A Question

If you follow a sport team, say baseball in this case, here's a question for you.

If the owners and management of the team fail to put together a roster of better than an average team but the players show streaks of alternating between playing over their heads, say winning 8 or so games in a row and then playing horribly, say losing 8 or so games in a row, do you:

a. root for the team because they're playing hard and it's the fate of baseball they'll never be a .500 team because the team as a whole just is just not that good compared to their division or their league, or

b. root for their opponents.

I ask this because if you root for the team, then that reinforces management they're doing a good enough job to fill the seats and win fans, and even if they haven't been over .500 for the year in more than a few years, that's all they'll do, field an average but noncompetitive team.

If you root for their opponents, then hope they see the problem isn't the coach and the players, they're doing their best and playing their hearts out and maybe replace the real source of the problem, the general manager and president of the team.

This is because it's those two idiots who put the team together and tell the manager, "This is what you get, make the best of it." And the coaches do, but the problem still remains, the two idiots didn't give the coach, the team and the fans more than an average team.

But if you root for the opponents hoping the owners will fire the two idiots, don't hold your breath. They're on longterm contracts which don't have results based cancellation clauses or incentives to do more than field an average team.

Meaning coaches can and are fired for poor results. Players are cut, traded or bought out if they don't perform on the field. But general managers and presidents don't have those clauses and aren't accountable for their results or salaries.

And this is why many teams are average or worse or fail to perform because of problems with players. And if you root for them, then there is no incentive for owners and management to change. The endless cycle of idiots running a baseball team. You get what you pay for.