Sports are back, but not the one I’m waiting for

By Outer Banks Voice on July 25, 2020

By Aaron Jurkowitz | Outer Banks Voice

Cutout fans may enjoy the return of baseball; but give me football. (MLB.COM)

With the NBA getting ready to return in Bubble World and major league baseball actually underway with cutouts substituting for real fans, lots of people are getting excited about sports finally coming back. That’s understandable.

But the only sport that I care about seeing this year is football.

Here’s why. As far as baseball goes, I am a Baltimore Orioles fan, In the past two years, the Orioles have compiled a record of 101 wins and 223 losses. Enough said. In recent years, baseball has just gotten too hard to watch. Hitters either strike out, hit a home run or walk, which makes the game too motionless. And whatever happened to the stolen base? I’m sorry to say it, but the national pastime has passed its prime.

Granted basketball is a lot more entertaining than baseball. But the only time It’s really watchable is during the playoffs or in a close game in the fourth quarter.

Then, there is the problem of the recent Warriors dynasty. At the beginning, they were fun to root for because they were an underdog franchise that became successful with homegrown players. But then, after they blew a 3-1 series lead in the 2016 NBA finals to Lebron and the Cavs, the Warriors went out and got Kevin Durant, which made them virtually unbeatable and transformed them from likeable to obnoxious very quickly.

That winning created a bandwagon fan base. Everywhere you went, some kid would be wearing a Steph Curry jersey. What do these newcomers know about past Warriors stars like Baron Davis, Rick Berry, Mitch Richmond, Tim Hardaway, and Chris Mullin?

I also partly blame the Warriors for the explosion of 3-point attempts in the NBA. It’s not really fun to watch people just chuck up 3’s. I prefer mid-range and basketball in the paint. When the Warriors dynasty won its first championship in 2015, the league was averaging 24 3-point attempts per game. This season the league is averaging 34 3-point attempts per game. The calculator on my phone says that’s a 38% increase.

Now to football, the one sport I really want to return in 2020. We are very fortunate to be in the era of Mahomes, Lamar, Watson and Wilson — quarterbacks who not only make crazy throws, but can make jaw-dropping plays with their legs.

And the flip side of being a Baltimore Orioles fan is that I’m also a Baltimore Ravens fan. They have won 24 games and 2 division titles the past two years. Enough said.

They also, in my view, have the most exciting player in the league in Lamar Jackson, who threw 36 touchdown passes with 6 interceptions, ran for a QB-record 1,206 yards, became the youngest quarterback ever to win an MVP as well as only the second one to win the award unanimously for his work last season.

I hope you MLB and NBA fans enjoy a return to action. For me, I’ll wait for football.