Watching baseball and hoping Cubby Jack's sales call went well....

My travels the past few days have provided interesting opportunities to people watch. On Tuesday evening, I arrived in Grand Rapids mid evening and after checking into my hotel, went to the attached restaurant for dinner. Turns out the Detroit Tigers were playing the Minnesota Twins in a one-game playoff and the restaurant was overflowing with Tiger fans, with the 2009 fate of their heroes resting on every pitch. Since I was alone at my table in an overflowing restaurant, a fifty-ish gentleman asked if he could join me. He was from Chicago and a Cubs fan so we ended up as two dispassionate observers, taking in an interesting ball game, recounting the baseball playoff races of interest in our living memories (which for this Blue Jays fan growing up in SW Ontario in the eighties and nineties, included quite a few disappointments and two world series,) and ending up philosophizing about the role of sports in society.

I shared similar observations to those on which I have previously blogged as to how modern sports functions like civil religion did in a previous era. There is something about the shared experience of cheering at the same event, taking place at stadiums which define our cities like cathedrals once did, which builds an identity and a shared sense of belonging. My table-mate on Tuesday nite pushed back a bit, arguing that sports were a social good. "Michigan needs this" he told me, trying to suggest a Tigers win on Tuesday would increase the chances of success on his Wednesday sales call. At first he tried his case with numbers -- playoff games means money coming into the economy which provides stimulus to the hospitality industry which spills over into other sectors. We did a bit of "follow the money" logic and concluded together that this was probably less significant than usually advertised, especially if the baseball playoffs prompted fans to dig out their credit cards to partake in a sports fix to soothe the pains of especially tough economic times. His second argument was the positive feelings that would flow to many who had lost self-confidence and self-esteem, suggesting that the baseball success of their heroes would provide an impetus for participants in a depressed economy to keep going. I concede there is some validity to this argument.

Analyzing a sports event through a social or economic lens does admittedly miss the attraction of the game itself. There is little doubt that this game was one of the more interesting that either of us could remember. It was fun to take in a game with a knowledgeable baseball fan, together predicting and second-guessing the various managerial moves, admiring the athletic plays, and chuckling at the irrational opinions of the fans around us, even though both of us knew if it were "our team" that was in the game, our response would probably not be all that different. For me the difference was most evident by the fact that my dinner done, with the game heading off to yet another extra inning, I was able to excuse myself and head to my room to get some needed work done -- a departure that admittedly would have been unlikely if the Blue Jays of the early nineties were playing (my baseball passions have subsided significantly since the strike of 94, so not sure today's Blue Jays would still spark my passionate interest but a moot point given their performance over recent years.)

I did check the score before I went to bed that night and had to admit a twinge of disappointment to learn that the Tigers lost, not because I am suddenly a Tigers fan, but just being in the room of Tigers fans provided some sympathy and also for Jack, the Cubs fan, who had an important sales call in Grand Rapids yesterday. Hope it went well for him.