WNBA, NWSL and Cubs - Summertime Sports

Kayla Thornton of the Golden State Valkyries

I don't really think of myself as a "sports guy", but it is true that I watch *a lot* of sports.  Apparently I am that guy, in my way.

Cubs Baseball

PCA bringing the Mariah Carey magic

The Chicago Cubs have had a good spring, and as we roll into summer, if injuries don't diminish the roster too much, we could be quite good this season.  While acquired talent like the Astros' Kyle Tucker have been huge boons to the team, our returning roster is looking better and happier than the past two or three seasons.  Pete Crow-Armstrong in Center Field is batting like crazy, Seiya Suzuki is batting a reliable .262 and has at least 13 home runs.  Both of our catchers, Miguel Amaya and Carson Kelly, can hit, so it doesn't matter who is in on any given game day. Seiya also looks to be the lead for .RBI's across MLB at the moment.

I know the season is a grind, but it's fun while it's fun.  

Baseball viewership is up, which I'm very happy about.  The rule changes have had the intended consequence of shorter and more fast-paced games (fewer trips to the mound, pitch clocks and starting a runner on second in extra-innings).  But who knows?  Maybe people are just ready for baseball in their lives again?

And, I suspect, people are looking for a bit of normalcy.

Anyway, I'm enjoying the team and play, which will cut into how many movies I watch this year.

Go, Cubs!

Austin FC Futbol

Austin FC is my local MLS soccer club, but the last two seasons were... bad.  Pretty hard to watch.  But moves were made and a new coach and new line-up came in.  The results, however, have not been amazing.  Plus, for good reason, they moved all games to the evening (the southern states are not fun to play in during the summer days when temps are always in the 90's).  But they're also on Saturday evenings, which feels like an invitation not to watch if you want to spend your evenings doing literally anything else.

I don't *want* to lose interest in the team or game, but it's hard to make time for replays of the games when Apple+ seems to make it hard to find them.  I am not giving up Saturday nights for half the year, and it seems a dumb way to lose a growing fanbase.  But here we are.

There are rumors they're shifting the season to the winter, which might make day games possible.  I'd love that.  Also, if Apple would immediately post the games when they're over so I could watch over the weekend.

NWSL and KC Current

Temwa Chawinga trying poses for a poster

NWSL started a month or so ago, and at the start of the season, Jamie selected the KC Current as my team.  It helps that they're in my time zone, so I went with it, and - ha!  They're actually way out ahead in the standings.  They managed to squeeze out a win over last years' champs, the Orlando Pride.

The games are airing all over, including Ion and Amazon, so I need to be on my toes to find them, and I usually do watch them on delay.  But it's fun.  And, as I will always contend, a 2 hour match is a great use of TV time.

Austin is not getting mentioned yet for an expansion team, and I don't get it.  Q2 Stadium was almost sold out for the USWNT game, and I think we could easily see another team in green using that stadium.

WNBA, picking a team and some controversy

in happier times

The WNBA is in their second week of games, having played some pre-season that was broadcast for folks to watch.  It's an interesting time for the league.  

Last year saw the arrival of Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, both coming off of amazing college careers.  This year has its own cast of characters coming in, and not wanting to just bandwagon the Fever (but keep watching), I decided to find my own team.

Initially, I selected the Dallas Wings.  It's semi-local, and they drafted Paige Beuckers and got Dijonai Carrington from Connecticut, so while 2024 was rough, I thought maybe I can catch them on the way up.  There's definitely room to grow, but maybe there's some sparks there.  But they currently sit at 0 and 3.

I wound up watching the new team, the Golden State Valkyries, who play in downtown San Francisco, as they played their first ever game.  And then their second.  And then their third in LA.  

The WNBA could last well past my expiration date, so getting to watch the first game of a team that could be here for a long time seemed like a unique proposition, and I was in - and they actually are fun and the folks who were courtside were nuts.  And now Golden State is 2 for 3.  Including against LA and Kelsey Plum.

What I also learned is that the WNBA pre-season is insanely short.  It's about two weeks before the first real game.  The players didn't necessarily know each other, or have much of a chance to learn plays together, and were just put out there to perform.  So, expectations are low as we roll into each season.  Especially for an all-new team.  So I think my team will be the Valkyries and their smart black and purple color scheme.

In just over a year, Caitlin Clark became a household name, bringing the Indiana Fever with her onto TV screens.  Clark is everything you read about, and it's not unlike seeing a young Michael Jordan or Kobe entering the NBA - she's just a complete package.  And that's drawn in people who previously didn't care about the WNBA - which is understandable and includes me.

But it's had some unfortunate and not super predictable consequences.  

That star power has drawn in a lot of unhappy people, internet trolls and - my read - racists, looking to Clark as a Great White Hope, a role she 100% has not signed up to fulfill, especially as a woman who is starting her career and isn't even 25.  She's a world class trash talker, but I can't imagine she's in agreement with the creeps out there.

It's all over social media - enough so that I dropped off of the two Indiana Fever fan groups I'd signed up for on Facebook.  But also clickbaity journalism from both bottom-feeders and from more legitimate outlets, also looking for clicks and narratives so it's not just sports, its personalities.

The rivalry between Clark and Chicago's Angel Reese, which is semi-real and has been going on since college - has become as big a media firestorm as the WNBA tends to get.  But looking at social media, it's a real reminder that there are no rules stopping the worst people from being online, and arriving with a handful of dog whistles.  Yeah, it's very racially charged.

When Chicago played Indiana at home early this season, apparently the crowd was wildly inappropriate - enough so that the WNBA is investigating and may take action.  Whether the hate was directed at Reese or at all of Chicago, I don't know.  But it sure seems that if you're a big ol' racist, maybe the WNBA is not the place for your attention.

The WNBA seems unsure what to do becomes ratings are up, and nothing puts eyeballs on screens like a good story, but given the many Black women and women of other non-white ethnicities in the league, letting it simmer for too long is going to end in a blaze.  

That said, I am looking forward to the inevitable documentary in 20 years where Clark and Reese are hanging out talking about how shitty all of this was when all they want to do is play ball. 

But, as I said, ratings for the WNBA are on their way up.  I was able to get the season package on YouTube for $35, which is an amazing deal (I also think MLB.tv is a great deal, for the record).  

The WNBA play is almost a different sport from what I saw when we would go to the games when we lived in Phoenix back in the 00's.  We were fortunate to see Diana Taurasi come in and help revolutionize the sport, but then I kind of fell off watching when we moved here, so it's good to be back.  I feel like the WNBA is now more physical, and those shooting from the outside can have sniper-like precision.  It doesn't feel like there's one or two good players and then the rest - they have a complete roster - and then superstars (I haven't figured out who that is with the Valkyries yet).  Players like A'ja Wilson on the Las Vegas Aces are our stars of the league.  

Anyway - it's a bit different from the current NBA, which feels anarchic to me when I watch it.  It's still interesting, but it's impossible for me to track over the duration of the season, and I can maybe name five NBA players in 2025.  It's far easier to follow a smaller league that plays regularly and will not have a play-off structure that takes a quarter of the year. (And yet, I watch baseball, so...)