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why the eff am i answering this Friday Five?
1. Do you watch sports? If so, which ones?
Not really. Back in the 80s I watched wrestling for a few years. I watched the World Series when the Blue Jays were in it just cuz it was so unprecedented. When I was a kid, sometimes if my big brothers were watching the Stanley Cup playoffs, I'd join in for the sake of joining in. That's about it.
2. What/who are your favorite sports teams and/or favorite athletes?
I don't have "favorites" per se, but there are a few athletes I respect: Wayne Gretzky, Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods... anyone who performs with demonstrably inhuman skill, ya gotta admire that. I also have a major soft spot for the verbal talents of Yogi Berra.
3. Are there any sports you hate?
Not exactly, but I do hate the fanaticism that sports seem to generate, some more than others. The insane violence of soccer fans. The obsessive minutiae of baseball ["As you know, Fred, during his last year in the minors, Johnson had the third highest ERA of all blond shortstops in the league." "And we see that talent rising to the fore here once again, Dan..."] The ludicrous amount of TV time [i.e., weeks] devoted to Super Bowl pre-game programming. But there's the fundamental mania underlying all professional sports:
Look, watching sports is a hobby, okay? It's an enjoyable way to spend some free time. What other hobby on earth has its own section in every daily paper in the world? Its own TV channels? Umpteen top-of-the-line glossy magazines? And: why do people identify so very very strongly with teams? How on earth is it any reflection on you, whether or not a winning effort is forthcoming from a bunch of other guys who don't even know you? Why should you be deliriously euphoric if a bunch of other guys win? Why should you be crushed or go on a destructive rampage if they lose?
Why is it okay for a guy to spend all weekend watching football, and for him to paint his body in team colors when he goes to a game --- but if a guy spends all weekend watching Star Trek, and dresses up like Spock when he goes to a convention, that makes him a hopeless loser/geek? Same behavior, different target. Normal behavior for sports fans is considered pathological/psychotic if it's exhibited by devotees of any other hobby. What makes watching sports so much more worthy a hobby than any other?
From where I sit: nothing whatsoever. The whole thing is staggeringly irrational.
4. Have you ever been to a sports event?
Sharon once won a couple tickets to a Blue Jays home game, so we went for a while. We've also gone to see wrestling a few times but I know that doesn't count. ;)
5. Do/did you play any sports (in school or other)? How long did you play?
Big surprise: no. :P
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That always cracks me up. My brother and father are actually in a bad mood the day after the NY Giants lose an "important" game. I use that word in quotes because I doubt it's actually important.
I watch and enjoy the local high school football team, but I do know some of those guys (or their families) and I feel like I'm watching my small town succeed. I also go to the band concerts and drama club plays, so it's not a sports thing, it's a civic thing.
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Because of the associated cultural values, of course.
Star Trek (SF generally) is widely associated with isolated introverts; sports is associated with social participation. SF stands for abstract future possibility and sports stand for immediate emotional reality.
SF is about global and extraterrestrial inclusion and exploration and the grey shades of moral conduct; sports, on the other hand, tend to be about heroic struggles, provincial divisions, simple Us. v. Them mentality, and pure absolutes like victory and defeat. There is no such thing as a popular team sport that involves any number of teams other than two. This is because people want conflict reduced to the tidiest possible terms.
Sports represent a far stronger opportunity for broad viewer identification as a result of all of these factors.
The social side of it also can't be underestimated. I've dozed slack-jawed and drooling through dozens of business meetings in my life and the most common metaphor in all of them was sports -- almost always football. The phrase "team player" certainly doesn't come from Star Trek.
Along these lines, not all sports are created equal. Team sports are alwaysmore popular than individual sports. You're an artist and necessarily you prefer the individual who dismisses external bullshit, thinks originally, develops skills, works, and finally achieves -- because, of course, that's what it takes to succeed in any type of art -- but in the US, in the category of sports, this type of thinking and behavior will get you a reputation as a prima donnna.
Group efforts tend to be perceived as more social and therefore more mature, and that extends into community life. Nobody throws a Wimbledon party and invites friends over for beer and pizza.
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