This post is for my readers that need a good chuckle on this Saturday.
There have been many scandals in the sports world….sex scandals, gun scandals, fights, dog fighting scandals, gambling on and on….there seems something endemic in sports that seems to breed abuses…….few sports are immune….sports like baseball, basketball, football (both American and international) etc.
Let me go on record here…..because an activity has a winner and loser does not make it a sport….like poker, pickleball, teqball and whatever that thing is with a frisbee and of course….corn hole (us old farts have a different definition of the term)…..This is where I pick up this post…the world of pro corn hole…..
Like pickleball, cornhole has exploded in popularity in recent years—but fans are worried that corruption is creeping in as the sport moves further from its roots at tailgate parties and backyard barbecues. In what the Wall Street Journal describes as “perhaps the greatest controversy in the sport’s history,” allegations of cheating rocked the 2022 American Cornhole League World Championships earlier this year. The sport involves throwing fabric bean bags at a board with a hole in one end, and both sides in a high-stakes doubles match accused their opponents of using illegal bags. After a one-hour delay, officials at the August event, which aired on ESPN, determined that both sides were using noncompliant bags, but they decided it probably wasn’t intentional and the contest could go on.
The fabric bags used to be filled with corn, which gave the sport its name, but the preferred filling is now resin pellets, per SB Nation. Flatter, thinner bags can give players an edge, and manufacturers say that instead of just breaking them in through playing, they have heard of players boiling the bags, putting them in the washer and dryer, and even running them over. Some players treat the bags with vinegar or fabric softener to reduce stiffness and friction. At the ACL championships, some of the bags officials inspected were found to be below the regulation size and weight of 6 by 6 inches and 16 ounces.
In the “BagGate” game, a $15,000 prize was at stake. With the sport now attracting sponsorship deals, top cornhole players can make around $250,000 year. ACL spokesman Trey Ryder says the league is cracking down on noncompliant bags and is “exploring infrastructure for automated bag testing.” “I think it’s funny that anyone believed it would be all friendships and rose petals forever in cornhole,” a commenter on the Addicted to Cornhole Facebook page said, per the Journal. “Now the dirty underbelly is being exposed.”
This news is corny (no pun intended)….but damn hilarious.
Have a great Saturday and tune in tomorrow for more titillating news to entertain and inform.
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”
In Saner Thought 
I had to look up Cornhole. But any game or sport where money is involved will always generate cheating and scams.
Best wishes, Pete.
A bunch of yahoos with ‘bean bags’….it just makes me smile. Fishing comes to mind as the last ‘big’ cheat…..chuq
Let’s not forget Richard Gere and the gerbils.
LOL Oh I did not need that visual…..chuq
I pretty much detest all social games such as croquette, horse shoes, softball, whiffle ball and all that stuff because I basically can’t stand to associate with most people.
John.. how did you become such a big business success you claim to be and have an affinity against associating with people?
Surely you are not under the delusion that CEOs actually care about “People” are you? Did you know for example that those “Employment Offices” that most factories used to operate on premises were designed more to keep people away from executives than they were to actually hire people? The “People” who are worth associating with are those who will sign contracts with you, loan you money, give you tax abatements, etc. All others are either tools or fools.
Ah.. ok… that makes better sense. I couldn’t imagine any business owner, much less a CEO, making a success of themselves without needing to form people relationships.
As for the moral perception that a CEO cares about people…. the bottom line is the goal for any CEO, yet employees are an asset to that end, and that balancing act is part of a CEO responsibility to maintain. HR is a tool. Been there, done that.
You have to associate with people who are willing and who have the means to support your vision.
Absolutely.. and most times a vision is simply the common factor of making a profit… even if you associate with investors as they expect a return on their investment.
I still like to refer to the old formula, “Find a need and fill it or fill it better.” As to making a profit, I prefer to play the role of investor rather than managing an asset that requires investments. Today I live what is left of my life on ROI . Of course, I leave everyt hing of that nature to the professionals maintaining for myself final approval.
Ah.. a “Marcus Lemonis” kinda guy. Wish you were around when I had my last two businesses decades ago. These days I’m trying to turnaround a church, believe it or not. Rather an uphill quest given the old traditionalist members.
I abandoned the idea of church for the sake of church the last time I heard a contemporary minister of a Nazarene church tell his congregation, “I am the Chief Operating Officer of this religious corporation.” That attitude ushered me into a deeper realization of how churches are abandoning traditionalism in favor of the business and entertainment model at a fantastic pace. But it seems the new breed are the ones building the great temples and raking in car loads of cash. I guess if the gimmick is popular enough it will sell tickets to the next performances. I do admire you for what I sense is a dedication to actual principle. Very rare in these days when church is becoming a marketable commodity more than a path to immortal salvation. You are to be congratulated on having principles.
Well, thanks, John. There is a ton of money being made with the mega-churches, no question about it. If one has the gift of gab and can entertain the masses, well, there ya go. I tried to explain to our rural church council (Lutheran, btw) that the church is a business insofar as it it needs money to keep the doors open. But that need centers around the singular product of “ministry”… meaning the church ministers to our soul so we keep it open to do just that. From there we pay it forward, as Christians do, by ministering to the community with various charitable programs funded by donation. The “asking for money” is for ministry, coming in the front door and going out the back door… plain and simple. It’s not a vehicle for giving a new Lexus to the pastor each month (extreme example I was making to make the point). The question.. focus.. then becomes, how do we draw interest to our ministries.. the one each Sunday presented to the members through worship, and the one(s) we provide to the community. And to do that with the finances we have, and the talent we can draw on from our own knowledge and occupations, and think outside the box.
We indeed have found a niche in the A/V world so we are moving forward. Not sure if all this leads to immortality and eternal salvation for all, but it does help to breath a bit of life into giving without the begging.
Christian inclinations and values begin in the area of parenting and peer persuasions. If a shild is taught from an early age in the way that he or she should go, then he or she will not depart from those teachings in adulthood .. that is a promise of scripture and it makes sense to me. Jesus says that if He be lifted up H will draw all men (and by inference women) to Himself….pray in unison about all church decisions …respect the input of elders and deacons and members … listen for the Voice Of God in the Scriptures, in the times of contemplation, in the times of prayer, in the opportunities that present themselves …and always ask yourself “What would Jesus do” before setting out on a course of action. Have an active outreach program, a faithful pastoral program that interacts with the congregation and the loca community, become an example to everyone that you can reach, show your faith by your works, be caring, sharing, helpful, counseling, accepting, welcoming, as Christ has said, “All who come to me I will in no wise cast out ..Remember that it is God who builds the church and that we are only the caretakers of it for Him ….persist in faith and love and your day of miracles will come…
Very good, John. I didn’t know you were such a spiritual fellow.
I am definitely not an example of a spiritual fellow. But I am a believer.
I can sympathize with that sentiment. chuq
The horror….
Exactly! LOL chuq