Men & Sports- a Theorized Story of How Sports Came to Be

Yesterday while attending my little brothers' basketball game, I began to think about what makes sports so fun. What keeps us practicing to get better at these sports? What keeps half of the country in front of their television sets for two hours straight watching baseball.

I also noticed that guys tend to get worked up a little more over sports than girls. But, then again, I have seen Sarena Williams (or was it Venus?) flip out over a game of tennis before, so I could be wrong. Either way, it's just an opinion. You tend to understand where I'm coming from when you've lived with a guy for fourteen years who talks to the players on TV about their performance even though they can't hear him. (I must admit, this habit of my father's has begun to rub off on me)  It doesn't help that my mom barely knows the first thing about sports either. No matter how many times I have to correct her, she'll always say "The score was 5-8," instead of "The score was 8-5."

After thinking about all this, I theorized this story about men and sports.

***

Since the beginning of time, male types of all species of creatures on Earth- whether it be animals, or humans- have been attempting to become the more dominant man of their kind. Birds have different songs they chirp, and different colored feathers; lions, tigers, and other "big cats" try to become the strongest hunter in the pack. The list goes on. But, when you think about it, the main reason all male creatures try to become more dominant than the rest is to attract the females. Male birds try to make themselves more attractive with colorful feathers, and beautiful songs to attract the females. "Big cats", specifically lions, try to become king of the jungle to make themselves look more dominant than the rest. (My facts may be a bit off, but feel free to search this topic online if you please)

But what about humans. Obviously, humans have evolved much more than animals have. Compared to our chimp ancestors, our brains have grown and become smarter, our posture has improved greatly, our muscles have developed much more, and we've developed our own languages unique to each of our races. With all that said, it's obvious that humans are much more complex than animals.

This means that females are looking for more than just pretty colors, cheery songs, and strong hunters. Not only do women want us to prove to them that we are more dominant than the rest, but we want to prove this to ourselves as well. So, back when we were cavemen, us men invented "contests" if you will, that would prove who was better than the other. Some contests were to see who could make a fire the quickest. But most were to prove who carried the bigger stick, or who hauled the biggest rocks. These contests carried through generations, and around the late 1800's were named "sports."

You can probably see how the "bigger-rocks" contest carried on to today. Almost every sport you see on TV today involves a ball of some sort. Basketball, football, golf, tennis, lacrosse- you name it. These sports are contests to see which person handles the ball the best. The "bigger-stick" version eventually evolved into what we call "baseball."
When sports were first being invented, males decided to form "packs" that would compete together against other "packs". The winners of each sport would become the more dominant "pack". Again, evolution took place, and the word "pack" tuned into "team".

Long story short, sports were invented for two main reasons;

1. Impress the ladies
2. Decide who is more dominant

Eventually, someone wised up, and thought "Who cares who carries the bigger stick? It's more about who's stronger!"
That's when things like running, swimming, weight-lifting, and boxing became sports. And then, someone else (most likely a woman) wised up even more, and thought, "Hey, women can be dominant too!" So woman's versions of all these sports were invented. (I have also theorized that after men were criticized for not thinking girls could be dominant too, the "wife" was invented, to keep men in there place, and not get carried away trying to outdo one another.)

But what about those who aren't as athletic as others? Well, thanks to the "team" concept I covered earlier, fans of any sport can cheer on their favorite teams, and hope they win. They could even gamble on who will win a competition. This led to bragging rights for the fans of the winning team, thus making them somewhat more dominant than the opposing team's fans.

In conclusion; my theory of how sports came to be is simply to find the more dominant being, or beings, in the world. Different sports for different countries have been invented over the years to prove to one another who "the boss" really is.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go find some big rocks.

Yours in awesomeness,
~Ry.

Summer '10

At last, the best time of the year has come; Summer! I have officially left the school I've spent my life in since kindergarten, and I'm now ready to finally move on to the next chapter in my life:
High school.

In my years at Forestdale School, I've made my first friends, learned my first math problem, and how to read, write, spell my own name, draw, etc. I've had great times, and not-so-great times. I never thought I'd say this, but I'll miss the good ol` days at Forestdale. Some of my friends will be venturing off to other schools, but most will be coming with me to Sandwich High. Go class of 2014!!!
I had a Foresdale eighth grade graduation ceremony last week, and the whole eighth grade, along with family, and friends, saw pictures of all of us from back in the good-old-days, including some of me in my early years at Forestdale. It's amazing how much we've all changed!

I'll never forget my days as a "Fodalien", but as they say, the show must go on. High school is going to be a big leap for me, but the folks at Sandwich High have set up a great program to help us freshmen get prepared for it. Near the end of the summer, all three elementary schools in Sandwich will go to a nearby camp, called Camp Burgess, and we'll spend a day there, meeting each other, playing games, etc. Hopefully I'll be able to make some friends before high school, that way I won't feel too alone when the first day comes. Not that I was particularly nervous anyway, I'm actually pretty pumped to be getting to high school. It's going to be like a new start for me, a chance to start over.

So, I realize it's been a while since I wrote here, and I've got so much I could tell you about. Like the day I spent with my "long-lost" uncle, Ted, from Colorado. We decided we'd spend the day, just my brothers, dad, Ted, his girlfriend, Kelly, and me, playing a game of mini golf. When we got to the course, it was still closed, seeing as it was only around eleven A.M., so we went down the street to get some ice cream. We quickly realized that Jack likes to wear his ice cream, and eat it off his face, rather than eat it straight from the cone. He had chocolate all over his face, and much to my disappointment, Jack wouldn't let dad get a picture of him, otherwise I'd put it up here.

Another somewhat exciting thing that happened to me was that my baseball team made it to the finals this season, after struggling to get a win for most of the regular season. We managed to get a few wins near the end of the season, and by the time playoffs came, it seemed like we were unstoppable. We were winning every playoff game, and even beat the first-place team in the league! We were feeling on top of the world!

Then we fell to the bottom, quite abruptly. It came down to the final championship game, and we ended up losing 14-9. We made a great comeback, shortening the opposing team's lead to two points, but couldn't come back. But, there was an upside to this loss; we ended up being the second-best team in the whole league. We even got runner-up trophies, but I think it was just a way of the Babe Ruth league's attempt to stick to their "everyone's a winner" motto, because the winner trophies were huge compared to our dinky little ones. I'm pretty sure those winner trophies had real gold engraved in there, too, while our runner-up ones had plastic that was spray-painted gold. Either way, we truly were the underdogs this year!

One more thing I'd like to add that one of you in particular might get a kick out of; I'm sure most of you who read this (seeing as this blog hasn't yet reached "famous" status, and the majority of my visitors are relatives, and friends) know about my cousin, Derek's new book, Here Comes Your Man (now available on Amazon.com, and Barnes & Noble.com). After reading a recent blog post on Derek's blog, I bought the iBooks app on my iPod Touch, and took the liberty of adding his book to my iBooks library.

That's a picture of what my iBooks library looks like now. Although it's quite a small collection so far, I'd say Derek's book fits in pretty well, right in between my digital copies of I Love You, Beth Cooper, and Winnie the Pooh. (which, I'll add, I did NOT purchase willingly. Every download of the iBooks app comes with a complimentary copy of the book, but you'd still respect me as a young man even if I had purchased the book myself, right?) I'm on chapter two of his book so far, and I highly recommend it to anyone who hasn't read it. You're welcome, Derek!

Yours in awesomeness,
~Ry.