Sports a valuable escape during difficult times

Did anyone else see the Olsen twins on Saturday Night Live?

They’re cute, huh?

But they’re also not funny, and generally just depressing.
I found myself coming away from that hour and a half of television
a sadder person than when I began watching.

On a much more serious note, I’m even sadder when I watch
or read about the latest news from Iraq. I’m curious to watch
the Nick Berg video, but I think I’d throw up and be scarred
for life. I’m rather ashamed to be an American when I see
those deplorable photographs from Abu Ghraib. The constant
bipartisan bickering in our great country is growing incredibly
tiresome.

But that’s life, I guess. And a lot of life is sad and
depressing.

That’s why I like sports, and that’s the reason so
many people like sports. Or books. Or movies. Or Mary-Kate and
Ashley Olsen.

This world isn’t such a fun place sometimes. We need
distractions, and that’s one of the greatest things that
sports can offer us.

As I sat and watched some stupid horse run just over a mile at a
little race track in Maryland on Saturday, I got goose bumps. I
really did. Seeing the grace and power with which Smarty Jones
absolutely obliterated the competition at the Preakness Stakes was
truly inspiring.

For some strange reason, Smarty Jones made me feel good about
life for a while. Though it was just a horse winning a single race
that we have sort of artificially designated as something
important, it was special. The story behind Smarty Jones is special
as well, and we’re going to have a chance to see a Triple
Crown winner in three weeks. How cool is that?

It definitely makes one forget all the other bad stuff for a
while.

And how about that Derek Fisher?

One silly shot, a part of one silly game, capturing the hearts
and minds of an entire city. That shot made the night of many a
Laker fan, while simultaneously ruining the nights of those lining
the River Walk in San Antonio. While this depression may last long
into the night for those Spurs fans, it is not everlasting.

Sports can always be rationalized with the saying, “Oh
well, it’s just a game.” That’s because it really
is just a game. Sports are little more than a fun activity to
entertain and distract. To attach much more meaning than that is to
attempt to distort reality and the very real problems we face.

But just because sports aren’t “real”
doesn’t mean they’re not valuable. Sports are valuable
for how they make us feel.

We have a tremendous opportunity to see world-class athletes
around campus every day. They can do things on the field or court
that many of us can only dream about. When they go out and beat
Stanford or USC, it makes us happy.

I went to watch the first softball game of my college career
Friday. UCLA beat No. 1 Arizona on a game-winning hit by Claire Sua
in the bottom of the seventh inning, and the crowd went crazy.

There was a girls’ junior varsity softball team from
Bakersfield sitting in front of my friend and me, and they were
simply having a blast. They were doing those inane softball cheers,
laughing, trying to figure out that strange softball bingo game,
and just enjoying themselves.

That’s what sports can do, when they’re not taken so
darn seriously. They can be an escape, a fun escape, from the
demands of this sometimes-cruel world.

Life sucks occasionally. And life is funny, too. Because every
now and then, all it takes is a horse named Smarty Jones, or a
miraculous shot with 0.4 seconds left, to make it all better.

The Olsens turn 18 on June 13, in case you’re curious.
E-mail Regan at [email protected].