Are you a sports fan? Do you live and die with the fortunes of your favorite players or teams?
Would it be as fun if your beloved team never lost? Or is heartbreak an essential part of being a fan?
In “Baseball Is Designed to Break Your Heart,” Chris Vognar writes about the ups, and mostly downs, of being a sports fan:
The familiar emptiness hit me in the pit of my stomach. For the second time in five years my beloved 49ers had blown a 10-point lead to the Kansas City Chiefs and lost the Super Bowl. As soon as the game was over I turned away from the screen, quietly thanked my party hosts, went home to feed my cat and grew determined to not read about or watch sports for a long while. I may have muttered the phrase “I hate sports” several times over the next few days.
Yet not two weeks later, with spring training games now underway, and every baseball team, including my beloved San Francisco Giants, offering its followers a glimmer of optimism for the coming season, I’m drawn back in again to sports fandom. A question plagues my mind, and not for the first time: Why?
As a sentient being who happens to be a passionate sports fan, I have had ample opportunity to grapple with this question. Why do we bother? We will most likely never meet the athletes we root for. We will never make as much money as they do. Nothing they do affects our physical health, our families or our livelihoods. Yet our emotional well-being rises and falls with their success on the field, on the court and on the baseball diamond.
I believe it’s because, in a world in which tribalism is pulling us apart, the completely imaginary tribalism of the sports fan is a necessary balm. Not because it allows you to celebrate — though you do occasionally get to do that — but because you get to lose. A lot. Nothing brings us together like communal suffering. And this simulated losing helps prepare us for the worst that life can dish out.
I do remember one sentence I uttered as I stumbled out of that Super Bowl party: “Well, somebody had to lose.” (It’s an inverse of what I often say when two teams I hate square off: “It’s a pity somebody has to win.”) Whether we realize it or not, every fan of a team that loses is constantly in the process of honing a valuable life skill. To live is to lose — a loved one, a marriage, a job, a sense of identity — and sports are trivial compared with any of that. But sports provide perspective: You think this is bad? C’mon. This is just a game. It gives us a kind of laboratory of loss, a relatively safe arena in which to practice for the losses that really matter.
Students, read the entire article and then tell us:
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What is the best and worst part of being a sports fan? How does being a fan enrich your life?
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A. Bartlett Giamatti, a former commissioner of baseball, once said of the game: “It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart.” Does that sentiment resonate with you? Has sports ever broken your heart? Do you think it would be as fun if your favorite team never lost? Or is heartbreak an essential part of being a fan?
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After watching his beloved 49ers suffer another devastating loss in the Super Bowl, a despondent Mr. Vognar questioned his love for the game: “Why do we bother? We will most likely never meet the athletes we root for. We will never make as much money as they do. Nothing they do affects our physical health, our families or our livelihoods. Yet our emotional well-being rises and falls with their success on the field, on the court and on the baseball diamond.” How would you respond to his question? What keeps you coming back to the sports fandom despite the constant pain and loss?
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“To live is to lose — a loved one, a marriage, a job, a sense of identity,” writes Mr. Vognar. And sports, he argues, “gives us a kind of laboratory of loss, a relatively safe arena in which to practice for the losses that really matter.” Do you agree? Do you think sports provides us with the skills and perspective to deal with heartbreak and loss in real life? What other life lessons has sports provided you?
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Would you recommend being a sports fan to others? Why or why not?
Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public and may appear in print.
Find more Student Opinion questions here. Teachers, check out this guide to learn how you can incorporate these prompts into your classroom.