Wicked Wednesday: Sports — love em or leave em?

Anyone who has lived in New England knows the four seasons, Bruins, Celtics, Red Soxs and Patriots. Wickeds, do you follow sports? Have a favorite sport? Have a favorite team? (If any of you say the Yankees you’ll immediately be tossed out on your ear…)

Liz: I am so NOT a sports girl. Of course, I’ll root for the New England teams, celebrate wins and lament losses. But ask me to watch? No thanks. And if I hear one more sports analogy at work….

Barb: When I moved to New England, I was so naive, I thought baseball was played once a week, like football. I’m more educated now, thanks to my Red Sox-loving husband. I love Fenway Park. There is no place like it on a summer evening. And baseball on the radio while I read on a summer night. Same with a Patriots open practice on a summer evening. But don’t ask me to watch sports on TV. It shrinks down the spectacle. (I feel the same way about opera.) I will, however, ardently defend the local teams in any situation where they need defending. That’s what being a New England fan means.

Jessie: I only watch the Olympics and the World Cup. And really, I only watch those because I like to create regionally themed snacks. For me, the highlight of the games is to plan menus to celebrate the food cultures of the opposing teams. If Korea was playing Sweden I might make Kimbap and Smorgastarta. I’m already planning for coxinhas and caipirinhas when the Olympics are in Brazil in 2016!

Sherry: Bob and I will be up to watch the Olympics with you Jessie! I love sports. Growing up in Iowa it was all Cubs, Cardinals, and Bears. I live in Colorado when John Elway joined the Broncos and I fell in love with them. When we moved to Massachusetts I went to my first hockey game expecting to hate it but enjoyed the game. And there is nothing like a game at Fenway. My husband has me hooked on English Premier league soccer. Go Manchester United.

Edith: I’m not a sports fan. Neither my father nor my brother was interested in any sport as I grew up, and definitely not my mom or my sisters, although my grandparents would follow the World Series, and as a high-achieving student in high school, I won a ticket to see Sandy Koufax pitch at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. But I live with a Red Sox fanatic, and I apparently raised one, too, so how can I not follow baseball with them? Funny, Barb, for years listening to baseball on the radio was just noise to me. I couldn’t even figure out what they were saying. The last time the Sox were in the World Series, though, I was driving home from Boston alone during a game and I turned on the game. Lo and behold, it suddenly made sense!

I love watching the Olympics, but my annual sport is following, anticipating, and watching the Boston Marathon. I even ran it (with a charity number) in 1986, finishing in 5 hours 16 minutes. Accomplishment of a lifetime! (Although if I win the Agatha Saturday night, those two will come close to a tie.)

Julie: I am a HUGE Red Sox fan. Huge. I love baseball season, and games are often the background music to my writing.

Readers: What’s your sport? Micro-local, regional favorite, or national team? Or maybe your sport is more on the order of lifting a margarita on the deck while reading the latest cozy mystery? We want to know!