Hockey has a something of a plan. Basketball is heading towards one. The NFL thinks it should be business as usual by the time the season begins. Baseball is having a lot more difficulty in getting to a point where games can be played.
Let’s briefly look at the NHL’s model. The NHLPA and the the NHL agreed upon a 24 team playoff system with some wrinkles within. The top four teams in each conference play a round robin small tournament to decide seeding for the next round. Meanwhile, the remaining 8 teams are seeded 5 through 12 and play #5 versus #12, #6 against #11, #7 takes on #10 and #8 and #9 clash. All may be best of 5 series, although the length of the first two rounds has not been set. What is unresolved is if there will be a reseeding in the next round in case there are upsets.
What is my level of interest in this? Curious at best. I hope that no one gets sick during the playoffs, although I feel that is an unlikely scenario. Playing without fans will be different; will there be piped in noise?
A number of sites have been identified as possible locales—some of them are home to playoff teams and it is unclear if any team will be playing in its home arena. The likelihood is slim that one of those cities will be in Canada given the current 14 day quarantine rules; the league and Canadian government are engaging in ongoing talks. For certain, according to NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, all of the Eastern Conference will congregate in one Eastern Conference city while the same will occur with the Western Conference. It is unclear where the Stanley Cup Finals would be held.
The entire operation is dependent upon what happens with the COVID-19 virus. The NHL knows it isn’t going away. Each team will travel with 50 personnel, including players, coaches and staff. There must be sufficient testing ability and governmental approval for the chosen hub cities. Thus, in announcing this plan, Commissioner Bettman stated “(W)hile nothing is without risk, assuming health and safety has been central to all of our planning so far and will remain so.”
There are significant questions with this proposition. Besides a lot of decisions on how the series will be played, there is little direction when this might occur. Bettman noted : “At this time, we are not fixing dates because the schedule of our return to play will be determined both by developing circumstances and the needs of the players.” All I have read is that practicing might happen near July 10, at the start of phase 3 of the Return to Play Plan.
I haven’t read anything about what will happen if a player tests positive during the playoffs and how this would affect his team. Disqualifying any team would de-legitimize the integrity of the plan. What about masks worn by the players? Nothing has been said on that topic. And will there be more or less fighting given the gravity of the situation?
Bettman also left open the possibility that home arenas could be used if circumstances warrant them and fans might be admitted. That is overly ambitious and reeks of trouble.
The other professional sports are reviewing the NHL plan to see if they can incorporate aspects into their visions for resuming play. But they must keep an eye out for what is happening with the virus, too. There are some states where hot spots exist that didn’t just last week. It is a fluid situation, for lack of a better term.
One more thing on the NHL. The New Jersey Devils failed to make the playoffs, losing to Pittsburgh in their final game played before the suspension of play. This allowed Montreal to take the 12th and final spot in the Eastern Conference playoffs. A late run towards respectability got New Jersey to .500 before the loss to the Penguins. It might have been fun to see how the Devils would have fared. While the teams are seeded by their winning percentages, it will be like a whole new season, with each team starting with no wins. Handicapping this playoff format using what has happened so far will not suffice.
The NBA is still trying to determine if it will conclude the regular season with some games, or like the NHL, go straight into a 16 team playoff, or include New Orleans (Zion Williamson) and a few others in a 20 or 22 team version with some regular season contests. Like their NHL counterparts, the players want to play and determine a champion, if at all possible. Nothing has materialized and the sport is weeks away from beginning whatever the NBAPA, headed by Houston guard Chris Paul, and Commissioner Adam Silver and the league propose.
Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey are permitting pro athletes to enter team facilities and begin working out. The readiness of the players to go to the gyms and fields is obvious. What isn’t so sure is when coaches will be allowed to conduct more formal practices and meetings. The Giants and Jets have not yet opened their facilities. I have read that the Yankees prefer to keep their team in Tampa when players start to report.
I am not going to get into the 2020 NFL outlook because their arrogance is distasteful. Others might call it positiveness about playing at full capacity. There are always at least two sides to each debate. Just remember that the Boston Marathon won’t be run for the first time ever. That foreign soccer teams play before empty stands. The X Games are gone for this year. Movie theaters are not open and many film festivals and concerts aren’t going to happen as planned. Especially with a second wave in the minds of the medical professionals.
Colleges are all over the place on allowing athletes to return. I saw that UNC is having them come back in stages. The University of Alabama plans to have the athletes on campus and students in the fall—except that the ER’s are overflowing in Montgomery, Tuscaloosa and Birmingham with a recent spike. On the other hand, the head of the University of Michigan is a medical doctor and his approach is more cautious and reasonable—no students if they would be endangered, and if the students don’t come back , the players aren’t either and they will not play any games. Again, this is another situation which cannot be calculated, even if the NCAA has released a comprehensive protocol for student-athletes returning to campuses. Governor Phil Murphy has opened up New Jersey enough that Rutgers fall sports can return as early as June 22.
Thus we are left to discuss the baseball situation. Some say it is simply posturing. Others say there is real hostility emerging between the players and the owners. The cause of all their animosity is money. Not surprisingly.
