not quite sure what Brittany is seeing that the rest of don’t with respect to Joe Kelly of the Red Sox.)

Ian really wanted to take a flyer on the Mariners in the Series and likes Cano as a dark horse AL MVP pick, but he couldn’t pull the trigger.  Britt and Craig both go all-in with an old skool LA-NY series and Chris and Ian both projected the same unlikely AL Champ to lose versus the pitching depth of the Nats.  And of course, the ever-diabolical Spound is rooting for the Cubbies to find their way back to the Championship just so Billy Sianis’ curse can play-out yet again…106 years and counting.

Send us your thoughts in the comment section.

What we discovered was the Harrisons have a long way to go to crack the Top 100, let alone the Top 20 that we have digested and analyzed for your consideration herein.  This was way more difficult to quantify than one would think.  There were  many siblings that did not sniff our list but were remarkable for their achievements.  A few of the particularly noteworthy are highlighted below.

For example, we all know that Jackie Robinson was arguably the best second baseman of all time, but did you know that Jackie’s older brother, Matthew “Mack” Robinson, earned a Silver Medal in the 1936 Olympics in Munich.  He finished 2nd by 0.4 seconds to none other than Jessie Owens.

We knew that we could not ignore the most popular sport on earth – soccer – but the Charlton brothers finished on the outside looking in. Who were they you ask?  Sir Bobby and twin brother, Jack, won the 1966 World Cup for England.  Jack was FWA Footballer of the year in 1967; won 2 Fairs Cups; a league title and FA Cup.  Sir Bobby survived a tragic air crash in Munich in 1958 that killed many of his Manchester United teammates. He went onto play over 600 games for ManU, with a goals per game average of an incredible .328 while hauling in an array of individual honors.

Here’s a fact that might win a few bar bets for you:  Both Marat Safin and his sister, Dinara, are the only brother-sister tandem to achieve a world number 1 pro tennis ranking – Matt in 2000, Dinara in 2009.  We suspect that you might have an inkling about the tennis sibs who did make our Top 20, however.

Lastly, before we move onto our rankings, we considered the array of brothers who played cricket.  The Aussies tout the Chappells of the 1970s, the Zimbabweans love the Flower twins of the 1990s and currently, the Pakistanis queue up to see the Akmals, but none of us are actually smart enough to really understand which are the best sibs – so we left them all off of the list.

And now without further adieu….let the outrage and second-guessing begin.

Why the Richards?  Over the 100 year history of the Stanley Cup and professional ice hockey, both Henri and Maurice “Rocket” Richard still both rank within the Top 25 of their sport; with The Rocket securing a spot within the Top 5 all time.  Although one could argue that Serena Williams may be one the five best women’s tennis players in history, and Venus did earn a number 1 ranking in 2002, the fact is, second-fiddle Venus is not as dominant in her sport as the lesser (just slightly lesser) Henri was in his.

We welcome your thoughts…but it won’t change our minds.

Put the stats in perspective.  Let’s start at his ability to just win golf matches.   He will pass the great Sam Snead for most career wins (82) sometime next year because Woods – who is only 37 – is sitting at 79 of them, besting Jack Nicklaus’ career total of 73.  The nearest active player is 43 year old Phil Mickleson with 41 tour victories!  “Okay Christopher, we  understand that Tiger has won a lot of matches but what does that have to do with the PGA putting the ‘kibosh” on him winning majors?”  Tiger Woods is 5 majors short of besting Jack Nicklaus’ record.  Ponder this:  Tiger Woods hasn’t won a major since 2008 (US Open) and that dry spell coincides with his marital infidelity scandal in 2009 where the PGA and Jack Nicklaus stood in silence.  I think a side deal has been made that in exchange for the silence of the PGA and the “Golden Bear,” Woods takes a 5 year hiatus on holding active pursuit of the Claret Jug, the Wanamaker Trophy and the Green Jacket.

Woods went through all of the sordid drama of a bad made for TV move and the Professional Golfers Association did not say a word against their cash-producing stud.  They never condemned him for his improprieties.   They never issued an organizational reprimand stating how the Association was tarnished because of Tiger’s salacious actions.  They never suspended him for conduct unbecoming of the PGA Tour professional.   Why not invoke a half year suspension?   They suspended golfer John Daly and all he did was pass out drunk while sitting outside a restaurant and hitting a golf ball off of a beer can!  Who hasn’t?   Daly was suspended for six months as a two-time major winner; surely the PGA would risk a little bit of dirt on its precious image to at least have an opinion about Tiger’s dalliances?

