We’ve made it through eight months of this stupid year. I’ve had enough of 2020, but hopefully the next four months will be better. We will be finishing the basketball, hockey, and baseball seasons, football is starting (we’ll see if it finishes), maybe there will be some good news on a vaccine, and the election...well it’s good to have an election, but it’s bad if Trump or Biden is going to be elected president.
Last night reminded me of another thing I hate about 2020: the stupid extra innings rule in baseball. The Dodgers beat the Diamondbacks in 10, but I hated almost everything about the tenth inning. The Diamondbacks scored a run on a walk, hit by pitch, and a walk. So the Dodgers were down by a run with a runner on second to start the bottom of the tenth. Chris Taylor led off with a bunt and the Dodgers tied the game on an error on a fielder’s choice and Taylor got to second. I like bunting in that situation to put some pressure on the other team to make the right play and the Dodgers were rewarded when the ball was thrown away, but I definitely don’t like that each half inning starts with a situation where a sacrifice bunt is possible. Joc Pederson grounded out to advance Taylor to third. Will Smith won the game on a line drive to left with the outfielders playing shallow. So the Diamondbacks scored a run only because they started with a runner on second base. The Dodgers scored two to win, but nothing about the bottom of the tenth would have been the same if you’re not starting with a runner on second base (the Dodgers wouldn’t have been down by a run and Chris Taylor wouldn’t have led off with a sacrifice bunt). Like if Taylor had hit a home run to win it, I would have been like, cool, they would have won in the tenth even if they weren’t playing with stupid rules (the Dodgers would have outscored the Diamondbacks 1-0 in the tenth instead of 2-1), but I hate to see the game played totally differently because of a silly rule.
I hate that 2020 has brought stupid rules to baseball. I hate that Rob Manfred is promoting stupid rules. Baseball fans love baseball the way it is. Why try to make baseball something that baseball fans aren’t going to like as much? NL fans don’t like the DH. So why are they trying to put the DH in the NL? I would completely abolish the DH, but I can live with having it in the AL (they didn’t have it for a long time, but they had it for more than a decade before I was born). The point of the mystery runner at second is to end games quickly. And for the minor leagues, whatever, it’s not like it really matters who wins anyway. But for the Major Leagues, you’re ruining potentially classic games. I love a good long extra innings game. I get that it stinks if you go to a game on a Tuesday night and you have to leave after the tenth inning because you have work the next day, but I love watching a game on TV or in person on a Friday night or weekend afternoon or any night during summer vacation for me that goes long. And it’s rare that games go very long anyway. Let’s look at some numbers. Last year, 8.6% of games went to extra innings. Only 2.3% of games went past the 11th inning. Off the top of my head, here are my favorite Dodger games that I can remember watching in chronological order:
2013 Opening Day- I was there and Kershaw shut out the Giants and hit a home run.
Kershaw’s no-hitter against the Rockies in 2014
Game 2 of the 2017 NLCS- Justin Turner hit a three-run home run to win the game in the bottom of the ninth and give the Dodgers a 2-0 lead in the series and it looked like the Dodgers were on their way to the World Series.
Game 5 of the 2017 NLCS- Kershaw and the Dodgers blew out the Cubs to get to the World Series for the first time in 29 years.
Game 1 of the 2017 World Series- Kershaw dominated the Astros because the game was at Dodger Stadium and the Astros weren’t cheating.
Game 3 of the 2018 World Series- Max Muncy won the game with a home run in the bottom of the 18th and it looked like the Dodgers had life in the series (people don’t remember now, but the Dodgers blew a lead in Game 4, that could have been a long series, but the Red Sox ended up winning in five games).
