My Secret Life
Oct. 10th, 2003 05:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pantryslutI admit it: I am a sports fan.
Not a Cubs fan, or a 49ers fan, a Sharks fan or a college team fan. A sports fan.
I was never a jock. I bloomed late, way late. I took a gymnastics class in elementary school, and that was OK but I didn't stick with it because of my size. I played a little softball in junior high, but I sucked at it. I was too slow to play any games that required running -- like soccer. I liked swimming, but not laps. I was fat and unathletic my entire life -- my parents got into a fight with my daycare because I was spending too much time sitting in the sandbox and if they didn't encourage me to move about more, they were "neglecting" me. (Dad worked for the state on child abuse cases. Bad choice of words.)(I've seen the daycare evaluation reports from that time. Lots of emphasis on my need for "large motor development.")
Interestingly, my father had a similar experience -- he played a little football in school, and he was OK at it because he was a big boy, but he felt a lot of pressure to be better because he was a *boy*. His dad clearly wanted to spend time kicking/throwing/batting a ball around, and Dad just wasn't into it.
So he turned to watching sports instead. That he could do with my grandfather, no problem. It made them both happy.
And when Dad went to school at Michigan State, a big sports university, he had a great excuse to throw himself into sports fandom. So I grew up going to basketball games at Jenison Fieldhouse (made famous by Magic Johnson, then replaced by a new spiffy stadium), hockey at Munn Arena, and of course football at Spartan Stadium. Not season tickets, just single games, but a lot more live sports than most kids grow up with.
And baseball games. College games are the best -- they used to be free on weekdays, if I remember. An afternoon running around, catching the game in snatches and indulging some wild fantasy life fuelled by hot dogs under the bleachers the rest of the time.
I'm typing this while I watch the Cubs game. Dad grew up in Chicago, on the south side; all the Catholic kids in his neighborhood rooted for the Sox, so he rooted for the Cubs.
It's delightful to be watching the Cubs in the postseason. But that's not why I'm posting this. Because it's not just the Cubs. I am a sucker for the Olympics, for the World Cup. For college basketball in March.
I have a handful of friends who understand this little obsession of mine -- some of them here on LJ. I've begun to proclaim it as part of my cultural heritage. Because for other people, it seems utterl incongruous that I'm sitting on my couch in March, yelling at the TV in excitement...over a basketball game.
(G. asked, "is![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
imnotandrei a shouter?" when he called during Tuesday's Cubs game. "No, I'm the shouter," I confessed.)
For certain people, there's a snob value in denigrating sports. It's somewhat a class issue, I suspect. If I were a different kind of butch, affecting a working-class demeanor, nobody would wonder. But I'm an intellectual, and I guess intellectuals are supposed to be above all that (or else they're supposed to write essays about baseball as a metaphor for this and that, and wear bowties). Even I feel ridiculous at the grip it has over my life sometimes.
But not when I'm watching a game. At that moment, it all makes sense.
(P.S. also interesting: supporting women's team sports is always OK. Nobody looked at me funny when I drove down to San Jose for the Women's World Cup doubleheader a couple years ago.)
Not a Cubs fan, or a 49ers fan, a Sharks fan or a college team fan. A sports fan.
I was never a jock. I bloomed late, way late. I took a gymnastics class in elementary school, and that was OK but I didn't stick with it because of my size. I played a little softball in junior high, but I sucked at it. I was too slow to play any games that required running -- like soccer. I liked swimming, but not laps. I was fat and unathletic my entire life -- my parents got into a fight with my daycare because I was spending too much time sitting in the sandbox and if they didn't encourage me to move about more, they were "neglecting" me. (Dad worked for the state on child abuse cases. Bad choice of words.)(I've seen the daycare evaluation reports from that time. Lots of emphasis on my need for "large motor development.")
Interestingly, my father had a similar experience -- he played a little football in school, and he was OK at it because he was a big boy, but he felt a lot of pressure to be better because he was a *boy*. His dad clearly wanted to spend time kicking/throwing/batting a ball around, and Dad just wasn't into it.
So he turned to watching sports instead. That he could do with my grandfather, no problem. It made them both happy.
And when Dad went to school at Michigan State, a big sports university, he had a great excuse to throw himself into sports fandom. So I grew up going to basketball games at Jenison Fieldhouse (made famous by Magic Johnson, then replaced by a new spiffy stadium), hockey at Munn Arena, and of course football at Spartan Stadium. Not season tickets, just single games, but a lot more live sports than most kids grow up with.
And baseball games. College games are the best -- they used to be free on weekdays, if I remember. An afternoon running around, catching the game in snatches and indulging some wild fantasy life fuelled by hot dogs under the bleachers the rest of the time.
I'm typing this while I watch the Cubs game. Dad grew up in Chicago, on the south side; all the Catholic kids in his neighborhood rooted for the Sox, so he rooted for the Cubs.
It's delightful to be watching the Cubs in the postseason. But that's not why I'm posting this. Because it's not just the Cubs. I am a sucker for the Olympics, for the World Cup. For college basketball in March.
I have a handful of friends who understand this little obsession of mine -- some of them here on LJ. I've begun to proclaim it as part of my cultural heritage. Because for other people, it seems utterl incongruous that I'm sitting on my couch in March, yelling at the TV in excitement...over a basketball game.
(G. asked, "is
imnotandrei a shouter?" when he called during Tuesday's Cubs game. "No, I'm the shouter," I confessed.)For certain people, there's a snob value in denigrating sports. It's somewhat a class issue, I suspect. If I were a different kind of butch, affecting a working-class demeanor, nobody would wonder. But I'm an intellectual, and I guess intellectuals are supposed to be above all that (or else they're supposed to write essays about baseball as a metaphor for this and that, and wear bowties). Even I feel ridiculous at the grip it has over my life sometimes.
But not when I'm watching a game. At that moment, it all makes sense.
(P.S. also interesting: supporting women's team sports is always OK. Nobody looked at me funny when I drove down to San Jose for the Women's World Cup doubleheader a couple years ago.)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Good Sports
Date: 2003-10-11 07:38 am (UTC)For certain people, there's a snob value in denigrating sports. It's somewhat a class issue, I suspect. If I were a different kind of butch, affecting a working-class demeanor, nobody would wonder.
Do you think these same folks would treat you differently if you affected a working-class demeanor? Or would you possibly represent a kind of blue collar chic if you presented yourself that way as a whole package?
But I'm an intellectual, and I guess intellectuals are supposed to be above all that...
Never really thought about it, but that could well be true. Certainly, I've run into the analogous situation vis a vis music several times. Classical music fans I've met have sometimes looked down their noses at my interest in rock music. And even some of my rocker friends really don't get my interest in country. In both cases, these folks seem to view the music as being associated with lower classes.
Coming out of the closet
Date: 2003-10-15 04:38 pm (UTC)I've always felt a lot of people will be better off when they learn to embrace and manage their blood thirsty, drooling, troglodyte side. They'd spend much less time in therapy (or jail).
In the meantime, I'll continue to have my two separate tribes, soccer and sex. I definitely need to keep cultivating those relationships that straddle both camps.
G. (unabashed Crew, Reds, CyberRays, and Quakes fan)
p.s. Go Cubbies!!!