Spring Break
Why We Love Sports
John Frascella
Issue date: 4/30/08 Section: Sports
We love sports because they provide real-life drama. Everything that's enticing about fictional movies and TV shows - passion, intensity, conflict, heroes, villains, fights, pressure, controversy, success and failure - it's all there in sports.
A sporting event is never "just a game" - it will always be more than that. For those involved, it's their job, it's what allows them to feed their families. For many athletes, their sport is their passion, their craft, their obsession.
These athletes carry the weight of thousands, often millions of fans on their shoulders. There's the weight of young fan's Super Bowl dreams, or an old die-hard's life-long wish - a World Series title.
International soccer fans riot in the stands, and to them, losing to another nation is like losing a battle, or a full-scale war.
Losing a game can disappoint an entire country. Think of the world-renowned Russian hockey team that was upset by the inexperienced Americans in the 1980 Olympics. The Russian government considered it an embarrassing loss in the Cold War.
We love the magnitude. We love sports for the spectacle - the event.
We love the omnipotence, the ubiquity, the dependability. Sports are reliable. They'll never leave us.
Life is about changes, but the presence of sports is constant. We move from elementary school to middle school, middle school to high school, high school to college, college to a 9-to-5, single to married with children, young to middle-aged to old; but when the summer comes, I know - whether I'm 22 and set to graduate from college, or 65 and set to graduate to a retirement home - that I'll be able to find a baseball game.
There's something about a ballgame on a long, summer afternoon that makes life seem so simple, so easy. The pressure of school, work and responsibility - it slowly and quietly disappears. No tension, no anxiety, just the game at hand.
The crack of the bat will always be music to my ears.
A sporting event is never "just a game" - it will always be more than that. For those involved, it's their job, it's what allows them to feed their families. For many athletes, their sport is their passion, their craft, their obsession.
These athletes carry the weight of thousands, often millions of fans on their shoulders. There's the weight of young fan's Super Bowl dreams, or an old die-hard's life-long wish - a World Series title.
International soccer fans riot in the stands, and to them, losing to another nation is like losing a battle, or a full-scale war.
Losing a game can disappoint an entire country. Think of the world-renowned Russian hockey team that was upset by the inexperienced Americans in the 1980 Olympics. The Russian government considered it an embarrassing loss in the Cold War.
We love the magnitude. We love sports for the spectacle - the event.
We love the omnipotence, the ubiquity, the dependability. Sports are reliable. They'll never leave us.
Life is about changes, but the presence of sports is constant. We move from elementary school to middle school, middle school to high school, high school to college, college to a 9-to-5, single to married with children, young to middle-aged to old; but when the summer comes, I know - whether I'm 22 and set to graduate from college, or 65 and set to graduate to a retirement home - that I'll be able to find a baseball game.
There's something about a ballgame on a long, summer afternoon that makes life seem so simple, so easy. The pressure of school, work and responsibility - it slowly and quietly disappears. No tension, no anxiety, just the game at hand.
The crack of the bat will always be music to my ears.
Viewing Comments 1 - 3 of 3
frank
posted 4/30/08 @ 2:31 PM EST
John,
You know I am one of those people with an deep love and appreciation of sports. I do not believe that anyone could have done a better job describing the importance and the feelings that sports brings to many lives. (Continued…)
Katie
posted 4/30/08 @ 3:02 PM EST
John,
As an avid sports fan and a writer, I can honestly say that this article is moving, well-written and absolutely one of your best pieces to date. (Continued…)
xera
posted 1/06/09 @ 9:05 AM EST
i love what you have said its meaningful to people who loves sports and play sports. this is the best article I have seen, it is vivid and direct.
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