Sports is no longer important in the big picture of the outbreak, but there’s hope to save each season.
Sports will be very different when play resumes after the coronavirus break
In this new sports-free stretch we’re adjusting to, it’s important to start with the following caveat: None of this really matters. The health and safety of everyone trumps whatever inconvenience is caused by the temporary absence of sports in our lives from the coronavirus outbreak. That goes without saying. As the United Airlines pilot on my flight home from Phoenix told the passengers, and as Cubs President Theo Epstein reiterated to reporters in a conference call Friday night: “We’re all in this together.”
Sports no longer is important in the big picture, but because you’ve spent your life following the world of sports, we’re going to stick with the program.
It’s impossible to know when or if things will return to normal in our world, but we would like to believe eventually we’ll be back watching our favorite teams and players doing what they’re paid to do — provide entertainment for the masses.
Because we don’t when that will be, we only can speculate. Which is where we, the lowly sportswriters of the world, come in.
My biggest concerns, relatively speaking, are the potential eliminations of the NBA and NHL playoffs, and, of course, the disruption of the baseball season.
So apologies to the Chicago Fire, NASCAR, the Kentucky Derby and any golf tournament in which Tiger Woods is participating. I’ll miss you all, but not watching you in 2020 won’t cause me too much anguish.
I wish there were a way to salvage March Madness, both on the college and Illinois high school levels, but because
most student-athletes’ years end in May in college and in June in high school, there’s no way to move them back while schools are still in session. It’s a sad ending for all the teams with high hopes, but there’s not much that can be done.
As for baseball, the 2020 season easily can go forward with a shortened schedule and some creative thinking, and I’d like to think the same can be said for the NBA and NHL playoffs. If the suspensions of their seasons can be lifted safely sometime by mid-May or early June, here are my proposals for the three majors sports leagues affected by the outbreak:
NBA
It likely is too late to salvage the regular season, which was almost over anyway. But there’s no reason the playoffs can’t be salvaged, even if they run well into the summer. Perhaps eliminating the Summer League, which runs from July 5-15, and replacing it with the NBA Finals is a goal worth shooting for.
I would propose a new playoff format in which conference affiliations are deemed irrelevant and only 14 teams qualify. The top six teams would go straight to the quarterfinals, seeded by records, and a separate eight-team play-in bracket would determine the other two quarterfinalists with win-or-go-home games, March Madness-style.
Some teams, including a few currently holding playoff spots, will complain about being left out, but difficult decisions will have to be made. The top six seeds would be the Bucks, Lakers, Raptors, Clippers, Celtics and Nuggets, seeded in that order. The eight teams playing for the final two spots — Nos. 7 and 8 — would be the Jazz, Heat, Thunder, Rockets, Pacers, 76ers, Mavericks and Grizzlies.
The only team under .500 in the revised playoff format would be the Grizzlies. The Nets and Magic, currently the Nos. 7 and 8 seeds in the Eastern Conference, are both well under .500 and would go home like the rest of the sub-.500 teams.
Sorry, Nets and Magic fans, but your teams don’t deserve it.
The matchups for the first four do-ordie games would be Jazz-Grizzlies, HeatMavs, Thunder-Sixers and Rockets-Pacers. Those four games would take place on the same day, and after an off day the semifinalists would play to determine the final two playoff qualifiers.
Those two surviving teams, let’s say the Heat and Rockets, would move on, giving us a potential quarterfinal round pitting Bucks-Rockets, Lakers-Heat, RaptorsNuggets and Clippers-Celtics.
All the playoffs series starting with the quarterfinals would be best-of-seven, as usual, and would include several intriguing first-round matchups that TNT and ESPN would be fighting over.
NHL
A new Stanley Cup playoff format is necessary in order to get the postseason done before the end of summer. This proposal is similar to the NBA plan, with conference affiliations deemed irrelevant and the lesser teams playing win-or-go-home games to earn a quarterfinal spot.
First, the regular season would be declared over, and the top six teams would be seeded by point totals into quarterfinal slots: the Bruins, Blues, Lightning, Avalanche, Capitals and Flyers. The next eight teams in the overall standings would be seeded in a separate bracket for one-game playoffs. Unfortunately, the Islanders and Jets are tied for the eighth spot at 80 points. The Islanders would get the nod based on their 2-0 record in their season series.
Again, life is not always fair, and not everyone will be happy. In this bracket of one-game matchups, we’d have PenguinIslanders, Golden Knights-Blue Jackets, Oilers-Maple Leafs and Stars-Hurricanes. After a day off, we’d play the semifinals and have the two winners advancing as the Nos. 7 and 8 seeds. If the two surviving teams are, say, the Penguins and Stars, a best-of-seven quarterfinals would pit Bruins-Stars, Blues-Penguins, Lightning-Flyers and Avalanche-Capitals.
Hockey is a winter sport, but this would not be a bad way to spend your summer.
MLB
Baseball has had shortened seasons because of strikes and the 9/11 attacks, so this is nothing new, assuming it does return.
As recently as 1995, MLB played a 144-game schedule after the players returned from the strike and spring training lockout. No one lost sleep over the 18 games that were lost from the schedule.
As it stands, MLB has suspended the season through the first two weeks, but realistically it will take longer to get back because players likely will have to go through an abbreviated spring training.
In the first month of play after the 1990 lockout, 68 players went on the disabled list, including 39 pitchers.
Assuming starters would need at least three starts to be able to go four to five innings once the season begins, a 15- to 20-day spring training period would suffice, with teams playing simulated or intrasquad games.
The hitters already should be close with a month of spring training under their belts.
Rosters would be expanded to allow for a couple of more relievers because most starters would be behind.
Even if spring training 2.0 started in late April and games resumed by midMay, losing 36 games, a 126-game schedule should be enough to determine the best teams.
Last year most teams played their 126th game by the third week of August.
Of the 10 teams on Aug. 21, 2019, that would’ve made the postseason, the only ones who didn’t eventually make it were the Indians and Cubs.
The playoffs would begin on schedule and use the same format.
Do you pick up the schedule on the new starting date, even if some teams would have more difficult schedules than others, or come up with a new plan?
There are many factors to consider, including the fact teams have booked hotels well in advance of the season.
But if those accommodations could be altered, I’d junk interleague play and the All-Star Game and try to come up with a balanced schedule in which each team plays the other 14 teams in its league nine times apiece.
There are no easy solutions to the problems facing the sports world. Perhaps you have a better idea.
We’ll have a at least few weeks to come up with some new ideas.
And hopefully we’ll be back to watching our favorite teams and players this summer, in whatever format is doable.