Sports Radio

You can learn a lot by listening to sports radio – – and sometimes you wonder if you need to know what you just learned.  Here in the DC area, fans are suddenly not only interested in the Washington Wizards, some fans have them in the NBA Finals next year.  The spark for that surge of optimism – – or fantasy if you prefer – – is the Wizards’ good fortune to have acquired the overall #1 pick in the NBA Draft where they took AJ Dybantsa out of BYU.

I like AJ Dybantsa; I would have taken him with that overall #1 pick; he would be a positive addition to any team in the NBA.  Nevertheless, he still has more than a bit to show before he might be anointed as a first-ballot Hall of Fame inductee and a multiple time NBA champion.  Not so in the minds of some callers to sports radio in Washington…

Their euphoria was taken to an even higher plane of existence when Dybantsa scored 28 points in his first game in the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas.  [Aside:  He was playing against other draftees and various G-League players there; you should expect him as the overall #1 pick to play well against that competition.]  That performance proved conclusively to the local fans that he will lead the Wizards to glory starting today and that he is the best thing to happen to “Washington Sports” since the retirement of St. Joseph of Gibbs.  Then came Game 2 of the NBA Summer League – – and AJ Dybantsa sat out the game…

Not to worry proclaimed the callers; that decision was part of a long-term strategy by the team to assure Dybantsa’s health and fitness; why risk injury in a meaningless game?  As soon as I heard that “take” on the decision to sit out the game, I learned that AJ Dybantsa has achieved “sports sainthood” among the fandom of the DC area; anything and everything he does can only be seen in a gloriously radiant light.  The heresy of all heresies would be to suggest that in missing Game 2 of the Summer League, Dybantsa was acclimating to the habits of NBA players who exercise load management and sit out games randomly and frequently.  But that is what curmudgeons do for a living …

Moving on …  A former colleague sent me a note alerting me to the fact that Warren Spahn won 363 games in his 21-year career in MLB and also had exactly 363 base hits in all those games.  That coincidence was sufficient to send me to baseball-reference.com to see if there was anything else that might stand out.  Here is what you might find if you peruse Spahn’s stats:

• He pitched in 21 seasons in MLB which is unusual to begin with.  Also, consider that he spent three years in the military in World War II and missed all the 1943-1945 seasons.
• For 19 consecutive seasons between 1947 and 1965, he started more than 30 games in each season.
• For 17 seasons between 1947 and 1963, he threw 245 innings or more in each season.
• Of his 363 wins over the course of his MLB career, he won 277 of those games after he was 30 years old.
• He started 665 games and completed 382 games.

They don’t make pitchers like Warren Spahn these days.

Switching gears …  The World Cup Finals are set; Argentina will play Spain for the championship next week.  As has been the case in several previous games, Argentina was behind on the scoreboard late in the game.  England led 1-0 with the clock running at 84 minutes until Argentina scored to tie the game.  Then in stoppage time – – about 7 minutes later – – Argentina scored again to pull out the win.  Argentina remains alive in its quest to win two consecutive FIFA World Cup championships.

Lionel Messi did not score in the game – – but he managed to assist both of Argentina’s goals that led to victory.  It will be interesting to see Messi and the Argentinians’ attack against the smothering Spanish defenders next week.

Finally, here is an interesting thought from Woody Allen:

“I’m not afraid of death; I just don’t want to be there when it happens.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………