Best Sports Journalism of 2013 - Part 5 of 5

All year long I’ve been reading great sports journalism online to recommend to the followers of my podcast’s (Basement Sports) Facebook fanpage. I’m a writer and a huge sports fan, so the two mingling together to form great journalism has always mesmerized me. The year has truly seen some great sports writing, and I wanted to share the best of the best that I’ve read from 2013.

Over the next few days I will be unveiling the ‘25 Best Sports Writing Articles of 2013’ from the many that I have read. While I’ve read more than 100 fine pieces this year I’m sure that some truly fantastic online sports writing has slipped through my grasps, so I do apologize if an obvious piece of great sports writing has been omitted.

In the final part of this five-part list are excellent works on the national Skee-ball championships (yes, that exists), a mother’s plea to Johnny Manziel to change his bad boy ways, the uncovering of Manti Te’o’s fake dead girlfriend, the unique way of re-telling a season-changing play and the Amish’s love of baseball.

5. "Grand-torino: Shane sends Sox to Series"by Providence Journal's Brian MacPherson (October 20)

Providence Journal sports writer Brian MacPherson gets my award this season for the most interesting coverage of a big play or event with the incredibly unique and to my knowledge original way he covered Boston Red Sox outfielder Shane Victorino’s game-winning grand slam in the American League Championship Series that sent the Red Sox to the World Series and an eventual championship. MacPherson was able to capture the grand slam from the viewpoint of many throughout the stadium, including players and coaches in the dugout, bullpen and clubhouse, as well as executives of the team in their offices or team suites. The unique perspective given of the play from those within its vicinity really sets this article apart from the rest of the field.

4. "Manti Te’o’s Dead Girlfriend, The Most Heartbreaking And Inspirational Story Of The College Football Season, Is A Hoax" by Deadspin's Timothy Burke and Jack Dickey (January 16)

This rather extensive expose from Deadspin’s Timothy Burke and Jack Dickey is quite likely the most read bit of sports journalism from 2013 as the duo uncovered the highly odd and controversial story of former Notre Dame Heisman candidate linebacker Manti Te’o’s dead girlfriend being a complete hoax. The Te’o girlfriend hoax would quickly become one of the most overplayed and annoying sports stories of the year and be supremely embarrassing to Te’o himself, but the initial story proves to be one of the most stellar and important sports journalism pieces of 2013.  

3. "At the Skee-ball Super Bowl" by The Classical's Sean Hojnacki (June 27)

Who doesn’t enjoy a good game of Skee-ball every now and then? According to The Classical’s Sean Hojnacki in his great firsthand piece of the Brewskee-Ball National Championship in Austin, Texas some people take the arcade game extremely serious. This piece is fascinating for similar reasons as John Metcalfe’s piece at The Atlantic on thumb wrestling championships, which appeared earlier on this list. Much like the thumb wrestling championship, the Skee-ball championship features unique individuals with nicknames like Joey the Cat and Snakes on a Lane. The fact that something of this caliber takes place annually was incredibly appealing to me.  

2. "An Open Letter to Johnny Manziel" by My Sacred Hideaway's Beth Bates (August 31)

“An Open Letter to Johnny Manziel” is almost certainly the only piece of sports writing on this list that was not actually written by either a journalist or a published writer … in fact, it was written by a Texas mom in her blog. That fact really makes the entire thing more interesting, impressive and just all-around perfect. The blog post is Beth Bates’ open letter to 2012 Heisman Trophy winner and Texas A&M college football quarterback Johnny Manziel on his attitude, and the fact that he’s being a horrible role model to children, like her son, who idolize him. Hopefully Manziel somehow got a chance to read this piece, because it was advice that he really needed to hear.

      1. "The Boys of Lancaster: There's a genius to the way the Amish play baseball" by New Republic's Kent Russell (March 22)

One of the things that will most draw me to a sports journalism piece is its uniqueness. I don’t believe that I read anything quite as unique and interesting this year as Kent Russell’s story on Amish baseball for New Republic. The story of this fantastic bit of culture from Russell’s trip to Lancaster County, Penn. is one that captured me immediately and wouldn’t let go until I had finished. I had never thought of Amish playing sports before, but as Russell states in his piece Amish and baseball seem to be a perfect fit. “’The Amish play baseball! Of course they do.’” The story of this community’s love for the game is well-worthy of the number one spot on this year’s best sports journalism of 2013 list.

