So take that...
by 54b on Jun 13, 2007 2:16 PM CDT
Email
PrintI love this little ditty from the Athletic Department's PR team...
Apparently in the 2006/07 academic year, UT is the only school to have a football team with 10 wins, basketball team with 25 wins, and baseball team with 40 wins.
I know I should read this with pride as it is a nice accomplishment, but I have to laugh at the the thinly veiled attempt to block and bridge the disappointment most Longhorn fans feel right now due to unrealized post season expectations for our 3 major sports teams.
It reminds me of the speech the stats nerd Ogilvy gives after the Bad News Bears got taken behind the woodshed for like the fifth straight time..."Hey, come on guys, we only had six errors which is 3 less than our usual, and while we didn't have any hits, we had 16 foul tips. Plus four of our hitters almost reached first base."
Perhaps Longhorns fans have developed unrealistic expectations due to the overwhelming success of the past few years, but I still don't think I would have gone public with this one. Let's just focus on next year, the summer is long enough as it is...
"Look at the bright side Miss Rhode Island, maybe you did come in 49th and forget the name of your state capital, but hey, you smiled the whole time, yeah, never frowned once, not once, and sang almost two-thirds of 'My Heart Will Go On' in the right key."
Some people look at a glass of beer and say it's half empty. But not me, I've never seen a half empty beer because I never stop drinking until it's all gone.
Write that down.
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Re-read words 6-11 of the first sentence of your diary again (I'll wait).
...(still waiting)...
It's PR. Who cares? God forbid that the athletic department actually try to point out the positive things that were accomplished this year. It's not a thinly veiled attempt at anything.
Nice Bad News Bears reference, though.
Thank you for waiting, Richard
I happen to work for an advertising agency with a PR department. So I do care.
Perhaps my jab at the UT spin team was a bit disingenuous. And it's certainly your perogative not to laugh and disagree with my "thinly veiled" attempt at humor, but I figured most BON readers probably felt disspointed (wrong or right) about the post season failings and probably wouldn't take much solace in this latest accolade.
And speaking of getting Hook'em on Phonics, what part of the first 14 words under 54b's Diary didn't point out the fact that I know I'm being ridiculous harping on this.
PB, you can forget the blogging community award next year because apparently we all want to show each other how bad ass we can be by rubbing each other's noses in it.
Good times.
Less we forget what Miss Congeniality said, "better to let people think you're a dick than start commenting and prove it."
And if I'm as guilty as the next guy, shame on me. But I don't remember ever trying to piss anybody off unless attacked first...if I disagree with someone, I try to make a sensible argument to the contrary and do it with humor.
Here's a question for you...would you have responded with the same sarcastic hotstility, if we'd been in the same room?
And if you think I'm overreacting here, I am. But I don't get why so many commenters on this site have to comment with such disdain. Aren't most of Longhorn fans?
Have a nice day.
I too
am confounded by all of the negative and sarcastic "policing" that goes on at this otherwise good-natured site.
If you're not interested in a topic or if you find it is unworthy of comment, then simply don't comment, instead of commenting on how this topic is unworthy of comment. A lack of comments next to a diary posting can be a powerful statement.
by BrooklynHorn on Jun 13, 2007 4:00 PM CDT up reply actions
Wait
I thought you already had Jason pegged.
I actually think the tenor 'round here has maintained surprisingly civil, even with the occasional HornChamps appearance.
Jason is Crumegeon Man, and I've learned to let his comments roll off the shoulder, so to speak. I think he even means well, for the most part.
wow
I had no idea that my comment would come off as so negative, nor that most of my comments come off that way. (I thought the "still waiting" line gave away my innocent sarcastic tone...certainly nothing hostile).
And yes, had I been in the same room with you, I would have responded exactly the same way. I find it odd how people give sports information departments such a hard time for trying to put positive spins on things.
besides...
I thought we were ineligible to win Best Community two years in a row. Doesn't that give us carte blanche to say whatever we want?
I smell Bill Chicken Little
After writing that press release he spent his day giving Mack a 30 minute tongue bath, washing & waxing Rick's double cab pick-up and giving the new women's basketball coach a moustache & beard waxing.
Little walked in to Dodd's office and asked, "what now massah!?"
Bill Chicken Little
Gosh, I hate it every single time I get roped into shaking hands with that wet noodle.
Miss Rhode Island?
