Lesson for the ladies: Why us men love sports oh so much

With the first week of college football in the books, the impending start to the NFL season and baseball pennant races heating up the brisk fall evenings, there will soon be legions of females asking the same question: "Why do guys love sports so much?"\nWomen simply don't understand the male need to spend entire weekend afternoons in dank, gloomy sports bars just to catch all the games you can't get from your place on campus. They think it's weird that men will plan their entire social calendars around their team's Monday Night Football appearance and occasionally would rather spend time with a bunch of foul-mouthed guys than with a group of attractive co-eds.\nSo ladies, this one is for you. I'm going to explain to you why I love sports and maybe try to save a few of my male brethren who might be blowing their chances because they foolishly think the Bears are a shoo-in for the playoffs.\nI love sports because they breakdown barriers, cross borders and change attitudes. They transcend language, color, race and religion in the same way art, music and literature do. They give us heroes and villains, underdogs and favorites, and dreams both realized and broken. \nA misguided young lady once told me sports could not be beautiful the way Beethoven, Van Gogh or Shakespeare could, and she is flat out wrong.\nIf you don't believe me, look no further than our own national hero, Lance Armstrong, who went from 90 pounds and cancer-stricken to arguably the most dominant athlete of our time. By winning the Tour de France seven times, he gave hope to millions of people afflicted with the disease. Has anyone in history done more for cancer research than Lance? It's a story no one could have written because of how implausible it seems.\nWhat about Abbas Suan? Suan is an Arab playing for the Israeli national soccer team. By netting goals and fans on a Middle Eastern soccer field, he is proving to be a star and spokesman not just for a team in the hunt for its first World Cup berth in 36 years, but also for the millions of people on each side of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict who simply want peace. By finding peace and harmony on the field, Suan and his teammates are giving hope to a nation ravaged by years of violence. A simple game suddenly doesn't seem so insignificant, does it? \nWhen doubters point to men like Canseco, Palmeiro and Bonds, all who have sullied the nation's national pastime, I remind them of Jackie Robinson. \nBy breaking baseball's color barrier in 1947, Robinson endured tremendous hardships to show blacks deserve equal treatment in the United States. Robinson did more to advance the cause of civil rights than anyone can possibly imagine. Sometimes I'll tell them of Roger Maris, whose run to 61 homers was fueled by Camels and Budweiser, not "the cream" and "the clear." His record looks slightly more significant with the recent steroid revelations, yet somehow Maris remains absent from the Hall of Fame. And when they really don't get it, I will tell them the story of Jerry Coleman. \nRecently enshrined at Cooperstown as a Hall of Fame broadcaster, he's also the only Major Leaguer to be a veteran of two foreign wars. As a Marine pilot in World War II and Korea, he flew 120 missions, received two distinguished flying crosses, 13 Air Medals and three Navy citations while earning the rank of lieutenant colonel and defending his country. \nStill don't think sports are important? \nLet me leave you with one final thought. Somewhere in the wealthiest area of the United States and the \npoorest area of Cuba there are two little boys \ndreaming of playing Major League \nbaseball. One day, those two will meet on a ball field and not care about the other's socio-economic background. If you can't see beauty in that, then you don't know the meaning of the word. \nTake that, Beethoven.