No one can accuse me of not trying to avoid sports information via the media.
I stopped listening to the local all-news radio show because they feature sports at least twice an hour.
I avoid looking at the front page of the local paper where sports stories often appear above the fold--especially Barry Bonds stories.
I have trained my eyes to identify breaking sports news on Yahoo! and never clink those links.
Then the other day, I brought home Chinese food--seemed safe enough--and discovered the following inside a Fortune Cookie: "Keep an eye open for an opportunity in the field of sports." (Actually, my wife got the fortune, but she felt compelled to read it to me.)
What am I supposed to do to kick my addiction to this plague: Stop eating?
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Monday, August 13, 2007
A Fan's Red Letter Day
My old friend Stephen sent my wife an article that he had written for his local newspaper. The piece describes the joy he feels when--on a given day--the White Sox and Mets win, and the Yankees lose.
My wife says it's a good piece. But I'll never know because I view it as the equivalent of second-hand smoke. Reading about another person's spectator-driven emotions is dangerous.
My wife says it's a good piece. But I'll never know because I view it as the equivalent of second-hand smoke. Reading about another person's spectator-driven emotions is dangerous.
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Baseball in Hiroshima
Last night I watched the HBO documentary about the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The movie is worth watching for many important reasons. But one unimportant scene caught my attention in relationship to this blog. One of the survivors is pictured enjoying a professional baseball game, laughing and cheering just the way Americans do when watching Major League Baseball.
I do not know if spectator sports were popular in Japan prior to WWII, but the image of the Japanese ballpark was so similar to what you see in American ballparks, I felt that this form of spectatorship was a "gift" of America to Japan. The Japanese survivor seemed to be having so much fun passively watching extraordinary athletes play the game.
In the context of the movie--about the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people--the issue of spectator sport addiction is nothing. But the documentary did remind me that the draw of watching is probably universal.
I do not know if spectator sports were popular in Japan prior to WWII, but the image of the Japanese ballpark was so similar to what you see in American ballparks, I felt that this form of spectatorship was a "gift" of America to Japan. The Japanese survivor seemed to be having so much fun passively watching extraordinary athletes play the game.
In the context of the movie--about the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people--the issue of spectator sport addiction is nothing. But the documentary did remind me that the draw of watching is probably universal.
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