As much as we love baseball, there are some things about the game (and all the frenzy around it) that can be just a bit tiring.
So we asked our staff a simple question:
Which baseball storyline are you just about sick of hearing about?
Kevin McGuire: I’m already annoyed with any talk about Bryce Harper’s and Manny Machado’s impending free agency, which is still more than a year away at this point. Constantly speculating where a player may sign more than a year away, to me, is grating and only takes away from the actual present. There is a reason for discussing such things because teams do still need to make moves to build for the present and the future, which means they need to determine how much they can commit to these uber-talented players. But we’ve been through this in the NBA and now it is leaking into MLB, and I do not like it.
Ian Casselberry: I kind of fight myself on this, but I’m tired of reading about Montreal getting a MLB expansion team. Yes, I get curious when I read reports of investor and government support in the city. And I understand the romance associated with the Expos. There is great baseball history in Montreal and an affection for the Expos teams of the ’80s. The 1994 Expos will always be one of the great “what if” stories in baseball.
But going back to Montreal feels like a step backward to me. I realize it’s Canada’s second biggest city, and this would qualify as baseball expanding internationally. However, I’d prefer baseball to really extend its reach. Markets such as Las Vegas, Portland, Austin, Charlotte, Nashville, Louisville and Columbus would love to have a team. Is Mexico City better for MLB long-term than Montreal? I’d rather read more about that than the nostalgia trip that Montreal often ends up being.
Joe Lucia: I’m pretty tired of all the articles trying to explain the spike in home runs, none of which really come to a solid conclusion. The first couple of these articles were fine and actually somewhat interesting, but now, it feels like we’re still asking a question that no one can really answer with any authority.
Matt Clapp: Describing a grand slam as a “papa slam.” I’m sick of the term, “papa slam.”
Alex Putterman: Back in 2014, Major League baseball held a bracket contest to determine the “Face of MLB.” The whole thing was a disaster, hijacked by Athletics reserve infielder Eric Sogard, who stormed to the final before narrowly losing to David Wright amid conspiracy theories. You might have thought that debacle would have ended all “face of baseball” debate, but it did not. That deeply vapid conversation continues.
It is now past time to stop bickering over who is the “face of baseball.” That’s an amorphous term meaning something different to everybody, and there’s certainly no law of the universe stating there has to be a single designated “face” of a sport at a given time. People act like baseball can’t survive unless it has a guy who dates celebrities and hosts SNL or something. It’s not true. Baseball has many great players, and we can appreciate all of them without worrying ourselves over who is the so-called “face.”
Liam McGuire: LaVar Ball.. whoops, wrong sport. Honestly, I get a bit tired of Joe Maddon and his antics. Like, I get by now that he’s quirky, but I don’t need to see how great he is for letting his team dress or how unorthodox his lineups are. He’s a good manager and a good dude, but sometimes I wish he’d just stay a little more behind the scenes.
Ryan Williamson: It’s amazing to me that there are so many interesting things going on in baseball, and yet we still have to dissect every little move Terry Collins makes. Other than the Matt Harvey situation, you hear about only Collins when there’s Mets talk. He’s always doing something wrong, whether it’s handling the bullpen, setting the lineup, etc. Let’s give it a rest, shall we? I get it’s New York, but the other team in the Big Apple has a nice story of their own this season.
