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Nathaniel
Shockey
Read Nathaniel's bio and previous columns
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June 17, 2009
Sports Slowdown in
Summer? Never!
For people who like sports, this part of the year can be the scariest.
Basketball and hockey have finished, football is three months away, and
if you don’t like baseball – if it’s “too slow” – if you need something
flashy and exciting to happen every odd second in order to continue
breathing, if thinking beyond Rolling Stone magazine causes you
to perspire, where was I going again? Oh yeah, now that only one of four
major sports is happening, you may be afraid of getting bored. Or you’re
excited to have your husband back.
Depending on your persuasion, I have good news or bad news: There is
more than enough sports excitement to last the entire summer.
For starters, as a sports fan, your number one priority this summer
ought to be baseball. If you don’t yet appreciate baseball, the best way
to learn is to follow a team you care about. Get into your home team.
Read about them, learn the pitching staff, learn who the righties and
lefties are, who throws hard, who throws accurately, who has a changeup,
whose stuff works dramatically differently against hitters on one side
of the plate than the other. And then examine the hitters. Learn who
bats from the right, the left, or both, who has the quickest hands, who
has the best eyes, who is the strongest. After you’ve learned about
pitching and hitting, look at defense. Who has a strong arm, a great
glove, great reactions to the ball, who has savvy and knows exactly
where to go when the ball’s hit at him? And if you’re not overwhelmed
yet, which you don’t have to be as long as you take a little at a time,
learn which teams are in your division. Who’s the competition? Bear in
mind that every game against a division team is worth about twice as
much as other games.
Congratulations! You’re a baseball fan now, and your summers are going
to be much more enjoyable than when you went to one ballgame a summer
and spent $80 on four beers because you didn’t care enough to follow
along.
Some sports fans can’t seem to get beyond the four (or three-and-a-half)
major American sports. While I admire your nationalism, you’re missing
out on some extremely exciting sports competition.
For starters, get into golf. If you have trouble getting into golf, let
me give you some startling advice. Pay attention to Tiger Woods. He
could end up being remembered almost universally as the best golfer
ever. Tiger owns shots other players never even think to try. You’ll
learn that most rounds are really Tiger against Tiger. If he doesn’t
best himself, he’ll probably win. If he plays at 80 percent or higher,
the rest of the field doesn’t really have much of a shot. The rest of
the world realized about 10 years ago that it’s incredibly fun to follow
this young guy out of Cypress, California. And he hasn’t won a major
since his knee injury (although he’s gotten close).
Golf is a very human sport. There are a bunch of guys just wandering
around outside whacking tiny balls for long distances, finding the tiny
balls and whacking them again. Between whacks, they might curse at the
spectators, make jokes and try to exhibit no emotion at all. It’s not
very hard to figure out which golfers resonate with you and which ones
you just can’t stand. I’m not sure if there is a golfer compatibility
test somewhere online, but if exists it would probably reveal that Phil
Mickelson and I wouldn’t hang out. The point is that there are all kinds
of interesting characters on the PGA Tour, and if you want to enjoy
golf, you have to treat the players less like video game characters and
more like people. Boo Weekley is a riot, so check him out.
Golf, like baseball, is not boring. It’s just that golf, baseball and
most things in life are nothing like ABC’s Wipeout. If I may be
the bearer of tough news: It’s better this way.
Aside from watching the Philadelphia Phillies go for the repeat, my
favorite sports story this summer will be Roger Federer. He just
completed the career grand slam, simultaneously tying the great Pete
Sampras’s record for total major tournaments. Sampras never won the
French, so the math clearly suggests already that Federer is the
greatest tennis player ever. Personally, I think he has to beat Rafael
Nadal a few times before I can sign off on that one. But if he wins one
more major, it would be hard to make a legitimate case for anyone else.
Bear in mind that he’s only 27. Sampras was 31 when he won his last
major. If you consider yourself a fan of sports, don’t even think about
missing Roger’s 15th major. Wimbledon is rapidly approaching,
so make room on your schedule.
To
those who thought they were approaching the one season when they might
actually see their loved ones away from the television, sorry. Sports
don’t take vacations, so neither should sports fans.
© 2009
North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.
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