A funny thing happened in horse racing today. The guaranteed, absolute lock, no doubt about it horse that was supposed to win the whole thing lost. Yep, all week long we were all but GUARANTEED a Triple Crown winner today. All week all I heard was that there was no way Big Brown could lose. Well, I heard the same thing about the Mets in 2006 and 2007. I heard the same thing about the Patriots in the Super Bowl. I heard the same thing about a whole lot of games, so how bout this, lets stop making guarantees already, kay? I mean it was groundbreaking when Namath did it. It was even pretty cool when Messier guaranteed that the Rangers would win. But now? Now we have lame ass horse trainers making guarantees. I think that is the very definition of “jumping the shark.”
For that matter, can we just put horse racing out to pasture along with boxing? I have had this argument with a lot of older relatives. They remember the days when horse racing and boxing were not only relevant, but important. They dominated headlines. The argument seems to be “but I grew up with horse racing and boxing!” Yes, you also grew up fearing the Russians and tolerating racism. Those things are also a thing of the past. To me, horse racing is just about as boring as it gets. Animals doing what animals do, running. I suppose if you bet on it, it might have some sort of charm, but I am too cheap to go to the casino twenty minutes away and play the penny slots, what makes you think I have a the slightest interest in going to the track?
Boxing has nearly killed itself with corrupt promoters and weak matchups. The heavyweight division, once dominated by greats, has become a parody of itself. Quick, who is the current heavyweight champion? Is it still the Russian guy? I have no idea. The other weight classes are just as much of a mess, made worse by the “retirement” (really, who believes this is it for him?) of Mayweather. I think he is a complete douchebag tool, but there is no denying he brought something to the sport. Now that that is gone, boxing seems to be on life support, and with MMA growing in popularity, they may well be the ones to pull the plug.
Finally, I should probably touch on something that happened with the Phillies last week. Charlie Manuel benched Jimmy Rollins for either being late, or not running out a ground ball (the reason escapes me at the moment). What I find hilarious is that there are some supposed sports experts screaming that this is a horrible move. That this will somehow cost the Phillies the season (even though, I am pretty sure they won the game he missed, and even if they didn’t, it was one loss). What kills me about this is Jimmy Rollins himself. He has no problem with the benching. Like he said, Charlie has two rules, be on time and hustle, I broke the rules, I got punished for it. What’s that? A professional athlete taking responsibility for his actions? The hell you say! I think now I understand why some of the sports folks are up in arms about this, it is so rare that they don’t know how to react to it.
Good for you MVP, you did something that was more impressive to me than a horse winning three races. You took responsibility for you actions. THAT is something that should be passed to our kids instead of tales of spending the day at a horse track with the winos or at a filthy gym watching two men pummel each other in a fixed fight.
