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Column: Load management is bad, especially for fans - The San Diego Union-Tribune

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Sez Me …

Load Management isn’t for athletes. It’s an advertising slogan for a diaper company.

Pampers for the pampered.

And yet it now is cast in the soft stone of our sporting lexicon. Load Management is about our playing-for-dollars babies.

What LM amounts to is millionaires taking a healthy break from work. With full pay.

It all began in the NBA, when these all-powerful athletes who rule the league decided it would be good to lessen the load and save themselves for the postseason, which now seems to be a period in which it is easier for them to get injured.

They now blame the shorter offseason, but it didn’t keep them from grabbing their paychecks. Or being out of shape.

Without it being openly called Load Management in baseball, it has happened — even here, thanks to spa manager Jayce Tingler — in a team sport in which players move less than in any other. They are bone China.

Are starting pitchers LMed? They get through five innings and trainers send out stretchers. And yet, despite the incredible advancement in sports medicine and training, Tommy John’s name is paged all too frequently.

I’m hearing that, with a 17-game schedule, LM will become routine in the NFL. It can’t. For the simple reason that there are not enough games and roster depth to rest the best players and hope to win a game. Certainly not by teams in contention or hoping to be playing in January.

Of course, clubs who have clinched certain postseason positions long have been sitting their important players late in the season.

But each game up to the season’s final weeks is too important for it to happen.

This came to be recently, and it has gained acceptance, especially in the NBA (I believe Kawhi Leonard was the founder). No player this season averaged more than 38 minutes a game.

And what good does it do? These NBA playoffs have been riddled with injuries to terribly important players.

So the Lakers fire their trainer?

History tells us teams enjoying the best health generally win championships. But regular seasons can’t be eliminated.

Rest isn’t helping many remain among the active. The NBA has picked up a piano as it struggles to the finish line.

I despise Load Management. And what I dislike most is how it affects the fans.

Potential customers — especially those who live in towns featuring bad teams — look at schedules and mark the games they want to attend.

And then the stars take in a movie. You don’t get your money back.

When I covered the pushover Clippers here in 1981-82, the only sellouts at the Sports Arena were when the Lakers and Celtics came in. The stars — and there were many — played.

And basketball isn’t close to being as physical now as it was then.

OK, Bette Midler needed an understudy for “Rochelle, Rochelle,” and manicurists were upset. But she was injured.

If you’re not hurt, play. Can’t believe I never called in sick with sore fingers. …

The Padres-Reds Thursday night reopener was a rare reminder of how great baseball can be. …

Fernando Tatis Jr. should avoid the Home Run Derby with the same vigor he wards off dullness. ...

Manny Machado plays the best right field in the game. ...

Stink O’ The Week Sezment: Players caught doctoring baseballs with sticky stuff will be suspended 10 days. With pay. Days, not games. Comped vacations. For most starting pitchers, that will be around two games. …

Baseball was founded on two principles — failure and cheating. ...

Le’Veon Bell says he’ll “never play for Andy Reid again.” If you know how Andy can end his sleepless nights over this, let him know. …

To paraphrase someone, if you have a problem every place you work, the problem very well can be you. ...

Bill Belichick says Cam Newton is “way ahead” of where he was this time last year. Guess so. He signed with the Pats on July 8. ...

If organizations get fined for tampering, why shouldn’t their players? …

Crock O’ The Week Sezment: “I’d probably quit football if I had to play for somebody else.” — Raiders QB Derek Carr. ...

“Aggressive” Tua threw five interceptions the first day of Dolphins minicamp. Wouldn’t be a big deal, except it’s impossible. …

The Aaron Rodgers situation is said to be “fixable.” So, apparently, was Neville Chamberlain’s Munich Agreement. …

What’s wrong with Packers management, Unsocial Mediaites, isn’t ineptitude. …

Tom Brady won’t commit past 2022 and can’t see himself playing at 50. Come on, Tom. Methusulah said the same about 900. ...

First gambling. Now the NFL has a hard liquor sponsor. Rock bottoms up, hypocrites. …

Chris Paul had to turn 36 before the Don’t Look Back Generation of sports fans discovered him. …

College Bowl, the toughest game show, is back. Hosted by the Manning Bros., Peyton and other brother “I’m Not JugheadCooper. ...

Shelby Houlihan, America’s greatest female distance runner, blames a pork burrito for her positive steroid test and subsequent four-year ban. If that wasn’t bad enough, the pig had to give back its county fair blue ribbon. ...

Only the states behind in vaccinations have more positive cases. Does that mean something? …

I’ve been around great athletes. I know why so many have refused vaccinations. They’re invincible superheroes, their bodies impregnable to outside forces. …

Fear of needles? Sure hasn’t frightened those who’ve injected steroids. Team players. …

The NFL and the union are making it painful for players to avoid the shots. …

But not proud anti-vaxxer Cole Beasley, whose negative testing for common sense bodes well for his future in Washington. ...

The Westminster Dog Show should be on C-Span. …

The NFL is under the impression that, with the U.S. and United Kingdom secured, putting regular-season games in Germany will aid in Roger Goodell’s dream of joining NATO. ...

Looking for a new stadium, Bears people have been seeking advice from Fredo Spanos and our very own Ham & Eggers on exactly what not to do. ...

Drawing Board II: Ham & Eggers erasing the stick figures they had on the original, can’t-miss Sports Arena redevelopment plan. I’d like to ask an expert when was the last time this city did something right on a major issue, but Alonzo Horton and John Spreckels aren’t returning calls. …

No. City Hall did not want Petco. ...

What the car-hating ’Eggers are doing to businesses on 30th Street when an embedded bike lane is close by on Utah is demolishing livelihoods. Damn shame. …

There is rough at Torrey deep and thick enough to hide most of the cast of “The Wizard of Oz.” Love the Open. ...

Cellphones are quadruple bogeys. If golf can’t ban the “get-in-the-hole” idiots, ban their phones. The Masters does, and it’s the best. …

From the voluminous Tom Ables File: Willie Steele (Hoover High and SDSU) long jumped 26-6 to win the 1947 NCAA title (he won the 1948 Olympic gold medal). The 26-6 would have finished second in this year’s NCAAs. …

What I feared. Murals don’t win championships. …

Happy Father’s Day. As Rick Smith would say: “We’re doing fine.”

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