Baseball writers, take a breather
There is a terrific argument to be made that professional wrestlers need an off-season. Wrestlers have to work year-round, but their biggest show is at a specific point of the year. (For the WWE, for instance, the entire year climaxes at WrestleMania.) This leads to a 12-month cycle with a terrific peak... and lows that are pretty obviously time-fillers and time-wasters.
When people are paid to work but have nothing to do other than, as Red Barber would put it, destroy time, there are consequences: For wrestlers, fatigue sets in. For others -- like, say, baseball writers -- when there's nothing important around to write and report about, other matters start looking far more important. In both cases, at the very least, you forget that you love your job.
Baseball writers, thus, have been concentrating on...
* Alex Rodriguez, Anthony Bosch, and Rob Manfred, coming off of the report on "60 Minutes."
* The Hall of Fame, the Hall of Fame process, and future Hall of Fame candidates.
* Masahiro Tanaka, and Masahiro Tanaka's wife
* Arbitration cases, and players signing contracts to avoid arbitration cases
* Derek Holland tripping over his dog
* Chone Figgins and Johnny Damon planning a return to MLB, much like Mark Mulder
You know what? None of this, with the exception of Holland's injury (and whenever/wherever Tanaka signs) is all that important.
Note: Reading about the Hall of Fame process would be a heck of a lot more important if the writers actually agreed with Dan Le Batard that it was broken. They don't They agree with Ken Rosenthal that the system only needs a little adjusting, so get on it and turn your attention to something else. We'll have this self-same debate next year.
This is a dead time for baseball, located between the Hall of Fame voting results and pitchers/catchers reporting. Fatigue is possible, a la wrestlers, but I would worry more about baseball writers trying to search for importance and significance where there is none. It can't help to have bosses and editors looking for hits and attention. Twitter especially has not helped in turning non-stories into blow-ups.
So, hey, take a break. Check back in if something important happens, but for now take a few weeks off -- you're entitled. When spring training rolls around, your energy will be refreshed and the climate will be much warmer.
Hope your family won't mind.
When people are paid to work but have nothing to do other than, as Red Barber would put it, destroy time, there are consequences: For wrestlers, fatigue sets in. For others -- like, say, baseball writers -- when there's nothing important around to write and report about, other matters start looking far more important. In both cases, at the very least, you forget that you love your job.
Baseball writers, thus, have been concentrating on...
* Alex Rodriguez, Anthony Bosch, and Rob Manfred, coming off of the report on "60 Minutes."
* The Hall of Fame, the Hall of Fame process, and future Hall of Fame candidates.
* Masahiro Tanaka, and Masahiro Tanaka's wife
* Arbitration cases, and players signing contracts to avoid arbitration cases
* Derek Holland tripping over his dog
* Chone Figgins and Johnny Damon planning a return to MLB, much like Mark Mulder
You know what? None of this, with the exception of Holland's injury (and whenever/wherever Tanaka signs) is all that important.
Note: Reading about the Hall of Fame process would be a heck of a lot more important if the writers actually agreed with Dan Le Batard that it was broken. They don't They agree with Ken Rosenthal that the system only needs a little adjusting, so get on it and turn your attention to something else. We'll have this self-same debate next year.
This is a dead time for baseball, located between the Hall of Fame voting results and pitchers/catchers reporting. Fatigue is possible, a la wrestlers, but I would worry more about baseball writers trying to search for importance and significance where there is none. It can't help to have bosses and editors looking for hits and attention. Twitter especially has not helped in turning non-stories into blow-ups.
So, hey, take a break. Check back in if something important happens, but for now take a few weeks off -- you're entitled. When spring training rolls around, your energy will be refreshed and the climate will be much warmer.
Hope your family won't mind.
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