From Cardinals to Giants, it’s the era of the accidental champ
Eli celebrates the greatest month a 9-7 team ever had. (AP photo)
Every season ends with music blaring, confetti falling, a trophy awarded. It’s “One Shining Moment,” a pinnacle attained, a champion crowned. But more and more, we’re seeing trophies taken by teams that aren’t quite the epitome of excellence. We’ve entered the era of the accidental champ.
We consider the most recent winners in the six major American sports:
Connecticut, the 2010-11 NCAA basketball titlist: The Huskies finished in the bottom half of the Big East, which numbers 16 teams. They were 9-9 in regular-season conference play and entered the Big East tournament as the ninth seed. They won five games in that event, six in the NCAA tournament. They won more than half as many games (11) in the two postseason events as in the regular season (21).
Boston Bruins, the 2010-11 NHL titlist: They finished the regular season with 103 points, seventh-most in the league. They had the fewest points of any of the six division winners.
Dallas Mavericks, the 2010-11 NBA titlist: They finished second in the Southwest Division, four games behind San Antonio.
St. Louis Cardinals, the 2011 World Series titlist: They won 90 games, tying them for the eighth-best record in the majors. They were 67-63 on Aug. 24, the day they trailed the Braves by 8 1/2 games. They trailed by three games with five to play. They clinched the wild card when the Braves lost their 162nd game in 13 innings. In Game 6 of the World Series against Texas, the Cardinals twice were one strike from elimination.
Alabama Crimson Tide, 2011 BCS titlist: They didn’t win their division or their conference.
New York Giants, 2011 NFL titlist: They entered the playoffs with the worst record of the six NFC qualifiers. They won almost half as many games in postseason (four) as in the regular season (nine). They became the first Super Bowl champion to have been outscored during the regular season.
OK, I know what you’re saying. Isn’t this why we watch sports? For improbable championship runs? For these “Hoosiers” moments?
My response: Yes, but …
Let’s stipulate that being the No. 3 seed, as the Bruins and Mavericks were, doesn’t exactly constitute up-from-oblivion stuff. Let’s also stipulate that Alabama was held, rightly or wrongly, to be one of the nation’s two best teams all season in the one sport where opinion matters. Not all of these tales were created equal. But we can also argue that UConn, the Cardinals and the Giants were far better in the season’s final act than they’d been at any other time. (To be fair, the Huskies did have a nice November.)
And now you’re saying: Isn’t that also the nature of sports? Seizing the day? Grabbing that one shining moment? Running the “Hoosiers”-style Picket Fence with the Big Game on the line?
My response: Yes, but …
Underdog stories are great, but such a run of underdog champions underscores the notion that the only time to care about a sport is once the playoffs commence. (Another stipulation: Alabama was not an underdog in any game, not even in its rematch against LSU.) We’ve known for a while that the NHL and NBA regular seasons don’t count for much, and the advent of the wild card has rendered postseason baseball, to invoke the term all baseball men use, a crap shoot.
But what, in the grand scheme, did it avail the Phillies to win 102 games and the Packers to go 15-1? Given that the Phillies wound up losing to St. Louis in the Division Series, wouldn’t they have been better served tanking the final two games against the Braves?
And now you’re saying: The beauty of sports is that nothing is guaranteed — the best team on paper doesn’t always win. And I’ll agree with that almost without reservation. The reservation: We watch sports not just for entertainment but to get, at least on occasion, a glimpse of real excellence.
The 2011 Giants were not a great team: They lost at home to Seattle and Washington and were 7-7 with two regular-season games remaining. The 2011 Cardinals were not a great team: They got hot at the last possible moment and got lucky because the Braves went bad at that same moment. Of NCAA champs, only Kansas (which upset Oklahoma in 1988), North Carolina State (which upset Houston in 1983) and Villanova (which upset Georgetown in 1985) had more losses than UConn’s nine. Of BCS titlists, every one had at least won its conference — until Alabama.