And that brings us to the real reason: MONEY!   The almighty dollar, coin, cabbage, taters, spy- stuff (I got those descriptors off of a Jimmy Fallon commercial.).  Tiger Woods is THE number one draw for the sport.  The man who pushes the financial dial is made of Teflon when it comes to the PGA speaking ill against him.  He pushes attendance in every tournament he appears.  He makes television networks money and so he is only asked a few softball questions by the media.  Most of the other players aren’t going to mumble out anything critical because his involvement in the game raises the purse for each tournament, thus making even his completion more money.

So there you have it. History, Prestige and Wealth.  Sounds like a bit of an old boys’ network if you ask me….

• 1) Who are the most accomplished political leaders who also played a professional sport? 
• 2) Should the citizens of Puerto La Cruz decide to elect Ordonez, how have professional athletes performed as political leaders?

First we turn to Issue 1.  For starters, there have been no US Presidents who have also played a professional sport, but  there have been a few Presidents with notable collegiate careers (and some who have purported to have been college athletes*). The Bench Jockeys dug into the stats and offer our top three for consideration:

• 3.  George H.W. Bush (#41 )was first baseman, batted .354 in his senior year and played in the College World Series for Yale.
• 2.  Dwight Eisenhower  (#34) was a linebacker and running back at Army, Nicknamed the “Kansas Cyclone,” Eisenhower injured his knee while tackling one of the greatest athletes of all time, Jim Thorpe, in the famous 1912 Carlisle vs. Army game.
• 1.  Gerald Ford (#38) was an All-American and played center for 1933 National Champion Univ. of Michigan Wolverines football team.  He was voted team MVP in his senior year.

*Although there was a great deal of talk about the college basketball career of Barack Obama, there seems to be no documentation of the assertion that Barack Obama led the Occidental College Men’s Basketball team in scoring in 1979 as has been reported.  He attended Occidental for two years and we can find no corroboration that as a freshman he even played on the school team.  (You never know what will surface when you start doing a little good ol’ fashioned investigative journalism.)  As for other professional sportsmen turned public servants, we found the following tasty tidbits for your consumption:  The most accomplished member of this select group is former US Senator from New Jersey, William “Bill” Bradley who was a member of the 1964 Olympic basketball team and was voted the NCAA Player of the Year in 1965. He played on the New York Knicks for ten years, winning two championship titles.   He was also a Rhodes Scholar so I am guessing he is a pretty smart chap.

US Congressmen from New York, Jack Kemp was appointed as Housing Secretary under George H.W. Bush. Kemp was selected as the Vice Presidential running mate in Bob Dole’s failed 1996 election campaign against Bill Clinton.  Ironically, like Barack Obama, Kemp also attended Occidental in the 1950’s where he was a record-setting javelin hurler and played several positions on the football team: quarterback, defensive back, place kicker and punter.  Interestingly Occidental does have a record of Kemp’s collegiate accomplishments.  Kemp went on to play professional sports as a quarterback for 13 years, with brief stints in the NFL and CFL, later securing star status in the AFL with the San Diego Chargers and Buffalo Bills.  Kemp was selected as the AFL’s Most Valuable Player award in 1965 after leading the Bills to a second AFL championship.

Although appointed to the role, defensive tackle and the most celebrated member of the Purple People Eaters, Alan Page, serves as a Justice on the Minnesota Supreme Court.  Fellow Minnesotan Jesse Ventura was elected as Governor of the state, but to count him would mean we are calling the WWE a professional sport – which it is not – so he is out.   However, the late Jack Mildren, a two-way player who over the course of a three year career with the Colts and Pats made three interceptions as a defensive back and rushed for 22 yards and threw 1 incomplete pass as a quarterback, served as Lt. Governor of Oklahoma.  He meets the pro-pol crossover criteria on paper. 

Internationally, there have been some instances of professional sportsmen transitioning  to public office.  Both Alexis Argüello, who was Mayor of Managua, Nicaragua for a few months before he was assassinated (or committed suicide depending on who you ask) and Philippine House of Representatives member, Emmanuel “Manny”  Pacquiao, were professional boxers who became mid-level political leaders.  Sanath Teran is a former Sri Lankan cricketer and a current member of the Parliament of Sri Lanka.  Ari Uolevi Vatanen is a Finnish rally car driver who won the World Rally Championship in 1981 and the Paris Dakar Rally four times was a member of the European Parliament.  But perhaps the most successful foreign-born professional athlete is Donald Ross Getty, a Canadian politician who served as the Premier of Alberta after quarterbacking the Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football League.  As Premier, Getty served as the de facto Chief Executive for the territory.  Nice work.

