It’s always vaguely present at the beginning of a year—”World Series or Bust,” a lineup that seems stronger than it is or a choking (twice-over) closer—but lulled to sleep by Florida afternoons, it goes forgotten throughout Spring Training, because Surely, This is The Year!
And when the problem makes itself apparent for the first time—a blown save, a mediocre run of games, a general lack of urgency—the team ignores it, playing the same way as it always does, running around with its hair on fire, except not in that Rizzo-ian way, refusing to reach for the extinguisher.