Best Sports Journalism of 2013 - Part 1 of 5

All year long I’ve been reading great sports journalism online to recommend to the followers of my podcast’s (Basement Sports) Facebook fanpage. I’m a writer and a huge sports fan, so the two mingling together to form great journalism has always mesmerized me. The year has truly seen some great sports writing, and I wanted to share the best of the best that I’ve read from 2013.

Over the next few days I will be unveiling the ‘25 Best Sports Writing Articles of 2013’ from the many that I have read. While I’ve read more than 100 fine pieces this year I’m sure that some truly fantastic online sports writing has slipped through my grasps, so I do apologize if an obvious piece of great sports writing has been omitted.

In part one of this five-part list are fine writings on the unsung heroes of NASCAR, the dying out of a controversial Spanish tradition, a Cooperstown weekend where no living hall of famers were inducted, a wild-and-wacky college football game that’s almost too unbelievable to believe and the sad tale of an auto racing legend who’s pain became too much for him to bear.

Click on the article title to read ...

25. "Life of a NASCAR hauler driver" by TheTrucker's Aprille Hanson (July 2)

I must first get this little disclaimer out of the way … Aprille Hanson is my girlfriend, but as anybody who truly knows me knows this would not be a good enough reason for me to stick an article written by her on my list of the finest sports journalism of 2013. Hanson’s piece stands out on its own and the reason it makes this list is because it’s an incredibly interesting aspect of a sport that’s almost never seen or talked about … the NASCAR hauler driver. Hanson shows us that NASCAR hauler drivers, with their colorful personalities and even more colorful nicknames like “Pickle,” are the unsung heroes of the sport of NASCAR.

24. “But It Did Happen” by Grantland’s Brian Phillips (October 25)

Grantland’s Brian Phillips’ recounting of an unbelievably crazy college football game 45 years ago between Tulsa and Houston that featured a future NFL head coach, a future country music star and may or may not have featured TV’s Dr. Phil McGraw is a must-read for its sheer wackiness and the fact that, at least to my knowledge, such an unusual game as this has never been recounted.

23. "Adiós, Spanish bullfighting?" by Salon'sGuy Hedgecoe  (June 23)

Bullfighting is a sport that fascinated the great Ernest Hemingway, who’d write about it multiple times in his works, but one of this year’s great sports articles came from Salon’s Guy Hedgecoe about how the controversial Spanish tradition is dying out in Spain due to protests from animal rights activists and a bad economy.

22. "Village of the Damned: Cooperstown 2013"by Grantland.com's Bryan Curtis (July 29)

Grantland’s Bryan Curtis’ piece on a baseball hall of fame class in Cooperstown, N.Y. in which not a single living soul was being inducted is interesting because it allows us to delve into the politics of hall of fame voting, the camaraderie of the living hall of famers coming back each year to take part in the celebrations and the always entertaining Pete Rose, who should be in the hall, signing autographs across town on the weekend of the ceremony.  

21. "Elegy of a race car driver: The good times,hard life, and shocking death of Dick Trickle" by SBNation's JeremyMarkovich (July 30)

Jeremy Markovich of SBNation wrote this beautifully sad piece on the great short track auto racer Dick Trickle, who became a sports punchline for his name, but meant so much more to the racing industry and fans of the sport throughout the country. The story perfectly captures Trickle’s legacy, what he meant to fellow drivers like Rusty and Kenny Wallace and the pain he felt toward the end of his life before the moment he decided to end it all.  

Hog Hell

It seemed like an incredibly fitting end to the Arkansas Razorbacks’ season. The team looked in control for much of their contest against the number 17 ranked LSU Tigers on Friday (Nov. 29) only to have their seemingly first conference win of the season, in their final game of the season, blown by an easy 49-yard pass by freshman backup quarterback Anthony Jennings, who had just entered the game for injured starter Zach Mettenberger to a laughably wide open receiver Travin Dural. Then with a final opportunity to retake the lead and win the game Razorbacks sophomore quarterback Brandon Allen fumbled away their chances. He must really like cleaning egg off of his pickup truck.

