Tim Benz: Jim Rutherford is right about champions having ‘integrity’ in shortened seasons

Tom Glavine. Patrick Kane. Doug Williams. Tim Duncan.

“Who are four men who have never been in my kitchen, Alex?”

Yes, Cliff Clavin. Technically, that is correct. But I’m going to need you to be more specific.

“Who are four MVPs of their respective sports championship round?”

Also true. But can anyone help Cliff finish “Coronavirus Final Jeopardy”?

If you guessed four players who won the MVPs of the World Series, Stanley Cup, Super Bowl and NBA Finals in seasons shortened by labor stoppages… good for you. That’s correct.

It is also abundantly obvious that you’ve had WAY too much time on your hands to brush up on your sports trivia during social distancing.

There is a point to my little exercise there — yes, I did have one.

In the midst of all the handwringing we are experiencing over what may or may not constitute a “representative champion” for our various sports in the wake of what will no doubt be condensed schedules, the passage of time allows us to eventually forget the circumstances of how those champions were made.

One argument I’ve heard against restarting the NHL and NBA seasons — or desperately trying to cram in as many games as possible for a 2020 Major League Baseball season — is that if a full regular season isn’t completed, it will taint a championship.

Or, if a traditional playoff format isn’t completed, why bother?

“You want to keep the integrity of what we’re doing intact,” said New York Rangers defenseman Marc Staal. “You want to get as many games in as possible to get your true tournament.”

Sure. In 2020, though, that’s not going to be possible. So, in a best-case scenario, the regular seasons are going to have to be truncated or the playoff formats need to be tweaked.

I don’t know about you, but when I think of Kane and the Blackhawks winning that 2013 Stanley Cup, I think of a thrilling finals series that featured two overtime games, a triple overtime game and six straight nail-biting finishes.

I don’t think about the 48-game regular season. Nor, when I think of Duncan’s three Finals MVPs, do I immediately put an asterisk on the first one because it came at the end of a 50-game regular season.

When someone says the name “Doug Williams” to me, the first thing I think of is his MVP performance in Super Bowl XXII, throwing for 340 yards and four touchdowns en route to beating the Denver Broncos 42-10.

My mind doesn’t race to the fact that the Redskins won three games that year with scab players during the strike to help them get that far.

Glavine’s 1995 Atlanta Braves won 90 times and dominated the National League East by 21 games. The Cleveland Indians were the only team with more victories that season (100). And Atlanta beat them 4-2 in the World Series.

Should it matter that the regular season was “only” 144 games long?

Even in years when the playoff format changed, I don’t spend time dwelling on how that impacted the end result of a given team’s title.

Yes, the strike-shortened 1982 NFL season resulted in just nine regular season games and an eight-team-per-conference postseason tournament. But when I think of that year’s Super Bowl, I think of John Riggins rumbling through the Miami Dolphins en route to victory. Not the weird path his Redskins took to get there.

My memory of the 1981 baseball season is Tommy Lasorda celebrating with joy after the Dodgers beat the New York Yankees in the World Series. Not the fact that both teams finished a combined 52-52 in that oddly split calendar which featured the first ever forefather to the five-game MLB “Divisional Round” between first-half season winners and second-half season winners.

“We’re in new times,” Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford said last week. “If, in fact, we’re fortunate enough to play for the Cup, whoever wins that Cup is going to feel just the same way about winning it, whatever day they win it, compared to winning it usually in the middle of June.”

I agree with Rutherford wholeheartedly on that front. I agree with him now. I’ll agree with him in mid-September if the Penguins are parading through the city with the Stanley Cup for a sixth time.

Right into the Heinz Field parking lot before a Steelers game.

If the NHL goes directly into playoff action, it’ll be after a season that has seen all teams complete between 68 and 71 games of an 82-game campaign. Every NBA team is between 63 and 67 of 82.

That’s enough.

If the leagues jump right into the playoffs after the lockdowns end, no one will remember how or why the 9th and 10th seeds were left out of the playoffs. They’ll only remember if the 8th seeds upset the regular-season conference champions or not.

As should be the case.

The point is, these unfortunate historical footnotes don’t supersede the value of competition, nor the crowning of a champion.

Delayed, halted and shortened seasons are unfortunately more frequent than we care to remember.

What we do care to remember is the actual crowning of the champions.

I don’t know about you, but this year more than ever, give me as many playoff games, as late as you want. I’ll take ‘em.

And celebrate whoever wins with glee. Regardless of how they get there.