What I’m saying: As nice as the upstart stories can be, it would be nice if there wasn’t another coming along every 15 minutes. Championships needn’t follow the same schedule as MARTA trains. It would be nice to see sustained excellence, as opposed to the situational kind, rewarded.
Back to “Hoosiers.” The team on which that movie was based, the 1953-54 Milan High School Indians, finished 28-2. We recall its epic upset of Muncie Central in the state finals on Bobby Plump’s last shot, but what’s conveniently overlooked is that, on that same court one week earlier, Milan had played Indianapolis Crispus Attucks, which was led by Oscar Robertson, the sport’s greatest all-around player until Michael Jordan came along. Milan won 65-52.
The point being: Even within the Milan Miracle, there was more than one shot or one game or even one month involved. There was, believe it or not, a full body of work.
By Mark Bradley
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190 comments Add your comment
cowdogit
February 10th, 2012
5:59 pm
It,s not accidental, the play off’’s are when the clutch player’s step up and the average player,s choke.
bro
February 10th, 2012
6:54 pm
We all know that the best team does not always win. It is better to be lucky that good on any day. For years the yankees had the best team that money could buy and still did not win. Alabama did not win for years until they got a good coach in saben. Coaching and luck and good players help in any win.
Angry Bird
February 10th, 2012
6:59 pm
I’ll guarantee no ATL will ever accidentally win a champ
Paul in NH
February 10th, 2012
7:36 pm
Mark,
Crispus Attucks may have lost to Milan, but Oscar Robertson was only a sophomore. Milan had excellent timing – as did some of your other examples. Crispus Attucks, with Oscar leading the way, won the Indiana State Championship the next 2 years.
D man
February 10th, 2012
8:00 pm
Every NFL team wants the Falcons to make the playoffs so they can play them and guarantee a Superbowl appearance.
BallControl
February 10th, 2012
9:36 pm
For once I agree with a Bradley column. Or at least the premise and the first paragraph or 2 that I actually read. This NFL seasons end bored the hell out of me. It seems like both the Giants and Pats backed into a championship that everyone knew was going to be a coin flip. No real domination by either team and yet they end up in the Superbowl. This was the first superbowl I had to really force myself to care about, and in the end I couldn’t.
Dawg 96
February 10th, 2012
10:16 pm
100% agree.
The baseball wild card / divisional best-of-five series kills it for me. A 162-game regular season followed by a best-of-five first round playoff series? Shorten the season to 160 games and make the divisional a best-of-seven series.
SecFan
February 10th, 2012
11:01 pm
How about a column on plain old lucky champions? Like Georgia in 1980. They had such a boatload of luck, the cosmic law of averages has kept them out of the big picture ever since.
heartofdarkness
February 11th, 2012
12:18 am
The amount of money in professional sports, including those played at the college level, has created a competitive balance such that any team in the top 25% of the league has a reasonable chance to win in a playoff setup. Since we do not run our competitions as wisely as the UEFA governing bodies, the object in our leagues is to win the last game. That may mean experimenting during the season with strategies that will be successful against likely playoff competition rather than being all in during the middle of the season.
Mitchell
February 11th, 2012
12:57 am
I don’t like the looks of this. All I need to see is the headline.
No, wait… all you need to see is the name to know this is going to be a load of garbage.
Let me guess, the 9-7 Giants won the Super Bowl so maybe the Braves don’t have to be great during the regular season this year to win the World Series.
The Giants are the Giants just like the Cardinals are the Cardinals.
They don’t accidentally win anything. They’re win because they’re winners. It’s what they do.
So ironic that neither team calls Atlanta home.
What are the odds?
Mitchell
February 11th, 2012
1:07 am
It would be nice to see sustained excellence, as opposed to the situational kind, rewarded.
Pipe dreams, Mark.
