1. Tarver argues that sports fandom in the U.S. creates and reinforces what?
2. Fandom's normative effects far exceed what traditional worries?
3. The term "fan" originated in what geographic locale?
4. Tarver's book is primarily about what kind of fans?
DQ (Let's conduct the bulk of our discussion online, to leave more class-time for report presentations.)
- Are you a sports fan? Which sports? Since when? Have you ever wondered why? Are you ever embarrassed by the behavior of your fellow fans?
- Do you always refer to your favorite team(s) as "we"? Or do "they" lose?
- Are there any teams that you "hate"? Do you mean it? (Inspired by my colleague Bombardi's insistence that he really means it when he says he hates the Red Sox.)
- Do most fans, in your experience, implicitly endorse Grantland Rice's statement about what matters in the end?* Do you?
- How do you feel about Tarver's explanation of her focus on white fans? 3
- Are you made uncomfortable by Tarver's analysis of the "mascotting" of black athletes?
* “For when the One Great Scorer comes
To mark against your name,
He writes - not that you won or lost -
But HOW you played the Game."
Corner of Spring & College, Murfreesboro
"I believe in the Church of Baseball. I've tried all the major religions, and most of the minor ones. I've worshipped Buddha, Allah, Brahma, Vishnu, Siva, trees, mushrooms, and Isadora Duncan. I know things. For instance, there are 108 beads in a Catholic rosary and there are 108 stitches in a baseball. When I heard that, I gave Jesus a chance. But it just didn't work out between us. The Lord laid too much guilt on me. I prefer metaphysics to theology. You see, there's no guilt in baseball, and it's never boring... which makes it like sex. There's never been a ballplayer slept with me who didn't have the best year of his career. Making love is like hitting a baseball: you just gotta relax and concentrate. Besides, I'd never sleep with a player hitting under .250... not unless he had a lot of RBIs and was a great glove man up the middle. You see, there's a certain amount of life wisdom I give these boys. I can expand their minds. Sometimes when I've got a ballplayer alone, I'll just read Emily Dickinson or Walt Whitman to him, and the guys are so sweet, they always stay and listen. 'Course, a guy'll listen to anything if he thinks it's foreplay. I make them feel confident, and they make me feel safe, and pretty. 'Course, what I give them lasts a lifetime; what they give me lasts 142 games. Sometimes it seems like a bad trade. But bad trades are part of baseball - now who can forget Frank Robinson for Milt Pappas, for God's sake? It's a long season and you gotta trust. I've tried 'em all, I really have, and the only church that truly feeds the soul, day in, day out, is the Church of Baseball" - Annie Savoy, Bull Durham
5. Dreyfus and Kelly compare fandom to what?
6. When focused on the performance components of fandom, it's analogous to the cultivation of what?
7. Who said being adequately masculine requires strenuousness?
8. What are BIRGing and CORFing?
DQ
- Is "the Church of Baseball" silly, serious, or something in-between?
- Can you relate to what Dreyfus and Kelly say about sports and the sacred? (below*) Any specific examples come to mind?
- Does philosophizing about sports trivialize philosophy, elevate sports, both, neither?
- Is fandom inherently sexist? Is the U.S. women's soccer team changing the element of sexism in fandom?
