Tuesday, January 09, 2007

A Digression

First things first, Maury Brown brings up the DirecTV issue on his own non-subscription required blog with a few more excerpts over here. Primer discussion here.

JenJen (sorry about those Buckeyes), was incredulous yesterday over the possibility that I could tire of baseball if I can't get the Angels on television routinely. I was going to respond with another comment, but it led me into a larger post, so I figure I'd respond with a new post.

First, in response to Jen's comment, I'll probably never stop enjoying going to baseball games and whatnot, but if I can't get the Angels on TV regularly, I'm going to lose a fair amount of interest. It's inevitable, which brings me to my larger point. I don't know if any of the rest of you feel the same way, but as I've gotten older, I've found that I've gotten more interested in the teams that I root for, and less interested in the specific sport in which that team plays. For example, I read a ton of news stories about the Angels, and I visit most of the Angels blogs regularly. I watch every game I can, and listen to those that aren't on TV (assuming I'm not playing golf on a weekend). But I can't sit through a baseball game on TV if the Angels aren't one of the teams playing. I can't sit through a hockey game on TV if the Kings aren't playing. I used to be up to date on the scoring leaders and standings in the NHL. Now, I have no idea what divisions most of the Eastern Conference teams play in, and I'm still a little unclear on some of the Western Conference teams. And I say this as someone who watches pretty much every Kings game.

There are reasons for this, of course. In hockey, the unbalanced schedule means the Eastern teams rarely play the Kings anymore. The proliferation of the net has made a hell of a lot more information available about specific teams and players. A lot of the effort that went into following leagues and other teams has gone into following prospects in pro sports, and recruiting in college sports. I'm less interested in other teams because I know less about them because I don't follow them as much because I follow my own teams more.

Like I said, maybe I'm the only one experiencing this, but it seems I like sports less, but my sports teams more, than I did 15 years ago. Of course, that could change if I can't watch those teams play regularly anymore.

2 comments:

JenJen said...

I understand completely. I was more concerned that you were losing interest in baseball entirely. There's so much to talk about... like how Cal Ripken was left off anyone's ballot for the HoF, for example.

If it weren't for fantasy sports, I wouldn't be interested in most games not involving my local teams. That's definitely something that's come with age; I'm far more loyal to my favorite teams, and less interested in others, than years past. I used to watch every single baseball and football game on television, but lately, I'm really only engaged in the Reds, the Bengals, and the Ohio State Buckeyes (weep x3).

Still, a Cubbies game on television on a lazy summer afternoon is still heaven to me. So maybe I'm not quite there yet...

Anonymous said...

If not for Fantasy Baseball I wouldn't even remember the names of some National League teams.