Greetings from the sports desk located somewhere below decks of the Good Pirate Ship RedState. Let’s see how Sammy the Shark and Karl the Kraken are doing …
Yup, same as it ever was.
The minuscule mite of modest moderate interest that existed in the WNBA this year was laid to rest on September 25, as the Connecticut Sun defeated Caitlin Clark and the Keystone Kops of basketball, otherwise known as the Indiana Fever, 87-81 to take the best-of-three opening round playoff series two games to none. Because I seemingly have a thing for self-torture, I watched as much of the game as possible before turning it off. I was in grave danger of my eyes becoming permanently stuck in a rolled-back position at the stunning ineptitude on display.
To say that Clark was the best player on the floor for either team would be a more egregious understatement than noting the MSM is playing favorites in this year’s presidential election. How she manages to not completely lose her mind while watching her teammates muff easy shots she has set up with her superb passing and playmaking skills escapes me. The Fever are fundamentally inept at basketball’s fundamentals. Aside from Clark, the team is unwatchable.
It’s not like the Sun are world-beaters. They are just slightly less incompetent than the Fever. Neither team could shoot, pass, rebound, or defend at a level that would make an average high school boys’ basketball team lose a minute’s worth of sleep should they have to face them on the hardwood.
All the blather about how much excitement is building around the WNBA is just that — blather. Until a majority of players in the league learn how to actually play basketball, the WNBA will continue to be dragged along, kicking and screaming, by Caitlin Clark while the rest of the league sulks over how Clark has single-handedly exposed why no one cares about the league. It’s because no one in the league besides her is worth watching. That may be an overstatement, but if so, it’s not by much.
Meanwhile, in a sport that is genuinely worth watching, baseball’s postseason positional chase continues to be more unpredictable than a six-year-old on a Skittles bender. In the National League, while the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres have both clinched playoff berths, there is still a very slight chance that the Padres can steal the division title from the Dodgers. The Philadelphia Phillies are watching both teams with interest, as they have ambitions of finishing the regular season with the league’s best record and thus securing home-field advantage throughout the playoffs; they presently trail the Dodgers by 1/2 game with three games left on the road against the Washington Nationals while the Dodgers will finish their series against the Padres tonight (September 26) and then visit Colorado for three.
The New York Mets and Arizona Diamondbacks still hold the final two wild card spots by a game over the Atlanta Braves. Making things even juicier is that the Mets and Braves planned on playing the second of a three-game set in Atlanta on September 25, Atlanta winning the series opener 5-1 on September 24. However, Hurricane Helene had other ideas. The games originally scheduled for the 24th and 25th have moved to a doubleheader in Atlanta on Monday, September 30. Which two teams among the Mets, Diamondbacks, and Braves make the playoffs could come down to those two games. Grab the popcorn.
The American League is somewhat more pastoral, with all three division winners settled (New York Yankees, Cleveland Guardians, Houston Astros), the Baltimore Orioles locked into a wild card spot, and the other two wild card teams most likely being, albeit not guaranteed to be, the Detroit Tigers and Kansas City Royals.
Have a tumult-free Thursday, everyone.
