Sports, Religion & The Catskills: Part 1

Ask any Jewish Chicago Cubs fan if he finds a connection between his faithfulness to the Cubs and his Judaism. If the answer is not “yes,” then you’ve asked someone deficient in caring about the Cubs or his religion. The Cubs are celebrating 100 years since their last World Championship. This makes them the most ridiculed franchise in baseball. Similarly, a Cubs fan will tell you, the Jews have been persecuted for thousands of years, and the Messiah will come and make us World Champions again.

I just don’t get it. I’ll play a sports game. I’ll even watch a game if a friend or a family member is playing. But the bond between the fan and the pro-sports team is extreme.

Once a team is chosen, one can’t easily change that decision and, much like a converting a Jew, they acquire the entire history of the team. This makes sense when adopting a philosophy, a religion or a nationality. Does it make sense when rooting for a sports team? Why people even follow professional sports is a more basic question. Why do people let it ruin their day (or a minute of it) if their sports team loses a game? (Let’s not even get into how the Japanese economy is affected whenever one of their players is on the field.)

Psychologically, the issue is simple: People like to be part of something bigger than themselves. There is usually no personal connection with the sports team. However, once you show support for a team, you become part of the team – a member of the fan base.

If we analyze just a little bit, the concept implies that people follow professional sports because they are insecure with their own world. It is not enough to support friends and family members in their sporting games; one goes out of their way to support strangers. Obviously, there are many other reasons that people follow and care about sports. Advertisers care how many people are coming to the park, a number with fairly direct correlation to how well certain teams are playing; the vendors have the same interest. The media will keep people informed according to the societal interest. There are many other parties whose interest in sports is contingent on the mass of people who are interested to help them with their insecurities and to feel “important” by being a fan of the Dallas Cowboys.

Sports movies are similar to hero (comic book) movies. If the movie is about the sport or about the super powers bestowed upon a hero, the movie is not worth watching. If the movie is about a story that happens to involve characters who are athletes or super heroes, the movie stands to be judged based on its story. Watching sports without a story (or a loose story about athletes’ personal lives) is akin to staring at a blank canvas and calling it art (assuming you are not a canvas connoisseur).

Do sports have any real value, or are the blind masses pushed to perceive these games as a pastime to divert focus from their shortcomings? Even if the Cubs are the 2008 World Champions, can one draw a connection between their winning now and their winning then? The only similarities between the two baseball teams is their name and general locale. A Cubs fan might retort by asking why Jews today should expect to have the same connection with God as the Jews of the Bible. Is there any disagreement that those are the words of a sports addict, not a casual fan?

Stay tuned for the death of nostalgia as we ask the question: Ich bin ein Yid, wenn ich nicht sprechen Yiddish? (Thank you, Google Translator.)