BRING IT. Here we go.
Basketball:
I've written before about basketball before, but let's be honest- you just want me to write about it again.
I didn't start playing basketball around 6th grade, but when I did, by golly it grabbed right a hold of me and didn't let go for a long time. Even when it did let go, it didn't really let go. It has this very intoxicating rhythm that really drew me in immediately- the bounce of the ball, the squeak of the shoes, the sound of a perfect 'swish' (or a bank shot), the lock-and-load of the shot, the pacing of how the players move up and down the court. Basketball is basically full-body hypnosis played at full speed.
Things I like about basketball:
- The cutting down of the nets after certain championships. One of the coolest traditions
- Even though there are different positions, the statistics are the same for all players. This helps because it is still possible to compare players at a specific position while also allowing for a much more meaningful picture of a player's all-around capabilities.
- A bounce pass caught in stride and taken in for a lay-up/dunk.
- The first weekend of March Madness for being the one sporting event in which upsets are routine. Nothing like rooting for David knowing that at some point, he's going to slay Goliath. Just as long as it's not your Goliath.
- The intimate context of the game. More than perhaps any other sport (other than maybe golf and tennis, but I don't count those), basketball is performed in the crowd. Fans sit right beside the court, right next to and behind the bench. Players don't wear helmets, masks, or special padding- shorts and tank tops. It's all right there, man. Factor in the crowd noise, and how players feed off of it, and you have arguably the most immersive experience in sports.
- That calm-before-the-storm moment, when the crowd is starting to get frenetic, and the defense gets a big stop, and they bring the ball back up the court and shoot a three-pointer, and everybody is just sort of suspended in the moment...I love that small period in time, especially when that shot falls and the crowd explodes. It's probably the most fulfilling moment in sports.
- The back and forth nature of momentum. I love how one play or one sequence can completely change the nature and complexion of a game- at least until the next one.
- Pistol Pete, Manu Ginobli, and pretty much anyone else that is a physical manifestation of unorthodox genius.
Hockey:
I went to a few hockey games as a young man (although I don't recall much about them), but it was a sucker punch loss that really drew me in. It was 1994, and the top-seeded and heavily favored Detroit Red Wings lost a heart breaking game 7 to the San Jose Sharks. As much as it sucked (I suppose it didn't totally suck- I was still a cursory fan at that time, after all), it did cement the Detroit Red Wings as my favorite local team and hockey's place in my heart.
It doesn't hurt that since I've started following sports (early '90s), the Red Wings have had the most success of any local team. It's a heck of a lot easier to buy in as a fan when you can follow a team that is having success. Oddly enough though, it's the season-ending losses that reinforce the fandom much more than any Stanley Cup (or equivalent trophy) could.
What I like about hockey:
- The tradition. Out of the four major sports in the U.S., hockey is the one (well, probably baseball too) that feels like it still has strong ties to the origins of the game. Football and basketball are drastically different from their genesises (geneses? genesi? What's the, um, plural on that?). Hockey seems like it has remained largely the same (other than equipment changes). Also, I'm often wrong.
- The Stanley Cup. I suppose this ties in with the tradition, but it's a specific tradition that I love. Hockey's postseason tournament is, in my opinion, the most grueling of all of them. So the Cup, even without taking into account its historical allure, is highly coveted. Factor in that the winners get their names engraved on the pages of forever, and you can see why players will play through missing teeth, broken ankles, broken noses- you name it, hockey players have probably played through it in pursuit of Lord Stanley's Cup.
I love seeing the captain (who, a week or so earlier, probably refused to even touch the conference championship trophy, which is another tradition that I love) go grab the cup, skate a victory lap, and then go hand the cup to a person of his choosing (often a long-Cupless vet). Who could forget when Stevie Y handed the cup to Vladdie back in 1998? I get chills just thinking about it.
And then the fact that each player gets the Cup for a day during the offseason? Awesome. Simply awesome. I love hearing stories about what each player decides to do with the cup. Even though some of these things may, on the surface, seem to be "sacrilegious" to the sanctity of the Stanley Cup, I believe that they only add to the prestige and mystique of the sacred chalice.
- The Red Wings uniforms- Clearly this is my being an biased fan, but you gotta admit, it's pretty awesome. It's so simple in its design, with such an elegant and classic logo- yet it captures something magical. It serves both as a portal of history- a link between the past and the present- and as a banner of conquest, a unit draped in the flags of conquest.
Sidebar- I love the teams with classic, unchanging (or minorly changing) uniforms- Yankees, Tigers (the Olde English D is always a constant), Celtics, Lakers, Cowboys, Steelers, Blackhawks, Browns, Redskins- there are more, surely. Yes, a new look can galvanize a fan base for a short time and in some cases even be an improvement, but there's much to be said for tradition playing connect-the-dots over decades.
- Watching Pavel Datsyuk. Dude is sweet. Please watch the video and try to imagine yourself doing these things on skates. I did and I woke up tangled up so tightly in the couch cushions they needed the Jaws of Life to get me out. I love watching "court" magicians, people that are so skilled they easily make the best in the world look like beginners. Datsyuk has skill with the puck similar to Maravich on the court or Barry Sanders on the gridiron. Some people were just made to make other people look silly. Those are guys I love to watch.
