We should enjoy that the best sport is finally back. Opening Day was a reminder that baseball is as strong as ever and that this sport has a way to bring you back to the days of playing catch with your father or playing a game of whiffleball with your friends. This game is beautiful and it is one that we all should sit back and enjoy. Let us not critique every single game down to its core because when you wake up the next day another game will be played that night. Baseball is unique in that it is one of the only sports that each team plays virtually every day. A team can take a loss, but then has a chance to do something about it because they play the same team the next day. It allows teams to correct their mistakes and immediately make a difference the next day. It takes a long time for a season to stabilize and for players’ stats to stabilize. Do not think that because Adam Wainwright gave up three runs in six innings that he will do that every time out, or that because Bryce Harper hit a home run in his game that he will hit one-hundred and sixty-two this year. Some people do make these sweeping generalizations and they are doing what I believe to be one of the worst things that a person can do when they talk about sports, have a hot take.
A hot take is usually described as a broad or bold generalization on a situation, with little or no original analysis, insight, or thought. Hot takes are abundant in the world, but they are especially bad in sports. If LeBron James has one game in the playoffs where he shoots 30% and his team loses, the sports media jumps to the conclusion that he isn’t clutch and his career is on a downward spiral. People will make an assumption based on little evidence and facts. Major League Baseball has a very long season that spans 162 games and 6 to 7 months. After one game the season is only .6% of the way through. You wouldn’t want somebody to judge you on .6% of something you do, yet we allow ourselves to get caught up in the fact that one game means that the season is over.
The St. Louis Cardinals lost their first game of the season on Sunday, April 3 by a score of 4-1. It was the first game of 162, but by the way some people were talking about it you would assume that the season was already in a tailspin. There were comments on how the Cardinals couldn’t hit and that their strikeout woes from a season ago are back. People were saying that the Cardinals have already been passed by the Pirates and that they should pray for even a chance at the wild card. There may be a time and place for that, but one game in is not the place. We should take into account that the Cardinals faced a pitcher in 40 degree weather that has a history of dominating the Cardinals. Francisco Liriano has a 2.38 ERA against the Cardinals since the beginning of 2013. The Cardinals collectively only bat .259 against him. This game can easily be attributed to Liriano just being his normal self against the Cardinals. The overreaction to one game against a dominating pitcher is something that should be taken with context. I am not saying that the Cardinals are guaranteed a playoff sport or that the Pirates won’t have a better record than the Cardinals, but I am saying that we should let the season decide that and not jump to conclusion based on a small sample size. We can’t evaluate the season after one game, one week, or even one month. It takes a significant amount of time for a baseball season to come into its own and we should enjoy that happening. No matter what happens to the Cardinals or any team, let us not jump to conclusions or have any hot takes until we have a clear understanding of what is happening.
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