Sports keep us going

Resslin' Around by Casey Ressler

Why do we play? Standing in the woods at an ungodly early hour, rain coming down, I searched for a little white ball that my un-Tigeresque drive off the tee box produced. Why am I doing this?

Down 15-0 in a coed E softball game, standing in the outfield coated in mud as rain beaded off my filthy Michigan State hat, I wondered aloud, "Why am I doing this?"

On the golf course I'm certainly no Phil Mickelson, and not just because I'm right-handed. On the softball field, I'm no Barry Bonds, and not because I prefer beer to steroids. But sports have a way of making us feel like we ARE Tiger Woods, or Roger Clemens, if only for one round or one game. Sports is a common thread that overweight middle-aged men have with professional athletes - and not because we think we are good, or have overinflated egos. Sports has a way of making everything right, even if you shoot in the 120s on the golf course, haven't scored a goal in the shinny game in years or get stuck at the bottom of the order in the lowest coed softball league.

We play because it's fun. After my drive found the woods, I found the rest of my threesome laughing and joking, and having fun. The closest we'll ever come to the Masters is a bag of popcorn and a reclined chair on a Sunday afternoon. But that one moment when everything clicks and you launch that ball dead red down the middle of the fairway, you know what it must feel like to be a PGA pro.

When a middle-aged woman crawls into her racecar at Capitol Speedway, I'm guessing she gets the same feeling as Jeff Gordon does when he lines up at Daytona. At that point, does it even matter that it's NOT Daytona?

We play because it makes us kids again. I get the same feeling every Monday night when our less-than-stellar coed team takes the field as I did when I was 11 and playing in a Little League all-star tournament. Of course, I never had to ice down my knees every Tuesday as an 11-year-old, as I do now two decades later.

It's hard to be a professional sports fan these days, with stories of steroids, billionaires and labor disputes popping up in the news every day. But being a fan of sports is much different than being a sports fan. Being a fan of sports means playing in a senior division in a rec soccer game, playing in a men's league in basketball , because your buddies are out there having fun.

That's why we play. Now pass the IcyHot.

Casey Ressler (valleylife@frontiersman.com) plays softball so he can tailgate after the game.