Quinn’s Quickies: The Caitlin Clark Conversation; Phillies Heading Overseas; NBA Finals Thoughts

Here’s my latest rapid fire look around sports:

·       WNBA player Caitlin Clark was body checked in a game over the weekend during an inbounds play. Chennedy Carter, who committed the foul, was only called for a common foul. It was later upgraded to a flagrant foul. What a joke. Carter should have been ejected and later suspended. Clark was the number one choice in the WNBA draft after she garnered national attention with her play in college. She’s been greeted to the pros with bitterness and, according to her coach, consistent hard fouls. And a lot of people seem to be afraid to call it what it is – racism. Clark is white and many black players are pissed off that she’s getting more attention than anyone in the league’s history. TV ratings are way up. People are actually watching games from a league that no one gave a damn about just weeks ago. Yet, people are finding excuses for the hard fouls against Clark. CNN’s Abby Philip seemed annoyed at the debate, and asked why Clark needs to be “protected.” Bob Costas was on with Phillip, and was lauded for saying the incident garnered more attention than other hard fouls occurring between two black players because it was a black player fouling a white player. Michael Wilbon called for a “larger” and “nuanced” discussion about what’s going on with Clark in a segment on PTI in which Tony Kornheiser said Clark is being “deliberately hit” and other players are trying to injure her. Wilbon emphatically added that the conversation has to start with race. Yet, no one called Carter’s action racist. Wilbon is correct that their needs to be a bigger discussion, but if everyone’s afraid to use the word racism in terms of how some black players are going after Clark, the conversation will be a waste of time. And, by the way, the reaction to Clark’s popularity is stupid. Again, more people are watching the games of the WNBA than ever before. Hello? Clark is elevating the profile of the entire league. Other players are going to benefit. Other players are going to make more money if Clark succeeds. And they’re taking cheap shots at her? That’s just dumb.

·      The Phillies play two games in five days after Wednesday so they can go to London to play the New York Mets. Those two games will likely take less than 24 hours to play, with Saturday’s game starting at 1 PM Philadelphia time and Sunday’s start time set for 10 AM locally. Does this really whet the appetite of the British for baseball? Aren’t the majority of Major League Baseball games played in the early morning hours in England? Owners are so desperate to increase revenue and expand the fan base, they ignore common sense. They should talk to football owners about NFL Europe. Remember that? Neither do Europeans, I’m guessing.

·       I already said that I think the Boston Celtics will win the NBA Finals, but they’re still almost impossible to bet (at least for me). The Dallas Mavericks impressed me in the Western Conference Finals. Boston has the best record in the NBA since the All-Star break at 21-6. Dallas is fourth at 18-9, and they beat the team with the third best record since the break, Oklahoma City, earlier in the playoffs. As I write on Monday night, Boston is -220 to win the series; I don’t see how anyone touches that – even if you have mega bucks. Dallas at +180 is the only way to bet the series. Despite what I said previously, I think Dallas could put a scare into Boston – just not enough to put any cash on it. I think I’ll just wait for football to crank up my picks posts.