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Sport as Play
| Article
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14914 |
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Section : |
MODERN THOUGHT
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| Issue
Date : |
10 / 1988 |
5,727 Words |
| Author
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Gary Alan Fine
Gary Alan Fine is professor of sociology at the University of
Minnesota and the author of With the Boys: Little League
Baseball and Preadolescent Culture. |
Sport is a twilight activity--halfway between the world of everyday life and the world of eternal dreams. Sport has a liminal quality for both the spectators and the players. Let us think of it in terms of the dichotomies of work and play, of reality and fantasy. This tension applies to both spectator sports and participatory sports. We must recognize that the division will never be resolved because this tension is central to sports. This tension makes sport something to be taken seriously--something at which people want to win--and yet something that provides diversion and relaxation--and thrills. In this article I shall address these questions from two pespectives: by examining the world of fantasy as it applies to sport spectators and the world of play as experienced by participants, especially Little League baseball players. Fanatsy and play have a family resemblence--play is active while fantasy is typically passive.
Sport is controversial because we wish for it to help us live out our fantasies. But fantasies do not come cheap, and money corrupts. It is a common observation among those who study daydreams that a large portion of daydreams--among men in particular--is about sports. In fantasy, sports may be second only to sex.
One of the main characteristics of spectator sports is that viewers do not watch them dispassionately; rather, we watch them identifying with the participants as much as possible. We inject ourselves into the spectacle. To enjoy ourselves, we choose a team to root for, and we may even cement this support--lest we doubt that we can refrain from being neutral--by betting on one team. We put our money where our mouths are, and our money ensures that our mouths remain where we wish them to be. We identify with our team our boys. We call ourselves "fans"--short for "fanatics." The sports viewer who doesn't care which team wins is considered bizarre. At least this is the ideal of sports viewership--even when we recognize that many viewers are quieter and more mundane.
Sport as Fantasy
Anyone who has ever watched a sports event particularly an important one, knows that on some level the outcome really matters. When we are "really" spectators, we feel the game. We exalt if our team wins--particularly if it is the "underdog" or has had to come from behind. We are angry, bitter, or sad if our team loses or is "cheated out of victory" because of some unfair circumstance. Given the emotional fullness of our response to spectator sports, I might even suggest that sporting events are second
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