Chicago Sports

So, the Bulls and the Blackhawks have both made it through the first round in the playoffs. Meanwhile, the White Sox and the Cubs are both at the bottom of their divisions.

The Bears are the only team I really pay attention to, and of course the only team not currently playing. So, since football is currently in the off-season, I've been trying to keep up on at least the very basic news for the other teams.

I used to watch basketball as a kid, back in the Michael Jordan era. I can rattle off the years of our championships without even thinking about it ('91, '92, '93, '96, '97, '98). I know that the '95-'96 season was the year we went 72-10 . . . it was a record at the time, I don't know if it still is. But after the second three-peat, the team went downhill, and I lost interest in watching the games. By the time they started getting good again, I'd lost interest in sports altogether.

I've never really been a hockey fan, not really sure why. It's actually kind of ironic, since hockey (well, floor hockey) was one of the few sports I liked to play in gym class. I guess that never translated into watching the games.

I've never been much of a baseball fan either. As far as the Cubs vs. Sox rivalry, I've always been more of a Cubs fan, even though I can't really consider myself a fan at all. And no, it's not that I'm not a fan because my team sucks. Take a look at the Bears; even when they're doing well, they can never seem to pull it together and go all the way . . . just like the Cubs. (Though I guess the difference is, it's been just under 30 years since the Bears won the Super Bowl, not over a century . . . and 6 years since we've been there, not almost 70.) So, no, it's not that I can't put my support behind a team that doesn't win. It's just that baseball is extremely boring to me.

But really, watching the games is only part of what I like about football . . . and even that is a relatively recent development that originally had more to do with socializing with friends than any real love of the game.

I also like learning about the rules, and why teams might choose one play over another. I like following the stats and the standings. And I like what sports mean to people, even if they don't mean as much to me. Looking at all that . . . there's really no good reason why I follow football but not any of the others. There's no reason I couldn't follow baseball, even if I don't care about the games themselves. And at the very least, you'd think I could get into basketball and hockey, since those games are more exciting to watch.

For all you sports fans out there, what is it that makes you drawn to one game over the others?