Worst Seat In The House: A sporting life

When I read the morning paper I spend an inordinate amount of time reading the sports page. That has been something I’ve done since I was very young. Sports were an important part of who I was. Of course, when I say sports I don’t mean every sport. I typically concentrate on football, basketball and baseball. Those articles in the paper are my usual focus especially the local teams.

When I watch sports it is also usually the big three but I will channel surf and see if there is something that might interest me for a few minutes.

One day when I was looking through the sports page to see what games were going to be televised that weekend I started looking at all of the different sports that were scheduled. I know there has to be an audience for some of these sports otherwise it would be difficult to broadcast them.

On any given weekend, a person could binge watch a lot of different sporting events. Throughout the year you could watch tennis, golf, (a lot of golf), motor racing from Indy style racing to drag racing and stock cars and trucks as well as Moto-cross racing and a demo derby. You could also find yourself enjoying hockey, soccer, lacrosse, volleyball (women, men or the beach variety).

We get to see professional rugby matches on the screen during their season. Having played rugby a lot of years ago it is fun to see now and then. I know that rugby is one of those sports that was more fun to play than to watch for some reason.

There can be a boxing match, wrestling or Mixed Martial Arts competition at all hours of the night. If it is televised someone is going to watch it.

Right now the big thing is the Little League World Series. Years ago you could only see the championship game on a Saturday afternoon. Now you can see the preliminary rounds before they ever get to Williamsport. Major League baseball is cashing in on the deal by playing a Sunday night game in a stadium nearby and inviting all of the Little League teams to be there as fans rooting for the professionals and leaving the kids to dream about what could be.

I’ve seen hydroplane racing, water skiing competition, jet boat racing and yacht racing. If there is competition there is a good chance that it could be televised.

One of the most bizarre competitions to be televised is competitive eating, better known as hot dog eating contests. I’m not one to really think this is an enjoyable event however there are a lot of people that will tune in to watch. I think for a true eating competition to be mastered a person should have to prepare the hot dog instead of the hot dog neatly placed in a bun for the competitors to grab just lets me know they can cram food into their faces.

Let’s change the rules just a bit. The competitors must take the bun insert the hot dog; add chili and onions and some mustard. Now see how many can be consumed by these folks. Okay, now that you have a visual of how much chili and mustard that would be running down their chins it may not be as much fun to watch. But to me it should have a little more intrigue.

Competition is a great thing and we seem to thrive on it. We can’t get enough of this person versus that person men’s and women’s competing to be crowned the victor. It’s been going on for thousands of years but television has brought the sporting life as in all sports to our homes in living color. Not all sports are fun to watch but they all seem to have at least one fan.