Baseball And Football Today …

The MLB playoffs are underway; in the NLDS, both series are tied 1-1 and the teams have an off day for travel.  I think the result of Game 1 of the Astros/Mariners series in the ALDS must have been one of the bigger gut-punches a team could take.  Consider:

• The Astros were at home, and they started Justin Verlander in the game.  Verlander will surely get a lot of votes for AL Cy Young Award winner this year and is the betting favorite to win that award.
• The Mariners knocked Verlander out of the game after 4 innings and score 6 runs on him (all earned runs) amassing 10 hits.
• The Mariners led the game 7-3 going into the bottom of the eighth inning.

And then the Astros rallied to win the game 8-7 on a walk-off three-run HR in the bottom of the ninth inning.  From the emotional high of taking a big lead off a potential Cy Young Award winner and carrying it deep into the game to walking off the field as a losing team must have been a low point in the season for the Mariners.  Game 2 of this series will happen this afternoon.

This series will return to Seattle with Game 3 scheduled for Saturday.  There is an interesting potential “issue” in Seattle should there be a need for a Game 4 come Sunday:

• The Seahawks also have a home game scheduled on Sunday at Lumen Field.
• The Mariners game would be at T-Mobile Park.
• Those two facilities are next door to each other, and they share parking facilities.
• The starting time for the games would coincide.

So, here is the attempted resolution of this situation:

• Mariners/Astros game will start at noon Pacific Time not 1:00 PM
• Seahawks/Cards game will start at 5:30 PM Pacific Time not 4:00 PM

Sounds like there is a plan in place for this “situation” but my guess is that there will be a traffic embolism in Seattle on Sunday in the late afternoon/early evening.

One other baseball note here …  Bob Costas did the Yankees/Guardians game earlier this week.  I like Bob Costas a lot; it was a pleasure to hear him again.

Moving on …  I continue to be amused by the reaction of sports media folks when they get what they often ask for.  Everyone knows what “coach-speak” is; often, folks who cover a specific team or league decry “coach-speak” and wish for candor.  However, when they get candor, there is often a rush to criticize the coach for being – – so candid.

Earlier this week, Washington Commanders’ coach, Ron Rivera, was asked a pointed question by a reporter from the Washington Times.  Let me paraphrase the question here:

• Why are the other three teams in the NFC East seemingly much further along in their rebuilding process than the Commanders?

That is not a softball question by any means, but it is also a perfectly proper question given the status of the 2022 season so far.  And, among the set of questions that had the ability to trigger three paragraphs of “coach-speak”, that would be one of them.  Ron Rivera chose to avoid “coach-speak” and lean into candor with a one-word answer:

• “Quarterback.”

The reaction was not instantaneous in scientific terms, but it did not take long for people to begin to analyze negatively that response because it “threw Carson Wentz under the bus”.  The problem here is that the media folks seem to want it every which way.  They want direct and truthful answers and at the same time they also want a measure of diplomacy and tact in the same answers.

Living in the DC area, I must follow the comings and goings of the Commanders more closely than other NFL teams simply because I am inundated with coverage for that one team.  So, here would have been my candid answer to that paraphrased question:

• We are not nearly as efficient on offense as those other teams; our offensive line has not played well at all and we have not gotten nearly the same level of play from our quarterback as those other teams have gotten from that position.
• At the same time, our defense has been disappointing.  We have invested a lot of capital (five first-round picks) in that defense, and we signed a serious free agent for the defensive backfield this year.  But on the field, we give up lots of plays of 25 yards or more and we should not be doing that.
• The Commanders are underperforming the talent level in the locker room.  Maybe that points to bad coaching; maybe that points to a lack of “fire in the belly” among the players.  But the reason we are in last place in the NFC East is underperformance and probably the biggest area of underperformance is at the quarterback position.

My answer is as candid as Coach Rivera’s; if anyone thinks my answer is less “offensive” in some way it is probably because I identified several problem areas for the team instead of only one.  On the other hand, I could be accused of throwing too many parts of the team under the bus.  I do not like “coach-speak” any more than the next guy, but when I see how folks react to candor, I understand how and why such a linguistic art form came into being.

Finally, John Simon was a noted critic of the arts serving as the drama critic for New York magazine and film critic for The National Review.  He was known for his candid assessments of performers and performances.  I will close today with his candid assessment of actress Carol Kane:

“You have to have a stomach for ugliness to endure Carol Kane – to say nothing of the zombielike expressions she mistakes for acting.”

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