Reading Between the Headlines
While the rest of the U.S. had a four-day work week, the world of professional sports put in a month’s worth of headlines. Between walk-off broken legs and “slutty” tennis players, it was one to remember. So enough with the talk and on to the headlines:
- The Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Boston Celtics in Game 1 of the NBA Finals.
Sam Smithmade a great point this week: this might be the worst Lakers-Celtics match-up in the history of the rivalry - and I tend to agree. The Lakers have one sure-fire Hall of Famer in Kobe, but that’s about it. Gasol, Odom, and Artest are nice players, but they’re far from the Magics, Kareems, Worthys and Shaqs that have defined Laker championship teams in the past. As for Boston, they had a compelling squad two years ago, but after a 23-5 start this season, they literally hobbled to a 27-27 finish. And in what world does Doc Rivers win two NBA Championships? And how did I manage to write this much about the NBA playoffs? I didn’t even watch this game! Regardless, hardly an awe-inspiring match-up…
- After 22 seasons and 630 homeruns (5thall-time), Ken Griffey Jr. retired from Major League Baseball.
After the “napping incident” from three weeks ago, the writing was on the wall for Griffey. As the last relic of the steroid era, his retirement symbolically restores the balance of power between hitters and pitchers. While guys like McGwire and Sosa played juiced and put up atmospheric home run totals, Griffey was quietly accumulating legitimate back-to-back 56 homerun seasonsand playing MVP-calibre defense in centerfield. KGJ will be remembered for a lot of things, but he’s still the only player in the history of Camden Yards to hit the B&O Warehouse in right field on the fly… ever… including batting practice. That’s elite company right there. The retirement also affirms that people born before 1980 are old – I still remember this Sports Illustrated sitting on my Dad’s dresser.
- Armando Galarraga’s perfect game was ruined by a bad call from first base umpire Jim Joyce.
All the stories about how professionalJoyce and Galarraga acted in the aftermath of Wednesday’s game are nice to hear, but it doesn’t quite quench my thirst for TNT real-time drama. I thought we might get something if Bud Selig decided to alter the record books and save the day, but evidently, Bud is no sentimentalist. Here’s another shocker: Bud dropped the ball. While overturning calls is usually a bad idea, there’s a unique opportunity here for Air Bud to take a chance and win back some popularity. Here’s what we have: a clear, unassailable mistake made by the umpire with absolutely no doubt (from anyone) that Galarraga tossed the perfecto. Selig should use this game as a benchmark and state:
“We’ve decided to use this occasion to institute far-reaching umpire reform that includes instant replay for run-scoring and game-ending plays. Furthermore, instead of making Galarraga and Joyce suffer, we’re going to retroactively give them the benefit of our new policy and award Galarraga the perfect game.”
Galarraga and the Tigers get the perfect game, Joyce gets a reprieve, Bud looks proactive (for once) and baseball gets better: everyone wins. Baseball is a great sport and its rigidity is one of the things that makes fans love it, but seriously, Bud should bend the rules here a little bit.
- Reggie Wayne’s ex-girlfriend allegedly racked up $95,000 worth of fraudulent credit card charges.
And the NFL off-season hit parade continues. Let me also state that in the real world, if someone steals something from you, you don’t get to take a few weeks off to try and figure it out.
- BaltimoreOrioles manager Dave Trembley will reportedly be fired Friday. UPDATE: He gone.
You almost felt sorry for Trembley because it seemed like he was dying insideeach time the Orioles lost another game. Media Mob-driven manager firings never made sense to me, especially in this case when no one expected this team to do very much in 2010 anyway. While the young hitters like Adam Jones and Matt Wieters haven’t really progressed, that’s on hitting coach Terry Crowley, not Trembley. Unfortunately, this probably means I’m going to lose a bet I placed with a friend that the Orioles would win at least 75 games this year. I hope he likes cheap bourbon.
- Duke basketball Coach Mike Krzyzewski reiterated his lack of interest in coaching professional basketball.
