As kids, most of us who played sports
either played football, baseball, basketball or soccer, right?
How come nobody wanted to play
Gaelic football?
Lawn bowling? Curling? Cricket?
Hockey? (Kidding. Well, no. Not really.)
Some of the sports have rules that are set in stone, some are more flexible.
Some of them were games in which we participated during eighth grade gym class for two weeks, sandwiched somewhere between country line dancing and dodgeball.
Remember those?
The ones that are just slight variations of popular sports, only with more obscure rules in an effort to be deemed “original.”
Remember those?
Most of the time, people (including me) get so focused on the big three or four sports that the results of, for example, the World Paddleball Championships, go unnoticed.
Even though paddleball may not make the highlights on ESPN, it is just one of hundreds of thousands of “sports” that exist worldwide.
For example:
Korfball, anyone?
It’s basketball minus the dribbling and minus a player, created by a Dutch school teacher in 1895. Players are not allowed to shoot if they are being defended.
(Insert Portland Trail Blazers joke here.)
One of the more interesting sports is hashing.
(Insert second Portland Trail Blazers joke here.)
Hashing combines the athleticism and skill of running with the athleticism and skill of drinking a beer after running a predetermined distance, namely to the next bar.
It is said that hashing was created in 1938 by a group of British company men, who started a hares and hounds running group. After they finished, the men would indulge in a bit of ale to cap off the evening.
Naturally.
According to the original charter, the goals of the group were: to promote physical fitness among members, to get rid of weekend hangovers, to acquire a good thirst and satisfy it with beer and to convince the older members that they are not as old as they feel.
Clearly, this has to become one of the next Olympic sports! Who needs diving?
I would be riveted to see a harrier four miles and four pints into the race, trying to complete the stretch run without using the fan-provided vomit bag.
Is running and drinking really a sport? I guess. Why not?
The broader point here is that there is no concrete definition as to what a sport is, so if you enjoy running and drinking and decide to call it a sport, fine. Enjoy and have fun.
Just to let you know, there is less than a year until the next International Rutabaga Curling Championships in Ithaca, New York.
If that’s the kind of thing that floats your boat.
Just don’t expect to see it on ESPN any
time soon.

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