As Giddy As I Please

As Giddy As I Please

Whether you are a sports fan or not, you have to be aware that the Bay Area is collectively embroiled in an intensely emotional roller coaster of a playoff series, between the Golden State Warriors and Oklahoma City Thunder. You don’t have to know anything more than that.

Now, I am acutely aware that some of you care no more for pro basketball, than you do for poking a sharp stick into your left eye. This is a given so I am not trying to convince you that you should care; all I want to do is explain the rationale of those fans who are hooked. 

I am hooked.

To be a fan one need not invest anything more than emotional attachment. I am a fan of the Warriors though I can honestly say that I have not watched one single basketball game from start to finish all season. Bits and pieces is more my style.

I like to read about the accomplishments of the individual players, because before the 2014/2015 season, the Warriors had not won the whole enchilada for forty years. The team served as a welcome mat for other clubs, who routinely walked all over Golden State for a couple of generations.

Along these same lines is the case of the San Jose Sharks, who are about to begin a playoff series with the Penguins, that could result in their first championship ever, known as winning the Stanley Cup. Stop me if you have heard this before, but I have never in my life watched as much as five minutes of a hockey game, either in person or on television.

I do not like the sport.

That being said, I have a great deal of affection for the Sharks as a Bay Area sports franchise. A lot of my friends like hockey, just as a lot of them like pro basketball.

My drug of choice is baseball. Oh, you knew that? Weird. Unlike basketball’s 81-game season, baseball somewhat cosmically has exactly double that number of games, 162. I have abandoned ship on attending the games at AT&T Park, because it is just too hard for me. As a result I watch many of the games on television.

Until about seven or eight years ago, I used to listen to the games on the radio because we had no tv reception. Each game is likely to approach three hours in length, and there is an ebb and flow to major league games that is very soothing. I associate baseball with a slower pace during summer, even if I am working harder than ever. It’s all in your head.

The whole phenomenon of following a sports team, for that matter, could be said to be all in your head. That’s the point I’m trying to make. If my team wins, whether it’s the Warriors, Sharks, Giants or even our incredible Women’s softball team, the Laytonville Warriors, who just won their division championship as well, it’s a great success.

The lads are on a tear...

Currently the San Francisco Giants are on a tear, winning fifteen of their last seventeen games. That’s a lot of success for me to enjoy because I allow myself to feel as giddy as I please without apology to anyone. 

Conversely, should my team should lose, what do I care? I have to get up and go to work the next day, and nothing about sports is going to change that. The result is a win/win proposition, because there is no downside.

By comparison, my life partner has stage-4 cancer; how does a loss by my team of choice, stack up against that? Duh. 

So if I can derive any degree of enjoyment from sports, especially since it does not cost me anything, how can that be bad?

If you do not follow sports and don’t care if the Warriors complete an epic backs-against-the-wall comeback against the upstart Thunder, then more power to you! Each of us is free to choose the forms of entertainment, which blow air up our skirts.

Just don’t rain on my parade if I choose to go around feeling buoyed by the antics of my sports heroes. Speaking for myself, it is a clear case of “small minds, small pleasures,” but it’s my small mind and my small pleasure.

Not to mention the pleasure of a whole lot of other folks too.