Sports Story

By Judith Garfield

“Root root root for the home team”….. That’s how the old song goes. But living in New Jersey makes it difficult. We have no baseball team. We have no football team. What’s a sports fan to do?

Here’s what happens in New Jersey. If you reside in the South, you think you live in a suburb of Philly and root accordingly. From the North, you consider yourself a New York suburbanite and become devoted to the New York teams. If, however, you are a resident of Central Jersey you are apt to be confused. A--dare I say?--fair weather fan. A two-teamer.

The supermarket in my neighborhood deals with the problem by carrying balloons for both the Eagles and the Giants. Could you imagine this scenario anywhere else? You would never ever see a balloon for the Eagles or the Phillies in, let’s say, Hackensack. Or Hoboken. Tantamount to treason. I was raised in Philadelphia, so I know where my loyalties lie. But I think for many in Central Jersey it is a source of angst.

Perhaps that is why S. is not a big sports fan. A Central Jersey boy. A man without a team. At my house S. makes the chili while I watch the game. He rambles in and feigns interest, but really he’s more concerned with what’s on the stove.

I don’t understand people who don’t like watching sports. It’s reality television at its most exciting. It provides an escape from the mundane and the frightening. When CNN tries to scare me about the deficit, or Fox scares me about everything, I can always get the remote and turn to the game of the week.

And even when major drama occurs in the sports world, I know it is only superficial. So if the Phillies don’t make into the World Series this year, I will be disappointed, but it’s not going to cause me a life of misery.

September is my favorite month. Baseball leading up to the play offs, football just starting, and the weather is awesome. Doesn’t get much better than that.

Okay, gotta go. Game’s on in five.