Posted on 07/24/2020 4:30:00 AM PDT by EyesOfTX
One thing this whole national insanity over the viral gift from China has taught me is that I do not need sports in my life. That new reality was really brought home to me last night as Major League Baseball opened its abbreviated, 60-game season. Or at least it’s supposed to last for 60 games – we’ll see if Anthony Fauci can’t kill that, too.
Don’t think Fauci and his fellow Democrats and their corrupt toadies in the news media won’t do everything they can to do that: Their entire goal here is to make you and every other American absolutely miserable going into Election Day, November 3. Having you miserable and desperate for change, any change, is the only way they can hope to get their isolated, increasingly senile nominee over the finish line.
I’ve been a rabid sports fan all my life, since my Daddy, who was himself a fine football player and athlete, taught me to love the Texas Longhorns and the Dallas Cowboys when I was about 5 years old. My first clear football memory is of watching the Longhorns beat Roger Staubach and Navy in the 1964 Cotton Bowl to secure the national championship for that season. That Staubach then went on to lead the Cowboys to two Super Bowl victories is one of those little synchronicities of my life.
My Dad was a high school football official for 30 years – until a heart condition forced him to the sidelines for good – and for a few years in my young adulthood I tried my hand at following in his footsteps. But I wasn’t much good at it because I would get too absorbed in watching the action to focus on my assignment. I was too much of a fan of football to officiate the game.
Growing up in Beeville, Texas, I was one of three Los Angeles Dodgers fans in a town of 13,000 Houston Astros fans. The Texas Rangers hadn’t been born yet, and nobody in South Texas cares about the Rangers to this day anyway. But I became a Dodgers fan when Dad and a friend took me to see the Astrodome one Saturday when the Dodgers were in town. We sat right behind the Dodgers’ dugout as Sandy Koufax tossed a masterpiece that night, and I was hooked forever.
In high school and college, I’d watch any sporting event I could find, either live or on TV. I was such a sports freak I’d even watch ice hockey in the grainy broadcasts on 19″ screens of the day, in which you couldn’t even see the puck and only had a vague idea of what was actually taking place. But hey, it was sports, and who cared, right? Right.
For the last 20 years or so of my life, the years have had three seasons: College football, which lasts from September 1 through the first week in January; obsessing about college football from January through the end of March; Baseball season, which starts April 1 and runs in my life through the end of August, when College football season starts all over again. I’d tune in to watch the baseball playoffs and World Series in October, but only at times when there was no college football to obsess about.
My fandom for the NFL began to wane a few years ago with the idolization of Colin Kaepernick, a spoiled, mediocre football player who suddenly decided America is a terrible place once he’d lost his staring QB job with the San Francisco 49ers. The absolute politicization about every aspect of the game that has followed has completely ended any affinity I have for the game of pro football now. I haven’t spent a moment of my life worrying about the Dallas Cowboys this off-season.
What I realized yesterday is that the same is true of Major League Baseball and even college football. Oh, I checked the score of the Dodgers/Giants game this morning, but in years past I wouldn’t have needed to do that because I’d have been up until midnight watching every pitch of the game. Last night, I went to bed before it started, so I missed the spectacle of every player and coach kneeling prior to the national anthem. During the anthem, Mookie Betts, a guy who had just signed a 12-year contract worth $360 million, and a few other players remained kneeling.
My goodness.
Over the last four months, I’ve been perfectly content without sports in my life. For one thing, it’s left me more time to write, so I’m suddenly a more productive person. Go figure. I’ve also been spending much more time with my darling wife, which is an enduring blessing.
I no longer need sports in my life. And if I’ve reached that realization about myself, I can only imagine that millions of other formerly-rabid sports fans have arrived there as well.
Mookie should be glad he signed his life-altering deal – made possible by the fact that he lives in the greatest nation ever conceived by mankind – when he did, because the money machine that made that payout possible is probably about to take a very big hit.
That is all.
Would you want your children or grandchildren to try to emulate these athletes and coaches? Think about it. All children learn by example. . . unfortunately often they can’t make the distinction between a good example and a bad one.
Precisely.
I do this weird thing. I train and play sports myself.
Winter...snowmobiling
Spring... 4 wheeling
Summer...kayaking
Fall... 4 wheeling
Don’t have time for their non participation sports.
Maybe all is not lost.
It’s how most should be.
The younger generation do not care about sports at all.
I have 4 young men in my family, ages 20 to 33. NONE of them watch sports, EVER! Instead it’s all Xbox and PlayStation.
