As an adult, I’ve seen my sports focus narrow. My belief has always been that only sports nuts follow everything religiously. Those who seem to know everything (think “Stump the Schwab”) either cover sports for a living or they just have no lives. I’m always suspicious of someone who seems to know all the up-to-date information on every sport. They either have a near-photographic memory or they don’t pay much attention to other areas of their lives.
Hey, I used to follow lots of sports, especially in the 1980’s when I was growing up. In 1982 my parents bought me my first World Almanac and Book of Facts. This was long before the Internet, of course, so books that that were the sources of sports truth. Well, that book had lots of facts in it, but I concentrated most on the sports sections. Oh, I couldn’t put that book down. Each Christmas someone bought me a new almanac and over the years I kept the sports sections as references (I cut them out and bound them together with packing tape). I couldn’t get enough information.
I loved to just memorize facts. Now I never really tried, let me say. It just came naturally from looking at those books so much. Let me add here that “those books” included other references later on, such as sports almanacs and encyclopedias. It’s crazy to think that I still retain much of that information even though I haven’t followed some sports for years. Let me test my knowledge here. Hmm, I haven’t followed college basketball for 15+ years except for the Final Four. I think I can still name the winners of the tournaments in the 1980’s and the MOPs.
1979 – Michigan State 75, Indiana State 64, Magic Johnson MOP
1980 – Louisville over UCLA 70-59 (?), Sidney Moncrief MOP (?)
1981 – Indiana over North Carolina 63-50, Isiah Thomas MOP
1982 – North Carolina over Georgetown 63-62, James Worthy MOP
1983 – N.C. State 54, Houston 52, Akeem Olajuwon MOP
1984 – Georgetown 84, Houston 75, Patrick Ewing MOP
1985 – Villanova 66, Georgetown 64, Ed Pinckney MOP
1986 – Louisville 72, Duke 69, Pervis Ellison MOP
1987 – Indiana 74, Syracuse 73, Keith Smart MOP
1988 – Kansas over Oklahoma 83-79 (?), Danny Manning MOP
1989 – Michigan over Seton Hall 80-79 (OT), Glen Rice MOP
1990 – UNLV over Duke 103-73, Anderson Hunt MOP
1991 – Duke over ???? (I want to say Kentucky), Christian Laettner MOP
1992 – Duke over Michigan 71-51, Bobby Hurley MOP
1993 – North Carolina over Michigan 77-71, ???? MOP
After 1993 my memory kind of fades.
All right, let me reference that info to see how accurate my memory is. OK, I was wrong about the 1980 game score: it was 59-54. The 1991 score was 72-65 over Kansas, not Kentucky. I was wrong about the MOP in 1980 as well: it was Darrell Griffith. I couldn’t remember the MOP in 1993 because it was Donald Williamson.
It’s the same way with the World Series. I remember watching the World Series in the 1980’s. If I recall correctly, I watched all seven games of the 1987 series of Twins vs. Cardinals. I vividly remember watching Kirk Gibson hit that homer in Game 1 of the 1988 series. I cheered for the Tigers in 1984. As a Phillies fan, I’ll always remember Tug McGraw striking out Willie Wilson to end their 1980 title run, and then there were the “Wheeze Kids” in 1983. Yeah, I liked baseball back then.
College football is much the same as college basketball. My dad is a Penn State alumnus so he follows their season every year. I used to watch plenty of college football, even in the regular season. I was on the Nebraska bandwagon in 1983 and was heartbroken when they lost to Miami in the Orange Bowl. I’ll never forget seeing Doug Flutie’s Hail Mary in 1984. Let’s not forget Jimmy Johnson going nuts when Miami won the championship in 1987. There were memorable Penn State games too, like their championship games in 1982 and 1986 (“…intercepted Giftopolous!”). I think the one I remember most was in 1981 when they beat Pittsburgh. The Panthers were up 14-0 and were about to score again when Penn State intercepted Dan Marino in the end zone. The momentum shifted instantaneously and the Nittany Lions won 48-14.
