by Tanya Valencia
I’m not really all that into sports, though I do like to watch football. The last thing I ever thought I would listen to was sports radio. That changed one day when I got into the car to go to the store. My husband had left the station on ESPN, and I found that I was engrossed in the conversation. Even though the people on the sports radio show were talking about tennis, I found that many things it were talking about could be understood and enjoyed by those who didn’t necessarily like or follow tennis.
Baseball is the religion that worships the obvious and gives thanks that things are exactly as they seem. Instead of celebrating mysteries, baseball rejoices in the absence of mysteries and trusts that, if we watch what is laid before our eyes, down to the last detail, we will cultivate the gift of seeing things as they really are.
—Thomas Boswell, U. S. sports journalist. “The Church of Baseball,” Baseball: An Illustrated History, ed. Geoffrey C. Ward, Knopf (1994)
After that time, my husband was shocked that I didn’t complain when he put sports radio on when I was in the car with him. He asked me what had changed my mind, and I just shrugged. I wasn’t going to admit to him that I enjoyed listening to sports radio, or he would have insisted on having it on all of the time. While I was interested in what I was hearing, that doesn’t mean I want to hear all the time. It’s good listening once in awhile, but I’m not that into sports, and after while I know I would tire of it.
If you really like sports radio, there are many different places you can find what you’re looking for. It use to be that ESPN was one of the only place for you could really find great sports coverage, but there are many other places that have picked up on this trend. If you search around the dial on your radio, you will find that there are many different sports radio programs from which to choose. You will have to decide who you like and who you want to listen to. As with anything else, there are some shows that will appeal to you while others will grate on your nerves.
In the past, it seemed to make sense for a sportswriter on sabbatical from the playpen to attend the quadrennial hawgkilling when Presidential candidates are chosen, to observe and report upon politicians at play. After all, national conventions are games of a sort, and sports offers few spectacles richer in low comedy.
—Walter Wellesley (Red)
Sports radio is also great if you live near your favorite team. My husband likes the Buffalo Bills, but the games are blacked out if the stadium does not sell out a certain percentage of the seats. This means that if he wants to know what is going on with the game he has to listen to sports radio to get the play-by-play as the game goes along. This may be true of other teams in other sports as well. If you cannot watch the game on television, you can always tune into sports radio to see if you can find it being broadcast on the air. This way you don’t have to miss out on an important game, even if it was blacked out or you could not afford to go in person.