Sports-Centered

 

Much of my childhood was wrapped up in sports. Whether school teams or playground, playing baseball or basketball or football took up a good deal of my free time and made up a good deal of my social circle. But the truly deep dive for me was not playing sports but watching it, and not just watching it but following it in the form of poring over box scores and memorizing stats and replaying highlights. 

Did I know the minutiae of a team's roster because I was a smart kid, or did I become a smart kid digesting such granular information? Who knows? All I know is that my brain took to sports, and so I devoted a prodigious amounts of time to consuming it.

Fast-forward to the present and it is truly unbelievable to consider just how little I follow or know. Not for lack of interest, alas it is all for lack of time and space to spare. Did I watch the game? When asked that question, I can only offer that I don't even know which game must be such a big deal that it can be referred to as "the game." Or if I am aware, then no I did not watch the game, nor did I usually have time to catch the highlights or even peripherally read about it.

As a thought experiment, I went to ESPN and tried to think about whether I could even name any players in entire sports, let alone know their stats like I once did. In basketball and football, coverage is vast enough and I do catch snippets here and there, that I could probably easily name a good 50 or more players in each league. But even in baseball, my first love, I don't think I could even do that, which my childhood self would find impossible since at that age I am certainly could regularly fit every single team's starting line-up in my head and then some.

Here's a little test: how many baseball players could you name, recognize their face, and know what team they're currently on? As for me, circa April 2022, it would only be 27:

• Orioles - 0
• Red Sox - 0
• Yankees - Judge, Cole
• Rays - 0
• Jays - Bichette, Guerrero Jr.
• White Sox - 0
• Guardians - 0
  
• Tigers - 0
• Royals -Witt Jr.
  
• Twins - 0
• Astros - Altuve, Verlander
• Angels - Ohtani, Trout
• A's - 0
• Mariners - 0
• Rangers - 0
• Braves - Acuna Jr.
• Marlins - 0
• Mets - deGrom, Lindor
• Phillies - Harper, Nola, Realmuto, Wheeler, Hoskins, Schwarber
• Nationals - Soto
• Cubs - Suzuki
• Reds - 0
• Brewers - 0
• Pirates - 0
• Cardinals - 0
• Diamondbacks - 0
• Rockies - 0
• Dodgers - Bellinger, Betts, Freeman, Kershaw
• Padres - Machado, Tatis Jr.
• Giants - Posey

Look at all those zeroes, too: more than half of the teams where I couldn't even name a single player! Including my once-beloved A's, although admittedly I heard they just had a fire sale so maybe even a more serious fan might have trouble following their new line-up card. But still!

Like most kids, I followed the big three sports of baseball, basketball, and football much more than anything else. But I dabbled in many other leagues back then when I had more time. Nowadays my knowledge has gotten exceedingly scarce. Off the top of my head this is who I could come up with in other sports whose names  I know and I could pick them out of a lineup:

• All Summer Olympics events (men and women) - Biles, Ledecky
  
• All Winter Olympics events (men and women) - 0
• All soccer leagues (men and women) - Ertz, Messi, Mbappe, Morgan, Neymar, Rapinoe, Ronaldo
  
• Boxing, MME, et al - 0
• College basketball (men and women) - Banchero, Bueckers, Holmgren, Love
• College football - Young
• All other college sports - 0
• Golf (men and women) - Woods
• Hockey - 0
• NASCAR, F1, et al - 0 
• Tennis (men and women) - Djokovic, Nadal, Osaka, Williams
  
• WNBA - Bird, Della Donne, Griner, Parker, Stewart, Taurasi 

That's 25 athletes total in the whole world! That's all I have space for in my head right now. This would have blown my childhood mind away. Someday I'll get back to combing the back of baseball cards and being able to recite entire team rosters. Just not anytime soon.