Now I watched tennis, too, but not nearly to the degree that I do now. I do remember seeing Borg-McEnroe in 1980 and 1981 at Wimbledon. I liked Borg and was upset when he lost in 1981. More often, though, I watched women’s tennis because that’s what my mom watched. Dad doesn’t like tennis. I was a fan of Marina Navratilova (Mom liked Chris Evert) and later of Steffi Graf.
Since I became an adult, though, I gradually stopped following all sports so closely. By the new millennium, my focus had narrowed to three sports: the NFL, the NBA, and women’s tennis. Yes, women’s tennis, not men’s. I wish I had been following men’s tennis back then: I would have seen some of the great Sampras-Agassi matchups. Instead, I continued to follow women’s tennis. I remember Steffi Graf’s French Open title in 1999 and her run to the Wimbledon final later that year. I remember the Williams sisters finals in 2000-2003. I certainly remember Justine Henin’s match with Serena Williams in Roland Garros in 2003 (the one where Justine called time but the umpire called a fault on Serena).
In 2004, though, a strange evolution began taking place. I heard about Roger Federer and began tuning in to see him play. I was amazed by his ability–no one else could play like him. I still watched women’s tennis mostly, but I kept track of Federer. I remember watching his great Wimbledon final against Andy Roddick in 2004. Now at that time I did not have ESPN as I had cut my cable down for financial reasons. In 2005, though, I upgraded my cable and started watching more tennis on ESPN and USA. I checked out every Federer match I could, and as I watched him more I began to fall in love with the men’s game: speed, power, amazing angles. Rafael Nadal surfaced in 2005 and he and Federer would begin a great rivalry. I grew interested in more than just Federer, although he was–and still is–my favorite player. Since 2005 my focus has fully shifted to the men’s game. I rarely watch women’s tennis anymore, especially since Justine Henin, Martina Hingis, and Kim Clijsters retired. Men’s tennis, however, I can’t get enough of. My wife and I have agreed to keep our cable cut down to just the minimum until I’m off probation. It’s tough since I don’t get ESPN2; if I did, I’d be watching the Cincinnati Masters tournament this week. Come April 2009, though, I’ll be watching some more tennis.
The other two sports I follow are the NFL and the NBA. Yes, I am somewhat disappointed with the NBA game today. It’s so inferior to the glory days of Magic and Bird. I prefer to watch classic games (I have 30+ on tape or DVD), but I do follow the current seasons closely. Now I don’t watch many games during the regular season (especially without TNT), but I check the standings, stats, and box scores almost every day. In the playoffs, I tune in more, but certain teams are just unwatchable. I prefer the Western Conference style. I hate the grind-to-a-halt style of the Celtics, Pistons, and others in the Eastern Conference. I found the Cavs-Celtics series this year agonizing: poor shooting and sloppy play across the board. Still, there are always some gems in the playoffs. I had really started to sour on the NBA until the 2006 playoffs. Man, there were some great series and incredible games that year; my interest in the NBA was revived.
I’ve always been high on the NFL, and unlike the NBA, it hasn’t morphed into a shell of its former self. Yeah, I don’t like all the pass-first offenses, but overall the game is great. The playoffs continue to deliver and the athletes just get better and better. I’d say, though, that men’s tennis has replaced the NFL as #1 for me, especially since I got the Internet and can track the entire tennis season.
The truth may be that the NBA is #2 for me now. Oh, I still prefer the current NFL seasons to the current NBA seasons, but I watch classic NBA games all year round whereas I rarely think about the NFL during the offseason. Once the season begins, though, I’m more dialed into the NFL than I am into the NBA.
So, it’s three sports for me: men’s tennis, the NBA, and the NFL. I am a casual (very casual) follower of women’s tennis, baseball, college football, and college basketball. I don’t follow the NHL, NASCAR, or boxing at all.
