Hoping D-backs get their moment and don’t get trumped by NFL
Jun 27, 2011, 3:15 PM | Updated: 3:25 pm
I don’t want to be picky here.
I don’t want to be that guy who is dating a super model only to complain that she has man-hands. I don’t want to be that guy who gets a free fancy steak dinner, only to complain his baked potato wasn’t twice baked.
Desperate to shed the NFL Lockout, no one is in any kind of a position to dictate when, where, how or why it gets done. Just do it already; drink lots of coffee, order lots of Moo-Shoo, work late into the night and finish it. The reports of the past week or so have been encouraging and now we’re all primed for a deal. The frenzy of free agency and trade activity once it is over will practically be worth the price of admission, especially for the Cardinals fans. The Cards might be the most compelling team to watch in the month of July.
But if I can be that guy for just a moment. You know….the picky one.
We’ve got this little event coming up; perhaps you’ve heard. It’s called the All-Star Game. After years of getting passed over for the event like the kid who always gets picked last in kickball, it’s finally our turn to host it. Even better — in what can only be described as really convenient timing — the D-backs are good again. Between the Home Run Derby, the game itself and all the national love the Diamondbacks should get, it promises to be a spectacular week.
And no one is going to care.
What if the NFL lockout officially ends on the day of the derby? Think anyone is going to remember anything about it? What if NFL free agency begins on the day of game? I know what I’m talking about on Sports Interactive if that’s the case, and it ain’t baseball.
The power of the NFL is reflected in even the smallest of moves. On the day of the NBA Draft, the top story locally wasn’t the Suns and the 13th pick. It was a trade rumor out of Philly that suggested a trade: Kevin Kolb for DRC straight up. It was all anybody was talking about.
Baseball’s opening day a year ago was upstaged by news of the Donovan McNabb trade to Washington. Bud Selig, standing in shadow of the NFL eclipse, said “Goodness gracious, I’m a football fan — this is Opening Day. I got up at 5:30 this morning and did my daily workout. And I was watching an unnamed channel and that’s all they were talking about. I turned it off, that was my reaction.”
That was Donovan McNabb, a tiny morsel of news compared to the end of the lockout.
I’m not saying the NFL is trying to time it out that way, though I’m sure it’s a big fat bonus for Roger Goodell if it does. And I’m certainly not going to complain about the end of the NFL lockout. I’ve completely run out of ways to recycle, regurgitate and reuse every Cardinals rumor that comes through the Twitter feed (coming up next on Sports Interactive…you gotta heard this completely ambiguous comment by Ken Whisenhunt!).
But just like I would prefer a super-model girlfriend without man-hands, the baseball fan in me doesn’t want to see the Diamondbacks moment get manhandled by the news of NFL labor peace.
Is that too much to ask?
Yeah, it probably is.