- The Captain's "C"- Other sports have captains, but they're more of a ceremonial thing. The NFL seems to award captaincy to anyone who can walk. Basketball captains don't really anything. Baseball don't even have captains, yo. But hockey captains not only have prestige (my friend Phil literally went up six levels of prestige in my eyes when I found out he donned the captains' "C" in high school) but are the only players on the ice who can communicate with the officials, and (as mentioned) are the first people who get to touch/not touch certain trophies. Plus, they get that cool looking "C" on the front of their jerseys.
- A tip play in front of the goal, when a player lets loose a blast from the blue line and a player in front of the net uses his awesome hand-eye coordination to get a blade on the puck and send it whirling in a completely different direction, sending the goalie scrambling in vain while he watches the puck settle in the net behind him.
- Speaking of goals, the whole post-goal thing- love it. The sirens blaring, lights spazzing, the team surrounding the offending goal scorer and engaging in an orgy of 'daps' and smiles, then the scoring player skating past his bench and getting even more ridiculous love from his fellow skaters. It's a wondrous feeling to behold, especially when it's your team scoring in a playoff series against the freaking Predators.
- Playoff beards. As a facial hair enthusiast, I can't say enough about the playoff beard. Actually, I'll just show you what I'm talking about.
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| Oh. Crap. Not that one...let's see here... |
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| BOOM. There we go. See what I mean? |
Baseball:
America's game- I guess? I do like baseball, don't get me wrong. It was the first sport I played, and the playing-catch-with-dad meme basically timeless. Baseball movies also tend to be the most believable out of all sports movies.
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| Well, okay, but... |
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| I'll give you that one, but.. |
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| OKAY, OKAY, I GET IT!!! |
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| Alright, now you're just being mean |
I like baseball- when it's the only game in town. Apologies to those baseball fans who have read down this far, expecting me to wax poetic and help you connect with your favorite game in a deeper, more spiritual way. But my unconditional love with the game died the day that I dropped that fly ball in the majors that lost us the game.
Still, there are some things that I enjoy about baseball (other than being the bridge between hockey/basketball and football):
- Crack of the bat. Or the 'ping' in college basketball. Bonus points for that special 'crack' that a home run bat gives off.
- Sticking with the sensory stuff, the baseball mitt itself. The sound that a ball makes when it snaps in there, the smell of the leather, the feel of a nice, broken-in mitt in your hands. A baseball mitt is probably the most iconic piece of sports equipment in our time. At least, it's the most tactile.
- Strikeouts. Specifically, when power pitchers Justin Verlander strike people out with their offspeed stuff. I mean, the hitter is just standing there, waiting for the heat, anticipating the heat, knowing that the heat is coming- and they get a wicked bender that just makes their knees buckle.
- The All-Star game. Something about the fact that each player wearing their own unique uniforms while playing on the same team is aesthetically pleasing to me.
- Differences between the leagues. Actually, this is probably my favoritest thing about baseball. I love that both leagues are treated like separate entities- different rules (pretty much just the DH, but still- awesome), different stats- sometimes I wish that other sports did that too. Like the AFC only had three downs to make a first, or Western Conference games only permitted five fouls.
- Randy Johnson. I miss watching a dude pitch that could throw hard enough to eviscerate a bird in flight. Plus- mullet.
- The old stadiums quirks. The ivy walls of Wrigley (which are quite spectacular in person), the Green Monster of Fenway, the Water Spectacular of Kauffman, McCovey's Cove out in San Francisco. Obviously every sport stadium has many artificial differences, but these features (and others like them) make each ballpark a completely individual experience.
- Finally, I mentioned this before, but it deserves special mention in the baseball section: The Olde English D.
Football:
If baseball was the first sport I played, football was the first sport I loved. It was also the first sport that broke my heart. It was the University of Michigan against Michigan State in 1990, with the Wolverines ranked the top team in the country. I will go to my grave believing that Desmond Howard was flagrantly violated on that 2-point play. I was visibly upset for hours and the pain wrought that day still resonates in my dislike of the green and white.
Football dominated my early sports experience. Like many boys, we would wage in epic backyard gridiron battles- I was convinced as a youth that my dad should have played QB in the NFL. Afterwards, I would take the football outside and play pretend games, throwing the ball to myself, making spectacular play after spectacular play. I even made up my own football league (based on states' nicknames) with its own rosters, stats- I even made football cards for it.
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- The pacing. Football lies beautifully between the extreme pace of hoops and the slower gait of soccer and baseball. It's back and forth but you still have time to breathe. This makes for a more fulfilling emotional experience- yes, there are "bang-bang" plays that get your heart pumping instantly, but there are also lulls which allow for the momentum to build gradually. A long scoring drive, followed by a three-and-out, into another long drive that may or may not result in a score- but the end result is that you are firmly in the throes of excitement.
- All those statistics. As I love basketball for the solidarity of its statistical measure, so do I love that football has so many statistics. Not because I think it is some hyper-efficient way to compare players- I'm just somewhat of a numbers junkie, and football has numbers in spades.
