Keep It Classy!

    I'M BACK!!! This is the first post in a good while, and even though the season is over, I'm going to continue to post throughout the offseason, with different editorials, 2012 Positional Rankings, etc, so even the season isn't going on right now, keep reading.

    The first of my offseason posts will deal with something that irked me quite a bit: I feel that Major League Baseball is losing its classiness and sense of sportsmanship. This became evident to me in the Divisional round of this year's playoffs. There is a big difference in winning a playoff series and winning the World Series, but from what I saw out of the San Francisco Giants, St. Louis Cardinals, and Detroit Tigers, you would've thought that they had won it all after their respective first round victories.

    As a professional ball club, it is your job to make it to the postseason. Success is what you work for and it is expected that your team will be contending at the end of the year. However, when these three teams dispatched of their opponents in the first round, all of them celebrated as if their work was done and they were going home with a trophy. It was disgusting. They hadn't yet earned the right to celebrate to the extent that they did. It was utterly classless. Finish the job...then you can celebrate. These teams built themselves for contention, so it seemed ridiculous when they acted surprised when they surpassed STEP ONE.

    Let it be known that I'm not usually one to give praise to the New York Yankees, but in this instance, I must acknowledge them. The Yankees were the only one of the four teams that made it past the League Championship Series to do so professionally. When the final out was made to give them the series victory against the Baltimore Orioles, they shook hands, acknowledged Baltimore for their good postseason play, and walked off the field with poise and professionalism. The Yankees knew that their work wasn't finished and that they still had a long road ahead of them. I can't say the same for what I saw out of the other three teams.

   Perhaps it is a little unfair for me to compare the Yankees' professionalism against the other teams. After all, the Yankees were much more experienced in postseason play than the rest, but these younger, more inexperienced teams need to know that it's not good enough just to get to the playoffs, but in the "win now" society that we live in, playoff success is the only way to secure their jobs for another year.

    Maybe the league can take a lesson from the New York Yankees. Conduct yourselves with professionalism. After all you are professionals. As a fan, I love seeing young players have enthusiasm for the game, but I hate to see enthusiasm cross the line into arrogance. Realize the game is supposed to be fun, but in good taste. Keep it classy boys!