By Eric Valentine
“Everything’s cancelled, there’s nothing to do.”
That may be a common sentence in the arts and entertainment world during these COVID times. In the world of professional sports, nothing could be further from the truth. Sure, we have to watch it on TV and not in person. And, yes, I am annoyed by the fake crowd noise as much as the next sports fan. But COVID-shortened or not, professional sports is pretty incredible right now.
Playoff Payoff
Normally, by August, the NBA Finals champion has been named and baseball is one’s only professional sports option. Since the pandemic hit in spring, the last 20 games of the NBA season didn’t happen until midsummer. That means the playoffs are just under way now. Held in the so-called “bubble” in Florida, where no one outside the league is allowed to enter, the NBA has done a remarkable job of keeping its players and staffs COVID-19 free.
It has also put an amazing product on the court. You see, in any sport, home-field/court advantage can be impactful. In basketball, it’s especially so. Smaller arenas mean fans are more tightly connected to players, but there’s no known reason for the impact. What is known is this: “Of the four major American sports, home-court advantage is most meaningful in the NBA, with teams consistently winning around 60 percent of their regular season games in their home arenas,” according to The Bleacher Report. And during the playoffs, the advantage only goes up.
In the bubble, no one has home-court advantage. And it shows. Both Los Angeles teams, each of whom was expected to win the championship this year, are in tough battles against lower-ranked opponents. On Sunday night, the Dallas Mavericks beat the Clippers in overtime on a last-second shot by a 6-foot, 7-inch point guard from Ljubljana (it’s in the southwest part of Slovenia, which is southwest of Hungary). It was his 43rd point of the night. And he’s just 21. Meanwhile, the top-ranked Lakers are being pushed by the eighth-seed Portland Trail Blazers. The underdogs took game 1 from LeBron James’ team.
America’s Pastime
And then there’s baseball, which should be well past halfway through a 162-game season by now. Instead, a handful of teams have now played 30 games out of the 60 planned. Only a handful because baseball went bubble-less and some teams have been hit by positive COVID-19 tests. Nonetheless, once you get past the cardboard cutout fans and that annoying fake crowd noise, the game is in great shape.
Also on Sunday, another Los Angeles team (no, not the Angels), the Dodgers, hit seven home runs against the Colorado Rockies. It’s common to hit a lot of home runs against the Rockies. Not because they don’t pitch well, but because they play in the high altitude and thin air of Denver. However, this dinger foray happened in Chavez Ravine, the mini-valley where Dodger Stadium got carved into back in the late 1950s. Fly balls go to die there, but even the Rockies added three home runs that day to the total.
Asking About Asterisks
What’s also interesting about these COVID-impacted seasons is how history will look at them. Most commentators and fans accept the idea of an asterisk—literal or figurative—being placed on any titles won, statistics reached, etc. It’s understandable. For better or worse, a shooting percentage in a neutral arena or a batting average in a shortened season are not equivalent to their normal-times counterpart.
But in some ways, the asterisk for me will mean the team or player accomplished something even better. Imagine being a basketball player in midseason form and then not being able to practice or play with your team for two months, and then travelling to Florida where for the next 45 days you cannot be with your family and you have to play to empty arenas. Win that championship and I’ll give you an asterisk to denote extra value, not less.
In baseball, there’s a reason for a 162-game season (besides money). The sport favors the pitcher so much that when a hitter fails seven out of 10 times, he usually makes the All-Star team. Simply put, you statistically need a ton of games to determine which team is actually best. So in this shortened season, is the champ really the best? Perhaps not in normal times, but in abnormal times, I say yes. Not with an asterisk, but with an exclamation point.