Blog#232-2/6/25
SPORTS- A HEALTHY REFUGE
By
Richard Davis
If there was ever a time when we needed a refuge from the madness of the world it is now. Many of us are finding are own personal refuges and one of mine is sports. It doesn’t matter whether you are a participant or a spectator/fan because once you are immersed in any kind of sporting experience it is easy to forget about the rest of the world for a time. Reminiscing about your own personal sports history also has value.
My favorite sports are baseball and basketball. I have never been a football fan and I attribute that to the fact that my high school didn’t have a football team. I was the team manager for most of the sports at my high school, sort of a combination mascot and all around errand boy for the coach and players.
Our soccer team was one of the best in the state. A lot of that had to do with the fact that all the other teams we played had their best athletes on their football teams. All the big guys that usually don’t play soccer were on our team and we literally trampled most of the other teams.
Then there was basketball. We had a championship level team and most years we were in the state finals at the old Boston Garden. It was a treat to be in the locker room and then go onto the parquet floor and soak in the history of the place. I had a friend who was friendly with Bob Cousy and Johnny Most ( if you don’t know who they are check it out). We would often sit in the press box next to Most at games and then shmooze with the then retired Cousy after the game.
At the time Sam Jones, one of the Celtics, lived in my town and he would stop by our basketball practice and I would chat with him. He was very candid and said he thought our coach was not very good but he did appreciate the talent we had on the team.
The Celtics of today are nothing like the Celtics of the 60’s. They are amazing to watch and the level of skill on their team, as well as most others, is worth watching just to appreciate the high level of accomplishment of these young (and obscenely rich) athletes. Pick any NBA team and follow it and I guarantee you can save money you would have spent in therapy.
Baseball is a thinking person’s game. I am sick and tired of hearing people say that baseball is boring. It is only boring because people have such short attention spans and they need a constant rush of adrenaline to keep them going. Chill. Stop changing the rules to accommodate the short-attention-span generation.
When I was about 10-13 years old we would play baseball all day during the summer. Sometimes it was organized, but most of the time we just played pick up games. If we didn’t have enough players we would modify the rules. If we only had a couple of us we would play home run derby. It was a hot television show at the time.
I still harbor delusions of being drafted by the Red Sox and being their starting catcher. I still have dreams about being on the field at Fenway and being nervous about playing before the crowd. My fantasy life is rich and that helps.
It doesn’t matter what sport you follow or play. There is always an opportunity to escape from the world around us whether it’s golf, pickleball, skiing, skating or any other sport. We are long past the days of two dollar tickets to the Fenway bleachers. The price of professional sports tickets is obscene. But we have our favorite living room furniture and that is the best seat in the house. Refuge from the world at a price we can afford.
