I grew up a sports fan.
Which was hard to do, in a family of six women and one man. And the one man wasn't exactly the athletic
type, being an accountant and all.
But we did have a television. Do you remember ABC Wide World of
Sports? "The thrill of victory and
the agony of defeat?" On Saturday
afternoons, I could generally be found making a half-assed effort at weekend
chores, with the television tuned to the downhill skiing or skating or track
and field or cycling or gymnastics or whatever obscure sports competition Roone
Arledge had scraped up from somewhere around the globe to present to rapt (and
sometimes head-scratching) American audiences. I loved that show. And Chris Schenkel doing the pro-bowling
tour. I was just...hooked.
Then there were the Cub games on WGN--a perfect alternative
to after-school soap operas for an active and competitive soul such as
myself. I was never really any good at
playing sports. But I loved to watch and
cheer. I was a fan.
And I remained a fan for decades, when sport was sport;
sometimes you won, sometimes you lost, but the players always played their
hearts out either way..because that was how it was. And the fans cheered, and appreciated the effort, and loved their teams, even in defeat.
The bloom began to come off the rose in the late 70's...I
remember to this day. The era of self-promoting
prima-donna players was ushered in by Reggie Jackson--the guy who believed and
wasn't shy about publicly proclaiming that he was the best player in baseball,
and his team only won because he was on it.
Post-Jackson, the "I am the greatest" player attitudes picked
up steam exponentially. Sports teams became a thing of the past. Sports
stars ran the table. Ball clubs became groups of loosely connected
individual celebrities, more interested in competing with other stars--including
those with whom they suited up every day--for the most attention and highest salaries
than in being part of a team.
So now, here in the 21st century, we have squads of
over-paid, spoiled adolescents raking in obscene amounts of money for their
laudable prowess at...playing kids' games.
Games, people. Just games. Not "Winners" and "Losers." Not life or death. The world doesn't stop
turning if the other team scores more than yours does. Though with the sums of money that are thrown
around in today's professional sports, you'd think it would.
Sports today are about winning--every time, there's no such
thing as a laudable try if you lose; , and money--piles and piles of it. Nothing else matters. Professional sport has become ugly and
contentious; in-your-face and boastful; intimidating and greedy. Why would I want to watch that? Why would I want to call myself a
"fan" and enable that kind of culture?
Nope. American pro
sports left me far behind...sitting
in the bleachers at Wrigley in 1970, rooting for our disgraced but always
beloved Chicago Cubs, win or lose...because "there's always next
year."
Well, there was...but not anymore.
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