Goodbye to 2022 and Adeus to a Legend

Fred is joined this week by his cousin Andy Baran, who feels the top sports story of 2022 was Lionel Messi, arguably the best soccer player in the world right now, winning the World Cup with Team Argentina. Messi is a global icon, and will the game of soccer finally get traction in the United States after a large American audience witnessed his team’s incredible victory over France?

Soccer legend Pelé passed away this week at age 82 from cancer. The Brazilian superstar’s popularity drew worldwide attention to the game of soccer when he played for the NY Cosmos, winning in three World Cups and ushering in the first wave of interest in soccer in the US. Can today’s players do as much for the sport and humanity in their professional and post-soccer careers?

Given all of his comments about the state of the Lakers and talk of retiring, is LeBron James’ ultimate goal to continue to play only long enough to exceed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s record of scoring double-digit points in each of 787 consecutive games?

Is there still a chance for the New England Patriots to make it to the playoffs after some head-scratching calls and mistakes? With his team not doing well, is Bill Belichick putting more of his energy toward rebuilding the team, as opposed to on-field involvement?

Will Rafael Devers be considered the marquee player of the Boston Red Sox franchise amid all of the trades and new faces on the team? Did the Red Sox make more competitive and better choices than the Dodgers in their selection of new players for the upcoming season? And do those choices justify the higher ticket prices?

Email Fred and Art with questions and comments at sportsfred@aol.com