And then there is Ahhhhnold.  If bodybuilding is a truly professional sport – and according to ABC’s Wide World of Sports (which I grew up watching as a kid) it is – The Austrian Oak’s election as Governator of California has to trump them all.  But notice some interesting coincidences…and that leads us directly into Issue 2.  Schwarzenegger oversaw the workings of one the most financially unstable states in the US, with the majority of Californians suggesting his limited concepts of state management made fiscal matters even worse.  Imagine that?  

Similarly, there have been two US mayors who were former professional athletes: the Mayor of recently bankrupt Detroit is former NBA-er Dave Bing and the Mayor of cash-strapped Sacramento is Kevin Johnson, formerly of the Phoenix Suns.  (As a former Bullet, I like Dave Bing, but that’s a big 0 for 2 on assuming NBA skills sets prepare players for the complexities of leading a city.)

Which brings us right back to Ordonez.  What experience during his 15 year career in the Major Leagues possibly prepares Magglio Ordonez for the leadership of Puerto La Cruz?  Given the vast anthology of professional sports figures who have come and gone over the last 125 years, success stories are scarce.  In fact, the lion’s share of those stories can be condensed into less than 1000 words (see above).  Ex-athletes seem to be able to serve as a part of a body politic, or a team, but when it comes to leading a state or a city, they fall flat.  With the exception of Don Getty, there is no success story where a professional athlete was elected to the role of a chief executive of a city, state or province.  Bill Bradley and Jack Kemp were strong representatives of a constituency, but effectively leading that same populace requires a completely different array of talents.  Maggs, please reconsider your political aspirations before you get in over your head, or even worse, lose it.  

The typical example would be an investment banking firm with multiple lines of business. Perhaps one division is helping a company sell its bonds to the public, and perhaps another division is analyzing its client’s assets, etc.  One division might realize its assets are worth about 20 cents on the dollar, while the other is trying to ream the public by selling the bonds for 97 cents on the dollar. (Any bells going off yet? Think Mortgage Crisis).

Anywho, imagine what would happen if  one sports team also owned the major newspaper in that town.  John W. Henry the owner of the Boston Red Sox is now the owner of the Boston Globe, purchasing the newspaper from the New York Times for the absurdly low purchase price of $70M – a mere $1.030B less than the purchase price in 1993.  Two years prior, the Times rejected a $300 million offer from Aaron Kushner, CEO of Freedom Communications, Inc.  That’s some astute valuation work NTY.  But back to my point:  Isn’t it quite possible that the Boston Red Globe will essentially be a PR outlet for the team. So many great stories will go unwritten.  Chicken and beer in the dugout, we will never hear about. Roid-rage incidents such as smashing a harmless dugout phone and nearly taking out the team’s best player, will go un-reported. Pitchers missing a start, only to be found on the golf course.  Who will know?

Forget the Chinese Wall, how about a giant Cone of Silence?

These days everyone is writing a Bucket List.  I wrote my list back in 1999 and one of the items I included was a autographed baseball from the 9 baseball players who I thought were the best n their respective positions.  As with everything I do, I had rules: 1) The signatures have to be on a official major league baseball – no commemoratives, autosigned, HOF or gimmicky balls; 2) all balls have to present with only the player’s autograph, no multisigned balls; and 3) the signature has to be authentic and 4) it has to be a clean and visible signature.

My list of players was developed by looking at each players stats and their overall meaning to the game, while considering my rule constructs and the virtual impossibility of securing a verified autograph from players from the turn of the century like Christy Matthewson and Nap Lajoie.  I will say up front, I did not select Babe Ruth who many consider to be the best player of all time.  Why?  I just do not like him and I really do not want a signed ball from Ruth.  The rest of the list may have a bit of slant to my hometown Birds, but I would challenge the nay-sayers to consider Brooks Robinson and his strong defensive play combined with MVP stats, longevity and and World Series appearances against the typical Schmidt and Brett selections for a 3rd baseman.  The same is true of Cal Ripken and his 2632 games, 19 time All-Star selection, two AL MVPs and ROY honors .  His quest to top Gehrig’s consecutive games played streak came at a time when the next closest player in Major League Baseball with an active games played streak was Albert Belle at 327.

