The (Non-) Joys of Traveling the Back-to-Back in the WNBA

By Mel Greenberg

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y.-PHILADELPHIA — For the second time in less than a week the WNBA Washington Mystics are at the center of a controversial travel situation causing a potential a no-show at the Capitol One Arena.

Last Friday due to cancellations and delayed flights causing the Las Vegas Aces to not arrive in the nation’s capitol until five hours before game time after being awake all night, the players elected not to show due to health concerns.

After a lengthy consideration over the weekend the WNBA ultimately declared the game a forfeit on the part of the Aces.

Now, the Guru is threatening to bypass the 11:30 a.m. tipoff in D.C. Thursday against the Seattle Storm, claiming a violation of the deal between the league and WNBA Media Association involving members who engage in multiple team-coverage.

In this case, allowing the New York Liberty’s corporate owners to move the team from Madison Square Garden, which exists atop a major transit hub, to the Westchester Arena here in the northern suburbs of Manhattan, the league clearly violated guidelines concerning back-to-back scheduling in a condensed period of having two tip offs in the same time zone.

“They should know better,” the Guru said of finishing attending the game before the nine o’clock hour and then having to scramble with a stop at his all-night diner here in the City of Brotherly Love before deciding how to proceed South and when to get under way.

“It’s not so much physical health as it is financial health,” the Guru explained saying being forced into an overnight is not that arduous considering his existence of maintaining vampire hours functioning in the East as if he was operating on Pacific Daylight Time,

“As it is travel is locked into a predetermined budget,” the Guru said. “Thus, chartering an Amtrak coach is too prohibitive. Besides, between weather and several hundred categories resulting in delays does not make the investment desirable since money could be wasted.

“The issue is, it’s now 330 AM and if I decide not to go does the move count as a forfeit or a no game,” the Guru said before participating in an autograph session signing the credit card check for the meal.

“A forfeit is understandable in terms of if the tickets for train or Megabus had already been purchased, But if a transaction did not occur, a no-show means the trip is a wipeout, allowing the predetermined funds to go to another place.”

Initially, the game was over-budgeted when accountants thought the Seattle-Washington listing meant the game was set to be played in the Pacific Northwest.

“It should be a forfeit because not allowing us ahead of time to make a switch on press row means we could have had someone like Stephen A Smith in the house instead,” said a miffed Mike Thibaut of the Mystics,

Because of the Liberty’s move to White Plains, charter has been approved on the way back with colleague Jim Dombrowski, who lives in North Jersey, for example, giving the Guru a ride Wednesday night back on the return south into Newark, thus bypassing the extended differential from Penn Station.

The trip was fast enough that the combination of catching a New Jersey Transit Northeast Corridor commuter train into Trenton and then ubering down here (the last Philly SEPTA connect into town, per the usual, had already left) made the trip to this point cheaper than if the last Amtrak had been obtainable.

So having killed tweener time for this tongue-in-cheek post, it’s time to determine if continuing is viable since both teams are already assured playoff spots.