This week, I heard that Major League Baseball is talking about shortening games to seven innings in the next five years because of the length of time it takes to play a game these days. I don't like this idea at all. That would be like shortening a basketball game to three quarters instead of four. This would be a very dramatic change. The nine-inning game has been in effect since the late 1800s and is at the core of the game. There is one change that I think they should make which would shorten games by a lot. They should adopt a one minute pitch clock unless somebody is hurt. I think this will shorten games enough and it would be very easy to implement.
The NBA season is at the all-star break. I think there are three possible MVP candidates as of now. If all of them keep playing as well as they have, it might be one of the closest votes in history. The first of the three candidates is LeBron James from the Lakers. He is still playing amazingly well in his 18th year as a player and it seems like he will be going strong for a few more years. The second candidate is James Harden from the Brooklyn Nets. It is amazing how he can play when he’s happy. He wanted to get traded from the Houston Rockets for a year-and-a-half or so and was not playing hard for them at all. But now that he’s in Brooklyn, he is an unstoppable scoring machine. The third candidate is the 76ers’ Joel Embiid. He is finally living up to his amazing potential by scoring 25 to 30 points with 10 rebounds and five assists per game. I think it is quite possible that the 76ers can win their first championship since 1983 if Embiid, Ben Simmons and Tobias Harris can stay healthy through the second half of the season.
And on a local note, I wanted to send out congratulations to all the high schools for making it through the winter sports season in this challenging time. Cape's girls’ basketball team should be going for their second championship, but they were stopped because of the pandemic last year. They have continued to dominate their opponents this year too. It looks like they will get a chance to finish the job this time. I truly hope the spring season this year is the last one with limited fans being able to watch the games.
Stay well everyone. And I think we all really need spring to arrive soon!
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A 2002 Cape grad and 2007 UD grad, Lewes resident Sumner Spence is one of the Cape area's biggest sports fans. Although he’s used a wheelchair his entire life, he has lived vicariously through his sports-playing father, brother, and friends, who gave him his love of sports. He hopes to provide new and interesting perspectives on the sports stories and issues of the day. Email Sumner at sumspence@gmail.com.