The owners are looking to maximize their profits and have reneged on a March agreement to compensate the players on a proportional share basis. They want to underpay stars like Mike Trout to pay a little more to some of the lower-salaried players.
Except that the MLBPA and super agent Scott Boras are not having any of what MLB has to say. It is clear that baseball is cutting back on everything—not paying employees and in some instances not paying money to minor leaguers. For it is highly likely that the 2020 minor league season, normally a highly profitable venture, probably will not be played and many players are being jettisoned or kept on a meager $400 compensation through the end of what would have been the minor league season. (Kudos to the Yankees, who are paying their minor leaguers in June and David Price, the new Dodgers pitcher, who is generously paying $1,000 to 200 LA minor leaguers out of his own pocket—and he hasn’t played in a real game for the Dodgers) Fan Y pointed out to me that he was outraged that a Wall Street Journal article showed that the billionaire ownership of Oakland A’s was unwilling to pay $1 million to their minor leaguers by already ending the aforementioned $400 allotments.
The pundits feel that the players and the owners have too much to lose by reaching an impasse in their negotiations. They remind us about prior labor stoppages and how the players and the owners had to work overtime and with a bit of luck, recapture the fans. Except that the fans won’t be heading to the stadiums this year due to the coronavirus.
I am on the players side. I always have been. They have had to scratch and claw their way to the salaries they can command, as ludicrous and disproportionate they might be. There is a ton of money at stake. The product is a very good one. The players deserve their share of the large pot. They, not the owners, are the attraction.
No matter what happens, baseball will survive. Even if bastardized with the formation of artificial divisions for supposed travel purposes, the fans will watch. The ratings might suffer a bit now, but the goal is to get to next year intact and welcome the fans back into the seats at the exorbitant prices found at major league parks.
This holds true should the 2020 season go by the wayside. Both side will be blamed. In my mind, the owners are the ones who reneged and they will be the real losers. The millions of unemployed in this country aren’t going to sympathize with the greed and avarice multi-millionaires show during this startling economic crisis borne out of a plague of unimaginable proportions.
I tend not to venture into the political arena with this blog. I am deeply troubled with the horribly tragic George Floyd/police encounter in Minneapolis. It is another flash point in our terrible saga of race relations, which comes at a time when discontent is higher than ever. I have seen too many times the abuses of the police which were routinely denied and the horrible fate of unjust imprisonment suffered by young men of color.
`Seemingly a couple times per year we read and watch episodes of excessive force used by police or armed civilians. Yet somehow, the perpetrators of the injustices don’t receive the punishment they deserve.
During this pandemic, we have seen a young black man shot and killed in Georgia when he was jogging. Now we have George Floyd, accused of a non-violent crime, punished inhumanely for over 8 minutes until he died. We have also seen men armed with assault rifles on the steps of the Michigan State Capitol. A supposed liberal white woman who didn’t have a dog on a leash called for the police because she was approached about the dog by a black man who happened to be a bird watcher.
No matter how much we crave justice for these terrible acts, we are not going to see it universally applied in these times when violence and racial tension are applauded by the most powerful. It is a corrupt society right now, and we need to find a way to locate our equilibrium.
The violence of this week—both the actions of the Minneapolis police and the rioting thereafter, just like the horrific school shootings in Connecticut and Florida as well as the gunning down of innocents in Las Vegas, are part of a profound dilemma which must be addressed. I wish I had the answers. I suffer with all those who cry out for decency.
George Floyd was a man seeking redemption. Once a promising athlete in high school and a college basketball player in Florida, his life turned in his native Houston with a five year term for an armed robbery. He sought a new life in Minnesota, working as a bouncer.
But COVID-19 swallowed up his job and consequently his life. So sad and so maddening. Violence begetting violence is not one of the answers we seek.
With so many people flaunting their resentment for governmental restraint over the COVID-19 policies by gathering in groups and not wearing masks, do we think that reform really has a chance? Too much selfishness and very little social consciousness causes this attitude. Which isn’t going to change very soon.
Unfortunately, there will be more George Floyd and Eric Garner incidents with the police. Race and money are at the center of our misconduct. When a President who acted Presidential is disparaged repeatedly with the not too subtle subtext of his race, the message of hate is clear. This country is in shambles with selfishness and unemployment at all time highs during a chilling pandemic that has caused over 100,000 deaths.
Flattening the curve has many meanings. Once we achieve it with the coronavirus, then with our economy, we need to flatten the curve of hate and racism. Unfortunately, time is not an ally. Without that, what good are the other two prongs?
While we painfully see this tragedy play itself out, I bide my time at home, watching the squirrels run around recklessly, ripping up gardens, tearing off tree branches, establishing their turf with reckless abandon. I want to reach out and do something but I can’t. There are more of them and they are quicker than I am.
Observing squirrels is complicated. We would be at a loss without their machinations. They frustrate me and I abhor them. And they are seemingly immune to the pandemic, but mindful of heir own worth. Squirrels are fascinating and entertaining at times.
For it is the same in sports and in life, too. It is all about the squirrels, isn’t it?
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