Hudson Valley Astrologer

“You can observe a lot just by watching.”

Yogi Berra

“Lettering” in a sport use to be a big deal but I don’t really hear much about it anymore. When my dad passed many years ago we were going through his stuff and came across his “Letters.” They had little decorative achievement pins on them. I vaguely remember getting “Letters” too, but I don’t recall them being all that significant.

“My sports” were typical for a north easterner: football, baseball, and basketball. But after a stint of working out with the lacrosse team in college, I felt I missed my calling. Had lacrosse been an option I think I would have gone out for the team.

Things change! “Letters,” once a significant acknowledgement of achievement in school spirit and participation, use to be a bigger deal, especially for college bound students. Although “Letters” may not carry the same cachet they once did, they are also no longer just for sports. Today, theater, music, academic achievements and other school activities are considered worthy of “Letters.”

Maybe because I played, I watched way more sports as a kid, but I also listened to way more music. Today I do not watch nearly as much nor listen as much. Needless to say, I’m not playing as much either. Although I am pretty much addicted to Peloton which has become a sort of entertainment business. That’s where I get the bulk of my music intake, along with a great sweat. But it ain’t easy listening! The added benefit? A pretty decent resting heart rate, good blood pressure, and a VO2 Max of someone half my age.

My main sport was football. I played on championship teams in both high school and college. My high school coach became a GM in the NFL. And I’m still close with some of my teammates. Sunday became more and more religious the further away we got from buckling up our own helmets. Maybe still playing, albeit vicariously, through our favorite players. “Any given Sunday,” became an all day extravaganza of food and cheering on players not even on “my team,” nonetheless important because the players were selected for “my fantasy team roster”. All true, at least for my former teammates, however, I never got involved in fantasy sports. And my viewing has steadily declined to the point where I’ve not watched a single snap this year.

The Chiefs are headed to a rematch with the Eagles and I could honestly care less. I’ll probably tune in, along with 200 million other people, just to see if Saquon Barkley can take down the Kansas Switty Chiefs, but I am as interested in the game as I am in watching President Trump give a speech on Fairness and the Existential Threat of Climate Change.

That said, I do love watching baseball. Only 13 days until pitchers and catchers report for spring season! The game is slow and calming for the most part. Like a good meditation, nothing happens! For 162 games a year, 6-7 times a week, for just under 3 hours per game. Unless you can appreciate the subtle nuances of the game, where leather meets wood, and a stitched up ball mediates between them, then it could be more like watching grass grow.

But here’s the thing about baseball. When it’s on you no longer have to scroll through that Netflix menu looking for something to watch. And that mainstream media boycott you started last fall? Well, it just got a whole lot easier because even watching grass grow is better than watching Pinocchio reruns, better known as the nightly news. Baseball has its own agenda, and sometimes it wants to make you believe in something that isn’t true, like this year will be different. Is it a mixed message? Like politics? A profession we know that can be dark, yet something that is supposed to be serious. But baseball isn’t dark, and if it were, it’s like a piece of dark chocolate, that most satisfying if somewhat luxurious treat.

HVA

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