A Paradox of Sports

I love watching professional sports; I'm a massive Red Sox fan, a big Celtic fan, a good sized Bears and Red Wings fan.

Yet, I despise the jock mentality, the jock attitude, and the ethos.

I don't read fiction very often. Hell, I don't read books period often (short of children's books for my job). I read non-fiction periodicals.

I lived in my real-life hell as has been documented previously in my childhood, yet I find comfort in trying to know and understand reality.

This is why I prefer watching sports and political/current events shows than a plethora of television shows.

In a weird way, sports, while a game, is reality. It's certainly more reality than "reality tv."

There are storylines, there are plotlines that sports writers spill ink about. But, those are largely ficitonalized, contrived stories of bloviating bloviators.

The reality is the action. There is no script. There is no director. There is no producer. There are only actors. Yes, it is a game.

In the scheme of things, these games mean nothing. But, neither do movies, tv shows, nor even fictional stories, or other works of art.

But, sports is spontaneous. Sports is happening now. You can sneak a peak to the end of a movie, or a book. You cannot do so with sport.

There was no way this Sox fan could fast forward to see that incredible, history-making event of Dave Roberts famed steal of 2nd base that vaulted the Sox to overthrow the dreaded Yankees, winning a whopping 4 games straight.

No screen writer would have, could have, written that with a straight face.

I love professional sports. I do. I am picky, however. *shocker!*

I love it for the real drama, the pageantry, and the sheer unpredictability of events.

It is often said that all fiction books follow one of a scant few models, arcs, whatever they're called. There are simple formulas writers can follow to get out a very good story. This is not meant to diminish to writers of good books. I respect them highly. I just am not one who cares for that type of entertainment on balance.

I say all that above about sports acknowledging, even knowing, that those people are too cool for me. They would have nothing to do with me in reality.

So, perhaps that is why I like them: I can't have them. But, I don't think that is it.

There are the bad things about sports that I don't like: I've railed against steroids in baseball, I've called for the NBA to get a clue about some of their blatantly bad & possibly corrupt refs, I don't really like the fact that some players on my own favorite team are paid ridiculous sums of money to hit a baseball as hard as they might...but, nothing is perfect.

Some actors/actresses get paid $20 million per picture, so I chuckle about those opining on A-Fraud get over $20 million per year. Yes, people doing both of these jobs are laughably overpaid. I am a teacher, I think I should get a few of those dollars to add to my bank account.

But, there are imperfections with everything. I do not apologize. I will go on loving the sports I love, with all their flaws. I will try to persuade for changes to be made when changes are needed *cough* re-configuring the divisions in MLB *cough,* but I will continue to watch in amazement at the ability, the drive, the effort of some of the finest athletes in the world.

Everything & Nothing

I had a post in mind today, but my thoughts ran jumbled and mixed through my feeble mind.

I had everything to say, and yet nothing to say.