My editor, Kori, challenged each of us in the b5 sports channel to answer the question, “Why do you love sports?” It’s tougher than you think.

For me, sports is such a huge part of my identity that I have trouble stepping outside of it. Like, you might as well ask me why I have brown eyes.

But that’s a copout, so let’s see if I can come up with something more satisfying. Growing up, I played “organized” sports such as baseball, basketball, and soccer. I never quite got the hang of soccer, but it was just becoming popular in the late-’70s, so I ran around and tried to look busy.

I wasn’t real crazy about any of the sports I played. Baseball was okay, especially toward the end of my “playing career,” but what I really enjoyed was playing pick-up games: touch football, softball, and even stuff we would make up, like “strikeout.”

Strikeout goes by many different names, but basically it’s two-person baseball. One guy would pitch and the other would bat, standing in front of a wall. We used a real wood bat and a tennis ball. There was no running involved, and we just played until we got tired, which was great fun for me but not so much for my shoulder.

Anyway, I didn’t really catch the sports bug until I reached high school, when I started playing tennis. That sport really engaged me in a way that no other had before or since.

What got me about tennis was that it was just me and this other guy. You went in knowing your own strengths and weaknesses, and through the course of competition, you figured out what the other guy was trying to do. You had to think, but you also had to act. For me, that was the challenge. What is this person trying to do, and how do I keep him from accomplishing that? I didn’t think about it in those terms back then, but that’s what I was doing.

I’ve continued to play sports in my adult life, though not to the degree that I did when I was younger. Life gets in the way, and all that. But now I enjoy the cameraderie as much as anything. On the rare occasions when I play softball these days, it’s as much to hang out with friends as it is to engage in serious competition. Not that I don’t still compete, mind you, but the emphasis has shifted.

Most of my enjoyment of sports now comes as a spectator. It’s sort of passive, but if you are passionate, as I am about baseball, it can become pretty active. The joy for me in watching a ballgame comes from trying to figure out what everyone on the field is trying to do at any given moment, as well as from spending time with my wife and/or my friends.

I haven’t really thought about it much before, but I’m really in it now for the same reasons I was 20+ years ago. That and the chicks, of course.

But enough about me. Why do you love sports? Was there someone or something that got you hooked?

Post from: Knuckle Curve

Post from: Knuckle Curve