After two seasons in Hog Hell, you would think that Razorbacks fans would be getting pretty accustomed to watching losing teams, but they still seem to be dumbfounded by the team’s struggles and enveloped in a combination of anger, sadness and obnoxious delusion (which I’ve found is not uncommon for Hogs fans whether their favorite team is 10-2 or 2-10).

Maybe it’s just because I’ve lived in the state of Arkansas for the majority of my life, and maybe similar things occur everywhere (although from what I’ve read and seen, it doesn’t appear to be as bad elsewhere) but it often appears as if the majority of the Razorbacks fanbase has an unhealthy relationship with their favorite college football team and almost always have unrealistic expectations and incredibly homer-ish (the inability to be objective about one’s favorite sports team) attitudes toward the Razorbacks.

Razorbacks fans thought that last season’s 4-8 (2-6 in SEC play) team under interim head coach John L. Smith, who took over following the controversial (even though it shouldn’t have been and only was in the state of Arkansas) firing of Bobby Petrino, was the real year in Hog Hell. Many thought that the hiring of Wisconsin head coach Bret Bielema would automatically transform the Razorbacks back into a winning football teams with aspirations of a good bowl game or at least any bowl game.

These aspirations are typical bits of the sort of delusions of grandeur that Razorbacks fans spout off each season. Certainly a team coming off one of its worst seasons in school history under a new coach, new system and many new players would not be successful enough to make a bowl appearance in a rebuilding year. That never happens (unless you’re apparently coached by Gus Malzahn). But, many Razorbacks fans just knew it would.

What happened instead was an even worse year in Hog Hell than the previous season as Bielema lead the Razorbacks to a 3-9 record and the school’s first ever winless SEC slate in his first season at the helm. The team won its first three games of the season over cupcake schools like Louisiana-Lafayette, Samford and Southern Mississippi (and wasn’t that impressive looking much of the time) only to lose their remaining nine games of the season consecutively by being outscored by a whopping 172 points in the process.    

Now these numbers shouldn’t be all that alarming for fans in what is a rebuilding season, but fans either didn’t expect the team to have the usual hiccups of a rebuilding season or they simply didn’t understand what rebuilding seasons are. One year is much too little of a sample size, but there’s honestly no telling how Bielema will do in the long run as head football coach at the University of Arkansas. Yet, many in the fanbase already want his head on a stick or to be run out of town. And, many who expect the Razorbacks to win constantly and act as if they have never seen their favorite team utterly suck before (have they already forgotten the previous season?) feel like they have the right to egg the pickup truck of “their” team’s quarterback.

This is where we run into some of the biggest problems and delusions that are a part of much of the Razorbacks’ fanbase.

Razorbacks fans have this way of acting like their favorite team is a national powerhouse that is supposed to win every game they play no matter the opponent. They believe the team is supposed to be treated like they are on the same stage as Alabama, Ohio State, Oklahoma, etc. However, the team is simply not a national powerhouse and rarely, if ever, has been. In the era of the BCS rankings they have never been ranked as the best team in the country or the second best even for a week. In the team’s 100-plus year history it has won one national championship, almost a half century ago in 1964, a decent 13 conference titles, but none in their 20-plus year history in the SEC and has only produced a relatively miniscule two Pro Football Hall of Famers. Yet, the fans act like the team is one of God’s gifts to college football.

Why?

This gets us to another major problem with much of the fanbase, or so I’ve been told. Multiple people have told me before that the Razorbacks have such a crazy fanbase because it’s the only major sports team in a state without any professional sports teams and really other big college teams. The “only team in the state” theory somewhat makes sense, but doesn’t mean the fanbase has the right to shut their brains off when it comes to their favorite team. Part of the reason Hogs fans are often so delusional is just a part of dealing with sports fans, who are often the least objective and reasonable people on the planet, but, once again, it would seem that the Razorbacks’ fanbase is worse than most. Razorbacks fans often act like they own some stake in their favorite team; like they are a part of their favorite team. This is why when things don’t go well with the team they feel they have the right to do things like egg the QB’s truck. It’s also why they feel they have the right to call analysts and experts like Tim Brando and Kirk Herbstreit names and mercilessly bully them on social media sites like Twitter simply for giving their opinions on the Razorbacks or for predicting them to lose a football game. Many Razorbacks fans take it personally when somebody says something about their favorite team, as if it’s a part of them. They truly feel offended if somebody was to pick an opponent to win a game over the Razorbacks or if somebody says something even the slightest bit negative about their favorite team.  Many will absolutely hate every single thing I’ve written here.  

