[ARETE] Sport and Society- Overdosing on Sports

Sat Oct 8 13:57:39 CDT 2022

SPORT AND SOCIETY FOR ARETE

OCTOBER 8, 2022

We have arrived at that moment in the U.S. sports calendar when there is a high risk of overdosing. The NFL has started its season; college football is already deep into its schedule; the NHL starts regular season play next week; the NBA is less than two weeks away from opening night; and, baseball has begun its playoff march to the World Series. And, this is just the major sports.

For many, myself included, baseball will be a preoccupation for the next month. It has only been an occupation since April. Now, it is time to get serious.

What confronts the baseball fan at this point is a new playoff system. Eight teams pair off in four three-game series. All games will be hosted by the team with the better record and will be played in the same ballpark with no days off. It is the best two of three games to advance.

Four other teams have a bye in the first round, two from each league representing the division winners. However, one division winner from each league will not get a bye. There seems to be no reason for this except symmetry. Apparently, the byes go to the two division winners with the best won-lost record. That seems a bit off as these teams do not play the same number of games with the same teams. So, if you are in a weak division your winning percentage might be correspondingly higher. It seems that this does not matter when symmetry is at stake. But, that’s baseball.

There are three non-divisional winners in each league that play in the first round of the playoffs. These have the three best records of non-divisional winner. The team with the worst record of those three will play the one unfortunate divisional winner. Again, there may be an issue here in that the worst record may fall to the team from the strongest division. But, that’s baseball.

There have been all sorts of discussions and/or arguments about the wisdom of expanding the playoffs. We will see. What is known is that the need for more television money necessitated the creation of more attractive products. Generally, that means more high stakes games involving the better teams with the better-known stars.

The second round of playoffs will involve the winners of the first round in each league playing the two divisional champions from their league. The bye teams have a nice rest and have their pitching rotation set exactly as they want it. Those who did not have a bye will already have taxed their pitchers as there will be only one day off between the first and second round. The second round will be three of five games.

>From there the pattern is as it has been with the league championships and the World Series being the best of seven games. It will be interesting to see how this plays out for the teams and for baseball fans, and, most important, for the TV networks.

This has been an interesting season with batting averages dipping severely, strikeouts continuing to rise, home runs piling up and the length of games stretching out. Rule changes coming next season will try to address these issues. The combined major league batting average this season was .243, the lowest since 1968 when it was .237.

Two major home run stories have played out in the last few weeks. Aaron Judge of the Yankees has challenged and surpassed the American League single season record with 62 home runs, edging past the record of 61 held by Roger Maris, and the 60 belonging to Babe Ruth. Thank goodness no one has raised the specter of the need for an asterisk because the Babe hit 60 in a 154-game season, and the season now is 162 games. There are, of course, always some die hard grumblers out there somewhere trying to rain on the parade. No doubt, the most impressive thing about Judge’s record is how far ahead he was at the end. The second-place finisher in the home run race was Kyle Schwarber with 46. This is a remarkable gap.

The other home-run story, which also turned into more than that, was Albert Pujol’s quest to reach 700 home runs. He did it with a few to spare, and he did it when at mid-season no one, not even Albert Pujols, thought he would do it. He had a tremendous second half of the season hitting .323, with 18 home runs and 48 runs-batted-in. He is now fourth on the all-time home-run list. Along the way, he moved past Babe Ruth in rbi’s to second place on the all-time list. Albert will retire after the playoffs end for the Cardinals, whenever that takes place.

These two chases after baseball history obscured the fact that even with the expanded playoffs there were few exciting finishes at the end of the season. There was only one pennant race to speak of as Atlanta ran down the Mets. Certainly, there will be more drama in the playoffs. In fact, there already is.

Watching the two home-run dramas, I was struck by the fact that had these two stories come twenty-five years ago the reactions would likely have been a bit different. In the case of Judge, the large gap between his numbers and the rest of the major league hitters would have led many fans and commentators to wonder aloud about the role PEDs might be playing.

In the case of Pujols, the speculation would have been louder. To have someone over 40, whose career was in decline over the past few years, suddenly look like he was back in his prime would have been met with heavy doses of skepticism. In the case of Pujols some analysts point to changes he made in his batting techniques to account for the dramatic change.

In neither case am I suggesting that there was some artificial assistance for either player. I do not think there was. What I am suggesting is that the baseball world is in a different place than it was a decade or two ago. What that means I do not know. So, for now, I will focus on the playoffs, with the hope of seeing Pujols and Judge display their power while watching some exciting baseball.

After the World Series, there will be time enough to turn to the other sports, and to speculate on the impact of the new rules coming in the 2023 baseball season.

On Sport and Society this is Dick Crepeau reminding you that you don’t have to be a good sport to be a bad loser.

Copyright 2022 by Richard C. Crepeau

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