Bob Kravitz

The Washington Post story centers on the late Jim Irsay, his addictions, his demons and the drug-fueled nightmare his later years had become.

I am the target audience for sports talk radio. I know this because I spent 11 hours, from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Monday, listening to local sports talk radio, and all I heard were ads for hair replacement, weight-loss products and testosterone supplementation. My hair is almost gone. Check. I’m overweight. Check. I have low T. Check. And yet, I don’t listen to a lot of sports talk these days.

Musings of an Old Sportswriter I’m Bob Kravitz, you might know me. I'll be writing primarily about Indy sports--but other stuff, too. Bob without boundaries. Yeah, that works. No thanks

Chris Ballard knows what’s being said and what’s being written: He knows that a lot of us, fans and media, believe he should be on the hot seat. It’s his eighth year. They’re 54-60-1 during his tenure. They haven’t won the AFC South since his arrival, which was heralded by owner Jim Irsay. “Chris is the best GM candidate in the 21st century,” he said. More recently, Irsay called Ballard a “blue-chip” general manager. His team has won one playoff game during his time here. That was in 2018.

It blows me away, the fact that we’re approaching the date of the 13th annual Bob Kravitz ALS Golf Classic. It’s July 8 at Prairie View in Carmel and as always, I’m stunned it’s still rolling along, raising much-needed money for those who are afflicted with ALS and their caretakers. Before I go any further, a throaty thank you to the ALS Association, both the national and local branches. Their people do all the heavy lifting on this tournament; my only job is to get celebrities to participate.

The WNBA gatekeepers are out in force. See, I’m not supposed to write about the WNBA and Caitlin Clark specifically because I haven’t paid attention to our local WNBA franchise since around 2017, when Tamika Catchings was still here and the Fever were an eternal playoff team. What’s worse is, I’m – checks notes – a guy, and a guy who hasn’t covered the WNBA regularly is ill-equipped to have a coherent take on Chennedy Carter’s shoulder check on Clark and women’s basketball in general. Bull… Shit.

Some completely random observations from Caitlin Clark’s home debut, a 102-66 loss to last year’s WNBA finalist New York Liberty: First, she struggled, just as she struggled in the season opener at Connecticut, when she scored 20 points but committed 10 turnovers. This is not a criticism – that comes later – but it’s the reality of the situation.

x Gregg Doyel, the Indianapolis Star columnist who was roundly criticized for his actions during Caitlin Clark’s introductory press conference April 17, is in the middle of a two-week suspension handed down by the Star’s owners, Gannett, and by the Star itself, according to multiple sources. He will not attend any Fever games this summer but will continue to write columns off the team by watching TV from his home.

I’m not going to beat around the bush here. It is time for Jim Irsay, who suffered a suspected overdose early last month at his Carmel home, to cede control of the Indianapolis Colts to his daughters. This is not his first overdose, not even close, and as much as I hope that it’s his last, I know better. He is a very sick man, a man in the throes of addiction who is dealing with a disease that is often fatal and damned near was fatal back on Dec. 8.