So most of those games feature Clayton Kershaw, but I want to look at the two exceptions. Game 3 of the 2018 World Series is completely ruined if you use the silly mystery runner rule. It’s an all time classic, but it almost certainly wouldn’t have gone 18 if you’re starting with a runner on second starting in the tenth. Game 2 of the 2017 NLCS didn’t go to extra innings, but you started the ninth with the game tied. What’s the most important inning of a baseball game? I would say any extra inning is the answer. Obviously, any inning can be important. If you score eight runs in the fourth, you’re probably winning the game, but there’s no way to know that going into the inning. In extra innings, neither team starts with the advantage and the game has a chance to end in that inning. There’s one other situation where that’s possible: the ninth inning in a tie game. Obviously the ninth inning is very important if one team has a one-run lead, but that team has an advantage. If you start the ninth inning with one team leading by six, it’s not so important. But the ninth inning in a tie game is essentially the same as any extra inning, except now you’re playing extra innings with different rules. Why are you playing the most important part of the game with a different set of rules? (Note that this is also what’s wrong with college football overtime.). If we’re going to play extra innings like this, why not put a runner on second in the ninth if the game is tied? Wait, no, forget I said that, I don’t want to give Manfred any more dumb ideas. And the other problem is that nothing is just given to you in baseball for no reason. Either you have to do something right or the other team has to do something wrong. (Note that this is also another problem with college football overtime with teams being given good field position for no reason.)
The problem with the length of games in baseball is that it takes too long to play nine innings because of too many pitching changes, too much time between pitches, too much time between batters, etc. The problem isn’t the 2.3% of games that go 12 innings or longer. Make nine inning games shorter and let us appreciate the rare long extra innings game when it happens. Stop trying to change what baseball fans like about the game.
I meant for my extra innings objection to be concise. It was not. Anyway, let’s look at some other things in sports. Here’s one thing I’m okay with for this season that might surprise you: seven inning games in double headers. Now, I wouldn’t do it in a normal year, but I’m fine with it for this year. Why? This year you have so many games getting cancelled because of the virus so it would be asking a little much for the Mets and Yankees to have five nine-inning games in three days (they just had two double headers in three days). Also, the possibility of baseball games that were shorter than nine innings has always existed. If there was a freak thunderstorm in Los Angeles tonight after five innings and the Dodgers had the lead, that game would count as a win for the Dodgers. So for a year when double headers are much more common than usual, I’m okay with shortened games.
What does the rest of this year hold? It looks like the NBA will complete their season and the Celtics have a chance to win the championship. Of the eight teams left, none of the teams in the East would shock me if they won the championship (a few days ago I would have been surprised by Miami, but they’re up 2-0 on the Bucks) and the Clippers and the other Los Angeles basketball team have a chance also. I’m hoping that baseball will complete their season. They’ve made it this far (which I didn’t really expect early in the season) and it sounds like they’re going to have bubbles for the playoffs. I just hate that first round of the playoffs this year. The Dodgers are likely to finish with the best record in the NL, but they’ll have a three game series with the 8 seed. In baseball, the best team in the league is going to lose a series at home sometimes even against mediocre or bad teams. The Dodgers look like the best team in baseball, but that doesn’t mean they’re definitely getting past the first round. I get doing the playoffs like that this year because it’s such a short season, but I wish they would have made it so that the three division winners in each league got two games at home and they had to lose both to be eliminated. I’m fine with the 4 vs. 5 matchup being best of three. If they let more than half the teams into the playoffs when we get back to having a normal season, that would just be silly.
It looks like college football will start. If they start the season, I certainly hope they finish, but I’m not optimistic that they will. What happens when a team has an outbreak during the season? They’re cancelling baseball games every time somebody tests positive. It’s a lot easier to make up professional baseball games than it is to make up a college football game. Obviously college football teams are much bigger than baseball teams. The concern might be more about the virus spreading among a position group than among the whole team. Well what happens if two or three starters on the offensive line test positive? And as we’re seeing with colleges that have students on campus, things are not going well. I just can’t see the season being completed without many games getting cancelled. If they play and finish the season, Notre Dame and Clemson have a chance of playing three times. They’re scheduled to play at Notre Dame in November. They could easily meet in the ACC Championship Game (I feel dirty typing that). If they play twice and split the two games, there’s a decent chance that both teams will make the playoff (especially with no Big 10 or Pac 12 teams to compete with). This has to be the least excited I’ve been for a college football season since before I went to Notre Dame, but I’ll try to enjoy whatever college football we get this year.