*It is not that sports are sacred to the culture in any absolute sense. But there are moments in sport— either in the playing of them or in the witnessing of them—during which something so overpowering happens that it wells up before you ... All Things Shining
"Osopher" slideshows, on slideshare... Baseball in Literature & Culture (the conference that used to be hosted by MTSU, and has been resident in Ottawa KS since 2016)
==
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An old post:
Corner of Spring & College, Murfreesboro
"I believe in the Church of Baseball. I've tried all the major religions, and most of the minor ones. I've worshipped Buddha, Allah, Brahma, Vishnu, Siva, trees, mushrooms, and Isadora Duncan. I know things. For instance, there are 108 beads in a Catholic rosary and there are 108 stitches in a baseball. When I heard that, I gave Jesus a chance. But it just didn't work out between us. The Lord laid too much guilt on me. I prefer metaphysics to theology. You see, there's no guilt in baseball, and it's never boring... which makes it like sex. There's never been a ballplayer slept with me who didn't have the best year of his career. Making love is like hitting a baseball: you just gotta relax and concentrate. Besides, I'd never sleep with a player hitting under .250... not unless he had a lot of RBIs and was a great glove man up the middle. You see, there's a certain amount of life wisdom I give these boys. I can expand their minds. Sometimes when I've got a ballplayer alone, I'll just read Emily Dickinson or Walt Whitman to him, and the guys are so sweet, they always stay and listen. 'Course, a guy'll listen to anything if he thinks it's foreplay. I make them feel confident, and they make me feel safe, and pretty. 'Course, what I give them lasts a lifetime; what they give me lasts 142 games. Sometimes it seems like a bad trade. But bad trades are part of baseball - now who can forget Frank Robinson for Milt Pappas, for God's sake? It's a long season and you gotta trust. I've tried 'em all, I really have, and the only church that truly feeds the soul, day in, day out, is the Church of Baseball" - Annie Savoy, Bull Durham5. Dreyfus and Kelly compare fandom to what?
8. What are BIRGing and CORFing?
DQ
- Is "the Church of Baseball" silly, serious, or something in-between?
- Can you relate to what Dreyfus and Kelly say about sports and the sacred? (below*) Any specific examples come to mind?
- Does philosophizing about sports trivialize philosophy, elevate sports, both, neither?
- Is fandom inherently sexist? Is the U.S. women's soccer team changing the element of sexism in fandom?
*It is not that sports are sacred to the culture in any absolute sense. But there are moments in sport— either in the playing of them or in the witnessing of them—during which something so overpowering happens that it wells up before you ... All Things Shining
==
An old post:
"Osopher" slideshows, on slideshare... Baseball in Literature & Culture (the conference that used to be hosted by MTSU, and has been resident in Ottawa KS since 2016)
==
==
==
An old post:
Infallible like the Pope
October 6, 2012
“You cannot call that an infield fly!” But the umpire can. Blown calls are part of the game, and part of life.
[My team, the Cardinals, benefited in a postseason game from an umpire's ruling that the Braves' batter was out according to a creative application of the infield fly rule... Video clip apparently no longer available.]
Would I be so “philosophical” if the call had gone against my team? Of course not.
“You can’t do that!” But the umpire can. He’s “infallible.” Like the Pope.
And as Dan Dennett has written, having a team can be meaningful and gratifying (or galling, Braves fans?) if you don’t forget it’s only a game.
I am a Red Sox fan, simply because I grew up in the Boston area and have happy memories of Ted Williams, Jimmy Piersall, Carl Yastrzemski, Pudge Fisk, and Wade Boggs, among others. My allegiance to the Red Sox is enthusiastic, but cheerfully arbitrary and undeluded. The Red Sox aren’t my team because they are, in fact, the Best; they are the Best (in my eyes) because they are my team.
Same here. I grew up in the St. Louis area and have happy memories of Lou Brock, Curt Flood, Bob Gibson, Tim McCarver, and Mike Shannon, among others. The Cards went all the way last year as a wildcard, if they do it again it’ll be even wilder. 12 in ’12! So, would they then be the “best”? Yes. Just not on paper.
That says something about paper, just as blown calls show something about Popes, imperfection, and human fallibility. You don’t have to be the absolute best to play the game, or to win.
What really matters about the game, as Mr. Rice said, is how you play it. And just for the record: with or without that blown call, Atlanta did not play it well last night.
October 6, 2012
Would I be so “philosophical” if the call had gone against my team? Of course not.
“You can’t do that!” But the umpire can. He’s “infallible.” Like the Pope.
And as Dan Dennett has written, having a team can be meaningful and gratifying (or galling, Braves fans?) if you don’t forget it’s only a game.
That says something about paper, just as blown calls show something about Popes, imperfection, and human fallibility. You don’t have to be the absolute best to play the game, or to win.
What really matters about the game, as Mr. Rice said, is how you play it. And just for the record: with or without that blown call, Atlanta did not play it well last night.
