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
georgia87
February 11th, 2012
4:40 pm
Baseball has been this way and will be this way until TV gets out of the way. The travel schedule and off days make the playoffs an entirely different beast than the regular season. IN season, you need pitching depth. In the playoffs, you only need two dominant pitchers. That is why baseball’s champion is almost always not the best regular season team.
dan
February 11th, 2012
5:26 pm
I was having this conversation with someone the other day. “David’s” have been winning so much lately that I’m starting to think the “Goliath’s” don’t exist anymore. If you have the ability to win a title, why not put together in the regular AND post season. Half-a$$ness…that is our current society on a lot of levels.
w
February 11th, 2012
7:56 pm
Hey, success is no accident. It’s just sometimes sports math doesn’t check with conventional wisdom. The human brain can really only calculate so far, after that we call it luck, or god, but the truth is if you just work your ass off, and worry about what you can control, you’ll be surprised how high you end up.
WingT
February 12th, 2012
6:10 am
Dear Mr Bradley….Nice column and I see your point…however.
There is a difference between being the best regular season team and the best when it matters. IE: The 90’s braves, the bills 4 times, this seasons version of the pack. The giants beat the defending SB champ, who’s 15-1 reg season record was the best in the NFL, in Lambeau. The the second best reg season team in their house. Then what was the AFC’s.
That’s three straight against the three best reg season teams. Good teams win in the reg season, champions win when it matters. You might not like it….I freakin loved it…both in spirit and profit, same as the last SB championships the giants won.
I loved the cardinals series win. From almost dead to beating the phillies to winning the series.
A true champion never goes into a contest believing an opponent is better than them or not before the game….all they focus on is beating that opponent that game. That’s all that matters. 40 years from now when someone is looking back at who won the SB and series in 2011, the history books will only say giants and cards. Does anyone look back to see who “won” the regular season in any sport? Because there is no such thing.
Ed Zeppelin
February 12th, 2012
6:56 am
I disagree with this ‘accidental champion’ crap. GB may have been 15-1 but when the time came to get by the Giants, they couldn’t. Baltimore might have been in the Super Bowl but they couldn’t get a chip shot field goal when it counted. Most prognosticators picked NE to win the Super Bowl, but the NE receivers dropped a few catchable balls and sealed their fate. The Giants rose to the top at the end: they made the catches, the kicks, and the tackles WHEN IT COUNTED. They deserve to be Super Bowl champs.
Black Mountain NC Bulldog
February 12th, 2012
8:15 am
These underdog winners are great. I like rooting, for the underdog. That is if they are not defeating one of my teams.
Bud Selieg I am no fan of, but I do like the new MLB playoff proposal. The Wildcard teams get just one game to make it or break it. That will allow more fans teams to be in the hunt because they will add another team, from in league, into the playoffs. And the division winners will gain an advantage because of they way pitchers will have to be used.
gabugman
February 12th, 2012
8:58 am
So Bradley, based on this article we should just eliminate the playoffs and the best end of season record takes all the marbles.
Save me alot of hand wringing as well as let those teams that are close but realize they can’t overtake the leader to phone it in for the remainder of the season.
Sweet!
Arnold Ziffel
February 12th, 2012
10:06 am
If playoffs are always a “crapshoot”, why do ATL teams always get the crap-end of the deal? ATL teams not only lose but find ways to lose in embarrassing and sometimes record setting ways. If 1995 WS wasn’t against the only sports town worse than ATL, I’m convinced we’d have zero titles in this town. Not even Cox could botch beating Cleveland.
Arnold Ziffel
February 12th, 2012
10:15 am
Wing T wrote: “Does anyone look back to see who won the regular season in any sport?”
John Scheurputz certainly does. That fool told Braves fans to be happy with division titles or find another team to follow. Now that the Braves have no chance of winning even division titles anymore, clever John is now claiming WS or bust like many of the other underfunded teams with zero chance. Amazing this guy got anywhere in business with that backwards mindset.
Matt "CHOKE" Ryan
February 12th, 2012
10:23 am
Mularkey…………………QUIT
Snead………………………QUIT
Can you say ABANDOM SHIP?
Dang CHOKE sucks so bad that the coaches and front office don’t want to be the laugh of the NFL anymore…………….
HA HA HA
TheTank
February 12th, 2012
10:25 am
ginats set team up to win in playoffs, had to beat Green Bay & Patriots.
Did it by having a great passing QB who didn’t make mistakes,
and a great passs rush.
In the pass first NFL, that’s the formula.
Matt "CHOKE" Ryan
February 12th, 2012
10:29 am
The funny thing is Eli didn’t even make the NFL Top 100 list but CHOKE did…………
Now that’s funny
Sid
February 12th, 2012
10:46 am
Gwinnett Fred February 10th, 2012 2:35 pm
One glaring omission.
All 4 of golf’s Majors’ winners last year were by first time winners of a Major.
