Sports and fiction

Sports connect people across time and space. So does fiction. So naturally I'm thinking about how sports are like fiction.

First, both sports and fiction are about consumption and analysis. The difference is that sports can be a shared experience at the time of consumption, when fiction really can't. Still, for the self-described "sports fan," sports is a lonely pursuit. In fact, I would say that pursuing sports when no one else is around is the very definition of being a "sports fan." If you just follow sports for the social benefits, I don't think you qualify. You're one of those people who say, "Sure, I like sports!" And that's okay!

While many sports fans, myself included, like to kid ourselves and think our knowledge of the past means diddly poo, sports are an in-the-moment experience. The reason we hate the day after baseball's All-Star Game is that it's the only day there are no sports. Fiction does not have this problem, obviously. It is not locked into any time or space. You can read it at 9 a.m., noon, 1:45 a.m. when you can't sleep, whenever. You don't need to wait for the game to start. Any anticipation you have for fiction is anticipation of your own making.

Is it fair to say that they are both unchanging by saying the details change, but mostly the mediums remain the same?

Any baseball season is dissimilar to any other baseball season. They are points of reference to each other, and stand in contrast. But any baseball season can find its analog in the catalog of baseball seasons that have been played, or by chopping and screwing a few here and there to make a composite copy.

The same goes with fiction. People love each other, people betray each other. One book might be dissimilar from the next book. (It almost certainly is.) But that one book is almost certainly similar to another book written somewhere, at some point, in some language.

Mostly these things exist so we can talk to each other about them, and feel like we're a part of something.