“You cannot call that an infield fly!” But the umpire can. Blown calls are part of the game, and part of life.
[My team, the Cardinals, benefited in a postseason game from an umpire's ruling that the Braves' batter was out according to a creative application of the infield fly rule... Video clip apparently no longer available.]
Would I be so “philosophical” if the call had gone against my team? Of course not.
“You can’t do that!” But the umpire can. He’s “infallible.” Like the Pope.
And as Dan Dennett has written, having a team can be meaningful and gratifying (or galling, Braves fans?) if you don’t forget it’s only a game.
I am a Red Sox fan, simply because I grew up in the Boston area and have happy memories of Ted Williams, Jimmy Piersall, Carl Yastrzemski, Pudge Fisk, and Wade Boggs, among others. My allegiance to the Red Sox is enthusiastic, but cheerfully arbitrary and undeluded. The Red Sox aren’t my team because they are, in fact, the Best; they are the Best (in my eyes) because they are my team.Same here. I grew up in the St. Louis area and have happy memories of Lou Brock, Curt Flood, Bob Gibson, Tim McCarver, and Mike Shannon, among others. The Cards went all the way last year as a wildcard, if they do it again it’ll be even wilder. 12 in ’12! So, would they then be the “best”? Yes. Just not on paper.
That says something about paper, just as blown calls show something about Popes, imperfection, and human fallibility. You don’t have to be the absolute best to play the game, or to win.What really matters about the game, as Mr. Rice said, is how you play it. And just for the record: with or without that blown call, Atlanta did not play it well last night.
CBS Sunday Morning 
(@CBSSunday)
He said, ze said: @Faith_Salie on preferred gender pronouns cbsn.ws/2xW3lYr pic.twitter.com/YdFvZndU2S
| CBS Sunday Morning |
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He said, ze said: @Faith_Salie on preferred gender pronouns cbsn.ws/2xW3lYr pic.twitter.com/YdFvZndU2S
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Are you a sports fan? Which sports? Since when? Have you ever wondered why? Are you ever embarrassed by the behavior of your fellow fans?
ReplyDeleteNo. I never followed sports. Often the way people act around sports makes me take a further step back. Often the people I step back from are blind to their use of language and players’ they admire. I see players get off the hook for rage, abuse to animals or their wife, and language. It is sickening. It reminds me of Rome watching Gladiators (American Football mostly). I see my school praise athletes but admin never shows up to the art show. ( i do believe sports is important in education).
When I was in high school, I saw a football player HIGH (in the morning) in the hallway. He was slapped on the hands but playing by Friday night (the man who did discipline was the football coach???) I would have been kicked out of my Christian private school.
However, I do like how if brings people together. I love traveling in Europe during the World Cup. We can sit in the cafes or streets watching men run around a screen. It is fun when the country wins and everyone is partying.
But Nah. I don’t know much (I know most of the rules due to tests in PE in High School).
I share your disgust with the preferential treatment afforded even amateur/scholastic athletes in our culture, and the multiple corruptions associated with pretending that effectively-professional ($-making) collegiate sports are still amateur... including the exploitation of collegiate athletes who are not equipped to succeed academically. When coaches earn millions, while academic programs are starved, our priorities are badly skewed. It does annoy me when university presidents become cheerleaders for the athletic programs but have little interest in academics.
ReplyDeleteProfessional sports suffer their own unique corruptions, of course, but at their best they do have the power to bring people together in a spirit of celebration and joy. I enjoy rooting for "my teams" but I've come increasingly to appreciate the attitude of those Tarver calls "purists," those who are capable of admiring the skills and performance of players on every team. Guess that's one reason why I so enjoy the annual MLB Hall of Fame induction day in Cooperstown, now that it's televised I never miss it.
I do respect that sports can help people and bring people together. Often I have students who do not “shine” in art or other classes, but I enjoy seeing them play with others (basketball or soccer mostly). I just never really got into sports. But I have fond memories of playing soccer after school (not a on a team) with teachers and other students. It was for fun. Everyone played! 😊
Delete