Why I'm a Sports Fan: Non-Depressing Edition

If you know me very well, you'll know that I am quite the sports fan, mostly baseball but also football and, less so, hockey. Baseball is what I know the most about and what I love the most, for some stupid reason (but we'll get to that reason in a later post). But why do I like sports so much? They're just men in matching outfits exercising after all. It's a legitimate question. After watching the World Cup today, though, I think I may have an answer.

Now I know very little about soccer compared to most of the world. I am aware that the ball gets kicked and the object is to get it into the goal. I know the reasons for offsides and yellow and red cards. But other than that I don't know much. I know some team, mostly in the Premier League and the Barca and AC Milan types in the other leagues. (And the MLS teams but that's like knowing all the AAA teams (which I do!)). I don't know many players and I don't know much strategy. But I do enjoy watching the World Cup and, maybe, hopefully, more than that after this is over. And the reason? The tension.

I was watching the Uruguay-France game today. Now a lot of soccer (I'm not ready to call it football yet) fans said it was a pretty bad game to watch. A 0-0 tie, with Uruguay just trying to stop France from scoring most of the time. And even though it appears France can't shoot very well at all, it was intense just waiting to see if they would break the tie and leave Uruguay with a heartbreaking loss. I was rooting for Uruguay because, while France is a cool place, they are a supposed soccer power (though apparently not this year!) and Uruguay is a pretty small South American country. Plus I love that shade of blue. Uruguay is one of the forgotten countries of South America (you know, besides Suriname and Guyana. Speak Spanish or be bigger, idiots*) so I think it would be cool for them to go far.

Anyway, Uruguay's strategy appeared to be to have all 11 (or 10 after a late red card) stand in the defensive zone and stop France from doing anything. From what I saw, they had no interest in scoring at all and were going for the 1 point from the draw, even more so after they had to play one down. The tension of watching that and wondering whether France would finally break through and score was pretty exhilarating for someone who has barely watched any soccer at all. And this sort of feeling goes into my watching of all sports. I always wonder when something is going to happen.

The anticipation of action is overpowering when watching sports for me. When I watch football (mainly the Seahawks because o the emotional investment) I get that feeling in my stomach when you get excited about something. I'm hoping they can drive down the field to score whenever they have the ball. And I always, sometimes stupidly, have the hope that they do. I always hope and, sometimes stupidly, assume they will stop the other team and get back to scoring when they are on defense. Obviously this hasn't exactly worked out great but still the excitement of waiting for it to happen is nearly addictive. The hope for the joy that comes from achievement of a team I love is what I live for.

And then there's baseball. There's always the tension there. The pauses in the game amplify the tension more than take away from it. You could say that a David Aardsma save (I said start originally. Whoopsy!) is the biggest source of adrenaline you can get because good lord does he give up a lot of fly balls. Anyway, whenever a game is going on, I'm always thinking about what the batting team needs to do to score or how the pitcher needs to attack the hitter to get out. In some cases, it's futile (you are terrible, Ian Snell). In others, it's all sorts of amazing (don't leave, Cliff Lee). But watching your pitcher get that big strikeout or double play ball to end the opposing team's rally is one of the more exhilarating experiences you can have in watching something, as is a player coming through in the clutch on your side.

So what I'm saying in this wall of text is that the excitement of the potential of an event happening and the joy (or despair) that comes from it are the main draws of watching sports for me. Even in a game where I have little emotional investment in a sport I have only a basic knowledge of, I get that feeling of excitement when watching. Obviously it doesn't match what comes from actually playing but that's still different. Seeing my team succeed that I've rooted for since I was 5 and have been watching closely that entire time would pay off more for me than scoring a winning touchdown in a pick up football game. Though each is pretty damned awesome, the years of watching and hoping finally paying off would make me so ecstatic. And the Storm don't count.