Welcome to Snyder’s Soapbox! Here, I pontificate about matters related to Major League Baseball on a weekly basis. Some of the topics will be pressing matters, some might seem insignificant in the grand scheme of things, and most will be somewhere in between. The good thing about this website is that it’s free, and you are allowed to click away. If you stay, you’ll get smarter, though. That’s a money-back guarantee. Let’s get to it.
A few days ago, in a text chain with my brother and cousin, we started talking about “scoreboard watching.” That is to say, closely tracking the teams around your favorite team in the standings, concerning yourself with how the standings look. Obviously, every baseball fan of a contender does it down the stretch and I’m sure many wouldn’t like to admit how early they start doing it.
You see, there’s a faction of the baseball world that shames people for scoreboard watching too early.
“You’re checking the standings in MAY?” oozes with judgement.
May? Dude, I scoreboard watch in April. When the season starts this early, I scoreboard watch in March.
Why shouldn’t I? What’s the harm in paying attention every single day?
We aren’t players. We aren’t in the front office. Why should I be shamed for wanting to see my favorite team in first place early in the season and then hold onto first place the rest of the way?
An element of the shaming, of course, is that this is a 162-game marathon and seasons can turn on their head rather quickly. If you live and die with every game like it’s a playoff game, you’ll be mentally exhausted with five-plus months left. I think there’s a balance to be had, though. We’re all smart enough to realize that even if we want our favorite team to be in first place every single game, we also know it isn’t the end of the season if that team falls behind, say, five games in April. It’s also not time to start planning the parade if your favorite team holds a big lead in April.
So long as we’re smart enough to realize how long the season is and how quickly things change, I think we can be trusted to scoreboard watch from the get-go.
And, yes, I did it. It’s no secret in these parts that I’m a Cubs fan. I hated them losing both games in Japan because that meant a lot of days seeing that 0-2 sitting there in last place when the other teams in the NL Central hadn’t even played a game. But there’s another side to that. The Cubs won on April 4 to move into first place and have been there ever since. Being a scoreboard watcher has only enhanced my experience this season. Yes, obviously, seeing my favorite team winning more than 60% of the games they play is already a ton of fun, but knowing they sit in first place makes it even sweeter. Seeing those chasing them lose games is more fun. And, sure, when the Cardinals rip off 16 wins in 20 games, it gets more frustrating than it probably should be, but that’s all part of the fan experience.
It also bears mention that races can sometimes be decided by only one or two games. If your team drops a game it should have lost in April, yes, it very well could have long-lasting implications. Feel free to get worked up over it. I do. On the flip side, a ridiculous comeback victory? Go nuts! Again, this is all part of the fan experience and we are not members of the organization who are required to view things in a more big-picture way. Fan is short for fanatic. We don’t have to be rational.
One of my most basic principle cores of being a fan — and it’s stuff we talk about often in this very space — is to fan however you want. As always, this sentiment excludes doing things that harm or actively make life harder on other fans, but if you are sitting at home and simply watching the other teams around your team in the standings because you want to see your guys in first place all season, I’m right there with you.
I am a proud scoreboard watcher from Opening Day until the Cubs are either eliminated from contention or have a firmed up playoff seed. I wouldn’t have it any other way.
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