MLB: A Game That Speaks To All Of Us // NBA: Current Standings, "A Different View."

sports-notebook.blogspot.com . . . FOR MORE ANALYSIS, GO TO "MILE HIGH SPORTS RADIO," AM1510 or FM93.7, and to Denver’s best sports blogging team---milehighsports.com. SPORTS NOTEBOOK posts its columns Tuesday and Friday of each week. Ed., Publ., Marvin Leibstone; Copy & Mng. Ed., Gail Kleiner. . . /. . MLB: A Game That Speaks To All Of Us // NBA: Current Standings, "A Different View". . . // MLB---OUT from locker rooms and dugouts and onto playing fields begins a competition for determining which among 30 MLB clubs is best after each has played 162 games. Then, from distillation, which can reach an October shootout, a tradition that’s existed since 1903, when Boston won the World Series having defeated Pittsburgh, 5-3. But it’s April, 2014, and we are reminded of how local and not yet national or global pro- baseball can be in the first weeks of a season. It’s our town’s team that we care about most in April, a tribal thing: me, my family and friends, my city and my town’s big league franchise, with all those baseball connections to that which can exist in our personal lives, for instance, in spite of a past season’s dashed hopes we keep coming back. As a new season kicks in, we are in front of the TV or at a game, filled with hope and expectations against the possibility of many disappointments and our having to accept defeat, just as so many of us wake every day hopeful and eager to meet personal challenges, knowing that success or failure is in the balance. Then there’s the inevitable strikeout. We know that the best hitters will strike out more than they will ever get on base, that they will be at bat several hundred times between April and late September and very few will accrue more than 30 home runs after a team’s 162 games. Who in his or her personal life never strikes out, unless they stay in bed 24/7? Baseball mirrors that. And, how about the fact that a walk, a balk or a soft bunt can win a game, be the final win for taking a series, maybe game four gaining the WS title? Yes, what may seem to be the weakest and most uninteresting contribution toward a win can be that which takes us to the summit, to the top of our personal or team Everest, and maybe it’s the weaker partner at work, or at home, who makes that happen. Then there’s the experience of having viewed a moment of perfection, our seeing a hitter send a baseball deep into the stands; or, we observe an amazing slider having caused a powerful and skillful batter to slink away sullenly from the plate after strike three, thus a third out and runners left in scoring position. Yet enacted before us was that which we often aspire to be, simply to do as good batters and pitchers have done, to be the best that we can be under any situation, to train and prepare for that. Note, too, how baseball requires individual expertise, personal skill, the very best that an individual athlete can create by himself, and that baseball also demands maximum cooperation with others, e.g., that shortstop’s pick of a hit ball and his flip of it to a second baseman, who tags a runner and throws to first for the double play, or there’s that long throw from right field to a pitcher who flips the ball to a catcher, who tags a runner for the third out. This individual prowess + cooperation with others within any group, and surely within any family, is surely a success component. Consider also the team that’s been winning 3-0, starter and relievers having combined for a no-hitter until during the last half of the ninth an opposing team loads the bases and the next batter delivers a home run, game over, the opposing team has won 4-3 from the Grand Slam. What’s baseball telling us here? First, that the game is unfair, reminding that the world beyond baseball is also unfair. Second, we can brace against the unfairness in any situation or relationship with proper insurance, for even when ahead we are best served by a margin most difficult for an opponent to overcome. Had the 3-0 team gone into the ninth inning at 5-0, it would have had some insurance for the win providing that following the Grand Slam-HR were strikeouts ending the game, final score 5-4. Okay, enough of the philosopher’s curse. Here are some stats to roll with as MLB-2014 unfurls---Most games won during 2013? That was by World Series winner the American League’s Boston Red Sox having tied with the National League’s St. Louis Cardinals, 97 won games each. Of the 30 MLB clubs, 17 won more games than they lost and so were above .500, leaving 13 teams below that mark and so 13 finishing MLB-2013 as losing ball clubs. And, as MLB-2012 ended, the following year’s WS winning club, the Red Sox, they were among the below .500, having won only 69 games. The NL’s Cardinals, they finished MLB-2012 with 88 wins, eighth in the rankings. Also during MLB-2012, the Washington Nationals had the most won games, 98, but during MLB-2013 they finished with 86, ranked seventh. . . It could be anyone’s game now, which is why April is NOT the cruelest month!. . . // NBA---IF it’s true that there’s nothing new under the sun, then what’s proposed here has been done before, dividing the 30 NBA teams into four categories, “Very Best,” “Best,” “At The Margin” and “Bottom Dwellers,” basing the positioning on won games for the season. For example, atop the league now re. won games are the San Antonio Spurs, Oklahoma City Thunder, the L.A. Clippers, the Indiana Pacers and the Miami Heat, each of the five having won 50 or more games, the Spurs leading with 58, and so these teams can be considered “Very Best.” The next tier, a.k.a., “Best,” includes the Houston Rockets, Portland Trail Blazers, Golden State Warriors, Memphis Grizzlies, Dallas Mavericks, Phoenix Suns, Chicago Bulls, Toronto Raptors and the Brooklyn Nets, all nine with 40 or more wins. Next comes the “At The Margin” crowd, which includes the Minnesota Timberwolves, Denver Nuggets, New Orleans Pelicans, N.Y. Knicks, Washington Wizards, Charlotte Bobcats, Atlanta Hawks, the Cleveland Cavaliers, all eight with 30 or more won games. And, the “Bottom Dwellers?” That’s the Utah Jazz, Sacramento Kings, L.A. Lakers, Boston Celtics, Philadelphia 76ers, Orlando Magic, Detroit Pistons, the Milwaukee Bucks, all eight with less than 30 wins, lowest being the 76ers and their 16 wins, then the Bucks, 14. Sure, all that’s being said here is that there are different ways to view the NBA, different ways to dress the cat. Going deeper, we can argue that among the lower tier teams there is still much prowess, much skill. The Raptors, though having least number of wins within its category, they’ve been leading the East’s Atlantic Division for many weeks, and the Denver Nuggets, though mid-point within its category, they’ve had numerous season packets of superb performances, they are far from being a deadbeat team, to wit: seven and five game winning streaks, and having defeated most of the top NBA teams during the year at least once, among them, the Thunder, the Pacers, the Clippers, the Warriors, and the Rockets. END/ml