A Sporting Chance

I don’t know what was more incredible: the fact that I watched only the 16th perfect game in the history of modern baseball, the fact that that game was being played thousands of miles away in Tampa, Fla., or the fact that seconds after that game ended, I was able to read a recap of the game online.

Not to mention that the guy playing third base for the winning team just so happened to go to a certain university in the state of Georgia only last year. If you don’t know whom I’m talking about, just Google ‘Gordon Beckham’ and you’ll get the idea.

Still, I am not a White Sox fan, but instead, as many of you also may be, a die-hard Braves fan. Fourteen consecutive division titles were enough to win my eternal loyalty to the brand. For some reason, the team inevitably seems to do better while I am away. This pain is eased slightly with the reports of the Mets being their pitiful selves, both figuratively and literally falling on their collective faces. I can't help notice that I would not know any of this information were it not for the Internet.

In the meantime, I have noticed that this country also has sports. Once, I tried to watch a cricket match, hopelessly attempting to figure out the rules by watching the players’ actions. At one point, the score was approximately 162-3. I wasn’t sure if this was a normal score. It seemed a bit lopsided to me, but that comes from my perception through American sports. Perhaps it is normal for a cricket team to be down by 159 at one point. I don’t even know the term for scores in cricket. That shows really how little I know about international sports.

Still, I know that even abroad, athletes are worshiped, rivalries are heated, and sports are a dominant feature of the culture.