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Almost 20 years ago, I married a sports fan.
When we were dating, and during the first years of our marriage, I tried really hard to share his passion. I sat beside him and watched games on TV. I went to a few games at the ballpark. I asked questions and looked for things to engage my interest.
The Mariners almost hooked me, because I was trying to morph into a sports fan while they were winning 116 games in a season. That was fun!
After about five years of concerted effort, I realized my attention and commentary centered on things like uniforms, players' hair, and people in the stands.
And I had to admit: I am not a sports fan.
I love a lot of things about October. But there's about a million hours of football and baseball on that month. Really? Do we really need football five days out of the week?!
This is when I start dreaming about the middle of summer, when the day after the baseball All-Star game arrives. Many years ago, Mike told me it was the only day there wasn't some kind of professional sporting event. That's probably changed now - kinda like the addition of Thursday night football. It's just the principle: it's not like SportsCenter shuts down or anything. But it seems that, if there are 364 days with professional sports on the calendar, the 365th should be special.
I've tried to figure out what women have that's the equivalent of sports. What do we have that has legends, stats, groups to follow, celebrities to idolize? Maybe soap operas? Fashion? Reality TV? (Believe me, if Project Runway was on every night, I'd be pretty excited.) Possibly gossip, but that's a horrible reflection. But nothing as pervasive as sports.
I still like going to the ballpark. I like the pre-game activities, especially singing the National Anthem. I like the atmosphere, the people-watching, the implied license to indulge in All-American food. I try to pay attention to part of the game, but, inevitably, I'll be standing and clapping with the crowd and lean over to ask Mike, "Why are we cheering?" One time it was because Ken Griffey, Jr. was coming up to bat. Oops! There's just so much going on!
Most importantly, I love my sports fan. And I know he loves me a lot because he often switches off the game so we can watch something we both like. So it's pretty easy to support my sports fan when there are games he really wants to watch. We've found our happy medium.
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