Now What?

Okay, now what? With the Dodgers winning the World Series, what is left for me to watch on TV during the week? Or will I be subjected to a steady diet of the NFL on Sundays, Mondays and Thursdays? And a Saturday full of college football, as limited as that is?

On Wednesday I watched a Netflix rental titled Little Italy (14% rating on Rotten Tomatoes but cute anyway) then repeatedly searched HBO and Showtime on Wednesday (watched Legally Blonde  with my wife). Before I look through On Demand programs and try to get on Apple and Amazon, I guess that I can discuss the current situation in sports. It beats politics and the current state of the world. Then again, this is an apolitical blog.

So, how about those Dodgers? They were everything that we expected them to be. Power hitting. Clutch pitching. Great fielding. LAD beat, in my mind, the second best team in baseball. Tampa Bay was no slouch. 

In reviewing the two lineups, it is  the Dodgers lineup which is loaded with the better-known players. Betts, Turner, Bellinger, Muncey, Pederson, Pollock, Hernandez, Smith, Barnes, Taylor and the eventual World Series M.V.P., shortstop Corey Seager. The pitching starts with eventual Hall of Famers Clayton Kershaw and right hander Walker Buehler, now a star in his second year with the team. And ends with a solid bullpen of hard throwers or short-term specialists, who kept the Rays off-balance. 

Still, it took an absurd, error-filled bottom of the ninth ending to Game 4 giving the Rays a gift-wrapped win, to create a 2-2 series tie heading into Game 5. That’s where the Dodgers, behind Kershaw, throttled Tampa Bay. 

Blake Snell stymied the Dodgers into the sixth inning, holding LAD to one hit. But a leadoff hit drove Rays Manager Kevin Cash to yank Snell, primarily based on analytics of how Snell fared when going through a lineup for a third time. Snell has absolutely overpowered the Dodgers until that point. 

The Dodgers were relieved that Snell was finished and they took advantage of Cash’s questionable decision. It was 2-1 LAD, augmented by a solo homer from Betts. The relief corps took over and the Dodgers were celebrating for the first time since 1988.

LAD’s win was overshadowed by what happened at the start of the 8th inning of Game 6. Third baseman Justin Turner was pulled from the game, as he had tested positive for COVID-19. 

Turner remained masked and away from his teammates only until the Dodgers won the Series. Then he returned to the field, breaking all of the protocols, and appeared mask-less for much of the on-field celebrating. 

I get his enthusiasm and desire to be with his team, supported by Betts and others. Turner had just completed his four year deal with LAD. He was celebrating his first Series win at age 35, just prior to becoming a free agent. 

Still, it was a selfish act that put others at risk who were not normally in contact with the full ensemble of LAD personnel. The amount of criticism he received was enormous, and rightfully so. His actions delayed the departure of both teams from the bubble, as they had to endure more tests before boarding their respective planes. 

MLB had almost made it through the bubble environment they had artificially created in haste to allow a World Series to be played. There is an investigation under way. We haven’t heard how Turner became infected. Whatever the reason, his actions upon learning that he had COVID-19 were irresponsible and are worthy of some significant punishment.

And just like that, there is no more baseball to watch.  When and how they are going to return is subject to conjecture given the state of the raging second wave of the COVID-19 tearing into this country. Too bad the Dodgers win was tarnished by the actions of one. 

A few more baseball notes. Hall of Famer Tony La Russa, now in his seventies, returns to the White Sox, the team he first managed, to lead the up and coming South Siders to the next level. Whether this move by team owner Jerry Reinsdorf Weill right the mistake of permitting former GM Ken Harrelson to fire La Russa is largely dependent on La Russa’s  ability to relate to the youngsters on his squad. 

A.J. Hinch, suspended by MLB for his part in the Houston Astros cheating scandal, has resurfaced with the woeful Detroit Tigers. I hope Hinch is contrite and understands how fortunate he is to receive this second chance. Whether he survives will be determined by his players and how he can motivate them to play beyond their present level. Which may be a very hard thing to do.

The Yankees exercised their option on receiver Zach Britton but declined options on Brett Gardner, J.A. Happ and Tommy Kahnle. I wish Gardner would retire. He may have some playing life ahead of him, but it is obvious that his better days are behind him. Memo to GM Brian Cashman—sign D.J. Le Mahieu!!

