My father's assessment of sports

Hoss's post about the NBA made me think of my dad, who died in 1999 on Pearl Harbor Day.

I mean, Jesus

When I was growing up, I remember he would occasionally comment on sports. The only one he really liked was baseball, something he passed down  to at least his youngest child, which was me.

On basketball:

"A bunch of pituitary cases, running back and forth."

On football:

"You have to be a big guy to play football." (He was shaking his head; this, even though his older brothers took him down to Yankee Stadium in the 1930s to see the Giants play. I think more than once. At any rate, it seemed the New York Football Giants were the only team he cared for at all.)

On baseball:

"It's the only sport where you don't have to be big to play. Look at Phil Rizzuto. Even a small man can play baseball." (Though it doesn't hurt to be Aaron Judge or Frank Howard, you don't HAVE to be.)

He was a Yankees fan, of course. Near the end of his life, I finagled some seats in a luxury box for Old Timer's Day through a guy at work. My father had a good time. Loved the free beer, naturally, and the food. After downing a few, he told me he had come to the Stadium with his brothers as a kid, and saw Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig play. I asked him how he had never told me that, even though I had been a Yankees fan for over 30 years at that point. He just kind of shrugged. You might think he was bullshitting me and it was the beer talking, but he didn't tell tall tales and put a premium on telling the truth. Amazing.

I mean, Jesus, Mary, and Joe D

He was gone before I ever thought of asking him about curling, even  though the local curling club was located right behind my mother's house when she was a kid, something she never mentioned until I was approaching middle age. He did like bowling, as a participant and a TV viewer. But that wasn't a "sport" like the Big Three. (Soccer never even came up.)

So I mostly agree with Hoss. Basketball is now not only a game played by a bunch of pituitary cases, highly skilled, to be sure, but after a meaningless season so many teams make the playoffs it's kind of a joke. (Yes, I know, MLB has taken its time but got there, too.) And then it's just back and forth, back and forth, hundreds of times over. The old rules are out the window when it comes to double dribbles, traveling, and a lot of fouls. The playoff games are the only ones that count, and the last few minutes are the only minutes worth watching. 

Football is football. Too many games decided by field goals from insane distances and stupid calls by the refs. Plus, the Giants suck, so bah.

The powers that be keep trying to destroy baseball, but it's pretty resilient. Although the steroid era and the Ghost Runner put dents in it, as did interleague play, lowering the mound, shortening the fences, the Three True Outcomes, statheads, overmerchandising, and competitive balance, along with all the rules that removed a lot of the physicality of the game. Woe unto ye if you try to take out the fielder at second to avoid a double play. Brushbacks? Get outta here.

The great Little Freddie Patek

Yes, some of that has been a good thing in terms of avoiding injuries and curbing cussedness, but after watching games for 50 or 60 years, have you even seen so many injuries so often? And they aren't from player violence.

But for all that, I still pretty much agree with my father's assessment of the major sports. As Hoss said, baseball is still the one worth following and watching--even lazily as a game wears on, because   the game is still what it is, more or less. The interminable commercial breaks have lengthened the game so much more than mound visits, pitching changes, time between pitches, and such,     but of course that's never mentioned when MLB tries to tighten up game times.

So tonight, when it's about 10 pm here in Germany, I'll be signing in to watch the Yanks play the Rockies on my laptop, pouring a fresh rye on the rocks, and enjoying every minute of it that I can stay awake for. Because it's baseball, and it's still worth it.