On Sports

The latest episode of Radiolab was all about Games, and included a story from Stephen Dubner (co-author of Freakonomics) about growing up as a sports fan. Even as a long-time non-sports fan, I can agree with his very succint summary of Why Sports Matter: 

"You can put too much of your emotional life in the hands of people who don't know you and have no responsibility for you, but I think sports fandom is a fantastic gift with almost immeasurable value. It's a proxy for real life, but better. It renews itself, it's constantly happening in real time. There are conflicts that seem to carry real consequences but at the end of the day don't - it's war where nobody dies. It's a proxy for all our emotions and desires and hopes, I mean, heck, what's not to like about sports?"