Super at the right time
by Joe DistelheimFebruary 06, 2012
The message may be: Never give up.
Or perhaps it's: We live in an age where mediocrity is good enough.
Over the past year in sports:
- The New York Giants won the Super Bowl after barely making the playoffs with a 9-7 regular-season record.
- Alabama won the college football championship, such as it is, after not even qualifying for the Southeastern Conference championship game.
- The Dallas Mavericks won the NBA championship after finishing second in their division.
- Connecticut won the NCAA basketball tournament after going 9-9 in the Big East.
- And finally, getting to our sport, the St. Louis Cardinals won the World Series after barely making the postseason, not winning their division and having only the eighth-best regular season record in the majors.
Joe Distelheim is chief copy editor for The Hardball Times website. He welcomes comments and suggestions via e-mail.
I agree wholeheartedly. The current trend of including more teams in playoffs will just dilute the significance of future champions even more as well as diminish the importance of regular seasons. Were the Cardinals and the Giants truly the best teams in their respective leagues? Or were they just the hottest? Seems unjust to me. On the other hand, everybody loves more playoff games nobody seems to mind. Sigh.