No, it doesn't enhance the "fan experience." BTW, that was a Stan Kasten catch phrase IIRC that he used quite often when referring to all of the supposedly wonderful perks that a new Nationals Park was going to offer - never mind spending any money to get decent players.....but your kid can go to Build-A-Bear and you can pay out the ying yang for local craft beer, etc... Sorry to burst your bubble, but fans deserve to have certain expectations met, especially when it comes to an organization making a proper effort to field a winner. The fans pay the bills, after all, and fans have every right to criticize when a guy like RZ sits out an entire spring on the heels of yet another first round playoff failure, or when the team gets swept at home by a division rival in the opening series.
Because when a team with a gigantic payroll that's being funded by my dime and yours is continually not living up to potential, its weaknesses get magnified, and rightfully so. Happens on an IMB like this one, and it will be all over every RSN and on ESPN, as well. Win or go home, baby. But hang onto your rose colored glasses if that's what suits you.
When did I say that people couldn’t criticize? If you think it was a bad idea for RZ to skip spring training that is a completely valid opinion and this is totally appropriate forum to voice it. It’s totally fine to debate what effect that decision has on his play on the field.
What I did say is that I don’t expect to know every facet of what went into that decision and every detail of whether he had a minor injury or whatever. Knowing these things has zero impact on my enjoyment (or non enjoyment) of games. I also don’t expect (or deserve) every detail of a player’s health. Give me the basic nature of the injury and when you expect the player back and that’s all I really need, with the understanding that the human body doesn’t always heal on schedule and even the best doctors don’t always know what’s going on. Sure it’s interesting to speculate, but nobody owes me this information because I bought a ticket. A ticket entitles me to the on field product, which I still currently enjoy. When I don’t, I’ll probably buy fewer tickets.
There is plenty of negative things in my life and in the real world that I can’t avoid. I choose not to go looking for it in my sports fandom. This is supposed to be fun. I see it as a diversion from the real world. So, no, I’m not looking for extra reasons to be upset at the teams I follow. There are plenty of actual frustrations with following a team that I don’t need to take a negative view of literallly everything a team does. If that’s what you want, that is completely your right, but like I said, I’ll never understand it because this is supposed to be fun and it’s not mandatory. So if it’s not fun, why bother? Just my opinion. Everyone doesn’t have to share it.
I will say, though, anyone who honestly believes the Nationals aren’t trying to field a competitive team is, and I’m trying to say this in the nicest way, delusional. There aren’t more than six or seven fan bases that wouldn’t switch places with us right now.
Anyway, just my opinion....
