Sports

You are currently browsing the archive for the Sports category.

What Are You Reading Now?

August 2, 2010 in Books, Sports | 5 comments

As I mentioned last month, WAYRN is a new regular feature here on FifthLung. The idea is that each month, on the first of the month or thereabouts, I’ll tell you what I’m reading. If what I’m reading is not interesting, I might instead answer the question, “What Are You Watching Now?” And then, hopefully, you will tell me what you are reading or watching that you find interesting.

I am still on my soccer — football — kick. My football knowledge remains meager but relative to a month ago, it’s vast. Right now, I’m reading Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby, thought by many to be the number one book about football. It is good and much of it applies to fans of all sport. Here’s a riff of Hornby’s that cracked me up about the burden of fandom:

I had discovered…that loyalty, at least in football terms, was not a moral choice like bravery or kindness; it was more like a wart or a hump, something you were stuck with. Marriages are nowhere near as rigid — you won’t catch any Arsenal fans slipping off to Tottenham for a bit of extra-marital slap and tickle, and though divorce is a possibility (you can just stop going if things get too bad), getting hitched again is out of the question. There have been many times over the last twenty-three years when I have pored over the small print of my contract looking for a way out, but there isn’t one.

Is there a fan of any team in any sport who doesn’t know exactly what he’s talking about?

I just got another book in the mail today that I’m excited to read. I might even take a break from Fever Pitch for this new one: Ajax, the Dutch, the War: Football in Europe During the Second World War by Simon Kuper. Ajax is still the best or near the best team in the Holland football league and is based in Amsterdam. A full report on this will have to wait until next month.

The European Tour

July 22, 2010 in Books, Quotable, Sports | No comments

Another funny quote from Chuck Culpepper’s Bloody Confused!. This one is about about an English football song that starts, “We’re all going on a European Tour.” Culpepper says:

But I wanted this European tour thing. It sounded fun, especially to an American, to whom a European tour often means jetting across the water, tearing through as many countries as possible, talking too loud on metros, complaining about a paucity of ice, making a general nuisance of oneself, and then returning home to settle into a life of quiet desperation.

The EPL

July 20, 2010 in Books, Quotable, Sports | No comments

I ended up watching more of the World Cup than I had ever watched before. I guess I am part of the World Cup soccer bandwagon because I have signed up for an English Premier League fantasy team. Will this be a passing fancy, as was my 2-3 year dance with fantasy hockey? Or will it be more long-lasting? We shall see. Fortunately, ESPN3 might start broadcasting a few EPL games which means I can watch them on the internet.

But in the space of a few weeks I’ve gone from a thimbleful of knowledge about the EPL to a full pint. I thought a good book to get started with might be Bloody Confused! by Chuck Culpepper and I was right. It’s a great overview for someone who does not know much about the EPL. The only other book I’ve read about English football was Among the Thugs by Bill Buford, which was very interesting but is as I understand it somewhat outdated.

But let me give you one quote from Chuck Culpepper to help explain why English football excites me. Culpepper was a jaded American sportswriter who went to England hoping to rediscover his love of sports. Here’s one passage from early in the book:

As Match of the Day played, I committed blasphemy and paid only scant attention to the twelve-inch Digix TV in the basement guest room.

Suddenly, though, I heard the great crowd noise blaring from the set. The noise was so clearly unleashed by what happened shockingly in the draining seconds of Portsmouth versus Manchester City gave me goose bumps even through a screen in Camden, and even though I knew nada about either squad except that Portsmouth wore blue and played on brown sod at Chelsea. Why bother with sport? Here’s the number-one answer: because you might hear this kind of noise. It might swim in your ear canals and rustle your soul and electrify your skin and maybe even prolong your life.

For myself, following sport is largely about the hunt for that noise.

You can find the play he’s talking about here. Culpepper has a point, no?

« Older entries