The fact that the Chicago Cubs are in the World Series is amazing enough. But it turns out that I get to watch the games here in New Zealand, too. It’s pretty awesome living in the future.
Seeing the Cubs in a World Series is something I always hoped to see, but never expected to. They’ve been “also-rans” for most of my life, after all. Still, there was something to the “loveable losers” tag for a team that just couldn’t quite close the deal. That’s why no matter what happens in the World Series, I feel like they’ve already won.
I don’t watch much sport of any kind on TV (actually, I go through periods where I don’t watch much of anything on TV…), and when I do it’s most likely to be something with New Zealand in it. That’s not always by choice.
Daytime US sports are played when it’s early morning here, and I’m usually busy doing other things—sometimes I’m not even up yet. Delayed broadcasts are often in the middle of the night. Major sporting events, like the World Series, are played later, afternoon our time, which is better.
The bigger issue is that there’s just not that much American sports I want to watch: I cheer for Chicago teams and a few select others from time to time, but it’s probably fair to say that I’d only go out of my way to watch Chicago teams play, if the timing is right. And, that assumes they broadcast any games with Chicago teams at all.
For a few years, ESPN used to broadcast a Cubs game on Queen’s Birthday holiday weekend—but that stopped so long ago I can’t even remember how long it’s been. The timing was a coincidence, but the fact it was on a holiday meant I was home and able to watch the game.
In the years since, it’s seldom occurred to me to see if a Chicago team’s game was being broadcast, so I have absolutely no idea how often that happens. Still, when it’s a big event, like this year’s World Series, even I check out to see if it’s on.
And that’s the thing about these modern times in which we live: I can watch the World Series live, or any political event in the USA, or many other things. And, although it’s not perfect or complete, there are often perfectly legal ways to watch what Americans are watching either when they do or shortly afterward.
Still, I don’t watch as much television as I used to, and seldom watch TV in the afternoon, so if the Cubs weren’t in the World series, I wouldn’t be watching it at all. Those are the realities in this situation.
But the bigger reality here is that seeing the Chicago Cubs finally make the World Series has made me stop thinking about all the things I thought I’d “never live to see”. Well, that had some help, of course: We have marriage equality. We elected the first African American president twice. Maybe we’re even about to elect the first woman president, too. Yep, it’s pretty awesome living in the future.
Now, if they could just get those teleporters invented…
For the record, I saw the Cubs win today’s game. The next game is Saturday our time, which is quite convenient.
4 comments:
It was YOU who was supposed to be working on the transporters. Don't you remember?
Go, Cubbies! After the Giants beat the Mets, I was going to support whoever won in the SF Giants-Cubs series.
If the fates had aligned themselves differently, I'd have been the same.
Heh. I want to keep my atoms intact…
Post a Comment