Gloomy, cold, snowy, and long. These are all ways one would describe a New York winter. By the time February rolls around and the hustle and bustle of Christmas is gone, and the buzz of the holidays is long forgotten, sports fans like myself are scratching to get a fix of some excitement like drug addicts on a dry spell. At this point in the sports calendar its mid/late season in the NBA and NHL, which other then praying for a nightly Miami Heat loss, does not provide much excitement. However there is one day. One day that begins to show the light at the end of the tunnel. Pitchers and Catchers report day. Its funny how a day that when you really think about it means little to nothing to the athletes... means so much to us fans. Its the beginning of the end of winter. Its the start of spring. Its the start of baseball season.
Baseball is known as our national pastime. Since the 1890s it has dominated as the predominate sport in America. Our people have turned to the game in times of pride, in times of war, and in times of sorrow. Its a game that transcends conventional boundaries, involving the likes of celebrities and movie stars, as well as past and present presidents in its pre-game ceremonies. The game has done more for this country then anyone could have imagined. During World War II, many players, even those in their primes, Joe Dimaggio for example, left the game to go serve for their country. These heroic acts build a genuine respect for the game and its players. On September 11, 2001, when the Twin Tower tragically fell due to a terrorist attack in New York City, the people of New York turned to the game for an outlet to the madness and inexplicable horror they had just witnessed. 10 days after the towers went down baseball resumed, and much to the disbelief of everyone, served as a coping method. On September 21, 2001, baseball came back to New York in the form of a heated Mets/Braves series that had major playoff implications. As the game progressed after a highly emotional rendition of the Star Spangled Banner, the game unfolded into one of those special moment that you never forget. With the Braves leading 2-1 in the bottom of the 8th, things looked bleak. Steve Karsay of the Braves started the inning by walking Met Edgardo Alfonso. Next up to the plate came Met captain Mike Piazza. With one swing of the bat, a towering ball to deep center field soared into the night, putting the Mets ahead and eventually onto a 3-2 victory. Piazza majestic home run raised not only Met fans, but the people of New York up from the ashes and united them on one common front. Baseball.
Unfortunately, over the past decade, with the crack down on steroid abusers, advancement in technology, and recession in the economy, baseball has fallen out of its spot as the "top dog" in American sports. Over this time both the NFL and the NBA have made huge strides to not only compete with but often surpass Major League Baseball. I will break down my case for both leagues.The National Football League is head above heals the most lucrative sports entity in the United States. From merchandising to player promotion they take the cake over their competitor leagues. The scary part about it is that those aren't even their golden nuggets. The fact that the NFL can put an exciting entertaining product on the field every weekend from September to February really plays in their favor. People complain that baseball is too slow and has to many games; or that basketball is an eventless game unless there are two minutes or less on the clock. The NFL has marketed itself as the beginning and end of your fall weekends. Not to mention the fact that they have the single largest televised sporting event in the world in the from of the Superbowl. Men dream about it, women are dragged into it, and kids (until they understand it) tolerate it. Everyone watches. I could go on all day about how much of a "trump card" the Superbowl is but I will rest my case with these words. Commercials, beer, and wings. 'Nuff said. In addition, the NFL network has taken on a life of its own and pulls in over $1 Billion a year. Finally we come to the NFL Draft. This cash cow of an event held in New York City every spring brings millions of viewers in person and on TV. Its the first chance for fans to see thier favorite college players don their new digs as pro athletes. The NFL has brilliantly turned a day in which no football is being played, into the ultimate draw for fans as they see their favorite teams futures unfold before their eyes.
