Last week in my posting, Where is the Joy, I wondered if sports spectators watched sports for a vicarious experience. Today, on a 5-hour flight, the movie on US Airways was the Cinderella Man, the story about boxing's Jim Braddock. In the midst of the great depression, a down-and-out boxer reentered the ring to save his family. It was not easy - times were difficult and Jim had to fight some bruising competitors.
As I watched the movie, I was reminded of how brutal boxing is for the contestants. I watched the crowd's reaction, urging one or the other competitor to destroy the other. In fact, I too, was urging for Jim Braddock to viciously attack his opponent. So was I vicariously wanting to be a boxing champ? Am I no different than the ancient Romans cheering on the lions against the Christians?
Not cutting myself any slack, I do not watch ice skating or synchronized swimming. So do the sports that I watch - primarily football, suggest something about me?
It was a long flight, so still thinking about sports, I also contemplated how baseball is event-driven whereas football is schedule-driven. Baseball goes 9 innings, regardless of how many or how few runs are scored. An inning always terminates on three outs. Football on the other hand, is almost completely time-oriented. A team has 40 seconds to start another play - there is 15 or 12 minutes in a quarter, and so on. Could it be that baseball was once better matched to an event-driven America as opposed to today's schedule-driven America?
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