Things are a little sad in Lexington to-day - the college basketball team, which was poised to win the college basketball championship, lost to another team. "Second place isn't so bad" doesn't heal the hurt feelings of people whose happiness & pride had been tied up in a sports team for an exciting season. People I know who are at the school were saying things on Facebook like, "I'm so proud of my school!"
On a dog walk during a play-off game, with the streets quiet & near-deserted, the wife told me she didn't understand sports fans. She said, "I can understand wanting to play sports, but watching them?" She assumed that they knew what she does, that the spectators are not in any way responsible for how the games turn out, & that the coaches & administration & players reap all the rewards.
I grew up in a family that loved sports, & was a child when the Dallas Cowboys won a couple or three Super Bowl victories in the late 1970s. Even in those days, however, I didn't feel much of a connection to the athletes on the television. When once I praised what I thought was an outstanding play, but one the other team had made, I was almost struck by one of my brothers. Rooting for the other team was apostasy. & I remember how frustrated & sad they would be when their team lost.
In Huntington, one time, a kid at WMUL was talking about the Marshall team taking on their rivals at the University of West Virginia. "If they beat us," he told me, "I'll kill myself."
I understand how thrilling sports are, & I also understand it's a human tendency to take sides. (Recently, I read an internet forum about "Marvel" vs "DC" movies.) I know I tend to take things like the recent Supreme Court ruling as a "loss" to my team (people who want everyone in the United States to be healthy, well-fed, happy, & safe) & a "win" for the 1% who already control way too much.
It's in our nature. So I sympathize, a little, with the "losers" who had no real stake in the game, who now feel as though they've been dealt a major blow in life, like discovering they have a medical condition, or they've lost a great deal of money. (Well, the gamblers out there who are also school partisans may actually have.) It doesn't make me care any more about the actual sport, & it certainly doesn't change my opinion that there's too much money in college sports & far too little in the liberal arts. But I hope my friends who are feeling a little crushed today feel better soon. "It's just a ball game," is no consolation, because, to them, it isn't.
Maybe next year?
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