A Touch Of TV Sports Fatigue

This was the week I got TV fatigue. It’s gotta be.

Between watching the nation’s political scenario unfold in DC, Salt Lake City and Michigan, the weekly tumultuous saga of the “reality” show Below Deck and a couple of episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm, Larry David’s faux psychological parody of his life, I’ve has been watching some sports on the tube. Just a wee bit.

The past weekend was devoid of baseball. Not to worry—a full slate of divisional series games started on Monday and culminated with Game 5 of the war of attrition between the Yankees and Rays. Plus the NBA Finals. 

Meanwhile, the Jets shut down their Florham Park facility because of a suspected case of COVOD-19—which is all over ESPN along with the status of the Bills, Raiders and Patriots, who have positive tests among their players and staff. The Chiefs are also under scrutiny, as the affected New England player, Steven Gilmore, was seen interacting with Kansas City players after the rescheduled Monday night game—including an embrace with Patrick Mahomes II, the new face of the NFL. Mahomes apologized for his indiscretion, but like the Rose Garden ceremony for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, will this lapse of judgment come back to haunt the Chiefs? All this with the Patriots conducting tests on Monday at 6:00 am, before boarding planes separating those who were in contact with QB Cam Newton, who had been infected with COViD-19 and then heading to KC for the game early Monday evening, then traveling back home. So much for the accuracy of rapid testing. Plus the Jets test was a false positive. 

The NFL schedule is beginning to unravel. Because of the Newton situation, the Patriots-Chiefs game was reset for a Monday 6:00 starting time. CBS kept the game and the number one team of Jim Nance, Troy Aikman and Tracey Wolfson was on hand to broadcast what turned out to be a tough task for KC, who won the game by a 26-10 score with a fourth quarter spurt. The regularly scheduled Atlanta-Green Bay contest airing on ESPN, was moved back to 8:50 for kickoff. Pittsburgh and Tennessee had already been moved to later in the season, which sparked some disgruntled comments from the Steelers, who received their bye week four weeks early.

The Titans were hopeful to resume playing this weekend, with a marquee matchup against the similarly undefeated Buffalo Bills. Having made it through two straight days of no positive tests, the optimism was burst when more infections were reported on Thursday. Now the NFL is looking at a potential Tuesday game, if it gets played at all. Those Chiefs play the Bills in a very interesting matchup the next week, and that too could be impacted by the scheduling changes.

Welcome to the world of the NFL without a true bubble. The league’s remedy for those who violate their mandates are hefty fines—against coaches who bring down their masks on the field or teams which are lax in following protocols and insuring that the players are healthy and the games are timely played. Suspensions are in play. The word “forfeit’ has been bandied about, a final measure to gain compliance—if at all possible. 

With the onset of colder weather the ominous predictions from scientists and medical professionals is that the coronavirus is not going away. Instead, it is going to become stronger and unfortunately affect wide swaths of the population. The NFL, like college football, which is strangely silent for now concerning the virus, is going to be heavily impacted. How heavy remains to be seen. It is are strangely reminiscent of the early days of the baseball season. The question is has the NFL learned enough to weather this onslaught?

MLB managed to reach the ALCS and NLCS without controversy and some thrilling baseball. The Houston Astros, the team everyone hates outside of South Texas, rolled over the favored Oakland A’s in four games. They will meet the Tampa Bay Rays, who won a 2-1 squeaker over the Yankees in a Game 5 on Friday night. More on that later. 

In the NL, the Dodgers vanquished the upstart Padres, who have an air of arrogance about them and an abundance of talent. However, the Dodgers have more talent and owned the best record in baseball for a reason. A highlight of the clinching game was a great, timed leap by Cody Bellinger to rob Fernando Tatis, Jr. of a homer.

Atlanta is the Dodgers NLCS opponent. They put away the Marlins with timely pitching and hitting. I don’t see them folding in four games to the Dodgers, no matter how formidable LA is. 

I have to admit that all the baseball on FS 1 and TBS was great. Games starting at 2:00 and lasting until after midnight. The neutral site locations were weird—seeing the Yankees pinstripes in San Diego when they were the “home” team in Games 3 and 4 was a bit unsettling. Playing 5 straight days was a great idea in this COVID-19 era, since there is no travel between home ballparks. However, this drains pitching staff that is not deep.

Which leads me to the Yankees. Game 1 was a Yankees beatdown of Blake Snell, a former Cy Young Award winner. Giancarlo Stanton was on fire, and the Yankees clubbed homers. Then they ran afoul of tall righty Tyler Glasnow and the Rays bullpen in Game 2. 

And that is the game which Yankees manager Aaron Boone made a very bad decision . He opened the game with Deivi Garcia, who became the youngest pitcher to start in the post-season for the Bombers. Garcia yielded a home run in the first inning. Then he was yanked by Boone, replaced by J.A. Happ, who was horrendous. 

In the third game, Masahiro Tanaka didn’t have it. I have always liked Tanaka, but his skills have diminished greatly, and we still don’t know if he ever really recovered from the line drive of Stanton which struck him in the head during Summer Camp.

Behind two games to one and facing elimination, New York relied on Jordan Montgomery to keep them in the contest, and the dormant Yankees bats awoke with a couple of home runs—two monster shots by Luke Voit and Gleyber Torres. Boone pieced together his pitching in that game, relying on Chad Green, Zach Britton and Aroldis Chapman to string together multiple innings to secure the victory. 