This isn’t the ’50s anymore. Maybe if the Braves hadn’t lost four World Series their period of sustained excellence, which expired long ago at this point no thanks to number 6, might be acknowledged a little more often than it does.
And for the record, it doesn’t really, like ever, if you happen to follow sports media these days.
As for “rewarding” it, isn’t that just the equivalent of giving a high school student a plaque for perfect attendance?
Doesn’t mean he was any good when it came to finals.
Mitchell
February 11th, 2012
1:08 am
I meant to say “is”… but otherwise I destroyed that.
hbcuclassics
February 11th, 2012
6:35 am
DE/OLB Adrian Hamilton, Prairie View
http://hbcuclassics.com/hbcu_showcase
hbcuclassics
February 11th, 2012
6:37 am
http://hbcuclassics.com/hbcu_showcase
John Marshall
February 11th, 2012
6:37 am
As long as you have post season tournaments to determine “champions” you will have your “accidental champions”. The regular season is not of concern to the fan these days as long as their team gets to the post-season tournament. If this is also the way the players see it what incentive is their for sustained excellence? Let’s just play well enough to get to the “big dance”, as they say in college basketball, then we will turn it on.
If you want to reward sustained excellence then perhaps you eliminate the post-season play, or make it less of a factor in national championships. Or you could start tournament play with the first game of the season. Since none of the foregoing is likely to happen we are stuck with accidental champions, which may not be so bad.
Hubie Green
February 11th, 2012
7:19 am
And the actual Milan team was made up of the best players in Southern Indiana, and they were a Final Four team the year before. Beating the Big O’s team was no fluke.
easyMel
February 11th, 2012
7:27 am
to correct this, let only the top teams in the playoffs–no more wildcards. Only division winners that have the best records get in. These titles are all a fluke!
Arnold Ziffel
February 11th, 2012
8:33 am
No accidental championships here. Just an earned one and many others lost by ineptitude- most by Bobby Cox. It still amazes me that we only got one title by Braves during their 15 year run of dominance. Yankees would have won 8 titles with our pitching. Falcons, Hawks, and ex-Thrashers poor results don’t surprise me one bit. Most of their problems historically have been ownership. Falcons have a committed owner now but he clearly has a lot to learn before we’ll see a ticker tape parade on Peachtree Street.
Arnold Ziffel
February 11th, 2012
8:40 am
What about bad luck in 1990 with GT sharing national football title. Voters witnessed Colorado’s “5th” down with their own eyes and knew Missouri won the game without it. In the end, voters gave Colorado half of the national title to split with GT.
Dean Tabut
February 11th, 2012
9:29 am
I agree with the point you’re making, Mark, but you’re off base including Alabama as part of the evidence. They certainly had a body of work this year, but just happened to play in the same conference as the other best team in the nation. The two of them met for the championship, as they should have, and Alabama proved itself as clearly the better team. The argument you make sounds much like those of us who oppose a playoff in college football. The current system values the “body of work” much more than a playoff.
jarvis
February 11th, 2012
9:31 am
@Ziffel, I think it’s because Georgia Tech beat no one the entire season inlcuding in their bowl game against a Nebraska team that finished barely ranked.
jarvis
February 11th, 2012
9:32 am
I take that back….they did beat a Virginia team and a Ray Goof coached Georgia team….that’s power football for sure.
The tie against North Carolina really hurt them.
Sonny Clusters
February 11th, 2012
9:38 am
The new alternate home jersey can be yours for only $236.99 plus shipping. It was going to be $246.99 but the Braves decided to cut prices to make things more affordable for the fans. That’s a reason they’ve gone to deer dogs, too. They have an inside source for venison and we are told if you soak the meat with the baseball gloves it takes the gamey taste away.
son of bubba
February 11th, 2012
9:54 am
What this really means is if the Giants can win the superbowl anyone can. Mark is right, you don’t have to be the best. There is a lot of luck involved.
