This is actually what I was bursting to write, having thought about it much of the day today at work. I want it to be the top post when I head off (and this may not end up being as long as I would like, because I am really exhausted).
Anyway. I think at least on some level this is something all of us know, but it’s occurred to me big time after the remarkable 2-match series this past weekend between Hawaii and Stanford. It was as captivated by a sporting event as I can recall being in a really long time. I clapped, I cheered, I laughed, I cried (honest to god, I did all of those things) because it was such great, compelling watching. I’ll watch just about any sport at least once — hell, I’ve even voluntarily watched football a time or two — but I couldn’t ever ask for a better six hours as a sports fan than those young men gave me this past weekend.
Now look at the stat sheets — Night 1 and Night 2. In particular Night 2. Does anything really jump out at you?
Sure, there are a few things. Steven Irvin had had a career night on Night 1 and ‘pert near backed it up on Night 2. 49 kills in two nights got him strong consideration as MPSF Player of the Week (though it actually went to Long Beach’s Dalton Ammerman). Certainly the 33-31 third set bears noticing. Hawaii’s 18 blocks on Night 2 are the sort of thing that makes you say “Oh, that’s interesting.” And ten sets in two nights do paint a picture of competitiveness.
But there was oh so much more to it. So much more that the stat sheet can’t and will never tell. Browsing a stat sheet tells you what happened, but it also doesn’t. It doesn’t show you the heart. It doesn’t show you the fire. It doesn’t show you the amazing competitive spirit that’s on display. Numbers have no emotions, and that’s never truer than here. What’s just a tally mark under ‘K’ on a stat sheet can lift a thousand people to their feet. What’s just a tally mark under ‘A’ on a stat sheet is the culmination of six men or women working together as a seamless machine, in execution of what none of them could do on their own. What’s just a tally mark under ‘B’ on a stat sheet brings out bellows like a wild animal, from on the court and off. What’s just a tally mark under ‘SA” on a stat sheet makes one person an immortal superstar, if only for just a moment.
What’s just a tally mark under ‘W’ on a stat sheet can be the greatest feeling in the world.
Okay, I’m gonna wax a bit emotional here. I love this sport so damn much. There aren’t too many sports that I out-and-out dislike (most I just ignore if they’re not really my thing), but volleyball holds a really special place for me. So much so that it tears me up a little that volleyball, and in particular men’s, is so ignored where I live. My favorite days are those where the sports page doesn’t contain any such words as “salary arbitration,” “collective bargaining agreement,” “doping suspension,” or god forbid, “lockout.” All you need to be captivated by sports is a love of the game, and a willingness to go places with it, be it physically, emotionally, whatever. Nobody who plays volleyball for a life is ever gonna be a mega-millionaire like America’s football, baseball, and basketball stars, or even Canada’s hockey stars, but they do play with determination and passion that cries out to be seen and appreciated by more people. If football, baseball, basketball, and hockey junkies gave volleyball a conscientious chance, and not just ogling the women in female volleyball, I know they’d come to love it. This sport has so much to offer and I wish, oh how I wish, that people who aren’t already in tune to it would give the tremendous athletes of the sport of volleyball the attention they so richly deserve. And not just for a few months in the fall or once every four years.
My suspicion is that football fans, baseball fans (I’m a baseball fan, but not like this, no way), basketball fans, they all get the same out of their sports that I do out of volleyball. And that’s great for them. If they really do, I am so happy for them, because if other people have something in their lives like what volleyball is in mine then the world is a better place. But their sports are always gonna be front-and-center. They don’t need to make impassioned pleas like this to attract and retain fans. I guess I’m jealous. Because volleyball is so worth it.
I’ve relied on stat sheet reading before, and I’m sure I will again. We cannot be all places at all times, but in the strongest possible terms I can, I implore you to always go and be there in person. Whenever you can, and wherever ‘there’ exactly is. It will be worth the time and effort, I promise you it will. Failing that, find some kind of broadcast or webcast and just imagine that you’re there. Let yourself feel the amazing experience of what’s unfolding below you. It’s like nothing else in this world.
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