I happened to be home for a couple days over reading period, and my family had the old home videos playing. Between the infinite birthday parties and chorus performances (trust me, I can't sing now and I couldn't sing then), we stumbled upon the videos from when I was born. And sure enough, there I was, just two days old, sitting on a hospital bed intently watching the MLB playoffs.
I may only be a sophomore, and all of you graduates are two years ahead of me in this long, strange higher-education journey, but I do have one piece of advice for you, one last rule of sports fandom to impart. As you move on to the real world and eventually start families, it is your job to implant a love of sports in your kids in order to develop another generation of sports fanatics. Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young (which sounds a bit like a collection of current or future sports hall-of-famers) had it right when they said, "teach your children well."
Now, I'm sure some sports fans will say that they developed their love of the game themselves, but for every one of those, there are a hundred that were introduced to sports when they were an infant, knew the rules before they could read and could tell you the home city of every team in the league before they could even place the U.S. on a map. These are the ones you'll find in their dorms all day on a Sunday watching football from morning to midnight. The ones that are up at 4 a.m. to follow live coverage of the Olympics on a continent on the other side of the planet.
But giving kids a chance at that passion for sports is about more than just teaching them. It's about creating that special bond between father (or mother, we're not sexist here) and son (or daughter). Some of my earliest memories were getting to stay up with my dad to watch the 1996 World Series or going to the Little League field to watch him coach, dreaming of some day getting to play for him.
As I've grown up, sports remained an important part of our relationship. A Sunday morning fight is easily remedied by sitting down on the couch to complain about the Giants. At school, I often will call him multiple times a week to discuss the Yankees' pitching staff or March Madness. Nothing makes me happier than being able to go out with him all summer and umpire baseball games.
Does it define our relationship? Of course not. But it is an important way for us, like any two sports fans, to bond. In the world of sports, there is always something to talk about. News and history are being made every single day, and you never know when the next big thing is about to happen. It's almost like politics; just without the backroom dealings and labor deals (oh wait …).
But unlike politics, you become bonded to a team, and anyone who shares that bond is a friend, whether you have known them for a day or your entire life. It is for this reason that parent-child sports relationships thrive.
I know I have begun to rant a bit, but I feel as though our nation has reached a crossroads, not just in how people follow sports, but in how intra-family relationships develop. Today's average kid would rather play Madden 2050 than throw around the football, would rather learn how to tweet than learn how to throw a curve. This has clearly taken its toll on both our nation's health and the strength of family.
So as you continue into the real world after today, remember that you are now a teacher, and sports are one of the greatest lessons. That's my final, and most important, rule of the game.
