When Did Good Become Boring in Sports?
Link to article dfoms.blogspot.com/
It's Official. America has lost its passion for a good butt kicking. Gone are the days when we enjoyed a fundamentally sound and well-balanced team, kicking the crap out of another team. That's right, folks...good has now apparently become boring.
When the Boston Red Sox swept the Colorado Rockies in the World Series this October, you heard the same thing from every "pseudo" baseball fan - this World Series was boring. Umm, did I miss something?
For the first time since 1998, the team with the best regular season record in baseball won the World Series. A rarity since the playoffs expanded to the current wild-card system. Not only that, the 2007 Red Sox were a great model for what MLB teams aim to have - a well balance of veterans and home-grown youth with solid hitting backed by strong pitching and defense.
In fact, their farm system and team model is quickly becoming the envy of the entire league, as they have developed an amazing number of productive players within their own system. Names like Jonathan Papelbon, Kevin Youkilis, Dustin Pedroia, Manny Delcarmen, Jacoby Ellsbury, Jon Lester...guys that not only held their own in the regular and post-season, but went above and beyond any expectations that anyone could have ever imagined.
These aren't the Yankees my friends, stuffing their pockets full of as many high-priced veterans as they could...this is a brand of baseball that is not only going to compete NOW, but can sustain itself for years to come. Ho hum, right? Yeah, REAL boring.
Let me just ask, when did we stop blaming the bad team for being bad, and start blaming the good team for being, well..too good?
Yes, America has always loved the underdog, especially as of late...but history proves that we love our dominating franchises even more. Think about it...The Dallas Cowboys, The 49er's, the Yankees, the Chicago Bulls, the Boston Celtics, The Lakers...we LOVED these teams, and we loved them even more when they won. We KNEW who was going to win, and yet we still rooted for them all the way.
I wasn't alive when the Yankees were dominating baseball in the mid-1900's, but isn't that supposedly why there are so many Yankee fans still today? Because we used to like a dominating team. You knew they would win, so rooting for them was easy, I guess.
Look at college football and the joke of a system they use to rank the teams...where your win/loss record is the only determining factor in the value of your team. We value the unbeaten in this sport more then any other...and yet it's not considered boring at all by most. But alas, the joke is on college football as it produces the most boring post-season format in all of sports...so perhaps it is flawed.
The greatest example of this new hate for the best in sports today, though, is with the San Antonio Spurs. A team I despise, but admire greatly. I think you can actually pinpoint this recent hate and boredom for great teams precisely on them. They epitomize the definition of getting it done, without the flare of an obnoxious, self-absorbed superstar. They play the game, and they play it right...which is now becoming something less and less valued for some reason.
Dont get me wrong, I'm more in favor of seeing a good competitive match-up...where the game comes down to the final buzzer or even overtime. But this new fad of hating teams solely because they are good, and dominate their sport is a joke....because at our deepest roots, its what we really love.
I'm not sure if it's the resurgence of the Boston Celtics, who have won their first three games by an average margin of 16 points or perhaps the Patriots who have garnered complaints of running up the score at times this season, that was my inspiration for writing this...but it's true...as American's we've lost our appreciation for a good, dominating team...and are now going as far as to label them as boring.
Last I checked, these are professional athletes and coaches who get paid a lot of money to execute their game on the field, and when its done right...almost to the level of perfection, its still a thing of beauty in this sports fan's mind...no matter what team it is, or who they're playing.
Link to article dfoms.blogspot.com/
It's Official. America has lost its passion for a good butt kicking. Gone are the days when we enjoyed a fundamentally sound and well-balanced team, kicking the crap out of another team. That's right, folks...good has now apparently become boring.
When the Boston Red Sox swept the Colorado Rockies in the World Series this October, you heard the same thing from every "pseudo" baseball fan - this World Series was boring. Umm, did I miss something?
For the first time since 1998, the team with the best regular season record in baseball won the World Series. A rarity since the playoffs expanded to the current wild-card system. Not only that, the 2007 Red Sox were a great model for what MLB teams aim to have - a well balance of veterans and home-grown youth with solid hitting backed by strong pitching and defense.
In fact, their farm system and team model is quickly becoming the envy of the entire league, as they have developed an amazing number of productive players within their own system. Names like Jonathan Papelbon, Kevin Youkilis, Dustin Pedroia, Manny Delcarmen, Jacoby Ellsbury, Jon Lester...guys that not only held their own in the regular and post-season, but went above and beyond any expectations that anyone could have ever imagined.
These aren't the Yankees my friends, stuffing their pockets full of as many high-priced veterans as they could...this is a brand of baseball that is not only going to compete NOW, but can sustain itself for years to come. Ho hum, right? Yeah, REAL boring.
Let me just ask, when did we stop blaming the bad team for being bad, and start blaming the good team for being, well..too good?
Yes, America has always loved the underdog, especially as of late...but history proves that we love our dominating franchises even more. Think about it...The Dallas Cowboys, The 49er's, the Yankees, the Chicago Bulls, the Boston Celtics, The Lakers...we LOVED these teams, and we loved them even more when they won. We KNEW who was going to win, and yet we still rooted for them all the way.
I wasn't alive when the Yankees were dominating baseball in the mid-1900's, but isn't that supposedly why there are so many Yankee fans still today? Because we used to like a dominating team. You knew they would win, so rooting for them was easy, I guess.
Look at college football and the joke of a system they use to rank the teams...where your win/loss record is the only determining factor in the value of your team. We value the unbeaten in this sport more then any other...and yet it's not considered boring at all by most. But alas, the joke is on college football as it produces the most boring post-season format in all of sports...so perhaps it is flawed.
The greatest example of this new hate for the best in sports today, though, is with the San Antonio Spurs. A team I despise, but admire greatly. I think you can actually pinpoint this recent hate and boredom for great teams precisely on them. They epitomize the definition of getting it done, without the flare of an obnoxious, self-absorbed superstar. They play the game, and they play it right...which is now becoming something less and less valued for some reason.
Dont get me wrong, I'm more in favor of seeing a good competitive match-up...where the game comes down to the final buzzer or even overtime. But this new fad of hating teams solely because they are good, and dominate their sport is a joke....because at our deepest roots, its what we really love.
I'm not sure if it's the resurgence of the Boston Celtics, who have won their first three games by an average margin of 16 points or perhaps the Patriots who have garnered complaints of running up the score at times this season, that was my inspiration for writing this...but it's true...as American's we've lost our appreciation for a good, dominating team...and are now going as far as to label them as boring.
Last I checked, these are professional athletes and coaches who get paid a lot of money to execute their game on the field, and when its done right...almost to the level of perfection, its still a thing of beauty in this sports fan's mind...no matter what team it is, or who they're playing.
