It wasn't hard to notice that the Red Sox finished their season
on Sunday, playing the last game of the regular season, and missing the
playoffs. The day was made extra special because it was the last game of Derek
Jeter's professional baseball career, at least as a player. But it was even
more special for me, and for The Off Season, as it represents the culmination
of my sabbatical from supporting the local teams. I have now abstained from
watching an entire season of the Celtics, Bruins and Red Sox, along with the
vast majority of the Patriots from last year and this.
Folks who know me, and have spent any time with me in the last,
say, 30 years, know how unlikely a statement that is. I always loved the way
sports could bring a disparate group of people together. Throughout my life I
haven't really cared to picture a life without "fandom" in it. Now
that I am approaching the end of a sports free year, I have to say, it's been
nice.
Not that it's a challenge to be unimpressed with what the sports
world has to offer us these days. Like someone who has correctly guessed the
fast moving checkout line on a Sunday afternoon at the grocery store, I've had
a secret sense of self-satisfaction with every headline about criminal behavior
from a player or coach or any number of other kinds of controversies that have
hit pro-sports in recent weeks. Time away from the wonder of the games themselves
has helped me to realize that being a fan really is endorsement of the industry
that fosters this kind of behavior. Paying money for tickets or merchandise, or
even paying attention to ads during games with your eyes or ears is what makes
the machine go. And the machine just seems to be headed somewhere ugly, doesn't
it?
The pro-sports industry is perhaps the biggest diversion in
America today. Football, I've noticed, is now on three days a week, instead of
just Sundays. Basketball and Hockey have regular seasons that go on for months,
just to eliminate half the teams before another long stretch of playoff games. Baseball
is called the National Pass-time. Think about that word: Pass. Time. I hate to
sound like an old fogey, but with all the massive issues facing our society,
issues that involve the safety and well-being of massive swaths of our
population (like women, or minorities, or people who need jobs to live) why
exactly do we need to pass the time? From where I am sitting, it sure seems
like we have a lot to do.
Human attention is not a zero sum game, but I have to imagine
that if any one of the festering issues in American or global culture was given
the kind of attention that Derek Jeter's last season, or LeBron James' next
season gets in our collective consciousness, solutions might actually start to
present themselves. If the divisions that exist in our government and news
media got the kind of scrutiny that Kevin Love's offseason got, maybe some
actual progress could be made.
Now, I'm no fool. No part of me thinks that some massive cultural
shift like what I described above will ever actually come to pass. But what
these thoughts have made me realize is that I have to actually make a choice
for myself. I have to have the fortitude to ask myself as often as possible, do
I want to base the personal connections I make with others on the
accomplishments, mistakes, and exploits of tertiary people neither of us know,
or do I want to really connect with my fellow man. Do I have enough room in my
life to move past asking "How about that game" and replace it with
"How are you"?
Some days I do, and some days I don't. But I'm hopeful that I
will at least be able to acknowledge to myself in an active manner just which
kind of day I am having.
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