I wonder if the booing fans, the angry media, the intensive talk shows, the angry Internet boards — I wonder if these things keep the players a bit more on edge. I’m not saying this can make the players BETTER over the long term — I’m not saying boos can turn a 73-win talent into an 89-win team. But we’re not talking about that — it only takes one victory to break a losing streak. And maybe in the angriest towns there is a heightened sense of awareness when the losses start to mount, a greater sense of agitation, a feeling like, "Um, we better freaking go out and win a game already or it’s going to get really ugly around here."

It’s just a bloggy thought. But I think you look at the teams that routinely fall into losing streaks, you see Kansas City and Baltimore and Pittsburgh and Colorado (until last year) and Tampa (until this year), where the losses have made many fans apathetic, where the intensity of media coverage is down, where the reaction to another losing streak is not necessarily to boo but to turn away.