Silk, Sports, Spectators

Mate loves sports. If it has a ball involved, he is a fan. That is outside of soccer which has not appealed to him yet, but there is still time. Basketball is, I think, his favorite, followed closely by football, golf, baseball and tennis. Baseball and tennis are not really that important to him, but he does read the sports page from cover to cover each morning and if you mention a player's name he instantly knows which team he plays for and where they are in the standings. It is amazing to me that this man who has to make a note and post it on the bathroom mirror to remember a haircut or a doctor's appointment, can tell you what the score of the game was when Dallas played San Antonio in February, 2009. First and foremost in his sports life are the Texas Longhorns. We do not talk when the Longhorns play.

Many times Mate and Son watch a game together. Mate is a devoted Maverick fan; Son, the Lakers. They get on the phone together and I can hear both of them cheering. Its one of the good things about sports. Mate has Lakers as his second most favorite team, all because of Son.

Sports are just not my thing. I find I really don't care if the Cowboys have a new stadium,or if they win, or if the Mavericks have a short or tall Center, or even if the University of Texas beats Oklahoma. However, I do hope that you won't mention that University of Texas-Oklahoma thing to mate. It would not go well.

I was a Dallas Cowboy fan until they fired Tom Landry. What kind of person in their right mind would fire Tom Landry. Oh I remember, Jerry Jones. I enjoyed Don Meredith, Roger throwing to Drew, and my favorite, Walt Garrison. See I do know some sports, but then Jerry Jones fired Tom Landry! First thing you know,someone named Michael was in jail; they were mouthing obscenities at the camera and class left the Dallas Cowboys. The Day They Fired Tom Landry. (I feel a Country Western song here) Found out I did not need the Dallas Cowboys without Tom Landry. So I left professional football. Personally I have a lot of trouble being loyal to a bunch of grown men, making more money than we can even think about and they don't win every week. If I did my job like they do I would be fired.

My favorite time with sports ....... the Olympics when the USA team played Russia. I don't remember what year. Mate would. But we would rush home from work to watch the game. The most excited I ever was about something I knew nothing about, didn't take time to learn and would never really watch again in my lifetime. Had not a clue what the rules were, did not care. Not only was it Team USA, there was a player named Silk! Guess what my sister and I have for our last name.....thats right Silk. We do know that somewhere down the line we were kin but we didn't look him up and probably he never looked for us since we never heard from him. I think of anything I ever watched that was termed sport, this was the most exciting. People who had never seen a hockey puck were talking about Team USA in the elevators all over the country,

The second and last thing I found exciting in professional sports was watching Nolan Ryan on his way to his 5000th strikeout. Now in case you don't know Mr. Ryan...he lives in Alvin Texas and was a premier pitcher, not just for the Rangers but everywhere he played. Such a sportsman,

Spectator Sports was just more fun when it was played by gentlemen who didn't go to jail, or didn't go to rehab. It was a kinder gentler time. Sadly spectator sports mirror society. Wish we were gentle persons again.