Expectations

Who is this article written for? There is always that guy who lives in his basement and does nothing but follow all sports. You may not know this guy because he rarely leaves his house. In fact, his family left him 2 years ago and he doesn’t know it yet. When he goes upstairs to make a sandwich he just thinks they went shopping. However, he recently noticed that his large stash of Hot Pockets in the freezer is almost gone.  

More commonly, these comments are for people who love all sports but have found some time to speak with the family for time to time.

Sports for the fans is ALL ABOUT EXPECTATIONS. If your team is not very good and you do not expect anything, any good game or good play is always appreciated. That fan is much more easily pleased. Look at this year’s Diamondbacks. Just 2 years ago they lost 110 games. If this team could have risen to 81 wins and no playoffs it would have been a great year. Now they are in the playoffs and have eliminated the Brewers and the Dodgers. THE DODGERS. THIS IS BY FAR THE BEST TEAM IN THE WEST. The D’backs should have been honored just to play against them.

Then consider those really strong team that are now home; the Braves, Dodgers, Yankees and  Mets, for example. These fans are furious and selling their hats and shirts in disgust and demanding managers, General Managers and players all get fired.. It isn’t about the results. It is all about expectations.

Consider the Padres fans. They spent a fortune and on paper had a team ready to dethrone the mighty Dodgers. They finished 18 games out of first and didn’t even make the playoffs as a wild card. For these fans it was a total tragedy. By September it was clear that the season was a loss, so they just turned their attention to other sports. Oh, wait a minute. San Diego has no football, basketball or hockey team. What to do now. They can watch beach volleyball or surfing contests. Or maybe they could just go outside and play some sports but that is really too weird.