Players who act as if they don’t care about the FedEx Cup are usually the ones who either didn’t qualify for the playoffs or were eliminated early. Anyone else who thinks the FedEx Cup is contrived drama either is mistaking golf for a team sport or has forgotten what golf looked like before the PGA Tour created this postseason plan.
You think the Tour Championship was a tough sell in late September? How much were people paying attention in early November?
The overnight rating for the final round of Tour Championship on Nov. 5, 2006—the year before the FedEx Cup came along—was 0.9. To be fair, neither Tiger Woods nor Phil Mickelson played that year, which is another problem the FedEx Cup tried to solve, and did.
The year before that, when Bart Bryant won by six shots over Woods, the TV rating was a 2.1. That would amount to roughly a 5 percent decline in ratings each of the last six years, which industry officials say is typical for all sports except the 900-pound gorilla known as the NFL.
No one ever said the FedEx Cup was perfect.
Trouble is, no one has come up with a better solution.
Match play for all the marbles only sounds good in theory, but it doesn’t work for television, it doesn’t work for the fans on site and it doesn’t work for sponsors (who pay the bills and use that week to entertain clients). It barely works once a year in Arizona.
The idea of making the playoffs all or nothing is impractical at best. To start with a clean slate for everyone, at the start of the postseason or after each playoff event, is to render meangingless the first eight months of the season.
Despite all the number-crunching involved at the end, the FedEx Cup is not that hard to understand.
The best players all year long (Luke Donald, Steve Stricker, Nick Watney) and those win the playoff events (Webb Simpson, Justin Rose, Dustin Johnson) will have the best shot at the $10 million and are at least assured of getting to the Tour Championship.
2011年9月29日星期四
Choice to leave after hit
Reyes' strategy paid dividends, as Milwaukee's Ryan Braun went 0-for-4 to finish at .332, five points behind Reyes' .337. Reyes becomes the first player in Mets history to win a batting title, finishing the season with 181 hits in 537 at-bats.
"I just want to say I'm humbled and honored to win the batting title," Reyes said in a statement. "It means so much to my family and my country, the Dominican Republic. I have been through a lot over the past few years so this really means a lot to me. It's also very special to be the first Mets player to win a batting title. There have been so many great players throughout our history. I want to thank Terry Collins, my coaches and all my teammates and of course all the Mets fans who have always supported me and been behind me 100 percent."
Reyes said postgame the idea to leave after one successful at-bat was his own, not Collins' call.
"I respect whatever decision he decided to make, and ultimately he left the door open for me," Braun said before the Brewers' 7-3 win over Pittsburgh. "I know it's not impossible. I've gotten three hits in a game plenty of times. It's still attainable, still a possibility. If he had stayed in the game and gotten multiple hits, it would not have been a possibility at all. I respect whatever decision he decided to make, and I'm not really here to judge him."
An emotional Collins, fighting tears during his postgame media conference, said he worked hard in his first season at the Mets' helm to earn his players' respect and did not want to jeopardize it by not adhering to Reyes' wishes.
"I said, 'If I go 1-for-1, take me out of the game,'" Reyes said. "And I did that. If I went 0-for-1, maybe I'm still in the game until I get a hit. ... I wanted to stay in the game, but (Mets fans) have to understand, too, what's going on. They have to feel happy about it if I win the batting title. I do that for the team, for the fans too, because they've been supporting me all the way through. I've (had) throughout my career a lot of ups and downs here with a lot of injuries. One thing I do all the time is give 100 percent on the field."
Asked more specifically about criticism of the decision to leave the game, Reyes said: "I don't care what people say. Last year I played seven innings, and in the seventh inning I came out of the game -- the last game. I don't care what people think. I was happy. I discussed it with Terry early."
Said Collins: "I asked him how he wanted to go about this. I wanted to take him out at the appropriate time. He said if he got a hit his first time up, he'd like to come out. I said, 'You know, I want you to win this thing.' He said, 'That's what I want to do.' So it was decided then."
Still, Collins can see the counterpoint.
"I understand," the manager said as he began to get choked up. "I heard some comments in the stands. I don't blame them. People pay a good price to come to these games. You've got to understand that I ask these players to do a lot. We worked hard to get their respect this year, and they deserve ours."
Per MLB rules, the shortstop does not have a financial incentive in his current contract for winning a batting title.
"I just want to say I'm humbled and honored to win the batting title," Reyes said in a statement. "It means so much to my family and my country, the Dominican Republic. I have been through a lot over the past few years so this really means a lot to me. It's also very special to be the first Mets player to win a batting title. There have been so many great players throughout our history. I want to thank Terry Collins, my coaches and all my teammates and of course all the Mets fans who have always supported me and been behind me 100 percent."
Reyes said postgame the idea to leave after one successful at-bat was his own, not Collins' call.
"I respect whatever decision he decided to make, and ultimately he left the door open for me," Braun said before the Brewers' 7-3 win over Pittsburgh. "I know it's not impossible. I've gotten three hits in a game plenty of times. It's still attainable, still a possibility. If he had stayed in the game and gotten multiple hits, it would not have been a possibility at all. I respect whatever decision he decided to make, and I'm not really here to judge him."
An emotional Collins, fighting tears during his postgame media conference, said he worked hard in his first season at the Mets' helm to earn his players' respect and did not want to jeopardize it by not adhering to Reyes' wishes.
"I said, 'If I go 1-for-1, take me out of the game,'" Reyes said. "And I did that. If I went 0-for-1, maybe I'm still in the game until I get a hit. ... I wanted to stay in the game, but (Mets fans) have to understand, too, what's going on. They have to feel happy about it if I win the batting title. I do that for the team, for the fans too, because they've been supporting me all the way through. I've (had) throughout my career a lot of ups and downs here with a lot of injuries. One thing I do all the time is give 100 percent on the field."
Asked more specifically about criticism of the decision to leave the game, Reyes said: "I don't care what people say. Last year I played seven innings, and in the seventh inning I came out of the game -- the last game. I don't care what people think. I was happy. I discussed it with Terry early."
Said Collins: "I asked him how he wanted to go about this. I wanted to take him out at the appropriate time. He said if he got a hit his first time up, he'd like to come out. I said, 'You know, I want you to win this thing.' He said, 'That's what I want to do.' So it was decided then."
Still, Collins can see the counterpoint.
"I understand," the manager said as he began to get choked up. "I heard some comments in the stands. I don't blame them. People pay a good price to come to these games. You've got to understand that I ask these players to do a lot. We worked hard to get their respect this year, and they deserve ours."
Per MLB rules, the shortstop does not have a financial incentive in his current contract for winning a batting title.
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