Spontaneous Emotion in Sports.

Spontaneous Emotion in Sports.  I have mentioned before the ongoing discussion in MLB about the proper amount of spontaneous emotion that should be allowed in the game.  Celebratory post-play antics by players of all professional sports have come into vogue and have become fodder for fascinating debates between old-school players and fans versus the newer generation of players and fans.  Personally, the first taste I ever got of this phenomenon was back in days of the Houston Oilers and Billy “White Shoes” Johnson.  His end zone dances were something to behold and I had never seen that type of on-field celebration before.  The moment of joy behavior pioneered by Johnson is now commonplace in the NFL, it spilled over into the NBA several years back, and is now the topic du jour in MLB.  Before making my comments about this subject, I urge all readers to remember two things about professional sports: First, there are many, many gray areas in sports; even in the written rules.  So many times, a decision is made in the moment of battle and is later judged with the benefit of hindsight.  There are a lot of clearly right/clearly wrong calls made in sports; but there are also a lot of subsequent what if judgments made concerning those calls that are truly unfair and simply don’t take into account the prominent role that chance plays in sports.  Secondly, we have to remember that professional sport is a game.  Yes, it is a gargantuan business making billions of dollars; it is bad and nationwide. While noble at its heart, it is certainly not pure in spirit.  It impacts a world of people in very significant ways.  But…it…is…a…game.  It is entertainment.  Whether we like it or not, sports has evolved and will continue to evolve in an independent fashion; only a portion of it can be orchestrated.  All changes will not be good, all changes will not be popular; but changes will be made and will occur.  Learning to roll with these changes is one of the keys to the enjoyment of sport. 

One problem I have with spontaneous emotion in sport these days is the fact that a good deal of it simply is not spontaneous.  Players make their livings both on the field and off the field; for many, the off the field business ventures dwarf their on the field earnings.  For this reason, the players are super aware of their image and their limited opportunities to mold that image in the eyes of the public.  Each player is well of when their game will be televised to millions of viewers and many of them, if not most, plan in advance how they will behave if they make a sack, score on a pick six, hit a walk-off homer, hit a game winning three, or make some other spectacular play.  In other words, a good deal of the spontaneity has been removed from these celebrations because they have become so calculated.  

As a fan, I react to plays in an emotional way.  I overly celebrate the routine stop on third down for my home team defense.  I bounce around the room and act a fool when a four point lead is expanded to six by a routine layup.  This is the great thing about being a spectator; we have the liberty to celebrate anything and everything in the most outrageous fashion imaginable.  But those players on the field, those athletes in the arena, they have to stay focused, they have to stay aware, and they have to maintain intensity.  The celebrations that we see now from many players for routine plays are even more extravagant that those we see from athletes making great plays.  A grade of “A” is meaningless if most of the class gets an “A”.  It is rather transparent that the enthusiasm for the celebration is greater than the enthusiasm for the game when one celebrates a routine third down tackle five yards past the first down marker.  It really makes you wonder…Did this guy have this little dance all planned out beforehand and figured that this might be his only chance to play it out?

When a celebration is truly spontaneous, there is no doubt about it.  When Jose Bautista hit his seventh inning, three-run homer in the fifth game of the 2015 ALDS, there was no doubt in anyone’s mind that his bat flip was spontaneous.  Old school or new school, both schools understood that it was one hell of a play and Bautista was in the moment.  It is hard for me to understand how this type of sincerely spontaneous celebration of a great play can do anything but raise the excitement quotient of the sport, no matter what sport it might be.  As long as these moments occur following great plays, they can be a positive evolution of any sport.  But if they get watered down by the pathetic and awkward machinations of chest thumping and flexing that follow so many routine plays these days, the entire subject of spontaneous emotion in sports will become detrimental to the game and ultimately degrade the fan experience.