Breaking the Rule

To quote friend and Sports Editor Scotty Thompson: “Why?”

Have you seen the latest Sports Illustrated cover? Featured front and center: Jason Heyward and Freddie Freeman, ordained with a title of “The Boys of Summer.”

Uh-oh.

There are some things in sports one can only describe as uncanny. Or simply inexplicable. The 5-12 upset in March Madness, the Chicago Cubs, Terrell Owens’ employment, Mark freaking Cuban, and Seattle NBA fans watching Kevin Durant tear it up in Oklahoma City all qualify.

The Sports Illustrated curse fits too.

For those who don’t know, whoever has been featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated has promptly played awful, or had some misfortune happen to them.

It’s not an every-week thing, but it occurs so often, many athletes believe in the legend.

Heck, Sports Illustrated themselves did an article on the topic in 2002 by Alexander Wolf. Check out what he wrote:

“…we heard from sports psychologist Jim Loehr, who believes that there is an SI Cover Jinx of sorts…”

To be fair, Loehr said being featured on the cover brings a heightened expectation of an athlete to perform, and many athletes have trouble with that.

Great. That’s exactly what Braves fans want to hear regarding the two young guns with big expectations already on their shoulders.

Last year, “J-Hey” started off the year well, but then fell off towards the end of the season. He still hit .277 with 18 HR and 72 RBI, posting a .393 on base percentage. These are all solid numbers, and I’d take any guy who hits that in my outfield.

But that was Heyward’s first season; fans want him hitting 30 HR and 110 RBI.

Then there’s the next big thing: Freddie Freeman.

He didn’t look so hot in his brief late-season appearances, managing four hits in 24 at-bats. Still, he’s the first baseman of our future and capable of being a good power guy at the corner, given time.

Of course, that’s assuming neither of them blows out a knee in spring training or tears his ACL. It’s the curse, right?

And Atlanta fans know, after going this long with only one professional sports championship, that something just has to go wrong.

But hey, look at the bright side! Wolf found that from 1954 to 2002, only 37.1 percent of athletes were jinxed.

So there’s a 62.9 percent chance we’ll be perfectly fine!

Posted by Caleb Rule on Mar 3 2011. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.