Factual Entertainment
With so much of our society being open to interpretation and forcing you to have to take a position, I’m beginning to find the simpler things of more value. When even popular entertainment such as TV and films have such ambiguous or questionable endings that you end up having to do research to figure out what the hell they mean, something’s wrong. I”m looking particularly at the endings of Lost, The Sopranos and Inception as examples.
That being said, I’m taking an even greater refuge in the sports world for my entertainment. Sports is entirely cut and dried. There’s a winner and a loser every single time. There may be some questionable things in any given game (strange decisions by coaches or officials, for example) but usually you can at least see the reasoning behind either end of the decision. If Tiger Woods performs badly, there are usually things you can point to that contribute to that. If a pitcher throws a terrible game, their are clear statistics to reflect just how bad he was.
I believe that it is the simplicity of sports in this regard that makes following them a nearly universal experience. Sports can generate a common language between people who would otherwise have no connection whatsoever between them. Living in Wisconsin, I can run into another person in a Red Sox hat or shirt or whatever and instantly have something to talk to this person about. If, conversely, I run into a Yankee fan, instant animosity.
Sports can also heal us as a society. Everyone I know (myself included) pulled for the New York teams immediately after 9/11. I will always remember where I was when the Red Sox won their first World Series in 86 years or when the Patriots won the 2001 Super Bowl.
What are some of your favorite (or least favorite) sports moments?
About The Plain Simple Tailor
The one and only NFL game I've been to was in Dallas. I didn't know much about football then, and know only a smidgen more now…but I remember someone running all the way down the field for the very first play of the game. It was pretty damn exciting; even not loving football, I felt like I could pretty much die right then and be happy about it.
So many good red sox memories… don't know if I can pick a favorite. Sometimes it's not about the actual game! My stepdad caught a ball at a spring training game and gave it to my son; that was awesome. And I remember Varitek hitting a home run at a very intense game, and my sister and I throwing her (then 3-year-old) daughter back and forth, cheering. Also, I loved the first game I took my niece to where she really showed an interest in what was happening. Baseball's never more enjoyable than when you're explaining it (or learning about it) with someone else.
Like life, when sports are good, things are very, very good. When sports are bad, it can be emotionally crippling. Non sports fans can't necessarily understand or appreciate the impact that sports successes or failures can have on a fan. Those strong feelings are in fact often trivialized with those much hated words "it's only a game!"
As a Patriots fan myself, I can remember the absolute and utter elation I had after the Super Bowl in 2001. But of course, more recent was the complete and total devastation after the same game in 2007 when we had the undefeated season on the line, and had the game won a couple of different times, only to let it slip away.
I have seen people get way too invested and too involved in a sport, but I agree, it is almost a universal language, and I always bristle a little bit when I hear "it's only a game".
To some people, myself included, it is much more.
Any sports moments in Boston seem more powerful than anywhere else i have ever lived, i think that is my real reason for saying i would live there again.