Why do people care about sports?

Come on! It?s only a game. So the Kings lose to the Lakers, or the A?s don?t make the playoffs. Is it really that big of a deal?

Those are questions that can be answered in a plethora of ways, and every conclusion will vary based on the life of the person who is asked.

But really, why do we care? Why do we get upset when we see our favorite team lose? Why do we cheer, and why do people make sports the focal point of our time, money and energy? For me, the answer is easy: I love it because of the time I spent growing up, playing, talking, and living sports with my father.

I can?t count how many hours my dad put in, throwing me batting practice, putting up a hoop in the backyard, taking his vacation for a trip to Candlestick, watching games on TV, and going over the sports page cover-to-cover so that we could have that link of commonality. No matter where we are, or how far we are apart, I can talk to him about the Giants or 49ers as if we were actually on the team together.

Well, now that I think about it, maybe we are on the team together. We aren?t on the payroll, but we?re there. We?re better coaches from the couch than Dusty Baker will ever be, and if you really want to know something, I?d rather spend five minutes on a fantasy team with my dad than I would 15 years in the majors.

In the movie, “City Slickers,” there is a scene around the campfire where the female contingent of the group questioned why the men could talk so much about a childish topic such as baseball. The answer she got was not childish at all, but in fact that when one of the men couldn?t talk to his dad about anything in the world, they could still talk about baseball. It had a healing power to their relationship and it kept them together, even when their lives forked into different directions. That?s a special thought to me. That?s the point when talking about sports is no longer talking about a game.

It?s about my father and me sitting in the nosebleed seats in the back of the stadium, making use of the little time that we have on this planet together. And while we may never even meet the heroes that we see on the field, it doesn?t matter to me because my real hero is sitting just a few inches away. And when the words don?t always come, and the emotion is sometimes hidden, it?s not because they don?t exist in my mind. It?s simply because I don?t always know how to think, while sitting in awe, next to a living legend.

And while the creation of new sports memories have become less frequent in recent years, the memories of years past will certainly never be forgotten. They are memories that I want to recreate with my kids, and I only hope that I can do it as well, and make it as fun as my dad did with me. I know I can do it though, because I learned from the master. Thanks Dad.

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