Sports are more important than ever right now.

The juxtaposition of Election Night in America and the deciding game of the World Series showed why there may be only one true common denominator left.

Atlanta is a blue city that swung elections in red Georgia’s favor in 2020 and ’21. Houston is in the middle of the move to turn Texas purple. Yet, while the politicized parts of a country fretted over the Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial races, no one watching the World Series that ended anti-climatically seemed to care.

You see it everywhere in sports these days, practically nowhere else. Rabid college and pro football stadiums, hockey and basketball arenas also coming to life out of COVID and fervent baseball fans cheering their teams in October, all putting their partisanship aside and losing themselves in the games they love.

Tell me, where else is that happening?

Sports are more than a diversion for much of America, offering an escape from a reality that has driven us apart over wearing masks, getting vaccinated or looking down rabbit holes of conspiracy theories.

Do you think the Atlanta Braves let any of that keep them from mounting one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Major League Baseball history? The team with a losing record before the All-Star break in July somehow overcoming injuries and suspensions to transform into a playoff contender and eventually world champion.

As the networks nervously tallied votes from counties, another carried players of different colors, nationalities and religions caring most about winning a game, knowing exactly what that would mean.

Sports are just about the only place left where that still happens. Fans waving their team-colored towels one minute are crying into them the next. And after fighting hard on the fields and courts, athletes hugging and high-fiving when the games end.

This country is in a state of turmoil unlike anything most of us have ever experienced. And, now more than ever, it takes people who truly love each other to bring us moments of joy and sorrow and a result no one can, or wants to, dispute.

That’s why we need sports in America right now.

 

Photo via Kevin M. Cox/The Galveston County Daily News and Associated Press.

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