Cubs Cope

One of the great abilities of humanity is their ability to build defense mechanisms. When things are going bad, we need to find a way to live with those bad things, and try to make things better.

For sports fans though, there is very little the we can do directly to make any improvements. Ultimately, we are at the complete mercy of the players and management to turn things around when they are not going well.

Some people seem to cope by going online to rail against the players and management, demanding that players get benched, traded or released. And there are calls to fine the manager and GM daily. Before the internet, this was done via sports radio – which is still a method for some people.

But honestly, I don’t think these rants have any real effect, other then to perhaps help the ranter deal with the losses, and make them feel like they are actually able to do somthing about it.

Personally, I have learned to cope using a couple of methods:

1. Avoidance – when the team I follow is losing, I try to avoid all coverage about that team and the sport they play as a whole. If the team is winning I love to consume all the articles and podcasts, blogs and highlights. But I shut myself off from all of these things when the team is losing. If things get bad enough, I may even stop watching the games, even if I have nothing else that I need to do. I do get scoring updates on my phone and watch (thank you technology) so I might tune in if the game is close or it looks like they might win.
   
2. Diversify – my other main strategy as a sports fan has been the diversification of my interest in different sports and teams. If one team is doing very poorly, I can turn my interest to another team or sport. When the Cubs were rebuilding when Theo Epstein first took over, I barely followed what they were up to. But following sports was one the the primary things I’ve done as a hobby and source of entertainment though my life, so I’ve needed to care about other sports and teams. American football, basketball and baseball were the sports I connected with early on. But soccer, tennis, golf, hockey and even cricket have been sports I’ve been willing to watch.

The Cubs will always be top my list of teams and sports I follow overall, but if I need a break for a couple weeks (or a really bad season), I have other teams and sports to fall back on to keep my interest.

For instance, I can dive into watching World Cup Games the next couple of weeks if the Cubs are unable to turn things around. I’m not very confident that the U.S. Men’s Nationa Team will go on a run, but there will be about a month worth of games to pay attention to.

The real challenge will come in July and August, as there will not be too much other than baseball to watch when the World Cup is over, and the NFL has not started yet. It might be a good time to learn to play the guitar.