Despite that headline, perspective is important. Which is why Grantland has been such a spectacular disappointment. I don’t know what people expected though, the inmates can’t run the asylum. Simmons has never thrived on sense or perspective, as Drew has been so viciously pointing out. His fellow writers suffer the same delusion. Whether it’s Jonah Lehrer who loves statistics so much he must kill them, or Klosterman doing his tired “I am the Cosmos” schtick. Sample:
Though some may disagree (and I’m sure some will, because some always do), there doesn’t seem to be much debate over what have been the four best television shows of the past 10 years.
Notice how he asks a totally inconsequential question, but dissembles enough that you assume there are multiple valid competing viewpoints? It’s life thorniest problem that you just learned existed. WRITING! (As an aside, he claims it’s Breaking Bad, a critically acclaimed and very beloved show. What a bold and unique choice. You poor simpleton, you weren’t even aware this was a point of argument, and now you’re about to learn the resolution happens to be one of the one’s you might have accidentally assumed. Also, I could put this in a pointless footnote, which would show you I was WRITING!, but I won’t for the same reason I don’t habitually put banana’s in my shoes or rub cornmeal between my butt cheeks; there’s no good reason to do that.)
There are a couple bright spots; Jonah Keri brought some sense to the stats debate, and Katie Baker has been consistently insightful and entertaining. But perspective is in short supply over there. Consider this post leading up to yesterday’s Women’s World Cup final, titled The Underdogs?:
It wasn’t supposed to happen like that — the United States women’s national team’s 3-1 semifinal victory on Wednesday against France. Or, while we’re at it, the Americans’ entire World Cup journey so far.
Yes. No one expected the team with the world’s best goalie and the fourth leading all-time international scorer, who just happen to be the defending Olympic champions, to do this well. So tell me about this hard road the scrappy underdogs traveled to get here!
Questions regarding the USWNT’s place in the global hierarchy were first posed following team’s disorienting 2-1 loss to Mexico in the semifinals of regional World Cup qualifying last November.
That’s what I’m talking about. LOVE ME SOME UNDERDOGS!
The result was considered an upset of epic proportions. It was the first time the U.S. had lost in World Cup qualifying… .
Grantland’s overblown misquote motto should be Mountains Out of Molehills. You’ve got to have some perspective. Hope Solo played a mediocre game, Japan converted all their opportunities, and the U.S. defense made a key mistake. The U.S. had never lost to Japan before Sunday, making the underdog label even more ridiculous.
Perspective is hard, you’ve got to work at it. Whether it’s fabricating a storyline or thinking how to make society better off, perspective is important. But Grantland isn’t even trying. From one perspective, the game was lost by inches. Wombach gets one less inch of rise and her ball is in, not slamming off the crossbar. One more inch, and Hope Solo gets to that penalty under her right arm. It was a great game, and Japan earned that win. And if you have any perspective, you’ll realize this whole post was a flimsy excuse to excoriate Grantland while posting pictures of Alex Morgan.
