Sports Please

As published in The County Times (countytimes.somd.com)

By Ronald N. Guy Jr.

As this “View” gets underway, an unencumbered journey into the world of sports has been interrupted by the site of Iranian missiles raining down on Israel.  This, of course, is fresh off Israeli-Hamas hostilities and occurs while war rages on in Ukraine, tensions remain high in the South China Sea and the future of Taiwan is very much uncertain.  As always, the world is a heavy place; jarring reminders are unnecessary, but, as history shows, they are inevitable.

There will be no breakdown of any of the above in this column, and certainly no politicization of it.  The former I’ll leave to real experts and reputable media sources.  Regarding the politicization, that will inevitably occur on your favorite social media portal.  And a quick scan in the wake of the attack on Israel indicates it is very much underway.  Facebook, Twitter/X, Truth Social, etc. – pick your favorite social media cesspool, plug in your brain and prepare to be reprogramed with someone’s agenda and whipped into some sort of misinformed frenzy that will, at the very least, raise blood pressures and damn well could cause alienation from friends and family.  Because if we aren’t freaking out based on sketchy news, blindly consuming A.I. fallacies, retreating to our socially engineered tribes, raging against our fellow Americans (note: we are allies, not enemies) who have a different point of view, and generating misguided victimhood, we aren’t trying hard enough.    

Joy.  To.  The.  World.

Ah, but this sports retreat is only delayed, not deterred.  Have a seat.  The beer man and peanut vendor, brave souls dedicated to do-good-ery, just climbed the steep stairs to the upper reaches of the bleachers to deliver a fresh bag of legumes and a massive plastic cup filled with fermented grains.  No inflation here – this stuff has always defied any rational pricing curve.  The cost matters little: this is exactly what’s needed to settle the pulse and improve the mood.

Our little sports cabin in the mountains isn’t a perfect retreat, though.  It has its issues – a bad roof, drafty windows and a fridge that struggles to keep beer appropriately cold.  The transfer portal in college sports has made roster-building an annual endeavor and rendered long-term school-athlete-fan relationships a rarity.  Conference membership has the durability of a scoop of ice cream in my presence.  Too many pitchers are getting injured.  NFL mock draft overexposure syndrome is highly contagious.  Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is the latest example of sports’ recent embracement of gambling.  Can you have it both ways – benefitting from gambling’s boost to interest (and revenue) in sports while maintaining the precious integrity of the competition?  Gut instinct from a duped steroid era fan: no.

Then one looks around and the skeptical nerves calm and the cynicism abates.  The view from the bleachers is rich, indeed.  Caitlin Clark is dropping threes and South Carolina is going undefeated.  Alexander Ovechkin is scoring goals again and his march toward Wayne Gretzky’s record is reenergized.  Jackson Holiday reported to Baltimore; James Wood is bound for D.C. soon.  The NBA and NHL playoffs are about to begin.  The Paris Olympics arrive this summer.  The pending selection of a new quarterback (and a new name too???) – on the heels of a new owner, general manager, coach and darn near everything else – has made it feel like spring again for D.C. football fans.

The incredible games, the fantastic competition and compelling stories can, at least temporarily, transcend the warts of the sports world and worries over existential global crises.  That is part of the magic of sports: being the tonic, the elixir, the special sauce, the spoonful of sugar that makes the real world’s medicine go down.  And as usual, in these difficult times, I am grateful for having been bitten long ago by the sports bug.  If you weren’t, or maybe not as deeply – no matter.  Indulge your favorite interests.  Maybe it is music or books.  Comedy.  Gardening.  Hiking.  Movies.  Art.  Theater.  It is a beautiful and amazing world out there – mostly, but not always.  So, when “not always” happens, hold tight to your pleasurable distractions, for sanity’s sake.    

Here…want some peanuts?