The Fix, by Declan Hill
March 28, 2011 § 2 Comments
Humanity is the keystone that holds nations and men together. When that collapses, the whole structure crumbles. This is as true of baseball teams as any other pursuit in life.
– Connie Mack
Theories about why sport attracts the attention it does are as plentiful and varied as Djibril Cissé’s haircuts, though some at least make a little sense. Sport has been proferred variously as an alternative to war — which is why I take a bayonet to Champion Hill — as a channel for the unhealthy energies of young boys — your John Terry joke of choice here — and as the opiate of the masses — on which this, this and this. Rather charmingly, Declan Hill offers a simpler theory: that the attraction of sport is that it is the one arena of life that is free from bullshit. That it is honest, open, fair and free; that the triumph of A over B is nothing more than the reflection of the relative levels of luck, ability, and performance.
Or at least it should be. « Read the rest of this entry »
