Sunday thoughts

 Reading through various blogs, twitter feeds, blogs and internet news articles this morning two things strike me:

(1) arrogance, to the point of disdain for your opponent, in the face of reality that that opponent can, indeed, compete with you, is so outside the scope of what sports is about that it SHOULD require one to question why they are even watching sport.  Yes, it is OK to root hard for your team, including shouting expletives at your TV/computer screen (don't know how I know that, I just do 😉).  But to try to demean or mock your opponent because you feel that you have to flaunt your supposed superiority and remind others of that supposed superiority is just not what sports is about.  People who do that, especially people in the public eye or positions of authority, should be ashamed of themselves and SHOULD...JUST...STOP.

(2) Posting pictures/videos/etc. of the disappointment that fans of other teams have when their team is beaten by another team, especially in dramatic fashion, is almost the textbook definition of trolling and doesn't become the person/people who are doing it.  As I was watching those clips I was thinking 'this is exactly how I might have reacted coming into a series as an overwhelming (at least in my mind) favorite.  Capturing that and even, to the eyes of others, reveling in that disappointment is just as bad as the superiority stuff I talked about in (1) above.

Yesterday I wrote Guardians fans should all be pulling in the same direction, rooting for their team and willing them, if that is truly possible, to continue winning.  This shows the team you are behind them and helps pick them up when they are tired and downtrodden.  In those caases, for those players, energy comes to those places at a time they didn't know they had any energy left.

I want us, as Guardians fans, to root for our team in the purest, most positive way.  I don't want us to be dragged down and reduced to taunting and trolling just because we know that the media, fans of SOME other teams and portions of the general public might think we don't have a chance and repeeatedly say that in very unflattering, insulting ways.  Now, I know that sounds all rainbows and unicorns but if can do that to the best of our abilities (trust me, I have been pulled into the darkness myself on occasion) in the end we will be proud of ourselves and make the success that we have even that much sweeter.

So, as we go into tonight's game I hope we all root for and revel in the successes the Guardians have had this year.   If we have no other blessings in our lives we have, this year, truly been blessed, as Guardians fans, to have a team like this play for our city.

I will end by saying that, among other things, I am thankful I have the ability to turn down the sound on the TV and listen to Tom Hamilton and co.  His calls of important moments raise my spirits up.  I have listened, over the past 65 years, to broadcasters in a lot of cities and his energy, his enthusiasm for his team and his overall mastery of his craft are, to me, HOF-worthy.   The only negative thing I will say in this post is that I am, even more this morning, thoroughly disgusted with the national TV broadcast team doing this series.  Their comments after the game last night about how the Yankees are better than the Guardians with the Guardians only winning because they are hot right now, how the Yankees are only losing because of the bad luck they have had with injuries and how Cole was paid the big bucks to make this team win and needs to do so in game 4 are EXACTLY what I would expect to hear from a hometown broadcast of the game.  That is, they are 'homer' comments.   To hear those from broadcasters of a national media outlet who, in theory, should be neutral, is absolutely and positively disgusting to me and that network and those broadcasters should be ashamed of themselves and should apologize, on the air tonight, for the tone in which they are broadcasting and how demeaning they are, even by their silence, of the Cleveland Guardians.  Note that I heard very little during the broadcast about how the Dodgers suck, how the Braves suck, how the Mets suck because they lost.   Just the Yankees.  People, be better than that and at least be somewhat neutral...and apologize that you haven't been up to this point,