Are you a true Fan?
Posted: Sun Oct 13, 2013 7:02 am
I've always considered myself a fan of both football and baseball. But yesterday really crystallized something for me.
Officially I'm a fan of the Atlanta Braves, Atlanta Falcons, and the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. The seasons of all three of those teams are either officially or unofficially over, so I had no real skin in the nationally televised games played yesterday.
I sat down on my couch excited to watch a full day of sports consisting of the MLB playoffs and college football. What became apparent to me over the course of the day was that watching both of those 1-0 baseball games was pure torture. Having no rooting interest for any of the teams, I found it to be incredibly slow, boring, and monotonous. I kept looking for other things to do in between innings, in between batters, and even in between pitches. I then switched over to the college football games and it was pure excitement, each play was entertaining, and I felt glued to the games all the way to the final whistle.
This is not about disrespecting baseball or the people who, with no specific rooting interest, can sit and watch an entire baseball game from the beginning to the end. These are undoubtedly TRUE baseball fans who LOVED those games yesterday, watching the pitchers throw with such dominating precision, the 1 on 1 strategy of pitcher vs. batter, the managerial cat and mouse games, the tension of a 1-run contest whose outcome remained in doubt until the final out. I respect them because they are true baseball fans. I guess I'm just a team-based baseball fan. I speak only for myself, but the sport of baseball just can't hold my interest for a full 9 innings. I can tune in from maybe the 7th or 8th inning on and stay entertained until the end, but I just can't tolerate the middle innings.
I guess maybe that might be a good measure of whether you're a true FAN of any sport. The word "fan" is short for "fanatic". If you can watch an entire game from beginning to end, where you really don't care who wins, but are wholly entertained by the game itself, then that's at least one way to measure whether you're a true fan of that sport.
That's what Football is for me.
You may now return to your regularly scheduled program.
Officially I'm a fan of the Atlanta Braves, Atlanta Falcons, and the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. The seasons of all three of those teams are either officially or unofficially over, so I had no real skin in the nationally televised games played yesterday.
I sat down on my couch excited to watch a full day of sports consisting of the MLB playoffs and college football. What became apparent to me over the course of the day was that watching both of those 1-0 baseball games was pure torture. Having no rooting interest for any of the teams, I found it to be incredibly slow, boring, and monotonous. I kept looking for other things to do in between innings, in between batters, and even in between pitches. I then switched over to the college football games and it was pure excitement, each play was entertaining, and I felt glued to the games all the way to the final whistle.
This is not about disrespecting baseball or the people who, with no specific rooting interest, can sit and watch an entire baseball game from the beginning to the end. These are undoubtedly TRUE baseball fans who LOVED those games yesterday, watching the pitchers throw with such dominating precision, the 1 on 1 strategy of pitcher vs. batter, the managerial cat and mouse games, the tension of a 1-run contest whose outcome remained in doubt until the final out. I respect them because they are true baseball fans. I guess I'm just a team-based baseball fan. I speak only for myself, but the sport of baseball just can't hold my interest for a full 9 innings. I can tune in from maybe the 7th or 8th inning on and stay entertained until the end, but I just can't tolerate the middle innings.
I guess maybe that might be a good measure of whether you're a true FAN of any sport. The word "fan" is short for "fanatic". If you can watch an entire game from beginning to end, where you really don't care who wins, but are wholly entertained by the game itself, then that's at least one way to measure whether you're a true fan of that sport.
That's what Football is for me.
You may now return to your regularly scheduled program.
