Location: Nicolette's House
Task #21 Watch an Entire Game of any Sport in which No Chicago Teams Play
San Jose Sharks vs. Minnesota Wild
I really wanted to prove myself here, as an actual sports fan. Not just another girl who "claims" to like sports just to be cool. I wanted to sit down, and for nothing more than the love of the game, watch two teams in which I have no vested interest.
I learned something interesting. I just don't care enough.
Don't get me wrong, the game was still interesting, and at times exciting - the fights, watching Niemi get wailed on in the net. But I found myself more distracted by the conversation in the room, than I would had it been a Blackhawks game. I couldn't focus.
I hate that. I hate when people say they only like to watch a game if their favorite team is playing. I refuse to be that person. I mean if that is the case, then you don't really like the sport right? Maybe you just get caught up in that team mentality, the one that tells you if your home team wins, then somehow you win. But you don't love the sport, because if you loved the sport, you'd simply watch for the sport's sake not the teams playing.
I've never been a stat person. I can sometimes remember if an athlete has broken some record, and I will remember the greats, but stats and I don't get along. Maybe that makes it more difficult for me to know what I am looking for in a team that I don't have an "attachment" to. If you don't know the players, haven't memorized their numbers, and can't tell that #10 (Sharp) just scored on a fast break thanks to #7's (Seabrook) amazing defensive skills, it's a lot more difficult to keep track of what's going on. The same rules still apply obviously, similar strategies but you may not know who the defenseman is looking to pass to, because you don't know who the top shooter is, or the winger with the sneaky moves. And you may miss the action.
Last night for instance, I didn't really want either team to win. The Sharks are a good team. Watching the Hawks play them is a big deal, it's fast, physical, exciting. The Wild have been playing well this year also, and for a while were giving the Hawks a work over, neck and neck for hold of the top spot in the league. So I judged the game in context of the Hawks, making neither team seem too appealing. In the end Nicolette and I reasoned that it would be better for the Wild to lose. Perhaps, it's more likely the Hawks would be battling them for a wild card spot come play off time. But again, a decision based on the best scenario for our home team.
Earlier in the fall, I had some more experimentation with this whole concept during the regular football season. I have never been a big football fan. I guess for me all the stopping and going, stopping and going, got a little tedious. But this past season was the first year I was a part of fantasy football. When we did the draft all the way back in August I had virtually no idea who I was picking for my team. I had gotten some good tips, some names of stand out players I recognized, but for the most part I went down the list of top ranked players per position from the cheat sheet I printed out. There really wasn't much more strategy to it than that.
But over the course of the season I grew to learn who the players were. I learned who I needed to play (for the most part), who probably didn't deserve another chance to screw me over, and which other teams I needed to watch out for. All in all I did pretty well for not wanting to play in the first place (1st in the division, 2nd place after the Super Bowl). And all of us girls picked up more info about random players than we ever thought we could. On top of that we enjoyed the process, and are anxiously awaiting next season's draft because we actually know which players we want to grab.
I think that draw, the competition, the investment is what made watching other teams enjoyable. I would sit and watch most of a Packers/Steelers game because I had Roethisburger on one side and Finley on the other. I wanted to see them scoring points on top of points, making pass after pass, all the while tracking my FF score. I'd watch the games my competitors had stakes in, to see how it affected the possible outcome of our match-up. And I'd do this incessantly, almost obsessively. It was to the point that my sister muttered constantly, " I can't wait for this season to be over! Jenny, please don't join next year."
Now that the FF season is over though, I don't think I've watched a playoff game yet. I no longer have a stake in it. I wouldn't be opposed to watching, I wouldn't be opposed to watching almost any sport, but I also wouldn't make it a point to watch. However, now that I know a little more about the game, and that goes for football and hockey, I probably would get more out of watching than before and be more likely to enjoy paying attention.
It's funny, when I was a kid, I was obsessed with basketball, I watched all the games, sported a Charlotte Hornets T-Shirt ( like I actually knew any better), and idolized Charles Barkley (I know he never played for the Hornets or the Bulls, but I loved him). Of course the obsession was fueled by 6 Chicago Championships and the Dream Team in the first pro-athlete-participation Olympics. Now, I want nothing to do with basketball. I just don't care. I feel like the game has changed, the players are more celeb millionaire wannabes than athletes (with the exception of Blake Griffin, whom I love), and after watching Jordan and Bird, Magic, Barkley, the Mailman and David Robinson play, what else is there to see? Now if someone was to turn on the Bulls, I wouldn't tell them to turn it off, but I also wouldn't know more than 2 players on the team.
Unfortunately I have also drifted from baseball, out of boredom maybe after being introduced to hockey. Long gone are the days I'd sit and watch the Mariners just to see Griffey, or since I memorized the batting order. I don't run home anymore to turn on the Cubs games in the spring ( which I first loathed for preempting Saved by the Bell), or insist AM720 play if we had to be in the car. But hopefully that will turn around. I will give Theo a chance to prove himself to Chicago, maybe change the way we think of Chicago baseball. But none of that is really the point. I realized I have diverged from the topic. My dwindled enthusiasm for these two sports are due to very different reasons then the one I had in the beginning of this long winded novel.
As for the original matter at hand, you can't say this is all a girl thing, the need to have some investment in a specific game. I have heard my dad say over and over, " I just can't watch a game without a Chicago team in it. It's boring. There's no point". So any of you guys out there, who may be reading this, you can't use that as your rationale.
I think for most people there has to be some vested interest in either the game as a whole or at least one of the teams. That interest though may range anywhere from a bet, knowing the outcome in the context of the big picture, a game of two outstandingly ranked rivals, learning plays to use as a coach, scouting players (for fantasy leagues or otherwise), all the way down to rooting for the home team or alma mater. I suppose there are people that enjoy any game, any team, any time.
And perhaps it's like with my fantasy football experience, the more time I give it, the more exposure I have to different teams and players the more I will enjoy other watching other games, the greater appreciation I will have for the sport in question.
A lot of people have favorite teams that aren't from their home town, but then again, that is still creating a vested interest. Maybe I am looking at this entirely too closely, but finding a new favorite team, which might come out of giving visitor teams a chance, doesn't necessarily mean your a fan simply of the sport. It could just mean you're a fair-weather fan and have chosen whichever team is on top. Or you're a wagon jumper. Being a true fan of the sport would require taking joy in watching no name players simply to marvel at their skill/talent/innovation. Maybe that's why college sports are a good outlet for purists. Well, that's a whole other can of worms I'm not going to open. So I'll just end with this: Although my latest attempt to watch a game in which no Chicago team played was not a completely successful endeavor, I will continue to make the attempts. I will keep my eyes peeled and my mind focused and try to appreciate all sports have to offer.