The National Basketball Association has always played second fiddle in the past to the NFL and MLB. When the league started out it lacked traction due to ineffective rules and an uneventful style of play. Before the shot clock the game wasn't basketball at all, but rather a game of kill the clock. Until 1954 when Syracuse Nationals owner Danny Biasone proposed the idea of the 24 second shot clock to speed up the game, teams would hold the ball and play keep away for 48 minutes. (teams average 60 shots a game. 120 total shots. 48 minutes = 2880 seconds. 2880/120=24 vvwwwaaaallaaa!) The league has seen three distinct eras to rise it up among the superpowers. The first is the Rivalry Era. This era extends from the late 70s, through the 80s, and ends in the early 90s with the likes of Bird, Magic, Kareem, Moses Malone, Julius Erving, and the Bad Boy Pistons. Between 1980 and 1989 the Celtics and/or Lakers appeared in EVERY NBA Finals. During this span the Lakers won five titles (80, 82, 85, 87, and 88) and the Celtics won 3 (81, 84, and 86). To put this in baseball terms just to realize how incredible this is, and how heated this rivalry was, it would be like every October, no matter what, we saw Yankees vs Red Sox in an epic 6 plus game series; sprinkle in some steroids, cocaine, and not to mention a slew of surefire Hall of Fame superstars, and thats your championship game for a decade. Celtics/Lakers was the ultimate test of West vs East, Good vs Evil, Movie Stars vs City Boys. I'll give $100 to anyone who can tell me how that is not awesome. The Rivalry Era attracted a generation of fan from coast to coast, and ultimately prepared them for what was coming next...
The MJ Era. The teams with the top three picks in the 1984 NBA Draft went Houston(1), Portland(2), and Chicago(3). Houston took Hakeem Olajuwon with the first overall pick. As a dominating center who you could build a franchise around, its a defendable pick. Now Portland is on the clock with Michael Jordan staring them right in the face. What proceeded afterwards changed the landscape of the NBA and has plagued Blazers fans to this day. The Blazers took injury prone Center Sam Bowie out of the University of Kentucky with the second overall pick (did you hear that? I think a Blazer fan just vomited). Needless to say, Bowie's NBA career was plagued with injuries, as for Michael, well the rest is history. From 1984-1988 Michael mystified us on and off the court and elevated himself to "The Best Ever" status. During this era Jordan's Bulls won 6 titles (91, 92, 93, 96, 97, and 98), he was a 14 time All Star, and 5 time MVP. This was the Jordan era of basketball, no doubt. I can honestly say that even as a Knicks fan, and the way MJ broke my heart beating my Knicks on a yearly basis, I still am amazed at how he played the game. Not only did he play like no one we have ever seen, but he made everyone he played with better, and when things didnt break Chicago's way, he willed his team to win. Jordan defined this era and elevated the NBA to new heights.
Finally we come to the current era of basketball we are witnessing unfold before our eyes. The Era of the Young Superstar. Take one glance around the league and you will quickly realize the amount of young talent out there is like nothing we have ever seen before. Players like Kevin Durant, Rajan Rondo, Derrik Rose, Chris Paul, Russel Westbrook, and Kevin Love just to name a few have defined the league with high tempo play and riveting highlight reels every night. Not to mention the Lebron James soap opera that is going on in Miami right now. The league has finally made that last final push to put it neck and neck with the NFL and MLB like it has never been before. The Knicks are relevant again, up and coming teams like the Sixers, Grizzlies, and Hornets have turned heads in recent playoffs, and the perennial superpowers are still holding strong trying to compete for a title every year. The league is deep, exciting, and like the NFL gets major draft coverage that has propelled it to the next level.
NEWS FLASH NEWS FLASH NEWS FLASH!!!!!
THE NBA AND THE NFL ARE IN A LOCKOUT!!!!
I just finished making the case for how the NFL and the NBA are blowing baseball out of the water. Both leagues have done so well and made huge strides over the past twenty years while baseball has been battling the steroid era with inflated stats and biceps the size of watermelons. Right now Major League Baseball has a small window of opportunity to thrust itself back into the limelight and take back the spot as top dog that had been theirs for almost a century. This next statement is a bit risky, but I think its almost safe to say that baseball has left the steroid issue in its rear view mirror. The reason the sport got so much shit about steroids was because in the 80s and 90s when everyone was all needle happy, the testing policies were ineffective and the punishments did not fit the crime the guilty players were committing against the game. The Steroid era dragged the game of baseball through the mud in a way that only the NBA and its issues with cocaine in the 70s and 80s could understand. Players like Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, and Roger Clemens used drugs to enhance their stats so astronomically that now we have no frame of reference in the sport to see what can be considered a good year for a player? Is 40 HR and 100 RBI a great year any more? Of course it is but we have been hoodwinked into thinking that every year someone has to chase the Maris 61 like a dangling carrot. My point is that baseball is back to what it used to be as far as the game is played. The athletes are bigger, faster, and stronger but the integrity of the game has been redefined by players like Derek Jeter and Roy Halliday, who have excelled and put together great careers without cheating to get a leg up.
