The sports fanatic before, during, and after the long awaited match, game, or meet will focus on the outcome, the objective measure, sports provides. It's a relatively tidy measure for our complicated modern lives. This is not to say everything in sports is cut and dry - hardly. But those of us who follow sports closely, the flipsides of victory and defeat are never too deeply buried in our minds.
This accounting of winners and losers spills over to murkier issues of sport as well. Sizing up the winners and losers after the NBA Draft, for instance, a sort of hollow exercise in which we congratulate ourselves for information widely known and known to be fairly useless.
Does that stop us from parsing out the black and white from the shades of gray? Of course not. A list of all-time quarterbacks will get plenty bar rooms buzzing. The best free agents on the NBA market? You better believe we've got an opinion on it.
It's with that precious tendency that I've been turning over another inconclusive sporting thought: what a difference a year makes.
Last year at this time, a quick survey of the sporting landscape led most observers, fanatical or casual, to wonder "Are we in the midst of the best year for sports ever?"
Hyperbole is no stranger to sports and sports commentary (more on that later). But by summer's official start that particular claim didn't seem so farfetched. Already, we witnessed the monumental upset of Super Bowl 42, Supernintendo Chalmers's shot in the Tourney final, a hobbled Tiger Woods victorious at the U.S. Open and in dramatic fashion. Still to come: an epic Wimbledon, the longest MLB All-Star Game in history, U.S. Basketball earning Olympic Gold against Spain, Michael Phelps, Usain Bolt, etc.
Not everything was perfect. The World Series was dull. The Celtics' championship often lacked in drama. Injuries robbed the NFL season of Tom Brady and Shawne Merriman entirely. Still so much seemed to go right in one calendar year.
But, yeah, what a difference a year makes
It's not that 2009 is entirely barren of poignant sporting moments. Super Bowl 43 excited despite its general sloppy play. The Bulls-Celtics first round playoff series astounded. The Stanley Cup finals hit seven games, thrilling for several. And, just last week, U.S. soccer suddenly charged back into relevance netting an unimaginable upset over Spain in international play.
More often than not, however, this year has been marked by a considerable absence of drama. The Lakers rolled over the hapless Magic in the NBA Finals. Neither the Masters nor the U.S. Open gave golf needed shot in the arm. The Tourney was largely a bore, lacking upsets and credible drama. Tennis's current number one is out indefinitely. No, 2009 is having a tough time living up to 2008.
In some sense, it's besides the point. Calendar years don't compete against each other. And it's not necessarily a reflection of the level of play. That often discounted reality in sports - luck, the bounce of the ball, randomness, whatever you call it - probably has an overlarge hand in this year's lackluster matchups.
It's not so much this unsolvable issue that I'm interested in. What can a fan do about it really? Rather, it's that I find myself thinking about it more often than I should. For the love of God, why?
The only reason for why goes something like this: as a fan, Sport, for me, for us, is about witnessing. What appears a passive state (empty beer bottles and bag of chips at least testifying to) is actual at least partially active. To be able to witness then testify to a moment of rare human ability or a bizarre convergence of fortunes. This is why seeing something live is so important. Watching ESPN Classic replay the entirety of 2008's sporting season wouldn't have nearly the same effect of seeing it live.
As mentioned before, sports commentary is no stranger to hyperbole, the exhortations of the best ever, the worst ever, etc. Take, for instance, the U.S. national team's surprising run in the Confederation Cup. A major upset of the loaded Spanish national team, led to declarations of the greatest upset in U.S. soccer history. The Spanish upset earned the U.S. a trip into the Confederation Cup where the ran hard against another stacked team, the Brazilians. The U.S. took a 2-0 at half but didn't have the depth to counter Brazil's relentless offensive game. After so many pinned the hopes of U.S. soccer on this team, there was the inevitable letdown in the 3-2 final loss.
But my favorite reaction comes from Brian Phillips at the Run of Play who writes:
But that's not to diminish the achievement of the team during these last two weeks. Just the opposite, actually, since what's frustrating about the endless obsession with "making it" in US soccer is that it blunts our ability to appreciate a spectacular moment: every astonishing upset has to answer to the inescapable narrative of progress; every flash of joy has to usher in an age. We have to deflate any good feeling that doesn't come with a trophy attached with a lot of defensive talk about "not settling for less" and being "in it to win." (Really? Two weeks ago we were going to be disappointed with anything less than a championship?) It's as if we can't fully enjoy even an amazing accomplishment like the Confederations Cup until we think the team is so good we can take amazing accomplishments for granted.
So I'll take my cue from Brian and sit back and enjoy whatever comes my sporting way.
In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this, our second, issue of Norman Einstein's. Joey Litman of Straight Bangin' is back probing under the surface of the NBA Draft. I've put together an extensive meditation on Roger Federer and his greatness as he attempts to reach his record breaking 15th major title at Wimbledon this weekend (provided he makes it through today and Friday).
If you haven't already, you should sign up for the mailing list, a once monthly email update when our latest issue hit the webs. Enjoy the Independence Day weekend.
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