Hopefully our lives will return to normal in 2021. The Spanish flu lasted 15 months in the United States. Hopefully this virus will go away on its own or we’ll have a vaccine by next summer. I’ve been thinking about what I want to do when life is back to normal. As far as I can remember, this year is probably going to be the first year since 2001 that I won’t fly anywhere. I can’t say that I miss the experience of being in airports and being stuck on a plane for several hours, but I do miss going to places that require flying to. The only sporting event that I went to in 2020 was an NBA G-League game in January. I think this will be the first year since 1988 that I don’t get to a Major League Baseball game and the first year since 1987 that I don’t go to a Major League Baseball stadium (I am fairly confident that I was at Shea Stadium for Dodgers-Mets on September 4, 1988, but the game was rained out).
So I’m going to have to make up for what I’ve missed out on this year whenever life gets back to normal. I definitely want to get to some baseball games next year. Next year’s Major League Baseball schedule is already out (assuming that we’re back to playing a normal season). Opening Day for the Dodgers is my first day of Easter vacation. They open on in Colorado for a series that goes from Holy Thursday to Easter Sunday. It’s unlikely I’d go to that. Their next series is in Oakland. I’m not going to Oakland again until the A’s get a new stadium. Their first home series is the last three days of my Easter vacation against Washington. The problem with that is that I want to get to two games the next time I go to Los Angeles (and maybe even sneak in a third game) and I’d only be able to go to the first two games of the series, but the home opener is likely to be really expensive and not likely to feature Clayton Kershaw assuming that he’s pitching on Opening Day in Colorado (he’d then start in Oakland before the Dodgers come home). So I’ll probably try to get out to Los Angeles next summer. The Astros will be in Los Angeles on August 3 and 4. One of the worst things about sports in 2020 is that the Astros haven’t had to face the fans this year. I hope fans will be able to boo Altuve, Springer, Bregman, Correa, Gurriel (people forget that he should have been suspended during the World Series in 2017), and Reddick next year. I would definitely consider going to Los Angeles for those games, but they are on a Tuesday and Wednesday (which doesn’t really matter for me, but it might for my brother and Pete), they would probably be pretty expensive, and they are bookended by Dodger off days (so it’s not like I could go to one game against the Astros and one against another team where the demand wouldn’t be so high). But I do plan on getting out to Los Angeles some time next summer if it’s safe and they’re playing a regular baseball schedule with fans in attendance. The Dodgers are scheduled to come to New York to play the Mets from August 13-15. Ordinarily that would be ideal because it wouldn’t conflict with other sports, but I guess there’s a chance that the NBA playoffs could be going on at that time next year. But the Celtics won’t be playing three days in a row so I should be able to get to at least one of those games without missing the Celtics in the playoffs.
And I have now been to every Major League Baseball stadium except for the new stadium in Texas. So I’d like to get there next year. That could be an Easter vacation trip or it could be a stop before or after Los Angeles next summer. And Buffalo is hosting Major League Baseball this year. The Blue Jays should be back in Toronto next year, but I’m putting Sahlen Field high on my list of minor league stadiums to visit next year. I thought about going all the way to Buffalo last year on my upstate New York tour, but I only got as far as Rochester. There was talk about restructuring the minor leagues even before the pandemic, but I think Buffalo is safe as a minor league city. Whenever fans can go to games again, the Blue Jays should do a weekend series there as a thank you to Buffalo. If they did, I would love to get to that, but I’d be fine with going to a minor league game there. Sahlen Field’s capacity is about 5000 less than the average attendance for the Blue Jays in 2019 so it would be a sacrifice, but not a huge sacrifice (they could easily do one game there if they didn’t want to do a whole series).