Tom
February 11th, 2012
9:59 am
Look at who’s president. We live in the era of “Losers Are Winners.”
GT
February 11th, 2012
10:35 am
The Georgia Bulldawgs are the other side of that formula. Their record indicates they are better than they are. They are allowed through some kind of backroom lobbying to play no one and be the representative of a division of the best conference in college football, in a championship game they had no business playing in. They strike up a PR campaign bought by local and national press and then become an accident when they lose, because Bradley ate the dawg food (sorry couldn’t help myself). When you play a tournament and any team makes it all the way through that tournament to be a winner, having to win against all the competition not a filtered few, you have won any debate. Maybe the judgement and motivation of the press should be the subject not the team that proves itself. It would make the job of “experts” easy if every thing happened the way they see it, and their power to name a national champion like in football could be done on hot air, which the are the proud owners of. The beauty of sport is reality trumps bluster. You can hate a team or love a team, and talk trash til you are blue in the face, but if your team loses the other team is better. Right now Georgia is better than Tech, short and simple, and Tech is better than Clemson. Next thing you know writers and ESPN will want to get rid of the games themselves and have an event every Saturday like the local lottery on television to announce the winners, which you can bet will be the most populous team bases. Great teams win championships period. If they don’t they are not great.
Rtruth
February 11th, 2012
10:38 am
If you don’t win your division you should not make the playoffs.
That’s the prize for winning the division.
Otherwise winning the division means nothing.
GT
February 11th, 2012
10:51 am
Fairness, the Braves play an American League schedule that is arguably harder than the Cardinals. Some television rating system has come up with this being good for baseball. Atlanta loses by one game getting the wildcard bid, the winner of the wildcard bid wins the whole thing.
In these divisional championships whether in college football or professional we leave too much to the conflicted interest of the scheduler. A team wins a beauty contest and becomes the fan favorite. It becomes almost subconsciousness to put the goose that lays the gold an easier path to the finals. The Yankees, Lakers, Cowboys draw a large television audience. The only hope a back water team has is in a tournament where royalty and commoners are treated the same, where all the words in the world can’t hide the talent.
Logan
February 11th, 2012
10:54 am
I completely agree with you Mark. It sickens me to see all these accidental champs winning these days due to the fact they got hot for a few weeks. The best case in point. The 2007 New York Giants should by no means even been playing the almost perfect 2007 New England Patriots. The better story would have been Brady and his 50 TD’s and 19-0. They would have topped the 85 Bears. Todays “champions” are the equivalent of spoonfed lazy brats that collect an inheritance because of someone else’s death. The better team didnt show up. THAT’S the only reason they win.
GT
February 11th, 2012
11:26 am
And Logan I offer that you were poised as fans do to beat down friends and neighbors as your New England Patriots won it all. There was no joy in Mudville that day.
A friend of mine, from the south, last week spoke of living in Boston when everything was won in Boston, baseball, football, hockey, basketball and how insufferable it was. We get a little of that locally with the talk radio stations being control by northern transplants who spit on the mike as they tell the southern audience how they should do things to be more like “us” and then ten minutes later claim to be Atlanta sport’s fans to get the love. I get great pleasure out of watching you lose, you that have everything figured out and are going to remind us what losers we are as you live among us. When we got rid of the hockey team I loved it, we were carrying your water. The only reason you lost is because you weren’t good enough to win. The reason hockey left town is because it sucks!
The people in charge put these inequitable divisions in play because they were losing a television audience. Every year New York is in play and its multi million audience. You take them out of play and you have a Atlanta hockey team that no one cares about but transplants from where they are winners, or in our case actually play the game. The northern radio boys get mad when they trash talk and no one cares, it is very humorous if you have time to waste listening to it. They got it all figured out like a bunch of Mafia hanging out in a restaurant waiting for their orders. The whole world got bifocal and I got 20/20 vision. They ya lose, I love it.
