NFL: QB PEYTON MANNING & THE BRONCOS, 2012 // MLB: “OLD & THE NEW,” ROGER CLEMENS, MIKE TROUT, OTHERS

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“SPORTS NOTEBOOK” posts its columns Tuesday and Friday of every week---Ed. & Publ., Marvin Leibstone.

NFL:   It can be shouted from mountaintops, “Broncos 2012-acquired and possibly best NFL quarterback ever, Peyton Manning, is ‘on game,’” proven during the first half of Sunday’s Broncos/San Francisco 49er pre-season event, during which Manning threw two touchdown passes within drives executed almost perfectly, which included the kind of connectivity that effective QB’s and receivers like the Broncos Eric Decker, Willis McGahee, Lance Ball, Joel Dreesen and Brandon Stokley can share and demonstrate, at the expense of a good opposing defense (surely a 49er attribute, among the best of 2011). Add, Broncos kicker Matt Prater, delivering a field goal from 53.

Manning passed for more than 120 yards, completing 10 of his 12 throws, much credit to the superb Broncos pass protection and the Broncos offense preventing 49er intercepts.

Yes, the Broncos lost to the 49ers, 29-24, and the Denver team is one win/two losses in the pre-season, but the fact that in the three pre-season games the Broncos put more points on the board than that totaled by the opposing franchises (65 over 62), such makes the 1/2 record meaningless.

The Broncos three point lead in total points may not seem like much, but it’s far from the scant total of a franchise likely to have a below .500 season.

And making the loss to the 49ers more meaningless is that mostly during the second half, when the San Francisco offense scored big, the Broncos were measuring individual players "and rostering" from a reserve defense, a more important step in preparation for the regular season than focusing solely upon performing way above San Francisco’s competency, as was the case during the game’s first half.        

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MLB:  THE lyrics are, “Out with the Old, in with the New,” or is it the other way around? Anyhow, neither setting references professional baseball---so it seems from 50 year old hurler, Roger Clemens, deciding against retirement, joining an Atlantic League ball club, the Sugar Land Skeeters, out of Sugar Land, Texas, around 17 miles from Houston.

Meanwhile, a 21 year old belonging to the Los Angeles Angels (Anaheim), Mike Trout, has been piling on records faster and better than players of the same age group “both present and past.”  

In his 24 years of pitching for major league teams, Clemens became a seven-time Cy Young award winner, his last professional pitch in 2007 for the New York Yankees. In his early years in the majors, Clemons was already among starting pitchers demonstrating new levels of accuracy, cunning and speed, causing a lot of hitters to think that it would take steroids to manage super hits against them (ironic that Clemens would be found in his later MLB years to have experimented with PED’s).

Why, then, having had an enviable career in “the majors,” would Clemens want to play baseball for a small league club?

Too, could this year be the first within a long era of “the kids,” more precisely, of the 21 or younger ballplayers, like Trout?

Also, is there some sort of link between (a) the return of a 50 year old to a game that mostly younger men play, and (b) young players who aren’t supposed to be as good as they are and are that good?

If we choose cynicism over the probability of Clemens joining the Skeeters, we could believe that what he has had in mind is a slot with the nearby Houston Astros, now the worst team in either the National League or the American League, below .400 with less than 45 wins (the Astros could be desperate enough to return Clemens to the mound, in spite of most ballplayers over 45 having little to offer a team that needs to rise back up quickly---by playing for the Astros, Clemens could stay in the eyes of those whose appraisals could have him voted into baseball’s Hall of Fame.).

Denying cynicism, we could choose to believe that Clemens wants to pitch for a baseball team not far from his home “for the pure kick of doing just that!” We know the phrase, “for love of the game.”

And if selecting cynicism, or if it’s been a habit, we could comment that Trout will turn out to be a Roman candle, rocketing into oblivion, you know, the proverbial flash in the pan.

Saying no to cynicism, we could choose to say that Trout is not just beginning to be great, he is great, for, as reported this week in Sports Illustrated, his on-base and slugging percentage is already better than that of Hall of Famers Ty Cobb, Rogers Hornsby, Jimmie Fox and Eddie Matthews, when they were in the 21 years of age or younger category.

Moreover, Trout’s current batting average is better than .345, and thus far in the 2012 season he’s hit 24 homers and accrued 39 steals.  

Now let’s forget cynicism and assume that Clemons has chosen to pitch professionally again because he needs to be playing baseball in order to feel that his life is complete, it’s what he loves to do most, and, according to what’s been seen recently he could still pitch fast, deliver a tricky cutter, put curves across the corners.

Also, a look at Trout’s ballplayer resume shows consistency of high performance since his high school days.

So, where’s the link between the old and the new? It’s in one word, “Competence.”

If we review the rosters of many MLB franchises, found will be players older than 35, still pitching, fielding and hitting above the margin. As with the Colorado Rockies, line-ups will be seen to include rookies who are around the same age as Trout, playing alongside over-35 veterans, such as the Rockies Jason Giambi and Todd Helton, players still credible at the plate and in the field, interspersed with rookies who are nearing MVP-levels.  

In other words, older is better today, and younger is better today .  .  .  which is an opportunity to bring up the fact that professional baseball is among the few sports without an equivalent of “a popular Masters,” that is, a kind of professional post-MLB career across-America league, allowing the Clemens and the Giambis and the Heltons and Derek Jeter + Alex Rodriguez (NYY) and Albert Pujols (L.A.) to transition from the majors to a system within which they could continue playing a game that they’ve been a major part of---so what if hurls from the mound are under 75 mph and the batters aren’t clearing walls and fences? There’d be extended baseball for these athletes---no-one would have to witness them fading away before (ugh!) middle age. Cal Ripken, Jr. (Baltimore, now retired), who holds the record for most MLB games played consecutively, would never miss a post-career challenge, he’d feel like a Jr. again.

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