Team Sports

I'm not a fan. What's the point? I'm so far out of the loop that I didn't even know the Superbowl was playing until I got an e-mail to go a Superbowl party. The people throwing the party weren't big fans either. They wanted to comment on the commercials. Okay, so that would have been fun.

When I was little kid way back in the 60's, the big team all the other kids followed was the Red Sox. Tried my best to fit in with other kids. Really tried to care. Year after year the Red Sox would have pretty good seasons only to choke at the end. After a bit of that, it occurred to me that I didn't want that much disappointment in my young life. Stopped trying to care.

I was always bigger and taller than most kids my age. In grammar school, I was encouraged to join the basketball team. My folks must have heard somewhere about team sports building character or some such thing. Didn't work for me. My protests to my folks that I didn't know anything about basketball fell on deaf ears. No problem they say, they'll teach you.

No, no they won't. They assume you know something about the game. Sure, I was tall, but having had a recent growth spurt, coordination was sorely lacking. One season sitting on the bench was a crappy enough experience for me. That time could have been spent doing something enjoyable.

It's not that I'm not competitive. Loved to race canoes, either with a partner or alone. Won quite a few races too, and no doubt that helped. A sport done solo or with a partner is fine. Somehow by the time something balloons to an organized team sport, it becomes distasteful. Perhaps it is the loss of the individual that I fear? Subduing the individual to the hive mind?

Really enjoy just heading out in the woods or on a river somewhere. Hunting and fishing are enjoyable. Hiking is great. Swimming is fun. As long as those activities aren't turned into some sort of team sport, they are good.

Never could figure out why we were supposed to hate the kids at a rival school just because our teams were playing each other. Of course, I never could figure out why we were supposed to hate people from other countries, religions, or cultures. Perhaps it's the same mechanism at work? My "hate the other" training never took hold.

If you actually enjoy following a team. Fine, have fun. Just because it's not for me doesn't mean other people can't enjoy it. Please try and keep a little perspective. Don't get all crazy about following your team, be they the Red Sox, the Democrats or the Republicans. Whatever.

It's only a game.

-Sixbears