What happened to the sports section

When I was a kid, sports was a treat.  My earliest memory of knowing about sports was the 1986 Mets world series.  For some reason, everyone was happy.  Everyone in the city was celebrating together, and I joined in, without really understanding why.  My second earliest memory was watching the Giants win the superbowl in 1990.  By this time, I knew what sports was, watched the whole game, and truly appreciated the win.

From then on, I would watch whatever games (baseball, basketball, or football) that I could.  If you missed the game, since we didn't have 24 hour coverage with ESPN, your only hope was to catch a few highlights at the end of an hour long news broadcast or read a recap of it in tomorrow's paper.  I loved those little morsels of sports.

Why did I like sports?  Mostly, because it was fun to play.  Sports was also an escape into an idealized life.  There were heroes trying to overcome obstacles ending in either heartbreaking defeat or jubilant triumph.  Things were clear and lacked ambiguity.

In the past few decades, sports has evolved for me.  Coverage of sports has gotten intense.  ESPN runs sports games and analysis all day, every day.  With the power DVR, these days I've been able to watch a lot of playoff basketball.  Since I don't care about watching games live, I can watch a 3 hour broadcast of a game in less than an hour whenever I have time.  This is achieved by fast forwarding through commercials, free throws, time outs, and time used for instant replay reviews.  This is awesome.

Analysis of sports is pretty great now too.  After I watch a game, I typically look through twitter for reactions.  As a fan, it's fun to hear others celebrating with me.  It's similar to the experience of watching a game with other fans, without the pain of paying for tickets or going through traffic to get to the game.  The day after a game, I could get a newspaper for a recap, but I also have a few sports blogs which will write a few articles on a game or nba podcasts to listen to.

Sports has gotten a lot more subtle and complicated.  A player used to be judged on merit and beloved for effort.  Nowadays, a fan cannot simply like a player anymore.  A fan must know the player's history, the player's stats and be able to argue why that player has a better salary structure than another.  Advanced stats has convinced us that we cannot even tell who the best players are just by watching.  We need experts to analyze the game and tell us who we should cheer for.

Even if you ignore stats, choosing a player to root for is still complicated.  Every athlete now has a narrative.  We no longer judge them solely on their performance.  We must delve into their hypothetical emotions, motivations, and psyche to conclude whether this player deserves praise or not.

The other day, a new story line emerged when an NBA player, Jason Collins, announced that he is gay.  I suppose that is news, and I hope that it reduces bias and discrimination.  But as a kid, it's not really the sports story I craved for.  As an adult sports fan, I couldn't care less that he's gay.  I'd rather hear about his defensive footwork than what he likes to do outside of the game.

How has sports evolved?  It was a treat.  It was an ice-breaker where anybody could ask anyone else, "Did you see the game last night?"  Now it's as complicated as picking stocks.  It is as emotional as any soap opera.  Its rules are as complicated as our judicial system.  It's players have gotten to be so physically superior to the average person that they scarcely resemble anyone I know.

So is sports better than it was?  I think it oddly takes more effort than it used to.  In the past, I watched every game or highlight I could and read every newspaper article I could find.  This often left me wanting for more.  Now, there's too much.  I don't have time to watch every game I have access to, read every newspaper or blog, and listen to every podcast.  I think the challenge is getting as much sports as I want, but not any more than that.

Sports has changed a lot in my life time.  I wonder where it will go in the future.