Bravo for Boasting

Good for him. It's about time someone did some boasting.

Him is Matt Kemp, an outfielder for the Los Angeles Dodgers. The boasting is his prediction that he will, this year, become the first person ever to hit 50 home runs and get 50 stolen bases in the same season.

That's quite a boast, which is, I say, good for him.

If he does it, he will surpass A-Rod, who has come closest (42 HR, 46 SB in 1998). But, in my mind, Kemp (who hit 39 homers had 40 SBs in 2011) will far surpass most of the rest of the baseball fraternity, simply by stating his goal and not couching it in some sort of vague language that is all too often the butt of jokes in sporting newsrooms: "We just take it one game at a time," "We still have a lot of work to do," "I'm just happy to be part of a team," etc.

The common mythical wisdom is that one player's boasts will end up plastered all over the other team's players' lockers, providing motivation to show up the boaster by beating his team soundly and thoroughly. And although I will admit that that can and does happen, I am of the firm belief that it is not at all the prime mover anymore that it used to be. 

Today's professional athletes are, well, professional. They want to get bigger and better contracts, so they are motivated to go out every day and excel, no matter who the opponents are and no matter what those opponents have said beforehand.

It is certainly the case that some players get pumped up more for certain games and certain rivalries; but even in those instances, an entire team doesn't perform at a monumentally high level, no matter what kind of messages are posted on their lockers. Especially in a team sport, it is extremely for the entire team to perform at a very high level for an entire contest, let alone an entire week or month or season. It just doesn't happen, even in the shortest of professional seasons.

If Matt Kemp wants to tell the world that he's going to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases, then by all means let's allow him to do that. If he does it, that's great, he's in the record books. If he doesn't do it, then that's fine as well because he will be proved, for this season again at least, the great-but-not-superhuman player that he is.

This sports fan, at least, won't be chastising him for making such a bold prediction. It's a welcome change from the traditional drivel that gets uttered all too often these days still.