If everything is incredible, then nothing is incredible

November 25, 2013

Or amazing, or unbelievable.

There’s yet another batch of “awards” this year from Major League Baseball: The GIBBYs, short for Greatness in Baseball Yearly awards. That ain’t even good English. Please.

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How many awards can you give already? These seem to duplicate a lot of honors that have been awarded for years: rookies, batters, starting pitchers, defensive player, comeback player, managers, executives, etc. Some of the other categories are interesting — moment, storyline, oddity — but don’t the ESPYs cover those?

This comes from my weekly newsletter from the Society for American Baseball Research:

SABR members will help get to decide who had the best performances of the 2013 baseball season in the 12th annual MLB.com Greatness in Baseball Yearly Awards.

SABR members will have the opportunity to play a key role in selecting the winners of the GIBBYs. The votes from SABR members will be equal to each of the other four categories.

  • SABR members (20%)
  • MLB.com fans (20%)
  • Front office personnel (20%)
  • Retired players (20%)
  • Media (20%)

Major League Baseball’s A-listers will take home 2013 GIBBY trophies — the ultimate honors of the industry’s awards season — based on votes by media, front-office personnel, MLB alumni, fans at MLB.com and SABR.

This year’s GIBBY Awards feature nominees in 22 categories. Individual honors will go to the MLB MVP, in addition to the year’s best Starting Pitcher, Hitter, Closer, Setup Man, Rookie, Breakout Hitter, Breakout Pitcher, Comeback Player, Defensive Player, Manager, Executive and Postseason Performer.

GIBBY trophies also will be awarded for the year’s top Play, Storyline, Hitting Performance, Pitching Performance, Oddity, Walk-off, Cut4 Topic, Regular-Season Moment and Postseason Moment, with video available via MLB.com’s Must C highlight reels.

All 30 clubs are represented among the award candidates. In fact, every team has multiple nominees in 2013 — a testament to the parity of talent around the game.

The winners will be announced at a reception at the annual Baseball Winter Meetings, which will be held December 9-12, 2013, in Orlando, Florida.

I enjoy watching the great plays as much as the next person, and, as the saying goes, there’s always a chance you’ll see something you’ve never seen before (as when the Mets’ Daniel Murphy hit a ball that slipped perfectly through a gap in the outfield wall for a ground rule double). But the hyperbole employed by the announcers has worn thin over time. It seems that everything is “unbelievable.” Why? A player makes a leap to rob the batter of a home run is only unbelievable (to me at least) if he pulls it out of the upper deck, not at an eight foot wall. Maybe I’ve become jaded, but today’s ballplayers are more nimble, stronger and more agile in many cases it seems that their forebears. In addition, the gloves are bigger and better, which no doubt help. Plus we have the technology which gives us the ability to enjoy the p;lay from multiple angles, something that was unavailable to previous generations of fans.

So forgive me if I’m not going to let the announcer tell me what amazing, incredible, or unbelievable.

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