From the cheap seats

Last week, I had a very interesting conversation with a professor. I have been a bowler since I could pick up a ball. My grandparents taught me the love of the sport.

I consider bowling a sport. Granted, my opinion on the matter is a little biased, but the professor argued with me that it wasn’t a sport. That got me to thinking.’what constitutes a sport? What makes a game a sport?’

I asked several people their opinion on the question.
Some said that competition made a game a sport. My argument was that you could compete at almost anything. You could see who could eat the most hot dogs. Does that make it a sport?

Some said that anything that gets you active, hot, and sweaty. All that happens to me when I cut grass. Does that mean it’s going to be an Olympic event in two years?

Still, some argued that a sport has to get national recognition. I notice that every year the National Spelling Bee Championships are on national television and broadcast on ESPN. The highlights are even covered (sometimes mockingly) by Sportscenter. Does that mean NIKE is going
to get the winner to endorse their shoes?

What’s even more confusing are competitions that are already considered a sport.

Ballroom dancing, rhythmic gymnastics, and curling are all Olympic events. No offense to any of the people, who participate in these activities, they each take tons of practice, dedication and skill.

Ballroom dancing and rhythmic gymnastics should be in a different category than sports. I think dance and sports are two separate but equally challenging fields. But I cannot bring myself to believe that any
form of dance should be considered a sport.

Curling can best be described as like playing bocce ball on ice. The curler will take a big circular object with a handle and slide it to the middle of a target. Two teams compete for the middle of the goal. You can knock your opponent out of the circle and at the end of the competition the points are awarded for how close to the center of the circle you get.

Now as challenging as that may sound, I don’t think of curling as a sport. I don’t really consider bocce ball a sport, but it was the Italian forerunner to bowling, much like cricket was to baseball.

Before I continue, in case you missed it, Joseph Tkacik’s (take away the first K, and add an H after the C to pronounce it correctly) editorial is on
‘The Simpsons’ this week, which is like the greatest show on television.

This past week has been fun and interesting asking people what makes them consider something to be a sport. The fun part was thinking of reasons why their logic is wrong. But unfortunately, someone who shall remain nameless turned it around on me and asked me why I consider bowling to be a sport. Trying to save face, I just nodded, said an obscenity and walked away.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Sep 20 2002. Filed under Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry