Beliefs, maxims and other stuff

If you read the opening post on this blog, it gave you a little clue what I was about, but let me add some stuff to go along with that.

So what is it about sports? The best answer I can come up with is that for a fan, it provides an opportunity for passion without consequence. You can throw yourself heart and soul into something, and if it doesn't work out, life goes on, and it's none for the worse.

(An exception, of course, is if you use a sporting event as an excuse to act like a complete moron, like the people who rioted in Vancouver after the Canucks lost to the Bruins. Seriously, people, you have a breathtakingly beautiful city; why would you want to damage it?)

OTHER THOUGHTS 
-- I have never once sat in the stands at a sporting event or watched one on television to see a manager manage, a coach coach or an owner own. Therefore, I'm pretty much always going to be on the side of players in any labor dispute, because the games wouldn't exist without them, and they should get as much of the money they produce as possible.

-- In that same vein, I don't know exactly how I'd do it, but college athletes should be paid somehow. Like I said, that's a philosophical statement; don't ask me for details.

-- A bad day involving baseball is better than a good day involving just about anything else, and whoever decided it would be a good idea to make baseball games available online should get the next spot on Mount Rushmore.

-- If a statement ever begins with "It's not about the money," you are free to ignore everything else. It's about the money.

-- I would never trade the ability I have now to watch sporting events at all hours of the day or night for when I couldn't, but I do think sometimes it lessens the fan experience because there's no need to intently watch a particular game because another one is coming up any time now. (Also known as "If every game is a big game, then no game is a big game.")

-- I'd rather read Joe Posnanski when I think he's wrong than most people when I think they're right.

-- Fantasy sports are a scourge. They reduce athletes to numbers and the games they play into individual events in pursuit of those numbers.

--If you go to a game, watch the damn game! If you aren't interested in the game, stay home. If the game is nothing but a social event for you, have some friends over and watch it on TV.

-- Like women's sports. Don't like women's sports. I really don't care all that much; you're entitled to your opinion. But the fact that they exist and that some people may want to talk or write about them is not an attempt to shove anything down your throat. Don't like Maya Moore? Fine, ignore her and keep your trap shut. You're the one who's losing out. (See also: soccer, NASCAR).

-- College sports manage to bring us one of the greatest events on the sports calendar (the NCAA basketball tournaments) and one of the worst (the BCS).

-- The Olympics are awesome, from the opening ceremonies to the closing ones. I have been known to watch team handball preliminaries at 6 a.m. Deal with it.

-- People who reduce games to nothing but statistics scare me. What if they're right?

TERMS YOU MIGHT READ FROM TIME TO TIME

-- Garces/Brown Syndrome  If a person is known for a particular trait, such as former reliever Rich Garces or former defensive lineman Gilbert Brown and their ... ahem ... bulk, there is a danger that it consumes him or her to the point of no longer being able to perform. And it isn't just weight. Recent victims of Garces/Brown Syndrome are Joe Torre (calmness) and Terry Francona (treating his players like adults.)

-- Shuler/Mirer Rule  If you're watching college highlights of a quarterback and most of them are of him running, there's a reason for that. He can't throw.

-- Jeremy Mayfield Rule   No, not that drugs are bad for you (although they are). Several years ago, someone said Jeremy Mayfield didn't "deserve" to make NASCAR's Chase for the Championship over another, better driver (I think it was Tony Stewart), even though he had done what was required to make it, namely be in the top 10 in points after 26 races. Therefore, the rule applies in situations where someone implies that an athlete or team is undeserving of an honor even though it's a completely subjective measure. Had I been alive and able to think this way in 1961, this might be called the Roger Maris Rule.

-- NEW The Mientkiewicz Corollary (to the Jeremy Mayfield Rule) If you're not an important player, what you do or say doesn't matter and you can never be right, even if you are.

That's all for now. More things I believe to be truths as I think of them.