It must be the Dog Days.
I’d be lying if I said I understood the appeal of the MLB Trade Deadline. Maybe it’s the speculation. Maybe it’s the spectacle. Or maybe, just maybe, it’s all a trick of the weather.
Eddie Cochran wasn’t kidding about the summertime blues.
Unfortunately, most fans around the league seem to have missed the memo.
I’m not trying to rain on anyone’s parade here. I love breathless hype as much as the next guy, and I certainly wouldn’t want to put Peter Gammons out of a job. Still, there’s something about our collective Deadline fixation that merits a second look, if only because it seems so obviously tied to a sort of simmering seasonal pathos.
In January, summer is soft and warm and glowing with pennant fever.
In July, it’s thick and sticky and fraught with third-place angst.
No wonder we spend so much time wishing we were something other than what we are.
It’s fun to pretend that a few spare parts might turn a lemon into a hot rod. That doesn’t make it so, of course—but then again neither does it make the truth any more palatable. Every man has to believe in something. When you’re six games back and staring down the stark eye of Sirius, it’s only human to bet on the transformative power of a quick and half-cocked fix.
He not busy being born is busy dying.
They not busy getting better are busy becoming the Royals.
Sometimes, standing pat simply isn’t a viable option.
Stasis is no friend to the mammalian psyche. We lust for change because it’s in our blood, is bound up with the evolutionary adaptability that got us where we are today. The only catch is that the survival of a species is rarely correlated to its deliverance. We all waste our summers praying for saviors. Most of us, alas, wind up settling for bargain-bin corner outfielders.
It’s all right there in the Book of Jeremiah, Bubba:
The Deadline is past.
The summer has ended.
And we are not contenders.
Because the more things change the more they stay the same.
And anyone who talks about fresh starts in early August has got to be only just saying, is all...
Just Saying, Is All... | The False Promise of the MLB Trade Deadline
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6 comments Last one added 10 months ago — Leave a Comment
Lew Wright 11 months ago
Hey Ryan,
Is the MLB season still going? Hadn't noticed.
August signals one thing to me. Fall practice for college football. Dreams are becoming closer to reality. Without a doubt, "This is going to be OUR year." "We're going to surprise a lot of people this season."
Then there is the first game toward the end of the month. Reality shapes or contorts our dreams.
That's all I'm just sayin'...
Once again, awesome read. That's coming from someone who could care less about MLB. The same emotion MLB showed their fans when they cancelled their World Series in the midst of a labor dispute.
Cougar Lew
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Ryan Alberti 11 months ago
I hear you, Lew. Stay tuned next week for "The False Promise of College Football Training Camp"...
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Shaun Ahmad 11 months ago
Well this year would probably have to the be the exception to your article with Manny and Griffey Jr both getting moved on the same day, right?
Nice read.
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Jordan Schwartz 11 months ago
Yeah, I'd normally agree with you Ryan, but this year, the deadline has produced trades (Manny, Griffey, Pudge, Nady, Teixeira, Sabathia, Harden) that will definitely affect who makes the playoffs.
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Ryan Alberti 11 months ago
Time will tell. Many an August bombshell winds up an October afterthought. That said...if I come out with egg on my face, it won't be the first time.
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Eddie Harris 10 months ago
Are you trying to tell me Bob Dylan can't hurt a curveball?
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