MLB: Top Rivals, The Race Is On // NBA: Playoffs & Conquest

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: Top Rivals, The Race Is On // NBA: Playoffs & Conquest. . . //. . MLB---WHEN explaining baseball to, say, a visitor from outside the U.S., who has only known soccer, cricket and Formula One racing, we sooner than later mention that Major League Baseball includes the American League and National League and that each of the two leagues includes three divisions; further, that each division has five ball clubs, and of the five in each there are always two that at the start of a season are noted as “rivals” for top division slots capable of guaranteeing a post-season position after each has played 162 games, April through September. Continuing our tutoring, we’d probably mention that in early-April of every MLB season these rivals are picked “informally” by fans and analysts, and usually from the previous year’s standings, a ranking that might not exist by mid-May. Out of the chute, then, for the American League East are the Boston Red Sox versus the N.Y. Yankees or the Tampa Bay Rays, and within the AL Central it’s the Detroit Tigers vs. the Cleveland Indians or Kansas City Royals. Inside the AL West, it’s the Oakland A’s vs. the Texas Rangers. Within the NL East, it’s the Atlanta Braves vs. the Washington Nationals. Inside the NL Central, it’s the St. Louis Cardinals vs. the Cincinnati Reds. For the NL West, there are the L.A. Dodgers against the Arizona Diamondbacks or the S.F Giants. Based on last year’s stats, rivals for the AL’s number one 2014 position are the Red Sox vs. the Tigers, and for the NL League Championship title, it’s the Cardinals against the Dodgers. As to the 2014 World Series, based on 2013 data only, it’s the Sox vs. the Cards. . . SO, where are these teams after games during MLB-2014’s first week of play? The aforementioned rivals are not true to form exactly, for instance, the AL East has the Sox on top, Rays in second position, but the Yankees are at the bottom of five. Regarding the AL Central, the Tigers are ahead, the Indians third, yet the Royals are number five. As for the AL West, whoa! the A’s are fourth, the Rangers third, at the top are the 3-0 Seattle Mariners (Last year, the Mariners had 71 wins, 91 losses, and were 19th in the standings). Within the NL East, the Nationals are now leading, and the Braves are third. Inside the NL Central, the Cards are second, the Reds fourth, and within the NL West, oops! the Diamondbacks are last, first position having gone to the 4-1 Dodgers. The Dodgers are best in the NL now and also first with regard to both leagues, advantaged by having played five games when all other MLB teams have played but two or three. The Mariners, they’ve begun atop the AL and are second re. both leagues, tied with the Nat’s. The NL East’s Nat’s haven’t lost any of their three games to date, nor have the Tigers lost their two games as of today. . . NBA---EXCEPT for the Eastern Conference’s 43-32 Toronto Raptors, the remaining five NBA division leading teams have accrued more than 50 games to date, the West’s Southwest San Antonio Spurs now leading with 59 wins, lowest of the five that of the East’s Southeast 52-22 Miami Heat. Of these five, then, is but a seven game difference, signaling close playoff games, all of them hard to predict a winner of. Not seen in any crystal balls today are there easy playoff rides, not even for the Spurs or the West’s Northwest 55-19 Oklahoma City Thunder, the West’s Pacific 54-22 L.A. Clippers or the East’s Central 53-23 Indiana Pacers. And, that which undergirds this notion is one word—“Consistency.” These teams have been high-end since the previous season and from when NBA-2013/14 began last October. Example, the Pacers and the Heat finished NBA-2012/13 among the East’s top three, and the Spurs, the Thunder and the Clippers finished within the West’s top four. And, a month after the current season began, the East’s Pacers and the Heat were leading their divisions by 12 and eight games respectively, and the West’s Spurs, Thunder and Clippers were atop their divisions, though by fewer games---three, two and one respectively. Come late January of 2014, these teams were still leading their divisions. Mid-March and early April, it’s been the same. But of particular note in all of this, is that the difference in won games among the five leading teams has been minor. Among each other, these teams have been fairly close in number of wins over losses. Even so, a recent Thunder versus Spurs contest may have indicated which of these playoff competing teams will prevail against the other, this: a Thunder pummeling of the Spurs, 106-94, which ended the Spurs 19-game winning streak and saw the Thunder’s Kevin Durant score 28 points, a 39th consecutive game during which Durant reached 25 or more points, a record for Durant and a Thunder record, as well. END/ml.