Sports cliches and why I hate them

[Javier]

I remember when Hugo Sanchez took over the national soccer team for Mexico, this guy would always say things like "if the team has the balls to go out there and win, they'll do it"  "with the right mindset, we can become World Cup championships". 

The right mindset?  Get the fuck out of here with that crap, seriously.  Playing with balls?  Like if the other professional athletes don't play with that type of shit.  I mean shit, these guys are PROFESSIONAL ATHLETES.  You don't get in that position without striving to be the best.  If motivational speaking works, then we'd have Tony Robbins hired by some sort of sports team. 

All of those adjectives are just made up by sports writers who are lazy and quickly want to find an answer to failure and come up with excuses , then they get repeated by sports fans everywhere and it becomes law. 

Let's take a look at Matt Kemp

2009 Gold Glove winner, but any person that follows any sort advance statistics on defense would tell you that Matt Kemp is an average or below average CF yet he won the Gold Glove last year.  The first few games of the season, Matt Kemp was questioned by the GM of the Dodgers.  He felt that he was basically playing with no heart because maybe the money he got in the off-season.  The reality is that we got to see why he's an average defender.  He's only been a full time baseball player since a HS Jr. or Sr., he's still developing instincts on the baseball field.  That's why he used to make a lot of baserunning mistakes, because of not being a natural baseball player at Tee Ball or Little League like others.  Which is the story that gets repeated the most by fans and the media?  The one that Kemp doesn't have it in him of course.  Not the logical answer!  There's a fear of coming up with logic to analyze sports. 

[Javier]

Here's another one:

Alex Rodriguez is a choke artist.  Any baseball fan that follows statistical analysis would have told you that for one, he's actually had success in the playoffs before 2009 early in his career.  And another thing, the playoffs can be too small of a sample size to rightfully judge a player's performance.  There's not enough data to be clear whether he is or not.  Clutch is just another lazy adjective that loves being in sports writers articles.  2009 playoffs happened, and quickly they tried to find a reason why he did good.  He must have gotten closer with Jeter was even said I believe.  He worked on his clutch ability, he got looser.  All sorts of BS.  People seemed to ignore that Alex Rodriguez is a fucking Hall of Fame batter that can play really damn good. 

[Shallow]

You're preaching to the choir over here. Look at SB 3. The only name you hear is Joe Namath like he put the team on his back and carried them. The Jets defense won that game and Joe Namath on his best day times ten would have collapsed against that Jets D that night. Sometimes you just get outplayed as a team. It has nothing to do with these stupid intangibles raising the team. The Colts this past Superbowl didn't need more heart, they needed a coach to call a blitz every now and then. Or in the Foreman/Ali fight, if George's stupid corner just told him in round 2 that chasing Ali around he ring is going to tire you out, you're the champ he needs to beat you, just stand in the centre and let him come to you, all that heart and clutchness in the world wouldn't have meant shit for Ali.