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Sunday, March 25, 2012

Is Chris Carpenter another overrated star player?

The famous Cardinals pitcher Chris Carpenter is apparently out for the season due to a neck injury. Pitcher Lance Lynne will replace Carpenter in the rotation and a new pitcher will sign with the Cardinals in June: Roy Oswalt. The Cardinals fans are currently worried about their favorite team and fear that Roy Oswalt will not be as good as Carpenter, without mentioning the absence of a star pitcher until June. Is there really a reason to worry about the Cardinals?
Baseball is a team sport, and even though the pitcher is a central piece, a single individual is not going to win the game. But media tend to focus on one star player instead of the whole team and give credit to this player for the victory. This leads to high expectations and perhaps the end of a career if this star player does not meet the media and the public's unrealistic expectations. This is pretty much what happened with Tim Tebow. Although he is an excellent player, he became the center of attention and was eventually blamed for the defeat of his team. Aren't other players and the coach responsible too? Or what if the other team was simply better and no one is really responsible for the defeat?
Why do sports club use a star player as a storefront instead of promoting more positive values such as team spirit? Because these star players can then appear in commercials and draw in the big bucks when they transfer to another team. In some cases, the attention is deserved through exceptional performance - but some star players are clearly constructs. I believe that other players are instructed to pass the ball to the star player so he can score and validate his status as a star player - and bring in more money with new TV ads. This last remark is not gratuitous: watch reruns of soccer games from the 1990s and pay attention to how French players are letting their star player Zidane score every time.

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