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Welcome to Snyder's Soapbox! Here, I pontificate about matters related to Major League Baseball on a weekly basis. Some of the topics will be pressing matters, some might seem insignificant in the grand scheme of things, and most will be somewhere in between. The good thing about this website is that it's free, and you are allowed to click away. If you stay, you'll get smarter, though. That's a money-back guarantee. Let's get to it.

Last week, the slow-starting Jazz Chisholm Jr. offered up an explanation for his struggles. 

"It's cold. It's literally all it is," the Yankees All-Star told reporters (via MLB.com). "My swing feels great. When you step into that cold weather and you stand there a couple of innings, your body starts to freeze."

And then, the always-required caveat came: 

"I'm not using that as an excuse," he insisted. "I said the same thing last year. As soon as the weather heats up, I heat up. That's what it is. I can't explain why. It's not like I'm not trying. I'm definitely trying. … It's hard to function when you can't feel the bat."

Yep, the E word. "Excuse." 

So many of us are trained that in sports -- and even in real life -- excuses are vile and disgusting things that should never, ever be used. I'm not interested in your excuses! Don't make an excuse! Losers make excuses!

In general, I'm not opposed to this line of thinking. If I fail at something, it's time to look in the mirror, be accountable and figure out what I need to do differently. Making an excuse would be to act like something out of my power prevented me from succeeding.

Sometimes, though, there's an explanation that isn't an excuse, right? If someone asks me why I didn't make the majors in baseball, I can just say I wasn't a good enough player. That's an explanation and not an excuse. We can tell there's a difference. Maybe we want specifics. What if someone asked me why I never got to the NBA and I said largely because I'm too short at 5'8"? I guarantee I could find someone who would scoff and say I was making an excuse there, but I feel like it's a legitimate explanation, even if only a partial one (I wouldn't have been good enough if I were 6'4" either, for example). 

The bottom line is that at some point, it gets blurry on the excuses vs. explanations front and sometimes it's in the eye of the beholder. 

Take Jazz's case. What if he's right? Here are his career splits by temperature: 

  • From 40-47 degrees: .200/.265/.356
  • From 48-55 degrees: .224/.275/.435
  • From 56-63 degrees: .237/.312/.417
  • From 64-71 degrees: .232/.309/.444
  • From 72-79 degrees: .262/.324/.470
  • From 80-87 degrees: .252/.316/.475

How about that? Is Jazz really "making excuses" or is he just answering the question about his slow start honestly? Most players hate hitting in cold weather and we see the proverbial proof in the pudding right here with the weather splits. 

Some players are just slow starters, too. I remember Ryne Sandberg when I was growing up always seemed to start slow. Mark Teixeira was a notoriously slow starter. Julio Rodríguez, among current players, always starts slow. 

If any of these players blamed the weather, would they be branded excuse-makers with all the negative connotation that comes along with it? Almost certainly. Even if it's the truth, we collectively have long since decided that we don't want anything resembling an excuse.  

I also think sometimes these professional athletes can't win. We want honesty, but then a player is honest and gets crushed for "making excuses." I would ask, hypothetically, "what do you want?" but I know the answer: To complain about these spoiled, rich athletes! Bunch of whiners. 

Joking aside, I do think there's room for nuance. There's nothing wrong with telling the truth, even if it comes across as a dreaded excuse for the legions of sports fans who have trained themselves to break out the torches and pitchforks at any hint of one. 

Sometimes what sounds like an excuse is simply a truthful explanation.