browngirl | Valor is as Valor Does

In which I post about team sports non-disparagingly.

I work at Boston University; their men's hockey team won the NCAA Championship in what I am told is quite dramatic fashion, and had a ticker-tape parade yesterday. Fortunately, none of our students skipped class, and no drunk or lost revellers came into the school to disrupt our day, so it all went well; today all the grass is littered festively with red-white-and-blue ticker tape, and we're all discussing whether or not the Athletic Director will wear his T-shirt from the parade just this week or all next week too.

I was going to snark about it (the whole sports culture in the US, bla bla) but, considering the above lack of strife associated with their celebration, and considering that these young men did achieve something impressive, maybe this time I don't need to. I mean, it's not like they'd know I did, or care what some fat little woman thinks if they did know. But I would. Maybe failing to sneer at this is not some capitulation to all the people who've told me that sports are normal and healthy and correct while my own hobbies are pathological. Or maybe I'm just in too good of a mood (and no, dear Universe, this is not a challenge to change that!)

I do reserve the right to tease my coworker if he shows up in his parade T-shirt, though.

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I'll readily admit that whether or not a team I like wins or loses has no real impact on my daily life and yet I love watching a game and letting myself get caught up in the drama of the game. Plus, I love that baseball has given me a safe, non-controversial topic of conversation with my dad. Sure it's probably more fun to play the game than to merely watch but when I watch a game, the game gets to be played at a much higher level and I like marveling at the sheer skill on display.

But enduring the teasing of others is part of spectator sports so tease away!

*nod* I am not unaffected by the drama of sporting competitions -- I was absolutely glued to the Olympics. And do I ever understand having a safe, non-controversial topic to talk about with parents. If I didn't love our current President for anything else I'd love him for the fact that for the first time in half my life I and my parents agreed on politics. :)

Winning is good; winning well is special.

Also, and irrelevantly, check out today's Abstruse Goose. Really; I think you'll like it.

I absolutely adored it, and have tucked it away in my files. :)

really? I used to work at BU as well at Pappas. I remember the time in BU history when they decided to cut certain sports to be more equitable with $$ and compliance with Title IX. So they won. huh. Good for them. I guess I pay little attention to those details anymore.

PS got the peabody exhibit news clipping. THANK YOU!

Oh, you're very welcome!

On the one hand, sports is often not very sportsmanlike. But it's a good release, too -- in a world of grey areas, it can be very comforting to have black-and-white things to hold on to (our team is great, yay! Boo on the other team, I want them to lose!).

Competition is good, and though many take it to the extreme (even in a team sport, there are individual 'stars' who are trying to get on top or stay on top -- a bad attitude will turn me off, much less drugs and dangerous practices).....

It's a victory, and it may be a minor thing, but there is a lot of positivity, and I love that you see the world that way and share that with me (and others on LJ) often.

But it's a good release, too -- in a world of grey areas, it can be very comforting to have black-and-white things to hold on to (our team is great, yay! Boo on the other team, I want them to lose!).

*nod* This is a very good point. And the metrics are both detailed and clear, not murky.

It's a victory, and it may be a minor thing, but there is a lot of positivity, and I love that you see the world that way and share that with me (and others on LJ) often.

*blush* Thanks. :) I try.

I find that it helps to think of professional sports as part of the entertainment industry. In that frame, if someone enjoys watching a baseball game, the teams have done something right. And if I don't happen to be interested in watching bowling or football, that's no more a moral judgment than if someone else doesn't read a book I liked, or is bored by a kind of music. There's enough to go around, and then some.

As with other forms of entertainment, I reserve the right to get annoying at people who don't comprehend "No, I didn't catch that" or "I'm not really into tiddlywinks."

Ack, I think I've misspoken if I've given the impression that I have a problem with people enjoying [certain] team sports in and of themselves. We all have our entertainments and our hobbies, and even our passions.

What I have a problem with is the exalted position team sports have in US culture, their "All-American" status, their normalcy. Having been mocked (and knowing guys who were seriously bullied) for liking science fiction by people whose devotion ran as deep or deeper to team sports, and having watched my fellow students discouraged from reading and writing for fun in favor of watching sports, I tend to view them with a jaundiced eye. As the Onion once put it, "Walking Sports Database Scorns Walking Sci-Fi Database (http://www.theonion.com/content/node/38664)".T hat was what I didn't want to agree with, when I decided that I didn't have to support that idea to respect this particular team's accomplishment.

*rereads*

Possibly, I am occasionally bitter. *smiles*

Or maybe I've not made myself clear: thinking of sports that way helps me keep them in perspective a bit. It's also a useful distinction between "Pat likes to play soccer" and "Chris likes to watch hockey," because those are different things, though some people like to play and watch the same sports.

Shoots. I could have had a friendly wager with you because Miami University -- who lost to BU -- is about an hour's drive away from my home.

IMHO, the two biggest things that college sports produce for a college or university is money and name recognition.

*hides* Honestly, until they won I was just trying not to pay attention and/or get in the way of any rampaging fans.

Honey, I keep a sports blog and write fanfic. There's room enough in the world for both.

I don't know whether it's that your country is sane or that you are. :)

Oh, the country's not sane about sport. Oh dear me no. Especially not about rugby.

I do my best to strike a balance, though, and the sports blog concerned isn't the most serious one in the world.

My take on sports, particularly among high school kids and younger, but it applies to all I'm sure:

While it bothers me that many athletes are overpaid, I generally like that sports exist. THey entertain lots of people (including me sometimes) and most of the people who play appear to love what they do. Sports cause problems, but they also make a lot of people happy.

Go BU!

That sounds like a sensible attitude. *emulates*

Valor is as Valor Does

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