God. I'm talking about sports.
I went to a hockey game last night - my first NHL playoff game ever.I have to confess, so you understand where I'm coming from, that I'm not a huge sports fan. My father has almost zero interest in sports - he only read up who's doing what the few days before his monthly poker game so that he can be part of the conversation if it comes up. John has interest in doing sports, but not watching. Well, except for Olympic ski stuff and a little bit of playoff Calgary hockey. At least once every two months I thank John for not being interested in sports. It's not that there's anything wrong with it. It just seems, for many people, to suck hours of their lives away in front of the tv. John's father, for example. The man in crazy about European football (soccer). He wanted to miss his daughter's graduation from university because the first preliminary game of the world cup was set to go at the same time. Seriously. I will admit to watching the Olympics a lot - actually, only the winter ones, I'm not too interested in the summer events except the water sports - but that's about it. So you understand that the whole Sports Phenomena is a little alien to me. (Now, the act of participating in sports is a totally different issue...)
So I had tickets through work and they're good seats. (Good enough I spent most of the time deciding that Rhett Warrener, who was all scruffy with facial hair, looked like a sportsgoers Patrick Dempsey. I was sad when he took a puck to the face and had to go have a little lie down. And probably stitches.) So they're good seats, lower bowl, and the place is PACKED. My guess is full house, which is around 20,000 people. 95% who were wearing red - there's a whole 'C of Red' thing going on. Everyone is going nuts - after all, first playoff home game of the season.
And the only thing running through my head was bread and circuses. (okay, fine, it's not cheap, but still.) It was cultish. And I've gone to more than my share of regular season and Hitmen (WHL) games, so I'm pretty used to the whole sports fan thing. But this was unbelievable. It was a cult, a mob mentality. And the yelling! Everyone around me yelling at the refs, at the players, giving advice, heckling, screaming... It was insane. I felt that I could use a good set of psychology, anthropology and sociology texts to explain what I was seeing. I mean, intellectually I get it, but to see it? To hear it? I mean, at one point the crowd was measured at 115 decibels, which is the same as an air raid siren! To know, given the hostility that came from a few crappy ref calls, that the whole place could riot? Yeah. It was pretty intense.
Thank god they won, though. 3-2. The last few minutes were pretty intense - enough so that I even got into it. (Did I mention when they score, or at the end if they've won, you can actually feel the heat from the natural gas flares they set off? It's pretty nifty.) I still don't get the whole Sports Thing, but even I agree that actually being at the game can be pretty exciting.
Now to see if I can score some Hitmen round 3 playoff tickets... They're actually doing well.
posted by Morgan @ 9:38 a.m.
2 Comments:
Oooh, I'm jealous. Well kinda. I would have loved to be there, but I do hate all the screaming and heckling. Do they really think the players are listening? Idiots.
Well, in fairness, the seats are good enough that (especially at a Hitmen game) we can hear some of what the players are yelling to each other. But yeah. One voice in the swell of 20k? I think not.
Post a Comment
<< Home