The Sour Grapes of Wrath

The world of sports falls into parallel with the world of cliches. Phrases such as 'they are feeling each other out', 'they are within striking distance' and 'that was a page right out of (insert team name or coaches' name here) play book' continue to riddle sports broadcasts. Yet the less common cliche that perfectly describes how players, fans, or in this particular case, management feels about an unfortunate event to befall their team is called sour grapes. And as the name implies, these grapes always fall from three different vines. One of these hypothetical vines is that an important player could not play due to injury, but team X would have beaten team Y if this player was healthy. There is also, the other team got all of the calls to go their way. Or in this particular situation, a player got away with some "stuff" and should have been punished for it.

But contrary to popular belief, it is not just the players and fans who are guilty of eating some off of some of the sour grape vines. Recently, San Fransisco Giants manager Brian Sabean had some rather harsh comments for Florida Marlins outfielder Scott Cousins. Sabean said of Cousins

"If I never hear from Cousins again, or he doesn't play another day in the big leagues, I think we'll all be happy." 

These comments came after Cousins collided with Giants catcher Buster Posey on this play that shattered Posey's ankle and ended his season.

Sabean went into that press conference with the right idea of sticking up for his guy, yet all that could be heard through the microphone was the regurgitation of sour grapes. The play itself was not a dirty, so questioning the character of Scott Cousins is out of line. It is one thing to hear these kind of comments on KNBR 680 AM from the thirty year old balding man who still lives in his mother's basement. But as the general manager to the San Fransisco Giants, Sabean has a responsibility to his organization to make sure he does not say anything inflammatory during the press conference. 

Now this collision at home plate did not end with the unprofessional comments from Sabean. The play at the plate also sparked a nation wide debate on if baseball should or should not change anything about collisions at the plate. What happened to Posey was extremely unfortunate for himself and for the Giants, but for baseball to get rid of the only form of contact between players in the game is a ludicrous idea. Compared to the vicious collisions in football, the aggressive checking in hockey, or even the hard fouls in basketball, collisions at the plate are nothing. In terms of contact, baseball is already the softest professional sport out there; and if baseball does change the rules against collisions at the plate, they might as well go ahead and change the uniforms so players look like this.

Frightening I know

There is a great deal of controversy that surrounds the daily grind of the sports world. And most of it stems from the vine of all evil: sour grapes.