This is the type of delusion that leads to years in Hog Hell like the last two. People believe that because it’s the Arkansas Razorbacks they are supposed to always play well, win games, never have losing seasons, never be talked negatively about and compete for national championships (even though they’ve hardly ever done this last thing). When the team ends up with one of its worst seasons in the history of the school like this season people freak out, even though years like this should be expected and in rebuilding years, especially. Being a fan of a sports team is a great thing and a fan’s loyalty to that team is sacred. However, sports fans should desperately attempt to be a little more reasonable about their favorite teams and Arkansas Razorbacks fans seem to be one of the fanbases in this country most in need of this lesson.  

Five Dumbest Tweets from Arkansas Razorbacks Fans Today

This is going to be wildly unpopular, but I’m going to do it anyway.

I have perused through mass amounts of Arkansas Razorbacks fan tweets today regarding the Razorbacks opening week 34-14 win over Louisiana-Lafayette and have chosen the five dumbest tweets (plus, one honorable mention and two tweets that I liked). Now, there have probably been over one million tweets today regarding the Arkansas Razorbacks. I obviously can’t read every single one of them – most of them aren’t interesting anyway - so the chances that I’ve actually found the five dumbest tweets are pretty slim, but this is certainly a good sampling.

5. This was one of the BEST Saturdays I've had in a while! The hogs won, I got to eat wings, I got new undies and yoga pants from VS(: (@BbyGrl1024)

My Thoughts: This one’s pretty self-explanatory. A classic example of too much information. Also, doesn’t sound like it takes a whole lot to thrill @BbyGrl1024.

4. ARKANSAS RAZORBACKS SPANKED SOME LOUISIANA A** (@Iam4tography)

My Thoughts: A 20-point win does not qualify for “spanked some ass” territory. You have to win by at least four touchdowns to be in the “spanked some ass” league. Plus, a SEC team (even one that’s predicted to be toward the bottom of the conference) should beat Louisiana-Lafayette by more than 20 points. This wasn’t one of the easier “cupcake” matchups this week, by any means, but it’s still in “cupcake” territory.    

3. Brandon Mitchell broke his foot. Shouldn't have transferred from the hogs (@codyadcock22_)

My Thoughts: Yes, because football players don’t fracture their feet in Fayetteville. Foot fractures in the NCAA only occur in North Carolina.

2. Hogs down the Cajuns!!!! 34-14 Suck on that @KirkHerbstreit!!! #WPS #NeverYield (@Carter12Chris)

My Thoughts: This was the most popular topic of Hogs fan stupidity today. Apparently on one of the ESPN shows either last night or this morning ESPN college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit (a guy who seems to be well-respected in his business) predicted that Louisiana-Lafayette would upset the Razorbacks. This, of course, did not happen so Razorbacks fans took it upon themselves to taunt, name call and accuse Herbstreit of being bad at his job. Listen up, Hogs fans. Sports analysts get paid a lot of money to make predictions because they know what they are talking about and they use their experience, expertise, mixed in with objectivity to make reasoned predictions or opinions. These guys obviously aren’t always going to be accurate with their predictions. That doesn’t mean that they are bad at their job. That doesn’t mean you get the right to call them names. That doesn’t mean that they should have to apologize to you as a member of the fanbase. You shouldn’t be offended when somebody chooses your favorite sports team to lose. It’s just part of their job. It’s infuriating to read the hatred toward Herbstreit today from Hogs’ fans. I chose this one because it was typical of many of the posts, but the one Hogs fan who suggested that Herbstreit “eat a bag of ‘D’” for his wrong prediction has a special place in my dumbass fan hall of fame.  

1.       Lets get real here. Georgia sucks. Aaron Murray sucks. SEC east sucks. The hogs will go undefeated and win natty champ. (@jtommills_)

My Thoughts: My favorite type of sports fan is the delusional sports fan. All fan bases have them. The Razorbacks seem to stockpile them. This guy is the absolute definition of a delusional sports fan. He claims the Hogs will go undefeated and win the national championship. You can’t even take something that stupid seriously. This guy probably enjoyed one too many beers during the game. Arkansas has a fairly hard schedule this year and is also in basically a rebuilding year. These two aspects lead me to believe that the 2013 Razorbacks are somewhere around a .500 team, probably nothing better or worse. Good luck on that undefeated season and national championship.   

