Oh Yeah...
Oct. 20th, 2004 09:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pecuniumThey did it.
My favorite team in the AL, just beat the Yankees. Life is good.
I am a Dodger fan. My second favorite team is whoever plays the Yankees, and tonight... I'm happy.
There's a bar in Ayre, Mass, where I know the crowd is happy (they forgave my being a Dodger fan because it was NL, and I despise the Yankees). My first grand slam, at the park, was a shot over the Green Monster (in the old Fenway) withcluefairy and her (then new[ish] boyfriend) husband.
Such a comeback. After last night's game (and A-rod's asininity) I calledlibertango (because he owns no TV) and we talked. We gabbed about the Yankees; how they have been failing all century, how they have lost more Series than anyone else (and I need to look and see what thier average is... yes they've played in more series than anyone else, but how do they stack up against other multiple Series teams).
Sports are at once a trivial, and glorious thing. Vicarious thrills, and sublime achievements, all wrapped together in a painful enterprise (my $100 a year in receipts are part of the huge gross the owners pay to the players, and source of the conflict... how much of the gross ought to be shared between those who make it possible, and those who own the franchise... a question for The Sages).
Baseball is the only sport I follow. Not the only one I understand. I know shooting (not riveting to watch, even in skeet) and gymnastics (I used to announce it in high school) and fencing, and dressage, and jumping, and track and hockey and (after the last winter olympics) curling and... but baseball is the one I follow.
It speaks to me. There are any number of people who speak on why this is, they are all correct, and all talking bunk. For whatever reason baseball makes me happy. It's not frenzied (though anyone who knows the game will tell you it isn't ten minutes of action packed into three hours of play). It's not prone to vicious fanatcism (even in Yankee Stadium tonight, there were fans of the BoSox) it can be aprehended in its entirety, and to the devotee it is like Go, possessed of a simplicity which has depths beyond anyone's ability to completely comprehend.
It is, more than any other sport I know, a social event. At home, with cup of coffee and the radio, or at the park, with a beer and a Dodger dog, it is best with a friend, someone with whom the minutae can be recalled, the wonder at a play being made, the sense that this moment is precious; all this can be shared, and recalled later.
It has a continuity, a tradition which transcends the now. I can imagine Ruth hitting the ball, Ty Cobb sliding into second; spikes high, Maris having his reacord breaking season, and Dimaggio his 54 game streak.
And, like Gettysburg, and the Golden Spike and the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and My Lai, it has a history I can share with millions of others.
It knits me to the present with them, because we can share a common past.
My favorite team in the AL, just beat the Yankees. Life is good.
I am a Dodger fan. My second favorite team is whoever plays the Yankees, and tonight... I'm happy.
There's a bar in Ayre, Mass, where I know the crowd is happy (they forgave my being a Dodger fan because it was NL, and I despise the Yankees). My first grand slam, at the park, was a shot over the Green Monster (in the old Fenway) with
cluefairy and her (then new[ish] boyfriend) husband.Such a comeback. After last night's game (and A-rod's asininity) I called
libertango (because he owns no TV) and we talked. We gabbed about the Yankees; how they have been failing all century, how they have lost more Series than anyone else (and I need to look and see what thier average is... yes they've played in more series than anyone else, but how do they stack up against other multiple Series teams).Sports are at once a trivial, and glorious thing. Vicarious thrills, and sublime achievements, all wrapped together in a painful enterprise (my $100 a year in receipts are part of the huge gross the owners pay to the players, and source of the conflict... how much of the gross ought to be shared between those who make it possible, and those who own the franchise... a question for The Sages).
Baseball is the only sport I follow. Not the only one I understand. I know shooting (not riveting to watch, even in skeet) and gymnastics (I used to announce it in high school) and fencing, and dressage, and jumping, and track and hockey and (after the last winter olympics) curling and... but baseball is the one I follow.
It speaks to me. There are any number of people who speak on why this is, they are all correct, and all talking bunk. For whatever reason baseball makes me happy. It's not frenzied (though anyone who knows the game will tell you it isn't ten minutes of action packed into three hours of play). It's not prone to vicious fanatcism (even in Yankee Stadium tonight, there were fans of the BoSox) it can be aprehended in its entirety, and to the devotee it is like Go, possessed of a simplicity which has depths beyond anyone's ability to completely comprehend.
It is, more than any other sport I know, a social event. At home, with cup of coffee and the radio, or at the park, with a beer and a Dodger dog, it is best with a friend, someone with whom the minutae can be recalled, the wonder at a play being made, the sense that this moment is precious; all this can be shared, and recalled later.
It has a continuity, a tradition which transcends the now. I can imagine Ruth hitting the ball, Ty Cobb sliding into second; spikes high, Maris having his reacord breaking season, and Dimaggio his 54 game streak.
And, like Gettysburg, and the Golden Spike and the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and My Lai, it has a history I can share with millions of others.
It knits me to the present with them, because we can share a common past.
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Date: 2004-10-21 02:04 pm (UTC)