The success of the pitching in Game 4 came back to haunt them in Game 5. Ace Gerrit Cole struggled into the sixth inning, taking a no hitter into the firth inning before surrendering a homer to the Rays’ Austin Meadows, which snuck over the right field wall when Aaron Judge, unfamiliar with the Petco Park fences, hit his head on padding which protected signage and prevented him from leaping with his 6’7” frame and possibly snaring the ball, like Brett Gardner did an inning later. That one sequence epitomized the Yankees chances against the Rays. 

The reliance on Cole, Green, Britton and Chapman showed the Yankees vulnerability. For whatever reason, Chapman does not fare well in tie game scenarios, which led to the redemption home run by Tyler Broussard, the Rays player who Chapman famously threw his 100 mph heater at a couple of weeks ago. For all the hype about the vaunted bullpen, it was the lack of starting pitching beyond Cole and Montgomery and Boone’s insistence on using his three top bullpen pitchers exclusively which did the team in. In contrast, Rays Manager Kevin Cash used a bevy of relievers to shut the Yankees down in Game 5. 

Which brings up something else about the Yankees. While Stanton was on fire in the first couple of games, Judge did not fare well in this series or the playoffs, even if he clubbed a home run to put New York in the lead in Game 5. Torres can hit, but his fielding left a lot to be desired. Gardner had a good series, but Aaron Hicks did not. Voit was playing hurt and still contributed, but not to the extent necessary. 

Boone went with Kyle Higashioka behind the plate after Game 2. He was great in picking up pitches in the dirt, especially helping out Montgomery in Game 4. His bat was ok, but he is not the thumper that Gary Sanchez is—or should I say was. Without that feared bat n the lineup, it was a hole that dearly hurt New York offensively, even if Higgy is a far better defensive catcher than Sanchez.

New York faces an off season of decisions. D.J. LeMahieu’s contract is up. Can he be resigned? What to do about Sanchez? Tanaka is surely gone, with multiple young arms eager to replace him. I think Happ also is finished with New York. If the youngsters return to form next season, New York will be right there with the Rays, who are every bit as talented as they seem. Gardner wants to return—is he still better than Clint Frazier, who started out hot and then came crashing down at the end of the shortened season? Can GM Brian Cashman acquire another arm for his beleaguered bullpen? Can the Yankees find better bench players than Mike Ford? I will ruminate over this into the fall and winter, as we wait the 2021 season—whenever it begins.

The League Championship series will be a maximum of 7 straight days. The only travel involved is at the beginning, with Houston coming to San Diego and Atlanta headed to Arlington to meet the Dodgers. I’ll watch, but not with the intensity that I did this past week. 

Adding to my TV viewing are the NBA Finals. Thought to be a coronation for Lebron James and Anthony Davis, when they produced a 3-1 lead over the Miami Heat, it is anything but that. Jimmy Butler has given his all in this playoffs, willing his team to two victories. Duncan Robinson, my D III hero, had an exceptional Game 5, tallying 26 points, creating turnovers and drawing a hard charge from James. I said to one of my friends that Robinson, who averaged 17 points a game at Williams College, scored 17 in Game 4, thus equating DIII with the NBA Finals. He opined that I have been trying to sell that losing argument for years. 

Let me comment on Lebron James. He has been superb during this 9th visit to the NBA Finals in the last 10 years. He Is an incredible athlete. What I learned is this: he hold so many playoff records: most playoff games: 259; most playoff minutes: 10,728 entering Friday night’s game; most consecutive playoff games played: 259; most points: 7463; greatest closeout record @ 38-11; and he Is second to Magic Johnson in assists. On Friday night he made 15 of 21 shots; 6 for 9 from three point range for a total of 40 points. He added 13 rebounds, 7 assists and 3 steals. 

Conversely, Butler has scored or assisted on 240 points in the past 4 games. That is second to James’ 245 in the 2017 Finals. They guarded each other in the fourth quarter. Butler also was geared by Davis, who is much bigger than he is. Somehow Butler ended with 35 points, 12 rebounds, 11 assists, 5 steals and a block. He played all but 48 seconds of the game. 

When fans need a compelling NBA Finals in the midst of the pandemic, we got it. Two exceptional players leaving it all on the court. 

Miami has a tough road ahead. Two more wins against the Lakers is as difficult as it gets. Without any home crowd, or for that matter any real crowd, the level of play has been outstanding and compelling TV. These teams have made it through a bubble of over two months, mostly without friends and family, but on the campus of Disney where they rode bikes, golfed and even communed a bit with the enemy. Kudos to Adams Silver for pulling this off. 

Sunday brings us the French Open finals. Rafael Nadal went for a Roger Federer-tying 20th Grand slam title against top seeded Novak Djokovic. Djokovic was also chasing Federer, and his untimely demise in New York when he struck a lines person with a ball out of frustration and anger has fueled his play in Paris. More must see TV. Especially if you were rooting for Nadal, who triumphed in 3 sets.

So let’s summarize this week. Football. Baseball. Basketball. Seemingly every day and night. My eyes are bleary. But I am destined for more tiredness with a new slate of upcoming games, starting on Sunday with the NFL, the ALCS and the NBA Finals. 

I may be suffering from a touch of TV sports fatigue.  Do you hear me complaining?