Sunday, May 22, 2005
Eternal Optimists
I really do think optimism is an endearing trait. I consider myself an optimist in general, but not the point of delirium. False optimism basically just makes people irritating, but realistic optimism I think is critical for a happy life. Otherwise, you just become a miserable, grumbly fuck.
For some reason, though, I find excessive optimism with respect to sports incredibly grating. And honestly, that's where it's the most prolific and the least warranted. One of the simplest examples can be found if you go to a baseball game. Someone hits a routine pop-up to the outfield, and half the fans stand up and get excited. Then the ball settles into the left-fielder's glove without him moving an inch, and they all sit back down deflated. C'mon, people! You sound like idiots when you cheer pop flys. I know if I was a player, I'd get quite annoyed at my home town fans cheering when I know I screwed up. It's the worst in Boston. But on the other hand, maybe it's warranted because routine pop flys do go out of that ridiculously-dimensioned stadium.
Sports is a haven for deluded fans. It's so easy to be sucked into the hype. And I do understand the power of positive thinking, and building hype for a team in order to encourage them. But at some point, you have to be realistic. Otherwise, you get into a situation like Boston, before last year, or the Cubs for seeming eternity, where year after year after year, you get set up for disappointment. Of course, while I was in Boston, they never learned their lesson. Every year was going to be their year. I guess it's part of the obsession, but it's also a good way to develop some sort of mental complex.
It really bugs me when people conflate unfounded optimism with legitimate team support. People assume that if you're a fan, you have to be completely unreasonable a team's chances. As if admitting that a team has flaws somehow makes you less of a fan. In fact, since it's completely absurd that anything you do as a fan actually affects the team anyways (aside from maybe the money that you give them), as long as most fans are living in a fantasy world in which the team's owners listen to their suggestions, why wouldn't being critical actually help the team? Maybe the owners will listen to the criticism instead of just be happy with the team because of the fawning masses?
Still, I understand some of the enthusiasm, although I'd like it to be a little tempered. But probably the most misplaced enthusiasm comes with regards to the attitudes of certain players. I'm not one who heaps scorn on athletes - I actually think most are hard-working, talented individuals who deserve most of the money they get, at least from a business perspective. And among athletes, many do have a legitimate love of the sport and a sense of honor and dedication to their teammates and to the fans, which I respect. Sure, they're getting tons of money, but they're also generating loads of revenue for the team. Compare that to CEOs that make tens of millions of dollars a year for playing golf and smoking cigars. For the most part, I actually buy the reasoning that they're in a world in which money equals respect, and so I can also understand the requests for outlandish contracts. If the owners pay them, they why shouldn't the players ask?
The above only applies to hard-working, dedicated athletes. I'm sick of selfish, greedy players who don't take care of themselves, take plays off, or are just complete assholes off the field. Part of being an athlete is being a public figure, and being a good teammate, as well as being a good player. If you can't fulfill all of your obligations to your team, then you don't deserve those enormous sums of money. But one reason that you see players getting away with murder (sometimes literally), is because the fans don't demand accountability.
Because fans are eternal optimists, they tend to believe that talented players with poor track records off the field will somehow change their entire being once they change teams. Instead of protesting when a talented, but obnoxious and divisive player it signed, they cheer the player on and talk about how that player is the final piece of the championship puzzle. All too often, they're wrong. They're usually a honeymoon period, but it wears off quickly.
Let me give you some examples: Terrell Owens in Philly is the perfect case. He might be the best wide receiver in football right now, in terms of pure talent. But he's a pretty reprehensible human being, and certainly not a good teammate. In San Francisco, Owens was a fantastic player, but an incredibly divisive teammates. Aside from his ridiculous on-field antics (posing on the 50-yard line start in Dallas, the Sharpie incident), he mocked QB Jeff Garcia and implied that he was gay, repeated got into fights with coaches, etc. Then, he got traded to the Ravens, but realized he didn't want to go there, so he kicked and screamed and they traded him to the Eagles, or voided his contract - I forget which.
