Sports and the Triumpful Spirit

I'm going to have to bang this out for the grim specter of things to do looms large over me like a buzzard looms large over a stranded motorist in the desert. How's that for simile??

I just want to take a moment to talk about sports, which is pretty boring. I really am getting more into sports the older I am. I don't see a likely reversal of trend on this, either as sports, like a soap opera, finds a way to keep its audiences.

This is the first time in my "sports memory" the Lions have been 4-0. They have been very exciting to watch, almost like the Colts of a few years ago. They are proving to be a second half team, not really doing anything until the third quarter and then doing it all. It used to be the Lions could only put together half a game... the losing half. Now they are still only playing half a game, it's just the winning half.

Ws are Ws, no matter how ugly. The last two have been ugly, but oh so satisfying and very entertaining. I am not insinuating that the NFL is fixed, but if it is, kudos to the writers and the actors, you have me rapt.

The Tigers are playing the hated Yankees and that series is tied after an auspicious beginning. I am not a baseball fan, since loving baseball requires a level of attention and devotion I don't possess... for it or any sport. But the Tigers, again have garnered my attention for their late-season rally and hard work to capture their division.

The Yankees. Well, I don't hate the Yankees because they ever did anything to me. I mean, again, I am not a baseball fan as such. But I tend to root for the underdog and the Yankees are not, nor can I conceive of a time in their storied franchise will they ever be, considered an underdog.

So, for you Yankees fans, I will not trash talk. I will not woot and holler with a Tiger victory, nor cry with defeat. I simply can't do so with any kind of authenticity. But I will say this; may the best team win. I hope my team is the best team.
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So, what? Sports. Big deal. But this is Detroit, my adopted second home, holder of a piece of my heart, big sister to my beloved Grand Rapids. Troubled, down, besieged and hurting. Sports is a metaphor of life to be sure, but here it is more real. The city herself and the people who love her toil and strive to make the phoenix rise from the ashes of the once proud ruins and decay.

Victory, in any form, is welcome and I believe more affective here than almost anywhere. I liken it to the New Orleans Saints playing after Katrina and the whole country rooted for them. Detroit needs this. Detroit needs the positive attention, the national exposure and the shot in the arm that comes with successful sports franchises.

Detroit fights to win, because Detroit is fighting to stay alive. Detroit wants it more. I pray they go get it!