Up front, as people who’ve seen my posts here before know, I do NOT believe there’s any such thing as a “clutch” player or a “choker.” I believe that, over the long run, players perform in the post-season almost exactly as they do in the regular season. If one player seems to “elevate his game” in the clutch, it’s probably because he hasn’t appeared in enough “big games” to give a representative sample of his performance. Similarly, if a player seems to collapse in the post-season, it usually means he hasn’t made enough post-season appearances to tell us anything useful.
And if a TEAM seems to make the playoffs every season and lose, that’s usually an indication that:
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There’s another team out there that’s a little better; the COlts aren’t “choking” if they lose to a Patriots squad that’s just a little more talented.
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They’re playing a game like baseball, in which a short series is pretty close to a tossup. If the 2007 Red Sox played the 1962 Mets 100 times, the Sox would win 80 times… but it would be no great shock if the Mets took 3 out of 5 in a short series. That wouldn’t make the Sox “chokers”- that’s just the way baseball goes sometimes. The better team DOESN’T always win.
Still, even though I don’t believe in “choking,” it’s interesting to me that some guys, like Alex Rodriguez, get accused of it so regularly when there are other great athletes who are much MORE deserving of the label, if we go by the stats.
Suppose I told you there was a Hall of Famer who won a Rookie of the Year Award and an MVP Award. Further, suppose I told you he had a lifetime average of .311 and an on-base percentage of .409
This gentleman played in the World Series six times. Know what his average was? A measly .234!
What’s more, he played in the media capital of the world. You’d THINK a guy with so much talent who folded in all the “big games” he played in would be vilified as a choker. I mean, the dropoff in his performance was waaaaay worse than Alex Rodriguez’s!
So… why doesn’t anyone ever suggest that Jackie Robinson was a choker and a loser who never delivered in the clutch?
I know, the question is pretty self-evidently stupid. Jackie Robinson was probably the most courageous ballplayer who ever lived. This is a guy who could hit .342 while listening to vile epithets and receiving daily death threats in the mail. The idea that he could be unnerved just because he was playing in the World Series is asinine.
His defenders would RIGHTLY point out that, since his steely nerves couldn’t possibly be in question, his poor performance was just a fluke, luck of the draw. Surely, they’d day, if he had more at-bats in the World Series, he’d eventually have put up the kind of numbers he did all year long.
To which I say… exactly! And it’s no different with A-Rod. So shut up about “choking” and “big games.”