I Had a Friend Was a Big Baseball Player Back in High School

Part XXI (Luke's Response)

So bulbous, hairy, occasionally inebriated dudes paint their faces and yell in unison on Sundays to satisfy their need to express emotions? I'm kidding. I see your point. There is an interesting emotional attachment fans have with their teams.

Something that puzzles me is the extremes to which I've seen people take these emotions. Your team loses and you're despondent for a calendar year. Your team wins and you propose to your girlfriend.

To your point about the black/white nature of sports- I wonder if there's more to it. I wonder if we don't prefer the gray to the black and white. If there were no interest in the gray, i.e. the discussion, arguing, etc., a 24-hour sports television network would never survive. There wouldn't be people whose entire careers are made arguing about sports games. Of course I understand your point, because at the end of the day, there is a record book. There is a score that gets recorded. There is some sort of finality.

I heard a funny line from a sports talking-head this week, although not for the first time. Speaking of a men's college basketball game he said, "the better team lost." I love that even though we know who the winner is, we don't know who's better.

Indeed I am a Duke/Yankees/Lakers supporter. The reason is the same reason I'm a free-market supporter. I like to see the best. That's about it. Traditionally, Duke, NY, and LA (among others) have employed the best.

When I was growing up, the team on TV was the Nuggets. The crappy '90s Nuggets. Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, LaPhonso Ellis, Dikembe Mutombo. Although in fairness Mutombo averaged 4+ blocks per game in '93, I got tired of watching dump-bucket hoops. The best team in our conference those years was the Lakers. But am I still a Nuggets fan today? Of course.

I guess the biggest puzzle to me is the extent to which people take their sports fan-ness. I don't totally understand how some people's moods can be affected by the outcome of sports games. Enlighten me.