Postseason post mortems

In some sports, notably with children, there is something called the "mercy rule," which stipulates that if one team gets so many points ahead of its

Frank Deford | Apr 2, 2008

Postseason post mortems /

In some sports, notably with children, there is something called the "mercy rule," which stipulates that if one team gets so many points ahead of its outclassed opponent, the game is officially concluded at that point out of sympathy for the poor, no-chance loser.

I believe there should also be mercy rules for fans.

Specifically, no team in any sport should be inflicted upon fans in the playoffs if it has not had a winning percentage during the regular season. Presently, for example, three perfectly awful teams in the Eastern Conference of the NBA are, in the words of those chronicling the action, fighting or scrapping for the eighth and last playoff spot.

No fan deserves to suffer such playoff travesty. Mercy, please. Sorry, you don't win more games than you lose, you gotta go home.

It is all the more unfair for bums in one conference to become playoff fodder when other more qualified teams in the other conference are sent home, the sad victim of geography-ism. The NBA West, for example, is loaded with good teams. In fact, it's a strange coincidence how unbalanced all three of our popular team sports are. Never in baseball history, I would venture, has one league been so far superior to the other. The American League now appears to be the only major league. And in the NFL, the American Conference is much the better.

Paradoxically, though, this lopsidedness doesn't always result in a team from the better conference winning the championship. You may recall, for instance, that the New York Giants, from the woebegone National Conference, actually won the Super Bowl this year over the New England Patriot juggernaut. Two years ago, the St. Louis Cardinals, barely a .500 club, got hot in the playoffs and took the World Series. And although the NBA West is so top-heavy this year, the Boston Celtics may well be the best club of all. It doesn't hurt during the regular season to be the big fish in a small pond.

And while we're yet in the midst of March Madness, may I dare venture to say that the NBA -- and the National Hockey League, too -- both conduct their postseason stupidly? They have patterned their playoffs after baseball, by having teams compete in seven-game series. That's crazy. Series are common to baseball. They are not to basketball and hockey, where teams play only one game at a time against each opponent during the season.

Series succeed in baseball because a variety of pitchers are used, making each game somewhat different. In basketball and hockey, though, a series becomes stultifyingly reminiscent of what Edna St. Vincent Millay said: "It's not true that life is one damn thing after another -- it's one damn thing over and over."

The NBA should start its playoffs with Olympic-style round robins in the various divisions, finishing up with a knockout Final Four, just like the colleges do. Yes, it would mean sacrificing several home gates, but when elimination is so imminent, when it's one game and out, as it is in the NFL, the World Cup, the Olympics, it concentrates the mind of the fan. An NBA Final Four would bring far more attention and drama -- and ultimately more television money -- to the NBA than it's current drawn-out Edna St. Vincent Millay series. Less really can be more.

And also, don't let rotten teams into the playoffs. Please: Mercy.

Published Apr 2, 2008

FRANK DEFORD

Frank Deford is among the most versatile of American writers. His work has appeared in virtually every medium, including print, where he has written eloquently for Sports Illustrated since 1962. Deford is currently the magazine's Senior Contributing Writer and contributes a weekly column to SI.com. Deford can be heard as a commentator each week on Morning Edition. On television he is a regular correspondent on the HBO show Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel. He is the author of 15 books, and his latest,The Enitled, a novel about celebrity, sex and baseball, was published in 2007 to exceptional reviews. He and Red Smith are the only writers with multiple features in The Best American Sports Writing of the Century. Editor David Halberstam selected Deford's 1981 Sports Illustrated profile on Bobby Knight (The Rabbit Hunter) and his 1985 SI profile of boxer Billy Conn (The Boxer and the Blonde) for that prestigious anthology. For Deford the comparison is meaningful. "Red Smith was the finest columnist, and I mean not just sports columnist," Deford told Powell's Books in 2007. "I've always said that Red is like Vermeer, with those tiny, priceless pieces. Five hundred words, perfectly chosen, crafted. Best literary columnist, in any newspaper, that I've ever seen." Deford was elected to the National Association of Sportscasters and Sportswriters Hall of Fame. Six times at Sports Illustrated Deford was voted by his peers as U.S. Sportswriter of The Year. The American Journalism Review has likewise cited him as the nation's finest sportswriter, and twice he was voted Magazine Writer of The Year by the Washington Journalism Review. Deford has also been presented with the National Magazine Award for profiles; a Christopher Award; and journalism honor awards from the University of Missouri and Northeastern University; and he has received many honorary degrees. The Sporting News has described Deford as "the most influential sports voice among members of the print media," and the magazine GQ has called him, simply, "The world's greatest sportswriter." In broadcast, Deford has won a Cable Ace award, an Emmy and a George Foster Peabody Award for his television work. In 2005 ESPN presented a television biography of Deford's life and work, You Write Better Than You Play. Deford has spoken at well over a hundred colleges, as well as at forums, conventions and on cruise ships around the world. He served as the editor-in-chief of The National Sports Daily in its brief but celebrated existence. Deford also wrote Sports Illustrated's first Point After column, in 1986. Two of Deford's books, the novel, Everybody's All-American, and Alex: The Life Of A Child, his memoir about his daughter who died of cystic fibrosis, have been made into movies. Two of his original screenplays have also been filmed. For 16 years Deford served as national chairman of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and he remains chairman emeritus. He resides in Westport, CT, with his wife, Carol. They have two grown children – a son, Christian, and a daughter, Scarlet. A native of Baltimore, Deford is a graduate of Princeton University, where he has taught American Studies.