Missing the Big Games

I rarely watch sporting events- they make me crazy. Whenever I switch through the channels and stumble upon a football or basketball game on TV, my first impulse is to watch it. I check out the score, examine defensive and offensive setups... but the second I start to care about the outcome of the game, I have to leave. I have my favorite teams in the pros. I have my undergrad and grad school conferences that I could root for but really... it doesn't matter. Within minutes, I will find myself obsessing over strategy. If I am anywhere near an Internet connection, I'll start looking up teams on the Internet and examining their statistics and win/loss records.

I can't help it.

I don't know how people can bet on sporting events. I bet on my favorite team once when I was in Las Vegas and spent most of the day weaving from one casino to another, trying to get an update on the score. If I tried to regularly bet on sports, I'd die of an aneurysm on the first weekend. Though I love Bill Simmons as a writer, but I have absolutely no ability to connect with analysis of the over/under on sporting events. Maybe it's because he writes about sports all the time and it's a part of the culture. For me, sporting events are like high school. Rarely does any event affect my life in any way whatsoever, it always FEELS like the most Important thing in the World while it's happening.

My favorite sport is basketball. I had my favorites (Magic's Lakers, Clyde's Blazers) and my Mortal Enemies (Isiah's Pistons, Malone's Jazz). In 1998, however, I discovered that my mental investment was wildly out of proportion from my enjoyment of the spectating. I missed Michael Jordan's game-winning/series winning/dynasty-ending push-off and shot against the Utah Jazz in the final game of the NBA Finals. Two television timeouts earlier, I was so freaked out that Malone might win an NBA championship, I thought I was going to stroke... so I left the room. I sat down in front of a computer, opened three browsers, and looked up anything other than Sports. Fifteen minutes later, my girlfriend had to come tell me that the game was over and Jordan had won. I missed it.

Afterwards, I realized my inherent problem with being a spectator- it's passive. In the few, real crisis situations of my life, I have been focused and calm. It is because I knew that a decision had to be made- an action had to be taken- so I took it. With sporting events, I am stuck in a (self-perceived) crisis situation and can do nothing about it.

That is where sports games come into my life. The tension and enthusiasm is still there from the spectator sport. I still pitch fits and yell at my television, but now I can do something about it.

For Christmas, I obtained my first Playstation 2. In the video gaming world, sports games that cost $50 on their initial release can be purchased for $5 used after a couple of years because hardcore sports fans insist on playing with the most up-to-date rosters. Since I rarely follow sports on a daily basis, I don't care. So, a couple days after Christmas, I cruised into a Gamespot store and, for $20, I snagged copies of Tiger Woods Golf PGA Tour 2005, NCAA March Madness 06, College Hoops 2K6 and NCAA Football 06 and those will be my discussion topics over the next few weeks. I will be devoting articles on my experience with these games in future posts when I can sit down and get enough face-time with them.