betED.com - The View from the Couch - by Gavin McDougald!
July 12th, 2006 - The other Midsummer Classic?
Not so long ago I would be asking, do you feel strange today? Unsettled? I would be wondering if things, for some intangible reason, didn?t seem quite right with the world.
If you did feel that way, there was no need to panic. It was all perfectly normal.
That?s because for one day of the year ? this day traditionally ? things in the sports world were anything but normal.
Welcome to what had long been the single strangest sporting day of the entire year. That?s because on this day, the day after the MLB All-Star game, there was nothing going on.
Nada. Nowhere.
In the past, checking your favorite website, like betED.com for example, you would click on any of the betting lines, and if you are looking to win a little something on this weird Wednesday, you were plum out of luck.
No games scheduled. In any sport. Anywhere.
Eerie!
This is the day when sports networks have historically had to become actually creative. Without highlights to fill up their air, journalism sometimes would break out. This became the big feature night of the year on sports broadcasts. The standard would be talking heads looking in depth ? and at length - at the second half of the MLB season, setting us all up for the dog days of summer.
Or, in lieu of journalism, silliness. I remember SportsCenter one year, back when Keith Olbermann was on board, dedicated the entire 6:00 pm broadcast to catch American sports fans up on Cricket.
Back then, this day was nice. Baseball players would get an All-Star break, and we fans would get our own sports break. For one whole day and for one whole night.
We would reintroduce ourselves to our wives, kids and house-pets. Go out for a stroll after dinner. Take in a movie, maybe even a chick flick. Hey, it was the least we could do really, and I do mean that literally. It was the very least.
Ya ? those were the days?until this year that is. Someone somewhere found an event to cram into the one single day in the entire sports calendar that was all about nothing.
And that someone is the Women?s National Basketball Association.
The WNBA decided that the Wednesday after baseball?s midsummer classic was the perfect spot for their own All-Star game. Perfect because, since they would be all on their lonesome, they would be the focus of the sports world. Well great! There goes my plans to take the wife to The Devil Wears Prada.
If you didn?t know, and I?m pretty sure you didn?t, this season the WNBA celebrates a milestone no other professional women's sports league has achieved: its 10th season.
It didn?t exactly start with much of a bang I remember. I asked my editor where we were going to feature the league?s opening night, and if I remember correctly his exact response was, ?nowhere, unless a cat-fight breaks out on court. Then it will lead!?
No catfight ensued, and the most successful female league in the world languishes in near anonymity and virtual invisibility. Propped up by a $12-million a year cash injection from the NBA, the league has 14 teams spread across the U.S.. Average attendance is around the 8,000 mark. As for TV ratings, they are about on par with those of the National Hockey League, or in other words, dismal.
It?s not that women can?t play the game, any basketball expert will tell you they?re frikin great! In fact, many will tell you when it comes to the fundamentals of the game of basketball; they have it head and shoulders over the men.
The only trouble is, when it comes to everything else, the men have it head and shoulders over them. That ability to play near or above the rim makes the men?s game more exciting to watch. Women, not so much. Off the top of my head the only WNBA highlight I can recall ever seeing was Lisa Leslie dunking the ball. That was back in 2002.
Since there is nothing else going on, perhaps tonight SportsCenter will take the time to cover the game in-depth, unless there is a late breaking Cricket story that is.
As for me, after thinking long and hard about it, I am going to boycott the game on principle. I really liked the annual tradition of this being the one sports-free day of the year. And nothing, not even a WNBA All-Star game, should get in the way of tradition.
So, it?s off to the chick flicks for me. A brave sacrifice I know, but it?s the least I can do.
And I do mean that.
Cheers - Gavin McDougald - AKA Couch
July 12th, 2006 - The other Midsummer Classic?
Not so long ago I would be asking, do you feel strange today? Unsettled? I would be wondering if things, for some intangible reason, didn?t seem quite right with the world.
If you did feel that way, there was no need to panic. It was all perfectly normal.
That?s because for one day of the year ? this day traditionally ? things in the sports world were anything but normal.
Welcome to what had long been the single strangest sporting day of the entire year. That?s because on this day, the day after the MLB All-Star game, there was nothing going on.
Nada. Nowhere.
In the past, checking your favorite website, like betED.com for example, you would click on any of the betting lines, and if you are looking to win a little something on this weird Wednesday, you were plum out of luck.
No games scheduled. In any sport. Anywhere.
Eerie!
This is the day when sports networks have historically had to become actually creative. Without highlights to fill up their air, journalism sometimes would break out. This became the big feature night of the year on sports broadcasts. The standard would be talking heads looking in depth ? and at length - at the second half of the MLB season, setting us all up for the dog days of summer.
Or, in lieu of journalism, silliness. I remember SportsCenter one year, back when Keith Olbermann was on board, dedicated the entire 6:00 pm broadcast to catch American sports fans up on Cricket.
Back then, this day was nice. Baseball players would get an All-Star break, and we fans would get our own sports break. For one whole day and for one whole night.
We would reintroduce ourselves to our wives, kids and house-pets. Go out for a stroll after dinner. Take in a movie, maybe even a chick flick. Hey, it was the least we could do really, and I do mean that literally. It was the very least.
Ya ? those were the days?until this year that is. Someone somewhere found an event to cram into the one single day in the entire sports calendar that was all about nothing.
And that someone is the Women?s National Basketball Association.
The WNBA decided that the Wednesday after baseball?s midsummer classic was the perfect spot for their own All-Star game. Perfect because, since they would be all on their lonesome, they would be the focus of the sports world. Well great! There goes my plans to take the wife to The Devil Wears Prada.
If you didn?t know, and I?m pretty sure you didn?t, this season the WNBA celebrates a milestone no other professional women's sports league has achieved: its 10th season.
It didn?t exactly start with much of a bang I remember. I asked my editor where we were going to feature the league?s opening night, and if I remember correctly his exact response was, ?nowhere, unless a cat-fight breaks out on court. Then it will lead!?
No catfight ensued, and the most successful female league in the world languishes in near anonymity and virtual invisibility. Propped up by a $12-million a year cash injection from the NBA, the league has 14 teams spread across the U.S.. Average attendance is around the 8,000 mark. As for TV ratings, they are about on par with those of the National Hockey League, or in other words, dismal.
It?s not that women can?t play the game, any basketball expert will tell you they?re frikin great! In fact, many will tell you when it comes to the fundamentals of the game of basketball; they have it head and shoulders over the men.
The only trouble is, when it comes to everything else, the men have it head and shoulders over them. That ability to play near or above the rim makes the men?s game more exciting to watch. Women, not so much. Off the top of my head the only WNBA highlight I can recall ever seeing was Lisa Leslie dunking the ball. That was back in 2002.
Since there is nothing else going on, perhaps tonight SportsCenter will take the time to cover the game in-depth, unless there is a late breaking Cricket story that is.
As for me, after thinking long and hard about it, I am going to boycott the game on principle. I really liked the annual tradition of this being the one sports-free day of the year. And nothing, not even a WNBA All-Star game, should get in the way of tradition.
So, it?s off to the chick flicks for me. A brave sacrifice I know, but it?s the least I can do.
And I do mean that.
Cheers - Gavin McDougald - AKA Couch
