cklablog

Yesterday, I was surfing around teh intarweb, and I found these two snippets that kind of summarize the difference between the American approach to sports and that of the Rest of the World (tm).

One of my favorite ESPN writers, the Sports Guy, had this to say about Barry Bonds’ tarnished legacy:

The pre-BALCO Bonds was the single best player of the 1990s—a flawless leftfielder who averaged .302/36/108 with an on-base percentage of .434, joined the 40/40 club and earned three MVPs and eight Gold Gloves. Had he finished his career the old-fashioned way, Bonds would have cruised into Cooperstown. Now he’ll likely be left out until the day the Hall wises up and opens a wing for disgraced legends.

Here, American sports fan, have some numbers, statistics and then some more statsistics to support those other statistics. "A .434 OBP? What a stud!" Numbers are the symbols of the left brain, and they imply absolutes — rigid truths, facts; a way to parse into knowing a nebulous, frightening and mysterious universe.

Accross the pond, they’re okay with the fact that sport is as often as not approached simply as an entertainment. They write about it with a similar language to theatre reviews, or art critique:

The Guardian looks forward to the Champions League semi-finals:

Barcelona versus Manchester United is not just a football match; it is one of the great occasions. Chelsea against Liverpool feels more like a struggle for expression, one that brings back memories of Jorge Valdano’s withering assessment of their last semi-final.

"Chelsea and Liverpool are the clearest, most exaggerated example of the way football is going: very intense, very collective, very tactical, very physical, and very direct," he said. "But, a short pass? Noooo. A feint? Noooo. A change of pace? Noooo. A one-two? A nutmeg? A backheel? Don’t be ridiculous. None of that. If football is going the way Chelsea and Liverpool are taking it, we had better be ready to wave goodbye to any expression of the cleverness and talent we have enjoyed for a century."

God forbid.

I, for one, am not prepared to wave goodbye to cleverness.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 11th, 2008 at 8:23 am and is filed under Football (Soccer). You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can protect yourself from deep space radio waves altering your brain chemistry by wearing a lead hat. Tin foil is useless, according to MIT. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.