DAILY DIRT: Will Caitlin Clark become the Michael Jordan of the WNBA? The numbers, as they say, do not lie

Daily Dirt for Monday, Aug. 26, 2024

Michael Jordan once put the NBA on his back and lifted it to never-before-seen heights. Ms. Clark is doing the same thing with the WNBA … Welcome to today’s three thoughts that make up Vol. 1,041 of The Daily Dirt

1. I know, by now just about everyone in the free world is familiar with Caitlin Clark.

But this wunderkind is doing more than just making the WNBA relevant, which whether you want to admit it or not, looked to be an impossible — or at least improbable — task even for her.

You need to consider more than just her scoring, assists and other on-court numbers that have made her a viable MVP candidate as a rookie. It’s the intangibles that continue to set her apart, to the point where one day she might easily be viewed as the Michael Jordan of the distaff branch of hoops.

Consider:

• Before she had ever played a game for the Indiana Fever, the team sold 100 percent of its season ticket inventory. She has also helped establish attendance records at just about every other WNBA outpost, too.
• Her games have established viewing records for games on ABC, ESPN, ION and NBA-TV. Overexposure is no problem, either. All but two of the Fever’s 40 regular-season games are nationally televised.
• The Fever have more social media views than any other WNBA, NBA, NFL, NHL or MLB team over the past 4-plus months.
• Her personal social media accounts have had more than 800 million views during that same period.
• Clark-fueled merchandise is setting all sorts of records. For instance, there has been a 1,193 percent increase in Fever jersey sales.
• The Fever saw the record for single-game merchandise sales broken four times before the recent WNBA all-star break.

This list could go on and on, but I think you get the point. 

I feel it’s safe — and accurate — to say that Caitlin Clark is rapidly moving toward “the stuff of legends” status.

Legends like … Michael Jordan.

And she’s just getting started.

2. Did you know (Part 103)

That over the next 40 years the following prices are being forecast by usinflationcalculator.com:

• – $151,595 for a new car
• – $19.99 for a 12-pack of Coca-Cola
• – $400,000-a-year college tuition.
• – $15 for a loaf of bread
• – $5.44 million for an “average” house
• – $5,000 monthly health-care premium
• – $8,666 “average” monthly rent
• – $20 for a gallon of milk

That only two NFL players have recorded 99-yard touchdown runs: Tony Dorsett of Dallas in 1983 and Derrick Henry of Tennessee in 2018.

That more than 30 million Chinese still live in caves.

That South Koreans look at “sannakji” as a true delicacy. Sannakji is octopus tentacles chopped into bite-sized pieces and served immediately. The pieces are served still squirming on a plate, and diners must chew carefully to avoid to avoid choking on the suction cups.

That a “frog smoothie” is quite popular in Peru. The frog is killed, usually, by banging its head against the counter, then skinned and cleaned and put in a blender with water and other ingredients such as quail eggs, honey, spices and local plants. The blended frothy green goo is then strained to remove any bone fragments. 

3. That 1932 Babe Ruth “called shot” jersey we talked about over the weekend officially has sold for $24.12 million, less than the $30 million some memorabilia experts were predicting.

But that figure did establish a record for the most expensive sports collectible — ever.

The previous record price for any sports collectible sold at auction was for a rare mint condition Topps 1952 Mickey Mantle card, which sold for $12.6 million in 2022. in 2022. The Ruth jersey also far eclipsed the $10.1 million that a Michael Jordan Chicago Bulls jersey from Game 1 of the 1998 NBA Finals fetched at auction the same year.

Steve Thought O’ The Day — A “frog smoothie” … I don’t see that ever being offered at the next Orange Julius I visit.

Steve Eighinger writes daily for Muddy River News. Let’s not forget that Jordan had assists from Magic and Bird on the way to making the NBA what it is today. That and fewer cocaine arrests than players had in the ’70’s.