Overlapping and elongated seasons continue to expand in professional sports. Delight or detriment depends on a an’s perspective.
The Summer sport of baseball, at the major league level, has had its regular season expanded a week until October 5 because of the work stoppage in Spring training which compelled the start of the regular season one week late.
The Winter sports of basketball and ice hockey, professionally, will begin in a few weeks. Preseason play will start for the hockey Blackhawks, September 27 and for the basketball Bulls, October 4.
Major League Baseball wild-card playoffs will begin Friday, Oct. 7. The view of overlapping and elongation exists, good and bad. Perhaps high school and college sports are closer to staying in their calendar lanes and increase enjoyment because of it.
• Will the Chicago White Sox be included in the 2022 MLB playoffs? Good pitching must be the first step to being in contention until end of the regular season. The focus and togetherness are positive at this time. The Sox do not need to sweep Cleveland and Detroit this week to stay in the race. They just must not be swept.
• Enjoyable high school sports? The coming football weekend will be the middle point of the fifth game in the nine-game regular season. Well-regarded Batavia High School of the DuKane Conference, rebounded from losing two of its first three games to even its record at 2-2 overall. To performers included Ryan Whitwell with 173 yards rushing on 13 carries, Tyler Jansey collected 13 tackles, and Ben Fiegel made 10 tackles. See photos on page 12.
• Big game in the Southwest Prairie West Division will bring together two excellent teams each with a 4-0 overall record and in the season’s first conference game, Plainfield North at Yorkville. For the season, Plainfield North has scored 163 points and allowed 36 points. Yorkville has scored 143 points and allowed 41 points, each in four games.
Yorkville head coach Dan McGuire said, “I think special teams could have a big impact on this game. Plainfield (North) has been very good at special teams up to this point. We need to match their skill level and try to keep good field position through our special teams,
“Plainfield North is a very deep team with talent in all parts of their team. We have talented players as well, but, we have a few players playing both ways which they do not. We need to stay healthy and as fresh a we can throughout the game.”
• West Aurora, 1-3, will play at Oswego East Friday, following its Ormond Stadium ceremony game Thursday, Sept. 15. See pages 1, 8, 9. The game will be the Southwest East Division Conference opener. Oswego East is 3-1. “…Our kids won’t quit, West Aurora head coach Nate Eimer said. “ We have a great group of kids…working hard…(and) we will get better.”