Our Best Stuff From a Week Full of Kamala, QAnon, and Quests for the NBA Playoffs

Let's talk about sports for just a minute.

By
19

I’ve been watching a lot of sports lately. It’s nice to have some return to normalcy, even though there’s really nothing normal about NBA games in August or the crack of the bat in baseball stadiums without a roar of the crowd. (Major props to the Kansas  City Royals, though, for putting a cutout of of Bernie from Weekend at Bernie’s behind home plate.) 

And it’s occurred to me that the different leagues’ policies on how to play through a pandemic have obvious parallels in how different countries have handled it.

The NBA, of course, is New Zealand. Top of the class. The bubble hasn’t been hermetically sealed—players have had to leave temporarily to deal with family matters, and yeah, a few guys snuck out of their hotels. But there have been zero positive tests among the 342 players who are in Orlando. And the product itself has been pretty darn good. There have been so many exciting games. The decision to play eight regular season games to sort out who gets into the playoffs? That turned out great. Some people thought the league should just bring in the top eight teams from each conference based on the standings as of the time of shut down and go right into the playoffs. That would have been fine, sure, but the drama that has played out over the last couple of weeks has made SportsCenter great again. Look at the Phoenix Suns and the Portland Trail Blazers. Poor Phoenix went 8-0 in the bubble and still missed out on a playoff spot. Their hopes were dashed when Portland, which went 6-2 in the bubble, eked out a 134-133 win over the Brooklyn Nets on Thursday. I’ve sort of adopted the Blazers down this stretch and I was yelling at the TV like it was a playoff game the other night. 

Baseball, on the other hand, is more like Sweden. MLB is taking some precautionary measures, players are tested regularly, and some are even wearing masks. Heck, Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo has offered squirts of hand sanitizer to opposing players who reach first. But there is no kind of bubble, and there have been big problems. Right away, 14 Marlins players tested positive and the team shut down for a while. The St. Louis Cardinals had nine players test positive, and some went to the emergency room because they had symptoms. The outbreaks have wreaked havoc with the schedule: The Cards, for example, will play seven doubleheaders to make up for lost time. And, because of the condensed schedule, MLB implemented a rule that double-headers will be seven innings instead of nine. It’s not the most egregious affront to baseball tradition we’re seeing this season (don’t get me started on the extra innings nonsense), but it’s also not ideal. Some have called for the league to shut down, but that seems unlikely to happen.

Keep reading with a free account
Create a free Dispatch account to keep reading Get Started ALREADY HAVE AN ACCOUNT? SIGN IN
19
By
Comments (19)
Join The Dispatch to participate in the comments.
 
  1. Avatar photo
    DougAz

    GO Celtics!! Bruins..ruh roh...
    Good news... IF The NFL plays... I get TB^2 and the Pats to root for. And DirecTV comped me free NFL Ticket..mooo

    Collapse
  2. Avatar photo
    Derek M

    No NHL news?!? The quest for the oldest and best trophy in professional sports is happening now, yet sadly overlooked :(

    Collapse
    1. Avatar photocircle-angle-nib
      Rachael Larimore vertical-nib Author

      I plead guilty and apologize! I very much wish I were a bigger hockey fan, but it's such a hard sport to watch on TV. I didn't want to weigh in on something I haven't been following. But you make a fair point!

      Collapse
      1. Avatar photo
        DougAz

        Hockey is definitely worth investing time to see. The Stanley Cup playoffs and Final series are the best of any sport. Plus..with all the awesome HD LED, OLED high Def TVs.... you can see the puck.

        Collapse
      2. Ty

        You're definitely missing out. It's worth figuring out!
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncDkanSBFLQ

        Collapse
    2. Avatar photo
      JohnF

      Particularly since the NHL has done much the same as the NBA but better! (Shifting their bubbles to a much safer country).

      Collapse
  3. Avatar photo
    Bill Mc

    Thanks, Rachael. Good stuff. To continue your Covid metaphor, would Ohio State be people who refuse to wear masks and Jim Harbaugh be Anthony Fauci? ;-)

    Collapse
  4. Avatar photo
    Carl M

    Now that the Giants have shown that they are capable of winning but disinclined to do so, I'm cool with the MLB shutting down. Of course, maybe dragging ourselves through the season will be the perfect way to get rid of Gabe Kapler.

