Originally Posted by Warped Mindless
Baseball used to be the nat'l sport until the money ruined it. I remember cutting class in HS once to listen to the world series. I also remember one shop teacher that said if you want to listen to the game that's fine with me, just do it after I clock you in and don't leave the building. I think that was the 63 world series.
In the P-F basket of deplorables.
I remember, when they had World Series games during the daytime, we'd, or at least I'd, bring my transistor radio with an earplug to listen and report the score to classmates. Then run home from school to catch the rest of the game on TV.
'63 World Series, I was in 6th grade. (It was a month before the Kennedy assassination.) Yankees got swept by the Dodgers, and after losing to the Cardinals the following year, wouldn't return to the World Series for 12 years, only to be swept by the Reds. They did win, however, in '77 and '78.
Crazy days.
There's nothing civil about this war.
There's nothing at all wrong with this outlook, and aside from the tribal affiliation that drives much emotional involvement in sports, there's a line by David Foster Wallace (in an article about Roger Federer) that I always remember:
"Beauty is not the goal of competitive sports, but high-level sports are a prime venue for the expression of human beauty. The relation is roughly that of courage to war."
Basically, the grace, speed, power, coordination, etc., are all amazing things to see for their own right, regardless of (or in addition to) the outcome. This is, perhaps, more of an argument for watching highlights than a game, but seeing things live is different.
Interesting book on the appeal of sports:
Why We Watch: The Attractions of Violent Entertainment
by Jeffrey Goldstein (Editor)
Discusses the tribal nature, vicarious thrill of seeing an enemy trounced, how teams became substitutes for battles between dominant males defending territory.
I sure wish we'd finally a way to get the handgun sports back on TV again, like I was told it was back in the day.
I might have to read that. My brain doesn't do vicarious success; if I don't personally play, I don't win. I think it's my family's fault for pounding little truisms into my head as soon as I started to understand English...stuff like, "No work, no eat!" Capitalists.
Watching sports in general has puzzled me for a long time. PLAYING sports I get, but I’ve never really understood sportsfans. Particularly the rabid and emotional ones. Then mommies got in on it an, like Facebook and “craft beer”, you just knew it was going to go downhill. Nothing funnier to me than some Karen, or Karen-in-training, screaming at her tv or getting suicidal that “her team” lost the big game.
All of that said, these salaries done bother me and I don’t know why they bother anyone else. Maybe it’s precise.y my lack of emotional connection to the games that makes me unemotional about these nitwits and what they get paid.
What I DO enjoy about sportsball is the money machine. I see libs crying all the time about how we ought to spend that money on ghetto gardens or free phones for drug offenders, or buying more votes through some other government program, or whatever. That makes me thankful that we are instead giving it to some asshole that cheated his way though his high school and college classes just for him to entertain y’all until his body gives out and he winds up selling used cars on tv.
And for every million we give to the kneeling dumbass with the weird hair, there’s some rich white dudes that just keep getting richer.
And y’all keep watching this shit, no matter how offensive the players actions get, no matter how the teams and the leagues cowtow to the SJW idiots... there you guys are every Saturday and Sunday, lined up to watch a bunch of grown men play with their balls.
Take up USPSA. IDPA. Steel challenge. Tennis. Christ, I hate golf but I’d rather see someone out playing golf than passed out in their BarcaLounger with a half a beer in front of the tv. Buy a boat. Take the family out. Ride a bike. Go rock climbing.
Does the above offend? If you have paid to be here, you can click here to put it in context.
I can see both sides. On the one hand, how much money do you really fucking need? Anyone paying attention should be able to figure out pretty quick that if your sports contract is your only source of income and you run out and buy a mansion and 12 cars before the ink is dry, you're going to end up broke when no one wants to pay you to play anymore. So take whatever they give you and invest it and pretty soon you'll be so rich you could buy the team.
On the other hand, sports is big business. The guy that's risking his health should be taking home the biggest slice of that pie.
I never really liked sports that much anyway. And I'm sure as fuck not going to watch if they're going distort the truth to make police look bad and turn a blind eye to the horrible shit their players do.
This
and this.
I don't even watch televised sports coverage for those I personally play (cycling for example). The only time I watch other people doing things on TV (or nowadays Youtube and other streaming media venues) is either to learn how to do those things myself or to get ideas for my own endeavors in those areas.
A friend of mine likes to tell the story of how the Nationals made it to the final game of the world series last year (or the year before, I forget) and how I was completely oblivious to it. I mean, I noticed the buzz around the Nationals when it was all going on, but didn't make the connection until I called him one weekend with plans to go do something (gun or ham radio related, I don't recall which, but we engage in both activities together). He declined because of the game and I asked "what game?".
Apparently that was the final proof he needed to confirm I wasn't at all interested in professional sports.
Chris
Watching the game and worrying about the players is similar to folks interested in celebrity gossip. Will Brad and Jen get together again? It relates to the idea of dominance hierarchies. Just as sports team represent our alphas protecting our territory, we are concerned with the mating hierarchy of perceived attractive alpha males and females.
Hey, Alec Baldwin's wife is outed as an Hispanic fraud wannabee. Calls herself Hilaria - born Hillary. Gossip!!
My dad was in the sports business - pro NBA and college basketball ref. He told me - YOU will study. Thus, I became a FOG professor. Said, he spent too much time on sports. I'm very proud of him but just saying.
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