The Train is Getting Way Too Loud

Part XXVI (My Response)

Before I attempt to answer your question on the typical temperament for a sports fan, I'd like to follow up on your observation regarding Daryl Morey. I'm not nearly as interested in the NBA as you are, but due to the fact that I'm (largely) a Bill Simmons sycophant, and Simmons and Morey are buddies, I've come to appreciate Morey's work. I'm really writing all of this in hopes that he'll invite me over to dinner since we do live in the same city, but I'm not holding my breath on that invitation. Anyway, what I mean to say is that the identity, background, and yes, temperament of those who hold front office jobs for sports franchises is going to continue to change. We're going to see more people like Morey (MIT, computer science background) and Andrew Friedman (Tampa Bay Rays' Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations with a financial background, albeit at Bear Stearns) instead of seeing the usual mill of former players through the front office.

You were dead on when you said that sports fans are people of all personality types and characteristics, but sports fans strike me as people who both need and thrive in community. (Hmmm, I think we've discussed that term before. I'm sensing some threads coming together in this conversation.) The act of playing sports, even individual sports, is largely a communal experience, and one of the joys of following a particular team or club or franchise is sharing in the highs and lows of that franchise with others who feel the same way you do about your chosen team. I don't think you're going to find many extreme introverts among the mass of sports fans.

Since you've been asking the questions lately, I'll ask you a question: Working off of our earlier discussion about whether people care more about sports than they did in the the past, do we, as a society, care too much about sports today?