Not a Super Bowl, Only Opening Day

After all this time, when America’s Cup finally got to the real thing, Koch was it.

On a crystal clear day when the Pacific looked like Golden Pond turned blue, the 1992 America’s Cup regatta began with Mr. Cup getting a rather thorough drubbing.

That’s right. The old salt on the front end of this race was not Dennis Conner. Instead, it was 61-year-old Buddy Melges, skippering Defiant for Bill Koch’s America 3 syndicate.

If this one had been a Super Bowl, Conner and his Stars & Stripes would have been Denver. Defiant’s margin of victory was 1 minute 34 seconds. I don’t know how that translates to touchdowns, but it’s more than a missed field goal in the final minute.

Some were calling it an upset, but no one could say that with any authority. These “teams” had not previously met.

Conner, in fact, could not have been sure what to expect himself. He has been laboring in solitude with a one-boat campaign, his hands tied by a shoestring budget. Koch and Co. are attacking him with two boats in hand and two more in the works.

Thus, the Defender Selection Series will be a learning process for Mr. Conner.

What he learned Tuesday was that he has a lot to learn.

As Conner said Monday: “We are going to enjoy the actual competition itself and it will be fun for us to get a line on how fast Bill’s boats are . . . and we will start to see how the rest of the season might go from there.”

In truth, Dennis Conner could not have had a great deal of fun Tuesday, becuse he got a line on how fast at least one of America 3’s boats is.

Koch, to be sure, threw his best boat and, whether or not he agrees, his best skipper at Conner on Tuesday. Defiant was the second boat constructed by America 3, meaning it figures to be an improvement on Jayhawk, the first boat. And Melges, with 40 years of racing experience, figures to be superior to Jayhawk’s skipper, who happens to be Koch himself.

A Conner victory Tuesday would have been very demoralizing for America 3, given it was taking its best shot.

In contrast, a Conner defeat is probably not that demoralizing to Team Dennis Conner.

There were those who suspected that Conner might even sandbag a bit against Koch’s entry. You know, toy with it. Distrust in inherent with this affairs, and Conner, sly one that he is, might be the least trusted of them all. You feel more comfortable watching him than letting him slip off on his own.

The problem is that America’s Cup skippers and crews cannot sharpen their skills and assess their machinery while working against ghost boats.

Consequently, Stars & Stripes went into this affair untried and untested and not really knowing what to expect.

It hardly toyed with Melges, however.

Conner never led through this race, except for a six-second margin at the start. Even that was deceiving because Melges had better position. He built a two boat-length lead in the next two minutes and disappeared shortly thereafter from Stars & Stripes’ radar.

It seems America’s Cup racing is sort of the NBA in reverse. In the NBA, you show up for the last two minutes. In America’s Cup, you can head for shore if someone has more than a bow ahead after two minutes.

Stars & Stripes had one brief flirtation with the lead early in the seventh leg, but Melges tacked off and sailed away with the victory.

This goodby kiss was Melges’ way of saying hello.

So where does this leave Team Dennis Conner?

Significantly behind at least one of Koch’s boats. The Conner camp would have to be demoralized if it cannot win today against Jayhawk, supposedly Koch’s inferior boat. That would be the upset Tuesday’s race probably wasn’t.

Understand, however, that this Defender Selection Series is a long and drawn out process. There are four rounds such as the current round-robin before it even gets to the finals, and victories gain value with each of those four rounds.

Tuesday’s match, while the first real America’s Cup racing in San Diego waters, was really like the first game of a baseball season. The parallel would be complete only if baseball games counted for more as the season progressed.

The key for Conner will be in how much he can learn in defeat and how much he can improve his one boat in the face of a syndicate that already has two more boats coming. The one thing Koch has that Conner doesn’t, money, is one very big disadvantage in this game.

What we have is a Dennis Conner with a challenge thrown into his face as coldly as salt water over the bow. That tends to make the man irritable . . . and dangerous.

Consequently, while Koch may be it right now, it’s no time to savor the taste.