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At the Intersection of Sports and Culture

Photo Credit for Header: Alex Foucre-Stimes

A Southpaw Showdown: Koufax or Kershaw

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Historical comparisons in sports are great because there is usually no right answer to the question ‘who’s better’. Jordan or Kobe? Manning or Montana? Tiger or Jack? Individual opinions vary and can be easily validated or rebuked depending on your point of view. If you never saw Johnny Unitas throw a spiral how can you say that he was better than Brady? If you never watched Oscar Robertson drop an entire season’s worth of triple-double how can you possibly argue that LeBron is the superior basketball talent? Right or wrong, these comparisons fuel some of the most passionate conversations in sports.

In baseball today there is a debate developing that may never be solved, one that even though it is currently based on speculation and career trajectory remains very worthy of our attention. Who’s better: Sandy Koufax or Clayton Kershaw?

At this point in time the Hall of Famer Koufax’s legendary accomplishments make it difficult to compare him to just about any other pitcher in MLB history, let alone Clayton Kershaw. 1 MVP. 3 Cy Youngs. 3 World Series Championships. 2 World Series MVPs. The accolades do not do justice to the dominance of Koufax who’s career came to a premature end at the young of 30.

Yet the 26 year old Kershaw has already staked his claim as this era’s best pitcher and could soon find himself listed alongside some of the games all time greats. This season he is on pace to win his 3rd Cy Young award and could be in line for his first MVP as well. Kershaw’s superiority doesn’t stop there as he has allowed 3 runs or fewer in 24 of his 25 starts with the Dodgers going 18-1 in games he has started since the beginning of June.

The similarities between Koufax and Kershaw run deeper than their Dodger blue. Both lefties average around 230 strikeouts per 162 game season with Kershaw’s 2.48 career era slightly lower than Koufax’s 2.76. Koufax led the NL in complete games twice which Kershaw is doing for the first time this season.

The one area where there is no comparison is postseason performance as Koufax became an immortal because of October while Kershaw has so far struggled to find his playoff stride. Things could change this season however as the Los Angeles Dodgers are once again a top the NL West, thanks to Kershaw, with a talented roster poised for a postseason run.

And if the Dodgers do go on to win the World Series and Clayton Kershaw pitches like he has for most of his career, maybe then will the Kershaw/Koufax debate become a real thing, an argument for the ages, a showdown of southpaws.

Greatness Before It’s Gone

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Royalty was crowned across the boroughs of New York City Sunday afternoon, as coronations honoring two of sports all time greats took place in front of legions of adoring fans.

In the Bronx, titans past and present came out to celebrate the Captain at Yankee Stadium. Names like Ripken. Torre. Jordan. Icons from the world of sports gathered on the field to acknowledge the many accomplishments of a player Derek Jeter whose sterling reputation and leadership off the field and in the clubhouse often overshadowed his truly remarkable career on the field where over the course of 20 seasons in pinstripes he collected over 3400 hits, 5 Gold Gloves and 5 World Series rings. With retirement only a few weeks away, and regardless of how his WAR continues to sputter, Jeter rides off into the sunset as one of the greatest Yankees and shortstops of all time.

As baseball celebrated a member of its pantheon, 10 miles away in Flushing Meadows at the United States Tennis Center, a queen was crowned as Serena Williams won her 18th Grand Slam championship, tying Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova for the most women’s single titles of all time. In dispatching the overmatched Caroline Wozniacki in straight sets Serena demonstrated yet again the near flawless combination of power and precision. There has never been, nor in all likelihood will there ever be again, a tennis player so physically gifted, so competitive that opposing players rarely seem like they belong on the same court. To say that Serena is in a class of her own is not an overstatement but rather an acceptance of fact.

As sports fans we typically wait to appreciate greatness until after it’s gone. With Derek Jeter and Serena Williams however it is important to acknowledge today that we are watching two of the best athletes to ever compete in their respective sports.

Both will continue to have their detractors. Jeter’s overrated because he plays for the New York Yankees and Serena’s on court outbursts an indication of an underlying petulance that prevent her from a universal embrace.

Yet, beyond the flaws and envy, what cannot be argued is that video reels and second hand stories will not do justice to their remarkable careers.

Therefore it is better to celebrate them in the now before it’s too late and we’re forced to look back with reverence and remorse, our memories offering nothing more than a fleeting glimpse of greatness.

 

 

Royalty In Waiting

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Every season it seems there is at least one Major League Baseball team capable of producing an improbable run to the postseason and in the process help revive a long suffering fan base.

In 2012 the Baltimore Orioles made it back to October after serving a decade and a half long sentence as the doormats of the high powered and high priced American League East.

Last year it was the Pittsburgh Pirates turn to regain their long lost mojo as MVP Andrew McCutchen led the charge and helped restore the “W” back to the “We Are Family”.

And now, with less than a month remaining in the 2014 season, the much maligned Kansas City Royals are on the verge of their first trip to the playoffs since 1985. 19 years of ineptitude potentially washed away in the majestic waterfalls of Kauffman Stadium.

To fully understand how long it has been since the Royals last tasted October, in 1985 Ukraine was still a part of the Soviet Union and Back To The Future ended the year as the highest grossing film at the box office.