Let me make this abundantly clear: I hate Duke. For oh-so many reasons. I once wore a Duke Blue Devils hat in 6thgrade to impress my Duke-loving teacher and I’ve never forgiven myself for it. I know a number of wonderful, intelligent Duke alumni who I consider friends, but I can’t warm up to their alma mater. With all of that on the table, college basketball needs Coach K. The ACC, more than ever, needs Coach K. Maryland, North Carolina, and every other college in the Tar Heel state needs Coach K. Any team hiring K would also be taking a rather expensive risk: he’s 63 years-old and has never coached in the NBA. Yes, he’s a great Olympic coach, but last time I checked, Spain and Argentina weren’t exactly operating with a roster full of NBA All-Stars.
- The Pac-10 has reportedly offered six Big 12 schools an opportunity to join its conference.
When the ACC added Boston College, Miami and Virginia Tech 7 years ago, it set a dangerous precedent for future conferences: expand for more cash. While the ACC may be a more profitable conference because of it, the quality of competition has drastically decreased as well as the athletic profiles of many of its schools. The Big East, once a beacon of college sports in the northeast, is now a ginormous monstrosity that sucks up crappy football teams at the expense of their basketball programs. Now, the Pac-10 and Big Ten are waging a battle to see who can build the next “Super Conference” all in the name of making a buck. Frankly, it sucks. Bigger isn’t always better - and it’s too bad that schools are herded together like this. Personally, I blame Notre Dame.
That’s it for this week. Have a great weekend and say some prayers or do a dance for John Wooden. He’s a man among men.
Tagged with: Air Bud • Armando Galarraga • Coach K • Dave Trembley • Jim Joyce • John Wooden • Ken Griffey Jr. • MLB • NBA • NCAA Expansion Nonsense • NFL • Reggie Wayne
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You’ve never forgiven yourself for sporting a Duke hat in sixth grade? At what point does the self-atonement begin for a lifetime of donning Yankees gear? (The cotton unis are forgivable, those things really breathe!)
Disagree 100% about overturning the perfect game. You can’t pick and choose what rules to break. Instead of focusing on overturning calls and instant replay, MLB needs to focus their attention on fixing the umpires. They have been awful the last couple of years.
Yeah, you’re still way off on overturning the call. The game is played on the field, not in the replay booth, not in the commissioner’s office. It’s a crying shame that it happened (cue the Joyce waterworks) but it did. Baseball is an imperfect game, which is one of the reasons I enjoy it, juiced hitters, instant replay, all too much hype and show for me.
Ok, let’s take the decision to overturn Joyce’s call out of the equation. If the technology exists to get it right and there’s a way to incorporate replay and keep the game moving without moderately disrupting it, why would you not use it?
Because the game is what happens on the field. Because, as we see in fooball, you can’t keep the game moving. The examples of real plays to be overturned are so few and far between; we’re just exorcised about this one unfortunate call, for the most part. Look baseball is a human game. The fundamental interaction between teams, the pitch to the batter is judged by human eyes. If we’re really going to begin taking that element out of the game we’ll soon be calling balls and strikes using a computer. Would that be more accurate? Yeah, probably, you could adjust it by batter, etc., but would it still be baseball?
I’m not against instant reply per se, I just think if you get better umpires, instant replay wouldn’t be needed.
There’s no doubt that umpire reform is much-needed — MLB still doesn’t use a merit system for playoff assignments. And I do think the human element of baseball is part of what makes it great, but there’s no reason why we should allow a clearly bogus call decide a playoff game or even worse, a World Series. Balls and strikes? Way too much. But what’s wrong with putting an umpire up in a booth to decide when to use replay for game-ending plays?
Sorry Duke, but I think you’re off base (pardon the pun) on this one. It’s a game played by young men. It really shouldn’t matter if occasionally someone blows a call. Chance, probability, and dumb luck are some of the attributes that make baseball a great game - so it’s a great game why mess with perfection (again, pardon the pun).