The Pressure of Playing Sports for a New York Team

New York has the some of the hardest media coverage and fan expectations in all of sports. Many players come from either out of state or from other countries and cannot perform. As soon as they are let go or released its almost as if they can breathe again. The pressure is off. They can excel in what they are paid to do. Sometimes a player does really well only to fall off when it matters most. Some might call it a modern sports phenomenon. Others would say the under par player is weak mentally.
Alex Rodriguez, arguably the best baseball player in the game today, has gone the first two games of the ALDS without a hit or RBI. Almost a mirror image of how he played last year at this time. Needless to say, he hits on the top of the home run leader board all year and made everybody think again about his value to the team. What is your true value when you are known as an easy out in a pressure situation. In my book your a push over. But no baseball card holds that stat. "HWNM". Hits when needed most.
Kaz Matsui, an outstanding Asian baseball player, who was a frequent member of the Japanese all-star team and was considered a super star. When he came to the Mets he barely got any positive attention. However, he has managed to hit a home run,one of which was an inside the parker, his first at bat every season since traveling abroad. He leaves town, goes to Colorado of all places and starts to really show his true colors. Maybe its the elevation of the state. Maybe its the lack of press coverage.
Most players come to New York and continue to perform to their expected standards. Some even do better than expected. But with over sized media coverage today and the athletes only being human I can understand why professional ball players sometimes require a shrink when the going gets tough. The New York fans also have become spoiled and expect only the best. Especially when their teams whole budget is taken up by a handful of supposedly elite players. What happened when we got Larry Brown for the Knicks? Most would say his team sucked it up too much for him to make a difference. Although probably true, his expectations were too high and what do you know? He leaves town.
Some people have a hard enough time keeping it together without a whole franchise on their backs. Some people are really good at delivering the mail too, but if you put a time bomb on every package that had to be delivered on time, I can bet performance levels would drop.