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The Daily Dose/October 2, 2007
By Gaylon Kent
The Writer's Shack
Spanning the States, England and France, to bring the constant variety of sport...
THE BOYS OF FALL: While some, including the amateurs who write the pablum at mlb.com, were hoping for all the fun, excitement and confusion of the entire National League tying for the wild card, we were spared the worst, and only had to endure Monday nights extra inning fiasco between Colorado and San Diego, the Padres doing some gagging of their own, losing their last three to insure they wouldn't make the playoffs.
The Big Picture: There's enough to occupy us without having to worry about tie-breakers. For example, MLB again managed to rig things so the insufferable Red Sox and Yankees made the playoffs, Cleveland is back for the first time since 1997 and is looking for its first World Series win since beating the Boston Braves in 1948 and the West Coast Angeles of Disneyland are in the playoffs for the fourth time this decade.
Meanwhile: In the National League, Arizona is the only playoff team who has won a World Series this century. The Phillies won one in 1980 and the Cubs, of course, are still living off the glory of their 1908 title and the Rockies have not gotten around to winning one yet and are making just their second playoff appearance.
A Prediction, Perhaps?: You've got to be kidding me. We only postmortems here at the Writer's Shack, preferring to point out how others, like, say, the New York Mets, managed to fail. But we will point out that the previously hard-luck Boston Red Sox and Chicago White Sox managed to win the World Series in recent years after decades of not winning it, so the Cubs might as well win one, too, so they can get at least one under their belts before the 100th anniversary celebration of their 1908 World Series title.
Scheduling Change: In past years, the Division series' have begun on the Tuesday and Wednesday following the end of the regular season and were over by the following Monday.
This year, however, they are beginning on Wednesday and Thursday and could last until Wednesday, October 10, if either of the American League series go five games.
An Official Writer's Shack Proposition: If they are going to insist on playing a 2-2-1 best-of-five format, and they are, everyone should consider making the opening rounds best-of-seven affairs. Either way, you are making the teams travel twice, though to their credit MLB instituted a travel day in every series between games four and five, so there will no longer be teams playing in New York one night and Oakland the next. Still though, if you are going to make teams travel twice, there is no reason not to let them play seven games.
Here's A Real Radical Suggestion: End the regular season on a Wednesday. The best-of-seven divisional series could begin on Saturday and Sunday and with two weekends, scheduling would be more fan-friendly. Sure, there will be problems with the regular season schedule, but these problems would be relatively minor, certainly no greater than those encountered when the division series was introduced in 1995.
LOST IN THE SHUFFLE: The upstart National Hockey League (NHL) began its second consecutive season this past weekend, dispatching the defending Stanley Cup champion Anaheim Ducks and the Los Angeles Kings halfway across the world to play in that internationally known hotbed of hockey, London, England. The split two games this past Saturday and Sunday.
What Did You Expect From A League That Put Teams In Tampa Bay and Phoenix?: Offhand, we were thinking there were probably better places to play a regular season NHL game than London. After all, while Great Britain did win the Olympic gold medal in 1936, they haven't bothered to compete in the Olympics since 1948 and hockey is about as big there as soccer is here. Maybe bigger. Or less bigger. Something like that.
But when you consider the relative meaninglessness of a regular season NHL game, especially one involving two teams from southern California, London is probably as good a place as any.
Frequent Flyer Miles: Unlike the Kings, who are off until opening at home Saturday, the Ducks annoyed someone in the NHL and are taking it in the shorts, obliged to show off their Stanley Cup in Detroit on Wednesday, Columbus on Friday and Pittsburgh on Saturday, before opening at home, refreshed after five games on two continents in nine days, on Wednesday October 10.
FunFact: In England, the penalty box is called - and we are not making this up - the sin bin. It actually seems to be a general European reference in a variety of sports that send players to designated place for some quiet time after violating the rules.
CAN WE GET BACK TO A REAL SPORT?: The quarterfinals are all set at the Rugby World Cup in France. Pool play concluded over the weekend with no great surprises. Scotland defeated Italy 18-16 on Saturday to take the second spot in Pool C, behind Writer's Shack faves the All Blacks, from New Zealand. France took the second spot out of Pool D by smothering Georgia 64-7.
Write This Down: The quarterfinals begin Saturday with Australia taking on England in Marseille and our All Blacks march to the championship starts in Cardiff, Wales, taking on those losers, the Le Bleus Homosexuel from France. On Sunday its South Africa and Fiji in Marseille and Argentina and Scotland in Saint-Denis.
USA! USA! The Americans, known as the Eagles, captured the imagination of everyone by going 0-4 in pool play, mailing in their final game Sunday, 64-15 to South Africa, and you don't have to know anything about rugby, like we don't, to know that isn't very good. The Americans join Canada, Japan, Portugal and Namibia as the only teams to go winless in pool play.
Namibia?! What The Hell's Going On Here?: Yeah, Namibia. A country of just over two million people, on the southwest African coast between Angola and South Africa. A country with an average life expectancy of just over 43 years (probably because of all the rugby they're playing), a 21.3 percent HIV prevalence rate in adults, and, a literacy rate of 85 percent can produce a rugby team as good (bad) as the United States.
We Are Not Making This Up, Vol. II: Namibia's rugby team is known as the Welwitschias, which is a type of plant.
Trivia Question: The Arizona Diamondbacks and the Colorado Rockies led the National League with 90 wins in 2007. When was the last the National League had its league leader finish the season with less than 90 wins?
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