Why there's not much pressure on Jayson Tatum, Dale Murphy and TBS, the bad message that replay sends, and more

Monday 4/21/25

The Rockets better get it together fast, or they'll be bounced as the two-seed by the Warriors. Which wouldn't exactly be a surprise. The Warriors can make it to the Finals, but it's going to be hard for anyone to beat OKC. Through a game, no real surprises in the NBA playoffs. Well, I guess it's always surprising when a team beats another by fifty, as the Thunder beat Memphis, and the Lakers losing is perhaps a mild surprise. I think Detroit has a good chance against the Knicks--and still do--but the Knicks were a fifty-plus win team so it's not like they can't take out the Pistons in five or six.

The Celtics handled their business against the Magic yesterday. Another bad playoff shooting game from Tatum, though. He bricked two free throws at one point, which made me wonder if there's an injury. Or maybe he'll just never be a consistent playoff performer.

As I wrote, I expect him to have a big postseason this year. They won their title. Pressure is off. Yes, I know it's always on, because you want to defend the title, but people will give the superstar far less criticism for failing to do that than they will for not winning it all once. Win it once, and there's a bit of a house money component, allowing that you're not Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, LeBron James, Larry Bird. Those kinds of guys need a bunch of championships or it'd seem like they failed somehow in their careers. Not so with Tatum.

The opening games of the NHL playoffs have been less interesting to me. Not because there were all of these great games in the NBA. But most of the hockey games so far have featured one team controlling the play more than the other--commanding the game, if you will--and I also just think the wide-open nature of the NBA is especially notable this year. First round NHL match-up that should be arresting: Caps and Canadiens. Playoff hockey in Montreal is a good thing.

The White Sox give the Red Sox fits. I don't get it. Save that the Red Sox too often don't have their act together. Boston seemed to have that game in control at 4-2, which obviously isn't a lopsided score, but it was getting late, and the White Sox are the White Sox and generally only become more than that if you help them along, when the Red Sox helped them along.

Zack Kelly came in for the seventh and loaded the bases by hitting two batters and allowing a single without recording an out. Out he came, in went Justin Wilson, and in came all three base runners, with the running being charged to Kelly. Thanks for your outing, sir.

And so it went from there on the road to an 8-4 final. The White Sox are 5-16. They are 3-3 against the Red Sox.

I feel like the broadcast with Dave O'Brien and Lou Merloni has gotten better. You can listen to it. The broadcasting team is a big part of season for a baseball fan. Chances are your team is not going to win it all and they may not be very good, but there are a lot of games and you want to be put those games on. Maybe they're in the background, maybe not. But it's a lot of games.

I'm reminded of how sad I feel with the last game of the season, especially a regular season game. I always seem to end up watching most, if not all, of that one.

Speaking of games on television: A lot of people think it's some glaring omission that Dale Murphy isn't in the Hall of Fame, whereas I'd say that Murphy shouldn't be and it's not egregious at all and there are dozens of players who have a better case.

So why is Murphy viewed this way? A few reasons, I think. People just say things. They don't know. They aren't vetting available information. Murphy had six good years. That's not enough. If they were all-timer type of years, then it can be enough, but even then it's a little iffy. People don't like someone say this, but Sandy Koufax as a Hall of Famer is a little iffy.

Murphy looked the part. Didn't he? If you were a Little Leaguer circa 1983, Dale Murphy was the spitting image of a clean-cut baseball superstar. So there's that. People taking those memories forward with them.

And I believe TBS had a big part to do with it, too. So many people watched Braves games during the 1980s, wherever they were. I knew all about Bruce Benedict's game because I watched his games. I could watch a ball come off a players bat and know how likely it was that Glenn Hubbard would get to it at second base.

You saw a lot of Dale Murphy. Remember: This was a period when you had your local broadcast and a game of the week type of deal on Saturday. That was it. Even highlights of players in other markets were hard to come by. When Fisk was on the White Sox and I was a kid, I got to see him when they played Boston, but other than that, I was reliant on the Sox being picked for that national network Saturday game. Those were big games if you were a baseball fan. A chance to watch stars you might not otherwise see at all.

I saw Murphy--because of TBS being a national cable network and broadcasting all of those Braves games--nearly as much as I saw Jim Rice and Dwight Evans. He stood out on those Braves teams. And he looked perhaps even more the part on his Topps baseball cards and especially with all of those All-Star cards of his. Many don't know that he came up as a catcher, so that Murphy became a Gold Glove center fielder is pretty impressive.

Stopping these playoff games for reviews crushes their flow. It's not worth it. Let the games be games. Let humans be humans. Let their be human error. Games are filled, by their nature, with so many instances of human error. Hundreds of instances. This guy went that way when it would have been smarter to go the other way. Guy forced a pass. The thinking--in having reviews, that is--isn't even consistent. But there isn't even any thinking in the first place.

And it's important that we maintain perspective--or get some. What are these things, really? They are games. They are entertainment. It's like going to show. And the actors or musicians stop to review the tape before carrying on. Makes no sense. It's important to have perspective in life and send the right message.