I am going to give you, Dear Reader, fair warning that this
week’s column is all about sports so if you’re not a sports fan and you’d
rather be doing something else then go ahead… I won’t mind, I know it’s not
everyone’s cup o’ tea.
I actually
cannot remember not watching or playing sports. Some of my earliest childhood
memories revolve around the Hubbard family sitting in front of the TV eating
popcorn while watching Hockey Night In Canada every Saturday night with Ward
Cornell hosting and Foster Hewitt or Danny Gallivan doing the play-by-play.
Baseball
was a little different because, until 1971, all of the World Series games were
played during the day so it was a little trickier trying to view those games.
Between squinting to see the fuzzy black and white images in the bright middle-of-the-day
sunshine and the fact that there was something called SCHOOL keeping me out of
the house I had to be creative to see or hear the games. October was always a
great time for earaches, or something, if you know what I mean? Wink, wink. If
we were really, really, lucky and it wasn’t often that it happened, we’d get a
teacher who was a baseball fan and they’d play a radio in the classroom while
we did arithmetic or spelling or some other exhilarating task.
There are a
couple of times during the year, usually spring and fall, when so many sports
are being played at the same time making it a sports lover’s dream and a home
handyman’s nightmare.
The CFL
schedule is ramping up with the playoffs just around the corner and every game
is crucially important and there are only four teams left in the hunt for the
World Series Championship so every pitch, at bat and out are also crucially
important. And to top it off the NHL season, which I will acknowledge could be
a couple of months shorter, (I know…Canadian blasphemy), just kicked off its
too long regular season schedule last night. Not to mention the National
Football League season is on, too, and they’re still playing golf and tennis
and soccer and …See what I mean?
A few
months ago at work the “powers that be” installed a couple of televisions in
the lunchroom but the TV’s are tuned in to a live streaming news channel.
Continuously. All of the time. News. Bad news. Depressing news. Numbingly
depressing news. I’ve taken to sitting with my back to the TVs in an effort to
abstain from watching them. You know how hard it is to keep your eyes off of a
television set, don’t you? Anyway, not watching the news as much has helped me
avoid visits to a mental health practitioner or going on Paxil or some other
anti-depressant.
That’s another reason I choose to
watch sports. It’s a diversion. I like to know what’s going on in the world but
I don’t need to be saturated with the stuff.
Sports are a huge part of our
world. They enhance economic growth, they are, as previously mentioned, a diversion
from the ills of the world, they promote camaraderie and loyalty and confidence
and health.
Studies have also shown that
organized sport programs contribute to reducing youth crime and sports are used
as a rehabilitation tool for offenders as there exists a widespread belief in
the therapeutic value of sports.
I am not alone in this sports
loving fanaticism. Look around you. It’s everywhere and zillions of people love
it. Playing sports or watching sports, either one, or both. My advancing age
may be slowing my playing days down a little but it sure isn’t interfering with
my sports viewing.
Come to think of it, I think I’ll
cook up a batch of popcorn, grab a cool beverage and find some game to watch
right now. It’s not 1962 anymore so there’ll be plenty to choose from and all
in high definition. Ahhhhhh the life.
“I always turn to the sports
section first. The sports page records people’s accomplishments; the front page
has nothing but man’s failures.”- Earl Warren (1891-1974).
