Sports Mania!

Look out! Sports fans go to extremes in October, when there’s football, baseball, hockey and basketball.

 

I do know women sports fanatics: one female friend has watched a game in every major league baseball park. But I am talking mostly about men.

 

A hypothetical conversation might start with the woman saying: “Let’s talk. About us. What are your real thoughts? How are you really feeling?”

 

The man’s response? “I desperately want the 49ers to make the playoffs.”

Most men I know share their true feelings best while watching sports on TV. And of course, they talk about sports.

 

It can affect their lives. I used to have an employee who was worthless at work after an old Washington Redskins loss. It was as if a relative had died.

 

Sports mania translates into money. I once had a Hank Aaron rookie baseball card until my mom gave my cards to my cousin. It would be worth $700,000 today if I still had it. A baseball card?

This fanaticism reminds me of my son-in-law, Lance, who was with me watching Virginia Tech win a decisive ACC basketball tournament game on TV last spring.

 

I didn’t know he was that excited. With little notice, he jumped in his car the next morning and drove the 446 miles from South Boston to Brooklyn, NY, to see Virginia Tech in the ACC finals.

To placate his unhappy wife and mother-in-law, he took his 6- and 7-year-old children with him and dropped them off at their other grandma’s house in Arlington, then drove the rest of the way to Brooklyn to see the game with his brother, who lives there. Grandma was quite surprised. The kids weren’t too happy—the TV in the car didn’t work.

 

Fortunately, Virginia Tech won the tournament and Lance picked up the kids on the way back the next day and returned to South Boston.

 

Everyone was disturbed by this stunt—except me. I understood. I wished it was me. My inner sports fan came through vicariously. Next time I saw him, I sneaked $100 in cash to him for gas money.

 

He is my bro!!!