The Royals revival this season can be chalked up to much more than a plutonium fueled ride in a Delorean as their ascension to the top of the AL Central has been driven by a collection of relatively anonymous stars like catcher Salvador Perez, starting pitchers James Shields and Danny Duffy and dark horse MVP candidate Alex Gordon who over the last few years has rewritten his own personal history with a remarkable metamorphosis from highly touted, under performing third base prospect to all-star five tool outfielder and current face of the franchise. All in all, they may not be household names like Brett, Balboni and Saberhagen but there is certainly enough talent along the shores of the Missouri River to recreate some of that ’85 magic.

Before casting a jinx across the entire Show Me State there are several elements standing in Kansas City’s way this September including a talented, experienced Detroit Tigers team that is waiting to wake up from it’s dog days of summer doldrums. Adding to this AL Central intrigue is the Royals schedule which has six of the team’s final 20 games against their rivals from the Motor City with four additional games vs fellow underdog upstarts the Cleveland Indians.

Another potential obstacle facing Kansas City is the sparse attendance at home games as the team currently ranks 25th in total attendance a point manager Ned Yost brought up recently which, fair or unfair, caught the ire of the Royals faithful.

But if the team keeps winning then the fans will come back to Kauffman Stadium and 2014 will be celebrated as the season the Kansas City Royals returned to the postseason for the first time in nearly 20 years. Just don’t count on Don Denkinger to come out of retirement anytime soon.

 

Scoreboard Watching In September

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September. Fall is right around the corner. As warm summer days slowly turn to cool autumn afternoons Major League Baseball is reminded that with the changing of the calendar comes the hope for tomorrow and the postseason, the eternal glory of October. The place where dreams can be fulfilled, where greatness is immortalized. Each game matters. Every inning counts.

In September, players begin staring down the scoreboard as the updates come blowing in from out of town like a gust of spine tingling wind. Producing both shivers good and bad. Projecting light and darkness, hope and despair. A glimmer of opportunity or a forecast of doom. As the days grow shorter and night starts to set in earlier and earlier so to does the incandescent glow of the scoreboard, looming over the players’ shoulders like a blinding specter. Haunting each step around the base path. You cannot hide from the bright lights. The glowing numbers and letters materializing from beyond the outfield fence creating an omnipresent shadow across the diamond.

In September, the long season feels more like a marathon than a sprint but the race for the playoffs drives on. A baseball player must be focused. A baseball player must not be easily distracted. This is not a time to throw caution to the wind. Movements must be calculated. Each pitch executed with perfect precision. Each swing mimicking the path of the baseball as it tumbles towards the plate at speeds hovering perilously close to triple digits. To focus on the scoreboard instead of the opposition is the difference between a swing and a miss. A run and an out. A win and a loss.

Players are instructed to focus on today because tomorrow is beyond their control. Yet the scoreboard exists to contradict the sage advice of managers and coaches. The numbers and messages that litter stadium jumbotrons pollute and poison the instincts of even the game’s most experienced. Patience will be put to the test as the results filter in from cities across the country. Los Angeles. Kansas City. Baltimore. Those scores, those numbers, that calculus can change the way you play.

Yet the temptation remains, the bright lights and numbers cascading from far off in the distance like a siren’s call. The scoreboard is calling. It wants you to look. It wants to remind you of the world that is beyond your control. For it’s only the fortunate few who control their destiny. Who do not allow the scoreboard to dictate their future.

The baseball postseason is within grasp. Seize it. Before the scoreboard consumes all hope, shining on deep into the darkness. Fading towards October.

 

 

 

 

Hollywood Prepares For the Moneyball Sequel

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Dateline Los Angeles:

Casting has begun on Hollywood’s latest big budget sports drama tentatively titled Moneyball II: The Rise of the Small Market. The film follows in the footsteps of the wildly successful 2011 film Moneyball starring Brad Pitt as Oakland Athletics maverick general manager Billy Beane on a never ending quest to validate the erection of every SABRmetric loving baseball journalist.

No word yet as to whether or not Mr. Pitt will return to play Beane but industry sources continue to claim that the actor has grown increasingly disillusioned with the general manager’s un-small market like behavior during the 2014 baseball season including the team’s latest trade for pitcher Jon Lester. An acquaintance of Pitt said that upon hearing news of this latest move the actor said, “who do the A’s think they are, the Yankees?”

With Lester joining Jess Samardzija, Sonny Gray and Scott Kazmir atop the Oakland rotation the A’s smell like favorites, that is if they can get past their division rivals the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim of Orange Country next to Disneyland.

Producers have indicated that if Pitt is unable to play Bill Beane in the Moneyball sequel that they will pursue Channing Tatum for the roll of the handsome general manager citing the actor’s strong chemistry with Jonah Hill. No word yet on the rest of the cast although it has been rumored that Zach Galifianakis is circling the role of grizzly, stalky A’s catcher Derek Norris.

Financing for the Moneyball sequel is in place however some movie studios would prefer that the Oakland A’s lose in the first or second round of the 2014 playoffs which would lend itself quite nicely to the third movie in the trilogy Moneyball III: The Death of FIP and WAR and All The Other Statistics That Most Non-Fantasy Playing Baseball Fans Have Ever Heard Of.