The battle with cynicism

Frank Bascombe is a sportswriter, or so the first lines of Richard Ford's 1984 novel, The Sportswriter, tell us. L...ike all sportswriters, he is 39 years of age and involved in a constant battle with cynicism.
The good guys, in his game, don't attempt to elevate the winners or bite-size the losers, but rather try to stitch things into an arc which has no discernible beginning or end.
Covering sport as a profession, it sometimes seems like the battle with cynicism is unwinnable, until you remember that these athletes are also men and women.
Heading into the fourth anniversary of Saipan, perhaps Ireland is beginning to learn a bit more about itself as a sporting public. The outpouring in the aftermath of our friendly win against Sweden was interpreted negatively by Roy Keane as being typically Irish – we were too willing to celebrate prematurely. But this outpouring was a cry of relief rather than anything else, having witnessed the team play reasonable football. The win also allows some hope for the future – surely not entirely bad things?
One of the reasons why the Welsh rugby team were so upset with Gavin Henson was his claim that they liked to drink a bit and that his lifestyle therefore made him superior. While Henson doesn't have the zeal of the convert that fuelled Keane's argument, at least Keane could point to the failure of the Irish team to qualify for another tournament. The Welsh have won a Grand Slam and could be a decent team next week if some things were sorted out.
The brio of the Irish team against Sweden was undeniable. Likewise, the Welsh team under Mike Ruddock last season was an unstoppable force. It's possible to imagine most of that team having a good time together, like it is again possible to have a picture of the Irish soccer team enjoying themselves on and off the pitch. Wales also had Scott Johnson who, by all reports, was a genius coach. If Keane is to be proved a tad premature with his criticism, then Steve Staunton will need to offer more than a happy camp.
The brio of the Leinster team in Toulouse was something relatively new in Irish sport. True, the Kerry footballers had it, and the Cork hurlers frequently have it, but this was an international competition, in front of a full house and under a burning French sun, with a team who'd had barely a week together.
When Brian O'Driscoll signed his new contract, and returned as captain to the Leinster team, something in Irish rugby changed. He'd visited Biarritz, where the surfing and lifestyle and rugby and food are all top quality, and decided that instead he'd commit to spending his days on the quagmire at Donnybrook. That he did so is clearly down to the brilliant coaching team at Leinster. So far a lot has been spoken about the players enjoying themselves under David Knox and Michael Cheika, but the players are also getting better. It's the perfect balance between development and having a good time.
When Frank Bascombe started out as a sports writer, his editor told him that what he needed more than anything was a willingness to watch something very similar over and over again, with an “appreciation that you're always writing about people who wanted to be doing what they're doing or they wouldn't be doing it, which was the only urgency that sports writing could summon, but also the key to overcoming the irrelevancy of sports itself”. The puritanical approach may only serve the very few.