Onward and upward with sports

By Jack Ferdon

Last week I put off studying for a midterm so I could watch a rebroadcast of the 1972 Rose Bowl and ever since I've been wondering about the choice.

Not the choice to blow off the test -- that was easy -- but the choice of programming.

Maybe instead of watching ballgames all the time I should view stuff that stimulates my mind and touches my soul. Maybe I should stop watching ESPN and turn it to PBS or Bravo. Maybe I should learn to appreciate art. Of course, that's never going to happen. There's no way I'd sit through Carmen or read Ulysses.

I'd rather just convince myself that when I watch sports, I'm doing the same thing as the person watching an artistic performance. And to do this, I need to prove to myself that sports are nothing less than art.

The easiest way to do this is to take some definitions of art, replace the word 'art' with 'sport,' and see if they still make sense. Here they are: "(Sport) is an activity having for its purpose the transmission of the highest feelings to which men have risen." - Tolstoy

This could be said of sports. When Terrell Owens caught that touchdown to beat Atlanta, I felt higher than Sebastian Janikowski the night after a game.

"(Sport), like Nature, has her monsters, things of bestial shape and with hideous voices." " Oscar Wilde

This definition also fits sports. Mike Tyson is basically a monster and Randy Johnson looks like one. And Tony Gwynn, who is shaped like a hippo, has a pretty disturbing voice.

"All (sport) is the same-an attempt to fill an empty space." - Beckett

That's right. If sports weren't played, those big stadiums would be emptier than a class in the classics department.

"(Sport) consists of limitation "The most beautiful part of every picture is the frame." - G.K. Chesterton

Exactly. Often baseball games play second fiddle to the venues in which they take place. Just look at Wrigley Field, Fenway Park and Tampa Bay's Tropicana Field.

"A primary function of (sports) is to liberate the individual from the tyranny of his culture in the environmental sense and to permit him to stand beyond it in an autonomy of perception and judgement." - Lionel Trilling

I experience this exact sort of freedom whenever Jon Kitna is in at quarterback. Now that we know that sports are just as important as art, I think there should be a few changes. I want a Nobel Prize to be awarded for placekicking, a major offered by Santa Clara in Super Bowl studies and NBA games to be broadcast on Bravo on the one night during the week when they're not on TNT.

I had intended to touch on the issue of form versus content in sports, but there's no time. Scottish soccer is on in five minutes.

Email Jack or call (408) 554-4852.