Eagles fans were all aflutter (ha!), thinking this was the missing piece to their championship run, and they were almost right. He got hurt, but came back to play in the Super Bowl, which they lost. Now he's insulting QB Donovan McNabb, and insisting he wants to renegotiate his $49 million, 7-year contract. Philly fans who welcome this self-centered egomaniac with open arms shouldn't be surprised at all. He hasn't changed a bit, and there's no reason to expect he would when people keep requesting his services. I'm enough of an optimist to believe that people CAN change, but not where there's no incentive to do so. T.O. acts like a jackass, but because teammates and owners and fans keep making excuses for him due to his extraordinary football talent, he doesn't change a bit. Ultimately, it comes back to bite everyone in the butt.
T.O.'s a great example on a large scale, but there are tons of small examples. Take David Wells, for instance. He's fat and loudmouthed, and also a very good pitcher. In the 2003 World Series, he was playing for the Yankees, and had to come out of Game 5 because of back problems. Just prior to that, he had been talking in a press conference about how he never stretches or does any of that nonsense. The irony was perfect. The Yanks lost that game, and the next one, to lose the Series. Then, this year, all of a sudden, this lazy bastard who had pissed off the Red Sox for years and years was signed to a contract at the age of 42. Bostonians thought that he just might be a solid replacement for Pedro Martinez, or at least Derek Lowe. Well, shortly after the season started, he got hurt, and was put on the shelf for a month. Last week, he came back to pitch, after refusing a rehab start, and got shelled, pitching less than two innings. Once a selfish, lazy asshole, always a selfish, lazy asshole.
Kevin Brown, noted jerk, punches a wall last year in the middle of a pennant race, and ends up basically ruining his season. Randy Moss, talented thug, admits that he takes plays off from time to time, and goes from Minnesota to Oakland. I'm sure Raiders fans are excited - they should be pissed off, and they will be as soon as he does something extremely stupid next season. The Orioles trade for shameless self-promoter and violent sneezer Sammy Sosa, and hey, he's out for a few weeks already! He hasn't spoken out yet, but you can be sure as soon as the O's start losing, or he stops hitting well and needs to be moved from the cleanup spot, he'll open his big fat mouth.
Some people are just immature and need a chance to grow up. But these guys can no longer use that as an excuse. They're just dicks, plain and simple, albeit talented dicks. And as long as fans are willing to overlook their lack of character because of their surplus of physical talent, they'll be setting themselves up for disappointment. Treat your team as you would treat your children, and give them a little tough love, and maybe they'll reward you with a championship.
For some reason, though, I find excessive optimism with respect to sports incredibly grating. And honestly, that's where it's the most prolific and the least warranted. One of the simplest examples can be found if you go to a baseball game. Someone hits a routine pop-up to the outfield, and half the fans stand up and get excited. Then the ball settles into the left-fielder's glove without him moving an inch, and they all sit back down deflated. C'mon, people! You sound like idiots when you cheer pop flys. I know if I was a player, I'd get quite annoyed at my home town fans cheering when I know I screwed up. It's the worst in Boston. But on the other hand, maybe it's warranted because routine pop flys do go out of that ridiculously-dimensioned stadium.
Sports is a haven for deluded fans. It's so easy to be sucked into the hype. And I do understand the power of positive thinking, and building hype for a team in order to encourage them. But at some point, you have to be realistic. Otherwise, you get into a situation like Boston, before last year, or the Cubs for seeming eternity, where year after year after year, you get set up for disappointment. Of course, while I was in Boston, they never learned their lesson. Every year was going to be their year. I guess it's part of the obsession, but it's also a good way to develop some sort of mental complex.
It really bugs me when people conflate unfounded optimism with legitimate team support. People assume that if you're a fan, you have to be completely unreasonable a team's chances. As if admitting that a team has flaws somehow makes you less of a fan. In fact, since it's completely absurd that anything you do as a fan actually affects the team anyways (aside from maybe the money that you give them), as long as most fans are living in a fantasy world in which the team's owners listen to their suggestions, why wouldn't being critical actually help the team? Maybe the owners will listen to the criticism instead of just be happy with the team because of the fawning masses?
Still, I understand some of the enthusiasm, although I'd like it to be a little tempered. But probably the most misplaced enthusiasm comes with regards to the attitudes of certain players. I'm not one who heaps scorn on athletes - I actually think most are hard-working, talented individuals who deserve most of the money they get, at least from a business perspective. And among athletes, many do have a legitimate love of the sport and a sense of honor and dedication to their teammates and to the fans, which I respect. Sure, they're getting tons of money, but they're also generating loads of revenue for the team. Compare that to CEOs that make tens of millions of dollars a year for playing golf and smoking cigars. For the most part, I actually buy the reasoning that they're in a world in which money equals respect, and so I can also understand the requests for outlandish contracts. If the owners pay them, they why shouldn't the players ask?
