I'm a sports fan. I remember the exact moment when I became aware of pro sports, and that I could watch them on television. I was 9. I was flipping through the channels on the first weekend of the 1978 baseball season. The Red Sox were playing the White Sox and were leading 10-1. "RED SOX," I exclaimed. I must have been aware of them prior to that moment, but that day is my first memory. From that time on, I was hooked. Being 9, I was not allowed to stay up and watch the games from the West Coast that started late, even during no-school times, and remember getting caught once. I remember Mom often providing the news in the morning that the Red Sox won, which they did often that summer, tragically losing in a one-game playoff to the hated Yankees after leading them in the standings by 14 1/2 games in July.
Since that time, there are few times that I can remember not being aware of the result of the Red Sox game. I follow the other Boston-area teams with varying degrees of intensity, but the Red Sox, and now Liverpool Football Club, take most of my attention. I watch and attend as many of the games as I can manage, read about them in the newspaper, listen to sports talk radio, and interact with other fans on Facebook and Twitter. I still have all my baseball cards. I've been to at least one Sox game every year since 1986, have traveled to see them on the road (I was there the night Roger Clemens struck out 20 in Detroit), and have been to Spring Training several times. Twice I've seen Liverpool play at their famous home ground, Anfield, and make an attempt to see a game somewhere when I travel. I've even been to an LA Clippers game.
Lately, however, I find my interest diminishing. Sure, I still love, love, love the actual games. But just about everything surrounding them is a turnoff. It seems every day there is a new scandal: performance-enhancing drugs, teams cheating one way or another, brawls, etc. Then when I consider the money that is paid to players, and charged to fans in terms of ticket prices and ever-increasing cable television costs, I begin to question what I'm doing it for. I remember going to the Fan Fest when the baseball All-Star game was in Boston in 1999. I thought, great, this is a chance for me to get some autographs, see some of the game's artifacts, etc. So I went, purchased a baseball, and waited in line with hundreds of people to get some autographs.
I think that day is when my attitude about following sports began to change, at least it was the seed of change. I had my one baseball, but there were people there in line with huge duffel bags filled with brand-new baseballs, there for the purpose of getting autographs in order to sell them for a profit. I guess I don't have a problem with that, and the event was probably a way for some of the guys who played before today's inflated salaries to make a payday, but it isn't why I follow sports. Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but I still go for the crack of the bat and the roar of the crowd and seeing really talented people play the games I love.
So what I am learning to do is to pay attention to the stuff I like, and tune out the soap opera kind of stuff. (If I want to watch a soap opera, I'll watch General Hospital.) I choose exactly how much I do or don't pay attention, and I find friends who follow sports for the same reason I do. Plus, I get out and participate in the sports I enjoy, such as golf and cycling.
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