Does this mean we can sue for decades of less-than-championship baseball?

It’s kind of embarrassing to learn that a court in Chicago is amongst the nearly three dozen filed in federal courts in this country and in Puerto Rico where someone has felt compelled to file a lawsuit against the promoters of the Manny Pacquiao/Floyd Maywether, Jr., fight.

Has this become a court fight?

It seems that there are people who paid the big money in order to be able to see the boxing match that took place earlier this month, and were disappointed with the lack of a fight that Pacquiao was able to put up.

ONE OF THE lawsuits goes so far as to say that “racketeering” was involved, implying that this was some sort of criminal conspiracy along the lines of the Chicago White Sox players conspiring to lose the World Series in 1919 (although in all fairness, those players were found “not guilty” of those charges).

I don’t know if I believe that. I just think it was a dud of a fight – watching Pacquiao lose following 12 rounds. The fact that it was later learned that Pacquiao had a bum shoulder makes it seem miraculous (to me, at least) that he even lasted that long!

But the idea that anybody thinks they ought to get their money back?

I say if you’re goofy enough to pay the ridiculous fees that boxing promoters charge to be able to watch these fights (Pay per View TV), then you take on the risk of seeing the supposed “fight of the century” devolve into fluff.

THEN AGAIN, I’M not one of those people who gets into the spectacle that modern-day professional boxing has become.

I wouldn’t have paid money to see the fight. I didn’t pay to see this particular spectacle – although I did read all about Pacquiao’s loss the day after in the papers. I know, I know; how 20^th Century of me!

But many did – some 4.4 million people did cough up cash to watch the fight either on HBO or Showtime. As though the people who pay money to watch those networks’ programming don’t pay enough in their standard fee, in addition to this fee to watch the “special” event.

I almost feel like anybody who got swept up in the hype and paid the fee deserves to be out of the money they lost.

I’M HOPING THAT these lawsuits somehow get merged into a single case, and that the case winds up being a loser for the people who are so cheap that they want their money back.

Or better yet, find courts that rule the lawsuits have no merit and they get dismissed out of hand.

As it turns out, Pacquiao had a torn rotator cuff – a shoulder injury for which he has recently had surgery. All too similar to those baseball pitchers who wind up having surgery that requires them to sit out a season or so before they can return to activity.

Perhaps a baseball comparison is relevant.

BECAUSE THE IDEA of a lawsuit being filed because of less-than-stellar athletic performances is so ludicrous. Part of what is at stake in watching professional sports is wondering whether someone will be at their best game and give the stellar performance of a lifetime – or if they will be hung-over from the night before of drinking and skirt-chasing and it will impact their on-field play.

Can we ask for a refund every time the Cubs or White Sox manage to blow a ballgame; arguing that we expected a victory on behalf of the image of Chi? Not another loss – although the people who make those “L” flags that fly over Wrigley Field have found a way to make money off the Cubs’ losing ways.

Does it stand for "Loss" or "Lawsuit?"

The idea that the Cubs have become such a civic embarrassment with their awful play throughout the decades makes about as much sense as a lawsuit over Pacquiao/Maywether.

Then again, these are probably the kind of people who would file a lawsuit against the manufacturer of Ballpark frankfurters on the grounds that they’re not in a ballpark while they actually consume them.

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