Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Land of the Silly

Generally speaking, I don't follow, watch or have any interest in any professional sports. I find the "athletes" boring, over paid and unreliable. I guess some of this is due to having spent my life in a profession where "batting .500" would have landed me in jail. I figure that anyone who is paid $1,000,000 to do anything ought to do it damn near perfect every time.

I see multi-millionaire baseball players (the least athletic players of all...but I digress) drop fly balls. Unacceptable, and no better than the average sand lot team. Now basketball players are athletes. They run constantly and have tremendous conditioning. They do what they do very well...as individuals, however, many are not team players.

Then there is the vicarious thrill that fans get when "we" win. That's when pot-bellied couch slugs have even more beer to celebrate "their" victory. I wonder how many of them have ever tasted the joy of winning for themselves. How many have achieved a desired time, gotten a new roll, conquered a mountain or just walked the twenty minutes a day they had planned on doing.

The amateur teams, on the other hand, are entertaining, and the athletes play from their hearts. I enjoy some college football, although I am saddened by how the big universities use their athletes for financial gain. A college poll vaulter, a white water kayaker, a kid playing sandlot baseball are all folks to whom I can relate. For the most part, their motivation comes from within, and they compete from the heart.
So, now I will get the morning paper and see how "our" (I've never gotten a dividend from them) Brewers are blowing their chances of making the play offs (bums, amateurs...off with their heads) and what records the Packer's quarter back has broken.


Paddle safe...

DS

2 comments:

DaveO said...

My deep, dark secret....I'll have my 'transistor radio'on from noon to 3 Sunday afternoon as we paddle the pristine Voyageurs Nat'l Park. Do I need an intervention? Read a bit more on SJU and John Gagliardi if you want a refreshing college football story. And the games are over in 2 1/2 hours due to no TV timeout BS.

Silbs said...

I get that you follow some sports, and I have no judgment about that. I get caught up in it myself sometimes. What I wrote is just about me...and you know that doesn't usually fit in with the masses :)