Perrotto on

Classic John Perrotto for this Ides of March.

The only tinny note in that screed is the part about the Bucs having no chance of competing this season. It's bitter hyperbole. Of course they have a chance. It's not wildly improbable that the Bucs surprise, win 89 games, the NL Central, and contend in a series or two. If this kind of thing never happened. sports would not be sports.

I'm trying to speak precisely here. You can say "no chance" as a shorthand for "longer odds than most," and that may be rhetorically effective, especially if, like Perrotto, you are trying to put them blame for twelve years of losing where it belongs. But it's still illiberal hyperbole. Even if a team has extremely slim odds - say four times worse than your 2005 Colorado Rockies - what's the point of shouting that from the rooftops? You might as well get a bullhorn and announce to the neighborhood that little Cindy's lemonade stand has no chance of recouping the start-up costs Dad invested in lumber, sugar, and lemons.

P.S. Whoa is Blogger jammed. If this post appears like a dozen times, that's because I'm re-sending the post every few minutes until it shows up. The gravy days of free Blogger may be behind us. The number of new blogs has grown exponentially over the last few months and they appear to have all they can handle.