Volume 3: Watching Professional Sports. Much More Than Just Vegging Out In Front Of The TV.

I have always been a big sports fan. Maybe that’s because I was a big sports player when I was a young warthog in Fort Erie. When you play sports as a kid, you might very well outgrow them, but, at the very least, you come away with a fundamental understanding about how most games are played. This, in turn, enhances your appreciation for the way the games are played at the level you could only dream about.

Except for hockey and soccer, which I appreciate but find tedious and boring in that order, I am a big fan of most major league sports, including basketball, baseball, football, golf and tennis pretty much in that order.

Not Everybody’s Cup Of Tea

A lot of people who don’t like sports will give you a couple of reasons that they don’t like them.

They will tell you that sports are boring, which mainly betrays their lack of understanding of how those sports are actually played.

They will also tell you that professional athletes are ludicrously overpaid and a lot of them somehow resent this. This is only logical since they don’t really understand or appreciate the amount of skill, smarts, training, stamina and cunning it takes to play the game at a pro level.

My Stadium Is My TV

A lot of the people who do colour commentary have played their games a very high level and for a number of years. So they are not only full of insight into the game and how its played, but also a repository of great stories about the people they played with or for.

So I have become a dyed-in-the-wool fan of televised sports, where there are, incidentally, no bad seats, the snacks don’t cost a small fortune and there is always lots of great commentary to keep you interested and learning more about the games.

The colour side of the sports broadcast is especially important in both baseball and football, because these sports are as much about strategy and tactics as they are about athletic prowess.

But one of the most interesting aspects of professional sports itself is that because there are so many different things that need to be in alignment in virtually any given game at any given time of the season, a team that would be considered an underdog can simply out-strategize their opponent and create an upset.

To me this is the kind of high drama that you just can’t get in many places on TV. Certainly not on prime time TV, where notable exceptions are few and far between.

If There Ain’t No Audience, There Ain’t No Show

Now a good many of you may not be all that crazy about sports, and that. of course, does not limit you from living a rich full life without them.

But for me, and the millions of others sports fans out there, watching groups of people or individuals stepping up and taking themselves to the far end of exertion with skill and dexterity that is beyond the reach of the vast majority of us, is really something to behold.

I have always admired those who can do what many other can not, be they athletes, scientists, inventors, writers, architects, educators, or business people. It’s called professionalism, and it really is and important part of what keeps the world turning.

In its own strange way, professional sports gives many of us a much needed diversion, topics of conversation and basically something to root for.

Because, more often than not, sports fans from any major league city will feel like their participation in the game, while not equal to the athlete’s participation, is an important part of what motivates these athletes. And the athletes and coaches will tell you, time and again, that having the crowd on your side can make a big difference in the way they perform.

So there you go. If you’re not into sports this won’t change your mind, but hopefully it explains a little about why so many people are sports fans like me.

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