Not much to add

Not much blogging from me as I've been busy with work and, when I have time, preparations for a roto draft. Not much to say anyway. Much of what's out there is barely worth notice. It's irritating to read theories on the perpetual inferiority of the Pirates organization after the first two games of the season. Writers could save it for mid-season or, if they have balls, publish the week before the season. Waiting until the Bucs lose the first two in disappointing fashion strikes me as cowardly and dishonorable. Cowardly because it's opportunistic, in that I-told-you-so-kind-of-way. It also smacks of greater self-delusion than clearmindedness - as though the writer needed the two disappointments to get his wisdom out there. To me it comes across as proudly wagering against a football team after they have fumbled the opening kickoff, and doing so with a big speech about how you've been studying them for a long time and knew they'd fumble the opening kickoff.

I also find the piling-on to be dishonorable. The fans just endured two nasty disappointments - is that time to kick them in the 'nads with your crackpot pessimism, or your feebleminded application of theories from Ayn Rand? Is the pleasure of insult that irresistible?

There is an extremely high frequency, in today's written ephemeral journalism, of taunting. Taunting and outrage, taunting and outrage. Scathing attacks. It's all we know for debate, especially and ironically when the subject is trivial. I could go on with this, and apply it to a wide range of amateur and professional writing that, at times, infuriates me, but why bother? I would have to give up reading if I thought too much about it. And of course I can't pretend to be much above it myself.

So, whatever. Play ball.

Generally then I'm not paying much attention to anything but what happens on the field. I'd hate to see them fall more than four games back in April. That I admit. That's more or less what I'm looking at - can they finish the month at or near .500? I feel like those are pretty low expectations. So long as they hang close, I'm following the games and waiting to see what the record will be after nineteen or twenty-one games.

One other thing. I don't think the injuries do much to hurt the team - we have "flexibility" galore - except insofar as the team is now much more exposed to the damage another injury or two might do. Did that make sense? I'm not sure it did, but there it is.