The other minor league stadium I want to get to next year is PNC Field, home of the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders. Why? Because I want to go to Scranton (the stadium isn’t actually in Scranton, but it’s not far). Why do I want to go to Scranton? I’ve spent so much time watching The Office and Scranton isn’t that far away so I feel like I should go. There are places that are mentioned in the show that actually exist that I’d want to check out like Poor Richard’s, Cooper’s, and the Steamtown Mall. There’s also Alfredo’s Pizza Cafe. Pizza By Alfredo (which was described as “a hot circle of garbage”) is made up, but Alfredo’s Pizza Cafe is real. As somebody from Long Island, I just assume that all pizza from outside the Pizza Belt is a hot circle of garbage so I wouldn’t be as excited to get to Alfredo’s Pizza Cafe (I would go if I had time, but I’d be totally fine with not checking it out). And while Scranton is close to the Pizza Belt, it is clearly outside of the Pizza Belt:
And then there’s football. I haven’t been to a football game at Notre Dame since 2016 (and that game was a disaster). I haven’t been to a football win at Notre Dame since Stanford in 2014. I have seen wins against Navy at FedEx Field (that one wasn’t interesting enough to write a blog post about), Boston College at Fenway Park, Syracuse at Yankee Stadium, and against Duke on the road, but it’s time to see Notre Dame win a football game at home again. Next year’s home schedule is Toledo, Purdue, Cincinnati, USC, North Carolina, Navy, and Georgia Tech. Obviously, the most interesting game is USC. North Carolina might be good also, but one of those two games is likely to conflict with the World Series. Toledo, Purdue, and Cincinnati aren’t the most exciting opponents, but they’re in September so the weather should at least not be terrible. Georgia Tech is the week before Thanksgiving so that’s the one I’d immediately rule out since the weather is likely to be cold to quite cold. I wouldn’t rule out a road game (Florida State and Virginia are both interesting), but I want to get to a home game for sure.
Sports are weird in 2020. I wish the Dodgers could win the World Series at Dodger Stadium with fans in attendance, but that won’t happen this year. And whoever wins the World Series this year, people will say there’s an asterisk since the season was only 60 games. Here’s my attitude about that. If the Dodgers don’t win the World Series, it will be easier to take this year. But if they do, I’m celebrating it like it was any other World Series. There’s still only going to be one champion and after what happened to the Dodgers in 2017, I don’t want to hear about any asterisk if they win. As for the Celtics, they could win the championship or they could lose to the Raptors. Nothing would surprise me with them. But even if they lose to the Raptors, they have Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum so they are set up to be good for a while. And with college football, I’ll take whatever I can get. If Notre Dame goes 8-3, whatever. I mean, we probably should beat everybody except for Clemson because our schedule is stupid now that we’re a member of the ACC for this year. But the team could have a coronavirus outbreak and I wouldn’t be surprised if we ended up 4-2 or something with games being cancelled and the season not getting completed. One thing I am looking forward to is the Big 10 not playing. I’ll miss Pac 12 football (I enjoy a nice weird Pac 12 After Dark game), but the only bad thing about the Big 10 not playing is that Michigan can’t lose.
Ordinarily I spend the month of August just waiting for college football to start. This year I spent it trying to enjoy baseball and basketball as much as possible. It’s going to be weird when we get to November and football is the only sport going on (I’m going to have to figure out what movie or old game to watch on Election Night so that I don’t have to watch election coverage). But if we get to like February next year and there’s a vaccine and we’re going to have the NCAA tournament and a normal baseball season, the anticipation for that is probably going to be even bigger than what it normally is when I’m waiting for college football in August.
Go Celtics.
Go Dodgers.
Go Irish.
