What's got me on the ledge is not so much my teams losing, but the cruel, catastrophic way the losing is occurring after lofty expectations had been set. Let me explain:
Lofty Expectations: Coming off back to back 10 win seasons and a top 5 ranking to finish off the 2011 season, my Hogs looked like they were ready to join college football's elite. Bobby Petrino had established a winning system, and interest and fundraising had reached new highs and excitement around the program was peaking. Most 2012 prognosticators listed Arkansas as a pre-season top 10 team, and some even mentioned the Hogs as a dark horse national championship contender with two (QB Tyler Wilson and RB Knile Davis) Heisman candidates. Another Cotton Bowl birth seemed like the worst case scenario.
Nightmare Outcome: Petrino turned out to be a bigger scumbag than even his detractors thought. He was fired for hiring his mistress and lying to his boss about it. Nice-guy but over matched John L. Smith was brought in on a 10 month contract to "hold things together." A shocking lost to ULM and two conference blowouts later, the wheels have come off, and not only are the Hogs not going to contend for any title of any kind, they have almost no chance of going to any bowl.
Lofty Expectations: After back to back AL championships, the Rangers picked up coveted Japanese pitcher Yu Darvish and started the season on fire. Josh Hamilton was AL player of the month for April and May and was getting Triple Crown talk before Miguel Cabrera actually went and did it. From early April until game 162, the Rangers were in first place in the AL West, and most of the year in the top 3 in any power ranking you could find. It looked like it was the year to finish the job and get the World Series title that has yet eluded the franchise.
Nightmare Outcome: For four months, the Oakland A's would not...stop...winning. Despite the A's incredible hot streak, the Rangers managed to hold onto the division lead and only had to win one of three games against the A's in the season's last series to clinch the division. Not only did the Rangers get swept and lose the division on the last day of the season, they did it in frustrating fashion: blowing leads, errors, giving up two-out runs, and leaving a billion runners stranded on base. Now the Rangers have to win a wild card play in game to get to the real playoffs at all. The team looks gassed and defeated and are likely done.
Sports suck. I thought banging out this post would help me feel better. It didn't and I'm still despondent. Now, who feels sorry for me?
No comments:
Post a Comment