Stateside Sport
After spending a year in England, I will be glad to get back to the world of American sports. The baseball season, which is in full swing, will be a pleasant distraction from leaving this merry old island.
This year, I have constantly complained about the complete void of any sort of enthusiasm for American football or baseball. I’ve checked the postbox every day for my latest issue of ESPN magazine – my constant link to American sports culture. Still, I must say I am extremely disheartened that I will not be in England for the rest of Euro 2004.
I am not about to claim that the sports available in England are in anyway better than those in the US. But there are key sporting experiences to be had here that rank among those I have had in America.
England’s win in the rugby world cup was my first taste of the English sporting pride. And then there was the train ride back from Easter holiday, when I managed to catch the London to Newcastle route just as a Newcastle rugby match finished. Never have I seen so many drunk men in a close proximity in my life.
I will also remember the new sports I learned this year. There’s cricket – a game which I only recently realized involves two batsman run back and fourth between the wickets simultaneously after a hit.
And then my favorite, of course, was rounders. Anyone who does not consider it a sloppy and weak version of baseball is kidding themselves. But colleges would insist on getting so aggressive and catty over the rules when we played each week.
All in all there are some interesting sports when you get away from the United States. However, I think the thing I will appreciate the most about English sports are the fans.
In Oakland, Raiders fans think they are so hardcore for putting on a bit of makeup and wearing spikes in their shoulder pads, but that is nothing compared to the antics of the so-called football hooligans.
And, after the Lakers won their third consecutive title a few years back, they were received by a massive flooding of fans in LA. Yet that does not even compare to the reception Jonny Wilkinson got when paraded through London with the rugby world cup.
I would still argue that America has fundamentally better sports, though there is a case for soccer. However, the fans in England seem to do everything on a bigger and harder scale than those in America who seem to just change loyalties and lack commitment to their teams.
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