**********************************************************
Poor Gwinnett Fred, you didn’t read specifically, “We consider the most recent winners in the six major American sports:”. You are obviously a golf enthusiast and are probably already aware that there are several areas within the AJC sports department where there is no coverage. Golf, Tennis, Hockey, and NASCAR being a few but college sports of anything other than football are off the grid. Who writes those stories from the Associated Press anyway?
Sid
February 12th, 2012
10:49 am
Ed Zeppelin
February 12th, 2012
6:56 am
**********************************
I agree, just my gut feeling Welker makes that catch NE goes on to win the game.
General Butt Naked
February 12th, 2012
11:06 am
Its important to remember that the Giants had a lot of injuried early in the year and weren’t fully healthy, especially on D, until the end of the year. So we didn’t really get a full glimpse of what they could do till then. Same with the packers of last year who simply peaked and got better towards the end of the year. Nothing “accidental” about getting better.
There’s so much luck in baseball that anybody can get lucky for 2-3 weeks or a month.
Alabama didn’t even win their division or conference. But that’s terribly misleading since they only didn’t win it because the other best team in the country beat them in the 1st game. The better team doesn’t always win and Bama dominated that game and missed 4 field goals in it. The complete domination by the Bammers in the rematch pretty much proved that Bama was no “accidental” champion. That rematch was a complete asskicking.
Sid
February 12th, 2012
11:24 am
L. labor
U under
C correct
K knowlege
Mike
February 12th, 2012
11:35 am
Mark, this is something that’s completely lost on college football. There are teams built to run the regular season, then there are teams that are better suited for a playoff environment. Playoffs are COMPLETELY different from a regular season:
1) the pressure is amped up quite a bit. Its a win or go home scenario, not win or try to do better next week.
2) Its a meat grinder of a competition. There are no cupcakes sandwiched in between tough games. There is no streak of playing 6-8 games against teams with losing records. Its game after game against the top competition in the league. LSU played a tough schedule, but none of those tough games were back to back like a playoff atmosphere. They all had at least one week of a lesser team in between.
The Giants have D Line that can crush the pocket, a very good running game, and a clutch QB. The Cardinals had starters that could throw with anyone, a killer lineup, maybe the best power hitter in baseball right in the middle of that, and all the momentum. The Mavs used to be a team that would run the regular season but not be tough enough for the playoff grind. Last year they had a deeper team, one of the top scorers in the league, a better inside game than in previous years, and a tougher defensive mindset than in previous years. These teams were flat out built better than their competition for a playoff run. Last year is not the first either (Giants in 2007, Cards won the series before that without a top record too).
Alabama? We will never know cause CFB insists it needs no playoff. It insists that an “eye ball” test is better than settling things on the field. History has shown far more than not, that teams who can run the regular season are not necessarily going to do anything in the playoffs. Just ask the 2010 Falcons and Patriots. Just ask Lebron and the Cavs…on and on.
Mike
February 12th, 2012
11:39 am
The playoffs are where weaknesses are exposed, not the regular season. If you cant play defense, if you cant run the ball, if you have no real go to guy in the 4th, if your goalie is shaky…it all gets exposed. Its not about records. Its about which team has the best balance and shows up the strongest in all phases of the game.
63 year Braves Fan
February 12th, 2012
12:00 pm
Love to read Sonny Clusters
Walter
February 12th, 2012
1:03 pm
This article is one of many examples of the decline of actual journalism. To outshout the bloggers and the websites, this guy comes up with three legitimate examples of teams whose entire body of work was not the best in their league that ended up winning it all. Brilliant premise, Bradley. So what? If you don’t like the rules of the games, don’t watch the sports…it’s amazing that you get paid to write this drivel.
gcs
February 12th, 2012
1:30 pm
Like most people, I like the underdog but for me it’s only when that dog is not getting respect it deserves. Milan was a small school but their record showed they deserved to be there. I also like the underdog when the favorites are a bunch of arrogant jerks (see the 1993 Sugar Bowl and 2011 NBA Finals).
The Giants, Cardinals and the UConn’s of the world just got hot at the right time. To me, these are fluke championships.
too big to fail generation
February 12th, 2012
1:42 pm
Accidental can be good.
RTR 11
February 12th, 2012
5:56 pm
I have a question. Is it a must that you be a complete idiot to write for this paper? I’m thinking, most of these writers were educated in Georgia.
Ronald Millsaps
February 12th, 2012
6:08 pm
“sonny”— Kindly refrain from misusing the word “hate”. We ALL hate–either that which is good or that which is evil, so don’t throw this nonsensical “Don’t hate” rhetoric around, and kindly don’t attach the annoying “on”, either.
Your observations about Chipper are foolish. I guess you haven’t watched him play either in the majors or minors.
Dale Murphy supports Mitt Romney, huh? Interesting. Murphy is highly respectable but not so much when a “mitt” is involved. However, while Rick Santorum’s the best option, Romney would be far better than the incumbent.
Very-perceptive article. How many times in recent years has a team made a large impression on you, only for a team of considerably-less impression to win it all? The St. Louis Cardinals have done so twice since 2006, as did, say, the Yankees a decade earlier, as did the Steelers in 2005. I could go on and on.
