First, let me be upfront about something. I dislike football. Fact is, I absolutely detest it. I have no tolerance for the college variety, which I consider akin to athletic slavery. I can deal with professional football, but would rather not. I am a baseball fan.
There are three kinds of people. First there are those who could care less about sports and don’t know a hockey puck from a golf club. Then there are the sports fanatics who follow everything, regardless of what it is. They just love sports. And, there are the single sport fans. They know the difference between a hockey puck and a golf club, can tell you how Olympic gymnastics and figure skating is scored, but have given their heart to just one specific sport. I am among the latter. My heart belongs to baseball.
I can only remember watching the Super Bowl one time, and will also confess I’ve been known to refer to it as the Stupid Bowl or even the Toilet Bowl. Because of my intense love for baseball and intense dislike of football, I’ve always considered the hype and hoopla surrounding Super Bowl weekend to be absolutely ridiculous. I will also admit I have no earthly idea why people who rarely watch sports have a viewing party. So, over the years, I’ve come up with a few ways a baseball fan can survive the weekend, sanity intact.
The late MLB Commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti once wrote that baseball breaks your heart. “It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone…” The Super Bowl fanaticism breaks the heart of a true lover of the game of baseball. Why can’t the World Series get this much attention? Why are baseball fans treated like second class citizens? Who died and made football god?
And so the days leading up to and all the excitement of the Super Bowl are like a knife stabbing at the very soul of a true baseball fan. We are only a few short days away from the beginning of spring training, but during those long, dark days of winter it seems like it is forever. The first survival technique for a baseball fan is to wax philosophically. The only other major sporting event separating you and baseball is the Daytona 500. The minute you hear “Gentlemen, start your engines!” the rest of the winter is like rounding third and heading for home.
Article comments
1 - He Said She Said
I'm a die hard STL Cardinals fan and even though I love my RAMS, baseball always comes first. It's tough living in Chicago at this time of year. Everyone only wants to talk about the Bears. One more week and then we can start talking about spring training.
2 - Ty
"There are three kinds of people."
I would argue there are more.
Let's not forget the casual USA sports fan who thinks he/she knows everything about sports, but likes to pretend that the NHL and ice hockey doesn't exist. This is the sports version of racism.
Then there is the casual USA sports fan who is adamantly a hockey hater and states it on every occasion.
Let's also not forget the casual USA sports fan who thinks he/she knows everything about sports, but if you talk to them for a few minutes about one of their favorites, it is clear they don't know the rules clearly at all.
I think there may be more, mostly of the idiot variety.
3 - Ty
"The Super Bowl fanaticism breaks the heart of a true lover of the game of baseball. Why can’t the World Series get this much attention? Why are baseball fans treated like second class citizens? Who died and made football god?"
That's funny. I love baseball and football, but hockey and especially the San Jose Sharks are #1 for me.
I always notice the fanaticism of BOTH football and baseball breaks my heart. Why can't the Stanley Cup, the oldest North American Pro Sports Championships, get this much attention?
Why are hockey fans treated like the scum of the Earth in the US?
Who died and made football, baseball, and (revolting) NBA basketball god??
4 - Christopher Rose
Urgent update Yankies: There are far more types of sports fan. There are umpteen varieties of fan of cricket, rugby union, football, rugby league and, by the power of Sussman, even curling just for a start!
5 - S.T.M
The Super 14 starts on Friday Chris ... does that count if I'm a fan of that?
6 - Christopher Rose
Anything's better than those girlie games they call sport in the USA!
7 - S.T.M
Do you have tickets to the RWC? I know who you'll be supporting, but I can't see it. Nor my mob ... they just look really ordinary. France or New Zealand is my tip.
8 - Christopher Rose
Well, I will be attending all RWC fixtures here in Andalucia!
9 - S.T.M
Lol ... what, regular personal piss ups at your joint? Lay off the sangria old boy, or you'll turn into a Spaniard ... not going to France, then. It's only an hour's flight, isn't it, from where you are?
10 - S.T.M
"Soon you will hear that glorious sound of a fast ball smacking into a glove, only to be surpassed by the most glorious sound in the universe, that of a ball banging off the end of a bat."
... or Shane Warne appealing for an LBW.
11 - S.T.M
I must say, though SJ, while we're here pissing about on your thread, even though I have grown up with cricket and don't know a lot about baseball, I don't mind watching it. A lot of cricketers here have played both games, including a recent captain of the Australian team, as the skills seem to translate. But as a lover of rugby, I find American Football very hard to watch, especially when the play is stop-start. The main reason though would be that I don't have a clue about the rules.
12 - Christopher Rose
Oh that's easy Stan. One team has 4 goes at trying to move the ball 10 yards. If they manage to do that, they get to do it all over again. If they don't, they give the ball to the other team and they have a go. It's kind of like a wacky version of rugby league but with added posing!
13 - S.T.M
And even sillier hats. But I must say, I have really lost interest in rugby league ... a great game all but destroyed.
What a waste of talent to see these guys engaging in a boring biff-and-barge fest. You could almost play one set of six tackles (and the obligatory kick downfield) on a continuous video loop and no bastard would notice.
The only games I watch now are the pommy Super League finals, where they seem to throw the ball around a bit and recycle the ball quickly, and The State of Origin, which is played at breakneck speed.
Apart from that, phhffft. I'm loving me rugby though