Monday, October 10, 2011

A Little Bit of NBA, NFL, and MLB

Tonight, all three major American professional sports leagues are very relevant for vastly different reasons. The National Basketball Association (NBA) just announced they are canceling the first two weeks of their regular season, the National Football League (NFL) is prospering as usual in the first quarter of the season, and Major League Baseball (MLB) is in the midst of their league championship series.

For tonight’s post I want to take some time to briefly talk about all three leagues.

NBA: First Two Weeks of the Regular Season Canceled
I am not a huge fan of the NBA. The playoffs do entertain me and I love the storylines and rivalries that develop but as for the regular season I could care less. An eighty-two game season is way too long. With so many teams making the playoffs and with the way so many of the league’s players take it easy for the first three quarters of the season, there is just little reason to watch. I even get bored with Sportscenter highlights of the games. Honestly, show me the sickest dunks of the night and that is all I need.

You listen to sports talk radio or watch any of the shows on ESPN and a lot of the on-air talent will say that a shortened season for the NBA is a good thing. They will say that a fifty game season would be the perfect situation because each game will mean more, the players will compete harder, and the boredom and tired routine of an NBA season that lasts from October until June will lessen.

Well here is the thing. Even though I said I am bored by the regular season and even though many sports personalities feel a shortened season is what the league needs, I would still wish that the NBA would get their full eighty-two game schedule in. Any team that wins a championship with a shortened season is always going to have an asterisk by its name. Luckily for the Spurs, they went on to win more championships after they won the NBA shortened title during the 1998-1999 season, because to this day that championship is still a joke. No one takes it seriously.  Whenever you talk about what the Spurs have done in the past thirteen years you basically say they have won three NBA Championships and a lockout shortened championship in 1998-1999. Announcers always note it. We are not speaking metaphorically here, there is an actual asterisk after the Spurs name during the 1998-1999 season in the record book. It sucks. No matter how you slice it, winning a championship based on a fifty game season is much different than winning one off of an eighty-two game season. I hate it when records/achievements/ are tainted, even when the player/team can do absolutely nothing about it.

NFL: Let’s Start Tebow!!
Speaking strictly as a fan, I want to see Tim Tebow start the rest of the season for the Broncos, or at least for the next several games. I will admit it, I think pretty highly of Tebow. I think he is a great athlete and role model who has an incredibly exciting style of play. From the pure marketing aspect of things, he is a dream for the Denver Broncos. Even if Josh McDaniel made one of the worst talent selections in NFL history by bringing Tebow aboard, I think he has already paid off immensely for that organization in terms of jersey sales and in making the Denver organization relevant in the league on a weekly basis. If leveraged strategically by the team throughout the rest of his stay in Denver, I really think drafting him will pay off in the long run even if he is a total bust player wise.

Tim Tebow energized that team yesterday. Yes, I get it, San Diego did not gameplan for Tebow, they were ready for Orton. If Tebow was named the starter, you sure as hell could bet that the geniuses (aka NFL Defensive Coordinators) would implement a scheme that would drop him dead in his tracks. But what is wrong with making sure that this is 100% the case? Let’s end this debate that continues every single day through the sports media, among fans, and inside every locker room in the NFL: Is Tim Tebow an NFL quarterback?  Let it unfold right in front of us all. What gripping sports television that would be!  John Fox has a tough decision to make. Out of all the idiots who chime in on whether they feel Tebow is ready or not to start at quarterback for the Denver Broncos, Coach Fox knows best. He has seen his quarterback contingent take every snap from training camp until now. He knows who will be the most successful. For my own selfish desires and for the chance to settle this debate for good, I just want to see Tebow under center come October 23rd.

MLB: My Wish for the World Series
The playoffs started off for me on kind of a sour note. Although I am not a Boston Red Sox fan, I wanted to see them beat out the Tampa Bay Rays and get into the post season. The playoffs are just better with both Boston and New York in it. Well, that did not happen. Once the post season matchups were set, I was crossing my fingers for a Yankees-Phillies World Series. Again, I was disappointed. Although disappointed, I can’t say I was not pleased with the competitiveness and excitement of all the division series. Baseball has had a great couple of weeks with how the regular season ended and how the division series went and I hope it continues until the final out of the Fall Classic.

With that said, I want to see the Detroit Tigers and St. Louis Cardinals battle it out in the World Series. I got to see Detroit play a couple of games in Pittsburgh this summer and I guess I kind of want  to say I saw the MLB World Champions play in person from the front row. I shouldn’t hold my breath as they are in an 0-2 hole to Texas but you never know what can happen. The series shifts back to Detroit and if the Tigers protect their home field it will be a whole new ballgame.

I could actually care less about who wins the National League Championship, I just don’t know if I am completely ready to see Milwaukee in the World Series. With St. Louis you got a hall of fame manager (Tony LaRussa) and a hall of fame player (Albert Pujols) carrying the banner of that team. I want to see those people on baseball’s biggest stage, it just seems right. With that series now tied at 1-1, I like the Cardinals’ chances.

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The drama, the parallels to life, and the competitive spirit of sports will always have me hooked. You never know what is going to happen next. Don’t Blink.

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