Scott McNeely - Ultimate Book of Sports: The Essential Collection of Rules, Stats, and Trivia for Over 250 Sports

IVE NEVER BEEN PARTICULARLY GOOD AT SPORTS.

In the second grade I did invent a game called Trip Potty. I was the potty and classmates would chase me mercilessly at recess in order to trip me. It was easy pickings, owing to the fact that I wore a kind of Dickensian corrective shoe for reasons that elude me to this very day.

In my family it was my grandfather who was Mr. Sporty. He excelled in every sport and even bagged a handful of world record fish. He must have wondered what happened to his sports gene, why it expressed itself so feebly in me.

Perhaps I redeemed myself by playing ice hockey as a preteen and by joining my high schools wrestling and fencing teams (en garde!). Yet I never had the passion of a true sportsman. I rarely watched sports on television. I never wore a football jersey to school.

So why did I write an entire book about sports?

Oddly enough I love the drama of sports. I remember watching my first professional soccer game, at Stamford Bridge in London, the rabid Chelsea fans unlike any I had ever encountered. I remember my first Oakland Raiders football game from the infamous black hole section of the stadium, my first Aussie rules footy game at the MCG surrounded by maniacal Essendon fans, my first World Cup soccer match watching from a pub in Ireland as the Irish defeated Romania 5-4 on penalty kicks. Over and over again Ive learned that sports are chock-full of passion-fueled moments. And Ive learned that passionate people can easily connect with sports.

In my travels Ive been lucky enough to encounter many lessheralded sports, too: oil wrestling in Turkey, camel racing in India, kickboxing in Thailand. For me thats the magic formula, getting caught up in a swirl of emotion and using sport as a lens to access the broader culture (yours or somebody elses). With this perspective in mind, sports are never dull and can never disappoint.

SCOTT MCNEELY

DICTIONARY.COM SPORT as an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess and often of a competitive nature, such as racing, baseball, tennis, golf, bowling, wrestling, boxing, hunting, fishing, etc.

Kinda sorta. We beg to differ on the finer points.

Certainly we agree that sports are, by definition, physical activities. This is why chess, poker, and similar games are not included in this book. We also agree that sports must be competitive in nature. Sports must produce winners and losers.

Where we differ is in the last two examples listed. Hunting and fishing? Not so much. We classify these as mere activities. The reason? To qualify as a sport, an activity must pit one or more people in direct competition. And the word direct is critical here. Of course it is possible to transform any activity into a competition. Yet true sports involve humans competing directly with other humans.

Sure, hunters compete to bag the largest game. But lets be honest, the essence of hunting is the competition between hunter and prey. The fact that my deer/bear/duck/fox has larger horns/weighs more/is quackier/has a fluffier tail is not the point.

Its a similar situation with fishing. True, there are official tournaments and competitions. And true, fishermen compete to catch the largest fish. Yet labeling fishing a sport is a like making a sport of panning for gold. If my gold nugget or fish is larger than yours, its generally blind luck or technology thats responsible. My ability to exert an influence over the outcome is minimal. You might as well make a sport out of trainspotting or sunset watching.

SO ACCORDING TO THE DEFINITION ABOVE , sports like the World Wrestling Federation should get a mention in this book, right?

Nope. The final requirement of a true sport is realas opposed to stagedconflict. Certainly sports entertain, but they are not entertainments. WWF wrestling is more heavily scripted than a daytime soap opera and theres no actual competition involved plenty of physical skill, but no authentic conflict or competition.

Its no different with reality television shows such as The Amazing Race, Dancing with the Stars, Survivor, Fear Factor, and a million lookalike programs. Though they often wear the trappings of sports-like pursuits, reality-television sports are artificial by their nature. You cant participate unless youre a specially selected contestant. And the competition ends as soon as the television show is canceled by the network. Except in reruns on late-night cable, there is no sporting future for American Gladiator and its ilk.