Just Missed: People all hype about Syria, I'm like #WPS (@KramnojRT)

My Thoughts: This guy certainly has his priorities straight. Screw, Syrians being gassed and whether or not the United States might take action and whether or not that action could potentially lead to a World War III scenario … the Hogs is playin’!

Just for good measure I might as well throw in the two best Razorbacks tweets I saw today:

My friend woke up from a coma , the Arkansas Razorbacks won the game , and I got $205 for my birthday. This night can't get better!! (@Madeesooon)

My Thoughts: That does sound like an exceptionally good day.

Fox News is not "fair & balanced". But Razorback Football offense appears to be. #WPS #NeverYield (@WooPigSumo)

My Thoughts: I pretty much like any excuse to bash Fox News and this is one of the more creative ones I’ve seen (though I do think it’s a little too early in the season to be raving about a team’s offense, especially against a Sun Belt team).

Manti Te'o Hoax Could Happen to Anyone or: (How I Was Hoaxed by 'Loy Allen Jr.')

The story about Notre Dame Fighting Irish star linebacker Manti Te’o and his dead girlfriend being a hoax that was broken by Deadspin yesterday is certainly one of the strangest and weirdest sports stories I’ve ever heard and I know that it’s likely bound to only get stranger and weirder. I say that because it’s still to be seen whether or not Te’o was, in fact, duped by an incredibly cruel joke as he’s stated in his written response or if he actually played a knowing role in the hoax.

Notre Dame officials believe based on their response late Wednesday afternoon (Jan. 16) that Te’o was innocent and merely the butt of a cruel joke. However, the Deadspin article leads readers to believe that Te’o could’ve easily had a hand in perpetrating the hoax, along with Ronaiah Tuiasosopo. I don’t really have a complete assumption at this time, but I wouldn’t be surprised, though certainly disappointed, if Te’o was in on the entire thing from what I’ve read. However, I can say unfortunately from firsthand experience that if what happened to Te’o was indeed a cruel hoax that it’s entirely possible that he had the wool pulled over his eyes.

Every day in this world people are at the horrible hands of others perpetrating hoaxes against them online. I haven’t seen the movie “Catfish” or the MTV series based off of it, but from what I’ve heard the term “catfishing” apparently is the act of a person who creates fake profiles online and pretends to be someone they are not by using someone else's pictures and information as a means of deceiving others.

There are only a couple of people who know this about me (until now), I’m not even 100 percent sure my girlfriend of seven years is one of them, but about 10 years ago when I was in my mid-teens I was on the receiving end of an online hoax.

Being the big NASCAR fan that I am I frequented a NASCAR message board called Driver Insider, where I would spend a great deal of time discussing and conversing about all sorts of NASCAR topics with other hardcore fans around the country. Myself, and all of the other posters on the message board, soon became enamored with one poster who, I can’t remember his username, but had us all convinced that he was Loy Allen Jr.

Loy Allen Jr. was a mostly unsuccessful NASCAR driver from the early to late ‘90s, who is most famous for two things: becoming the first ever rookie driver to qualify on the pole at the 1994 Daytona 500 and a devastating crash at Rockingham Speedway in 1996 which severely injured his neck and pretty much put an end to any major career plans.

Today, and even 10 or so years ago, Loy Allen Jr. was a name that novice NASCAR fans wouldn’t know and even avid NASCAR fans would have a hard time telling you anything about other than the Daytona pole and the Rockingham crash. Such an obscure name like Loy Allen Jr. made for the perfect cover, whereas other drivers would’ve led to immediate questioning and doubts over accuracy and credibility. If somebody claims they’re Loy Allen Jr. and have the knowledge and facts to back it up you’re likely going to believe them. If they claim they’re Jeff Gordon you’re simply not.

This poster claiming to be Loy Allen Jr. had us all going on the message board for the longest time, but he got to me even more because we added each other to Yahoo Messenger and would talk for hours about his “career,” NASCAR and baseball (which he claimed he was a huge fan of). We developed a friendship and he had me tricked to such an extent that I actually wrote an article about him for the sports webzine I created, edited and wrote for online called Sport Webzine. I thought this was my first “big time” interview, which really excited me.

