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Which is better for a league?
Which is better, because we have had both for years — decades even — across multiple major sports platform?
Would you rather have parity, like the NBA, or dynasties, like MLB.
Each has had both, and the comparisons within leagues are not apples to apples. More like apples to pineapples.
In the NBA, there was no apex like the 1990s dynastic Bulls, but Jordan’s presence skews that.
Currently, eight different teams have won a title in the last eight seasons, with the Knicks’ championship last weekend marking the most-watched Finals since the aforementioned Bulls’ Last Dance capped their run.
MLB always feels better with the Dodgers or Yankees in the mix, but then again, I’m a Dodgers fan, so maybe that’s a bit juggled too.
The Super Bowl is, well, Super, and in fact is its own dynasty.
College hoops is great with the upsets early amid the Madness, but the nation wants the Blue Bloods to come the Final Four.
College football seems filled with dynasties more times than not, but then Curt Cignetti showed up and, well, Google him.
So which is it?
Parity or dynasties?
And maybe the NBA conversations about recent newfound interest is not much more than sweeping America’s far-and-away biggest media market in NYC. Because while there assuredly was parity last year as OKC won its first title, the viewer numbers were half of what the Knicks’ 4-1 win over the Spurs averaged earlier this month.
We can do this two ways: Which is better for the league and its leadership, and which do you prefer as a casual sports fan?
Discuss.
Golf tees up changes
So as the first chunk of the 156-player field is wrestling with Shinnecock Hills as you read this, it’s very fair to wonder about the two sizable shifts looming on the horizon for professional golf.
For the sport in general, it was announced this week than come the first day of 2030, there will be limitations on the golf ball for amateurs and professionals alike to try to curb distance.
This change has been much-debated for a hot minute, but in the grand scheme of things it will be rather negligible.
Here’s more, and it looks as if the true bombers may lose as many as 15 yards, but the everyday player would lose far less, if much at all.
The second proposal is the discussion at the U.S. Open of the two Track system.
Track One (and yes, the names need some major tweaking) would be the 18 biggest PGA Tour events plus the four majors in an effort to lure the biggest stars to the same events as often as possible.
Track Two would be an elevated version of the Korn Ferry circuit for the next tier of PGA players grinding out efforts to elevate their status and keep their playing cards.
Count Rory McIlroy among those not overly jazzed about it, especially what it could mean down the road for events like last week’s Canadian Open if those tournaments are not placed into Track One.
The next phase of the PGA Tour — call it the PGA Tour victory lap after the LIV war — is open for remaking, but it’s also open for a lot of peril.
For instance, how many casual golf fans — and I watch more golf than most folks I know — are going to make Track Two events appointment TV? And that’s doubly true for the events that are farmed to The Golf Channel or some Fox derivative on weekends that PGA Track One events are being played?
Thoughts?
Knockout action before the Knockout Round
The World Cup has been thrilling. And I am the opposite of a kick … er, soccer fan.
But the action has been gripping. The fans have been infectious. The action grounds have been Masters-esque.
The stars have shined, with the exception of Reynaldo on Wednesday.
England looked great, and maybe the biggest story amid all the upsets — that were actually heavy favorites upset at being in a draw — is the expanded 48-team bracket.
Hey, expansion is everywhere, and a lot of soccer folks had the same view of expanding the big event the way a lot of us view the expansion of the college football playoff or March Madness.
But this one feels like it works, don’t you think?
Again, the good with the bad. There is an Ivory Coast player in this World Cup — who has already played a match — who was recently arrested on charges of match-fixing.
Wonder what the Ivory Coast translation for Brendan Sorsby is?
This and that
> Regulars around these parts are familiar with the praise I’ve given to Morgan Wallen. I am assuredly not alone, since Wallen now has four songs that have each been streamed more than 1 billion times on Spotify. Yes, billion with a “B.”
> Holy buckets, this is pretty amazing, right? From the Westgate social media accounts, a 20-something dude put $5 into a slot machine and walked away with a jackpot priced at more than $10 million.
> The College World Series is set. Oklahoma vs. UNC, best-of-three, for the whole shebang. Well, depending on your pronoun preference and if you insist it being the whole hebang, then I’m OK with that too.
> Braves played. Braves lost twice. Yikes. Kinda a rough patch, friends.
Today’s questions
It’s the ol’ AGT, and I need y’all to play nice. We’re in the monster softball tournament in our fine city with a trio of games today. Rain, stay away.
True or false on a Thursday, when you were a kid, a rainout — especially on a Saturday — in youth baseball was way, Way, WAY worse than a loss.
Fire away, and remember the mailbag.
As for today, June 18, let’s try this.
Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo on this day in 1815.
All things considered — and how Waterloo has been turned into a phrase meaning someone’s downfall — what is the Rushmore of names of battles?
Go, and mailbag, friends.
Jay is a sports writer and columnist at the Times Free Press. He writes a daily online column called “5-at-10,” and he started with the newspaper in May 2002 as the deputy sports editor.
He was born and raised in Smyrna, Ga., and graduated from Auburn University before starting his newspaper career in 1997 with the Newnan (Ga.) Times Herald. Stops in Clayton and Henry counties in Georgia and two years as the Sports Editor of the Marietta (Ga.) Daily Journal preceded Jay’s move to Chattanooga.
He has won local, state, regional and national awards as a writer, designer and section editor. Jay and his wife Kathleen were married in 2004 and have a son, Lee, and a daughter, Madeline Ray.
Contact Jay at (423) 757-6273 or jgreeson@timesfreepress.com and follow him on Twitter at @jgreesontfp.