Wednesday, January 23

Dumb sports axioms

Here are two sports cliches that I have a problem with:

1) "If you're not getting better, you're getting worse."
No, you're not; you're staying the same. This phrase is tossed around quite frequently during off-seasons when trades, free agency, drafts, and the like are taking place. While it's a remote possibility that the other twenty or thirty-odd teams in any particular league improved while you stood pat, it's about as likely as an *N Sync revival tour. Let's all agree to never use this sentence again.

2) "It's not how you start, it's how you finish."
This was one of Jim Thome's favorites, and he often used this phrase in an attempt to excuse one of his lousy Aprils, for which he was notorious. While I understand what Jim was trying to say, he doesn't do so effectively. You can finish as strongly as you like, but if you fell too far behind at the beginning, you're still screwed. If this phrase was altered to read, "It's not where you start, it's where you finish," then I might be on board.

3 comments:

Andy said...

If you ain't first, you're last.

Nick said...

Now that I agree with.

Mike @ MidwesternBite said...

Andy, have we talked before about, "The offense has been out there a long time. The defense must really be tired. Ipso facto, here comes a touchdown."

Hasn't the offense been on the field just as long and become just as tired? I realize that the defense has to react instead of act... and maybe that does make you slightly more fatigued... but enough to warrant such a commonly accepted piece of garbage like this?

I call shenanigans.