Phillies

A Quick Word on Why Confidence is Not Entitlement

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Oct 25th, 2023 · 10:56 AM EDT

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Not trying to go after Julian here, I just want to use this tweet to frame a rebuttal:

Diamondbacks aren’t an “inferior team.” They just won a 7 game series. This type of entitlement is a big reason the Phils lost.

— Julian (@ahmadb1988) October 25, 2023

Disagree. The Diamondbacks were an inferior team and I’d like fans and media to stop saying things like this. It is not  “entitlement” to point out that the Phillies had home field advantage, 2x the payroll, a 2-0 lead, then a 3-2 lead. A team that went to the World Series last year had zero business losing to a 6-seed, 84-win team that hadn’t been to the playoffs since 2017.

What we typical do is conflate the idea of confidence or assertiveness with entitlement. The latter suggests privilege, that we have some inherent right to a deserved outcome. The former simply reinforces the thought that a 4 seed with highly-paid players and home field advantage should beat an inexperienced 6 seed. There’s nothing wrong with believing that. It’s not antagonistic, nor should anybody worry about any kind of mush or jinx. If we didn’t frame sporting matchups in this way, there would be no favorites, no underdogs, no sports betting, and nothing to analyze. Every article written by a journalist would be titled, “Well this team could win, or the other team could win!” Pragmatism is important, but it can also be boring.

Where it gets a little fuzzy is somewhere in the middle, when the Phillies were up 2-0 in this series. A lot of us said or thought that the series was over, and it should have been. They should not have lost four of five from that point on. But again, that’s not entitlement. It’s one thing to say we thought the Phillies would win, or that we had confidence that the Phillies would win, but I don’t get the sense that anybody was arguing we had some implicit right to advance. Why? Because we buy more tickets? Because we travel well? Because we care more? People are quick to point those things out (we do on this website), but I don’t think that idea is typically paired with the notion that it automatically qualifies us for some preordained award. Phillies fans might “deserve better” because of the time, effort, and money they put into the local baseball team, but it would be incredibly naive not to realize that we don’t throw a single pitch, swing a single bat, or make a single player signing.

In truth, these diverging thoughts all come back around to some generic idea of “disrespect.” Did we not take the Diamondbacks seriously? Did we disregard them? I don’t think so. We’re all smart enough to know that you don’t reach the NLCS if you fuckin’ stink. They swept two division winners to reach this point, so they aren’t some Frank Rizzo crum bums. You can point that out while also believing, justifiably, that the Phillies should have won the series. That’s not a hot take and it doesn’t make you a sore loser.

Thank you.