Disagreeing For the Sake Of Disagreeing

There’s some things in sports, particularly recently, that everyone should just be able to agree on right? Like the fact that Alex Rodriguez is the MVP of the American League. And that the Boston Red Sox are far superior to the Colorado Rockies. Now, this is sports, and we all love to debate any topic that is put on our plate, but one thing has intrigued me recently. That is the fact that even the most obvious and clear cut predictions can’t be agreed upon. Take the AL MVP race during the 2007 baseball season. From the end of April, when A-Rod was on pace to break the single season record for home-runs, and was hitting game-winning walk-off home runs in the process it should have been obvious that he was the most valuable player. He did finish the season with the major league lead in home-runs and runs-batted-in after all (.314, 54, 156). But not everybody could accept the obvious. Some said that Magglio Ordonez (.363, 26, 139) was an MVP candidate, and were willing to argue his position as the MVP over A-Rod’s. This to me was simply a case of disagreeing only for the sake of disagreeing. Rodriguez’s numbers dictated that he was a much better offensive producer than Maggs, but not everyone could agree on his MVP status. Silly, just silly.

Also take the case of the 2007 World Series. First off, everyone knows that the AL is far better than the NL. Then you look at what we knew before the Series. Boston was mostly comprised of members of the 2004 World Series Red Sox team. In fact, they have since added a more dominant closer, a $14 million man in right field, the greatest October pitcher we’ve seen in decades, and the man who has pulled at least the last 2 hidden-ball tricks in the majors. Colorado on the other hand, had momentum going for them, and that was about all they had that was in any way stronger than something of the Sox. And yet foolish people (myself included) tricked themselves into thinking that somehow Rocktober would extend through the World Series. I will admit that my only justification for picking Colorado was the fact that I didn’t want to be just like everyone else and pick Boston, even though I knew the Red Sox would win. I was only disagreeing for the sake of disagreeing.

The moral of this story? When something’s as obvious as an imminent Boston World Series win, or Alex Rodriguez being awarded the MVP award, don’t let yourself get caught up in disagreeing to disagree. Or hell, go ahead and disagree for the sake of it, I just hope you’re not the betting type.

Warren

Super Bowl XLI.5

Patriots vs. Colts. Brady vs. Manning. The rivalry of this generation. We are getting treated to a preview of the Super Bowl, if one of these teams happened to play in the NFC. Unfortunately for us, both of these teams are too good to play in the Not quite Football Conference. Along with this great game comes the hype. I never thought I could see more of Peyton Manning after the love-fest that was Super Bowl XLI, but this week has done it. How many more times do I have to see Peyton running through hallways looking for an open receiver only to have a small child tell him what to do? Peyton’s commercials have left the child stage where they’re cute and can do no wrong and have now entered the young adult stage where they just piss you off. The only way this week could be worse is if Tom Brady began starring in his own set of commercials. Could we see a Trojan advertising campaign in the works?

At least the boys in Bristol are acknowledging the fact that they are over-hyping this game as stated by a certain anchor on a certain nightly sports show. They are currently giving more air-time to a game that won’t be played for another 4 days than to the games being played tonight. In this age of 24/7/365 sports coverage what we end up getting is 24/7/365 of the same info. How about we don’t over-analyze this game? The numbers can only tell you so much. Brady won the first six, Peyton won the next three. Who will win this one? Who knows? That’s why they play the game. I’m all for conjecture. I like debating with my fellow sports fans, especially the other writer here at In The Clutch. But there’s no debating when it comes to Pats/Colts. You stand on one side or the other. There’s no rationalizing it either. You can attempt but when it comes down to it, you either like the Colts because they’re the team that just gets it done week in, week out, or you like the Patriots because they’re just so damn good. How about this? I suggest a moratorium on the discussion of this game in favor of discussion of better games this week, like Atlanta vs. San Fransisco. Now that’s a doozie.

Josh