Sports matter more than you think

Sports matter more than you think

By Mark Levitt

Published Sept. 18, 2008

Disclaimer: If you are of the opinion that some people put sports on a pedestal and raise their importance beyond a meaningless competition, you will not like me or this article. If you believe issues of the world are more important and interesting than the World Series, not only are you misguided, but also, you will fail to appreciate everything I am about to say. If you think sports are a waste of time and money, my only request is that you proceed with an open mind, and may God have mercy on your unfortunate soul.

The majority of people do not appreciate the true meaning of sports. Many know the players and the games and they care which teams win and which lose. But few have the cried-after-a-loss, plan-your-life-around-them understanding of what sports are really about.

Sports are about unity. More than 54,000 people stood screaming in the pouring rain Saturday watching the Tigers beat up on Nevada. Most of these people have never met each other. Yet for four hours every fall Saturday, complete strangers high five and chant as if they are the best of friends. I challenge you to find another event in which thousands of people in one building all root for the same cause.

Sports are about beauty. The perfectly executed 4-6-3 double play, the no-look bounce pass, a kick-save and a beauty, a Roger Federer forehand that just catches the outside of the line, the suicide squeeze, Jeremy Maclin making one cut and breaking free, Dennis Rodman in a wedding dress. With all due respect to the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition, nothing is more beautiful than certain aspects of sports.

Sports are about believing in something you have no control over whatsoever. It is almost like a religion except instead of praying to God, you worship Babe Ruth and Michael Jordan. It is irrational and insane and great. There is no work to do, no papers to write, no real benefits when your team wins. But believing in something, anything, is good for a person.

Sports are about playing catch with somebody you love. No matter what is wrong with my life at the moment, I can push it aside to play catch with my dad. It is a scene best depicted at the end of the movie "Field of Dreams." It is a connection that can't be described. It has to be experienced. If readers take one thing away from this article, I want them to go play catch with somebody they care about.

Sports are about kids. More kids grow up wanting to be a professional athlete than any other profession. There are few experiences that are more rewarding than teaching a kid how to shoot a ball through the basketball hoop or how to catch a football. Forget chocolate. The smiles those achievements bring to thousands of children are worth more money than any professional athlete can imagine.

Sports are about raw emotion. No actor in the world is good enough to capture the live emotion of an athletic competition. Losing breeds real tears. Winning breeds real joy and real tears. Fist pumps, chest bumps, high fives and more.  These emotions cannot be faked.

Sports are about lifting up society. The nation turned to football and baseball after 9/11. New Orleans got back on its feet watching the Saints at the Superdome after Hurricane Katrina. Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color barrier while the rest of the nation remained segregated. He proved African-Americans really were equal to their white counterparts, not just in baseball, but in life. Sports matter.

Those two words sufficiently cover everything I've written. Sports matter.