I do have it recorded, which evoked all kinds of memories, not the least being that I figured out how to deal with watching sporting events on a delay a long, long time ago.
For some time now it’s been nearly impossible to be really in the world and not know what’s going on. In sports and everything else, there is a 24/7 news cycle combining with the Internet and mobile devices that makes trying to watch a game after the fact without knowing the outcome like the working plot of some Sci-fi movie.
Can’t do it, unless of course you live on an island in some far away place.
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| Duke puked |
That’s my "secret." I know Arizona won, so I can watch and enjoy what I am seeing with zero angst about what will happen. I can savor it, and smile, and relax. It’s what an older dude should do, right?
It’s only been in the last 10-12 years that it’s become a real problem to be able to watch a game that’s already been played, and not know the outcome prior to actually viewing it.
I can remember back to March 21, 1968, and not staying up to watch Lew Alcindor and the UCLA Bruins dismantle Elvin Hayes and the Houston Cougars 101-69 in the NCAA semi-finals. The game started at 11:30 P.M. Eastern Time. Sure, it was on a Friday, but it was going to be on tape delay on Saturday. I was a big Bruin fan at that time, Alcindor being a NYC kid. UCLA had (barely) lost in the Astrodome to Houston earlier in the year when Alcindor had been suffering from an injury, but it had been their only loss.
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| Home of the 21-1, 1969 Yellow Jackets |
The NY Jets won the Super Bowl in 1968, and the Miracle Mets won the World Series in 1969. That’s all I was doing, was watching championships being won by my teams.
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| Dick, Clyde, Bill, Dave, and Willis |
I have been there for the nasty losses too, as any New York fan who hates the Yankees can tell you, and I’ve witnessed Arizona have their share of awful defeats too.
When video recorders first became affordable, almost anyone could tape a game and watch it later without someone telling you what had happened. Fair enough, but soon my question became "why would anyone really want to invest 3+ hours of their time in watching their favorite team get their butt kicked?"’ Especially if it’s a really horrible defeat, like the one Pittsburgh had against Butler last week – why would a Panther fan want to watch that? Given the choice, would any fan want to spend all that time watching what turned out to be a horrible defeat?
I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to sit in agony watching my team blow a lead, or do something stupid to lose a game. Maybe I have a bettor’s philosophy which is if I am going to lose, I want to get blown out right away, so I am not bothering to watch? I can always find better things to do with my time, like maybe even get a little?
I think it was my sweet and lovely daughter-in-law Shannon who took exception to this philosophy when she told me I should always watch my team(s) when given the opportunity, through wins and loses, good, bad, and awful.
Nah. I have won too much, and lost too much. I have been at the top and bottom as a fan, and I prefer the top. I am not playing anymore, and I am not coaching anymore, so I will leave the analyses for the games I miss to the folks who get all that money for doing so. If I don’t want to hear about it, that’s what remotes are for, or the words "Shut up," if it’s a person standing in front of you.
"I haven’t got time for the pain." Me and Carly Simon.
Apparently, neither does my son – Shannon’s husband Matt. Shannon emailed me a while ago to let me know my son went for a drive in the second half of the Arizona game last night. He felt a vibe that the Wildcats just might blow the lead, because hell, they’d made a habit of doing just that all year by forgetting how to play defense. Matt and Shannon live in Tucson, and are students at Arizona. They have been to a number of games, and probably watched them all one way or another, yet Matt just had to get away.
After my wife Susan and I got up this morning, a bit before 5:30 A.M., she asked me if I had heard the phone ring last night about midnight?
"Which phone?"
"Your cell."
I knew immediately that my son had called to tell me that our 9.5 point underdog Arizona Wildcats had beaten the crap out of Duke…I just knew. Matt didn’t leave a voice mail, but it was the sweetest call I never got.
So, my question is, if Arizona had lost that game Thursday night, would I watch?
No freakin’ way! Why would I want to see one of "my" teams lose?
Let’s suppose Matt had never called, and I called in sick to work this morning, and kept the TV, radio, and Internet in cold storage while I cued up the second half of the game?
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| The 485 pound Sony Beta Max!!! |
Well, I would have had the time of my life watching what I have heard called the greatest half of basketball that Arizona has ever played. No doubt, but I have watched almost all the big Arizona games, and there have been a lot more bad endings than good.
What if they had lost? What if they had not just lost, but blown a large lead in some truly ugly way to the point where you're almost embarrassed to let anyone know you’ve even thought about going to Arizona, let alone having lived there for about half of your life?
Sure, call me a coward. Doesn’t bother me a bit.
If I had been in Arizona with my son, I would have gone for that car ride with him. I know at some point we’d have to turn on the radio, or maybe argue about turning it on or not. I’d like to think we’d have tuned in and heard them win it. I’d be outside the car having cigarette, and Matt would be talking to Shannon on the phone, trying to explain something buried deep within his own, and his father's DNA, while the play-by-play squeaked out of the car radio.
I think what it gets down to is the pain of losing is too great to bear in the moment, but the joy of winning is transcendent, whether one watches or not.
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| The Captain |
I think this tape delay thing is pretty damn cool, and may all your teams someday be #1.
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