Sports have been a mainstay in millions of people lives for many years. They are there when times are good and allow us to develop a passion for something. They are also there in bad times when we need a diversion for a few hours, to forget about those bad times if just for a little while.
Eventually, in Life On Earth, people will try to tell you that sports is the toy shop, a mindless entertainment that exists basically to hold down or delude or opiate people, an inferior concept to business, because business is pure. And you might buy into all that for a while — up until some hurt or pain you know you aren’t strong enough to handle alone comes down on you. Then you put in that emergency call. And it ain’t to no bond trader. To the Home Team. “What’s the score? C’mon, guys …”
Well … this is those times.
More recently, terrorism hit home on Sept. 11, 2001. The date alone indicates there is no explanation needed to explain what happened on that day. We all know where we were and how we reacted.
When baseball resumed, every person in America was a fan. It allowed citizens to look forward to something that was good and pure…that was American. Then New York mayor Rudi Giuliani was quoted as saying “The only two things that got my mind off it [the attacks] were baseball and my son’s football games.”
“The National Anthem”, a song that many people took for granted, became something deeper for people. It reminded them we are American’s, we are strong, we will survive this and we will prevail.
Now in these times of financial crises, we can look back to the 1930’s, the era of the Great Depression. Sports became an escape. People crowded around radios to hear the feats of Joe DiMaggio, Joe Louis, Jesse Owens, and Don Budge.
Perhaps the most listened to sports events was the 1936 Summer Olympics, which made a legend of Jessie Owens.
In these advances technological times, it is unusual for people to gather around a radio anymore.
In the age of instant information and high definition visuals, we tend to isolate ourselves to watch only with our families and close friends. Even those lucky enough to attend games, chatter among fans in the stands is restricted to only people you know.
It is rare that interaction takes place but when it does, a connection is made even if only for a moment. It gives one pause and a chance to think that not everyone out there is a sociopath. There are good people in this world.
The sports world needs to correct itself. Allegations of steroid use, cheating and greed have permeated the world of sports that cause even casual fans to be caustic toward the players. We need to have these athletes play as if they love the game and aren’t in it just for the money.
We are in danger of losing the one thing we counted on from sports, to be a diversion, to entertain us, to distract us and to allow us to forget about our problems for a while.
Sports needs to be there for us. Not all sports have degraded but the most followed, baseball, football, and basketball, have taken a beating. Drug use, violence, cheating and just plain bad judgment has filtered in. Fans are starting to look at players as nothing more than a collective group of prima donnas who are self-absorbed.
While we may forget about our own collective issues for a while, we worry about the integrity of these sports.
Sports needs to heal quickly to get back to the job of healing our nation. We need them to be what we need them to be: A salve to relieve us of our own worries, if just for a little while.
EDI, LLC
