That is absurd. Time not only exists, it has a spiral shape, a rotary motion and seasonal habits. Time is metered, and marks its relentless passage by clicking off recurrent milestones. These begin in the dead of winter with the Super Bowl.
Spring follows immediately, announcing itself by another milestone, the Academy Awards.
Therefore, Barbour is wrong. Billy this year almost could not help being better. And he really was better. The best he can hope to do is get out alive. When I was a kid, I knew there was no difference between one year and the next, because Bob Hope made the same pseudo-wounded joke every year about watching everyone else get Oscars and not winning one himself.