Thursday, September 18, 2008

Meh-Cords

This morning I wondered what we should call accomplishments that, while technically records, aren't exactly exciting or memorable feats. Things like Ichiro's eight straight 200 hit seasons or A-Rods 35-home-runs-in-a-year streak.

Leave it to my readers to come up with an idea. Longtime ShysterBall reader Sara K has proposed the term "meh-cords."

I like it.

10 comments:

Jason @ IIATMS said...

so it is written, so it is done.

Anonymous said...

We just bought www.mehcords.com on the off-chance it goes big time. Clearly there is a crying need to keep track of records that no one cares enough to keep track of. ;-)

Craig Calcaterra said...

Savvy move, Sara.

Anonymous said...

I think "meh-cords" is overly snarky. It's clever, but too dismissive of feats that, while often boring and contrived, are genuine feats nonetheless. I don't think A-Rod's 35 homer thing or Ichiro's 200 hit thing or Maddux's (now deceased) 15 win thing should be thrown away with a casual "meh".

I propose the far more cerebral ACCRECORDS (pronounced “accree-cords”), which riffs off the word "accretion" (the process of growth or enlargement by a gradual buildup).

I believe ACCRECORD captures the slow moving banality of the accomplishment without necessarily implying any disdain for the feat itself.

Anonymous said...

Sorry, mkd, the mob has spoken.
Monorail!

Anonymous said...

My brain hurts!

Anonymous said...

There's something to that, as no one means any disrespect to hard work and consistency, natch. Bobby Cox's ejection record...that's a mehcord. Duramarks, maybe? If it's gonna take, it needs to have instant recognition.

Jason @ IIATMS said...

Accomplishtrivia (yes, a 2nd posting of mine)

It's an accomplishment but merely for trivia's sake.

Jason @ IIATMS said...

or to channel Stephen Colbert: Record-i-ness

Anonymous said...

I think there really is a place for "mehcords," for the certifiably obscure and almost completely irrelevant records in all sports...stuff like the all-time record for successful sac bunts (in so much as a sac bunt is ever successful). Do the Ichiro/ARod records count as truly trivial? I dunno. I think Jason's "accomplishtrivia" is close to glory. "Fanatistats" could be things that only real die-hards would know.

I'm sure I'm thinking too hard about this. Fun, though...