That’s right folks, we are officially in the Meh Season. The time of year between the MLB All-Star Game and the start of the NFL season, where the sports world goes into a deep slumber. Sure we still have baseball to watch, but post-All Star Break baseball doesn’t get interesting until September. So until then we don’t have a lot to look forward to, did anyone watch the British Open? How exciting was it to see Greg Norman make a charge for his third major at the tender age of 53?
Sorry Greg, but you are no Tiger Woods. Nice hat though.
(…)
Oh sorry, I just fell asleep thinking about a major that doesn’t involve Tiger Woods. I’m sorry, but I just can’t get excited about a sport where a 53 year old can compete with guys in there 20’s, perhaps that will change as I get older, but no matter how much the WWL tells me how great that tournament was, I just couldn’t watch it for more than five minutes without becoming catatonic. I need Tiger Woods to be there for me to be even remotely interested in a golf tournament. Please get well soon Tiger, this new PGA Tour where senior citizens prosper is going to kill me.
The Meh Season is a time where we have to sit through Justin Timberlake do the ESPY’s. Given, I really have nothing against Justin Timberlake as a person, but I think the ESPY’s would have been much more interesting if they would have made Britney Spears the host. At least then we could have watched a drugged up sociopath try to read off a Teleprompter. Perhaps I just have a some problems with the ESPY’s as a whole. I mean professional athletes don’t need an award show, they already get rewarded on a daily basis. We have a player of the: week, month, half-season, season, post-season, championship game and all All-Star game; why do we need to reward these people any more? Professional athletes tend to be some of the least interesting people in the world. They play kid’s games for a living and make ungodly amounts of bank. Can we please stop giving these people awards already?
The Meh Season is also a time where the sports media fixates on a single story and beats that horse to its slow, agonizing death. If I have to see/hear/read another story about Brett Favre’s ongoing soap opera with the Packers I’m going to… (insert self-deprecating act here). Honestly, when we start getting News Flashes about text messages, it’s time to start rethinking your news strategy.
Here’s my take on the whole Favre situation: I think Favre should show up to training camp and force the Packer’s hand. This way they will either have to release, trade or start Farve, because there is no way that he is going to be a sub. The first time Aaron Rogers has a bad game the proverbial shit is going to hit the proverbial fan. Was it shitty for Favre to put the Packers in this situation? Sure. But keep in mind that the Packers have put Favre in plenty of shitty situations. Karma can be quite a bitch sometimes.
So that’s the last you’ll here about this Favre thing on this site until some truly newsworthy hits the wire. Moving on…
This year is a special year for the Meh Season as we are going to be hit over the head with Olympics’ Coverage that we neither need or want in our lives. For me the Olympics have only two interesting plot points: the first being USA Basketball and the second being drug allegations. This year I don’t think the basketball story will be all that interesting. Either Team USA actually tries, and in turn decimates the competition, or they remember that they are not being paid and lose in the second round to (insert random European Country here). But no matter the outcome I’ll be watching because I enjoy basketball, and this is the only time of the year where I’ll get to see Kobe and King James on the same team (unfortunately).
Then there is the inevitable flood of stories about Olympic athletes who were doping in order to reach their peak performance for the Olympic games. Most of these allegations will center around track and field athletes, which funny because no one really cares about these sports anyways, and we’ll be forced to hear about these allegations over and over again on Outside the Lines for the next year… so enjoy that everyone.
This is what the average sports fan looks like during the Meh Season
Now it may seem like I am really hating on this time of year, but really the Meh Season works both ways. It’s a time of year where the sports fan doesn’t have a lot to do sportswise and is forced to leave his cave in search of (gasp) social interactions. There’s nothing quite like heading to a wedding/party/baseball game/beer garden for a day of drinking and socializing with your friends. And what do guys talk about when they are forced to socialize with each other? Almost 50% of the time they talk about how boring the Meh Season truly is, and the other 50% of the time they are either talking about your girlfriend/wife, their boring jobs, or the start of the NFL season. Note that only one of these latter subjects really ever interests anyone, so you might want to keep your wife/girlfriend in the house during the Meh Season.
Hollywood does it’s part to make the Meh Season seem as short as possible. I just went to see The Dark Knight the other day and it was fantastic. Now I’m waiting for Pineapple Express to come out because Seth Rogen is one funny dude. Come to think of it, about 90% of the movies that I’ve ever seen in theaters have been during the Meh Season. Well played Hollywood, well played.
I always tend to get most of my reading done for the year during the Meh season. Right now I’m trying to plow through The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. I’ve read Blink, which is a fantastic book that Gladwell also happened to write, and when Chad told me that his work was making him read The Tipping Point, I decided to give it a try as well.. I’m also re-reading a couple of my favorite books: Wrigleyworld by Kevin Kaduk and Committed by Mark St. Amant. The first book is about a sports writer who quits his job at a newspaper to attend every Cubs home game for a season. And you can imagine the shenanigans that ensue. Committed is a book about a guy who quits his marketing job to bone-up on his fantasy football skills in order to dominate his league. Can you guess why I enjoy these books so much? Actually, they are both very well written and extremely entertaining books that I’d recommend to anyone who loves the culture that surrounds sports.
Tomorrow I’m heading to Six Flags with my family for a day of riding roller coasters, discussing Brett Favre craziness (my dad’s a huge Packer fan/Farve supporter), and bitching about the heat. Once a year we like to get together as a family and do something that is meant to bring us closer together, yet always seems to make us hate each other. Only during the Meh Season could such things happen. One of the great things about sports is that it acts as a much needed barrier between family members. After all, who wants to be around their family for more than a couple of hours anyway?
Perhaps the best thing about the Meh Season is that it is really only a month long. In less than a month we will all be up to our necks in NFL Football, and even though I may enjoy the NBA more than the NFL, there is nothing like spending a Sunday sitting on a couch watching the games with a good assortment of friends, beer and pizza. As I’m writing this I am perusing through a fantasy football magazine and trying to make sense out of a game that inherently makes no sense. Although I find fantasy football to be a game that requires little to no research, I enjoy reading the magazines and listening to related podcasts because it gives me hope that we will soon be out of this funk. Hope that we will have freedom, and the Meh Season will be but a bad memory in a perfect sports world.
I think Andy said it best in his letter to Red…
Dear Red, If you’re reading this, you’ve gotten out. And if you’ve come this far, maybe you’re willing to come a little further. You remember the name of the town, don’t you? I could use a good man to help me get my project on wheels. I’ll keep an eye out for you and the chessboard ready. Remember, Red. Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things and no good thing ever dies. I will be hoping that this letter finds you, and finds you well. Your friend, Andy.
Andy Dufresne – From: The Shawshank Redemption
