The Glory and Perversity of Sports
Ancient men used to mark the time by the changing of the seasons, winter to spring and summer to fall. So does modern man - football season to basketball season to baseball season.
America embraces sport like no other nation. Except for a few dedicated soccer types, no young man dreams of putting on the uniform of a sports team based outside of a league anchored in the United States. When it comes to sports, America is the magnet.
For us, sport mirrors what we want in a society. Everyone plays according to one's ability; there is no affirmative action. And, thanks to guys like Jackie Robinson, there are no barriers either. You can either play or you can't.
When the President uses phrases like "playing by the rules" and "fairness," it speaks to our sporting nature. Yet no one gets a "waiver" from the rules in our games (in fact, the waiver in sports usually means an unwanted change in employment.) Here we believe in the meritocracy. No "participation trophies" for us - just showing up is not enough.
Even the unions are different. No one fights for the slacker or the unproductive to keep his job.
If there is a true liberal sports organization in America it is the NCAA. Title IX has wreaked havoc on universities' sports budgets. Some major colleges have eliminated vast swaths of men's sports to comply with it. And the NCAA ties coverage of women's sports to the television contracts of the men.
As an economic exercise, the level or the gender of the participants in front of the cameras has nothing to do with the cost of televising the event. There are no discounts from vendors or crews because the players are also women.
But the results are hardly the same. CBS garnered a 12.3 rating off of Monday's men's college basketball title game between UK and Kansas. Over on the other side of the coin, ESPN managed to post a 2.6 for the women's title tilt between Baylor and Notre Dame.
You can lead to the horse to the television set, but you can't make it watch.
- Comment (58)
- · Quote
- · UnfollowFollow (4)
Comments:
Jul '10
Re: The Glory and Perversity of Sports
iWc: I used to watch sports, but it was a guilty pleasure. It is a time-waster. So because I want to make my time on this earth count, I have stopped.
Let's face it: sports are a lot like pornography: an easy way to release suppressed male energy in a civil society, with only minimal damage to the audience. Nothing productive is accomplished with either one
I agree somewhat, though I'm more inclined to compare athletics to music, arts, or academics.
They're all of limited utility, but developing and appreciating human excellence is worthwhile, to me at least.
Jimmy Carter: Y'all are skirting around the issue.
Title IX is proof that there is not the same interest in Women's sports as in Men's or there wouldn't be a Title IX (the Chevy Volt of the NCAA).
More fuel for the fire: if Women could play at the level of Men, then there wouldn't be Men's and Women's leagues.
Yeah. It is kind of a Plessy v. Ferguson type of equality that Title IX demands. One point both in its favor and against: men and women are actually different.
Mar '11
Re: The Glory and Perversity of Sports
Palaeologus
iWc:
Let's face it: sports are a lot like pornography: an easy way to release suppressed male energy in a civil society, with only minimal damage to the audience. Nothing productive is accomplished with either one
I agree somewhat, though I'm more inclined to compare athletics to music, arts, or academics.
They're all of limited utility, but developing and appreciating human excellence is worthwhile, to me at least.
I see music and arts as true creativity - creating new things is, to me, the highest form of imitatio dei. So engineering and art and yes, creative thought, are the highest callings of mankind.
Sports and pornography are sinks for potentially creative energies. Addiction to either can waste a perfectly good life.
Edited on April 5, 2012 at 3:54amJul '10
Re: The Glory and Perversity of Sports
iWc
Palaeologus
iWc:
Let's face it: sports are a lot like pornography: an easy way to release suppressed male energy in a civil society, with only minimal damage to the audience. Nothing productive is accomplished with either one
I agree somewhat, though I'm more inclined to compare athletics to music, arts, or academics.
They're all of limited utility, but developing and appreciating human excellence is worthwhile, to me at least.
I see music and arts as true creativity - creating new things is, to me, the highest form ofimitatio dei. So engineering and art and yes, creative thought, are the highest callings of mankind.
Sports and pornography are sinks for potentially creative energies.
I suppose we'll have to agree to disagree.
I view athleticism as a potential sink for pointless self indulgence, in exactly the same way I view musicianship, academic accomplishment, and artistry.
A spectacular gymnastic floor routine reminds me more of a beautifully constructed paragraph than Debbie Does Dallas. A crappy song (or poem, thesis, building) suggests the opposite association.
