Selection Sunday Thread

From 1947-1964 at least one New York team appeared in all but two World Series, 1948 and 1959. And in the latter year, the Dodgers were only two years removed from Brooklyn. In seven out of the 11 Series between '47 and '56, BOTH teams were from New York.

 

There were two teams in St. Louis during the first part of that golden age, and one of them certainly had absolutely no hope of winning (forget the 1944 Browns, That wasn't real baseball during WWII). I also described the "Golden Age" as starting from the late 1940s through 1960 or so.

The Cardinals did not play a World Series game for 18 years, from Oct, of 1946 until Oct. of 1964. Maybe they weren't the LSOTP but that's a long, long time between World Series appearances.

 

And they wouldn't have played in that one if Gene Mauch hadn't butchered his pitching staff down the stretch of the regular season.

 

Another key to UConn's success: Geno gets a player, most likely she's there for four years. How many women are one-and-done to the WNBA?

 

In the men's game, a dominant run like the one Kentucky had last year is awesome because it's unique. It's been 40 years since we've had an undefeated champion, and most teams don't even make it to February without a loss. Even a mid-level team is capable of rising up and knocking off one of the better teams on any given night.
The Connecticut women have gone undefeated it four times in the last eight years. Baylor did it once, too, and one of the years UConn went undefeated it beat an also-unbeaten Notre Dame team for the title. Pretty much the only time the top teams lose is when they play other top teams. Going undefeated and being dominant, even at the level UConn is at, just isn't that special in the women's game.

 

UConn has won 75 games in a row by double digits.

 

If you are a basketball fan or sports fan, what's the interest in watching women's college basketball ( or WNBA for that matter ). Monday night was opening day for many MLB teams, there were NBA games, hockey games and a D-league playoff. You could find college volleyball and baseball if you wanted and soccer is on somewhere on cable. UConnW was a foregone conclusion, the level of basketball played is poor, unless you're being patronizing and say ' for women it's really good '. There are plenty of sports on with good competition at a high level of skill. Women's basketball presents none of that. Congrats Geno, you beat a bunch of girls.

 

The thing with UConn ... there's dominance, and there's hopelessness. In their heart of hearts, there isn't one coach in the country -- outside of maybe Muffet McGraw -- that thought there was a chance to beat UConn.

People have said on Twitter, if you can't recognize UConn's greatness and how beautiful the game is, blah, blah, blah. They have a point. They do play a beautiful game. But when you're a major league team essentially playing nothing but Double-A competition, there is no incentive to watch. Maybe that changes once this class leaves, but I doubt it. UConn recruits at a level that's different from the rest of Division I. What's the point of having a season if you know one team is that much better than everyone else?

 

Sports folk have been obsessing over March Madness for months. And then from conference championship week through the Tournement on Monday, about 5 weeks, it's all consuming.
3 days after the final, no one gives a shit anymore. Not a word spoken. Talk about short attention span theater

 

That's the same for every sport. Also, college basketball has the stage to itself in March, so of course fans and media obsess over it.

 

Who's Jim Gray waving to?