(no subject)

[seekingferret]

My mother is the Mets fan in the family- I have always been a Yankee fan, though because of maternal influence my first major league game was a Mets game, and there is a humiliating photo floating around of a <2 year old version of me in Mets regalia. My grandfather, who passed away in February, always insisted he was a New York Giants fan who was rooting for the Mets because his team had been stolen away from him. My father grew up a Yankee fan but in recent years has become something of a Phillies supporter because it is more convenient to drive to Phillies games from his house.

My family history with the Mets is complicated, that is to say. But I've been watching the LCS with my mother and thinking about my grandfather, and the Mets' success this postseason has made me happy, helped by the fact that this is quite a likable Mets team. My favorite Met is Thor. Yes, Thor is on the Mets. And he throws 100 mph fastballs.

Between Thor, deGrom, Harvey, and Matz, the starting pitching is electrifying. I still have Grandy affection from his Yankee days, and Daniel fucking Murphy!!!?!! When he hit his home run last night I let out a reflexive shout of joy. Seeing things like Daniel Murphy's ridiculous explosion of power is one of the main reasons why people watch sports. This Mets run has just been a blast to watch.

The latest XKCD made me feel a little annoyed... Sportsball jokes are a subgenre of geek humor that I find really distasteful because sports geekery is geekery just like any other geekery, and its obsession with minutiae that are meaningless to outsiders is similar to other kinds of geekery. I recognize that a lot of geeks feel like they were ostracized by the 'jocks' in school, and that sportsball jokes represent their attempt to assert their self-importance by placing themselves above sports fans, but as both a geek and a sports fan, the result of this kind of joke is to make me feel like I belong in neither group.

Comments

[calledtovienna]

I actually thought that this particular XKCD was pretty funny, but mostly in the same way as the Alien Erotica short story (http://the-toast.net/2014/04/02/alien-erotica/) is funny -- it is a weird take on something that is mostly funny if you actually understand what's going on.

Which, I mean, sure, you can say that there is a cultural zeitgeist that nerds make fun of sports maliciously (as opposed to sex which, stereotypically, everyone likes) but I think that's elevating the nerd-sports non-competition way too much.

[liv]

Yeah, I dislike sportsball jokes too, even though I have almost no knowledge or interest in any pro sports. And I was disappointed by that XKCD too.