I don’t rank the NY Giants along with those other teams because, for one, they’re really good, and they do have a tougher division than do the Packers. Also, the Giants’ style isn’t like the Packers’ a pass-happy style that the league’s rules accommodate.
Oftentimes, the cream rises to the top in the postseason. Other times, the best team might beat itself or see its current potential drop due to injury. In any event, the Cardinals were better than the Phillies in a five-game case sample; the Phillies were far better in a sample bigger by 157 games. The Braves have dominated large case samples since 1991.
I’ve had this conversation many times over the past few years. Good, far-better-than-the-norm article.
Matt "CHOKE" Ryan
February 12th, 2012
6:27 pm
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“I was the last coach to win a playoff game for the Falcons” – Jim Mora Jr.
That is funny as heck……………………….
HA HA HA
Sonny Clusters is a douchebag
February 12th, 2012
7:42 pm
We suck at sports, what else is new?
wally
February 12th, 2012
8:22 pm
Thank goodness baseball season is finally here…I for one would like to see some of the former UGA basball guys do well like Gordon Beckham, Jeff Kepplinger ( may be mispelled) Rick Poythress.
I hope the Dogs have another good baseball season. It would be good to see them in Omaha. I hope to see them in person at Clemson April 11.
Ronald Millsaps
February 12th, 2012
8:23 pm
“sonny”– Watch the language–twice there.
I swear; this nation is deteriorating, if it hasn’t already, into that sorry, postmodern, pluralistic, uneducated, brainwashed, blind, self-contradictory, confused wasteland, a.k.a. Europe.
Dan Wofford
February 12th, 2012
10:20 pm
They played and won the games necessary so it is no accident, get over it!
what of it?
February 13th, 2012
12:33 pm
the Premiership also punishes rather than rewards its worst teams. It’s a thing or two american sports leagues could learn about healthy competition.
The french have a saying that’s fairly apt for this article which translates to something like this: We always have hopes of winning because the others might lose.
Mark Bradley - Accidental writer
February 13th, 2012
1:10 pm
oh good grief. At what point do all you window-licking Bama wannabes stop wetting your diapers about the fact that THE BEST team in college football won the BCSNC this year? Oregon, Stanford, Okie State, etc all had their chance to play a great LSU squad and none of them got it done. You idiots are obviously not well versed in the history of college football and must have just wanted a “good for TV ” game and not a national championship. Bama did what it does best – win and win decisively. Nothing accidental about it.
However, if we’re going to talk accidental, I’ll take the Braves and Falcons winning an accidental championship any time they want to “fall into it.”
As for the heat, well, winning would be accidental for them.
ROLL TIDE & SUCKIT HATER WANNABES!
The Tide is Rolling and Nothing can Stop it
February 13th, 2012
1:14 pm
You have to win your division to be in the Championship game. Unless you’re a top-tier program.
The Tide is Rolling and Nothing can Stop it
February 13th, 2012
1:15 pm
Accidental is better than none (in 30 years).
Cammy Cam Juice
February 13th, 2012
1:17 pm
Robodog, you my friend are a moron, and a battered UGA fan who sounds like they hold a grudge from getting worked down on the Plains. Auburn has no place in this column, just where the should be, as expected Champions of 2010. War Damn Eagle.
The Tide is Rolling and Nothing can Stop it
February 13th, 2012
1:19 pm
Georgia fans have become the “Occupy” group of college football. Whether it’s who has more championships, who’s in the championship, or oversigning, they have targeted Bama/Saban as the one-percent. Like the Occupy crowd, they have unrealistic expectations and won’t to cry cheater at everyone who is better than them. Protesters, “Get a job!” Dawg fans, “Get a real team!”
bamafan
February 13th, 2012
1:41 pm
I think the word that Mark meant to use must have been “improbable.” Certainly, improbable applies to the Cardinals, the Giants, and the Crimson Tide, considering where each team was only a few short weeks before the title games.
Jeff Johnson
February 13th, 2012
4:00 pm
disagree!
bamafan
February 13th, 2012
4:23 pm
No team from Georgia can even accidentally win a championship.
LivinInAL
February 13th, 2012
6:59 pm
I remember my old high school coach telling me that our team needed to peak at playoff time. We dropped a couple of games during the season to get 2-3 guys some playing time and experience. We were a much better team at the end that we were at the beginning of the year. I think the same hold true today. Some teams improve others level off.
GFJacket
February 14th, 2012
7:30 am
In the NFL, the playoffs are all that matters. Otherwise how do you explain that 4 of the past 5 Super Bowl champs either lost to or had to go to overtime to beat the Redskins during the regular season.
2007 – Giants lost to Redskins 22-10
2008 – Steelers beat Redskins
2009 – Saints beat Redskins in OT after Redskins missed a chipshot FG
2010 – Packers lost to Redskins 16 – 13
2011 – Giants lost to Redskins TWICE…. 28-14 and then 23 -10