Sevens wild in the world of sports

Yes, sorry, to be patriotically sacrilegious but for the first time in 231 years, the preeminent day in the first week in July in the United States is not July 4th. Why, if you wanted to get married this Saturday you’d have a hard time finding a clergyman or a hall up for grabs anywhere in the U.S. Of course, the day’s most glamorous marriage is between Tony Parker, one of the stars of the champion San Antonio Spurs, and Eva Longoria, one of the sirens on “Desperate Housewives.”

If you haven’t been invited - and you haven’t - the Parker-Longoria nuptials are taking place in France, where, I imagine, the 7th of July is also bigger than Bastille Day this year. That’s because this Saturday is the seventh day in the seventh month of the seventh year of this milennium. Now, I don’t remember any such fuss last year on June 6 or the year before on May 5, but, of course, seven is a magical, lucky number in many cultures dating back to when God got the job done in just that many days.

Most prominently, of course, roll a seven in craps and you’re a winner. Three sevens on a slot machine is always a big payoff. Seven is just so damned ubiquitous. The seven seas, the seven sisters, the seven wonders of the world, the seven ages of man. Personally, I think a lot of it simply has to do with the fact that seven is the only single digit with two syllables. It just scans better. The 5-year itch and Snow White and the eight dwarfs simply don’t have the same ring to them, do they?

In sports, there are two most prominent sevens. Every year since 1922, the World Series has been best-of-seven. This is fine in baseball, where teams play series all year long and different pitchers pitch different games. But it’s a curse in basketball and hockey, where it’s just the same two teams going at it again and again . . . and then again. The NBA and the NHL would have it more appropriate and more dramatic if they played championships at two-out-of-three, but as sports owners know only too well, two of the seven deadly sins are avarice and gluttony.

The seventh-inning stretch is, so far as I know, the only institutionalized good luck event in sports. Some reports persist with the legend that the seventh-inning stretch was created by President William Howard Taft on opening day in 1910, later in that same game after he threw out the first presidential first pitch.

Curiously, seven does not appear to be the most popular uniform number for stars. The most famous players to wear number seven are Pete Maravich in the NBA, John Elway in the NFL, Mickey Mantle in major league baseball, and Howie Morenz, the so-called “Babe Ruth of hockey,” whose No. 7 was retired in 1937 shortly after he died from injuries suffered in a game. David Beckham, who is coming to play soccer over here in the seventh month of 2007, has also worn seven.

Satchel Paige, the old star of the Negro Leagues, is the most prominent athlete ever born on a July 7. He’d be a 101 on Saturday, but one day in 1982 he looked back and saw something gaining on him and now old Satch is up there in seventh heaven.

Frank Deford’s column also appears as commentary Wednesdays on National Public Radio’s Morning Edition. He can be reached at flamegarden@aol.com