It’s funny how fans of local pro sports teams moan when an athlete rejects the opportunity to play in the New York or Philadelphia area because of the intense scrutiny they face. For some playing in a market with less media
exposure and fan expectations is actually an easy choice even if it means leaving dollars on the table. Other athletes feel they are up to the challenge
and with the help of a big contract will decide to tackle the “Big Apple” or
“City of Brotherly Love.”
You only have to look at what’s happened during this baseball season to see
that while winning is important sometimes the price just might be too high.
The Yankees, Mets and Phillies are all off to slower starts than expected for a variety of reasons including injuries, underachieving performances and some questionable personnel decisions. However with about 75% of the schedule still left all three are very much alive when it comes to division and wild card races but many fans are acting like the season is all but shot. To
add to that there has been quite a bit of negativity associated with the teams
which has made for a rather depressing spring.
Let’s start with the Yankees and their 26 World Championships. Getting to the playoffs every year since 1996 wasn’t good enough so manager Joe Torre was replaced by Joe Girardi. Word was that Torre’s spring training was like a country club so Girardi made the players work much harder….some complained and others blamed injuries and slow starts on all the hard work. Young pitchers expected to deliver have not, veteran players have looked old at times and there’s front office dissension. Across town you have a Mets team that still has not erased the memory of last season’s September collapse and the first 43 games has feature inconsistency, controversy, calls for manager Willie Randolph to be fired and a Shea Stadium atmosphere that is not exactly a home field advantage. In Philadelphia the mood has been a little better with the Flyers going late into the hockey playoffs plus the Phillies overcame a slow start last year to win a division title. However fans are getting a bit restless and slugger Ryan Howard is hearing the boo-birds for the first time and the optimism of March is being replaced with pessimism in May.
It all makes you understand a bit why life in places like St. Louis, Cincinnati
and Arizona may not be so bad after all.
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