The above only applies to hard-working, dedicated athletes. I'm sick of selfish, greedy players who don't take care of themselves, take plays off, or are just complete assholes off the field. Part of being an athlete is being a public figure, and being a good teammate, as well as being a good player. If you can't fulfill all of your obligations to your team, then you don't deserve those enormous sums of money. But one reason that you see players getting away with murder (sometimes literally), is because the fans don't demand accountability.
Because fans are eternal optimists, they tend to believe that talented players with poor track records off the field will somehow change their entire being once they change teams. Instead of protesting when a talented, but obnoxious and divisive player it signed, they cheer the player on and talk about how that player is the final piece of the championship puzzle. All too often, they're wrong. They're usually a honeymoon period, but it wears off quickly.
Let me give you some examples: Terrell Owens in Philly is the perfect case. He might be the best wide receiver in football right now, in terms of pure talent. But he's a pretty reprehensible human being, and certainly not a good teammate. In San Francisco, Owens was a fantastic player, but an incredibly divisive teammates. Aside from his ridiculous on-field antics (posing on the 50-yard line start in Dallas, the Sharpie incident), he mocked QB Jeff Garcia and implied that he was gay, repeated got into fights with coaches, etc. Then, he got traded to the Ravens, but realized he didn't want to go there, so he kicked and screamed and they traded him to the Eagles, or voided his contract - I forget which.
Eagles fans were all aflutter (ha!), thinking this was the missing piece to their championship run, and they were almost right. He got hurt, but came back to play in the Super Bowl, which they lost. Now he's insulting QB Donovan McNabb, and insisting he wants to renegotiate his $49 million, 7-year contract. Philly fans who welcome this self-centered egomaniac with open arms shouldn't be surprised at all. He hasn't changed a bit, and there's no reason to expect he would when people keep requesting his services. I'm enough of an optimist to believe that people CAN change, but not where there's no incentive to do so. T.O. acts like a jackass, but because teammates and owners and fans keep making excuses for him due to his extraordinary football talent, he doesn't change a bit. Ultimately, it comes back to bite everyone in the butt.
T.O.'s a great example on a large scale, but there are tons of small examples. Take David Wells, for instance. He's fat and loudmouthed, and also a very good pitcher. In the 2003 World Series, he was playing for the Yankees, and had to come out of Game 5 because of back problems. Just prior to that, he had been talking in a press conference about how he never stretches or does any of that nonsense. The irony was perfect. The Yanks lost that game, and the next one, to lose the Series. Then, this year, all of a sudden, this lazy bastard who had pissed off the Red Sox for years and years was signed to a contract at the age of 42. Bostonians thought that he just might be a solid replacement for Pedro Martinez, or at least Derek Lowe. Well, shortly after the season started, he got hurt, and was put on the shelf for a month. Last week, he came back to pitch, after refusing a rehab start, and got shelled, pitching less than two innings. Once a selfish, lazy asshole, always a selfish, lazy asshole.
Kevin Brown, noted jerk, punches a wall last year in the middle of a pennant race, and ends up basically ruining his season. Randy Moss, talented thug, admits that he takes plays off from time to time, and goes from Minnesota to Oakland. I'm sure Raiders fans are excited - they should be pissed off, and they will be as soon as he does something extremely stupid next season. The Orioles trade for shameless self-promoter and violent sneezer Sammy Sosa, and hey, he's out for a few weeks already! He hasn't spoken out yet, but you can be sure as soon as the O's start losing, or he stops hitting well and needs to be moved from the cleanup spot, he'll open his big fat mouth.
Some people are just immature and need a chance to grow up. But these guys can no longer use that as an excuse. They're just dicks, plain and simple, albeit talented dicks. And as long as fans are willing to overlook their lack of character because of their surplus of physical talent, they'll be setting themselves up for disappointment. Treat your team as you would treat your children, and give them a little tough love, and maybe they'll reward you with a championship.
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