Just under 40,000 fans jam packed Tropicana Field to see the Tampa Bay Rays lose a MLB Wildcard Series vs the Texas Rangers. This will easily be the fewest number of fans in attendance at a MLB Postseason series on record: sans the 2020 season. For contrast, the Philadelphia Phillies had a little over 45,000 for their opening game.
All eyes will be on Oregon today as Coach Prime leads his undefeated Buffaloes (minus dual threat Travis Hunter) to Eugene to face the tough task of the Oregon Ducks. But they are not the only big game this weekend:
In a span of 24 hours, there were championship celebrations at Ball Arena in Denver, CO & T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, NV. Last Monday night, the Denver Nuggets completed their NBA Finals debut by winning their 1st NBA Championship in franchise history. Then, on Tuesday, the Vegas Golden Knights ended their 2nd Stanley Cup Final appearance by winning their franchise’s first Stanley Cup.
With all that has gone down both on the court and on the ice, I figured this would be a good time to size up the status of both The NBA Finals as well as The Stanley Cup Final. Just a quick one to give everyone a refresher to prepare for what could be a wild weekend for The Summer of Sports.
Our Stanley Cup Final is underway. The (Western Conference Champion) Vegas Golden Knights will host the (Eastern Conference Champion) Florida Panthers in what could be the literally hottest Final in NHL history. According to vegas.com, Las Vegas averages a high of 100 degrees & a low of 74, during June.
We have finally arrived. After months of back and forth between the NBA and NHL, we have reached the grand finale of both. And it does seem ironic that 2023 brings us two sets of finals that we can actually feel good about. In both finals, we have the clash of ultimate underdogs and ultimate opportunists. In both finals, we got teams that were not even supposed to be there.
I know Quebec City has been without a hockey franchise, since 1995, but the NHL would be foolish to not recognize that the city is experiencing a bit of a boom. Imagine the announcement of the Nordiques returning to the NHL.
Carolina Hurricanes & Florida Panthers in the eastern conference finals. Vegas Golden Knights & Dallas Stars in the western conference finals of the NHL Playoffs. Win 4 games and you play for the Stanley Cup. Lose and you end up so close, but so far away.
The Seattle Kraken are making some playoff history in the current NHL Playoffs. During round one of the NHL playoffs the Kraken was considered the number one Wild Card team and they had to face the defending Stanley Cup Champions Colorado Avalanche which was the number one seed of the West side of the bracket.