MVN - Most Valuable Network

Not a Spoiler

I’m not a big fan of the term “spoiler”.  It seems to insinuate that all a team can do at this point is screw things up for a better squad.   But a ”spoiler” is nothing more than a team that hasn’t given up playing hard like they did all season long and having the chips fall in the right place.  It’s not even at the right place at the wrong time because what’s a “spoiler” for one team is a “savior” for another. 

I also don’t get why at the end of a season should a team be praised simply for not giving up.   Yeah, I know it takes “heart” or whatever to keep playing in a meaningless season, but most teams do keep playing hard day-in and day-out till the season’s end.  I truly believe that.  If the bad teams lose more, well it’s because they lost more all season long.  Take a team like the Royals for instance.  8-17 in September.  Did they give up?  If so why did they play 41-39 ball in June, July and August?  Did they wake up on Sept 1 and suddenly realize they were out of the pennant race?   Or did they all watch Singles and Reality Bites and get apathetic?   Isn’t it far more likely they are a bad team that is just balancing out some of their good months with one really bad one? That they are still trying hard but things aren;’t going there way?  Do some teams give up?  Sure.  But I believe those teams are the exception, and the hard-working teams like the Nats are the rule.   It’s kind of like we are imposing “clutch team play” on a squad and accepting that. 

Anyway, I hope the Nats keep playing hard and give the Phillies some good games.  Maybe they sweep again, maybe they get swept but give a good effort and close out the season strong.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 28th, 2007 at 8:44 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.