jjquantz
Full time employment: Posting here.
On the current thread discussing cable cost cutting issues, Mulligan and I exchanged a couple of posts that reminded me of something that I've been curious about for some time. In short, why are some people avid sports fans, others sports bettors, while others lost interest somewhere along the way.
So here's my background - up through high school I was as much of a sports fanatic as anyone else I knew. I had animated arguments with friends about what trades my team should make, we Monday morning quarterbacked every baseball and football game that we watched. Also, I was a starter on both the baseball and football team in high school, I played pick up basketball with college kids until I was 40, I always came home from tennis matches against fellow teachers with scrapes and cuts from diving for returns and I still love playing competitive golf. In short, I was (and probably still am) your typical ultra-competitive athlete.
However, when I went away to college, the interest in watching OTHERS play sports essentially disappeared. I went to two college BB games and never made it to a football game. DW has dragged me to one Nats game each of the last several years, but I think that she has finally agreed that it is more trouble than it is worth to get me there. I'll watch a few innings of a Cubs game on TV with DW and maybe sit in on 20 minutes of a football game before I get up and go elsewhere. I do get a small amount of enjoyment in seeing things great athletes do things well, but it's not enough to keep me in front of the tube.
Anyway, I've probably already descended too far into the psychological self- analysis worm-hole. How often and why do you watch sports? Are you one of those people screaming for your team while I calmly turn to my wife and say, "Did you see how the umpires rotated to cover the play in the outfield while still making sure that any potential play at 3rd base would still be covered?" Or, as Mulligan suggested elsewhere, do you have a big chunk of change riding on the game and that's what gets your juices flowing?
So here's my background - up through high school I was as much of a sports fanatic as anyone else I knew. I had animated arguments with friends about what trades my team should make, we Monday morning quarterbacked every baseball and football game that we watched. Also, I was a starter on both the baseball and football team in high school, I played pick up basketball with college kids until I was 40, I always came home from tennis matches against fellow teachers with scrapes and cuts from diving for returns and I still love playing competitive golf. In short, I was (and probably still am) your typical ultra-competitive athlete.
However, when I went away to college, the interest in watching OTHERS play sports essentially disappeared. I went to two college BB games and never made it to a football game. DW has dragged me to one Nats game each of the last several years, but I think that she has finally agreed that it is more trouble than it is worth to get me there. I'll watch a few innings of a Cubs game on TV with DW and maybe sit in on 20 minutes of a football game before I get up and go elsewhere. I do get a small amount of enjoyment in seeing things great athletes do things well, but it's not enough to keep me in front of the tube.
Anyway, I've probably already descended too far into the psychological self- analysis worm-hole. How often and why do you watch sports? Are you one of those people screaming for your team while I calmly turn to my wife and say, "Did you see how the umpires rotated to cover the play in the outfield while still making sure that any potential play at 3rd base would still be covered?" Or, as Mulligan suggested elsewhere, do you have a big chunk of change riding on the game and that's what gets your juices flowing?