It was a NO-NASCAR Weekend

After four wonderful weekends of CUP Racin', this was a quiet weekend for all three major NASCAR series. Basically, nothing to watch on TV.

At my old age, I've gotten to the point where I don't really enjoy watching stick and ball sports on TV. As a kid I luv'd 'em all, possibly because to a small extent I attempted to participate. As I aged I found racing at drag strips could be a lot of fun and provide a sense of accomplishment when you did well; and be extremely frustrating when you didn't.

On this wet, dreary Saturday, I attempted to watch some basketball, a sport that I seldom watch any more. The more games I watched, the less I found to entice me to watch. I found that I had no interest in the shows. I ended up watching a movie that evening in an attempt to find something engrossing.

I have a similar problem during football season. I can't relate to the teams. Even my old favorite Redskins don't do it for me. We now have full-time radio sports coverage of every little nuance of NFL teams. When I tune one of those stations like WTEM in DC, except for the Tony Kornheiser Show, it's like minions droning on about nothing. As self centered as Kornheiser is, he's at least entertaining with his life trivia.

I've about decided that my lack of interest in basketball and pro football is because there are very few white folks like me that play those sports today. One college game I had on had no white players on the floor. There was little excitement in the game, just the players and I didn't relate to any of them.

I've pondered the issue since and it appears there may be an analogy in the case of NASCAR which I can spend inordinate amounts of time watching. I can relate to the folks in NASCAR. Almost everyone in NASCAR is white, there are very few black folks participating.

Is it possible that black folks have the same problem relating to NASCAR that I have in relating to basketball and pro football? Am I being too simplistic here? Can it really be as simple as watching your own kind of folks on TV? In real life we tend to stick with our own kind, our own culture; folks that are like us.

I'll ponder this one some more and let you know what I come up with,
JD