Good morning, all! I hope your week is going well.

There is a big reason the UCLA softball team is ranked number two in the nation. It is due in no small part to Maya Brady. Named the Softball America Freshman Player of the Year, leading her team in home runs with seven and tied in RBIs with 28, she is poised to have a great sophomore season for the Bruins.

Brady’s mother, Maureen, is a former All-American softball pitcher. You may also have heard of her uncle. He is the quarterback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and just led them to a Super Bowl championship. Yep! That Tom Brady, who calls her the best athlete in the family and is not shy about Tweeting compliments. Something tells me you may be seeing a lot of UCLA softball on television this season.

NBA All-Star ratings? So-so

Did you watch the NBA All-Star game Sunday night? I didn’t even know it was being played. Apparently, I wasn’t alone. The contest, simulcast on TNT and TBS, produced a 3.1 rating, netting 5.94 million viewers. That is a ratings dip of 24% over last year.

The drop in ratings and viewership (18%) has network executives concerned, as many people put sports out of their mind, during the pandemic, and a younger generation has tuned out sports all together.

The ratings nosedive continues a trend for televised sports. What does this mean? Well, for one thing, it does not portend the end of sports on TV. The genre will survive, and more than likely thrive, although more content is being pushed to the streaming platform.

My only hope is that the Lords of Sports do not compromise the games and competition to attract a younger demo. Hey, I can hope can’t I?

Eli gets own show

Speaking of streaming, former NY Giants quarterback Eli Manning is getting his own show on the ESPN+ app. The program will be entitled Eli’s Places and focus on college football. His brother Peyton already has an ESPN+ show: Peyton’s Places.

Why states are legalizing sports betting

We all know why states are legalizing sports betting. Like the robber Willie Sutton stated, when asked why he robbed banks, “that is where the money is.”

Connecticut, my home state, is poised to be the next state to legalize sports wagering. That also means in this 21st Century you will be able to place a wager from your smartphone app. The state is betting it will reap millions in additional revenues by permitting wagers on games. This is a far cry from 56 years ago isn’t it?

On the front page of the March 3, 1965 NY Times was the headline: Bookies Here Turning to Housewives to Take Calls. The gist of the story was that police in New York City were cracking down on the bookies, who were taking action on streets and in corner stores. Being an enterprising lot, the bookies decided to hire housewives to provide answering services, as the Times reported:

“…bookmakers were hiring housewives to operate illegal telephone answering services in their home while the children are at school.”

The housewives did not actually take the action, they copied down phone numbers and passed them on to the bookies. For their efforts, they got between $50 and $100 per week. That was good money in 1965. For some that is good money in 2021. Unreported! Tax free! If this were 10 years earlier, Alice Kramden could have landed a job working out of her kitchen, and maybe she and Ralph would have finally moved out of that Brooklyn flat.

I hope you continue to have a great week, and as always, thank you for your support!

SPORTSCASTER DAN