pop culture, pittsburgh, and potpouri

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Penguins jump to 2-0 lead, but we are not allowed to care...


Correct me if I am wrong, but I thought that the way sports works is that you have a team that you support, and you root for them to do well, and even possibly win a championship. When your team is doing well, you get excited about them and support them even more. If your team was on the verge of being sold and moved from your city, and then you get a young team that has arguably one of the best players in the country, you are going to be pretty excited. Further, if your team was second in the conference and won their division, the playoffs are going to be pretty damn awesome. Well, I guess that way of thinking is incorrect. See, your team really is not doing well, and your excitement is the product of the media creating canned hype. I know, I am as surprised as you. We have all been duped into thinking the Penguins are a good team that has created a city rife with anticipation for the next playoff game. How could I be so stupid!!!  

Deadspin has enlightened me to this manipulation by the media. Greg Wyshynski has said that many have a hard time supporting the Pens because the media verbally falates them, and the fans buy right in . Try telling Stanley Dublonski of Polish Hill that he is unwittingly buying into media hype surrounding the Pens. He will probably smash a bottle of Iron City over your head. I don't think that Greg understands how things work. See the media does not create Penguins hype. Rather, the media only picks up on what is going on with the fans. During the Mario era, and today, the team is good, really good. People are excited about a good team in a city that almost lost them. I think that is a perfectly good reason to ritualistically verbally-falate the team. Greg Wyshynski has revealed what talking out of your ass sounds like. Even the most casual observer of Pittsburgh sports could see the idiocy of making an argument that posits media bias for the Penguins. Living in a city that has been spited by main stream sports media makes one very much aware of what people say about your teams. Wyshymski confuses coverage with verbal falation. People forget about Pittsburgh's teams, only to cover them when they are doing well. Wyshynski has only focused on media coverage when the team is successful. (Because that is the only coverage they get... quoting this blog as an example of media hype only further shows the weakness in his argument. Updating a blog during Law School classes is hardly a representation of Pittsburgh media, although I appreciate the increase in traffic). Of course people are going to be saying good things when the team is winning. Since they don't talk about them in other seasons, he sees it as a biased support of the team. No one can successfully argue that Pittsburgh sports is favored in media, even attempting it could forever delegitimize ones journalistic credentials. Yet Wyshynski attempts it, albeit in the context of Hockey only. 

I'll let you go on this one. I know that Pittsburgh fans are in a cave plotting their revenge. If they haven't yet, they will attack your thread violently corrupting the bandwidth like Ron Paul supporters on an anti-Paul Daily Kos post. The overly hyped Pens have a 2-0 lead over the Senators and you can catch game three on Monday night at 7. Just don't celebrate too much. Keep in mind that the media has convinced you that your team won its division and have two solid playoff wins.