Sports Effect on Communities

Both the essay “33” and the Rodney Jones poems deal with the idea that sports are not just some hobby or game to most people. Sports are a bigger, much more important part of life to most and especially the writer’s. In “33”, Klosterman tells the deeper meaning behind the great Lakers-Celtics rivalry and how it taught him much more about life than just basketball. He says how this rivalry taught him about politics, race, religion, and much more. Rodney Jones’ poem, “The End of Practice”, is a poem about how important and significant sport is in his life. It shows how if he doesn’t succeed on the field, he is going to be overwhelmed and over run. He describes this by saying “ If I did not rise above the field, I would be eaten.” In both of these pieces, sport is such an amazing aspect of the culture these authors are involved with and there is a sense that sport completely defines who these people are. The culture that Klosterman tells about live their lives based on this rivalry. He talks about how if you’re a Celtic’s fan you were representing the republicans and you were likely to be white. While Laker fans were likely to be black and support democratic ideas. It’s shocking that just from this one rivalry he can determine so much about people. In this case, the sport definitely defines who these people are, and in most cases, what they believed in. The poem is a little less intense in these aspects but it still shows signs of defining the culture surrounding the sport. This poem is less about a big rivalry separating the community and more about how the sport affects people’s opinion and reputation of someone. Jones expresses the idea that if he doesn’t succeed on the field, he won’t succeed off of it. This idea resembles how important the sport is to everyone in the community because they only believe that those who succeed on the field will have any success at all.