The sports business is dying. They just don’t know it yet.
Lefties have killed all forms of entertainment.
“Masks are not about controlling a virus. Masks are about controlling people.”
I use my mask to advertise my business.
When given lemons, make lemonade.
I’ve watched the Premier League without fans. It’s painful.
My entire life I’ve meticulously followed my NFL home team. I am done.
The NFL, NBA, and MLB want to pander to the Marxists, then let the Marxists support them. Not me.
Actually that is a good idea. I have to wear a mask where I work, and we got masks with the company logo on them. I’ve also seen that at the grocery store, employees wearing masks with the store’s logo.
they’ve left the strip clubs alone so far. :)
( altho i suppose Tons Of Fun lap dances will be mandatory soon) haha
They're very aware of it, hence all this pandering to what audience they have remaining. Their weekly financial tracking shows just how accelerated the decline has become. They're fomenting lies to pit people against each other for money.
At one time the blood was in the arena, now it's outside on the street...and the show owners are instigating it in order to get paid.
The only interest that I have left in sports will be subsequent CBA’s after their viewership and ad revenues are in the ditch. Hopefully, this is the end of 7-9 figure contacts. I think 6 figure contacts is plenty. Hope it was worth it, bigots.
But I never really paid much attention to sports once I reached adulthood. Probably because I played 3 sports through high school, and one in college...I was pretty much tired of it.
It's a shame. One could say we are giving up and letting them have it. However, the truth is that just like in sports, "we" lost.
I agree with you on this. As a Redskin fan since 1972, my favorite players have been Sonny Jurgenson, Charlie Taylor, Jerry Smith, Art Monk, John Riggens, Larry Brown, Diron Talbert, Dexter Manley, Pat Fischer, Darrell Green - black and white across the board. I am a racist because I never could stand McDrabb from Philly or the dog-killer Michael Vick, but I liked Steve McNair. I was a fan of RG III until he was destroyed by Mike Nolan and his own ego. I am/was a fan of athletes that I liked and thought were good, no matter the race. But the left has destroyed sports for me.
Yep, did 3-gun shooting for years, now doing NRL22 and precision rifle. Takes up a lot of my free time.
Lefties have killed all forms of entertainment.
___________________________________________________________
Absolutely.
My husband grew up a TV addict. For almost 20 years we lived in an area with poor over-the-air-reception. We had a variety of sat dishes, pre-Dish & DirecTV.
In the late 90s, we got a Roku and have streamed TV semi-regularly, since. I’m older and never developed the TV addiction, except for news and the Left killed that for me by 2008. I now watch clips and alternative commentary, but I prefer reading articles.
We have developed a schedule of watching 1-2 episodes of some TV series via Roku during dinner. Last night, we were watching a paranormal series set in Arthurian England. Way too many blacks, which jarred an otherwise decent production because it just wasn’t historically accurate (Arthur and Morgana are black). Then came the 1st obligatory lesbian scene between Morgana and another nun hiding in an abbey). We finished the episode. Doubt we’ll finish the series.
We said to each other:”They ruin everything they touch.” DH admits he cares very little now for TV. He does watch some of the DIY shows.
As a reader, about 15 years ago, I realized ALL the book awards were political. If a book wins some academic award and I go to look at the reviews, I find 100s complaining it is unreadable. When I read the sample, I have to agree. I now avoid them. I love science fiction which is totally compromised except for Baen and Vox Day. I now read indies, most quite good and interesting, as they rarely check the PC boxes like the trad-published pap.
More time for my own pursuits. I do various crafts while listening to talk radio or War Room and I write for myself because in today’s world, the need to check PC boxes in fiction destroys the writing flow. So I don’t. I’ve published independently and may do so again, but for now: not worth the stress of some Karen reviewing it negatively for political/ideological reasons.
Pretty much now You Tube videos serve as my form of entertainment, haven’t watched a network TV show in ages.
In 1992 and 93 I went to every home world series game and watched Joe Carter hit only the second walk off homer to end a world series. For a team sport fan to witness your team win a championship in the home arena/stadium well that is the mountain top. It doesn’t get any better than that. It was fun and good times. I appreciate it still because it’s a bit rare in sports world but it’s over. Don’t plan to ever pay for that again even given the opportunity and the tickets back then were actually affordable. $30 for the upper deck. I am just like this guy now. Check the scores and standings and say oh that’s nice or a shame and move on with life.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.