Sid
February 11th, 2012
11:33 am
MyPatootie February 10th, 2012 12:08 pm
Please! Let’s not even bring soccer and hockey into the equation.
Those are nothing more than boring, sissy sports ……………..
*************************************************************************
That remark is about as stupid and insane as this accidental article is pointless. I guess if Green Bay had of won the SB again you would not have written this article. But that would be boring. There was, believe it or not, a full body of work? C’mon Mark, you really didn’t know what you were really trying to convey. That’s why they call it playoffs, championships, March Madness, etc…. You don’t have to be the best all year, just the best when it counts the most.
Matt "CHOKE" Ryan
February 11th, 2012
11:48 am
Why is CHOKE always used as the opponents playoffs version of training camp?
HA HA HA
Matt "CHOKE" Ryan
February 11th, 2012
11:50 am
cowdogit
February 10th, 2012
5:59 pm
It,s not accidental, the play off’’s are when the clutch player’s step up and the average player,s choke.
——————————————————————————————–
That’s the price for paying a career CHOKE 72 million dollars when the Ravens only spend 30 million on a playoff extraordinaire.
HA HA HA
Matt "CHOKE" Ryan
February 11th, 2012
11:52 am
bro
February 10th, 2012
6:54 pm
We all know that the best team does not always win. It is better to be lucky that good on any day
________________________________________________
Then CHOKE led teams must be the BEST every year
GT
February 11th, 2012
11:59 am
I with ya maybe the accident is the regular season. Lord knows the Braves could shine in regular season.
Dr. Warren
February 11th, 2012
12:34 pm
Don’t forget the 2010 SF Giants. They were certainly accidental, too.
Brian
February 11th, 2012
1:35 pm
You missed one big explanation – the coaches took the course of the year to coach them up…In other words, they may not have had the talent on day 1, but coaches, systems, team chemistry all matter. In the examples you cite most of the coaches are hall of fame worthy.
It’s not where you start (talented players), it’s where you end (Yes, talented players + coaching, execution, constant improvement over the course of a season).
To me, that’s the body of work – the improvement from begin to end, not the W-L record.
DawgDad
February 11th, 2012
1:52 pm
“Given that the Phillies wound up losing to St. Louis in the Division Series, wouldn’t they have been better served tanking the final two games against the Braves?” Well, duh.
Couple of bones to pick here. First, yes, expanded playoff formats afford opportunities for “hot” teams to win crowns. So, people should not go around trashing the Braves for only winning one World Series in 14 years of Division titles.
Second, in the modern era very few leagues play balanced schedules, so regular season records are not as comparable as people think. College Football addresses this with polls. Unbalanced schedules are not recognized for the factor they often are, especially in the NFL and MLB.
Third, College Basketball has rendered itself irrelevant to the casual fan until March.
Last, but by no means least, your criticism of the Cardinals is unfounded. Baseball affords GMs an opportunity to adjust their rosters right up until September (and once in a blue moon a September callup plays a key role in a pennant race, too). The Cardinals management clearly outshone every other organization last year, making key trades, free agent signings, callups, and with the manager in the dugout. They earn an A+ in my book. Their September-October record proved they were the top team in MLB over that span.
The Cardinals EARNED their way in because the front office, manager, and players never gave up or “played out the string” like the Braves did. Their lineup was far superior to the Braves (what is the Braves answer for any one of Pujols, Berkman, Holliday, Craig-Descalso? And, at the end Furcal was better than AGon and Molina was better than McCann). The Braves lost for two reasons: (1) Hanson and JJ got hurt and no one stepped up, and (2) the team in general went into “play out the string” mode before they clinched.
DawgDad
February 11th, 2012
1:59 pm
An interesting footnote to the Braves endings the past two years: You can make a case they lost in 2010 because they did not have Jack Wilson, and that they lost last year because they did. In that final roster spot they needed a glove in 2010 and a bat in 2011, for ONE key play. That’s on the GM folks.
