About Baseball (Not Really)

Post 25:

            I’m a strident supporter of my sports teams. I’m not sure if it lines up with my contrarian sentimentalities, but it is what it is. My team, (Texas Rangers) clinched a playoff birth tonight, so of course I’m stoked. Of course, here comes the self-examination of why I’m stoked. That’s what you’ll have to endure. I’ll try to make it palatable.

            Most of us have a thing we get behind. It’s a curious phenomenon in the human experience. I’ve heard it called herd mentality, living vicariously through others, etc. All that is true.

            I get behind things that I have no control of. Sports fans do this all the time, perhaps to their detriment, perhaps otherwise.

            I’m here for the otherwise. Let’s be honest, it’s nice to care. Doesn’t matter what it is, there’s a warm feeling in your soul when you actually give a crap about something. The daily doesn’t provide you with a lot of pure things to care for, so culture in all of its wisdom has given us things to lean into, to care about. One could surmise that we do this out of weakness, but I would like to posit another theory.

            Most things we love in this world give us a reason not to. Your woman, your man, your family, they all seem to be asking you for a fight. Not so with your team. You can love them all the live long day—when they fall short or disappoint, you get to yell or scream or gesticulate and nobody’s the wiser. In short, it’s an outlet. It’s the one-way street we’re all looking for but can’t find in the real world.  

            It’s an argument easily rebuffed. You can say it’s not the real world and thus it’s not real. Fair. But alas. I do care, and caring can’t be whisked away so easily. We give a crap about what we give a crap about. Yeah. That was poignant.

            There are monsters in the dark everywhere we turn. At times it seems things just suck. Giving yourself a moment to be happy about something that you didn’t do seems like one of the least detrimental things a person can inflict on society. So go on then, Rangers. Win the frigging World Series. I’ve suffered enough, literally watched you blow it from thirty yards away. Enough already.        

            But that’s the thing. In any real world deal you need that. They can totally blow it this year and I’ll be back; on some level a person knows the investment isn’t worth getting all that riled up over.

            But seriously. If they don’t win this year, I’m swearing off sports.

            Until next season. Cheers maniacs. See you after.