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Oct. 20th, 2004 02:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ceebeegeeTonight I'm going to hit the tanning salon before skipping home to watch the game. I'm not a hardcore Yankees fan--it's just fun to get caught up in the excitement. I have a hard time with so much of professional sports--the athletes' outsize egos and sense of entitlement fed by the fans' ability to overlook any excesses (the viciousness toward the Kobe Bryant accuser--one guy tried to take out a hit on her--was appalling, just unbelievable), the sheer greed of the owners, the fawning willingness of the politicians to sell out the electorate to get that stadium, close that sweetheart deal (ugh, I even hate that term). A lot of it leaves a really sour taste in my mouth. And it's been going on forever--it was going on way back in 1919 (?) with the Black Sox scandal. "Say it ain't so..." It's just too big, you lose sight of the game, the sheer joy of team against team, player against player, your best against theirs, the love of competition, two teams (or two players) and a ball, who wants it more? That's what makes sports great. That's why I loved sports in high school. That's why it's fascinating to see that essential, iconic opening shot of the baseball game--a player on a mound with a ball, trying to get it past a player with a bat.* Who wants it more? What are you prepared to do?
But never got into the whole idea of loving one team, and one alone. Just not my style. But Doug is a huge Yankees fan so I'll cheer for 'em as well. In my girly yellow Yankees cap.
*I loved baseball as a kid, and pitched and played SS for my LL team. Also read a lot of baseball books, including all of Alfred Slote's books. Anyone else read him? He wrote a bunch of books all involving baseball players in the fictional town of Arborville, MI (clearly meant to be Ann Arbor). They were great books--they dealt with baseball, yes, but the stories had a wider focus as well. One book, Hang Tough, Paul Mather, was about a fantastic 12-year-old pitcher, who has leukemia. At one point in the book, Paul says something like "For a pitcher, the beauty of baseball is in its simplicity. You are trying to get a ball past a guy who's trying like hell to hit it past you." Another book, probably my favorite, was Tony and Me, about a kid who becomes friends with a great player who's also really friendly...and has a troubled homelife and is a juvenile deliquent. Sounds cheesy but it was a really good story. Jake was another great book--"Get me to Chicago on time!" "Twelve in two!" *sigh* I love my childhood favorites.
But never got into the whole idea of loving one team, and one alone. Just not my style. But Doug is a huge Yankees fan so I'll cheer for 'em as well. In my girly yellow Yankees cap.
*I loved baseball as a kid, and pitched and played SS for my LL team. Also read a lot of baseball books, including all of Alfred Slote's books. Anyone else read him? He wrote a bunch of books all involving baseball players in the fictional town of Arborville, MI (clearly meant to be Ann Arbor). They were great books--they dealt with baseball, yes, but the stories had a wider focus as well. One book, Hang Tough, Paul Mather, was about a fantastic 12-year-old pitcher, who has leukemia. At one point in the book, Paul says something like "For a pitcher, the beauty of baseball is in its simplicity. You are trying to get a ball past a guy who's trying like hell to hit it past you." Another book, probably my favorite, was Tony and Me, about a kid who becomes friends with a great player who's also really friendly...and has a troubled homelife and is a juvenile deliquent. Sounds cheesy but it was a really good story. Jake was another great book--"Get me to Chicago on time!" "Twelve in two!" *sigh* I love my childhood favorites.
