Why We Like Sports

Here's why we like sports. Everything is neatly categorized. You have distinct winners and losers and everyone knows where he or she stands. (Except in college football, but that's another story.) And then there are the comparisons. It's not enough to say a player, or a team, or a game, or a season is good. How good? Better than last year? Last decade? Was it the best or the worst of all time?

I'm thinking about all this as the Huffington Post launches a sports page. It comes the same week as my latest kids book is released "The Greatest Moments in Sports." Now before you consider this a blatant plug for either the HuffPost or my book, think about both for a second. Why would the Huffington Post launch a sports page? Isn't there enough "sport" in politics? Isn't there a sufficient amount of controversy in the day to day lunacy of the world? Why would HP need to feature something as trivial as sports? The easy answer is that sports is a "release" from the real world, your job, life. The better answer is that even though sports is black and white, all hell still breaks lose. If it's not umpires blowing World Series calls, it's male athletes somehow taking female fertility drugs, or other athletic geniuses shooting themselves with illegal guns. Not to mention that the sports world is even having difficulty with the basics, like coming up with standards to determine which athletes are male or female in the first place.

My book is much more benign, but equally controversial. Which are the greatest moments in sports? Well, they're whichever moments we decide to write about. Pretty subjective. One of the moments we picked, we don't even know if it really happened. When Babe Ruth stood at home plate and pointed in the 1932 World Series. He was pointing at "something." But was he really predicting a home run? We don't rank the moments 1 through 25 in my book. But I do choose the all time greatest sports moment. OK, times up. It's the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team. The "Miracle on Ice." That event had it all. Good vs. evil. Political overtones. A major upset. It wasn't really a "sports" story. Then again, what is? Hopefully the Huffington Post will be able to sort it out.

1. In the meantime I have a list of questions for the HP editors.
2. Do A-Rod and Kate Hudson belong on the sports or gossip page?
3. Does the obscene cost of tickets get discussed in the business section?
4. Do they have the "November Classic" and the possibility of World Series snow handled by the weather department?
5. If the President wants a playoff in college football, is that political news?
6. And finally, when is pro basketball going to return to the New York area?

So, good luck to the Huffington Post sports section trying to sort it out. I had a relatively easy time selecting the "Greatest Moments in Sports." The hard part would be writing "The Worst Moments in Sports."

So much to choose from, so little space.

 

Follow Len Berman on Twitter: www.twitter.com/lenbermansports

Comments

[cktirumalai]

I used to think of sports as at least a qualified meritocracy. It is not whom you know or your impressive social background but your actual performance, often enough plain for all to see (overlooking partial referees and controversial photo-finishes for the moment), which counts. But a cloud descended over it all with the arrival of anabolic steroids and other drugs. And the skill some athletes and coaches bring to disguising those drugs in the system turns sport into crime.
Still, seeing a pitcher hurling a ball at with cunning and speed at a batter who can make an adequate or more than adequate return can fascinate an entire nation, in part, I think, because the spectacle encapsulates forces ancient and modern. "Grace under pressure," a writer called it. Music and sport can, in their different ways, reach deep into the psyche.
A paradoxical aspect: As societies become physically unfit, a kind of vicarious premium comes to be placed on those who are superbly fit.

[FirstGame72]

Len,
I've watching you sportscast since since I first took interest in pro sports in the 70's. I've always thought you've done a solid job. By what I've seen in the comments section of the HuffPo sports articles so far, a sports section may be a tough sell for this "crowd."
Big time pro sports have always been saturated in controversies and there is no end to the subjects that people can debate.
Just to throw one minor one out there: I believe that in NO way does Joe Mauer of the Twins deserve the AL MVP award and I believe the sportswriters who vote for him do it only because he plays for what they've coined a "Small Market Team." If he played for either New York team (and they had just finished a season like the one the twins had) not only would he not be in the running for an MVP, his name would never be mentioned for consideration.

[Romeover]

I wish I could care about sports.

[Chalkeater]

The Nets may go to Brooklyn.