Tips on not taking losses hard?

Kapono · Post #1 » by **Kapono** » Tue Apr 10, 2012 3:01 am

Anyone have any? I seem to take these tough losses really hard, every year. I need to remember that its a 162 game season and a lot of sh*t can happen. But damn, it hurts, it hurts real deep.

Lateral Quicks · Post #2 » by **Lateral Quicks** » Tue Apr 10, 2012 3:03 am

Remember how you feel as a Raptor and/or Leaf fan, and that will quickly put things in perspective.

SargentBargs101 · Post #3 » by **SargentBargs101** » Tue Apr 10, 2012 3:04 am

This is nothing. The lost against the angels last year still gets me cheesed lol... over time it will heal. maybe

Relentless88 · Post #4 » by **Relentless88** » Tue Apr 10, 2012 3:05 am

The good thing about baseball is that the next game is usually the next day. You'll get over it.

bigdirty · Post #5 » by **bigdirty** » Tue Apr 10, 2012 3:06 am

Realize this is a Toronto sports franchise and wins/losses don't matter period.

Kapono · Post #6 » by **Kapono** » Tue Apr 10, 2012 3:07 am

Lateral Quicks wrote:Remember how you feel as a Raptor and/or Leaf fan, and that will quickly put things in perspective.

Im live in BC so Im a Canucks fan

vaff87 · Post #7 » by **vaff87** » Tue Apr 10, 2012 3:08 am

Ahh, as you said... 162 game season... This game is 0.6% of the season... They play again tomorrow..There are more important things to stress about in life... And I've been watching the Jays for 17-18 years, I'm use to no accomplishments.

guvernator · Post #8 » by **guvernator** » Tue Apr 10, 2012 3:08 am

SargentBargs101 wrote:This is nothing. The lost against the angels last year still gets me cheesed lol... over time it will heal. maybe

When scott downs blew that game against sox late in 2008 (with jays just 2.5 games behind ) was the worst I have felt.

Relentless88 · Post #9 » by **Relentless88** » Tue Apr 10, 2012 3:08 am

Kapono wrote:
Lateral Quicks wrote:Remember how you feel as a Raptor and/or Leaf fan, and that will quickly put things in perspective.

Im live in BC so Im a Canucks fan

Then you shouldn't be complaining.

flatjacket1 · Post #10 » by **flatjacket1** » Tue Apr 10, 2012 3:09 am

High draft pick in each of the 50 rounds of the draft, 1 draft spot means a lot.

Michael Bradley · Post #11 » by **Michael Bradley** » Tue Apr 10, 2012 3:15 am

In baseball, a great team will lose 65-70 times in a season. Some of them will be heartbreakers. To be a baseball fan, you need to have a short memory. The season is long.

In the case of the Jays, they are about an 85-ish win team with potential to be better with some internal development, and the potential to be worse with some regression. These types of losses will happen regardless, but with the Jays in particular, there are so many variables at play that it will be hard to gauge where the team is until months into the season.

fredericklove · Post #12 » by **fredericklove** » Tue Apr 10, 2012 3:19 am

Mattd97 · Post #13 » by **Mattd97** » Tue Apr 10, 2012 3:32 am

^^^ thats pretty good

but honestly its not college football where one loss means teh season. its a rough loss, but after 15 minutes most of the emotion should ease.

Randle McMurphy · Post #14 » by **Randle McMurphy** » Tue Apr 10, 2012 3:34 am

SargentBargs101 wrote:This is nothing. The lost against the angels last year still gets me cheesed lol... over time it will heal. maybe

Yeah...it's when they get screwed over that I get pissed. Tonight, though? We didn't deserve to win....Santos blew it. I can get over that, it's a long season.

BigLeagueChew · Post #15 » by **BigLeagueChew** » Tue Apr 10, 2012 3:49 am

Moneyball approach = 20 game win streak ? :dontknow:

paranoid_android · Post #16 » by **paranoid_android** » Tue Apr 10, 2012 5:14 am

Kapono wrote:Anyone have any? I seem to take these tough losses really hard, every year. I need to remember that its a 162 game season and a lot of sh*t can happen. But damn, it hurts, it hurts real deep.

Stay away from the boards after a loss.

Hamyltowne · Post #17 » by **Hamyltowne** » Tue Apr 10, 2012 5:19 am

Being devastated by a tough loss is normal. It shows heart. This is our team.

That said, every team wins 60 games and loses 60 games. It's what you do in those middle 42 games that really counts.

Thing is: tonight could have been one of those middle 42 games, and we missed it. Actually, JPA missed it.

JPA cost us the game with his terrible defense.

baulderdash77 · Post #18 » by **baulderdash77** » Tue Apr 10, 2012 11:25 am

It's only April and there's so much baseball to play left so don't get depressed or over-react to anything.

Fairview4Life · Post #19 » by **Fairview4Life** » Tue Apr 10, 2012 12:25 pm

satyr9 · Post #20 » by **satyr9** » Tue Apr 10, 2012 12:48 pm

I don't often get super cheesed anymore by tough losses and I definitely used to. To me, the key is to try to unfocus on the turning points of a game. Sure the 9th is where it all fell apart and you can get even more specific, but they didn't play particularly well all over the place and a few more plays earlier in the game and there's no tight 9th in the first place. Once you start attributing blame all over the diamond it's harder to stay enraged as you lose your focus.

And early in the season it's even easier, not because the games don't count, but because you can often chalk up bad moments to bad play that you aren't yet committed to believing will repeat. I won't use an example from last night, but take Romero's 2nd inning in the first game. He had an inning where nothing worked and couldn't get the pitch close to where he wanted it and they easily could've lost the game because of it, but that's not Romero's typical ability and so you can look at the bad outcome of that inning positively since he can keep it from recurring simply by pitching like he's capable. Players are still gearing up, especially relievers who don't see that much work in ST, and certainly don't see real pressure situations, but it's not exclusively relievers. The first 20 games are just extended ST; there are way more errors and general brain farts during the first 2-3 weeks than at any other time during the season and if you're too cathected to perfect performance at this point, you're due for a pretty long year.

None of this is meant to be apologetic for last night for the Jays by any means, but if you're taking things a little too hard, 'cause you're supposed to be watching sports because you enjoy it, I find it's helpful to dole out as much blame to as many players as possible, think about how certain plays are atypical so they aren't something to expect will lead to more losses, and you'll lose the focal point for your ire and make it easier to forgive the errors that got you riled in the first place.

One last point, give credit to good performances on the other side as much as possible. Pedroia's as responsible as anything for how that game went last night. Sure Santos was wild as can be, but he has no business putting that missed pitch into fair play for a double and he turned Alvarez's one true mistake pitch in the zone into a run too. IMO it's easier to let a loss go when you're more aware that you got beat by a very good player, even if he is a monster douche. It's fairly natural to focus on all the ways your team could've won, but it definitely helps to recognize the other side had their moments and that those moments will happen all the time, just relish it when it's your team having them and respect that last night it was the other guy's turn.

/psychotherapy session