Music or Sports - Installment #1

I'm not much for sports - I can take a little bit of baseball now & then, the same for basketball. All the rest of 'em, you can have really. I favor a creative mindset/vibe and that leaves little room for a competitive way of looking at things. I don't usually see things as having to choose with the mindset that one is better than the other. If two things can't win simultaneously, the one I'm in the mood for is better - this time.

I dabbled in sports growing up, but the older I got, the less appeal they seemed to have. Around the time I was in high school, I got more into art and music and I thought it was all wonderful - and that none of it was better or worse. Watching any sport as a spectator took activity out of it - most of the time I couldn't get very far into a game, particularly on television, without wanting to get up and do something. It didn't make much sense to me to watch any sporting contest and claim any part of a good play or ultimately a victory. If my high school team won a game, it was them - it seemed ludicrous to say we won if I wasn't on the team.

That carried into adulthood. I'd grown up being force fed music and my biggest consolation there was that I was exposed to good music. That laid a foundation that keeps getting expanded upon to this very day. It's safe to say that music and other creative pursuits are better than sports for me. Although I like a baseball game from time to time, I don't follow it closely. Living in the greater Cleveland area, I guess I have a bit of a soft spot for the Indians, but for me, following any sports team means devoting attention to things that are completely out of my control - if my team loses, I'm disappointed. All I did was watch and hope. If they win, I'm happy - but it doesn't make my city better than that of the team that is from somewhere else. My city isn't a better place to live due to any team winning - a game, a season, a title.
Much has been said about the disappointment that Cleveland sports fans are used to. I'll admit that I was, even in my rare watching of sporting events, disappointed when the Indians lost the World Series in the late 90's, and when the Cavs were in the finals and lost, and when Lebron left - not so much because he left, but rather the way he did so.

All of this disappointment made me realize that I was giving far too much of my attention to something I had no control over whatsoever. Hit like a ton of bricks too. The hell did I need to care what Lebron decides to do with his career? He's making millions regardless of how many fans he's disappointed. Why should I despise any coach that any Cleveland team fires, and then that coach goes on to win titles in some other city? No names here, but if you follow sports, you can figure out the examples. Most of us don't have the luxury of consistently failing at our jobs and keeping them. Not only that, if we fail in certain ways and do so often enough to get a reputation, finding another job could be tough.

I couldn't name five current players in any sports league if you put a gun to my head. I could be exaggerating there, but I doubt it - seriously. In my line of work I'm practically expected to know the score, who got traded, who won and what time games start. Most of the time I know none of those things - but I've gotten very good at faking it, interest that is. There's a bit of a trick to it, but it's not a secret I'm going to share. Wouldn't bode well for me to be found out.

I have a friend who will invite me over for games, and 99.9% of the time, invites under the heading of any sporting event make me want to stay home. This particular friend is funny, because he'll often record the game so that other activities can be snuck in and we can come back to the game. If I'm going to watch a game, then I want to do that. There simply aren't enough times when I actually do enjoy a sporting event that I want to hit the pause button and come back to it.

I also don't enjoy being in a room of sports fans and being talked to about sports. I dread things like "Boy he really should have caught that ball....what the hell was he thinking there....that was a good catch...I can't believe he missed that shot" - no thank you, 99.9% of the time. I told this friend once, when he invited me up to watch golf - on his new big screen television, that I really don't like watching golf at all - and I don't. He responded by telling me that I need to experience it on a big flat screen television to really enjoy it. Here's the thing about me watching any golf, ever: It's always someone else's choice - always. Every. Single. Time. I will never choose to watch golf - if any television that I ever own is on a golf channel, it's either because someone else put it on or they asked me to and I acquiesced...or I'm not home, or someone stole my television.

If I'm at work and anyone starts talking to me about golf, notice me doing two things: a) agreeing b) instantly looking for something else to do - and I assure you, I will find it. Every. Single. Time. Same goes for football.

A friend/coworker, a guy who is heavy into sports, once chastised me for not knowing something about a game/rule/statistic - I can't even remember what his issue was, I just remember him looking at me like he thought I was some kind of an idiot, looking all angry with disbelief:

Coworker: Why don't you know???
Me: Because it's of no importance to me whatsoever.
Coworker: Seriously...Why don't you know? You should know!
Me: I disagree.

Then I thought for a second about how this guy likes classic rock - and since classic rock sometimes falls into what I like to listen to, I offered up the following:

Me: Wait a minute, something's wrong - my key won't unlock this door. I got a bad, bad feelin' - my baby don't live here no more.
Coworker: What the HELL are you talking about??
Me: Red House...Jimi Hendrix - Why don't YOU know??

There you have it. My take on sports, in a nutshell. Should the Indians ever win the World Series, I can promise a minor level of happiness, but I can also guarantee that the whole gun-to-my-head-not-knowing-five-current-players-in-any-professional-sports-league will probably still be true. In the next installment of Music or Sports, I'll examine some possible similarities. If you're a sports fan, you'll likely want to read something other than this blog, but if you're a music fan...I just might get you.