I have a real love/hate relationship with sports. On one hand, I am lucky (some might say) enough to live in a city that can support sports franchises in the four major leagues. I know, it is a bit of a stretch to call the Lions a professional team, but the players do draw a salary. Conversely, I feel that sports play an all too important role in our society.
Some of my happiest memories with my Dad involve sports. We watched endless hours of professional and college athletics together. As a family, we often kept baseball statistics together. Our family never had season tickets to any of the teams in our area, but we usually went to three or four Tigers' games and one or two Red Wings' games (even when they were miserable).
I carried my enthusiasm for sports into adulthood and I found it a useful interest. Men loved that I could wear a mini skirt and talk sports. Dates took me to games using tickets that their companies gave them. Eventually, I took a second job (during my second year of teaching) as an usher at Joe Louis Arena - the home of the Wings. The first game I worked was the now infamous Wings-Avalanche game that broke out in bedlam. The goalies fought. Darren McCarthy beat the hell out of Claude LeMieux. Now that I think about, the blood lust from the crowd was a little frightening. I was completely oblivious at the time, though. The Wings won the Stanley Cup for the first time in 40 some years and I witnessed the whole thing. The following Christmas, I even drank beer out of the Stanley Cup.
Life got busy. I started a Masters program and I had to give up the ushering job. This gave me a chance to think about how weird sports are. Young men (mostly) in high school dream of being a big time athlete. Many push their still growing bodies to ridiculous limits in order to win big college scholarships. As a teacher, I can't help but wonder why we, the richest society on the planet, refuse to more heavily subsidize higher education. These young men could use their brain instead of brawn, Or even better, they could get paid right out of high school to play minor league sports and leave spaces available at universities for those who actually want an education.
These athletes are placed on a pedestal. Their every move is monitored by 24-hour sports television and radio. These forms of media create a crazy amount of faux outrage about something someone in another city wrote about our city. Oh no, someone noticed the abandoned houses in the city - damn them!
I say all this because I will watch the Red Wings tonight. With a little luck, they will win the Stanley Cup tonight and I will feel happy. It will be a tempered happiness. It will not be the same joy I felt in 1997, because I look at it with different eyes.
5 comments:
I have very similar feelings about sports in general. I grew up listening to the Indians games on the radio, swinging on the front porch, barefoot...those long long summer days. So, in a very real sense, baseball still reminds me of those simple days.
But seeing the special treatment that athletes receive, starting in grade school!!! while the drama department and the art department and the band and the academic programs all struggle to get by without donations...grrrr.
And then the pros...tens of millions of dollars, sexual assaults being wiped off the books, the deification of jocks in the media. Really, it just makes me want to go on a sports strike sometimes.
Baseball is such an evocative sport. No school, hot lazy days. In a way, I love the concept of baseball.
I once went on a tour of the Michigan State basketball arena. It was a palace. Teaching in a district like mine, I felt pretty resentful of all the amenities the basketball program has.
Hi Toni,
Where I grew up at the nearest city was Memphis and it has never been known for big league teams. So as a kid I used to love to watch pro basketball games on TV. Back at that time the Boston Celtics were my favorite team.
For some reason I've never gotten into watching on TV or listening on radio to baseball games. They just seem to drag to me. Never understood hockey so that's another one that's out.
Now you show me a good pro tiddleywinks game and I'll be glued to the TV. :)
Hope you and the family are doing fine.
Take care,
FM
You drank out of the Stanley Cup.
Wow.
What I remember most about sports as a kid was listening to Cardinals games with my Grandma. She was a big fan. Sometimes we'd get tickets for the game and go down to the old Busch Stadium together. Good memories.
FM - I'm with you on watching baseball on television. But it is a different atmosphere in the park.
Mary - The beer in the Stanley Cup was the best beer I had ever tasted.
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