Every Saturday I walk to the athletic stadium to hurl footballs down the third-base line. Sometimes I have to tackle my opponent for icing. If I’m lucky, in the fourth period I’ll score hole-in-one.
So I’m not a sports-guy. But I do pay attention when it overlaps with my other interests.
On Monday night, [Ryan Zimmerman of the Washington Nationals] hosted a concert, auction and dinner that raised about $200,000 for the ZiMS Foundation and gave a $30,000 check to the local chapter of an organization fighting multiple sclerosis. Zimmerman said he hopes the event will get bigger every year, eventually filling the ballpark with donors and spreading the word about the disease his mother has been fighting.
That impulse is part of what experts say is a huge shift in professional sports philanthropy. For reasons idealistic, self-serving or practical, athletes and teams are putting a greater emphasis on donating money, volunteering and helping local communities — with more commitment to providing real impact rather than just photo ops. (Kinzie)
My eyes narrow
I’m innately suspicious of undisguised altruism. It’s like a Gen-X super-power or something. So, people really want to “give back?” Sorry about the air-quotes. It’s the force of habit.
For a certain type of geek (i.e. – me), scholastic and professional sports has always seemed suffused with arrogance and one-upsmanship. Lip service was paid to some mythical, bygone era of teamwork, but those of us on the outside knew better.
There was no I in team, but there were plenty of me’s. Also shoulder-jabs. And in a pinch, ego-crushing verbal abuse could be employed.
Now, some twenty-odd years later, it seems that another attitude shift is under way, once again with some of the most interesting signals coming from professional sports. The tide is beginning to turn on the fighting, the profanity, the performance drugs, the super-lux seats, and the renting of stadium names. And, as this story shows, pro teams everywhere (though this story in mainly about the DC area) are starting to focus a lot more on how they can give back to the community. (Sohigian)
(Creative Commons image "Vintage Baseball" by adwriter at Flickr)
That’s by Dave Sohigian at Lifecourse Blog. He gets the credit for bringing that earlier piece to my attention.
Sure, you can say it’s hypocritical and just another way for the franchises to win the popularity of local crowds and national audiences. But I’m sure many of the athletes and managers are sincere, and in any case why wasn’t this a formula for winning over crowds and audiences ten or twenty years ago? You could also say it’s just the impact of the Great Recession. People are tapped out, they don’t want to be reminded of things they can’t afford, and they are aware their communities have bigger needs but smaller public resources to handle them. This is also true. But it’s got to be more than that. (Sohigian)
He’s got me there.
Since I’m not connected to this culture, I can’t say much. But I will say that the attitude of even the fans around me seems different than what I remember from my youth. Superfans still frighten me; they’re the mundane counterpoint of the LARP’er. But perhaps our culture has been exhausted by all the misbehavior on and off the field.
When my son is old enough for proper junior- and senior- high school level sports, I’ll learn more. This is where sports gets serious; where both local and national star-athletes indicate something of the mood. This is certainly one area where I want things to be different than I remember from childhood – for my son’s sake.
Will I be able to put my sports-cynicism to rest? Maybe, but more object lessons from Lifecourse will help. I hope the data keeps coming.
