The WSJ online column called the couch has a pretty incisive view today of the sports world's tendency towards extended seasons. Do the NBA and NHL really need to play 80 or so games to eliminate less than half of their fields for postseason play? When should we start to pay attention? The article says not yet.
The article also includes vitriol for the Yankees:
"What can you do in 37 minutes? If you're reasonably fit, you can run roughly four miles. If you're not, you can watch about an episode and a half of Seinfeld on DVD. And if you're the Cleveland Indians, you can score 14 runs in one inning against the New York Yankees."
Our society created the professional sports monster. It's starting to trickle down even to the high school level, with ESPNU televising 15 prep games, with UCLA and UK offering scholarships to eighth graders (although coach Gillespie no longer can fulfill his offer), with full coverage of 13 year old phenoms.
How do we define success for our kids? Hopefully with a measure of reason and not based on the lofty and mostly unreachable expectations of main stream media.
1 week ago
What disgusts me is the "in your face" attitude in competition. Of course, I'm a white guy and old school, so there you have it. But the willigness to humiliate a defeated opponent is a sick thing to watch and says some bad things about segments of our population.
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