Like many 20-something male Americans, I pay way too much attention to sports. With what is going on in the world, I thought a lighter topic may be in order. Simple question: What is your most memorable moment as a sports fan or in competition?

Also a follow up question along the same line of thought: how important is sports (and entertainment in general) in keeping the morale of individuals up during times of crisis?

Just something to think about while one of the biggest annual sports events begins.

/rant

Sports and entertainment: I'd wager that's what keeps modern (or is that post-?), western society from bursting its stitches and spilling its guts.
Sports give you a tribe, an identity, a side to take, a war cry and an enemy that can be defeated with some regularity. A valve for pent-up rage or frustration.
Hollywood sublimates your inner desires and urgings: You can fly freely among the clouds or the stars. You can led an interesting, meaningful, heroic life. Be physically perfect, and enjoy your most primal fantasies. You can explore situations and choices you'd never attempt in real life.

This happens all the time, and keeps us from despair and desperation caused by our boring/unfulfilling/problematic jobs/lifes/surroundings. In times of crisis, this can get exacerbated, and the media getting used to fuel patriotic feelings based on loyalty, to brands, to teams.

Of course, not everyone is affected by this. Some of us, well, read fiction and such... it's not escapism, it's culture"... oh well...


/rant off

there was american car journalist ken purdy. his importance is underlined by annual "ken purdy award" given to the author of best article about cars/autosport printed in english language. purdy has written: "there are three kinds of sports. mountain climbing, bullfighting and auto racing. all the rest is entertainment." so, the meaning of "sport" for him was man going against unliving/living nature or man-made things in their extreme form and risking his life doing it. i like that definition.

hmm, i've been following formula one racing for over thirty years. it has turned into quite ridiculously safe and overpayd circus, but i still follow it.

quote:

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Originally posted by BlackCat:
so, the meaning of "sport" for him was man going against unliving/living nature or man-made things in their extreme form and risking his life doing it. i like that definition.

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Welcome to the world of equestrian sports, the whole variety of it

And it's not exactly new as it goes, certainly much older than F-1 (absolutely nothing against the latter, of course)

/\/\ike

The concept that sport involves "going against nature" appears a tad narrow minded. Not to mention Euro-American in its myopic definition.

I reckon a few folks in China, Tibet, Peru, etc., might get a laugh out of Ken Purdy.

[Then again, one of Alabama's most popular sports is "mullet tossing." A bunch of yahoos gather on the nearest beach and see who can hurl a fresh caught mullet the farthest. I spose that could be construed as "going against nature." But there's usually a big fish fry afterwards.]

One high point as a baseball fan: being in the locker room with the press the afternoon Dwight Gooden hit his first major league home run. They were simpler times, those.

Making my first ever bet on a horse race after a dream - no lie - that indicated I should bet ten dollars to win on a filly named Genuine Risk in the Derby.

Sports was reality before reality television: human drama and unpredictable outcomes. Far more entertaining - and I've come to believe this even about golf which confounds me - than almost anything scripted.

Professional sports are as fixed as the outcome of a television series. Now random violence, there's a thing to watch!

Sports aren't just limited to the NBA playoffs. A sport like golf is hard enough to play as it is without trying to fix it.

How about Agassi...is he gonna win yet again this time in the Miami Nasdaq?

While I was never a South Africa specialist, I do remember a couple people did pretty influential studies in the 90's on sanctions against South Africa.

Their conclusions, pretty well supported, were that the sports-related sanctions (soccer/football specifically), which were imposed later on, were by far the most effective sanctions that resulted in the greatest anti-Apartheid influence. It's funny because all the other sanctions resulted in the country taking tremendous measures to become self-sufficient in a variety of ways. They warped their economy and society in many ways in order to hold onto Apartheid. But when their soccer team wasn't allowed to play internationally, they had fits and started to think that maybe that whole Apartheid thing wasn't worth it.

Personally, sports bore the living hell out of me.

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"That we occasionally violate our own stated moral code, does not imply that we are insincere in espousing that code." --Major Napier, Stephenson's THE DIAMOND AGE