After a hard day at work I like to come home and channel surf over a bottle of brew and maybe a shot of nip on the side. "Ahh. What's on the TV?" I ask myself.
Sooner or later I'll get on SportsCenter and watch the boys and girls play sports. I say 'boys' and 'girls' because all of them are quite young, and peaking, probably in their early 20's up to 'old age'- their mid-thirties.
And wow can they perform. I'd hate to face a serve made by those tennis players, or try and hit a curveball thrown by one of those ace pitchers, or defend against any of the highly ranked soccer players in the World Cup competition. They are formidable opponents.
Basketball and hockey just concluded their seasons and the playoff battles leading up to the finals were intense. I don't know 'zactly how the hockey finals went but I saw some of the basketball finals highlights. Cleveland, I believe, got swept. Out in four.
Golf is ongoing, haven't been watching that as much, but I do know that some guy won back to back U.S. Opens, which is absolutely amazing.
But what is most amazing of all about sports is the amount of money these athletes are getting. Numbers are tossed about by the ever-chuckling SportsCenter anchors and those numbers are stratospheric. Salaries in the tens of millions of dollars, for playing ball.
Coulda Shoulda Woulda....!
Photo- Leio McLaren-Unsplash.com
I like to think that I perform on an equally high level, sometimes, at my job, but the difference between me and LeBron James is that only ten people are watching me. And if I WAS to play sports, I would prefer that NOBODY be watching, because people watching me makes me nervous but the winner of the U.S. Open said he ENJOYS that. The more challenging and troublesome the course, and the higher and more breathless the drama, the better he likes it.
So I guess there is a fundamental difference between me and guys like him right there. They like to pit themselves against the competition and I don't. I like to play sports only because I want to see if I can do it. Make the basket. Hit the pure golf shot. Do it for an audience? No way.
So it's no wonder that I'm sitting at home watching the games on TV instead of playing in them, which I couldn't do anymore anyway, because I would have to play in a seniors league and who wants to do that?
Furthermore, and back to the green, what do these superstar athletes do with all of that money? Crazy amounts of money, like hitting the lottery every year for ten years. What do they DO with that?
It's all a matter of perspective. While I might tip a waitress five bucks at the breakfast joint, a star athlete will casually give $200,000 to charity.
We're in the same world, just playing with different denominations of chips. I get a little house, they get a big one. I get a car, they get a car. But not the SAME car. Or maybe they get, like one of the baseball players I read about once, twenty cars and a garage big enough to hold 'em. They like to drive, I like to drive. But around there our few similarites end. The anchors on SportsCenter will clue you in on that because where the athletes lavish lives are examined in minute detail, mine is only self examined. I am also not considered 'talent', would be lucky to get (perhaps) a mediocre signing bonus should I accept a position, and I've NEVER waited for some team to draft me.
SportsCenter reminds me of how glorified my life could be, had I continued on past little league to pony league, scored a baseball scholarship, and then while on a free ride through college some scout in the stands could have observed me and next thing I know I could have been playing in the minors, for a short while, before getting called up to the majors and becoming a Professional Athlete.
Now I'm not bitter about any of this, 'cuz I probably wouldn't have done it anyway, but damn! I didn't realize at the time that there was not going to be a little difference in paychecks and corresponding lifestyles, but a difference SO big that no other career path compares. Guess I shoulda looked at that. But oh well! I enjoyed my time knocking that ball around.
And I still get to watch the Top Ten plays of the day.