Here is how I size them up:  Pitcher – Sandy Koufax; Catcher – Johnny Bench; 1st Base – “The Hebrew Hammer,” Hank Greenberg (a rather price ball); 2nd Base – Jackie Robinson (that ball is also going to leave a mark in the ol’ wallet); SS – Ripken; 3rd Base – “The Hoover”; Rightfield – Hammerin’ Hank Aaron; Centerfield – Willie Mays,”The Say Hey Kid”; and in Leftfield – Ted Williams (but I am not averse to swapping him out for Stan “The Man” Musial).

Comments and analysis are always welcome but you are free to make your own list and grab your own balls.

Two things that irritated me: 1) Tony LaRussa (who I respect for his years of baseball experience and knowledge) took a shot at the umpire’s strike zone disparities. Strike Zones for both teams were questionable all game, but it’s low to go on national television and whine about it.  Charlie Manuel in his post-game interview said, “I’m not blaming the umpire, they outplayed us on the field.” EXACTLY.  If the umpire gives you a smaller strike zone, then you have to play better defense and also actually hit the ball.  2) Swinging at the first pitch:  Did the Phils not learn from the prior night’s experience (an 11-run rout) that swinging at the first pitch (and causing an inevitable out) yielded nothing?  Swinging at the first pitch rarely gets you a hit and especially in the Playoffs when adrenaline might be running a little higher than usual causing you to hit a quick pop-up or ground out to second base.  

Weather forecast for St. Louis on Tuesday for Game 3….a sunny 77 degrees with no chance of rain.  We’ll see…

• A gritty, 19 year-old American, Christina McHale (daughter of Celts legend, Kevin) outhustle French jumping-bean, Marion Bartoli (ranked #9 in the world);
• Prohibitive underdog,  #455 Madison Keys jump all over 26^th ranked Lucie Safarova in a first set filled with jaw dropping passing shots only to succumb to experience 6-3  5-7 4-6;
• An outstanding 1^st Round match-up between power-serving American, John Isner, and international fan-favorite Marcos Baghdatis of Cypress battle through four sets, two of which resulted in tiebreakers; and
• Super-giant Croatian Ivo Karlovic crush world-ranked #13 & single-handed back-hand expert, Richard Gasquet “like bug.”

I was also treated to the dominant play of Sharapova, Roddick, Federer and Williams, however the most entertaining match of the Open thus far has been  gravity-defying, Frenchman Gael Monfils (#7) versus injury-free, former World #1 (2003) Juan Carlos Ferrero.  Ferrero knocked out Monfils in a five set, five-plus hour epic: 76 57 67 64 64.

The only aspect of the Open that I do find troubling is the United States Tennis Association’s insistence on featuring Americans and only top-ranked players during prime time broadcasts throughout the first week of this two-week tennis bonanza that is the US Open.  A separate admission is required at the Arthur Ashe Stadium to view these matches and the cost of a seat below the nose-bleed tier in the stadium starts at $175.  The USTA must figure that fans will only pay to see the highest ranked players or mid-level Americans; however, there are two rather obvious defects in this rationale:

• All matches during the first week that feature top 3 seeds are typically quick and ruthless – especially in the men’s draw – so spectators are expected to pay up to $690 for a courtside seat to watch an hour and half of a one-sided tennis match.  That does not help the game, nor does it leave fans feeling warm and fuzzy about their experience.  Who wants to pay $175 to see Novak Djokovic mop the court with Carlos Berlorq 60 60 62, or Caroline Wozniacki school Arantxa Rus 62 60 (although a the match did feature two of the more attractive women in the field)?  Tennis fans – the folks who come to Flushing Meadows every year for this feast –  want to see a competitive match, not a one-sided pummeling.
• There are a load of international visitors who come to the Open and the draw at the Ashe court for a solid pairing – like the Monfils/Ferrero match on Thursday – would have equaled the Federer/Sela match which ran contemporaneously.  Moreover, both American fans and the International crowds who take the time to come to Flushing want to see exciting players.  Even before the Monfils/Ferrero battle, the buzz at the Open was all about that interstellar pairing.  The Armstrong Court which hosted the match was filled to capacity, while the Federer/Sela match yielded a stadium that was approximately 1/3 full and morgue-like quiet.  Granted, the Ashe Stadium is a little over twice as large as the Armstrong Stadium, but Monfils/Ferrero deserved to be recognized as the choice match of the day. “People will come [USTA], people will most definitely come.”

