tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post43361668740625312..comments2024-03-27T03:19:11.216-04:00Comments on Assistant Village Idiot: Why Futbol Will Never Catch OnAssistant Village Idiothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-32674111452599640212010-06-30T12:44:51.209-04:002010-06-30T12:44:51.209-04:00I suspect nostalgia is an important factor. We ca...I suspect nostalgia is an important factor. We can also dig a bit deeper and ask the question: Why are we nostalgic?<br /><br />Perhaps nostalgia is related to our idealizing tendency (see Heinz Kohut). I know that my friends and I had sports heroes and teams that we idealized during childhood. When I look back at the sports heroes I idealized as a child, I see the sports I follow as adult.<br /><br />Certainly, there wouldn't be anything approaching 1.0 correlation for the general population of sports fans, but it would be interesting to compare childhood sports heroes with sports followed as an adult. I wouldn't be surprised to find that childhood idealizations are a major factor.<br /><br />My teen years were spent in a CT town where youth soccer had been an obsession since the 1930s. The high school team won a disproportionate number of state championships and the team even toured Europe quite successfully. But I didn't have any professional soccer idols during childhood. I don't recall that any of my friends did either. We knew Pelé, but was he a hero for any of us? Not really. As much as we enjoyed playing soccer and attending games as spectators, I don't think any of us became ardent adult fans of the professional game.Dr Xhttp://drxblog@gmail.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-48669589608260922642010-06-29T19:07:36.037-04:002010-06-29T19:07:36.037-04:00make the pitch 10 yards shorter.make the pitch 10 yards shorter.GraniteDadhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04851407860883846133noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-58755207878015135992010-06-29T18:34:43.577-04:002010-06-29T18:34:43.577-04:00I suspect you are correct, and it is even more tha...I suspect you are correct, and it is even more than half nostalgia. Subsequent analysis may just be scrabbling at the edges, explaining the last 5%. Which hardly seems worth the effort.<br /><br />Class can affect choice of sport as well. Cricket, for example. Golf, which is much more of a blue-collar sport in Scotland. Curling.Assistant Village Idiothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-77100661565683034662010-06-29T17:00:34.740-04:002010-06-29T17:00:34.740-04:00The poverty explanation might be applicable to Ame...The poverty explanation might be applicable to American sports as well. I don't think that America was necessarily a "rich" country in the early days of baseball. Many of the main sports evolved in poorer times.<br /><br />"The beauty they see in it is half nostalgia."<br /><br />I believe this is the main reason why people love their national sports in general. It's as simple as growing up with the sport(s), in a society permeated by the sport(s). <br /><br />I went to small town Canada and guess what the kids were playing in the summer? Hockey on concrete. Everyday. In the US I see them playing baseball, in Europe soccer.<br /><br />I believe strongly that when it comes to sports our likes and dislikes are about 99% predetermined by the environment we grow up in. <br /><br />Rich or poor is secondary, number of goals is secondary, level of athleticism is secondary. What matters mostly is the sports traditions we grow up with. End of story.<br /><br />That's where the discussion should end. People seem to have a hard time though accepting that. I don't know why... You see/read all sorts of explanations as to why soccer is boring, but the critics can't even imagine that almost the same arguments could be made against American sports.<br /><br />I have lived and worked for long periods of time in six countries and the main realization was that who I am as a person is _hugely_ shaped by the society/environment I grew up in. <br /><br />Not long ago I was reading on PJM comments made by Americans on the reasons why soccer is not popular in the US. Most of them had no idea that their criticism wasn't reality based, but rather deeply cultural based. They were just like me before my career took me to different countries - oblivious to the influence of my past.<br /><br />There are some people smarter than me who don't have to live in X countries in order to understand the complex ways in which their upbringing defines them. I wasn't one of them. I needed to leave my past in order to understand how much my past was influencing my present choices.<br /><br />In Europe American football is almost non-existent and baseball is truly non-existent. You could say that's because Europeans are stupid folks who lack understanding. That might satisfy some (American) ego, but is it true? Or is it simply because no one grows up with those sports and thus there is no affinity with them, no emotional connection? Which explanation is more likely?<br /><br />I for one am puzzled by the need to dissect and explain, instead of quietly accepting and moving on.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com