With all that said, the time for Major League Baseballs push is NOW. Whats comforting about the situation is that I think they realize it. That gives me faith knowing that the league I adore does have a head on its shoulders sometimes. Bud Selig and his cronies have proposed two idea that would give baseball a huge boost. The first and most important is the idea of realignment. What the commissioners office proposed was to eliminate divisions, move one National League team to the American League, ultimately leaving us with two 15 team leagues with five teams advancing to the playoffs from both the new AL and NL. I have a few issues with this proposal. First of all, why no divisions? From what I understand the realignment would result in basically inter-league play all season long. Since inter-league play started in 1997, numbers in attendance have only gone down after the original luster of the idea wore off, and only hometown rivalries really draw excitement anymore. Series like Yankees/Mets, Cubs/White Sox, Rangers/Astros(when they dont suck) are what fans get excited for. I mean think about it, whats more thrilling then Blue Jays/Diamondback(joke), or better yet Padres/Royals(also a joke). Now imagine that multiple times a year all across the league. It would be fun for a year or two and fan would be sick of it. Attendance would go down, money would be lost, and baseball would fall back behind basketball and football (EVEN THOUGH THEY ARENT PLAYING!!! Grrrrrrr). However, I do love the idea of adding a fifth playoff team from each league as a second Wild Card team. The infusion of the Wild Card into baseball in 1995 has led some of the most memorable moments in the games history. The Wild Card has produced four World Series Champions (97 Marlins, 02 Angels, 03 Marlins, and the unforgettable 04 Red Sox... now I just got a little sick), along with five other World Series appearances (00 Mets, 02 Giants, 05 Astros, 06 Tigers, and the 07 Rockies). Not to mention a one game playoff game in 2008 AND 2009 to decide the Wild Card and the AL Central. Needless to say the Wild Card has done wonders for the league and in my mind, adding another team in each league would certainly add more drama as the pennant races take shape and the playoffs unfold.
The second idea deals with the All Star Game. This past winter the NHL came up with a brilliant idea to have the All Star game run as a "fantasy draft." Fans voted on six players from each league, then the league selected another 36. The players voted on captains, and the captains from there drafted the teams they wanted. It was ingenious. It brought a schoolyard feel to the game that enhanced the competition to a more friend vs friend game for bragging rights rather then the stale my league vs your league snoozefest (yes I just made that word up). Well along the same vein, Major League Baseball has reformatted the Home Run Derby, which in my mind is the most entertaining non-meaningful event in sports. The way it will work is the two reining Derby winners, Prince Fielder in 2009 and David Ortiz in 2010, will be captains and pick three players each from their respective leagues to round out the rest of the team. This is an awesome idea because it again brings that schoolyard feel to the ballpark and opens the door for one or two guys to put on a show and surprise us that otherwise would not have a chance to. I have this years Homerun Derby in Arizona to be one for the ages. Its one more thing depressed NBA and NFL fans can turn to while they wait for their leagues to settle petty legal disputes and not have a season.
This is the window, from now until September. Major League Baseball has the opportunity to change its luck. The opportunity to make people forget the hardships it went though in the 90s and remember how much we loved looking forward to that light at the end of the tunnel as Spring Training broke us out of the doldrums of winter. Its the opportunity to remind people how much baseball means to this country. How when everything seemed joyless and hopeless, we turned to baseball and Mike Piazza's unforgettable homerun through the September night sky just ten days after 9/11, liberating us from the trauma we had just endured. Finally its the opportunity to restore the sport to where it once blossomed as top dog. Baseball, America's Pastime.
~ Shilz
