SPORTS HAS TO LEARN TO BE ITSELF.As it prepares to get on with the business of fun in the next few days, sports faces two awesome responsibilities. Sports' first responsibility is to be a good citizen - sensitive to the emotions beyond the bleachers, conscious of its role as a symbol of freedom and the continuity of ``normal'' American life, available to people drawn to the ballpark less for the game itself than for the chance to share emotions with a crowd, belt out ``The Star-Spangled Banner'' and then let the action take their minds off the headlines. Sports' second responsibility is to be itself. The second will be harder than the first. And it will be no less important. If we believe sports offers a necessary diversion in hard times, then constant reminders that Tuesday's terrorist attacks in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of and Washington have ``put it all in perspective'' will defeat the purpose. If we believe in keeping sports in perspective, then attaching poetic significance to every first pitch, every home run and every instance of good ol' American teamwork will be contradictory. If we believe playing games means the nation is getting on with life in defiance of its attackers, then dedicating every game-winning single to the victims will be a sign that we aren't moving on. For the past five days, and for the immediate future, moving on would be inappropriate if not impossible. I knew I wasn't quite ready to get back to normal when I switched off a couple of radio hosts talking college football Saturday morning in a guys-over-beers tone that suggested they hadn't caught the news since Monday. Yet there are people, like those radio hosts, who are ready to talk sports again. There are people, like the kids I saw playing catch with a baseball and gloves in the aisle of an unusually crowded sporting goods Noun 1. sporting goods - sports equipment sold as a commodity commodity, trade good, good - articles of commerce sports equipment - equipment needed to participate in a particular sport store Saturday, who are eager to blow off steam. There are people buying sports books, browsing through sports magazines, surfing sports Web sites - you're reading this sports page Noun 1. sports page - any page in the sports section of a newspaper page - one side of one leaf (of a book or magazine or newspaper or letter etc.) or the written or pictorial matter it contains , aren't you? - who can't wait for the end of the sports week that wasn't. For those people, and for those of us who edge closer to normal every day, the sooner we can enjoy sports for sports' sake, the sooner we can honestly say we've climbed out of the rubble. I'm imagining Monday night's Dodgers-San Diego Padres game at Dodger Stadium • • [ , because that will mark the resumption of major-league competition in Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. after a week in which the adrenaline rush sports gives us would have been superfluous. It promises to be a rousing occasion, from the waving of the flag, to the national anthem, to the moment the Dodgers plan to ask fans to sing ``America the Beautiful America the Beautiful patriotic song by Katherine Bates glorifying national ideals (1893). [Am. Music: Scholes, 30] See : Song, Patriotic .'' It figures, too, to be a self-conscious exercise for participants and spectators. How excited will a player allow himself to appear after a sacrifice fly, knowing that thousands of bodies lie in the wreckage back East? How miserable should he look after an error, when he ought to be happy to be alive? How angry should he be over a blown call, a miniscule min·is·cule adj. Variant of minuscule. Adj. 1. miniscule - very small; "a minuscule kitchen"; "a minuscule amount of rain fell" minuscule injustice? How loud is too loud to cheer or boo? Until we stop asking those questions, sports won't really go on. When sports stopped, it was coming up on the most riveting time of the year. Baseball was in its stretch run, the Dodgers among seven National League teams within 1 1/2 games of a playoff spot. Football was beginning, UCLA UCLA University of California at Los Angeles UCLA University Center for Learning Assistance (Illinois State University) UCLA University of Carrollton, TX and Lower Addison, TX off to a promising start. Hockey was opening training camps, the Kings looking to build on last year. Basketball was around the corner, the Lakers at the center of their world and the Clippers on the rise. Major League Soccer was heading toward the playoffs, golf's Ryder Cup Ryder Cup Biennial team golf event first held in 1927. It was originally played between teams of golfers from the U.S. and Britain; since 1979 players opposing the U.S. have been chosen from all of Europe. The trophy was donated by the British seed merchant Samuel Ryder. was coming up, tennis had just crowned another young champion, boxing's Felix Trinidad was about to defend his title and horse racing horse racing, trials of speed involving two or more horses. It includes races among harnessed horses with one of two particular gaits, among saddled Thoroughbreds (or, less frequently, quarterhorses) on a flat track, or among saddled horses over a turf course with was prepping for the Breeders' Cup The Breeders' Cup World Championships is an annual series of Grade I thoroughbred horse races operated by Breeders' Cup Limited, a company formed in 1982 by a consortium of North American racing organizations, led by the National Thoroughbred Racing Association. . Some of those seasons are shattered beyond repair. Others were shattered and have been repaired, even though a case could be made for leaving them in ruins as monuments to Tuesday's historic events. So we turn to the future. I cheer American athletes for doing and saying the right things in the aftermath of the attacks, from their displays of charity to their support for canceling events. I look forward to the time - in a couple of days? in a couple of weeks? - when I cheer them just for pulling off the hit-and-run. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: Members of the San Francisco Giants The San Francisco Giants are a Major League Baseball team based in San Francisco, California that currently play in the National League West Division. New York Giants history Early days and the John McGraw era try to keep in shape during the down time at Enron Field in Houston. David J. Phillip/Associated Press |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion