Sports Interlude

That's odd.  I had started a short post but it didn't get saved as a draft.  Fortunately, I hadn't written very much.

I'm definitely not much of a sports fan, though I usually know the outcomes of major events, though I don't retain that information much longer than a few months, as it just doesn't fundamentally interest me very much.  What I mostly object to is the outsized role sports plays in the media and in urban politics where millions of dollars in public spending goes towards sweetheart stadium deals, which actually have a quite poor return on investment (for the public, not the team franchises!).  And don't get me started on the abominations that FIFA and IOC have become...

That said, I was impressed by the Jays' come-from-behind victory to head to the World Series.  Wow!  They certainly did it the hard way, and they probably should have won the first game with only a bit more run support.  And better managerial decisions about relief pitching would likely have led to a victory in Game 5.  I'm pulling for them in a very low-key way, though the Dodgers are certainly the favoured team.  My wife has split allegiance, since her father was a big Dodgers fan.  I'm not going to be devastated if they don't win, but it would be nice to be here and soak in the celebrations if they do win.  

I've been fortunate enough to be around when the local team pulled it off.  In fact, I was very preoccupied with my courses, but I was in Toronto in 1993 when they won it all the last time around.  I was also here when the Raptors won, and I got a bit swept up in that, following the games a little bit while at the gym for example.  The parade went past Union Station where I was working, and we had a pretty good view from our windows and didn't need to go down to street level where the crowds were massive.

Thinking back, I was in Chicago for the Bulls second three-peat, and I certainly watched bits and pieces of some of the key games.  I happened to be back in Chicago when they won of the World Series games at Wrigley.  I even was passing through the area (or rather up on the El) on my way to a play in Edgewater, though I don't believe this was the game where they won the series but the penultimate victory.

I'm pretty sure I was in Chicago when the Blackhawks started winning the Stanley Cup.  I remember the Red Wings got close a few times while I was in Ann Arbor, but I had moved away (to Chicago in fact) when Yzerman finally starting getting his name etched on the Cup.  I still was very glad that he had that success.  I suppose I still pull a bit for the Red Wings, but I'm not a massive fan, and indeed I warmed up slightly to their arch-rivals, the Blackhawks, but really only during the Toews years.

I definitely don't have the bandwidth to follow college sports, though I was glad Michigan were national (football) champs a few years back.  I believe they went to the Rose Bowl twice while I was in Ann Arbor, winning once (though I don't have major memories of this, which is odd).  What I clearly remember is the Wolverines winning the basketball national championship in 1989, as we watched most of the final games in the dorm (South Quad), but the TV went out and we all ran over to West Quad for the final minutes!  What is strange is that I had thought that due to Steve Fisher's recruiting violations, they had vacated this championship and his subsequent NCAA successes, but it appears that the 1989 title is safe after all.*  Whew!

The last memorable occurrence (and more or less the last time I paid college sports a lot of attention) was when Northwestern ran the table in the Big 10 and went to the Rose Bowl.  It was the most incredible underdog story, even though they lost the Rose Bowl.  (This was my first year at Northwestern, and no one could believe they pulled it off!)  I believe it was only a few years before this that Penn joined the Big 10.  I wasn't thrilled about this but could live with it.  However, then they added Nebraska, and I felt it was just a slap in the face.  And now, Rutgers and a couple of California teams (UCLA and USC) are in the Big 10, which is just an abomination.  I won't even deign to call it the Big 10 anymore, as it doesn't have any real Midwest roots.  And when they delinked the Rose Bowl from the Big 10 and Pac-12 conference champions, I just completely lost interest.  But I was there when it still made sense, and my college teams had decent success back when the traditions still mattered.

 

* I really didn't follow the sign-stealing controversy over on the football side of things, but it appears that UM and perhaps the coaching staff will pay massive fines, but the team will not have any wins stricken from the record or have the national championship taken away.  I'm not really sure what would have happened had they attempted that, but probably the alumni would have just ignored the NCAA.