The Los Angeles Dodgers are back in the World Series; they will face the winner of the Mariners/Blue Jays Game 7 tonight. The win that advanced the Dodgers to the World Series featured a superhuman performance by Shoei Ohtani. Perhaps the baseball gods presaged the miraculous performance with this amuse buche:
- Ohtani struck out the side in the top of the first inning. Then …
- Ohtani hit a lead-off home run in the bottom of the first inning.
You don’t see that every day.
When he was relieved of his pitching duties, he left, allowing no runs and striking out 10 Milwaukee Brewers. By game’s end, he had hit three home runs – – in three at bats – – and driven in 3 runs. Other than serving as the stadium DJ playing walk-up music, it is difficult to identify anything else he might have done Friday night. Many people have called this the greatest performance ever in the history of baseball. If it is not, then it is certainly on the short list for that accolade.
Moving on … The NBA regular season is upon us; it all starts tomorrow night when the defending champions – – Oklahoma City Thunder – – tip off against the Houston Rockets at 7:30 PM ET. Frankly, in most seasons, I do not give a fig about the NBA until at least late February when the playoff races begin to become interesting. The thought of watching a Wizards/Blazers game in mid-November never crosses my cognitive space. However, this year feels a bit different; there are a few issues/questions involved that might begin to be answered throughout the season. For example:
- The Thunder are led by a trio of very young players. Is this an emerging dynasty? Was that championship run last season a “one-off”?
- The Celtics have dominated the Eastern Conference for the last 5 years or so, but Jason Tatum will miss most if not all of this season with a torn Achilles tendon suffered in the playoffs last season. The Celtics also traded away Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday in the offseason and saw two key free agents sign elsewhere (Al Horford and Luke Kornet). So, who will take over the mantle of “Beast of the East”?
I think those sorts of questions are far more interesting than ones involving LeBron James and his plans/desires for the upcoming season. For the record, here are my current thoughts on those questions – – subject to review and revision as regular season evidence pours in:
- The Thunder ran away with the Western Conference regular season race last year. Houston and Denver did some major overhauling of their rosters in the offseason and will probably provide the best challenge to the Thunder. I do not think last year was a “one-off”; I think the Thunder will be a serious contender to repeat as champions because they were/are the best defensive team in the league last year and “defense travels”.
- If Jason Tatum cannot play at all in the regular season, I expect the Celtics to miss the playoffs. Might they even be so bad this year that they join the “race to the bottom” in search of lots of ping-pong balls for the lottery?
- Who might replace the Celtics atop the East? The Knicks and the Cavs look best positioned to me for that stature – – but if Joel Embiid can stay healthy and play 65 games or more, the Sixers might make things interesting in the East. [Aside: Embiid missed two full seasons right after he was drafted; in the nine seasons he has been with the Sixers after that two-year rehab, Embiid has only played 65 games or more twice. That could be a big ask for Sixers’ fans.]
Speaking of the NBA, the league has yet again decided to monkey with the format of their All-Star Game. Let me be clear from the outset here; the NBA All-Star Game is not even worthy of being called a travesty; it is an embarrassment for the league.
Having stated my opinion, here is what the newest thinking on that subject is:
- There will be three teams – – two teams made up of US players and the other team made up of international players. Those three teams will play a round-robin format to determine the champion.
Pardon me while I yawn …
Finally, these words from Frank Deford:
“You can stand at a bar and scream all you want about who was the greatest athlete and which was the greatest sports dynasty, and you can shout out your precious statistics, and maybe you’re right, and maybe the red-faced guy down the bar – the one with the foam on his beer and the fancy computer rankings – is right, but nobody really knows.”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………