Sports and Stuff

Writing has become my favorite thing to do, but it’s not the only thing I like to do. I also love to read. I don’t really read nonfiction much. I’m not in it for the learning. Not that I don’t like to learn, but when I read it’s sort of escapism, and I don’t want to be bogged down with real life. I don’t watch the news either, for that matter. There was a time, before I got remarried a little more than a year and a half ago, when I spent a significant percentage of my free time watching movies (the understatement of the week. I used to watch between five and fifteen movies per week. I’m sure there are people out there who watch even more than that, but that’s probably not a group of which I want to be a part).

Another of the things of which I am a big fan, is sports. I used to think the world revolved around sports. Some days I still act like I think that, but for the most part my love of sports has backed off from the level of obsession to just a level of, well, I really like them a lot. Not all sports, mind you. For example, I have no use at all for the most popular sport in the world: soccer (or football if you live anywhere but the U.S. of A.). I also have no use for the fastest growing sport in America, NASCAR (or any kind of racing, for that matter). It’s not that I don’t think racing is cool. It’s just that 500 laps is beyond my level of fascination. I’ve watched a lot of drag racing in years past, so that can hold my attention for a time, but not for very long.

I watch lots of sports when the Olympics roll around that I wouldn’t watch otherwise. Lots of track and field events, swimming, and even gymnastics will get some time on my screen during the Olympics, but only once every four years do I have any use for those sports. The sports I really actually like to watch any time are football, baseball, basketball, and golf. That’s not the right order, though.

Baseball is my favorite, even though it’s certainly the slowest moving of the major sports. I can appreciate a good pitchers’ duel and I don’t mind watching a game where there are no runs scored and only a scattering of hits. And when it comes to baseball loyalty, I’m all about the Los Angeles Dodgers. The ONLY Los Angeles team. If I’d had this blog a few years ago when that team from Anaheim changed their name, you’d have gotten a ridiculous rant about the name change. (I don’t acknowledge their existence anymore, but in case you don’t know who I’m talking about, I guess I’d better clarify: the Angels, who were the Los Angeles Angels about a zillion years ago until they decided to move to Anaheim in 1965 and changed their name to the California Angels. They changed the name to the Anaheim Angels about thirty years later for reasons about which I neither know nor care. Then a couple of years ago the new owner of the Angels decided to change the name to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

Now let’s forget everything else about this discussion for just a minute. Everything else aside, the “Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim” is without question the stupidest name for a sports franchise ever. The only thing that rivals it is the renaming of baseball stadiums with an attempt to retain the original name (or a sentimental or team-related name) while sucking up to sponsors for their advertising dollars. Examples of this irritating phenomenon would be 3Com Park at Candlestick Point or Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

The funniest part about the whole name thing is that Artie Moreno (the Angels’ owner) seems to be the only person who likes the name. People from Los Angeles (including Yours Truly) don’t want the Angels using the name of their city. In the interest of full disclosure, I suppose I should say that I don’t now, nor did I ever live in actual Los Angeles. I lived in north L.A. County for ten years (‘84 to ‘94), but I still claim to be from L.A., as I plan to continue doing for the foreseeable future. To my way of thinking, I lived there from the summer before I started 4th grade until after I graduated from high school. In my opinion these are the most formative years of a person’s life and the time when you become who you really are. Back to the point: Not only do Los Angelenos not want the Angels to use that name, but people in Anaheim don’t want to be associated with L.A., so they don’t like the name either. Apparently there is something called the “Orange Curtain” that has to do with people in Orange County not wanting to be linked to L.A.

I had heard there was a lawsuit to keep the Angels from using that name, but it turns out that the people suing Moreno (or the Angels) were not the Dodgers organization, as I assumed. It was the City of Anaheim. Evidently they thought that using Los Angeles in the name of their baseball team would be counterproductive in the efforts to establish Anaheim as a destination city that wasn’t just an extension of L.A.

Wow, look at that. You got my rant about the name change anyway. I wasn’t expecting that.)

So I bleed Dodger blue and I hate the Giants and the Yankees. I’m not crazy about the Braves either, but they’re not a rival to the Dodgers anymore, since the leagues got divided more or less geographically. Actually, the Yankees haven’t been a rival for fifty years, but I hate them for a different reason. I don’t think I need to explain the Evil Empire.

Basketball is my second favorite, and the Los Angeles Lakers are my favorite team. I never really watched basketball until we moved to L.A. in 1984. (Actually, I never watched sports at all before that. Until the summer before I turned 10, I don’t really remember ever sitting down to watch sporting events.) I became a Lakers fan then, and I will remain so forever. I can’t say that I’m crazy about Kobe Bryant, but I accept the fact that anything the Lakers do that is a team success will come about because of Bryant. I hate that we have to hang our hopes on an adulterous (probably) rapist, but it’s what we’ve got.

I like football a lot and I root for the San Francisco 49ers. I don’t remember when I became a Niners fan, but I do know that it was before Steve Young. This is only worth mentioning because apart from my love of professional sports, I’m also a college football, basketball, and (on occasion) baseball fan. I went to Brigham Young University and that’s my team.

~ by jabeandkristin on 21 May 2008.