Several years ago when Rita first got here to the US, the only sports she showed any interest in were Formula 1 and America's Cup racing. The only sport she's played competitively is badminton, and she's raced sailboats. To accommodate her interests, we bought extra channels on cable TV so she could watch them, since neither are well represented here in the US.
Every fall with the advent of football season, I'd be spending extra couch potatoe time watching the games. She could not understand what I saw in the game and made her opinions quite clear. Then, about two years ago something changed, all of a sudden, football started to interest her. This was great! No more feeling guilty about not working on something in the house while I was watching the Seahawks play whoever. She was very frustrated at first because she didn't understand the game, and certainly not the nuances, especially penalties. She understood the concept of penalties, but it drove her crazy that she couldn't see them as they happened as I usually can. Now, I've been playing & watching football (well, maybe not playing so much anymore) since I can remember, so it's fairly easy to keep track, at least for me. Pretty soon though, she started to understand the various signals the referees use to indicate penalties, and such, and the game became more interesting to her. In time, she began to be fascinated by the other aspects of football, specifically the inner workings of the NFL, how trades worked, how they figured out who plays who, how they decide on where the Superbowl will be, things I've never-ever cared about, and never will. By last season, she was a frothing at the mouth Seahawks fan, had to have her 'hawks shirt on for the games, knew everything there was to know in the public domain about each of the players, could tell you their life stories, where they used to play, etc. This even extended to the refs & umpires, never before could I have told you the name of any of them, not one. But she knows.
Then, early this year (or maybe last year, I have no idea when the season starts and never will, just don't care, seemingly the season is year 'round, but dunno), she became interested in baseball, specifically the Mariners. I've never been interested in baseball beyond hoping that our home team would have a good season, something I wish on all our home teams (till now). However, I've been to exactly one professional baseball game, and experienced that Homer Simpson realization: "I never realized how boring this game was without beer", except that I'd always thought it was boring, just had no idea it was even worse in the stadium, even with beer. At least my tickets were free...
By this time next year, I expect she'll know as much about baseball as she does about football.
So now, while the Mariners are playing 44 games in 45 days, I have to endure baseball on the TV. It was bad enough when the guys I used to commute with would listen to the game on the way home, at least then I could tune it out by sleeping or listening to tunes. But now it seems all pervasive, it's all baseball all the time. Even my co-workers are listening to the games on their radios or online. Not only that, I have to listen to stats, analysis, and bitching about the team. Apparently they've lost their last seven or eight games. All I can say is that I hope they continue to lose so they don't end up in the playoffs where the tyranny would continue.
I'm drawing the line at basketball...
Oh, and F1 racing? No interest anymore, even if a race is on when it's easy to watch (instead of the middle of the night), she can't be bothered. And America's Cup? We got to watch exactly one race (in four years).
Every fall with the advent of football season, I'd be spending extra couch potatoe time watching the games. She could not understand what I saw in the game and made her opinions quite clear. Then, about two years ago something changed, all of a sudden, football started to interest her. This was great! No more feeling guilty about not working on something in the house while I was watching the Seahawks play whoever. She was very frustrated at first because she didn't understand the game, and certainly not the nuances, especially penalties. She understood the concept of penalties, but it drove her crazy that she couldn't see them as they happened as I usually can. Now, I've been playing & watching football (well, maybe not playing so much anymore) since I can remember, so it's fairly easy to keep track, at least for me. Pretty soon though, she started to understand the various signals the referees use to indicate penalties, and such, and the game became more interesting to her. In time, she began to be fascinated by the other aspects of football, specifically the inner workings of the NFL, how trades worked, how they figured out who plays who, how they decide on where the Superbowl will be, things I've never-ever cared about, and never will. By last season, she was a frothing at the mouth Seahawks fan, had to have her 'hawks shirt on for the games, knew everything there was to know in the public domain about each of the players, could tell you their life stories, where they used to play, etc. This even extended to the refs & umpires, never before could I have told you the name of any of them, not one. But she knows.
Then, early this year (or maybe last year, I have no idea when the season starts and never will, just don't care, seemingly the season is year 'round, but dunno), she became interested in baseball, specifically the Mariners. I've never been interested in baseball beyond hoping that our home team would have a good season, something I wish on all our home teams (till now). However, I've been to exactly one professional baseball game, and experienced that Homer Simpson realization: "I never realized how boring this game was without beer", except that I'd always thought it was boring, just had no idea it was even worse in the stadium, even with beer. At least my tickets were free...
By this time next year, I expect she'll know as much about baseball as she does about football.
So now, while the Mariners are playing 44 games in 45 days, I have to endure baseball on the TV. It was bad enough when the guys I used to commute with would listen to the game on the way home, at least then I could tune it out by sleeping or listening to tunes. But now it seems all pervasive, it's all baseball all the time. Even my co-workers are listening to the games on their radios or online. Not only that, I have to listen to stats, analysis, and bitching about the team. Apparently they've lost their last seven or eight games. All I can say is that I hope they continue to lose so they don't end up in the playoffs where the tyranny would continue.
I'm drawing the line at basketball...
Oh, and F1 racing? No interest anymore, even if a race is on when it's easy to watch (instead of the middle of the night), she can't be bothered. And America's Cup? We got to watch exactly one race (in four years).
1 comment:
Good for Rita! Now, just to get her to support a real team :-) (signed a lifelong Yankees fan).
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