- The padding. With all the helmets and shoulder pads and such, football players are much like the modern equivalent of the knights of old. If a player happens to wear a visor in that helmet, it's even better. I love me some visors.
- Sideline catches. Definitely one of the most difficult displays of athleticism and coordination in my opinion. Knowing where you are, being in complete control of all of your extremities, while also having to worry about the defenders who are trying to
- Barry Sanders. Man I miss that guy.
- The option offense. I think this stems from the first time I saw the Air Force Academy play football- it was some sort of bowl game, and I was blown away by:
A) The fact that there was an Air Force school that got to play football
B) The fact that their mascot is the Falcons but the logo on the side of their helmets is a bolt of lightning
C) The option offense.
As you may have guessed, I'm a big fan of sleight-of-hand type maneuvers in athletics. Whether it's Pistol Pete doing some crazy pass or Pavel Datsyuk weaving in and out of defenders, I really derive a lot of enjoyment over those special athletes that can take you past what you think is physically possible. The option offense is pretty much that in unit form. Eleven men working in unison to basically break the ankles of their defensive counter part. When it works, it's sick. Just sick.
Soccer:
I've only been a soccer fan for about four years. It's definitely the baby of my sports family, so there's admittedly a "new car smell" bias on this list. I should probably check back in ten years and see how I feel about soccer then. Of course, if I'm still running this blog in ten years (and you're still reading it), then we should both just immediately fall on our swords to preserve our honor.
Still, I do enjoy many things about the beautiful game. Such as:
- Crowds- The fans are soooooo passionate, it modifies the enjoyment of the game exponentially. In real life, soccer crowds are probably too crazy for me (unless I decide one day I'd like to be trampled) but sitting at home, watching on my in-laws 52 inch HD-plasma-whatever TV, I can leach off of their collective passion like a tick sucking on...OH MY GOD THAT'S A TICK ON ME!!!!!
- Running clock. One of my biggest pet peeves of American sports is all the freaking TV time-outs. I understand that companies are paying large sums of money for these TV spots which somehow help keep these leagues solvent...or something. But I love watching soccer because once that ball is in play- it's all action, all the time. No dead balls stoppages, no time-outs, no breaks for injury- and that's no small thing. If you've ever watched a soccer game, you realize that it is a common occurrence for players to have near-death experiences. Especially when that player is in the penalty area.
- Mystery stoppage time. At the end of each half, some additional time is added to the end to compensate for the fact that the clock never stops (even when the action does). But it's always sort of mysterious- how much time gets added on? Who decides, and how is the decision made? Do they tell the players? I imagine if you've been running around on the field (sorry, pitch- more on this in a sec), you're probably ready to get to that locker room STAT. Really, the whole thing is probably just some sociological experiment to see how far you can push people in competitive settings.
- The international aspect. I know that there is yearly club soccer, but I don't get into that as much. National teams though? I eat that stuff up. I've always loved international competition. The idea of groups of people playing for something other than individual accolades- playing for a sense of national pride, is likely naive, but still something to root for. It's like you're not watching players compete- but entire nations. And that's pretty sweet.
And when it comes to international competition, the World Cup is where it's at. Yes, there's the winter and summer Olympic games, but realistically, nobody cares about many of those sports. Besides, no other sport has the competition rate that soccer does. I mean, jeez, everybody plays soccer. So when a team wins the World Cup, it can really lay claim to the title of Best in the World.
- Soccer uniforms. Soccer uniforms fascinate me, plain and simple. From the walking billboards that club teams become, to the sometimes-inconsistency of the color schemes, to the fact that goalies wear completely different uniforms (not just equipment- different uniforms), to the exchange of jerseys after a game (I wonder how they decide who to exchange with, and if they actually keep those sweaty, stinky new jerseys)- I simply dig everything about soccer uniforms. They're the last unexplored frontier.
- Different names for routine things. Some of this is probably not soccer specific, but still- the vernacular of soccer has been a breath of fresh air. The field is called a pitch, jerseys are kits, a pass is called a ball, a tying goal is an equalizer, a shutout is a clean sheet, and exhibitions are called friendlies. I've come to terms with the fact that I'll never learn a foreign language- but I'm well on my way to being able to speak Soccer.
As hard as it is to believe, these lists are (largely) just off the top of my head. I'm sure that I could come up with many more. However, I'll save you all the trouble of reading through another novel and summarize it all like this- sports rule!!!
PICS- Crosby- http://guymanningham.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/sidney-crosby-playoff-beard.jpg
Commodore- http://bleacherreport.com/articles/675897-nhl-playoffs-2011-top-25-playoff-beards-in-nhl-history/page/26
Rookie of the year- http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/3599/rotydvdcover.jpg
The Scout- http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51yvdSMI7-L._SX500_.jpg
Little Big League- http://www.slicksportstalk.com/sites/default/files/post_thumbs/Little%20Big%20League.jpg
Angels in the outfield- http://www.detroitmommies.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Angels_in_the_Outfield_Poster.jpg
English D- http://waiversharks.com/spirit-of-detroit/files/2008/04/old-english-d.jpg
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