[Even tonight, we are being fed Djokovic versus Nicolay Davydenko – that is going to be a bloodbath.  Jo-Wilfried Tsonga from the growing French contingent, against Fernando Verdasco, one of Spain’s array of top 30 stars, would have been the right call today for the Ashe match, USTA.]

Which brings me to my next point.  If the USTA had any idea of how to market tennis, they would have showcased Gael Monfils on the Ashe Court and endeavor to make Monfils the sport’s poster child.  I know that Djokovic is the top ranked player and before him there was Nadal and Federer;  Monfils is #7.  If the USTA wants to develop more fans of tennis and establish a broader base, Gael Monfils must be featured in their branding.  He simply has more demographic allure and the potential to extend the market beyond the existing tennis fan-base.  And they need to jump on Gael’s back immediately because the speed, style and acrobatics of Gael Monfils cannot continue indefinitely.  He will never be a World #1 because of all of the energy he expends in getting a racket on every ball leaves him gassed, especially in the Grand Slam five-set marathons.  But Monfils is a human highlight reel.  I propose that the R&D team at the USTA compile a nice montage of clips of some of the remarkable shots that Monfils has executed and test it with new demographics.  Monfils will sell the sport, and the USTA can send the Bench Jockeys a tidy consultant fee for our recommendation.

Until 2002, the All-Star Game had no impact on the MLB post-season.  It was purely an exhibition game where fans could simply enjoy a game that featured the league’s best players all on the same field, but in 2003 current baseball Commissioner, Bud Selig, mutated the Mid-summer Classic from a passive, easy-listening showcase into an ill-will-inducing, results-driven competition with a significant post-season impact.  The League that wins the All-Star Game earns home field advantage in the World Series when the AL and NL Pennant winners square off in October.  The baseball season is a punishing 162-game marathon which occurs over the course of 183 days.  Using the results of an exhibition game to establish home field advantage (or have any influence whatsoever) for the league championship of the sport is positively idiotic.

The very composition of the all-star team is incongruous with the critical effect of the game’s outcome.  At least one player from every major league team must be included on the all-star roster in this “everyone is a winner” play date.  In consideration of this requirement, this year, the following players are being deemed All-Stars:

These five players are perhaps the better players on their respective teams but in no way, shape or form do any of them merit All-Star status.  Gio Gonzalez has a solid ERA, but he is 7-5 and other AL pitchers are more worthy.   Yes, closer, Brandon League leads the AL in saves, but he is far from dominant. (I don’t get this one; Ron Washington already had King Felix from Seattle on the squad and didn’t need to add League.)   Wieters has a gun for an arm at catcher, but he is not the 3^rd best catcher in the AL. (Granted, he is better than Russell Martin of the Yanks who was inexplicably selected, but Victor Martinez is having a better season.)  Cuddyer’s numbers are very pedestrian for an outfielder just as Sanchez’s are for a first baseman.

So these players are filling All-Star roster slots while players who could actually help either Bruce Bochy or Ron Washington win this game will be watching on television.  Enjoying the play-at-home version will be:

The All-Star Game used to be a way that baseball gave back to the fans; kind of a breather from the daily grind where the best in the game played something akin to a pick-up game, just for kicks. Everyone got to play because the outcome was irrelevant.  Bud Selig extinguished the light-heartedness of the original game, causing fans began to consider more weighty discourse relative the match-up.  If the All Star Game is going to affect the post-season, isn’t it time to re-examine the roster composition requirements?  Shouldn’t the managers set the starting rosters instead of the fans?  If winning is the new objective, why wouldn’t the best players simply stay in the whole game while the more marginal selections ride the pine?  What value does the “player form every team” requirement add to a game? It is no coincidence that players from NY and Boston dominate the starting rosters in the AL, should the teams with the largest fanbase hold such selection power?   Over countless hours, fans can debate the highlights of every season, the merits of every team, the strengths and weaknesses of every player and the true value of every statistic.  This is the constant of baseball.  Courtesy of Bud Selig, the All-Star Game is now no different.

Fast Fact:  In the two-wrongs-don’t-make-a-right department, the modification of the All-Star Game to establish World Series home field advantage was devised by Selig in response to his 2002 all-star gaffe where he was roundly criticized for letting the 2002 game end in a tie.