Read the Headline
If you listen to people who love sports or to sports shows on the radio or television, it's impossible to avoid hearing someone's opinion about who will win what and how they will win. We love, along with Las Vegas, playing at selecting winners and losers or setting up odds.
Some people delight in taking the contrary opinion. They relish the improbable. They root for the underdog, the come from behind win, the good feel. They ignore the pundits, eschew group wisdom, and rely on intuition.
When the 2013 Red Sox rooster appeared for the first time in spring training the local sports media dubbed 2013 as a "corrective year", one to diminish the stain of the 2012 season. The local media accepted the foregone conclusion of no post season and a middling team. Yet—that bearded crew went all the way to win the World Series.
The same sports writer who spent most of the baseball season decreeing gloom and doom for the Sox, but applauded their good character, now says the Patriots' season will end before they reach the Super Bowl. Las Vegas agrees. The statisticians who labor over reams of statistics agree.
Yet, there are those who argue that fate always intervenes. Look at the story—a team decimated by key injuries, reliant on young rookies, unsure about their place kicker after a recent injury—against a quarterback having his best year.
Now write the ending—against the odds they win. That's a better story. Visualize the headlines sprawled across the front page, accept the apologies of the media.
I like that story. Count me with those who believe in fairy tale endings.
Some people delight in taking the contrary opinion. They relish the improbable. They root for the underdog, the come from behind win, the good feel. They ignore the pundits, eschew group wisdom, and rely on intuition.
When the 2013 Red Sox rooster appeared for the first time in spring training the local sports media dubbed 2013 as a "corrective year", one to diminish the stain of the 2012 season. The local media accepted the foregone conclusion of no post season and a middling team. Yet—that bearded crew went all the way to win the World Series.
The same sports writer who spent most of the baseball season decreeing gloom and doom for the Sox, but applauded their good character, now says the Patriots' season will end before they reach the Super Bowl. Las Vegas agrees. The statisticians who labor over reams of statistics agree.
Yet, there are those who argue that fate always intervenes. Look at the story—a team decimated by key injuries, reliant on young rookies, unsure about their place kicker after a recent injury—against a quarterback having his best year.
Now write the ending—against the odds they win. That's a better story. Visualize the headlines sprawled across the front page, accept the apologies of the media.
I like that story. Count me with those who believe in fairy tale endings.
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