    Collapse
  5. Avatar photo
    Adam

    I wonder if there's a workable way to separate out things like pods and emailed newsletters from site-only pieces in these roundups. Right now, site-only articles I had no idea existed get sandwiched between podcasts and newsletters that a lot of us have already seen, and it becomes really easy to miss some of those.

    Collapse
  6. Avatar photo
    Eric "Otter" Stratton

    Every time I hear about a new GOP QAnon nut case or another Democrat Socialist Bartender, I become more convinced of Jonah’s argument about week parties. Strong parties would tell these screwballs to just go pound sand.

    Collapse
    1. Mary Stine

      For someone whose handle is "Otter" you seem to have an inadequate understanding of screwballs!

      Collapse
      1. Avatar photo
        Eric "Otter" Stratton

        I don’t quite understand. Are you saying that Q-Crew & Socialists aren’t screwballs?

        Collapse
        1. Mary Stine

          uh, not in the comedic sense. I do not find anything funny about QAnon. It's hard to find Socialists with a great sense of humor. I think the better term would be "monkey wrench" as that is the true function of nut cases in either party.

          Collapse
  7. Avatar photo
    David Link

    This point is tangential to yours about the opening up of sports in the time of Covid, and of how different leagues are handling the challenge. But it's one that has troubled me for a long time, and shows up pretty clearly in this piece. Why is it that so few sports fans distinguish much at all between professional sports and sports played in college?

    The column seamlessly discusses two professional sports leagues and the NCAA as if they were all on the same footing. But aren't there important -- maybe very important -- differences between how professional leagues make decisions vs how teams run by colleges and made up of a "student athletes" (the much preferred disguising rhetoric for college players) ought to be weighing things?

    The move in college sports in my lifetime from a regional focus to a national one has troubled me for a long time. It's hard for many people to realize that was once intramural recreational competitions have devolved into the all-but-professional operations we see now. Nothing is more worrying to me than the fact that students -- students! -- need to explore creating a union to protect themselves from what are de facto employers.

    As a Californian, I am happy to root for USC, and once the Pac-12 season is over, be done with college football, and let other regions champion their own, local teams. (Yes, I do care about Notre Dame, but that's different...) I would be happy to see the pandemic break up the nationalization of college football in particular, which the BCS took a giant leap in cementing in place.

    I am in a distinct minority here (story of my life), but if comment sections aren't for cranks like me, why do we have them?

    Collapse
  8. Avatar photo
    Jacki F.

    I wouldn't be so quick to laud the "historic agreement between the UAE & Israel". The UAE is BFFs with Saudi Arabia, has been fully complicit in the tragedy in Yemen, and regularly contributes to what the Western World would consider egregious human rights violations, under the cover of Sharia law. So it isn't exactly a shocker that Trump & Kushner may have had a hand in this given their ties with the rich corrupt Saudis who murdered Khashoggi. Let's see IF the "deal" is actually consummated AND what meaningful changes result, because does anyone trust the warmongering, now corrupt Netanyahu? I don't. He doesn't want peace, just like Arafat never wanted peace. The Middle East is a senseless war of endless grudges, testosterone, and power. The Jews are wholly enabled and seemingly justified in their constant wars and takeover of land, both by Old Testament stories and the horrible tragedy of World War II. The Arabs are similarly enabled by distortions of the Koran they claim justifies their "jihad". Neither seems to be acquainted with the link between the 2 which calls for "loving the neighbor as thyself" and forgiveness. At this point I'll remain skeptical until I see more than a political op.

    Collapse
    1. Avatar photo
      Bill Mc

      Do you include both Jordan and Iran into your characterization of the "Arabs?" What about the Palestinian Authority?

      I'm grateful for progress, even between two imperfect nations. Please let us know if there is any nation without sin . . .

      Collapse
      1. Avatar photo
        Jacki F.

        Jordan is an Arabic country. Iran is not—the people are Persian. I’m grateful for progress too—if it is real. No there are no nations without sin—it’s humanity.

        Collapse
  9. Avatar photo
    Victor Clairmont

    Sports? What is “Sports”? I have not watch a game in ages....

    Thanks for the review and update of The Dispatch Articles as always!

    Collapse
  10. The original Optimum.net

    Rachel: Sweep? Mop Up? I would expect that from Declan, not from you. As Melania says, "Be Best"

    Collapse