I miss when you could just watch a baseball game rooting for your team.

By @niaok2 · Sports

Now everyone's just staring at their phones checking fantasy stats. It feels like the game itself is secondary to some individual virtual competition, and we've lost something.

The full story

I was watching a game the other night—just a regular season baseball game in the middle of July, nothing too special—and I had this moment of real sadness. I was at a sports bar with my son and his friends, and not a single one of them was really *watching* the game on the big screen. They were all on their phones, tapping away. Every so often one would groan or cheer, and it had nothing to do with what our home team was doing. It was because some player on the other side of the country, a guy on their fantasy team, had just hit a home run or struck someone out. It just took me back. I remember going to games with my dad. You bought a program, you kept score with a little pencil. You talked to the person next to you about a good play or a bad call from the umpire. That was the whole experience. You were there, present, sharing this thing with thousands of other people, all focused on the same patch of green grass. Now it feels like the game itself is just background noise for this other, more important digital game everyone is playing. People cheer when the opposing team scores because their fantasy player is on that team. It breaks your brain a little. I feel like an old man yelling at a cloud, I know. But there was a purity to just rooting for your laundry, you know? Win or lose, you were in it together with your team and your city. Now it's like everyone is a freelance general manager of their own private, imaginary team and the loyalty is to their own stats, not the team on the field. It's just... different. I don't think it's for the better.

How people voted

Readers say “Depends” (41%) — 287 votes and 5 comments so far.

What people are saying

Keep reading

Vote now on BeSoForeal