Great Equalizers...Clay...Distance et al.

All week I have been amazed by the French Open tennis action, and what a difference the surface has made in the outcome of matches and tournaments. Thank God for clay, I thought. There’s always a good chance of seeing a Final you could never dream of when they’re sliding around on that red stuff. It surely beats the hard courts for long rallies.

And, sure enough, there was the lovely Maria Sharapova, while not actually looking too much like a “cow on ice” (as she had once referred to herself), losing to her compatriot Dinara Safina. The really big servers, the Williams sisters for example, had already been beaten. So the Roland Garros faithful had the pleasure of watching two rather unlikely semifinals, a Russian duel between Safina and. Kuznetsova and an all-Serb matchup of the elegant Ivanovic versus the quick-as-a-snake Jelena Jankovic.

And what a semifinal was the latter. Ivanovic proved that she’s not justt a pretty face, sliding back and forth with ease and grace while slamming winners left and right to come back in the third set to prevail. Safina beat Kuznetsova a bit more easily to advance, all of which sets up a tantalizing women’s final, one unimaginable on grass or blacktop.

As much as I await the men’s results, and the fate of the Frenchman Monfils, who has the misfortune of drawing Roger Federer later today, I look forward even more to the Belmont on Saturday afternoon, and wonder about the outcome of what has set up as a classic duel between Big Brown, winner of the first two Crown jewels rather handily and the bred-for-distance Casino Drive, half-brother (through the dam amazingly enough) to the last two Belmont winners.

The great equalizer will be the distance, of course, in that affair, not that there aren’t other variables to consider; Big Brown’s cracked hoof, for example, or getting stuck on the rail. But, even these two seemingly-unrelated questions are amplified by the 1 ½ mile distance. That is to say, one factor is aggravated by the other.

A cracked hoof, although it’s been pooh-poohed by Brown’s loquacious trainer Rick Dutrow, maybe wouldn’t figure too heavily over a mile and a quarter but what will it do over those last two furlongs, especially considering the injury did necessarily affect Big Brown’s training.

And, in a shorter race, Kent Desormeaux would figure to just sprint to the lead, thus staying out of trouble while saving ground. But will Big Brown be able to overcome the energy-sapping effort it’ll take to take the lead in a potential stretch duel after 11 furlongs? After all, there is a rabbit in the race and Casino Drive has the pedigree to get the distance.

The race is setting up for a late drive, either by Casino Drive or even one of the others, for, after all, this is first and foremost a horse race, and horse races tend to propagate unusual finishes. Otherwise, there’d be happy railbirds everywhere, and that’s a prospect I can’t even imagine.

Then, there are the NBA Finals, and the home-court equalizer. The advantages of playing at home in the NBA can scarcely be over-estimated. Without going into boring statistics, the numbers favoring the team on its home court are staggering. While some of the advantage is due to a familiarity with the court, and some due to the noise of the home crowd, it’s those whistle-blowers who have the greatest affect on the outcome.

Very unfortunately, I might add. Even the most die-hard NBA fans have this year cringed at some of the calls, none more noteworthy than the no-call in Game 5 of the Lakers-Spurs game that handed the victory to the Lakers.

Given the questionable nature of the trades that made this Celtics-Lakers death match possible, the ridiculous Pau Gasol trade from Memphis to the Lakers, of course, but also the timely Boston acquisitions of Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen, one has to wonder whether this entire season was story-boarded back in the New York offices of NBA Commissioner David Stern.

Happily, although the Celtics have jumped out ahead in Game One at home, the whistles did not largely figure in the outcome. It was more the defense of the Celtics and the ineffectiveness of Kobe, no doubt forced by the Celtics Defense.

In any event, though, it’s a no-brainer to figure that, once this Series finds its way back to La-La Land, the odds will swing to the Lakers, no matter what should happen in Game Two in Boston. Jack Nicholson, a host of other stars and starlets, the Laker-Girls, all that gold and purple figure to sway the result, if not the officials.

A discussion of equalizers would not be complete without mentioning injuries in football. I still savor with fondness the Giants playoffs-run this past year, but it was all the more remarkable considering the injuries the G-Men withstood throughout that run.

It wasn’t just Jeremy Shockey. There were what could have been devastating injuries to the secondary, against opponents who certainly should have been able to take advantage, Giants-killer Freddy Garcia, the irrepressible Tony Romo to Terrell Owens combination, and Hall of Famer Bret Favre.

Last but not least, if certainly the sweetest, there is the lingering image of Tom Brady, with Giants seemingly draped around, under and through him, trying desperately to find Randy Moss. In retrospect, it was a lack of injuries along the defensive line that spelled defeat for the Patriots.

In baseball, of course, there is a slight advantage to playing at home, but it never really seems to be a significant determinant of a game’s outcome. The great equalizer in baseball is pitching. Or the lack thereof, as the case may be.

I was reminded of this last night as I watched the Mets lose a close one to the Padres, on bases on balls followed by a hit batsman, served up by the usually reliable Scott Schoenweiss. But it could have been worse. It could have been Heilman.