Come on man. The team(s) that should have won, did. Luck played zero factor in anything. The Reds controlled their own destiny and choked it away. It really is that simple.
Making excuses, passing the buck, and shifting the locus of control to unforseen forces, like "destiny" or "fate" or "pre-destination" doesn't fly.
If the boys play like they're capable, they will be in good shape. If they shy away from the moment, their golf season will start early again.
Randomness/luck and fate/destiny are the exact opposite. In no way are they related. The Giants were not the best team in the NL this year. The Nats were better, the Reds were better. The Tigers were not the best team in the AL last year. They weren't even the best team in there division until late in the year when the Sox fell off a bit. They just played better in the post season, a sample size which is a small fraction of a 162 game season.
Luck playing a significant factor in all sports playoffs systems is actually a fairly common concept. Saying "The Reds controlled their own destiny and choked it away. It really is that simple." isn't really adding to your argument either. A team choking away a series to me infers that THAT is the team that should have won, and they just couldn't put it away (like the Yankees in 2004). I am in no way trying to "pass the buck". The Giants won the WS, and they were a good team. They beat the Reds in a fairly played short series. I was making a statement about the volatiliy of tournament systems in sports and you turned it into some sort of attack on the Giants.
Do you think that the Cards were the best team last year? The Giants the year before? The Marlins in 97/03? How many times has a wild card team won the WS over the past few years?
They're all terms used to get around taking responsibility for poor play when used in terms of competition. Acceptable in poker I guess, but not in baseball.
"Best" is a subjective term and I shouldn't have used it. My bad. In all those examples, the team that should have won did. They scored more runs before making 27 outs.
I know I've derailed the thread but I see "luck" thrown around in here all the time and gets me worked up.
Cueto getting hurt and the Reds activating Leake is due to injury. AKA bad luck. THe REds did not plan on having Leake on their roster but had to activate him. That is not choking it away, that is getting your Ace hurt and activating a guy not on the 25 man roster. Yeah, there were other things to, but you gotta admit this could be considered "bad luck". ALso, I am all for accountability and owning up, where it applies. Not in that circumstance.
Bring on 2018! #%?*!
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