Fix a sport

Sports
262

Yet another thing ruined by capitalism.

Ideally we would see the world’s top athletes participate in many separate leagues and tournaments. They would each have enough matches to root out luck but also few enough that each is meaningful and significant.

At minimum for each sport I would like to see the following tournaments/leagues.

International best on best. Players play for their home country. e.g.: Olympics

Continental or intra-national championship. People play for teams from their home country or sub-country geographic area, and we see who is best. e.g.: Concacaf

All-Star League. The best players in the world are somehow arranged into teams that all compete against each other, regardless of where players are from geographically. e.g.: NHL, MLB, NBA

Each of these should have should have versions for women, men, juniors, seniors, etc.

If each of these competitions had few enough matches per tournament/season, you could hold each one quite frequently. Any individual sporting event on TV would always be quite significant and exciting within its own context. We would also get to see who was best in various different configurations.

Right now there are a lot of sports that don’t have all these competitions. Or even when they do, they don’t always get participation from the top players. We haven’t had best on best international ice hockey in quite a few years. Many players who deserved Olympic gold medals never had an opportunity to compete for one.

Also, as you say, the top leagues have too many games to rake in cash and that makes a lot of their games meaningless as well as taking time that could be used for other competitions.

263

The problem with playing more football games is the injuries. But then, football probably shouldn’t be played at all.

As for NBA - I think basketball could handle home and home against all other 29 teams. 58 game schedule. You want Steph Curry and LeBron coming to town more often than every other year.

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264

Yes, you want the big stars coming to town. But with that many games, the TEAM might come to town but the big stars might not play.

A star player can do 43 games for sure, and still have energy for some special non-league activities, as Scott outlined above.

But once you get to 58? I think that’s too much for every star player to play every game.

Also if cross-conference/league games are as regular as normal matchups, what’s even the point? I’m all for abolishing the differences between American and National leagues, but I like the setup for the post season, where the biggest game is the best from each side. It’s fake structure, of course, but everything in sport is “fake”, and keeping some historical context is good.

265

On the topic of load management, the issue is that it isn’t the player’s fault, its the AAU ball that players do before getting to the NBA.

266

MLB is fixing itself a bit.

I generally very much welcome these changes. They have been thoroughly tested in the minor leagues and are aiming at one of the most troublesome parts of baseball.

267

I’m mixed. Pitch clock - perfect. Limiting pickoffs, great.

Not really a fan of limiting where fielders can play. If you don’t want to hit it into the shift… don’t hit it into the shift.

But looking at the whole package of rule changes, I’ll take it over what things used to be.

268

All this discussion about the changes to baseball has me thinking about the last season of Brockmire on IFC. This was a criminally underrated and hilarious show starring Hank Azaria, who starts out as a baseball commentator, but by the final season, becomes commissioner of baseball in order to try and save it:

269

Someone who actually cares becoming the commissioner is somehow less believable to me than wizards and dragons.

270

The NBA is actually going through with its in-season tournament idea.

Basically they are trying to add more significance to regular season games. They will have a second trophy, separate from the NBA championship. It’s awarded earlier in the season. Will people care? Well, they are using the example of European soccer where there are many different cups and fans seem to care about all of them.

I can see it working since it’s still a competition that the team has to play well in order to win. Players and fans can still brag and feel good if their team wins it.

If a team that wins it is the same as the team that wins the overall championship, it’s like having an extra feather in their cap. Not only did they win the NBA championship, they won this other tournament also. They are so good, they dominated everything.

If a team isn’t so dominant in the standings, but they win the smaller trophy, they can still feel like it was a successful season. Their team didn’t just stink up the joint completely. And hey, they did beat the champs earlier in the year.

If they do this right I think they can achieve their goal. The existence of a second trophy does have the potential to add, and not take away.

The key is if they can make the players care. There’s definitely a problem in pro sports where the level of effort that players put in during the regular season vs post-season is noticeably different. The games are not the same. The post-season game is a superior product. Anything they can do to motivate players to perform with post-season levels of intensity more often is good.

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271

58 games let’s go!

272

Golf is attempting to fix a problem that some of the balls are just too good. There seems to be agreement among interested parties that something needs to be done, but they do not agree with the current proposed rule change.

