Apathy
Apathy is an end result. It is the culmination of being inundated with information to the point that either one can become obsessed with an event or have a nonchalant attitude towards it. Think of how hype has ruined your favorite television show or music artist’s career. To become apathetic means that you have become so disenchanted or so bored with the information around you that the eventual information overload compels nothing more than a shrug. Usually this time of year, apathy sinks in as you get ready to hibernate for fall and have trouble staying awake because of the longer days. Since you are a sports fan, it has further effects.
Shawne Merrimen’s four-game suspension has carried much more weight than other performance-enhancing violations in the National Football League. After all, he was last season’s Defensive Rookie of the Year and has been considered by many to be the best defensive player in the entire game in his second season. Yet, if you believe what you hear, no one seems to give a damn. This is one of those moments where you have to sympathize with baseball. Maybe. There is a question posed on ESPN’s SportsNation which asks if Merriman’s suspension is the beginning of a larger performance-enhancing crisis in the NFL. In looking at the questions, you may be able to figure out what kind of responses they hope to illicit; however, there is an answer to the question. The only way that the suspension is part of a larger problem is if someone makes a big enough stink about it. It took a couple of reporters to ask about a small bottle in Mark McGwire's locker for any action from baseball itself, not long before Jose Canseco’s book shone some light on the issue. Until the recent scrutiny for baseball, football already has its poster boy for the use of performance enhancers; Lyle Alzedo. Even though it hasn’t been proven that anabolic steroids led to his death in 1992, he felt that his was a cautionary tale when he admitted to using ‘roids, especially since he was a star in the league. You’d think that it would be a reason that the public would clamor for a stricter response than a suspension for Merrimen. Yet, there is a general acceptance, if not acknowledgement of the brutal realities and history of the game. It wasn’t a beloved game until television and the numbers aren’t as (for the lack of a better term) sexy as baseball stats. To many people, performance enhancers destroy the meaning of numbers in one sport while they are an underlying layer of another that few care to realize.
You can also add the World Series to the list of “what we don’t care about”. Whether it’s been poor-to-no hitting, the talk about Kenny Rogers’ hand or the fact that these are two Midwestern teams that sputtered down the stretch, the Fall Classic between St. Louis and Detroit hasn’t captured the imagination of the country. You’ll hear a few redundant theories on why this is the case, but the most prevalent is that these are two small market teams flawed beyond comprehension. You’ll hear that if it were the New York Yankees or the Boston Red Sox in the championship that ratings would be so huge that every other network would bow to the power of FOX and shut down operations because of the impossibility to compete with Rupert Murdoch’s base-stealing machine. So maybe the CW would cease to exist, but the tone is there amongst fellow media heads. To quote Ignignokt, “your logic is flawless”. Actually, outside of die-hard fans and a few bars around town, the Yankees have been a poor draw in the World Series and considering that there are two teams in New York, at least half of the Five Boroughs could have cared less. There are a few teams in baseball that have what can be considered a true national following (Yankees, Red Sox and somehow, the Cubs) while several can be considered great regional teams (Cardinals, Dodgers, Giants, Braves, Mets, Phillies, Astros, Twins). It would be expected that the numbers would reflect the regions those teams play in, yet for the much-garnered national stage, only the Red Sox’s sweep of St. Louis in 2004 made the country take notice. Where region dictates the ratings for other teams, the utopia of another Yankee World Series is far-fetched: they are far more hated than loved over every hill and down every valley of the US and half of the streets of New York. As for this current series, it won’t matter if the rest of the week was rained out or if suddenly the sun wouldn’t set on the Midwest until the last pitch is thrown. ‘Dirtgate’ could have national security implications and Jeff Suppan can appear in thirty anti-stem cell research ads. It won’t amount to a hill of beans. The nature of any championship series is that unless you are a fan of the participants, you’ve cleaned out your locker along with your favorite team when the season ended. After investing nearly 200 days of the year to reaching the goal of a title only to fall short means now is the time to heal, rejuvenate and gear for next season. You’d just pay little to no attention to those still in the game.
They say that the only way to get on the news is for something bad. The unfortunate part is that these are two stories that overshadow some of the good that has transpired for both sports over the past few days. In a relatively quiet fashion, baseball has done something right for a change in extending the current CBA for another five seasons, avoiding the usual mudslinging and pretentious hatchet-burying at the eleventh hour. While it should be celebrated by all fans of the sport, it received about one-tenth of the attention of the first three weeks of the New York baseball offseason and one-twentieth of Rogers’ palm. As for the NFL, the Saints are off to an unexpected 5-1 start and the Jets could be 5-3 at the halfway point of the season. Yet, you wouldn’t know it because on sports editors’ desks across the nation are drafts on impending Terrell Owens’ blowups, another DUI in San Diego and Cincinnati and another Denny Green press conference. Actually, I think I’d like another classic loss-of-sanity briefing to the scribes.
