Marcus' World

On the Warriors

I am happy that the Golden State Warriors won this year's NBA championship. After exerting too much energy last year chasing the regular season victory record, this year the Dubs rebounded and handily defeated Cleveland in five games. By now these two teams have played in the championship for three straight seasons, and Golden State has earned two of those titles.

The Warriors play in Oakland, at least for now. Oakland is where our wedding took place, overlooking Lake Merritt. It is also where I lived for many years. This is the city's championship just as much as the team's. And especially now, with the Raiders going and the A's always at risk of leaving and the Warriors themselves leaving soon, this victory is sweet.

Some people say that Kevin Durant should not have gone to Golden State last year, that he "owed" it to Oklahoma City to stick around. That's silly piffle, the stuff of lame ESPN commentary. Kevin Durant was a free agent last year, and he made the choice that worked best for him. He owed nothing to anyone except himself.

That said, Durant's acquisition did stack the deck in Golden State's favor. One team now has multiple shoo-ins for the Hall of Fame: Durant and Curry for certain, Green quite likely. There is, needless to say, a maldistribution of available talent in the NBA right now. It was fun this season. But it will be hard to root for Goliath every time.

Fandom

Being a sports fan is to realize, at some level, just how silly it all is. You are watching people: bat a ball with a wooden stick; hit a puck while wearing ice skates; try to deposit a small dimple-shaped ball into a hole several hundred yards away; injure each other's brains in a tableau of masculine aggression; slice a ball over a net into an impossible corner for their opponent to reach; use their feet to move a (soccer) ball down a field; or shoot a ball through a hoop attached to a net.

Stepping back, the emotional investment in all of this is amazing. But that's the point -- in the moment there's no stepping back. Perspective is for losers. Let the emotions fly, high five your friends when things go well, hang your head when they do not.

I experienced all of this last weekend, as the Northwestern Wildcats made their first ever trip to the NCAA basketball tournament. The bracket I filled out in advance had Northwestern winning it all -- a ridiculous claim, of course, but it felt good to assert it. They squeaked through in the first round, against Vanderbilt. Then the mighty test, against # 1 seed Gonzaga, awaited.

During the first half the Cats looked terrible, and were down 38-20 at intermission. (For a long time they had only scored 6 points). There were a lot of hanging heads in dismay at the Northwestern alumni watch party.

But then the Cats awakened in the second half, clawing back to within 5 points: 63-58. Here the crucial sequence occurred. Gonzaga goaltended against NU, in what should have been 2 points for Northwestern. (This is not just an admittedly biased fan talking; the NCAA confirmed this after the game). So it should have been 63-60, with momentum clearly on the Cats side.

Goaltending was not called. In response Northwestern coach Chris Collins stormed the court while the ball was in play, causing a (deserved) technical foul. Collins's actions were justified in the moment, I say; sports is about emotion, not logic. But they were costly too. Gonzaga made both free throws on that technical foul. Instead of 63-60, the score was 65-58. The Cats could not surmount that deficit, losing 79-73.

Counterfactuals are the glory of sports. Had goaltending been called, say Cats fans, Northwestern would have been won. Well. Maybe Gonzaga would have responded with a flurry of 3 point shots and won the game that way. We'll never know. This is why Cats fans will say forever that the refs blew their chance at their first ever Sweet Sixteen spot. I'll join the chorus sometimes, while knowing that the real story is more complicated.

A Northwestern Fan's Plea: On Fourth Down, Go for It

Originally published on Medium.

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

As I begin this post the Oakland A's are about to begin the bottom of the 9th inning against the hapless Houston Astros. On most days the A's would beat the Astros easily, but tonight they need to turn the game around or they'll endure a hometown loss against the team with the worst record in the league.

Last week I downloaded the At Bat app to my phone, and a few weeks ago Pi Wen and I watched the Giants play the Cubs at AT&T Park.  I know that A's games are on 95.7 FM and the Giants are on 680 AM, and which cable channels carry each team (767 for the A's and 770 for the Giants.) Suddenly I'm a baseball fan. This comes after years of thinking the game was too slow and that there was nothing more boring than watching an endless series of fly balls.

As a kid I loved basketball--it was fast paced, a feat of athleticism with every possession.  These days basketball is too fast, too frenetic. Football is a guilty pleasure, knowing what it does to the nervous systems.  So take me out to the ballgame, where not much happens for good stretches of time and then everything changes in an instant.

Not that baseball is blameless. My newfound passion corresponds with a new doping scandal. Barry Bonds cheated, and Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa lied.  Going back further, Pete Rose bet on his own games. 

All those blemishes acknowledged, there's a timeless quality to the game. The first pitch and the first crack of the bat are like nothing else. Baseball is a game of obsessive recordkeeping and lukewarm hotdogs.  These days the pace is just right.

*Note: the A's lost, after a controversial foul ball that fans believed was a home run.