Let’s delve into the NFL. More and more positive COVID tests are occurring. A lineman on the Giants is one of them. It isn’t going to make things any better (or worse) when the G-men host Tom Brady and chums on Monday night. 

The Jets were a deserved 20 point underdog entering the game with Kansas City at Arrowhead Stadium. That is a whopping margin by NFL standards. 

The Jets-Trevor Lawrence watch continues. Or does it? Early in the week Lawrence made mention that he might continue to stay at Clemson for a fourth year, eschewing the chance to play for the Jets. 

Who knows if that was hyperbole or a negotiating ploy? For Lawrence’s world changed dramatically with the announcement on Thursday that he had tested positive for COVID-19 and he was exhibiting mild symptoms. 

First, like so many others, I wish him a speedy recovery, just as I do for Justin Turner and the Giants’ Will Hernandez. Lawerence did not play against Boston College as Clemson eked out a home win on Saturday. It has been announced that Lawrence will not play next Saturday when the top-ranked Tigers travel to meet #4 Notre Dame in South Bend. 

It is apparent that his illness will have a major bearing on how Lawrence decides to continue as a football player. For all my hoping that he comes to the moribund Jets, that, for now, is not something to ponder. 

Then there is Rutgers. Thanks to seven turnovers, Michigan State looked dreadful and Rutgers was able to take advantage of the Spartans’ miscues and put enough points on the scoreboard to leave East Lansing a winner, breaking a 21 game Big Ten losing streak and giving Greg Schiano his first Big Ten win. For one week, it was great to see Rutgers atop the standings along with Indiana, Ohio State and Wisconsin. 

RU returned home and was overrun by a very talented Indiana team. The weaknesses were glaring and will be on full display next week in Columbus when national title contender Ohio State will have their way with the Scarlet Knights once more. 

This is a Rutgers team with enthusiasm and heart. Even with the lack of talent, they play hard. Against Indiana, a lateral-filed touchdown was called back because it was determined that there was one illegal forward lateral. The fact that RU scored on that play told me all I needed to know about this group. They drank the Schiano Kool-Aid and they will compete. The program is looking better than it has been in a long time. 

And there is a P.S. to this. Michigan State took out their anger on #13 Michigan in a rivalry game in Ann Arbor, defeating the Wolverines. Which now makes the RU win over the Spartans look that much better. 

Meanwhile, COVID-19 attacked the Wisconsin team, forcing cancellation of the Badgers’ game with Nebraska. It also hit Illinois, who lost their starting QB to the virus. Expect more of this as we head into November and the peaking of the second wave. 

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver wants to start the 2020-21 campaign on December 22. Not so fast, says Lebron James, his Lakers teammates and a lot of other players. Silver claims that the NBA will lose $1 billion by starting in mid-January. Without a bubble. Stay tuned. 

College basketball teams are slowly putting together their schedules for the upcoming season. Rutgers will host Syracuse in the ACC-Big East Challenge. Yet tournaments in an Orlando bubble were cancelled. Once more I invoke the pandemic in wonderment as these schools forge ahead with basketball despite the likelihood that students will be exposed to the virus. This is another wait and see the outcome situation.

I haven’t heard too much about the NHL. What are they up to?

So there you have it. Baseball is over and we start the free agency period. Not something to watch on TV. 

The NFL game in the New York market are worthless and Sunday night’s Dallas-Philadelphia matchup in the rain with Dallas playing an unproven QB out of James Madison University is for the birds…pun intended. Nothing there is appealing.

The college football season has an empty feel to it. 500 people were in SHI Stadium in Piscataway on Saturday, with no band. At Clemson, the band was not in uniform, was socially distant and the stands were a quarter full. A little bit more of an environment, but still strange. And play is scheduled to go on until mid-December—if COVID does not short-circuit more games (Wisconsin’s game versus Purdue next week is in question.  

No, everything is sports now is out of sync since basketball and then baseball have ended. There is no flow to the games, no importance or quality of competition as there has been in other years. It simply isn’t appealing to me, and I am a die-hard sports fan. 

With sports in flux right now, it’s back to Netflix, HBO, Showtime, Apple TV, Amazon. Sports has left me with this uneasy feeling—now what?