Apathy or anger?

• Author: Barrett, Wayne M.
• Position: Sports Scene - Sports fans - Statistical Data Included

THERE'S A TRUISM that people who claim to have worn out life in fact have had life wear them out. I don't know about life, but the world of sports has left me, if not quite worn out, wavering between apathy and anger. I've long counted the latter as a positive emotion--a sure sign that my passions were still percolating. Yet, I'm afraid the former is beginning to grab the upper hand. More and more, I find myself drowning in a sea of indifference when it comes to sports. Part exasperation, part shifting priorities, it's hard to care anymore when those who control our once-treasured games, for the sake of power and profit, treat fans as foolish saps willing to suffer any indignity.

I thought--or maybe wished--that having children would rekindle those old flames. You know, the whole deal about reliving your life through your kids. It hasn't happened. Maybe it's because my trio is still too young (six, four, and two) really to appreciate or grasp the subtleties and complexities that accompany the world of athletics, or perhaps I just can't work up the enthusiasm to, as the saying goes, start 'em young. As a kid, I was pretty lucky, having been blessed with a father who absolutely loved sports. That, coupled with his wonderful storytelling ability, made for many priceless hours of shared passions for what went on between the lines.

So what's in store for the next generation(s) of sports enthusiasts? Or, to rephrase the question, how can there possibly be a next generation of fans based on what the sports world has to offer? This being July, we'll confine our observations to The Summer Game, although there is no shortage of outrageous examples concerning football, basketball, or hockey as well.

This season, for instance, I almost was unable to take my six-year-old daughter to Shea Stadium to see the New York Mets (as I've done every year since she was an infant), as the shortsighted, penurious New York management did away with matron service in the women's rest rooms, all to save a paltry $1,250 a game. (The Mets' player payroll, incidentally, is over $100,000,000. One game's pay for first baseman Mo Vaughn could've paid the matrons for a full year.) And what of the women, a number of them employed at Shea for many years, who lost their jobs over a lousy $13.50 an hour? Luckily, Mets fans, especially their female legions, bombarded the penny-pinchers with angry e-mails, threatening to boycott games. The press got hold of the story and played it...