The Super Bowl ended not too long ago. It was an incredibly boring game (especially when compared to last year’s shootout extravaganza.). In a way, that is fitting. I spend a good chunk of time about 7 months out of the year watching baseball. Once baseball is over in early November, I transition to college and professional football. It is less frequent than baseball, but fills the sports-shaped void in my heart well enough.
Now all that is over. It is a dead period of sports for me. This boring game was the perfect transition, since there was no excitement to get hungover on the next morning.
Of course there are other sports, if I cared much about them. For example, NBA and NHL seasons are still ongoing (I think?) and there is of course March Madness in a month. But those have never been events I’ve taken much liking to watching remotely. I do enjoy attending any sporting event in person, but baseball and football are the main American professional sports whose seasons I actually follow.
What I am curious to discover is if my general feelings change being in California as opposed to Minnesota. In Minnesota, winter was always a tough period for sports because I was not a big hockey fan, and there were no other sports one could play outside. Football was theoretically an option, but organizing games becomes increasingly difficult as you get older. Spring and summer were always the best because you could play any sport outside. Whether it was just playing catch, getting a few friends to play soccer or throw a frisbee around, or just play with my own boomerang, spring and summer were always significantly more active for me. Now that I’m in (southern) California, I have less excuses for letting this dead period of sports align with a dead period of fun physical activity for me.
I do expect to be better this year. I recently moved to a new place where there is a fitness center a very short walk from my door. There are some open parks in the area. I have far more options in general than I had during this time of year in Minnesota, and I want to take advantage of that as much as possible. But for now, I guess I just have to wait until March for baseball’s spring training to start up.