If you Google any sports figure for almost anything you’re bound to get a bunch of hits from Bleacher Report, as they have mastered the dark art of search engine optimization. This can sometimes be annoying, but it can sometimes be enlightening too. For example, I learned this morning that Miguel Cabrera needs to win a World Series ring in order to “send him to baseball immortality,” cement his legacy and write his name in “historical lore.”
One would think, wouldn’t one, that a story about the World Series and Miguel Cabrera’s legacy would at least mention the fact that he already has a World Series ring thanks to his tenure on the 2003 Florida Marlins.
Perhaps Cabrera wasn’t a major part of that World Series title (although he did hit a two-run homer off Roger Clemens in Game 4). But even if one were to make the argument that it didn’t mean much since he wasn’t the leader of that team or something, one would have to at least acknowledge that it occurred and explain why winning one with the Tigers would be different and more significant. This writer doesn’t seem to even be aware of it.
I don’t offer this in order to mess with Bleacher Report specifically. I offer it more as a comment on the people who engage in the even darker arts of judging players’ legacies. We’ve seen an awful lot of that this postseason already with the A-Rod business, but it happens every year. People leave out that which doesn’t fit their preconceived ideas and preferred narratives. They emphasize things which do. If it means pretending that some history doesn’t exist, so be it. And it’s not just Bleacher Report writers who do it.
I understand that desire to make stories with beginnings, middles and ends -- and with richly-drawn characters, morals and the rest -- out of sporting events. But, just, cut it out. Sports don’t work that way.
