Sports Questions

I find all spectator sports this interesting.

Originally posted on my private blog April 18th, 2008.

As anyone who knows me is aware of, I am one of those men who doesn’t care for sports. More than that, I don’t get sports. I have some theories, but also questions.

1) How much of sports interest is social, providing common ground with others? Does a lot of that come from being raised with sports?

2) The extreme mobility of players in professional sports makes me wonder exactly what it is that team-specific fans are rooting for (the uniforms?). How does this not undermine morale? Compared to this, rooting for a consistently losing team doesn't confuse me especially.

3) While I understand why getting together and playing a game with some friends would be fun (and good exercise), why is it interesting to watch sports? Is it a vicarious sort of thing? If so, how does that work with players so clearly much better skilled and physically capable (huge basketball stars come to mind)? Or maybe it’s an appreciation of ability angle?

4) Many people have talked about the drama of sports, but to me it’s some people throwing a ball around (or hitting a puck, or whatever). Is it like suspension of disbelief for movies and books?

5) Doesn’t the lack of standardization of equipment in things like car racing bother fans as it muddies the skill issue?

6) When dealing with time differences in sprints and such that are so minute, it’s obvious that if you reran them again a different outcome would probably occur. The Olympics are a prime example of this. I don’t really care who gets the gold and it still makes me squirm. There should be a statistically significant number of trials to determine the best athlete. How does this not bother fans?