Ten Unpopular Fannish Opinions - Sports Edition

[dlgood]

Some number of folks meming an "Unpopular Fannish Opinions". As I have previously (granted, three years ago) posted Ten Unpopular Fannish Opinions and Ten Incendiary Fannish Opinions - I will stick to an 'All Sports Edition' of unpopular fannish opinions.

Ten Unpopular Sports Fan Opinions:

1. David Eckstein is probably a very nice person. He is small, and his name is Eckstein. He is better at baseball than I am. However, judging by major league standards, he is not a very good player. It is very nice for him that his play in Game 4 and Game 5 won him the MVP trophy and car... but this provokes the danger of bringing him from 'Overrated Player' category into 'Vastly Overrated Player' category.


2. Derek Jeter is not a vastly overrated player. He is only very overrated. When Omar Vizquel goes on ESPN to proclaim Jeter the best defensive shortstop in baseball - it is important to note that Jeter was rewarded with gold gloves in each of the (only) two seasons (out of eleven) in which he was an above average fielder (not actually the best) at his position. A stretch, conveniently enough, when the best defensive shortstop in the American League was shifted to Third Base so that Mr. Yankee could preserve his status. Derek Jeter is a vey handsome man, and newswriters like him very much. But there is no aspect of playing the game of baseball at which Derek Jeter is better than Alex Rodriguez. This includes performing in the post-season, just so we're clear.


3. As long as Gaylord Perry and Whitey Ford are in the Hall of Fame, I have absolutely no complaints about Barry Bonds' pursuit of the home run record. If cheating is acceptable for 'crafty' white pitchers, then it's acceptable for surly black sluggers.


4. Single elimination playoff/championship games provide great drama, but are terrible metrics for deciding who the best team actually is. Logistics necessate Single Elim tournaments, but I don't have to be happy about it.


5. With apologies to any umpires in the crowd -- Officials are not 'part of the game' -- they are a necessary evil. Instant Video Review is underused in sports. Human error is inescapable (see Oklahoma-Oregon) but this doesn't mean we should not take any steps (that do not prove undue burdens) to get calls correct. This does not mean using Videos or Sensors to call balls and strikes. (Yet) But it does probably mean Video for things like fair/foul in baseball.


6. George Will is right about college athletics. Division-I Athletic departments probably should not be tax-exempt. It's rather hard for me to determine what, exactly, the benefits are to the academic environment from a D-I football team. But yeah, I've got my season tickets.


7. Joe Morgan was great at playing baseball, and knows much about the sport. Indeed, he's one of the best second basemen in the history of Major League Baseball. (Collins, Hornsby, Alomar). However, he is not very good at analyzing baseball. Joe seems to think that what happens on the field is no substitute for a vague recollection of observation of maybe a quarter of the actual games and players. At this point, any announcer who discusses 'Moneyball' without being able to pass a basic comprehension test probably shouldn't be in the broadcast booth.


8. What makes NFL games really watchable on Sundays, is the ability to switch back and forth between five or six of them at a time. The volume of alcohol and community required to enjoy gamewatching is inversely proportional to the number of games on.


9. Unless your seats are within 20 rows of the field, NFL football is better on TV than it is in person. Just getting in, out, and around the stadium is too much of a hassle.


10. Free agency is not 'runing' or even hurting sports. Long-term contracts hurt sports. All sports would be improved if contracts were limited to one season.