After a little while I guess this prankster said something that one or two of the other members of the Driver Insider message board didn’t believe and they checked him on his facts and found him out to be a fraud. It bothered everybody on the message board because we had all been duped, but it probably hurt me the most because I’d been taken in so badly and even put my credibility as a writer/journalist on the line (despite only being in my mid-teens).

It’s an embarrassing, uncomfortable and hurtful experience when you trust somebody and you learn that the trust you’ve had in them wasn’t real. It’s especially worse when you realize that the person him/herself never actually existed or wasn’t who they claimed to be. It's definitely not something that bothers me much all these years later, in fact, I can't even remember the last time I'd thought of this until the Manti Te'o story reminded me of it today. But, depending on how deep you get taken in and how close of a relationship you've developed with this "person" I could easily see how it could mess someone up for a long time. 

I consider myself to be a pretty smart person and was certainly smart for my age at that time. I think many people would be calling me gullible, like they are right now to Manti Te’o. But, here’s the thing … these people do their research. They know their “character’s” ins and outs and its easy for somebody to gain another person’s trust when their back-story is as solid as these people can and do make it. I’m sure it’s even more sophisticated these days than it was back then.     

If Te’o was indeed pranked I can understand the embarrassment he feels, because you really do feel like you were played for a fool, except in his case it would be even worse because he developed an attraction and feelings for the apparition. If he was in on the whole thing he should be ashamed of what he’s done and his character will rightfully always be judged. However, if he was the “victim” here as Notre Dame officials have stated then he can join the club of the many who’ve been played for fools by online tricksters and pranksters out there getting their laughs and jollies out of making real people believe in and develop relationships with people that don’t exist or either do exist, but just aren’t who they claim to be. If this is the case his character shouldn’t be judged, because it can happen to almost anybody and you likely know people who have been hoaxed in a similar way.           

Despite What Some Fans Think, Razorbacks Are Not Championship Caliber Team

Living in Arkansas all of these years has taught me one thing: Arkansas Razorbacks fans are desperately loyal.

It’s a loyalty that oftentimes leads the fandom to believe that their team is capable of doing anything and everything, which while probably fitting the definition of a “good fan”, sometimes comes off as delusional.

Razorbacks fans had good reason to believe in their team after last season when they go as high as number three in the college football rankings and only fell to the two best teams in all of college football (Alabama and LSU). Many, if not most, Razorbacks fans felt that the 2012 Razorbacks could have a shot at the National Championship, and honestly it was a feeling that wasn’t that far-fetched.

However, then came the bombshell that ended the tenure of head coach Bobby Petrino and led to the hiring of new coach John L. Smith. This scandal in itself led me to believe that any shot the Razorbacks had at a national title had been taken away. I don’t think it’s possible for any team, even one as talented as the current Razorbacks, to win right away under such unfortunate circumstances.

Not only is the head coaching change and the way it came about insurmountable, in my opinion, but I still believe that the Razorbacks are probably only the third best team not even in just their own conference, the SEC, but in their own division. Alabama is clearly a better team than the Razorbacks and LSU is likely better than the Razorbacks.

Yet, Hogs fans continue to believe in their team, which is in no way a bad thing, except that they unreasonably believe in their team. I had one Razorbacks fan say to me a few days ago that the Hogs were going to win the SEC this year, which would presumably put them in the BCS National Championship game. Winning the SEC would mean both defeating Alabama and LSU and either Georgia or South Carolina (all of which are currently ranked in the top 10 ahead of the Razorbacks).

You can see from their week one game against Jacksonville State why the Razorbacks are not a championship caliber team. While the number two (and probably soon to be number one) ranked Alabama Crimson Tide were curb-stomping the number eighth ranked team in the nation the Michigan Wolverines 41-14 the number 10 ranked Razorbacks allowed a FCS team to drop 24 points on them.

Now, I know technically a win is a win and a 25 point win is typically a very good win, but for the Razorbacks to allow a FCS (formerly Division II) team from the Ohio Valley Conference to score 24 points on them has to be considered an embarrassing win, though I haven’t heard a single Razorbacks fan yet fess up to it.

The Arkansas Razorbacks are a really good team and I expect them to have a really good season. They will likely either go 10-2 or 9-3, but they are simply not a championship caliber team and have already proven so. Fans, I know you have to root for your team, but don’t be buffoons about it.