Sports

Leaders miss boat on marathon

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It happens every calamity.

The same impracticalities that have rendered sports unrecognizable, and the same kinds of decision-making that have made sports telecasts insufferable are borrowed by our leaders in times of great need and worry.

Wednesday, President Obama, flown in on Air Force One, met New Jersey Governor Christie in Atlantic City for a tour of the devastation and seaside detritus left by Hurricane Sandy. TV reporters and camera crews gathered to capture this scene and the ensuing tour.

Fine. Even in the days before a presidential election, I don’t doubt the sincerity and deep concern of either man. But I do question their practicality.

In the immediate aftermath of a colossal storm, how many State Troopers — including top brass — how many local cops and FEMA personnel were forced to abandon their far more important and essential duties to provide security and escort to the President and Governor? Fifty? One hundred? One hundred and fifty?

Given these cataclysmic circumstances, had even one cop’s presence been wasted on “a tour” of the already self-evident would have been one too many — and antithetical to here-and-now practicality.

Yet, had the President and Governor jointly announced that rather than waste precious resources and police and emergency manpower on such a tour, they would rely on the pictures and police and FEMA — all at their immediate disposal — and issue emergency directives from right where they stood or sat.

As a practical, life-sustaining matter, they would jointly announce they would not divert even one uniformed man or woman from their far more pressing duties and the public’s far more immediate needs.

But it doesn’t matter if he’s Roger Goodell, Bud Selig, David Stern, Barack Obama or Chris Christie: Style conquers — and subverts — substance, every time.

Wednesday evening, Mayor Bloomberg decreed that no auto can cross many of the Manhattan bridges and tunnels unless it has at least three occupants. Again, that seemed a decision rooted in theory as opposed to practicality. The streets, explained Bloomberg, can’t handle all the cars.

But practical matters told us that if one was lucky enough to have the gas with which to drive to work or family in Manhattan, many would be unable to find two others with whom to travel. As Bloomberg also acknowledged Wednesday, cell phone and telephone services nearly were kaput. How does one contact at least two others with whom to share a ride? And it wasn’t as if train and bus service — also severely limited — would provide a reasonable, practical alternative.

As Sandy blew in, then slowly subsided, the Nets, Knicks and NBA, in what was termed “a collaborative decision,” determined that the Knicks-Nets opener at the Barclays Center would be played as scheduled.

Unreal!!!

That the tri-state region — millions of people — suddenly had nothing, that hospitals were being evacuated and homes in and around Coney Island destroyed, that mass transportation was down and out — none of that was not going to deter the NBA from proceeding with a basketball game that, after all, was sold out.

Yep, at the edge of Vesuvius, all the lights would be turned on and the NBA was going to throw a party. Buses that couldn’t get folks to work or to their essential destinations were going to be remanded to ship folks to a basketball game! Eventually, thankfully, good sense prevailed and the game was postponed.

Too bad the same can’t be said for Sunday’s NYC Marathon. How would you like to have been stuck out of town all week, away from your family, only to lose your airline seat or bus or train ticket to someone headed here to run on Sunday?

But, for practical purposes, practicality was long ago gone with the wind.

No silence of ham for MNF’s Gruden

When is a total loss not a total loss?

Well, just as Jon Gruden, at the start of ESPN’s Monday night 49ers-Cardinals, made it clear this was going to be another telecast in which he was going to talk us to distraction, my power went out.

Once again, is there no one at ESPN in a position to insist that Gruden speaks half as much, thus making him sound twice as good and far more endurable? Do ESPN execs sit and listen to MNF telecasts then conclude, “Gee, he’s good. I especially enjoy the way Gruden never stops talking”? Or don’t they listen?

* When Sunday’s Jets-Dolphins game ended, CBS cut to the close of Jaguars-Packers, won 24-15 by Green Bay. We arrived just in time to hear Dan Dierdorf tell us that if we had been told before the game that Jacksonville’s Blaine Gabbert would out-throw Aaron Rodgers, 303 yards to 186, we would have figured the Jags won.

No we wouldn’t. Only those who apply TV’s fractured, misleading presentation of stats would think that such a thing carries a greater chance than roughly a 50-50.

Unlike media football experts, many fans realize that 300-plus passing games, as a matter of circumstances, often belong to the losing QB.

By the way, in the Jets’ 30-9 loss to the Dolphins, they clobbered Miami, 22-14, in first downs.

* Hurricane Sandy provided many examples of how TV folks don’t know the difference between “postponed” and “canceled.” If a game or Halloween parade will be rescheduled, it’s not canceled, it’s postponed.

* Game 3 of the World Series, a 2-0 final, ran 3:30. Game ended just before midnight. Poor ratings? Ya don’t say?

* Our needs-a-hug, first-year, Division III football team, Misericordia of Pa., last week went to 0-8 with a 41-10 loss to Fairleigh Dickinson. But, given two 70-0 losses and another at 67-0, it’s getting there!

* NBC and Al Michaels remain reliant on often wildly misleading QB passing ratings. Sunday night, Michaels, aided by a full-screen graphic, needed QB ratings to tell us that Drew Brees and Peyton Manning are good QBs. For all the games Michaels and NBC televise, they couldn’t otherwise tell?

* Been listening to Thom Brennaman call football games on FOX for years. But not until Sunday’s Giants-Cowboys had we heard him call a fumble “putting the ball on the ground.” Peer pressure.

* On too many football telecasts, we hear “we haven’t called his name,” suggesting that the player, often a star, hasn’t done much to warrant a mention. But that’s so often a case of that player being double-teamed, allowing lesser players opportunities at sacks, catches, et al. Some very good games are played by those whose names “we haven’t called.”