Say What?!?!: Raiders. Cardinals. Dolphin Stadium. Miami. Super Bowl XLI. The Rematch. Stop laughing. Please, I’m dead serious.
Shawne Merrimen’s four-game suspension has carried much more weight than other performance-enhancing violations in the National Football League. After all, he was last season’s Defensive Rookie of the Year and has been considered by many to be the best defensive player in the entire game in his second season. Yet, if you believe what you hear, no one seems to give a damn. This is one of those moments where you have to sympathize with baseball. Maybe. There is a question posed on ESPN’s SportsNation which asks if Merriman’s suspension is the beginning of a larger performance-enhancing crisis in the NFL. In looking at the questions, you may be able to figure out what kind of responses they hope to illicit; however, there is an answer to the question. The only way that the suspension is part of a larger problem is if someone makes a big enough stink about it. It took a couple of reporters to ask about a small bottle in Mark McGwire's locker for any action from baseball itself, not long before Jose Canseco’s book shone some light on the issue. Until the recent scrutiny for baseball, football already has its poster boy for the use of performance enhancers; Lyle Alzedo. Even though it hasn’t been proven that anabolic steroids led to his death in 1992, he felt that his was a cautionary tale when he admitted to using ‘roids, especially since he was a star in the league. You’d think that it would be a reason that the public would clamor for a stricter response than a suspension for Merrimen. Yet, there is a general acceptance, if not acknowledgement of the brutal realities and history of the game. It wasn’t a beloved game until television and the numbers aren’t as (for the lack of a better term) sexy as baseball stats. To many people, performance enhancers destroy the meaning of numbers in one sport while they are an underlying layer of another that few care to realize.
You can also add the World Series to the list of “what we don’t care about”. Whether it’s been poor-to-no hitting, the talk about Kenny Rogers’ hand or the fact that these are two Midwestern teams that sputtered down the stretch, the Fall Classic between St. Louis and Detroit hasn’t captured the imagination of the country. You’ll hear a few redundant theories on why this is the case, but the most prevalent is that these are two small market teams flawed beyond comprehension. You’ll hear that if it were the New York Yankees or the Boston Red Sox in the championship that ratings would be so huge that every other network would bow to the power of FOX and shut down operations because of the impossibility to compete with Rupert Murdoch’s base-stealing machine. So maybe the CW would cease to exist, but the tone is there amongst fellow media heads. To quote Ignignokt, “your logic is flawless”. Actually, outside of die-hard fans and a few bars around town, the Yankees have been a poor draw in the World Series and considering that there are two teams in New York, at least half of the Five Boroughs could have cared less. There are a few teams in baseball that have what can be considered a true national following (Yankees, Red Sox and somehow, the Cubs) while several can be considered great regional teams (Cardinals, Dodgers, Giants, Braves, Mets, Phillies, Astros, Twins). It would be expected that the numbers would reflect the regions those teams play in, yet for the much-garnered national stage, only the Red Sox’s sweep of St. Louis in 2004 made the country take notice. Where region dictates the ratings for other teams, the utopia of another Yankee World Series is far-fetched: they are far more hated than loved over every hill and down every valley of the US and half of the streets of New York. As for this current series, it won’t matter if the rest of the week was rained out or if suddenly the sun wouldn’t set on the Midwest until the last pitch is thrown. ‘Dirtgate’ could have national security implications and Jeff Suppan can appear in thirty anti-stem cell research ads. It won’t amount to a hill of beans. The nature of any championship series is that unless you are a fan of the participants, you’ve cleaned out your locker along with your favorite team when the season ended. After investing nearly 200 days of the year to reaching the goal of a title only to fall short means now is the time to heal, rejuvenate and gear for next season. You’d just pay little to no attention to those still in the game.
They say that the only way to get on the news is for something bad. The unfortunate part is that these are two stories that overshadow some of the good that has transpired for both sports over the past few days. In a relatively quiet fashion, baseball has done something right for a change in extending the current CBA for another five seasons, avoiding the usual mudslinging and pretentious hatchet-burying at the eleventh hour. While it should be celebrated by all fans of the sport, it received about one-tenth of the attention of the first three weeks of the New York baseball offseason and one-twentieth of Rogers’ palm. As for the NFL, the Saints are off to an unexpected 5-1 start and the Jets could be 5-3 at the halfway point of the season. Yet, you wouldn’t know it because on sports editors’ desks across the nation are drafts on impending Terrell Owens’ blowups, another DUI in San Diego and Cincinnati and another Denny Green press conference. Actually, I think I’d like another classic loss-of-sanity briefing to the scribes.
Say What?!?!: Raiders. Cardinals. Dolphin Stadium. Miami. Super Bowl XLI. The Rematch. Stop laughing. Please, I’m dead serious.
posted by Jason Clinkscales @ 12:30 PM
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