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Sports was never meant to be taken seriously. Uh, good luck trying to convince some fans of that [1]

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Date: 2025-01-04

Sports is one of those areas that I know so little about if only because I never played sports in any organized manner. And, I’m not much of a fan. Though from time to time I have attended sporting events, namely car and motorcycle races, baseball, basketball and football games, soccer and tennis matches. That’s about the extent of it.

In a way, I’m glad I’m not a sports fanatic. Those that are and at the same time that take play way too seriously, depending on the situation, well, things can get really ugly, really fast.

I mean who can forget about the Chicago Cubs fan Steve Bartman and the incident that happened during the playoffs in 2003? The fans that year refused to let Bartman live that one down or let bygones be bygones. Well, at least for another 13 years some didn’t, 2016 being the year the Cubs won the championship. That’s how serious fans at times can get.

And that seriousness is no less pervasive or pronounced at the junior-play level.

Take, for example, the time I attended a neighborhood game where on one team a coach’s son was pitching or playing the infield (I can’t remember exactly which) and the coach, who was also this boy’s father, publicly humiliated his son in front of all of the attending spectators, myself included, for this youngster’s perceived ineptitude at either pitching or fielding the ball, the dad showing his disdain for his lack of baseball-playing prowess. It was just a game, for goodness sakes! The father, by this time, sent his no doubt thoroughly dejected son to the outfield in response. Poor kid.

Another time at a Little League game I attended, the visiting team in one inning had a runner on first base and the batter at the plate hit a baseball to right field that required the right fielder to turn to face the outfield fence and run toward the ball to try to get under it and make the grab. Needless to say everyone in the bleachers on the visitors’ side could clearly see that the outfielder, in his attempt to catch the ball, dropped it. Yet, the first-base umpire apparently could not yet still ruled the play an out. To make matters worse, because the ball was dropped, there was no need for the base runner on first to tag up before running to second base. The first-base ump ruled that player out for not having first tagged up. The fans in the grandstand on the visitors’ side went ballistic. There was screaming at the top of enthusiasts’ lungs and finger pointing and name calling, you name it; everything imaginable short of stuff (bottles?) being thrown at the ump who was being lambasted to the nth degree for his obvious misjudgment of the calls he made. Oh how wrong did this one ump get the calls. And the crowd on the visiting-team side just refused to let it go.

When the game finally ended, and as the first-base official was leaving the game, he was still getting an earful.

If I was that ump, it would have been enough for me to want to give up umpiring. And the still thoroughly riled-up crowd, just could not let the bad call go.

That’s when you know that people take sports play way too seriously.

And, of course, in all of this, and as an aside, the right-fielder in question who dropped the ball, not for one moment was he ever going to fess up. I mean, after all, how would that have looked if he had? I can see the player being encouraged to go play for the visiting team. What I don’t see happening on the other hand is for honesty in sports to start winning the day anytime soon.

Sports is sports is sports. No need take it seriously. If you know what I mean.

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