It isn’t too often that there's a question about sports journalism (although I hear there was controversy about a journalist’s interference with the scoring at a recent golf tournament), and even less often when I care about anything sports-related. But I have to bring up an issue with an article published in this past Sunday’s New York Times about intentions to televise dart games as part of network sports coverage. Dart games?!
I have a friend from Oklahoma and, on more than one occasion, we’ve gotten into an intense debate about whether Nascar is a sport. Doesn’t sport usually involve physical exertion? Sitting behind the wheel of a car has been blamed for the obesity problem in this country. Speeding has caused many a traffic ticket and, unfortunately, it’s fair share of accidents. But when it’s regulated with different colored flags, it goes from a mode of transport to, simply, sport. At least the cars are cool.
When Michael Jordan jumped from the free throw line, legs spread eagle, tongue wagging, they made sneakers, commercials, songs, movies because there was something incredible and awe-inspiring about that.
I guess for many who spend their time creeping along in traffic, the thought of pressing the gas pedal to the floor and taking off makes a racecar driver just as exciting. But, again, darts?
The executive producer behind this idea, Michael Davies and Bob Chesterman, a senior coordinating producer for ESPN, make their case for darts: “It fits into that intersection of American popular culture and sports and regular life, which poker has readily occupied,†Davies says; there are interesting personalities, viewers can see themselves playing, time constraints make it more viewer-friendly. These are all good points when deciding what to put on television.
But it still makes me think that sports writers can step in on a discussion of what is sport and what is pastime. This article wasn’t even published in the sports section of the Times, but, rather, in Arts & Leisure. Perhaps the question of “What is sport?†is the same as “What is art?†The answer shifts and changes. But will we ever get another article like “The Four Horsemen†with the way things are going?
Melanie Brooks @ October 25, 2005 - 9:02pm
I'm not a NASCAR fan in the least, but to say that sitting behind the wheel of a car going over 200 mph is easy is untrue. I used to say the same thing until I read up on how the velocity of going that fast strains your muscles and actually pushes you so far back in your seat that your peripheral vision is gone because you can't move your head. There is so much pressure on your body that it's physically hard to move. Darts, though, is a whole different story...
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