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Knock It out of the Park
The Benefits of Joining a Sports League
By Mark Stackpole
There was a time in any man's life when he genuinely believed that one day he would hit the home run that won the World Series for his hometown team. Or perhaps catch the touchdown pass that won the Super Bowl. Serve an ace. Bowl 300. Go ahead – ask him. He will have a sports fantasy. And those fantasies never fade completely, no matter how much age and reality impose on them.
It would be more appropriate to say that they evolve over time. The home run for the Red Sox becomes a double for a softball team composed of the guys from the office. A touchdown is a touchdown even when the game becomes "flag" rather than "tackle" football. He might never bowl a perfect game for big money, but getting a "turkey" during a tournament at the lanes down the street just might happen. The cheers may not emanate from a throng of rabid fans in a rocking stadium, but kids clapping and friends celebrating can be rewarding in their own right.
In addition to a guy's desire to re-live any "glory days," there may be other, more important reasons for him to still run around the bases with his buddies or hit the lanes for League Night.
Todd Pinsky, a Santa Cruz, Calif.-based humorist and author of Homedaddy: Little White Lies and Other Tales from the Crib (Push Pull Press, 2003), is a stay-at-home dad to two daughters. He admits to having joined softball teams "in order to have a legitimate reason to get out of the house for a few hours a week."
