Friday, February 15, 2008

Detroit fishwrap comment of the day - 1 loss won't be the end of the world

Today is the first day of Tigers spring training workouts. The Freep's John Lowe has an interview with Jim Leyland, peppered with quotes aplenty. The most news worthy quote was Leyland talking about Brandon Inge, and saying a trade is "a strong possibility."

Even though there's not all that much considered newsworthy in the interview, it brought the commenters out in force. DetFaninOrlando happens to mention one of my biggest pet peeves.

My sincere hope for myself and the fans on this board is that we can truly enjoy and appreciate the Tigers this year. The danger is that there will be those that will JUMP to crap on the team this year when every little thing goes wrong.

Rodriguez struck out again? Crap...
Cabrera missed a ground ball to 3rd? Crap...
Bonderman gave up 2 runs in the first? Crap...
Grilli couldn't make it out of the inning? Crap...
Jones blew a save? Crap....

PLEASE keep this stuff to a minimum. TRY and enjoy the good things that this team is able to accomplish and TRY to remember that every team has it's problems to.

Just try and enjoy the ride

Let's add a few, shall we?

Miguel Cabrera has a 4 K game? He's overpaid and overrated!
Edgar Renteria commits a couple of errors? He sucks!
Dontrelle Willis has a bad outing? They never should have traded Jair Jurrjens!
Jacque Jones misplays a fly ball? WORST TRADE EVER!

You know it's going to happen...

This comment nails my thoughts about the "Chicken Little" fans. The fans who think 1 loss is the end of the world, 1 bad game is an irreversible trend, and are ready to trade/waive/cut/bench/dispose of a player after a bad performance. The Chicken Littles have more mood swings than Britney Spears, and more knee-jerk reactions than a pissed off sports blogger.

With the expectations being sky high, we are going to see more bandwagon fans than ever following the Tigers. Which means more fans than ever who don't know the ebbs and flows of a baseball season, who don't realize that slumps and losing streaks happen to every team, no matter how good they may be.

Every team in MLB are guaranteed to lose around 60 games. Good, bad or ugly, you can chalk up 60 losses. Especially in the powerful American League. What's the old saying? (Paraphrasing from memory) You are going to win 60 games, and lose 60 games. It's what what you do with the remaining 42 that determines your season.

Let's hope those remaining 42 go well, or the bitching from the peanut gallery will be unbearable...

(Edit: God damn, am I out of it today or what? 62 games? Uh, it's 42 you dumbass.)

4 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. What is sad is that before 2 years ago a loss was nothing to most Tigers fans. Like you said, losses do happen, even if they do come at the hands of the cellar-dwelling Royals.

    Removed the other one because of a spelling mistake...

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  3. I think Sparky said you win fifty and lose fifty, its what you do with the remaining 62 games.

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  4. You are going to win 60 games, and lose 60 games.

    Tiger fans know that's not true . . .

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