Love Your Life, Like Your Sports

ESPN sportscaster Colin Cowherd has a saying, "love your life, like your sports." I've been a sports fan for a long time, and I used to take the pain of my favorite teams losses very seriously. Too seriously.

There is no worse feeling for a sports fan than seeing their favorite team make it to the big game only to lose. It hurts, it stings, it's frustrating. It puts us in bad moods, we start blaming players, coaches and owners for not doing enough or not wanting it enough. We forget that there's a number of other fanbases that WISH their team had made it to that game. We forget that it's REALLY hard just to get there. We forget that the team that we love gave us a great season that didn't end when a majority of other teams did because guess what, a lot of teams don't even MAKE the playoffs. And we forget these players don't blow games on purpose. Sometimes, you just get beat by a better team.

We forget. And fans, this is why like Colin says, "love your life, like your sports." Because if you love your sports a little too much - if how your favorite team performs determines your overall happiness - well, you're going to have a long life of disappointment and unhappiness. 

I have, over the years, learned to live my life more on this mantra. I haven't always taken losses so graciously though.

I had a Superbowl party at my dorm in college for Superbowl XXXVI. At the time, a number of my friends said they were rooting for the Patriots, because they were the "underdogs." Let's just say when the Rams lost that game, I wasn't a happy person. My friends (smartly) got out of there as fast as they could so I could mourn in peace.

In 2004 when the Boston Red Sox swept the Cardinals in the World Series to finally break the curse, I was depressed for days. The Cardinals hadn't won a World Series since 1982, and while I was alive then I was only almost 2 years old at the time, so let's just say I don't really remember 1982. They made it in 1985, but I was 4, so only remember that vaguely and they lost. 2004 was the first time I had the opportunity to follow my team all of the way to the WS and remember it. It's not fun to watch your team lose. Then again, it's not fun to watch your team never make it to the playoffs either.

Only one team can win a championship, and it's hard to win. All you have to do as a team is make the playoffs, and you have a shot. Anything can happen. People like to say "but that team didn't deserve to win." Of course they did. They won, so they deserved to win (unless cheating is involved or something along those lines). They were the better team during that game or that series. There's a lot of luck that goes into winning playoff and championship games too.

So my sports friends, while it's sad to see our teams lose, don't let it define you. The Cardinals won the World Series in 2006 and 2011. While this was great fun, did it really make my life better? Not really. Didn't affect my career, family life, social life...all it did was help empty my pocketbook spending money on games and merchandise. 

So, I keep this in mind when things happen like this latest playoff series between the Blues and Blackhawks. It was a very disappointing series for Blues fans but, at least up until game 6, I felt like these games were very evenly matched and could go either way. The Hawks are the defending Stanley Cup Champions. They're a good team.

I do have a few thoughts that came to light while watching these playoff games about the Blues:

1. The Blues need to stop approaching The Power Play looking like this:

Power Play = Deer in Headlights

2. The Blues spend too much time trying to set up the shot instead of shooting, which is clearly affecting the above mentioned Power Play a lot. Overall, they did shoot a lot, but they seemed to flounder when they had breakaway and open net opportunities where the Blackhawks did not. If there's one thing I can say about this series is the Blackhawks were able to capitalize on any weakness the Blues showed, and the Blues were unable to do the same. Crawford's a great goalie, but the Blues had too many opportunities against him that were missed.

3. Defense. Ryan Miller wasn't awful for the most part, but game 6 was pretty abysmal and there were a couple of week goals the Hawks were able to get on him. The loss is not all on him, but the Blues will have to decide if he's really their guy or not. The defense overall needs some tweaks, though I don't think the situation is dramatic enough to clean house.

Other than those 3 things though, I think this team has a lot of talent and it's a shame they couldn't win this series but it happens, and they'll be a good team next year and probably make the playoffs again. They've had to play Stanley Cup winning teams in the playoffs the last 3 years - not an easy task. At least it was a fun series with lots of OT games and really up until things turned downhill in game 6, I always thought the Blues had a chance to win. It just didn't happen this year.

I did make a comment on facebook comparing the Blues to the Chicago Cubs, which apparently offended a few people. I did not mean to offend, really. It was just a joke. The Cubs haven't won a championship in over 100 years, and the Blues have never won, was only saying the long drought continues. Truthfully the Blues are more like the Boston Red Sox pre-2004, since they make the playoffs a lot, just can't get to the big game. The Sox eventually broke their curse so the Blues will too. Look at it this way, the Blues are highly more likely to win a championship in the next few years than the Cubs.

So the NHL playoffs will continue without the Blues. Not sure who will win it but I have a feeling Chicago will go far. I also think whoever wins the Sharks-Kings match-up will be dangerous as well.

Blues fans, they'll be back in the hunt next year. To all the teams that are left in the NHL playoffs - best of luck.