Today is homage to one of my favorite American authors, William Faulkner, who was born on this day in 1897.
OXFORD, MS – Spectators love their sports. They love the human element of team sports and individual competition. It’s the yin and yang of mental conditioning – asking the physical to do more in order to execute a play learned through practice, instinct, or grande cajones. Like our femme fatales Cookie and Lori Levine, a sound mind is a sound body to vixens and triathletes, too.
There are sounds that accompany action on the field or court or whatever. The auditory sense allows the fan in the last row to feel the crushing combination of equipment, man, or immovable field structure upon each other. The sounds of silence, kookoo kachoo, are what we hear also; like when trouble strikes and bends or breaks the human body in a manner it isn’t supposed to – but does anyway. We all know the sound of a home playoff defeat; the mass exodus to the parking lot. If put into words, they’d be of the four-lettered variety. Sound also acts as an adjective: A sound organization has sound finance, management and player development. A solid organization means victory more often than defeat and brings the sounds of celebrating in that arena or stadium. Occasionally, fans are treated to a wire to wire beating of the opponent – a sound victory where the outcome is never in doubt.
The yang to sound’s yin is our (the fan’s) somewhat less pure response. Human hysteria is created by sporting events. World Cups, the Super Bowl, the Stanley Cup… They showcase mental conditioning as fan behavior escalates along with the sports stage. We root against the enemy more than for our own team with intensity, if not rage, as games play out. Our hunger is in starvation mode when the violence of a game feeds our momentary disorder. We want more emotion, more of it! Calling MTM Furies, Cookie and Lori, we need and want your…spirit! It’s all about the cajones of Stamkos getting his nose rearranged only to come back minutes later, the hush of Theisman getting a compound fracture of the leg on national television, the crash of a NASCAR against the wall and the casualty airlifted to hospital. Short Matt getting concussed, Yadier Molina’s big fly after the Endy Chavez snatch, the Yankees assault on the luxury tax, the Patriots finding players, the Viking horn after touchdowns or the Bruins goal-horn during that Game 6 rout of the Canucks. Vancouver would subsequently burn in fury two nights later. This is The Sound And The Fury of sports.
Raise a glass of Dixie bourbon in Faulkner’s honor or place a wager on a deep south home team like Tennessee, Carolina, and New Orleans. Concussed Matt likes Oakland. And here’s some southern rock sound to sip and wager to:
https://youtu.be/KCKhujch9fo
Our own Good Ol’ Boy, West Coast Craig, tomorrow.