Eddie Haskell
February 11th, 2012
2:04 pm
The ONLY reason Bama didnt win the sec championship is Georgia got to play because of a Lite Schedule.
ClinchCountyDawg
February 11th, 2012
2:17 pm
If Oklahoma State hadn’t blown a 24-7 lead to an inferior team in Iowa State, Alabama would not even been in the title game. LSU would have probably blown Oklahome State away in the title game.
Mike Price (greatest bama coach ever!
February 11th, 2012
2:54 pm
Kudos for saying what many of us feel. Hard work and genuine excellence can be quickly negated by blind luck or the odd bounce of a oblong ball.If you do not win your conference you are not a TRUE champion, only an accidental one.
jackie b.
February 11th, 2012
2:57 pm
It is a proven fact. Mark Richt is smarter than that Alabama coach.No greyshirt for Mark. He is not going to send another top shelf player to LSU to return to haunt Georgia. Now for players in trouble, we punish them for a year. We stash them in a J.C. for a year as punishment, and they are so d— grateful, they will come roaring back to GA. the next year. I think this is absolutely brilliant. I bet Saban and Meyer will be kicking themselves for not trying it. As an aside, I am not knocking Junior Colleges. I went to Floyd Junior College 2 years,West Georgia for 2 years,Georgia for graduate work. I like the idea of trying to salvage your players instead of letting them go to a place like LSU. You still only lose them for a year and you might pick up a good kicker for a year.
Mike Price (greatest bama coach ever!
February 11th, 2012
3:00 pm
St Louis, NY Giants and Alabama all CHOKED during the regular season and should not have gotten “mulligans”. Only if Philly and NE and LSU all get their “mulligans”.
The so-called “Super Bowl” is becoming just another football game only with a pretty trophy at the end to whoever got lucky, not the best team.
jackie b.
February 11th, 2012
3:13 pm
The trick would be even better if you could hide your players under assumed names where the vulture coaches could not steal them. Awesome.
UGA the Cubs of the south.
February 11th, 2012
3:16 pm
“From Cardinals to Giants, it’s the era of the accidental champ”
Since when did teams accidentally win championships? The Cardinals didn’t accidentally beat Philly and Texas. The Giants didn’t accidentally beat the Pats.
Then again, Mark Bradley picked UGA to win the SEC.
UGA the Cubs of the south.
February 11th, 2012
3:17 pm
“St Louis, NY Giants and Alabama all CHOKED during the regular season and should not have gotten “mulligans”.”
This is exactly why no one takes anyone in the state of Georgia seriously. Since when did the regular season mean anything?
I bet you’re a pathetic dawg fan.
UGA the Cubs of the south.
February 11th, 2012
3:20 pm
“So, people should not go around trashing the Braves for only winning one World Series in 14 years of Division titles.”
Actually, yeah we should. If a team goes to the playoffs 14 years in a row and only comes up with one trophy, something is seriously wrong with said team. You will NEVER see a Yankee team choke like the Braves have done over the years. Not that I’m a Yankee fan or anything.
The Braves had the best team in all of baseball several times in the 90s and came up short. The Phillies have the best rotation in all of baseball yet they’ve yet to win a title with that rotation.
UGA the Cubs of the south.
February 11th, 2012
3:22 pm
“Alabama Crimson Tide, 2011 BCS titlist: They didn’t win their division or their conference.”
And no one cares. They were the best team, besides LSU in all of college football.
“The 2011 Giants were not a great team:”
The Super Bowl win says differently.
“Boston Bruins, the 2010-11 NHL titlist: They finished the regular season with 103 points, seventh-most in the league. They had the fewest points of any of the six division winners.”
Mark, considering Atlanta knows nothing about hockey, you should just stop. You understand hockey about as well as I understand the stupidity of the UGA fan base.
concern
February 11th, 2012
3:50 pm
Can add Alabama to that list. Would not have been possible to play w/o winning conference.