Syndicated Games

By:  2eighty8

I loved what Sergio Garcia said on Sunday, May 11^th after he beat Paul Goyda to win the Players’ Championship: “I would like to thank Tiger for not being here.” The world’s number one golfer is out for another two weeks minimum after undergoing knee surgery on the first week of May. And I couldn’t be happier.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to see the guy hurt or anything like that. Like many of you reading this, I enjoy golfing and I have the utmost respect in the world for Tiger Woods and his abilities in the game. But seeing him win tournaments after tournaments and Majors after Majors is like watching the same episode of That ‘70s Show on TV week after week after week. Yes, it is that excruciating. If you’re the casual fan of a particular sport you just watched, you’ll want your few hours back. I just don’t see what the attraction is all about with constant repeat of champions. Same thing goes the other modern dynasties in the NBA, the NFL’s New England Patriots, and the current landscape of international hockey. At least That ‘70s Show had Laura Prepon to make it somewhat worth watching (when she was red-headed). Maybe if the NBA started having Laura on, I’d watch.

The NBA needs a new team to win their championship. In the past sixteen years, only seven teams had won it:

·        Jordan’s Chicago Bulls.

·        Hakeem Olajuwon’s Houston Rockets.

·        Shaq’s Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat.

·        David Robinson’s and Tim Duncan’s San Antonio Spurs.

·        Detroit Pistons; one of the few teams where no one was the star and everybody contributed evenly.

In the NHL, there were five teams who have won the Stanley Cup multiple times in the past seventeen years (let’s be fair, there were labour disputes): Detroit Red Wings (5), New Jersey Devils (3), Colorado Avalanche, and Pittsburgh Penguins (2 each), while only the Wings were the only ones who had ever repeated. In Major League Baseball, the only three teams that had won the World Series in the same period of time were the New York Yankees (4), Boston Red Sox (2), and Toronto Blue Jays (2). There have been twelve other different teams who had won the Cup, and fourteen different teams who had won the World Series. With those numbers, it seems a lot more exciting to watch than having the same teams win year after year. Even in the past several years, I don’t even need to watch the NBA Finals if I hear the words “Spurs” or “Shaq” to know who will win. It’s like watching the NFL’s Buffalo Bills: you know they’re going to lose.

The New England Patriots is another one that kills football for me. All this talk about dominance and having the Lombardi Trophies in the past five years to prove is getting boring. They have been a powerhouse since Tom Brady came into his own as a quarterback. But damn, they are another one where I don’t need to watch the Super Bowl to know the winner…except for last February. I was pleasantly surprised that the Giants came back to win the Superbowl! That’s what sports should have every once in a while to keep things fresh!

Ever since the Canadian men and women won gold medals in ice hockey at the Salt Lake Winter Games, they have re-established themselves as the international hockey superpower. As a Canadian and a hockey fan, it is the greatest thing since…pornography made its way to the internet (what, you thought I was going to say sliced bread?). Our women has only one rival in the American team but is still ranked number one regardless of the US tournament win last April; our men’s team is currently going for the fourth championship in the past six tournaments; and our juniors men’s won the fourth straight gold last January. While it is still exciting to watch Canadians having ice supremacy, it is getting a little mundane. Lately, however, things are starting to slip for the red maple leaf. Again, the Canadian women lost to the American team in the gold medal game, and Sweden certainly gave the our juniors a scare after the round robin win and taking the gold medal game to overtime. That is what makes sports exciting: the unpredictability. Also watching Sweden emerge as the next superpower should be interesting to watch as well, especially in the upcoming 2010 Games as they are the defending gold medalists. Hey, Rome fell, didn’t they?

I’m not saying that teams and athletes should lose or fix games just for entertainment purposes. That wouldn’t be fair to the fans, the players, coaches, and anybody else who enjoys sports. They have every right to play their best game, like Duncan’s Spurs, Brady’s Patriots, and Canada’s juniors. Those teams do their homework and practice in preparation. Hard work pays off for them and that’s how they win. But, man, it’s so predictable when they do. Tiger will probably be back for the Memorial Tournament in Ohio on the last week of May. Once he gets back to his groove, maybe my Laura fantasies wouldn’t be as boring after that hiatus.