A Matter Of Perspective

Two Dodgers fans beat up a Giants fan and put him in a coma.

There is so much wrong with that, I don't know where to start. For the sake of this essay, though, let's start with the fact that that I felt the need to point out that the assailants were Dodgers fans, and the victim a Giants fan. That shouldn't matter; it should be an irrelevant detail in the story of vicious and imperfect humanity. Except that it appears that the victim's allegiance to a baseball team was the motivation for the attack.

It's just a game. It's easy to forget sometimes, but it is just a game.

I'm guilty of, well, being petulant and whiny when the Giants aren't doing well. I shut off the game on Friday night after the seventh inning, when Buster Posey struck out with the bases loaded. I shut it off rather emphatically.

"Don't be a baby!" Marina teased.

"I'm NOT being a baby," I insisted. "Now let's watch Toy Story 3."

Other than that bit of comedy at the end, this followed the formula of previous overreactions whenever things haven't go entirely the Giants' way. Now that they have won the World Series, I can see even more clearly how ungracious this is.

It isn't that this is how I inherently relate to sports. For instance, with Newcastle United's 4-1 win today over Wolves, taking another step towards ensuring safety and a comfortable mid-table finish in the Premier League, I felt a cozy sense of satisfaction and accomplishment. They aren't going to qualify for the Champions League or the Europa League. Nevertheless, I felt good about today's step towards a finish in the middle of the standings, whereas on Thursday, after the Giants lost the season opener to the Dodgers, I was depressed, as if 1/162 of the season would be indicative of expected results for the entire season.

Sports are weird that way. There are pros and cons to the way sports divides us into groups.

Pro: Sports are a sublimation of our instincts for war.

1) Our instincts for dominance can be channeled into games, entertainment, arbitrary challenges for testing our individual skills against those of another without actually trying to kill or be killed.

Con: Sports are a sublimation of our instincts for war.

2) That channeling doesn't always work.


Sports should be first and foremost entertainment, a game. While it's okay to be disappointed with a disappointing result, there are limits to how much it actually means. The Giants' win-loss record doesn't indicate anything about my worth, nor does their status as my favorite team indicate anything other than my great good taste.

It is, of course, easier to be philosophical about this AFTER the Giants beat the Dodgers yesterday 10-0. Which makes it all the more important to keep a sense of perspective about it.

I am able to get such satisfaction from Newcastle's battle for survival because I am less attached to them by geographical roots. I can view it as a story, because the reason why I chose to follow them in the first place was because of the story of Alan Shearer, the first player I enjoyed watching on TV, who went home to Newcastle, carrying goals. With the Giants, I always felt a deeper investment, because I grew up in Santa Rosa until I was nine.

It's all about finding a balance, especially since I have nothing personally at stake, not until I learn to throw a baseball at 100 mph or blossom into an athletic phenomenon at 31. It could totally happen. What? It could! But until then, I will be embarrassed to be invested in sports rivalries to even a fraction of the degree reached by the two men who beat up the fan of a rival team.