Standing pat

[Aclobat]

You must not watch much sports. Luck is very prevalent in professional sports.

Yea i've never watched a sporting event in my life because i don't believe in luck. I guess a-rod has "bad luck" becuase he takes PED and still sucks. Or chris davis is "lucky" because he came into a 17th and got a save. Every single extra inning win was also luck. Flacco's 70 yd td pass to Jones wasn't luck. It was Joe's throw and blown coverage in Denver's secondary. None of it had anything to do with them being professional athletes playing to their abilities.

[weird-O]

You must not watch much sports. Luck is very prevalent in professional sports.

I could see this being true if you're talking about any given night of the season, for the whole league. but a single team doesn't have so many lucky breaks that they go from 65 wins to 93 wins.

maybe I'm not grasping what all falls under the category of luck. I see luck as being a groundball that would be a routine play, but it hits the base and deflects off for a hit. or maybe something weather related, like the OFer slips in wet grass, and loses a step which allows the ball to drop in. otherwise, I don't see luck being a major factor in the outcome of a season.

[bmore_ken]

Yea i've never watched a sporting event in my life because i don't believe in luck

I can count how many times I've heard a player, coach, even an owner say in an interview, "we were lucky" "luck was on our side" "we got a little bit more luck than the other team". maybe you don't believe in luck, but many people in sports do

[bmore_ken]

I could see this being true if you're talking about any given night of the season, for the whole league. but a single team doesn't have so many lucky breaks that they go from 65 wins to 93 wins.

maybe I'm not grasping what all falls under the category of luck. I see luck as being a groundball that would be a routine play, but it hits the base and deflects off for a hit. or maybe something weather related, like the OFer slips in wet grass, and loses a step which allows the ball to drop in. otherwise, I don't see luck being a major factor in the outcome of a season.

I'm not saying the whole season was luck, but you don't believe some of those one run games had an element of luck involved?

[weird-O]

I'm not saying the whole season was luck, but you don't believe some of those one run games had an element of luck involved?

o.k., we're discussing different things. I thought you were saying the 2012 season was the result of a lot of luck. absolutely luck can decide a game here and there.

I can count how many times I've heard a player, coach, even an owner say in an interview, "we were lucky" "luck was on our side" "we got a little bit more luck than the other team". maybe you don't believe in luck, but many people in sports do

I think that's usually just sports speak to be polite/humble. if most of those folks were being honest, they wouldn't say "lucky" that often. here's an example

interviewer: Adam Jones, you drove in the winning run in the bottom of the 9th, walk us through that at bat

AJ: the pitcher threw a curveball that didn't really break that much, and I got lucky and put good wood on it.

translation: he threw a meatball in a known curveball count, and I tee'd off on him.

the way I see it is, that isn't luck. that's one player's skills besting another player's skills in that moment. but the guy was being humble

[kudzu]

Every team has a certain element of luck, the O's were due

Overdue I'd say, if you're a Royals, Orioles or Pirates fan.