I don’t know enough about golf to know exactly why this is a problem. We’ve seen similar situations with the bathing suits swimming and also the shoes in running.

If they let players continue to be able to choose their own golf balls, all the pros at least will have access to the best ball and choose that. If there is some ball that is significantly superior, but not available to all players due to sponsorship requirements, low supply, etc. then you just can’t allow it.

In a sport like golf, where equipment does matter a lot at the highest levels of play, they really do need to tighten up the regulation.

273

People who don’t are about golf at all may not know, but in pro golf you have to walk the entire golf course. No golf carts allowed. Walking for all that time, in the sun, in the desert, under who knows what conditions, human biology comes into play. You gotta go, you gotta go. Some people have to go more often. I know I’d be drinking a bottle of water every 2-3 holes out there. There absolutely need to be toilets between each and every hole. It’s just 17 toilets. They can afford it. Come on!

274

Better idea: The porta potties ARE the holes.

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275

They’re going to make golf balls worse on purpose to shave a few yards of the distance. The problem apparently is that if people hit further, it’s not easy to make golf courses bigger to match.

Now if only basketball would raise the rim to match people being taller…

276

The complainers need to get a grip:

The longest hitters will lose 13-15 yards, the USGA said, while LPGA players may 5-7 yards. The average recreational golfer will lose less than 3-5 yards, according to the USGA.

277

On paper, All-Star games should be incredible. You play a whole game with only the best of the best of the best players. How could that not be good?

Most games only get views from the fans of the two teams competing. An All-Star game should get attention from every fan of the sport everywhere, because players from every team are participating.

And All-Star games in the past have been good. The one All-Star game I went to in my life was at Fenway Park in 1999. The start of the game featured Pedro Martinez striking out everyone in the first inning, and two batters in the second inning. It was electric.

But nowadays, players don’t try. The games are a farce. They care so much about winning the actual championship. And they care about staying healthy and preserving the longevity of their lucrative careers. They aren’t going to risk injury actually trying to win an exhibition game.

The Pro Bowl is, and always has been, the biggest joke of all. I don’t know why they haven’t just canceled it already.

The NBA All-Star game just happened, and wow. Just when you thought it couldn’t get worse. The final score was 211-186. I think this is the first time any team has gone over 200. People still like the dunk contest and 3-point contest, but the game is pathetic.

The NHL did a little bit better this year actually. They got people to care a little bit about the skills competition with a new format and a big cash prize. Even so, you still had players like Kucherov not even trying to hide that they didn’t want to be there. Players actually tried a little bit in the main event to the point at which there were complaints that some players were actually trying to win face-offs. Still a dud, but they get an A for effort.

Side note, the next NHL All-Star Game is in 2026 in Long Island. I guess I can go if I want. We’ll see.

How can we fix the All-Star games? Well, the first question is, do we need to? They still make money. Most kids don’t know the difference, and think it’s awesome. Maybe let it be what it is and ignore it?

Can it be replaced by something else? The goal is to have some big eyeball attracting money-making extra televisable event for the sport in question. There are so many possibilities beyond an All-Star game of how to do that. The only real requirements are that the athletes are given an opportunity to market themselves, and show off their skills. And also the sport in question should be on display in its best light to promote itself.

If you insist on keeping an actual game where all the players are stars, well, the only way to make those stars care is to have stakes they care about and also insurance. That’s a tall order when almost nothing can compare to the stakes of the actual championship and player’s actual contracts.

I do have one idea, though. Whatever competition format you have for the game, make sure it’s individual or based on small teams. The winning team gets the ultimate prize. They get to skip the All-Star game next year even if they fully deserve to be there, and are voted in.

278

Arguably the NHL already has a suitable replacement with the Winter Classic. A game in a special venue that you can set up other things around and promote in special ways. And since its a regular season game players actually care about winning or losing.

Of course the NHL could not leave things well enough alone and had to set up other similar games in the Stadium series and others to milk the same concept. There are also other issues such as weather dependency, injury risk, and the fact that since its just two specific teams it doesn’t have much of a draw for fans of the sport in general or dislike one or both of the teams involved.

279

They are partially fixing their sport.