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baseball, Bruin Nation, Culver City, Dodger Stadium, Dodgers, ESPN, exercise, fan, football, God, Gymnastics, little league, Los Angeles, perspective, Santa Monica, So Cal Sports Chronicles, softball, sporting events, sports, sports universe, UCLA, USC, West Los Angeles, Westwood
![](https://socalsportschronicles.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/image-5.jpeg)
I rather like this illustration of the grass roots version of the middle of this sport’s season…
GETTING THINGS OFF MY CHEST THAT I HAVE WANTED TO GET OFF MY CHEST FOR A WHILE
I’m in my bedroom as I’m typing this…
I reckon some of you may think this is where I make a shocking statement that I no longer care for sports, or that I no longer enjoy sports, or that I’m no longer a sports fan or a sports person;
At least the way I used to in the past.
You would be wrong, however.
I still enjoy sports in general, and I still enjoy playing pick-up softball in Culver City and the West Los Angeles area on Saturdays;
I’ve done such for nearly thirty years, it’s a good form of exercise, I love hitting line drives and getting base hits, and I can see myself playing softball down the road into my sixties and beyond (God Willing).
I’ll also always be a fan of the Dodgers, and my support of my collegiate alma mater in Westwood (UCLA), its sports teams, and the Bruin Nation will never be renounced.
However:
My feelings and sentiments regarding the sports world have changed.
And not necessarily for the better.
Let me describe the ways it has…
- Regarding college football, college basketball, and college athletics in general, even though athletes have more freedom as far as where they want to play and in making money than in the past with their ability to make NIL (Name, Image & Likeness) deals and the Transfer Portal, I feel that with the Transfer Portal in particular, some athletes have gone far too far in switching from school to school as some of the football and basketball players have been at four or five schools during their careers. Even Major League Baseball – the first professional sports league to bring in free agency – has a six-year requirement for its players to be eligible.
- Probably due to my ever advancing middle age, I’ve realized that the atmosphere at major sporting events, with the general loudness as far as DJs spinning tunes that I have no way of knowing, extremely loud music coming from the speakers, and the sometimes extreme “bling” activities strictly designed to entertain the fans, has made me a little uncomfortable as I have realized that my age group is no longer the demographic that teams and schools want to reach. Which is fine, but I can’t help feeling that I used to enjoy going to major sporting events a lot more than I do now.
and,
- Because of my general experience in the sports universe as far as watching and playing such and my coaching background in particular, namely in baseball and softball but also in basketball, volleyball, and teaching sports when I was a elementary school P.E. coach, I am unable to enjoy watching a game strictly from a fan’s perspective – in other words, I can’t watch a game in pretty much any sport for pure enjoyment as I find myself watching such like a coach would, and it has been that way for quite a while. This has especially been the case for baseball and softball, two sports which I feel I know far too well, but also football, basketball, and even volleyball and gymnastics as due to having watched the UCLA Gymnastics team in its meets for twenty years, I have found myself thinking like a coach and imagining what score i would give the gymnasts’ routines, and finding myself being accurate at least some of the time.
I recall noticing things players were doing at Dodger games, like in 1996 during a game at Dodger Stadium when I noticed that superstar and eventual Hall of Famer Mike Piazza, who was in a slump, was lunging during his swings.
The last Dodger game I went to, I noticed that pitcher Tony Gonsolin was opening up his shoulder a bit too much, which contributed to his giving up a couple of homers and (I think) five runs total as the Dodgers lost to the Toronto Blue Jays.
Those are just some examples of how difficult it is for me to watch any sports contest strictly for fun;
It’s the number one reason why I don’t go to Little League games or any other kind of youth sporting events anymore, as I’ll spend the whole time noticing the good points and flaws of not only players, but coaches as well.
I remember going to a little league championship game in Santa Monica back in 2008, where within five minutes of watching the two teams warm up I knew who was going to win, one team looking sharp in their uniforms and doing set drills while the other team was a hot mess, the players doing pretty much whatever they wanted and looking like they had just thrown their jerseys on;
As it turned out, the sharp-looking and organized team won the game and the title comfortably.
This illustrates how attending sporting events has ceased to be pure, entertaining fun for me as while I don’t exactly hate it – as some of you may be thinking as you read this,
The fun in going to see teams clash it out has lost at least some of its luster for me.
In other words, I’ve been feeling burnt-out on it all.
Plus,
I have – once and for all – realized something that has diminished my emotional connection to the sports universe in recent years…
A gaining of proper perspective.
More than ever, I realize, accept and embrace the fact that there are far more important things than whether or not the Dodgers go to the World Series,
UCLA beats USC in any sport – and vice versa,
Or when any team wins or loses for that matter as I look at the bottom tickers on ESPN and find that I really don’t care about who the Ducks are playing or whether or not the Kings won,
Like…
- People having a roof over their head and a bed to sleep in; I saw a homeless woman – who I had seen before in my neighborhood – sitting against a wall across the street from where I was just today
- People having enough food to eat; I have bought sandwiches and bottles of water for homeless people in my neighborhood numerous times
- Wars continuing in the Gaza Strip and Ukraine with untold thousands killed
- Political, social, racial, and cultural animosities continuing in these (so-called) United States that has been so pronounced and getting worse, I can’t help but be a tad surprised that a Second Civil War hasn’t broken out
- Climate issues worsening to the point where this planet may be unlivable in too many spots within fifty years
And…
- God – He is much more important than anything, most of all the fortunes of any sports team
I freely plead guilty to having the wrong perspective on sports and its place in life,
And I’ve pledged to have more of a proper and balanced perspective of such now and in the future.
Which is why I mentioned in my previous post that this may be the last year of So Cal Sports Chronicles.
As such, I’m planning on writing different types of sports posts, and de-emphasizing coverage of current teams a bit – unless they win a championship, of course!
For instance, Jim Harbaugh, who had just won a national championship for the Michigan Wolverines, has just been hired to be the new coach of the Los Angeles Chargers.
And this is the only mention I’ve made of that on this blog, as opposed to having a complete post about this news.
I hope I’ve made sense of my changing feelings and sentiments regarding covering sports and sports in general.
While I still like and enjoy sports, particularly baseball, softball, football and women’s gymnastics, and while I will still attend games once in a while,
It will be more sporadic than in the past as my perspective has both changed and is in the process of changing.
All right, it’s getting late, and I’ve done enough rambling for one night.
![](https://socalsportschronicles.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/image-6.jpeg)
The essential tools of my all-time favorite sport…