There's an old joke about a British sportscaster commenting on a defeat of a UK cricket team by a German club. "Well, maybe they've defeated us at our national game, but we've beaten them twice at theirs."

I've never been able to understand the attraction to spectator sports either. I certainly can enjoy watching an occasional game, the skill and grace of fine athletes performing great feats, but the need to follow a team and all the hysteria that goes with it always baffled me. Even sports that I am very interested in and have occasionally enjoyed participating in myself, such as sailing, fishing, cycling, motor racing and baseball (softball, actually) are pretty dull when someone else is having all the fun. I try to watch TV shows about sailing whenever they're on, which is pretty infrequent, but I can't imagine myself watching them two or three times a week.

Still it seems to be a harmless perversion, and it has a long historical precedent. It is said the ancient Greeks suspended wars so they could compete in the Olympiads in peace, but that never stopped them from going right back to fighting when the games were over.

But there may be some social value to athletic competition in reducing sectarian tensions. It certainly appears that the participation of blacks in sports, and their success, has done much to ease racial tensions in this country, with fans cheering on their favorite athletes regardless of race.

I like to outrage my sports fan friends by pointing out that spectator sports are a lot like pornography: you're watching someone else having a good time. A little bit is probably harmless, maybe even good for you, but too much is probably pathological.