Friday, June 20, 2008
Accentuate the positive
It's interesting to me when writers, announcers and commentators make negative comments about a player. When I say "negative comments," I'm not just talking about a person making an error or a bad pitch/play/swing, but actually criticizing a player's personality or ability when they have never met or consistently seen a player perform in person.
If a player makes a good play or is playing well, why not talk about what that person has done well? Why put the focus on what the player isn't doing or can't do? In our Tuesday night game against the Giants, Ryan Raburn and Marcus Thames both homered in the game. Raburn's home run came during a pinch-hit at-bat to give us a 2-1 lead, and Thames' came later in the game to extend the lead and make it five consecutive games with a home run for him.
The next day in a San Francisco newspaper on the front page of the sports section, there was a story about the game. When it came to the part about Raburn, the story says he is a "scrub" who came off the bench to hit a home run. It also mentions that Thames was an all-or-nothing guy.
I don't see how you can say that a major league utility player like Raburn -- who just hit a go-ahead home run off the bench -- is a scrub, or how a player like Thames -- who has played left field, right field, first base and DH -- is an all-or-nothing player. When other guys are hitting home runs and have a lower batting average than Thames, they are called power hitters. Raburn doesn't play everyday, and that's how he should have been referred to, not as a scrub.
It may seem as if I'm being biased toward my team, but recently I have seen this happening with players around the league. When I was watching ESPNews the other day, Michael Bourn, an outfielder for the Astros, made a great play to rob the Orioles' Nick Markakis of a home run. And instead of just commenting about the great catch, they also mention that Bourn can't hit a lick. Again, the highlight was a great defensive play; why not just talk about the great play?
In all three of these cases, the players made great plays or had big hits, and instead of just complimenting their performance, people found a way to spin it into a negative. The media plays an important role, not just in sports, but in society. Giving your opinion is one thing. Name-calling is another, and editors shouldn't so easily allow it in their publications. Calling a professional athlete a "scrub" would be one of those cases.
