Well, football season is upon us
again. Though if you watch ESPN or any
other major sports network/website/blog you'd think it never left us. But for some reason, or many reasons, I do
not seem to care that much this year. It
is Aggie game day, and while I plan to watch the game, I am not as pumped as I
was in years past. What is going on?
A big part, I know, is because of how
well the Astros are doing.
For the first
time in a long time, they are sitting atop the division into September. Just last night I attend the game - a
thrilling 8-0 spanking of the Twins that included a monstrous home run by Colby
Rasmus, a grand slam by Hank Conger, and most importantly the return of George
Springer since before the All-Star Game.
It was exciting, fairly well attended after people made their way
through traffic, and, for something different, relatively painless since the
Astros took the lead early and never looked to give it up. But baseball has always been clearly #1 for
me, so I would say that is a marginal difference.
Another big part of it is simply being
in the seminary. I do not have as much
(or any) free time as I did before to spend on sports. What free time I do have is much more
consumed by baseball and other things. I
can say with a fairly free conscience that I know only a handful of starters
for the Aggie football team, have no expectations for them, and am about the
same way for the Texans and Packers.
A final large contributing factor is
that soccer is clearly my second favorite sport now. I started watching with the 2010 World
Cup.
Before then I was the typical
American: "every game ends 0-0, how boring! Nothing happens." When I actually started watching and learning
the game, I realized that mentality could not be further from the truth. There is a reason it is the world's
game! Unlike football, which over 4
hours has only about 10 minutes of actual action, soccer has roughly 80 minutes
of action in a 90 minute match. You
cannot take your eyes off of it or you will miss something. Football? Call me when they're in the red
zone (that's why about four years ago I started watching the red zone network
and now that's about the only way I can stomach an NFL Sunday any more). My love for the beautiful game has not
diminished just because I am in the seminary and the Astros are doing
well. So maybe this is the biggest
reason? I no longer am interested in
watching huge hulks of men stand around in committee meetings (as George Will
says) for endless stretches of time for between 20 seconds of actual game play.
One of the great things about soccer is that
it is so easy now to watch it in the States.
For the past few years NBC has owned rights to the English Premier
League, and they have assured that every game is televised and easily
accessible online. In fact, Americans
can watch more EPL than Englanders! If
the EPL is not your thing (and really it should be) Fox Sports just picked up
the Bundesliga, or you can always hunt down La Liga or Serie A.
I suppose this is as good a time as any
to give my soccer testimonial. So yes, I
started watching with the 2010 World Cup.
I still not know much about the game when I went on my dissertation
research trip to Europe that fall. While
over there, I started to sense the love of the game and made the decision while
in Florence (city of my dreams) to start following Fiorentina.
Back then it was easier to do so when I
returned to the States because ESPN owned the rights and I could usually catch
their matches. I soon realized I need to
pick an English team, for language reasons if nothing else. As a good historian, I started to do my
research. All I knew was I would never
pick Manchester United, the Yankees of England.
I started watching as many matches as possible to see as many different
clubs as possible. I quickly came down
to three possibilities. 1. Manchester
City: I loved their style of play and they had a lot of exciting young players,
but they were kind of the in-thing at that time and it kind of felt like all
the Red Sox bandwagon fans in the mid-00s.
2. Stoke City: they played a completely different style and had a couple
of Americans. Plus, how could you not love the gangly 6'7" Peter Crouch?
3. Everton: they had the
great American hero Tim Howard in goal and were one of those small market clubs
that always fought to the end - for baseball fans think Billy Beane's Oakland
A's. Soon, they clinched it by agreeing
to loan the great American Landon Donovan.
Howard and Donovan on the same club?
SOLD!
Since then, I have been a Toffee
through-and-through. Ups and downs,
goods signings and bad, the departure of Moyes and the excitement of Martinez
followed by his disappointment. As a mid
table club you have the fun of challenging the big clubs with the excruciating
reality that they will steal, or try to steal, your best players. I found that out early on when my favorite
non-American Marouane Fellaini was sold to that hated Man U. But I've said it before and I'll say it
again, I'd rather live and die with a fun mid level team than get tired of
winning all the time with a front runner.
I guess that is the Revolutionary American, or perhaps the Pole, in me.
So, Gig 'em Ags. BTHO Arizona State. But mostly, COYB!
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