Yes it was a puff piece to try to highlight the good in a underwhelming year, but comparing to Miss Rhode Island is a little tough, well save that for my Buffs when they put out a press piece about how CU is looking to improve with new coaches, Air Force and Boise St were good this year right?
The football team was like rooting for Miss Florida this year, hot enough to get you excited, but you knew she did not have what it took to get into final 10 with twirling as her talent.
The basketball and baseball teams were more like Miss Pennsylvania, looks all hot and flashy in the preliminaries by winning the swimsuit competition, and then blows it so bad in the evening wear competition on finals night she does not even get to compete in the talent competition.
That was really hard, how long have you been doing this?
Since February 2, 2007 at 2:10pm CST
According to the BON, that was 112 comments ago...well 113 now.
And don't be too quick to discount Miss Rhode Island...she may be overlooked easily, but any contestant who can tie a double windsor out of a cherry stem using only her mouth while singing "She's My Cherry Pie" is going to garner some votes.
Or ask your self (PR guys)
would you want the Texas season or the Florida season?
they had a mediocre Baseball team 29-30 (15-15 SEC) and 2 National Championships!
It's bad PR to invite unflattering comparisons. What a bunch of Lunkheads.
Hey wait a minute...
in 2005-2006 wasn't Texas the national champion in baseball and Football and the Basketball team went 20-11.
isn't anything less than one more championship down hill?
It's time the PR folks hand out happy face buttons and attendance awards.
I guess you don't remember . . .
. . . when baseball was played in the stadium parking lot, basketball was in Gregory Gym and getting pounded by Centenary, and football was getting beat by the likes of Boston College.
Then again, maybe you weren't born yet.
This PR "spin" as you put it is music to my ears. Sure, it isn't the best year ever, far from it, but each of the those programs had a winning record, even going to the next round. Believe me, it was not always thus. We should be more proud instead of calling last season "mediocre" or a "disappointment". You don't know disappointment until you lose to Baylor, Tech, TCU, and aTm in the same season in three sports.
by Arby A on Jun 15, 2007 10:33 AM CDT reply actions
A fair point
To some extent. But relative goodness is only so tasty.
Either we accept that standards are higher and not spin away relative disappointments, or we lower the standard to the Dark Ages and pretend the Renaissance hasn't happened.
I think, Arby, that you're confusing disappointment with the sort of irrational anger/vile that define some Longhorn fans. I can be proud of each of the accomplishments of the '06-07 Longhorn teams while still noting that, all things considered, it was a down year.
Is that fair?
fair
But, either way, I don't know why it is necessary to point any accusatory slurs towards an athletic department whose job it is to point out the positive aspects of the program.
That was the only point I was trying to make.
by Jason Mayer on Jun 15, 2007 11:47 AM CDT up reply actions
Well
I thought 54b noted that he understood they're just doing their jobs.
I also don't think it's terribly offensive, or surprising, to counter the PR piece with a more sobering reflection on the results of the season.
Neither the PR piece, nor the eye rolling from fans, are surprising.
Where the difference lays....
A lot of us think that UT sports should be held to a higher standard as one of the elite college sports programs in the country.
If we want to be in that company, the program needs to uphold that higher standard. Part of that standard is not just winning games but winning championships.
We all know that lots of circumstances has to converge for any team to win a national championship and it is incredibly hard to do that and it's not realistic to imagine one team has what it takes to stay on top consecutively. But that doesn't dampen our expectation on that level. The school, the coaches and the players work under that expectation and it seems to me have for almost 10-15 years that almost every sport has operated in a way to put in an effort to meet those expectations. We can be proud of the effort the sports teams expended towards reaching an incredibly difficult goal.
So in a way when PR folks trumpet these accomplishments which is only part of the equation for success seems to denigrate the effort we ask the players and coaches we expend to meet our expectations( and their own of course). I watch UT sports not because they win but because they operate under the expectation that every one involved will try to be the best. When you think this way you will win.
pr
I understand the sentiment. I really do. And I don't necessarily disagree with it. However, the way an athletic department tries to point out the positive things that happened over the last year has absolutely nothing to do with where each team's goals lie.
All this is doing is saying thanks to the athletes on these teams that spent their last year on campus, and who still provided Texas with very successful seasons. It doesn't denigrate anything unless you view the lack of championships as a complete failure, which is an unfortunate way of looking at things...especially college athletics.
by Jason Mayer on Jun 16, 2007 12:33 PM CDT up reply actions
A good point
And we should be careful not to forget to note our appreciation for the kids themselves.
Good points all around.
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