I’m not a fan of New Year’s resolutions. Or the calendar.
They’re both self-sabotage mechanisms that prevent us from embracing the potential of every new day. You can make improvements Feb. 19, April 3 or Aug. 6 with every bit as much life-altering efficiency as on Jan. 1.
But, when in Rome …
Sports always have tried to squeeze themselves into that box. Play of the Year. Game of the Year. That, despite baseball being the only major team sport that isn’t split up by an off-key warbling of “Auld Lang Syne.”
How shall I try to improve my sports fan experience in 2017? Allow me:
— Trust Bill Belichick. I know people who absolutely lost their minds when the New England Patriots’ mastermind shipped Jamie Collins to football Siberia in return for four Rock and Roll Hall of Fame passes and six rolls of athletic tape.
They acted as if they had never seen this movie. There is always a reason. If a player is disruptive to team chemistry, or if Belichick sees the chance to obtain tangible value for him now that he won’t get later, that dude is gone.
With the exception of Tom Brady and maybe Rob Gronkowski (and you likely know my evolving position on the oft-injured latter), there has been no such thing as an untouchable Patriot this century, and there will be no such animal under Belichick’s watch. Safe to say he’s earned the benefit of the doubt.
— Don’t jump all over Chris Sale after his first mediocre start. The number of fans who act as if 2004, 2007 and 2013 never happened shouldn’t startle me, but it does.
They greet every maneuver by the Boston Red Sox front office with full-on, curse-of-the-Bambino pessimism. They truly believe Clay Buchholz will turn into a year-in, year-out, 18-game winner now that he’s wearing a different uniform. They act as if the meter’s running the minute any free agent acquisition doesn’t appear to earn the Monopoly money he’s getting.
How about we extend Sale the courtesy we didn’t offer David Price last year and let him adjust to Fenway Park, the Boston fishbowl and all its absurd expectations?
— Try to pay more attention to the Boston Celtics. I was a little embarrassed after hearing that Isaiah Thomas scored 52 points Friday night against the Miami Heat, because I realized that I wasn’t sure I would recognize the guy if I tripped over him.
This has nothing to do with my leaving the New England media market, either. With the notable exception of the 2008 and 2009 C’s that returned star power and championship greatness to the Gah-den, I stopped paying attention to the guys in green and the NBA in general a long time ago.
I clung to the position that high school and college were more fundamentally sound and a better representation of basketball the way God and Dr. Naismith intended. Clearly this is closed-minded, and I’m probably cheating myself. I’m a fan of what Brad Stevens accomplished as a college coach, and my limited attention to the next level tells me I like the culture he has created in Boston.
It’s probably time to abandon my ‘it’ll-never-be-like-the-’80s-again’ stance and give these guys my full faith and support.
— Avoid ESPN for anything but live game coverage. Even the latter has become an excruciating experience. Did anybody catch the Duke-Virginia Tech basketball game Saturday? The network split the screen so we could watch the action on one side and observe the emotions of the Devils’ suspended star Jack Tripper … um, I mean Grayson Allen … on the other.
If you don’t think such coverage of a mildly troubled 20-year-old is sensationalized beyond belief, then you’re part of the problem. This is consistent with how once-great ESPN manipulated the “news” of the Patriots’ air pressure situation. Don Henley’s decades-old “kick ’em when they’re up, kick ’em when they’re down” lyric couldn’t be any more applicable.
The network once known for turning highlights into an art form now figures out who are the most polarizing entities in sports, and it hyper-analyzes and distorts every story involving those teams or players beyond recognition in this clickbait world of ours.
Don’t know about you, but I can no longer give that sort of foolishness my endorsement. Call it self-serving if you will, and I know writers aren’t perfect, but I intend to obtain more of my sports news this year via reading. Do the same. I promise it will be good for your sanity.
Kalle Oakes is a 27-year veteran of the Sun Journal sports department. He is now sports editor of the Georgetown (Kentucky) News-Graphic. You can reach him by email at kaloakes1972@yahoo.com.
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