Sports, A Microcosm of Life

I have another confession to make. I've been a big sports fan all my life.

Sports has a very important role in society. As a child, you learn about rules (each sport has quite a few), teamwork, winning and losing. As an adult, if you happen to not be one of about 600 Major League Baseball players, too short for the NBA, can't skate, or don't enjoy large men forming piles on top of you, you can still follow your team and critique the sports world. That's where I come into play.

Take the Dallas Cowboys...Many predicted that they would still be playing football today (week 3 of the NFL playoffs) yet they didn't even make it into the postseason. Why? About 99.9% of coaches use the cliche "there's no 'I' in 'team.'" I say that there is a "me" in "team" and that will be your ruination. Selfish play and in-fighting brought down this highly talented team. Hey T.O., in no world is one greater than 52. Hope you're working on your golf game living in the I-Society.

It got me thinking about one of the more underrated and underappreciated films of my era. The movie is...[wait for it]...BASEketball. For those unfamiliar with BASEketball, it's a comedy from 1998 starring the creators of South Park. If you've never heard of South Park and are over 8 years old, please return your membership card to society, proceed to the roof of your nearest tall structure, and just jump. ANYWAY, the movie predicts teams moving to new cities for money, stadiums named after brands, and endzone celebrations that are longer than the scoring play itself. Plus the usual crudeness you come to expect from Matt Stone and Trey Parker. It's a heartwarming tale of the ruination sports and how Stone and Parker save the day (and this is why I don't review movies).

I just thought I'd throw that out there in the spirit of the final two teams standing in the NFL. This is the sad state of sports. One person--athlete or agent (ahem, Scott Boras)--who gets greedy sets of a chain reaction of greed. Next thing you know, certain seats at the new Yankee Stadium go for $2,500 a pop and many families are now priced out of major sporting events. Minor league baseball is a lot of fun, but rather than seeing your hero, you see a bunch of scrubs and maybe one or two guys who you might see in the bigs eventually.

For the Citibank executives who read this (and I know you do), your company wouldn't be flatlining right now if you didn't pledge $400 million to the New York Mets for stadium naming rights! But of course the Mets need the money to cover their new stadium and to pay their overpaid stars. I understand the role of economics, but no baseball player should make more money per at-bat than most of the fans make over 365 days!