Mar '11
Re: The Glory and Perversity of Sports
I think Blake refuted that pretty well before, but just to pile on--the kids here in Afghanistan could care less about American sports, but are crazy for cricket. Their desire to participate in the Cricket World Cup and various and sundry other tournaments are a better guarantor of peace than anything we're doing there.
It seems that plenty of athletes have taken advantage of sports to live a "perfectly good life." But you must be talking about spectators, who if they could only pull themselves away from the television would be curing cancer and building cold fusion generators. Or at least listening to Le Nozze de Figaro and discussing the contrasting merits of Ovid and Juvenal. Ridiculous on its face.
Jul '11
Re: The Glory and Perversity of Sports
iWc, as one who has gone from getting a rebound , driving down and dunking over my opponent to win in the final seconds I can assure you that your analogy is fitting only to a non athlete uninterested in athletics. I get as much pleasure from teaching and watching my kids as I ever did playing also. There was a time where stamina, brains, strength and hand eye coordination were the difference between life and death. We may well see this again in our lifetimes.
Jul '11
Re: The Glory and Perversity of Sports
Exactly Jackal. There are a high percentage of young men around the world that dream of excellence in something physical. I did, fell short, but boy those dreams were special and a driving force. I would not trade them for anything.
Oct '10
Re: The Glory and Perversity of Sports
Certainly America embraces sport in a manner unlike anywhere else. Nowhere else has the collegiate system. Nowhere else has an almost complete lack of international competition. As noted elsewhere, young men (and increasingly women) everywhere else on the planet dream of wearing their country's colours in the sporting arena.
Which makes me wonder what you meant by the last sentence quoted above: in what way is America a sports magnet?
May '10
Re: The Glory and Perversity of Sports
Genferei - Just look at any roster on any team outside of American football. It's a veritable United Nations.
Oct '10
Re: The Glory and Perversity of Sports
EJ - as is any club soccer, rugby or cricket (or basketball or ice hockey or...) team outside the US. America is a sports magnet, I'll grant. But the magnet?
Mar '11
Re: The Glory and Perversity of Sports
Jackal.
But you must be talking about spectators, who if they could only pull themselves away from the television would be curing cancer and building cold fusion generators. Or at least listening to Le Nozze de Figaroand discussing the contrasting merits of Ovid and Juvenal. Ridiculous on its face. · 4 hours ago
I am not such an elitist as to think so little of my fellow men. We are all capable of great things, in some form.
Marx was almost right - but it is not religion that is the opiate of the masses. It is spectator sports.
Mar '11
Re: The Glory and Perversity of Sports
EJHill
Except my kids get to eat. Other than that... · 11 hours ago
True. And the same can be said for any honest, paying job. Unlike a government job, at least your employers don't (usually) get money by coercion.
But productivity can be through various means. The fact that you work in sports clearly shows that your higher calling is through your phenomenal work on this site. :-)
May '10
Re: The Glory and Perversity of Sports
Yes, THE magnet. Because outside of soccer, America is where the money is and therefore where the best players are. There are professional basketball and hockey leagues in Europe and they are stocked with players who can not get jobs in North America.
Hugo Chavez may demonize us but little Venezuelan kids still want to play shortstop in America.
Oct '10
Re: The Glory and Perversity of Sports
Bah - the eZ whatsit engine ate my beautifully phrased rebuttal to EJ's North America-centric comment above, and, since I will never again approach such perfection, I refuse to try.
By the way, EJ, I used to be in the sports biz myself (on the rights side), so I'm perfectly OK with it keeping the food on your table...
Feb '11
Re: The Glory and Perversity of Sports
Say what you will about Title IX, but thanks in no small part to it my university has finally got an outstanding Athletic Director via women's basketball program. She has more cajones than the males who preceded her for the past 20 years. She's gotten university football and men's basketball back on track after over 20 years.
May '10
Re: The Glory and Perversity of Sports
Mmmm... The dog ate your homework?
Oct '10
Re: The Glory and Perversity of Sports
More like this:
Re: The Glory and Perversity of Sports
Is that a real chupacabra?
Oct '10
Re: The Glory and Perversity of Sports
Mollie Hemingway, Ed.
Is that a real chupacabra? · 0 minutes ago
A baby one. I cropped out the goats in case of CoC violations.